hoosierinIll

I have very little knowledge of Texas High School bball. Obviously a ton of talent comes from the state. I've wondered in the past if it produces all the talent simply because of the sheer size of the state, or if it's because high school bball is solid down there. Probably a little of both. You're right, Smits' stats are pretty comparable to Priller's. However, I don't see many similarities in their games. Smits is much more of a traditional post player. He has some really solid post moves (hook shot, etc.). Once he puts some strength on his frame I think he'll be a serviceable 4 year big...Even at the high major level had he decided to go that route. Priller, on the hand, is more of a perimeter oriented big. Which isn't a bad thing for our program. However, his defense is terrible. The guy really struggles with lateral movement. I don't know if he'll be able to overcome it. I felt better about it when JeNey was here working with him. Smits isn't there defensively yet, either, but I think he has a much higher ceiling.

This a big time win and I felt going into it that it was important for our confidence and momentum going forward. I now think we'll win 22 going into the B1G tourney as long as we take care of business at NW and at RU. The officiating to close out the game was terrible. Go Hoosiers!

And to be clear, we play the game as well...

IU has no interest because Swanigan has no interest in them.  Handlers have not kept IU from being involved with past recruits and neither would Barnes keep us from being involved with Swanigan.  That said, handlers do sway recruits one way or another, so maybe Barnes doesn't like IU and he's influencing Swanigan away from us...?  But to say that IU is taking the morally high road here is false.  To also presume that we are morally superior in comparison to the other teams involved is naive.  Not saying we are lower than Duke, MSU or PU, either...but that's not why we're not recruiting him.

This kid is having a really solid senior season (17&6) and his team has won 7 in a row against some tough competition. I know he's not a Burger Boy, but I'm pretty confident he's better than April and Priller. I went thru this thread again and someone joked that he was a backup plan to our backup plan... I'd take the third stringer right now!

"Coach Tom Crean, a legacy made by trying to turn wings into points and bigs...but never letting them play the 3."

I thought Luke wasn't here because of Troy.  Did I miss something?

Something I believe about recruiting and Coach Crean is that he absolutely needs skilled big men.  The only two big men who had good careers at IU with Crean (Zeller & Vonleh) came in incredibly skilled.  He seems to do a pretty good job developing gaurds, but bigs HAVE to be good when they get here.  Big man projects are a joke right now.  And so, he'll either get a really good big man (hopefully Bryant) or we'll continue to see a bunch of wings and gaurds on the floor with project big men on the bench- rotating in and out of the program like a revolving door (as they have since he got here).  Here's to you Mr. Bryant!  We NEED you!!

A few thoughts on this thread...   1.  Glass will not fire Crean because to do so would highlight his biggest blunder as IU AD (Crean's extention). 2.  Glass has had a rocky road not only because of IU bball, but also because of other circumstances in athletic program such as women's bball. 3.   IU administration no longer acts like IU is an elite program & I'm not confident that if they fired Crean they would make a good hire.  (Think the Cubs...elite in terms of revenue, fan base, etc., but winning isn't as important as the money.) 4.  To think that all the former players think of Crean as a good coach isn't accurate.  They will respect Crean because they're classy and won't throw him under the bus, but that's simply not true. 5.   Crean is incredibly difficult to work with- he has incredibly high expectations while being incredibly disorganized and he doesn't communicate clearly within the program. 6.   Crean is absolutely and positively responsible for EVERYTHING that goes on in the program.  He recruits the players.  Picks the coaches.  Picks the system.  Chooses how much they practice/when the practice, etc.  AND, he gets paid almost 3.5 million a year to do it.  To play the "he can't make the shots, play defense" argument is REDICULOUS...because he can control everything else EXCEPT that.  The buck stops with him.  He pays the price for not winning even if he's doing his best.

We have a banner with our FF's on it hanging in the Hall. And we have Sweet Sixteen rings...just saying.

It's not the fact that we've lost three out of our last four after tonight...it's that we haven't been close in three if our last four games...that's concerning!

BTN spoils the pleasures of victory by highlighting Davis shutting down Blackmon Jr in Wednesday's game. Still makes me want to puke that we lost to that wanna be program.

I really don't like the body language today. Makes me wonder about confidence. Makes me wonder about chemistry...

It looks like Wilson is putting together another great class. Looking over the names and positions, one of the things that impresses me the most is how in addition to King, we have four other players that played quarterback in high school. This does a couple things. One if we start to run low on QBs in the future, we can always have somebody to put in the position. I hope we never have to deal with the quarterback issue like we did this past year. But also, we're getting some guys that understand the game. Even if they play as athletes or wide receivers or on the defensive side of the ball, they should have a good understanding of the game which I think is a great asset to go along with their athletic ability. Let's go bowling in '15!

From the videos, looks like he could be a good one! Would like to see this kid be a Hoosier.

Bro...you are the master at turning one post into FIVE! :). Hopefully Anthony turns it around after this. Prayers for him...

I'm not sure where you got your information or if you've actually done research to form your opinion on this...but it appears this guy wasted two weeks of his life and actually measured the accuracy of all the reputable mock drafts out there for the 2013 draft. His research shows a much different result than yours does. "Aran Smith from nbadraft.net appears 3 times in the Top10 and each mock was created around week apart so you could argue he had a great sense of talent pool which will be selected" https://weaksideawareness.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/grading-nba-mock-drafts-2013-from-best-to-worst/

BTW, the latest NBAdraft.net projection has Williams at 25th. http://www.nbadraft.net/2015mock_draft

Looks like a big wing to me...which probably fits our coaches system. He wouldn't be an ideal big for the fans, but I can see how coach would like him. Grades?

Okay, I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I don't think Kentucky is what is wrong with college basketball. Kentucky is simply doing what NCAA allows(I do think they are following the rules for the most part). So if there's anything wrong its the NCAA's fault. And in defense of Kentucky, again I can't believe I'm doing this, I think the kids actually go to class. Just as much as any other team. I have friends that are fairly close the Kentucky program and they argue with me that the Kentucky basketball players are actually decent students. And a 3.0 GPA, which is pretty much what our team got, is solid. On top of that, I think it's naïve of us to think that our players don't take some easy courses. I know for a fact that Poythress was recently carrying a 4.0 GPA. Again, I can't believe I'm defending the team I dislike the most, but I don't think all of the "Kentucky bball players aren't students" arguments are true. Knight already showed his tail on this subject and ended up eating crow.

He went to Cardinal Ritter HS in Indy...

This is a super important stretch for us. Every single game could go either way, but I think we should win each of them. Obviously, OSU is decent, but Penn State will come in and try to rough us up...they're pretty physical. Then Illinois will be tough there. Hopefully, the right Hoosiers team shows up or we could find ourselves in a early hole...

I'm a fan of Dak. The guy is spot on most of the time and when he's doing a game he actually know what he's talking about...a rarity these days.

I just watched coach's presser over on Inside the Hall. Props to coach for his reaction to this game. Definitely worth your while. He ends the presser saying (for the 2nd time) that Hanner's spot is up for grabs. I'm hoping that this thing turns around...cause it needs to in a hurry.

You would be better served to go sort out an old filing cabinet or start working on 2014's taxes, Kyle. It was brutal.