Rayl

    :103:

He gotta go.

On the plus side, this long VCU/SLU game is sparing us a bunch of pre-game shots of Purdue cows errrr coeds.

  Well, yeah, I'm with you in that Crean is not a great coach. Still, he's much much better than Davis.   Davis is one of the worst coaches in Division 1. Crean is a good coach. He's just not a top-tier coach.

  My experience at Great American was different. I went for a weekend the year they opened the stadium. It was nice and breezy in Cincy all weekend, but the park had no airflow in the seating area. It made everything really hot and sweaty while watching the games. I just didn't like it very much.   On the other hand, I love going to games at Wrigley. It's a fun old stadium to visit.

I think any comparison of Crean and Davis is inherently silly. Yes, I've done it before, but then sometimes I like being silly.   Crean is a much better coach than Davis. You might not be able to prove it by looking at their records, but watching what actually happens in games makes it pretty obvious. Davis' idea of an offense was to watch the NBA, see a play he liked and throw it in the playbook for Bracey Wright. There was no flow or strategy to the offense. His teams were soft as soft can be. Players never improved under him. They were what they were the moment they stepped on campus. DJ White is the perfect example of this. Davis had him playing as a finesse player in the high post like Jeffrees played. It wasn't until Sampson was hired that DJ became a dominating force.   When people say that Crean is no better than Davis it detracts from their point that Crean is not a great coach.

  Heh. At least we can agree that the Cards and White Sux are evil and must be destroyed.

  Ha. We've been competitive once in the last decade. Granted it was last year and we should be competitive again this season, but still once in a decade. We last won it all in '85 and haven't sniffed the playoffs since. How many times have the Cubs made the playoffs since then?

  LOL at Cubs fans thinking they have it bad. At least you make the playoffs occasionally. It's been almost three decades since my Royals made the playoffs. We've only had three winning seasons in the last 20 years. We haven't finished higher than 3rd in 24 years.

  To be fair to Crean, one of the national basketball writers watched a couple of practices before last season. He wrote about Hanner being an athletic beast who would provide an immediate impact on defense and the boards. I can't remember if that was Davis or Goodman. I do recall the same article discussing Peter as being extremely raw.   Anyway, practice is practice. The game usually gets faster and tougher under the bright lights.

  Coincidentally, the total is the same as the average IQ of the citizenry.

"So even if it's not terrible for the NBA right now, at least talking to a lot of my college coaching friends and college (athletic director) friends, their view is (that) one and done is a disaster. I think this is one of these issues that the larger basketball community needs to come together and address, not just the NBA owners and our players. Youth basketball and college basketball should have a seat at the table as well."   http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24443113/nba-commish-adam-silver-one-and-done-a-disaster-favors-raising-age-limit   Apologies if in the wrong forum. Seems potentially relevant to IU and is not another Crean thread.

For those who don't have access, the full Pomeroy prediction:   Purdue: 70 Indiana: 69   He gives us a 48% chance of winning.     For some reason, I have a good feeling about this. I think we win by 10. I have no particular reason for that.

Yeah, but I get those on my TV. ;)   I don't think they dropped the BTN so much as BTN changed the stream address and security. One week the address changed slightly. The next the stream was completely gone. The address started getting posted on Reddit frequently and that's probably what made the BTN do something about it.

I used to never give the URL of this site out on college message boards. Alas, others were not so cautious. This site http://xrxs.net/ until a couple of weeks ago had a BTN stream available 24 hours a day. It was a great stream in full HD with no pop-ups or other ads. It's gone now much to the dismay of people like me who can't get BTN locally.   I'm posting it now because the site does still have archives of games. They normally get posted around midnight for games from the previous day.   So if anyone is looking for a replay of IU beating the stuffing out of Purdue this afternoon, go to xrxs around midnight tonight.

This has to be some kind of parody account. There's no way anyone rational could think they know more about the game because they just got out of high school basketball let alone have the arrogance to actually post that.

  There is definitely a theory that Tom Crean's offense suppresses assists. Of course, the theory is normally advanced in the context of Crean can't be a winner because to win you need a good offense that gets a high ratio of assists to field goals. As part of the crowd that doesn't think Crean is good enough, I might be expected to agree with this theory. But, no, it's not a valid criticism.   I would posit that Tom Crean's offense does not unduly suppress assists and to the extent it does, it doesn't hurt.   The theory comes by observing coaches like Bill Self and Tom Izzo. Their teams are almost always in top 100 in assist to made field goals percentage. Since 2003, Bill Self has never had a team with A/FGM below 55%. Izzo has only once, last season.   Then we look at Tom Crean. He's only finished in the top 100 in A/FGM twice since 2003: with Marquette in 2003 and 2005. Last season, Crean's team was 157th in Division 1, so people looking for a reason to say why IU wouldn't win last season were knocking the low assists.   But, it doesn't matter. Everyone's favorite sleaze John Calipari has only had one team finish in the top 100: 2003 Memphis. In 2012 when UK beat the stuffing out of almost everyone they were ranked 292nd in A/FGM at 48.4%. For those who don't think Calipari can coach and want to see this as further proof of that, Coach K has not had a team in the top 100 in A/FGM since 2003, although Duke is on pace for it this season.   As for the idea that players in Crean's system can't get individual high assist totals, anyone who thinks that should look here: http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/travis-diener-1.html   Sorry for the tangent. It's one of the criticisms of Crean that irritates me.

  It's actually not so much Crean's offense. It's the inexperience of our wings. They do not yet have an understanding of spacing and movement. When and if they figure that out next season, Yogi will have more assists and fewer turnovers. Right now, he has to force the issue a bit too much.   It's actually very surprising that Yogi has the efficiency rating he has with the lack of help around him. That's kind of why I started this thread. Right now, most of our wings are below average in efficiency. Put Yogi with even average guys around him and you will see some really great things.   Also, pay no mind to Charlie. He's negative about everything.

  Not spelling it out for you is not out of context. If you have been following what Silver and Stern before him having been saying the last few years, you would have already known they want to increase the age limit.

  Not out of context at all. He does want to get rid of the one and done rule. I didn't state what he wants to replace it with.