Rayl

I want Calbert. The man knows how to play the game. But, if we're really dreaming, let's get the whole team back together again. Hire Zeke and Landon Turner as assistants. Let's do it '81 style all over again.

Hi! I haven't been around here for several years. But, there I was on my lunch at work today sitting outside enjoying a nice spring day. Some random guy came by and sat at the bench next to me and saw the IU logo on my jacket. That's who told me we hired a new coach, When he told me who, I sighed. But.... We've recently had a great offensive coach who couldn't coach defense to save his life. Then, we had a great defensive coach who couldn't coach offense to save his life. So, now we have an IU guy. Someone who knows the way it should be. Maybe we have a guy who can just flat out coach? I don't know. But, I'm going to roll with it and find out. Let's do this. Dare I say I have a slight woody for Woody? Nah, that's too cheesy. I'm on board though.

I'm not sure I'd go with fake class UNC as an example of doing things the right way. And, I really wouldn't go with Louisville there.

I don't know or care. Vandy is of little concern to me. I care about Archie Miller having success at IU and building his program. If Drew thinks he can build his program with one and dones, best of luck to him. I don't think that needs to be a focus for Archie right now.

I think this is good. For long term success in Archie's system the focus needs to be on 3-4 year players who buy into the system and who can play it at a high level when they are upperclassmen. Get that solid base going year after year, and then there will be more success adding in the occassional one and done type. Sure, we might have one a few more games with Garland next year, but what does that really get us? Not another banner. This gives more playing time and coaching time to the players we need to develop long term.

I thought Johnson's effort on D was better. But, he's still late on closeouts and doesn't look like he really knows what he's supposed to be doing. The better effort is encouraging though.

Finally!

Because the other thread is not open to replies.... Hello, I'm Rayl. I was on HSN 1.0 under the same name. You can find me on various other sites as GregA. I'm also on several Scout sites with too many sock puppets to keep track of. Meaning behind username: If you don't know, you're not a Hoosier.   Approximate Age and Location: Late 30s Kansas   Are you a born and raised IU fan? Yes.   When you first knew you were an IU fan? Like I have any memories from when I was that young.   What sports did you play in High School and College? Basketball   Besides IU, favorite sports teams? The Kansas City Royals   Did you attend IU? That's what my diploma says.   What is your favorite IU Basketball Memory? Smart's shot   Who is your favorite basketball player of all time? Zeke   What is your favorite IU Football memory? Anytime we don't lose   Who is your favorite IU Football player? uhhh....Randle El?   Best IU Sports game ever attended? When Sean May dared to showed his traitor face in Assembly Hall   What brings you to this board? When HSN 1.0 died, I took a hiatus from IU sites. Recently found out this site is no longer the wasteland it once was. No idea what happened. But, hello and whatnot.

Any thoughts that the committee doesn't try to get certain matchups in the tournament for drama has to go out the window after seeing what they've done this year. All five schools from Indiana in the same region? What are the odds that happens just by coincidence? It also just happens to be the region with Kentucky? Oh. OK. The same region has a potential 2nd round matchup of Kansas and Wichita State? They didn't just do this with Indiana schools either. Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa are all in the same region. I don't think it's that big of deal as it makes for good tourney drama. But, they need to stop telling us they don't do it intentionally.

I don't. I'm from Kansas, so I might have some bias, but having seen WSU many, many times. I don't like our chances. I hope to be proven wrong, but WSU is very underseeded as a 7, which is probably the NCAA's way of trying to get a WSU vs. KU matchup. Naturally, I hope to be proven wrong.

Alright, assuming Crean sees reason and we play man, Yogi guards Van Vleet. Do we have anyone who can stick with and stop Baker? I'm not too worried about WSU's post game. I am very worried about our guards having the defensive chops and desire to stop Ron Baker from going off.

Ellis is fine now. He had some problems with his brace in the conference tourney, but he's good to go. Alexander kind of sucked, but they still have Lucas, Mickelson and Traylor. I'm just saying KU has a lot of bigs. Their high-low offense is an incredibly tough matchup for us. Fortunately, they've been ice cold from 3 lately, so there's that at least.

I'm glad we're in, but wow that's a tough draw. We get one of the toughest, most disciplined teams in the country and if we get through them, we get to play KU and their 5,000 big men? Yikes!

No, he's not. He is, however, obviously high on his true fandom, that special place in the clouds where the good people go so they can hop on message boards and question the lesser people. This place is normally reached after excessive blows to the head brought on by pounding one's head against the wall because people on the Internet don't agree with everything you say. Having a few drinks to chill out is the only known cure for this state.

Wiscy only works as a number 1 seed for me if they become the first to lose to a 16 seed. I get the it's good for the conference argument, but it's Wiscy. It's Bo Grinch Ryan. I wish nothing good for them.

Platypus. The enemy would start laughing. That's when I'd shoot them.

Finally we get to see what happens when Crean stays out of his own way with the defensive scheme. No switching between zone and man in the middle of a possession. No switching every screen no matter what making your PG defend in the post. Just play your man straight up and get after it. Amazing how keeping it simple works. Please, please, please more of the same tomorrow.

Sunshine pumpers still exist after the Northwestern loss? Kidding...sort of. Speaking only for myself, not being very active on message boards has nothing to do with not being a hardcore fan. It's that the conversation on boards has been the same thing for the better part of two years. Everything always gets back to one subject: Crean. And, everything that can possibly be said about that subject has been said a thousand times over. When there are new subjects worthy of discussion, people will post more.

That would be the case whenever a coach is let go. If we wait three years to fire Crean, then the time he spent recruiting players for 2-3 years after that would have been wasted. The argument that you shouldn't let a coach go because that might cause you to miss out on recruits that coach is working on who haven't even committed yet, isn't just silly. It's one of the stupidest arguments that could ever be made for keeping a coach. If it had any merit whatsoever, no coach from a power conference would ever be fired. All coaches are always working on landing recruits. Sometimes they land them. Sometimes they don't. A school that wants to be anything other than mediocre cannot make its coaching decisions based on the fact that a coach might land certain recruits he's working on. Might. For all we know there are great recruits out there that might be more interested in IU if Crean is gone like Gordon had no interest in IU until Mike Davis was gone. Argue that Crean is doing an acceptable job in recruiting and in rebuilding the program all you want. But, at least use points that make sense in doing so. The decisions that teenage boys might make in the next couple of years is not a reasonable basis for making multimillion dollar coaching decisions.

He gets tunnel vision vision at times. He sees the rim and loses awareness of everything else around him. At least this year he's learned how to get to the basket. Maybe next year he'll learn it's allowed to pass to an open teammate when he's driving.

Agreed. But, it goes deeper. A coach gets what he settles for. We can talk about Crean's in-game coaching, lack of adjustments and recruiting misses. However, the biggest systemic problem that I see with Crean is he settles for what his players are willing to offer. After every loss we get the same story. The players didn't do this or that. They didn't play hard. So and so doesn't put the work in. Yet, what do we see the very next game? The same players get the same amount of playing time. There are no consequences under Crean. When a coach does that, the players have no fear and no incentive to work harder. Even Bruce Weber gets this. He benched his best player earlier this season because the guy had a bad attitude and didn't try on defense. Then, he sat his senior center for not living up to expectations. It worked and while they aren't a great team, they at least play hard and do what the coach wants them to do. Blackmon Jr is a great scorer. How much playing time does he get if Bill Self were his coach? Not much. You have to play hard on both ends of the court, if you want to play for a great coach. If you don't, there's a seat at the end of the bench until you change your mind. Great coaches aren't afraid to play backups or even walk ons if that's what it takes to get the message through to the stars. Things normally don't have to get that far though, because players who play for great coaches know what will happen if they don't do what they are supposed to do. Or to go ahead and go there, what would Coach Knight do with players who don't do what they are supposed to or who don't play hard? Choking jokes aside, we all know the answer to that. This is the biggest problem with Crean's excuse-making. He could do something about it. Until he does, he's never going to be an elite coach and we won't have a shot at being an elite program with him at the helm.

I'd view it as Crean's last effort to motivate them. Have to imagine that he's tried behind the scenes, but it's not working. Can't be certain, but that's my guess.

If he's willing to work like Vic this summer, maybe. Troy's handles have gotten better and his basketball IQ is light years ahead of what it was last season. But. let's not forget that Vic worked his butt off to become a good shooter and played defense as if his life depended on it. Troy is extremely athletic, but players like Vic who have the athleticism and the desire to make the absolute most out of it don't grow on trees. Maybe Troy is one of those guys. We'll need to see it on the court next season before we can proclaim it so.

Agree. Our defense wasn't perfect, but we actually put in the effort today. We didn't let OSU run right by us all night. We didn't get a lot of turnovers, but that's okay because the players actually made an effort to keep their man in front of them. We're not going to ever be a great defensive team this year because we lack size in the post and have a ton of underclassmen. But, if the players make the effort to guard the man with the ball and stick to their assignments, turnovers will come. As Coach Knight said, "Usually when one team doesn't play well, the other team had something to do with that." Well, OSU didn't play well on offense.

I was very worried at the start of the game. I was thinking, "Oh, No. here we go again." Then, when HMP got his second foul and Crean brought in Hartman to replace him I wanted to scream about what an idiot Crean was for not putting Holt in. But, Hartman's energy turned things around. He's the MVP for that and, I was wrong. It was a great sub by Crean. Our defense was the best I've seen it this year. There were a few breakdowns in the zone, but overall it was a solid job. It takes effort to play D, so I'm pleased the guys brought it. We weren't good enough on offense to win that game on the road, but we're heading in the right direction.