OKHOOSIER

Who even knows at this point.

Our defense is such a mess.

2nd on gallo. Crap.

Using who you play and where is 100% commonplace in recruiting. Playing a G5 or low major on the road at their place is not. There is a distinction. Both things can be true.

This I agree with, cool I guess for the player, but a stupid risk 100% of the time.

Barely, that was the first game my wife and I had been able to go to in a long time. It started embarrassing from the jump when we realized IU didn't bring a mini band and AU did. Two small sections identical right behind one of the nets, one empty, one full. Then we had to listen to stupid War Eagle over and over and over. Ended up being a blessing for the band people I guess since they did not have to watch that in person. Nice arena complex though.

True, but at least for me it is cathartic. And debate about the future is more fun than the current season.

Rating yourself fourth on your own list is truly selfless work. We never deserved you Tom.

QB would have seen to a lifetime contract for Woody if he had done any of that lol

Careful, this is getting into basketball erotica territory for IU fans... Or maybe just me. Either way, keep going... Jokes aside, I would be very happy with this particular guy.

Not just that, Cig is the highest paid employee in Indiana history. 72 million for football at IU, it is incredible. It is also 72 million reasons why I think the basketball job should be very attractive when it opens. 8 million a year at a "basketball school." The right guy here winning big will get Paid.

Team Shill™ has to be in absolute shambles that Mr. Trilly is activating the rumor mill before Christmas with this roster.

Well if that thread is to be believed we are so dusting off the Brad Stevens Rumor Machine again. Ahh hell, that's more fun than watching IU play basketball. I am soooo in.

People keep saying this but it is just this (his second) term as chair. He has been on the Board since 2016 chair since 2021. A quick google search returns nothing stating Buckner plans to leave from what I can see. I would love something on the record that he intends to retire from the chair if anyone could provide it. You can serve back to back two year terms as chair. You can serve as chair again after a two year hiatus as chair if you have served two consecutive terms. This "end of term" thing people keep bringing up is simply he end of consecutive two year chair terms. He is under no obligation to leave the board at the end of it, he simply ceases to be chairman. Maybe losing the chair limits his ability to protect Woody, I don't know, but unless he is off the board entirely, I have a hard time believing his influence wanes greatly. Edit: Please someone more learned than I correct me if any of that is incorrect, that's just my quick cliffs notes research on BOT rules.

always been more of a Ken Nunn guy myself.

I would love to have your optimism, but then why not announce it. Woody announcing he was retiring would instantly heal the fanbase which is incredibly fractured (but becoming less so with every bad loss). It would almost certainly prevent any major toxicity at home games which is inevitable right now. We have a one person recruiting class that isn't likely to get bigger. He has only two years left on the current contract and would need an extension as soon as the season is over. There is nothing to lose. I simply see no logical reason to let this farce continue without his retirement out in the open unless it is not written in stone. Heck, I would be willing to celebrate Woody the player, coach, and IU ambassador-- make a huge deal out of his last home game as coach. Unfortunately I think his ego probably prevents any of that, or, his future at IU is not ordained yet and remains based on performance. Just my completely uninformed internet opinion, so who knows, I hope you and Stu are right and we (the royal we of negative nancies) are just chicken little lol

Reversible Jacket Staying Red - 24 Irish Exit - 17 LETS GO.

I got you. Here is the summary:

He is a perfect prototype for a 3 and D guy, he just doesn’t play any serviceable defense— at least not at IU. Which is partially on him, and a lot on the system. What he chooses to do will be interesting. I highly doubt he’s on any draft boards, and I also don’t believe he would get even comparable money in the portal. So I wouldn’t be shocked to see him back, but I tend to agree with you a fresh start being properly used could salvage his NBA chances if he can show consistent defensive effort and awareness.

In my opinion the issue with Mack is one that happens sometimes at the college level. He doesn’t have NBA level athleticism. A 6-8 high school player with his shooting touch can really be miscalculated until playing against college level athletes. It happens. Being forced to guard high major 3s and 2s does him no favors on that front. My feeling is he would have been used much, much differently at a place like Kansas or UConn. He wouldn’t start, and his only job would be to wait for open looks from three on the wing. He certainly wouldn’t have been asked to play giant ball at the three— and like I mentioned before, I’m guessing it had a huge impact on him choosing IU. Huge minutes at the position he and his family envisioned him— but again, he lacks the athleticism to be a 3 and is at best a small ball minutes 4.

The problem with his defense is three fold in my opinion and one of them also stems from what I guess were promises made to players on offense. 1. The NSR cannot work without an athletic rim protector. It was functional with TJD and sometimes with KW. We don’t have that this year and at times the break downs have allowed for too many layups and lobs. 2. The NSR is a relic of early 2000s NBA basketball when teams averaged a combined 15 three point attempts per game. The last year MW was a head coach that number had gotten to a whopping 18. Today? That number is nearly 39. It is also exacerbated by point three. 3. I firmly believe MR and MM were recruited with the promise of playing mostly their preferred positions, despite it being a detriment to IU on the whole. Both are poor defenders to begin with, then in a NSR switching defense they are both switched to guard 3s and 2s. MR has a fouling problem but it isn’t all his fault, he’s being switched constantly onto smaller players he cannot guard. This issue in particular could be solved by going zone— Lord knows we are long enough to try it, but any many defense MR and MM will be exploited by opposing coaches if OB and MR are both on the floor. TL;DR: Woody uses an offense that doesn’t have the right personnel to protect the rim, doesn’t prioritize running teams off the 3PT line, and does so with two critical players to our success out of position. It’s a recipe for failure.

Don’t worry, as soon as I win this mega millions you can rest easy, I will keep the money flowing in. Got a lot of eggs in that basket so things are looking up!

It’s almost like our not a college basketball head coach has also not watched any college basketball film.

I was thinking the same thing but almost didn’t want to put it into the ether lol so thanks for falling on that sword. It’s hard just on talent alone to imagine us doing worse than .500 in the B1G, but I have a real hard time envisioning many road wins. My personal guess would be 7 to 10 wins in the B1G, make the BTT, not the NCAA.

I said it a while ago but people were really underselling how important getting a quality win and competent performance in the Bahamas was. The B1G is not well regarded this season. 10-10 with zero good non-con wins isn’t getting us in IMO. Then look at the data you’ve provided… Woody has not over performed at any time in this tenure. TJD was a killer, and JHS periodically went unconscious. So expecting 11 or 12+ B1G wins is living in fantasyland. You had to have noticed that stretch starting with @ PU on 1/31. That is a brutal stretch of games in February. Squint and tell me how many wins you see there with how this team has looked… PSU at home? UW on the road? OSU at home? That stretch looks like 2-8 to me, maybe 3-7. I think you’re right this could get a lot uglier.