Demo

So. Keith Smart’s debut seems a bit….shaky.

Yeah, as ugly as the deal here already is, the fact that the Kentucky schools clearly got their hires right pours a fair amount of salt in the wound.

Kelsey gets it. The Kentucky schools got their hires right.

I’m not sure Knight was actually particularly good at getting them a whistle, though he.was obviously really good at creating a tolerance for his behavior. That’s a freaking gift. The 2 guys that immediately leap to mind being able to influence games that way are Izzo and Dean Smith. Even K didn’t get it done like those guys.

Among his flaws, Woody’s inability to get a whistle is a really underrated one. Izzo can get almost any crew to turn almost any game into a rock fight. It really is something. And B1G officiating is never gonna get fixed until that guy is gone because what he’s advocating for just infects these crews. I’m firmly convinced that when it comes to B1G style of play, Izzo is the devil.

Would imagine you’re right. I like Underwood’s schemes better. He a great schemer and Izzo’s stuff is pretty meh. But, man, Izzo is freaking Mozart as a bench coach. He almost always gets the game called the way he wants it. He’s so good at pushing his kid’s buttons. And his out of timeout stuff is almost Painter good. Dude’s still elite.

Wow, if Illinois ends up beating MSU they’ll have done it by beating 8. Izzo is completely in the ref’s heads and they’re getting every close call and a fair number that aren’t that close.

Wow, an 18yo freshman rolling into Breslin and just killing Sparty. Riley with 16 10 mins in.

For sure. Depth, competition, that’s the stuff. But I don’t think it’s just stars, it’s positional. The difference between a 4* Wr and a 3* WR is on balance smaller than a 4* DT vs. a 3* DT because there are just more small guys than big guys. I would love to see IU become OL/DL U because the cream are just schools kicking everybody’s a$$ up front. The 2 games we lost the OL got whupped. Oh, and QB U would be cool too.

DeVries is terrific. Wow, another really good candidate in his 1st year at a new gig. Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe, just maybe, IU trying to give Woody a soft landing may have been more costly than just bucks.

No question. You find a guy kids want to play for with a system they want to play in and have the resources of a UK/IU and the opportunity is there immediately. Then it’s just a matter of whether your guy picks the right kids. Interesting the amount of emphasis Pope. put on toughness/competitiveness rather than purely skill guys. He relies on his system to create offense and brings in Oweh and Butler who are about as bada$$ competitors as kids get.

https://x.com/AlexGoldenNBA/status/1880253054991073464 Maybe the funniest thing in sports right now is watching self-styled NBA tough guys getting out of Dodge when James Johnson rolls up. That Portis thing from last year was a classic. Don’t know what the Pacers pay that guy, but it’s not enough. The Fever need to find one for Clark.

Kid’s earned it. His defense on Thornton has been beyond huge.

So Leal for Galloway? Huh.

Has the lineup change for tonight been announced anywhere? I imagine it’s Leal for Mgbako, but seen nothing official.

Happy Birthday to Steve Earle. That he’s led the life he has and made it to 70 is miraculous. About 15 years from now some currently probably unknown actor is gonna win an Oscar playing him because the guy is 1 of the all-time biopic subjects.

https://x.com/TomCrean/status/1880294248576393338 Not saying Crean is taking a shot at this IU team, but if the shoe fits…..

Yeah, it’s interesting to watch the extent to which we’ve already started punting on the character stuff before the job’s even open. I mean, Beard, Pearl, Wade, c’mon. I am 100% confident that there are multiple really great options who aren’t time bombs for school embarrassment.

Oh, for sure. There are great career assistants and they’re gold. Norm Roberts is a perfect example. But they better be relentless workers who help create that culture of work and I don’t think he’s that, though obviously Woody doesn’t exactly contribute to that either. Calbert story: When he was on Crews’ staff at SLU, Crews would actually make fun of him in press conferences. Stuff like, “Can’t believe I’m here talking to you guys and Calbert’s already home.” Obviously he was kidding, but that always stuck with me.

I’m sure loyalty to Woody plays some small part, but that’s not it. Cheaney’s a coaching dilettante. I don’t mean that as critically as it sounds, but he likes doing some of the stuff and he likes working with the kids and being around the game, but he’s not some grinder. He’s happy as a clam doing what he’s doing and he has no interest in doing more. That’s been his entire coaching career. Actually, you can probably argue that, as awesome a guy as he obviously is, having someone with his mindset on staff is a pretty clear indicator of a problem.

I don’t get your point here at all. “players quit on their coach” is an indictment of the coach and not the players, and “a program with this kind of noise” is like talking about Everest and “a mountain with this kind of snow.” It’s just a factually accurate statement of conditions that need to be dealt with as part of the climb. I don’t see any shift of onus in any way.

If this is accurate and those teams shot 122 free throws in 55 mins, I don’t need to see the game, those refs need to never work again.

Given that the thing is pretty inevitable at this point, this guy’s take is the equivalent of, “Christmas is coming and it’s coming in December.”

Apparently, Penn St interviewed Ephraim Banda after Haines. So maybe he ends up there, but it doesn’t sound like it was necessarily a confirmation interview.

Took the night off from games and Woody bashing, though that will never get old, and watched the documentary, “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song”, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Kind of an unusual structure in that it uses the various stages of the evolution of “Hallelujah” from origin to cultural quasi-phenomenon as kind of a touchstone for the stages of Cohen’s career. But it works and if you’re into Cohen it’s well worth the time. Gotta confess: there is no tour I regret missing more than Cohen’s farewell tour. It’s always looked like a straight up singular experience.