Demo

He’s an exceptional athlete across the board. Good size, great body, ok length, quick downhill and laterally, explosive, strong, particularly lower body strength. But his best physical trait, and I mean really good, is his contact balance. Mohammed plays through contact unlike any HS guard I have ever watched, to the point that he seems almost oblivious to it. I watched a kid cheap shot him in a game as he was going for a dunk and as he was crashing he transferred the ball from right hand to left and kissed it off glass for an and 1. Jaw dropping play. And he never looked at the kid and never batted an eye. He just plays through it. Always. He’s got a high skill level, but can improve some stuff. Handle’s a little high. Shot still has a little left drift, though it’s a clean action. But otherwise he’s a really complete player. Finishes with either hand. Can play on the block, in the midrange, and from the wing. Good passer. Really clever around the rim. Can get downhill pretty much at will. 3pt % isn’t great, but some of that is a function of taking 1-2 just terrible heat check-type 3’s per game. When he’s really locked in he does his best stuff in the midrange. He has a pretty sophisticated jab step series and he creates a lot of looks in the 12-18’ range, and makes makes pretty much all of them. Can both create space and force contact. Between Mohammed and Lander, you’d be able to get a good late clock look without fail. Fwiw

The New Castle-Marion, Steve Alford-James Blackmon, game. Alford had 48, Blackmon had 41, and the atmosphere was as electric I can ever remember being a part of.

Yeah, given the how highly Miller has clearly prioritized Kaufman, I find it almost impossible to believe that he would have accepted this commitment knowing that it would end things with Kaufman.

Didn’t see him as much as some others, but looked to me like he had a lot of Ethan Happ going on, at least in the half court. Has a really nice dropstep/counter series. Showed a little jump hook over either shoulder. Uses a lot of ball and shoulder fakes. He has absolutely been coached up.

I’d love to hear the story of the light coming on for Turner. That dude went from flat out lost to the best big in the country not named Ralph Sampson in something like 2 1/2 months. Incredible.

That tournament run was incredible. I was a Freshman walk-on at Oral Roberts University in 80-81 and we played IU at Market Square Arena in Dec ‘80. We lost by 9. Needless to say, I did not play. That IU team at that point, despite the ridiculous talent level, just wasn’t very good. Offensively, they were a mess. Tolbert and Turner were constantly running into each other and ending up in the same space. Turner couldn’t figure out his reads at all. Our 2 bigs, Mark Acres and Tom Prusater, absolutely outplayed them. And our pg, Cat Johnson, who may have been the quickest on ball defender in the country, was able to keep Isiah out of the lane and generally pissed him off. But we couldn’t really match up with Wittman and, in particular, Kitchell. Those 2 bailed them out. RMK was shockingly calm given how far off they were, except for Turner, who he was just killing. And, yeah, the growth of that group from December to March was pretty astounding, though you knew it was gonna come eventually. Watched the NC game with teammates and we were amazed at what Isiah did to Jimmy Black after Cat played him even or better. Haven’t talked to him in years, but I guarantee you Cat still talks about what he did to Isiah the way people talk about what Dakich did to Jordan.

And now David Dejulius leaving UM. He came a long way last year.

And no one yet leaving Bloomington. Still don’t see it happening, but I can honestly say that it never occurred to me that everyone might return.

You read my mind. Been wanting to watch some full games of this kid all year so I can make a fair comparison to Mohammed.

Former pseudo-target Ruedale Williams committed to Kansas St.

Obviously no idea who Archie might be interested in, but I can tell you that from that list Illinois watched Jayden Nicholson a couple of times this winter. 6’4” lefty. Smooth stroke. Good athlete. Tough kid. Watched him against Ryan Kalkbrenner, 6’11” shotblocker going to Creighton, and Nicholson took the ball at him every chance he got. Pretty gutsy for a freshman.

Caught a couple of USF games last year. Had a really good game against Gonzaga, they couldn’t keep him out of the lane, and a “couldn’t throw it in the ocean” game against St Mary’s. No idea which of those is closer to the genuine article.

It was the only answer. Can’t imagine they seriously considered it.

Oh yeah. And unlike the generic broadcasts that national sports media has created, everything about those broadcasts was unique and created an almost Pavlovian response. WTTV, Martha, Marlowe, that super low camera position that made you feel like you were right behind Knight, it couldn’t be mistaken for any other broadcast. Channel 4 deserves a bunch of credit for it’s role in creating generations of basketball lovers. Not just IU, all of those state tournament games from Hinkle with Tom Carnegie on the call. Freaking goosebumps just thinking about it. Will never forget Carnegie, always like 3 seconds after the actual bucket, with his, “Heeee scored!” That stuff just can’t be replicated now, and that’s a loss for all of us.

Vaguely. Calloway tipped in a miss to beat LSU, right? My memory definitely isn’t what it used to be.

Yeah, I remember the knee, and the Knight stuff was out there in real time as well as afterward. But for me, Calloway’s a really good case study of my expectations from the outside verses the reality of the player. That kid had a good, good college career. But I looked at him and thought he should’ve been an absolute star. So him going out and being good wasn’t enough for me. So he just frustrated the hell out of me. To a lesser degree, I have a similar reaction to Justin Smith. Despite the athletic package, he has limitations in both skill and mental processing that limits his ceiling and forces Archie to scheme around him some on offense. But he’s a really useful player in the right situations and he reps the school really well. So I try really hard not to bust the kid up. He doesn’t deserve it. Neither did Calloway.

Rick Calloway. I remember thinking he could be another Mike Woodson, but that he just didn’t want it badly enough. In retrospect I probably overrated his talent a touch. But he had the tools for a long NBA career.

Hell of a get. Pikiell is really getting it done. The kid looks like he was designed in a lab to be a Big 10 post player.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s exactly a hot take to say that no Coach in cbb history got a better whistle than Wooden. Krzyzewski could only dream of getting the calls Wooden got.

Earliest really clear recollection is from the ‘73 Final Four game against UCLA. Steve Downing gave Bill Walton all he wanted. I was 11. Have a lot of earlier memories than that of the Pacers. Not sure why that is.

“If I get the ball near the basket, there’s going to be a poster.” Love that so much. Now if he can just get Smith to think that way.

The one I haven’t been able to figure out is scholarship fairness. Everybody has 13 available scholarships. Perfectly fair. IU is graduating 2 Srs. Michigan is graduating 3. Penn St is graduating 4. So if they all get another year, does IU play with 15 scholarship players, Michigan with 16 and Penn St with 17? Over the course of a long year that could potentially be wildly unfair. No chance this happens.

Yes, it would be. Which is why it’s never gonna happen.

Carlik Jones from Redford to grad transfer, per Brian Snow. This kid, right here. That’s all I’m sayin’. It won’t happen, particularly after Lander, but he’s better than Phinisee.

https://www.hudl.com/video/2/423864/5e73ebfb4205f80c84bb96dc Pretty good, and long, video across several games. About 3 mins in shows him getting some work done against St Paul’s(Jordan Geronimo). Skill level is really impressive for such a young player. Beautiful stroke. Will be interesting to see if his athleticism catches up to his skill level. Kind of looks to me like a kid who could grow into a face up 4 rather than a wing. I imagine he blows up pretty good eventually. Nice job by Archie not wasting time.