Magnanimous

I would pay big money to hear Dean Wormer read Rob Phinesee’s stat line right now. “Zero for two.”

This team hasn’t found a good look at the basket in ten minutes. Even the shots that went in were crap.

The Michigan athletic department has shut down sports for two weeks. Our game will be postponed. Link

Games like this take me back to the argument I had made the last few seasons that if Archie had some shooters on his team, his system isn’t that far off from making us competitive... This team is still a work in progress, but tonight was a great win and actually fun to watch (free throw shooting be damned!). A good resume a builder and it was great to see our young guys having fun together out there. Let’s build on this and get through this tough stretch we have coming up.

Is Dana Altman too old at this point?

What are you talking about? Archie’s been ranked in the top 25...for a total of five weeks in four seasons.

Fair point. This team has played so poorly I haven’t given much thought to who’s even on the roster.

What talent is this new coach going to be starting with?

I do think Archie will be here another year solely due to the buyout, COVID hurdles, and the revenue deficit ADs and universities as a whole are facing this year. But it’s not going to be pretty, next year should be no better, and then we’re looking at a new coach and another rebuild. See you guys in 2024!

Stevie Scott has as good a chance of winning the Doak Walker as you and me.

He’s got the rest of his life to take rocks for jocks with Basu. Get paid.

Stevie Scott has peaked as a college RB. He’s not that fast but he’s a bulldozer. He won’t get drafted regardless of which draft he declares for. He’s playing for a undrafted FA spot.

I keep hearing this and keep reiterating I don’t know what this really means. We spend (spent) more on recruiting than any program in the conference. We just invested tens of millions into renovating our arena. What is the university doing to prohibit our basketball team from being good? So we’re not writing checks for $9m/year? So what? The four coaches even worth that much aren’t leaving their current positions. It’s not a money issue. Should we be letting what happened at Louisville occur here? Should we have fake classes set up? Going to class isn’t a problem for our players, and it isn’t preventing our team from making free throws. Do we need to operate in the “gray area” more? Other successful programs are fine without going full bagman. Or do we just keep bad coaches an extra year or two too long? We haven’t landed the right coach. That’s it. Recruit well enough, develop your players, get some shooters and preach the fundamentals. For as difficult of a time this program has had the last 20 years, it’s not that complicated. You only need a handful of kids to make a program work. This isn’t football. I don’t care if the university administration isn’t as focused on basketball as Alabama’s is on football. They’re not actively working to sabotage the program. So RMK was the most powerful man on campus during his heyday? All that did was prevent him from getting fired earlier for abusing his players. “Yea but I heard they took some of our program’s money to build a new window in the Kelley school!” So what?! So our team had to eat chicken fingers for lunch a few days because of it instead of cordon bleu...all of a sudden to be successful we need five star meals and a private day spa in Cook Hall? This is still basketball, we still have more than enough to offer recruits, and still prioritize basketball more than the overwhelming majority of schools in the country. Get the right coach in the door and this goes away very quickly.

College basketball isn’t fun anymore. IU’s mediocrity hasn’t helped.

At a certain point you just know what you have...

Michigan is making a run at Mike Hart for RB coach.

Same. He’s a great receiver but he kind of snuck into the national conversation this year over that 3 week window. Of course as a fan you welcome him back and I hope it works out for him, but you almost have to strike when the iron is hot here. Can’t help but think of Cardale Jones returning to OSU after his breakout spurt. Hope Ty can raise his draft stock more next season.

Not that we’ve been world beaters the last few years, but when the one NCAAT they all would’ve played in gets cancelled that fun fact deserves a big fat asterisk.

It’s going to be one of those 45 pt nights. Game is over, even if we win.

The candy stripes are iconic and should stay. This program’s problems have nothing to do with our pants or names on their jerseys. Up until the NCAAT, the 2012-13 team was the “it” team all season. ESPN, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, etc. all kept IU at the forefront of the CBB discussion. The media wants IU to be good and will happily embrace IU returning to prominence. Winning cures all, and I thought the general consensus was it’s better for us to build around 4* who will stay 3-4 years and sprinkle in the occasional 5* as a complimentary piece. In continuing this rant, college basketball as a whole has become little more than a flavorless second rate sport the last few years. There are too many meaningless games and there’s too much roster turnover. College basketball is a formality at this point for 5* recruits. They’re not choosing programs based on pants. It’s about exposure and creating a brand before the draft. Indiana has one of the largest fanbases in the country and the media will give us the exposure we need if we’re ever good enough.

Nate’s probably looking for a new team after tonight. He doesn’t even look cut out for the league in all honesty at this point in his career.

“Yea and maybe we should go to college, not put gel in our hair and start wearing blue jeans!”

Sudfeld fumbled the snap on his second possession...

Since when is Indiana too big for playing in a bowl game? Isn’t winning a bowl one of CTA’s season goals? Wouldn’t having won likely gave us a top 10 finish for the first time in over 50 years?

Very happy for him. But won’t he be back?