Magnanimous

He’s legit from 15-18 feet. Getting him the same off-ball looks we set up for Robert Johnson last year would help the offense. I’m not sure why we’ve gone away from it this season.

Unfortunately, it is what it is. Other than Juwan, Crean didn’t really leave Archie much upperclassmen talent, and the Crean recruits Archie retained are marginal talents at best. If you don’t have that and you can’t nab some quality transfers immediately, then you’re pretty limited. We had a scholarship crunch and a roster that was capped by APR concerns, so there wasn’t much wiggle room for Archie to bring in talent beyond freshmen. I’d rather have a Romeo than a second grad transfer this year, so that’s pretty much what Archie was left with going into this season. The 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes were huge wiffs by Crean. Archie (or any coach besides K and Cal) needs a couple of waves talent to come in to get things on track and build a foundation. Unfortunately that means that it’ll inevitably be a multi-year rebuild. And you see that with most coaches who take over a program. Years 3-5 are the ones that they can really be evaluated on. This is especially true when you consider that Archie didn’t/couldn’t bring in any new players for his first season.

I’m not sure what he’s looking for with this offense, since it’s nothing but pick and rolls with a second option either being an undersized guy on the block or a mediocre shooter on the opposite side of the arc. It’s not a scheme that is conducive to offense production. Unless I’m missing something, we did more moving the ball and setting up off-ball shooters last season. Not sure why he’s limited the offense to just this now. He also needs to get our fast breaks going. It’s inexcusable that we can’t take advantage of four on two breaks, especially since our defense does cause a fair amount of turnovers. We’re leaving 12 points a game on the floor by not pushing the ball more off turnovers.

I was at the game tonight so I missed some of the recent discussion. This was my first game seeing live this year, and The one thing that stood out to me in particular was how awful this team is on fast breaks. Like pitifully terrible. They have no clue how to capitalize on a numbers advantage or where to pass the ball. Ok guy just kind of dribbles and either slows it down or passes it too late to our guy on the block, forcing him to go low and slow down, allowing the defense to catch up. I’m all for controlling the pace of the game in the half court, but when’s team is this bad shooting the ball you need to capitalize on empty possessions by the opposition. Our points off turnovers ratio must be one of the worst in the country.

Archie isn’t clappy. He looks genuinely miserable coaching this team. Problem is he’s not making adjustments.

Archie isn’t going anywhere for a few years (if he doesn’t work out), so people need to just chill and accept that we have a flawed team right now that’s undergoing multiple transitions simultaneously. As long as he keeps bringing in talent and rebuilds relationships with long-neglected Indiana pipelines, I’m quite indifferent to how this season ultimately plays out. I obviously want us to win, which we actually were at times this year, but we need to focus on this long term. If Archie can reel in multiple classes with talent, either he’s going to start winning with them or (hopefully) the next guy will actually inherit some talent for the first time in a while here. I’m concerned about several things right now, but I saw enough last year from how he ran his sets that I’m inclined to give him a pass on what’s going on right now. To be honest, I really can’t believe the lack of perspective, foresight, or self-awareness a lot of our “world’s best” fans are displaying with this whole thing. This wasn’t a good team the year before he came here (hence why the job was open to begin with), they were severely flawed last year largely due to the roster he inherited and was limited due to APR considerations, and our “quick fix” remedy is a bunch of injured and now fatigued freshmen. This was going to take some time before it got better. The last 20 years of Hoosier ineptitude is a sunk cost at this point, so people need to calm down. If recruiting dries up and there’s no improvement then he’ll be gone, but let the man breathe a bit and give him a chance to see this rebuild through. I’ve seen enough to see he is passionate about both coaching here and fixing the issues with this team. He only has one upperclassman setting any kind of example for the new guys, which is a difficult thing to overcome as well. Anyone who thinks Archie isn’t holding these guys accountable is severely mistaken, and you can’t go by those scripted sound bite “in the huddle” shots ESPN tries to get every game. I sat behind the bench during last year’s Iowa game and when Iowa went on a run in the second half to make the game close, I got a good view of him wholeheartedly ripping the team to shreds for their lack of effort. It paralleled Knight’s best day in all honesty, and it did the trick in getting the team to rally. I decided not to post it on youtube or anything because he didn’t need any conjecture or criticism thrown his way if it caught enough views. Personally, I think Archie still feels like a guest in Bloomington right now, so hopefully as his time accumulates with us that side comes out a bit more. This guy hates losing as much as Saban. I just wish he’d show it some more at some point.

Can’t underscore the value of upperclassmen. 0* Freddie McSwain would offer more than what Romeo is giving us tonight. Basketball really is simple: you need size, guys who can shoot, don’t turn the ball over, and good defense is about effort and positioning. We don’t have size or shooters, and you really can’t coach either. Players either have it or they don’t, so until recruiting takes hold and the players gain experience, you’re not going to win.

The half court ball movement and off-ball sets last season were far superior to what we’ve seen this year. We just needed some shooters to make it work, and just about everyone agreed with that. People lauded Archie following the Duke game last year for how his system kept us in the game, and how if we did the same thing with better players we would have won that and many more games. “This is something we haven’t seen in Bloomington for 20 years” was said by the majority on multiple occasions last season. I don’t think Archie forgot how to coach that. This group just doesn’t get it. There needs to be a major roster overhaul after this year with regards to our current upperclassmen. We need shooters and guys who will play hungry.

I'm really late to the party regarding campus affairs, but I just read about the ongoing mold problem IU has been dealing with this year. The school is (was?) facing a class action lawsuit from students in the dorms who got sick from the mold and the school's response to the problem. Terrible look for the school...

I guess I missed the part where everyone was praising his half-court offense last year that was controlling the ball and setting up shooters with off-ball screens. The only thing missing was some guys that could actually shoot. He brought one in this year and the kid is averaging 18 ppg. Another is a project freshman who needs to learn to play defense and the third is out for the year.

You can't build anything long-term if you keep pulling the rug out underneath a program every few years. That's why the Browns and Tennessee football continually suck. This was never going to be a quick fix. Yes, there are holes in Archie's coaching philosophy, but I'd rather be a consistently good program years four and onward than reach for arbitrary benchmarks in years two and three and then start over again if they're not met. There is talent on this team and the prospect of something stable in the coming years. Honestly, it will likely be year four. A senior Justin Smith, junior Phinisee, likely sophomore Jackson-Davis, hopefully healthy and contributing Jerome Hunter, and some new guys brought in will make a very competitive team, with younger talent on the roster to follow in their footsteps. Our team right now is honestly a poor man's 2007-08 team with DJ (Juwan) and a less consistent Eric (Romeo), blended with an injured version of the 2009-10 team Watford/Hulls freshmen team. Green is Devan Dumes and McRoberts is Danny Moore. They're young, they're hurt, they're lacking shooters, and there's no depth. We brought in six freshmen for this year's squad (including Race). Only two can contribute right now. Of course this isn't enjoyable to watch, but the last 20 years is a sunk cost at this point, so people need to get over themselves with the "we've been patient enough" schtick. It's been stated before, but except in very rare occasions it takes coaches a few years to get things going when taking over a program. There was a reason this job was open to begin with...because the team sucked! I just did a quick number crunch for the coaches of the teams currently in the top 15 to see what each coach's winning percentage was at their current program in the first three seasons they were there. Duke (Coach K) - 45% Michigan (Beilein) - 46% Tennessee (Barnes) - 56% Virginia (Bennett) - 56% Gonzaga (Few) - 80% (Mark Few took over for an Elite Eight team) Michigan State (Izzo) - 60% Kansas (Self) - 75% (Bill Self took over a team that was the NCAA runner-up) Texas Tech (Beard) - 76% Virginia Tech (Buzz Williams) - 52% Nevada (Musselman) - 74% Florida State (Leonard Hamilton) - 48% Kentucky (Cal) - 88% UNC (Roy) - 77% Auburn (Pearl) - 45% Marquette (Woj) - 54% So there you go. Unless you take over for an already successful and loaded program or recruit multiple top 10 players every year, you're likely to struggle your first few seasons.

I like this team better than its fan base.

This team sucked the year before Archie came, was pretty bad last year with Crean’s players, and has maybe two quality upperclassmen and banged up freshmen this year. I wonder why it wasn’t an instant turnaround for Archie...

So much dead weight with the upperclassmen. It’s a shame our freshmen are so banged up.

Which is weird because we did last year. Last season you could see some semblance of a system in place, just not enough shooters to make shoot. Lots of off ball screens, good ball movement in half court. This season it’s just dribble up across half court, make a few passs, and if we can’t feed the post the possession is over.

I don’t get the lack of aggression. Our coaches certainly come fired up. Excluding the freshmen, Morgan, and maybe Durham, there isn’t a player on this team who deserves a roster spot.

I’d think so. People seem to think that because we’re bringing in talent we’re bringing in the kind of talent Duke or Kentucky does that can make a roster turnover instantly competitive. The foundation for Archie’s program are currently freshmen, three of whom are injured and one who will leave after this year. It’s going to take a couple of years for all of the pieces to fill in and develop.

This team isn’t as good as its record and it’ll be at least two more years until we can ideally compete with the top teams in the country. We’ve had close wins over the three worst big ten teams. Losing Romeo and Morgan after this year is going to hurt, and we’re going to be very young and probably worse next season. When Rob is a junior I expect us to be a genuine top 10 real. Until then it is what is and just enjoy what you can. We’ll be a tournament team each year but nothing of substance will come out of this roster until then unless Romeo stays another year.

That’s not true. Chambers did get screwed by Carr leaving early and then bouncing to Italy, because they probably would have competed for the conference rather than being in the basement, but he’s not a great coach even by Penn State standards. Chambers was finally able to tap into some of the talent out of Philly, but it hasn’t amounted to even one NCAAT berth. Penn state is hurt by their lack of basketball culture and geographical diasadvantages being so far from the state’s major cities, but they could be better if they wanted. The school has a ton of money, at least now after the Sandusky fallout has passed, and a commitment to a lot of its sports. They essentially bought themselves into relevancy with both hockey and wrestling, and if they actually cared they could do the same for basketball. In some ways PSU and IU are polar opposites from the basketball/football standpoint, but unlike football you only need a few players to be competitive in basketball. There’s no reason why Penn State couldn’t open up the check book and get someone decent after this year’s tournament. Even a Bruce Weber -level coach would help them.

It got Pitino fired, which strongly helped us land Romeo. We may be the only program in the country that benefited from it. But yes, nothing so far on a macro level.

First word on him going

With Foles leaving after this year Nate is looking like he’ll be #2 in Phily.

Congrats to Coach Miller on his first appearance in the polls while at IU. #25 in the AP poll.

Assuming Romeo leaves, I see no reason to believe next year’s team will be much better, even with Brooks. They’ll be very young again, and I’m pretty much writing off Hunter, Anderson, Forrester, and Thompson getting any real chance to develop on the court this year, especially as conference play picks up. I think year four is when both his system and players should be implemented to the point he can reasonably be expected to compete for a deep tourney run.

Dan Feeney is having a great game blocking tonight for the Chargers.