Hillsdale87

The 2 bigs on both Maryland and Gonzaga were incredible athletes, 3 of the 4 were threats out to the 3 point line, and 3 are likely first round picks this year. That is not the scenario we're looking at next year. We have 5 bigs, none of whom appear to be threats outside the lane. Size was not nearly our biggest issue this year. If Deron had been healthy we would have had enough size. We weren't getting killed on the glass outside of the Maryland game. We were really good Yogi's senior year without a lot of size because most teams play small ball and value defensive versatility and athleticism over size. Our issue was that we couldn't stretch the floor and score with teams. If you have elite bigs, you can get away with that. Our bigs are fine, but they're not going to carry the team, so they need to be able to get out to the 3 point line Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True. I shouldn't say it's impossible, but it's very rare that it works. It worked for UNC because Meeks and Hicks just pummeled people underneath and gave UNC a huge rebounding advantage. None of our guys next year for that description. They're good, but not dominant enough to impact an opponent's gameplan. That was the rare national champion that wasn't great at shooting 3s (except in the sweet 16 against IU unfortunately), but they made up for it with rebounding and pace. They played so much in transition that half court spacing wasn't as critical as for most teams. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed that a team can have multiple of those players, but you can't have 2 guys on the floor at the same time who can only score on the block. Spacing is going to be terrible if 2 or more are on the court together clogging the lane. Purdue almost never had 2 post players on the court together. They always had 3-4 guys on the court who were serious threats from 3, as well as Eastern. Eastern is a pretty unique guy in that he's a guard who's not much of a shooter, but he had unique skills that made him a mismatch in other ways. Haarms and Williams were rarely on the court at the same time, and sometimes neither were out there. I would love Smith to be a 3, and he's the perfect body type for it, but he can't shoot and isn't good enough to take guys off the dribble like Nojel Eastern. He may not be a traditional 4, but his offensive skills put him there right now. If Smith can just shoot 33% on 3s and improve his ball handling a little bit, he would add a lot and be able to play 3 and 4. But unless he improves his shooting a lot, we can't play him at the 3. A lineup with Smith, TJD/Race,and Brunk/Davis would have fit in 1980, but not in today's game. It'll be interesting to see how many minutes Davis can handle next year if he's fully healthy. He's always had foul issues, so good to have depth regardless of help. But right now it looks like we have 3 guys trying to play the 4. Hopefully Smith coming back means he's going to dedicate himself to developing wing skills, and the problem works itself out on its own. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not a huge fan of the pizza, but we left Bloomington 5 years ago and still talk about the fries. Still the best fries I've had Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm very interested to see what Archie's thinking on lineups next year, because right now we've got 5 big men (Race, TJD, Smith, Davis, Brunk) who are expecting playing time and offer no/limited threat from the outside. That's going to lead to the same types of offensive problems as we had this year. Good teams do not have 2 post players who can only score on the block Hopefully Race and Smith are improving their mechanics and putting up tons of 3s during the off-season. Even TJD is going to need to add that at some point. That seems like the only way that all of these guys are going to be able to get on the floor Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any info on when he expects to be able to play? He tore his ACL in December, right? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't think this is very unusual. He wants to get some exposure, good for him. But just because this is the reason given doesn't even mean it's actually why he's postponing. It wouldn't surprise me if he just needs more time to think through his decision. LSU's coaching situation was in flux, and, while Wade is back for now, he probably wants to get a better idea of what's going on. Alabama just hired a new coach who he doesn't know. If he's undecided, which would make sense, then it's totally fine to take some more time

I'd only disagree slightly in that I think Devonte has an NBA shot, albeit a very slim one. I'd maybe put it at 3% instead of 0. Guys develop at different paces. He has some of the best raw talent in the Big 10, but at this point, he's far from one of the best players, but there's a scenario where he could get there. He needs to cut down on turnovers, and improve his ability in the lane. He doesn't really struggle to get past a guy off the dribble, but he just doesn't really know what to do with it unless there's an easy layup. That also leads to a lot of his turnovers as he gets himself into an advantageous position, but then makes a bad decision because he's not comfortable there. That can be fixed, but it will take a lot of reps. He's probably too short to be a combo guard in the NBA, but he's got a long wingspan, which can help negate the height issue. There's also room in the NBA on some teams for shoot first PGs, which is more Devonte's game. He's better when he's not facilitating as I don't think that's something he did before IU. He wasn't recruited as a PG, but he was turned into one because the other options were so bad. Overall I agree with you. He's likely not an NBA player. But it also wouldn't shock me if he's impressive in workouts and builds confidence coming into next season. He was our best player the last 6-7 games of the season. When he's hot, he's really good. So if he gets hot at the right time, he can generate some interest. I don't see a scenario where he could do anything to be worth staying in the draft, but hopefully the pre-draft process will be helpful.

I think the crystal balls were 75%+ for both, and then seemingly out of nowhere they announced for a different school. Miami has been named as a school in the Adidas scandal, so it would not be surprising if there was something shady there. For Waters I remember that everything had been trending for us, and then he took a visit to Georgetown and committed to them on the visit. He got out of his commitment after JT3 was fired, but we also fired Crean, so he ended up at LSU.

Weren't we considered a lock for Bruce Brown and Tremont Waters? I know those were a couple years ago. I don't remember the Brown one as much, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was something shady with Waters considering where he ended up Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What's the downside to declaring though? Sure, they're going to tell him not to enter the draft, but he can still get valuable insights from teams. He's the best pro prospect on the team right now. That says more about our team than Devonte, as he's nowhere near ready for the NBA, but he at least has attributes that can translate. However, he needs to figure out where he could theoretically fit in pro basketball. He's likely too small to be a SG, but he doesn't have the decision making to be a full time PG. He could maybe be an offensive weapon on the 2nd unit. I think this is probably less about learning what skills he needs to improve, as he knows he needs to cut down on turnovers, and more about understanding where teams could see him fitting. If teams think he can only play PG in the NBA, then he'll need to spend all offseason there. If teams think he can be a combo guard, he would prepare slightly differently. I think it's probably a long shot that Green ever becomes an NBA player, but he's flashed NBA level ability at times. Hopefully he can put it together consistently next year. I do think his game fits better in the NBA, which is more spread out and faster paced, than it does in Archie's system. While I'm glad he's on the team, he fits the pace Crean likes to play, and likely wouldn't have come to Indiana if Archie was recruiting him (Archie probably wouldn't have been interested either).

Yes. So a team would have to take on 2 scholarship players for next year that won't be able to play. Not an easy thing to plan for Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Apparently Sam can't even grad transfer, so a school is going to have to waste 2 scholarships next year to get them. I'd be ok with Indiana doing that, but I don't think most would Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's crazy. I wonder what happened there. Marquette was poised to be awesome next year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm rooting for Crean to do well, but I would really appreciate if he wasn't having success at our expense. First, beating Kentucky for Edwards opened up a spot at Kentucky for Brooks. And now he's likely going to get Beverly. Looking like a great class for Georgia. He did that a few times at Indiana, so we'll see if he's learned to build a little more consistency with classes

Other than Duke, we had no losses to teams with less experience. And Duke is obviously a different type of team. Arkansas and Rutgers were the only teams who were close to our level of inexperience. We lost to Arkansas because Morgan was in foul trouble all game. The Rutgers loss was terrible, but that was the game Devonte was suspended and Rob banged his head again. Davis didn't play at all. Damezi had to play 22 minutes, if that gives you an idea of how bad our depth was. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We had some luck in the 12-2 stretch (and beat a number of bad teams) and some bad luck in the 1-12 one. We won a number of one possession games early that could have gone either way, but we pulled them out with timely shots at the end. We also got run off the court by Duke, so it's not like we were really good, even at 12-2. We lost those ose games during the losing streak. Ohio State, Iowa 2x, Purdue were all games that we were in and got crushed by bad luck when the other team made some miracle shots. Yes, the team played worse during the losing streak, but we were never as good as we thought at 12-2 or as bad as it felt when we went 1-12 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We were too injured to run with them, and we only led by 14. We gave up that lead exclusively because of Smith's foul trouble, which forced Fitzner into too much playing time. We had no Davis (he played 4 minutes) or Thompson in that game. I believe Fitzner was -20 for the game in 18 minutes. We got outrebounded by 17, and Maryland had 18 offensive boards. Fitzner against Fernando and Smith is a crazy mismatch. Effort alone isn't going to keep up with the strongest front line in the Big 10. If Davis had been healthy, that's likely a win. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Injuries are going to keep a team from being consistent though. Yes, teams can be good when everything is clicking. But they're going to keep a team from being in synch. When guys can't play together consistently and aren't able to get good practices, they're going to be unsure on the court, especially when most players are freshmen and sophomores. That's going to manifest in a number of ways, but when guys aren't comfortable on the court, that's often going to look like a lack of effort. There's no excuse for jogging down the court, and some of those types of plays that we saw. But I think a lot of what looked like lack of effort was just a team that struggled to gel Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another problem with guys being injured is that it really impacts your ability to have good competitive practices. When you consistently have 4 rotation players injured, you're not going to have good practices. Even guys that were playing were having to be cautious in practice. I doubt Zach and Deron did a full practice all season. We all wanted Archie to push guys harder in practice, but I'm not sure he could. He didn't have a full team. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's really not even close. Archie took Dayton to more Sweet 16s in 6 years than Cronin did with Cincinnati in 14. And Cincinnati is a much better basketball school than Dayton. I think Cronin is going to be fine at UCLA. He's a very good defensive basketball coach whose teams consistently play with effort. He's a much worse offensive coach than Archie though, and that limits his ceiling. I think the problem with the fit is that Cronin is going to be good enough to get UCLA to the top 25 consistently, and they will compete for Pac-12 titles. I don't think he's good enough to compete for national championships though, and that's the expectation. But it's also hard to fire a coach who's doing a good, but not great job. They've been able to fire Howland and Alford because they had some really bad season. Cronin made the tournament 9 years in a row at UC. I don't think he's going to have bad seasons at UCLA once he gets his guys in there.

Maybe he's overhyped, but that's not unique to this board. He's widely regarded as one of the best Xs and Os coaches Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree. He's not a Bob Knight level offensive coach that can manufacture points with just about any personnel, but his offense is good enough to put up numbers with the right offensive talent. We went through a dip this year where the offensive execution was terrible, and I seriously doubted Archie's ability to craft an offense. But by the end of the year, we were back to getting plenty of open looks, but the shots just weren't falling. Throughout the 2017-2018 season we kept saying that the team would look great once we actually had shooters because we got a ton of open looks, but just couldn't shoot. We thought that would get fixed this year with Romeo coming in, but he actually made the outside shooting woes worse. The problem was largely not the quality of the looks though. There were a lot of open shots.

They had possession when Guy called for it. Ref didn't acknowledge him in time Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well clearly I motivated him [emoji1]. Hunter has been awesome in the second half Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk