Hillsdale87

Race has a long way to go on defense Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He is surprisingly bad finishing around the rim for somebody with some playground to his game Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TJD's expectations are much different though. I think most people are expecting him to be a solid player who plays good defense and contributes on offense with his athleticism. Romeo's expectations were to transform the program, which were obviously too lofty. It's much easier for TJD to meet expectations Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not saying this year's team is necessarily better, but that the drop-off is not nearly as steep as maybe would have been anticipated, and that we should be able to make up for what we lose just in expected improvements from the guys on the current roster. I expect that Romeo will make a lot of improvements too as he prepares for the NBA and that he would be awesome if he were to stay, but I don't think anybody was counting on more than 1 year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now that we've seen 2 games without Romeo, how is everybody feeling about next year? In all likelihood what we're seeing is next year's starting 5, but with TJD in Morgan's place. In losing Morgan, I think we'll be hurt on offense, but be helped on defense with TJD's added size and athleticism. Combine that with Davis hopefully being fully back from his achilles injury, and I think we'll come out a little worse, but I don't think it's a disaster. From the outside, the idea of losing a lottery pick in Romeo seems bad, but I don't think the offense really loses much without Romeo (at least Freshman Romeo - next year's Romeo will hopefully have gotten much better in the NBA), which is unfortunate. He's a non-shooting slasher on a team that basically plays 4-5 non-shooters at all times. We have a lot of players with similar skill sets, but varying talent levels. He's obviously in the top talent tier, but he doesn't bring a different dimension to the offense like we had hoped. We really need a shooter more than we need a much better version of Al Durham. A shooter who can spread the D makes everybody on the team much better. If you had put Romeo on the Zeller, Oladipo team, he would have scored so many points on drives with the way teams had to defend the 3. But when the defense could sag on everybody, those driving lanes disappeared as the season went on. Our last 3 Big 10 games were our highest scoring conference games of the season, and I don't think it's a coincidence that we finally had at least 1 reliable outside shooter. If Green can continue to play at a similar level (definitely a question mark as he's teased us before), and we get a leap from Rob and Al, which I think is a relatively safe assumption, I'll be really surprised if next year's team isn't quite a bit better

Yes. There are other guys who could be, like Anderson and Hunter, but they can't be counted on right now

Off the ball is definitely his best role, while filling in at PG in the few minutes Rob needs rest. He should have Rob coach him on finishing around the basket in the offseason. Rob uses the backboard really well to finish in traffic. Green does a good job of getting into the lane, but he's often a disaster putting up a shot in traffic that Rob would finish. Green should be effective in there with his wingspan and athleticism, but he's generally not right now.

Any thoughts on Green's locker room impact recently? I know you had been very critical of him, so wondering if you've heard more promising things recently Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd take a big, but I think we need a shooting wing more than anything else, and it's not close. Unless Al and Rob take huge steps up next year, which is certainly possible, we will have 1 above average 3 point shooter. The only team that can win consistently with that lineup also has Zion Williamson. Between Deron, TJD, Race, and Smith, I don't think we will get pushed around next year. Green and Al are also pretty good guard rebounders. Obviously we will take good players anywhere, but we desperately need shooting. We watched games last year and talked about how great it would be once we had actual shooters to knock down the many wide open 3s. We thought Romeo was the answer, but that was not his skill set. Archie needs to find a guy that can stretch the D that the defense will respect Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are there any thoughts on possible transfers from IU? How many spots do we expect to have? I know at one point many expected Green and Smith gone, but that looks more unlikely now, at least for Green. Some of his recent quotes make it seem like he's pretty committed to the team. Moore maybe based on playing time. Is it all just speculation at this point? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep. Simultaneously our best and worst player sometimes. He's bizarre. But I'm a sucker for upside Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not saying you should be content with mistakes. Just that even with mistakes, he makes the team better, which is true. But your 5-6 per game math still doesn't make sense. With his per game averages, he's at 2 turnovers and 4 missed shots per game. In order for him to throw away 5-6 possessions a game, you would have to believe that at least 75% of his misses are on bad, wasted shots. Seems pretty unlikely. I'd also say you have a liberal definition of giving away possessions, especially in regards to Devonte. How many bad shots do you think Romeo takes per game? I guarantee it's more than Devonte, if only because he shoots 5 more shots per game. Every 3 Romeo takes is a bad one. He also has the same turnover average. Every 3 Juwan takes is a bad one too, and he seems to have realized that the last few games as his attempts are down. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not sure if Al was shooting this way early in the season, but he's not been getting his shoulders and feet square. He's got his left shoulder out front. His arm action is perfect, but he needs to work on his lower body squaring up. Nothing as bad as Jowan, who has his feet at almost a 90 degree angle to the hoop, but enough that it's going to cause inconsistency. He's made so much progress with his shooting so far in his career, so hopefully he improves this in the off-season. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That was pretty funny in hindsight. Those turnovers were annoying in the moment. He just walked straight over and sat by the assistant. Archie didn't need to tell him why he was getting pulled, and he didn't need to ask

I've never disagreed with you that Devonte makes bonehead plays, and likely makes more negative plays than anybody on the team, besides maybe Smith. He's also made more positive plays than anybody besides maybe Morgan over the past month, and it's my belief that his positive plays generally significantly outweigh the negative. Sure I would love to see only good Devonte with none of the downside. That guy would be the best player on the team and probably 1st team All Big 10. But even up and down Devonte is valuable. On a team with lots of talent, a wildcard like Green probably doesn't play a lot. But on a team that struggles to score, I think you need to take your chances with Devonte's upside. We scored 63 points, and he was directly responsible for nearly 40% of them, either through points or assists. So while I'd love to see the turnovers cut down, he's also the primary reason we won today, even with bad Devonte showing up in spurts. If you can't see the value he brings to IU in today's game, I'm not sure what to tell you. He adds a dimension offensively that nobody else can. He had 4 turnovers. He also had 3 steals and a block. I hate turnovers too, but I can be a little more forgiving when the guy is clearly giving effort and makes up for it on defense.

Al is 10 for his last 42 from 3. Just because it's open doesn't mean it's a good shot. That said, Al needs to keep shooting. We need him to be a reliable 3 point shooter next year, and asuch as I'd like to win the lottery, I'm more focused on these guys getting better for the '19-'20 season. But at this point I think I feel more confident in a "bad" Devonte 3 than when our other guys shoot in rhythm. Since the Wisconsin win, our non-Green 3 point shooters are 22-94 (23%). That is embarrassing and needs to be fixed. Over the same time period, Green is 21-38 (55%). If Green can consistently shoot 40+%, he should shoot pretty much anytime he's open, including early in the shot clock because it's a high percentage shot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's about what Dakich said. I don't think Smith is a skilled perimeter player, but the majority of his offensive plays involve putting the ball on the floor and slashing to the hoop. I'm not saying he should be leading the break, but he needs to be able to take a couple dribbles without plowing into a guy who was set 20 feet in advance. Smith scores a lot in transition on similar plays. This was one of the worst games Smith has played recently. He was out of control from the start. The Smith that showed up the last 5ish games of the year would not have made that charge Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A wide open 3 with 10 seconds on the shot clock is not a bad look Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If we can get this Green consistently next year, we can be very good. He and Phin are really tough on D Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Durham has missed a couple incredibly wide open 3s. He needs to shoot 1,000 a day this offseason Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That one was all on Green though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not one person on the team cut to the ball against the press Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Smith can handle the ball well enough that he should be able to catch it in transition. If that was Davis it would be one thing, but Smith shouldn't be on the floor if he can't be counted on to make that play Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It really does. Without him we are definitely losing. But if he didn't make a couple inexcusable plays alongside his good ones, we're probably up 6 or 8 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How's everybody feel about this offense without Romeo? I know we haven't played great teams the last 3 halves, but doesn't really feel any different. Romeo is obviously an awesome individual player, but I think we can be fine next year if we get some improvement from underclassmen Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk