Lt. John McClaine

I'll go with IU - 77 SMU - 68

I really like the idea of having Troy in the starting lineup just to give us more size and athleticism.  I know a lot of people talk about letting him earn his spot back and all of that, but I feel he's served his time, and he's put in the work, and he should start.  With a Frontcourt of Hanner and Troy, that should help on the boards and defensively.  I'm all for having shooters, but playing 4 guards at once is not typically the answer to beat the top teams.  I think bringing in a 6'8" Pogo stick like Troy and putting a battle tested Zeisloft on the bench makes us a better team.  Honestly, this team could be nice if everything works out.  

Real nice breakdown of our opposition, broseph.  

One thing for me is that this team is so much more fun to watch.  I love how we have multiple shooters, but not only that, because plenty of teams have shooters, but we have guys that can create space off of the bounce and get it to those shooters.  I agree with VO5 in his sentiment that Rob Johnson has looked better than Yogi running the point, at least last night he did.  Rob is a very smooth offensive player who keeps the dribble alive without being wreckless, and we all know that Jumper is wet.     Yogi is a game changer because of his speed but so far this season he continues to make me use profanity and scare my Wife and dogs while watching the game.  He just seems to go too fast in the wrong situations, and what gets on my nerves is the fact that these guys need to understand that our offensive execution is going to effect our Defense.  If you take early or bad shots it puts an already undersized team on its heels defensively.  I see Yogi make a lot of offense happen off of the bounce but I also see him make unforced turnovers when I'd rather see him pull back up and wait for teammates on the break rather than taking the ball straight at two defenders.  I just think we need to be more selective on Offense at times and get the good shot and get others involved, because we're going to have plenty of chances for quick shots and quick points throughout the game, so why not just get a good shot and run your sets and make the defense have to guard you...?

Dang this is getting sloppy.  

I'll go IU 83 TS 67.

Yes i agree, Lyndon Jones was co Mr. Basketball I believe out of Marion with Jay.  He was pretty decent as a Freshman at IU, but he just kind of stayed the same offensively over the course of his career.  I will say that he did stay all 4 years and was nice on Defense, but as highly decorated as he was he never really scored the ball as good as you would think a Mr. Basketball would.  

Everyone had a role on that team, that's why I didn't just mention AJ, but yea he was great as the super sub, and his free throws at the end of the game helped us beat the Dukies.  

  Amen Bro, Coverdale and Jeffries were both gimpy, but poor Tom kept rolling his ankle.  Our first round game against Utah he had like 18pts and led the team in scoring and then he hurt it, and then the next game against UNC Wilmington, he rolled it real bad, and pretty much the rest of the tournament he was at about 60%.  The comeback win against Duke, Tom didn't even score until the very end, and he was noticeably hurt.     The team, like you said, was incredibly balanced.  We had a very tall front line with Jeffries, Newton, Odle, and Leach, and we had unbelievable shooting, but most of all we had killer defense.  Our half court defense was maybe the best in the nation that year.  It's still to this day, my favorite IU team, and I have almost the entire season recorded and every now and again I'll break out some of the highlight games of that year, just to cheer me up.  God I want us to get back to that point again, and I honestly thought we were 2 years ago.  I know it's just a game, but my life is so much better when IU basketball is rolling.  

Keith Smart is another name that I'd forgot to mention with an IU connection.  My big thing when it comes to Pro coaches coming down to College is the recruiting side of things.  I just don't know if they can recruit the same way that a College Coach with lots of experience in the game can.  That's why if we went after a different coach, then i'd want us to get a proven commodity, somebody that has established his strengths.  Quite honestly in hindsight, Crean was a good hire to me, and I really want it to work out, but we all know why we have our reservations, and there's no need for me to complain about it.  Go Hoosiers!

Honestly there's not too many IU alums that I'd want to coach at IU.  The list that would garner attention would be Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, Calbert Cheaney, Dane Fife, and that's about all that I can think of.  As far as outside the Hoosier Tree, the coaches that I would want IU to make a play for would be guys like Tony Bennett, Fred Hoiberg, Frank Martin, Jay Wright, and that's about all I can think off the top of my head.  

Donald Perry comes to mind, he was the Player of the Year in Louisiana, and he never even finished his career at IU.  I never really found out the problem, but he hardly looked like a Mr. Basketball.  Also, AJ Ratliff suffered the same kind of fate.  He was top 3 in Mr. Basketball for Indiana and he never even finished his Senior year at IU on the basketball team.  Can't think of any other former Indiana All Star just fading out like that.  

Every thread some way or another ends up coming back to the dismissal of Tom Crean.  

We still have to have 2 scholly's become available for these kids to come into the Program, also.  Point being, so much can happen from now until then.  I just get sick of all the speculation.  Nobody knows what's going to happen.  

I still gotta go with Nick Z over Hartman.  Z3 has actually put together a few nice games so far, including the Canadian trip.  I have only seen Hartman play decent once and that was against U of I this last game.  I hope Colin can get there, but right now I think that Nick Z is just a little bit of a safer option.  I see what you're saying, though.  

Thank You!  Jesus, why is everything so difficult to understand for some? 

First of all let me say that is a good U of I team.  I was very impressed with what they had on that team.  Their guards were able to play solid on the ball defense against Yogi, and they had size that created matchup problems.  The one big white boy with the Pony Tail was creating all kinds of issues for us, and he was doing so without really scoring, but just playing solid Defense and Hustling.     Now what I saw that I Liked:  Our guards were able to move the ball and push the tempo and do so without turning the ball over.  We still had Turnovers but they were not the head slap Turnovers that we had last year, you know the Jeremy Hollowell style turnovers.  Hanner is much improved from last year, he's doing exactly what we need him to do, the only problem is he does not have any help.  Hartman was such a pleasant surprise, you can tell that he knows how to play, he's not overly athletic, and he's very slow dribbling the ball, but he plays good position defense and he can pass the basketball.  Max looked aggressive in limited minutes and Robert Johnson was probably our most effective player.  He is much better at getting to the rim than I thought, and he can rebound the ball for a little guy.  We're really going to like him.   What I did not Like:  We're gonna get man handled by so many teams.  I know it will get better when Troy, Stan, and Emmitt come back because they're going to add size but until then we are so much less physical than we need to be.  This affects our rebounding, man to man defense, and ability to wear down teams.  We'll get in foul trouble unless we play Zone Defense because we're so much smaller than teams.  We have no backup at all for Hanner.  Once he goes to the bench we become a completely different team.  Tim Priller is not going to help us.  I wish that we could see what April could do for the main reason that he's the only one on the team with legit size outside of Hanner.  Things will get better, but man we are small and soft on D.

Yogi has a lot of haters it seems.  I think he's a very unique player, and when he's on, he is the toughest dude to guard on the court.  I expect about 15 and 7 out of him this year and I think we'll see an improved player all around, despite his stats being a bit down from last season from a scoring perspective. 

I would believe it, IU has really had the personnel the last couple of seasons to put up a lot of points.  We were loaded with shooter, slashers, and big men.  Also, I think most people would say that Tom Crean's strong suit would be offense.  He runs a lot of Pro Sets on Offense and often times has to simplify things for Freshmen because he incorperates so many Offensive Plays that it can be hard for the youngsters to to remember them all.  

Damn a fractured skull is a big time injury. 

Well my favorite 2 teams, (Colts and IU Basketball) have virtually the same uniforms going back the last 50 years.  I just wouldn't freak out if IU basketball changed their uni's or offered a 3rd Uni.  

Good Question!  I see JBJ hitting the most 3's because I see him being the guy the team looks for the most setting up behind the arc, and I see Yogi taking less 3's this year because we have more weapons on the perimeter for him to set up.  As for a percentage shooter, I'll go with Nick Z, a la New School Kyle Hornsby.   Also, does TIm Priller seem like the kind of recruit Bo Ryan goes after?  A big white boy with Blonde Hair that shoots 3's, and won't get into the rotation til he's a Junior.....  To me he just seems like that kind of guy, because Wisconsin always seems to have their bigs shoot 3's.  

Haha, i actually don't mind our football helmets.  I think that people would like them a lot more if we were winning.  People just need to face it, that's how Division 1 Football is now, lots of uniforms, flashy shoes, shiny helmets, everything is gaudy now.  Also being Indiana Fans, I've also grown accustomed to Hoosier fans liking absolutely no change.  If the Jordan Brand would become our new Basketball sponsor and they changed subtle things about our uniforms but still honored our traditional look, then I'd be fine with it.  As long as we kept the Candy Stripes which I already know that we would.  

  No I doubt it.  IU has done this many times over the last 2 decades.  We've been Logo Athletic, Starter, Nike, Adidas and more that I am probably forgetting.  We might eventually get a 3rd uniform or an alternate like we had last year with the Cream Hoosiers Jersey which a lot of people were not fond of.  The Jordan brand sponsors several big time schools, off of the top of my head North Carolina has them and there uniform has stayed true to tradition.  There are minor changes to the Uniforms when they switch but hardly noticeable.  

I'm here to help, bro.