Lt. John McClaine

  Thank you for posting this, because this is exactly how I feel.  Robert Johnson is an AJ Guyton type of talent.  Assuming he stays at IU for several years, he will develop into a big time player offensively.  While I liked Remy a lot, and it would be cool to have a Senior guard on the team, where would he play on a team loaded with Guards?  How many more wins is Remy good for on last years team?  I'm honestly fine with his transfer and I'm sure he'll be a good role player for the X men and I wish him well, but I don't look back on his transfer and think about what if's.   As for people that mention Jurkin's name as if he would have given us anything, are you serious?  Don't give me Peter Jurkin's name as an argument when the guy couldn't even stay healthy, and you expect him to contribute, or for Tom Crean to wait for him to get healthy?  Austin Etherington, Jeremy Hollowell.... really?  I'm fine with all of these transfers, and I do not consider them Force Outs or think in any way Coach Crean screwed them over.  

Yep me too, last year was the first year in a long time that I didn't make it the 1 hour drive south to Bloomington for a game.  I'm thinking that will change this year.  I got my wife to go with me to Hoosier Hysteria and she had a good time.  It was so much easier to get around this year than it was 2 years ago when we were Preseason number 1.  I waited in line 45 min's to get a freaking calendar that year.  I waited in an hour for the doors to open and still got the last seat in the balcony!  

Thanks for posting, Base.  I listened to everything that they had to say about IU.  I love hearing someone think that we can get to the Sweet 16.  For me, I just want to do a much better job of winning the close games.  Last year we had so many games that we were in til the end but couldn't close.  I think if this team can learn how to finish, then they can win a lot of those games that they would have lost last year.     It's nice to hear an unbiased opinion on the Hoosiers Basketball team, and obviously everyone's concern is the size down low.  That's definitely my concern, but I'm hoping a Zone defense can neutralize some of the bigger teams in the B1G, and offensively we just out score teams. Time will tell...

That's cool, I hope when our deal with Adidas is done, which I think is the end of 2015, that IU goes with the Jordan Brand.  There was some chattering last year that we would not resign with Adidas in Basketball for our sponsor and might be looking at The Jordan Brand as a replacement.  

I was thinking about next years team as I was daydreaming at work yesterday.  I'm not looking past this years team at all, but rather anticipating a team that should have a lot of depth in the front court.  This year we are one injury away from disaster down low, however next year we look to have very nice depth down low.  This of course is tentative with all of the transfers and turnover, but looking at our forwards next year is kind of fun.  We've got Hanner, Devin, Emmit, Troy, Juwan Morgan, and OG .  That is a lot of athleticism and interchangeable pieces to play with.  While we don't have a traditional big in that sense, we have 6 above the rim 6'7" to 6'9" ish players.  I can't remember a team at IU like that.

There's plenty of good small teams that I could name, i just picked the best one off of the top of my head.  Every year teams play small ball and are successful.  

Another Small Team from that era was the Fighting Illini with Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head in the backcourt.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004%E2%80%9305_Illinois_Fighting_Illini_men's_basketball_team

Fo Sho

    I went to HH and I remember commenting to my wife that it was a dumb question after an offseason that saw 3 transfers and 2 arrests for alcohol.  I think Coach handled it pretty well, he answered it in a Political sort of way but Sage should have never asked him that question.  I don't think she meant anything by it, but she has a habit of just rambling when she's got the mic.  At one point she nearly starting crying when she was talking about her 5 years at IU during the early 90's.  

Do you guys really think all of the great shooters have kept their jump shot unchanged since the time they were 18 years old?  I'm not saying that Robert should completely change his jumper, but to expect him not to be coached on things such as squaring up or releasing it quicker or getting more arc on his shot is not out of the question for me.  

I was thinking the same thing when I saw Rob Johnson shoot.  He jumps extremely high in the air, and his right leg was was higher than his left leg when he was coming down, it almost looked like he was not squared up.  He shot it ok, however he didn't even get thru all of his balls during the shootout before time expired, so he's got a long stroke compared to the other players.  At his size he might have to clean that up a little bit and get a quicker release.  

Stan was very aggressive in the scrimmage, JBJ was practically carrying his team, we have lots of of guards that will cause problems for other teams, Hanner is our only big man when looking at the team via the Eye Test, Robert Johnson elevates a lot on his Jump Shot, Max Hoetzel has a real nice stroke, Collin Hartman has a long ways to go, this might be the best group of Walk On's we've ever had.

This is pretty much my feeling on the current state of the IU fanbase.  We're slowly turning into Alabama Football fans and it just sickens me.  I get being passionate about your team, but I hate the "Angry Fanbase"  or this sense of entitlement so many IU fans have.  It seems that some just can't manage to go one day without bashing Coach Crean.  

Yea, i'll say the big news is a big man recruit committing 3 pt shootout, I gotta go with JBJ Dunk Contest is Troy Williams all day.  

Recruiting is such a crap shoot anyways, some guys just don't turn out as good as we think they should or as much as think they should; I.E. Charlie Miller.  However, I feel Coach Crean is definitely above average when it comes to bringing in talent.  We all know what kind of system he likes to run, and for his teams he likes athletic wings that can play multiple positions.  This kid here really looks like that.  I completely trust his judgement whenever it comes to recruiting, now substitution patterns and other minor things well that's a different story.  

I'm curious to see if Crean will play Devin Davis and Hanner at the same time, or be reluctant to since he'll most likely sub them in for each other and for the fear of quick foul trouble.  I know he likes to use a play making 4 rather than a traditional bruiser at 4, so I see Troy being that guy.    Last year he tried and tried to make Jeremy Hollowell that guy but he just kept turning the ball over and he couldn't score.  I really don't know who will be his back up, though.  It might actually be a guard like a Zeisloft or a Stan Robinson, and we go real small.     To me Troy, Devin and Hanner are the keys for us this year.  I have complete faith in our back court, and I think that we'll have one of the better back courts in conference.  Our Front court has many more question marks but if Troy can take a big step, which many think that he will, then that will help out immensely.  Many people think that he'll make an Oladipo sized jump, and if so, well imagine the power forwards in Conference trying to guard him.  He's the one guy in our front court that I can see getting the other teams forwards in foul trouble.  Now, as far as Hanner and Devin, they absolutely have to play smart and play defense without silly fouls, they also have to give us something offensively so we are harder to guard.  We can't be a team that only has our guards scoring, we have to have our Front Court draw fouls, and by doing that they all have to be aggressive, hit the glass, and go to the rim hard.  Is it inconceivable to see Hanner and Devin doubling their scoring output from last year?  I don't think so, and if they do, then I really think we'll be a tough team to defend.  Teams might actually have to go small to match up against us, rather than us having to play big to match them.  

I don't think that I want to see us play a full court pressing defense.  Like someone else noted,Coach Crean will occasionally have one guy, usually a Yogi, or Oladipo when he was here, apply pressure to the ball handler, but that's about it.  I'd much rather see our staff take a page out of John Belein's book and run an unconventional trapping style defense to just slow the other team down, and then we can fall much easier into a 1-3-1 zone or 3-2 zone or whatever they choose to run.  I'm very optimistic that we'll be better at playing Zone this year, because we've had a head start at learning it.  The Canada trip will definitely pay dividends this year. Remember last year, Yogi and Will were in Russia playing for the Amateur USA team and they didn't even join the team back in Bloomington until October I believe.  We've got to be miles ahead this year compared to where we were last year.     Usually the B1G is exclusively a man to man defensive conference.  Most of the good teams in Conference play strictly man to man, there are a few exceptions but that's seems to be the case each year.  Teams that play Zone in the B1G usally do so out of necessity because of size or lack of quickness or to avoid fouls.  However, I really like our ability or potential, if you will, to play an effective Zone defense.  We definitely have quickness with the amount of guards that we have on the roster.  We also have length with guys like Troy, Hanner, Holt, and even Ziesloft and Hoetzel to an extent.  If coached correctly and the team buys in, then I feel that our length will make us a decent Zone defensive team.  The scary part of playing a Zone is just giving up a lot of Three Pointers with the Ball Reversals, but that is where the length comes in.  If we can score at a high rate on Offense it will only help our Zone defense.  I'm kind of excited about the Zone, if you can't tell. Go IU. 

I gotta agree with Shortpace, the 2011-2013 we were one of the better teams in executing inbounds plays.  Many times it was Christian Watford inbounding and then getting it back or Oldadipo doing the same thing.  It's funny though, in Sports, particularly Indiana basketball, success is forgotten when struggle is more recent.  I know that last year was a dumpster fire, but I'm thinking this has much more to do with talent, or lack there of, rather than a staff that has Coach Crean and two other former Head Coaches at the Division 1 level simply being inept at drawing up plays.  Did they coach a bad game when we beat number 2 Wisconsin?  

I guess I see where you're coming from, but we have been competitive under Coach Crean, just not last year.  Your point of making a simple inbounds pass and looking lost during a timeout are kind of vague for me.  I really think the whole lack of Coaching out of the Coaching Staff or Crean, in particular, is overrated.  

I hear ya, I really do.  I honestly have come to think that our football team is just jinxed.  As far as basketball goes, Tom Crean did turn us around and got us to be number 1 in the country and two straight sweet 16's and put some guys in the League, so i'm willing to give him another year.  And not an excuse but the simple fact is the Big Ten is murderers row, man.  It's a tough league, where everybody, well for the most part, is a tough out.  The other teams in Conference wanna win too, and even though we think all guys should come to IU, some of our rivals have a lot to offer too!  So i'm willing to be realistic and just hope that last year was a small speed bump.  I will always support IU basketball thru the good times and bad times, but my expectations appear to be slightly less than some other IU fans. Do I want to win?  Yes, but do i want to sell my soul to the devil like some teams do in this era of College Sports to win?  No Thanks....

I see us as a Drive and Kick kind of offense with lots of movement, and some more high screen and roll action that we've seen in years past.  I would think that we'd shoot more 3's than our opponent in about 85% of our games.  Defensively, I do not see us pressing much, but I could see us trapping occasionally just to slow teams down a bit, and I see us playing man to man and Zone when the situation allows for it.     I see teams attacking us like they always do.  Slowing down the Pace!  Teams will force us to play defense and eat up the shot clock against us.  They will have to know that we're thin up front so Coaches will want to make our bigs play defense, they will feed the post and utilize head fakes, shot fakes, and reversals to get our guys to foul or get out of position.  This is the first year in a while that I actually want us to play Zone defense, exclusively, because I think we have the personnel to be successful at it.  GO IU!

Yea I wasn't trying to say anyone was saying that he was a blue chipper, I just got to typing and let loose.  I hate doing the what if games, but it seems easy to think that Remy would have provided some better results than Evan Gordon and Austin Etherington.  Evan, Austin, and Hollowell all combined for 13 three pointers in Conference play last year, one would think that Remy could have shown better results than that trio. The fact would still remain though, where would Remy find playing time this year on a roster that's absolutely loaded with guards, and guards that are Blue Chippers.  

Remy was one of those guys who was a combo guard but he didn't handle the ball great by breaking down his defender and creating off the bounce, and he didn't shoot it well enough to be a full time Shooting guard, so basically he was a combo guard by default.  He was a good young man and a good student, but to think that he was a blue chipper that got away and will set us back, is not really the case.  If you recall, Remy became available in the Spring Signing Period because he opted out of his commitment to Bradley, and that's how he came to IU.  It will be interesting to see how he does at Xavier this year after sitting out last year.  I think he'll do far better than Austin Etherington will do at Butler.  

That was exactly what I thought too when I heard Bill and Jalen talking about this.  I was like Alford is gonna be there a while, fellas.  It wasn't mentioned either about the buyout for Crean.  It was a total throw away line. 

I have just come to expect turnovers with a Tom Crean team.  Not trying to give a cheap shot or anything, but with the youth that we always have and the pace that Coach Crean wants us to play at, we're always gonna have high turnovers.  On the flipside because of the pace and interchangeable position players, particularly on the wing, we're also gonna be at the top of the Conference in trips to the Foul Line.  I guess I can live with the turnovers as long as this year the turnovers are down and they're better turnovers, you know not many unforced turnovers where we kill ourselves.  Ya know...