hoosierbgh

We also need more guards with experience since 2 of our guards will be freshmen.

I don't think that is at all accurate. It was much more of a tendency to minimize X's value as the season went along, especially as IU started winning without him. The truth is he consistently brought on ball pressure and the quickness the rest of the team lacked every game. That alone was significant. He was also the main threat to get to the basket. Beyond that, simply having another player that was capable of running the team and scoring 10-15 points a night would have helped fill in the gaps when JHS had an off game.

It is never going to, that's simply not reality. There's always going to be 1-3 players at the end of the bench that don't get much play barring injury or foul trouble. Some will move up the depth chart, some will move on but all will be replaced by others.

IMO, X when healthy was one of the two keys to the defense, he'll be even more important if IU is not able to find some significant rim protection in the portal.

It looks to me like a lot of his threes are a step or two behind the line with a hand in his face. His shot looks like it could be improved with some tweaks and his % would probably increase just from taking shots that are more open. He looks like a player with potential yet to reach and if the staff is confident he is the type that will put in the work, he's more than worth a shot IMO.

And Garza has more actual skill.

I'm not a big fan of the NBA guys doing college basketball as it is always clear that they've watched little more than highlights over the season. However, last night watching them realize and discuss how one dimensional Edey is followed by how versatile TJD is was pretty spectacular.

Yes, they should have lost that game. It took quite a bit of help for them to win by 2.

Shrewsberry might be a better choice but they aren't smart enough to do that if they fire Painter. I don't know why Shrewsberry would want to that when better opportunities are likely in the future.

And the giant isn't quite the legend the B1G made him out to be.

I'd like to save one for tomorrow... a certain 16 seed over a certain 1.

The "Conference of Champions" is looking a little shaky.

Suck it Arizona!

I've never been a fan of Bennett, far from it actually, but I thought he was poised to take UVA to perennial deep run contender status with a natty on the resume and both Coach K and Williams having retired and clearing the path.

Virginia doing Virginia things.

Edey improved a lot from last year in both playing ability and stamina. Last year he wouldn't have been able to do what he has done this year. I also don't doubt that he will shoot a lot of free throws. The problem is that he only has 5 fouls per game and he will undoubtedly be called for more of them than the ridiculously low number called on him in conference games. He won't be called for every offensive foul or push in the back while rebounding but he does both so frequently that it won't take many more calls to alter the way he can play or reduce his time on the floor.

If I were Purdue, I wouldn't want to play Duke or Marquette again now. I'm not so sure they would want to play Gonzaga now either. Purdue is/was built to compete well in the B1G and were fortunate to catch Marquette, Gonzaga, and especially Duke early in the year. Every team has flaws but as 1 seeds go, Purdue has more than most. If the supporting cast doesn't show up, then Edey will need to score 30+ for them to have a chance. That is a big load for him to carry, especially when he's not likely to get quite so friendly a whistle as he did in the B1G. It is also a major concern when the supporting cast is as easy to control as this one is.

Absolutely! Hopefully, he is not only in attack mode but also in "get every miss and slam it home" mode as well.

Well, yeah they're a one trick pony where that one trick is highly dependent on B1G style officiating to stay in the game. They also depend on two freshman guards that have no clear advantages over most teams they will play and do not handle pressure well.

Those teams also typically had enough size to contain Race and Reneau at the same time. I don't think that is the case with Kent St. Also, forcing TJD into taking tougher than normal shots is all well and good but can Kent St. then also manage to keep TJD, Race, and Reneau from getting a bunch of offensive rebounds on top of defending them. I could easily see where IU's best offense against Kent St. may well be to get the ball on the boards and have the bigs go to work.

Yes, to a degree and within the assumptions of the model.

IMO, the worst thing about that article from an IU perspective is that it is almost entirely about Kent St., they throw a brief mention of JHS in at the end and don't even mention TJD. Basically a slight by omission. If it gets more people to tune into the IU game, I'm not going to complain.

It'll probably be a fairly close game, I'd be surprised if it wasn't back and forth for much of the game, but what is this 4 points estimate based on? Betting, which is influenced by public opinion? Metrics, which are likely somewhat inflated for Kent St. and deflated for IU based on opponents played? The fact remains that IU hasn't yet lost to a Kent ST. level team nor has Kent St. beaten an IU level team yet this season. Doesn't mean it can't happen or the game won't be close but it does mean that the predictions that it will happen are based on other things than the demonstrated performance of either team. I'd say your predictions are pretty accurate except you forgot the post game predictions of the sky is falling if we lose and the predictions of hanging another banner or criticism of the margin of victory if IU wins.

Except, this is not exactly accurate. IU has played poorly enough to lose to Penn State and Northwestern twice each and played a closer than it should have been game against Minnesota. Those are the worst games IU played all year based on quality of the opponent and performance and both Northwestern and Penn State are way above the level of Kent St. Minnesota probably is closer but at least they were at home and the barn is a weird place to play. In the B1G, an off night is likely to get IU beat. In the MAC, an off night would likely mean IU won by less than 10. Kent St. may win but it will take the best game they've played all year, the worst game IU has played all year or a combination of both. There's no reason to assume any of that is all that likely.

No, actually they haven't. They shown that they can lose to much better teams than Kent St. on an off night but they've pretty much curb stomped any team close to Kent St.'s level. Nor has Kent St. shown that they can beat a team of IU's level. That doesn't mean that IU can't lose but it is not nearly as likely as people want to make it seem.