Class of '66 Old Fart

OK everyone, let's have a show of hands.  How many of you have already emailed a CTC resume to the Florida AD?

  Isn't that exactly what Austin Hatch is doing a U of MI?

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the news of resuming an IU - KY basketball rivalry has been greatly exaggerated.

And if he accepts how many de-commits and transfers will FL have?

Saw the following quote from Frank Kaminsky:  "We take pride in fact we're kind of misfits coming out of high school who not everyone wanted."    Maybe CTC should stop chasing 'names' because it doesn't seem to be working out too well for IU.  I'd gladly take Frank and his band of misfits in a heartbeat.

Wow, talk about enlightenment.  I always thought MSB was something they put in chinese food!  :laugh:

Ya think it would have been IU had Yogi not decided to stay?

  At the very least, it's 5 less seconds of defense we have to play each possession which given how poorly we played defense last season could be a blessing.

  Au contraire; I think it is you who are stuck with us!    :) 

Can TB live up to the expectations that we're all piling on him? Can we improve our defense (or lack thereof)? Can we stay healthy? Can we exhibit progress as the season winds down and not our normal season ending regression? Can we avoid off-court stupidity? Can we see some better game management from the head coach?   If we can answer yes to all 6 questions, a 6th banner is a definite possibility.  If we can just answer yes to 4 of the 6, we should have a deep run at a 6th banner. 

Unbelievable what this young man has had to endure and his recovery is quite miraculous.  

  Amen!

I WIN!  I WIN!  WE LOST!  WE LOST!

I don't like the idea of a half season.  I think it opens the door to a mid-season disruption of team chemistry.  By that time, the player rotation has been settled and the squad has had a chance to develop team chemistry with the 3 incoming freshmen.  Also, you'd expect on-court chemistry in terms of having the feel for what a teammate will do in a certain situation plus the teammate's speed and reaction time on the court to have developed.  Bring in any kid at mid-season and who knows what can happen but Maker would likely expect significant minutes and at whose expense?   Disgruntlement, unnecessary team tension; potential for personality clashes.  Let's also not forget he'll be a freshman making a move to major college basketball.  That's not an easy transition and he'd be joining the team just when the season gets serious with the start of B1G play and won't know our offensive and defensive sets.  We expect good things from TB and yes, he'll be a freshman, but he'll at least have some Division I basketball experience under his belt by that time.  CTC teams have a history of struggling towards the end of the season and introducing an 'x' factor at a critical time in the season just doesn't seem wise to me.  As it stands now, somebody has to go to free up a scholly for TB.  I for one don't want to see us 'Crean' someone at mid-season to make room for Maker.  I think that's a public relations nightmare and sets a very poor example for IU and the message it sends to other kids we're trying to recruit. 

  First of all, I too am glad TB decided to come to Bloomington, but I'm not convinced that it was so much our recruiting as it was the timing of Syracuse's academic problems, etc., that swung TB to IU.  I'm just not a fan of our shotgun approach to recruiting and throwing offers to seemingly anyone and everyone.  And I apologize for starting to stray off topic.

Yeah, my first reaction was that it was a reference to Kent.  Once again showing my age.

If we're not in his top 5 by this time, I'm not sure there's a lot of opportunity and how much time and effort should be diverted from kids who are interested in IU to someone who doesn't rank us in his top 5?   I'd like to see more concentrated recruiting efforts on legitimate prospects who at least have expressed reciprocal interest in us.

Malik Newman has apparently announced he'll play for Ben Howland at Mississippi State.  And another one bites the dust for pUKe!  :laugh:

Many of you have expressed distaste for what you perceive to be an ego trip for a simple "stay or go" announcement from Yogi tomorrow evening.  I've maintained there's more to it than that and in less than 30 hours we'll know which of us is right.   But assume there is more to it than a simple "stay or go", what other news might we hear?   Is it conceivable that Yogi relinquishes his scholy for his senior year at IU which then has TB's name on it and solves the oversigned problem - at least temporarily?  Farfetched?  Of course it is, but for the next 30 hours I'm going to remain optimistic that there's a much bigger motive behind the steak dinner.

Even if JBJ just becomes an average defender it will be an exponential improvement over what we saw last season.

  Not all of it has to be taught by anyone.  A good part of it can come from a player just being more focused and willing to put more effort into defense.  JBJ has always been an offensive player and most of the defense he played in high school was against a much lesser caliber player and didn't require that much effort on his part.  I believe we'll see a different JBJ this year because if he shows marked improvement in his overall game then he'll definitely be announcing for the 2016 NBA draft.

I'd watch for the color of the smoke rising from the char broiler.  White he stays; black he's gone.

OK everyone, on the count of 3 let's all heave a collective sigh of relief.   I look for a significantly different JBJ on the court this season displaying a much more well-rounded game especially when it comes to defense.

My apologies to everyone.  I'm not sure what happened; probably a senior moment on my part.  I couldn't put in a specific hour of the day so it was supposed to run to midnight of the 25th but clearly it didn't.  Let's try again.   https://countingdownto.com/countdown-page/show/The%20Announcement|553c62c0|2

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