Class of '66 Old Fart

  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

https://countingdownto.com/countdown-page/show/The%20Announcement|553b1140|1

    $$$$$$$$$ and TV exposure not to mention trying to make further inroads to the east coast market. 

  Agree.  By that time, the rotation has pretty much taken shape, our 3 incoming freshmen have had some acclimation to IU basketball and Division I caliber basketball and the B1G season is around the corner.  Seems like too much possible disruption because I'm sure he expects to see significant playing time. 

Transferred to Oklahoma for coach - are you ready for this - Kelvin Sampson!!   From what I found he had a bunch of injuries at OK and was subsequently dismissed by Sampson for the ever popular "violation of team rules" and he ended his final year of eligibility at Oklahoma City University.

Took me a while to track down the specifics but at the start of the 1995-1996 season, Knight brought in a JUCO named Lou Moore.  Moore dressed and played in the Great Alaska Shootout and that was it.  One of several quotes from Knight about Moore was "Lou Moore is no more!" 

  But on the flip side, what about all the 'trolling' that gets posted on these threads and other forums some of which is nothing more than rumor based and gets pretty nasty and very pointed at specific players and the head coach in particular?  I think he's a 21-year old kid having a lot of fun and maybe, just maybe, his leadership is being demonstrated quite nicely by leading so many 'sheep to slaughter' by creating such angst and hand wringing among the brethren.  If I'm totally wrong in how I think this is going to play out, I will be the first to admit it come next Saturday night.  But what do I know, I'm just an Old Fart!  :wink:

Ron Hunter and Georgia State have picked up Alabama transfer Devin Mitchell and Ball State is adding grad transfer Nate Wells from Bradley U.

Some of you are just getting your undies all in a knot for no good reason.  I agree with ctown2 that he's trolling and he's having a lot of fun reading the analyses we make of his tweets.  The soiree at Ruth's Chris isn't just about a stay or go decision (BTW he's staying); there's simply more to it than that.   And I'm going to continue to wear my rose-colored glasses until I have to see my optometrist for a prescription change.  So everybody just calm down, practice some lamaze techniques and it will all be over in a week.