Class of '66 Old Fart

And the rich get richer!

Indiana Women's Basketball head coach Teri Moren has announced the signing of five to national letters of intent for the 2017-18 season. The Hoosiers welcome Linsey Marchese (Dacula, Ga.), Alexis Johnson (Houston, Texas), Jaelynn Penn (Louisville, Ky.), Keyanna Warthen (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Bendu Yeaney (Portland, Ore.) to the roster next season and will all have four years of eligibility. Overall, the Class of 2021 has been ranked as the No. 13 signing class in the country by ProspectsNation.com. In addition, ESPN, ProspectsNation.com, All-Star Girls Report and Collegiate Girls Basketball Report have all ranked IU as the top class amongst the Big Ten. Marchese, a 6-3 center out of Archer High School in Lawrenceville, Ga., averaged 13.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game as a junior last season. She was a first team All-Region 8-AAAAAA selection and helped her team reach the Sweet 16 in the state playoffs in 2015-16. As a junior, Marchese averaged 11.0 points and 5.3 rebounds per game as she helped the Tigers advance to the state semifinals. She also helped Archer to a Final Four state playoff run as a sophomore. As a freshman, Archer finished as state runner-up as she chipped in 8.8 points and 4.1 rebounds. She is rated as a three-star recruit by ESPN and No. 14 overall at her position. In addition, she was rated at No. 81 by Prospects Nation. Johnson is a 6-1 forward from the Kinkaid School in Houston under head coach Stacey Marshall where she averaged 13.5 points and 5.4 rebounds as a sophomore. She helped Kinkaid to a Houston Independent School District title and was named the HISD tournament MVP. She was also an All-SPC, All-South Zone and Sharpstown All-Tournament team selection. She is rated as a three-star recruit by ESPN and No. 44 at her position. Preferred Athlete Scouting Service also has Johnson ranked as the No. 102 recruit. Penn, a five-star prospect and the No. 39 overall recruit in the nation by ESPN, hails from Louisville, Ky. where she led Butler High School a 31-5 record and state championship as a junior. One of Kentucky's most decorated players, Penn was a USA-Today Honorable-Mention All-State (2015), Metro Louisville Girls Basketball Player of the Year, first-team All-State honoree (2016), Courier Journal Honorable Mention All-State (2014), Sweet 16 MVP and was named KHSAA MVP following Butler's state championship title last season. As a junior in 2015-16, Penn averaged 14.2 points, 5.9 rebounds. The versatile guard has led the Bearettes to two state titles in three seasons and was ranked No. 48 overall by Prospects Nation, No. 23 by the All Star Girls Report and No. 41 by Dan Olson Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. Penn is the second-highest rated recruit amongst the Big Ten this season. Warthen is a 5-10 guard out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where she has averaged in double figures in each year of her high school career at Fort Lauderdale High School. As a junior in 2015-16, Warthen averaged a double-double with 20.1 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 4.8 steals per game and was named to the Class 7A All-State second team. She helped the Flying L's win the District 14-7A championship and advanced to the Class 7A regional quarterfinals. In addition, she was named the Orlando Sun Sentinel Class 8A-7A-6A Player of the Year. Warthen is rated as a three-star prospect by ESPN, No. 30 at her position overall and No. 86 by Prospects Nation. Yeaney hails from Portland, Ore. where she averaged 16.0 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks as a junior at St. Mary's Academy under head coach Dewey Taylor III. Those numbers guided her to an All-State honorable mention honors and a First Team Three Rivers League selection in 2015-16. She was also selected as an Adidas Three Stripe All-American in the summer of 2015. She is a three-time all-league selection and has started for the Blues since her freshman year and guided them to a Class 6A final as a sophomore in 2014-15. As a sophomore, she averaged 17.2 points per game and was an OSAA state championship all-tournament first team selection. Yeaney is rated as a three-star recruit by ESPN and No. 80 overall by Prospects Nation. http://iuhoosiers.com/news/2016/11/9/womens-basketball-iuwbb-signs-five-for-2017.aspx

Indiana's James Blackmon Jr. and Thomas Bryant have been named to the Naismith Trophy's preseason 50 watch list. http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/11/10/blackmon-jr-bryant-named-naismith-trophy-watch-list/

I really want this kid to have a very successful IU career. He and his family just seem to bleed cream and crimson and from what we know, once he made his decision he basically told other schools to stay away.

North Carolina's Theo Pinson (stress fracture) is out another 8-12 weeks, per a school spokesman. Tar Heels open against Tulane on Friday.

Double digit rebounds for VonLeh in a starting role. 11.09.16 Season W/L Game W/L Min. Pts. FG's 3's FT's Reb Asst Stls Blks TO's PF + / - Brooklyn 3-5 Ferrell L 14 5 2-3 1-1 0-0 1 3 1 0 3 0 -9 Houston 5-3 Gordon W 34 15 5-14 2-7 3-3 2 2 0 1 2 3 -6 Oklahoma 6-2 Oladipo L 36 18 6-16 5-9 1-1 8 2 2 0 1 2 -4 Portland 5-4 VonLeh L 26 5 2-8 1-2 0-0 11 1 0 0 1 2 -7 Memphis Williams No Game Charlotte 6-1 Zeller W 27 12 4-7 0-0 4-8 3 2 0 1 1 3 -6

And this bit of humor. Bob Kravitz ‏@bkravitz 3m3 minutes ago After watching the Pacers play defense this year, I now know what this Mannequin Challenge is.

Gregg Doyel's take on the Pacers.

Justin Smith of Lincolnshire Stevenson signs with Indiana.

11.08.16 Season W/L 11.06.16 Game W/L Min. Pts. FG's 3's FT's Reb Asst Stls Blks TO's PF + / - Houston Gordon No Game Oklahoma Oladipo No Game Portland 5-3 VonLeh W 15 5 2-8 1-4 0-0 8 0 1 1 2 2 -12 Memphis 4-4 Williams W 4 0 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -1 Charlotte Zeller No Game

Bruce Pascoe ‏@BrucePascoe 3m3 minutes ago Allonzo Trier apparently a no-show for #arizonawildcats flight to Honolulu as eligibility questions continue: NOTE: Pascoe is a sports reporter for the Arizona DailyStar. And shortly thereafter this from Pascoe: HONOLULU -- Since the Arizona Wildcats didn't fly charter into some off-limits executive terminal today, anyone at Gate 16 of the Honolulu International Airport could see which folks were walking off the team's flight. Allonzo Trier wasn't one of them. American Airlines flight 692 from Phoenix carried eight UA scholarship players, including Talbott Denny (injured ACL) but not Dylan Smith (ineligible to travel as a transfer) nor Ray Smith (who is scheduled to undergo ACL surgery). (Arizona's refusal to comment on anything about Trier, including over whether he would make the trip, prompted me to watch the team get off the plane. I wasn't on the team flight but arrived earlier in the day.) The UA's traveling party also included Arizona AD Greg Byrne, senior associate AD Mike Ketcham, team doctor Donald Porter, all UA coaches and walk-on players Paulo Cruz, Jake DesJardins and Tyler Trillo. But no Trier. His apparent no-show was hardly a surprise. He played in the Oct. 14 Red-Blue Game, but that was only a practice in the NCAA's eyes, and UA coach Sean Miller said he's had a full complement of players available for practice. Then Trier did not show up as scheduled for the Oct. 21 Pac-12 Media Day, and didn't play in UA's two exhibition games.

From Alex B. and Inside the Hall http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/11/08/espn-analyst-jay-bilas-talks-kansas-indiana-og-anunoby-and-more/

Rob Dauster - NBCSports: College Basketball X-Factors http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2016/11/08/college-basketballs-x-factors-14-storylines-that-will-determine-champions/ And hello, Indiana: The Hoosiers have a pair of potential lottery picks on their roster in Thomas Bryant and O.G. Anunoby, so I understand why they’re showing up in the top 15 of national polls. I have them there myself. But I think that we are all undervaluing just how much Yogi Ferrell meant to this team last season, and just how much his absence is going to cost them. Can Robert Johnson and Josh Newkirk adequately fill in that role? And if they can’t, who on this Indiana team do you trust to have the ball in their hands on a critical possession when the Hoosiers have to have a bucket? [Dauster has clearly been following btb very closely- LOL]

Humorous tweet of the day: James Fraschilla Verified account ‏@jamesfraschilla Say a quick prayer for my seatmate to Honolulu @DDavis2016. 6'9 in coach on this 8 hour flight

From Craig Fehrman at the Wall Street Journal How Do You Make a Basketball Star? Fifty miles apart in Indiana, Thomas Bryant and Myles Turner are similar developing stars on completely different paths. Last summer, Thomas Bryant, the star sophomore for Indiana University’s men’s basketball team, spent a lot of time by himself. In the mornings, he studied English with a tutor in the lavish study hall built under his campus’s football stadium in Bloomington, Ind. “It was a hard class,” Bryant says. Afterward, he moved to IU’s even more lavish basketball practice facility, Cook Hall, for a different kind of learning. Alone or with a student-manager, he practiced his post-up footwork or his three-point shot. About 50 miles north, another young big man—Myles Turner, the second-year center for the Indiana Pacers—had his own summer routine. He would wake around 10 a.m.; eat under the guidance of a personal chef; and then work with a rotating cast of Pacers’ coaches. Bryant and Turner have come up with different answers to a core question facing NBA front offices, college sports junkies, and above all talented young basketball players: Where’s the best place to get better at basketball—in college or in the NBA? Bryant and Turner strike similar profiles. Both are just under 7 feet tall, with freakish wingspans. Both can score inside and out, a valuable skill for modern basketball bigs. Turner was born in 1996, Bryant in 1997. But while Bryant returned to IU for his sophomore season, Turner went pro after only one year at the University of Texas. The NBA’s age limit means that most players go to college for at least one year. But after that they must weigh many factors. Another college season might guarantee crunchtime minutes and hands-on coaching. But a jump to the NBA will create more time for basketball and certainly more money—not just in the initial paycheck, but in the quicker path to a second, larger contract. Turner admits that he struggled under Texas’s strict system, with its rigid plays and established upperclassmen. It didn’t help that he came in as the country’s second-ranked recruit. “Guys were saying you’re the next this or the next that,” he says. “It gets to your head.” Turner fit in better as his single collegiate season went along, but he didn’t feel like it was making him a better player. “I had a hard time adjusting,” he says. Things have gone smoother with the Pacers, where Turner enjoys more freedom on the court and in his off-season regimen. He has emerged as a young star thanks to his last-to-leave-practice drive. “He spent the entire summer here,” head coach Nate McMillan says. Turner remains skinny, in part because of a late growth spurt. He does not enjoy lifting weights and jokes that once he retires he’ll never set foot in a weight room again. But for now he works hard. “He’s gotten stronger in every area,” says Shawn Windle, the Pacers’ strength and conditioning coach. The other place Turner works is on the court. Rookies often ride the bench, and many of them hire their own basketball-focused coaches to drill with outside of games. “Especially the one-and-done guys get their own trainer,” Turner says. Turner has been lucky—he already starts. But he’s also lucky in that his team is paying more attention to player development. The Pacers recently hired David McClure from the Spurs to focus on this area. ‘This program is based on now and later. We want to win now but we want you to win later.’ —Indiana strength coach Lyonel Anderson This summer, McClure and Popeye Jones, the team’s big man specialist, worked hours each day with Turner, refining his individual post moves and his outside shot. Jones often showed Turner video clips to illustrate not just what to do but why to do it. (“He’s a millennial,” Jones says.) But Turner’s efforts are paying off. “He doesn’t want to be good,” Jones says. “He wants to be great.” While Bryant shares the same desire, he decided a second year of college was the best way for him to achieve it. “I knew halfway through last season I was coming back,” he says. “I knew there were key things I needed to work on.” The NCAA has made it somewhat easier for players to stay in school. A 2014 tweak to its “meals incidental to participation” rule has allowed schools to provide more food to their student-athletes. At Cook Hall, players can find Greek yogurt and fresh green smoothies. Most important, it allows coaches to actually work with players over the summer, which they were banned by the NCAA from doing before 2012. Now coaches get eight weeks of interaction, with a maximum of eight hours per week, two of which can be “skill-related instruction.” Even incoming freshmen can participate so long as they’re enrolled in summer classes. IU head coach Tom Crean uses his eight weeks in June and July. His program prioritizes developing NBA talent; the court in Cook Hall includes both the college and NBA three-point lines. During this summer’s “skill-related instruction,” Crean frequently put Bryant with the guards and not the big men, to improve his quickness. In the players’ downtime in May and August, the program still guides them. IU’s strength coach, Lyonel Anderson, sent each player home with a detailed packet of voluntary exercises. One was titled “Grind or Get Ate,” and for each day it specified the movements and reps—even the type of surface he wanted the players to run on. Anderson says that IU’s coaches always think about the next level. “This program is based on now and later,” he says. “We want to win now but we want you to win later.” He points to their emphasis on three-minute runs, a drill where players sprint up and down the floor as many times as possible in three minutes—and a drill NBA teams often use to measure prospects. Yogi Ferrell, a recent (and speedy) IU star, made it 27 3/4 court lengths during a workout with the Phoenix Suns. When Bryant first came to IU, he could manage only 22 1/2 lengths. Now, after his second summer of hard work, he’s up to 26 1/2 lengths. That endurance will help him score fast-break points for the Hoosiers, but it will also impress future NBA evaluators. Turner, who enrolled early at Texas and experienced part of a summer there, remembers his college workouts acutely. “You definitely work a lot harder in the off-season in college than in the NBA,” he says. “They’re trying to kill you. They’re trying to prove a point.” But for an NBA-minded coach like Crean, the point, at least in part, is that good summer habits should last. “I’ve rarely coached a player who went on to the next level who didn’t have the desire to be in the gym,” he says. “I think that starts in college.”

Latest from Jordan: http://albersangle.com/index.php/2016/11/08/inside-life-jordan-hulls/

11.07.16 Season W/L 11.06.16 Game W/L Min. Pts. FG's 3's FT's Reb Asst Stls Blks TO's PF + / - Houston 4-3 Gordon W 32 11 4-10 3-6 0-0 1 2 1 1 2 1 +4 Oklahoma 6-1 Oladipo W 33 17 6-9 1-2 4-4 2 2 0 0 1 1 +15 Portland VonLeh No Game Memphis Williams No Game Charlotte 5-1 Zeller W 23 13 5-7 0-0 3-3 5 0 0 0 0 2 +21

2017 Tyler JC (TX) F Eden Ewing has committed to PUke. 6'9" 215 lb.

Tweet from HoosierHaze: UCLA's 2017 Bball recruiting class is really starting to make me wonder if Alford made a deal w/ the ghost of Sam Gilbert.

Howard joining fight against pulmonary fibrosis which claimed his dad at age 52 after a 9-year battle. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chicago-bear-jordan-howard-brings-his-fight-to-pulmonary-fibrosis-300357886.html#continue-jump

REMINDER: Replay on basic BTN channel tonight at 7:30 E.T.

"I just can't listen to Coach Cal another second longer; he's so damn obnoxious and boring."