Class of '66 Old Fart

FYI for anyone planning to make the Sept. 4, road trip to Iowa City. Mayor Bruce Teague has issued a mask order for all residents and visitors of Iowa City, due to the continued spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant in our community. https://www.icgov.org/news/mayor-issues-new-mask-order-city-iowa-city

Report: Michigan State president blocking Tom Izzo as interim athletic director https://247sports.com/college/indiana/Article/Michigan-State-athletic-director-search-Tom-Izzo-blocked-as-interim-candidate-by-president-Samuel-Stanley--169377949/?fbclid=IwAR2YSIQZtqHuJFH6-pUBCSWq6Y6ZA5FEOfsbUWsJ6u68-wChM7CXp3Xh2SY

Commentary on Lander from the Bahamas trip. https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/bahamas-rewind-observations-on-khristian-landers-play-during-iu-basketballs-foreign-tour/?fbclid=IwAR3DoSRJrOse_fXISWOEr1_7h8Xj_Wb87Fu3-0mP2nn8KeiYwrur2WYngT0

Women open their season with a 1-0 win over Valparaiso on freshman Jordan Levy's goal in the 70'. https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2021/8/19/womens-soccer-levy-goal-propels-hoosiers-to-win-over-beacons.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2KfW3jqGSoekQPSYwSjFwVp8oyPNXgHC0WMFyw5t2-fioFjwTMT8ysseA

Tony Adragna (IU Film Room) puts out a free email and today's email compared some stats from the 2 games in the Bahamas to last year's season and the difference in styles Woody vs. Archie. Clearly 2 games is an exceedingly small sample but if the sample is reasonably valid going forward we're going to be so much more fun to watch and a much better ball team. Game 1 Indiana had 75 offensive possessions in their first contest against BC Mega. In the 2020-21 season, they averaged 67 per game. Thus, the tempo was much faster than the way IU played last season. At 67 possessions per game, Indiana's tempo was 289th in division 1. If they averaged 75 possessions per game, they would have been 8th. That's a stark contrast in playing styles, in and of itself. If the only statistic I shared was the tempo, it'd still explain why Hoosier fans had more fun watching the Woodson-led squad vs. last year's team. A faster pace tends to be more fun to watch. But let's look at offensive efficiency in game 1. Indiana scored 1.06 points per possession. Oddly enough, that's exactly what Purdue averaged last season, good for 80th in the country in the 2020-21 season. That's in the top 1/4th of the country in terms of raw offensive efficiency. Adjusted for the opponents Purdue played last season, they actually had the 26th best adjusted offensive efficiency in the country. Obviously, we'll never know where BC Mega's defense stacks up against a Big Ten defense, which is why I used the raw offensive efficiency numbers. Indiana's raw offensive efficiency last year was at 1.00, good for 189th in the country. The Hoosiers' effective field goal percentage in game 1 was 47.18%, whereas last season their eFG% was 48.5%. Defensively, the Hoosiers gave up .88 points per possession in game 1, where last season their average was 1.01. 1.01 points per possession was 142nd in the country. 0.88 points given up per possession would have been 5th in the country. So for game 1, the pace was faster than last season, the Hoosiers were more efficient on the offensive and defensive end, but their shooting percentages were largely unchanged. Game 2 In game 2, possessions did dip by four, as Indiana had 71 possessions. That still would have been a top 70 pace in the country last season. From an offensive standpoint, Indiana didn't really have a good performance. They averaged 0.90 points per possession, which is worse than last season, and their eFG% was 38.2% - almost ten percentage points lower than what we saw last season. However, Indiana turned in yet another outstanding defensive performance. They held BC Mega to 0.77 points per possession. If that was what they averaged for the season last year, it would have been first in the country by a wide margin. I'll dive in below about some of the offensive woes. Averages By combining both of the games, what were the trends we can look at from these contests? Indiana averaged just about 73 possessions per game, which is six more per game than they averaged during the 2020-21 campaign. 73 possessions per game would have put Indiana around 30th in the country last season in terms of raw pace. Again, you can not underestimate how big of a style shift that is. If that trend continued, it'd shift Indiana from one of the slowest paces in the country to one of the fastest paces in the country in one season. From an eFG%, it was actually a pretty ugly trip. Indiana's eFG% was 42.81%, down from last season's 48.5%. From an offensive efficiency standpoint, Indiana was actually just a hair worse at 0.98 points per possession compared to last season's 1.00. Turnover percentage was down significantly in the Bahamas, as Indiana's turnover percentage was 11.68, where it was 17.2% last season. 11.68% would have been #1 in the country last season. Defensive efficiency is really where Indiana excelled. 0.83 points per possession for the trip is outstanding and would have been #1 in the country last season if that's what they averaged. Takeaways So what are the takeaways from this data? The first thing I want to address is the offensive numbers. In game 1, Indiana outpaced last season's offensive efficiency pretty significantly. By Woodson's own admission, he has installed very little offensively for the team. Indiana on the offensive end was relying on few sets and offensive intuition that Woodson has taught. The fact that they were already more efficient in one of the games just by those standards is extremely encouraging to me. By having so few sets, BC Mega had any sets that they wanted to run in game 2 scouted heavily. So that game was played even more on offensive intuition, and Indiana struggled a bit. As I stated earlier, there's the saying 'numbers never lie' but sometimes they don't tell the full story either. Just watch my film room on the offensive side of the ball and look at the spacing. There are already very positive changes happening on the offensive end that are more structure-based than set-based currently. Just as Indiana's offensive efficiency numbers are a bit deflated for good reason, the same can be said about the inflation of their defensive numbers. Did Indiana have a good weekend of defense? Absolutely. But BC Mega is still trying to figure themselves out too with roster attrition and adding their own players. They're very much in pre-season form, as well. So Indiana boasting numbers that would have made them the best defensive team in the country last season isn't telling the full story, either. The stats that I'm most encouraged about are tempo and turnover percentage. There's no point in playing at a fast pace if you're going to throw the ball all over the gym. Instead, Indiana was able to pick up the pace from last season and still secured the ball. That's important. Overall, it's important to remember that this team is still very much in pre-season form. They've had 10 full practices to start establishing Mike Woodson's identity, and we were able to see glimpses of that throughout this trip. The most encouraging aspects were the smiles on the faces and the players legitimately talking about how much fun they're having. Those are the intangibles that numbers can't tell the story of.

Bet it will have a lot more pizzazz than it had under our former coach.

Illinois offered.

Focused on Rob's performance on the Bahamas games. https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/bahamas-rewind-observations-on-rob-phinisees-play-during-iu-basketballs-foreign-tour/?fbclid=IwAR1kDyrvzWXVEOwfqoJNazL8-QeaMyMlh5zWN8i-EuWxNhtHXJSwfy7mIK8

Lots of optimism for the upcoming season. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/sports/2021/08/18/iu-womens-soccer-believes-3rd-year-charm-under-erwin-van-bennekom/8154175002/

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-basketball-class-of-2022-recruiting-target-noah-clowney-names-top-four/?fbclid=IwAR3HEFURJXV61YFR2Er7aY9DUpXm-ytuG07dzd0WKWoBlRtnb36KqjrBuag

PUke women's program making the kind of headlines you don't want to make. https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2021/08/18/purdue-womens-basketball-coach-sharon-versyp-accused-creating-toxic-hostile-environment/8178175002/

No doubt some kids and their handlers hear what they want to hear and then it becomes the children's game of telephone from that point forward.

Rob Cassidy of Rivals - Jalen Hood-Schifino is set to announce his decision on Aug. 24, and the speculation has begun. Officially, the four-star guard has narrowed his list to include Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Memphis and Texas. Unofficially, however, there are only a couple of real threats to land his pledge when he shares it with the world. Texas and Florida have both appeared to be out of the question for some time, and reports that Hood-Schifino has officially narrowed his list to include just Tennessee and Indiana hit Twitter on Tuesday. Whatever the case, Indiana and Tennessee have looked like the only real options since the talented prospect first narrowed his list. With roughly a week until Hood-Schifino is set to make the call, confidence in Bloomington seems to be growing, while it has begun to wane a bit in Knoxville. The Vols certainly aren’t out of the running here, but they seem like the only real threat to steal the Rivals150 prospect away from Mike Woodson and company. Still, It’s recruiting. There are no real “locks,” and nothing is ever set in stone until pen meets paper. But I’d feel reasonably OK if I were a Hoosiers fan.

NCAA investigation of Nebraska underway. With the NCAA's typical response time, we should know the outcome by 2030 by which time the NCAA may no longer exist. https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Article/Scott-Frost-Nebraska-under-investigation-NCAA-violations-improper-use-analysts-consultants-practices-games-special-teams-169291177/

'22 6'4" PG Reggie Bass, an Indiana native, has bounced around several high schools and had committed to Illinois and today announced today he was re-opening his recruitment.

Nice post-game story on the DePaul exhibition match. Herald-Times previously didn't permit access to anything without a subscription but that policy recently changed and you should be able to access a limited number of articles each month without a subscription. If you have a problem, send me a pm and I'll see what I can do. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/sports/2021/08/17/iu-soccer-no-2-hoosiers-get-glimpse-future-draw-depaul/8154019002/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

FWIW, some post-trip stories. https://indianahq.com/indiana-basketball-answering-your-bahamas-questions/ https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-basketball-puts-out-a-few-notes-on-its-pre-bahamas-scrimmages/ https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2021/8/17/mens-basketball-mens-basketball-summer-tour-recap.aspx

Man Lamar, you ought to get a gig as a stand-up comedian. The NCAA delining a waiver is about the funniest thing I've heard this year. As Jon Rothstein likes to say: "The NCAA continues to hand out waivers like they're seedless watermelon at a 4th of July Party."

Kansas offered.

Our first exhibition game of the season with DePaul ended in a 0-0 tie in double OT. Jeremy Price reported we outshot the Blue Demons 9-3 and held a 7-2 edge in corner kicks. Most of our starters were on the bench for the second OT. 20 different players saw action. Reports were Bezerra in street clothes presumably just to be certain he didn't sustain an injury in an exhibition match. Glass also did not play and saw a report his arm was in a sling. Bebej also reportedly did not play. Next exhibition is Thursday night at Grand Park in Westfield against Wright State at 7:30. Another exhibition on Saturday the 21st in Bloomington against Louisville at 8:00 p.m. Regular season opener in South Bend against Notre Dame on the 27th at 7:00 p.m.

https://www.insidethehall.com/2021/08/17/jordan-geronimos-energy-confidence-becoming-evident-as-his-sophomore-season-approaches/?fbclid=IwAR1alkUdvcHM6ZgDqRkhJs0wrDc8PS_2AI07Pcv2GXccEkpgZZmAIit7ur8

Scuzzo from East Lansing offered today.

Decisions, decisions. 2023 SG Myles Colvin has received a 2-year, $500,000 offer from the Overtime Elite league, per source. Purdue commit.

Xavier Johnson “X” @XavierJ0hnson It’s only the beginning… I know it’s only been 2 months but I’m really blessed to play in an IU jersey with these dudes. They’ve accepted me from day one and I love my gang.

Congratulations to A. J.'s talented daughter. Aaliyah Guyton @aguyton11 So excited about the opportunity to represent Brazil in the @fiba U16 Americas Women's championship! Thank you for the opportunity to make the team!