Hoosierfan2017

Barring drastic improvements from last season, we don’t really have anyone else capable of starting at that spot.

Plenty of teams rely on freshmen. Duke started two in the final four game last year, and played a third 29 minutes. Some of IU’s best teams in the past two decades have relied on outstanding freshmen. Zeller in 2011. Thomas Bryant in 2016. We’re counting on two ourselves this year. A talent like Flory would do wonders for next year’s team (assuming he reclassifies). He’s exactly what a team losing its starting frontcourt needs.

I mean if we’re not going after players capable of starting over the current backups that’s a big big problem. Our bench is getting very overrated. The Trey Galloways and Logan Duncombs of the college bball world may be nice kids but you’re not a contender next season relying on them to start on your team.

Certainly, but we’ve been missing on a number of our targets in the 2023 class. We will have some very big holes to fill next year with the number of guys we’re projected to lose. Like almost our entire starting lineup. Whiffing on our targets Increases the chances we’ll be filling those holes with not so great options. After seeing the money being thrown around to portal guys, I’m not sure we’ll be in the running for top portal talent either.

They were suspended for bumper stickers lol. It was a joke of a suspension. I mean yeah of course if the kid stinks like Perea it’s not worth it. But Perea was in a different recruiting tier. He was #53 in his class. Flory is #4. Their games aren’t similar to one another. What’s the downside for Cincinnati here? Not much.

This really just isn’t true at all. Sampson wasn’t doing anything that those guys don’t do. Hell, Tom Izzo covers up his players’ sexual assaults.

Why does anyone do it? He’s a 5 star recruit, ranked #4 in the 2024 class. Schools have done more than hire a guy as an assistant to get a player of that caliber. And Drew Adams is a legitimate assistant coach. His dad runs Indiana Elite. It’s not like Cincinnati hired some rando off the street to join their bench.

Completely clean programs that consistently win big are virtually nonexistent in college basketball. To think otherwise is to ignore reality. You either acknowledge that and jump on board, or you lose. Kelvin Sampson recognized that. No “it takes 4 years to build a program” nonsense for him. He got it done immediately. He went 21-11 his first season here, finished 10-6 in the conference (third place) and made the round of 32. His second season he had the team 22-4, 11-2 in conference play, and #15 in the country until IU clutched its pearls and canned him. IU dropped a self-imposed nuclear bomb on its program over some drugs and phone calls. The program still hasn’t recovered, and players still do drugs. Tom Crean recognized that. Do you think the Thomas Bryant and Noah Vonleh recruitments were above board? Crean was just too weird of a dude to consistently get it done in recruiting, and he had to fight an unsupportive administration. I feel confident in saying that IU will never become an elite program again until it’s ready to behave like one. Hiring a kid’s handler to get him to come to your school is something that’s actually within the rules, but a contingent of the fanbase would still have a total meltdown if IU were to do such a thing.

Oh yeah, I don’t even really think that ‘dirty’ is a thing anymore with NIL. Schools are just straight up paying players to come to their schools now. It’s out in the open. They do it through other people since the schools can’t technically do it, but it’s obvious what’s going on. USC paid Jordan Addison $3.5 million to transfer. Nijel Pack got $800k from Miami. IU isn’t ready to compete with that. IU made a big deal at the beginning about how we were at the ‘forefront’ of NIL, but it’s obvious now that we aren’t anywhere close to it.

I just don’t think it’s possible to build a nationally relevant program without being willing to get dirty. To the extent it is possible, you need an absolutely elite coach. We haven’t been willing to pony up for one of those either. So, we’re doubly behind the 8 ball.

Sampson would’ve done outstanding here if IU didn’t clutch its pearls and get rid of him. Dude can coach his tail off. Easily the best coach we’ve had since Knight. There’s a big gap between winning no matter what and playing the game like the top schools in college basketball. The IU way hasn’t worked over the past two decades.

This kind of mentality is why IU has 1 elite eight appearance in my lifetime. A contingent of the fanbase, and the administration itself, would rather be virtuous than good. At least that way when we lose we can talk about how we do things the “right way.”

I would love to have had that kind of IU fandom experience. Unfortunately, we’ve only made 4 sweet 16s and 1 elite 8 during my lifetime. The post-Knight years have not been ideal. What frustrates me is that I see little reason why we can’t have UK-type results here. We have the history, we have the fanbase, we just don’t get the results. I’m not sure we ever will be more than a ‘once was.’ A lot of people have high hopes for this season, but idk. I have a lot of concerns. We’ll need JHS and Malik to really step it up this year, imo.

Honestly it’s hard for me not to be jealous of their success. Calipari’s been there for 13 years (12 if you take out 2020 when the tournament was canceled). During that span he’s made 7 of 12 elite 8s. We’ve made 5 of 12 tournaments. I can’t even imagine rooting for a team that’s playing for a final four berth in March over 50% of the time.

That’s why I really disagree with the downplaying of Calipari’s results. Would I be upset if we had his classes but got his results? Sure, maybe. It’s an impossible question for me to answer because I root for a team that hasn’t made it past the sweet 16 since I was in the first grade. He’s made 7 elite eights and 4 final fours at UK. How many schools have had better results over that span?

Preseason rankings are just that, preseason. UK will almost always be ranked highly in a preseason poll because of the UK brand. When IU had a good brand it got the same treatment in the polls. In 2018 UK was 5th in the preseason, 18th in the final, won the SEC tournament, and made the sweet 16. In 2019, UK was 2nd in the preseason, 7th in the final, and made the elite 8. In 2020, UK was 2nd in the preseason, 8th in the final, won the SEC, and then the tournament was canceled. 2021 UK sucked, and then in 2022 UK was 10th in the preseason and 7th in the final, though they lost in the first round. Has UK underachieved the past half decade? Eh, I guess you could say that. Arguably their best team was in 2020 and that team didn’t get to play in the tournament, which makes it harder to evaluate. But UK’s results while underachieving are better than the vast majority of schools during that same timespan. To the extent either team “needs” the game, IU needs it a lot more than UK. UK has an outstanding national brand and continues to reload with top 2-3 classes every year. They’re fine either way. We need to be in these kinds of games.

Iowa good? In those four years Kentucky went 26-11 (sweet 16); 30-7 (elite 8); 25-6 (tournament canceled, won the SEC); and then 9-16. Iowa hasn’t won the Big 10 since 1979, hasn’t made a sweet 16 since 1999, and hasn’t made an elite 8 since 1987. Iowa hasn’t won 30 games since 1987, and has only won 25+ games 3 times since 1987. That doesn’t really compare to what UK did during the Archie era. UK did in 4 years what Iowa has done in 35.. Calipari gets pretty underrated around here, honestly. I get that people don’t like his ways, but over the last 10 NCAA tournaments he’s went round of 64, missed tournament, elite 8, sweet 16, elite 8, round of 32, final four, NC game, missed tournament, NC.

In the national championship game both UNC and Kansas had six players play 10+ minutes. UNC’s 6th guy played 18 minutes, and the 7th guy played 2. KU’s 7th guy played 7 minutes, #8 player 3 minutes, and #9 played 2. In the Duke/UNC final four game, UNC played five guys 10+ minutes. They only played 8 guys the entire game. Duke played 7 guys the entire game. In the Kansas/Nova game, each team had six players play 10+ minutes. I don’t understand the obsession with having such a big rotation. We’re not 2014/2015 Kentucky. We don’t have Devin Booker coming off our bench. Depth is great insurance for injuries. That doesn’t mean you need to play a 10 man rotation. Find your best 7-8 guys and roll with them.

Unfortunately he’s about the closest thing we have to a maker. If the returning players only Johnson shoots better from 3, and most of his 3s seemed to be on wide open attempts.

The “in CMW I trust” approach is silly. He’s not infallible. He’s a second year coach who finished 9th in the conference and got blown out by a mid major in the round of 64 last year. He made mistakes last season. One of his biggest mistakes was his rotations. He killed us numerous times by playing 5 bench players at once. The best teams play shorter rotations. Our 2013 conference champion team had 6 guys play 10+ mpg in conference play. The 2016 team had 8 guys play 10+ mpg. Last year Wisconsin’s team had 6, and last year’s Illinois team had 7. We don’t have the talent to have a 10 man rotation. If we’re playing some cupcake, sure. Play them all. But when we’re playing the best teams on our schedule we need to play 7-8 guys, and our starters need to be playing 30+ mpg.

Why in the world did IU agree to that.

Some people just aren’t P5 head coach material. Allen can be a decent defensive coordinator, but it’s year 6 and he’s still completely in over his head as a head coach. Such a mistake by Fred Glass not even conducting a coaching search. Allen had one year of P5 coordinator experience and zero years of D1 head coaching experience at the time yet Glass treated him like the golden goose we couldn’t risk losing.

I’ve never been a Tom Allen fan. I hate how goofy he is. He’s the football equivalent of Tom Crean with both lower highs and lower lows. His teams are undisciplined and unprepared. He’s now 16-29 in Big Ten play. #LEO is cringe. Nick Saban doesn’t use goofy catchphrases. Two years later and it’s beyond obvious that 2020 was a highly flukey season. No fans, players in and out with covid, etc. Last night is what IU football is under Tom Allen’s command.

CTA’s gotta go. Iufb is a sinking ship with him in charge.

He was 36.3% from 3 in conference play, best on the team.