pumpfake

One thing I would like to point out concerning injuries, talent level, etc.: We've all complained, going back to the J. Rivers seasons, that "this team has the lowest basketball IQ". If his teams consistently play careless, stupid ball it can mean only one of two things - bad recruiting or bad teaching/coaching. And both are the sole responsibility of one man, and that's the head basketball coach. I don't take any joy in wishing for a new coach. IMO, coach Crean has worked very hard and dedicated himself to the team's success. Sadly, it's clear that his best is not good enough for either the expectations of the fans or the salary he is being paid. I do feel bad for the guy, but he knows what the expectations were/are.

Just how good does that guy think O.G. is? He'd have to be one of the all-time great IU players to have rescued this turd of a season. Anunuoby is a good player and was improving, but not yet a dominant player.

For any of the younger posters, I'd like to tell you about a magical era in IU basketball. A time where even if the season started poorly you could count on the team improving, and watching other teams with big early season wins fall apart down the stretch - as we overtook them and roared toward March. Now we're one of those other teams.

IMO, there are 3 areas a new coach needs to be evaluated on (aside from obviously running a clean program): 1. Teaches fundamentally sound, team basketball. Smart decisions and solid defense can help overcome #2 & #3 to an extent. 2. Accomplished recruiter. Is able to identify talent and needs. Assemble a complete team. A great recruiter (blue chip city) can overcome #1 & #3 to an extent, but we must get a fair share of highly rated and in-state players. 3. A demonstrated record of winning. Past performance is no guarantee of future success, but is the closest gauge I can think of. Ideally we can find someone that excels at all 3. I would want to avoid any coach that fails at any of the 3. For the record, on a scale of 1-10, I would rank Coach Crean as a 4, 6, 6 for a total of 16. We need a new coach that scores into the 20's. As for CTC as a recruiter, I think he's shown that he's good at identifying talent. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he's failing more and more at signing those players.

Whoa. So are you saying that Dickie is literally a "diaper dandy" these days? LOL

Maybe he managed to open his eyes and got a peek at the truth...

When I read that, my first reaction was that Doyel must have never been to Whackey Arena. Good God, those idiots boo the refs if their own player misses a FT.

I don't believe Davis ever returned from the locker room. I didn't see any blood, so my guess is that they were going through the concussion evaluation. If that's the case I want to see how they put a 'boot' on his cranium (j/k). Hopefully he'll be back to action and feeling good asap - at least it wasn't a dreaded knee, lower leg, or shoulder issue.

Am I the only one grinding their teeth when the crawl at the bottom of the screen said TJ Leaf was doing so well, or the promo featuring Shake Milton? And we thought Crean's "strength" was as a recruiter. smh

Personally, the fact that I'm not upset at all about losing this game is a clear indicator that something needs to be done. Hopefully the person (people) that have the power also have the guts and smarts to pull the proverbial trigger. Woeful as things have been, IMO Crean has reached his peak at IU. Case closed.

Sadly, I completely agree. What seems to be lost on the dwindling number of CTC proponents is that teaching and playing a fundamentally sound (& disciplined) brand of basketball would improve the success of the team regardless of offensive or defensive philosophy. It would also make the games so much more enjoyable to watch. I suspect I know which team the 'opponent' plays for, and I think that is a perfect case where lack of blue chip talent can be largely minimized by good, solid teaching. Any respected coach at IU will be able to attract quality players. Couple that with the ability to actually assemble a team of parts and, IMO, you've already improved our situation. Now, sprinkle in some elite level recruits and we're well on our way to being where we expect to be.

Two stats they mentioned during the game that really hit home: 1) We had split the last six games with PSU, and 2) Most (all?) were decided by 3 points or less. This is against a middle of the road B10 team after CTC has been here 6-9 years. I guess the positive spin on it would be lots of close competitive games with the Nittany Lions? Someone else mentioned that the Purdue game was preempted for the entire first half. This is one of the reasons I'm planning to drop cable TV. Games are scheduled every 2 hours and regularly mean missed coverage like what happened last night (albeit rarely an entire half). My other beef is that I don't get all ESPN channels in my package - aside from there being times where a game (IU football or basketball) is on one channel I don't get, very frequently when these games run over they'll shift our game from a channel I DO get to one that I don't get - so it's effectively a black out. Sorry for the rant, but I want to see my team play and should get what I pay for.

It was certainly an entertaining game, despite the quality of play. Good to see Green redeem himself after missing those two FT's. I'm calling it now: we'll somehow lose to PSU in the B10 tourney.

Dang. This thread has the staying power of "The Dark Side of the Moon" album. I hope it will be rendered obsolete - the sooner the better.

Tom Crean would be an outstanding fit for Missouri. After all, he does a great job of recruiting top H.S. players from that state (unlike Indiana).

Not only is that assessment a perfect synopsis of CTC's tenure here, it's worth noting that he actually went further in the tournament at MU than he has at IU in almost the same number of seasons. Let that sink in for a minute.

Absolutely true. I'll even say that the right coach could have had us playing much smarter, tougher basketball right from the get-go without high-level recruits. One other thing that I've thought about over the last month or so: going back a year or two ago, when it looked like our 2016 recruiting was going to be, uh disappointing, I read repeatedly in various forums that the 2017 class is where Crean really needed to bring in a top recruiting class. Well, right now it looks underwhelming and will be far from a killer class. This will make twice that we essentially whiffed coming off a successful season of winning the big 10.

A couple of weeks ago when someone pointed out that this is CTC's 9th season, it really sunk in that other programs have come back from worse and achieved more in less time. Look at Kentucky after the Emory cash delivery - they were having greater success in half as many years. There is nothing about the program that is trending upward - especially recruiting.

No further proof than listening to Crean on the post game radio show - on and on about being proud of how hard we "battled". The only phrase I could think of was "loser's lament" - top drawer coaches and teams aren't proud after a loss unless it's under some extreme circumstance. IMO, we should thank Tom Crean for reviving the program and running a clean program and move on to the next phase of rebuilding the program with someone who can actually take us there. Nine years has been a long time and more than enough to have fully restored the luster, but it just has not been achieved.

Albrecht to PU - I have no problem with that.

It should be very interesting to see what, if any, additional penalties the NCAA hands down. In recent history, it appears that the best approach is to deny, deny, deny and NEVER self-report. Then again, that may only be effective if you're a "favored institution".

Indeed. We've had better IU teams that didn't get to a final four than some that actually won the title - the best team doesn't always win. In fact, getting knocked out when you really think you're a contender is more disheartening than losing as a 5 seed. The question is how much time?

I would expect that the fanbases of MSU, Duke, UK, and KU all consider this season a huge disappointment. I don't think any of those who aren't sold on Crean think he's awful, they're just losing patience because we're always a couple of steps away from where we want to be.

I'm kind of puzzled with your logic. UNC was a 1 seed, we were a 5. If we had managed to win this game it would have been an upset (and possibly taken OUR best shooting night of the season), but the fact that they played their best game makes the loss acceptable. On the other hand we beat a 4 seed Kentucky team that was arguably their weakest team in the last 5 years and that is an accomplishment? This was a great season - if you have, say, Purdue's standards. But for a program that was, and wants to claim to still be, one of the elites it OK at best.

Totally agree about this game. That said, UNC is a better team. The depressing thing is that Glass refers to "Body of Work". I don't think CTC scores very well in that regard, if we want to be one of the elites. I fear and suspect, for many fans and Glass himself it's "good enough".