Old Friend

Dude, get a grip. Seriously. I didn't say my experience proved anything nor did I claim anything. Jesus, I said I was on board with parts in the article YOU posted. I claimed nothing, nor did I have even the slightest bit of discussion with you which could have been viewed even by the most elementary person on the planet as "evidence." You inferred it and that, pal? That's on you. What the hell is your deal other than the same old personal bullsh*t you've carried for years? Get a grip on yourself and grow the hell up.

I just saw that, too. The devil's in the details, right? At least Dr. Fauci was a little more chipper today.

You can't pass up a chance to be a jerk, can you? You posted the article which asked the same questions I asked. I merely agreed with their hypothesis and you come back.....with this. Why? Help me understand why this was necessary when you yourself posted the article? Drop your personal bullsh*t for just a while, okay?

The US isn't spiking today (well.....yet, anyway) like it did yesterday according to that Johns Hopkins tracker. And I found this to be a glimmer of positivity. The negative is very present here, but there's a little hope, too. https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1245396273265545216?s=20

Yep. I bet that's happening everywhere. Something smells funny all over the place.

I'm telling you...I'm buying it. My middle son had it. Negative for the flu. If he had it, I likely did. No symptoms? Whole thing is odd

The more numbers I see, the more I remember the sick people with a weird....something that was never diagnosed and presented as "negative" for the flu, and the more I read about people with antibodies, the more I think this bad boy's been around for longer than "since January 21st."

It took me 12 minutes to stop laughing at this. Sort of like you have the weirdest of beefs with....everything? I have no beef with the kid. That little smiley face next to my post? That provided context. Perhaps you missed it. I like to needle the people who told me how wrong I was about him, and it's now nothing but humor. Good kid, bad team mate sometimes and poor decision maker. Hell, he said as much in his senior speech. Everybody sees now what I saw three years ago. Many agreed then. A few didn't, and one person jumped on me in November of this season for pointing out he was back to his old ways. He came around, too. Whatever. It's not close to a beef other than to point out how he affected the team. And he did. Pointing out what I see is simply that. Now....wanna' start on your own laundry list?

Yes. Absolutely

Green with 0 turnovers against Wisconsin? I'm not buyin' it. =)

I am SO glad someone else thinks this way. Exactly. Spot the heck on. Who remembers THIS one? I literally have tears in my eyes.

For anyone who cares, on that Johns Hopkins tracker, today our (US) number of "recovered" for the first time outnumbers "deaths." That has to be a small good sign. I imagine that gap will widen considerably as the days drag on.

I sat next to Jon McGlocklin at the Indy 500 once.

Solid synopsis. I think the plan is to re-evaluate next weekend (ish), see where we are, and strategically open back up in phases if that's possible. No chance anything will open up w no restrictions. Every exponential curve flattens at some point, and ours will, also. Lots of good news out there if you look for it. It's a waiting game and then a strategic open up plan, hoping politicians and would-be power grabbers won't over react and play their God card which would mean far more and far longer closures, etc than may be necessary by mid-May or so...and beyond.

"Purdue felt confident?" Who? "John Purdue?"

Experience, physical maturity, health, and the simple numbers game DO matter a little. There's "the story" and then there's "the whole story."

Lot of that exponential growth is because of testing. More tests = more positives. That doesn't reflect growth; it reflects normal testing results. And while a small number of people (and per capita, it is a very small number) continue to engage in "gathering," the number is exponentially smaller than it otherwise would have been. That's why projections dropped so dramatically. The US and Italy, for example, are vastly different places. The hot spots here are - like Italy - in places where people are on top of each other. Lots of spread from Mardi Gras, for example. Lots in NYC. Lots among homeless in CA. Not so much in the midwest or in the so called fly over states. Growth there is not exponential,and right now, I think the number is 1 in 2.5 new cases are either in New York or New Orleans. Agree 100% on mid April. I thought Easter was a good date to re-evaluate, not necessarily open things up again.

Pretty easy situation to diagnose, if you ask me. This thing lives for ~ 14 days in-vitro and less than 3 on any surface. We've shut a whole lot of things down, and started "social distancing" probably 8-10 days ago on a serious level. Seems to me the "new" cases will drop dramatically because of those measures, and the cases currently presenting are generally at least a few days old. To achieve those shocking numbers, new cases would have to crop up en masse, and with social distancing, shelter in place orders, and no social gatherings available; there's no way for this virus to expand with the kind of numbers it would take. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me... however I hate the new terms. "Social distancing" "Shelter in place." Those are now a permanent piece of our vernacular. Sigh.

Give it a rest, man. Seriously. You don't have to spin everything so it fits into your bubble. There's enough guys on here who already do that. Nobody heard Chris Beard's name on here until people were pissed about last season, so revisionist history is pretty easy. They were 18-13 this season and Indiana was 20-12. Indiana has improved every season and they're building the team to stay experienced so that kind of dropoff doesn't happen. Maybe it will or maybe it won't, but the overall point doesn't change. I know you missed it and I don't really feel like explaining it. Just stop.

I absolutely agree with you, but again, I look at it and ask myself if the reason is/was Archie or the players. Last season, when Romeo was here I heard more stories about awful chemistry than anything positive. I think it was better this season, but there were times I saw Archie look absolutely exasperated on the sidelines, and I believe as the filter eliminates the warts, things will continue to get better. I have a good friend in local Indianapolis media, also an IU guy and no...it's not Dakich. He made a point to me I thought was great (relative to Crean v Miller). He said Crean recruited with a shotgun, Miller recruits with a rifle. Crean's approach wasn't focused and he couldn't win consistently because he didn't ever try to build teams...he just fired off scholarship offers, and the pieces fell in place a couple of times, followed by bad finishes. Archie hasn't yet seen the top, but I see what he's trying to do and I believe he will be more consistent with the "get old and stay old" approach. Next season is really the first season I think will really show the affects of that, and if he doesn't have good seasons next year and the following? His seat SHOULD be hot. I'm obviously not making any promises, but I do like the plan..and I think there IS a plan. I don't think Crean ever had one, and I also think if you gave Tom Crean truth serum, he'd tell you he's surprised he ever won a conference title. "Holy crap..we WON!" I also like that he (Archie) seems to learn and adapt. Crean never did. Archie's teams have bought into defense. They started throwing the ball inside a lot more later this season, and seeing results because of it. We got better shots across the board and MADE more later in the year. It's little things like that. We were absolutely horrid blitzing ball screens with big guys against Michigan. So...we quit doing it after that. An adjustment. That's the kind of thing I see and it gives me encouragement. We were awful shooting the ball. Nothing Archie can do about that except keep working on it; and I know they did every day. So he now has shooters coming. Indiana GOT good shots much of the time (sometimes not....I know), and no offense gets layups every possession. I see a tougher and more consistent brand under Miller than I did under Crean, and Archie still had three consecutive top 2 finishes in the A-10. He knows what he's doing and he's adapting to Indiana.....I think, anyway.

Here's what makes me smile. If we go back and look, how many of the same posters b*tching now used Chris Beard as an example of "WHO WE COULD HAVE HAD!!!!!!" or who they want? It was a lot. Couple guys on here who can't seem to whine enough nor see any positives regardless of where they look, but here's the facts, boys. https://kenpom.com/index.php?s=RankAdjDE Indiana was better than or about equal to Texas Tech in about every category, including record. That "next shiny thing" isn't any shinier than Archie except for one good run a year ago. Indiana will have plenty of those given time. "There aren't many positives so far." Well, not if you aren't looking for them. Recruiting is an obvious one, and to not acknowledge it erases any credibility at all. Only 13 teams in the country had more quad 1 wins than Indiana had this season and there are 353 D1 teams. In that category, Indiana was better than 96.4% of the country. Indiana was 26th in defensive efficiency (see above). Remember when Indiana was known for its defense? We sure won a lot of games then. Indiana was still 65th in offensive efficiency. Great? No. A horrific failure? No. There hasn't been enough positive if you're only concerned about results, and that's cool. Seriously. I get that. I simply said I am taking a different approach and I see (because of that approach) a whole lot more positives than some. A few things have to happen in my opinion. One is to allow Archie's players to "get old" so Indiana can "stay old." Another was to have Green graduate. He said himself in his senior speech he didn't want to learn, and he hijacked at least 5 possessions every game. With so many close games, we can't have that. Green sure was fun when he was "on," but when he wasn't and still tried to be? Yuck. Another is to allow a couple of kids (Phinisee, Hunter, and Thompson in particular) to play healthy and play together. I see a whole lot of positives in those kids, but they've lost so much time to injury, I understand why others may not. Finally, what exactly has or hasn't Archie done which you as a coach would do differently given exactly the same circumstances? No cop out "I'm not paid millions of dollars..." answers. He doesn't make that money to please you. He's paid to represent IU and to win. The speed at which he does the latter is not in his contract, nor is pleasing complainers on a message board. So....what has his coaching truly cost Indiana so far? Last season? "We'd better make the NCAA tournament or else!" Well....we did. And now it's on to the next thing to b*tch about. Sincerely interested in what you believe Archie has cost Indiana, especially this past season.

Nay. Screws up everyone behind them. Sometimes, life ain't fair.

Your last sentence is why at some point, I hope he wakes up and realizes the gifts he has. It is maddening, indeed.

I don't disagree, but I also can't just toss aside the "why" and leave it out of the discussion. I also can't leave out the number of big/good wins. I can't leave out the fact that had it not been for mistakes by Durham and DeVonte Green, Indiana wins against Maryland. Close losses against Illinois, Arkansas, and Wisconsin could have easily been turned around by just another made shot or two. Yes....there were some awful games and some showings with zero heart. 100% agree with that. (also think the kids to blame for that are gone or almost gone. I need to see how Smith responds next year because he could either break out and be 1st team all Big Ten and shock the world, or he could be a pain in the a$$ and drag the team south) But I'm looking at the overall health of the program and not simply raw numbers. And I know, I know....if my aunt had onions, she'd be my uncle and we don't accept moral victories...that's absolutely right. It's been said here and I agree and have said myself, next season's a big one. I don't believe we have one thing to worry about, and I saw ESPN's pre-season "way too early" top 25 poll, and Indiana had discussion. I completely believe Indiana will win 23-25 games next season, and I also think the recruiting pipeline is very healthy. I guess it's fair to say I'm not someone who's nervous about whether or not next season will be one we're all happy with. I see things going in a good direction.

Really getting tired of blind negativity that doesn't acknowledge what actually happened.