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Indiana already has 3 guys committed next season who are 6'5"-6'6". Kaufman is listed at 6'8", but he's not that tall. He also isn't much of a shooter and plays almost exclusively in the post. Since we have Hunter, Smith, and the 3 recruits next season, I just see a log jam. I also think we need PG's and bigs more than him, but I'm also willing to be wrong in saying we don't need him and maybe he can be Juwon Morgan?. He's ranked #60 on 247 and #86 on RIvals (who lists him at 6'7"). Where is he #30?

Ha. No, I didn't see it. I saw the comments that said it looked like only Brown cared, but that's about all. In my opinion, there's absolutely no way to get a fair assessment of Brown watching a high school game because he doesn't have any help, and every team he plays throws either player after player at him or junk defenses to stop him. I've been coaching 22 years now. High school level for 11. I've seen a lot. I don't always know how to articulate what I see and I sure don't have a whole lot of original thoughts about players, etc. But I do usually know what I'm looking at and described it when you asked the other day. I'm sorry to hear they had a disaster. The team I'm with now has no common opponents, so I won't even see film on them. I've seen Muncie Burris on film because we played a team which played them, but that's as close as I get and Blackford doesn't play MB until February 27th. Please keep me posted!

i like Kaufman. Indiana doesn't need him, but he's a solid player. Haven't seen much of Hopf yet. Luke Brown can be a successful college player, and if Indiana had a couple more...."guys," he'd be a good fit.

Got it. I wouldn't know him if he walked in here and kicked me, so I obviously wasn't assaulting his character. To me, it looks like Blackford stands around and waits for Brown to do something, and doesn't care much about defense. I am impressed by Brown. He won't need to handle the ball in college like he does now, and I think that'll make him an effective player wherever he ends up. I wish the team around him played harder...it'd be easier to get a look at who he (Brown) really is. Right now? I see what his skills are and I see a very good basketball player; but it's so hard to tell how much would translate and how well he'd fit at Indiana. I still say he'd fit just fine, but I'm not sure many agree with me. He looks like a kid who'd be a very solid college upper classman at a high level and an immediate contributor at Purdue-Calumet.

You're very welcome. Curious why it hurt you to say what you did?

I'm afraid of walking into a bees nest, but... watch the second play of the game and this sequence. Takes a horrible shot (sort of "I have the ball, so it's my turn"), then lazy getting back on defense (less than a minute into the game) and gives up an easy layup with no effort. Next possession, he gets back on his guy in the corner, but stands and watches on the rebound and Bar Reeve gets a put back. Then...on offense, he stands still until he gets the ball on a drift and drives like a bull into the lane.."my turn" again. Then..lazy again on defense in a press and guy blows right by him for another easy layup. Then.....catches a pass (first pass of possession) and chucks a three from the top of the key. Misses because he's a horrible shooter and it's a horrible shot. So they have a bad shooter taking a bad shot. Not a good recipe. Then, he gets back on defense and loses his man almost immediately. BR travels, so it didn't hurt them, but... Couple of possessions later he throws a wild running left hand (his off hand and from 7 feet or so) off the backboard. Then turns his back on a guy behind him on the baseline and gives up an alley oop. So now, he's taken 3 bad shots and given up 6 points on the defensive end; and the game's barely 4 minutes old. Now, some of it may be coaching because Blackford stands a lot on offense (and every kid plays straight up and down except Brown), and their zone is also lazy. Strobel (and I had no clue who the kid was until I watched this video) was bad. Lazy, selfish, and didn't seem to care one bit about anything but scoring points. If I coached against him I'd attack him on every possession and let him shoot any time he wanted. He's the guy off of whom I'd double Brown every time on his side of the floor. I'd let him catch it any time he wanted it. Before? I just noticed he was awful. I went back to watch again so I could reply, and I was right.

I've never heard worse announcers ever. For anything. Ever. Did I say ever? "The 6 foot 8er?" Bar Reeves x 13,898,912. Where is "the top of the free throw line?" And Strobel needs to sit. Kid'll kill a team.

Yep. All of that's true. Knight's favorite song has always been "My Way," by Frank Sinatra. He could do it his way while he was winning, and he had friends "inside." Dr. Ryan and Knight were close, and Ralph Floyd was about as ornery as Knight was. The downfall for Knight came when coaches like Doc Counsilman and Jerry Yeagley began to discuss and plan their retirements. The old guard was stepping down or gone, replaced by Tom Ehrlich (who actually was good for Knight for a while), Myles Brand, Clarence Doninger, etc. Knight's world changed quickly, and he was no longer able to do what he always had. Never one to adopt the herding limits of others, he played by his own rules and I think always believed he was right. The reasons why IU is where it is are numerous and this is most definitely one of them.

Indiana 69 Arkansas 63

That part I didn't know. I would imagine the revenue sports were left off for a reason. Maybe Glass' "one team" BS is going to carry over? It would be just like Indiana to do that. That said, I know Scott. He is a good man and an IU guy. He was a student manager when IU won the title in 1987, so I assume he gets it as much as anyone. He has also been an admin in the men's basketball program, so I think he understands that program and it's magnitude. Whether or not he is qualified to do the necessary contract negotiations is another question. I know him to be a good fund raiser, a good relationships guy, and someone alums could trust has their university's best interests at heart. I happen to think Reynolds is all of the things Dolson is and more qualified, but I would guess the non-revenue coaches see him (Dolson) as one of them. An ace in the hole for me is Cindy Simon-Skjodt. $45 million buys you some credential; and with her name on the building, I'd think she would want a former player. I don't know that to be true, but it would make sense to me.

This ^^^ I have said this many times : Indiana University went a different direction when they fired Bob Knight. Before then when people like Ralph Floyd and John Ryan stepped down. To the academes of the world, Indiana University shall be defined by their schools and not by their sports teams. Myles Brand was an academe. Michael McRobbie is an academe. Mitch Daniels is a business man first. A lawyer second. An academic proponent yes, but he also understands and subscribes to the absolute truth that sports and sports programs are the world's best window into their universities. Michael McRobbie does not. Myles Brand did not. I know as a 100% fact that Rick Pitino pro-actively called Indiana twice regarding the basketball job, requesting to be interviewed both times. Once in 2000 when Knight was fired and once in 2006 when Mike Davis stepped down. Both times, he was told no thank you, and the reason given was Indiana didn't want to hire someone else bigger than the program and didn't want basketball to be the face of Indiana University. That's fact and as solid a source on my end as there is. But...here's the good news. Cindy Simon-Skjodt is on the committee. Her name is on the basketball arena. Anyone think she doesn't want a top shelf AD? Anthony Thompson is as invested as any former player in football and his legacy at Indiana only improves with program success. Anyone think he doesn't want a top shelf AD? Teri Moren has it rolling with her program. Men's basketball may not be represented (and I won't speculate; but agree with everyone upset that it's not), but basketball is. Anyone think she doesn't want a top shelf AD? Todd Yeagley is on the committee. Anyone think he doesn't want a top shelf AD? Kurt Zorn and Mattie White scare me, and the committee is chaired by Carrie Docherty, who's the associate dean of the school for public health - an academe - scares me to death. But good athletic voices will be heard. It does seem ridiculous that the top 2 revenue sports aren't represented, but I do have a little faith they'll get it right. My man is Chris Reynolds. https://bradleybraves.com/staff-directory/chris-reynolds/203

And to your point, Indiana already has one of the wealthiest and most marketable brands in the country, so why does it matter one bit if they play in an all-Indiana classic in December that TV loves, and gives Indiana a decent non-conference opponent every season? Playing a home and home with ________ doesn't benefit them financially. Kentucky won't do a home and home. Louisville is a likely add in the future; they'll play 2 other ACC teams (including ND) every other year and one every year. They'll play in the Gavitt Games every year. They'll play in Maui next season, so they'll get at least 2 more decent games then (North Carolina, Texas, Stanford, Alabama, and UNLV also there). The problem with you and the other 3 knuckleheads who you run with is you'd b*tch if Indiana played a tougher schedule and lost more games and you're b*tching with an easier schedule and an 11-1 record. The only way any of you will ever be satisfied is if Indiana goes 32-3 with a top 5 schedule and the football team goes to the Rose Bowl every year. It's why nobody really argues with you. It's why your arguments are tired and get no credibility. There's no pleasing you. There's nothing right in the world. Everything IU does sucks and everyone down there is dumber than you are. You should be our new AD. Then you could just complain about yourself every time an Indiana team didn't play perfectly every play, left a few yards on the field, or didn't take the right charter service to an away game. It's actually entertaining to me to see what you come up with to complain about. I really do wonder sometimes if you have any idea how difficult and complicated it is to put together a college basketball schedule that fits all the criteria you directly or indirectly label as important. I think....no.

Nope....I don't have a problem with close games because I don't think Indiana is enough "more talented" than other teams to blown many out. As happened at Wisconsin, there will be an outlier here and there, but this is a heart attack team that will play far more close games than not against good competition. There are so many talented players now, it's hard for any team to far outclass the lion's share of their schedule, which is why #1 has already lost 6 times this season and why I don't think we'll ever see another undefeated team.

Indiana is winning close games. You can argue they shouldn't be close, but Indiana is winning close games. They also smoked a really good team. Florida State is 10-2 and #14 in Sagarin (a subjective, computer based ranking system I think paints a decent picture of reality. Indiana is 33rd right now). UConn and ND are both in the 70;s. Indiana's not a national contender right now, but they are learning how to win with different players leading the way seemingly every night. It's Green, it's Phinisee, it's Franklin, it's Jackson-Davis, it has been Brunk in short stretches, it's been Smith a time or two, it was Durham early. I said a long time ago this team is all about next season. Especially as kids develop as leaders, assuming everyone's back (and until Jackson-Davis gets a jump shot from 15-18 feet, he's not yet an NBA player), Indiana's team next year will be among the deepest and most experienced in the country. This season? It's not pretty, but they're learning how to win. Kentucky has lost 3 times. Once to 212th ranked Evansville. Duke lost to 109th ranked Stephen F. Austin. Purdue already has 5 losses. So does North Carolina. Indiana played horribly at Wisconsin. Absolutely. But....they haven't laid an egg in any other game, despite how ugly it's looked at times. I wish their schedule had been a little tougher, but at the end of the day, Indiana is sitting in a decent position, and I still laugh at the people who predict the sky is falling because of how Archie looks or how bad he is as a coach. For the record, his winning % at Indiana is higher than Crean's was and about equal to Mike Davis. That's not to point out anything other than perspective. He's also grown as a coach in the last 2 seasons. I don't think Indiana will set the world on fire this season, but I don't see "dire" either.

Bottom line, for almost every post I've seen so far? Until we can consistently make shots, our offense isn't going to look very strong if defenses collapse the middle and double the post. Especially since we don't get have "that one guy." And we don't. If we're able to get the ball in the middle of the floor, which we did much of the time, we'll get the looks we want either with a dump down, drive, or kick out, but until we can shoot the ball from the perimeter on a consistent basis, the offense is going to go through really tough stretches. That's just a fact we'll have to deal with. Shooters are coming; but for now, this is a team without individual greatness and without consistent perimeter threats. People can whine all they want about Archie being a bad coach or almost losing the game, but the fact is we have to make shots to look remotely "pretty." We didn't even make FT's today. We out rebounded them by 10 and took better care of the ball. Held them to 37% from the floor, and weathered a horrible game by our back court minus Franklin and some nice moments from Green. This team is imperfect and can look ugly; but it's also 11-1, which I'll take given what we have to work with.

At this point, the only real negative is the division we play in. We've always had - or seemingly anyway - strong skill guys.

That's great to hear. Not at all surprising, but great to hear. Will be interesting because I think Indiana is in a position to attract someone who may come unexpected.

Having Tom Allen under a long term contract will help. Being strong recruiting in Florida will help, and I wouldn't be surprised to see someone from that state highly considered Having at least one proven QB in the fold and a young, talented group of backs and receivers will help. Having a solid budget for hiring assistants will help. I'd be very surprised if Indiana doesn't have several very qualified candidates available to them.

Always? You mean except the last 2 seasons when we've won this game?

IU 74 ND 67

Not at all what I meant, either.

This simply isn't accurate. Not even close. It's another in the cesspool of negative narratives. In the last 10 seasons (not even including this one), Indiana has won 2 Big Ten titles, made 3 sweet 16's, and its only losing records were years 2 and 3 of Crean's tenure. Indiana produced several NBA lottery and 1st round draft picks and won 20+ games 4 times. Worst decade ever? Not close. Take a look sometime between 1958 and 1972. And again between 2003-2012. That decade ended well, but the beginning through year 9 were disappointing for very different reasons than the beginning of this past one. And...with a 10-1 start, the current decade's not getting any worse. And yes, we all know what hasn't yet happened this season; but that's another in a long line of straw man arguments. It hasn't been great every year, but worst ever? It hasn't been close to that, either.

Glass didn't hire Sampson but had to clean up the mess. At the time he hired Crean, it was a good hire. Crean did much of his own undoing. The jury is still out on Archie; but I'm more in his camp than out. Glass deserves better by far than a D. Making the tournament and succeeding in the tournament have exactly zero to do with the Athletic Director. Does Duke's current AD get credit for their success, for example? I'd give him a C+ for Crean and an incomplete on Archie, even as I still like the hire. My main issue is it still seems Archie is learning on the job, but the best news is he IS learning on the job.

Fellas, the Big Ten is a brutal league. It has been for as long as I've been alive. We're not going undefeated in the Big Ten. Nobody is. There will be nights we look great and nights we look awful. When we look awful, it doesn't mean we should fire a coach or athletic director and when we look great it doesn't mean we're contenders. Upsets happen every week. At the end of the day, the Big Ten is either the best or second best basketball conference in the country year in and year out. I think we'll make the NCAA tournament and be a tough out when we get there. People panicking over close, ugly wins really should put today's game in perspective. That was Indiana a year or two ago. The emotional over reactions to every play, every half, and every outcome are exhausting. Nobody who matters looks at any part of a program through that microscope.

He doesn't have a jump shot yet and he's not very strong yet. His birth dad will give him the best advice he can get, and I don't think this is a kid who wants to go play in the G league. Not every kid who plays well declares for the draft.