Old Friend

I'm in the process of teaching my sons the difference between mixing whiskey and sippin' whiskey. (one of the three is 21, so that makes it okay; and after all, it's a father's duty) For mixing, Makers is a standard. Easy and almost everyone will drink that mixed with anything they like with no complaint. Jack Daniels and Crown Royal also serve that purpose for me even though that's not bourbon, which is MY preference. To sip, my current favorite (and also for an old fashioned) is Angel's Envy Finished Rye. Finished in a rum cask and oh my goodness. It tastes like butterscotch. For those who like a great bottle of bourbon, it's hard to beat one I had with my uncle last week...Elijah Craig 18 year. Hard to find, but stupid good. Great idea for a thread while we all wait on and read stupid rumors about our upcoming men's basketball coaching hire.

Looking at Drake's scores, I see a whole lot of games (including against Miami (FL), Vanderbilt, and a couple of others with points scored in the 80's. I know some are concerned about tempo and pace, but I just don't think that's an issue. I think he'd be terrific here.

=) I can tell you it will NOT be : Bruce Pearl Buzz Williams Mick Cronin Will report further as more becomes known, but I'm probably not the top guy on anyone's list relative to knowing who it WILL be. Chris is the guy, there.

That's kinda' my thinking too. If not Indiana, he'll be at Iowa. But nobody has ever won at Iowa...last final four was 1980. Indiana obviously a better long term job, so I'm hoping we at least kick the tires.

Rather than scroll over 988 pages... What are opinions on Ben McCollum? 43 years old....4 national titles at D2 (similar to Bo Ryan before he went to Wisconsin), eats, sleeps, and breathes basketball, and a similar personality and resume to Curt Cignetti. Failing Stevens or Beard, he's my horse. Not interested in guys who don't fit i.e. Bruce Pearl, Cronin, Buzz Williams

Thanks for that. I coached for 25 years. Last 15 at the high school level in this state and 3 years as a head coach. They don't just hand those jobs out.....I generally don't say much unless I'm fairly convicted. =) The delivery isn't always my favorite but filters and I never did get along very well. I started coaching when I was 27 and stopped after last season. I learned from Bob Knight, Roy Williams, Brad Stevens, and a guy named Pete Smith who I'm sure plenty here have heard of. I'll stand by that list and take my chances. I was never sure what his deal was, either. He was a big reason I left.....another being I didn't think I had much to offer if people just wanted sunshine pumped up their..... Indiana did this to itself. It was a conscious decision and that was NEVER okay with me, so I was vocal about it. Maybe I shouldn't have been. In any case, I'm really happy to see your name pop up and I'll sneak on here every now and then. I do miss it. Thanks again!

Me too, Mike. Thanks.

Hello, boys. I'm still around. I'm sorry to hear milehi passed. Did someone say Craig did too? Damn.... that guy actually called me once. I still read from time to time. Just not interested in the battles. For 25 years, Indiana University's administrators and academes did everything they could to devalue men's basketball because they didn't understand that men's basketball was and is IU's most visible and marketable entity. Pamela Whitten and Scott Dolson do. For the first time literally since 1972, Indiana University has an open men's basketball position and people in place to fill it with knowledge of what needs to be done and no restrictions to prevent it. My issue here (and at the old place where the GoColts88 character was created...and that's what he was. A character....not always "me.") is too many people wanted sunshine pumped at every recruit commitment (I remember telling people Mike "Kong" White was too short to be a successful Big Ten post player. The names I was called and the comparisons to Charles Barkley were embarrassing. I said similar things about Ben Allen. DeAndre Thomas. Xavier Johnson. Many others.) and coaching hire. Too many people assumed nobody knew anything about the program or about basketball and anyone affiliated with IU could do no wrong. I wasn't a Mike Davis guy and openly said so, even when they went to the Final Four. I was called a racist and an idiot, and those were the nicer things. Some guy gave out my home address - might have been milehi.....because he was pissed at me for some reason. The guy was from Denver. Whoever it was the guy was a mod and therefore not banned for it. He should have been. Anyway....We saw how Davis worked out and he recently authored a 1-31 season at Detroit. Etc...there were countless examples like this. I was critical of Tom Crean for several reasons, primary among them his clueless zone offense against Syracuse. He'd been in their conference and had seen Butler kill it 2 years prior in a final 4 run. IU looked like they had no clue how to handle it and wasted an opportunity to win a title. I got crushed for what I felt and still feel was honest criticism, method of delivery aside. Indiana's success on the football field has given the entire athletic department a shot of much needed capital and a realization IU doesn't have to - as Coach Cignetti said - take a back seat to anybody. Not in football, not in basketball, baseball, or anywhere else. I'm glad to see the new direction of the athletic program. I think IU waited a year too long on Mike Woodson, but I'm glad the split seems amicable. I always appreciated the civil banter here and certainly never meant anyone any harm. I did push back, though. I did and I do have very high expectations for our men's basketball program and those who represent it. Same for football and I thought Tom Allen was a clown. Good man, decent coordinator. Full of sh*t, though and stole money for a few years. Same as I think Woodson has done. I thank Jaybob for the mention and wish all of you a happy spring. Go Hoosiers.

This. What I love is a couple of bad shots go in for a single game (he entered shooting 33% from the floor and still below 40%), and the number of people playing "gotcha!" just grows. He is so close to being an elite player. Just needs to be smarter and absolutely let the game come to him. That's true 100% of the time. Bad shots are bad shots whether they come against UALR or Duke. They're a bad habit and create empty possessions. Anyone who doesn't think that matters is fooling himself. I'll die on the hill and let people try to feed me crow. Bring it.

You're still such a troll. I love it.

I'll pass. Still took two horrible shots and had 4 turnovers. You can love on it if you want to. Not for me. He's got game and a bright future, but the bad shots need to stop. There's no crow to be eaten after one "better" game. We'll see. It took X a full year to get consistently better.

IU 77 Rutgers 61

Indiana cleans up the fouls, giving up offensive rebounds, and makes a couple more layups, we win that game by 30. We're close to being really, REALLY good.

Indiana doesn't need a freshman guard to aggressively "make plays." He needs to get his shots within the flow of the offense and "make plays" the same way.

Perhaps you should watch the Xavier game when he was 1 for 9. Bad shots are bad shots. Makes no difference who they're against.

Kids who take bad shots generally keep taking bad shots. In 6 games, he has consistently taken quick shots and missed them. Most of which he can get any time he wants to and the defense didn't have to do any work at all. I don't assume he'll start making them because he's not a good shooter. What I DO assume is his coach will sit him if it continues because like Johnson a year ago, selfish shots are a turnover for him, and he does it too frequently. He is shooting 33.3% from the floor. As a freshman. He has no business taking the shots he does. A quick "take the first one you get" shot is a bad shot unless it's taken by the right kid in the right circumstance. So far, he is not the right guy to take them, and his decisions have not been good. "Let the game come to you" is something from which he would benefit. I'm not asking anyone to agree with me. I may think differently than most, but I disagree with "he should keep taking the same shots because they'll eventually go in." Maybe. But until they do? Against good teams and in close games, that's what gets you beat. Empty possessions are empty possessions. He creates too many right now between hero passes and missed "bad" shots. I don't mind the ones that come within the flow of the offense. Everybody misses those sometimes. It's the quick ones that he just fires I have a problem with.

Good guys 76 Heels 70

Until he takes bad shots against good teams and we lose in large part because he settles and tries to do things he can't. You'll care then.

Hood-Schifino cannot continue to turn it over and take bad shots at his current rate.

Indiana 32 'Putrid 24

IU 86 JSU 47

IU 96 UALR 56

IU 83 Miami 59

MSU 27 Indiana 17

MSU 32 Indiana 17