Old Friend

I don't understand why you're so hung up on it.   When I wrote that, I didn't know what I do now.  

I didn't say a word about the man. I respect the hell out of the coach. Everyone has skeletons.  Including me, including you.  I'm sure Tom Crean has skeletons.  I'm sure Izzo does.  Ryan;s are now public, and they're not within an acceptable societal norm.  Simple as that.

If Crean tries to duplicate this season's best style of play with next season's team, he will fail miserably.  Yogi isn't someone you replace because of his lateral quickness and skills in the open floor.  Newkirk's good.  Very good.  But he's not as quick as Yogi is.  He's a better defender, he's not a shooter, so we'll lose something there, even if Yogi's only average; but he's got a pretty solid A/TO ratio in his brief career.  This year will make him better, and he'll have every opportunity to be the point guard.      Blackmon and Johnson will do some ball handling, also.   

I did.  Until Johnson got hurt.  Iowa not playing very well, going the direction Indiana has until this season late in the year.  Wasn't surprised...we're more connected right now and going in a better direction than they are and they were.

Wow...    Okay, for the simple sport of it.   When did I say I didn't like anyone on ESPN?  I said I don't like Bomani Jones, but he's mostly radio.  I don't watch Skip Bayless, but certainly know who he is and have seen his lame act enough times to have formulated an opinion.   I don't watch it a ton, but what I do watch isn't for the personalities.  Maybe you watch all day because you have nothing better to do...  Are you this obtuse full time?

I assume you haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about.  

Man, isn't that the truth.   Skip Bayless is another one.  Just a complete and total waste of airtime.  Complete idiot.

I saw Bomani Jones' name mentioned above.  If sports gave an award for biggest moron and most complete idiot, that guy wins in a landslide.  I've never heard anyone who knows less, thinks he knows more, and makes judgments of people using nothing but narratives.   He is devoid of facts, loaded with bias, and without a shred of credibility.  He is the worst of the worst in my mind.

That's a pretty astute observation.  Never thought of it that way, but it makes some sense.   Although I think Troy, in spurts, is very capable.  He did well in stretches against Uthoff last night.

I don't think there's any question.

Blackmon got hurt, and he needed to make a couple of changes.     1)  Shorter, lighter practices to protect the health of his team.    Minimizing risk for injury and also limiting tired legs.  Shorter bench means need fresher legs.   2)  Defense becomes a focus.  Losing a shooter (at the time) means we can't as easily out-score people.  Forced a little different style.   And if he hasn't seen the obvious and absolute positive affects, he's a complete blind moron.

Conference tournaments are a money grab.  That's it.  There is no other purpose for them other than a narrative that says it gives teams a chance to make the NCAA Tournament.  While that's true, I'd be willing to bet conference tournaments - in their history - have launched less than 40 total teams that wouldn't have otherwise made it; and then had any modicum of success once they got there.

What a season.  What a win.  Winning at Michigan and Iowa should silence most of the schedule critics, even if we did have it easy.   I am so happy for the kids.  And honestly, for Crean.  That guy was one foot out the door at Thanksgiving.  Good for him.   The one red flag?  Even the TV guys acknowledged it.   Iowa  took away our transition in the second half....and our offense completely stagnated.  The formula to beat Indiana is there.  But I was so impressed with our toughness, our depth...   Really happy for Zeisloft and Yogi.  And Max.  This team's fun...maddening at times.  But fun.   One critique. I still think we need to do more in the half court to get shooters open.  Zeisloft is a great shooter.  4-5 tonight.  We didn't set one screen to get him open in the half court.   Need to be better than 10-20 from the FT line, too.  But we are the champions.  NICE!!

You know what?  You're absolutely right about consistency.  I let myself get caught up in the hype a little bit, and I don't normally do that.   You are 100% correct and I agree with you.  Thanks for the shove back to reality.

I don't know if there have been harsher critics of Crean than I have been.  Since the Verdell Jones days when I watched our offense just stand around and stand around some more, settling for bad shot after bad shot; I was very hard on the guy.  Even until early this season, I was very critical because I saw the same mistakes.  The same bad shots, lack of movement, and lack of adjustment getting us beat time and time and time again.  The same lack of defensive focus.  The same laziness and carelessness with the ball.   Coincidence or not....James Blackmon gets hurt, and something changed.  I can't blame Blackmon because I have no idea if he is part of the problem or if his injury was simply part of a catalyst that brought about changes.  But Indiana is different now.  They play differently.  The execute better.  They are better defensively.  They don't turn the ball over as much.  They don't take nearly as many bad shots.  They look like they're having fun.  They move the ball more and to better spots.   People move more and move with purpose.   Example : a few weeks ago, we were talking about how we might better use Troy Williams.  I don't remember what comment I made, but Hutch asked me specifically what I'd like to see from Troy.  I felt he was handling the ball way too much and trying to do things a little outside his skill set.  I said I wanted to see him used more as a cutter.  Off the ball, with the ability to make plays when Yogi or someone else drew help; especially with him (Troy) on the baseline.   I'll be damned if the very next game, that's exactly what his role was.  Purdue, I think.   And he blew up.  Not that I know anything, but it was pretty obvious Troy was pressing and had the ball too much.  Someone else saw that, too.   Point being, Crean's making adjustments and making changes to the team I think have been almost universally positive.  I used to (again, as recently as December) care very little if I missed a game because I didn't like watching us play.  That's not true now.  And it's not because we're winning.  We are Big Ten Champs.  And that's my bar.  To be in that conversation year in and year out.  Winning at a higher level will take care of itself.  I am not a "national championship or bust" guy.  Too many variables.  But if we get to a point where we're a player in the Big Ten every year, post season success will happen organically.   Crean backed off the players.  He's allowing them to be fresh and also to play more "free."  Within their own skill sets, but with ability to make plays.  Things have changed, and whatever happens tonight shouldn't affect Crean's status.  Unless Brad Stevens wants the job, Crean should be the coach at Indiana for as long as he wants it...assuming this is the new normal; and that's a huge assumption.  I've come around enough with him.  I reserve the right to be hard on him and criticize him, but I am off the "fire Crean" bandwagon.  He's earned the position.    Just in time, and his seat was getting blistering hot; but he made the changes, and I give him a world of credit.  

I have always felt that professional athletes who get paid to do what they do...get paid to win...get paid to excel are available for anything fans want to do within reason.  People can judge for themselves the class or worthiness of said hecklers, but toward professional athletes who people pay far more to see....and who reap benefit from that payment?  That's fair game.   College kids don't need to hear that.  People who boo kids are a low form of life as far as I'm concerned.  College athletes are kids.  Immature, not-quite-fully-developed kids.  Immature, usually unsure of themselves children.  OG Anunoby, for example, is 18 years old.  He can barely vote.  Can't buy beer yet. Teenagers don't know sh*t.  They make mistakes.     The only reason to even get on a kid is due to lack of effort.  Of all the things we CAN critique, I don't think effort is among them in this program's recent history.   One man's opinion, but I think booing a kid says a ton more about the guy doing the booing than it does about the kid.  You cannot teach class, and booing a kid is classless in my mind.  To me it screams "I am the lowest common denominator."  Beneath intelligent people.  

Tough matchup, but Crean still screwed that one up.  Didn't follow the blueprint to beat that Syracuse team.    For THIS Indiana team, the question is easy.  Can a team take away our transition game, and defend the 3 point line?  If they can't, Indiana will beat any team.  If they can and do, Indiana can lose to any team.  

Missed him on the list..   Thanks.

15 guys on that list.  Niego is a walkon.  Gotta' lose one more.   Priller?

That's because in recent history, Wisconsin has been the most efficient and consistent team in the country.  

We're not bad at the moment.  I'd say save the second half at Michigan State and a lackluster final few minutes v Purdue, we've been pretty solid for a couple of weeks.  We also lost to Penn State  the game following Michigan.  Since then?  We've been pretty solid in my opinion.

A few things..   1)  We are getting the most from what we have right now.   That was not happening in the pre-conference part of our schedule.  I'm not there every day, but it's pretty obvious something changed.  Crean's seat may have gotten really hot and forced him to look at some things and make changes.  I don't know, but they have.  Which has led to this team achieving what it can.   2)  We have a McD's all American and lifetime assist leader at point guard.  We have a McD's all American in the post.   We have a freak athlete on the wing.  We have solid role players and many who can shoot.  Our freshmen have matured quickly, and they're athletic.  I don't think we've over-achieved at all.  In fact, I'd say Crean (because of his history here) was a reason Indiana wasn't picked very high.  I mean, seriously, his resume doesn't necessarily say "can win the Big Ten" on a consistent basis.   But again...he's made some changes or adjustments in the way he's coaching that have been really effective.     3)  Let's face reality.  The Big Ten's not very good.  As deep and experienced as we are, we SHOULD be in this position.   I think, anyway.

You do realize he's made significant changes, right?  He's done a few things many people were calling for him to do (quit driving the kids so hard, focus more on defense, "do what we do" which is run, space the floor, move the ball, etc), and we're better because of it.  This is the first season in his 8 year tenure Indiana is better in late February than we have been at any point in the season.   You have to acknowledge the whole story, here.

Indiana wins the next 2 games, Crean's the COY.  And he'll deserve it.  He might get it with a 1-1 finish.   He's clearly made drastic changes in his approach.  This is the first team of his I can remember that's peaking late in the year.  That's better in late February than it was in mid-December.  He deserves a hell of a lot of credit, and I've been one of his biggest detractors.  I also said I wanted HIM to improve just like I want to see players improve, and he's done exactly that.   I give him tremendous kudos for his ability to (finally) figure things out.  

Perhaps.  I don't claim to know reasons behind things, but I will never understand why we go to New York to get a 3* kid early in a recruiting period.    I don't understand Tim Priller, Peter Jurkin, Stanford Robinson, Guy-Marc Michele, Emmit Holt, or any other off the radar kid from some other geographic area.   The way I see it, the lower part of your roster should be filled with glue guys.  Guys who understand the culture and the "why."  I may be the only guy on this site who thinks the way I do, and I'm cool with that.   Gelon may be a bottom of the roster guy, and he's damned sure not on the 2016-17 roster to help us win a title.  If he ends up being Matt Roth, he can help later in his career.  I am far more okay with Gelon than I am with Priller or Robinson.     I think any coach at this level needs to be able to promise the top of his roster playing time, and I suppose for immediate impact kids, I'm willing to expand my thinking a bit.  I used to be "5* kids only from out of area."   Might not be realistic.  But at Indiana - and Indiana is unique, I think we need enough kids who understand exactly where they are.  I think we've had too many who didn't.   If that means the bottom of the roster is filled with Indiana kids who may or may not have any kind of impact for a couple of years, that's what it means.  And I know one thing for sure....OG Annunoby and Juwon Morgan know where they are.