Old Friend

4th foul was legit.  He moved into the guy.  3rd one was crap.   Ref can't lay that one on a kid for #3 early in the half.

Depends on who he listens to.  He is NBA athletic, but not close to NBA basketball ready. He's a D-Leaguer right now, and needs lots of work on ball handling, his jump shot, and he still needs to get stronger.  He's not a 2 because he can't shoot, which makes him a 3, but he's not good enough defensively to be a 3, and doesn't have enough range to stretch the defense like a normal "3."    (picture him matching up with LeBron, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, or Kevin Durant!)  He has a lot of work to do.  I think someone will draft him on potential alone, but a short career based on "upside" is not as good as a longer career with someone who's ready.   Troy has all the potential in the world, but he's not measurably better this season than last.   In fact, most of his stats are worse.  Fewer points, lower shooting percentages from all spots, fewer rebounds, more turnovers, fewer minutes played.  He has improved his blocks and steals by marginal percentages.    He has regressed a little, and the things that needed to improve after last season are the same things that need to improve now.   Oladipo set the example for how to get yourself NBA ready.  The formula is there.  Williams has clearly not followed it.   Here's the link to his stats in case anyone's interested :  http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/players/121077/

I noticed he pulled Zeisloft immediately after he hit two 3's in a row last night.   He's not totally cured.

I don't know - given history - how anyone can comfortably say what our roster will look like next year.

Happily?  It won't happen this year for me.  Crean has to win consistently.   And my definition of that is what Bo Ryan did at Wisconsin and what Tom Izzo does at Michigan State.  I don't think those are unreasonable expectations at Indiana.   Some look at national titles....which is just fine.  I tend to look at positioning...meaning, are we in position to win titles.  My personal focus is on Big Ten championships because I believe if we win those, or get close, everything else will fall into place.   For reference's sake, Ryan was at Wisconsin 14 seasons.  They never finished below 4th in the Big Ten, he made seven sweet 16's, three elite 8's, and two final fours.  He won 74% of his games, and Wisconsin was almost impossible to beat at home.   Izzo took over a depleted MSU team in 1995.  After two rebuilding seasons (like Crean had here), he has 8 Big Ten Championships in 19 seasons, they've been to 13 sweet 16's, six final fours, and 8 elite 8's.   If it can be done there.....I see no reason it can't be done and shouldn't be expected at Indiana.    Historically, our program is far superior to either of those, and Crean simply isn't in that class; and it won't change because of a few games in 2016.     He's made his own bed.  A few games of success isn't going to change history or his resume.  It is what it is.  He's had his chances to build a consistent resume at Indiana over 8 years, and has not done so.  Thus, he's not good enough for Indiana long term, until he is.   For me, this season needs to end with a top 2-3 finish in the conference; we need to play at least on Saturday of the BTT, and we have to make the Sweet 16.  Anything short of that, and BECAUSE of his inconsistency, it won't be enough.  If we do those things, I think he's earned the right to show he can do it again.   I won't be happy until he keeps showing he can do it, and does so for 3-4 more years at Indiana.  At that point, I can make the case that I'm happy he's our coach.  Until then, I support the program and the kids; and I am tolerant of our coach because I don't think the solution is available right now.

When we win sometimes, like tonight, our fundamentals aren't exactly stellar.   We are not a good fundamental team, and we don't win because we out-execute people.  When we win, it's with great transition offense, good shooting, and lately, solid defense and rebounding on the offensive glass.   Indiana is a bit of a conundrum for me because I don't like the style much, but love their toughness, speed, and the way they run when they're able to do it.      Teams that can slow Indiana down like Wisconsin all the time or Penn State last week generally beat Indiana.   When we're allowed to play up tempo, it doesn't always look great, but the floor's spaced so well, opportunities - and points - come in bunches.

Nice to win when we don't play particularly well.   Iowa didn't either, and our ability to make shots won the game for us.   Our best weapons were on the offensive glass and press break.  I think McCaffery made a mistake going back to the press as often as he did.  I think we got 4 or 5 layups against it.  Iowa missed a ton of free throws and a ton of layups.  Indiana didn't.   Certainly not pretty and not the clinic we put on against Michigan, but still a win that should lock Indiana into the NCAA tournament.  Still some work to do, but opportunities to do it.    I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty.

Energy = great   Shots = falling   So far, so good.  Can they hold the momentum?

Had nothing to do with you.  Don't worry about it.   And the "but not surprised" is also a cheap shot.   The personal attacks are just not necessary, no matter how subtle.  What's the point?

At some point, a smart person would figure out "hhmmm....this ain't working."

Then by definition, you're okay with mediocrity and "status quo" no matter what it is.  That doesn't make you a fan.  It makes you a blind loyalist.  A fan wants what's best for his team now and in the future.  You apparently don't care.   Is that correct?

That's my favorite post of the year so far.

You've spent a lot of time letting everyone know what a great fan you are because you're supporting Crean.  What has Crean ever won in "collage?"     Abe Froman was the sausage king of Chicago.

He's never had to.  Anyone who says and believes "the NFL hasn't seen anything like me" isn't a killer.  Anyone who - in a pre-game interview says he wants to be remembered like Steve McNair isn't a winner.  (He said Manning and Brady too, but McNair???)    He really thought he was invincible, and it showed when he never changed his cadence. The Broncos just tee'd off on him, and he got exactly what he needed.  A punch right in the teeth and a dose of humility.  Then showed no class in the post game presser.  You're gonna' act like an idiot when you succeed, you have to face the lights when you don't.  Just another full-of-himself punk.  Maybe he learned from it...one can hope.  But I am sincerely happy for Manning.   He eliminated all of the "yeah, but....." arguments this post season.

I don't think so.  Maybe I'm wrong or myopic, but I think our bar begins with the Big Ten.  We win it or come very close, I think it's fair to say Glass's bar has been reached for now, but I also think it has to happen again next year and perhaps the following.  Glass knows the bar is not reached in one given season, and Crean has still never won consistently.      We finish 4th or lower in the Big Ten, "making" the NCAA Tournament may not be enough.  Especially with yet another late season collapse.   I also hold out the strong belief (which trumps everything else) that the replacement will dictate - to some degree - the next steps.   Right now, I truly believe based on what I know, the replacement list has one man on it.   That may be true for another couple of years.  As long as there's some hope of belief we can get that one man, Crean's bar gets lower...embarrassingly so, because it doesn't matter.  But....if that one man is never coming (and I also believe Glass and others have had those conversations with representatives if not him), the bar gets raised  to a normal level, and results in a given year matter that much more.  Crean needs to win this year AND next year to keep his job.  I firmly believe that.  But if he doesn't win this year, and keeps his job, I'll start believing my theory that the replacement has dictated our actions, not anything Crean does.   Essentially, Crean is a place holder rather than any long term solution.

  Actually, no.  Your grammar is not correct.  You should have had some form of punctuation after "here," "man," and "correct."  Also, use of "ok" in a sentence is incorrect.  It's "okay" in word form.  But who's judging you?   You asked, after all.  Amazingly, your spelling was pretty good!  Congratulations!   Funny how you don't live here, but find time to post 560 times (only about 60 less than me)  and seem to always throw in little insults, but never reply when you're called out.  Like I said, go stalk somebody else and get back to this wonderful life of yours.   And yes.  You were wrong.   Both about OG as a high school kid and about my participation in the thread about him.  Anything else?

I'm not convinced he wouldn't have been.  He was a bad fit a Syracuse.  That was a horrible choice for him.  It's not like Perea, Jurkin, or Hollowell did anything.  We'll never know what he would have done at Indiana, and I have no idea why anyone would have a need to bring up something 4 years old except to take a cheap shot.   Remy Abell does nothing at Indiana, but goes to Xavier and has a ton of success.  "Fit" matters.  Style matters.  Patterson may or may not have succeeded at IU, but what he did at Syracuse has absolutely no bearing on what he would have done at Indiana.  

  Please find someone else to stalk.  My comments about him (OG) have been consistent for 9 months, and you can easily look them up.  The only post I made in that thread was calling you out for this little gem "I saw great things in OG early on and yelled from the mountain top about them! I am very happy he is playing how I thought he would! I recall some super genius some where cutting him down for lack of upper body strength.....what a joke! Great that OG is proving the haters WRONG! OG is a great piece to this TEAM."     That was you...not me.  You can fool yourself if you want to.  I never did see a reply after I posted those pictures of OG, though.  What's-a-matter?  Can't debate when there's evidence showing you're wrong?     Albeit is one word, by the way.  Not three.

Always the same reasons.  More turnovers than assists?  Check.   Poor shot selection?  Check.  Too reliant on the 3-pointer? (more than half our shots)  Check.   Yogi a poor shooting night?  Check.  Not much offensive movement?  Check.   There was a huge "OG love" thread the other day...kid's still a freshman.  Did next to nothing.  Hartman was awful.   Nobody "played well."   We just sort of showed up, looked like we took a team for granted.   Didn't play with any urgency, and got beat by a team that has less than half the on-paper talent we do.     This pattern is maddeningly predictable.   And if the pattern holds and Indiana gets a first round loss and 4th/5th place Big Ten finish, I'd love to know how Crean has done enough to keep his job.  By what measure?

Not intentional...forgot about him.  Loved him as a high school guard...but when a kid decided grades aren't important, and drugs are; and since he never dressed as a Hoosier, I don't count him and that argument is dead to me.  I don't count him as a kid who never made it.  He was essentially forced out because of his grades, and told we didn't want him even when he became eligible.

Crean's relationships with in state coaches is already awful.  I'm not the only one who doesn't like his focus on east coast kids.   Hollowell didn't make it at Indiana.  Remy Abell didn't (from just across the river).  Devin Davis didn't.  Gelon wouldn't be the first.  Crean wears people out, he talks about himself a lot, he uses Dwayne Wade every chance he can, and high school coaches know he's a churn and burn guy who doesn't necessarily want 4 year players.  Gelon was a surprise to me because there's no way he's a "help right now" kid, which showed me (or at least I wanted it to show me) Crean might be changing his ways a bit; but Gelon will not do much if any more damage with local coaches than has already been done.

I'm not sure I "really like" the signing as much as I'm not worried about his high school stats and see him as a 4-5 year player.   So many people are worried about what he's doing as a 17 year old kid and thinking what happens now is indicative of what he'll do in college, and seeming want him to come in and contribute significantly from day 1.  That's not who he is.  It's never been who he is, and the panic when he has a bad game just confirms how impatient and short sighted some fans are.  I'm not trying to belittle anyone here, but - for example - Brian Evans had a couple of bad games his senior year (I saw him score 5 points in a game that season, 3 on free throws), and became Big Ten POY as a senior at Indiana.   But...his first year or two, he didn't do a lot.     I'm not saying Gelon is going to do that, but I've also seen - for another example - Jaren Jackson, Jr. - a 6'9" junior at Park Tudor who every top D1 school is after - completely taken away by much smaller teams because he had guys around him constantly.  Doesn't matter how good he is if he's got 2-3 guys around him all the time. If Gelon has nobody setting screens to get him open, right now, he's not going to get his own shots on that team because other guys are better with the ball than he is.   Gelon was - according to a ton of people here - a bad signing...not someone we needed.  Maybe that'll end up being true, but his performance over the summer in more wide open games when he wasn't the focus shot him up the rankings, and as I said, this is not a kid who will or needs to contribute right away.  Not every kid HAS to be.  People are judging him now based on statistics that are in no way indicative of his skill set.  No college team will ever game plan to take away Grant Gelon.  And if he ends up being Chuck Franz, so be it.  He was never brought in to be a big numbers kid or an immediate impact player.  He may have leadership skills we need.  He may be nothing more than a shooter who we need to spread the floor.  Maybe he plays AAU ball with other kids we want?   You never know with kids like this, and I've never said he's a great player.  Nor did I say he is a main piece.   Patience is needed....not every kid will come in here and dominate immediately or even reach his potential immediately.

He's just not a kid who's ever going to go get his own points when a defense focuses almost solely on taking him away.  Just not the kind of player he is.  In that role, he's not going to succeed.  In a role where he can space the floor and simply be a shooter, he'll be fine.  He's not a great ball handler like Hulls or Yogi.  He's Todd Leary.  He's Matt Roth.     Teams focus on taking him away much of the time, and when that happens, Gelon is not going to be at his best.   Give him a year or two in college to develop strength and some additional maturity with his body, and I'd bet he'll be a decent piece.  I'm not sure I'd worry about his stats this season because he's playing out of his comfort zone and not within his skill set.  He's a recently known commodity which schools focus specifically on limiting.  That will never be the case for him at Indiana.

This whole thing's great, but yeah.  A round of golf with Knight.  Talk about memorable.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJnk4vI4lw8

I'd be happy playing on Saturday once in a while.  Our record in that thing might be the worst in the conference.