Old Friend

We haven't beaten anyone of substance.  We just haven't.  Notre Dame looks better now.  Wisconsin looks better now.  But apart from those games....Indiana has nary a single solid win.      The good news :  Sagarin rating is 18.  That's solid.                              Indiana is far better defensively without Blackmon                             Indiana has figured out how to win close games on the road   The bad news : SOS is 175.   That's pathetic.   As our SOS gets better, our Sagarin will drop unless we win several games against "good" teams, and the Big Ten is viewed now as a very weak conference.  Iowa is better than we are.  Maryland is.  Purdue is.  Depending on the day, Michigan State is. But we play just 5 games against those teams. with just two on the road.  I read today Indiana is projected as an 8 seed...which can obviously change, but Indiana needs to win some of those games to really make noise or really convince anybody they deserve much more.   The wolves won't leave Crean's door until he has sustained success.  His resume is what it is.  The eyeball test is what it is.  The people internally that say he wears them out are who they are.  The high school and AAU coaches who can't stand him aren't making things up.  He's done a lot of damage to himself.   Crean's whole career has been built on beating cupcakes.  Even at Marquette, his pre-conference schedules were largely a joke.   We all want to win, but at some point, you actually have to DO it....and then do it again.  And again.  I really think it'd take 3 straight seasons to convince me he's a coach who can win consistently.  And I mean top 3 Big Ten finishes with 22+ wins, at least one league title, an appearance or two on Sunday in the BTT, and at least one trip (and probably two) past the sweet 16.  I don't think that's too much to ask at Indiana.  Especially because he's really not shown he can do ANY of those with any regularity, and never has.     For what it's worth, I think next year's team (even without Yogi, Zeisloft, and Williams) has a chance to be better than this one.  Those three are all liabilities defensively for different reasons.

Nah.  They can play much better than they have.  OSU was a great game because so much went right so early, Ohio State didn't play well, and Indiana rolled.  But they didn't play nearly as well as they can.   Yesterday wasn't pretty, either.  I don't think they've played their best game yet, and I think they're best game is FAR better than any complete one they've played so far.

11-7 is the absolute worst this team should be in conference, which means, given some of what's happened, 20 wins and a 7 seed or so....at worst.   All of the Yogi fans, he was efficient as heck today from an A/TO standpoint, and when he is, Indiana is very tough to beat.  But he was still 6-17 from the floor; and tends to shoot with volume.  When he does THAT, we're not as good.   He still needs to let the scoring opportunities come to him instead of looking for them.  I think that's what will make the difference between this team having a chance to do well in the post season or not.

Won't be nearly as much as you might think.

Lots to work on, but I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty.

Didn't mean it as writing him off.  Just that I think he was more ready than Bryant is, and he hasn't exactly hit the league with a huge splash.    I think he'll ultimately be a pretty good NBA player (Vonleh).  Doesn't mean I think it was in his best interest to leave after his freshman year.  Kind of funny how many young players are hurt for extended periods of time.   The rigors of an NBA season are really hard on a body.   And one that's not yet ready?   Brutal.

If he thinks he is, he's listening to the wrong people.  He is nowhere near physically strong enough or quick enough laterally to have any chance for success in the NBA.  He's at least 1 more year to get him ready, and maybe two.  He's still a little soft (and I just mean like a young man...not yet fully developed), and needs some polish.  I'd hate for him to end up like Vonleh, who was more polished and more developed.  He played just 25 games his rookie season and less than 260 minutes the entire season.  Even in year 2, he's averaging just 3 points a game.  I don't know why a guy would leave early to be at the end of a bench or in the developmental league, but I'm not even sure Bryant would have the opportunities Vonleh has so far, which have been limited.   If he's desperate to get paid immediately, he can go be a late 1st or early 2nd rounder and spend time as a Mad Ant or something.  AJ Hammons is far more developed and far more ready.  He is currently projected as the last pick in the first round, and there are currently 15 players listed in the first round of the mock draft 6'9" or taller.   I hope he gets good advice.

Very happy for him and for the program.  We don't need to start over again, and this man has shown he wants to be here, which is fantastic.  No reason we can't go to 6-7 bowls every 10 years.  No reason we can't play with the big boys most of the time, even if beating them is a rarity.   His recruiting is much better than IU's used to; and stability in the football program is not something we've had since Bill Mallory; and firing him when they did remains a huge mistake.   Personally, I'm thrilled, and look forward to many more fun seasons.  Yes..and lots more frustration.  That comes with Indiana football.   But good for him.

RIght.  But when I wrote what I did about Purdue, they were playing well.  I didn't have a crystal ball handy to let me know they'd pee down their leg at Illinois yesterday.  When Indiana lost to UNLV, they looked absolutely awful.   So when someone writes "Yeah...how'd Purdue do today?" what's the point?  When I wrote it, they were exceptional.  Goes both ways.   Crean has a 17 year resume for people to look at.  One game against Ohio State at home doesn't change anything.   Just means we looked great for 40 minutes.  I would love to believe yesterday was the point at which Crean's career turns around and he becomes a consistent winner and that becomes the norm.   Everyone can decide for himself whether or not that's what happened.

Yeah....oops.

Same as Indiana did against UNLV.  Who just lost to Wyoming and is now 9-5.

To be clear, and I'm sorry of this didn't come across, I was posting that specifically and solely because of Guyton's quote that "Indiana Basketball.....was just different."   And I believe it should be.  Which is why I think we need to have a high bar, recruit kids who get it, demand our coach understands, and we win consistently with those people. Really, the point of that had nothing to do with Knight.

He never rested, he always coached us to the very end regardless of the score. Why do I post pictures of Bob Knight? I want to do my part to help keep the nostalgia alive. People will never understand the impact this man had on his players, the city of Bloomington, and Indiana basketball. I'll always pay homage until the day I die. Indiana basketball, "was just different"!   This is why we need kids and coaches who understand where they are.   Knight ain't coming back.  But he set the bar.

If facts bother you, ignore me.   I don't watch sports for contentment within one game.  I see flaws that sometimes get masked by other things, and I still see problems that will be exposed down the road, limiting what this team can accomplish.   Like I said, if that bothers you, ignore me.   I said I loved the effort and loved that we pounded them on the glass.  Does that mean Yogi still didn't take a bunch of bad shots and turn it over 3 times?   Does that mean we didn't shoot a low % from the FT line?

This game was won on the boards and on the defensive end.  Flat out hustled them.   And made just enough shots to get OSU out of the game.   A 50-31 advantage on the glass says it all.  17 offensive rebounds, 12 of which directly led to baskets says more.  Yes, Indiana made a few shots, but still shot just 46% from the floor.  Good...not outstanding.  We still take too many quick shots and rely on the three pointer (took 30) too much.  We still had 12 turnovers, many unforced.  We allowed an opponent to score 29 against us.  We still missed a ton of free throws (67% not good enough, and I don't think we took enough).   Our flaws still ail us, but the effort today was so much better, I don't know that numbers really matter.  

That's a huge indictment of Crean.   Regardless, they're a much better team when they focus on the defensive end; and they're a better team without Blackmon.  I hope all get better because of these revelations.

Credit where credit is due.  That's the best I've seen Indiana play in 15 years.  Good for Crean, good for the kids.

How many players were arrested while Knight was the coach?  (I know the answer is more than zero, but the point is a ratio) How many legal issues per capita since?  How many former Knight players have been arrested since he was coach?  (Todd Jadlow!  I know not everyone's perfect, and Knight was certainly not)    Apples and oranges.   You don't have to agree with me and I know you see things differently than I do.   You don't have to keep chasing me.  The simple truth is we have not hired a coach who understands where he is since Knight was fired, and the cultural decay of the program has resulted.  Bassett was smoking pot in the locker room while he was here.  His arrest was predictable.  He's a bad seed.  Knight generally did not recruit bad seeds.  Some....Jim Roberson and as it happens, Leary among a few others.  But Leary was in his late 30's when he had his problems.  Basset had problems while he was at IU.  He simply bottomed out later.   Indiana's coaches have generally not done their homework on kids for 16 years.  The pattern is obvious to me, and I'm fine if it's not to you.  We've had coaches who assemble groups of players rather than build teams.  We've had coaches who focus on players who need the ball and we've been devoid of kids who will do the dirty work or will work to make others better.   We've lost the culture of "we over me."  And we've recruited WAY too many knuckleheads.  Killingsworth was a knuckelhead.  So was DeAndre Thomas.  So was Jamarcus Ellis.  They didn't have big legal issues as far as I know, but that doesn't make them any less toxic.     I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, but I'm sick and tired of Indiana's players being in the news for the wrong reasons all while we have a team mired in mediocrity with players from all over the place.  That is not "Indiana," or at least any "Indiana" I grew up loving.

That's just the problem. Emmit Holt?  Nice enough kid.  He is not "Indiana."  Stanford Robinson.  Ugh.  Peter Jurkin.  Jeremy Hollowell.  Marco Killingsworth.  Armon Basset.  Joey Shaw.  Xavier Keeling.  Deandre Thomas.  Jamarcus Ellis.  Max Hoelzel.  Jeremiah April.  Jessean Gray-Ashley.  Ben Allen.  Bawa Muniru.  Guy-Marc Michele. Hanner Perea.  The list goes on and on.  Those kids are not "Indiana."  And we need to stop the pattern of recruiting kids who don't understand.   We need to teach the fans who think wearing the uniform is all that matters here and that any kid who puts on the jersey is automatically "in."  It's not.  He's not.   Players were smoking pot in the locker room when Sampson was let go.  Kids for the last two years have been getting arrested at an alarming rate.  We're losing our DNA, and it sucks.  Basset was just one in a long line, but he's part of the pattern.   I'm not about to relent and go with the crowd that says Indiana is no longer special.  It IS.  But the coach has to teach, administer, live, and demand that culture.  I don't know if Green or any of the incoming freshmen know why Indiana's special.  I think Gelon gets it, based on some of what he said, but I've never met the kid.  I don't know for sure.   But the pattern has to stop.     The funny thing?   You know who I think DOES get it?  Priller.

The pattern.  They've missed on every hire for 16 years and haven't recovered from hiring Mike Davis or bowing down to Herbert and Jesse Jackson in hiring Sampson.  The pattern of failure in recruiting and coaching hires is now approaching a fifth of a century, and it's time to turn it around.   Bassett was just another fool brought in here by another coach.  The current coach has recruited his share of fools, too.

And people complained when Dakich kicked him out.   Good, God.  Indiana needs to get this trash turned around and quickly.  Time to spend money on a coach who does his homework and can raise expectations to the level they were under Knight.  No...I don't want Knight back, but I do want his barometer back.   I miss Indiana Basketball.  Badly.

I'll take some of that.   If he's here in 2018, I'll be beyond shocked.  The man has never won anything.   That cannot happen at Indiana.  Iowa, Michigan State, Maryland, and Purdue are all better than Indiana, so we're at best 5th in the Big Ten if we played a complete schedule in the man's 8th season.  Not good enough.  He has the excuse of a Blackmon injury, but people are smarter than that.  Indiana has two even decent wins this season, and the only good team we played beat us easily by 20.  We lost to two mediocre teams, and struggle at both ends of the floor.  That can't last 3 more seasons, and if it can, I'll have given up by then.  Crean is at best mediocre...he was fine digging Indiana out, but he's plateaued.  It doesn't take a genius to see that....or even a competent AD.   If the University doesn't care enough about the program to make a very necessary change, I'm not sure why any of us would support it.  I'm in.  

Wow.  Education for a lot of people...including me to some degree.  DD is very, very good.  I know a lot of people don't like him, but he's right far more than he's wrong, and he does a great show.  The man gets it.

Yeah....pretty much this.   When's the last time you can remember Wisconsin having a total of 6 assists?     We had 18 turnovers and 13 assists.  Bad.  But we out-rebounded them by 5, shoy 7% better than they did from the floor, blocked 3 more shots, and were PERFECT 10-10 from the FT line.  Didn't get there enough, and had just 2 with 6:00 to go; but closed really well.  We're not a great team, and that was not a pretty win...but I like 3-0, even if I think our offense looks just Godawful.  The defense was much better, and other than Yogi trying (again) to do too much, I thought we were pretty efficient when we didn't turn the ball over.   18 turnovers is abysmal in a game with a pace than slow.  Work to do, but we're better defensively when Blackmon's out.  I know we'll miss his points, but that defense was a far better showing.

I don't know how much more obvious that can be.   But honestly?  Crean needs to go, too.  Watching this, there's no question.  There is no offensive goal.  They're not trying to do anything in particular with any consistency.  There's no system.  Turnovers are just....part of the game, even though we're losing specifically because of them.  This is a sad version of basketball to be playing in front of one of the best teams ever.  That group would ALL move better than the group on the floor.