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For the sake of discussion, not comparison :  Jordan Hulls was not a quick or fast kid.   But he knew how to get his body in position....he was a smart player.  Leary couldn't guard a deck chair.  Roth struggled to defend. On other teams, Corey Bradford was only a so-so defender, but made 327 three pointers over 4 years.  Joe Crispin was a bad defender, but managed to make 308 three point shots in his career. Nobody'd confuse Blake Hoffarber with a defensive player, but he made 279.  There is a place for a shooter on any team.   Gelon is a smart basketball player.  You don't have to be quick and speedy if you're smart and understand spacing, help defense, and angles.  I think he does.  All about the game of basketball....not just the sport.

Sorta' have a feeling when it's all said and done, lots of people will be eating some crow relative to comments about this kid.  He's one of those players that's not necessarily at the center of anyone's radar, but by the time he's done, he'll have won 80+ games, scored close to 1000 points, hit a ton of big shots, and become a fan favorite.   I see lots of Matt Roth in this kid.  If Roth had been able to stay healthy....

I can't even figure out what he's TRYING to do.   When we give up big plays, 3-4 and sometimes 5 guys are grossly out of position.  I don't get it.  Sometimes, offensive guys make great plays.  That happens.  But Jeezus.....when a guy can just take a basic off tackle or stretch run play and go 75 yards untouched, we have a problem.

Too early, but I'd sell that.  We have athletes and play at a very quick tempo and can be extremely dangerous when we make shots, but that team had a lot more time together and generally players who valued the ball more than this one, and played with a higher basketball IQ.   Both teams are very vulnerable to foul trouble with the wrong players; however because of the 2013 team's experience, I think they were better equipped to overcome that.  This team can grow a lot between now and then, but overall, I think the 2013 team was slightly better suited for post-season success.

I'll go another direction with this, if only for the sake of discussion, to compliment the kid, and to make a point which I made a couple of years ago and have made many times since.   Noah Vonleh was in college for one reason and one reason only.  He wanted to showcase himself for the next level and show off his skill set.  He was a one year rental, and said as much.  A talented kid who was all wrong for this program; and I'd feel that way even if his team succeeded.  He chose not to play in important conference games due to what turned out to be very minor injuries and some soreness.  The act of a very selfish player, which he was. Talented, but very selfish.   He didn't care one bit about "Indiana," and was therefore the wrong kind of player for our program, no matter how talented he is.  I am very much on record as saying Tom Crean's biggest downfall as a recruiter has not been getting kids to say yes and come to Indiana.  It's recruiting kids who understand the program, the expectations, the fans, the fishbowl, and why playing at Indiana is very different than playing at Miami (with all due respect to Mr. Brown, who looks like he wouldn't have been a fit, either despite his talent).   That's why I believe so strongly in prioritizing the surrounding area because your odds of finding the "right" kids are higher.  Bryant is one who's not from here yet completely gets it, and I think it's great.   I hope it signifies a change in Crean's recruiting pattern.     Holt, Vonleh, Robinson, and many others have not been the same kind of player...and nor was Jeremy Hollowell, so it's incumbent upon Crean to really do his diligence when he recruits, because Indiana will always be successful when we recruit talented kids and great team mates who understand where they are.  I would bet every kid who plays for Duke understands the deal when they arrive on campus, and that's why Duke succeeds every season.  And it's why Indiana will succeed this season.  Rather than Emmitt Holt and Stanford Robinson, we have Thomas Bryant and Max Bielfelt. Both hard workers who get it.  I don't think Bielfelt is more talented than Holt, but I think he cares more about where he is; and we've seen with Vonleh that a talented post player can only do so much if he doesn't truly give a damn.   When you go play football at Notre Dame, you're getting into a situation very different than that of, say, Maryland or Virginia.  Both very good schools.  But it's just different at Notre Dame.  When you come to play basketball at Indiana, it's different than Miami or Georgia or Iowa or Purdue or Illinois or almost any school in the country.  Therefore, a kid HAS to understand where he is to truly succeed, and he has to be at Indiana for reasons beyond himself.  Vonleh was not.  It appears, despite a youthful mistake a couple of months ago, Bryant is.   He does appear to understand where he is and more importantly why it's important.    I watch something as simple as his running back on defense and see a completely different player than I saw in Vonleh.  Emotion is a great thing.  So is being a great team mate.  So is working to improve so your team succeeds rather than so YOU succeed.  Oladipo was a great example of this, too.  Marco Killingsworth....was not.  Bryant is the kind of kid (apparently) we need and around whom we can build championships.  We need this kind of player in every recruiting class for as long as we have a basketball program.   Indiana is NOT like everyone else, and as long as we get kids who understand that, we'll be just fine no matter who the coach is.   Very pleased with Thomas Bryant so far, and he's gonna' be fun.   Enjoy the ride. 

And so much more upside.   Pretty impressed with his ability and certainly his future.  Good for him....hope he sticks around another year or two because I think he'd benefit.    A little more consistent range, a little more lateral quickness, a little more work on timing, continued improvement in conditioning, a little more work on his overall strength, a little better understanding of positioning and footwork....and he's a solid NBA 4-5.   Will be fun to watch him develop.   He also seems to understand his environment, which - for me - is terrific to see.   Go on, young man.  

I thought some of the play calling was bad all afternoon.  Devine Redding is not your guy on 4th and 2 up the middle....yet there he was on the 1st drive of the game.  Howard seems to tire very quickly, and he's not in the game for long stretches, which I also disagree with; but at the end of the game, on the edges and off-tackle, Michigan had no answer.     We're so damned close....I LOVED Mitchell Paige's getting on the team about that.  "ENOUGH BEING CLOSE!!"   Two wins and we'll get a bowl.  No way the selection committees don't see what this team's capable of; and I think we WIN a bowl when we get there.   But my God, is that defense abysmal.  Wow.

That's a great get.   Good for him and good for Indiana.  If all of the off-court stuff is behind these guys, and we can find a leader among this group, there is no limit for this program.   Happy to see this class coming together, and I have to smile at all of the folks who were grousing when Grant Gelon committed as if he were going to be the only one.  Gotta' let things play out; and this is good news for all concerned.  Welcome, big fella'.   Work hard, and you'll love it here.

Everybody's best interior player and supposed "missing piece" isn't an inexperienced freshman a team is counting on for 30 minutes a night in order to reach its potential.    People can be realistic or not, but to be critical of reality seems a fool's errand.   We are absolutely counting on a freshman to anchor our interior against teams in a conference (especially our chief rival) who have plenty of depth, plenty of experience, and plenty of size.     I don't know of many teams who have to count on 150 minutes every night from it's 5 best players, by the way.    We can deal with Blackmon, Johnson, Hartman, Bielfelt, or Zeisloft getting into foul trouble.   We cannot get away with Bryant in foul trouble.   That's just reality, and it's a limitation; like it or not.  This team is not close to perfect or complete; and we struggled for long stretches against Bellarmine and Ottowa.  We'll see a lot better than that.   

Yeah....this.  I would have thought people knew what I meant.  And yes, I watched the game.  Assuming Williams plays a wing, we don't have a single front court player on the roster (other than Priller and Hartman if you count him, I think he's a tweener) who has experience in our system.  Juwan Morgan is 3rd in line, and Bielfelt, who was marginal at Michigan, is #2.  A freshman is #1.  Deepest team Crean's had??   Not even close.   Warm, inexperienced bodies don't equate to depth.   Let's talk in a month and see where we are relative to "depth."  If we're counting on Onunoby and Morgan to provide it, we have a "maybe."  Not "depth."   I'll stick with "we're really good if we stay with our top 6-7 kids.  After that, it's marginal."    I also think we have some significant limitations defensively because we can't afford Bryant in foul trouble; and he's going to have to play 30+ minutes every night in order for this team to maximize it's potential.   That means to me that we have a high glass ceiling.

All I think this game proved was what I think everyone already knows.    We're very good when everything goes our way and we're able to play our top end players.  But we're also very vulnerable to poor play and scoring droughts when we have to dig into the bench.   This team has a glass ceiling, I'm afraid.  It's a high ceiling, but lack of depth and experience will be our undoing.    It's hard to count on freshmen to do what we need them to do.   Nice to see Indiana play well for a while...concerning that they didn't play very well for a while.

Whoever the color guy was on the ESPN broadcast today said "80 teams go to bowl games.  Indiana is better than 65 of those teams, whether they qualify or not."   I don't think the number is that high, but Indiana's so damned close.  We obviously got crushed being in the division we're in; but this is a decent football team that just needs one thing to go right....one bounce.  One stop.  One call.  It seems there are one or two plays that beat them every week.  At least we're right there more times than not, now.  A few years ago, Iowa beat us something like 652-6.  Or that's how it seemed.   Cultural change and expectations of a program take a long time to change.   This program is miles better than it was 5 years ago.  One damned break.....and I think it snowballs.

The bigger picture is whether or not he can sustain success and win at a high level year in and year out.  It is not, and should never be about one particular season.   There is no question Crean can stockpile talent enough to have a very good team every few years.  The questions that remain, and have not been addressed are whether or not he can get the most from his teams (I would suggest he has not done that at Indiana), and whether or not he can build depth and sustain when his teams have losses.  For example, next season looks grim.  If we lose just Yogi, Williams, Zeisloft, and Bielfelt (which looks like the reality), we're hurting.  We lose either of Bryant  or Blackmon, we're going to be flat bad.  His system is what it is.  He is what he is as a coach.  He needs to improve, not just recognize; and I'd love it if he consistently said it's not just about one season or if someone would hold him accountable to that.

I agree with this.  Yogi will get his points.  He's too good and too quick not to.  With this team, he needs to be the point guard.  The floor general.  He can't look for his own shot all the time when he thinks IU is in trouble.  He can't over-dribble.   He has to find shooters and get everyone in the right position.  He has to keep everyone moving.  He has to lead.  Less quick jump shots, less off the dribble, and more of his playing like a point guard and a leader.  He has to make everyone better FIRST.  Then look for his own points.    

Indiana is close.  Painfully close.  But....this team might be the worst I've ever seen on 3rd down.  Defense especially, but really on both sides of the ball.  How can you get 9 yards on 1st down, and look like it's the hardest thing ever to get that last yard on 2nd and 3rd?  How do you give up 75%+ of third downs on defense when you have as many 3rd and 10's as Indiana had...and played against the run as well as any Indiana team I've ever seen.   Maddening.

Agree with just about everything you said.  We are very poor at using the few screens we set; the screens we do set are ineffective and not solid, and I still don't understand why we don't set screens to get shooters open.  We never did it for Hulls, we don't do it for Blackmon....I don't get that.  We don't attack mid-possession...which is stupid.  We attack early, and if we don't get what we want, we frequently do nothing productive for 20 seconds or more.   And yes....we stand way too much.  Passion's great for any leader.  You have to have that to be successful, whether it's shown outwardly or not.  But, you also have to have a plan and an idea of execution.  You're right...Crean struggles mightily at the execution piece, and he's not very good at on the fly adjustments.

I don't think we have enough on-ball defenders capable of taking away penetration in the half court to make teams "out shoot" us, and we certainly don't have the depth in the front court to prevent teams from rebounding their misses on a relatively frequent basis (in a shooting contest with lots of long rebounds).  Our teams have been very mediocre (stat wise) relative to giving up offensive rebounds.   One advantage we do have is speed, and teams will have a difficult time matching up with that on a nightly basis, so I would bet we'll have more chances to play straight up man than we did even a year ago.  What I don't want to see is Crean making inner-possession changes..man, then zone, then man in the same possession.  That got us way out of position a year ago.   While I agree with the depth point, I still think we need to press when we can.  Williams' versatility helps us in that regard because he can play on the ball and use his length, or play back and utilize his anticipation and ability to handle the ball 94 feet.  I'd like to see Indiana get really good at either man or some zone (I like a 1-2-2 with fast, athletic teams), and I do not want to see them try something new every game.   I want Indiana to do what Indiana does well, not worry about what other teams do as much as we seem to.  We've got more weapons than most teams; so I think we need to make teams match US; which means less is more on the defensive end.   Whatever defense we rebound out of the best and whichever one takes away or cuts off penetration the best.   That's the one I want...and I don't have that answer because I haven't seen them yet; but that defense exists.   Crean just needs to stay with it.

25. We were up 25.  Good grief....we threw for 400 yards with quick crossing routes and sideline throws which opened up a deep throw or two; and then late in the game with a lead, we try to take the top off on 1st down.  (Sudfeld was terrible in the 4th quarter...did Rutgers change anything?  I really wasn't paying attention to that)  We run straight into the line with a running back who can't move the pile and doesn't fall forward; and one would think we'd figure out some way to get them stopped....once in the 4th quarter?  Especially when it was 1st and 20 one time?   I've seen a lot of losses by this program; but that was by far the most embarrassing.   Complete comedy of errors.  As someone else said, I didn't know that was possible.  Especially against a bad team.   Holy cow.

Wisconsin has finished below .667 in the Big Ten just one time in the last decade and they average about 8 losses a year.  Even if they fall short of both numbers by a little bit, they're a 22+ win team with 10 losses or less.  That generally says "top 25" in the Big Ten, and I would bet it's indeed a "benefit of the doubt" vote.   They always have guys step up and take over when they have holes.  They have a marvelous program, and it's the model for me.  I'm big on recruiting locally and recruiting to your system and style.  Ryan is the master.

Howard is very different than Coleman, and he's not as explosive.  But, he's more powerful and moves the pile better than Coleman.  Like I said, they're different.  Howard was the #6 RB in the country last season and was #2 in the country when he got hurt, so he's not THAT far off and I think many under-value him.  Guy's averaging 6 yards per carry and had 709 yards in basically 4 games; plus he's averaging 10 yards per reception.  And, he's averaging 7 yards per carry when we're pinned back inside our own 10 yard line.  That's stout.   Coleman is and was far more explosive, but Indiana's running game is far better when Howard's in the game, and we're a very different team without him.  Because of the way we play, I think he's equally important to Sudfeld.   I hope both can go today.

Think of it this way....he rolled it because he landed on it wrong.  The brain will naturally protect that from happening again until it's healthy.  It's got nothing to do with toughness or any of that....and I agree; they both suck; but with the plant foot, at least you can control it.  With the landing foot, the brain sends a signal of "WATCH OUT OR YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF" as you're getting ready to land, and that forces a quarterback, pitcher, etc to be ginger on it.  It's one reason why Peyton Manning's throws were weak at times during the last couple of years.   Think "Kerri Strug."   Why was everyone so shocked?  It wasn't because she was able to run and push.  It was because she was able to stick the landing.

I didn't think so.  Diamont to me looks like a little kid.  Just my opinion and the ball he throws.  The results were what they were.

You have to finish strong on your front side to make a good throw.  Otherwise, it's all arm, and therefore weak.  The front foot is actually more important for that reason.   You do plant and push with your back foot, and I'm not telling you it's easy or anything; but when you're going to land on a sensitive ankle, the natural tendency is to land as softly as possible so it doesn't hurt or tweak.  It happens naturally...and it's all but impossible to get past.  Anyone who's had a sprained ankle will understand.  I was both a pitcher and a quarterback at one time, and I've got plenty of experience with this exact scenario.  You can tape up an ankle enough to push off of it (plant/push ankle)  It never leaves the ground and doesn't take a pounding like the front foot does.  It's almost impossible to get past the mental block with your front foot.   The human brain is trained to know when pain's coming, and we ALL flinch.  We ALL pull back.  We did it as kids when we were going to the doctor to get shots.  It's a natural reaction.   We weren't able to win a year ago because our defense wasn't able to stop anybody and we had zero passing game because Diamont is just awful in that area.  He can run, but Cameron is a far better thrower.   We had one of the best rushing offenses in the country with Randle El and Williams several years ago and never made it to a bowl game solely because of defense.  Now, with balance, and a decent enough defense, I think Cameron is good enough at the passing game to win, but we need a running game.  Howard is far better than Redding, and his numbers say he is actually as good as Coleman was.  Different, but equally productive.   Different team, different year.

Landing on a bad ankle forces you to throw off your back foot.  The left ankle for a right hander is probably more of a problem than the plant ankle is.   Think about how it is landing on a sensitive ankle...  I'd rather have Howard healthy than Sudfeld because I think he makes a bigger difference.  Cameron is a decent enough arm to play a game like this.  

We learned last week how important Howard is.  Redding struggles to move the pile like Howard, and Indiana has a very slim margin for error.  Winning without Howard will be very difficult.  Hope you're right about Sudfeld, but I can't believe ankles (non-high ankle sprains especially) would keep those two guys out this long knowing what training and rehab is available to them.  Just seems like Indiana can't catch any kind of break...staying healthy at key positions among them.  Suspensions of key players.  Lack of quality depth at positions that sustain injuries, etc.       This is one we need to get.