RaceToTheTop

He couldn't get on the field at Ohio State his freshman year despite the investment.

Anybody else not really seeing anything special from either team in the SEC championship? Any reason to believe IU couldn't be in a competitive game with either of them?

I am calling it: Texas misses a field goal and Georgia wins.

Let's see what happens is SMU loses to Clemson -- especially if they lose badly. I don't trust that the committee would keep Alabama out. I am rooting for Georgia to beat Texas. I figure Georgia is then the 2 and Texas the 5. That would move Penn State to 6, Notre Dame 7, Ohio State 8, Tennessee 9 and IU 10. I would think that would end with IU playing Notre Dame should Penn State lose to Oregon and IU playing Penn State should the Nittany Lions lose to Oregon.

IU transfer portal target Tony Perkins has been no bueno for Missouri.....injured for a couple of games, not very good in others. 22 mpg, 8 points, 2.0 reb, 2.5 assists and shooting 39/10/76. Same with Connor Hickman. 25 mpg, 6.4 points. Only shooting 29% from three. Leland Walker has played pretty well at Florida Atlantic. 30 mpg, 11.1 points, 2.9 reb, 5.2 assists. Amari Williams is the big man from Drexel that IU passed up in favor of Ballo. Williams averaging 9.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. I definitely prefer Ballo but Williams has been decent. Player I really liked but never gained any traction at IU was Toibu Lawal from VCU. Wasn't really a fit at IU but kid is 6'8" and raw and can absolutely leap out of the building. Was averaging a shade under 8 points and 6 rebounds at VCU. Landed at Virginia Tech and is doing pretty well -- 11.4 points, 6.6 rebounds in 25 minutes and is shooting 60/33/72.

Indiana currently at 43 on POM and 41 on Torvik. Beginning of the season, IU was 38 on POM and 32 on Torvik.

Over 60% of Rutgers scoring coming from their three stud freshmen. But it's not like a normal PIkiell team.....have struggled on defense and are 5-4. Best to play them early in the conference schedule -- IU plays them on January 2nd, which is probably a positive.

He'd be a fit. 51 catches, 685 yards last year. Two years of eligibility left.

The stars on transfers by 247 aren't usually up to date and aren't kept in some cases if the transfer isn't a high level one. He was fourth on Nebraska in tackles.

I think that the Jordan factor had a lot to do with his ability to control them. Once Jordan was gone, Pippen had the playoff game that he refused to go in for the last couple of seconds because Jackson's final play wasn't drawn up for him.

I agree that we could be a bubble team but I think if IU is .500 in conference, they're in assuming that the Hoosiers win their other remaining non-conference games. While there haven't been marquis non-conference wins, the SOS on Pom for the non-conference is still 134. Probably last year was a horrendous non-conference slate and games won by tiny margins. At the end of the day, all our non-conference wins have been by double digits.

Yeah, and a really poor game from an Illinois team that was coming off a 13 point neutral court win over a ranked Arkansas team. Illinois is kind of the anti-IU team -- offense built completely around the three right now and when they are hitting they are hard to stop; when they aren't, you get the offensive output they had against Northwestern.

Last year the season kind of ended in the non-conference because IU had to play so much catch up because of the lackluster play even in wins in the non-conference. The final results this non-conference season have had final scores that would be okay EXCEPT for the farce of a game we played against Louisville. 16 point losses to Gonzaga are games that can effect seeding but not really whether you get into the tournament or not. The Louisville game was flat out horrible.

I like and trust what Ant Wright says -- he's a pretty big Pro-Big Ten guy who doesn't seem to have a bias against any team in the Big (although he is a pretty anti-Purdue fan guy, always making sure to post the 'you get in there and make it about you' meme any time a Purdue fan posts something about Purdue in a thread dealing with other teams).

Phil Jackson was also the master of putting himself into situations where he couldn't fail. Coach the Bulls, retire, and then take the job with the Lakers with a prime Kobe. It is worth noting that Jackson and Woodson were tied together as Woodson coached the Knicks in 2014-5 to a 37-45 record; he was fired after the season. Jackson was the GM for the next two seasons where he installed former players Derek Fisher and then Kurt Rambis to the head coaching position where both failed miserably. So Jackson knew enough to delegate as a coach but when he was in charge of the coaching decisions and team make up......ugh.

We all have friends (or co-workers) like Tom Crean and Mike Woodson. I don't know individually that Crean was a better X and O guy BUT he at least would listen to people around him. And while ultimately his lack of X's and O's got him fired, he made it nine years, had IU ranked #1 and won two big ten titles (which is an okay run from a bball coach). And I never got the feeling from Crean that he was a 'look at what I did I'm the greatest coach' kind of guy......something that Woodson has been despite not having the results that warrant it.

I have avoided this thread for awhile, but giving his friend Jerome James' kid Dallas a scholarship this year only to see him never get into a game that even a walk on gets into is a grift to me.

I don't have a problem with the addition you made. But I stand by my point that if Woodson was a more likable person, the results he's had wouldn't put him under as much fire as he's in. IU has basically been a 20-12 team on average since he's been here -- not what we want, but better than what Miller was putting together. The talent Woodson has had has been good enough -- although the composition has been uneven. On the X's and O's I agree with you -- he's not a good college coach and he three+ years in he hasn't adapted. IMO it's all about his personality flaw that refuses him to allow being questioned. There have been poor X and O coaches who have succeeded by accumulating talent AND surrounding themselves by assistants that they listen to. Woodson doesn't and in the long run I don't think the odds of him changing his ways is good because he refuses to acknowledge flaws. Take Tom Crean as an example. Not a great X and O guy but he did allow input from others. And at the end of the day, despite being weird -- he was a pretty good guy at heart. Fans didn't turn on Crean until much, much later.

Jakucionis 6 of 10 for three for Illinois; the rest of the team was 3 of 24.

Northwestern beats Illinois in OT, 70-66

Northwestern answering everything Illinois every time they hit a big shot in OT. Northwestern up 3 and on the line for an and one with 1:34 left. Jackucionis -- Illinois freshman -- is really good.

Illinois and Northwestern a combined 11 of 50 from three tonight.

Nortwestern/Illinois going overtime. Illinois had a long three point shot miss with about 15 seconds to go ahead and then Northwestern misses a fall away three as time expires Miss as well. Really bad play design on both. Really thought Collins should have used a time out to set up a play because it was going nowhere.

This is where I think Woodson loses the fan base the most (other than him feeling like he is 'beyond questioning'. He is sitting at 77-44 and 31-29 in the BT partway through three seasons with two NCAA appearances and one missed. One win in the play in game, one win in the round of 64. Last year was a disaster but that single year wouldn't see a fan base turning on him if it were for his attitude AND the fact that the style of basketball isn't much fun to watch. TJD hid a lot of issues when he was here. The talent level this year is really good on paper and it's talent that we think an elite college coach could do a lot with. 76-57 games CAN be fun to watch it the play is fun to watch. It wasn't a great watch tonight.

I think we all know he's a 4 defensively. His biggest issues today were certainly being burned by smaller, quicker players. He's shot the ball well this year but defensively he's struggled when he's guarded the 3. But he has been shooting the ball very well (not today, but for the year he's at 53/45/92. A better coach utilizes his strengths more and minimizes his weaknesses.