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Aaron

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Everything posted by Aaron

  1. I meant the starting pitching. 3 of the 4 starters struggled and I stand by that Krueger should be starting. Stiever as an ace was terrible and that needs to change. I am very high on Saalfrank but he didn't look good. I have never been a big Herrin fan and am not surprised he got roughed up. To me this is where you add Krueger in as either your Sunday or weekday starter with Saalfrank taking the spot Krueger does not. I am afraid Herrin will struggle all year on the weekday assuming that is how we use him. Stiever and Saalfrank I am fairly confident was just a fluke and they will be good. I agree Bullpen was awesome. I should of clarified
  2. Our offense (other than Lloyd) appears to be cooking the best it ever has this early and am very happy with that. I have some concerns about the pitching outside of Milto this weekend and I really don't like not using Cal Krueger as a starter since he is our second best pitcher in my mind after Milto. I was always taught by the coaches a few years ago during my college baseball internship that you pitch your best pitchers as starters as long as they have the stamina and Krueger clearly does having started last year. With all that said great weekend and to take 3 of 4 and 2 of 3 against the top teams will bode really well for our tournament resume having secured a high level neutral site and road win. We are not clicking yet and this weekend was still a huge success!
  3. Aaron

    College Bball Thread

    OSU's loss today means an MSU win against Illinois or an OSU loss to Rutgers ensures OSU cannot celebrate a share of the Big Ten Title on our court as MSU plays next Sunday and OSU will not know if they potentially have a share of the title until then.
  4. Aaron

    Game Thread: Indiana at Iowa 2 PM ESPN

    A couple things: 1. First off Sean in his first year had a horrible non-conf going 6-6 than had Arizona playing really well down the stretch and finished 10-8 in conference. They than used that as a springboard to 30 wins the following year and have maintained at that level since. So far at least the first year looks exactly the same for Archie as for Sean. Now we need to follow up each year after the same as Sean. 2. Archie's 9 wins in Big Ten play ties 2014-2015 as the most in conference for any year in Crean's tenure save for our 3 excellent years with him. Also the 3 road wins tie 2011-2012 and 2014-2015 for 3rd most in Crean's tenure. Lastly the 2 game sweeps of Iowa and Minnesota are the only time we have 2 game sweeps of 2 different teams in the same year outside of the 3 really good years (only other 2 game sweeps in Crean tenure were Rutgers in 2014-2015 and PSU last year). This team is less talented than any Crean had besides his first 3 years yet Archie is doing things in conference Crean was hardly ever able to. Most importantly we are playing well down the stretch which is something we did only in 2 of Crean's 9 years.
  5. That South Alabama radio announcer was annoying. I wish we had sent someone down there to do a Pro IU broadcast. Also sounded like the crowd was mostly IU as cheering was a lot louder when IU did something good. This is a huge early season win against a team that already knocked off the Oklahoma team we lost to. This is going to be a very valuable top tier neutral site RPI win that should hold up all year. This is our toughest weekend of the season and I was just hoping to get out of it 2-2 not slipping up against a bad KSU team and get one of the other 3 teams who could all very well be in tourney which we have now done. Winning tomorrow would be awesome but to me this is a pretty decent weekend to open the season regardless now.
  6. We have a major issue potentially. I am not panicked at all on a season opener but for Stiever as a staff ace to give up 3 home runs in 3 innings is a major red flag. Hopefully this is just a fluke and he gets it together but if this is a season long issue we may not reach our potential as he is suppose to be our best pitcher. Its also very odd in the 1st game to have the bats going already somewhat but have pitching issues. Generally in baseball at all levels its the other way around with the pitching well ahead of the hitting early.
  7. Well you can throw another coach on the list I know personally along with former coach Dunbar that is leaving the department who I like. I have no idea why Joseph left so don't ask as it would be nothing more than a complete guess. This is obviously a very different circumstance than Dunbar but never like to see people who you know personally leave IU athletics. I believe the number of coaches I know in the department is down to 2 now and I have not interacted with either in a very long time. Both Joseph and Dunbar while certainly not people i'm super close with, I have talked to them both a couple times in last year. I am sorry to see both them go.
  8. Everyone deserves blame for last nights atmosphere which was beyond terrible. Students really didn't show up but there were almost as many seats open in the non student sections as well. Also no one made much noise or stood at all even when the game was close later in the second half which is very unusual in similar circumstances. I have never seen an atmosphere this bad save for PSU, Rutgers and cupcake games. I understand Illinois is not good but last night was one of the first times in IU history where I was thoroughly disappointed in the entire crowd in every way given what my expectations were. I have been one of the people defending the crowd in this thread but there was no defense last night.
  9. Aaron

    #IUWBB @ Purdue - 7 pm ET/BTN

    Trust me Moren is NOT a better coach than Versyp. They are both equally mediocre. If you flipped them between IU and PU, records would probably be about the same still at each school. Versyp has had slightly more success than Moren since PU's pedigree is a lot higher in women's b-ball but she has been a lot less successful than any recent coach they have had in last 30 years. PU Women's Bball is IU soccer and she is their Mike Freitag. They have just stupidly held onto her a lot longer than most programs would given her lack of success and their high standards. In the last 8 years she has missed the tourney twice which is the first time that has happened for them since the early 90's and has not been out of the first weekend in that time. Prior to that between 94 and 09 they had been to 10 Sweet 16's, 8 Elite 8's, 3 Final Fours and a National Championship. Fortunately when IU slipped under Freitag it only took them 5 years to realize they had made a mistake (and Freitag won a title with Yeagley's players unlike Versyp who could only use Curry's players to get as far as the Elite 8). Trust me I love that PU continues to hold onto Versyp and drive their best program into the ground but from an observing standpoint its long past the time to fire her.
  10. Aaron

    #IUWBB @ Purdue - 7 pm ET/BTN

    Well looks like we may have successfully finished off Sharon Versyp's career in West Lafayette. As I said she is much like PU's Mike Davis winning a ton with Kristi Curry's players for a couple years but has since dragged the program somewhat into the mud by their standards. The last time IU put the final nail in someone's coaching career it was John L. Smith in football after we pummeled MSU in 07 (although I expect Versyp to stick out the year unlike Smith who was fired after the game) and basically sent them back to the top with DiAntonio so I am hoping PU doesn't go out and get a great coach who resurrects what is their best sport historically. I don't feel sorry for Versyp though after what she did to IU after one year. At the time I thought we lost a great coach but given how she can barely tread water at a very successful PU program I have a feeling we would have lost big with her eventually given our somewhat mediocre history. As for IU I am very pleased with the win and think this is very much like IU under Crean 2 years ago where Yogi picked the team up and all of the sudden won big at the end of the year. Only difference is Buss picked up the team a bit to late to win the Big Ten or even get an NCAA Tourney bid but she has put a disastrous season back on the rails and probably saved us a WNIT bid that we could very well win the whole tourney with how well we are playing. I am still not sold on this program long term and see many of the same issues I saw with the Men's team under Crean (a lot of talent with ridiculous turnovers and poor discipline) and am afraid once Buss and Cahill go next year will be in the toilet and probably delayed an inevitable needed coaching move (I hope I am wrong and this really works but I see to many problems). Moren vs Versyp is a lot like what Crean vs Gross was with maybe the two worse coaches in the conference going at it except PU is the one with the historic success instead of us.
  11. Aaron

    Colts / NFL Game Thread

    Now its official with Reich. Colts announce on website contract signed so there is no backing out this time.
  12. I think this is precisely what it is and what I have been saying. Nobody wants the balcony seats so you might as well sell them to students who may or may not use them then let them be unsold. This will be a great discussion to re-visit in a couple years if students keep not showing up once we get good but based on precedent that will not be the case (05-06 , 07-08, 11-12, 12-13 and 15-16 were the years we were either hyped or became good by the end and each time students filled the seats when this happened) and right now no one else wants them especially in the balcony.
  13. I just sat in the top rows of the balcony in the center for Memphis recently and its not bad. I have sat pretty much everywhere in the balcony at some point and the one spot that is truly terrible is the top 10 rows behind the basket. Everything else are decent seats in my mind (including corners and baseline high or low with them getting somewhat better the farther down the you go). However, as I said previously the atmosphere at a Pacer game at times can be truly pathetic in a close game late which is not something IU ever deals with.
  14. Aaron

    College Bball Thread

    Wow UVA blew the way in a way Crean would be proud. UVA up 4 with about 30 seconds left Va Tech makes a 3, UVA than nearly turns it over several times before being fouled. Miss the FT. Allow an offensive rebound to put VA Tech in front with 5 seconds left. Than UVA jacks a long 3 for the win with they had time to dribble in for a closer shot. For all the talk of UVA's defense and discipline they were completely the opposite of doing either last 30 seconds.
  15. Looks pretty close to last years class in terms of ranking. As I said what was prohibiting IU from the glory days was mediocre recruiting under Yeagley. He is a great talent developer. Nice to see for the second year in a row he's brought in an elite top 10 class. As long as he continues to do that a continued return to the glory days is very likely.
  16. Yeah this one is weird. I saw the video of Yeagley addressing his recruits on the team twitter page and he never mentioned anything about Ben being his son and talked about him like any other recruit. Clearly IU wants to treat him just like any other recruit and downplay that Todd is his dad.
  17. Aaron

    College Bball Thread

    MSU with a case of Dejavu. Get fouled up 3 against Iowa with under 5 seconds left. Missed both Ft's. Iowa dribbles to half court with chance to tie and 3 just misses except this time it went off front rim instead of back rim like IU.
  18. Aaron

    Colts / NFL Game Thread

    To me someone who is not being smart in all off this and is going to regret what he is saying is Ryan Phillips. He works for Big Lead as a national reporter but also is a figure on the Assembly Call show always where the Colts and IU fan base cross over somewhat. Also a regular on Kent Sterling Show. Obviously entitled to his opinion but he immediately tweeted this was on Irsay for being unprofessional and that this is somehow on Colts. Seems like your angering a part of the hand that feeds you. Next interview with Kent Sterling will be fascinating and he's usually on 1-2 times a week. As for me I always was worried about dealing with a Pats guy and was afraid this could happen. Ballard had to learn the hard way and so much for the thawing he had done with Pats as reported earlier in week.
  19. Aaron

    Cody Zeller - Atlanta Hawks

    Oladipo vs Zeller. Wish that had happened in Monday when game was in Indy.
  20. I know its different league different expectations but I could not believe how terrible the Pacers crowd was tonight late in a close game that the Pacers ultimately won. You can blame people for not showing up and for being quiet early in a game at IU but at least in a close game in the last 5 minutes people stand and get into a game and make a lot of noise and make it hard on the opposing team. You would of thought it was the 1st qtr. when the game was on line in last minute for Pacers tonight. Only maybe half the place stood as Memphis drove for the win and very little noise and that was the only time there was any noise at all in a down to the wire game. Again I am not comparing IU to an NBA crowd and at times it should be much better for IU but at least it never sinks to the level of pathetic that Pacers had tonight in terms of atmosphere even against cupcakes in November. By the way I am saying this all as both a huge IU and Pacers fan.
  21. Aaron

    Victor Oladipo - Memphis Grizzlies

    Attended my 3rd game of the year tonight and Victor was beyond terrible. Clearly he doesn't like performing as well when I'm there. Against Portland had 17 points but was an ugly 5-17 from field in blowout loss. He missed the Dallas game a few weeks ago with injury. Was even worse tonight with just 13 points and 7 turnovers as mentioned above. He also missed a wide open 3 to take the lead back with about a minute and a half left than committed a costly offensive foul with under a min. left. Fortunately Pacers still won as Turner was fouled getting the rebound after a Memphis miss on the next possession and made both ft's and Memphis missed a layup on their final possession with under 5 sec. left that would of won it and pacers held on. I love what Oladipo is doing but it just stinks in the 3 games I have attended I have not seen the normal vintage Vic.
  22. We finished with 8 turnovers and had 7 at the 4 min media timeout in the first half so we had 1 in the last 24 minutes.
  23. Aaron

    College Bball Thread

    Wiscy is so broken right now and look nothing like a normal Wisconsin team of the last 20 years. Everything Wisconsin is built on of strong free throw shooting, good discipline, frustrating slow pace and tough D is gone this year. Gard did a great job baby sitting Bo Ryan's players for a couple years but now everything Bo installed is gone. Gard has a lot to prove. Still to early to tell if this is an aberration like MSU football last year or the beginning of a downfall for Gard much like IU had with Mike Davis after he won with Knight's guys for a couple years. Nebraska is playing well but they still are not great having been blown out by a winless in conference St. John's team and also a pretty bad loss to a mediocre UCF team. The fact that this Nebraska team is thriving right now shows how weak the Big Ten is this year outside of OSU, MSU, PU and Michigan. The other 10 teams are all pretty bad and its just a question of who is the least bad of those 10.
  24. The reason they switched to GA at all was because in the late 2000's when I was in school students were showing up late so the activists students of my generation (I was not one of them who helped make this switch) worked with the athletic department to switch to some GA to address this issue. The year after I graduated they had just the lower GA but by doing that you only had as many GA spots as seats in K, L and M section so instead of empty balconies for non premium games you would have the back third of GA empty sometimes. Than the athletic department on their own decided to combine GA with the balconies to ensure the lower GA is full by tip off for both visual and TV purposes I would assume. I know some feel differently and the current system is far from ideal but I certainly prefer it to my days in school where you would get 1 court, 2 or 3 lower level low down (it was not GA at that point) and 1 or 2 high up games in main level with the rest balcony with all seats pre-assigned. Now with the switch to GA you get like 6-7 GA games, a court game and a couple games higher up in the main level. If you are timely and a big fan you are actually rewarded and normally get good seats which is something that lacked when I was in school. Certainly, current system is not ideal and people can differ how student tickets should be distributed but the current system seems preferable to what they used when I was in school where you just had scattered empties every year (except the Gordon year were people always showed up) in the student section for non premium games and everyone assigned a seat for every game.
  25. Yes. Born and bred in Bloomington. Diehard fan since Mid 90's when I was around 8 or 9 years old. Now live in Indy since graduating IU but lived in Indiana my whole life in either Bloomington (21 years) or Indy (9 years).
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