Aaron

Update: Charlie Creme has moved us to a 4 and home games so maybe beating Rutgers is enough but I don't think so. Bracket he has is a dream world and would be a massive disappointment if we don't go to Sweet 16 as our 5 would be Princeton who is a mid-major who has had a great season and is the type of team I always want to play in second round..

I think they fall just short but would love to be wrong:). Think they need to somehow beat Maryland to be a be 4 otherwise 5. I would kind of rather travel as 5 seed as IU has been better on road and neutral sites then at home.

Not unless we beat Maryland. If you wanted to be in line to host now don't lose to NW. That OSU game will make no difference seeding wise as frustrating as it was. Kind of prefer we don't host as we have played far better on road and neutral sites then at home. Being sent to Chicago as a 5 seed with DePaul as 4 would be ideal as a close site and gives us golden chance at programs first Sweet 16.

Nope Rutgers in Big Ten tourney which is probably a break.

Really, really impressive. Absolutely embarrassed a quality NCAA Tournament in Michigan on their own floor. We were really impressive on the road in Big Ten play this year at 7-2 and beat Michigan, Rutgers and Purdue all who are probably going to NCAA tourney. Also wins against decent Nebraska and Minnesota teams. Overall this game best performance since Rutgers early in Big Ten season and 13-5 in Big Ten is best Big Ten record in program history. Next win will be most overall in program history. That said that home loss to NW is continuing to haunt us. It would not of changed our Big Ten seeding alone but I think it would of locked us into 4 seed in NCAA tournament vs. now we need to beat Maryland. That OSU loss makes no difference on its own in my mind and would be a 4 seed in Big Ten Tourney and 5 seed in NCAA tourney win or lose without Maryland win in Big Ten Tourney. We play Rutgers in Big Ten Tourney in a bit of a break as they moved up to 5 and dropped OSU to 6. 2:30pm Friday. Glad to be done with home games probably as we have played much better on road and neutral sites.

Yes definitely a bit disappointing. To be 4th in Country and finish 3rd in your own conference is not ideal. Finishing behind Michigan who is one spot behind you in National Rankings is somewhat understandable but to finish behind Ohio St. who is 13 spots lower in the rankings to me is a massive disappointment. You finally got to host this year and by IU's lofty standards they laid an egg in front of the home crowd. It's nice to be at the point again where third is a disappointment but that is where the program has gotten back to which is great and Ray Looze deserves credit for that.

Remember this happened last year where we caught ourselves at end but it was to late. This year it is not to late for a late season surge to put us in NCAA tourney. Its almost like jumped off a cliff the last two years. Last year though they did not get the parachute open in time on the dive and landed to fast (the late season surge was to late to make NCAA tourney). This year they got the parachute open in time and that should lead us back to NCAA tournament hopefully. Nice we started winning while on bubble this year to play our way much safer in vs. last year we were so far off the bubble the late season surge only got us back on it barely.

We continue to baffle in the fact we are much better on the road then at home. We have four home losses which isn't terrible but 10-4 at home could be better and is actually worse then Men's team. However, on the road IU is 9-2, including 6-2 in conference compared to just 5-3 at home. How often do you see a team play better away from home? Maybe it is a good thing we are travelling for NCAA Tournament as a 5 seed most likely as we play better away from home. Won four straight on road. Lost two straight at home. Very odd.

That is correct Maryland has tiebreaker. ESPN has an error.

This year is turning into a good year that could of been great. Ironically, our play away from home has been far better then our play at Assembly Hall. We are 10-3 away from home but just 10-4 in Assembly Hall. Also 3 of our 5 conference losses have come in Bloomington. Our play on the road is terrific and we have wins over South Carolina, Rutgers, Purdue, Nebraska, Butler all of who are having solid seasons. We have also beaten Miami and Florida who are no slouches. At home though we have meltdowns against OSU, and NW, a really poor performance against a great UCLA team, not to mention a near disaster against an awful Wisconsin team. Maybe it's a good thing we will be travelling for the NCAA Tournament as we seem to be getting our best wins and performances away from our home court. In many ways this season is a lot better then any we have had in a long time as we are in the tournament no matter what we do down stretch instead of fighting tooth and nail to get in. However, we have missed opportunities to make this season as great as it could be. The problem is sustaining this level of play or better. It takes a long time to build a winning culture and right now we have to make sure this is more then just a brief upward turn that goes bad as happened early in the Coach Jack and Coach Bennett era (although admittedly we have reached greater heights in the current up tick then we did then), especially given we have no recruits moving forward so we need a big season to reel them in once this current group leaves. Players come and players go but a culture sustains. Only baseball has turned it around and sustained the winning culture through multiple coaching changes and recruiting cycles. Other sports have had upticks for a year or two then fallen back and women's basketball needs a big season pretty soon to really change the culture and sustain the winning so we don't fall back in a couple years like we have in past in this and other sports.

Very ugly but we found away. That effort beats absolutely no one else in big ten besides Penn St. so we are lucky we played who we did. If you are going to have an off night though better to have it tonight where you can still win. However, better play much better next few games (and I think we will) or we will lose moving forward.

Normally I would like all the Indy games (4) living here but I am busy during at least 3 of the 4. Good thing it is exhibition and games don't count (of course that could change quickly if the expanded season gets approved but then games would be in Bloomington and not Indy then).

Got to win this big no question but we probably will Illinois and Penn St are by far the worst teams in Big Ten and everyone is going into Champaign and winning by 20 and we need to do same or close. Really we should not lose more then one more game (either at minnesota or michigan who are battling for tournament) and have an easy schedule last five games of conference play. We should get the 4 seed in Big Ten Tourney barring a collapse but to get a 4 and NOT 5 seed in NCAA tourney we are going to have to take out Maryland in Big Ten tourney or pray to god Iowa somehow wins conference and take them on instead which is possible. As I said at time, that collapse against NW is most likely going to be difference between a really good season and a great season hosting tourney games. Upon further review we still were NOT winning Big Ten over Maryland regardless, but we certainly would be third in conference with us a 4 seed in NCAA and NW a 5. Now its other way around and given we can't go to Iowa or NW as probable 4 seeds in NCAA tourney be prepared to travel out west to a place like Gonzaga or Arizona who are other 4's right now according to Bracketology. We'd almost be better falling to a 6 as we could travel to DePaul or Louisville then who are likely to be 3's although from a match up standpoint think I'd rather have one of those 4's despite the travel. Like I said I hope that possible plane ride out west hurts them at their core for collapsing against NW and probably costing them games in Bloomington.

I think we lose all 3 to LSU or at least 2 of 3 but not gonna panic as LSU is an elite team. Its after that where we can make progress with teams in tournaments the next two weekends on neutral sites mostly at our level. As for the team itself I think we are pretty similar to usual as a top half Big Ten team and then head to a Regional somewhere. Our hitting should be good with Barr, Dunham, Ashley, Richardson and addition of grad transfer Fucci who had 15 home runs last year. As long as we can solve catcher we should be really strong power and hitting team again. My worry is pitching where we lost all our weekend starters. I really like Sommer as a number 2 and think he is ready for that. I worry about finding a legit Friday and Sunday starter. I love Gabe Bierman and he has a real future here but not sure he is ready for Friday night role yet but he is going to have to take it with trial by fire. We have had really good 2 and 3 starters for a while now but have not found that true ace since Hart graduated as Stiever and Milto were really 2's masking as 1's which is why we struggled at times on Friday but have been dominant on weekends. Could be similar this year and if Bierman really struggles on Friday I may move him to Sunday role where I think he will thrive and just pitch whoever Friday (Brown and Tucker are names I have heard will be other starters which is not exciting at all unless they are greatly improved) and hope for best and then be dominant Saturday and Sunday. Weekdays could also be an issue where we need to score a lot of runs but most teams are in that boat. It might be best just to do bullpen days after having a good fourth starter for several years now but probably don't this year. I like the arms in our bullpen but not sure any are starter quality outside Sommer and Bierman. We should be good for a long while though with a stable program as I really like Mercer's ability to develop players and we have a great recruiting class coming in next couple years. Another huge change thankfully is IU has hired Austin Render who is a student, to do online radio for all games until Murray is done with Women's Basketball so we will have radio for all games again in early season like we did when Roger Rodeheaver was here instead of providing nothing early on and led to Cassidy Palmer from iubase.com providing play by play off the live stats on YouTube. There's already a "listen" link on schedule for every game! Excited to get season started.

Doubt it. 99% of voters only see the final score and never look at the box score so they have no idea we had that huge lead and doubt they would of changed their vote if they saw we had won by more. Most voters just look at our record and because we lost this week they move us down without looking or thinking who it was against. That's the system with polling and its hilariously bad. Assuming we knock off a terrible Illinois team and a mediocre OSU team we will move up next week even though those are far less impressive then two road over probable tournament teams.

Seems harsh. You beat two tournament teams on the road and lose at home to the one team who is actually BETTER then you and beating everyone in their way home and road recently. Obviously RPI much more important then these polls but it does show how stupid they are and way to much focus in them and if you lost that week. I already knew that though.

Like I said I would love to put that in a contract but you HAVE to get the coach to agree to that provision which is hard. You may NOT have ANY decent coaches to hire if you tried that. Would be worth a shot, just not sure its practical or realistic to get ANY high level coach we need to agree to.

I would bench Green. Not sure about Durham or Smith. Green leaving next year could be worth 3-4 extra wins as the amount of shots he jacks up when he is in there will no longer happen and he misses way more then he makes.

You can add any clause in a contract you want (like what Glass did for Moren that she can't go to Purdue without 10 million dollar buyout which was brilliant). The problem is no coach is going to agree to that clause with making tourney or buyout drops. You can try it (and IU might have) but no coach or lawyer will agree to such language. As I said above it is kind of cowardly for Glass to leave over Archie, but he would of been fired anyways and anyone else would do same including you or me. You would much rather resign from a job before being fired which I did in high school when I was about to get axed. As I said donors will pay out if needed once Glass is gone. Unfortunately, Glass has done so much else well and improved almost every other sport at IU, but basketball is what matters and he has really failed there and ultimately will be his demise as it should be.

That is absolutely correct and what I heard. There is no way he is gone after third year unless he loses out, but after next year he will be gone with new AD regardless of buyout and donors will pony up. It is kind of cowardly for Glass to leave because he is worried about Archie, but at same I get it as he would be fired anyways and wants to resign while getting is still good and most people would do same including me. Don't blame Fred for hire and I liked it at time but its simply not working out right now.

I've heard that donors are already having that discussion. This is second hand but supposedly donors are already having discussions about the buyout if things do not get better fast.

That is pretty much where I am at. This is our third win over a probable tourney team on the road in Big Ten play along with Rutgers and PU. There appears to be a gulf talent wise between Maryland and everyone else but also a similar gulf at the next tier between Iowa, Northwestern and IU and everyone else. Fortunately, the top 4 all get byes so if we are not going to win the conference whether we are the 2, 3 or 4 matters little. With that said if Maryland could end up on the opposite side of bracket that would be great as I do not see us beating them but think we have an even shot with Iowa and NW and a really good chance against anyone else. If we want a top 4 seed in NCAA tourney we probably need to win out then knock off one of those teams in the tourney Saturday and at least make Big Ten Championship. Otherwise we are probably a 5. While this season is not quite what we expected early, it is nice to be firmly in and just working on improving our seeding and no matter what will have best seed in program history very likely whether we are a 4, 5 or 6. Hopefully if we get the 5 or the 6 and not the 4 we end up getting a 4 seed like DePaul or UK that are an easy drive rather then traveling far. Also while we need to stop blowing leads, it is an improvement to hold it this time (unlike against Iowa and NW) on the road against a probably tourney team. Nebraska is what IU has been in recent years past (a mid-pack bubble team), so its nice to move up a bit in the pecking order finally.

Precisely on the winning, but again to me that system sucked as you would end up with the balcony half the time and students showed up late (at least in my era in late 2000's). I'm much rather be GA most of the time and have a CHANCE at a lower seat almost every time rather then be stuck in the balcony half the time even if you showed up every game. I see both ways, but to me the current system is better and I know me and my friends back in the day are envious of having the ability to get low down almost every time and less balcony if you get there early. The reality IU needs to come up with another idea different from now and especially different from what you are describing with all the no shows now. The system you are describing only works if IU is a top team which they are not right now so you would end up with even more empty seats in the lower level with others stuck in the balcony for no reason (much like how it was when I was in school).

Same with IU soccer who sends multiple guys to MLS every year. When you have a dynasty you are deep with elite players sitting on bench waiting their turn. That is how it works.

I am not against this at all. I just don't know how well the balcony seats would sell outside of big games, so IU would lose money unless they can sell half the balcony tickets (they cost twice as much as student tickets) each game. Otherwise they lose money from what they make now. If they become elite again and students still don't show up this would work really well, but given that the balcony games don't completely sell for winter break games (although close) I have a hard time believing they could sell many every game. Lots to consider.