Aaron

I still might change D coordinators but I am certainly giving Deboer however much money he wants. He is creative on offense with play calling and turned Peyton Ramsey from mediocre to solid. Also helped Philyor, Scott and several others take next step and for first time since Kevin Wilson era had a fun offense to watch. The game changer this year was finding a way to pull out the road wins against the three inferior teams in Maryland, Nebraska and PU by making plays late. We never win those games in past years. That's the difference between the normal disappointing five win season and the most successful season in 25 years plus. Still issues to fix but this is a major step forward winning all the winnable games and that is a great start!

Lets pause on that. He clearly can coach which was a question but lets see how he does with his own players and not Beilein's. Remember Mike Davis did great with Knight's players. Greg Gard did terrific with Bo Ryan's players for a bit and now is starting to tail off. I am not saying Howard is not a great coach and he could be but you won't really know until he gets his own players in there.

Nice to see them hang with the NCAA favorite. No reason we can't be like Maryland usually is this year and win the Big Ten as a top 10-15 team and then get a 3-4 seed in tourney with some home games and get to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 and see what happens against elite teams we are competitive with now clearly.

Wow! I knew IU was good but we should probably be re-calibrating expectations a bit. I thought this was an upper half Big Ten team who should make tournament but I have to say we really should be thinking Big Ten Title and maybe Final Four contender and postseason games in Assembly Hall if we keep this up as a top 4 seed. This South Carolina team beat Maryland who is supposedly the best team in our conference and we took control down the stretch. Lets not overdue it but sky looks to be the limit for this team and certainly the best one in this programs history.

Juwan back in Indiana playing Pacers tonight but most likely wont get in game. PM me if you want more info on his visit.

We're in a track meet with a team that likes to slow it down and play D. Very surprised. But no complaints so far.

I missed most of the second half but I don't understand how far inferior IU teams have hung with Michigan for the last decade even though they have lost and now we have our best team in at least a decade and get blown out. I understand we didn't have Whop and had several other injuries but its mind blowing that this is the Hoosier team to get trounced by Michigan after so many close calls.

So nice to be on the other end of this. Florida is a low end Power 6 program which is what IU was not to long ago. Good Power 6 teams used to come into Bloomington and blow us out. Nice to now be the solid Power 6 team blowing out other low end BCS Teams on the road. Recruiting matters. Nice to finally have five 5* recruits (Berger, Penn, Patberg, Allen, Holmes) and elite Big Ten level talent on team.

No its piecing some things together very loosely from stuff I have heard behind the scenes (and I hardly get any behind the scenes info). And what you said is not wrong as you said.

I want to choose my words carefully but the reason IU didn't get Mack is because the mentality at IU is still 'we have to win the right away' and people who helped make the hire perceive Mack as dirty. The reason Glass is our athletic director is because older boosters who still care and have the power think IU has to win 'clean' like Knight did. Younger boosters don't care enough because of the mediocrity. Now I have zero idea if money was involved here and I don't think it was, but Archie is working within the parameters of recruiting clean because that is what IU administration and boosters want. Now this is not a bad thing necessarily and you can win this way as John Belein, Matt Painter and any Butler coach has done for years with clean recruiting. It does mean though we get less top recruits and Archie has to win within the confines of being clean which is harder. It means finding lower ranked recruits and developing them or finding higher ranked guys not interested in extra benefits. Archie has to prove he can do this. One of the reason's we have Archie here is because he was the cleanest of the coaches available (as well as the best everyone thought at the time of hire) and now he has to prove he can develop talent. I like him but jury is still out as to whether he can do this. All of this is the absolute bottom line on recruiting in general. Not so much Garcia.

Assuming we don't get Garcia the lesson to Archie is if he likes someone jump in right away. Garcia has basically said he likes Marquette for recruiting him the longest. I remember when IU jumped in on him and it was not from the beginning but late last spring or early summer I think. If we had been in on him from the beginning I think we would of won this one easily. Lesson for Archie is when he really likes a 5* recruit he needs to be in it from the beginning like he is with Lander and was with TJD. Not mad at Archie but jumping in a little later on a top recruit as happened here ends with you as the brides maid more often then not. Not mad at Archie and zooming in on certain targets is hard but in the future he needs to make sure he is in on all 5* recruits like this from the get go and he usually is. Here he was not and it probably cost us.

I have one issue with Rabby and thats him criticizing McRobbie and Glass for building Wilkinson Hall and saying IU had a perfectly good volleyball arena. Either he is ignorant or just wants to jump on the administration (which is a lot of times justifiable) for anything. Volleyball had one of the worst facilities in the country in the worst location. By being in a brand New Arena on campus now crowds are much bigger and atmosphere is much better. I have had my own criticisms of Aird and the program this year but building the arena was absolutely the right decision and Rabjohns saying they had a perfectly good Volleyball facility before was flat out untrue.

College Bball is weird. NW has beaten a really good Providence but lost to the 'powerful' Merrimack and now Radford.

I've said no more high ranked recruits until Archie wins. Have a good year and we will get plenty next year for 2021 class. Time for Archie to prove he can win on court with what he has and then all will be good. If you build it they will come.

Fair. The only thing I would say though is Allen had same record first and second year before breaking through in third year this year. Moren after a horrible first season had a great team her second year. Aird on the other hand after trending up last year has bad slid this year. The only other coach to do that is Archie Miller. Both Miller and Aird deserve a fair chance and appear to be the right people based on recruiting but both back slid their second year after decent conference records first year.

How many times do we have to see that Aird is not the right guy it appears? Made some progress last year and now team is as bad as it was since Ashley Benson left a decade ago and has gone in complete reverse. We have now blown two games against both Maryland and Iowa who are the peers we need to jump over first before we think about competing with anyone else. Amazing that Aird left Maryland and now cannot beat them and twice has blown massive leads. Yes I know he is not playing but team looks so nervous in close matches and that is 100% on the coach. You had IU vs. Maryland in Soccer in match up of the elites in the conference and IU stayed composed on a frustrating night and got the win. Volleyball in the matchup of cellar dwellers blows its fifth game this year. I want to make it clear I really like most of Glass' hires in Olympic sports and I see the good things they are doing with the programs but this one appears to have been a real miss and its the one I was most skeptical of when it was made.

PM me if you want to know what I am talking about. I promise you its nothing big.

Nothing big. See the PM I sent you. Sorry if I gave you wrong idea.

Bryant was back last night in Indiana and was terrific with 20 points and 11 rebounds and is really doing well in NBA. The Wizards are not very good however and got blown out by the Pacers. PM me if you want further details from last night.

Glad we have Ramsey and DeBoer who knows how to use him so still gives ourselves a chance. With that said we need to not be content with the QB situation once Ramsey leaves. Penix seems to be made of glass and while thats a serious injury his body is clearly injury prone as that hit really shouldn’t tear up your shoulder and is a hit players take all the time. Not his fault but Penix’s body does not hold up well.

Agreed. Need to sign a kicker in the offseason and Vinny retire but right now anyone off the street would be worse.

Funchess landed really hard on his shoulder though. That's a hit that can break a bone and I though it might of when he fell in the end zone trying to make a catch. Penix did not take hit that should of broken a collarbone period. I would agree it may of happened without much fan fair like Funchess but the difference is the hits you're taking. I will say again no hit Penix took last night should of broken a collarbone. I broke my collarbone years ago so I know what it feels like and kind of how much contact it takes to do it. I am not a doctor but if any hit last night broke a bone then we really need to think about a new QB when Ramsey graduates. I am not mad at Penix and it is not his fault he is injury prone but if the hits he is taking are causing these injuries either he has a hard time dealing with pain as I said I heard earlier or he is just to fragile to play football. I have seen a lot of promising careers ruined by injury because a player is injury prone.

I can get stuff at times but not sitting at home watching a game like I was tonight:). I heard about the 'pain threshold thing' from someone close to the program a while back and I will continue to hear stuff from time to time moving forward but certainly it doesn't come immediately after a game.

And he graduates after next year. After that you need another good back up moving forward for Penix's last couple yrs once he graduates and thats something you have to think about in this recruiting class if Tuttle isn't the answer and he sure doesn't look like it to me.

Allen said Penix was 'dinged up' and they would no more tomorrow. That doesn't sound like a broken collar bone but who knows. IU is pretty secretive with injuries but with other serious injuries like that Allen has at least said he thinks it is something serious. Hopefully thats a good sign but we will see. If he is 'dinged up' though it adds credibility to what i have heard potentially that he has a hard time with pain. A lot of players play when 'dinged up' depending on what it is. Ramsey did last week after taking that shot.