bigrod

In all honesty, I agree with Josh - we do have enough talent to be in the tournament this year, but barely. Having said that, we have enough working against us that I won't be surprised if we don't make it. Mainly, everyone is learning a new system, our seniors haven't really played like seniors so far, and our roster is terribly unbalanced and woefully lacking in some key areas. Actually, the fact that they are learning a new system is the only thing that gives me hope that we may sneak in. I do not in any way think this roster would be any better playing Crean's way. We simply don't have the offensive resources to outscore many teams, nor do we have enough players that can create their own offense. All those lost possessions would absolutely kill this team. I don't know that I necessarily think it will be 3 years. If we can manage to bring in Langford next year, I think we are a tournament team. Maybe we are even without him. We have to assume the current players are going to improve and also know the system better. Hopefully we have a couple freshmen who are ready to contribute right away, and Thompson will have a year under his belt as well. I think we'll see a lot more consistency/improvement from year to year once CAM gets going.

I think if there's one thing we've learned about CAM, it's that he probably not only has Plan A and B, but C, D, E, & F.

I admit, I haven't seen a lot of their games, but both seem adequate at this early stage. I don't think they will be mistaken for point guards, but from what I have seen, they both have skills that can be grown.

I'm pretty sure CAM has already stated that Anderson and Hunter will be guards. I believe both are listed as G/F currently, but that probably has a lot to do with their HS team needs.

I caught a few minutes of the Lebatard show and heard them wondering if OKC would like to trade PG and Anthony to the Pacers for Oladipo. I was thinking, no way the Pacers would be interested in that.

Really, who of Crean's recruits will be left to cycle out? Morgan, Davis, and Green sure aren't going to be forced out. I wouldn't count the current freshmen as Crean's recruits, since CAM brought them all back. The roster will definitely look different next year, but that is because there are 5 seniors plus the open scholarship from CJ.

I see absolutely no reason to continue to play the senior guards. I’d rather take my lumps and improve the younger players. Newkirk never has been a Big 10 starter. I don’t even know what to say about Johnson. He may be great in practice, but you don’t get W’s for practice. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I still chuckle every time I think about how mad Weber was about it. He's probably still mad...

Thanks for clarifying. Just like Newman said, the mail never stops.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure that out. St. Francis isn't division 1, but maybe he still has to sit out a year. I assumed that was just scholarship players, but I guess it applies to all players?

I'm just glad all the mindless crap I did in high school wasn't reported in the papers. Well, at least most of it wasn't...

The article made it seem like one game.

Same happened to me, but I was able to go into my "purchased" apps list on the app store and download it that way.

On one hand, I totally get what you guys are saying. I am that person who gets sucked in every year, thinking, "This is going to be the year we finally 'breakthrough.'" I certainly get tired of being disappointed every year. On the other hand, we have to be realistic in that IU football is not an attractive job. It was made even worse by the B1G putting us in a division with the perennial powers. I don't know how much money we can throw at someone to come here. A young, up and coming coach is going to want to go somewhere that he knows he can win to build his resume for the landing-spot job. Also, Glass hired a law firm to look at Wilson. Don't you think while they were investigating, he was at least putting some feelers out to gauge interest if the job came open? Maybe I put too much faith in him, but I have to think he had some idea. In the end, I like Allen. I think if we give him a couple years, he can take the next step and possibly get to 7-8 wins. He likes IU and is well liked by the Indiana HS coaches. He actually may be the type of coach to stick around if he has some success. At least that is what I'm hoping for - but I'm the guy who is always optimistic that next year is the year...

I'm with you - basketball can be unpredictable. Also, I'm not terribly concerned about other teams with new coaches having more early success than us. I don't think you can really underestimate how vastly different this team is playing this year than how they have played in the past. It's not only style of play, but culture, preparation, and most likely many other things we don't even think about. It's something that is needed, but will take time.

Right - we had a bad game against Michigan. Up to that point, we had been more or less building on each game and getting better. With these guys learning a new system, there are going to be good games and bad games. I'm sure the Duke game played a big part in it. I expect them to come out much more focused.

I’ve seen this before, but don’t really understand it. We have Anderson, Hunter, Phinsee, and possibly Langford. Durham and Green are still on the roster. Why do we need more guards? Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

Not that anyone really played well, but our guard play absolutely killed us today. Killed. Us. Dead. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners

We seemed to play better when Johnson was on the bench. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I was just thinking, that one thing we haven't really seen is a close win this year. Should be interesting to see how CAM handles that. Personally, for the past several years, coming into the final minutes of a close game wasn't something I had a good feeling about. I've got to think from what I've seen so far, there will at least be some planning put into it. I sure hope our days of seeing a wide open layup for the win are done.

Thanks. So obvious, I feel a little silly now.

Atwhay oday ouyay eanmay?

I'm pretty sure I read over the summer that Archie wanted to red-shirt him, but he wouldn't come if he did. I wouldn't classify him at all as a reach, but more just a player who needs some time to develop.

Wow... that's a lot of eyes on Davis and Morgan!

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. Tell a lie and keep telling it, or make it bigger. Pretty soon, you start to believe your own BS. Or, you somehow rationalize it in your head so that you are a saint for lying to help others. But we all know the NCAA is going to just nod and wave.