bigrod

12 minutes ago, Hardwood83 said:

Agreed, there is no advantage to 'saving' a scholarship. It's just wasted. IU is already bringing in a minimum of 5 new guys next year, probably 6-7, with 0 commits, so not like there is a crunch. 

I guess maybe they're worried about cap space ;)

1 hour ago, Uspshoosier said:

Sounds like they are open to adding a 13th 

I would hope so. Could have really helped last year. 

6 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Our pieces didn't fit last year because we had zero guard play. We're at the point where we almost have too many guards. There are dozens of guard/wing combinations we can trot out next season that are all effectively better than our best combination last year. It's more than a good problem to have. 

I hope you're right.

27 minutes ago, monskisprodigy said:

Best top to bottom roster we have had in Bloomington in a long, long time. The level of increase in talent on the floor for us next year is huge. 

What I think this roster has the talent to do...Big Ten Title, deep BTT run and an Elite 8 or better. The pieces are all there...on paper. Excited to see how it plays out. 

I'm having a hard time with even the "on paper" part. I'm not saying the roster isn't vastly improved, it definitely is, but there are just so many new pieces. Having all of them fit together with the current pieces and having minimal issues is a big ask. We had less new pieces last season and sometimes they didn't seem to fit together well into the season. Lots of new personalities and styles to expect a smooth transition in my opinion.

Is Ware a center in the NBA?

28 minutes ago, btownqb said:

So it is about winning, which is fine, just admit that. 

No Bob Knight treated people quite a bit worse than Woodson. It's well-documented. 

So win, and you're considered a better person. At least I understand the parameters now. 

Why are you so angry? Like, all the time. Lighten up dude.  Most of us are just here talking about sports. No one dies at the end of the day if they don't "win" the argument.

16 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Change takes organization. It takes thought. It can take time. Rosa Parks wasn't just randomly on a bus. She was put there on purpose and with a purpose. A planned purpose. But what's happening on college campuses nowadays? Half the kids don't even know what they are protesting. Just there to be there because others are doing it. A ton of ultra privileged kids who have never faced real adversity. You have to protest with a purpose and in a way that gets to people. If you do it in a way that annoys people, interrupts people or whatever, all you're going to do is turn those people against you. Especially in bigger towns or cities where everyone is a rush. That's why real organization is important. Real thought. Organization allows for how to protest, what about and try to keep outside influencers from overtaking and hijacking the protest, which happens at most mass protest now.

Be the change you want to see in the world. How can you be the change if you really don't even know or have empathy for that change?

You're right. Take the time and effort to get organized and make real change. Just picking up a sign and joining a protest? How many people have you ever seen change sides on a protest? Its usually just for show and benefits the very people you are protesting against.

Stu was making a valid point the other day that there are people on here that want Woodson to crash and burn just so they can say they were right. But it seems there are just as many people on the other extreme that want to say anyone with any expectations of him is being unreasonable. 

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

I think that Woody getting salty when fans roasted him after a 19-14 season has become an offense that is irreversibly non-negotiable in the minds of some. Read this thread —you will see who may feel that way.

Those that feel that way are certainly entitled to.

In the world we live in there are some bad moments that are irreversibly non-negotiable. For me? That most certainly wasn’t one of them.

Mike Woodson is a fellow alum and those who know him personally love him, and that includes his players. His roster construction sucked eggs last year and because of that e finished 19-14, 6th in a 14 team B1G at 10-10.

If he can fix things and win for the glory of old IU? Damn that would be awesome.

I will say that I have definitely seen more purpose in the roster construction this year. But that failure last year is still on him. He took zero accountability for it.

Now, my fear is he is going to sit back and revel in his "work" and think he is done. This "I don't take the shots" and "it's not my job to get 'player X' shots" attitude is his downfall. It IS his job. If he doesn't understand that, he will underachieve no matter how much talent he has.

IU is not just here to get players into the league. Other schools can win AND get players in the league. That is where he and his staff come in.

24 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

This thread is here so that people can freely express their wish that Woodson be fired, and it’s going to stay; readers beware.

My biggest wonder is if there’s an element with some of the fire Woodson posters of hoping he will fail more than hoping IU with Woodson will greatly succeed just so that they are proven right.

I'm not sure who you're referring to, but I'll give my two cents. I've said numerous times that I hope the staff prove me wrong, but we have 3 years of data to go on. The continual drop in numbers speak for themselves.

Woody has given no indication at all that he sees any reason to adjust. In fact, quite the opposite. If that is the case, I don't see a ton of success when it comes to evenly matched, well-coached teams.

I'd feel much better if, after the disappointing season, he had said something like, "We all need to be better," but what we got instead is, I'm doing my job and the fans are the problem. So, I hope like hell that he can produce a level of basketball commensurate to the talent, but I will believe it when I see it.

11 hours ago, IUFAN1976 said:

I think many of us are skeptical on Woodson’s coaching abilities!  The pressure will be on for him to coach his most complete roster.  We’ll see!

Yep. I didn't want to put this in the expectation thread, because I've seen others get scolded for being honest in other threads, but my expectation is that we will underachieve yet again. I sincerely hope the coaching staff proves me wrong, but unless something changes, that is my expectation.

20 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

I’ve got a really nice story for you all:

I just had a Bloomington college frat reunion weekend. A bunch of guys in their 50’s reminiscing. A truly perfect end to the weekend?

Five of us walking down the stairs of the Union after brunch at the Tudor Room at 11:15 this morning.

Waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs in the Union Hotel lobby? Woody and Walsh with Kaanan Carlyle and his mom. We chatted up Carlyle for two or three minutes and congratulated him—shook his hand and welcomed him to the family. He’s got a really easy smile and nice way about him. Looked us all in the eye and had that “Indiana is different” happy look.

Handshakes with Woody: “love you Coach-great month we’re having.” Woody handshake back- “appreciate it guys.” Talked with him for a minute or two. Trailing behind us was Ya, Kenya, and a very wide awake and engaged Armond Hill.

Great stuff.

I was totally sucked in until you said Armond Hill was wide awake. Just too unbelievable, Stu :D

16 hours ago, cthomas said:

I see very little to complain about in the backcourt for next season.

Quality depth...

57 minutes ago, JSHoosier said:

Yep. Like I've said, imagine a good coach having this support instead of just trying to buy a team that not even Woodson can screw up.

I wanted Crean gone and the last two hires make him look good.

Woody, just needs to win. That's it. He needs to stop taking credit for minor victory (like winning the off season), and then stop acting like every failure has nothing to do with him. HE needs to put in the work instead of telling everyone else to work harder. Just win and make believers out of all of us faux fans.

1 minute ago, Chris007 said:

I think I would have went shooter, PG, then center but just me

Shooter, PG, shooter, center for me.

2 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

I’ll give you some double-edged sword reason for hope: 

Our roster last season was really poorly constructed. Talent? Sure, but terrible balance. And even worse talent distribution and evaluation. Believing that X and Gunn could be key pieces was a season-killing bad decision. X could have been good as part of a deep guard rotation  but relying on him as a 30+ minute starter and shooter? Not good.

So Woody didn’t really try to pound a square peg into a round hole. His starting guards for the majority of the season were Cupps and Galloway. Turning into a volume three team with those guards? Now that would have been pounding a square peg into a round hole. The season was kinda screwed before it started and that’s on Woody, but the offense was about all we could do with the guards we were using.

I'm not disagreeing with any of this, but this is the exact same staff that put together that poorly constructed roster last season. This is the same staff that rested on their laurels instead of trying to add another guard with the available scholarship.

The square peg/round hole, in my eyes anyway, is the thought from Woody that his job as a coach is not to try to run plays to get his best shooters open. The thought that there is nothing wrong with his offense, defense, strategy, game planning, substitution patterns. My hope is that he has seen enough the last three years to clue him in that what he is doing needs to be adjusted to the college game. My fear is that, regardless of what the record shows, he doesn't see any issues and is willing to go down with the ship proving everyone wrong.

He has said that he wants to win now and bring banner number 6. But, when things didn't go as planned, instead of looking at what is working well and what is not working well and trying to learn from it, his response was to lash out at the fans for expecting too much from him and letting everyone know that he is doing his job. Those two things do not line up. Are you happy with mediocrity or do you want to win championships? Are you trying to get better at your job or is your best course of action to tell everyone you are doing great? Are you results driven or narrative driven?

We know Woody needs a lot of talent for even moderate success, so let's hope he gets it. I see nothing to show me next season will bring any kind of championship unless Woody is willing to put the work in to figure out how to make himself and his team better. If moderate success and getting players into the league every year is good enough, then so be it.

I remember a long time ago, we had a coach who spent the whole summer putting together an offense. I wonder how much time Woody and his staff will spend analyzing and adjusting. The square peg/round hole is that nothing needs to change except work harder.

11 hours ago, Banksyrules said:

To be fair, I think it can be anyone at this point.  Sadly I think a lot of people think they have to choose a side.  The "True Fans" speech kind threw a match into a gas station.   I just want my program back to being good. If somehow Woodson changes all of our addressed concerns and there's a light at the end of the tunnel, I would welcome it with open arms. Even at face of people telling me how stupid I was to question his coaching and approach to recruiting.  

It really is sad that IU basketball has devolved into this state. We are now the type of program where people gloat over winning the off-season. I'm pretty sure many of the same people were gloating last year because many thought we had also won that off-season.

Call me a skeptic, but I'll believe it when to translates to wins. I'm happy we are getting some good players to come here, but I can't say I'm surprised by it, nor do or think that it makes Woodson a better coach. He has had talent every year he has been here. He is the same coach who decided to sit on a scholly last year because we didn't need another guard.

The optimist in me thinks maybe this season has been enough to make Woody realize that his methods aren't working and he will change for next season. The realist thinks he is extremely bull-headed and/or tone deaf and will continue to pound the square peg into the round hole to prove to everyone his way is best, and then the excuses will ensue. I guess we will see...

6 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

If your reaction to bringing in really good players is an endless recitation of the same tired "woodson sux" greatest hits? I'm not a fan of those posts.

You asked who the shooters would be in an eight player rotation. You got a response. You countered with a redundant point that you cut and paste, along with golfing.  

But what if its the inconvenient truth?

3 minutes ago, Trish said:

Now if they start losing, is he going to pull out his "We're very young" excuse again?

 

Of course. We certainly aren't going to hear him take any blame.

43 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

Also, I guess all posters can agree that with this roster so good then there is no reason why we can't finish in the top 3 of the Big Ten, and if we don't then Mike Woodson needs to be fired.

I mean all I'm reading on the IU interest thread is how loaded we are. So it can't be a talent problem this season

Exactly, I don't want to hear and see all the backtracking when it doesn't happen.

30 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

It was malpractice that most posters called malpractice at the time.   Staff was confident in who they already had on the team.  Leaving an open scholly with the roster they had was definitely a choice.  Not bringing any other guard in unless they thought it was an absolute guarantee upgrade over Trey was definitely a choice….

it didn’t work out for them.   Maybe this year it will 

Leaving an open scholly in the portal age IS malpractice. 

1 minute ago, HoosierMatty said:

Looking at things objectively I don't see Calipari going to Arkansas being a good thing for them. He will bring in recruits but I don't see how the results will better for them than UK. 

As much as he wanted to get away from their fans base he will have to deal with them when they play at Rupp and it will be ugly. Almost Pitino at U of L bad.

It will be curious to see if UK can get a big name. At least they get a chance at finding something better. We are stuck with our arrogant 64 year old with a outdated offense. 

 

 

I just envy them for having a coach who knew when to leave...

10 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

And it should also be noted that one of the gentlemen Woodson is golfing with is one the bigger NIL facilitators in collegiate athletics. 

When in doubt, follow the money.

4 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

Interesting that no one was anywhere near this upset until Purdue started kicking the whole nation @$$ this year.

Is it Indiana’s meh season, or is it Zach Edey, the two-time national player of the year causing our rival to catch lightning in a bottle?

For me, its the culmination of all of it, and the fact that the people in charge choose to sit on their hands and close their eyes and act like everything is going to plan. There is no plan, that's probably the most disappointing part.