HoosierX

Unless something changed with the renovation, the bleacher seats are awful. Non students would not fill those seats consistently either.

Super happy we pulled this one out. But can someone please tell me why Durham continues to play?

I would agree with this and this is where Villanova consistenly plays. People like to point out that they don’t land many 5 stars but they have a ton of the players in that range.

No I’m not saying that, and I think your point is a valid one. However, you are pointing out a potential exception (which isn’t really an exception since Blackshear was 5 star, but I get your point since he didn’t play like one) which maybe dilutes the overall message slightly, but there are still a lot of other data points. I also don’t agree the statement is twisting the facts. To me twisting the facts would be saying that no one has ever won without 5 star talent if there were 5 years where teams won without a 5 star, but the author arbitrarily decided that at least one of the players on each team played like a 5 star.

Yea I’d say it’s pretty obvious that all the teams had some combination of 3 and 4 star players as well. But that’s not the point. The point is it’s hard to win without 5 star talent. There is no twisting of facts there, it’s just a simple statement. It’s progressing to where there are enough data points (almost 20 years) to be able to comfortably imply that there is causation that goes along with the correlation.

This is painful to watch

Not sure I understand this, he should have his pick of seats in the front row.

Him showing up to a Vanderbilt game would be the best thing that could happen for us in his recruitment.

When we got up 9 I said to my friends it would be great if we stepped on their f'ing throats. Boy are we ever!

If McIntosh and Lindsey are hitting 3s then we likely won't win. Luckily for us both have been pretty inconsistent this year. However, our 3 point defense is pretty conducive to slump busting.

I understand what you're saying, we're a bad team and Moore hasn't even sniffed the rotation. However, I'm not worried about him yet. Crean apologists drove me crazy when they defended terrible recruits by saying "someone has to be the last (13th player) on the bench." It drove me crazy because we were recruiting kids who didn't belong in the Big Ten and were never going to be more than the last player on the bench. However, it is true that someone has to be the last player on the bench. I would rather that player be someone with upside who could develop into a solid rotation player by his junior and senior seasons. I think Moore is that player, as evaluators talked about the tremendous potential he had. Some claimed he had the most NBA potential of our recruits, even with the super athletic Smith coming in. Right now the game is too fast for him, and he needs to add some weight. But if we have to have a last player on the bench, I would prefer it be someone who has a chance to develop into a really solid contributor down the line.

Hopefully he hasn't gone to the Freddie McSwain school of dunking on people.

I think it's easier to play guys more minutes when you're coaching a basketball game rather than a track meet.

Fine, feel free to criticize. But what he doesn't deserve after a loss is people questioning if he is the right guy for the job. It's just way too early for those kind of judgments.

If you go back further though, some of my most memorable losses as a kid were at Minnesota when we were the much better team.

That win felt really good and I am now very hopeful with Smith. His free throw form is really pretty and makes me think the shooting isn't a total fluke.

And McKinley Wright had 19. Did we actually have a shot at him?

You can teach shooting to an extent but it's rare to see poor shooters become prolific ones. It's also difficult to make wholesale changes to shooting form without negative effects. I was never a great shooter despite a lot of practice. Luckily I was (and still am) 5'9 and white which more than made up for it.

Bring back Tom Coverdale.

What do you think we would be doing better if Crean were still here? One thing you can't really coach is shooting.

People always want to hope for the best. There were a lot of people defending Gelon after going scoreless in multiple high school games....but in the end that was a very good indication of his talent level.

Is that something you can realistically fix?

Got him! Why does the thread title say FIU?

James Blackmon is the epitome of how the team has gotten to this point. You are right we would be better with him because at least he had some offense to go along with his non existent defense, but I'm glad he's gone. Last night I watched Devonte Green's man come up from the baseline and set a pick on Morgan's man at the high elbow. Green proceeded to go past (above) all three players so that when Morgan got screened there was no one within 8 feet of Morgan's man when he released to the baseline for a 3. All Green did was give a lazy hand wave to Morgan to get through which Morgan couldn't even see. It was a James Blackmon play and I wanted to throw up. We might be better with Blackmon but I sure as hell don't miss him.

The jury is out? Opening arguments haven't even been completed. We're 12 games into CAM's first season. There is just no way in hell he was ever going to be able to unteach the bad habits these players have been taught overnight. I realize some of you expected as much but that was never realistic. I'm not saying Archie is blameless in this loss but you are already passing judgment on his coaching abilities based on 12 games with a deeply flawed roster, which honestly is absurd.