Stromboli

My (whispered, volume up) take on this topic at this point in the season:

One of my favorite images. You do the heavy lifting around here and we all depend on it.

I got you. Computing machines are pertineer unpossible .

Checking back in after another 4 games to see which of our players are producing. Again, I'm using Bart Torvik's site, and looking at his PORPOGATU! stat, which is supposed to measure how much of an advantage (or disadvantage) a player is giving you over the average. You can see where I posted this after the first 4 games a few posts up. Here's a look at individual stats after 8 games, including 2 games against better teams (I believe you can click the image for a better look): My first takeaway is that we are trotting out a better team. Four players who are legit talents in TJD, Devonte, Justin, and Al. And then another 4 providing very solid play in Race, Rob, Joey, and Damezi. I think most of us saw Damezi and Race in the bottom 3 coming into the season, but they've shown to be good contributors so far. Obviously Al has made a jump and deserves some credit. Trayce is a monster. Jerome is a surprise. Between the recruit ranking, the gold jersey, and the performance at HH last year, many of us put some big expectations on him. In retrospect, those weren't fair, and the fan base has largely let it be. He feels like a bit of an Ace up the sleeve for future years, in that it just seems like he's still going to become a very good basketball player. Armaan's numbers are surprising and maybe display the failings of any analytics number. Surely he's played a bigger role for us than shown. Armaan has taken on being a safety net for us as we've struggled keeping a stable of healthy guards. I love that he's got this much experience. I've said before, there's no reason Armaan can't be the best guard on the roster. Not there yet. I've also wanted a place to talk about watching Joey at the SDSU game. I got pretty good seats for that. When IU was on defense, he was the only guy you could hear communicating. It was constant, almost robotic, and you could see the other guys responding to it. I think he improves the whole team, outside of his individual play (which is still good). There's a can of worms sitting in the image, also. Torvik differentiates between "Close 2" and "Far 2." A true numbers guy would do that. There's a massive disparity between the two, and within that disparity sits the line between a good offense and a bad offense. And the more you shoot long 2s, the greater the damage to your team's overall efficiency. They are a lazy shot. It's not that there aren't situations where they come in handy. I can think of a couple against FSU that went in and kind of saved a possession for us. But the point is, the more you settle for them--rather than working for a higher percentage shot at the rim or a 3 from a good shooter--the lower your PPP will go. I think my biggest gripe with them is when guys advocate for more of them. That's exactly how you kill your efficiency. Sure, take them from time to time, situational type stuff. But I really don't even buy the argument that taking the long 2 sets up more room for interior play by pulling defenders out. With percentages at <45%ish for a long two, there's little reason to aggressively defend them. Just sit tight for the DR that's coming 55% of the time, with your man already in terrible position to get the OR. Add in that they are directly contrary to Archie's plan to wear a team down with fouls and waves of bigs, and it's hard not to view them as a selfish, lazy shot. Alright. Unfortunately the Tony Adragna guy hasn't posted his film study videos after the last two games. But here's videos of Archie and Al/Joey previewing Wisconsin, for good measure: Get ready to be reminded about 100 times that IU hasn't won at the Kohl Center since Tommy Coverdale was earning Mr. Basketball for the mighty Noblesville Millers (class of '98, yo). GO HOOSIERS.

Old Fart, I hope you can track down plenty of game reports on Jordan’s senior year. As a guy just becoming self-aware, I’d bet there will be a big bump in production. For those that haven’t seen it, it’s his birthday. Here’s a screenshot of one post:

Yeeeeaaahhhhhh!!!! Man that was good! Keep it rolling dudes.

That has to be the General, no?

GAMEDAY This is exactly what Archie's been building this roster for. We can send waves of guys on the inside, and we can absorb a few fouls as well. Last year, we'd have Juwan starting the 5, and then get hit with two fouls early. Trayce should be the best player on the floor, but he won't be on an island out there, either. Let's see our juniors and senior(s) step up and play 40 minutes. Vegas and the analytics sites all like IU, but the overwhelming fan consensus is that FSU should win. Maybe this will be our coming out party. I'd like to see us win the game through two halves of good basketball. Put some folks on notice and get this team some confidence.

Well done, BTB! Totally derailed in two posts lol

Not going to allow that kind of behavior, Fkfootball. We'll aspire to be better around here. To all those who quoted it, sorry your content got deleted/hidden also. Let's hang out somewhere else. Like, oh, I don't know, Stromboli's Analysis Articles and Discussion thread. Such content. Much analysis. Wow.

Let’s be real. You’re about to get pissed either way!

This Coach Adragna guy is really putting out some great videos. This is now the 4th on the season, and each kind of builds on the last. The things he points out in prior videos, he follows up to show new wrinkles. In his most recent breakdown of the Troy game, he hits on defensive assignments again, the in-bounds plays, offense against the zone (really interesting here), and then just some other stuff. And, just because I didn't post the last one, here's from the North Alabama game: Last year I did a decently long breakdown of my thoughts on the season, and why we just weren't built to compete from a talent standpoint as shown in the analytics from Bart Torvik (I use Torvik's site because it's free, but it's crunching the same data as Kenpom). One of the big take-aways was that IU just didn't have the horses. Using his "PORPAGATU" stat (points over replacement player adjusted per game at that usage), which basically puts the average player at a 1.0. If you come in above that, you're giving your team an advantage over the average. Of course under a 1.0 and you're a liability. Last year we had Juwan and Romeo each scoring very high, above a 4 score for each. After those two, we basically had placeholders. No other player on our team was really giving us an advantage. When you went to the rosters of the Sweet Sixteen teams, you'd have 4-6 players who had excellent PORPAGATU stats. *I get that the scheme/coaching can affect how efficient player can be individually--no stat will be perfect. Not looking for a debate on that. Of course, this season is very young, and so we really need some games to create the data to see any trends. After our first game, Al Durham was almost off-the-charts in efficiency after not missing a shot. At this point, we've got 4 games in and so we can start to get a feel for what we've got. The competition is obviously weak and so that might be inflating some of our numbers, but at least it will be a good starting point to follow along. Here's where we are after 4 games (you can click the pic I believe): Al has come back to earth, but still sitting at the top. Very nice spread of talent there, rather than haves and have-nots. How about Race Thompson, in 4th with a very healthy 3.7? Joey Brunk sitting at 2, which is very close to where he was at Butler, and one of the reasons I opined he'd be starting over De'Ron this year. Again, it's very early, and I'd expect those numbers to decrease as the defenses we play improve. But we have absolutely seen some development from last year, especially guys like Race and Damezi. Coming into the season I think the worry was whether our lack of a star would be a weakness or a strength. Thus far it appears it's a strength. The offense is better. As Coach Adragna says in his video, it's more interesting, and more fun to watch.

Some gems from Reddit: As an Evansville fan for the past 30 minutes, this is the greatest day of my life. Calipari about to refuse home and homes with the entirety of Indiana. Kentucky is 1-3 in their last 4 vs teams from Indiana. Pointed out: Kentucky paid $90,000 for this loss. Why is it called an upset if everyone's happy?

Don’t forget this great pic of Archie walking into Assembly Hall the first time.

Man, I’m bullish on this one. I think it’s been IU for some time. I have no sources beyond my own bias. Which is significant, lol. I think he likes our program the best. I think there’s enough connection (Ostrom, Race, Leal and Galloway) to make it easy. I think the absence of another 4/5 in the recruiting class helps, as does the presence of older guys to handle the 5 his freshman year. None of these programs are doing that great right now, so I don’t think he’s concerned with that. And that interview by Brent Tipton just felt very pro-IU. He really didn’t seem interested in talking about the other schools. But for IU he did, listing coaches and players by name and saying it felt like home. Reports are that his parents were engaged and enjoyed themselves. Of course he may choose Marquette. He and his family have been great through the whole process and so I’m sure we’ll wish him well. ...be a lot cooler if he came here though. Let’s stack talent all over the roster. I can’t wait for us to maintain a top 10 rank through a season.

Now this is interesting. Both Inside The Hall (by Ryan Corazza) and The Daily Hoosier (reposting Tony Adranga) have their film study feature. Both included the same defensive breakdown by IU that resulted in a PSU bucket. While Corazza blames Al for not covering the guy with the ball, Adranga breaks down assignments and attributes it to a miscommunication between Brunk and Thompson. For my money (exactly $0) I get more from Adranga. First, check the first slide by ITH: https://www.insidethehall.com/2019/11/11/film-session-portland-state/ Now watch the video by Adranga starting at 3:19:

And after three days.... Let’s resurrect this bish. We’re lucky that our giant fan base can support multiple content providers. One of the most thorough new guys is The Daily Hoosier. Rather than providing his own film study, he just linked an excellent video done by Tony Adragna. More than just showing the plays, he explains our system, and even trends he sees. I learned a ton just from this one video, and I really hope he keeps posting them after each game.

I am a pizza sandwich.

Mr Flynn sounds like a helluva guy. Nice words, Stuhoo. ... But the applicant sounds like a real jerk, if you ask me. The kind of guy that never washes his hands. Probably smells like dirty couch. Probably deals with excessive gas. That kind of guy. As for Marquette, I suppose I like the program. They are proud of their history and love basketball. Our kind of people. After the Vandy thing almost every other fan base looks good.

I mean. He definitely perks up a bit when talking about Indiana, no? Feels like he pumps the brakes when talking about any other school.

I hope everyone watched Archie's comments yesterday. He makes note that they've made some not insignificant changes to the offense. We'll see what those might be. Someone asked whether or not Archie could see Trayce playing his way into the starting lineup. Archie (in his own way) seemed taken aback and just responded that so far through all tracked practice Trayce leads in points scored, and by over 100 points. It's funny that Archie spends more time talking about Armaan, but it seems like Archie knows he's got a real player in TJD. I would expect we'll see a lot of Trayce. I also think everyone--the team, the coaches, the fans--have learned from the hype surrounding Romeo last year. Archie mentioned that Jerome is going to hit those shots he missed in the exhibition. He also mentioned Jerome's post-up game. I've talked about this before. Jerome might be working on his perimeter skills, but he defaults to post-moves. He's pretty tricky at finding his shot, and looks to score. Al was 3x as confident and at-ease during his interview. You can inject that right in my veins. The interviews from the players over the last couple years have been awful. Ready to see some personality and some moxie. As to Al, someone insinuated to Archie that Al would serve as a backup to Rob, and Archie again kinda prickled and made clear that Al is a much larger part of the team than just a backup PG. InsideTheHall did their usual pregame piece, and notes that WIU is a very good 3pt shooting team, I think it was top 20 in the country by percentage. But they don't really look to rebound or even play the inside game. Hard not to be reminded of the Sycamores and the Mastodons from a couple years ago. Man, what a kick in the junk that was. So maybe this will be a good measuring stick to see whether or not the defense really takes 3 years to install (groan). This is supposed to be the worst team we play all year, and so ideally we'll get a good look at everyone on the bench. GO HOOSIERS

Remember the article interviewing his coach? Talked about Dawson calling all the coaches personally to inform them of his decision to cut them? And also his mention of appreciating that MU has been recruiting him the longest? In my brain, Dawson wants to be a Hoosier, but also wants to treat Wojo et al. with some respect. So he's going back ASAP to personally inform Wojo he's out. Honestly I don't have a feeling that this is good or bad, but I did get caught up in the speculation that he was going to commit early this week. At least we get some game action tomorrow!

Get ready for the Jacquez Henderson show. Juuust to rub some salt in these wounds, Davide Moretti, Kira Lewis, and McKinley Wright are all listed on the SI.com Top 50 players list.

Appreciate the work, fellow--albeit inferior--sandwich. I can't do those things without getting emotional about it. IU would be 25th out of pure fandom. Nope, make that 24th, so Purdue could be 25th. Louisville would get docked because I'm mad at them for also pursuing Lander. Memphis because I want to build the narrative that NBA guys can't necessarily coach. And so on.