Stromboli

Let the injured guys rest. If we're good, then let's continue to work towards peaking in March. I love that the starters can get meaningful rest. Archie's substitutions are very good. It does feel like there's another player ready to step up. The rhetoric around Jerome is... confusing. Easy to let speculation run here. Sometime we'll get an update. Until then, the team is clicking and growing and surviving without him. Hope the best for him, of course. I'm not quite so down on De'Ron as some of you. He's much slower and noticeably less explosive than others out there. That's partially due to his injury and continued rehab, and partially just the kind of athlete he is. It's time to adjust our expectations from two years ago and root for his health to remain steady. He knows what to do out there. He sets screens as well as anyone on our team. He wasn't afraid to run the court for that quick transition basket, and so he's putting in effort. And he loves the team. I'm a big fan of De'Ron, whatever his role might be. I'm sure he sees the trajectory of his basketball career, as well. He's still an important part of the team, even if he doesn't fit into our "death lineup." With 4 players out, the depth of the bench is certainly getting tested. And even still, last night we got guys like Damezi significant experience. Our bigs got tons of rest (yeah, some from foul trouble). Just the same, that stuff pays dividends at the end of the season. Juwan played 22 min, Justin 21, Evan 18, De'Ron 15. NBA fans know that some of the new analytics follow fatigue, and letting guys rest is becoming a big goal. Romeo announced his arrival last night. You saw him play confidently, and enjoy scoring on Marquette. He played a balanced game. He even had a hint of bravado out there, which he typically hid all through high school. Awesome game. I'm not sure how many of you moseyed over to the Marquette forums this week. They were very confident going into this game. Really enjoyed shutting them down!

Archie agrees with you guys:

http://bfy.tw/KreX

Yeah our schedule was nasty. Using Top Drawer Soccer rankings: #3 Wake Forest #4 Kentucky #5 UNC #10 Maryland (twice) #25 Michigan State Even beyond those, many of the others were still top 50 teams. Going to be cheering hard for these guys to keep it up.

A great Gavitt Games synopsis by u/kdiuro13 on reddit. ================================================= The 2018 Gavitt Tipoff Games are a week long B1G-Big East challenge that features 8 games between the conferences on FS1 and BTN. The event is named for the late Dave Gavitt, former athletic director at Providence College and the first commissioner of the Big East Conference. The series is on an 8 year contract and this will be year 4. 2018's matchups: Tuesday Nov. 13: Georgetown vs. Illinois 6:30PM, FS1 Notes: It's a battle of Year 2 rebuilds as Patrick Ewing meets Brad Underwood in Champaign. Both sides had notably weak non-conference strengths of schedule last year Illinois (#260/351), and Georgetown (#351/351) and will be trying to get a power conference win for an early boost. Both programs have a long history of success and want to get back toward the top of their conference soon. Wisconsin vs. Xavier 8:30PM, FS1 Notes: A fiery matchup last year at the Kohl Center led to a Xavier win and a very notable clash between the Wisconsin student section and JP Macura. Rematch this year at Cintas features a rookie coach in Travis Steele taking on Wisconsin trying to make it back to the tournament after snapping a 19 year NCAA Tournament streak last season. Friends of the program will note the first major appearance this year of Buzzcut Brad himself, Brad Davidson. Wednesday Nov. 14: #18 Michigan vs. #8 Villanova 6:30PM, FS1 Notes: A national championship rematch, which hasn't occurred in college basketball since December 2009 when UNC met Michigan State. Michigan will be out for revenge, whereas it's the first big game at the newly renovated Finneran Pavilion for Villanova. Probably the must-see game of the Tipoff Games. This is a once a decade kind of rematch. Seton Hall vs. Nebraska 7:30PM, BTN Notes: Nebraska has been pounded in both its Gavitt Games appearances so far and is looking to get on the board for the B1G in the challenge. Meanwhile Seton Hall off a big win over IU last year makes the trip out to Lincoln to try and go 3-0 all time in the challenge. #24 Marquette vs. Indiana FS1 Notes: A matchup that was nearly ranked vs. ranked and is still #24 vs. "#27" in the AP Poll. Romeo Langford vs. Markus Howard will make this must watch television as both teams may break the 80-90 point mark easily in this one. Thursday Nov. 15 Ohio State vs. Creighton 7:00PM, FS1 Notes: A matchup of two teams picked way low in their respective preseason conference polls, both would like a power conference win to start off a rebuilding year strong in 2018-2019. Creighton's head coach Greg McDermott turned down the Ohio State job in 2017, opening a pathway for then Butler HC Chris Holtmann to take the job. Both programs are likely very happy with how that coaching search ended up. Penn State vs. Depaul 9:00PM, FS1 Notes: The hot seat matchup of the Games. Dave Leitao's 2nd stint at Depaul has yielded little and with solid recruits now trickling in and a new arena to show off, will administration keep Leitao if results don't show? At Penn State, does winning the NIT give momentum into next season? Results are mixed but for Pat Chambers and his coaching position, he hopes so. 7 years, 0 tournament appearances, and that needs to change fast. Friday Nov. 16 St. John's vs. Rutgers 7:00PM, FS1 Notes: Another former player turned rebuilding coach here, as Chris Mullins is touting Shamorie Ponds and Mustapha Heron as the frontcourt to beat in the Big East. First though they'll have to conquer the RAC as Rutgers is still looking to end the longest streak without a tournament appearance in the 6 major conferences (1991) and the longest streak of being the 14 seed in the B1G Tournament (4...out of 4). Past Results 2015: Tied 4-4 Notes: Maryland wins the battle of DC 75-71 over Georgetown, the Big East puts together a few close wins, and Xavier upsets Michigan on the road to clinch the 4-4 tie in the inaugural games. 2016: Tied 4-4 Notes: Defending champs Villanova survive Mackey Arena and Purdue, the Big East goes full Warriors and blows a 3-1 lead, and Minnesota beats back St. John's to bring the 2nd contest to a tie. 2017: Tied 4-4 Notes: Minnesota, Purdue, and Maryland best their Big East foes, but this time the B1G blows the 3-1 lead as Butler uses some Hinkle magic to upset Northwestern, JP Macura gator chomps Wisconsin to take a 4-3 lead back, but on the final day the B1G again claws back to a 4-4 tie as Illinois beats Depaul. Three straight ties have left both conference wanting a resolution in this series and some wide open matchups this year have led to hopes on both sides for a big victory. Let's go!

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/11/13/iu-basketball-target-trayce-jackson-davis-sees-recruiting-finish-line-ucla-michigan-state/1986494002/ I don't know if this qualifies as an update or not. Thinks he'll commit in a month. He didn't want to commit before due to general pressure. Still hoping he's a Hoosier.

Dude... Aaron provides us tons of insight and information that we wouldn't otherwise get. His pregame and post-game analysis have made following the team this year much better. He doesn't have to post like he does. But he gives a great breakdown for every game. It's appreciated.

Gulp.

Nebrasketball is looking good. OSU likely going to be better than projected, too. It is going to be an exciting B1G season. Factoid #1: Only two teams have ever gone 18-0 in Big Ten play. Indiana, and Indiana. Faction #2: Only two teams have ever gone 17-1 in Big Ten play. Also, Indiana and Indiana. Moving to a 20 game schedule this year.

I caught some of that game too! Was happy to see Lewis playing well. Lead all scorers at half. Hard to tell if Alabama is any good though.

Little, noodly armed punches.

Agree the 1/2 court offense is lagging. It is a freshman back court. Very likely Archie has spent 75% of his practices on defense. Look for the offensive sophistication to improve over the weeks.

SIAP. Not a great video, about 50% assertion of effort, or "half @$$." for abbrevs. But, it is the most recent video of Trayce. It takes a couple minutes before he gets cooking. Even over the last year Trayce is bigger and more skilled. Remember he's been all over the country with USA ball and EYBL, plus with a trainer all summer, I'd assume. Compared to the year he's had, I'd imagine high school ball will be a step back. He's smooth. Every time I see him I'm impressed by just how practiced and smooth his moves are. And fast. He looks out of place among the kiddos in this video. Keep your eye on Pierce Thomas of Brownsburg, also. He's been on Archie's radar since last summer. Like most of you I'm beyond having any kind of confidence here. Back to just hoping we can land a commitment here.

Boy howdy! Yeah that was fun. That last shot was weak, too. Mamasa, that's the last time I trust your updates instead of just turning on BTN.

Holy smokes what a highlight! That stuff's not supposed to be possible.

"But Stromboli, this isn't really analysis, is it?" Shut up. It's my thread. I'll decide what is and isn't analysis. This is.

Agree with what you guys are saying about the Pacers. Like they've gotten complacent now that Vic has emerged as a star. Every trip down feels like Vic doing some hesitation move to the basket, then a pass or attempt at a rebound. It's not a clever offense. It's not like there's not toooons of examples on how to get shots. Even worse, now that the fans are coming back, what is this team going to do with it?

It's fun to use times like this to judge how different people handle disappointment. The maturity on this board, led by Stuhoo, USPS, and Old Fart, are part of what makes it my favorite board by far. I appreciate what Chris and Pap bring, they're obviously just passing along what has been passed to them. This is definitely a weird one. It's like the delay is having the opposite effect you'd expect. Now this thread will go days without a post. I'll say this. Indiana is going to have a giant Juwan Morgan sized hole in our lineup next year. Trayce has continued to grow as a player and would really help the team. The team he'd be playing with would be fairly experienced, too. I still hope he commits. But this team already has some players.

Yeesh. Doesn't sound like a bluff.

Yeah it feels like the fans are trying too hard to create a pecking order here. Damezi is a major get for the Hoosiers. He may be a streaky shooter, but even still his overall % is very high. Excellent size for defense. Great attitude. Frankly just an excellent talent that we can develop and use for some years. I like Stuhoo's take on Green, also. He has never changed. I don't think it's defeatist to just accept what he is. Archie has already done so, I think. He's going to get him in there as a second guard more often. Someone else said it, but it feels like the fanbase tries too hard to put one guy in the doghouse. JBJ comes to mind. If a guy doesn't fill your offseason expectations, is he underperforming, or are you over-expecting? It's not like Green isn't trying to win games. On Rob, it's funny to see a kid get this much hype so fast. His defense is really very good. Likely some of that PG iq coming in, where he can deconstruct plays before they happen, and he's quick enough to get there and steal the ball. He didn't finish every time he got to the rim, but he was effective enough that a defense has to respect him. I also like that you can see the entire team looking at this unheralded freshman and realizing that he's walked in and taken the job. Thank goodness. Archie's been trying his darndest to recruit a high level PG, but it looks like we've got it sorted. Our passes were awesome last night. Every pass had some zip to it. Lazy passes kill me. That pass when Juwan faked a 3 then shot to Justin under the basket? Hot diggity. Would have dislocated my thumbs trying to catch that. Our offense really doesn't work very well. I'm not smart enough to know why. In transition (at least against the #353 team) we look good. Ideally our defense will be strong enough that we continue to capitalize here. It feels like we do better when things break down. The so-called "dog points" that Juwan and De'Ron talk about. Fitzner seems like he understands offense better than the rest of the team. I really like him and Rob together. We need Race. You look at Michigan State, and their guys are just big, rounded-shouldered bruisers. I don't know what our answer will be against Duke. Even if you get great position on them, they can just glide around you. Maybe we've got a combination that can match up and discombobulate their attack. Good luck, coach! That was fun. Mostly meaningless. Can't wait to see Jerome play, we still have no idea what we've got there.

A lot easier to like a Duke team without Grayson out there. This does not have the same feel of other Duke teams. More like K just puts these guys on the floor and watches from the sidelines. Not gonna lie. I really like Zion Williamson.

I don't think you're too far off. I read somewhere that teams like CSU get paid something like $80,000 to come play this game. IU will easily cover that in ticket sales and concessions. CSU has us tonight, and Notre Dame two days later. This $160,000 is probably a significant part of their annual budget.

Ahem. Maybe if anyone paid attention to the ol' Pizza Sandwich's "Analysis -- Articles and Discussion Thread," then we'd stop whining about how Chicago State hurts our RPI/BPI/SOS. That stuff is out. It's been replaced by the NET Ranking. Why don't you mosey on over and learn yourself something!

Trayce, I like your likes.

Also added the graphic to the first post for reference. Scoring margin, results-based "NET" ranking, net efficiency. I like these changes. Some explanation from NCAA: https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-08-22/division-i-mens-basketball-committee-adopts-new-ranking