Stromboli

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

Let the Carnage begin!!! Some huge games to keep track of tomorrow. Duke/Kentucky and MSU/Kansas the biggest. We get to cheer for John Konchar and the Mastadons to beat UCLA. Wofford trying to play spoiler again against UNC. In all 20/25 ESPN ranked teams play tomorrow. I can only imagine the excitement at the USPS household. Tension you can cut with a knife!!

https://www.insidethehall.com/2018/11/02/film-session-southern-indiana/

I hope they offer him now. I want him on the team. And it has seemed like he would accept the offer almost on the spot. His social media activity shows that he tracks all of the IU guys. Some of us are feeling burnt that TJD is holding off on his commitment, somewhat to the detriment of the program. Getting a Top 100 kid to commit in the middle of his junior year would help the optics of "an Indiana scholarship offer is important." We're not talking about some scrub here, either. After a great spring in AAU he rose to #79 composite. Higher than Al, Jake, Rob, Devonte, Juwan, Zach, Clifton, Damezi, Race, and Evan. He's a ball handling scoring guard, which we'll need. Described as a high motor. Has a 4.3 GPA. I just don't see a reason not to jump on this.

Now that we're not destitute we don't pay nearly as much attention to recruits. Anyway, this:

Hoooooly crap. Good find, Stuhoo! I'm going to be giggling about that all weekend.

Well that was awesome. With the huge turnover from last year, it feels like an entirely different team. Damezi. Archie called him a "big guard" in the post-game interview. Love it. I think he's our long term shooting guard. He has a real knack for sneaking around the perimeter, getting loose for a shot. And man he can heat up. Love this kid. Rob. We're not the only ones impressed by his game. I think Archie is convinced he's a best option at point. I think the entire team recognizes that he's our most talented PG. Sorry, Green. Sorry, Al. Rob couldn't shoot tonight. He may never be great, but I would guess he'll level out to 34% or so from 3. Good enough. Romeo had a bad game. Give Archie and Romeo an opportunity to fix it. Maybe the biggest story will end up being our defense. I lucked into some 4th row seats to the Pacers/Raptors game last year, hoping to see OG play. Of course he was out that game. But being that close, I realized just how small the court is when you're playing a big team. You can't do anything. The packline is nice and should work, but as they say, Jimmy's and Joe's over X's and O's. Long, stifling players. Here's Archie commenting on Rob.

Pretty sure we're '76ing this one.

https://www.prephoops.com/2018/10/keion-brooks-video/ Nothing new.