Stromboli

Oh look, another Winston foul that got a pass. That guy gets away with stuff every possession. They showed the replay of the Brunk foul (called on Joey early) and it was clear Cassius grabbed his arm to make it appear to be a foul. He had one feed where he stiff-armed our guy, just a blatant push to create space, then made the entry pass. Another replay where I think rob was showing the ref the hooking motion Winston was getting away with, and the replay showed it. The B1G trying to make him into a superstar has gone too far. Love the Izzo hate around here. Biggest crybaby in college basketball. I watched his entire postgame presser with as much glee as I did the game. And MSU fans don’t get enough credit for how insufferable they are. Loving these reports from those of you at “the Carnegie Hall of College Basketball” as Gus Johnson repeated at least 3 times last night. Guys saying best environment since 2012? Evidently reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Also, it’s a little thing, but just hearing Gus and Bill refer to us as IU was refreshing. For a loooong time when someone said “IU” it immediately meant the blue blood basketball program. You don’t hear it as much anymore. Not many comments on the game that haven’t been said. Al played a man’s game. He came out fired up. Our bigs dominated for us. Armaan looked like a guy that will be a plus player for us in the years to come. Justin was awesome, IMO. Great attitude, huge effort. Someone made the point that even without the two seniors, we might be returning all those guys next year. After a night like that, everyone will want to keep on being a part of this program, and hopefully recruits too. Everybody: we have people saying that going 5-7 over the next 12 would be a great overall result. We will be losing multiple games in the next month, and won’t necessarily look good doing it. Keep your cool. This team is delivering us a very satisfying season so far. Keep supporting them. Five more wins over 12 games won’t be fun, but that is 20 wins and a great resume. 100% chance I track down some grape Icebreakers before Maryland.

Off topic:

It’s not really accurate to say the B1G doesn’t compete well in the tourney. We’ve had 7 teams in the Final Four since 2012. We own the 3rd best win percentage against other conferences in tourney games since 1985. Many will agree that our failure to win since 2000 has a big luck element to it, because we get teams there. And it doesn’t help that we’re worried about fundamentals and points in the paint while much of the competition at that point has paid a 1 year lease on NBA talent. I think maybe a bigger factor is the talent drain. When Dawson Garcia knows he’s gonna get bodied in the B1G, he goes to the Big East. Guards don’t want to drive the lane in a conference where they might get the foul, but get bruised hips and elbows in the process. I agree it should get cleaned up. For consistency definitely. But a cleaner game is a prettier game. Like soccer with spacing and passing. To me the game in basketball is all about creating space for a good shot. Simply pushing a guy to create the space isn’t really how it should be played. Plenty of other sports for that. https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-10-05/best-conferences-ncaa-tournament-play-1985

Brass I was pretty vocal about Justin not being a perimeter guy, but he’s doing fine playing the 3. I really like his play. Having him and an improved Hunter could be awesome though. Both guys with solid standard forward skills. Great win! Good for Archie, too. Would love to build momentum here. No one is complaining about schemes today, but praising the effort instead. That likely means something...

Fire Fred Glass!

In law school (IU--Bloomington) I was appointed as the student representative to the committee to rename the law school. The purpose, it was said plainly, was so people wouldn't mistake IU-Indy for us (two separate, unrelated schools). I show up expecting a "great experience." Of course, the Maurer gift was all but secured already and the entire committee was a formality. Turns out it was at least a learning experience about how things get done. In the aftermath, IU-Indy just secured a gift from a "McKinney" so now there's IU-Maurer and IU-McKinney. Clear as mud. Every board I've been a part of since operates the same way. Make sure the minutes reflect that procedure was followed, but it's never how things actually get done. Cue WayneFleek, et al to tell how how this relates to recruiting...

Not to pile on Haarms while he’s down, but this tweet is fun.

So someone on reddit calculated the odds of this B1G home win streak happening, based on the combined chance of win percentage. It’s 0.45/1000. Insane.

The mailman delivers! Appreciate it, always good seeing you, bud.

Stromboli in the house! I won’t be here too long, but hope to at least catch through the first half of the Silver Creek/ F Dub Blackhawk game.

Poopy.

Dudes, I loved the ugly win. How many tourney runs come down to the team that can play in the dirt and win? I’ve seen enough ugly losses that I’m happy to see the ugly win. Hurley mentioned several times how physical we are, and I don’t think he was doing it as a shot to the refs. We are a big team, and I do hope that other teams know that when you play Indiana, you’re going to get beat up a little. It was likely frustration from the physical play that caused the ugly flagrant. DeRon. Ouchies. It is no exaggeration that 55 year olds at LAFitness move better. Couldn’t reach to gather that pass from Justin. Couldn’t dunk on an open goal. He’s got heart, but physical limitations. Personally, that was the best I’ve seen of Rob. His sticky defense has always been his best attribute, but to me he was a better PG than ever before. Surprised he only got 13 minutes, hope there wasn’t a setback. This win is very big later. I’d be more than happy with two more ugly non-con wins. There won’t be much for us to analyze here. I think about basketball in the same way you’ll hear coaches talk about football, three phases of the game. But rather than special teams in basketball, there’s this element of chaos that you have to control. Diving for a ball and making a pass from your butt, for example. Al did that (good) only to have Devonte dribble off his foot (bad). Or those tip offensive rebounds back out to a guard, who aggressively gets it. Open floor chaos. It may make for an ugly game, but it’s important to win those situations. No game is ever going to be just the Xs and Os on the whiteboard pregame. I don’t think we were great last night on our fast breaks and all, but ultimately we won a very chaotic game. Um. Some concerns on offense for sure. You know I consider the long 2 a lazy, selfish shot. There were plenty of them. It comes down to off ball movement and passes to get in position for better shots, and that’s a team initiative, not just the player. Lastly. Some of you all are just too emotional. Like maybe add some self reflection into your life and find center, because your coping techniques aren’t good. These NCAA basketball games are entirely arbitrary. Be a fan because it’s something that enriches your life. Not a release valve for negativity. I’m Stromboli, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Sooo, I took my kids to Chriskindlmarkt Saturday and only caught some of the Wisconsin game at dinner afterwards. Having not watched has pretty much saved me from the doldrums the rest of you are enduring. Once again, tonight’s game is supposed to be the kind of game this roster was built to handle. Our bench is about 8 deep with good players, with DeRon, Jerome and Armaan there too. UConn goes 6 deep then sees drop-off. If Devonte feels like going all Jelly-fam and just outscoring them, fine. Otherwise good passing leading to a big in good position, possession after possession, should do it. Maybe once Rob gets back we can disrupt teams plans on offense. We might just be a defense in that kenpom 40ish range, which we can work with but need our offense to click. I’d like to see Jerome drop an early 3, get some confidence, and scrap his way to 15 points.

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!