Honkyman

This IU team more times than not plays sloppy and lazy. Poor decision making. The current team on the floor has little chance of making up the deficit.

IU-70 ND-67

Galloway wasn't the first off the bench--Rob Phinisee was. And, Phinisee and Bates received more playing time than Galloway. Yes, Galloway and Leal have different games--Leal can shoot from 3 and Galloway can't. Galloway has great hustle but with so many teams playing zone against IU Leal is a more valuable player against those teams. Now that Leal has shown what he can contribute, he is bound to cut into Galloway's minutes.

Glad to hear Trey Galloway will be back soon. He is tough and plays decent defense. But Anthony Leal has demonstrated real value shooting 50% from 3-point range compared to just 25% for Galloway. They essentially play the same position so Galloway's playing time will necessarily be limited until he demonstrates he can shoot.

IU 76 Merrimack 61

The bottom line is that in the 2nd half nobody was doing what you need to do to get open shots. Stewart and Kopp are catch and shoot players, not players who can drive to the hoop. Yet, they rarely moved to get open. TJD and Race Thompson more often than not, planted themselves on the block and rarely moved. Wisconsin adjusted at half time but Indiana did not adjust to their changes. Rob Phinisee played poorly the whole game. When Johnson went out the second half, Woodson should have gone to Kristian Lander. He couldn't have played any worse than Rob. This was the first game when Woodson's lack of college coaching experience showed.

Poor execution in the last couple of minutes.

I saw Victor Olidipo in high school. He was the 3rd best player on a very good DeMatha, MD team. So I believe that Geronimo was better in high school. But Olidipo improved by leaps each year at IU and was clearly ahead of where Geronimo is now in Victor's 2nd year at IU.

IU 70--Wisconsin 68

I'm happy to see players hit 3-point shots. I'm happy to see better free throw shooting. I'm happy to see TJD and Race Thompson playing at a higher level. I was happy to Miller Kopp finally play up to expectations against Syracuse (though obviously disappointed with his shooting against Nebraska). I'm happy to see a cohesive team. I'm happy with a likable coach who seems to be making a difference in the quality of play. I'm unhappy with turnovers. I was unhappy to see us lose a game at Syracuse we should have won. Unhappy with slow starts.

If we had beaten Syracuse and beat Wisconsin, yes. Not sure we're there yet even if we win at Madison.

76-69 IU over Nebraska

In the bigger picture, the game was not very encouraging imo. IU gave up 112 points to a fairly ordinary, mediocre Syracuse team. Syracuse penetrated almost at will while getting too many open 3s. 26 IU turnovers--7 by Race Thompson and six by TJD? Race Thompson missing two consecutive shots from 2-inches out? Tamar Bates shooting four ill conceived 3-point shots, one from 35 feet? Parker Stewart fouling 90 feet from the basket in overtime? Jordan Geronimo completely out-of-sync. Poor Kristian Lander, who generally played well after Johnson and Phinisee fouled out, failed to execute in the last 10 seconds of the first overtime. The team was unready to play, which has to be on the coaching staff. They seemed totally lost in the first half, as if there was no preparation against the Syracuse zone. It is hard to see how this IU team beats Purdue (soon to be #1 in the nation), Ohio State (which just defeated #1 Duke) or even Wisconsin. Yes, we showed fight after the first half. But a team that shoots 55% from the field including 40% from 3-point range and significantly out rebounds its opponent should win. Miller Kopp played like we hoped he would this season and that was a bright spot. Otherwise, a very frustrating game.

Indiana is being dominated by a mediocre Syracuse team. And Mike Woodson has done a very poor coaching job. This team seems totally unready against there Syracuse zone. Ironically the only thing IU has done well is hit free throws (10-11). Unlikely that rate will continue.

I would guess IU will have to beat Wisconsin (now ranked #20 in the AP) on December 8 to make it into the top 25.

I don't know why IU would be ranked. We haven't beaten anybody yet. TJD's 43 points probably grabbed the attention of some. But one player's performance isn't enough to justify leap frogging over teams ahead of us. When we start beating better teams we will move up.

IU has to keep the first unit on the floor. The reserves, except for Bates, were a disaster.

75-62 Hoosiers

IU's non-conference schedule is so weak there is no reason to lose any of those games--which isn't to say we won't.

IU might sneak into the upper end of the top 25. But we need to beat ranked teams to move up the rankings very far. That won't happen until 2022.

Hoosierfan2017 said: "Looking forward to it! First game I get to enjoy after finding out I passed the bar" Some of the people on this board have never passed a bar in their lives.

IU 71 NIU 62

It looked just like last year--Trayce Jackson Davis surrounded by a bunch of terrible shooters. Mike Woodson's offense is predicated on players hitting their 3-point shots. IU was 16.%% from 3-point range. And like last year, poor free throw shooting (12-20). Plus IU out-rebounded by an undersized team by just 1 rebound. This is not a tournament team.

Regular Season Record: 25-6 Conference Record: 14-6 NCAA Seed: 4 NCAA Finish: Sweet Sixteen

Two of the starters--Race (9.1 points per game) & TJD (19.9 points per game)--started last year. Armaan Franklin (11.4 points) was a decent offensive player and Al Durham (11.3 points) was to a lesser extent. Rob Phinisee was unreliable as a shooter (7.1 per game shooting just 34.7% from the field). None were great free-throw shooters--Durham had the highest average at 78% with Rob at just 63%. Armaan shot 42% from 3-point range and Al shot 38%. Rob was a woeful 26% and Race was worse at 20% although he put up way fewer shots. Xavier should be an improvement at point guard and hopefully Parker, Tamar, and Miller are improvements at the 2 & 3. Hopefully there are improvements from Race & TJD. As you say, who is on the sidelines will likely make a difference, hopefully a big difference. It will be interesting.