Honkyman

Portugese.

D'Andre Davis is an excellent player. He could end up like Aaron Henry--a better college player than some of the other Indiana players who ended up at IU.

I was talking about performance in college not high school ranking. IU currently doesn't have any players who have earned top 25 Big Ten conference ranking. I predict that will change this year. I believe by the time all-conference teams are chosen in 2020, there will be at least one or two IU players on the list.

I believe Loaded Chicken Sandwich is mostly correct--we don't have a proven top 25 player. We have some very talented players who have been inconsistent, e.g., Green, Smith. We have a talented big in De'Ron Davis who has been hurt most of his career but could be one of the top centers in the league. We have some very good role players who aren't top 25, e.g., Al Durham, Rob Phinisee, but who are critical to IU's success. But we don't have college proven top 25 talent. Trayce Jackson Davis definitely has the talent to be a top 25 player this season, but he is unproven at the college level. I would bet he is top 25 by the end of the year. Devonte Green could be a top 25 player if he plays this season like he did at the end of last season. Jerome Hunter has the talent to be a top 25 player but who knows what kind of player he will be this year after sitting out all last year? I'm not sure why some posters get so bent out of shape when a fan states the obvious--we don't have any proven top 25 players on this team. That's why the forecasters put IU in the 9-11 range. And, based on all the uncertainty and last year's very disappointing season no one should blame them. In the final analysis, teams have to have both stars and excellent role players to truly succeed. Personally, I predict IU will surprise this year and make the NCAA tournament. But all the pieces have to come together. We can only wait and see.

It is ludicrous to claim that those 8 teams are "locks to make the dance." Maybe half are locks.

I hope you are correct, Old Friend.

It would be great if Armaan Franklin can contribute in important ways this season but we shouldn't count on it. He obviously doesn't come to IU with anywhere near the scoring ability that Romeo had/has. But he looks to be a solid player with a good future at IU.

I'm not convinced there should be one set starting lineup. A better lineup against quick teams might be TJD, Justin Smith, Jerome Hunter, Robert Phinisee, and Devonte Green. The better lineup against many bigger Big Ten teams might be De'Rron Davis, TJD, Hunter, RP, and Green. TDJ looked very quick around the basket at HH and Hunter looked good driving to the basket. Hunter looks more ready to play than perhaps anticipated. They are the most talented players on the team and both need to play as much as possible

Romeo versus TJD was all Romero (not counting the dunk contest)

Watching last year's and this year's Hoosier Hysteria on YouTube back-to-back, last year's team looks way better. Romeo last year looked much better than any single player this year. Of course, three likely starters didn't play on Saturday. But still, even reserves like Jake Forrester looked better than this year's reserves (e.g., Armaan Franklin). I don't know that it means anything. Hopefully not. But watching the scrimmage this year versus this year, I can see why some fans were disappointed.

Davis will start. Brunk will get plenty of playing of time.

There aren't any other guys like Dawson Garcia who IU would be recruiting if they didn't go "all in" on Garcia. And, there weren't other players like Brooks who we would have been recruiting in addition to Brooks. Brooks was an in-state 5-star who seemed to be leaning our way. We had no choice but to go "all in" on him. If you don't go "all in" you are not likely to land these recruits. Sometimes you are successful, other times not. Besides, all the players we pursued in the spring after Brooks declared for Kentucky were top 100 players and worthy of offers.

After years of criticizing him, some IU fans just can't bring themselves to admit Crean had any good qualities. Obviously, there weren't enough to justify keeping him as IU's coach and IU is better off with Archie. But the fact is Crean was able to spot talent in players that others missed and several players (Oladipo, Bryant, Anunoby, Wade) developed well when he was their coach. I"m not sure why it matters now. Archie is IU's coach and it remains to be seen how well players develop under his system. Hopefully, we will see some real improvement this season with key players like Justin Smith, Durham, Green, and others.

Losing Brooks didn't stall IU's recruiting momentum. A horrific losing streak in Big Ten play resulting in not making the NAACP is what stalled IU's recruiting momentum. Brooks' decision to go to Kentucky was a consequence of IU's poor 2018-19 season. There's no reason not to go all in on Dawson Garcia even if the odds of landing him are well below 50%. If IU gets him it is high reward. If IU does not get Garcia, he was always going to be a tough get. Better that he is out-of-state. As the Brooks recruitment showed, losing a top in-state player is a much worse look than losing an out-of-state recruit because IU is expected to win in-state recruiting battles. Besides, IU already has received some nice commitments for 2021.

I agree that Justin Smith and Al Durham are Archie recruits. Would he have recruited them if he had come to Indiana a year earlier? Who knows? Also, I don't think we know yet if Archie's teams can win on the road. The overall record is not good although, yes, he did win at Michigan State last year. But it is too earlier to reach a conclusion. There are a handful of truly great college coaches and a greater number of truly bad college coaches. Everybody else is in the middle--most can coach but they will never be in the same category as Knight or Krzyzewski. Archie is likely in the middle some where. Clearly he is an improvement on Crean and should be given a chance to prove what he can do.

If the right people aren't taking the most shots--especially from 3-point range--that's on the coach. There is enough depth this year to bench players who take bad shots.

My initial comment was we should know soon enough whether this team will improve over last year's disappointing season by our performance during non-conference games. Suffice it to say the non-conference schedule is easier than the conference schedule irrespective of whether the non-conference schedule is slightly more difficult than last year. If IU struggles during the non-conference schedule, we are not likely to do well in the conference schedule. My point is simply that underachieving against non-conference competition will likely be followed by a mediocre conference record. Hopefully, that will not be the case.

No one "expects" IU to be undefeated. But our non-conference schedule is quite easy compared to last year when we won games against the likes of Louisville, Butler, and Marquette. It is the conference schedule this year that is the tougher of the two. And if IU can't do well in the non-conference schedule, the likelihood that we will suddenly make it up during conference play is not great. Losses against non-conference teams will be an indicator of what kind of year we will have.

If we can't win these games it is not likely we will win comparable games during the conference schedule. There is a lot of complaining within the IU fan base about prognosticators predicting IU missing the NCAA tournament again and finishing near the bottom of the conference. To make the tournament, IU has to win games against teams like Florida State, Notre Dame, and Connecticut--not to mention comparable conference teams. It's really that simple.

If we can't defeat Florida State at home, Notre Dame in Indianapolis and Connecticut, then the predictions that IU will finish in the bottom half of the conference are likely accurate. The teams in the top half of the Big Ten are better than any of them.

We'll know what this team can do soon enough. The non-conference schedule is not difficult. If we can't breeze past the first seven games in November, IU likely will have problems. IU really should not lose any games going into the new year--certainly no more than one.

Lander said he wants to wait and see how IU does this season.

Archie continues to recruit 5-star point guards which suggests that he is not convinced that Rob Phinisee is the only answer to IU's point guard needs. Archie may even believe that Rob is not as good as IU needs to lead the team to real success. In any event, Phinisee was injured last year and that became a problem. Why not go after the best available?

We are losing two starters after this season--a scoring guard who plays some point (Green) and a center (Davis). We have not yet landed replacements for either. Hopefully, that will change.

Joby Wright was a part of arguably the most talented front line in IU history during the 1970-71 season: George McGinnis and Joby Wright at forwards and Steve Downing at center. Coach Lou Watson couldn't handle all that talent and the team under-achieved resulting in Watson's dismissal and the hiring of Bobby Knight. In two seasons, Knight took IU to the Final Four, though without McGinnis who signed with the Pacers after one season at IU (leading the Big Ten in both scoring and rebounding) and Joby Wright who played for Knight for just one season before graduating. In those days, freshman were ineligible to play varsity. Otherwise, Joby Wright's statistics would be even better. Wright was a high school All American out of Savannah, Georgia--athletic and smooth. IU landed another All American from Wright's high school--6'4" guard Ed Daniels. But Daniels transferred after Knight was hired. I don't know how Lou Watson was able to bring two high school All Americans from Georgia to Bloomington, Indiana. If Knight had been able to coach all three--McGinnis, Wright, and Downing at once, he might have won his first national championship before the 1975-76 undefeated team.