Honkyman

Three new recruits means three current players have to move on. Trayce Jackson Davis, Race Thompson, and Parker Stewart would seem to be the three. It is possible others might also decide to leave.

An IU fan can be quite happy with the win over Minnesota and still be quite concerned by the team's pattern of blowing leads.

Indiana 74 Ohio State 69

Tamar Bates has leadership qualities, too. He needs to be more consistent to have credibility as a leader. Galloway's credibility comes from how hard he plays and his ability to make things happen. If only he could shoot the 3.

IU 67 UW 62

IU-Kaulie said: "There is more to the game than shooting. " Yes, of course. But IU is losing primarily because of poor shooting. The last three games we have lost, we average less than 35% from the field and 23% from 3-point range. It is difficult to beat a team that is any good shooting at that rate. IU can't keep repeating the same offense and expect better results. We need to increase our chances of scoring by starting players who can shoot and score. Galloway has had a couple of games where he has scored (mostly off of drives) but he is not a good shooter. The defense has backed off of him when he is at long range and he still misses the wide open shots. Kopp and Stewart are decent shooters but they don't do much to get open shots. Bates presents a threat both driving and shooting. He still takes bad shots but at least he adds movement to the offense with the threat of scoring from multiple spots on the court. I'm not saying don't play Galloway as he obviously adds energy, defense, and movement. But he shouldn't be a 3-point option because he will make very few of them.

Galloway can't start at shooting guard because, unfortunately, he can't shoot anything but a layup. Also, it appears he is now the backup point guard. Bates may have demonstrated he is ready to start at shooting guard. Whomever starts at shooting guard has to be able to make a 3-point shot and that isn't Trey Galloway.

IU 65 MSU 64

IU-72 Northwestern 67

Golfman25 said: "Not the llineup, but the strategy maybe. Trying to post up against a beast is not likely going to work, I don't care who you are. That I think was the biggest failure. We did alright in the first half when TJD was on the bench and we had no intent to go inside." I agree it was a mistake to try to run the offense through TJD when he clearly was not effective against Kofi Cockburn. IU also tried to run the offense through Race Thompson but that didn't work any better. Nobody was hitting in the second half anyway. So it wouldn't have made any difference in the outcome. We needed a player to have a career game like Rob Phinisee did against Purdue. Alas, it wasn't to be.

No different rotation or alternative lineup would have made any difference Saturday. The team shot 35%, 23% from 3-point range. Illinois trampled over everyone. This is a team with no real shooters and that doesn't get us far against good teams. TJD is talented but he has serious limitations. Race usually does well when TJD is taking the defense away from him. Otherwise, he plays hard but is merely an OK player. Xavier is an average point guard who sometimes sparkles but often not. It goes down from there. Bates can't play defense and his shooting has been awful. Galloway can't shoot anything but a layup. Stewart and Kopp contribute very little. We would have lost to Purdue had Rob Phinisee not had a career game. Woodson had only one real recruit (Bates). It is what it is and there is no use in hoping the team will somehow compete at a higher level than they have. The truth is Woodson has the team overachieving with victories over Purdue and Ohio State.

Illinois is simply a better team. The reason they are better is they have players who can shoot and IU does not. You are not going to win many games shooting 35% including 23% from 3-point range. IU took a lot of really bad, forced shots in the 2nd half. The 2nd half game plan of running the ball through TJD wasn't going to work. TJD just doesn't play well against bigger players and so he turned the ball over and took a bunch of shots he rarely makes. As he did in the game against Purdue, Durr did a reasonably good job guarding the big man. But Durr got into foul trouble so that put TJD back on Cockburn who overpowered him. Indiana needs to defeat all the teams below them in the conference standings (i.e., Northwestern, Minnesota & Rutgers) if they want to make the NCAA tournament. It seems unlikely IU will beat any one of Michigan State, Ohio State or Purdue on the road.

Bates is rushing his shots. That's what makes them bad shots. He needs to get a couple of put-backs and layups to help get his confidence back and get him in the flow of things better before he throws up 3-point shots.

Bates wants to show he can contribute so badly he is taking bad shots.

Woodson was a great shooter. He scored 48 points before there was a 3-point shot. He must get frustrated sometimes by IU's shooters of today.

When I see Al this season I see exactly the same player as last season. He plays hard, helps the team as best he can. He's not a great player but not a bad player. He made some shots including free throws that helped IU win last season. But he also tried to do too much at times to the detriment of the team. This season he does some things to help, too, but he is on a much better team this year at Providence than IU's team last year.

I think Al is playing at about the same level he did at IU. He is only hitting 24% from 3-point range and 34% overall this season which is actually regression from his previous years at IU. Al always played hard which made him standout at times on Archie's teams. But he is not particularly athletic and his basketball skills are average. Other than his free-throw shooting he was streaky both from long-range and close-up which seems to be the case at Providence as well. He is a good person who gives it his all but hardly a better player this year than last.

IU 73 Illinois 69

Ranked because we beat Penn State and Maryland? I don't think so. Maybe if we beat Illinois and Michigan State.

connchr71 said: "Sorry, I don't mean to ba an ***, but I can't help it." Obviously.

IU 65 Maryland 62

IU 75 Penn State 67

The reason why Stewart and Kopp aren't shooting more from 3-point ranger is the offensive scheme. IU doesn't run plays for them except at the end of game when IU is playing catch-up. Stewart is hitting 45% and Kopp is hitting 37%. They need to shoot more but the offense is geared toward getting the ball into the paint. Woodson's offensive scheme is almost as bad as Archie Miller's. It's one-on-one basketball. The difference this year is that TJD and Race Thompson are playing better and Xavier Johnson is a better point guard than Phinisee. But in general the offense is stagnant.

Galloway is hitting 23% from 3-point range. He can't shoot really from anywhere and his drives to the basket have become predictable. Just like last season, teams are figuring out how to guard him. Yes, Galloway brings energy which is a good quality for a player who comes off the bench. If Bates would ever start playing at his potential, he would be the best candidate to move up because (potentially anyway) he can hit from the outside and drive to the basket.

There is no reason starting Galloway or Geronimo will translate into better team starts. Yes, Galloway hustles, but he can't shoot and his drives to the basket have already become predictable. Geronimo remains too inconsistent and besides, he is the the most likely player to sub for Race Thompson. If Tamar Bates had progressed, I would say start Bates over Stewart. Bates has the potential to be an all around very good player but he isn't there yet. In fact, he seems to have regressed since the start of the year. The reality is this team was thrown together last April. Stewart and Kopp are not living up to expectations, but a large part of that is the coaching--they aren't designing plays for those two. In any event, the discussion is academic, since Woodson said on his show he is changing the starting lineup.