IUrocker

I know it seems like we are definitely gonna be in need of guards for next year, but I wanna say I’ve seen somewhere that Archie was recruiting guys like Hunter and Anderson to play the 2 guard position for us (as well as the 3 spot) which would be pretty sweet. They both score the ball really well, and heck, just becaus they are 6’7, 6’8” guys, doesn’t mean they can’t play the guard spot once they reach the college level. I can see us being like a Syracuse type team just as far as our length on the perimeter goes...having 6’7” or so guys guarding opponents out on the perimeter with their size and length can wreak havoc on opponents.

Already sick of seeing all the “Boiler Up” comments on my Facebook newsfeed. So glad there’s the “unfriend” option, ha. I swear, I can only tell they are Purdue fans if they beat IU. They care more about us failing than they do their own success.

Stings to lose to Purdue, but they definitely had superior talent and size. They really do have a pick your poison type of team this year. Leave Haas one on one and he just gobbles you up, and if you try to double him, they have multiple shooters on the perimeter who knock it down just about every time. Archie had a great game plan and kept us in it until the end. When he’s able to get his recruits in here and we have more talent next year and beyond, watch out. I can see him owning the Big Ten.

It’s definitely awesome to see Morgan succeed in a system he’s able to flourish in. When he first came to IU, I’ll admit, I wasn’t too high on him. His first couple years he just seemed to foul and turn the ball over for the most part. Archie ball is providing Juwan the chance to really show what he’s good at, and he’s been a beast. Glad to see him do so well. Archie’s style of play is really making him shine.

I’ve seen people elsewhere say that once we see Phinisee in candy stripes and on the court for IU it will make us forget about Garland....shoot, I already have. (Especially knowing Garland pretty much just used us to get his name more publicity). Definitely excited to have Phinisee as a Hoosier. His rankings are whack. Plus, it’s cool to see him in the stands at nearly every home game watching and cheering the team on. You can tell he’s excited to be a Hoosier. He’s been very impressive so far his senior year and will be a great player for us from the start.

Yep, for sure. Archie has to deal with the hand he was dealt. I highly doubt he would have recruited hardly anyone, if any, of the players on this roster himself for one of his own classes. Being a good coach is getting the players you DO have to buy in, play together, and good things will happen. He has already done that, and his in-game decision making, substitution patterns, etc, also show how good of a coach he really is. He just "gets it". Bring in a roster full of players he has recruited himself for the type of system he wants to run and i bet you special things can and will happen. Even if we happen to not get Romeo (which i feel as if we do), the recruits he has coming in such as Phinisee, Hunter, and Anderson can flat out shoot the ball. They are scorers. They are winners. We are in good hands.

Yep, I'm absolutely sure he hates getting embarrassed. Even after the IPFW game he was like "i never want to experience that again"...which obviously as far as tonight goes, it was a completely different monster. I agree it's just a good lesson learned. I think most of us before the conference started chalked this one up as a loss anyways....maybe not by this much, but a loss nonetheless, which i think eases the pain a bit for the fans. We still looked like a team who cared and tried to fight the best they could, we were just literally outmatched in physicality and talent....not to mention, MSU was in a PO'd state of mind coming off those two loses. Archie has this team fighting for every last second, we just can't buy baskets. After losing to Indiana State and IPFW, i think it'd actually be safe to say we are playing better as a team now than we thought we would.

I’m surely in the mood to see a Tom Izzo meltdown.

Trust me folks, I know it’s a stupid question and I agree whole heartedly that he has no reason to or would have any desire to leave IU. I asked the question to get a gauge on whether IU is a special enough school to want to stay at after having sustained success, and be a destination a successful coach would want to stay at no matter what other college destination comes calling, regardless of who the coach is. I’ve gotten all the excellent insightful comments i need from our very knowledgeable members here to show my quite annoying and usually unbearable co-workers who are Purdue, Ohio State, and Kentucky fans that they are wrong about IU not being a place Archie, or ANY coach would want to stick with for good.

Great post, and I thank you. I think you hit the nail on the head with what I’m trying to tell my co-workers and other people I’ve had conversations with about IU being an elite job. It’s a place that once you start to succeed and become “elite” again, once other places start knocking on your door for your services, it should be a place that make you say “nope, I’ll pass.”

Actually now that you mention it, my dog doesn’t seem to love me anymore, and I don’t understand what I’ve done wrong to make him act this way, ha.....honestly I was just curious if Archie sees IU basketball as being a premiere, never wanna leave type of job...(and I think he does). I have tons of of NON IU fans at work that I deal with everyday, who always tell me that IU isn’t what it used to be and there will be bigger, better jobs that Archie would rather have than IU and he took it because it’s obviously a huge step up from Dayton...but I guess it’s the IU fan in me who thinks they are wrong. I remember before we hired him, people always said that Ohio State was his dream job and that he would probably take over for Matta, but we ended up beating them to the punch on that one. If Ohio State and IU were both available to Archie and had his choice, wouldn’t we assume that he’d pick IU just based off blue blood/tradition? I’m not trying to figure out Archie the man himself, just the overall state and perception of IU basketball. He can go and choose to do what he pleases.

Haha, huh?

See I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure out. Shouldn’t/wouldn’t coaching at IU be considered “a Duke type job?” If he brings IU to a Duke type level, IU would be a special enough destination to be at right? (And I’m trying to say that as unbiased as possible, ha).

I know this is REALLY early in his career at IU to be discussing this, but it's been something I've thought about just because I like the guy as a coach so much, and have been aboard the Archie train since the day we hired him. Let's say over the next 4-6 years or so he has a very successful run at IU, bringing us back to where we are SUPPOSED to be. Wouldn't being successful and winning championships here at IU be the pinnacle in his eyes as the ultimate job and have no reason to want to go elsewhere? Let's say a Duke, Kansas, or Kentucky come calling and want him as their coach when their coaches are done and gone...he wouldn't have any reason to want to leave IU, right? I was talking about this with a buddy of mine, and obviously the past decade or so that we've had in MBB has tarnished the way we see IU as being an "elite" program, and may make it easy to say something like "hopefully he doesn't leave for Duke". I'd like to think that if he brings us back to that "elite" level, he would have no desire whatsoever to leave. (this could be a really stupid topic, just wondering if everyone else see's what i mean). Curious to know whether this would be a case of people thinking “no way he leaves, it’s IU”, or if there’s legitimately a bigger, better college basketball destination once he’s at an elite level here.

Yep that's what i was thinking. It seemed to be a perfect game for Romeo to see with his own eyes that he's gonna have the coaching and pieces around him to be really good, and just need that elite scorer such as himself to make it all work and put us over the top. I believe Robert Phinisee was there at the game as well, so I'm hoping he talked with him about how great they could be if he committed here. People say that Romeo is holding off so he can see how his top 3 schools end up doing, but I actually look at the other side of it as well and think that maybe he could be looking at how our 2018 commits are doing at their high schools so he can see how good the players will be that he will be playing with at IU....and if THAT is the case, then there should be plenty for him to like with the recruits we have coming in next year, because our recruits are having excellent seasons.

That i do not know. On the Hoosier Sports Nation site someone mentioned there being a rumor on Peegs going around. I myself haven't looked at the Peegs site.

His high school team plays Cincinnati Princeton at 5:30pm EST on ESPN from what i read somewhere.

I saw on another site that there's a rumor on Peegs saying Romeo is going to announce on ESPN on Friday and him being at the game was to inform Archie of his decision. ...not sure whether there's truth, just sharing.

The only games I've been able to actually sit down and watch on TV this year due to not having to work are Indiana State, IPFW (was in Assembly for that one), Louisville, Wisconsin, Seton Hall, and Michigan (all losses).....I'm never watching a game again and plan on working every day of the week, lol.

Uggh, Purdue does indeed look good, as much as I hate to say it. Have hit 6-7 so far from behind the arc against Michigan.

Yeah Carr pushes off just about every freakin time

Looking forward to the days of me looking at the schedule and thinking “oh, ok good, we just play Penn State tonight.” I didn’t get to watch the Minnesota game but was excited to see Justin Smith start and do so well. I’ve been a fan of his ever since he committed. Now that he has his chance to show what he can do, I hope he cherishes his opportunity and keeps up the solid play for us, as I’m thinking he has the ability to do so.

Looking at the stat sheet, the 3 players with the least amount of minutes in the game were Newkirk, Green, and McSwain, while mostly everyone else was able to shine. Honestly it makes sense to me that we were able to do well and get the W with those 3 getting less time on the court. I surely hope they can contribute more and I will root them on, but the way this season has gone so far and everyone's performances, us getting the win and having Smith be able to play as much as he did while Newkirk, Green, and McSwain spent more time on the bench makes complete sense to me.

Bingo. This isn’t Archie’s fault at all. I feel bad for him as well. This year’s roster is full of players he definitely would not have recruited himself and all he can do is deal with it and do the best he can with what he has. These kids (aside from a couple) just don’t look like they want to have to play as hard as Archie wants them to. If any of them want to transfer after this season because they feel like this isn’t what they signed up for when they came to IU for Crean then so be it. I’m surely gonna continue to root them on this year, but it’s gonna give me headaches and heartaches. Next year’s roster is gonna be full of players who want to play for and believe in ARCHIE and the results/differences are gonna show.

I guess I just don’t understand why players go with the “we didn’t come out ready to play mentally” comment after loses. The way I see, you need to play as if EVERY game is a Duke game, regardless of who the opponent is. I’d like to think their mental state should be the exact same going into every single game, which is to play your absolute freakin hardest, have that tough hard-nosed grit about yourself that says “we WILL NOT lose this game.” Easier said than done I guess? Yogi had that mentality about him, especially his senior year. I bet you we start to see that with a roster full of Archie recruits. In the meantime, I’ll continue to watch every game this year and root for this year’s team, hoping they come together as a group to decide enough is enough, we can do this. Let’s get this back on track tonight.