SamIam

But flight tracking is half the fun! (seriously though if Pfau's plane flying to Harrisonburg and Cignetti is following IUFB guys thats a ton of smoke)

Flight trackers are up and running on twitter......looks like there was one into Harrisonburg this AM

If it was just the portal guys, it could just be him keeping up with the talent in the transfer market....but Tayven was on there and he's not in the portal

Pay increase, because major programs probably overlook him due to his age, and because this probably reflects an increased financial commitment from the top of the uni. When all this is said and done I think hiring Whitten will be one of the biggest factors in all this. She understands what it can do for a school to be competitive in football.

Cignetti started following many IUFB players on twitter

Hype train is leaving the station boys https://www.dnronline.com/sun_belt_extra/inside-cignetti-s-quarterback-influences-ability-to-develop/article_994b03b7-dbbc-59e9-96fb-c01f1d2e6d65.html

@Chris007 Have you heard anything confirming the Cignetti smoke?

Not my top choice but I don't hate Creighton. I like the idea of bringing someone in who has built a program from nothing before.

Obviously we all hope for someone better than Wilson. The point is if Lewis' floor is Wilson we could certainly do worse, at least it'll be fun. Wilson was always a DC away from being truly good and a lot of that was the administration hamstringing him with no budget for assistants. He finally figured it out with Allen and we never got to see how that would work out, I think there is evidence to suggest that the administration is ready to pay now. What matters is can the head coach identify defensive coaching talent and can the administration come up with the money when he does. That is the upside with Lewis. At a school like IU, where good coordinators are poached almost immediately, I think it can only help if the HC is the play-caller and heavily involved in the offense. That way, you only need to hit on the DC instead of having to consistently hit on OC and DC, which is what killed CTA.

https://www.on3.com/news/20-college-football-assistant-coaches-that-administrators-are-high-on-as-head-coaching-candidates/

More on Lewis - he was 24-31 in five years at Kent State, where they had one of the top offenses in CFB multiple years. The five years before him Kent was a combined 14-45, and this year without him they are 1-11. They also routinely played a brutal non-con. For reference, his last season he was 5-7 but three of those losses were @ Oklahoma, @ Georgia, and @ Washington. Its clear we would have a fun offense from day 1, and it looks like he can recruit, but it would require a heavy investment in DC to avoid the Kevin Wilson scores of 55-52 every game.

Honestly, those comments may have made me out on Candle. They all mention losing games they shouldn't have and bad play-calling. Can't afford that. I really like Lewis, I love that he has been in the spotlight this year, I think that might help him attract the defensive staff he will need. The way people talk about his offensive mind would help make IUFB fun again. And he has experience recruiting a new team from the portal. Plus, he has experience building a program that is at the bottom of their conference like IU. Someone like Mullen has similar credentials, plus Mullen brings Florida/SEC recruiting connections which the coach at IU is always going to need.

Look at the comments from Toledo fans vs the comments from Kent fans. Idk if Lewis can bring in a good DC, but he has HC experience/experience in the portal, made the worst program in the MAC respectable, and if anything his stock has grown since Deion removed him from play-calling since their offense has gotten immediately worse after being awesome. Feels like his floor is Kevin Wilson.

IU - 71 Maryland - 67

Why not Cignetti or Chadwell?

IU 77 Harvard - 67

Here we are again! I guess I'm doing this every game now. This game especially felt vindicating for me as so much of the stuff I've been saying came true. This is one of the worst shooting teams I've ever watched, and they are 4-1. You can look at that a couple of different ways. There is an argument to be made that it only goes up from here. Even one reliable shooter would do wonders for this team. Make no mistake - with what we put on tape, defenses are going to sell out even harder in the post. Our guys just need to knock down open ones. I think Gallo will pick it up, he just needs to shoot with confidence. We need Mgbako. Beyond that, I still think Leal should get some minutes just for any semblance of spacing. On the other hand, even going back to the exhibitions, we haven't hit any. Other than the Marian game, we haven't made more than 4 in a game, and unless that changes soon we might actually be one of the worst power 5 shooting teams of all time. Going zone changed the game, credit to Woody. On thing that is worrying me is the fact that savvy, quick PG's like Johnson and Newton have been able to foul out our whole team. I realize that basically none of the calls they got would be called in the big ten but if we want to make the tourney we have to tighten that up. Clearly Woody got on them about rebounding and they responded. Credit to Walker and Banks, and even to Mgbako who pursued his boards relentlessly while he was playing. I'm still unsold on Walker, his game is just on the cusp of being out of control and he shoots way too much. For reference, in his five seasons Walker is shooting 20% from 3, including a solid 12% last year. That's somehow worse than our team this year. He should not be taking those shots, and as soon as the other team realizes he spins left every time, that will be a travel. Still, he played hard. Banks was phenomenal. He needs heavy minutes at the 3 and the 4. Length, athleticism, and I think he can shoot it a little bit too. And most of all, he has a nose for rebounding that I just love. Gunn had a great outing in NY. He is an animal at on-ball defense. I don't know if I've ever wanted to see a player hit a 3 more. I want Woody to let him play the Kopp role alongside Trey and X for a little. Right now, he is playing Gallo's role off the bench which requires all this movement and shooting midrange off the bounce. Let him shoot one on a kick out without dribbling, hopefully that will get him thinking less. Ware impressed me. He was fighting in there for rebounds, he committed a couple of stupid fouls but also got a couple BS ones called. Needs to take the top of the key 3 when he gets it. I love that Gallo is willing to shoot. He's thinking too much, need to get him some catch and shoot opportunities as well. Here's to hoping he can start to knock some down. Reneau was unfairly reffed against UConn, and his first two fouls in this game shouldn't have been called. But his next two were some of the dumbest decisions I've seen. Has to be smarter. For all we heard about him being a great passer, we don't see it too much. He needs to look for guys on the double team that will get us even more looks. Overall, I am encouraged. The way I see it, if this team can find a way to being even a below average 3 pt shooting team, they could be competitive. If not, it will be ugly games like this but at least we've won them so far.

MR not even doing anything....Refs just hate him gahdamn

Ware has to get a body on someone on his screens, he makes it so easy

FGCU about to drop another one, this time to a sub-300 team, going to 1-5 on the season.....

Game observations: Gunn looked like an animal on defense. Someone told him to stop jumping so wildly on his 3's and he overcorrected, he's still just thinking too much. They are still running a lot for him which tells me that maybe he is making those in practice??? I've given up on him ever being a good shooter but at this point I would just like to see one go in. Reneau showed why Woodson can't take him out. Still, he needs to pass better. Watch his and-1 at the end of the 1st and there are literally 4 UConn players within 3 feet, have to be able to kick. I'm not sure Reneau deserved any of his fouls, he is gonna get killed for fouling out in this one but truly I don't know what he was supposed to do. I didn't think the reffing was lopsided, it was just inconsistent. Ware and Clingan could kill each other with no call but MR couldn't breath on a guy. Not his fault. Hated Woodson's comments on Ware. Yes, he gave up at the end but so did everyone. But to focus your postgame comments on Ware not playing in the post? When he was the only one providing ANY spacing? It shows the offensive philosophy that Woodson is stubbornly clinging to. Ware needs to take and make those top of the key threes if we want Reneau to be able to work in the post. X is getting killed by the fans but this team needs him. Yes he complains, yes he makes mistakes. We need that. He's the vocal and emotional center of the team. He stupidly took that 3rd foul, he has to be better than that but he is the tip of the spear on defense so that will happen sometimes. He will get into the swing and foul less. When he was in the game I loved how he played through the PnR. Trey was Trey. Did a valiant job trying to keep us in it without X. Cupps looked a little lost but that is to be expected. I have been saying this for a while but I don't think he will ever be a good shooter. His form is just too screwed up, the ball spins laterally off of his hand. When he is set in catch and shoot opportunities I expect he will be fine but I don't have much confidence that he will ever have a consistent jumper off of the bounce. Still, he is more than just his jumpshot. Sparks got called for everything he tried to do. He has little skill but he is light of his feet for his size, I'm happy to have him as a bench big. Banks still needs to get more run, hopefully at the four, I know reports were that he was working on his handle in the offseason, and that's good, but someone needs to tell him that we don't need to see it every time the ball comes to him. Move the ball! Loved that he took an open rhythm 3. Mgbako....he got burned on back cuts, and was occasionally flat footed. But this was BY FAR his best defensive game. Continue on this trajectory and I think he will be less of a negative on that end. His offense.....hasn't been good. It's pretty clear that he is slow. I don't think he will ever be the type to get his own shot at the 3. I'm beating a dead horse but I still think he would be quick enough to get it at the 4. This team will never be a good 3pt shooting team. But Mgbako just needs to see a couple go down and that will do so much for us. Walker should not be getting minutes. He stops the ball on offense and tries to iso even though he is one of the worst looking shooters I have ever seen. He is getting beat to rebounds constantly. He extends the defense out past the three point line needlessly. It's just all bad and he has done nothing to continue to earn these minutes. Rebounding is a problem. Some of it is effort but most of it is the high volume of 3's we are giving up. These are long rebounds and we are a MUCH slower team than those that we have played. It's counterintuitive but I think playing smaller would help us with this. Reneau/Mgbako are getting killed by quicker guys at their position and Ware is just fighting for his life but he isn't strong enough. I would like to see the same starters but with less Sparks minutes and Ware and Reneau rotating at the 5 with the second unit. I want to see them go small with Banks/Mgbako at the 4, Gunn at 2/3 and throw in Leal for some spot minutes at Guard. It might not seem like it but I was actually encouraged by this game. They hung in there and showed defensive growth. But that was a top 5 team. It remains to be seen if they can get up for other games, especially since LVille looked really competitive yesterday.

IU - 67 Ville - 71

UCONN - 89 Indiana - 67

IU 79 WSU - 66

I get your point on Leal. But I'm not sure about the "coaching staff doesn't see it" argument. I don't think Hulls Calbert, etc. would be playing this offense at all if up to them, we play it because of Woodson, so I'm not sure if they wanted to get Leal in the game Woodson would listen. Like I said, he's stubborn. I agree Leal hasn't shown us much but one thing he is absolutely better than Gunn at is playing in the flow of the offense and he's a better shooter. On a team with no movement and no spacing I think it might be time to play someone who will play his tail off and help in those two areas, at least until we can reliably beat lesser competition. On defensive scheme, I agree. I'm not the biggest fan of it, but theres no doubt it can work in CBB. The issue is it only works if you have an extremely long and athletic lineup. I think Woodson assumed thats what he had, but it's clear that MR/MM aren't fast enough so hoping to see changes. Just need to get faster in general, most of the O-boards we are giving up are due to long rebounds where the opposing team's guards are just quicker to the ball. Teams will keep shooting as long as we keep leaving 3 pt shooters wide open on tape so we got to adjust to a lineup that can get those boards.