Aeggie

109.4 to 109.1 isn't a few ticks. It's a difference of less than one percent against more conference games in a tougher league while facing much more roster instability than last year's team faced. I think it's pretty tough to argue that the offense was worse in light of those factors. I think the offense is on the right track but I think we'll see a bigger jump in defensive prowess than offensive prowess again this upcoming season.

We made much more progress defensively than offensively but we moved in the right direction on both sides of the ball this year. If it's true that pack line teams generally take a step in year three defensively that could be a top 20 unit.

What percentage does Lunardi bat on the way too early bracketology?

You need a mix of depth of talent and experience. If your depth of talent is greater and you have 5*'s up and down the roster then you don't need as much experience to win but we don't have the sort of starting lineups like the ones you might see at Kansas or Duke or Kentucky. So we need to get older, and we're on the way to doing that with a nice corps of players. If Archie keeps recruiting like he has been to finish out the 2019 and 2020 classes I think we'll have a very nice group by the time his first full class reaches their upperclassman years. The defense is trending in the right direction - maybe that side of the ball will be good enough to float the offense a bit more next year as the pack line should be pretty well drilled in our returnees by now. Some say pack line teams tend to take a jump defensively in the third year, we'll see what happens next year but there's a chance we're pretty good on that side of the ball.

If all of our returning players shoot the exact same percentage that they did this year but the ~200 shots Romeo and Morgan too are split between Green, Phinisee, and Durham our team shooting percentage will rise a lot. That's what I'm saying. Even if our returnees don't get that much better we won't have as many poor shooters taking a high volume of threes which should make a big impact on its own.

I think we could swing it but it's definitely unlikely. Everything would need to break our way. I'm really not that concerned about shooting. I don't think we'll be elite but we'll be way better than we were this year. Romeo and Morgan both shot under 30% from three but combined for over 200 attempts from three. Those shots will mostly go to Green, Phinisee, and Durham next season which will help a ton along with any marginal improvement we might see from them. Our roster would look really nice if we could get Brunk and Watford alone, Quinones on top would be amazing. But now we're counting a lot of eggs as chickens...

Yeah that would for sure be a huge talent infusion and Watford would be as good as it gets as far as an insurance policy of sorts for Hunter's role. And Christian is my favorite player of the last 20 years so I'd love to see his brother go here.

Watford shot 50%+ from 3 as a senior in conference play and was a top 10 shooter nationally all year. He was no doubt a great player before he graduated. He was awesome.

People are replying based on a quote but haven't listened to the actual interview. I didn't come away thinking that Trendon definitely wasn't going to come here. I actually felt the opposite. Watford also said that Trendon wanted to go somewhere where he'd have a big role and that his interest is contingent on Romeo leaving and opening up a lot of shots. So I don't get the impression that Trendon is shy of shouldering expectations. People shouldn't question a kid's character or toughness based on an interview from a peripheral character to begin with but they definitely shouldn't do it based on a secondhand account of an interview from a peripheral character. We'll see if Watford sets up a visit but I wouldn't be surprised if he does.

I really think DD could have the rare breakout senior year. This is the first offseason he's had that he has entered into it healthy which is HUGE for him. I know he said he's going home for a few weeks to get a bit of rest which I think is a good idea for him but I think when he gets back he's going to really be in the gym this offseason because he finally can be. I think we'll have plenty of minutes for Brunk but I fully expect De'Ron to be in the best shape of his life entering next season. I think he's going to have a huge year. I'm very bullish on both of our seniors, actually.

They'll get more coverage than they normally do, I agree, but probably not more than Indiana. Programs that won on a higher level than we did this year didn't get as much coverage as we did this year because we're Indiana. The top MSAs for college basketball are mostly in the Midwest and we're a big ratings draw. Georgia will get more big games, but they won't get as many national games as we will. That doesn't mean that Beverly won't go there, or that they won't be good. They could be like LSU this year or they could be like LSU with Ben Simmons. I really don't know their roster situation but even a clear #1 pick won't be much of a salve without the right support around him. If Edwards is a real star like Zion or Trae Young then yeah UGA will get tons of pub but if he's "just" a normal #1 pick like Simmons or Fultz - who got zero coverage on that bad Washington team - we'll still get more coverage.

I don't think Romeo has taken a summer off in quite a while so this will serve him well. I always say that young NBA players rarely impact winning at a high level but if Romeo goes towards the back of the lottery and ends up on a roster with good shooting he could be a guy that gives a good scoring punch off the bench in his first or second year. I'm really excited for him, I think his game fits the NBA very well already he just needs to find his shot to unlock real multiple all-star potential. But he definitely has that. I hate that he had to play hurt here, he was really a beast getting and-1's all the time early in the year and he understandably was a touch less aggressive going to the rack after the injury. The more spacious NBA game is really going to open up a lot of lanes for him. He'll be fun to watch even as he works on developing his shot more, he's going to be good and I think he's going to be a tremendous ambassador for our program too. I don't think Romeo will fall to the back of the lottery. I think he's going to look really good to teams once they dig into his advanced metrics(he's one of the best P&R players in the nation and has more playmaking potential than people expected) and he lands safely in the top ten. Interviews are going to help him a lot and if he's able to workout that'll help too but even if he doesn't I think Romeo is a top ten pick.

Don't forget Watford, he was a cornerstone on those teams and got to be one of the best shooters in the nation before he graduated. The Peegs Hoosier Hysteria podcast had a really, really good interview with Watford earlier this week btw, for anyone else that bought a #2 jersey during the Watford era like I did lol

Players definitely aren't finished products after their sophomore year, it wasn't that long ago that Yogi got better his junior year and his senior year too. Troy had a much stronger junior season that his sophomore year. Most rising juniors can still get a lot better, whether they do or not is up to them but they have a chance to do that. We've seen players that haven't always had enough consistently and focus as sophomores become really strong upperclassmen here at Indiana and around the country. I think having more upperclassmen on the roster next year is ideal so I'm hoping we retain Durham and Smith. Durham had a better season than most expected so I'm excited to see what he could do in another summer and Justin still has a chance to turn things around. We'll see but if he wants to buckle in and return I think keeping someone that has been drilling our defense's principles as long as Justin has is probably preferable to most of the new pieces we could get with another available spot. We already have 3 spots to fill. We're not going to be able to add 4 players better than Justin.

And you have some talent for eliding the fact that you don't know what Bruiser's role is just like I said. You're guessing based on a few times you've caught a glimpse of him on the sideline during 1 of 35 or so games. Sure sensei. If Flint was a mediocre coach at a small school, so was Fife. And if Fife can provide value to Izzo at MSU despite having been a mediocre coach at a small school, then disqualifying Flint for the same reason seems rather ridiculous. If Flint is disqualified for his head coaching record, so is Fife. You're basing your argument against Flint on the fact that he went .534 as the head man but Fife went .458 in 6 seasons at IPFW and never finished higher than 4th in the conference. If that doesn't stop Fife from being able to "help make decisions or recruit or succeed at a high level" in the B1G Ten, why would you imagine it prevents Bruiser from doing so? That's probably why you're resorting to personal attacks. You have a weak argument based on your feelings. You're starting from your bias and working backwards to justify it. Of course you end up talking out of both sides of your... whatever.

No offense to you, my man, but your diploma doesn't make you any more of an alumnus or an authority than anyone else that went to IU. You're attacking Flint for what, exactly? Someone else asked you to quantify exactly what his role is and what deficiencies he has that makes you think someone else deserves his job and you couldn't answer because you don't know. Indiana ties is not part of what makes a good basketball coach so it's not a sufficient criterion to qualify or disqualify. Sorry, but it is what it is.

People are critical of Flint saying that he didn't win enough to be an ASSISTANT but want Fife for HC based on his sterling record as a head coach? People are really arguing that Flint didn't win enough at a lower level to advise on coaching in the B1G but Fife is eligible to make the final calls after his performance as a head coach? Clearly there's more to Flint and Fife or neither Miller or Izzo would want them on staff but maybe some of you know something I don't. As an alumnus I want our coach to assemble the best staff he can. I think ties to the region are meaningful but I don't think ties to the program are. If another alumnus is the best hire available, great. Otherwise someone else should get the job.

I never said that a game was more or less likely to go to OT based on when it's scheduled, you misread me. The point is a game COULD easily go an hour over. There are a couple multiple overtime games every year. We've already seen some 2OT games in this young season. But even a game that goes way, way over is extremely unlikely to go FOUR hours over. I don't know if that's ever happened. Not rocket science.

Feel free to express your opinion just as I feel free to express mine. Just like you don't have to stop doing anything understand that I don't either. A game scheduled an hour apart could easily go into a couple overtime periods which isn't super common but isn't something you'd call unanticipated either. A four hour game ensures that that won't happen. It's not surprising that the Big Ten would prefer to have more than an hour between the events, I'm sure the networks involved and the advertisers buying ads would agree.

College basketball is not even close to as popular as college football outside of the NCAA tournament and those are just the facts. You can look up the ratings yourself. If Indiana were ranked #1 and Ohio State were ranked #2 and they were scheduled to play during the same thing OSU was in the Big Ten title game the basketball game would be moved 10/10 times It has nothing to do with IU and everything to do with the relative popularity of the two sports. It's a wide gulf.

It isn't Northwestern football taking precedence over IU basketball. If the situation were flipped and Indiana made it to the title game out of the east - lol - and the game were at Northwestern it would also be moved. There's no way they're going to have one school playing a men's basketball game and a football game especially when one is the Big Ten title game. They're not going to cannibalize their own ratings like that. It has nothing to do with which programs are in the situation.

I don't think they're dirty, at least I don't think they're out to hurt players, but it was embarrassing how many personal fouls we got today. I really hope that caught Allen's eye too because we definitely looked undisciplined tonight and it wasn't just a little bit. Has to be cleaned up before next week.

I don't understand the negativity even after a win. Purdue is not unbeatable and we have a chance to make just the twelfth bowl in program history. People need to get some perspective, a bowl berth would be a step forward

As you can see, S&P+ no longer much likes our chances after watching us squander winnable games against MSU, Iowa, and now Minnesota. Maryland, meanwhile, seems to have moored itself and while Purdue could not win in East Lansing they've acquitted themselves well over several weeks now. Hopefully the bye sees a couple of our players return and we're at least as healthy as we can reasonable be going into the home game against Maryland. While many did expect this team to win 4 or 5 games, I really thought that we would have a fighting chance to make a bowl game. I know that we have 55 freshmen on this roster, but I trusted Allen to coach the defense and I felt like we had a couple nice pieces on the offensive side of the ball. I'm disappointed with the team's performance this year and I wouldn't mind seeing Debord go, but then I didn't mind his playcalling when Penix was under center. If Allen was right and Penix is ready to go for 7 on 7s next summer I think we could still have a nice season. 55 sophomores isn't worlds better than 55 freshmen but they'll at least all be much stronger and hopefully surer tacklers. But the season is not over. The loss against Minnesota was super frustrating but if we can beat Maryland we're still alive for a bowl. A win over a VERY beatable Minnesota team would've really, really helped, but there's still a chance to reach the postseason with a break or two.

You realize that every school's exhibition's are only live on BTN+ and on BTN on tape delay, correct? They're not singling IU out...