Bigred3588

I think we’re all pretty happy with Woodson’s recruiting to this point, but there’s one thing I’ve noticed that has me really excited; and it’s something I think we’ve been lacking for a while. The kids coming in aren’t just talented, they expect to win and know what it takes. JHS & Reneau - Starters on a National championship winning team who had to earn their spots against D1 talent and played top competition week in and week out. Jakai Newton - Led his team to a 24-6 record and #2 ranking in the state. Lost by 3 in the final 4 to the eventual state champs. Has had to compete for PT with multiple D1 players on his team throughout HS. Kaleb Banks - Led his team in scoring, rebounds, and steals. Led his team to a 21-9 record and #9 ranking in their class. Lost by 1 in the state sweet 16. Gabe Cupps - Led team to two consecutive state title games (first one as a soph) in Ohio’s most difficult conference (or playing the most difficult schedule, can’t remember which). Lost 1 game in 2 years. IIRC, we’ve had another PG that led his team to the title game as a soph and junior. He ended up being a pretty good player for us… CJ Gunn - Didn’t have quite the same kind of team success as the others, but led LN to a respectable 17-7 record in a very good conference. Broke out individually averaging 24 and 6 and showed continuous improvement throughout HS. This isn’t meant to be a knock on our current players, but I just haven’t seen this combination of talent and pedigree on the same Indiana team in quite some time.

Listening to his interviews, I think (and I’m hoping) Woodson took this approach because he realized there was a LOT that needed to be fixed in a limited amount of time and he felt it better to build chemistry with the guys who’d spend the most time on the floor together. IIRC, he mentioned they didn’t even start practicing offensive sets until late November/early December. That leads me to believe he may not have felt he had the luxury of mixing lineups.

As a lifelong IU basketball and Miami Dolphins fan, this off-season has been f****** awesome.

The verdict is still out on offense but our defensive improvement between Miller’s last season and Woodson’s first leaves zero doubt in my mind Woodson will get him squared away on that end of the floor. I think his biggest hindrance next year will be his frame. If he doesn’t put on some size he’ll struggle with the physicality in the B1G. If he does, it will adversely affect his shooting and it can take months for shooters to adjust to added muscle. Just look at Yogi. High percentage 3 point shooter in HS, 30% his freshman year, and 40%+ every year after. Luckily Gunn has good form and probably hasn’t hit his ceiling in terms of shooting percentage.

He’ll have to adjust to the level of competition, but I don’t think distance will be a problem…

Id say 4-5 more wins should be easy, especially if X continues playing the way he closed out the season. We should’ve had 4-5 more this season even before X hit his stride but just couldn’t close. I don’t anticipate having that problem next year though. That said, my expectations for the tourney will be tempered until some of our guys prove they can shoot the ball consistently outside of 15 feet. We played 25 games between the start of the B1G season and the loss to St. Mary’s. 23 of them were against high-major competition. We shot at or under 30% from 3 in 15 of those 23 games. That isn’t going to get it done.

Pretty sure Quinn Cook was on that Dematha team as well.

I’ve always wondered why Guyton rarely comes up in these discussions. IIRC, he’s put together a pretty good coaching resume at lower levels and has always been a great ambassador for the program.

Part of me wants to laugh, but the other part of me wishes we had the kind of offensive production his teams had. He was a subpar coach overall but damned if I don’t miss watching us absolutely starch UNC and drop a 37 piece on Purdue at Mackey…

Considering players are now permitted to transfer on a whim and play immediately, I actually think it’s a pretty good idea to make sure they actually visit the school before an offer is made.

I’m a little torn. On one hand, I think we got screwed. On the other, we shouldn’t have even been in this position. Half our losses were by 6 points or less. We close out those games and we’re not even having this discussion.

Defense is about effort, and they gave up 48 in a half. Unless Steph Curry and Klay Thompson regained some eligibility and threw on Iowa jerseys, I don’t really wanna hear about their offense or how hot they were. If the defense was there, they wouldn’t have gotten those shots off to begin with. We can just agree to disagree.

Didn’t get to watch the game but I see on the box score we gave up 48 points in the second half. Can’t really b**** about a half court shot with that kind of defensive (lack of) effort

Nearly 1/3 of their points are at the line. They’re 15/15.

I think Kopp crushes mine. I’m sorry but 1 or 2 threes a game doesn’t make up for all the negatives.