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Walker hasn't shown anything so far to make me want him playing over Banks at this point

Reneau will go through 3 guys in the post with his shoulder and elbow before he passes out for a wide open 3....

Just saw their leading scorer is out so let me revise... IU 74 WSU 62

36 hours til Wright State guys

I have a sense that Gabe Cupps work ethic is going to pay dividends in a lot of ways over the course of his career... the first potentially being something we will not witness up close, but will become obvious on the court if/when Mack gets it together this season. Not taking anything away from Mack at all, any improvement he makes will be because of his own hard work. When you think about the environment he's in - as Cheaney said - the college game being totally different from high school... He is personally experiencing the early struggles a lot of talented freshmen do when playing D1 basketball. It's a bigger learning curve than people expected right now... That's not because of his physical tools (some people are calling him slow... he's looked more timid than slow IMHO... sure he doesn't have trailblazing speed but wouldn't call that his primary issue right now). He's clearly stated his goal of being 1 and done and obviously understands that's not the trajectory he's currently on. So it's a very simple question of whether he is willing to put in the work. Mack previously mentioned he was really surprised/impressed by Cupps in the summer and referenced his work ethic. Now he's riding pine while the lower rated, less physically gifted kid plays. If a coach has to motivate you under those circumstances, that's a totally separate issue. As a competitor, Cupps is only pushing him to get better. He's got a strong grasp of the concepts, and as a great teammate, I'm sure he is very much working with Mack to get locked in. Mack has shown he is willing to put in the work before (his improvement in HS was insane and you don't get called one of our best shooters ever by a former player unless you've spent 1000s of hours on your craft). So why would he stop now? Again, physical tools look there to me for the most part and it's mostly the mental side that's got to catch up right now. I recall in an interview he did, he was kind of embarrassed about "not being a morning person" and his trainer assuring him a lot of pros also don't do the whole "Mamba style 5am workouts" because they prefer to train at night. Cupps puts in his own workout before the team workouts... would be cool for Mack to start joining him after making the realization he's got to work harder at this than he ever has before. But truth be told, I don't care what time of the day they put in their work as long as they're pushing themselves to get better every day. I hope Mack specifically is getting a crap ton of defensive reps in and studying the concepts so he can move more confidently on the court. Some of it is definitely because of the Kopp role too... but we'll see how things progress over the course of the season.

FGCU is a tough team. Down 5 3 mins left.

I'm going to go with some reverse psychology here... hate to be that guy... may update after seeing Wright State's performance tomorrow IU - 66 Wright State - 70

Just playing around man lol. Pitino is totally mobbed up!

A bunch of new guys learning systems on both sides of the ball that are new to them, and still figuring out how to play together/trust each other. Until we see some marked improvement, I won't feel very confident going into many games. If that is still the case in mid January, well...

The NBA sub pattern can not happen again. It just can't. If Woodson does not recognize that after allowing Army to go on that huge run at the start of the game, I'm seriously concerned for the rest of the year. Let's see how we look against Wright State. Walker... I am sure is a good kid... I wish we picked up a guard in the portal. That and Jakai being injured is seriously gonna limit this back court. Thank God Cupps is ready for big minutes. I hope XJ, GC, and TG don't end up too fatigued at year end. I will say... upon rewatching, yes Banks had plenty of lapses, but I do think he shows the most competence of the wings on our schemes. Mack is looking lost and looks like college game is a little too fast for him right now. Surprising considering all the hype and runs with Kyrie, etc. I do think he figures things out eventually and it helps elevate our team... when exactly, not sure, hopefully sooner than later. As I've said, still think its too early to reasonably project our ceiling. But last night shows us the floor is awful. The good news... the team and staff are obviously aware things need fixing. The bench looked so P.O.ed losing to Army in the first half... everyone knows what a performance like that says about our team right now. Let's see how they respond. XJ's comments about practice are concerning, but it's encouraging that he's calling people out and trying to hold the team accountable. I hope the locker room is receptive. My bigger question though is... will the staff make the proper scheme adjustments to fit this personnel? If not, it will be a long year. This is where XJ's leadership abilities will truly be tested IMO. Can he be the one to get Coach to buy into making necessary scheme changes (shooting more 3s comes to mind)? I hope he knows what buttons to push and the staff is open minded enough to adapt. That said... we won the game, a bunch of big programs lost. Let's see how they look against Wright State... Not sure how much we'll learn from the Empire Classic, considering UConn is going to be a drumming in all likelihood. I hate that right now I don't feel confident saying Louisville would be a win.

Trilly retweeted it... he's quickly becoming more annoying and less fun IMO

Hoping this is a cherry picked snippet of a quote. The replies are meme-ing pretty hard though. Coaching has been a little concerning at times but... Hey... at least we won. Which is more than some other pretty big programs can say! Moving onto Wright State...

Mike said Malik has done an adequate job defending the perimeter.

Looking at the shooting splits somehow makes this feel even worse

You've not been shy about your opinion on Mack lol. I agree he has been disappointing through the first couple of games. His defense just makes it a non-starter for him to play major minutes at this point. That said... 1) He can improve on that and likely will as the season goes on 2) Him being able to score is a huge difference maker in our team's potential 3) When he is playing, he should play as a 4 and I bet his offense would also be a lot better in that than the Kopp type of role. I agree Banks should start over Mack as a 3 at this point based on merits, but not sure we'll see it. I do think Mack could be utilized more effectively on offense. But at this point it's not enough to make up for his gaps on the defensive side.

I'm sure after a tough game like that you have so much going through your head. But as a 6th year guy, I wish he would pick his words better. And I hope this isn't indicative of his mindset - Ware and Reneau are not the only ones who have to improve a ton before B10 play. I wish I could just say flush this game and move on. But based on the caliber of opponent and how poorly we played, it's tough say that. Let's see how we respond to Wright State. UConn will be a 40+ point drumming but hopefully we beat Louisville and can start to build up some confidence/get into a better rhythm.

X's comments post game certainly raised an eyebrow or two. Don't have the exact quote right now but basically said Ware and Reneau can be kind of soft

Jakai Newton

The bottom line: If Mack (and to a lesser extent Banks, Gunn, and Walker) don't seriously step it up, this team will be playing in the NIT, if we're lucky. We can all have our own opinions on how likely we are to see improvement from any/each of them... I still think we can have a surprising ceiling. But an insane amount of improvement has to happen in multiple areas. That's not unusual/unexpected for not even being at Thanksgiving yet.

Lobbing it to Ware has been our most efficient play this season I think? Lol

Still 2 minutes left...

It's a darn good thing we've made free throws tonight.

Letting that little ginger show us up on our home court is pathetic. (Thank you for your service Curry)