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Stripes are letting em play ball tonight.

Gabe in for XJ asap please

Anyone in the building able to report on the buzz inside the stadium before tip off? I'm not feeling great. Hopefully just because I'm not there and having FOMO...

GW vs VCU is a great back and forth game. 65-66 VCU with 6:19 left

I'm anticipating 10 mins or less / DNP coaches decision

I wasn't watching, so not sure the sequence you're talking about, but assuming it was last few seconds of a one possession game... might Dixon just like his chances better with a particular inbounding play where maybe guards can use their quickness/speed to get out into space and find an open shot more easily vs. getting it up to halfcourt and having the defense packed into a smaller area? Again I didn't see so missing context and not trying to be argumentative... just genuinely curious to hear your POV from a basketball perspective why in this particular situation it was classic Dixon lol

Went down a bit of a wormhole and thought some with young players may find this particular video worthwhile: And if you are responsible for coaching a youth team... You won't find many more high quality drills/videos than Hurley's IMO. Coach K used to put out a bunch of good ones in the early 2000s that are probably out there on Youtube too. The 12 key points from his daily practice tips video: Players are responsible for the mood every day at practice and correcting mistakes. Coaches are responsible for creating a learning atmosphere but players need to bring energy and enthusiasm. Older players need to hold others accountable as a group. Hold a 30 second team meeting at the start and end of every practice First 15 mins of practice, want players to mention names of all players on team - every pass they throw, every shot that’s taken. As a head coach, want to mention every kids name in first 15-20 mins of practice, say something positive so as practice goes on and you become more demanding, there’s balance in the relationship. Create something you have to earn (EX: starters get to wear the team color shirts). Have the bench wear an opposite color. It’s the opposite color’s goal to get themselves on the team color’s shirt at some time that day (win it from them). At the end of the day, the 5 with the team color shirts get to wear them the next day. If there is a game the next day, that 5 starts (if feasible). “No such thing as a game player” you come to practice to improve every day. Change up practice partners - matching up in drills by position, don’t be in the same position each year. Rotate a bit to help them push each other/get looks they’d see off switches in a real game. Keep stats at practice. Tracking shooting numbers and setting PRs/challenges, etc. Listen to practice. Close your eyes and concentrate on the sound of your players voices and the sound of the sneakers on the floor. Are they communicating? Are they cutting sharply and moving with energy? Use a variety of skill drills and tell kids where you’ve gotten a drill from. Gives kids a feeling of confidence that their coach is putting in the work too. Do conditioning with a basketball. The only time we run at practice for the sake of running is if someone has done something to earn a punishment. Utilize your assistants at practice every day, help bring them along and instill ambition. Make use of all the space you have in your gym. End practice on a positive note and make sure that you reward effort in some way, you can make this fun.

During the UConn game this year, I think mid 2nd half there was an instance where Hurley was on the court as the ball was being inbounded and he sort of shoved/patted Mgbako's back. The section of IU fans right in front of it were screaming bloody murder looking for a T but it didn't really warrant one in hindsight.

Get him on the Reneau workout plan and that could still end up being a part of his game. His game gives me a Jokic/DeJuan Blair hybrid sort of vibe. In the sense they're all not really athletic... Jokic's passing/handle, roughly Blair's size/defensive profile/rebounding ability. I once saw Blair at a HS tournament put up 40 points and 40 rebounds. It was the most dominant sports performance I've seen in person. Jerryd Bayless, who went to Arizona, also hit a buzzer beating game winner to end the final game. I was convinced they'd both be NBA studs... Blair had a cup of coffee and could've been great, but he literally has no ligaments in his knee I think. Bayless I think was a journeyman for a few years. That all had to be around 2006ish. Man time flies.

Revision... OSU 86 IU 73

The Rutgers game scares me. Hate to give them credit but the student section at Jersey Mike's definitely impacted the game last year. This team of their's is not very good compared to last year, but they still look like the kind of group that will give us trouble from what I've seen. Bigs who dominate at rebounding/inside D (football) and speedy guards. Derek Simpson is gonna get us into a TON of foul trouble with this little mid range step through/up and under move he likes to use. Can an injured XJ keep up? Not counting on it. Maybe there will be a rosier picture after the OSU game, but I have to say, they look a lot better than us right now from what I've seen. Whatever the over is for Battle's points, people should hammer lol.... I am willing to fall on my sword and manufacture a point shaving scandal at Rutgers before the weekend is up so they can only play walk ons

Bruh who here is "chest pounding" about beating Michigan? Nobody. You can be displeased with the state of this program without making up a narrative that a majority of fans are content/complacent with being mediocre. Making a balanced statement that this team, which is not having a very good year, has still had its moments and that it's a long season is not "chest pounding." It's just a reason to not always be so doom and gloom. Starting to believe some of these guys think there's an award for being the biggest negative Nancy or that it somehow makes them a better fan. Lolz

DB from ODU Listed at 5'9 192 Safety. 40 times range from mid 4.4s to 4.6s. All Sun-Belt honorable mention TOT SOLO AST PD SACK FF INT YDS TD FRESHMAN: 5 5 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 SOPHOMORE: 32 13 19 2 0 0 1 10 0 JUNIOR: 95 39 56 4 0 0 1 46 0 CAREER TOTAL: 132 57 75 8 0 0 2 56 0 Was at BC as a freshman in 2021, then transferred to ODU

I'll break the ice. Hoping for a reverse jinx ... OSU 88 IU 65

I really appreciate this labor of love you do LI! I definitely create work for you, think I'm averaging 2.5 revisions per game lol

I am very happy to see that Race is still around the program while rehabbing! Good influence hopefully in the locker room... we need leadership in any form we can get it.

Right. As Stu said, need rim protection somewhere. Guess that's on the portal shopping list along with hopefully 2-3 guards. If Mgbako does not return, which I am slightly less confident about than others generally are, let's just say Spring will be... busy! Don't have any info to support that view on Mgbako ... just a random guy's gut feel, I'd handicap the odds at 70/30 he leaves as of now. Queen has to like what he's seen from IU big men regardless

There's no guarantee that Queen would start as a freshman IMO

Great post! You made a ton of great points. Someone said it the other day... we look like an AAU team out there sometimes. No boxing out when a shot goes up (as fundamental as it gets!) Not taking advantage of 2 for 1 opportunities/generally not smart basketball (turnovers, bad fouls.. sometimes bad body language) Bad communication on defense Play style that basically is dependent on having better/more dominant player(s) Like you said, sometimes it looks like they don't study a scouting report at all. Or if they do, most (not all) are only interested in the part that tells them about how the staff thinks they can score. We're gonna get double/triple teamed in the post all year... adjust already. We just had a relatively a long break and weren't prepared for that? That does not bode well for the rest of the year. Personnel limits us.* Of course, this team also beat Michigan on the road. The above is my hyper critical POV as of today. It's a long season. In all likelihood we will win a few games we shouldn't. But right now it looks like that win was more of an outlier in terms of our play than we can expect to see the rest of the way. I'm hoping to see the better version at Jersey Mike's Arena... it will be loud. It's a long year, who knows! Some individual aspects of individual play have improved... as a team, improvement has been anywhere from marginal to decent at best IMO depending on how you view things. And this team started from a really bad position. Just been ugly most of the year. *When I say personnel limits us, I'm specifically talking about the backcourt. But that sparked a thought - many people feel Mack should be playing 4 instead of a 3. Mack may have wanted to be a 3 as a condition of his recruitment. It's been widely publicized that Mgbako's mother directly reached out to Woody (essentially a top 10-15 ranked player falling in your lap). How much of that recruitment can we attribute as an earned win for the staff? How much worse off would we be if we didn't add him, our best shooting threat? What was the plan if we didn't add him? Yes Woody has landed a bunch of five star recruits... their ranking hasn't mattered on the court yet. Mods feel free to move to the rant thread.

I don't know how anybody browses this site without an ad blocker! :)

Sarratt is currently on a visit per Osterman/social media

I don't have a problem with calling out your players in the press. I just think he didn't also adequately acknowledge the role the staff had in this loss (awful game plan). I know he doesn't enjoy dealing with the press and you're unlikely to ever get real insight from press conferences anyway, but it does leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. The locker room must be (should be) pretty tense right now.

Can't let the girl he's dating now know she's not the love of his life. Lol

Retain Mackenzie and Malik. Add McNeeley, Queen, and Daquan Davis. I could see us having anywhere from 3-5 leavers (Ware, Gunn, Banks, Leal, Newton). Let's say Ware, Gunn, Banks and Leal leave. Assuming the above that we add Queen and Davis, that's 8 scholarship players, leaving 5 open. That is a lot of ground to cover while ensuring quality (seemingly not this staff's strong suit). IMO you need to add 2-3 more guards ideally from the portal and at least one rim protector. Maybe a guard/wing who can shoot (crazy idea I know) It definitely feels like the talent evaluation/development aspect of things are what this staff is so sorely lacking. Relying on Gunn and Banks to be net positives this year is a huge indictment of the staff. I know they tried to land better players but didn't... That's understandable but this is a results business and if you've got a top NIL program/the resources of Indiana, you've got to deliver. You can have a recruiting strategy focused on a handful of top guys....... but you better land em most of the time and be working on plan B/C/D. IMO the fundamental issue is that we're relying on Woody as a "bridge" guy but to actually BUILD the bridge, you need to be spot on with your roster management. Some level of continuity/balance over the years so you can improve. Yes putting guys in the NBA is good for the program but its worse for the program when they are quickly written off as a bust when they could've been helping us win for 1-3 more years. Woody's coaching philosophies/schemes are obviously old-school NBA influenced and thus rely on having more talented guys. Having a "bridge" guy is fine and well, as long as they're actually going to build it in a way that it's driving-ready for the next guy. Woody has delivered two fine-to-good seasons (depending how you see things) but his plan to build a bridge has been totally undermined by his roster management, which is made worse by the staff's inability to adapt their approaches. It's kind of ironic/crazy to me that a staff of NBA-oriented guys have apparently been so blatantly wrong in their assessment of the current roster over the offseason. If they were to turn the keys over now, the cupboard would be pretty bare. That speaks to their recruiting strategy/talent assessment/dev results. Right now we've got the support beams in place for the road but they're shaky we're missing some equipment. Hope is not lost but things are looking down. Good thing is, next game is only a few more days away. OK enough bridge analogies, back to work I guess lol

We are in agreement here.