Home Jersey

Interesting...

We should still be able to beat Kennesaw State fairly handily without Ware. Agree, start Walker. Think Sparks will be up for the challenge of more minutes today vs. this level of competition. Didn't expect X to be back today but would have been nice for him to be able to shake off some rust before conference play. Tough luck last two seasons. I bit the bullet and coughed up $10 for BTN+ ... cancelling right after the game. Such a PITA

IU 74 Kennessaw 68

This whole conversation is silly. Does Dolson have a plan? He better, but we will never know it or get a whiff of it, until after it's executed at least. People wanting to cut ties with Woody ASAP to avoid the risk of May being hired elsewhere are the ones who actually are "lost" or have the "losers mentality" ... how desperate can one possibly be? To let the terms of your next hire be totally dictated to you by circumstances that have nothing to do with you. That's pathetic and sad IMO. May looks great, maybe after next year it's worth entertaining that conversation with Woody. But you don't expedite that conversation just because May could sign elsewhere. It's not like that's his guaranteed final stop and we couldn't lure him away. He's also far from a proven commodity at this point. My fandom would be on pause if we hired Beard. If not May, Shrews could be interesting. But you know what I find most interesting/worthwhile as a fan right now? Cheering on this team and Mike Woodson. I'll save the hand wringing on our coaching searches for when... we actually have a coaching search on our hands. Constantly complaining about us not pursuing Pitino in 2000 or firing Archie after year 2 seems like a miserable way to be a fan, but to each their own.

Totally agree - expect us to drop one I said we "should" win but that's why I emphasize that they've gotta bring their best every time out in conference play! I'm enjoying watching this team and cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season.

There may be a thread this post fits better under but I couldn't find a better fit at this point in the year... Woody has said he/the team is not thinking about the B10 until after Kennesaw, but that doesn't mean fans can't Assume we win and sit at 10-3 (2-0). 18 more big ten games - right now I see: 5 games that I'd say I'm confident predicting we win (IU better bring it every single night of conference play) - @ and vs. Nebraska/Minny and vs. Iowa. 10 games I'd call toss ups for now - maybe optimistically on some of these (@ and vs. OSU/PSU, @ Maryland/Rutgers, vs. Wisconsin/Northwestern/Purdue/MSU) 3 games I'd be surprised if we won right now - @Wisconsin/Illinois/Purdue. At 10-3 in the non-con, if we win half the toss up games and ones I am assuming we win (maybe foolishly), that puts us at 20-11. Depending on the combination of wins, we could be on the outside looking in - like if from that group of 10, we only beat PSU 2x, vs. Northwestern and @ Maryland/Rutgers. I'm no bracketologist but that seems totally feasible to me. I think we really need to beat some combination of the ranked teams. Could see us realistically finishing anywhere from 17-14 to 22-9ish (Maaaybe 23 or 24 wins if things break right). I think we need 21/22 wins to be on the right side of the bubble. It's just got to be against the right combo of teams. Timing wise, the rest of the schedule is clustered in 7-5-7 with 3/4 days between each game and 8 days off between each cluster. Cluster 1: Kennesaw 12/29 - @ Wisconsin 1/19; Cluster 2: @ Illinois 1/27 - @ Purdue 2/10; Cluster 3: vs. Northwestern 2/18 - vs. MSU 3/10. Second cluster looks like most challenging stretch to me at the moment, but this team's gotta bring it every night of conf play! If they play like they did vs. N Alabama in terms of our offensive strategy, I think we can win a lot of games. I'll be at the Rutgers game on 1/9 and will be pumped for a big win.... Jersey Mike's Arena sucks! Cluster 1: Vs Kennesaw (12/29) —— W @ Nebraska (1/3) —— W Vs. OSU (1/6) —— W/L @ Rutgers (1/9) —— W/L Vs. Minnesota (1/12) —— W Vs. Purdue (1/16) —— W/L @ Wisconsin (1/19) —— L Cluster 2: @ Illinois (1/27) —— L Vs. Iowa (1/30) —— W Vs. PSU (2/3) —— W/L @ OSU (2/6) —— W/L @ Purdue (2/10) —— L Cluster 3: Vs. Northwestern (2/18) —— W/L Vs. Nebraska (2/21) —— W @ PSU (2/24) —— W/L Vs. Wisconsin (2/27) —— W/L @ Maryland (3/3) —— W/L @ Minnesota (3/6) —— W Vs. MSU (3/10) —— W/L

I am happy we won comfortably and looked good generally. Stuhoo's comment about having a solid 7 is spot on, I just really wish we could count on one of Gunn or Banks and go 8 deep. But we are who we are. In meaningful games (mostly, from here on out) I'd like them to play mainly spot minutes in hyper focused roles unless there's foul trouble. I am concerned about Ware in the B10. The doubles and physicality have really bothered him last few times out scoring wise. B10 teams probably won't need to double as much but I hope we're working on how to help him stay comfortable come football...I mean conference... season. Malik had a career day. Won't always go 4/4 from 3 but the fact we doubled our previous season high hopefully shows that we've got the ability to make shots outside the paint and game planning us becomes less obvious/all about clogging the paint and junking stuff up. We gave up a ton of open looks that good teams will knock down. We get X back healthy and I think we can finish top 4 in the conference. For next year... hope we're already "re-recruiting" Mack because if we do and add 2 solid guards, we could be really good. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the year! This team can definitely surprise people

#0 James has been visibly frustrated in the huddles and pretty clearly blowing off whatever KP has to say. His teammates trying to keep him in check. As you said... like a car crash

I'm gonna go ahead and predict (maybe not boldly) that Kenny Payne gets let go about 5pm tomorrow

I don't know what the hell they're thinking, but the body language has been definitely questionable lately... CJ looked like he hardly wanted to be there last time out. Totally deflated. Reneau and Ware at times had kinda bad body language too. I'll cut those two some slack tho. What Walker said about staying ready and bringing the energy... I appreciated that "senior" leadership from a transfer. Wish it didn't come to that though. Huge credit to him... 18pts 9 boards? Just want to give him major credit for saving that game. Huge part of the team.

I hope he is back before they play Princeton who is rated super highly in the NET. Gotta pull for Harvard in that one, but I do tend to root for Princeton otherwise. They've got this sophomore guard who plays just like Mack - Xaivian Lee... who will totally exploit Harvard without him. If they make the tournament again this year, which I think they will, you'll hear his name a lot. He is tiny compared to IU guys but his perimeter scoring/playmaking vs. what we see from IU really stood out to me when I saw them live earlier this year...

Wasn't he also listed as questionable before the UM game? I don't think what happened at the end of the game is related to this/anything to worry about but I certainly could be wrong.

Seton Hall is such a team of junkyard dogs. Not especially talented by recruiting metrics but a hard nosed mentality and length. Fun team to watch. Hurley would not take this loss well lol. Earlier in the week he said he would donate to SHU's NIL one day when he was out of the Big East. UConn is tough. They are not fading at all. Impressive effort by SHU so far.

I love watching Shaheen on the sidelines lol it's like he is a shadow defensive player the way he gets into a stance and runs up and down the half court along with the ball

Revising this ... IU 74, NA 66

It's been 11 games. Everyone generally sees Woody as a bridge guy to make us more attractive to the next guy. Show off the resources available, get to the tournament consistently, etc. If Woody gets fired, it means the program is failing and not an attractive destination. Those who say "It's clear Woody is not the guy" .... I think you will find most people agree with you, if you're saying he's not the guy who is going to actually bring us back to winning championships. He is the guy we're going with to make us more appealing to "the" guy. You may say, if he's not "the" guy, why waste time and go try to find him. That's how programs really flounder - no continuity. You may say we've had too much continuity/stability. That may be fair. It does not negate that to fire Woody would be to almost certainly take another Archie-esque gamble. You want Dusty? Shrews? Any "proven winner" you dub the next big thing... they're not coming here if the program is not in a good place. We need Woody to succeed here for that reason alone, if nothing else (there's a lot else too). If they don't make the tournament, would people want Woody fired? That guarantees we are on poor footing when making the next hire. It would also be an asinine thing to do to a program legend - after 2 NCAAT appearances when we hadn't been in years - who came back here when he didn't have to... But because he loves IU. Is that not worth rooting for in itself? Yes we can all be frustrated with poor play, but at 8-3, why after 11 games are some so trigger happy? Now... Woody's contract is one thing... What shape the program is in after next season, is another. But if anyone is rooting for Woody to be gone after this year, enjoy your belly aching for the next year and half minimum, because he's 99% going to be here at least through next season. We can all have our gripes about how he coaches - I certainly do! No coach is perfect. "Woody is not the guy" ... if you want to see IU land "the guy" in this lifetime, cheer for Woody and this team to figure things out! ... They clearly need fans like us screaming our butts off to will them to a victory sometimes lol. And ... hope that the transition plan Dolson is working on in the background is executed as seemingly well as the football hire was. If you don't like watching in the meanwhile, sorry. This is a message board and the entire point is to share your point of view/voice your frustration. Not interested in back and forth's, just saying my piece on the drama of the moment then moving on lol. We are in the rant thread after all.

Was anyone at the game/happen to notice what our staff does during timeouts? Something small I noticed watching this game back was in the TO huddles, we had a small whiteboard with our player's initials = jersey # -I'm wondering if we had any other whiteboards that were being used to track stats/help make points of emphasis for the coaches. When I was at the Empire Classic, I was right next to the end of their bench and they had two medium sized whiteboards tallying things like deflected passes, dives for balls, forced turnovers, etc. Our guys tend to look like they're thinking a lot - too much - and it usually causes issues... step or two slow, bad shot, turnover, etc. I'd imagine as a coaching staff, you'd rather be able to emphasize those kinds of effort/IQ related plays in TOs than remind everyone who their man is. Suppose they don't feel like they can trust the players at this point given the defensive struggles, rightfully so. I'd like to assume we're doing something similar to UConn as well and I just couldn't see it, but I'd interested if anyone can confirm. Don't misinterpret this as a criticism into the staff's approach... the Hurley way is not the only way... despite what people in NJ/CT will have you believe!

Saw there is a discussion on football uni's in the transfer portal thread so bumping this one with something I saw on Twitter. Apparently they wore the light blue for one year in the 50s or 60s I think. This is an interesting alternate concept! A lot going on... kinda look like Ole Miss. I like the candy stripes.

Right. If he was, we'd be killing it with our starting backcourt of Leal and Lander by now. Lmao

You making this statement at a time when Steve Kerr just called rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis the difference maker in their last two games - able to come right in off the bench and have an impact on winning - makes you sound like someone who's just arguing against Woody in bad faith at this point, honestly

I hear you. We'll see! Rooting for em to get it figured out ASAP.

Nobody is telling you to be pumped about a 1 point win. At the same time, this is not a "things couldn't get any worse" situation that a lot of people are acting like. I think his sentiment is more the fact that we're 8-3 and people act like we're 3-8. No team is perfect but riding the ups and downs is part of being a fan. Some people are ready to throw in the towel and give up on this team already. That's goofy too.

It looked like Reneau was yelling at/getting into it with someone from Morehead State toward the end? I saw Sparks tug at him to keep moving into the tunnel. What an UGLY game that was... I can't believe we were lucky enough to win. Coming out that flat is disappointing. They really need to win big vs the next two teams if for nothing else than analytics but also for my sanity lol

Shame we had to steal one at home against Morehead State. Lucky as hell to leave with a win. Avoided a bad loss on the resume. I'd like to see that this team is actually capable of winning a game by 15+ ... hopefully vs. Northern Alabama. Gonna flush this one and move on, personally. Yuck.

Then say that... not the thing that didn't happen with this roster. Lol