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Pat Fitzgerald to Michigan State is kinda spooky

This was a fun one. We are up to 19 on Kenpom. 1 spot ahead of Kansas, 1 spot behind St John's

Funny moment in the second half when one of the announcers said IU may have hit the jackpot with Cig and DeVries then goes "coaching is back in Bloomington" before correcting himself "I suppose I shouldn't say back. But coaching is here in Bloomington." Lol

Connor Essegian is done for the year at Nebraska with a "significant" right ankle injury. He will apply for a medical redshirt.

They'll grow to appreciate him. His career record is drastically thrown off by 1-11 first year at Arizona taking over for Sumlin who was 0-5 in 2020 and in 2019 4-8. They were decimated coming out of COVID and by year 3 they won 10 games. Went to Washington after DeBoer left and took most of the talent with him/portalled out in general. He is a builder. Record improves each year. UF could do a hell of a lot worse IMO.

Mullins just checked in for his season debut against Illinois. UConn up early.

Just sharing a factual update on his stats. Thanks for the additional context. We will see how their / his season goes!

Mgbako returned from his foot injury two days ago vs. Mississippi Valley State. In his first game of the year he played 17 minutes, 19 points on 3/6 from 3, 6/6 FT, 2 rebounds, 1 assist. Games I'll probably watch today: UConn @ Illinois 12:30 on FOX St Mary's @ Vandy 1pm ESPN2 Oklahoma @ Marquette 2pm NBC Providence @ Florida 3pm FOX Texas A&M @ Florida State 5pm ESPN2 Wisconsin @ TCU 5:30pm FOX Miami FL @ GTown 7pm ESPN Ohio State @ Pitt 7pm ESPN2

Mitch Henderson used to practically give himself an aneurysm yelling at Lee for ball watching on D and generally not valuing the basketball/playing smart. He was a streaky shooter at best and not good around the rim. He got by a lot of the time because the competition had inferior athleticism but it was clear to me he'd struggle at a higher level of competition. Was never a strong kid. Get the sense Golden was kind of desperate for backcourt talent when he picked Lee up late in the cycle and basically played a lotto ticket. Of all high major players who have played at least 60% of their team's minutes, of which there are 268, Lee is 264 on Torvik's points above replacement player metric. Of that player pool, trimming down to those who have attempted at least 15 shots at the rim, Lee is 200th out of 204 at 40% (6/15). Terrible indeed. Basically the same exact kind of scouting miss as Mahaney at UConn last year. We'll see how UF can manage!

Xaivian Lee is borderline unplayable. Could see that coming from a mile away watching him at Princeton. Hope for his sake he got that degree before transferring. Princeton had a really good couple of years recently but almost everyone on those rosters are gone now. Caden Pierce, the 2023-2024 Ivy player of the year (who has a brother on the Colts IIRC) took this year off to get his Princeton degree and then hit the portal for next season. That's a guy who I could see translating to the P5 level. He's originally from Illinois. No idea if there'd be mutual interest but I think he'd fit the bill culture wise and be a hell of a rebounder / smart playmaker. Might be Duke bound.

Change is the only constant

We will have plenty of fun match ups between DDV and Dusty led teams. I'm sure there will be years they get the best of us and years we get the best of them. I would've loved to hire Dusty when Michigan did but we also don't know for certain he'd want to coach here. Timing just didn't work out. Sucks, but I think we got another really good coach who can be here a long time. And yes, a big ole screw you, to Quinn.

Bold of him to think it will take until the mid point of the 3rd quarter for the game to be completely out of reach. Lol

6-0 coming off a really strong performance at home against Kansas State. Bethune Cookman this Saturday should be a win. Then Minnesota in our first conference game a week from today. We should go into the Louisville game in Indy 8-0. Will be a tough match up but should be a great environment. 3 days after that we play Penn State. And 4 days later we play Kentucky. That game looks increasingly winnable. Then we'll play Chicago State (very sugary cupcake) and Siena (regular cupcake) before we're in the thick of conference season. We could/should be 11-2 or 12-1 at that point. I felt like this team had a wide range of outcomes in the preseason. I'm really encouraged by what we've seen. Hopefully that translates come the spring portal, but we will get to really enjoy IUBB this year for the first time in a while. Shades of early 2000s UF, with football rolling and basketball seemingly on the right track. Great time to be a Hoosier.

Delete the app and thank yourself later :)

This group of guys have yet to lose together - not a game or a preseason exhibition. Feels great having a men's basketball team that's about winning in Bloomington again.

Really inspired by that second half performance. Especially after the last two games where we came out of halftime very flat. The defense was pretty great most of the night. Conerway came to play in a major way against Haggerty. Statement game from him. Think Bailey, Conerway and Sisley were our leading scorers maybe? Kudos to Bailey... he has to play with maximum effort and he brought it in the second half. After the last two games we said these guys have to appreciate how hard you have to play for 40 minutes at this level... feels like a step forward tonight. Can't wait for the UK and UL games.

Time out? Is Tang gonna draw up a 22 point play?

Here come the walk ons.

Love seeing a big win in Assembly Hall.

Gotta be a flagrant on KSU. Didn't even attempt to make a play on the ball.

Love seeing DDV's energy on the sidelines. Think he just told Enright "that's enough" lol

Enright tried to pull him into one and "good job by the referees not falling for that one" when Haggerty literally barreled through him? Okay... there's a reason this crew of announcers are the D team lol

Reed Bailey getting to the FT line like Shai / prime Harden tonight lol