HoosierHoopster

Very impressive Some other guys out of Lawrence North Mike Conley Eric Montross Greg Oden Chris Hill

That, but also in fairness Montverde is prime recruiting grounds for the top college basketball programs, the players go there both for the level of competition/competitive play and for the exposure / recruiting

Yeah but I think JG's and Bates' emergence is going to be the key, and I think both will produce at a significantly higher level offensively

The D will be outstanding. Now we're looking for improved O.

Deep.

You can hope for more. Believe in yourself! :)

Good, balanced article / assessment. Crazy to consider JG has 3 years of eligibility, and in that this year isn't necessarily a 'defining' season for him, with Race and TJD leaving next season. The pluses to his playing more are what I tend to focus on: - 7th in B1G in blocks and rebounds on a per 40 basis - highest off board rate on team, 2nd def board and block rate, and that's with - 3rd highest effective FG rate, 55.9, and with good form on his outside shot and in big game moments - then there's a point that's been argued here - he's a "better lateral defender" and far better rebounder than Kopp. Uh, yeah. But the skill development side points are right on, to make that big step some of us think he's about to have, he'll have to - limit TO's and fouls - develop his perimeter skills including dribble drive / handle, showing improved outside shooting percentages on more shots - improve his FT shooting I still think he probably starts the season off the bench with Kopp starting (TJD, Race, Kopp, X and one of JHS or Bates, JHS imo), but continues to grow his minutes well into starter (and more importantly finisher) minutes as the season progresses. JG's and Bates' growth, imo, is the real key to our season.

Well, IU is projected at the top of League and pre-season ranked this season and is 3-1 in these games. Seems like a fairly good shot at it.

Even more fun on bottle 4 of beer

Exactly— it’s absolutely better for the team it pulls the defenders out, opens lanes, spreads the Floor

What do you guys think are the keys to IU living up to the pre-season rankings / expectations? - growth/increased production of JG, Bates and/Galloway- more outside shooting - JHS’s immediate impact as point/combo guard - TJD taking another step up with mid-range / outside shooting - crazy depth up front with TJD, Race, JG and Ren? - other? I think how good we can be is going to largely depend on one or more of JG, Bates and Galloway having that real jump up in their games / contributions (i agree with Goodman … ewww)

^^ Yeah I think they'll stay with the lineup - type approach, for the 'teams' - TJD has the chance regardless to make that step up from his already largely dominant play by adding in that jumper / shot we keep hearing about. If he does and does it effectively, I'd bank on his slotting in the first team.

I don't mean to discount Kopp (really, I don't), but while I understand Woodson favored veterans last season (and agree to a certain extent), Kopp to me would be much more effective coming off the bench. He can shoot, his perimeter d is decent, he helps on the floor vocally, he understands SF positioning well. But there's just no good reason to insist on playing a guy as a 'shooter' 25 MPG when the 'shooter' takes about 3 outside shots a game in those 25 and scores 6/game, especially when you have guys like Geronimo and Bates who are much more versatile, clearly can score, etc. So they were young, and fairly inexperienced. Now they're not. Just no good reason to stand pat on set lineups. And btw TJD's thoughts on that -- that guys need to play together for chemistry etc. -- are right on.

Agree generally on the volume comments and not drawing sweeping conclusions based on limited shooting -- that's always a good rule to follow. By the same token, though, just looking at Kopp's "percentages" is itself basically misleading. He shot 36% overall, on 3.1 shots per game -- for a whopping total 6 PPG. Meanwhile he played 25.1 MPG. 25-plus minutes, and he took only 3 shots a game and scored only 6 PPG. Meanwhile, JG played (on the season) 12.6 MPG, scoring 4.4 -- and that number obviously went up significantly to close the season when he played 20-plus minutes. Bates scored 3.9 per game, while playing 14.5 MPG - he was only taking 1.8 treys a game. He shot 40% his last two years of HS ball from deep. Yeah he has to convert that to the college game, but there's really no reason to think he can't/won't. The focus on just percentages ignores all of this. Bates can shoot, I'd bet on him shooting more and better this season. Would bet the same for JG too, his form is there, and he knocked down some really bigtime 3's in several games, including coming in cold off the bench. Woodson essentially played two entirely separate lineups last season and wouldn't change them up, including Kopp/Stewart no matter how poorly they played. I hope that approach changes this season.

One of these things is not like the other....

It could just as easily be Bates, but I am so looking forward to seeing JG's junior season, think he's going to crush it

I think Woodson is looking at it as another way to vault IU back into the national spotlight. We’re headed back up the ladder anyway (imo), and it’s a series that helps, we’re building the program now, Woodson has the horses coming in, UK fans can talk about relevance all they want- while we’re beating them, again

Cal:

I have no idea if his shot will improve much, the hand/wrist injuries seem to have screwed it up. But his impact on both ends was and will be important. His assisting was right there behind X and Rob, he moves the ball, he reads and gets tot spots, he's strong 'downhill' and ups the tempo (which should improve this year), and he's one of our best on D, the guy that gets in the head of the offensive player. Sure, it'd be great if he improves his outside game and the D has to extend out on him, but he helps us regardless in so many ways.

Yeah and the quote in my post above by TJD about the set lineups in practice i’m sure has a typo — the word “would” is “should”. He’s talking about how guys should play with each other for chemistry etc. I wondered all season why Woodson insisted on playing / starting Parker and Kopp together, no matter what. I do hope Woodson gets out of that fixed lineup mindset, it’s not a good plan, period

Nothing

Nahh i got it lol

Crean was not a good defensive coach, lol, just wasn’t— but i think you’re reading in a bit here, his enthusiasm over deflections was always mocked, but active D and deflections go together and on that he wasn’t wrong

As they say it's up to Scoop and the proof is in the pudding. Kid has so much talent -- and fire -- he was a frosh and dealt with off-court things and the demands of Woodson on D, now he's coming in with that experience, a full summer, and Woodson says he thinks Bates is the guy who will have that big jump. The kid shot plus 40% his last two seasons in HS -- I think he finds his range this season. if he does, look out!

SIAP - Haven't gone back to see if these same TJD comments from the HT story were posted in one of the above linked stories. A number of interesting statements from TJD IU basketball: Trayce Jackson-Davis talks about return for senior year (heraldtimesonline.com) They include - "Last year, we had two teams, the starting five and the bench. We played against each other and we would never switch up the teams. The starting five and the bench players would play together. I think that's huge for us, to get our team chemistry better." - "I wouldn't consider the NIL to be a big reason why I stayed, even though there is probably going to be money there and opportunity there, which I'm blessed to be in that situation. Obviously I'm going to use it to my advantage, but I'm here to play basketball and finish my degree." - "This is the way coach Woodson explained it to me: He said last year, I was so dominant on the low block I didn't really need to do that [shoot from outside]. I'm still going to have dominance. I'm not going to just utterly forget about that. The biggest thing for me is just adding just a few jump shots here and there to my game. He said I have to shoot four or five jump shots a game and I'm still going to have 10 to 12 under the rim." "When I was out in California, I was getting trained like a guard. Ball-handling, shooting, reading movements off the dribble. Catch-and-shoot. It was a lot of 2-on-2, 3-on-3. Things of that nature to really help work on your outside game. It's all of those components that are really going to help me in the future." "The feedback I got from the GMs, they said I was going to get drafted. They said anywhere from the beginning to late second round. The way that I would boost my stock is to show out at the combine, show I could shoot the ball, things of that nature. Defensive matchups, showing I could guard big guys but switching out and guarding the perimeter...." 'I think this is the best team that I've been on since I've been here. It's not even the sense that — it's the talent that we have. We have talent all across the board from the guards all the way down to the centers. We have dudes that care about the program, are here for the right things. I think the big thing that we didn't have last year that we have this year is our team chemistry. Last year we had three guys come in and start for us that we didn't know, like we never played with them. We had to build our chemistry over the summer. Having a full year of experience with them and then adding two, three, or four freshmen in, I think it's going to be huge for us. I think the ceiling for our team is anywhere from Big Ten championship to national championship, if I'm going to be honest with you. I set my standards high." "Yeah, so even with the G League, the only way — there's players in the G League now that are still on guaranteed contracts. So if I had to go develop in the G League, I wouldn't mind doing that as long as I was guaranteed a contract. So that was my big thing. If I was guaranteed a contract in the second round, then I would have stayed in the draft, but that's not what happened. I didn't think that's what was going to happen. So I felt like coming back to school was the best option. We didn't really talk about NIL or any of those types of deals. I know the money's out there, but we're just going to play it by ear and see what happens. So it was really more of a — it was a guaranteed contract. I could have played in the G League. I would have been fine with that if it was for my development purposes."