HoosierHoopster

First, thank you Baylor. No one is ever taking our undefeated season off the record books, lol. Second, even leaving my crimson glasses off, I think we're going to see a sea change next season. The handcuffs will be off the offense, and absolutely expect Geronimo and Lander to have big time frosh to soph jumps. Both are immensely talented, and think Hunter will have the green light to shoot that he's needed, and TJD is going to dominate. Imo, our team is already at least solid, it's style of play, spreading the floor with the perimeter, and confidence along with expected jumps in players that is going to significantly change (imo) our outcome. Relaying a quick story on Geronimo, don't think I've relayed it here (if I have, well, not enough coffee yet) -- A friend of mine scouted players out East. He scouted Vic at DeMatha, told me when he picked IU that Vic, then a double-double player including boards as a guard, would turn into a monster player at IU and was a legit NBA prospect. Told me he'd come in a defense-first player, that his offense was still growing, but that he had good form and was exceptionally quick and strong and would take off at IU. Couldn't have been more right. He scouted Geronimo as well, and when he picked IU told me he was better at the same age/stage as Vic. That's really high praise. Pretty much every college player's future depends on how they develop / grow in college, but G has all the tools and the drive. He needed to learn defensive positioning and the speed of the college game, but we saw him rounding into form when he (finally) was given decent playing time. He has good form already, his 3-point percentage is high on low volume, but he can shoot and would expect that to continue to improve, much like Vic's shooting did (not calling him Vic, but there are real comparisons, along with OG). This kid has real game, the more he plays, the more I think he'll impress.

No reason for threats :)

LOVE seeing Dane back! This is how to start a week, Lander and Dane Pretty crazy to think about the immediate reaction to the Woodson hire, followed by the gradual growing realization of how good it could be

Easter Sunday would be even nicer with a re-commit!

Rooting for Baylor for sure, Zags a game away from our unbeaten record

This has probably already been posted -- siap -- but it's a good watch -- Titus and Tate on the Woodson hire. Nails it, imo. "Every single kid who can play a shred of basketball in Indiana is going to be lining up to play for IU" and for laughs "Every great Purdue player that's from the State of Indiana wanted to go to Indiana. They know that deep down in their hearts." Truth, lol

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Lander can do as a soph, with the leash off. CAM barely played him until basically the end. We're talking the #1 ranked PG in his class. So he was young, had the body of a high school junior, has an outside shot that has needed work. But the kid is really, really good, very quick, great handle, solid vision for a young kid, now, assuming he comes back, we can see it. When he came in, he was talking about how good it would be to run the P&R with TJD. I am seriously looking forward to that.

Good call

Archie was actually yelling at him to slow down even more! :)

Maybe I'm high on Koolaid but I'm really starting to think we could have a seriously strong year next season -- freeing up the O, spreading the floor and actually taking the outside shots that are there, TJD and Duncomb, I'm thinking Lander is back and has a breakout frosh to soph jump, I'm starting to get stoked. Nice start to the weekend

seems like Lander, Race and AF are either waiting on confirmation of the assistant coaches or have decided they're leaving. I tend to think at least Lander is waiting on the assistants, hopefully we hear within the next few days.

Erving - Dr J - the Claw was one of my favorites as a kid, but we’re talking 1970’s-80s, it’s just time, I mean that was like 40-plus years ago! Crazy how time flies, as a kid I used to run around the court with the ABA red white and blue ball pretending to be Dr J. But in fairness dunking has developed with the game over decades, there are all kinds of amazing dunkers now, and I’ve yet to see anyone who, for me, tops “half man half amazing” Vince Carter. His explosion to the rim was just out of this world.

UT under Barnes made the tourney every year except I think one. He coached UT from 99 to 2015, and in that long run of tourney appearances he had only 2 seasons without at least 20 wins. Won the conference I think 3 times without looking it up, good coach, excellent recruiter, but didn’t get past the FF and his tourney record wasn’t great so he and UT got tired of each other (coaching at UT comes with strings, interfering administration and a football first school). UT blew it letting him go and hiring Shaka, but Beard’s good. Will be interesting to see how successful he can be with UT’s resources and backing.

In all seriousness, more like TJD. Great player, often loafs back, that'll get addressed real quick

Bird was great - hysterical, but I'll go with Gary the Glove Payton, that dude taunted from the opening tip to the end.

Stewart - the first domino - now here’s to hoping the rest of the dominos fall into place - let’s go!

Good to hear Woodson is keeping Hunter

Right there with you. Was a long time where I was frustrated by how CAM was under-utilizing him in his overall limiting of the outside game / arc. Hunter has a strong offensive game, a sweet baby hook inside to go along with good range on a pretty good percentage outside shot, his 34% on the year is misleading imo, fully capable of shooting 38-40% (like how he finished over the last 10 or so games of his frosh season) within sets that spread the floor. I'd bet on him having a much more productive season as a junior under Woodson. His D has been gradually improving, will need to continue but expect it will, kind of like how Watford grew his D as a junior.

Al is gone imo. Not sold on Geronimo leaving. He can benefit tremendously under Woodson, ability to defend multiple positions and a growing offensive game and the opportunity to be coached by an established NBA coach? Easy decision imo, but I don’t know how much of the closer to home talk is just pure speculation or actually coming from him. If speculation I think he comes back. Not sure on Rob but would think he’d return as well. From the presser, Woodson is working to encourage them to return

IU 1. Vic 2. EJ - hard to pick here for me between EJ and Vic, EJ's one-year and injury limited him, but he's a monster power dunker 3. OG All time/NBA 1. Vince Carter -- 'half man half amazing' 2. Zack Levine - crazy style and swagger 3. Jason Richardson

Absolutely. Just read Woodson's presser transcript. Pretty much everything he says about offense, the three ball, the use of guys who can play more than one position, confidence, fits Hunter perfectly. I would bank on Hunter being much more involved offensively, and that's a good thing. I'd bank on the offense looking a hell of a lot better.

I fall right into the majority in both questions, 1. don't know and 2. I like it. But that's the thing with polls the questions leave a lot of room without explanation. It's not "talking myself into it," it's more sitting back and thinking about it, I see a lot of reason for cautious optimism, and that's where I am with hiring Woodson. He built the Hawks into a 53 win team and the atrocious Knicks into a 54 win team. He BUILT those teams, into WINNING teams. He was brought back in as an asst because of how good he is, in his team development and developing player relationships and respect, and his coaching acumen, he's a strong coach, hands down. If we see people questioning his player sub patters I'm just going to laugh. His players really like and respect him. IU players are going to give him immediate respect. IU recruits are going to be intrigued by his NBA history and connection (of course he has excellent connections, the tweet someone posted is laughable). But what really stands out to me is the addition of Matta as an assoc AD. That's some serious outside the box work and Woodson isn't some ego nut, he's going to be working with Matta on the recruiting end etc. Talk about a major asset. And I expect to see player 'returns' from the transfer list sometime this week after his talks with players tonight, and look forward to seeing how our recruiting develops. I'm optimistic on the recruiting side for sure. kids / their families / their HS coaches will give Woodson's NBA pedigree good consideration. Said it elsewhere, I'm cautiously optimistic. So 'don't know' in the poll but it's a little more positive than that for me.

Yep. Think we’ll see players returning, will be interesting to watch

My initial reaction - disappointment. I wanted Muss, Beard (who I think is UT-bound) or Oats. Because we know what we would be getting right away with any of them. But getting past that, I’m cautiously optimistic Woodson is a very good NBA coach, can’t just look at records if you follow the League you’ve seen him get a lot of good performances out of mediocre and ok teams, and he’s widely respected which is why he is in staff now. Many thought the Howard hiring by UM was an underwhelming or dumb hire, how much college coaching and recruiting experience did he have? Hindsight. Woodson brings immediate NBA pedigree combined with a strong Hoosier legacy. He’ll recruit fine. He’ll talk about the guys he’s coached and played with and, golly, parents and coaches are heavily involved in the recruiting process it’s not like some 16 year old just says Mike who? And that really underestimates what recruits are looking at, they are doing their own homework, basically all of them are attuned to NBA connections and that’s a big plus, shouldn’t underestimate it. No idea If he’ll succeed, it is somewhat risky, but he already has support coming in and it could turn out really well. Dude can coach, dude will command immediate respect. So I’m going to go in hopeful

A low bar :)