str8baller

Nobody likes athlon

I’ll say this: I appreciate this team going to their leader down the stretch instead of jacking dumb shots. small victories

Ball movement is not good. Don’t expect that right away but eventually.

Looks like Race and TJD made a little progression. Coach has to find a couple guards he can rely on. We’ll see

It isn’t any harder to turn around a football program than any other sport. nothing college takes longer than 4 yrs. in fact 90% of all successful football coaches hit their career winning percentage by yr 3. Used to have a spread sheet somewhere that proved this. “Your record inn year 3 will be written on your ephitaph.”

Not a Branch McCracken fan then?

Nebraska is a poor comparison, imo. The recruiting base alone is different. Even when Nebraska was winning big they had to supplement their recruiting by throwing in murderers and rapists from around the country because they sit in a football recruiting wasteland. IU basketball, got all its faults the last twenty years, has been able to recruit championship level players and of course sits in the great basketball state of Indiana. If you want to do the football thing I’d look to ND, Georgia or Texas…inept administrations but forever one coach away from National relevance. I respect Brad Stevens as a coach but personally don’t give a **** about anyone that doesn’t want to be in Bloomington. I’m not really worried about who’s next right now because we have a capable coach. Maybe he fails. But he’s the most competent guy we’ve hired since Knight.

The more I’ve thought about it over the summer, I’ve come to a similar conclusion as you. There’s some upside to this team that maybe isn’t being given its full due. Otoh, all those qualities could easily lead to a disjointed team that doesn’t play well together and is less than the sum of their parts. For example, I think the aforementioned recipe would inevitably lead to disaster under a guy like Crean or Davis. I’m usually good to give a coach a few years before coming to any conclusions. But in this new world of constant transfers and nli recruiting everyone has to adjust. We may find out a lot about Woody by the end of the year. I’m cautiously optimistic Woody is the type of guy to take all that and put a cohesive product on the floor by the middle of the year. I also expect many bumps and bruises along the way, especially in Nov/Dec. Hope springs eternal and I am once again excited for the start of Indiana Hoosier basketball.

He had such a natural feel for the game as freshman I think we all expected big things. I’m not sure how you even regain that. I’d love for him to be a starter again but would hope he can at least fill the role as really good backup pg that still gets about 20min/gm.

You need high ranking kids, period. Where they come from is largely irrelevant. The state of Indiana is typically filled with talent and should be the easiest, lowest hanging fruit on the recruiting tree. But it really makes no difference if your picking off 5* (so long as you get them somewhere) or are lining out your rotation with solid guys from Indiana so long as you are keeping the option open and are not pissing off the coaches in the state.

That would be welcome by me. He’s a smart player and does a lot of the “little things” well. Having him develop the ability to consistently score would be a windfall for the team.

Want to add it would explain why IU thought he was coming... because Stevens did too. He probably never thought they’d offer him Ainges job

Yep. Wouldn’t be surprised if he went to them to say he was unhappy and going to IU. They probably entered into negotiations and settled on this role. Amazing.

I haven’t really followed recruiting much since the early Crean years, but this kid seems like a huge pull for Woodson and possibly the guy that helps round out an increasingly solid rotation next year.

This is going to sound really stupid, so just disregard, but I’m going to write it anyways: After the last twenty years, if we’re going to be bad we might as well get a few good interviews and Knight stories out of it. I’m not saying Woody won’t succeed, but if he doesn’t his “floor” has a little charm to it at least. Each new coach brings the optimism out and the promise of glory. But this is a little different. I haven’t so much enjoyed the dreams of the future as I have the reconnection to the past. It’ll wear off. Nostalgia is short lived and hardly a recipe for success. I hope it works out, but for about half my life it hasn’t so what the hay... btw, did everyone catch coaches latest podcast with AJ Guyton??? Fun stuff.

IU loss to cuse was so bad Bohiem (of all people) was mocking Crean post game.

I didn’t really watch NW last year, so I was looking at his stats. First thing that came to mind when I saw them was that he had a shift in his role. If I had to guess he was getting a lot less catch and shoot opportunities and being asked to attack the basket a little more. Maybe lost a ball handler on the team that looked for him a lot. If he can catch and shoot 3’s at 40% clip at IU, like his soph year, he’ll see good minutes.

I agree with a lot of what was said about intangibles: effort, use the bench, better movement on offense, etc... But looking at the roster, I think it’s fair to say I’m expecting: - compete for a top 5 finish in conf. - be competitive in BTT - make the NCAA tourney with 8 seed or better I’d consider realistic, but not expected goals of making the weekend of the BTT or getting out of the first round of the NCAA on the table. (Sampson won his first tourney game and Davis made the BTT final in their first years). I think unlikely, but any one of the following would have even the National media raving about Woody: sweep Purdue, win BTT or make S16

Voice of those legendary 90’s teams.

Probably closer to the truth than the optimism that springs eternal this time of year. But.., The upside lays with coaching and more specifically accountability. Durham is my least favorite player since the Crean years. He’s the definition of “score 2, give up 3. “ Except he didn’t just give up points on the defensive end so much as he just completely let mental mistakes derail things at both ends. Archie hardly ever held him accountable. This team isn’t exactly under talented of the goal is competing in the B1G and making the tourney. It is a wreck in terms of identity and accountability. It’s biggest missing piece is high level coaching. I think we see what Franklin does at uva and regret losing him; Brunk not so much.

That’s not the type of player I’m usually excited about. With that said, we probably can use the talent infusion and we’ll have to trust the staff to integrate everyone. Sad to lose Franklin especially to a good program like UVA.

I mean if you’re gonna let Suggs drive all the way to the 3pt line without one guy challenging him, then I’m leaving and you guys can run ‘till you can’t even f****** suffer. -Mick Cronin, probably

This type of stuff gets me more hyped than I have any reason to be.

I’ve wondered this myself. He showed a lot of promise as a freshman and has just stagnated since then. If the issue was coaching—and In not exactly convinced it is—he has the talent to play to an all-B1G 3rd team type of level. If he were to turn it around, TJD flourishes and maybe one other guy can step up, I think the pieces are there to be a top five team in the conference and obviously a tourney team. Maybe even 5-7 seed. We’re obviously in the honeymoon phase here and this is all contingent on Woodson working out. But it’s looking like the player situation is going to work itself out to where we have decent talent.

Exactly where I’m at. Love to keep him for many reasons including his awareness and hustle. But he’s replaceable.