str8baller

Cronin’s floor is way higher. Otoh, questions about his personality and offense may make it seem like his ceiling is below what IU ultimately wants. McCollum is the exact other end of that spectrum. Collins probably is somewhere in the middle. If those candidates are on the same “level” for Dolson to choose from a lot of it may boil down to how risk tolerant he is and what the behind the scenes politics look like.

I think people are looking at his raw numbers and forgetting to factor their slower pace in. According to Torvik they rank 234th on 3pt rate, which is pace neutral. For reference, Indiana ranks 316th. Izzos, Tommy Lloyds, Fews, Selfs, and Randy Bennetts teams shoot less 3’s as a percentage of their overall FG attempts. What they do to compensate is get a ton of looks (comparative to pace) around the rim, ranking just behind Mays and Bennetts squads and right ahead of Oats, Hurleys and Buzz Williams teams. Again, according to Torviks site.

Yea, I thought about adding that and giving credit to UK fans for their ability to read statistics and process nuances. Then I decided that’s crazy talk, and he’s just in his honeymoon phase with them. Lol

I was surprised to see them so high in Off Rebounding. That probably helps keep their pace down a little. FWIW, 59 possessions (adjusted) on Kenpom is pretty much dead on where Bennetts title team in Virginia and Bo Ryan’s runner up squad was at. Both were incredibly efficient offenses, though.

I’m sorry, but you’re not allowed to do that. We hope you understand. —The White Whale Committee

Kentucky finished 6th in the SEC. That’s worse than every Calipari year except for one. I think Pope is enjoying a nice honeymoon phase. He’ll probably need to make a run this year or compete in the SEC next year or their fans will start to get restless. If McCollum came in to IU next year and finished 6th we’d all be happy temporarily. But he’d have to start producing real results pretty soon after.

And Michigan was dead last last year. My larger point being we don’t really have enough good data points to extrapolate anything meaningful out of most of these situations, so we substitute feelings and fandom. The reason people get fixated on proven successful guys is because it’s the only way to really eliminate the risk of hiring a coach. As far as young guy resumes guy, Michigan is in a pretty good spot with May. And IU football is in a pretty good spot with Cig. IMO, of course.

Funny they mentioned Roy Williams and forgot Matt Doherty right before that. Plus, Chris Beard from TT to Texas. Plus Rick Barnes from Clemson to Texas (that’s going back a bit). Underwood from Okie St to Illinois. It happens. Seems you want to get them early before they put down roots tho. That’s why I said I would’ve taken a shot at one big time guy and then threw the brinks truck at McCasland. Maybe he wants to wait on Texas but make him at least ponder a hige offer—one that Texas might not even match in a year or two.

So did Cig’s. Got demolished by 2 of the last 3 teams they played? Are you out on IU football too?

That’s a good gig if they give you housing. Otherwise I’m not sure even a D1 coach’s salary could support a mortgage in Malibu!

Would be a D1 death sentence for him, imo. If you read between the lines on why Bennett left, I don’t see any way a coach like McCollum could over come that lack of NIL.

I’ve liked Underwood since those SFA days. I was helping out my close friends team and we used to always ask each other if we saw them the night before if they happened to pop up on ESPN3 or whatever. McCasland I picked up on from you guys. 350 teams and it’s about impossible to keep track of them all for the average fan. But that is exactly what I would expect our AD to be doing. Each and every year. But that pretty much gets at what’s wrong with IU basketball: our administration and surrounding support doesn’t know jack **** about basketball. That’s tough considering how much our fans love basketball. We’ll see what Dolson is made of, I guess.

That’s not proof of anything. Kansas, UK, and UNC all have histories in the modern era of hiring P5 coaches away. So does IU. Duke and UNCs last hires were coach in waiting situations due to a legendary coach retiring. They never went to the open market so it tells us nothing. If UNC or Texas is open in the next couple years they will go big game hunting and one or both will have a good chance at landing someone from a major conference. And if they don’t they’ll go the midmajor route like everyone else who strikes out on their top 1 or 2 candidates. IU’s successes and failures (mostly failures) are its own doing. There’s no mysterious force keeping good coaches away.

I’m not sure why it wouldn’t hold true now. The haves and have nots have only increased in disparity. I guess it is possible it doesn’t. But what’s the point of getting all these big donor commitments for guaranteed NIL pools if it doesn’t help you land the coach you want? Even the guys down the list are P5 guys…McD, Brownell, Devries… so if those guys are out because we can’t pull P5 coaches anymore (nvmnd the fact that when anyone asks about McCasland, everyone just assumes he’s Texas bound), then we are truly down to a world where McCollum is the leader in the clubhouse.

Timing most likely and misjudging the interest of top candidates. Are you suggesting Kentucky can’t pull away a big time coach? For Christ sakes they’ve hire Pitino out of the Big East, Tubby away from an in conference school and Calipari coming off of a huge run at Memphis. Big time programs hire from other maj conf schools quite a bit, for obvious reasons, but they don’t necessarily do it every time.

Oregon 77 IU 71

Most people don’t even notice pace unless they look it up…myself included.They’re always surprised to learn Jay Wright or Hurly have teams deep in the 300s in pace. A good one is Sampson he’s had some really slow teams lately. And if you would’ve asked me before I looked it up I would have bet you they were at least upper half. Nope!

An alternative take away is that D2 and even D3 basketball is really good too. Top D2 teams have always competed with and beaten the bottom of Div1. Today I think we can safely say the very tippy top of D2 is good enough to handily win a mid major conference. I’m not sure McCollum was handicapped by bringing his old players along.

His DEff outstrips his OEff by a fair margin. And both Schwartz’s Indiana State and Devries’ Drake had more efficient offenses last year in the same conference. That’s not to say he doesn’t run an efficient offense but a few data points to consider. My guess is his bread in butter is that defense. Just a guess tho…

This is my first time watching the venerable Ben McCollum. I’ve resisted so far because I want to believe IU will make a bigger hire. But the game was on when I got home, so… My thoughts after watching exactly one whole game: -D is very good in the Bo Ryan/Bennett school of optimizing position, getting your hands up and forcing the opposing team into low efficiency shots, contesting them and hoping they miss. Very good rotations. -O …honestly I expected a little more wizardry from an X’s and O’s “genius.” Lots of 4 out spread high ball screen action. Some good cutting off the ball but not a ton of other action off the ball most of the time. Definitely not Ryan’s swing or Bennett's mover blocker continuity type offenses that help chew up the shot clock. There’s nothing wrong with it tho. Tons of coaches use a lot of 4 out ball screen offense. McCollum relies on his players to be smart and willing passers, which certainly could be a reflection of his coaching. Hard for me to separate players from coach in that regard when they’ve all been together for 4 years tho. -Pace is like most teams that finish low. They don’t ever get out in transition. At least they didn’t this game. They don’t take dumb shots early in the clock. That’s about all it takes to keep you at the bottom versus something more average-ish. Seems like a talented coach. Would be a risky hire at IU from what very little I’ve seen and read here. If he continues to do well at Drake a post-Fran Iowa seems like the obvious move, no?

These technical foul rules and reviews are so stupid. Call it or don’t and move on.

Better chance that poster is Goodman than he knows anything. The constant nonsense memes are annoying.

In general, yes. But if you want a real championship level coach capable of multiple titles they have to be able to win different ways to navigate your best teams to a title. A guy that teaches to his system well but is inflexible can hand wave away bad matchups in the regular season as only a couple of losses. But those same matchup difficulties are fatal in a single elimination tournament. That is different though from Tom Crean being carried to a FF by one of the greatest individual efforts ever with Dwayne Wade. People shouldn’t get enamored by those runs.

Closer to Mike Davis than Bob Knight. Couldn’t sum up his career more perfectly.

I think there’s been discussions of the NCAA redoing how they do eligibility altogether. Maybe even adding a 5th year. I wouldn’t fully rule his return out.