str8baller

Can’t be mad about the frosh and backups in with 6min to go.

I think our defensive rotations could be crisper and will need to be against good teams. But I’m pleasantly surprised how intuitive they seem to be for some of these guys. Fairly good sign.

He’s started twice then not played a ton.

It helps if you have been.

They’ve shared the ball well and played good team defense. Hope the second half isn’t a letdown.

I’m justifying by saying that it’s probably a student learning. Plus we get fisch still better than no basketball…lol

In a sense, I disagree with that. I feel like the best teams/floor generals/coaches can sense things getting sideways and take a possession or two to get deliberate on offense. It might be running a set play you feel good about or some ball movement into your best action. Same thing applies to breaking up runs by the other team, imo. So where I give Woody credit and something I was happy to see was them just continually get TJD post touches when things got hairy down the stretch.

Was a little bummed after our game, but after watching all these other major conf teams get upset or have close games against nobodies, I’m feeling more thankful we played one good half and won. It’s becoming more clear that due to the transfer thing or whatever, a lot of teams are finding themselves having to build a cohesive unit on the fly.

Benefit of the doubt is just hometown feel goods. It means nothing. The games feel similar because they both took over flawed teams and had a couple months with them. Archie failed because he couldn’t build off that. Same with Crean except in recruiting. Hell, I’ll give Davis a little credit in that he at least had a couple of teams playing better at the end of the year than the beginning. Woodson will address the issues and get them playing better or he’ll fail like the last guys. We have no way of knowing at this point.

Agree. Speaks to our lead guard problem. Best player can’t be a big if there isn’t one guard who is at least a leader. #0 pretty much lived up to his scouting report, which I feared. Phin looks more confident but playing like a scorer. Bates is talented but played like a frosh. Credit to the staff for getting the ball to TJD when it got close. But a true leader st the guard spot knows to stop those runs when the lead slips to 15…12…8… by manufacturing points and getting a score down low. I don’t mind playing loose and getting good looks early but there’sa time to slow the pace down when you’re the better team.

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.