str8baller

Meh... at the end of the season you had program cheerleaders from Rabjohns and Peagram to Assembly Call openly criticizing both the on court results and the conduct of the staff. It's hardly relegated to "five or ten posters on this board." I know lifelong IU fans that have never heard of this board who are sick of Woody. The portal has given him a temporary shot in the arm. Everybody loves a comeback story so if he can make it work he can easily regain much goodwill. We'll see what happens.

Agree. He doesn't seem like the type to go to a Kentucky. With that said, there are plenty of places that are good jobs where basketball is lower pressure to almost an after thought. I simply do not know how any of these programs with transfer restrictions and non-elite NILs compete. In a world where kids can exit at any time for any reason, you simply can't have a de facto prohibition on top undergrads coming in. I'm still curious how the Dusty May thing plays out. People seemed to think UM had a similar admission policy. Louisville seemed like such a fit for May, I can't fathom that he didn't get some concessions from them. Is it still thought they blocked Davis or did Cal just pay more?

I don't know of any big time coach that is in a worse spot currently. Which is why I noted him earlier this year as one of the few top tier guys IU should have on a shortlist somewhere. Somebody will pull him out of UVA soon and if he's given even 2nd tier resources he'll spend the next decade+ building conf championship winning teams that compete for another title or two. My guess is Wisconsin would move on from Gard for him. They could probably get a bigger NIL commitment from alumni to make it happen.

I don't see how you can look at the roster and think we are doing anything but playing small half the time. Reneau at the 5 should be a dynamic offense with these guards. I'm hesitant to say that for sure because of...well, Woody. But it sure looks that's the way we're headed.

Love that nickname

I didn’t see his follow up post. The first one made it sound like he thought top 5 or pretty close to it. He’s historically defended Woody too—and he was defending him in the comments to that first tweet—so it’s not like he’s throwing that out to place unrealistic expectations on him.

Agree. That’s the danger of the portal, I guess. But we have all season to sort it out. I’ll say, one thing I’ll give Woody credit for is he seems to generally have brought in solid dudes who like to compete. Even Ware really had very little issues in that regard.

Not getting blown out in big games by years 2 and 3. You can focus on process or results. Neither have necessarily been there although if you view things in a vacuum the results of years 2 and 3 don’t seem that bad. You should really have an eye on both. With that said, the roster construction looks like we’re poised to play small at least part of the team this year. That’s progress. Additional progress would be fixing the schematics with the defense. But it’s been said a million times and I agree: jobs like IU aren’t great places to learn on the job. And Woody might be making some baby steps, but why do we want a 66 year old coach who is still learning on the job? I want to like Woody—and still do to a certain extent—but I really don’t get the fans who are into defending a guy who is so obviously not the next great coach at IU. Well, the fans I maybe get but not the administrators. We do this every time…Davis, Crean, Archie, Woody…they’re such lovable guys…let’s give them more time…let’s blame the fans…let’s get the donors to pitch in…let’s do anything but cut our losses and admit we made a mistake! All it does is prolong the inevitable and lessen your chances at hiring the next good coach. But hey, who am I to argue with the IU admin.? I’ve never even ran a world class basketball program into the ground before.

Ant Wright on Twitter is a decent follow. He thinks IU has a top 5 roster, fwiw.

Pretty sure it was the other way around. He didn’t like Cupps and insisted IU had to have CJ Gunn on the floor. He kept that up until about Feb when it was pretty much undeniable Gunn was a liability.

I hope he wins it all... and then retires . It's not like non-great coaches have never won a title before. I want IU to be the best program in the country and for many reasons I believe that won't be with Woody. But hoping IU loses is a fools errand because nobody knows the circumstances and stimuli needed for a coaching change to the next (hopefully) great coach.

One of the few times I can remember "IU is his dream school" working out. I'm happy for him. Also we get some much needed shooting off the bench.

That's not true in the slightest. 2 years ago people, specifically on this site, made fun of how bad Purdue was going to be, how bad their guards were, and how slow edey was. They won the B1G. You can look around and see other teams are cleaning up too. Kansas had about their worst year under Self after last seasons big portal haul. The off-season likely doesn't predict much.

He won’t given the talent. But…given the mins available, this is a very good pickup.

I’ve thought about this thread and I kind of go back and forth. On one hand, I probably shouldn’t expect much because of woody and all the things you mention. Otoh, I see a top 10-15ish roster and think maybe we should expect that. After 25 lackluster years I think I’ve come to the following sad reality about IU basketball: I expect very little to nothing from this program.

The thing with the 3rd perimeter shooter off the bench is you have to convince them they’ll play mins over 5th yr senior and former starter Galloway and 5* frosh Tucker OR get a commitment from the staff they’ll stagger the bigs a play small consistently, and often. If the kids have good advisors they’ll rightfully be skeptical of both. Because if you come here and neither of those things happen you’re suddenly and uncharacteristically riding the pine your last year of cbb in exchange for a few extra thousand dollars and the privilege of partying at Kilroys instead of some other B1G/SEC/ACC campus bar. Obviously guys like Hickman and Essigian heard the pitch and decided against it. If Goode bites that’s great, but I’m guessing he has some other nice options.

Agree 100%. It’s still a sentiment I see fans express though. Sparks last year was probably in the minority and even he transferred back out once he got a taste of irregular mins off the bench.

I think a lot of people expected the money to solve the min issue. Or in other words, people thought we could pay starters/borderline starters enough to come off the bench and rotation guys to sit the bench in case we needed them situationally.

I think you mean high-ceiling. We can—and did—manage blowout losses to Purdue and UConn by ourselves, thank you very much! All kidding aside I’m for bringing him in for the reasons usps stated.

That cuts both ways. If we falter in the regular season but make a run to the E8 with favorable matchups we'd have to conclude the season did not meet expectations, correct?

Woody Post-Offense Motto! Math? We don't need no stinking math!

Uh... they all have shot 3s at a higher clip than the guys you think will come in and suddenly start shooting 3s. That doesn't even include guys like Kopp and Ware. Your argument is literally we can't have those guys shooting more 3s because they shoot them at a higher percentage than the guys coming in who will shoot more 3s. Lol... Somehow, you've actually deciphered the Mike Woodsons offense. Having stared into Woodsonpost offense and having it stare back, I can conclusively say....Fire Mike Woodson!

TJD shot 58% from 2. Reneau shot 59% from 2 last year. Both seasons we shot about 15 3’s a game, nearly last in the NCAA. So I guess your conclusion is that as long as Reneau shoots 58+% again from 2, we can count on shooting about 15 3’s per game as a team?

Kopp and Galloway shot north of 40% that season. Why not get them more 3’s that year? That’s even more efficient than TJD shooting two’s. One might argue the combo together might get a tan into that vaunted top 15 offense. Yet, we were nearly last in the country in 3s attempted despite being one of the best 3P shooting teams.

If it weren’t for the players always screwing up and not shooting enough, or shooting too much, or not making shots, Mike Woodson would never lose a game! Players can be pesky like that.