str8baller

Really? That’s been the worst part for me…lol. Defense is in an absolute free-fall and just looks incoherent at times. Defensive PPP has just been absurd in some of the games down the stretch. Trouble with presses. Late game collapses. Inconsistent effort. Swapping out two starters throughout out the season shows a willingness to adapt, at least, but you have to wonder what was going on to get to that point—especially Bailey over Alexis. I have no doubt Carr can get the roster straightened out and with IU’s resources they can get to the tourney. I mean every coach we’ve had could do that when the roster fell right for them including Davis, Archie and Woody. You kind of have to wonder where we go from there. I certainly like some things—sound defensive philosophy (even if execution has been crap), good set plays and oob Xs and Os. But overall, at our lowest he’s looked as lost as Archie and Woody. For my own personal happiness, I’m joining you in the optimist club. Everyone gets a second chance and next year will be huge. So we’ll bank on Devries positive attributes really flourishing once the other duties like roster construction are taken over by Carr. I’m ignoring the little part of my brain that says we’ve basically done this dance with every other bad coach we’ve had where we say “if only he were good at [insert important skill that almost all great coaches have] he could be successful here.” Maybe it’ll be true this time. Step 0 - slip into tourney this year Step 1 - Carr builds bullet-proof tourney roster Step 2 - Devries stewards them well next year Step 3 - ??? Step 4 - Banner #6 (A plan so simple a caveman could do it!)

I’d prefer we go back to 64. 32 is probably more than enough but the symmetry of 64 is cool.

I’m going to keep reminding people then that we're a program that spends top 10-15 level resources and we’re in an era where resources matter more than history. Byington is going to finish top half in the SEC and so is Odom in the admittedly weaker ACC. Devries just did a poor job this year. It’s ok to admit it. If he lands one of the best portal guards of all-time and two pro-level bigs this offseason, maybe he’ll turn into Todd Golden.

I would hope so. I don’t use the WAB metric for anything so I don’t know it very well. But from my brief look at it a win over Purdue would be like 3x as valuable as a win over UCLA. With other teams also getting a chance to add good wins, I’d rather take the metric bump of beating Purdue than any perceived advantage of playing UCLA, of which I’m not sure there are any. NW should be an easy game. Purdue is the most valuable/easiest team on that seed line we could’ve drawn (and if we get UCLA we have already beat them), and then Nebraska as the 2 seed. Nebraska is literally the only team out of the top 4 we could possibly beat. I honestly don’t think things could’ve lined up any better for us.

Purdue has been terrible lately. And I’m not sure we match up any better with UCLA. So potentially Purdue is the easier game with the added benefit of their metrics being much better. I think that would seal a tourney bid for us.

IU 72 NW 68

When you don’t care about basketball.

I think we literally got the easiest and best draw we could’ve asked for if we’re trying to win a few for the tourney.

Spend 750-1mil on a frosh recruit who can’t reliably contribute in year one and you’ve just recreated Reed Bailey

Michigan game has been really good.

It’s not. There aren’t even league officials. The B1G hasn’t done well in the tourney because there haven’t been any elite coaches in 20+ years. Izzo is the closest thing, he always does well in March, but historically he can’t compete with the recruiting of UK, KU, Duke, and UNC. Beilien and Bo made Final games when they recruited well. Knight had no problems in March and built a team Davis could take deep in March. Self even built a team good enough for Bruce Webber to take to the Final Four. Even Purdue made a title game where…they were beat by a team with more talent. The B1G has a coaching problem. IU’s one of the main culprits. Although maybe that’s changing with May at UM. The ref thing is just fan cope.

meant 2 wins and a loss. We’re not beating the 2 seed unless maybe it is Nebraska

According to WABwatch.com (legit?) we’re 46, so one spot worse than the theoretical bubble. We are 41 on Kenpom, right behind Shertz’s 40th ranked St Louis squad. Torvik who has irrationally loved all season us has us at 29th. If we make a little 3 game run in the BTT and make the play-in game, we are squarely in the Mike Woodson zone.

They had no shot to win against the top team’s at home either. It was better to have them on the road, even if statistically it made your schedule harder. Having Illinois and Michigan only once on the road is a nice break. Playing MSU twice stunk but it happens. Otoh we got Minny twice, NW, PU, Nebraska and Iowa at home and only managed to go 1-3 versus that latter group. At home. Either way, the roster has little to do with coming out and laying an egg in a deciding game at the end of the year. OSU might’ve had better athletes but they also have a poor coach. They’re similar to IU—or were going into that game—in almost every metric. Honestly, I barely watched after the first ten minutes. we had plans and I don’t care that much to make time to watch these guys. So if some of you that watched closer than me want to claim we did a really good job and the score doesn’t reflect our effort and preparation, then so be it. The first ten minutes looked like more of the same to me though.

They were some good coaching away from being at the bare minimum of standards. With a few breaks next year I think we can all agree we’ll be a consensus #1 team and Final Four favorite.

He was so surprised he finished second in conference, won the btt, and made the sweet sixteen.

Me too brotha’. I’m hoping that devries is an xs and os autist. With the addition of carr and maybe a motivational speaker in 27 we’ll get there

Works for me. I’m all in. At 50 yrs old you’re just a babe in the woods. IU is a great place for personal growth

Encouraging how?

Just a reminder: Woody won this exact game last year.

This is Enrights calling card. Be a pest. Draw a charge. Step on his foot. Whatever

Hurley has a Knight-esque incident coming and maybe fall from grace. Oddly enough his teams might be some of the smartest I have seen since Knight. (Very) Mad genius archtype I guess. Anyways…that should cement Marquettes status as a Q2 win for us.

I’d bet against it for a couple reasons. 1) our alumni is way more fractured. Even if Knight were alive, it’s not like he’d be calling Dusty saying “ hey you were always my favorite manager, we need you to come home and fix this” like Dean did. 2) Roy was really kind of getting to the point of “can’t win the big one” with Kansas. They would’ve never got rid of him, but the narrative was out there. He went to 4 final fours, bunch of 1 or 2 seeds, and a bunch of teams that ranked number 1 during the season. So I guess we need to root for Dusty to go to a bunch of FF’s but never win one, and in about 15 years we make our move!

A common refrain from coaches is that they feel in previous roster builds, money has been spread around too widely. They’d prefer, starting this year, to spend big on two to three top-tier players and fill in around them with cheaper role players with more defined roles. In NBA terms, those are your max contracts, a few middle-market players and then a bench filled out with minimum contracts. That’s something I pointed out last spring. I’m not sure why it’s taking college guys so long to catch on. All you had to do was look at other pro leagues. I suspect this is something a guy like Carr will have a good handle on.

lol…I don’t even remember the exact line…might’ve been something else. Either way I think the programs that give the guys a little direction will separate themselves from the ones just splashing cash.