str8baller

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.

I didn’t think much of him as a coach, but he can recruit like crazy. If anything he showed how high a ceiling a place like UT has. If Beard can coach and recruit 75% as good as Barnes, they’ll challenge KU for the conference almost every year.

Absolutely. Bo did the same for Gard, who isn’t nearly the same coach but has been a nice recruiting success. Eddie Sutton did it for Sean Sutton. Lots of guys do it if they can. Credit to ol’ Roy for not doing it to UNC.

Guthridge was a failure of hire that Smith forced. Smith left him a LOADED roster which he took to the final 4. They got worse every year and he made the FF as an 8 seed when freshman Forte got hot. Then guys started rumbling about going to the pros (or football in peppers case) and they realized his recruiting was just not there and he decided to retire (or was forced to). When everyone bolted the next year Doherty was left with nothing. Guthridge is the poster boy for hall of fame coach forcing his hand picked assistant into the job. He just retired before his failure completely sunk the program.

Nobody is a sure thing. But he seems like a good coach. He gets his players to play hard tho. We’ll see if he has any trouble when he has a roster full of 5-stars who want to spend a year before they go to the nba.

I agree with this mostly. IU is a sleeping giant that has been mismanaged horribly. We easily have the upside of Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and maybe to a smaller degree UNC if you take away coaches. I actually think UCLA is the biggest sleeping giant of them all. They have nice tradition, are in a city all the best players in the world want to live, and have a nice natural talent base. They’ve been pretty mismanaged too, but have found success with 2nd tier coaches like Howland and Harrick. So are we UCLA? Not exactly. But we are one good coach away from being a top 5 program again. I view Sampson as a second tier type coach and fully believe he would’ve had us there if he wasn’t such an idiot.

They’re great. Tough to instill that in one year or even two. Those guys move, cut and pass in a way that has to be continually cultivated. Normally freshman can’t integrate like Suggs has. He’s damn smart and skilled for a freshman. But yea... it’d be awesome if IU could get some semblance of that going.

It’s on TJD too. He’ll have to be able to improve over the summer to be able to play a little stretch 4. I’d be surprised if Woody isn’t selling him on that fact (eg. 25 min a game as the big, 10min a game to showcase his stetch 4 skills). Also, TJD’s not a center at the next level defensively and it’s taxing to have him guard other team’s 5 all game. UCLA, OSU, UM, Gonzaga, etc...all had bigs who caused smaller team’s problems because the other team was trying to play small with 6’8” guys at C defensively. Have to have that lineup in your back pocket. If not Brunk then a transfer.

If Brunk is healthy it gives us the opportunity to have maybe 10-15 min of then on the floor together with TJD at the 4.

For those that don’t know, Thibodeau is really well thought of in the nba as an Xs and Os coach, especially defensively.

Larry Brown’s turned around more teams than IU has failed coaches. I don’t know what he does at 80 freaking years old to help, but hot damn is the guy a basketball lifer. I kind of respect him trying to get back to the court one last time.

Just an assumption, but if Mattas back is still that bad a bunch of on court stuff and recruiting traveling is probably the thing he’s trying to avoid.

I don’t think you understood “the take,” or else you wouldn’t have felt compelled to interject such a misguided Davis defense. Davis took over a program and roster built by Knight, had some immediate success for which he gets credit, and then drove the program off the ledge when he was fully responsible for everything. Same with the chap who followed Dean Smith. Thus the parallel drawn. This was all in the context of the discussion of great programs not being immune from bad hires.

With a loaded roster left by his buddy Dean. (I mean...Davis took Knights players to a FF.) Then what? He never recruited and bolted on the job leaving nothing for Doherty. Who ironically recruited the national championship team for ol’ Roy. Those were still two bad hires that nobody else would’ve made. To unc’s credit they corrected them quickly... unlike IU.

And they had the other old fart before Doherty who tanked the program. Unc begged roy to come home and were lucky they had a tier 1 coach in their ranks. Ucla hired Alford who is an iu guy but wouldn’t make many top 10 lists. And lavin. UK has had a few stinkers even though pitino and now cal were big boy hires. But cal came with baggage and Pitino was a young guy walking into a dead program. Duke has had the same guy for 40+ years. Really, Kansas is the one that seems to nail it every time. We should hire ADs that are KU alums, i guess.

Just know that if you were excited about Archie and Crean then your instincts aren’t all that great. So there’s no need to trust them now that they’ve got you down. As a wise man once said, if it’s inevitable lay back and enjoy it.

And dean smith was a phog allen guy. Coaching trees are fun

Yep. Not a fan. Good luck to Mr Oats but if it were my money, I wouldn’t have paid ten mil to chase a guy like that either. Not saying he’s not a good coach. Just a preference. Woodys issue won’t be xs and os but getting the strategy across to 19yr olds.

Having watched the great Nate oats now a couple times, he basically spreads them out and has his guys go one on one like every other coach. I find it hard to believe Woody is going to be at some big Xs and Os disadvantage in today’s college game.

Aren’t you the one that wanted Becky Hammon? Lol...

I’m not a Carmelo guy but like you said he won a college title. He was team USA leading scorer. Basically he succeeded with god coaching and was just a stats guy with not so good. He had his most team success with the Knicks under Woodson. Also the kids love Me7o.

That’s where I’m at. Stevens was the grand slam. A healthy matta at hc was the home run. Everything else carries significant risk. I’d rather go unconventional and look for upside. There’s plenty here. Could fail miserably, but what the hay... that’s SOP for IU basketball for two decades anyways.

I struggle to see how anybody could look at the resumes of Kieth Smart and Mike Woodson and come to the conclusion that they would rather have Smart. Iworry about the translation from pros to college for the NBA guys, but Woodson’s reputation as one of the more respected assistants in the league isn’t in question.