JF87

To be fair to Carlyle and the other players, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to Woodson's substitutions. We have 8 players averaging over 19 minutes a game. No one is averaging 30 minutes per game. Woodson needs to figure out his 5 players that mesh the best and give them the bulk of the minutes. Rice and Ballo should be playing at least 32 minutes per game. We need to develop chemistry amongst a core group. Trying to get 8 players significant minutes does not help with chemistry.

I'm afraid we missed on Dusty. The window of opportunity was there, but Woodson wasn't ready to give up the perks of being the IU basketball coach.

We're going to win by single digits and Woodson will think that he did his job. Unfortunately, winning this game by a small margin will not help us build an NCAA resume.

IU 86 Winthrop 68

Well, it was a W.

Bardo said our defense has been better in the second half. Has it or is Chatanooga just missing good looks?

And I will never understand Woodson's substitution plan.

I feel like we are in control of this game, but the scoreboard says that Chatanooga is a run away from making this scary.

The shot of the crowd is sad. So many empty seats. Mackey always has a huge crowd regardless of the opponent.

His brain certainly understands the offensive side of basketball. :)

This game has been much closer so far that I anticipated. But to be fair, I did not realize that Chatanooga was better than Minnesota.

We keep chucking up bad shots and we'll have plenty of opportunities to get rebounds.

I like the look. Although, at first I was trying to figure out who the new player was.

Rebounding may save us this game.

What is this thing defense that you speak of?

I want to be up by 30 at one point in this game. That should mean that we are playing well in most parts of the game. I'd like to see better shot selection. Too many of our three pointers against Nebraska seemed rushed. I'd also like to see Woodson actually bench someone for poor play and not just foul trouble.

IU 83 Chat 66

Has Woodson been fired yet? I know, it's too soon in the season. There's a lot of games left and with our talent there's always a chance we could turn it around. The sad thing is I'm becoming apathetic about IU basketball. I used to adjust my schedule around IU basketball games. Not anymore. I'll watch the games, but it's no longer a passion. The fact that I can see that we underperformed with our rosters during Woodson's tenure, but those in charge can't is disheartening. Woodson and our resources have been able to bring in really good talent during his time at IU. Unfortunately, Woodson has done very little with it. I really like our current roster individually. Rice, Galloway, Reneau, Mgbako, Ballo, Goode, Carlyle, Tucker and Leal are a solid group of nine. However, as a team they are like puzzle pieces that don't fit together. I have zero faith that Woodson will figure it out and maximize our talent. I need a coaching change to reignite my passion for IU basketball.

My fear is that just making the NCAA Tournament is good enough for Woodson to keep his job. I can see the argument being made that we went so long without making the Tournament that Woodson should be rewarded for making the Tournament 3 out of 4 years. The problem with this argument is that Woodson inherited a solid roster, has open free agency, and huge NIL dollars. So, his situation and results don't compare to Miller and Crean. I can't think of a coach that has done so little with the collection of 4- and 5-star talent we've recruited.

I forgot about that. Not everyone qualifies for the Big Ten Tournament. I suppose Woodson will consider squeaking into the BTT as him "doing his job".

We had 9 guys play and 8 of them looking to score. Play your 5 best defensive players and cut the rotation down to 7 players. Build the team's identity around defense first. Right now, I have no idea what our identity is. It seems we just play up tempo and jack up shots.

Substitutions and playing time distribution remains a concern in my mind. Some of the guys just weren't effective tonight. Sit their @$$ and play someone else.

Well, it's official. Nebraska is a basketball school and IU is a football school.

This has been an entertaining game. No way Armond Hill slept through this one.