AH1971

If they prove to be any good we’ll have quite the offense.

Give me inside-out with competent guards all day long. Another poster who doesn’t understand what inside-out means. But that’s ok, I’ve come to expect it from a select few.

Just can’t imagine a world where an IU fan thinks turning down a 1st team PG from a P5 conference is the right move. It blows my mind actually.

Fair. But with that being said I’m really looking forward to a back court of Rice and Carlyle on the expectation that they grow. Most dynamic back court duo of Woodson’s tenure. One thing for sure, we’ll know after this year if it’s Woodson system or lack of personnel.

Not calling you out specifically, but it seems like the consensus of people who want Conwell to be the top priority, are the same people yelling “Rice can’t shoot”.Conwell had a dreadful freshman season (in a lower conference) over either Rice or Carlyle to the point it’s not even a comparison. Conwell made a major freshman to sophomore jump which is typically a natural progression in this sport. Just find it ironic that the people dead set on Conwell dismiss the idea that Carlyle and Rice can’t or won’t improve their 3 point shooting. That’s literally why we’re even talking about Conwell right now; improvement.

Misery loves company.

The proverbial freshman wall. Have zero concerns with Rice being able to shoot from the perimeter going forward. If teams want to play off him like they did Cupps and Galloway all last year, more power to them.

Check Mgbako’s conference stats.

28 games shooting 35% is a larger sample size than a 7 game 0-22 shooting slump. Cherry picking….lol

Leal/Cupps/Galloway/Johnson combined made 60 3 pointers last year. Will wager $100 to the charity of your choice that Rice hits at least 50. Rice scored more points than Galloway and Cupps combined last year playing in an offense that ranked 322nd in tempo. Galloway and Cupps started 75% of our conference games. Carlyle + Rice gives us two guards who can SCORE which is the name of the game from all three levels of the court. You in?

My apologies this was meant to be in response to @Adillac

On extremely low volume, with their feet set, and nobody guarding them. The two combined made 23 in over 1,000 minutes on the court. Looking at raw percentages is DUMB.

Mental gymnastics are exhausting

We’ve had two mainstays in the backcourt for the majority of those 3 years. Galloway and Johnson aren’t volume 3 point shooters because they aren’t 3 point shooters to begin with. Rice and Carlyle both attempted four 3pt/game as first year players, Galloway and XJ never attempted more than 3 in any of the years they played here. This isn’t hard. Woodson has shown he plays to his personnel. He bet on Xavier Johnson and got burnt. He’s going all in on young, dynamic guards who can not only create for themselves but for others. I’m willing to see that that through. It’s fine if you don’t want too, but that’s your prerogative however.

Crazy to think that just over 12 hours ago I was called a troll in the other thread for suggesting that having a more dynamic backcourt could lead to a more dynamic offense. What a time to be alive.

If outside shooting is still de-emphasized after landing guys like Rice and Carlyle and then potentially someone like Hickman, most people will get their wish and Woodson will be gone after the year. When guys like Leal, Cupps, and Galloway commandeer you’re backcourt for a majority of minutes, I know shooting 23-25 3P wouldn’t be my game plan.

Any good offense starts and stops with quality guard play regardless of the system, the style, or the pace in which you play. Bottom line. You have to have guys who can make shots. Hate to rag on some of the guys but our guards just flat sucked last year. And that burden falls on Woodson and it’s something he appears to be addressing this offseason. But this call for doom and gloom next year because of the “system” or the “style” or because “two bigs” irrespective of what happens in the portal is just lazy analysis.

Argumentative? It’s a message board, lighten up. I just acknowledged that lack of guard play last year was the reason for our offensive demise. And it had nothing to do with “playing through the post” or “playing 2 traditional bigs” but everything to do with poor guard/wing play. We weren’t a bad perimeter team because we “played through the post”, we were a bad perimeter team because we had guards who couldn’t shoot or create their own shot. Purdue played heavy minutes with two traditional bigs this past season as did Arizona two years ago with Tubelis and Ballo and yet both teams still yielded top 5 KenPom offenses.

I can’t physically pinpoint an exact percentage but they ran several sets a game where the ball would go into Clingan in the post and they’d run very sophisticated off-ball action to either free up a shooter or have a free lane cutter to the basket.

Exactly and why it’s hilarious watching all these people lose their collective minds about Ballo potentially coming. They’ve literally never watched him play. He’s not a guy who camps on the block and fed entry every trip down. He’s very good at lob PnR and being the bottom on high/low action. But understandably, there’s a quota several posters need to hit.

We’re about to find out aren’t we?

Again, from Freshman. Carlyle’s volume and efficiency numbers were identical to that of Fletcher Loyer his freshman season. Rice shot ~35% for nearly 80% of the season before he ended in a terrible slump. Unless you think freshman are capped after their first season, I’m not sure what else to tell you. I’d suggest you watch film on either instead of looking at box scores.

Clingan was the highest usage player on the team this last season as was Sonogo the year prior. And your comment is exactly what I’m talking about, passing it into the post and waiting for your 5 to shoot isn’t what playing through the post means.

You act as if playing through the post is some archaic system. News flash, there are literally dozens among dozens of teams “who play through the post” that still emphasize shooting from the perimeter, namely the two teams who played for the national title game Monday night. Also that Arizona team with Tubelis and Ballo included. “Playing through the post” does not literally mean ball goes in and doesn’t come out, no matter how much you want to think it does. I’m not sure what you saw out of our back court this last season that would make you think taking MORE perimeter shots would have lead to a better outcome? The personnel simply did not exist with that fault laying at the feet of Woodson. The new wave of guards the staff are coveting are of a completely different dynamic. Three level scorers of who can not only create for themselves but for others. I would expect the volume of perimeter shots to increase exponentially next year if we land our priority targets.

I watched him play against Duquesne and legitimately thought he was the worst basketball player that I had ever seen.