TOM CREAN FIRED

[KingPG21 6,555]

I completely agree. I love the way the team is playing but our coach's history shows that you have to wait and see after the regular season is over before you can say things like this. I hope he proves me wrong but I'm not buying it until I see us play like this against the top of our conference.

Yeah this. I love that we've blown out O$U, and Illinoy. But again, lets see what we do against teams that don't suck, and more importantly in the tourney before we make proclamations about what he is doing. 

[seanmm1971 1,437]

I'm not saying we're world beaters yet,but I don't think we'd lose to Wake or UNLV the way we're playing now. And at least some of that credit goes to TC. Time will tell if we've really improved enough.

[KingPG21 6,555]

execution and adjustments are on point. Feels different. Since I've watched (ND game) he's won my approval for another year. Half way through conference, no let downs while other perennial B1G schools have had let downs excluding Iowa. We'll get ours, FAITH

Who cares what other programs are doing. We aren't Purdue, or Michigan State, or Maryland. If you guys actually think that highly of our program you shouldn't be using the argument, "See we aren't shitting the bed like these other programs, Crean deserves even more time!"

 

Defensively they're playing better. Offensively there hasn't been a single adjustment to what we've ever seen with Crean. Every year since 2011-2012 we have games where they look like world beaters offensively like this year with Ohio State and Illinois. And then we have games were a bunch of guys just stand around and watch one guy dribble the air out of the ball a lot, like most of that Minnesota game, Rutgers was a lot of the same. The same thing we see with Bryant, not being able to get him the ball consistently game to game, or even within game, we saw with Zeller and we saw with Vonleh. You're giving him some weird credit for making a nonexistent change to literally anything they are doing offensively. 

[mdn82 25,467]

Who cares what other programs are doing. We aren't Purdue, or Michigan State, or Maryland. If you guys actually think that highly of our program you shouldn't be using the argument, "See we aren't shitting the bed like these other programs, Crean deserves even more time!"

 

Defensively they're playing better. Offensively there hasn't been a single adjustment to what we've ever seen with Crean. Every year since 2011-2012 we have games where they look like world beaters offensively like this year with Ohio State and Illinois. And then we have games were a bunch of guys just stand around and watch one guy dribble the air out of the ball a lot, like most of that Minnesota game, Rutgers was a lot of the same. The same thing we see with Bryant, not being able to get him the ball consistently game to game, or even within game, we saw with Zeller and we saw with Vonleh. You're giving him some weird credit for making a nonexistent change to literally anything they are doing offensively. 

I would actually disagree with the bolded.  I am not a fan of the offense at times, but during this winning streak we have went inside far more.  Letting TB or Max make decisions instead of guards dribbling, its guards cutting.  Beyond that, like last night we had people running the baseline against the zone.  Crean has never done that.  He has never tried working behind the zone.  IMO, he is putting wrinkles in his offense to fit the players we have.  The more he gets Troy into the lane without having him dribble the better.  The more he gets the ball on the block for TB (which he rarely did for Zeller), the better.  That opens our shooters. 

[8bucks 6,208]

If you are making a "keep him" decision based on midseason results then you may never be ready to make a change.

TCs teams down the stretch fade. It is a fact I have looked back and he has had two teams in his career perform better (win %) down the stretch. DWade and VO.

I am open to keeping him IF:
1) we overachieve in the BT, BTT and the NCAA.
2) this is not the peak year. We lose a lot of seniors and possibly TW. The last few years we have lost underclass men (non NBA) kids too. Next year has to appear very likely to build upon our overachieving year.

In a single year snapshot that is an unfair burden but since we have a lot of TC history to look at it is fair.

[mdn82 25,467]

If you are making a "keep him" decision based on midseason results then you may never be ready to make a change.

TCs teams down the stretch fade. It is a fact I have looked back and he has had two teams in his career perform better (win %) down the stretch. DWade and VO.

I am open to keeping him IF:
1) we overachieve in the BT, BTT and the NCAA.
2) this is not the peak year. We lose a lot of seniors and possibly TW. The last few years we have lost underclass men (non NBA) kids too. Next year has to appear very likely to build upon our overachieving year.

In a single year snapshot that is an unfair burden but since we have a lot of TC history to look at it is fair.

This is what I want to see a change in.

[JSHoosier 19,671]

Like what's happening now because we beat some bottom feeders?

Seems to happen every year, people getting excited over how we look against bad teams.

[mdn82 25,467]

I should add I don't need him to overachieve. That means expectations are low. I want him to put us in a position to make noise in the tournament. So far he is off to a good start. Let's see if it keeps up.

[Trish 11,426]

If you are making a "keep him" decision based on midseason results then you may never be ready to make a change.

TCs teams down the stretch fade. It is a fact I have looked back and he has had two teams in his career perform better (win %) down the stretch. DWade and VO.

I am open to keeping him IF:
1) we overachieve in the BT, BTT and the NCAA.
2) this is not the peak year. We lose a lot of seniors and possibly TW. The last few years we have lost underclass men (non NBA) kids too. Next year has to appear very likely to build upon our overachieving year.

In a single year snapshot that is an unfair burden but since we have a lot of TC history to look at it is fair.

I agree with this. I don't remember what my preseason thoughts were of this team. Probably the dance of course, but I'll be impressed if we can make it to the final 8. We have all the tools to make it deep, it just comes down to performing the way we are suppose to perform.

I know some fans are saying we look like a final four team right now, ehhhh. Let's play some actual big ten teams first.

Late Feb Early March is a crucial portion of the season that will tell us who we really are.

[mdn82 25,467]

Seems to happen every year, people getting excited over how we look against bad teams.

The teams we have played are not bad outside of Rutgers. Morehead St is bad. We are just beating teams we should. That's all I can ask.

[8bucks 6,208]

I should add I don't need him to overachieve. That means expectations are low. I want him to put us in a position to make noise in the tournament. So far he is off to a good start. Let's see if it keeps up.

I am fine with that too. Make noise is subjective and labels are not always reflective of potential.

This team has talent and beginning of the year it was fair to assume an overachieving year meant elite 8 or better. I see no reason to change that unless we enter the NCAAs a top 8 seed overall. Then we have to exceed that.

[mdn82 25,467]

I am fine with that too. Make noise is subjective and labels are not always reflective of potential.

This team has talent and beginning of the year it was fair to assume an overachieving year meant elite 8 or better. I see no reason to change that unless we enter the NCAAs a top 8 seed overall. Then we have to exceed that.

I can agree with that.

[hoosierpap 14,300]

I am fine with that too. Make noise is subjective and labels are not always reflective of potential.

This team has talent and beginning of the year it was fair to assume an overachieving year meant elite 8 or better. I see no reason to change that unless we enter the NCAAs a top 8 seed overall. Then we have to exceed that.

Losing JBJ for the season would not have adjusted your expectations had it happened right before the season?

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Losing JBJ for the season would not have adjusted your expectations had it happened right before the season?

Absolutely, it would have.

[Walking Boot of Doom 18,170]

Playing much better of late, but it's a fair point to say Indiana has not seen a good team in quite a while; and we keep getting lucky seeing teams with injury problems or teams that are completely disjointed.  Minnesota is bad, and they played us close.  Illinois is up and down, had injury and foul problems; and we just blitzed them.  Ohio State had everything go wrong....etc

I get your point and agree, we've hardly played any truly solid teams. But those same teams have also shown that they have the ability to beat the best/better teams in the country. OSU over UK, Wisconsin over MSU, and U of I over Purdue. Better teams than us haven't gotten it done against the same teams we rolled. Not implying any kind of transitive relationship, just pointing out that very few other teams in the country are taking care of business against the same talent.

 

My only opinion is that this team and Coach are performing near the best we could have hoped for at the moment, and they have the schedule to turn these performances into a habit before we get to a real challenge. Hopefully, these habits are fully formed by then.

[Josh 12,402]

Seems to happen every year, people getting excited over how we look against bad teams.

Actually it seems to me that every year we lose games to bad teams. This year we haven't yet so...progress?

[ziggyiu 543]

IU hasn't beaten any really good teams either, though. The team looks better, but it's difficult to learn how much better until the competition gets better.

[Brass Cannon 24,082]

Ohio state isn't really good but they are solid.

[8bucks 6,208]

Losing JBJ for the season would not have adjusted your expectations had it happened right before the season?

Fair point but after watching him play this year his offense is something I think we can replace to some extent. He was most lethal as a shooter and we have others who can pick up that slack. Not a complete replacement for sure and I will admit our PPG may drop without him. TC talked about how he makes teams spread out the D to account for him. NZ, RoJo and Colin have to fill that void. Some games they have others they have not. Fortunately we have depth at that position.

Defensively though playing him and NZ together was impossible. I think we gain some there.

Had JBj been a big I think his loss would have been bigger.

A team that plays good to great D will allow you to win games when the shooting goes south. We have seen that recently.

[Walking Boot of Doom 18,170]

Had JBj been a big I think his loss would have been bigger.
 

Disagree. We have more depth in the post than at guard this year, given the performances of Beifeldt, OG, and Morgan.