2017-18 Season Expectations

[VO5]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

 

That won't prevent him from starting if he's good enough. 

• DeRon
• Juwan
• Josh
• RoJo
• CuJo

Is far and away our most likely starting lineup, with Collin also playing starter level minutes.

 

Cujo over Green? Interesting. I've thought for a while that Cujo would be our most likely transfer candidate.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 minutes ago, VO5 said:

Cujo over Green? Interesting. I've thought for a while that Cujo would be our most likely transfer candidate.

News over the summer has been that Cujo looks much improved. We will find out in game action soon enough though.

[Brass Cannon]

Cujo has all the tools to be a star we saw that against Kansas but kid needed a coach to help him do the little things that you have to do in order to be successful. 

Now I am still skeptical but very much hope reports are true. If they are we should have a very solid rotation. 

[goonaha]

Worth keeping in mind that CuJo spent the whole summer here. Green did not.

[VO5]

2 minutes ago, goonaha said:

Worth keeping in mind that CuJo spent the whole summer here. Green did not.

I also think Cujo needed to work on much more. Ball handling, strength, driving ability and defense were all average to below average last year.

[Yogi's Picnic Basket]

Cujo over Green? Interesting. I've thought for a while that Cujo would be our most likely transfer candidate.

Yes and I have good intel that besides maybe Davis, CuJo has been the most improved player on the team. Juwan has also gotten some rave reviews. CuJo will not be transferring though. Unless something drastic happens this year. Green has been one kid I haven't heard much about. The season couldn't come soon enough ugh.

Also I believe he could start as well just think Hartman will be in there at first. I could see CuJo sliding in after 5-10 games though. If he does start that means he has REALLY improved so I would be happy with that.

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[VeevlandBrowns]

The Hoosiers are my #10 team. Last year offensively - 4th in the conference. 108.1 offensive rating. Defensively, not quite so hot, 111.2 points per 100 possessions, 12th in the Big Ten. Rebounding went much of the same way. 2nd in offensive rebounding, 9th in defensive rebounding.

They’re in a similar position to Illinois in some ways. I have them ahead of Illinois because I like their interior better. I think they’re a bit more balanced. I think they have the same problems a year ago, which starts at the point. They were 4th in adjusted offense, which is low compared to what it would have been with even competent point guard play. Josh Newkirk is back who shot better than I thought he would but he just isn’t a guy you feel great about running your offense. They also have Devonte Green, who is Danny Green of the Spurs younger brother. I’m not convinced he’s the answer at point guard. Robert Johnson’s return was big. Johnson is the kind of guy I think Miller can reach and who can play the two way game he is likely to want to emphasize.

I think the problems are the same. It’s almost a blessing that somebody like James Blackmon and even Thomas Bryant too for that matter opted not to come back. That might sound strange because you can look at what they did offensively, and say boy that’s a lot to replace, and it’s true. If I’m Archie Miller, I know that no matter what happens, I don’t have a Final Four team. So I want to get started in getting my program installed. We know from watching him at Dayton that defense is going to be part of that equation. He is not going to want to play defense the way Tom Crean’s teams did. There’s no way. I think with guys like Blackmon and Bryant, it would have been harder to establish the culture that he wants to put in place if you’ve got guys like that around. They are almost better off in my mind with more of a clean slate. You move out guys that would have been dominant presences on this team who aren’t going to necessarily buy into the way you want to play and you start over. He’s not starting from scratch. It wasn’t a scorched earth deal. That’s what I mean a guy like Robert Johnson I think fits what Archie Miller wants to do going forward a little better than James Blackmon.

I think point guard is going to be an issue. I think interior depth could be an issue, although I like their young guys Davis and I guess he’s a junior now, Juwan Morgan. I think Morgan is pretty good and De’Ron Davis could be an all-conference player at some point. I really liked him at times for Indiana. At times I thought he was better than Bryant. He was certainly more willing to do what a post typically does. There’s enough here where Indiana is going to take some people out on given nights. They’re not devoid of talent. This is what I was alluding to when I talked about the league being deeper. When you’re talking about Illinois as an 11th place team, and Indiana as a 10th place team, or even Ohio State as a 12th place team, all of those teams have individual players who can get it done. They’re not devoid of talent completely. It’s just they don’t have as much or pieces fitting together as well as some other teams. I think Archie Miller is going to find out pretty quickly that the level of expectation at Indiana is high. He probably gets this year as a mulligan and after that, ha, you better be making the tournament. But I think he has a reasonable chance at success and we’re going to see an Indiana team that plays differently than we have become accustomed to for the last decade. I think there’s going to be more of an emphasis on defense. There has to be. His Dayton teams were generally pretty tough. They played that way with a bit of an edge. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of that. And maybe a little less reliance on three point shooting and high octane offense to go along with that.

Edited August 25, 2017 by VeevlandBrowns

[JHoosier914]

I unfortunately see us barely reaching 20 wins this season and missing NCAA tournament.


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[ALASKA HOOSIER]

22 wins!

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[Yogi'sBicep]

Feeling really good about Justin Smith.

[bleedhoosier]

I personally "enjoyed" the hell out of Creans first 2 seasons. Just being able to sit back and watch player development rather than getting irate about every play that goes wrong like I was doing the last 2 or 3 seasons with Crean as it appeared the program was sliding backwards again. I have basically zero expectations other than to watch Archie put this system in place and get Indiana and surrounding state kids excited about IU bball again. That's all I want really, js to feel hopeful again. It's not a failure of a season if we just miss the tourney. Now, we certainly have the players to do so but I'm not calling the season a failure if we miss.

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[Bailey7878]

I personally "enjoyed" the hell out of Creans first 2 seasons. Just being able to sit back and watch player development rather than getting irate about every play that goes wrong like I was doing the last 2 or 3 seasons with Crean as it appeared the program was sliding backwards again. I have basically zero expectations other than to watch Archie put this system in place and get Indiana and surrounding state kids excited about IU bball again. That's all I want really, js to feel hopeful again. It's not a failure of a season if we just miss the tourney. Now, we certainly have the players to do so but I'm not calling the season a failure if we miss.

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I did not enjoy them but call me crazy. It was not fun watching INDIANA get destroyed and go like 1-17 in the big ten. It was what it was but fun it was not.

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[Bailey7878]

I personally "enjoyed" the hell out of Creans first 2 seasons. Just being able to sit back and watch player development rather than getting irate about every play that goes wrong like I was doing the last 2 or 3 seasons with Crean as it appeared the program was sliding backwards again. I have basically zero expectations other than to watch Archie put this system in place and get Indiana and surrounding state kids excited about IU bball again. That's all I want really, js to feel hopeful again. It's not a failure of a season if we just miss the tourney. Now, we certainly have the players to do so but I'm not calling the season a failure if we miss.

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I also have more than zero expectations as this is not a rebuild and we will have four or five seniors. I expect like a 21-10 record and an ncaa berth. That's not unrealistic imo.

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[Hoosier DaDa]

I personally "enjoyed" the hell out of Creans first 2 seasons. Just being able to sit back and watch player development rather than getting irate about every play that goes wrong like I was doing the last 2 or 3 seasons with Crean as it appeared the program was sliding backwards again. I have basically zero expectations other than to watch Archie put this system in place and get Indiana and surrounding state kids excited about IU bball again. That's all I want really, js to feel hopeful again. It's not a failure of a season if we just miss the tourney. Now, we certainly have the players to do so but I'm not calling the season a failure if we miss.

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I think we should make March Madness. If we don't I will be disappointed, but will be still faithful in Archie.


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[Hardwood83]

13 hours ago, Bailey7878 said:

I also have more than zero expectations as this is not a rebuild and we will have four or five seniors. I expect like a 21-10 record and an ncaa berth. That's not unrealistic imo.

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I agree- this isn't a fantastic roster, but it's far from a bare cupboard either. This team should compete with everyone, finish top half of the B1G and make the NCAA's, IMO. Any more then that and I'll be thrilled, any less, disappointed.

Non-conf schedule is salty, but the Big 10 is still very average with plenty of realistic wins to be had. Archie has done an awful lot right during the off-season, now it's time to really make it count and out-perform National expectations.

 

 

[cthomas]

I think we'll find out pretty quickly whether we overestimated our talent or our coach last year. I have an idea what the outcome will be, but for now I'll be content to sit back and watch it play out.

[HoosierCoop]

is Green "all in" on this season?

It seems like i remember seeing a post that coach has talked highly of everyone except Green.

Does anyone have any insight on this?  

[HoosierAloha]

I agree- this isn't a fantastic roster, but it's far from a bare cupboard either. This team should compete with everyone, finish top half of the B1G and make the NCAA's, IMO. Any more then that and I'll be thrilled, any less, disappointed.
Non-conf schedule is salty, but the Big 10 is still very average with plenty of realistic wins to be had. Archie has done an awful lot right during the off-season, now it's time to really make it count and out-perform National expectations.
 
 

This. I don't see anyone outside of MSU who is far more talented than IU. We get them twice, I believe. I could see us struggling at the Breslin Center. pu should have a solid squad but nothing that is crazy talented. Wiscy is wiscy and will be tough. I think a different style of play could yield more favorable outcomes. Minnie, Maryland, Michigan, and NW should have solid squads. I could see IU finishing in the middle of the league.


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[Old Friend]

The way I see this season boils down to how well we defend and how well our bench can adapt and contribute.  Our starting 5 is okay.  (Assuming it's Johnson, Newkirk, Hartman, Davis, and Morgan)  We're not going to be an offensive juggernaut by any means, but there won't be many teams with that kind of experience in the starting lineup.  That's 3 seniors, a junior, and a sophomore.  If they guard, we'll be in a lot of games.  Newkirk is a kid who I think can really improve his offensive stats, Johnson is who he is; we'll see whether or not Davis' hype is smoke or fire; and we pretty much know what we'll get from Hartman and Morgan.

I think Indiana will struggle to score 70 points most nights.  I see a lot of 64-57  type games, even against teams we may not expect; but especially in the Big Ten.  There really isn't "instant offense" off the bench, and we don't have much size.  If Indiana wins 18-20 games this season, and is in the NCAA conversation; I think that's a successful year 1, whether we make the tournament or not.   Can we defend? Can we rebound?  Can we score consistently?  Those are the question marks as I see them.  If we can do the first two, we've got a shot to be better.   If not?  14-15 wins will be difficult.

[ALASKA HOOSIER]

Aren't you so glad we don't have to see this on the sidelines anymore!