Cody Zeller's Relative Importance to IUBB

[Stuhoo 80,615]

Have at it boys!

[WayneFleekHoosier 48,312]

He was extremely important. We owe 2 great season largely to him. Crean floundered to capitalize on any momentum he gained. So in the long run, its a "what coulda been".

Love Zeller as a player and person.


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[Hoosierfan2017 21,344]

If it wasn't for Cody, Crean would've been out of our hair a lot sooner. Thanks for nothin' Cody!

Just kidding




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[Stromboli 6,076]

He helped legitimize the program, and was a big part of making us relevant again. He still comes back, he has a good NBA  career, and is one of our success stories. He continues to be an ambassador for IU ball. This question is foolish, and a dumb thing to debate when a current local stud is considering committing. 

[AKHoosier 6,857]

Incredibly overrated.

Tom Pritchard would have averaged 15 and 6 after completely changing his game over that summer.  And Hanner Perea would have been our big man in 2012 and we would have been just fine with him there instead of Cody.

[Stuhoo 80,615]

Incredibly overrated.
Tom Pritchard would have averaged 15 and 6 after completely changing his game over that summer.  And Hanner Perea would have been our big man in 2012 and we would have been just fine with him there instead of Cody.

I'm not in the camp that Cody was a program savior on the court, but in my opinion, comparing his performance to Pritchard or Perea is just plain silly.



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[WayneFleekHoosier 48,312]

I'm not in the camp that Cody was a program savior on the court, but in my opinion, comparing his performance to Pritchard or Perea is just plain silly.



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Pretty sure it was TIC.

This whole debate is a little silly to me. Zeller was a big deal. A single player can't change a program. BUT he did for 2 years. That's all he can do. And he did it.


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[Hoosierfan2017 21,344]

Maybe something more interesting to ponder...

Bigger impact on the program - Zeller or Oladipo?

[Stuhoo 80,615]

Maybe something more interesting to ponder...
Bigger impact on the program - Zeller or Oladipo?

Cody: high end big men are harder to find, and Cody was far more important for recruiting.



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[AKHoosier 6,857]

4 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Pretty sure it was TIC.

This whole debate is a little silly to me. Zeller was a big deal. A single player can't change a program. BUT he did for 2 years. That's all he can do. And he did it.


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Yeah, the words "program savior" etc are just irrelevant and meaningless.  It was a term even he didn't want and he never considered himself one anyway.

Ultimately, the fact is a player can only effect and influence a program during his years there.  And in Cody's first year at IU, we more than doubled our win total from the year before.  And that was prior even to Vic making his huge sophomore to junior leap.  

And the next year, we won 2 more games and a conference championship.

I just can't understand how someone could say he's overrated.  Hanner Perea was overrated.  Jeremy Hollowell was overrated. Noah Vonleh probably was overrated.  James Blackmon was overrated imo.

[Dalton26 16,892]

Maybe something more interesting to ponder...
Bigger impact on the program - Zeller or Oladipo?

IMO If you take any of the guys off that team they aren’t as good. Hulls, Watford, Zeller, or Dipo. They were a collective unit that worked together. I don’t think any one player from that group was any more important than the guy next to him. They all had their hand in that teams season.

Like I said in the other thread, I’ve never said Cody wasn’t good. People can twist and turn it however they want but those words never came from me. As I said he wasn’t a program changer, what they done was a collective effort plain and simple. Cody is overrated to me in the eyes of IU fans. People act like Cody saved the program during that time when in reality it was the whole team. I don’t care how many childish comments are made towards me my opinion won’t changed and I won’t condemn anyone else for having a different opinion either.

[Hoosierfan2017 21,344]

7 minutes ago, Dalton26 said:

 

IMO If you take any of the guys off that team they aren’t as good. Hulls, Watford, Zeller, or Dipo. They were a collective unit that worked together. I don’t think any one player from that group was any more important than the guy next to him. They all had their hand in that teams season.

Like I said in the other thread, I’ve never said Cody wasn’t good. People can twist and turn it however they want but those words never came from me. As I said he wasn’t a program changer, what they done was a collective effort plain and simple. Cody is overrated to me in the eyes of IU fans. People act like Cody saved the program during that time when in reality it was the whole team. I don’t care how many childish comments are made towards me my opinion won’t changed and I won’t condemn anyone else for having a different opinion either.
 

 

I think that's a great way of putting it. They played really well together and all had their own role to play. Take any of them off the team and I think things would've went much differently. 

[WayneFleekHoosier 48,312]

IMO If you take any of the guys off that team they aren’t as good. Hulls, Watford, Zeller, or Dipo. They were a collective unit that worked together. I don’t think any one player from that group was any more important than the guy next to him. They all had their hand in that teams season.

Like I said in the other thread, I’ve never said Cody wasn’t good. People can twist and turn it however they want but those words never came from me. As I said he wasn’t a program changer, what they done was a collective effort plain and simple. Cody is overrated to me in the eyes of IU fans. People act like Cody saved the program during that time when in reality it was the whole team. I don’t care how many childish comments are made towards me my opinion won’t changed and I won’t condemn anyone else for having a different opinion either.

I think we can all agree it was a solid team effort. Hard to know for certain who was the most impactful on the W's. Or if it was shared equally. That was a well liked team. Still is.

Zeller to me generally got the ball when we needed a bucket late game. Vic emerged to that over time. When Vic started initiating offense as the PG, we were much better.

Couldn't count on Crean figuring any of this stuff out though.


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[AKHoosier 6,857]

17 minutes ago, Dalton26 said:

 

IMO If you take any of the guys off that team they aren’t as good. Hulls, Watford, Zeller, or Dipo. They were a collective unit that worked together. I don’t think any one player from that group was any more important than the guy next to him. They all had their hand in that teams season.

Like I said in the other thread, I’ve never said Cody wasn’t good. People can twist and turn it however they want but those words never came from me. As I said he wasn’t a program changer, what they done was a collective effort plain and simple. Cody is overrated to me in the eyes of IU fans. People act like Cody saved the program during that time when in reality it was the whole team. I don’t care how many childish comments are made towards me my opinion won’t changed and I won’t condemn anyone else for having a different opinion either.
 

 

But Hulls, Watford, and Oladipo WERE on the team when they won 12 games.  Then they added Cody and won 27.

I don't disagree any of the other guys weren't valuable, but Cody was by far the biggest difference.  If you take him off that 2011 team, no way would we have stayed within 15 pts of Kentucky or won as many games as we did.  I'd probably say 18 games would have been our max win total from that year without Zeller.

Now I don't think he's on any lists of top 10 or 15 Hoosiers of all-time, because you can't really compare him to guys who won banners or got to Final 4s.  But I definitely wouldn't call him overrated in any case either.

[8bucks 6,438]

So how do you define program changer? If your definition includes winning a championship then you can miss all the steps in between. When you look at the massive turn around in wins before and after Cody you have consider that program changing. When you consider joining a team at the bottom of the BT standings and getting them a BT championship you have to consider that program changing. When you consider he joined a team that did not sniff a post season tournament to being the best team in the country most of the year (look at all the top 10 teams we beat that year at home and on the road).

We competed for a national title by being one of the best teams all year and getting a number 1 seed. We did come up short but if you can't see how the program changed in large part because of Cody you are just not trying.

Dakich, goofball that he is, said it best. Cody made it cool to play at IU again. Yogi does not come if Cody is not here and without Cody and Yogi we do not have the 2 BT titles.

Sometimes a program changer is the guy who turns you from a doormat to a contender. Then the next program changer takes you to a title. Both are important because you don't get the second if you don't have the the first.


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[OliviaPope40 6,514]

He wasn't the only player that made a difference I agree with Fleek and I agree with 8 I can remember the first time I watched him play it was when we were play Stetson and I was impressed I have to say that and there were times where he came up big. He came up big with the free throws against Michigan and my personal favorite was when elbowed Meyers Leonard.