IU vs Uof6 Game Thread

[Southside 1,914]

I get some frustration, but I think a lot of folks have irrational/unrealistic expectations to begin with.

The good
-Morgan returns
-Langford one and done stud

The bad, or the challenges
-Six new players (half the team), 5 frosh, plus a one dimensional transfer
-With the above, add Race Thompson who logged zero minutes last year (RS)
-Injuries to 3 players who were projected as preseason starters (Davis, Green, McRoberts), as well as impacts to Hunter, Thompson, and Durham.

IU was a poor team to start last year, who improved to be a mediocre team by the end of the season. To think we're going to be lights out world beaters (even without injury) early this year is pretty silly given what returned, and knowing we have 6 brand new guys coming in. Then add in the 6 injuries at various stages in a very short amount of time. 

Personally I thought by mid season (if healthy) we'd be starting to gel, and by end of season we'd be competing for 3rd or 4th place and we'd make the tourney. Maybe even second place with luck. We haven't been healthy at all, but we've still persevered to be 8-2 with a respectable KP ranking. I see no reason to think we won't compete for 3rd or 4th. For those who started out thinking we should win the Big, or even take second... are setting themselves up to be miserable this year.

Be happy with a W, any W. And expect improvement while we get healthy. 

Last night, officiating sucked at times, and our FTs sucked.  I'm betting Archie is working hard on FTs given his temperment in-game.
 

Edited December 9, 2018 by Irish YJ

[Alford Bailey 12,350]

Take away Romeo and we are last years mediocre team. Partly due to injuries and also because several have peaked or arent that good.

[Alford Bailey 12,350]

1 hour ago, Deserthoozier said:

I thought it was relatively balanced. A few no calls or missed calls on both sides. Now the Arkansas game—that was horrible!

Fisch was letting Eads have it on the radio.

[Feathery 4,005]

5 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Take away Romeo and we are last years mediocre team. Partly due to injuries and also because several have peaked or arent that good.

Yep, the roster still needs work. Which seems to be happening via recruiting. It just takes time. This team is still a NCAA tournament team. That was my expectations going in and it looks achievable. 

[Brass Cannon 24,268]

5 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Fisch was letting Eads have it on the radio.

You could tell the ACC was his home conference for sure

[Alford Bailey 12,350]

2 minutes ago, Feathery said:

Yep, the roster still needs work. Which seems to be happening via recruiting. It just takes time. This team is still a NCAA tournament team. That was my expectations going in and it looks achievable. 

Should be a tourney team no doubt. Man, I wish we had Hunter.

[HoosierFan1994 4,720]

2 hours ago, jbell833 said:

I'm hearing that this is going to be De'Ron's final season and will be graduating early...this means we still actually may be pursuing another for 2019 or IF Romeo stays we won't have to "Crean" house.


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I sure hope it's not. He has been very good off the bench. If he is graduating early that is awesome. Didn't he struggle with academics in high school? I think he was delayed coming to campus because of grades. 

[schoosier 3,455]

33 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Take away Romeo and we are last years mediocre team. Partly due to injuries and also because several have peaked or arent that good.

We are infinitely better a point guard also. RP won our last two games with clutch shots. He had 5/6 defensive rebounds also with one turnover and 30 minutes. Production in very important games.

[Southside 1,914]

4 minutes ago, schoosier said:

We are infinitely better a point guard also. RP won our last two games with clutch shots. He had 5/6 defensive rebounds also with one turnover and 30 minutes. Production in very important games.

he's been a blessing. injury forced him into things, but we're better for it long term. he'll be the leader next year. 

[Stuhoo 79,755]

47 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Take away Romeo and we are last years mediocre team. Partly due to injuries and also because several have peaked or arent that good.

 

Just not true:

Phin vs Newkirk/Green? We are better at pg than last year.

Romeo vs RoJo? We are better at SG than last year.

McBob, Al, Justin and Juwan all back with more experience, a better outside shot, and a second year in Archie’s system? We are better at the three, four, and five than last year.

In summary; we are better at every single position on the floor compared to last year.

 

[woodenshoemanHoosierfan 6,182]

Bad calls are one thing ....but..... completely missing the obvious is not permissible IMO. That’s not a bad call. That’s being incompetent.

 

 

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Does that include missing any obvious calls that would have gone against IU. If so I agree.

 

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[mdn82 25,510]

Agreed and I think many people (myself included) believe, and reasonably so, that this team's ceiling should be higher than that.    There's no reason with the depth, length, and experience we have to have an offense that looks like this.   I think that's the gist of the frustration.

I really didn’t see anyone in the prediction thread guess higher than a four seed. So I am not sure at all about that. Myself included in this I said 3 was our maximum high end if everything went right. The chances of everything going right to hit your ceiling is usually minimal unless you are stacking the deck with talent like Duke and Kansas. Even when RMK was here he hit his ceiling three years. In ‘76 they played according to their talent but didn’t lose. The other two title years they played above their talent. It doesn’t happen at all that often.

 

Duke is a glowing example of probably having more teams that should have won a title that didn’t. This team we have constructed isn’t a title contender. I am less concerned about the years we played to our superficial ceilings and more concerned about years we don’t play up to the way we should. This year currently we are exactly playing up to expectations. I am content until we don’t. If we were 6-4 I would be very, very concerned.

 

The next few weeks have improvement that are needed. But if you have issues with the offense you will always have them. We are not a motion team and will never be. Our plays are constructed with iso concepts at the forefront. We have decreased our turnovers this last four games. That’s something that has to continue with the type of offense we are running. We also have to become a better free throw shooting team if we are an iso team.

 

 

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[Whoozhers 3,652]

Does that include missing any obvious calls that would have gone against IU. If so I agree. 
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No. Tell us which ones went the Hoosiers way and against UL?


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[Alford Bailey 12,350]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

 

Just not true:

Phin vs Newkirk/Green? We are better at pg than last year.

Romeo vs RoJo? We are better at SG than last year.

McBob, Al, Justin and Juwan all back with more experience, a better outside shot, and a second year in Archie’s system? We are better at the three, four, and five than last year.

In summary; we are better at every single position on the floor compared to last year.

 

Still wouldnt have a chance to make the tourney without Romeo. Hes ultimately the difference.

[jk34 1,105]

16 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Still wouldnt have a chance to make the tourney without Romeo. Hes ultimately the difference.

Missing Race and Hunter are a huge part of our offense being flat at times. Having a wing opposite of Romeo that can create is huge. Plue, Race would bring an athletic "dawg" that we definitely need. Not many teams can absorb losing two highly ranked recruits, and still be a very good team.

[MikeRoberts 6,921]

Content with our record at 8-2, pretty much where I expected us to be. Not stoked but not pissed.

Where I am left shacking my head is our offense. Free throw shooting, valuing the ball, lack of fast breaks, lack of movement, low scoring etc. I just don’t know what we are trying to do. It’s ugly to say the least.

It’s just hard to see what it is even supposed to look like which is hard.



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[woodenshoemanHoosierfan 6,182]

No. Tell us which ones went the Hoosiers way and against UL?


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Im not necessarily talking about yesterday's game but over all. If you watch enough games you will always see missed calls. It happens.

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[Alford Bailey 12,350]

We are riding Romeos coattails right now. RP was a great addition as well but we very likely a .500 team without Romeo. 

[Alford Bailey 12,350]

42 minutes ago, jk34 said:

Missing Race and Hunter are a huge part of our offense being flat at times. Having a wing opposite of Romeo that can create is huge. Plue, Race would bring an athletic "dawg" that we definitely need. Not many teams can absorb losing two highly ranked recruits, and still be a very good team.

Not sure what Race will bring but definitely Hunter. By many accounts he was a stud in practice prior to the injury.

[Old Friend 8,389]

1 hour ago, mdn82 said:

I really didn’t see anyone in the prediction thread guess higher than a four seed. So I am not sure at all about that. Myself included in this I said 3 was our maximum high end if everything went right. The chances of everything going right to hit your ceiling is usually minimal unless you are stacking the deck with talent like Duke and Kansas. Even when RMK was here he hit his ceiling three years. In ‘76 they played according to their talent but didn’t lose. The other two title years they played above their talent. It doesn’t happen at all that often.

 

Duke is a glowing example of probably having more teams that should have won a title that didn’t. This team we have constructed isn’t a title contender. I am less concerned about the years we played to our superficial ceilings and more concerned about years we don’t play up to the way we should. This year currently we are exactly playing up to expectations. I am content until we don’t. If we were 6-4 I would be very, very concerned.

 

The next few weeks have improvement that are needed. But if you have issues with the offense you will always have them. We are not a motion team and will never be. Our plays are constructed with iso concepts at the forefront. We have decreased our turnovers this last four games. That’s something that has to continue with the type of offense we are running. We also have to become a better free throw shooting team if we are an iso team.

 

 

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Whatever predictions were here doesn't matter to me.  I think many had un-necessarily tempered expectations based on last season; but this is a completely different team.   We have the best back to the basket player in the conference (except maybe Ethan Happ)  in Morgan who's also versatile enough to space the floor.  We have a returning 6'10" kid who's shown himself to be effective.  We have one of the best athletes in the conference in Smith, who played a year ago like he should be better this season, or at least more consistent.  We have a top 5 freshmen who's a McDonald's All American; a freshman point guard who I know many here under-rated.  And we have depth.  Fitzner, McRoberts, Durham, and Green have all shown they can play and contribute at this level.    

The ceiling should be higher than a 4 seed.  I know we're not a contender, but we handled Marquette who just beat Wisconsin, and we beat Louisville who beat Michigan State; both of whom are ranked in the top 12; so we're not THAT far off of a top 10-15 team.

Seriously....Furman, Buffalo, Nebraska, Kansas State, Virginia Tech, Iowa, Texas Tech, Maryland, Florida State, Arizona State, and Nevada are all ranked ahead of Indiana right now, and who among those teams has our talent or depth?  (Hell, we beat Iowa twice LAST year...and we're worlds better this season from a talent perspective.  We also beat Maryland a year ago. Why expect Indiana to finish below them this season?  Like I said, I think 4-seed expectations are too low)

We only have one player with true iso talent, so why we're an iso offense, I have no idea.  I don't need to see the Bob Knight motion, but we're  not very good in transition right now and we do a lot of standing in the half court.  We just fired a guy whose offense looked like this; but he was far better in transition.   If we're going to rely on winning 1-2 point games because of an iso offense; we'll struggle.  Yeah, we won 3 close ones and it feels good to do that.  Experience and some luck involved, but I'll take it.   I also know those things tend to even out unless things change.