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BottomLine

Food For Thought

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13 hours ago, BottomLine said:

I love digging up obscure facts - especially on a dull night.  Here goes.

Total starts during IU career:  Smith (46), Durham (44), Phinisee (29), Green (24), Davis (22), Brunk (18).  Franklin (5), Jackson-Davis (5).  Of course Brunk includes his time at Butler.  Anyone else surprised that in four years Green has only started 24 games?

Last night's result Texas A& M (56) - Troy (52).  What?  Did anyone see that coming?

ELEVEN schools in the Big Ten have a lower 3-point percentage than Indiana!  I know still early but still.

The Big Tens record presently is 39-14.  Cup Cake season, but how did we manage to lose 14 times?

56 teams are still undefeated - including the Hoosiers.

 

Considering how he played up until last spring, I'm not surprised at all.

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Just some thoughts concerning Louisiana Tech:

They start 4 seniors and a junior.  

They are not a big team.  Starters are 6-7, 6-5, 6-3. 6-2, 5-11.  Not much size on the bench either.  The top 3 subs are 5-11 and 6-3 guards and a 6-6 freshman.  Will they be able to keep us off the boards?  Probably not.  Will our bigs be able to chase and guard?  Let's see.

Despite starting 4 guards they don't shoot the 3-ball well.  Only shooting 29.6% for the year but that includes a 3-22 effort against Mississippi Valley State.  With that said they will probably explode against us.  Isn't that the way it usually goes?  Doubt they have much of a post game so we better guard that line.

They beat North Alabama at home by 21.  We beat North Alabama at home by 26.  I don't like the feel of that.

The Vegas over/under for the game is 140 and IU opened as an 11 point favorite.  That means that the Las Vegas implied score for the game is 76-65.

We will probably be Louisiana Tech's toughest opponent on their schedule this year.

So, with the food for thought out of the way, let's play some ball.  Go Hoosiers

 

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The HOOSIERS are averaging 90.2 points/game.  That ranks second of the 353 division I teams.  After last year we were wondering if we would be able to score this year.  Don't tell me about the easy schedule.  Other teams play a series of cupcakes in November and they aren't scoring over 90 points/game.  A drop off is coming but how much?
For those who have forgotten how dominate IU basketball have been over the years.  This is our 120th season and the lifetime record now stands at 1839-1053 for 63.6% wins.  Then again some people only ask "what have you done for me recently?"  Point taken, but the bar is always going to be high for the Hoosiers.
The season record for the first six IU victims this year is 15-22.  Subtract the IU loss and they are 15-16.
The present record for the teams that are ahead 82-27 and not one single opponent has a losing record.
Despite leading IU in minutes played and scoring,  team captain Al Durham still is being left off many fan's ideal IU starting lineup.  That is despite 45.5% shooting from 3-point range and 19-21 from the foul line.  And, IU has the reputation as having one of the most knowledgeable fan bases.  Not going to happen guys.
Finally Joey Brunk led IU in shots against Louisiana Tech.  Joey Brunk?

When all is healthy and right in the IU basketball world..

I think we start Phin and Al in the backcourt. They are both capable of scoring but also capable of setting up teammates. I’m not crazy about Smith starting on the wing but if he shows capable of hitting an open jumper and defending the three it’ll work.

I’d bring Green in as the super sub to get things going. He’s made some tremendous passes that haven’t been finished but there’s no hiding he’s looking to score. Franklin playing alongside Green seems to work in theory as he’s more fundamentally sound and a solid defender.

We finally have solid depth and will be even better if/when we can get and stay healthy.


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6 games into the season and our 3-point defense is still a point of contention.  Here is the season 3-point percentage for each of our opponents and the 3-point percentage for the game with IU

Western Illinois   (41.1 - 29.2)

Portland State   (29.9 - 50.0)

North Alabama   (32.0 - 50.0)

Troy   (27.1 - 20.0)

Princeton   (28.7 - 22.2)

Louisiana Tech   (31.3 - 40.0)

We have allowed over 40% 3-point shooting or better  in 3 of our 6 games, and that includes our biggest tests Portland State and Louisiana Tech.  We still won all six but there are plenty of good 3-point shooters still to come this year and plenty of work still to do.  Three of six at 40 or over seems like a lot to me, especially against high volume teams.  Are we that bad or is it just a case of random streaky shooting from our opponents?

 

Speaking of streaks - there are still 27 undefeated teams (IU included)

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Very interesting.

My initial thought is that it doesn't worry me and here is why... These teams have very little to no chance against us, therefore their only game-plan is to take as many 3's as possible and try to get the best looks from behind the arc. All it takes is 1 guy to get hot and that can skew the entire team percentage. If they know they can't match our size or our athleticism then 3>2 :120: 

On the other hand are these teams coming into their other games with this same game-plan and it is not working? If that is the case then that sounds like a problem for our defense. Why are they easier to hit at Assembly Hall? Soft Rims? WIDE OPEN?

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On 11/27/2019 at 7:57 PM, BottomLine said:

The HOOSIERS are averaging 90.2 points/game.  That ranks second of the 353 division I teams.  After last year we were wondering if we would be able to score this year.  Don't tell me about the easy schedule.  Other teams play a series of cupcakes in November and they aren't scoring over 90 points/game.  A drop off is coming but how much?

For those who have forgotten how dominate IU basketball have been over the years.  This is our 120th season and the lifetime record now stands at 1839-1053 for 63.6% wins.  Then again some people only ask "what have you done for me recently?"  Point taken, but the bar is always going to be high for the Hoosiers.

The season record for the first six IU victims this year is 15-22.  Subtract the IU loss and they are 15-16.

The present record for the teams that are ahead 82-27 and not one single opponent has a losing record.

Despite leading IU in minutes played and scoring,  team captain Al Durham still is being left off many fan's ideal IU starting lineup.  That is despite 45.5% shooting from 3-point range and 19-21 from the foul line.  And, IU has the reputation as having one of the most knowledgeable fan bases.  Not going to happen guys.

Finally Joey Brunk led IU in shots against Louisiana Tech.  Joey Brunk?

Concerning Al. I think the biggest question is can he continue to be a major part of the offense against higher quality athletes/players or is he just feasting on lower level competition? Green has shown that he can. The question is... will he (Green) be mentally focused and engaged enough to be productive and efficient? 

I personally like the lineup with Al, Phin, and Green on the floor but then you no guard with experience on the bench... but I still like that lineup lol. 

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Crazy numbers:

After 7 games this year we are 7-0 but, of course, we haven't played any one.  We are averaging 86.4 points/game and we are giving up 63.6/game.

Last year at this time we were 5-2.  the two losses were to Arkansas by 1 on the road and by 21 to Duke on the road.  We had a good 23 point win over Marquette and 4 wins over cupcakes Chicago St, Montana St, Texas Arlington and UC-Davis.  At that point we were averaging 82.1 points/game and giving up 64.6.

Are the numbers really any better than last year, considering the competition?

In a roller-coaster year we followed the Duke loss by winning 7 in a row to bring us to 12-2 and a #21 ranking in the AP poll.  That was followed by a loss in 12 of the next 13 games before we righted ourselves and ended the regular season with 4 straight wins.

By the end of the year we had a scoring average of 71.5 and a defensive average of 67.8

Really hope for a win on Tuesday but folks the jury is still out.

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