IU vs Notre Dame 12/21 Noon ESPN

[MikeRoberts]

There just doesn’t seem to be much motion to our offense, certainly not useful motion - it’s standing or jogging motion and an occasional screen off the ball.

I am no basketball genius but that seems flawed. How do we ever become a fluid offensive team if we aren’t even attempting to constantly get our guys open and wear teams out?


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[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

There just doesn’t seem to be much motion to our offense, certainly not useful motion - it’s standing or jogging motion and an occasional screen off the ball.

I am no basketball genius but that seems flawed. How do we ever become a fluid offensive team if we aren’t even attempting to constantly get our guys open and wear teams out?


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That’s what I’ve said the past three years. But I was just called stupid. It’s just basketball. It was the same under Crean in 13-14 with Vonleh.


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[Walking Boot of Doom]

38 minutes ago, MikeRoberts said:

There just doesn’t seem to be much motion to our offense, certainly not useful motion - it’s standing or jogging motion and an occasional screen off the ball.

I am no basketball genius but that seems flawed. How do we ever become a fluid offensive team if we aren’t even attempting to constantly get our guys open and wear teams out?


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We need guys who are consistently a threat from three. Plain and simple. Until then, it’s easy to clog the lanes and double our bigs. 

[LamarCheeks]

Other than the obvious fact that we need outside shooters to knock down shots and help unclog the middle, one thing I noticed is that we really, really loose confidence after a couple poor offensive possessions. Throughout that entire second-half drought today, we had possessions in which we got good shots, but instead of going up confidently and shooting as if we're going to make it (like we did in building the 17-point lead), we just seem to go on a wing and a prayer -- we just fling it up and hope it goes in. 

Al had a couple nice drives and instead of shooting a nice, controlled layup, he just seemed to fling it up there -- almost just hoping it would go in. Granted, both drives were with his off hand, but he's a junior at a Power 5 school -- he ought to be able to easily make a right-handed layup by now. I almost felt kinda bad for him -- he worked so hard to make a nice drive to the bucket, but he didn't seem to have the confidence to finish what should've been easy shots. And he wasn't the only one. I know we can't expect to make every shot, but boy, once we start to go south, we go in a big way -- and can't make anything. Even when we're getting relatively decent shots. 

That's when it seems Archie needs to step in and do something. What, I'm not exactly sure. But with no outside shooting to help loosen things up, we need something -- anything -- to help us snap out of it. Maybe it's a timeout to draw up something different. Or a timeout to kick some a$$. Or a timeout to give some encouragement and pat someone on the a$$. But it just seems he needs to do something. 

[MikeRoberts]

We need guys who are consistently a threat from three. Plain and simple. Until then, it’s easy to clog the lanes and double our bigs. 

Agreed, but clogging is easy for a defense to do to a team that stands around


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[HoosierAloha]

Other than the obvious fact that we need outside shooters to knock down shots and help unclog the middle, one thing I noticed is that we really, really loose confidence after a couple poor offensive possessions. Throughout that entire second-half drought today, we had possessions in which we got good shots, but instead of going up confidently and shooting as if we're going to make it (like we did in building the 17-point lead), we just seem to go on a wing and a prayer -- we just fling it up and hope it goes in. 
Al had a couple nice drives and instead of shooting a nice, controlled layup, he just seemed to fling it up there -- almost just hoping it would go in. Granted, both drives were with his off hand, but he's a junior at a Power 5 school -- he ought to be able to easily make a right-handed layup by now. I almost felt kinda bad for him -- he worked so hard to make a nice drive to the bucket, but he didn't seem to have the confidence to finish what should've been easy shots. And he wasn't the only one. I know we can't expect to make every shot, but boy, once we start to go south, we go in a big way -- and can't make anything. Even when we're getting relatively decent shots. 
That's when it seems Archie needs to step in and do something. What, I'm not exactly sure. But with no outside shooting to help loosen things up, we need something -- anything -- to help us snap out of it. Maybe it's a timeout to draw up something different. Or a timeout to kick some a$$. Or a timeout to give some encouragement and pat someone on the a$$. But it just seems he needs to do something. 

I agree with this. I was hoping it would be Green (he’s always confident) or Phin that would help with this. With very poor outside shooting guards, we can’t just throw it into the post and tell them to get a bucket. That will work when we’re at home and can get the foul called.

I really hope this was Franklin’s coming out party. I noticed that he was shot ready while catching the ball on the perimeter. This is an area where I think really needs to be coached up. Too often we catch the ball with one hand while scanning for the next pass or try to dribble. I wouldn’t mind seeing every player catching it on the perimeter to emphasis this for a period of time.

I did really love Franklin’s confidence and willingness to let it fly. We need to manufacture shooters.


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[RaceToTheTop]

5 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Armaan Franklin had 1 foul but only played 14 minutes. I find that to be an issue. I think it’s time to tell Green or Durham to come off the bench. Franklin should be the starting 2 guard for the remainder of the season. He’s proven to be more consistent than Green, Al and Rob all year long.


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He came into the game shooting under 30% and was at 15% from three.  He was 3 of 20 from three coming in and knocked down 4 of 5.

And you call that 'consistent'?

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

He came into the game shooting under 30% and was at 15% from three.  He was 3 of 20 from three coming in and knocked down 4 of 5.
And you call that 'consistent'?

Did I say consistent shooting? Just consistent hard play without a bunch of stupid plays. Like Green and Al have been lately.


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[RaceToTheTop]

Mike Brey summed up Notre Dame's run in the second half by saying IU defensively was just so hard for ND to score on IF the Hoosiers had a chance to set up their defense in the half court, which is why it was so much easier to score when they stopped us....he mentioned the string where they got 9 stops in 10 trips being the key.

So, to sum it up:  if we are hitting shots at a reasonable rate, our defense is going to be hard to score on.  That's a high ceiling team.

If we aren't hitting shots, our best feature (our defense) suffers because we aren't always getting into our half court defense.  That's a low floor.

So in the end, we are a low floor/high ceiling type of team.....often in the same game.  We saw that today.

We are what we are this year.  We are going to frustrate the hell out of our fans at times and frustrate the hell out of opponents on occasion....usually in the same game.  Only once in non-cupcake games did we frustrate our opponents for the whole game (Florida State) and only once did we frustrate our fans for the full game (Wisconsin).  So with UConn, Nebraska, Wisky, Florida State, and Notre Dame seeing us go 4-1 is a positive result.  We've had three games where we showed flashed and lapses and won all three.

[RaceToTheTop]

1 minute ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Did I say consistent shooting? Just consistent hard play without a bunch of stupid plays. Like Green and Al have been lately.


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When you are asked to do more on offense, you are going to see more 'stupid plays'.  Franklin hasn't been an offensive focus (for good reason).

We are a team that lacks scoring.  I'm glad that Franklin shot so incredibly well today, but at this point he's still a sub 40% shooter shooting under 30% from three.  Someone has to score.

[Brass Cannon]

So I think ALS problem is he’s not great at anything so when he’s struggling he’s not innately good at anything to still bring something to the table. 
 

I like Al a lot but yeah my guess he loses his minutes to Franklin 

[bleedhoosier]

I enjoyed the hell out of that game! Take a moment and just realize this is who we are. I did not think we would be at 11-1 at this point. Possible but not likely in my head. We get home with our crowd in the hall and put it on Arkansas and we should be ranked. The 2nd half was a bit frustrating with our guards literally not hitting TJD with a scrub guarding him... Multiple times! And I'm not looking forward but I can't help but feel good about next year. We basically lose Green, and gain shooters and athleticism along with a roster of player development. 

[Brass Cannon]

So next year we will take on Butler for the best overall record in the Classic. And if the Classic gets extended again and Purdue stops losing they might get to .500 in 5 years 

[RaceToTheTop]

1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

So next year we will take on Butler for the best overall record in the Classic. And if the Classic gets extended again and Purdue stops losing they might get to .500 in 5 years 

If everything breaks perfect for Purdue (they beat Notre Dame in 2020, IU beats ND in 2021, Purdue beats Butler in 2021) then in 2022 Purdue will be playing to not have the worst record in the Crossroads Classic (all while their fans are chanting "IU sucks").

[RaceToTheTop]

Anyone else a little concerned that Hunter's shot hasn't seemed to return much yet?  I know he's coming off a major injury, just a little concerned that there hasn't seemed to be any gain in his accuracy since the beginning of the year.

I know he's going to have to play and shoot his way back into rhythm but until then his minutes might keep producing those 1 out of 3, 0 of 2 from three type of nights.  Kind of a by product of the injury and now that conference play is underway and we'll be looking at closer games, those things can get magnified.

[BottomLine]

1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

So I think ALS problem is he’s not great at anything so when he’s struggling he’s not innately good at anything to still bring something to the table. 
 

I like Al a lot but yeah my guess he loses his minutes to Franklin 

Don't think we are going to get Al out of the starting lineup.  If Franklin continues to move forward, I think Green is probably more in danger of losing his spot.  Yes, I know he can shoot. but he kills our offense with his dribble and his I'm gonna get mine play.  Al is more of a team player.  Would rather see Green with our second unit, which has some offensive limitations and has a tendency to take away our momentum.

 

[BottomLine]

8 minutes ago, brumdog45 said:

Anyone else a little concerned that Hunter's shot hasn't seemed to return much yet?  I know he's coming off a major injury, just a little concerned that there hasn't seemed to be any gain in his accuracy since the beginning of the year.

I know he's going to have to play and shoot his way back into rhythm but until then his minutes might keep producing those 1 out of 3, 0 of 2 from three type of nights.  Kind of a by product of the injury and now that conference play is underway and we'll be looking at closer games, those things can get magnified.

The way I look at Hunter is that he has been completely shut down for almost a whole year.  He wasn't even allowed to get in the gym to get up shots because of his injury.  He didn't resume full activity until just before the start of practice this fall.  The best we are probably going to see from him this year is some spot time here and there.  Then with a solid off season of conditioning and basketball work he should make some major strides forward next year.  Was looking forward to seeing more this year but it just isn't there at this time.

[HoosierTrav]

1 hour ago, brumdog45 said:

Anyone else a little concerned that Hunter's shot hasn't seemed to return much yet?  I know he's coming off a major injury, just a little concerned that there hasn't seemed to be any gain in his accuracy since the beginning of the year.

I know he's going to have to play and shoot his way back into rhythm but until then his minutes might keep producing those 1 out of 3, 0 of 2 from three type of nights.  Kind of a by product of the injury and now that conference play is underway and we'll be looking at closer games, those things can get magnified.

I’m more concerned with his confidence. He has the highest ceiling offensively. If he were to put it together and realize his potential, we are a MUCH better team. Maybe he needs more time. Some guys have that killer in them and some don’t. Time will tell. 

[Aaron]

Remember when we couldn't win in Indy or in close games under Crean? Archie has fixed that. Every Crossroads Classic game we have been in besides the first one has gone to wire but we are a solid 6-3 and won three in a row and five out of six at the event. 

With Crean it seemed we were in a lot of close games but were not so good at pulling them out. With Archie we have actually been really good in close games but key is not getting blown out which has happened more often since he got here.

Take your 11-1 and hope these close games don't come back to haunt you in Jan. as they did last yr.

[MikeRoberts]

Remember when we couldn't win in Indy or in close games under Crean? Archie has fixed that. Every Crossroads Classic game we have been in besides the first one has gone to wire but we are a solid 6-3 and won three in a row and five out of six at the event. 
With Crean it seemed we were in a lot of close games but were not so good at pulling them out. With Archie we have actually been really good in close games but key is not getting blown out which has happened more often since he got here.
Take your 11-1 and hope these close games don't come back to haunt you in Jan. as they did last yr.

Ugh, a loss is a loss but there is something extra horrible about a blowout loss that sticks and sucks the fun out of it all


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