IUWBB @ Illinois - 2/13/20 @ 8:00 ET

[Basketballhead24]

This will be a unpopular opinion but Indiana does not have depth on this team. It showed last night. The starters are logging a lot of mins and with that they aren’t shooting the ball at a high clip anymore. This should of been a game that Indiana used their bench more to spare some starters a couple mins especially the guards but even when we are up 20+ The  starters are still in. The starters( and this team) will not last during post season because of 2 big reasons. 1. The starters are all playing 35+ mins per game  especially Ali is playing the basically the whole game. She came off a surgery on her shoulder during the  off season and you can see that she’s not shooting the ball well. She was 6-16 from the field that’s not good. Yes she has 17 Points but against a very bad team. Berger was 4-12, JP was 2-11, Brenna 2-6.  They will not beat a good team shooting like that. Reason 2 The lack of a bench. Yes they  beat South Carolina but That’s because they didn’t know how to use players off their bench yet and now that they are, they look like a whole different team that played earlier this season. Typically Indiana 5 starters can beat/outlast a lot of starters in the country. But Indiana is going to struggle because of the simple reason they can’t go to their bench except for Mackenzie. Losing Bendu going down the stretch is going to hurt them more than they think. Oregon, Baylor South Carolina, Oregon state, UCLA, NC State, Maryland ( Maryland has girls hurt that would of made the bench even deeper)  for example they play about 7-8 sometimes 9 players consistently.  Which I don’t blame Moren for not having faith in her bench because of the fact she doesn’t do the subbing, her staff does and if she sees her staff not having faith why would she? But this has been a problem for years they over play their starters and it seems great at the beginning but in the long run it hurts them. Until they actually have “depth” that they use consistently I don’t see them being able to beat top teams that are far more athletic and actually use their depth on the bench. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Indiana is a legit top 15 team. That makes me happy. Build from there. Depth will come if we continue to have success. Players don’t want to wait their turn unless they are in a winning program with a history of success.

It really seems possible to build to that.


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[Basketballhead24]

1 hour ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Indiana is a legit top 15 team. That makes me happy. Build from there. Depth will come if we continue to have success. Players don’t want to wait their turn unless they are in a winning program with a history of success.

It really seems possible to build to that.


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I agree they are building. But Depth is going to become a factor if they want to continue to be successful. They will have to recruit hard in the 2021 class. IU is becoming more of a winning program. Players want to win championships though and until IU win a conference championship at least, they will continue to struggle to have players that will come in and fill a seat on the bench. I’ll use Baylor for example last year they had kids that barely touched the floor who were 5 star recruits but they are okay with that because they know Baylor is a program that wins championships. A 5 star recruit is not going to be okay with waiting their turn at IU just yet because of the fact that IU is still building to catch teams in the top 10.