All-Time Underrated Team

[Stuhoo]

Since the topic came up with Wittman  today, I thought I’d start a thread so that each of us can name their all-time Indiana University basketball under rated team. This can be a set of players that either don’t get enough credit for their pivotal, role player achievements, or an all-time great that isn’t put into the pantheon of the Isiah Thomas, Calbert Cheaney, Victor Oladipo level.

 

My team?

Wittman 

Jeff Newton

Wayne Radford

Brian Evans

Greg Graham

 

 

[Brass Cannon]

Jordan Hulls was underrated before, during and after his time in the Candystripes. 

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

I’d honestly put Cody Zeller on there. Sometimes it seems like people forget how darn good he was and the fact he made a 12 win team into a 27 win team.


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[jk34]

Bobby Wilkerson 

Darryl Thomas 

Steve Eyl

Greg Graham 

Matt Nover

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Michael Lewis

[Stromboli]

Not quite the question, but I think the 2016 B1G Champion team gets very little appreciation.  It's weird since they were our last good, successful team.  I hear about the '13 team and the Syracuse zone and Zeller, Oladipo, etc, non-stop.  The '16 Team could get red hot.  Yogi is maybe my favorite player all time.  The guys really seemed to like each other.  Attitude and maturity and fire at the same time.  And yeah, they won the B1G that year at 15-3.  

 

Also, Yogi.  5* PG from Indiana, played 4 years, played on the '13 and '16 teams.  All-Time Assists leader.  6th in Scoring?!  Check out some of the guys he's in front of.  You know the rest of the B1G was sick of that guy.  

 

Also I didn't remember Coverdale getting so many steals.  Top Ten?  Same team, I always think of Newton and Jeffries playing together, and how well it worked.  

 

Linky:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Hoosiers_men's_basketball_statistical_leaders

[Stuhoo]

31 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

I’d honestly put Cody Zeller on there. Sometimes it seems like people forget how darn good he was and the fact he made a 12 win team into a 27 win team.


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Never has a player been more highly acclaimed in Hoosiernation than Cody.

For me? Really important, really excellent. Not really underrated.

Brian Evans had two straight years where he scored more than Cody did in Cody’s best year, had the same rebounding average, was a career 40%+ 3 point shooter and was B1G player of the year. That’s a player that should be put in the pantheon.

 

 

[JSHoosier]

1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

Jordan Hulls was underrated before, during and after his time in the Candystripes. 

That's the name that came to my mind as well.  Definitely not the most athletic but he could flat play the game.

[Demo]

Great question: off the top of my head: Joby Wright, Jim Thomas, Jeff Newton, Michael Lewis and Mike Woodson. Yeah, everyone knows Woodson was great, but I think he was the best and most versatile pure scorer at IU not named Calbert Cheaney in my basketball lifetime. So I absolutely consider him underrated. 

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

Never has a player been more highly acclaimed in Hoosiernation than Cody.
For me? Really important, really excellent. Not really underrated.
Brian Evans had two straight years where he scored more than Cody did in Cody’s best year, had the same rebounding average, was a career 40%+ 3 point shooter and was B1G player of the year. That’s a player that should be put in the pantheon.
 
 

Cody’s time gets a little overlooked because of Crean, Vics rise and the dreadful Syracuse game. I just always felt like people didn’t appreciate him enough. But he played his role as the star. The Big Handsome almost single handily brought Indiana out of the basketball abyss.


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[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

Never has a player been more highly acclaimed in Hoosiernation than Cody.
For me? Really important, really excellent. Not really underrated.
Brian Evans had two straight years where he scored more than Cody did in Cody’s best year, had the same rebounding average, was a career 40%+ 3 point shooter and was B1G player of the year. That’s a player that should be put in the pantheon.
 
 

I mean, I was a baby when Brian Evans played. Like 0-2.


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[johnsoniu]

Great question: off the top of my head: Joby Wright, Jim Thomas, Jeff Newton, Michael Lewis and Mike Woodson. Yeah, everyone knows Woodson was great, but I think he was the best and most versatile pure scorer at IU not named Calbert Cheaney in my basketball lifetime. So I absolutely consider him underrated. 

Good post! Jimmy Thomas and Lewis were the first two that came to mind. The more I thought about it the more I considered Woodson, for the reasons you mentioned.


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[Stuhoo]

38 minutes ago, Demo said:

Great question: off the top of my head: Joby Wright, Jim Thomas, Jeff Newton, Michael Lewis and Mike Woodson. Yeah, everyone knows Woodson was great, but I think he was the best and most versatile pure scorer at IU not named Calbert Cheaney in my basketball lifetime. So I absolutely consider him underrated. 

Woodson was so so good.

Him for sure!

[MemphisHoosier]

6 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

Since the topic came up with Wittman  today, I thought I’d start a thread so that each of us can name their all-time Indiana University basketball under rated team. This can be a set of players that either don’t get enough credit for their pivotal, role player achievements, or an all-time great that isn’t put into the pantheon of the Isiah Thomas, Calbert Cheaney, Victor Oladipo level.

 

My team?

Wittman 

Jeff Newton

Wayne Radford

Brian Evans

Greg Graham

 

 

Evans is a great call here, one of the all-time great Hoosiers that is washed over with broad strokes due to the mediocrity of the teams in the 90's.

[HoosierFan1994]

My definition of underrated is someone who helped the team more than we realized. My IU era started in 2001 so here is my list: 

G Tom Coverdale- was the glue of that 02 team. Played hurt and came up big during that run.

G Jordan Hulls- Big 3 point shooter/automatic at the FT line. If he wasn't hurt he could have been the Zone Buster against Syracuse. 

G Matt Roth- I think not letting Math Roth come back was one of Crean's 3 worst decisions at IU. He provided a nice spark off the bench. Outside of Sheehey that team didn't have much off the bench. He would have helped. 

F Max Bielfeldt- 2016 SOY. He really helped the 2016 team. 

F Collin Hartman- Like Bielfeldt, he really helped that 2016 team. He just did his job. His injury really hurt the team the next season.

6th Man: G Nick Zeisloft- The 2016 team had players that really just did their job and it helped the team. Nick was a nice spark off the bench and I think started some games as well. 

 

[HoosierFan1994]

5 hours ago, Stromboli said:

Not quite the question, but I think the 2016 B1G Champion team gets very little appreciation.  It's weird since they were our last good, successful team.  I hear about the '13 team and the Syracuse zone and Zeller, Oladipo, etc, non-stop.  The '16 Team could get red hot.  Yogi is maybe my favorite player all time.  The guys really seemed to like each other.  Attitude and maturity and fire at the same time.  And yeah, they won the B1G that year at 15-3.  

 

Also, Yogi.  5* PG from Indiana, played 4 years, played on the '13 and '16 teams.  All-Time Assists leader.  6th in Scoring?!  Check out some of the guys he's in front of.  You know the rest of the B1G was sick of that guy.  

 

Also I didn't remember Coverdale getting so many steals.  Top Ten?  Same team, I always think of Newton and Jeffries playing together, and how well it worked.  

 

Linky:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Hoosiers_men's_basketball_statistical_leaders

Totally agree with you about that '16 team. While the '13 team gets praise (as it should), I think the '16 team could beat them. Why? The '16 team had more guys that did the little things. The '13 team really relied on 6 guys (Cody, Vic, Hulls, Watford, Yogi, and Sheehey). Remy, Hanner, and Jeremy were awful. Elston was injured that year. The '16 team had 9 guys that could play. Yogi was the star and Thomas/Troy were All-Big Ten good. However, the other guys just did their job. Robert Johnson, Collin Hartman, Max Bielfeldt, Nick Zeisloft, OG, Juwan. What hurt the 2016 team was the disastrous Maui trip, blowout at Duke, and the one in done BTT loss to Michigan at the buzzer (I was there). Had they gone 2-1 in Maui, maybe played Duke close, and went further in the BTT they are probably a 2/3 seed.  UNC was unstoppable that night in the Sweet 16 Didn't they just shoot lights out? 

Don't get me wrong, the 2013 team was great and should have won it all that year. But the 2016 team was pretty good too. The talent in 2016 in college basketball was superior too than it was in 2013. You could also put the 2012 team in this conversation too. They had a bad 3 game stretch in January that prevented them from getting a 2/3 seed. I thought all three of these teams were final four/elite 8 good.

[Brass Cannon]

I think the 16 team gets forgotten because people at the time built up the narrative that we overachieved as a way to justify Crean going into UNC totally unprepared.  Despite having beaten Kentucky a few days earlier. 

[GloryDays]

5 hours ago, Demo said:

Great question: off the top of my head: Joby Wright, Jim Thomas, Jeff Newton, Michael Lewis and Mike Woodson. Yeah, everyone knows Woodson was great, but I think he was the best and most versatile pure scorer at IU not named Calbert Cheaney in my basketball lifetime. So I absolutely consider him underrated. 

 Mike Woodson. Yeah, everyone knows Woodson was great, but I think he was the best and most versatile pure scorer at IU not named Calbert Cheaney in my basketball lifetime. So I absolutely consider him underrated.

Yeah,what he said!

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

I think the 16 team gets forgotten because people at the time built up the narrative that we overachieved as a way to justify Crean going into UNC totally unprepared.  Despite having beaten Kentucky a few days earlier. 

2016 was such an odd season. Went in with crazy expectations with Bryant coming in, Yogi being a senior, JBJ beside Yogi for another year. Then Maui happened. And that was god awful. Then Duke happened. That was awful. We were 5-3 with losses to Wake Forest, UNLV and a 20 point beat down by Duke. A season we started out 15th. Not sure what happened after the Duke game, but we went on to win 12 straight, including our first 7 B1G games. But then we had the loss to Michigan in our first game of the B1G tourney. I didn’t expect to beat UNC by any means, so that’s whatever. Not with what they had on that team in Brice Johnson, Justin Jackson, Marcus Paige, Joel Berry, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks. That team was loaded.


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[LamarCheeks]

D.J. White 

Bobby Wilkerson

Michael Lewis

Daryl Thomas 

Juwan Morgan 

Really, really thought about including Brian Evans. But he was the B1G's MVP and a first-round draft pick in 1996, so that doesn't seem all that underrated to me (I guess it's all in how you define "underrated.") 

Good idea for a thread.