Are We Better Than Last Year?

[LamarCheeks]

14 hours ago, Josh said:

Nah, the people who defend Archie have posted more nonsense than this.  This guy is just tired of the constant trends of Archie Miller basketball 

Actually, you are the winner. To say you're gonna go to a game with a bag on your head while wearing IU gear and try to recruit fans to cheer against IU and chant "Fire Archie" --- that's a winner. Hands down. I'm on a couple chat boards and FB pages and that was the most asinine comment. By a wide margin. 

[Stuhoo]

 

Hey all--let's self-regulate and STOP any and all personal attacks. 

When IUBB puts out a clunker game I know people get frustrated, but personal attacks tend to swallow up threads and don't do any of us any good.

Thanks

 

[Josh]

22 minutes ago, LamarCheeks said:

Actually, you are the winner. To say you're gonna go to a game with a bag on your head while wearing IU gear and try to recruit fans to cheer against IU and chant "Fire Archie" --- that's a winner. Hands down. I'm on a couple chat boards and FB pages and that was the most asinine comment. By a wide margin. 

You misread me.  I'll never cheer against IU and I'd never encourage anybody to root against them.

[Stuhoo]

So after four games, three of which have been against top 40 teams, we are 3-1. I think the answer is ‘yes’; we ARE better than last year.

Race Thompson is a significant upgrade over Joey Brunk as the other starting big, and Armaan Franklin is a real upgrade over Justin Smith, both in variety of skills and especially in mindset.

We are also far far deeper; Brunk will be a good bench big, Galloway is a jack of all trades, and Lander shows real promise; albeit with lots of rough patches.

The B1G is gonna be an incredibly rough road, but the team itself? It’s pretty good.

Get well Joey and Al!

 

[Josh]

Isn't it too early to tell?  I feel like whenever we lose the majority of this board says it's too early to discern anything from it.  Even after 3+ years.

But after a win?  That's all the proof they need.

[Uspshoosier]

5 minutes ago, Josh said:

Isn't it too early to tell?  I feel like whenever we lose the majority of this board says it's too early to discern anything from it.  Even after 3+ years.

But after a win?  That's all the proof they need.

All the proof who needs?   The answer is yes it’s too early to tell if IU is better this year then last just like it was too early to tell after yesterday’s loss.   My guess would be that people are always going to be more optimistic and express that on a free message board after the team they follow wins a game.  Most people that come on here are more inclined to focus on the positives more so then the negatives.  Now I’m sure some people would like to focus more on the negative but I would guess they would be in the minority 

[Josh]

4 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

All the proof who needs?   The answer is yes it’s too early to tell if IU is better this year then last just like it was too early to tell after yesterday’s loss.   My guess would be that people are always going to be more optimistic and express that on a free message board after the team they follow wins a game.  Most people that come on here are more inclined to focus on the positives more so then the negatives.  Now I’m sure some people would like to focus more on the negative but I would guess they would be in the minority 

I thought i had quoted the first paragraph from Stuhoo above my post but I suppose it didn't work.

People happy with the program are more optimistic and people upset with it are more negative.  Not a shock.

[Stuhoo]

33 minutes ago, Josh said:

Isn't it too early to tell?  I feel like whenever we lose the majority of this board says it's too early to discern anything from it.  Even after 3+ years.

But after a win?  That's all the proof they need.

It may be too early for you...the picture is clearing up a bit for me! I’m a quick learner maybe.  ;)

[mdn82]

I agree with the premise of what Josh is saying. It is too early to tell one way or another.  There are certain things on first glance that looks better.  The defense really impressed me and as you all know we just haven’t started strong defensively the last few years.  Offensively we all know.  We have done some good things and horrible things.  It’s a weird year in we have to work the kinks out playing teams like FSU and Butler.  I honestly don’t know how we will react to this environment with no fans, two cupcakes, really no room for error.  Some teams will handle this better than others.  I honestly don’t know what to expect.  We will see.

[RaceToTheTop]

52 minutes ago, Josh said:

Isn't it too early to tell?  I feel like whenever we lose the majority of this board says it's too early to discern anything from it.  Even after 3+ years.

But after a win?  That's all the proof they need.

My take is the exact opposite.  I feel whenever we lose, the loudest voices say how horrible we are and want us to move on from Archie.  After a win?  Those same people say we don't do it consistently enough -- or the reaction of some of the biggest complainers -- when we do well, they stop showing up.

Personally, the bottom line to me is that any decision on hiring decisions has zero to do with my opinion.  I'm in front of the tv rooting for us and get frustrated and pissed at some times, excited and happy at others.  

[RaceToTheTop]

FWIW, the one thing I do know is that whether or not we are better than last year, I LIKE this team more.  Glad that DeVonte's selfishness is gone, De'ron's pouting isn't here, and Justin Smith's lack of self awareness to his own abilities aren't the 'leadership' being offered.

[coonhounds]

We were better than last year monday and today.I felt we were a little worse on Tuesday shooting 23 percent [emoji22]. It is way to early to tell. Why it is even being debated is interesting. Can someone tell me why we shouldn't be better is the question? Most our guys added another year of weights and experience and we added some good pieces and lost Justin Smith. Maybe we lost someone else but I can't think of them. Someone tell me why we shouldn't be better.

 

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[Brass Cannon]

16 minutes ago, coonhounds said:

We were better than last year monday and today.I felt we were a little worse on Tuesday shooting 23 percent . It is way to early to tell. Why it is even being debated is interesting. Can someone tell me why we shouldn't be better is the question? Most our guys added another year of weights and experience and we added some good pieces and lost Justin Smith. Maybe we lost someone else but I can't think of them. Someone tell me why we shouldn't be better.

 

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We lost Green and Smith both big contributors for better or worse.  We replaced Green with a 5 star and should be in a better position soon from what I have seen.  
 

Smith seems to have been replaced by race and surpassed even but now we need somebody to step up and fill Races shoes from last year.  
 

Outside of a raw talent perspective we still seem to be lacking in outside shooting and consistency in pushing the offense in transition.  Against good defenses we will pay for this. In the Big ten we will face several quality defenses.  In the past we saw the team crumble both in previous seasons and on Tuesday.   Our incremental talent improvements mean nothing if we fall apart the first time somebody punches us in the mouth. 

[RaceToTheTop]

I will say this about Justin Smith......it seems like most power five teams are playing pretty tough non-conference schedules because of the reduction in non-conference games.....except Arkansas.

Their non-con slate:

North Texas, Mississippi Valley State, Texas Arlington, Lipscomb, Tulsa, Central Arkansas, Oral Roberts, and Abilene Christian.

They may go 8-0 (only possible loss I see would be Tulsa) and yet be hurt for a tournament bid because of how incredibly weak that group is.

[coonhounds]

We lost Green and Smith both big contributors for better or worse.  We replaced Green with a 5 star and should be in a better position soon from what I have seen.  
 
Smith seems to have been replaced by replace and surpassed but now we need somebody to step up and fill Races shoes from last year.  
 
Outside of a raw talent perspective we still seem to be lacking in outside shooting and consistency in pushing the offense in transition.  Against good defenses we will pay for this. In the Big ten we will face several quality defenses.  In the past we saw the team crumble both in previous seasons and on Tuesday.   Our incremental talent improvements mean nothing if we fall apart the first time somebody punches us in the mouth. 

Thank you I forgot green. Yea he was a impact player and could hit the outside shot. I will probably get destroyed for that post for forgetting him. Smith though I think is blessing he left. I wish green would have got another year felt bad his career ended like alot of players did with the pandemic

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[Brass Cannon]

3 minutes ago, coonhounds said:

Thank you I forgot green. Yea he was a impact player and could hit the outside shot. I will probably get destroyed for that post for forgetting him. Smith though I think is blessing he left. I wish green would have got another year felt bad his career ended like alot of players did with the pandemic

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Here’s my thing with smith. If he was the cancer we all seem to think he was he shouldn’t have still been on the team.  So to me that means the team was a dysfunctional mess either because we lacked leadership in getting rid of a player or developing a player.  Either one is bad 

[Stuhoo]

Just now, Brass Cannon said:

Here’s my thing with smith. If he was the cancer we all seem to think he was he shouldn’t have still been on the team.  So to me that means the team was a dysfunctional mess either because we lacked leadership in getting rid of a player or developing a player.  Either one is bad 

It’s not that simple. He was an academic all B1G. He played hard. 

Do you really want to kick a kid off the team because he’s got a sour personality?

 

[Brass Cannon]

23 minutes ago, brumdog45 said:

My take is the exact opposite.  I feel whenever we lose, the loudest voices say how horrible we are and want us to move on from Archie.  After a win?  Those same people say we don't do it consistently enough -- or the reaction of some of the biggest complainers -- when we do well, they stop showing up.

Personally, the bottom line to me is that any decision on hiring decisions has zero to do with my opinion.  I'm in front of the tv rooting for us and get frustrated and pissed at some times, excited and happy at others.  

I have always been consistent with my critique of Archie. Just like Crean he’s capable of winning any game.  But he’s also been capable of losing any game.  Crean was fired because his teams were inconsistent both within a season and from season to season. Archie has been fairly consistent from season to season.  But it’s not been at an acceptable level. And his teams are inconsistent during the season to boot. 

[Brass Cannon]

Just now, Stuhoo said:

It’s not that simple. He was an academic all B1G. He played hard. 

Do you really want to kick a kid off the team because he’s got a sour personality?

 

If he’s destroying team chemistry the way this board seems to think.  Then yes. I tend to think Smith was a decent kid that thought he was something he wasn’t. And the coaches should have had a difficult conversation that they wouldn’t utilize him in the role he wanted to be used. 
 

Not set up to fail by using him that way for a season. 

[8bucks]

11 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

It’s not that simple. He was an academic all B1G. He played hard. 

Do you really want to kick a kid off the team because he’s got a sour personality?

 

I think the “plays hard” part is debatable. You did not need to kick him off but he could have been benched.  Wasn’t he the guy who played the most for us last year. So either he was a problem and the coaches overlooked it or he really wasn’t and we the fans underestimated his value.