Maryland vs Indiana - Game Thread, Fri., 12/1 @ 7 BTN

[IUFAN1976 2,772]

Maryland is a lot worse than I thought they would be, especially since they have some key players back from last year.  Also, that is a team that is god awful worse than us from behind the 3 point line

[RaceToTheTop 24,851]

2 hours ago, JSHoosier said:

Well, it's a win. Shouldn't have ended up even that close.  Too many turnovers. 

Any conference game that shouldn't end up that close and we win by 12 is certainly a positive.  

Maryland not playing well right now but the trio of Young, Reese, and Scott are talented.  Maryland is really good at home and will accumulate enough wins to make the win look decent on our resume.  IU moved to 69 on Pom after the game;  we were 80 prior to Harvard and 75 after Harvard.  Maryland dropped from #58 to 70.

[Alford Bailey 12,350]

Super impressed with Ware. He’s honestly been better that I expected.

[BottomLine 685]

10 minutes ago, Hornsby said:

Watching the game now not sad geronimo left he just doesn't have it.

Sent from my SM-A146U using Tapatalk
 

Think he has been doing pretty well in other games for them.  Looked like a deer in the headlights tonight.  Sometimes happens.  They come home with a chip on their shoulder and play the game of their life, or they let the nerves get to them.  Looked like tonight the second was the case.  Wish him well for the rest of his career but not against us.

[HoosierHoopster 6,761]

2 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

He seemed obviously upset about his performance by the end of the game. Can't help but feel a little bad for him... but not too bad.... 

He was trying too hard, he’s looked better in recent games against lower comp, will be interesting to see if he settles down

[HoosierHoopster 6,761]

There was convo here early on that Bako should come off the bench and he wasn’t that good. Good Lord.

Glad that convo is dead.

[Stuhoo 79,575]

7 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

There was convo here early on that Bako should come off the bench and he wasn’t that good. Good Lord.

Glad that convo is dead.

He improved. Must’ve felt the heat from that message board convo.   ;)

[HoosierHoopster 6,761]

20 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

He improved. Must’ve felt the heat from that convo.

Riiiight lol

[IU_FanClub 1,643]

3 hours ago, Ngw7183 said:

This was probably brought up already multiple times but how is there anyway Queen goes there? 

Under Armor bag is only thing I could think of

[johnsoniu 6,255]

A nice Hoosier victory and the boilers face planting in Evanston again. 
Coffee tastes gooood this morning 

[Dave from Dayton 2,926]

The Derps looked lost early.  From the tipoff to the halftime, IU rolled.  Maryland committed the first five turnovers. That first half was a hoot! My oh my!

Glad to see Galloway in charge of the offense!  Cleaned up inside, for sure!

[RaceToTheTop 24,851]

9 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

I was THIS close to making a post in the second half about how thrilling it would be to see us move up a whole 3 spots in Kenpom. Sigh...

 

Kenpom must really not like how we've essentially taken the 3 point line out of the game. 

Pom ultimately rates teams on margin of victory so they really don’t care how the final score is achieved.  Moving up only three spots was really lore s matter of there being a pretty decent gap between 70 and 69.

[Home Jersey 6,533]

By the time we're starting B10 play in January, hopefully X is back to 100%. Assuming he is, I'd like to see the minutes be distributed something along these lines, with a few caveats...

• Xavier Johnson - 28 
• Trey Galloway - 28 
• Mackenzie Mgbako - 25 
• Malik Reneau - 25 
• KelEl Ware - 30 

(136 total minutes for starters) 

• Kaleb Banks - 20 
• Anthony Walker - 14
• Gabe Cupps - 12 
• CJ Gunn - 6 
• Payton Sparks - 6 
• Anthony Leal - 6

(64 total minutes for the bench) 

First caveat... as Reneau gets in foul trouble/Mack's defensive lapses rear their head at times we can't afford it, bump up Walker and Bank's minutes. As long as Walker sticks to his floater in the lane game and plays smart with the ball/high motor, I have been liking what he's been showing more recently than start of the year. Banks needs to be our clear and bona fide 6th man IMO 

Second caveat... Leal getting much more than 6 minutes unless due to injury or something is, in my mind, not optimal for the team. But he has played really smart while on the court and it's just so refreshing compared to CJ. I think you reward Leal with a small rotation role to keep pushing CJ and showing him what he needs to do differently to stay on the floor/contribute to winning. If Gunn steps up and wins back those minutes, we have much higher upside come March with Gunn as our 4th guard than Leal. Especially when Cupps is already our 3rd guard. These minutes set up so there are always 2 guards on the court. 

Third caveat... I also think come March, you cut Sparks time to spot minutes based on foul trouble/blowout status, ideally along with Leal but in a plausible scenario, CJ who will have been sitting for quite some time and portaling shortly after the season ends. Not trying to beat up on him but his performance was one of the few things to gripe about from yesterday IMO. Keep Mack/Malik in the game a little longer and/or use those 6 rotation minutes to feed the hot hand of the day. 

[IUHoosierJoe 1,068]

44 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

Pom ultimately rates teams on margin of victory so they really don’t care how the final score is achieved.  Moving up only three spots was really lore s matter of there being a pretty decent gap between 70 and 69.

The bad news is it’s still factoring in the pre-season ratings.  Their NET ranking would be significantly worse than 69.

[OliviaPope40 6,424]

Me on figuring out what to do with Gallo's broken shot. 

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,886]

29 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

By the time we're starting B10 play in January, hopefully X is back to 100%. Assuming he is, I'd like to see the minutes be distributed something along these lines, with a few caveats...

• Xavier Johnson - 28 
• Trey Galloway - 28 
• Mackenzie Mgbako - 25 
• Malik Reneau - 25 
• KelEl Ware - 30 

(136 total minutes for starters) 

• Kaleb Banks - 20 
• Anthony Walker - 14
• Gabe Cupps - 12 
• CJ Gunn - 6 
• Payton Sparks - 6 
• Anthony Leal - 6

(64 total minutes for the bench) 

First caveat... as Reneau gets in foul trouble/Mack's defensive lapses rear their head at times we can't afford it, bump up Walker and Bank's minutes. As long as Walker sticks to his floater in the lane game and plays smart with the ball/high motor, I have been liking what he's been showing more recently than start of the year. Banks needs to be our clear and bona fide 6th man IMO 

Second caveat... Leal getting much more than 6 minutes unless due to injury or something is, in my mind, not optimal for the team. But he has played really smart while on the court and it's just so refreshing compared to CJ. I think you reward Leal with a small rotation role to keep pushing CJ and showing him what he needs to do differently to stay on the floor/contribute to winning. If Gunn steps up and wins back those minutes, we have much higher upside come March with Gunn as our 4th guard than Leal. Especially when Cupps is already our 3rd guard. These minutes set up so there are always 2 guards on the court. 

Third caveat... I also think come March, you cut Sparks time to spot minutes based on foul trouble/blowout status, ideally along with Leal but in a plausible scenario, CJ who will have been sitting for quite some time and portaling shortly after the season ends. Not trying to beat up on him but his performance was one of the few things to gripe about from yesterday IMO. Keep Mack/Malik in the game a little longer and/or use those 6 rotation minutes to feed the hot hand of the day. 

Respectfully, this stuff is a waste of time. And that's the exact rotation we've had the last 2-3 games, anyways. 

But our rotations, who's on the floor, not a drop in the bucket compared to executing and hitting shots. 

You can say "keep MM/Malik on the court more" all you want, but those two have been either awful(MM the first 5 games) or in foul trouble (Malik every game seemingly, MM a couple of times). 

[Home Jersey 6,533]

1 minute ago, btownqb said:

Respectfully, this stuff is a waste of time. And that's the exact rotation we've had the last 2-3 games, anyways. 

But our rotations, who's on the floor, not a drop in the bucket compared to executing and hitting shots. 

You can say "keep MM/Malik on the court more" all you want, but those two have been either awful(MM the first 5 games) or in foul trouble (Malik every game seemingly, MM a couple of times). 

Don't worry, it doesn't take much time to think about/post at all. if you don't want to read it you can scroll though. 

I do agree with your bolded point. 

[Dave from Dayton 2,926]

11 minutes ago, OliviaPope40 said:

Me on figuring out what to do with Gallo's broken shot. 

Spin right and shoot left or use the muscle memory or psychotic shot doctor or socks, shorts, 1 2 3 swish or ...

[IUFAN1976 2,772]

1 hour ago, Home Jersey said:

By the time we're starting B10 play in January, hopefully X is back to 100%. Assuming he is, I'd like to see the minutes be distributed something along these lines, with a few caveats...

• Xavier Johnson - 28 
• Trey Galloway - 28 
• Mackenzie Mgbako - 25 
• Malik Reneau - 25 
• KelEl Ware - 30 

(136 total minutes for starters) 

• Kaleb Banks - 20 
• Anthony Walker - 14
• Gabe Cupps - 12 
• CJ Gunn - 6 
• Payton Sparks - 6 
• Anthony Leal - 6

(64 total minutes for the bench) 

First caveat... as Reneau gets in foul trouble/Mack's defensive lapses rear their head at times we can't afford it, bump up Walker and Bank's minutes. As long as Walker sticks to his floater in the lane game and plays smart with the ball/high motor, I have been liking what he's been showing more recently than start of the year. Banks needs to be our clear and bona fide 6th man IMO 

Second caveat... Leal getting much more than 6 minutes unless due to injury or something is, in my mind, not optimal for the team. But he has played really smart while on the court and it's just so refreshing compared to CJ. I think you reward Leal with a small rotation role to keep pushing CJ and showing him what he needs to do differently to stay on the floor/contribute to winning. If Gunn steps up and wins back those minutes, we have much higher upside come March with Gunn as our 4th guard than Leal. Especially when Cupps is already our 3rd guard. These minutes set up so there are always 2 guards on the court. 

Third caveat... I also think come March, you cut Sparks time to spot minutes based on foul trouble/blowout status, ideally along with Leal but in a plausible scenario, CJ who will have been sitting for quite some time and portaling shortly after the season ends. Not trying to beat up on him but his performance was one of the few things to gripe about from yesterday IMO. Keep Mack/Malik in the game a little longer and/or use those 6 rotation minutes to feed the hot hand of the day. 

Gunn and Sparks have no business being on the floor, IMO.  I would rather watch paint dry than to watch Sparks chuck up a shot and get fouled and watch him shoot that god awful free throw.  His form is awful.  Gunn takes poor shoots and makes poor decisions on both sides of the ball.  
 

I say give the 6 minutes you alotted to Gunn to Cupps and Leal.  Leal’s put his time in, let him play a few more minutes.

[RaceToTheTop 24,851]

Anthony Walker continues to be our most reliable bench player IMO.