Indiana vs Kennesaw State 6 PM on BTN Plus

[FortWayneHoosier 5,912]

[reconmkd 4,328]

1st half KS bench gets a warning, 2nd half our bench gets a T, then KS gets another warning! Zebras were trash all game. Never heard a reason for our T, hell nothing was said over th PA. 

[IUFAN1976 2,782]

1 hour ago, Hoosier1984 said:

Leal changed the game. I’m good with him getting some Gunn minutes moving forward.

Leal had a +17, which led the team!

[AZ Hoosier 6,546]

[rayl456 466]

1 hour ago, Hardwood83 said:

That seems likely, but let's hope he still gets it turned around this season. For his sake and the teams. Plus there is no guarantee we'll get anyone better based on this past year's portal efforts.  

He’s going to be lucky if he gets 8 minutes a game now that we’re getting into the conference.  Won’t be easy to “get it turned around” with so few minutes.  And he may leave on his own if he feels he can get more playing time at a smaller program.

[RaceToTheTop 24,931]

Honestly, you've all seen the team play this year....with Ware out, not sure there is reason to be upset with a mid second surge to get a 13 point win over a 200ish team.

We need Ware and X to be a tournament team most likely.

[realTomCrean 1,505]

Bet Mgbako 15pts/IU Win. Heartbroken 

[realTomCrean 1,505]

18 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

Honestly, you've all seen the team play this year....with Ware out, not sure there is reason to be upset with a mid second surge to get a 13 point win over a 200ish team.

We need Ware and X to be a tournament team most likely.

True. Also true for any team w/ starting PG & 1st Rd draft pick hopeful C 

Have to go 10-8 remainder of year (OSU, Minn, Iowa, PSU, Nthwestern, Nebraska, @ Minn, @ PSU, MSU/Wiscy, @ NEBRASKA) 

[8bucks 6,347]

When KSU went zone that seemed to have been a big turning point. I was at the game and kept telling my daughter they will come out of the zone next time only to be wrong. Were they sticking to that because of foul trouble ?

[NashvilleHoosier 3,676]

11 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Bet Mgbako 15pts/IU Win. Heartbroken 

He was on fire early, and then sat most of the game. 4 second half minutes. Hard to say it was defense since no one played defense. To me, it just served up recruiting material to other teams….look at the start Mgbako had to this game and then he rode the pine most of the rest of the game. How are you gonna get to the next level like that? 

[realTomCrean 1,505]

25 minutes ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

He was on fire early, and then sat most of the game. 4 second half minutes. Hard to say it was defense since no one played defense. To me, it just served up recruiting material to other teams….look at the start Mgbako had to this game and then he rode the pine most of the rest of the game. How are you gonna get to the next level like that? 

Pretty sure he had a slight injury or soreness. Overall good move by staff imo but don’t get me wrong I was watching #21 on the bench the last 12 minutes of the game exclusively, screaming to put him back in 

[HoosierHoopster 6,801]

27 minutes ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

He was on fire early, and then sat most of the game. 4 second half minutes. Hard to say it was defense since no one played defense. To me, it just served up recruiting material to other teams….look at the start Mgbako had to this game and then he rode the pine most of the rest of the game. How are you gonna get to the next level like that? 

He had a heating pad or something on his foot, don’t think he was benched, think it was some kind of cautionary treatment 

[TheWatShot 13,643]

1 hour ago, RaceToTheTop said:

Honestly, you've all seen the team play this year....with Ware out, not sure there is reason to be upset with a mid second surge to get a 13 point win over a 200ish team.

We need Ware and X to be a tournament team most likely.

I think we are what we are at this point. We're an inefficient basketball team that's getting more and more inefficient. These last three games were a chance for us to improve our metrics and they got worse. We're 87th in Kenpom now after being around 80th before the Morehead State game. 

 

Just out of curiosity, I was looking at the last few tournaments and where some of the last teams in were ranked. Most of them appeared to be in the 50's or 60's. One notable exception was Rutgers two years ago at 78. Hopefully beating Big Ten teams will finally get our numbers up, because right now, they suggest we're just not good enough. 

[NashvilleHoosier 3,676]

9 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

He had a heating pad or something on his foot, don’t think he was benched, think it was some kind of cautionary treatment 

Ahh…good to know. The last 12 or so minutes of the game was a very distracted watch for me so I didn’t catch that. 

[HoosierHoopster 6,801]

I’m not worried about KenPom or other numbers now, the B1G is loaded with high rank/numbers teams, win and we’ll go up fast - won’t be easy, we know our weaknesses, but we’ll get X (and Ware) back soon.

The real positives I saw in this game were

- we played some legit good inside out early and effectively. Bako and Malik had a kind of thing going setting each other up, pretty sure at least 2 of Bako’s 3’s came from Malik, and one was off a nice inside out action. And the floor opened— that’s exactly what I’ve been waiting to see. And Bako found his mojo, his shot was pure and he moved confidently.

- And without Ware we weathered losing the lead, falling behind, and covered the spread easily, hitting 100 points. So without X and Ware, we spread the scoring and shot pretty well overall. Hard to find negatives there

[Whoozhers 3,647]

Unfortunately, this up and down get a lead lose a lead and gain it back or not ….has been our modus operandi for the last few years.

It is not a blueprint for success as we enter B1G play.

We got the talent. Turn it loose on the floor!

GO HOOSIERS!!

[str8baller 5,042]

7 hours ago, Ngw7183 said:

My early season push for Gunn was him having tools for what the team needs and Cupps/Leal not being quick enough.

Wanting Gunn over Cupps on defense because of “quickness” is a heckuva take. 

[cbp4iu 1,388]

One our best offensive games against a mid major all season. I thought on offense everyone looked solid. As for defense… 17 3 pointers allowed is……. We need X back so bad for perimeter defense. 

[Hoosier987 1,062]

9 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

I think we are what we are at this point. We're an inefficient basketball team that's getting more and more inefficient. These last three games were a chance for us to improve our metrics and they got worse. We're 87th in Kenpom now after being around 80th before the Morehead State game. 

 

Just out of curiosity, I was looking at the last few tournaments and where some of the last teams in were ranked. Most of them appeared to be in the 50's or 60's. One notable exception was Rutgers two years ago at 78. Hopefully beating Big Ten teams will finally get our numbers up, because right now, they suggest we're just not good enough. 

Not to beat a dead horse but our metrics are awful. The mantra of a “win is a win,” as some people believe, doesn’t hold serve. You need to pound lesser opponents. As has been repeated before…a team will be more negatively impacted beating a low major by single digits than losing against a top team by single digits. As things currently stand, Barttorvik gives us less than a 1% chance of making the tournament. Do I think they’re higher? Yes, but at a bare minimum we will need to finish a few games above .500 in conference to have a chance, primarily due to low margin victories against far lesser opponents. 

[Hoosier987 1,062]

9 hours ago, Ngw7183 said:

@Loaded Chicken Sandwich - props on Leal. My early season push for Gunn was him having tools for what the team needs and Cupps/Leal not being quick enough. Obvious now that he can’t get it under control. At this point, we just need X back which should be next game for sure now (he could have went tonight if pressed) but Leal is lesser of all evils at this point. Don’t know if others noticed but teams are now ignoring Cupps completely and we don’t even pass to him when he is wide open. Happened on a lot of possessions. The coaches have to get his jumper right at least.

Long run, if we get even solid X back, feel good about where team is considering how poor the guard play has been. Front 3 are all looking good. 

on MM - those worried, I doubt you need to be but never know. He was wearing straps on both knees for patella tendinitis (jumpers knee). Heat vs ice (it was on knee, not foot) would suggest nothing new. 

been a very rocky start to year on many fronts but outside of Purdue/Wisconsin, not sure anyone is in better position than IU.  Lot of bad loses and we made it without any while playing lots of youth which may help long term. 

Lastly with TJD, Ware and now Malik - got to think Woody should have every 4/5 in the country wanting to come here. 

Gunn has never gave confidence to ever get it together. Don’t think he will. Unless he magically turns on a switch, He’s a mid major player that will be a transfer candidate at the end of the year. He’s had plenty of opportunities.