Transfer Portal w IU Interest

[Gnet550 900]

35 minutes ago, Feathery said:

In today’s society your aunt could have nuts. Just sayin. 

But then she’d be your uncle….

[rayl456 394]

7 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

You can play two bigs, that isn't the issue.  I didn't watchmuch of UConn but it seemed to me that while Karaban was a "big" he wasn't a big who needed to be in the same space as Klingan to be effective.  Ballo and Reneau both basically need to get the ball in the same areas of the floor to be effective.  I think Ware had more range this year but we didn't put him out on the floor, we put him in a clogged lane with Reneau.  Both of those guys generally wanted the ball in the same space.

That is what people mean when they say 2 bigs.  It isn't so much that they are big players with height.  It is that they get in each other's way on the floor because they both want/need the ball in the same areas of the court which makes them easier to guard and also tends to decrease options for other guys on the court.

Additionally, these guards we are bringing have better stats but the majority of their better play appears to be oriented around getting into the paint.  They MAY turn into good shooters but their numbers behind the arc last year aren't ones that say they WILL be better than average shooters.

Offense is about creating a bunch of options to score and then having the right guys to take advantage of those options.  Playing Ballo and Reneau at the same time reduces options in ways that playing Clingan and Karaban doesn't for UConn.

Reneau and Karaban are as different as night and day athletically and as basketball players.  Both may be 6’8” or whatever and be labeled as “big’s” or “4’s”, but that’s where the similarities end.  Karaban is pretty damn dynamic and Reneau…not so much.

[Golfman25 4,842]

8 hours ago, AH1971 said:

Clingan was the highest usage player on the team this last season as was Sonogo the year prior. 
 

And your comment is exactly what I’m talking about, passing it into the post and waiting for your 5 to shoot isn’t what playing through the post means.

It is at IU.  And that’s the problem.  
Then look at Painter and Edey.  Uconn let him score his points and defended the perimeter = National Championship.  You need to be more dynamic than just post play.  

[Home Jersey 5,530]

4 minutes ago, rayl456 said:

Reneau and Karaban are as different as night and day athletically and as basketball players.  Both may be 6’8” or whatever and be labeled as “big’s” or “4’s”, but that’s where the similarities end.  Karaban is pretty damn dynamic and Reneau…not so much.

Eh. 

Karaban is a shooter. Reneau is a post scorer. 

Both are questionable defenders.

Malik averaged more rebounds, assists, points, on better FG%

Reneau showed the ability to step out and knock down 3s this year, if he expands that part of his game and gets better at passing out of the post, he would be way more "dynamic" IMO than Karaban who is more of a system passer in their offense than a playmaking, creative passer you'd call dynamic. Karaban is a good player, great in their system, but he looks better because of where he plays IMO. 

[Feathery 4,005]

3 minutes ago, btownqb said:

I'm just talking personnel. 

I don't really see a B1G that would be all that close talent wise on paper. 

Not to rub salt in the wound of the Dusty May fans but it seems he could have a decent roster in year 1. But overall, I think the conference is going to be middling. Everyone needs to fill out their rosters still but there isn’t going to be a standout team and what you proposed could literally be the best in the conference. That should get ppl excited even if they want Woody gone. To me it’s a put up or shut up situation for Woody. He will have the roster to get a possible conference title. Which means a good seed and the expectations will be a 2nd weekend run. I’m cool with that, even if the style is what I prefer. 

[Golfman25 4,842]

1 hour ago, IU Prof said:

This is all correct. Unfortunately,  the bolded part is the key. And that's something that Woodson has never shown any ability or interest in implementing. Instead, he sticks shooters in the corner and has them stand there for the entire possession.

UConn ran an extremely complex and dynamic modern offensive system. IU plays through the post in a 1990s sense. Two completely different animals, to the point that analogizing them is offensive to what Hurley has implemented.

Exactly.  How many times did we see Kopp sit in the corner.  How many times was it leal or whomever was playing that spot. The ball goes into the post to die, trying to force things thru double and triple teams. 

[Home Jersey 5,530]

I'd like to think the idea is that, if we get Ballo, we'll see Reneau being able to step outside more to stretch the floor, Ballo cleaning up the glass on missed 3s with some crashing and some getting back on D. I think we'll see a combination of that and the buddy ball we're used to in the paint, which we'll see about... Malik's passing is not really there yet, but maybe it gets better this offseason. Depending on how much leash we give to shoot 3s and how good we are at making them (any chance for Rice, Carlyle, AND Hickman?) the offense is less of my concern than the defense. 

I assume Conwell is a no if we have Rice and Carlyle both younger and needing minutes. Hickman maybe more likely though since he has just 1 year and is transferring up a level/buddies with Leal, etc.? Let's hope... I think to me, he would be the difference between a good and a great haul, along with whoever the back up four is (again this is all counting eggs before they hatch in Ballo, Rice, Carlyle). 

[Home Jersey 5,530]

2 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Exactly.  How many times did we see Kopp sit in the corner.  How many times was it leal or whomever was playing that spot. The ball goes into the post to die, trying to force things thru double and triple teams. 

And part of why UConn was able to run those complex sets was because they had good continuity from last year's roster. You're not going to be able to install something like that IMO with a group of 5ish new rotation players in just one offseason.

[IH8PU 219]

3 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

And part of why UConn was able to run those complex sets was because they had good continuity from last year's roster. You're not going to be able to install something like that IMO with a group of 5ish new rotation players in just one offseason.

UCONN lost three to the NBA draft, some graduated. I haven't looked which I should I guess but I am lazy this morning ... I am thinking that UCONN had to fill 5-6 scholly's on their roster this year. 

[str8baller 4,845]

1 hour ago, Feathery said:

So if IU won more than the metrics would indicate, then one could argue that’s good coaching. lol. 
 

Very unlikely.  Just statistical variance mostly. 

 

1 hour ago, Feathery said:

Now for the not blowing out lesser teams. The debate point for me is X missed significant time and Cupps was starting and wasn’t ready for D1 basketball. He needs to physically develop. That made Galloway play a position he was also not ready for. It took time for Galloway to get where he needed to be in the PG role. That is why IU’s metrics sucked.

Someone pointed it out, but we played the same with XJ starting. Also,  everyone saw Galloway ball out versus Kansas. He a senior guard that didn't need much, if any, time to acclimate.  1 point wins to Morehead st, a double digit loss to Nebraska,  blowouts to Purdue and a home loss to by double digits all followed that.  Those count just as much in our efficiency metrics.  

It's really the double digit losses as much as the narrow wins versus bad schools that drug our ratings down.  You can jump us up 40 or 50 spots in overall efficiency (some combo of improved offense and defense) and we still suffer losses to most of the teams we lost to this year and still lose by double digits to auburn, Purdue, and uconn. 

1 hour ago, Feathery said:

I’d expect in a guard focused offense under Woody, IU will increase their 3 point attempts bc the talent will be better in that area. 

In '23 we were one of the best 3pt shoo teams in the country by percentage but shot it just about the least.  Does bringing in rice and Carlyle take us to this new "guard focused offense" or does bringing the top portal center again to pair with an already pretty dominant Reneau just signal more of the same (but with improved guard play)? 

 

I think if there's hope for optimism on a more perimeter oriented offense,  it will be with the second unit.  We played far way sparingly towards the end of the season.  And if we land R-C-B plus another good guard like Hickman, then you pretty much start to run out of minutes for all these guys unless you stagger Reneau/Ballo and play small part of the time.  I'm all for it,  but that has made sense in the past and Woody has been reluctant to go there. 

[rayl456 394]

7 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Eh. 

Karaban is a shooter. Reneau is a post scorer. 

Both are questionable defenders.

Malik averaged more rebounds, assists, points, on better FG%

Reneau showed the ability to step out and knock down 3s this year, if he expands that part of his game and gets better at passing out of the post, he would be way more "dynamic" IMO than Karaban who is more of a system passer in their offense than a playmaking, creative passer you'd call dynamic. Karaban is a good player, great in their system, but he looks better because of where he plays IMO. 

Yeah, you probably have a point regarding the system in which Karaban plays.  Maybe I need to read back farther into the thread regarding the point being discussed.  I thought it was more of a basic comparison of the two players.  I prefer Karaban and Hurley’s system.

[Home Jersey 5,530]

39 minutes ago, IH8PU said:

UCONN lost three to the NBA draft, some graduated. I haven't looked which I should I guess but I am lazy this morning ... I am thinking that UCONN had to fill 5-6 scholly's on their roster this year. 

Karaban played 28 mins last year, so did Newton. They lost their big 3 of Sanogo, Hawkins, and Jackson. 

They lost “Joey California” to graduation but retained Samson Johnson and Hassan Diarra who were key bench pieces on both teams. 

They replaced him and Alleyne (who transferred) with Cam Spencer, a graduate transfer (probably the best pick up in last year’s portal) and Castle, a 5 star freshman. 

Clingan was also a bench player on the first year’s team who took on a much larger role on this year’s team.

So they replaced the production of that big 3 guys with a rotation of 2 guys who played a ton on both teams, 1 guy who took on a bigger role for the second team, and 2 guys who played key bench roles on both. A graduate transfer and a 5 star freshman. 

They did add a lot of other guys to their roster but they didn’t really play a ton. Jaylin Stewart and Youssouf Singare will be names to remember for next year, as will Solomon Ball 

[Alford Bailey 12,284]

How quickly we forgot about JHS and the praise Woodson received in how he used him.

[JF87 1,413]

17 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

How quickly we forgot about JHS and the praise Woodson received in how he used him.

I did forget.  What was special about how Woodson used JHS?  

[IUCrazy2 2,187]

54 minutes ago, Feathery said:

What’s a good 3pt shooter to you in today’s game, post line getting moved back? 
 

I’m well aware of what people’s complaints are about the style and 2 bigs. But let’s be honest, IU runs a ton of pick and role. We would see Malik and Ware both be at the 3 or line setting a pick and then rolling. That’s not just 2 guys standing in the lane like statues. Yes there were plenty of throw it down low and let them work too. But in the pick and role the guards we are targeting are not going to be running into our own bigs and both their defenders at the same time, as one of the bigs will be out at the 3 or line setting the pick. 

I think you want a guy around 35% to be a really good shooter.  Anything under 30 and you only want that guy taking as a last resort.

To your last paragraph, that kind of touches on my point.  Say you want to set up Reneau on the pick and roll so you pull Ballo out of the paint.  If UConn does that, his defender has to go with him.  Ballo's doesn't.  So that means an extra defender to slide over on the pick and roll and if you pass the ball out because your play is too well defended, the open guy getting the ball is about zero threat to do anything but have to give up the ball to reset the offense.  Either that or drive right back into the lane where his defender is waiting.

Guess we will find out. 

[Henryville Hoosier 964]

Oumar Ballo

Sr

7-0

C

Arizona

Visit

04/12/2024

 

IU portal tracker shows that Ballo started his visit yesterday. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 81,925]

1-year's worth of data.  Would be more meaningful if Tony (or anyone) did a few more years to determine if this data correlates well with prior years or was last year simply an aberration.  But regardless, it's an interesting analysis.

[Artie86 1,691]

1 minute ago, Henryville Hoosier said:

Oumar Ballo

Sr

7-0

C

Arizona

Visit

04/12/2024

 

IU portal tracker shows that Ballo started his visit yesterday. 

I love it when posters, who live in Bloomington, find these recruits out and about and steal some pics… I hope to see some from this weekend.

[dwtaylor1055 1,281]

JHS now following Rice via Instagram. He was not following him yesterday morning. 

[dwtaylor1055 1,281]

Adam Howard, Cupps and Ware following Ballo via Instagram