Expectations for the 24-25 Season

[Stuhoo]

Trey Galloway was our best guard last year on both ends of the floor and it wasn’t even close.

He currently projects to be the first guard off the bench.

If that doesn’t generate optimism I’m not sure what could.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

We'll win more than we lose.  That's all I got.

[IU Prof]

3 hours ago, lillurk said:

 

3. I think @Brass Cannon said this in another thread but here’s hoping there’s a Harbaugh/UM football parallel here. He was BEYOND the hot seat in 2020, and took a pay cut, and had it been any normal year he might’ve been fired. But he’d had success relative to the recent baseline of the program in his UM tenure before then just couldn’t get over the hump (lol) of OSU. He humbled himself, changed DCs, got some culture pieces who happened to be quite good, and turned it around. We have to see it but broadly, that’s the hope. And the roster difference year-to-year shows some growth/learning, not just a talent upgrade.

I agree that Harbaugh served as a potential parallel, although he was much more accomplished at the same juncture than Woodson. The bigger difference with Harbaugh, though, is that he was willing to look in the mirror and try to improve his own shortcomings. Some of that was personality, bonding more with players, etc. But he was also willing to revamp his defensive scheme. And he let go of some established assistants on the offensive side too to get new blood into the program.

Woodson has publicly shown no willingness to self reflect and address the ways in which his style and scheme are contributing to his underwhelming performance. He just thinks he needs to upgrade talent, and that his outdated system will still work.

So while I think the results next year are likely to be better than last, I still don't see this program breaking through in a big way as long as it runs the same offensive and defensive systems.

[rcbowla]

What should be:

competitive against best on schedule, top 3 B1G, 5 seed or better and 2nd weekend 

What I think it will be:

blowout losses, 6-8 B1G, 10 seed and lose in 1st rd

[Muskie for three]

They won't suck, but will still infuriate us to well over 3000 pages in the fire Mike woodson thread. 

[IUc2016]

Most talent and experience since 2015-2016, probably since 2012. Expectations should be top 3 in the big ten with a protected seed in March. 

It’s hard to say they must do X or Y in the tourney to be successful since it’s a crapshoot. But we shouldn’t be playing in red the first weekend. 

like I said in another thread, we see you Woody. Prove it. 

[lillurk]

1 hour ago, IU Prof said:

I agree that Harbaugh served as a potential parallel, although he was much more accomplished at the same juncture than Woodson. The bigger difference with Harbaugh, though, is that he was willing to look in the mirror and try to improve his own shortcomings. Some of that was personality, bonding more with players, etc. But he was also willing to revamp his defensive scheme. And he let go of some established assistants on the offensive side too to get new blood into the program.

Woodson has publicly shown no willingness to self reflect and address the ways in which his style and scheme are contributing to his underwhelming performance. He just thinks he needs to upgrade talent, and that his outdated system will still work.

So while I think the results next year are likely to be better than last, I still don't see this program breaking through in a big way as long as it runs the same offensive and defensive systems.

Oh I know the parallel is imperfect, to be sure. The personnel difference is encouraging, and they’re both stubborn guys.

Harbaugh’s stubbornness led to some changes but in many ways their offense since then was TRUER to his smashmouth ways than before. They just got incredibly good at it. Maybe we can do a version of the same, though I’m not holding my breath.

[AH1971]

6 hours ago, theriverpilot said:

The talent was there last year and expectations were top 6 B1G and easily make the tournament. But I knew there was trouble when I watched that talent struggle against the likes of Army, Wright St, Morehead, St, and Louisville. 

I feel this team has more talent so on paper expectations will be top 3 B1G and make a run in the tournament (sweet 16 at least). But how this new group does against the teams it’s supposed to beat and how quickly they gel will be key 

The back court talent last season was arguably the worst it’s been since the 60’s. IU had three 5* who were all underclassmen and the two that played the year prior were rotational players.

[str8baller]

I'd like to see how the portal shakes out,  but it's looking like we may have the most talented team in the conference and one of the more talented teams in the country.  I'd like to have results consistent with our talent. 

[IUFAN1976]

More wins than this past season and an invite to the NCAA tournament at the minimum.  Mike Woodson has almost an entirely new team and we seemed to have better players at guard than last years team, now it’s time to show you can coach

[Napleshoosier]

I’d like to see us win the B1G and get to the Final Four!  Should be our expectations every year!

[TTT]

IU sets an NCAA record with Northwestern playing in 9 overtimes and winner yet to be determined.

[hoosiersoxfan]

If Woodson can bring in one more outside shooting threat, a capable backup center to spell Ballo and Reneau when he gets in foul trouble half the time, and MM takes the freshman to sophomore jump we see many kids take this team should be competing for a Big Ten Title. 
 

The guard play should be so much better and that makes all the difference in the world of college basketball. It didn’t happen often the last couple seasons but whenever X had a good game the team played much better. I expect we see a lot of that out of Rice but much more consistently. 

[Golfman25]

Anything less than a Big10 championship is below expectations.   I’ll give then some leeway in the tournament because of flukes, but anything less than elite 8 is below expectations.   
 

Do I think it happens?  Let’s just say I’m prepared to be disappointed.  

[dwtaylor1055]

Some media are saying IU is a top 25(Joe R and others).  For me, if they can get the likes of Zach Anderson to help build that depth at the 3/4 I'd definitely say to me they are a top 25 team health permitting and a top 3 BIG Ten team.  I could see the first few games being a work in progress for everyone to mesh but I think in the end we are a top 3 team in big ten, top 25 team and a 2nd rd visit to the tourney at a minimum but more likely a sweet 16 team assumption being everyone meshes well. 

 

People say guards win in March come tourney time, well were about to see(in 6 months) just how good of a combo Rice and Kanaan can be together on the floor.  Both of these kids are dynamic. 

[LamarCheeks]

Not sure how the portal will continue to shake out for us -- and others -- so I'm not exactly sure what my expectations are. 

But I hope at the very minium, we can finish in the upper half of the B1G and get into the NCAAs. At the maximum, I hope we can challenge for the B1G crown and get a top four seed. 

I'm just damn and sick and tired of finishing every season with double digit losses. Would be awesome to head into the NCAAs (if we indeed make it there) with fewer than 10 losses for a change. 

[Hoosier Roots]

9 hours ago, IUFAN1976 said:

More wins than this past season and an invite to the NCAA tournament at the minimum.  Mike Woodson has almost an entirely new team and we seemed to have better players at guard than last years team, now it’s time to show you can coach

This team has a lot more continuity than last years 

[IUFAN1976]

1 hour ago, Hoosier Roots said:

This team has a lot more continuity than last years 

How do you know? 

[go iu bb]

3 hours ago, Hoosier Roots said:

This team has a lot more continuity than last years 

Debatable. Last year returned 7 players while this year is only 6. Both teams lost their best player. This year is returning more starters 3.5 (counting Cupps as 0.5 starter) vs 2 from the year before. Of course, those are starters from a bad team.

[BigJoe]

Not a bad team

Michigan was a bad team lol