Penn St. vs Indiana, Sunday, 1/5, Noon, BTN, Palestra in Philly

[RaceToTheTop 26,088]

38 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

 

I would think that a successful starting lineup will stay in place—Woody is stubborn, but not nearly as stubborn about who starts.

 

I would be shocked if once Reneau is healthy if he isn't back in the starting lineup.  We are going to continue to see two bigs.  That said, there has been a more concerted effort this year to space the two bigs time out better so that you are seeing longer stretches where they both aren't on the court at the same time.

Consider this:  guys we have that get to the bucket with dribble penetration are Galloway and Rice.....sometimes Mgbako.  But guys like Carlyle, Tucker, Goode and Leal aren't getting much if any penetration.  There are combinations that Indiana puts out where two bigs are fine because we have some guys that aren't going to create their own offense.

[RaceToTheTop 26,088]

5 hours ago, yogisballin said:

Carlyle in his last 5 games, is 1/14 on 3pt-fg. Good for 7.1%. What in this world has happened to him

At Stanford he had more freedom with the ball because their guard play was horrible.  He is the mode now where everything he takes is fifteen feet and out.  He's not that type of player.

[Hoosier987 1,209]

4 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

At Stanford he had more freedom with the ball because their guard play was horrible.  He is the mode now where everything he takes is fifteen feet and out.  He's not that type of player.

Give Leal Carlyle’s minutes.. Maybe Carlyle can work his way out of this…but he could just be a bad player. Time will tell…but to date, he’s shown nothing of the player he was touted to be.

[Dave from Dayton 3,253]

9 hours ago, RaceToTheTop said:

I would be shocked if once Reneau is healthy if he isn't back in the starting lineup.  We are going to continue to see two bigs.  That said, there has been a more concerted effort this year to space the two bigs time out better so that you are seeing longer stretches where they both aren't on the court at the same time.

Consider this:  guys we have that get to the bucket with dribble penetration are Galloway and Rice.....sometimes Mgbako.  But guys like Carlyle, Tucker, Goode and Leal aren't getting much if any penetration.  There are combinations that Indiana puts out where two bigs are fine because we have some guys that aren't going to create their own offense.

RTT:  Really appreciate this post.

Glad the team is playing with more hustle and getting to the right spots on offense.  

However, there are two things that I would like to ask about.  Once across the half-court line, IU struggled at getting the ball into a good half-court offense.  Secondly, Penn State does not shoot 3's well... averaging about 20% and they shot worse.  At the line they shot under 60%.  Seemed to me it was not because of our defense. Well, our free throw defense obviously worked./s They drove the lane.  They just had a bad 3 point and free throw shooting night.

So, why does IU not help Miles Rice get the ball into the offense?  Penn State guards defense really was good at the top of the key.  That slowed our offense down in the first half.  In the second half, Mack broke it open because he got the ball quickly on offense and hit. 

What will happen to IU when an opponent hits shots at their normal rate of efficiency?  I did not see better defense by IU in the second half.  But it probably was there.  Did IU improve on defense in the second half?  How can IU improve that side of the equatiockn?

(And why the heck does Woody put in the awful 3, 8, 9 lineups?  That almost lost the game right there.)

 

[Hoosier987 1,209]

1 hour ago, Dave from Dayton said:

(And why the heck does Woody put in the awful 3, 8, 9 lineups?  That almost lost the game right there.)

 

Everyone sees it the same thing. Undoubtedly, Woodson’s subbing have cost us at least a 1/2 to a dozen games in his tenure and have greatly impacted our NET and metrics exponentially as a negative mainly by not beating mid majors by wider margins and getting absolutely smoked by good teams. We might be 12-3 but our net ranking is not good. Even after yesterday’s win, we’re still in the uppers 50s.  margin of victory and defeat is a big reason for this…it’s part of the reason (among tougher schedules) other teams have worse records but much higher NETS. They win soundly and lose closely. 
Back to the lineup combos…certainly, his Staff sees this…no? But it continues to happen. 
Anyways, yesterday was a good win (Mgbako and Ballo played awesome) but almost lost when the 2nd unit came in. Stick to an 8 man rotation and If you have to go deeper due to foul trouble, stagger the subbing. 

[Stuhoo 81,301]

1 hour ago, Dave from Dayton said:

RTT:  Really appreciate this post.

Glad the team is playing with more hustle and getting to the right spots on offense.  

However, there are two things that I would like to ask about.  Once across the half-court line, IU struggled at getting the ball into a good half-court offense.  Secondly, Penn State does not shoot 3's well... averaging about 20% and they shot worse.  At the line they shot under 60%.  Seemed to me it was not because of our defense. Well, our free throw defense obviously worked./s They drove the lane.  They just had a bad 3 point and free throw shooting night.

So, why does IU not help Miles Rice get the ball into the offense?  Penn State guards defense really was good at the top of the key.  That slowed our offense down in the first half.  In the second half, Mack broke it open because he got the ball quickly on offense and hit. 

What will happen to IU when an opponent hits shots at their normal rate of efficiency?  I did not see better defense by IU in the second half.  But it probably was there.  Did IU improve on defense in the second half?  How can IU improve that side of the equatiockn?

(And why the heck does Woody put in the awful 3, 8, 9 lineups?  That almost lost the game right there.)

 

Penn State was shooting 35.3% from three going into the game yesterday; well above average (but on fairly low volume). They were also at 88 points per game going into yesterday's game. 

We were fortunate that they left points at the free throw line (they missed about three free throws below what their average would have dictated), but our perimeter defense was pretty excellent and they are now at 34% from three as a team. 

We beat a good team, beat a likely NCAA tourney team, and got a Q1 win on the road. We weren't 'perfect' but I'm not thinking there's a way to accurately portray a summary downside to that game. 

 

[Dave from Dayton 3,253]

59 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Penn State was shooting 35.3% from three going into the game yesterday; well above average (but on fairly low volume). They were also at 88 points per game going into yesterday's game. 

We were fortunate that they left points at the free throw line (they missed about three free throws below what their average would have dictated), but our perimeter defense was pretty excellent and they are now at 34% from three as a team. 

We beat a good team, beat a likely NCAA tourney team, and got a Q1 win on the road. We weren't 'perfect' but I'm not thinking there's a way to accurately portray a summary downside to that game. 

 

You are right.  There really is no downside to winning at Penn State on the road the way we did it.  This is an important Quad 1 win.  Did not mean to downplay that fact.

IU has gotten over that hump in two games.  

By the way, I thought that I had read that in the last 4 games before the IU game, Penn State had not shot the 3 well.  Can't find that this morning.  Oh well.

I am somewhat frustrated when an opponent's defense stops our PG or ball handlers and there is an inability to get the ball moving on offense.  Spoiled by Quinn Buckner, Isiah Thomas, Yogi Ferrell as a frosh...  But those teams had ball handlers, shooters who knew how to move and screen, and a coach that understood X's and O's....and made the best of matchups.

The three point shooting and ball handling are better than we were earlier in the season.  Ballo continues to get better.  Mgbako broke this game open to start the 2nd half...and others contributed immediately. 

14 turnovers seems kind of high, but against Penn State's defense...it is somewhat better than it would have been earlier in the season.  

Still not happy about the lineup with 8, 9, and 3 in it.  I speculate that Woody is trying to give opportunities to those three to get over their collective humps.  Or something...  It is too terrible for far too long and almost killed us. 

We need Reneau.  Just as long as he and Ballo do not clog up the offense together.

 

[go iu bb 6,230]

26 minutes ago, Dave from Dayton said:

By the way, I thought that I had read that in the last 4 games before the IU game, Penn State had not shot the 3 well.  Can't find that this morning.  Oh well.

 

The 4 games before IU their percentages from 3: 32.4, 21.4, 22.2, 26.7

So yes, you are correct, they haven't been shooting well recently although I'd say it's 3 games instead of 4 since they hit 11 3s against Coppin State. However, their FT percentages in those games were 75.0, 93.3, 84.6, 80.0 so maybe those were more a credit to defenses than just bad shooting nights.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/penn-state/men/2025-gamelogs.html

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 8,695]

Is Reneau being out like James Blackmon going down?

[Hoosierfanyuh 2,286]

2 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Is Reneau being out like James Blackmon going down?

We’ll see. We’ll be in danger territory if ballo ever gets in foul trouble. (Don’t believe he’s ever fouled out though)

[RaceToTheTop 26,088]

I like Leal but he has to present himself as at least an offensive option.  There has been some occasions in the last couple of games where he literally had had just slightly contested shots near the rim and he chose to pass it rather than take them.