Puerto Rico Trip 8/5 - 8/12

[realTomCrean 2,797]

9 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

I don't think we can reasonably call a ceiling for this team / most teams in August. 

A wise man that coaches football in Bloomington has a good quote about this... :)

Final four!

[Home Jersey 16,976]

53 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Final four!

That's more like it CTC! Lol

[jermhoosierfan 448]

11 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

And their Superbet prep before today’s game two:

https://www.bcmegabasket.net/en/2025/08/11/mega-superbet-u-portoriku-igra-drugu-utakmicu-protiv-univerziteta-indijana-avdalovic-bice-potrebna-veca-energija-kako-bismo-parirali-spremijem-protivniku/

His quotes almost sound like they come out of Rocky 4.  It gives us a really good indicator of what they can look like come this November.

"We’ve analyzed the first game, and I believe we’ll correct the mistakes we made in the second half. We’ve only recently come together as a team, and these games will be extremely useful as we continue our preseason preparations—though of course, we aim to win every game,"

 

[str8baller 7,860]

11 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

https://x.com/itsantwright/status/1955077836676497775?s=46

Sounds about like an average-ish high major team in terms of talent level. Of course, there are several other variables like coaching, cohesion, etc…that we’ll never know about that determine how tough of an opponent they actually were. But a nice opponent to measure a new team against in live competition.  
 

Also, I saw Ants previous tweet and I’m pretty sure this one was in response to all the whiner Purdue and Illinois teams saying that Mega Superbet sucked. Ant seemed to think it was a pretty solid showing by IU. 

[OGIUAndy 1,189]

5 hours ago, str8baller said:

Sounds about like an average-ish high major team in terms of talent level. Of course, there are several other variables like coaching, cohesion, etc…that we’ll never know about that determine how tough of an opponent they actually were. But a nice opponent to measure a new team against in live competition.  
 

Also, I saw Ants previous tweet and I’m pretty sure this one was in response to all the whiner Purdue and Illinois teams saying that Mega Superbet sucked. Ant seemed to think it was a pretty solid showing by IU. 

Posted this on HSN. For some historical context I did some research on the Serbian club IU played. In 2018 they played Kentucky and lost 100–64 then beat Michigan 81–73. In 2019 they played Texas Tech twice; losing 94–92 then winning 76-73. In 2021 they lost to IU twice in Woody's first year 79-66 and 64-53. In 2022 they split with Virginia, winning 92-73 then losing 94-87. In 2024 they played G-League United and lost both 99-81, 99-66.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 93,961]

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/08/12/iu-basketballs-all-around-success-in-puerto-rico-signals-a-fresh-start/

[HoosierHoopster 8,955]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/08/12/iu-basketballs-all-around-success-in-puerto-rico-signals-a-fresh-start/

Ahh, this says it all -

 

In its three games on the island, Indiana attempted 87 3-pointers and made 26, shooting just under 30 percent.

The transition offense was as advertised, too. All five players consistently pushed the ball upcourt, attacking quickly and scoring in transition before the defense could get set.

The Hoosiers averaged 90.6 points per game, scoring at least 81 points in each game. The pace at which Indiana played wore down both opponents by the end of the first half.

“I think stylistically, we’re playing to how we want to play,” DeVries said of the three games. “Most of that comes down to that movement, being able to give yourself up so that we can get another guy an open shot.”

In years past, Indiana’s downfall was a severe lack of in-game adjustments.. Instruction during games was minimal.

Under DeVries, that has changed. He made timely adjustments that helped guide his team to two comeback wins. Throughout each game, he and his staff consistently coached and taught from the bench.

[Demo 25,102]

https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/took-that-personally-darian-devries-lamar-wilkerson-indiana-basketball-exhibition-puerto-rico-mega-superbet
 

Nice little read. My assumption all along has been that as the guy with the ball this would probably evolve into Conerway’s team but at least early on it pretty clearly appears to be Wilkerson’s.

[Shooter 716]

I'm glad we won, and I'm even more glad the guys got a chance to bond and develop chemistry. But exhibitions don't mean jack.

Last year I watched us beat Tennessee in Knoxville, in the most real game-like exhibition I can think of. And then the season started and Tennessee won 30 games, and we sucked.

We won't know anything about this team until the real games start.

[go iu bb 10,098]

7 minutes ago, Shooter said:

I'm glad we won, and I'm even more glad the guys got a chance to bond and develop chemistry. But exhibitions don't mean jack.

Last year I watched us beat Tennessee in Knoxville, in the most real game-like exhibition I can think of. And then the season started and Tennessee won 30 games, and we sucked.

We won't know anything about this team until the real games start.

I pretty much agree with you but there are some things that I took away from these games as things that can be expected when the real games begin: 

- The offense will look much different this year. 3s or close to the basket will be the shots they're trying to get. Very few long 2s.

- The team has some heart. They could have easily folded but fought back from 20+ deficits in 2 games. 

- 4 of the starting positions are probably locked in as Bailey, DeVries, Wilkerson, and Conerway. 

But, yes, you can't really use these games to predict how they'll perform in the season, especially the B1G.

[Napleshoosier 11,008]

20 minutes ago, Shooter said:

I'm glad we won, and I'm even more glad the guys got a chance to bond and develop chemistry. But exhibitions don't mean jack.

Last year I watched us beat Tennessee in Knoxville, in the most real game-like exhibition I can think of. And then the season started and Tennessee won 30 games, and we sucked.

We won't know anything about this team until the real games start.

Or that was as good as that team was going to get and it was down hill from then on because Woody sucks at coaching!  That game was a fight and tempers were flaring if you remember. Full house in Knoxville too.

[Stuhoo 91,447]

27 minutes ago, Shooter said:

I'm glad we won, and I'm even more glad the guys got a chance to bond and develop chemistry. But exhibitions don't mean jack.

Last year I watched us beat Tennessee in Knoxville, in the most real game-like exhibition I can think of. And then the season started and Tennessee won 30 games, and we sucked.

We won't know anything about this team until the real games start.

We learned some good info about the relative importance of our players. We didn’t learn all that much about how good the team will be.

[OGIUAndy 1,189]

48 minutes ago, Shooter said:

I'm glad we won, and I'm even more glad the guys got a chance to bond and develop chemistry. But exhibitions don't mean jack.

Last year I watched us beat Tennessee in Knoxville, in the most real game-like exhibition I can think of. And then the season started and Tennessee won 30 games, and we sucked.

We won't know anything about this team until the real games start.

I agree 100% but it's better to win these than lose them and like what was mentioned, the style of play seems more aligned to what fans including myself have been looking for ie energy and competitiveness. He seems like he knows what he is doing but way too early to tell. A friend of a friend who was at the games in PR said "...You're going to love the way we play this season...". Another one of my friends said "It is funny, D-Rock's coaching philosophy seems to be more like Crean's. Everybody thinks it is great but they didn't like Crean when all he got was a bunch of NBA guys and no in state recruits. It is just kind of ironic. Part of "modern basketball" is high major programs recruit nationally and internationally.  Don't complain when we miss out of the 2 or 3 in state 5 stars." Recruiting will be interesting considering his main guy is the same main guy as Crean's.   

[Shooter 716]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

We learned some good info about the relative importance of our players. We didn’t learn all that much about how good the team will be.

I was convinced after that game that Myles Rice was our best player and an all-conference level PG. I still think he's a lot better than he showed under Woodson, but I suppose that's a topic for another thread.

[str8baller 7,860]

5 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

In its three games on the island, Indiana attempted 87 3-pointers and made 26, shooting just under 30 percent.

Just because it’s fun to extrapolate from small data sets: 

29 attempts from 3 per game would put us in the top 10-20 teams in the nation in 3’s per game. 
 

~29% from 3 would put us in the bottom 10-20 teams in the nation in 3pt %. 
 

For reference, Central Arkansas shot similar splits last year from 3 and were the 349th most efficient team in the country…lol. We’ll need to make more to be a top 20 offense. But in fairness, had Wilkerson not had a really off game one time and Devries shot better, those numbers probably look more like we want. We also got to the line 20+ times a game, converted 46% of our FG’s, and had 71assists over 3 games, so I am sure our overall efficiency was better than our 3pt percentage indicates. 
 

For reference, teams like Duke, Florida, and Alabama that shot high volumes of 3’s last year hit around 35-39% of their 3’s. Also, nobody averaged over 20 assists a game last year. I would suspect that if this team can get that 3pt% into the above range playing that style they have a shot at the top 20 offense some have mentioned. But then again we’re talking Puerto Rico basketball in August, so….
 

 

[Stuhoo 91,447]

17 minutes ago, Shooter said:

I was convinced after that game that Myles Rice was our best player and an all-conference level PG. I still think he's a lot better than he showed under Woodson, but I suppose that's a topic for another thread.

Not a perfect world.. These games were informative, not a guarantee.

[RaceToTheTop 31,661]

I took away from the games that the split in minutes between Bailey and Alexis is likely to be pretty even.

[8bucks 7,655]

3 hours ago, OGIUAndy said:

I agree 100% but it's better to win these than lose them and like what was mentioned, the style of play seems more aligned to what fans including myself have been looking for ie energy and competitiveness. He seems like he knows what he is doing but way too early to tell. A friend of a friend who was at the games in PR said "...You're going to love the way we play this season...". Another one of my friends said "It is funny, D-Rock's coaching philosophy seems to be more like Crean's. Everybody thinks it is great but they didn't like Crean when all he got was a bunch of NBA guys and no in state recruits. It is just kind of ironic. Part of "modern basketball" is high major programs recruit nationally and internationally.  Don't complain when we miss out of the 2 or 3 in state 5 stars." Recruiting will be interesting considering his main guy is the same main guy as Crean's.   

Crean was not fired because he only got NBA guys and no in state recruits. Hopefully you set him straight 

[Goober 163]

WHAT IF we lost by 1 would the positivity still be here? Just amazing the difference 1 basket makes.

But then again, WHAT IF, a goats butt looked like an ice cream cone? 

[cthomas 6,741]

No matter how this trip turned out, I would not be drawing any conclusions for how the season is going to go. It's a bunch of guys getting to know each other and this trip helped with that. The B1G is loaded with talent. How IU plays against that talent remains to be seen. Toughness and resiliency can only take a team so far. Talent and coaching matters. Both of those, in my opinion, remain to be seen. I'm looking for a team that plays smart and with all out effort from the the beginning until the end. If I see that, this upcoming season will be a success.