IUBB vs Baylor (Exhibition) - Sunday, 10.26.25 @ 1:00 on B1G+

[Scotty R]

18 minutes ago, FortWayneHoosier said:

also did you see where some of the players were not wearing candy stips, but more of a sweat/track pant?

 

I am pretty sure those are the injured players and they didn't dress for the game 

[Stuhoo]

17 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

The moment in this game where I truly saw that IU has turned the corner on being a modern college basketball team was when they broke the press and DeVries drained a 3 in rhythm in transition.  Beautiful to see.  I’m sure they will have some growing pains this year however seeing that play brought a smile to my face.  My favorite play of the exhibition 

Oh yeah? Then this play is everything too:

 

[CSP]

26 minutes ago, FortWayneHoosier said:

also did you see where some of the players were not wearing candy stips, but more of a sweat/track pant?

 

weren't those the injured guys? 

[FortWayneHoosier]

49 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

I am pretty sure those are the injured players and they didn't dress for the game 

 

41 minutes ago, CSP said:

weren't those the injured guys? 

I believe you fellas are correct!!!

[Uspshoosier]

48 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Oh yeah? Then this play is everything too:

 

That was the play.  I thought it was DeVries who hit it. 

[Demo]

I was there as well. Thought the energy was decent from the tiny crowd, but it was fun and certainly worth the way too expensive tickets. Agree with a lot of what’s noted above, couple of things to add:

1) The difference early in the 2nd half was really good ball pressure and that was freaking Conerway. In the 1st 4 Baylor possessions he forced a TO in the post with a hard dig, helped off on a driver and blocked a shot and just straight pressured a kid on the wing into a TO. Really set a tone. Easy to see why Chris Jans really wanted him. Thought he was the best player on the floor the entire 2nd half. 
2) The Bailey thing is concerning. He lacks lower body strength, gets bumped off path way too easily and gets outleveraged. There may not be a lot teams that can take advantage of him on the block. But the ones that can, yeesh. What made him good at Davidson was playing out of the high post with a facilitation piece and I don’t know if that’s how this is gonna go. He may end up being a bit of a misfit. Side note: the “I’m 15 and can sort of grow a ‘stache now” look has got to go. Reed, cut that thing, you’re an adult. 
3) Really hope when Dorn gets healthy he can fill that long wing piece that they lacked yesterday. Carr was really good for Baylor, but he’s not super special. IU just had no matchup for him. 
4) DeVries said he didn’t call much late in the game. Didn’t appear to me like he called much at any point. Just looked like they were running tons of continuity. Did the same thing against Marian. Would think that will be a fair percentage of their offense, but I imagine there is a lot we haven’t seen. 
    Thought on the whole it was pretty encouraging and certainly entertaining. It was mentioned a couple of times above, but the 2 pass press break into the 1 on 1 Wilkerson 3 was awesome. 20 years ago that would’ve got you a seat. 

[Hoosierfanyuh]

We’ are also not going to shoot 25% from 3 very often either… imagine 2-4 more of those of fallen… completely different game. I hate playing the IF game but I expect our percentage to be way higher 

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

We’ are also not going to shoot 25% from 3 very often either… imagine 2-4 more of those of fallen… completely different game. I hate playing the IF game but I expect our percentage to be way higher 

Wholeheartedly agree. We have some really good shooters. With continuing chemistry as they continue to gel the shooting is going to continue to improve. Such a refreshing return to basketball 

[HoosierHoopster]

Whoops wrong thread

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Just now, HoosierHoopster said:

Pssst.  Wrong thread!!

[ebridges24]

2 hours ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

We’ are also not going to shoot 25% from 3 very often either… imagine 2-4 more of those of fallen… completely different game. I hate playing the IF game but I expect our percentage to be way higher 

Someone says this after every game it  seems. When will it come to fruition? I know, I know, we haven't even had a real game yet!

[CSP]

4 hours ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

We’ are also not going to shoot 25% from 3 very often either… imagine 2-4 more of those of fallen… completely different game. I hate playing the IF game but I expect our percentage to be way higher 

We got great looks 

[str8baller]

13 hours ago, Demo said:

2) The Bailey thing is concerning. He lacks lower body strength, gets bumped off path way too easily and gets outleveraged. There may not be a lot teams that can take advantage of him on the block. But the ones that can, yeesh.

He’s got kind of a high center of gravity. He looked decent enough in space at times. I wonder if the staff can work with him to continue to get low and apply more leverage in the post defensively. You can see why CDD mentioned playing him and Alexis together, though. 
 

There’s too much roster turnover for me to keep up with but I wonder how many B1G teams even have a guy who can punish us down low. I still worry more about the rebounds. All those guys seem to be below average rebounders for their position. Maybe that’s where a more athletic wing comes into play over Enright. 

[Scotty R]

11 hours ago, ebridges24 said:

Someone says this after every game it  seems. When will it come to fruition? I know, I know, we haven't even had a real game yet!

Didn't this team hit 15-30 in the first exhibition game so they proved they can shoot well

[Aaron]

Watching one game against P5 basketball in person for IU, a few clear things can be taken away.

Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries are clear top level players. It’s why it took an all out war to win them in portal (or in DeVries' case being coaches' son that would have otherwise had every top level school interested). Sisley will get there but raw as top freshman and Alexis from Florida has p5 traits with rebounding and athleticism but not a huge scorer. Also Conerway, can clearly hold his own at this level with p5 tools and driving ability.

Rest of guys look like mid-major players in size and ability (especially Bailey at the five really concerns me) and it’s why Indiana easily won their services in portal. Team lacks size and athleticism and ability to win or lose will be entirely on heart, hustle, and 3’s falling. The lack of size is main reason for the foul trouble we saw in this one and could well be ongoing problem.

This isn’t Crean’s first team given you have five p5 level players while that had none. Whether this year is more like Crean's competitive third year team that plays hard and loses and goes 12-20 or is a bubble team at 20-12 will depend entirely on how many times 3’s fall in conference play.

Shooting and heart will determine with squad's ceiling and right now I'd believe anywhere from back end tourney team to 13-15 wins depending on these two factors and how well things go with them. A lot will come down to if Darian DeVries can can maximize his roster in ways Crean could not.

[Home Jersey]

31 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Watching one game against P5 basketball in person for IU, a few clear things can be taken away.

Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries are clear top level players. It’s why it took an all out war to win them in portal (or in DeVries' case being coaches' son that would have otherwise had every top level school interested). Sisley will get there but raw as top freshman and Alexis from Florida has p5 traits with rebounding and athleticism but not a huge scorer. Also Conerway, can clearly hold his own at this level with p5 tools and driving ability.

Rest of guys look like mid-major players in size and ability (especially Bailey at the five really concerns me) and it’s why Indiana easily won their services in portal. Team lacks size and athleticism and ability to win or lose will be entirely on heart, hustle, and 3’s falling. The lack of size is main reason for the foul trouble we saw in this one and could well be ongoing problem.

This isn’t Crean’s first team given you have five p5 level players while that had none. Whether this year is more like Crean's competitive third year team that plays hard and loses and goes 12-20 or is a bubble team at 20-12 will depend entirely on how many times 3’s fall in conference play.

Shooting and heart will determine with squad's ceiling and right now I'd believe anywhere from back end tourney team to 13-15 wins depending on these two factors and how well things go with them. A lot will come down to if Darian DeVries can can maximize his roster in ways Crean could not.

Don't disagree with much of what you said at all... but if this team only gets 13-15 wins I will **** in my hat and pull it over my ears.

I think the floor is closer to 18/19 wins and the best case scenario is probably an 8/9 seed. Still too soon to tell IMO.

Definitely share your concern about Bailey. Will be interesting to see how he fares against Ben Gold and Marquette. Really hope Dorn plays in that one. And Sisley... if he focuses on rebounding and defense, he will see plenty of time on this team. The scoring will come along.

I have a lot of confidence in DDV setting his players up for success. There are known deficiencies and things won't always go our way... but beating Baylor in a game where we shot 25% from 3 and lost the rebounding battle by 19 makes me cautiously optimistic about this team overcoming adversity and finding ways to win.

[Shooter]

3 hours ago, Aaron said:

Watching one game against P5 basketball in person for IU, a few clear things can be taken away.

Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries are clear top level players. It’s why it took an all out war to win them in portal (or in DeVries' case being coaches' son that would have otherwise had every top level school interested). Sisley will get there but raw as top freshman and Alexis from Florida has p5 traits with rebounding and athleticism but not a huge scorer. Also Conerway, can clearly hold his own at this level with p5 tools and driving ability.

Rest of guys look like mid-major players in size and ability (especially Bailey at the five really concerns me) and it’s why Indiana easily won their services in portal. Team lacks size and athleticism and ability to win or lose will be entirely on heart, hustle, and 3’s falling. The lack of size is main reason for the foul trouble we saw in this one and could well be ongoing problem.

This isn’t Crean’s first team given you have five p5 level players while that had none. Whether this year is more like Crean's competitive third year team that plays hard and loses and goes 12-20 or is a bubble team at 20-12 will depend entirely on how many times 3’s fall in conference play.

Shooting and heart will determine with squad's ceiling and right now I'd believe anywhere from back end tourney team to 13-15 wins depending on these two factors and how well things go with them. A lot will come down to if Darian DeVries can can maximize his roster in ways Crean could not.

It's fair to question if Bailey can hang as a 5 in the Big Ten. But I don't think it's accurate to say he has mid major ability. Not many guys his size who can move and have the ball skills that he does.

Dorn I think is also an important piece for this team when he gets healthy. 6'7" shooter, seems a natural fit for us at the 3. UNC and Maryland wanted him out of the portal too.

[str8baller]

3 hours ago, Aaron said:

Rest of guys look like mid-major players in size and ability (especially Bailey at the five really concerns me) and it’s why Indiana easily won their services in portal. Team lacks size and athleticism and ability to win or lose will be entirely on heart, hustle, and 3’s falling.

Enright played and started for a P5 team last year. He was also pretty coveted by a coach who had a top 15 DefE last year at a power 5 school. I think the lack of athleticism might be a tad overstated.  I’ve seen guys like Bo Ryan and Tony Bennett put out really good defensive teams without a ton of top line athletic talent.  
 

But that does kind of bleed into the rebounding. Yes we struggled to rebound on the defensive end. But a huge portion of their advantage was in the 16 vs 4 offensive rebounds stat. I doubt you’ll see us get many this year as guys hustle back to set-up our half court defense. The aforementioned mentioned Ryan and Bennett rarely had prolific offensive rebounding teams for the exact same reason. So we’ll usually get out rebounded but hopefully to the tune of getting good D efficiency (which will somewhat be dampened if we still struggle with defensive rebounds).** We got there in the second half and Coach Drew even praised it in post game.  
 

I think the rate at which we will make 3’s won’t affect our floor as much as it does our ceiling. Our floor will be determined by how well they defend. If we defend like the first 10 min of that exhibition somewhere in the mid-teens is realistic. If we defend like we did in the second half, we shouldn’t have a problem making the tourney.   
 

 

**while I agree on some of Baileys limitations, Baylors two leading rebounders were long athletic guards. We can shore up a significant portion of our rebounding issue by getting better at blocking out as a team. 
 

 

[HoosierHoopster]

^^^  And while it was just an exhibition game and we shouldn't take it for more than that, our guys did hang with a good Baylor team and did so with minimal sideline coaching in at least the closing minutes of the first half and game. a 15-win take from that seems really unwarranted, imo. 

To me, this is a team that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts -- and that's the opposite of a Woodson coached team.

[Home Jersey]

Bailey is one of the biggest questions for many posters coming off this game. 

The next meaningful competition we play is Marquette. 

He will match up with Ben Gold, 6'11 235 (Reed is 6'10 229)

He played 25 mpg last year and averaged 7.4ppg 4.3rebs .9 assists .8 blocks. Shot 37% from 3 on 4 attempts a game.

He will be the starter this year. This player profile from a Marquette site was an interesting read, some excerpts:

Quote

 

The fact of the matter is that Ben Gold is probably not best suited to be a traditional 5 in a college basketball rotation, but it looks like that’s going to be his role. Set screens, score in the post, rebounding like crazy.... maybe not the best use of his skills, so Marquette’s going to have to find a way to make Gold an efficient center. He’s probably a better-than-you-realize rebounder but given Marquette’s overall rebounding problems under Shaka Smart’s direction, it’s hard to look at Ben Gold and say “yep, there’s the solution to the problem.”

So on top of the idea that he’s going to have to produce in order to justify the starter’s minutes, Gold is also going to have to be able to stay on the floor. For each of the past two seasons, the big Kiwi has averaged more than four fouls per 40 minute per KenPom.

...

But of everyone on the roster, Gold is perhaps the only one who is seeing a major reconfiguration of what’s being expected of him. 

“God, Andy, just give us the Torvik algorithm expectation already, come on!” Yeah, I know, I wanted to set the tone first..... because the algorithm isn’t super exciting. 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists in a little more than 21 minutes a night. See? You were expecting more from Gold in your head, weren’t you?

...

Offensive rebounding. I don’t know how often Gold will end up in a good position to be there for that if Marquette does play a lot of 5-out with him on the floor, but easy putbacks is a fun way to get a lot of two-pointers.

We have to at least acknowledge the possibility that Caedin Hamilton might fit the 5 position on the floor better than Gold. Not just because of the skills by the way, but also because Hamilton visually appears to be a more physical inside presence than Gold has shown himself to be and/or than Gold visually appears to be.

Shaka Smart has said in the past that part of what the coaching staff is doing with Gold is trying to get him to believe he can be as good as the coaching staff believes he can be.

 

Marquette added nobody in the portal. They lost their 3 leading scorers I think. So they will be playing freshmen and looking for guys to step up in new roles. Should be a fun early season match up.