IUBB @ O$U - Saturday, 03.07.26 @ 5:30 on Fox-TV

[str8baller]

20 minutes ago, Asha’man said:

Dusty said the same thing last year. The physicality of the league took him by surprise. 

He was so surprised he finished second in conference, won the btt, and made the sweet sixteen.

 

 

[spe317]

The Big Ten Conference plays an outdated style of basketball. It’s overly physical and interior centric. Thus the struggle in March. I’d imagine if you weren’t an IU fan and had no interest in the conference, you would choose other conferences 9 out of 10 times. 
 

Adapt or die. 

[Asha’man]

38 minutes ago, str8baller said:

He was so surprised he finished second in conference, won the btt, and made the sweet sixteen.

 

 

He also didn’t have an empty cupboard. But it’s why he went out and got 3 bigs for this year. It’s definitely impacted his portal approach this last offseason. I expect DeVries and Carr to adjust as well. 
 

As upset ppl are after a loss, this team was 2 winnable games away from being in the dance, NW and Minnesota. With as flawed as the roster is, that was pretty good. They didn’t meet fan expectations but they did meet season expectations from a roster composition standpoint, as posted in another thread. 
 

On to portal season. I hope they decline any post season tournament so they can focus on building the team. 

[str8baller]

18 minutes ago, Asha’man said:

this team was 2 winnable games away from being in the dance

They were some good coaching away from being at the bare minimum of standards.   
 

With a few breaks next year I think we can all agree we’ll be a consensus #1 team and Final Four favorite. 

[Asha’man]

8 minutes ago, str8baller said:

They were some good coaching away from being at the bare minimum of standards.   
 

With a few breaks next year I think we can all agree we’ll be a consensus #1 team and Final Four favorite. 

National title favorites. Forget the final four. It’s a forgone conclusion 

[Uspshoosier]

10 minutes ago, str8baller said:

They were some good coaching away from being at the bare minimum of standards.   
 

With a few breaks next year I think we can all agree we’ll be a consensus #1 team and Final Four favorite. 

The way it works sometimes.   I think many would agree this roster wasn’t B1G level after the first couple league games or even before.   Unbalance schedule didn’t go their way.   They played the second hardest B1G schedule with a non B1G roster.  Would have been nice if more of their road games were against middle of the pack or bottom of the league teams.  No guarantee they would have won them however they had no shot playing the top of the league teams on the road. Schedule better in the non con and you have this flawed roster in the tourney first year.  Either way it was a flawed roster to begin with that had no shot of making a run if they made it 

[RaceToTheTop]

2 hours ago, Golfman25 said:

That’s what I thought I heard.   Big problem.  A basketball lifer should know about the other conferences.   You do play them in the tournament.  

And big ten teams don’t do well in the tourney, in part because it isn’t reffed like the big ten is

[Golfman25]

27 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

And big ten teams don’t do well in the tourney, in part because it isn’t reffed like the big ten is

Yeah, the real key would be to develop a roster and adjust to succeed in both the big10 and the tournament.  

[str8baller]

8 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

No guarantee they would have won them however they had no shot playing the top of the league teams on the road.

They had no shot to win against the top team’s at home either. It was better to have them on the road, even if statistically it made your schedule harder. Having Illinois and Michigan only once on the road is a nice break. Playing MSU twice stunk but it happens.

Otoh we got Minny twice, NW, PU, Nebraska and Iowa at home and only managed to go 1-3 versus that latter group. At home.  
 

Either way, the roster has little to do with coming out and laying an egg in a deciding game at the end of the year. OSU might’ve had better athletes but they also have a poor coach. They’re similar to IU—or were going into that game—in almost every metric.  
 

Honestly, I barely watched after the first ten minutes. we had plans and I don’t care that much to make time to watch these guys. So if some of you that watched closer than me want to claim we did a really good job and the score doesn’t reflect our effort and preparation, then so be it. The first ten minutes looked like more of the same to me though. 

[Uspshoosier]

14 minutes ago, str8baller said:

Having Illinois and Michigan only once on the road is a nice break. Playing MSU twice stunk but it happens.

Flip side of that is not getting to play Oregon, Penn St, Washington, Northwestern on the road wasn’t a good. break.  As pointed out IU couldn’t compete with top of the bracket teams on the road or home so missing out on 4 road games where they had a better shot to win cheap Q1 or Q2 games against non tourney teams.  End of the day they didn’t win enough but unbalanced schedules played a part.  Again no guarantee they would of won those games however I would like their chances better playing them then the top of the league on road 
 

[Jeff Flabjohns]

I think avoiding what would have been losses to Washington and Northwestern on the road was a good thing. 

[Alford Bailey]

12 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

IU could have been projected solidly in the field if they scheduled better in the non conference.   No reason for the program as it is to today to be scheduling games like Kentucky and Louisville.  Fans want them but they do 0 for the program and have done 0 for them the last 4 years.   They have been easy Q1 wins for the other teams that help their resume.   IU would have been better off scheduling lower level power 5 programs or even Miami(oh) and that would have giving them a better chance at improving their resume.    Iowas “big” non conference wins this year were Grand Canyon and Ole Miss (4-14 in conference) and that gave them 2 Q1 wins.    

It’s not like Kentucky and Louisville were top 10 programs this year. Both programs fans are pretty upset about how far they’ve fallen too.

[Eagle’s Rug]

11 hours ago, RaceToTheTop said:

And big ten teams don’t do well in the tourney, in part because it isn’t reffed like the big ten is

How is it different than other conferences?  I agree with you but have no basis for that.

It’s also drastically different from one half to the next.

 

[Uspshoosier]

21 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

It’s not like Kentucky and Louisville were top 10 programs this year. Both programs fans are pretty upset about how far they’ve fallen too.

Not top 10 however a non con road game at a Net top 29 team and neutral court game against a Net top 13 team could of been replaced with other home games that could of produced a higher chance of a better record.    Overall I’m saying the philosophy of playing Arizona, Louisville, Kentucky or Kansas or not beneficial to IU as a program right now.  Scheduling lesser power 4 programs should be the move until IUs program is at a place where they can win back to back winning conference records 

[str8baller]

1 minute ago, Eagle’s Rug said:

How is it different than other conferences?  I agree with you but have no basis for that.

It’s also drastically different from one half to the next.

 

It’s not. There aren’t even league officials. The B1G hasn’t done well in the tourney because there haven’t been any elite coaches in 20+ years. Izzo is the closest thing, he always does well in March, but historically he can’t compete with the recruiting of UK, KU, Duke, and UNC. Beilien and Bo made Final games when they recruited well. Knight had no problems in March and built a team Davis could take deep in March. Self even built a team good enough for Bruce Webber to take to the Final Four. Even Purdue made a title game where…they were beat by a team with more talent. 
 

The B1G has a coaching problem. IU’s one of the main culprits. Although maybe that’s changing with May at UM. The ref thing is just fan cope. 

[HoosierDevils]

8 minutes ago, str8baller said:

It’s not. There aren’t even league officials. The B1G hasn’t done well in the tourney because there haven’t been any elite coaches in 20+ years. Izzo is the closest thing, he always does well in March, but historically he can’t compete with the recruiting of UK, KU, Duke, and UNC. Beilien and Bo made Final games when they recruited well. Knight had no problems in March and built a team Davis could take deep in March. Self even built a team good enough for Bruce Webber to take to the Final Four. Even Purdue made a title game where…they were beat by a team with more talent. 
 

The B1G has a coaching problem. IU’s one of the main culprits. Although maybe that’s changing with May at UM. The ref thing is just fan cope. 

I think it was over the summer but X’s and Joe’s had an episode about the talent deficit in the Big 10 and the shift of HS talent to the sun belt over time 

[Hoosier987]

1 hour ago, Uspshoosier said:

Not top 10 however a non con road game at a Net top 29 team and neutral court game against a Net top 13 team could of been replaced with other home games that could of produced a higher chance of a better record.    Overall I’m saying the philosophy of playing Arizona, Louisville, Kentucky or Kansas or not beneficial to IU as a program right now.  Scheduling lesser power 4 programs should be the move until IUs program is at a place where they can win back to back winning conference records 

I think that was the plan this year. We did play lesser programs this year in K-State and Marquette. Unfortunately both teams sucked and did nothing to help our Tournament Resume.

[pumpfake]

53 minutes ago, HoosierDevils said:

I think it was over the summer but X’s and Joe’s had an episode about the talent deficit in the Big 10 and the shift of HS talent to the sun belt over time 

I certainly think that's a major factor.

For some time I've believed that it's easier for teams to force a slower, more physical pace given similar talent, so ccoaches have tended to prefer that style.

[Uspshoosier]

10 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

I think that was the plan this year. We did play lesser programs this year in K-State and Marquette. Unfortunately both teams sucked and did nothing to help our Tournament Resume.

Marquette had been rolling the last couple years so I don’t think anyone thought they would have taken a step back like they did.   Most teams that schedule 4 power 4 teams in the non conference that are not part of a MTE (Maui, Bahamas, etc) do it because of where their program is and know their team can handle it.   All I’m saying right or wrong is IU wants to schedule these marquee non conference games with successful programs like they are still at the top of college basketball.  They would be better off scheduling in a way that would give them the best chance to win the most games.  For instance this year schedule your 2 power 4 games with Marquette and K-State and then schedule a couple high mid majors at home or one at a neutral and you give yourself a better chance to be successful.  Schedule this way until you get the program back to a point to where they are not getting embarrassed in every high high major non conference marquee games like they have the last 4 years.    What’s the closest non conference game they have scheduled in the last 4 years?  Seems like it’s been a while since they were competitive