College Bball Thread

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

23 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

He certainly struggled with Cuse's Zone. But then, in that awful SW16 game, Hulls was playing injured, couldn't shoot, and Cody couldn't do anything in the middle. Unfortunate.

Crean proved over the course of his career he struggled with a 2/3 zone but I won’t kill him too much for struggling against that Syracuse zone or team.   When Cuse has the athletes and players that fit their system that 2/3 zone isn’t your normal 2/3 zone.  It just isn’t.   They have made better coaches then Crean look silly when they have their guys.   Worst matchup possible for that IU team.    Playing a top 10 KenPom team in the sweet 16 that year. Cuse defensive efficiency that year finished 6th.  Plenty of other examples of him not being able to figure out a zone but that team Cuse team was just as loaded as IU was.   

[HoosierX 1,803]

5 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Crean proved over the course of his career he struggled with a 2/3 zone but I won’t kill him too much for struggling against that Syracuse zone or team.   When Cuse has the athletes and players that fit their system that 2/3 zone isn’t your normal 2/3 zone.  It just isn’t.   They have made better coaches then Crean look silly when they have their guys.   Worst matchup possible for that IU team.    Playing a top 10 KenPom team in the sweet 16 that year. Cuse defensive efficiency that year finished 6th.  Plenty of other examples of him not being able to figure out a zone but that team Cuse team was just as loaded as IU was.   

To be fair, that team played poorly almost the entire end of the year, and we were lucky to get by Temple in the round of 32.

[Hovadipo 61,907]

2 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Crean proved over the course of his career he struggled with a 2/3 zone but I won’t kill too much for struggling against that Syracuse zone or team.   When Cuse has the athletes and players that fit their system that 2/3 zone isn’t your normal 2/3 zone.  It just isn’t.   They have made better coaches then Crean look silly when they have their guys.   Worst matchup possible for that IU team.    Playing a top 10 KenPom team in the sweet 16 that year. Cuse defensive efficiency that year finished 6th.  Plenty of other examples of him not being able to figure out a zone but that team Cuse team was just as loaded as IU was.   

That team was LOADED. I think they had more guys that, at minimum, had cups of coffee in the NBA than us on top of some really freakin' good college players. They had MCW, Gbinije, Rakeem Christmas, and a freshman Jerami Grant that all at least sniffed NBA rosters. Brandon Triche wasn't a cup of coffee guy, but one of the better Syracuse players in my lifetime (maybe ever?). CJ Fair and James Southerland were built in a lab for Boeheim's system. That team was talented as hell playing in a system that has wrecked brackets with exponentially worse rosters.

[JSHoosier 22,265]

9 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Crean proved over the course of his career he struggled with a 2/3 zone but I won’t kill him too much for struggling against that Syracuse zone or team.   When Cuse has the athletes and players that fit their system that 2/3 zone isn’t your normal 2/3 zone.  It just isn’t.   They have made better coaches then Crean look silly when they have their guys.   Worst matchup possible for that IU team.    Playing a top 10 KenPom team in the sweet 16 that year. Cuse defensive efficiency that year finished 6th.  Plenty of other examples of him not being able to figure out a zone but that team Cuse team was just as loaded as IU was.   

With the right players that Syracuse zone is another animal all together.  Hulls being injured didn't help.  Plus his teams tended to fade at the end of the year, multiple factors contributed that that debacle.

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

22 minutes ago, HoosierX said:

To be fair, that team played poorly almost the entire end of the year, and we were lucky to get by Temple in the round of 32.

No question they played terrible down the stretch.  Cuse lost 4 of their last 5 games at the end of the regular season.  They ended up making a run to Big East championship game and gave Louisville that championship which caused them to fall to the 4 line.   Look at the other 4 seeds that year and it’s comical of course IU would be the 1 seed that’s 4 seed was a top 10 caliber team for most the year.  After they beat Temple I thought IU was destined for a run to the final 4.   Top seeds seem to always have that game early where they squeak by and then make a run 

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

16 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

That team was LOADED. I think they had more guys that, at minimum, had cups of coffee in the NBA than us on top of some really freakin' good college players. They had MCW, Gbinije, Rakeem Christmas, and a freshman Jerami Grant that all at least sniffed NBA rosters. Brandon Triche wasn't a cup of coffee guy, but one of the better Syracuse players in my lifetime (maybe ever?). CJ Fair and James Southerland were built in a lab for Boeheim's system. That team was talented as hell playing in a system that has wrecked brackets with exponentially worse rosters.

I looked it up. The Cuse team was in the top 10 all the way through Feb 25th.  Then lost 4 of 5 to tournament quality teams.   They are a perfect example that matchups matters in the tournament.   If IU would played St Louis or Kansas St they are probably in the elite 8.  Bracketing principles wouldn’t of allowed for Michigan to be in their bracket 

[Hovadipo 61,907]

The Big East tourney never makes any sense and I get a feeling it's going to make less sense than normal this year. I love that tournament dearly. I'm so excited for the next few days.

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

8 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

The Big East tourney never makes any sense and I get a feeling it's going to make less sense than normal this year. I love that tournament dearly. I'm so excited for the next few days.

While Thursday and Friday of the ncaa tournament is the best 2 days in college basketball as I’ve gotten older  champ week has become my favorite  week of college basketball during the year 

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

Mountain West starts today.  
New Mexico/Nevada 

Fresno St/San Jose St.  

online only Mountain West Network 

[HoosierAloha 30,102]

Dirty dirty and no call

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 9,321]

2 hours ago, HoosierX said:

To be fair, that team played poorly almost the entire end of the year, and we were lucky to get by Temple in the round of 32.

I don't get the notion that we played just so "poorly" down here stretch. They were definitely tired though and that was apparent. Went 10-5 from February on. Had losses at Illinois, at Minnesota, #14 Ohio State, #22 Wisconsin, #16 Syracuse. Our wins though were #1 Michigan, at #10 Ohio State, Nebraska(by 29), Purdue(by 28), at #4 Michigan State, Iowa, at #7 Michigan, Illinois, James Madison, Temple. The fatigue and injuries really hurt come tourney time but that Cuse team was really good, really long, really athletic and that was always going to hurt us. That Cuse team would probably be the best team in the nation this year. 

[Uspshoosier 54,684]

Clifton Moore time  La Salle/St Joes playing 

[southsidehoosier 5,176]

Syracuse crushing FSU

[str8baller 7,783]

3 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

That team was LOADED. I think they had more guys that, at minimum, had cups of coffee in the NBA than us on top of some really freakin' good college players. They had MCW, Gbinije, Rakeem Christmas, and a freshman Jerami Grant that all at least sniffed NBA rosters. Brandon Triche wasn't a cup of coffee guy, but one of the better Syracuse players in my lifetime (maybe ever?). CJ Fair and James Southerland were built in a lab for Boeheim's system. That team was talented as hell playing in a system that has wrecked brackets with exponentially worse rosters.

We had two top 5 lottery picks. One a junior and one a senior, plus tons of experienced role players. Michigan didn’t seem to have much trouble with them.  
 

We looked lost against the 2-3, like we always did under Crean, so much so that Bohiem was poking fun of Crean after the game. 

[Hovadipo 61,907]

Just now, str8baller said:

We had two top 5 lottery picks. One a junior and one a senior, plus tons of experienced role players. Michigan didn’t seem to have much trouble with them.  
 

We looked lost against the 2-3, like we always did under Crean, so much so that Bohiem was poking fun of Crean after the game. 

How about all 3 of those teams (us, Syracuse, Michigan) being loaded? Because they all were. My point was that sometimes it gets lost that that Syracuse team was very, very good in the justified complaints about Crean. 

[Hovadipo 61,907]

Geriatric on geriatric assault in round 1 of the ACC tournament. My goodness, Cuse. 

[IUc2016 7,121]

Just now, Hovadipo said:

Geriatric on geriatric assault in round 1 of the ACC tournament. My goodness, Cuse. 

Syracuse gonna get the auto bid and make a run to the final 4

[str8baller 7,783]

3 hours ago, Its Always Sunny at IU said:

Can I please have a not good coach who can win 2 Big Ten titles. Bring me the worst coach in America if he can win a pair of Big Ten Titles in the next 10 years. At the time I wasn't a big Crean fan, but right now I wish we would have kept him instead of hiring Archie. 

I get that it’s been almost 25 years since we have had any sustained success and that for younger fans Crean represents the high water mark got the program. But it still makes me sad.  
 

Is one helluva sign of how far this program has fallen that people are talking about getting Crean back. 
 

I guess the good news, for some, is that Crean is now available after getting fired from UGA.  
 

***Just for historical perspective, winning the B1G is a bare minimum accomplishment that every coach who’s coached at IU at least 4 years over the last hundred years has accomplished…until Archie. Btw, that stat would be every coach who was here at least 3 seasons, but Harry Good’s 18-3 team finished in second place when he was coaching for McCracken while the latter served in WW2. 
 

In other words, the program elevates coaches, even bad coaches. But we still need a good coach to be a top program in the country.  We’re the flagship university in the most basketball crazed place in the world. This should not be as hard as we’ve made it the last two decades. 

[HoosierX 1,803]

1 hour ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

I don't get the notion that we played just so "poorly" down here stretch. They were definitely tired though and that was apparent. Went 10-5 from February on. Had losses at Illinois, at Minnesota, #14 Ohio State, #22 Wisconsin, #16 Syracuse. Our wins though were #1 Michigan, at #10 Ohio State, Nebraska(by 29), Purdue(by 28), at #4 Michigan State, Iowa, at #7 Michigan, Illinois, James Madison, Temple. The fatigue and injuries really hurt come tourney time but that Cuse team was really good, really long, really athletic and that was always going to hurt us. That Cuse team would probably be the best team in the nation this year. 

I'm sorry but I don't think this tells the whole story here, and I'm not sure why we're starting from the beginning of February.

We lost 3 out of our last 6 games of the regular season including a loss to a Minnesota team that had a losing record in the Big Ten and were basically dominated by Ohio State and Wisconsin at home. Neither game (OSU, Wiscy) was close and we lost to OSU by 9 and Wisconsin by 12 - at home to teams we were heavily favored to beat. Then we barely beat a Temple team who was basically just one player - Khalif Wyatt. Then we got curb stomped by Syracuse.

I read a book called Missing Banners by Tom Brew (interesting book, dude desperately needs a proofreader), and he talked to Elston about that team who admitted that something was off with the team at the end of the year.

[southsidehoosier 5,176]

Let’s go Boston College