IU's Upcoming Season: Biggest Strength - Biggest Weakness?

[Naismith 136]

Going into this upcoming BB season I believe that IU's single biggest strength will, again, be their perimeter shooting.  Single biggest weakness, the front line.  Not enough "Bigs" at the 4 & 5 spot.  You can ask only so much of T. Bryant in the paint - foul trouble, and worse, injury, may well be waiting in the shadows.

 

Your thoughts?

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Perimeter defense must be strengthened over last year by leaps and bounds. The shooting you are spot on. Also, hopefully rebounding improves, it faces the same dilemma you mentioned.

[Yogi'sBicep 1,048]

Strength- Strength & Endurance. With our run & gun style play we often run opponents out of juice, but last year we too ran out toward the end of some games. This year, I think we'll be the strongest and most fit teams. Hurryin' Hoosiers!!!

Weakness- killer instinct. Often played to opponents level rather than stepping on their throats. Mental thing.

[Old Friend 8,389]

Agree with OP's assessment.   Shooting will be a strength.  I hope we do more to get shooters open than we've done in the past.  I've seen a couple of practice videos, and everything is off the dribble again.   Experience will be a strength, too.  We've got a ton of very experienced kids, and that matters.

 

Weaknesses - #1 for me is lack of size.  We have only one true "big," and he's a freshman.  Lots of 6'7"-6'8" guys, but that's not real size in the Big Ten.   We also need to improve the mental side of our game.  We need to walk into every gym expecting to win and expecting to beat good teams (killer instinct as someone said above).  We have to guard the perimeter, too.  If not, Bryant's in for a long, long year.  Losing Holt and Parea will hurt.  I'd also like to see better adjustments and more creativity from the coaches.  We're too predictable sometimes.

 

Overall, I think our strengths significantly out-number our glaring weaknesses; but I think some areas where we're weak will limit our ability to succeed at a high level.

[Parakeet Jones 3,733]

I agree with our perimeter shooting being our biggest strength.  

 

For our weakness, I'm going with our defense until given a reason to believe otherwise.  We were horrid last year, we've got to be better.  I understand those who have said interior play though.  I worry about our rebounding especially on the defensive end.  That potential second round game in Maui against Vanderbilt scares me to death because of their size.  

[BtownBanner6 1,298]

There is no doubt the strengths of this team is shooting and running in transition. The weaknesses are obviously defense and rebounding.

[BGleas 7,880]

Agree with everything in this post. Not to turn this into a Crean thing, but a coaches job is to put your players in the best position possible to succeed, and I have no clue why we're not running JBJ off screens all game long ala Reggie Miller. The kid is deadly when he has space and is in rhythm. yet we make him work incredibly hard to get a shot off in the half-court.

Agree on the size as well. Thomas Bryant may be really good, but when we go up against Maryland, Purdue, MSU, Duke, potentially Kansas and teams like that, size will be an issue. It's not even just at the 5, Troy while tall and long doesn't have much weight to him at the 4, and in our 3-guard lineup we're also incredibly small at the 3.

Agree with OP's assessment.   Shooting will be a strength.  I hope we do more to get shooters open than we've done in the past.  I've seen a couple of practice videos, and everything is off the dribble again.   Experience will be a strength, too.  We've got a ton of very experienced kids, and that matters.
 
Weaknesses - #1 for me is lack of size.  We have only one true "big," and he's a freshman.  Lots of 6'7"-6'8" guys, but that's not real size in the Big Ten.   We also need to improve the mental side of our game.  We need to walk into every gym expecting to win and expecting to beat good teams (killer instinct as someone said above).  We have to guard the perimeter, too.  If not, Bryant's in for a long, long year.  Losing Holt and Parea will hurt.  I'd also like to see better adjustments and more creativity from the coaches.  We're too predictable sometimes.
 
Overall, I think our strengths significantly out-number our glaring weaknesses; but I think some areas where we're weak will limit our ability to succeed at a high level.

[jmsgws 2,030]

 I hope we do more to get shooters open than we've done in the past.

You shou8ld know better by now.   I keep hoping to win the lottery.  I figure my odds are better to win the lottery, than a Coach Crean team doing anything to get shooters open.

[IUaic 90]

Agree. Our strengths are shooting, transition, and pretty good at rebounding.

Our weaknesses are defense and getting shooters open. 

 

This thread probably just lowered my outlook for the season.   :(

 

 

Agree with everything in this post. Not to turn this into a Crean thing, but a coaches job is to put your players in the best position possible to succeed, and I have no clue why we're not running JBJ off screens all game long ala Reggie Miller. The kid is deadly when he has space and is in rhythm. yet we make him work incredibly hard to get a shot off in the half-court.

Agree on the size as well. Thomas Bryant may be really good, but when we go up against Maryland, Purdue, MSU, Duke, potentially Kansas and teams like that, size will be an issue. It's not even just at the 5, Troy while tall and long doesn't have much weight to him at the 4, and in our 3-guard lineup we're also incredibly small at the 3.
 

[ALASKA HOOSIER 11,169]

I believe we have the crew to run a full court 90% of the game similar to Louisville (they used to do it). Wear the other team down and run, run, run

[HoosierAloha 29,886]

Agree with everything in this post. Not to turn this into a Crean thing, but a coaches job is to put your players in the best position possible to succeed, and I have no clue why we're not running JBJ off screens all game long ala Reggie Miller. The kid is deadly when he has space and is in rhythm. yet we make him work incredibly hard to get a shot off in the half-court.

Agree on the size as well. Thomas Bryant may be really good, but when we go up against Maryland, Purdue, MSU, Duke, potentially Kansas and teams like that, size will be an issue. It's not even just at the 5, Troy while tall and long doesn't have much weight to him at the 4, and in our 3-guard lineup we're also incredibly small at the 3.

And the screens to get JBJ open wouldn't just be beneficial to JBJ. Could you imagine Hartman setting an off ball screen for JBJ and then dragging his man to the post or to the corner. That would also benefit TB in the post and other players for rebounds. There is so much that could be done with that...

[Old Friend 8,389]

You shou8ld know better by now.   I keep hoping to win the lottery.  I figure my odds are better to win the lottery, than a Coach Crean team doing anything to get shooters open.

Yeah..true.  But I have to believe a guy making a couple million a year can figure out he has to do more than ask one guy to dribble while everyone else stands around.  It's happened before...the Michigan game in 2013...someone set a cross screen to get Zeller open for that last bucket, for example.  Now...the fact that I can actually single out a time when it happened says a lot; but it HAS happened.  Plus, I like chasing unicorns.