over not winning the B1G title, and how we are going to suck next year is really head-scratching to me. Thinking that because we brought in a highly-rated class that we would somehow go from near the bottom of the conference to title contenders is a bit of a stretch on reality. Freshmen are still freshmen. Very few are the difference between contending and not - at any program. i would ask these two questions:
1. Have we ever won the Big Ten championship under any coach (including RMK) with a team less athletic or less experienced than this team has been (taking into account that RT and X have missed so much time or in Race's case, played the entire conference schedule at half-strength).
2. If you were told at the start of the year that our starting point guard would not play at all the entire conference season and that our most veteran big would play hobbled the entire season ( and miss multiple games as well) would you have predicted that we would win 11 or 12 games and be tied for second in the league with one game to play.
We've had some profoundly disappointing losses for sure - so has every other team in the league this year - including Purdue. We've also had some excelllent wins, especially on the road. The whole body of work in my mind is about where I would expect it given the circumstances.
As for next year, I don't get the hyper-pessimism. Freshman players typically make big leaps before the next year - so do many upperclassmen. Galloway and Kopp are both miles ahead of where they were last season. Gunn, Banks, and Reneau are all long and skilled - exactly what this team misses this year. They just aren't physically ready and savvy enough to be big contributors as freshmen. With the portal, it's much easier these days to plug holes and IU is an attractive place for good players looking to transfer to land. We may be great next year, we may be average, we may be not very good at all. But none of us can know that right now. I get the concern, but the cocksureness with which some here profess to know for certain that we are going to be terrible is just as delusional as declaring that we are going to dominate the conference. A team is always a thing in flux from season to season. What we see on the floor next year will certainly be different. That doesn't guarantee it's going to be worse.
1. Have we ever won the Big Ten championship under any coach (including RMK) with a team less athletic or less experienced than this team has been (taking into account that RT and X have missed so much time or in Race's case, played the entire conference schedule at half-strength).
2. If you were told at the start of the year that our starting point guard would not play at all the entire conference season and that our most veteran big would play hobbled the entire season ( and miss multiple games as well) would you have predicted that we would win 11 or 12 games and be tied for second in the league with one game to play.
We've had some profoundly disappointing losses for sure - so has every other team in the league this year - including Purdue. We've also had some excelllent wins, especially on the road. The whole body of work in my mind is about where I would expect it given the circumstances.
As for next year, I don't get the hyper-pessimism. Freshman players typically make big leaps before the next year - so do many upperclassmen. Galloway and Kopp are both miles ahead of where they were last season. Gunn, Banks, and Reneau are all long and skilled - exactly what this team misses this year. They just aren't physically ready and savvy enough to be big contributors as freshmen. With the portal, it's much easier these days to plug holes and IU is an attractive place for good players looking to transfer to land. We may be great next year, we may be average, we may be not very good at all. But none of us can know that right now. I get the concern, but the cocksureness with which some here profess to know for certain that we are going to be terrible is just as delusional as declaring that we are going to dominate the conference. A team is always a thing in flux from season to season. What we see on the floor next year will certainly be different. That doesn't guarantee it's going to be worse.