Just spent most of the afternoon watching some Wyoming tape and doing a deep dive.

Very, very good team that has some solid pieces and is extremely versatile on both ends of the floor. This goes without saying, but Indiana needs to show up.

Surely to God, he is looking for a big man

Why doesn't the NCAA basketball go to 98 teams in the tournament? It's the only sport that doesn't even hit 20% of the teams that make post season play. Look at the others:

NBA: 50% of teams make the playoffs
MLB: 40% of teams make the playoffs
NFL: 43% of team make playoffs
College football: Around 60 to 80 teams out of 130 make a post season bowl game

I dont understand why they haven't done it yet. What's the hold up?

Seeding wise it would be easy. Seeds 9 through 16 would all be fought for and 1 through 8 would get first round byes

Greetings fellow Hoosier fans! As @Cavanagh announced yesterday, he and @twenty02 negotiated a deal to give away some free money and bragging rights in a bracket challenge for our Rivals users.

If you would like to participate in the challenge, please reply to this thread to verify your entry - simply reply "In" or something like that. Cav (or I) will DM you a link and other information which will allow you to join the group.

There's one entry per user and, as noted, we will do our best to eliminate the trolls, Karen's, Darren's, and Negative Ned's. If you're having trouble accessing the group or creating a bracket, feel free to send me a DM or create a thread to request help.

Brackets must be submitted prior to the first game on Thursday at 12:15pm ET. You do not need to submit your bracket prior to the Tues/Wed games.

Here's a breakdown of the prize money:
1st place: $350
2nd place: $100
3rd place: $50

I was tempted to go lock here, but I am not gonna curse the Hoosiers. I am gonna put a lot of money on this game. I think we absolutely blow them out of the water. My site doesn't do alternate lines, but this is a game I would love to have some action at -11ish.

The players feel disrespected and everyone should be available tomorrow. We are playing our best ball of the year just like I had hoped. Playing tomorrow might not be the worst thing in the world. Get a game under your belt and some confidence. Frankly, as a fan, this is pretty damn cool. We never play meaningful games in March anymore, and we have had about 7 in a row in a matter of a few weeks. As a basketball nut, I love it. Bring on Wyoming, they need all the help they can get. The hoosiers are gonna come out with a major chip on their shoulder. X will lead us to victory.

All Aboard!

Anyone hear anything about Geronimo?

JG to likely play tomorrow, per Woodson.

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maybe the United States wouldn’t look so hapless, helpless and clueless.

Only a few years ago, Trump launched a couple of dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase, with Russians present, because that base had been used to launch a poison gas attack on Syrian civilians. The gas was Russian gas and handled by Russians on Assad’s behalf. Trump reportedly told Putin that worse would happen if he retaliated.

Fast forward to 2021. Biden’s first orders as CIC focused on whiteness and so-called white supremacy, gender correctness, pronouns, less carbon emissions from the military, and looking for and purging the ranks of MAGA supporters. Along the way, Biden only watched from his basement as Putin ramped up for war, he delayed shipping needed weapons to Ukraine so as not to aggravate Putin prior to last summer’s phone call, and he cancelled a long-planned ballistic missile and nuclear readiness test so as not to start WWIII or something. Biden personally stood in the way of Poland’s transfer of jets, while he made a totally unneeded spectacle of that issue.

Biden has let Putin set the agenda. Putin has had his way with Biden the entire time Biden has been in office. Biden’s weakness in Afghanistan coupled with his exceedingly deferential conduct to Putin and Russia in the Iran negotiations, and refusal to confront Putin over Ukraine is causing millions of Ukrainians to suffer with no hope as the President of the United States obsesses over not aggravating the guy who is already bombing hospitals, civilian evacuation routes, and relief convoys.

What to do? First of all Mr. President, STFU! Those jets should be in Ukraine without any public comment. Provide SAM‘s of longer range than stingers. Speak softly and carry a big stick instead of speaking in banal platitudes with no stick.

Pronoun correctness and minimizing carbon emissions from tanks and ships does not prepare our civilian leadership for traditional international thugs.

End of rant.

Just fired James Whitford. IU should look at Peyton Sparks MAC freshman of the year.

reasoning? Their HC has “excellent initials”.

The post player Ike has good size and is a good finisher out of the post, but he also dribbles the ball a ton. Not uncommon for him to dribble the ball 8+ times while trying to back his man down and can be a little loose with the ball which leaves him susceptible to digs and double teams and isn't a great at finding the open shooter in those situations. I think any of TJD, Race, or Durr could provide decent defense against him. On defense he's usually in good position but a step slow, and doesn't play assertive/aggressive, seemingly out of fear of foul trouble. If we go small with Race at the 5, he's going to give 5+ ft from 3 range.

The PG Maldonado has good size at 6'7", and but doesn't have a ton of speed, doesn't really drive to the rim, and isn't a particularly good shooter from outside. He generates most of his offense by posting up smaller guards, and is a fairly crafty finisher in the 5-10 ft range. If he does drive, its to set up post position. On defense, I think he'll struggle against a faster guard like X.

The only 3-point shooter that is really a threat is Jeffries, and that is about all he does (about 95% of his shot attempts were from 3 this year). He'll be easier to guard than Stefanovic. The main threat is that Wyoming will goad Jeffries' defender to help/double posts by Ike and Maldonado.

Their offense is really built around those 3 players, and the don't run much to get anyone else shots. They play solid team defense, but will also leave shooters open as they will collapse on the ball in the paint. This is a game I think IU runs away with if we shoot even just 35% from 3, and the shots will be there. Even then, I think IU will be able to generate enough offense to win even with a poor 3 shooting performance

Yeah, who cares... But Archie has been very complimentary of IU this year and it was interesting to watch him defend IU's tournament chances against Sean Miller. Archie thinks we will beat Wyoming, Saint Mary's, and UCLA.

Archie also think Purdue won't make it past the first weekend...

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Glad to be in the tournament. At regular season's end, we probably didn't deserve a bid. So I'm glad they factored in the B10 tournament, a little bit, to allow us to squeak in.

My first impression was that the draw we got was brutal.

My 2nd impression started changing because many on here were posting that they thought it was a "good draw", that we had a great chance to make the 2nd weekend.

Now that I've dug into it... I think it's pretty unlikely we get through the first 3 games.

There are a million "metrics" that can be looked at...but one of the more reliable ones in the last 10-15 years has been looking at KenPom's Adjusted Offense and Defense efficiency rankings.

Wyoming...their Offensive rating is higher than ours, but their defensive rating is lower than ours. We've shown good play recently in these sorts of matchups. All 3 of Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa have better offensive ratings than we do, a lot better actually, but worse defensive ratings. This tells me it should be a good game, that we have a very good chance of winning.

After that, however...its just going to be incredibly difficult.

St Marys is a better team offensively, and defensively, according to Ken Pom.

UCLA is top 15 in both categories.

If we happen to win those games, Baylor is also top 15 in both categories...

Sooo...I've come full circle...our draw was brutal. Just about as brutal as it possibly could have been at the seed line we were at.

Decent tix are few and pricey.

Our friend @twenty02 has agreed to let me pay off my very realistic future bets I have made with him over the years resulting in getting not one but two coaches fired. I bet him the year Crean and Archie got fired we would make the elite 8.... lol. This year was we would be a 5 seed, some real solid bets. Point is, I owe him money and he is being a sport and letting us have a bracket and give away some money.

First thing is I need to find a comish to run this thing. Has to be some folks out there that know a good platform and can organize this better than my dumbass. I want to allow everyone that is on rivals to be allowed to have an entry. I want it to be an invite system where the comish has to allow you in. I want to make sure trolls and non IU posters cannot enter. So feel free to nominate yourself or others that could do this and might enjoy it.

First place $350
second $100
third- $50

Free to enter for all IU rivals posters. We got screwed on the first 4, but we are gonna be a heavy favorite against Wyoming in Dayton.........

ALL Aboard!!!

playing at 9.30 in Dayton Ohio on Tuesday night, and if win have to play in Portland Oregon on Thursday, that is a tough ass trip. The committee shouldn't be sending teams west after playing in Dayton

I’m sure I just missed it, but doesn’t seem that there has been much talk about the play of TJD in the BTT. Yes, a light bulb went on with the team. Yes, there has been great contributions from many. Yes, coaching deserves credit.

Still, what he did battling against some of the best in the country has been astounding. He didn’t deserve to be first team conference going into the tournament, but he has shown people (including NBA scouts), someone that is as good as any conference player.

he was aggressive, but more importantly DECISIVE. As a player his strength is his quickness and when he gets the ball and immediately makes a move to score it’s really difficult to defend.

If he plays that way in the NCAAs, I like our chances against almost any team.

If IU is the 45th ranked team in the NCAAT, why are they in a play-in game?

have ever played in an NCAA tourney game, right? That’s gotta be a first or at least it’s been years and years ago since that’s been a reality for IU basketball. That’s actually pretty remarkable.

Indiana is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016, will play Wyoming in play-in game.

.

Looks like they’ve lost 5 of last 9 to finish and were blown out by 29 at Arizona. A couple of Senior guards lead them with one being 6’7”. And then a 6’9” 252 Sophomore forwarding leading scorer at 19.6 ppg. That’s all I’ve got.

I see they have had some nice wins against Washington @ Wash., beat UNLV, played Stanford close, beat, New Mexico, beat Nevada and Boise State. Team has a 6'9 kid (Ike) scoring 19ppg and a 6'7 kid scoring 18 ppg. All I know.....

Looks like most are at IU -4 . I thought it would be a little bigger.