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Fred

Who can forget this famous quote right before the Archie hire from Freddy!!! How about just making the NCAA that should just be the goal at this point forget about deep runs for now.

"The expectations for Indiana University basketball are to perennially contend for and win multiple Big Ten championships, regularly go deep in the NCAA Tournament and win out next national championship—and more after that," IU Athletic Director Fred Glass said in the statement announcing Crean's dismissal.

Bracketology Thread

Lunardi still has IU a 9 seed with Rutgers in the tournament and Michigan first four out.

B1G with 8 ⬆️ teams in. Thoughts?

I know there are a lot moving parts, bid stealers, etc. but on the surface this years bubble looks weak.

What does IU need to do from here to in? Seems like closing 4-1 would be a minor miracle, and 3-2 would be hard as well. Maryland at home is the only game I think we should count on.

Interesting statistic re: offense

Did a little research on 3-point shot distribution for this season. The findings were interesting. Kopp and Stewart were recruited no doubt for their shooting ability. Neither are much above an average defender, neither are great rebounders, and neither can handle the ball very well. Yet, combined together, they average just under 7 3-point shot attempts per game between them. Of those 7, they make 3, so right around 42%, which any team would take from their perimeter shooters.

Now, contrast with Race and X. Neither would be considered good shooters. Race would likely be judged as below average jump shooter, X would probably be considered average, despite the ugly form. Yet, together they average 4 attempts per game from the perimeter (103 total). They make 1 (31).

Why are the higher percentage shooters not getting more shots???

Woody identifying talent / fit in recruiting.

We lack talent...period....especially at the guard position. The success of Woody is not only going to come down to recruiting good players but identifying the right guys in the first place. We like to talk constantly about the recruiting rankings and how Duke lands a couple of top ten guys every year. Woody may never recruit like that but if you look around the Big Ten you see teams succeeding with guys ranked no higher than what Archie was landing before Woody got here. Archie either landed more busts than any coach I can remember or he just couldn't develop them (probably a little of both). Painter on the other hand hasn't recruited any better on paper than IU the past many years but has experienced good success while we can't even get into the dance with 68 other teams. Just going by Rivals, Johnny Davis-134, Keegan Murray-43, Jaden Ivey-79.

One thing for sure is Woody needs more shooters and toughness on the team. I'll bet he just shakes his head behind closed doors when talking about our shooting and folding down the stretch.

Our Annual February Flop

I'm trying so hard not to heap 40 years of frustration with IU basketball onto Woody's shoulders, or this team's shoulders, or Dolson's shoulders. I'm really, truly trying to be excited about the future of the program.

With that being said, though...

The thing that drives me crazy about our teams of the recent past...and now, this year's team...we never seem to improve as the year goes on. Here we are, again, headed into a long conference losing streak and the same issues we've had for years are the same issues we have. As Archie used to say (but never make happen)...we want to be playing our best ball at the end of the season. Well...we're running out of season, and we're in the midst of yet another February flop.

I think our guys are taking better care of the basketball and not turning it over as much. Other than that, are we better at anything now than we were in December? Is anyone on the roster doing anything better now than in December? Is there discernible progress on anything at this point in the season?
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Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

First off, IU basketball has caused me its last miserable night of this season for me. I really don't see another win outside of Maryland this year thus I will definitely not set aside 2-3 hours of my evening or weekend to partake. I'm not a fair weathered fan just a fan that has realized I can be more productive with that time and that production will lead to less stress over a team/program that is really in a bad place.

I have watched IU basketball for several decades and still try to remember one time when we didn't at least have one player on the team that could just go "find a bucket". Langford could to some degree, and wow wouldn't it be nice to have the freshman version of Romeo on the court last night? I remember looking back on his only year thinking he could have or should have been much better, but hell that version is way better than 90% of our team right now. We need players and honestly I don't see any "light at the end of this tunnel" when it comes to that for next year. JHS is good, but he will be a freshman playing with other players that are not to his caliber or at least appear not to be. I don't see any big guys on the horizon and that too is extremely problematic.

Coaching is another thing, I realize players make a world of difference but wow how bad was the play out of the last time out? Might be the worst drawn up debacle I've ever witnessed. This program has a lot of growing to do and this year is just not going to get better. There is always next year but unless we some higher grade talent walk through the door we will probably be looking at this same thing again next year and maybe even worse.

Oh well that is my little rant, March is going to be extremely long for me with out basketball, thinking of taking a trip south to hunt some Florida turkeys.

How bad is the guard play?

Before Rob was hurt he was hitting less than 32% from the field and less than 44% of his free throws. He should have been on the bench for his poor offensive play. Except everyone else is worse. And when Rob went down not the next man up but the next three men up responded by being suspended for violating curfew the night before a game. That poor judgement is only exceeded by when they are handling the ball in crunch time.

I have no idea what Woody can do with a backcourt that cannot think and dribble at the same time.

Poor TJD. At the end of the game he tried to execute the game plan and kick the ball out to an open shooter. And the morning after everyone is saying "what was he thinking?"

Lander

It is simply amazing to me how poor his bbal iq is. For the couple of minutes he was in he throws a pass to I think Geronimo way in the corner where he can do nothing but get boxed in. I think it may have gone out of bounds anyway. Then he drives in and dribbles it off his foot but it somehow goes off a Wisconsin guy so we keep it. Boy I sure hope JHS is ready to be a point guard from day one cause Lander is just wow almost looking like divison three.
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