Where else, other than IU, does a player make such a statement in early March??? I would personally be embarrassed to be on the coaching staff.
Make it stop, please....
McHoop
Make it stop, please....
McHoop
“We’ve just got to a better job of being fundamentally sound,” Newkirk said. .......
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It is ridiculous. Even with injuries there is no excuse for this team to have the record it does. And frankly it is not just a player thing because I have seen the same bone headed plays from our good teams. They are being taught this shit in practice.
That's just talk. Just words that they've been trained to repeat. They don't actually believe this.
If they did it would change.
Injury. I guess JBJ has missed time, but Hartman doesn't count because he's been out the entire season, in circumstances I find both curious and typical. Everybody has injuries and we've got to be better equipped to deal and move on. The one tough part is that both OG and Hartman are at basically similar spots, but we are terribly thin at PG and not alot better up front. People think we're "deep" because we finally have 2 decent post guys, which we've rarely had with Crean,but look at the best teams,they generally have 3-5 solid post options. The man can't construct a roster.
Especially when all they have to do is look over at the coaches and read the sign!
I'll never get over that motivational gem!
Agreed, there are some roster issues. The problem that Crean has is that he is performing for a fanbase that saw a coach take an AJ Guyton and Michael Lewis and add in Lynn Washington, William Gladness, and Larry Richardson (among others) and put that team in the tournament. Now they did not do jack when they got there but we had some pretty thin teams in the late 90's (and I was a student then so I got to see them up close on a regular basis).
This team would have been an embarrassment of riches to those late 90's Knight teams but instead on sniffing the tournament we are flirting with .500...against a weaker schedule. Crean is not Knight and I know Knight is not coming back and yada, yada...but my word he has had two completely awful years with some decent rosters (this year and the Vonleh year) that are just unexcusable.
You mean like all the All Americans like Patterson, Recker, Collier, Reed and Fife that played in the late 90's
Three of those 5 transferred. Patterson graduated in 98 IIRC which was my first year at IU. Recker was my class and he was gone after my Sophomore year. Collier left my freshman year. Reed was gone before I got there.
Knight got to the tournament with AJ Guyton, Michael Lewis, Luke Jimenez, Dane Fife, William Gladness, Lynn Washington, Kirk Haston (Freshman...not what Knight turned him into), Tom Geyer, Rob Turner, and Larry Richardson. Knight went 23-11 with that team.
Dog Knight all you want but he did more with less than Crean. When Knight had talent comparable to Oladipo and Zeller he went to Final Fours and won titles. Crean has to have everything go perfect or else he crashes and burns. That is why his team's are so up and down.
Not trying to compare them but to say he won with nothing is incorrect. Funny RMK goes 23-11 it is a good season but any other coach does that then he is a bum. AJ Guyton is one of the all time leading scorers in IU history so he was a pretty good player.
21-8 was record for the Season on the Brink. 13-5 in the conference.
If Knight went 16-14 people were be saying the game passed him by. In the last 6 years of Tom's tenure he's had a win percentage of .608 playing cupcakes.
In the last 7, the 'down years', Knight won at a .65 clip.
That was not a good season. That is the point. Seasons like that is what really got Knight fired, not the other stuff. If Knight was winning like Coach K during that same time frame he would not have been fired. Knight's inattention to recruiting is why he got to that point as well.
That being said, my point stands. We have seen better with less talent. Heck, you could go outside our program. I do not find Painter or Brey to be all that impressive of coaches but I bet they would have done better with this group and the Vonleh group than Crean.
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Nobody is saying that they wouldn't and nobody is trying to justify anything for Crean. Everyone sees it is time for a change a that Crean is not a good coach. My argument with your statement was that in the 90's you said RMK did not have any talent despite having 5 or 6 All Americans on his team.
You had five over a five year period and only one of the five he coached a full four years. Again, we were not very talented over that stretch. Not in comparison to what had been his norm and not in comparison to this year's team.
I believe Crean is toast. Not arguing that. I am arguing that he does less with more than just about everyone in the conference.
I've read it a couple times and do not see where he said they did not have any talent. I did see where it said they were thin on talent.
No I think Lou Henson still is king when talking about doing less with more in the Big 10 (back when it was actually 10). Crean is arguably the Price of Wales though.
Actually, I think Knight's team had more talent (whether or not you attribute that talent to the coach is up to you). Lewis was a better PG than anybody on this team and prior to Yogi, IU's all-time leader in assists. Guyton was one of the best guards IU has ever had. Haston, even as a Freshman (10 ppg and 6.5 rpg) was better than any post player we currently have, save Bryant. Washington and Gladness were serviceable (as were Richardson and Turner) and fairly sound bigs that ate up minutes - front court by committee. And oh yeah, don't forget Luke Recker, who averaged 16+ ppg and led the team in scoring that year. Not even a comparison between these two teams.
Thank you Mr Obvious. We just need to score more points than our opponent and then we will win.
Guyton and Lewis were both low top 100 to 150 guys IIRC. Recker was the real deal, I cannot remember if he was a burger boy but I believe he was. Haston was outside the top 100 (I attribute him to the coach). Gladness, Washington, and Richardson were all pedestrian.
I think you are downgrading our current group because of the coach and are overstating the late 90's group because of same. Bryant and Blackmon were both McDonald's AA's. Rojo was top 100. Our two freshmen guards are on par with Lewis and Guyton when they entered the program as Freshman. Davis is higher rated than was Haston. I think if you put Davis in a system that allowed him to be a back to the basket player that he would excel. I would take Morgan over any of Gladness, Washington, or Richardson. Junior Newkirk or Freshman Fife or walk on Jimenez?
The team that we have right now is extremely talented. They did not beat Kansas and UNC based off of superior tactics. We have good players right now. The only reason you would take those late 90's teams is because Knight was/is a far superior coach. It is the same reason we get our asses handed to us by Wisconsin and Butler on the regular now. It is not a talent issue. Outside of the early 2000's team that made a run to the Finals, Crean has had the most talent since Calbert Cheaney and Co. were on campus. Our issue is on the bench. Everything stems from that.
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