Definitely not a Purdue fan, and I’ve been around longer and much closer to IU basketball than I’m sure you have, at least based on the content of our respective posts. As for the program, running a little faster is great, but IU keeps falling further off the pace in the conference. Improvement is great, but context is always needed as a measuring stick.
Equally concerning are the late season fades,which don’t paint an optimistic picture should post season play ever be in the cards. I think IU has been a team that opponents could count on to fold up when the going gets tough, and that speaks to the absence of culture that I believe is the telling attribute of Miller’s tenure so far.
Finally, for every close loss there have been close wins (Northwestern and Nebraska were two, and both were at home), and those always tend to balance out. To paraphrase Bill Parcells, IU is and has been what their record says they’ve been, and that’s well into the bottom half of the BiG.
Lastly, while fanboi may seem lazy to you, I think it’s an accurate view given that your posts are replete with rosy forecasts and ultra friendly assessments, and are definitely a reflection of a fan first, basketball second perspective. “Players get better because they’re a year older”, “three players will be nationally elite”, and the Purdue fan accusation because I have a view something less than the rote cheerleader ones so often in evidence here are “fanboi-ish” viewpoints that are much longer on fandom than objective basketball observations. Again, that’s all fine with me as long as it’s not misportrayed, and I think you’ve pretty obviously done that on several occasions.
Hope the program is trending in a positive direction, but it will need to make significant leaps in the coming year for that to be the case, in my opinion.
We have the opportunity to replace minutes with more established “they are who they are” older players like Devonte, Deron, Al, Joey, and Justin...with younger guys that likely have more room to improve in Arman, Jerome, Race, Rob...and then Kristian if he reclassifies. And in none of the older guys case, are we talking about someone like Cassius Winston, or even Xavier Simpson. Every minute the younger group earns over the older group will be a better, more versatile, more solid minute than this past year.
Having played college basketball. Having felt the shock that comes with encountering the speed and physicality of college basketball for the first time. And having been through 3 college offseasons. I know the well accepted tenets about the jump from Frosh to Soph usually being the biggest. Then Soph to Junior. Then Junior to Senior. But there are jumps every year. The younger jumps are bigger and more noticeable. The older jumps are often less obvious. Someone like you would never pick up on them. Devontes demeanor this year was more “senior” like. He also appeared to accept TJD a little more than it appeared he accepted Romeo. Deron actually knocked down a few 18 footers this year. Justin, while still out of control at times, was in general, much more in control of his tempo and body. Injuries have put a governor on the improvements we might have seen from Rob, Jerome, and Race. But despite the injuries, you can see the improvements, especially with Jerome and Race as the year wore on. I can’t wait to see what healthy offseason programs bring from those two.
I didn’t say “they’ll be better because they’re older” until you did. Which was a lazy and ignorant way to downplay the importance of player development. And in piecing together your posts...it appears you value going the transfer route, kicking kids off the team if they don’t pan out, and going after 1 year transfers in their place. You never said that last sentence...but it’s the obvious implication you made when you lauded Fred Hoibergs approach at ISU and now Nebraska. I can’t stress how much I differ from that approach. And yes, if given the choice between winning 20 games and battling on the bubble every year, with how Archie is handling his roster and the kids he’s bringing in...or winning 25 games and being safely in the tourney every year, with a roster made up largely of transfers and 1 year kids...I’ll take less wins 10 times out of 10.
Finally you keep saying things about Archie letting the guys play for themselves, not getting them pulling in the same direction...That absolutely isn’t something you can see from your couch, or from the stands. Do you have contacts with the players?
You also mentioned late season slides as an example of that. His teams have actually “righted the ship” for the most part. In both of his last two seasons, his teams have followed up crushing losing streaks in the middle/late part of the conference season, by turning it around and putting themselves back into the NCAA tournament discussions. This year they played themselves back into the tourney. They blew Nebraska out. They had a game pending against PSU, who we had just recently shown we can play well against. In my experiences as a fan, and player, coaches that don’t have a teams ear, as you have repeatedly claimed, don’t turn teams around. And when they do, it often happens by kicking bad elements off the team, or just not playing them. Greene and Davis got their warning during the season, and they responded and kept playing. That normally doesn’t happen in bad environments.
You might have more years...but with every post, you’re showing you have a very shallow depth of knowledge of this game. It’s ok. I don’t know much of anything about NASCAR. But I enjoy watching the races. It’s just a bunch of cars going around in a circle to me. But I’m learning. Evidently you’ve been at this following basketball thing for a while. There are certain things you’ll never be able to relate to or know. And that makes us different. But you can still dig deeper.
And do that for IU at some point. The best, most detailed analysis I’ve seen from you remains a rundown of the Purdue roster and the impacts of the Haarms transfer. It had some depth. It explained why they could be better than their 9-11 record. Sounded like a knowledgeable fans summary.
