Would you call that the first sign of what we had gotten ourselves into with TC?
I really didn't like the hire to begin with. I didn't like how he handled or recruited big men at Marquette. Disliked how he micromanaged his guards. Disliked how he put on constant dog and pony marketing shows. And especially his disregarded for defense and valuing every possession,. and also disliked his reputation as a Creaner.
I convinced myself that IU is not Marquette and he would get better players here, mostly due to signing Zeller, and he would change. So I gave him a chance. It lasted 1.5 years...
He had Zeller dribble driving which perked my ire. Then he had him dribble driving into a zone, even after a first half where it clearly wasn't working. He lost me..
And, unless he does a complete 180, and starts valuing possessions and defense, and stop having big men dribble driving and especially into zones... I'll never back him as our coach.
He needs to quit thinking he can reinvent the game. One more dribble? Yea, for a player like Oladipo, but Yogi or Cody? Switching defenses. Has that ever worked for anyone? Switching everything? It's not the 1980's. Having 400 offense sets with 800 variations? Basketball is a simple game. How about getting good at one set or two sets. Emphasizing deflections when we never pressure? Why? I still don't get why he does that. He read about it once?
He's just a truly silly coach in so many ways. I hate gimmicks and his system is riddled with them.
Though I didn't think much of him, I think the first time I truly noted how bad he was as a coach was when someone pointed out what he was doing against Butler.
He kept running a high pick and roll with Oladipo and Zeller. Stevens countered by putting Barnes on Cody, and Smith on Oladipo to start so when they switched, Smith would be on Zeller. Get me... Crean kept running the play (or at least our team did without him adjusting or telling them to stop) . It was truly embarrassing ..
Then he made a statement when asked about analytics and answered saying he gauged opponents weaknesses using +/- stats... which is impossible and not what +/- is used for.