I thought Woodson couldn't coach................
- Thread starter Bippy
- Start date
The guy has been in and around high level basketball for almost 50 years. Literally has forgotten more about basketball than any noobs on here know. I credit him for having the willingness to listen to a player or coach and giving something a try. Also for playing his bench and giving them some minutes. If we can get the intensity level up, eleminate some mental mistakes and find a couple guys who can make an open three, there is some talent on this team!
More like a lot of people don't know what they're watching.
This team is in the very early stages of learning his system and how to play together. Mistakes and sluggishness are part of that. But we've avoided a bad loss. Lots of other teams can't say the same.
This team is in the very early stages of learning his system and how to play together. Mistakes and sluggishness are part of that. But we've avoided a bad loss. Lots of other teams can't say the same.
Much needed win against a really bad opponent
Yeah, but I think a team not unlike IU: good size and athletes, not going to be a great shooting team and are still trying to figure things out. I think they have way more issues with their coach and behind the scenes, but they had some good pieces, but like us right now, the sum is not greater than then parts.
And how do you conclude that UL is a "really bad opponent"?
It appeared to me they have some good pieces and just like IU, the future will depend on how those pieces come together.
They were barely beaten by ranked Texas who gave UConn a good game.
The Chattanooga loss doesn't look good but that was only their second game.
Or is it more like that comment fits better with your consistently negative view?
My view is negative because we beat Louisville who is not a good team? The team that won 3 games last year. Ok bud.
We still have major issues with our team. Glad we pulled out a much needed win but we have serious issues we have to figure out before the BIG.
yeah, yeah, yeah... but didn't you seem some growth yesterday? Almost the entire bench, save for Cupps, had their best game of the year and played well as a group extending the lead and showing some fire. We outrebounded them so the team responded to CMW's message. Malik and X stepped up at crunch time, and most importantly this team didn't fold and toughed out a win. Our best effort of the season and a nice win before the break.
Definitely saw some positives with Sparks, Walker and Banks. I thing we should insert Banks for MM in the starting lineup. To me though this is what it is. We are going to have to battle every single possession and find points. Not being able to hit from 3 is going to be frustrating.
Credit to CMW and staff..A win is a win is a win.
But I still think this team will be on the bubble in mid February..
But I still think this team will be on the bubble in mid February..
Looking ahead to the conference and the quality of the league looks pretty bad. I doubt there is a b10 team that has an NIL anywhere close to ours, and while that isn’t purely related to talent, it should be 100% tied to expectations.
We are going to get better, that seems to be a fairly rational prediction. We have a number of new parts, but our frontcourt talent is obvious. We start 2 guards that are, on average, in their 5th year. While they have some limitations, experience in the college game is pretty paramount, and the B10 is always a weak guard league.
I’ll predict we are solidly in the NCAAs, and if not to me we will be vastly underperforming based on our depth and talent (assuming we stay relatively healthy)
I must have missed where IU was playing last seasons Louisville team.
Texas by all accounts would be a top 2 or 3 big ten team and were very fortunate to hit that last second shot to defeat Louisville.
they were not... any chance to denigrate... your agenda is showing once again
IU won because of the zone. If IU had remained in man they most certainly would have lost. The bench was better. Galloway was terrible. X has to be better. I thought IU still looked pretty bad. Louisville simply had no plan against the zone. Terrible.
This team needs to play more zone. IU's man to man defense is so bad, it's laughable.
Good news is IU can't shoot much worse from 3 than they have so far. 23.4% as a team from 3 is about as bad as you'll ever see. So expect some improvement there.
Louisville had one of those games vs Texas you see IU have a couple of times every year. You know, the game where you say..."Great game! Where has this team been all year? Hopefully we have turned a corner." Only to have their next game prove just how bad they are. Just as Louisvilles next game vs. IU in this case, proved just how bad they still are. IU was favored by over 8 points. After IU was trounced by UConn and Louisville almost beat Texas. What does that say about how bad Louisville actually is.
I've had this same view...but we've seen longer stretches of really solid man to man defense in these last two games. Now, they obviously have lapses, and get torched when they do. So having something like a zone could be very valuable for Woody, when/if he sees the lapses starting. But hopefully he'll still mainly focus on building for longer stretches of solid man to man play, and not start to implement the zone too much.
In short, the defense appears to be improving. But still has a long way to go. Baffles me that it started out as badly as it did.
He's not implementing the zone. He employed it as a last resort, after IU was getting torched in the man. IU has too many pour lateral quickness players to be a good man to man team. Especially with the way Woody is coaching them to guard the ball. Ware, Reneau, Mgbako and Galloway are not able to keep their man in front of them enough. This leads to foul trouble for Ware, Reneau and Mgbako. Zone mostly prevents this. IU also has pretty good length, which should help in the zone.
I'm a man-to-man guy. Always have been. But this team's best chance at success, imo, is more zone less man. Even for the long run and factoring in for improvement in their man to man.
Total cluelessness is the only way they could have been as bad as they have been in man-to-man defense. My dad texted me during the IU game last night and said, "this is the 1st I'm watching IU this season, are they as bad as they look? What happened?"...so IU doesn't look very good to outsiders either. I haven't seen the improvement you allude to. Louisville missed a ton of open 3's. That man-to-man defense looks a lot worse if those fall.
Last edited:
This is the key for me. IU fans want to get back to rooting for teams that EXCEED EXPECTATIONS year in and year out, teams where the sum is truly greater than the parts. When’s the last time that happened? Maybe 2002? Crean was consistently on the opposite end of that equation which is why he was so despised by most true IU fans. Archie? Forget about it. Woody is still a work in progress, but the early returns aren’t promising. Until that standard is regularly upheld again we’re not going to be satisfied. Simple as that.
Last edited:
I don't think he'll play it often, but won't surprise me if they continue to work on it and try it here and there to throw off an opponent, or protect our bigs. I'm sure MR will be in foul trouble several times during the year and KW as well. But, my opinion is a zone isn't some magical elixir: if guys are bad defenders in a man scheme, they're going to be bad defenders in a zone, because so many of the same principles and awareness are involved. It might simplify things a bit and keep our bigs from being exposed on the perimeter as much. I think a good team with some competent shooters would've shredded that zone, but if they can work on it and play it better, it might be worthwhile in certain situations. I also predict if they start playing better man D, when we do try the zone, it will look better too. The big things last night, was it helped with the drives Lville was getting, kept our bigs from fouling out and also was effective in getting the rebound after a missed shot and not giving up another shot.
what would you do with Reneau and Ware on pick and roll situations? both lack lateral quickness and when they get drawn out 30 feet from the basket, we are toast. any guard of any quality is going to blow by them if they try to switch. so that's not the answer.
One benefit of playing zone is you're not exerting nearly as much energy on D giving way for a quick outlet and sprints down court for a primary and secondary break.
Playing a 3,4,5 hour playground or Y basketball session back in the day, we primarily played zone to not die of exhaustion after the first couple of games.
Playing a 3,4,5 hour playground or Y basketball session back in the day, we primarily played zone to not die of exhaustion after the first couple of games.
Indiana wasn't fully in until late last yr.
With a All American and a almost lottery pick point guard..
I'll watch and root...But this team has alot of flaws...
I'm not sure they win 10 in conference..jmo
2012? The year before we were #1, that team had some nice wins and I thought played better than I expected.
I honestly saw a lot of progress last night. Last year's team lost it's core and has a ton of new parts so I expected it was going to take awhile. The shooting is frustrating, but I think there is talent and if they can get better defensively and rebounding the ball, they can develop into a decent team. How much better imo, probably depends on coming up with a more dependable offense. Reanu is coming around and looked great this weekend when he was on the court. Ware obviously is unique and presents a challenge for an opponent. I hope they'll use their athleticism and look to push the ball and score more in transition because I think that can get us some easy baskets and better looks. The shooting I don't think will ever be great but hopefully we can find a few guys who recognize and will take good shots with confidence.
They've showed for prolonged stretches the last two games they can guard effectively in man. Where as the games before that, they really only had a couple short 2-3 minute bursts of effective play. So I don't think you're right in your assessment that they physically can't do it. They just showed they can. Its just a question of can they continue to do it for longer and longer stretches? Will it become something reliably strong this season? Or will it continue to be sporadic?
I do think Woody might need to keep rotating people in and out a little more regularly than other teams might. To keep them more fresh, physically and mentally. We have guys guarding differently than they have for most of their careers, so keeping them mentally dialed in, is probably a challenge. But the start of the UConn game, and then most of the first half yesterday, we were actually playing good, solid man to man defense.
All you will get is a bunch of babies bitching. This free board has become mostly trash
They literally had a roster turnover from last year. Kept 2 good starters and the rest are new. We/you have no idea how they will do moving forward. They are showing improvement this year and are better than last year. Down the win if you want but Texas is a good to great team.
And they played with Texas. They also lost to Chattanooga. I don’t see Louisville being a NCAA team. Do you?
Playing like they did this week it’s not out of the question. 2 decent guards and a couple of post guys. It’s too early to say they aren’t.
its his agenda... diminishing opponents we beat and the same if we lose and place the blame on the subject of his agenda... his pattern is apparent
What is my agenda? You keep using this word like it’s saying something. Please tell me. I want IU to be a top 10 program like it should be. If that is an agenda then so be it
I only got to see the highlights but I will say nice job coach for going to that zone, UofL looked like IU vs Syracuse against that zone. Nice to see some wrinkles thrown in. I also noticed IU did a pretty good job from the free throw line, now if they can just find a couple of shooters.
3 wins LAST year. They have almost eclipse that number THIS year and pushed Texas who only won by the slimmest of margins.
And my assessment of you being negative isn't just this one post.
Louisville is much improved, but also lost to ky wesylan in a preseason game besides the Chattanooga loss. time will tell what type of win it was. .
Sorry I’m not a sunshine pumper. Iu hasn’t given fans much to be happy about in the last 25 years
He is average at best. Most experts talk of his team make-up is not good. Recruits stars, not high IQ players with that work hard mentality. He is 48-27 in his short career (64%), over half of those losses are double digit, 12 by 15 or more, and 5 were butt whooping! Some day IU fans will realize that the Hoosiers play in the BIG TEN not the NBA.
Cupps is higher IQ, harder worker, than any Purdue player...so there's that.
Kaleb Banks and Peyton Sparks both play pretty hard as well. He kept Galloway around. Xavier plays very hard. Walker plays very hard. Jakai Newton is widely known as a "junk yard dog", and much better than his average rankings...
The team makeup isn't ideal. Not all the players are ball busters. But its not like Woody is just chasing guys like Mgbako.
And...why are you here...there have to be tons of 8th place Patriot league type teams for you to be worrying about right now. IU should be the least of your worries, even through our average coach hasn't lost to Porky in...lots of days.
Similar threads
