This is a stale point but is still true. We do poorly in th tournament as a league because we play wrestle mania ball. Athletic back courts win at the highest level and there are none…zero in the league
I was at the game today....
- Thread starter sbhamilton
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You can win with Cupps as your starting PG, but you have to be smart with your other players. Cupps can be a much better defending Tom Coverdale eventually (Junior, Senior), imo. I'm pretty sure that is someone we would all be happy with.
It’s the pecking order of the NBA pecking order system on display. Pulling a starter out at this point in the season may hurt feelings, messing with the mental preceding victimization of the day.
Getting? I figured you were too high by halftime. I wish I was, woulda been easier to watch.
Need X badly to balance the floor both offensively and defensively
It was not a good effort but as I said above this is the first game we have seen this from this team. I could not determine what was wrong with Ware. He lacks upper body strength but it was more than that.
Does not make it better, and hopefully we don’t see it again soon. Need X back.
Great IU crowd on hand as expected, the screeching howler monkey PA clown was annoying.
I like Cupps a lot but he is not yet ready to be the starting PG for IU (yes, I realize that wasn’t the plan and hopefully X is back soon). Cupps MIGHT develop into the Coverdale realm of impact but Coverdale went to 5th year prep school (basically a redshirt) in what would have been his freshman year and then only got into 10 games his first year at IU while Cupps has been thrust into starting PG role as a freshman. I’m glad we have him, and am not knocking him, and look forward to his development but we have a low ceiling if he has to be our starting PG and is paired with a starting SG that is not a threat from the perimeter. Not optimal.
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I was at the game as well.
Our crowd was loud at the beginning, but cooled after Mgbako got elbowed in the chin. And that seemed to cool our team, or at least took away our momentum.
What I don’t understand is that this was supposed to be a “neutral site”. Auburn had their band and cheerleaders. The aurburn cheerleaders were out during every timeout. Our crowd was dead!
Can’t we afford to send our cheerleaders?
This isn’t an excuse for lousy defense, turnovers and can’t shoot, but shouldn’t we be able to afford to have our cheering squad travel?
Our crowd was loud at the beginning, but cooled after Mgbako got elbowed in the chin. And that seemed to cool our team, or at least took away our momentum.
What I don’t understand is that this was supposed to be a “neutral site”. Auburn had their band and cheerleaders. The aurburn cheerleaders were out during every timeout. Our crowd was dead!
Can’t we afford to send our cheerleaders?
This isn’t an excuse for lousy defense, turnovers and can’t shoot, but shouldn’t we be able to afford to have our cheering squad travel?
The refs were obviously SEC refs. The team gave up when that became apparent. That's going to happen on the road in the B1G. They got to be tougher than that and play some defense. Woody has to get that through there heads. If he can't, he's lost the team.
Wasn’t sure how they determined that elbow was not a F1 let alone a play on
If those were SEC refs then IU needs better negotiation skills. So we were so desperate for the game that we agreed to SEC refs even though the game was already 1.5 hrs from the Auburn campus? Should be Big10 or neutral refs.
I agree with another poster. If we can’t do better in these games, then play Kennesaw St until you do get better. Blowouts are getting old.
I completely disagree as I didn’t like it when we went on meaningless mini-streaks with Archie that gave a false impression of the teams progress (oh look, Damezi scored 13 against Little Sisters of the Poor, we are on our way back!!!!).
If we want to get back on the mountaintop our players need to experience what it takes. If that means getting crushed for a while so be it.
A few weeks ago I was looking at nba stats and noticed only 6 of the top 100 scorers were from the Big Ten.
I've noticed how much talent has moved south in the past few years. Hopefully that changes.
I agree. Shouldn't have had their cheerleaders and band. Crowd was about 50/50. My guess is it was Auburn's idea and we were like give us a 50/50 split. I like the idea of an Auburn series but I'm biased. Indiana born and an Auburn Alum. I just wish IU had some of Auburn's guards. They always have good guards.
I thought Aub had a few more fans but nothing like the home game that was predicted here. We had more of the good seats.
They had a hell of a lot more to cheer about than is for sure.
I was there as well, and agree that the effort was sub par from several players. It’s like they didn’t even know how to respond when AU ratcheted up the pressure.
Gabe was the one player that comes to mind that stayed locked in the whole game. Gunn also seemed to keep up the effort, though he struggled a bit.
Regardless, I really hope the guys learn from this, because if they play like they did yesterday, Kansas is going to crush us.
Auburn was also unconscious and hitting pretty much every ****ing shot they put up. I mean, there were several plays I openly stated “nice D” only to watch the shot drop through the rim. It was frustrating AF. And AU got away with a ton of fouls, but I think mostly because we were so passive.
Very frustrating. I understand getting overwhelmed the first time by UConn but this should not have happened. Ware avoiding contact won’t play well in the league
Agree, gotta play at least a couple legit Out-Of-Conf teams. Even though you get killed, you need to know your standing. Example… Sparty… they usually play some of the elite programs, often take some L’s, but by end of season they are improved.
^^^ This.
Big Ten’s style of play has often been decried on here as the reason the B1G does not do well in the NCAA Tournament. I have opined a few times that…. the Big Ten simply does not get many of the extremely good, all-around players who are long & athletic, i.e. NBA type players.
WHY the Big doesn’t get all that many NBA-level players… I wouldn’t know. Coaching styles? Geography?
No idea, but I have noticed before that the Big Ten does not produce many NBA players. And those who make the NBA, aren’t tearing it up.
The super-stud recruits are still opting for Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, UNC, et al.
Supposedly (per the TV analysts) our guy was within the "cylinder" (of the other players movement) and if the elbow comes from below as a natural part of the players movement within said "cylinder" then it's (and this IS a real quote) "too bad; so sad"... Surprised the heck out of me...
I think Mbako fouled him, but even so, I don’t get how an elbow to the face is allowed
I get the cylinder rule but that elbow was high and intentional.
Oh well. Nobody got hurt
I was at the game, and how sad, that again we have a great turnout for a big game on a neutral floor and we just suck. This was the worst of the bunch, because we were at least in the game for 3/4 of the UCONN game, but even with a good start, we just sucked for 3/4 of the game. No idea why IU didn't bring a band or cheerleaders. I thought IU had a clear advantage in the lower bowl vs # of Auburn fans, but they had a band and cheer squad and more to cheer for obviously, so they were louder than IU fans. Don't know if guys were really sick, but they just stopped fighting and Auburn was a tough team. Auburns offense moved the ball and probed the D in and out, while we just dribble the ball around the perimeter and look to isolate a big on the block. We had no one who wanted to hit 3s or put their head down, force some contact and try and get to the rim. Auburn played really, really well and personally I don't think with X playing, and Ware being healthy, and TG not being mind-f*cked we would have beaten them, but you at least want to see some fight and we didn't... AT ALL.
There was chatter even before the game that Ware was not feeling well, any support for that (besides his sheepish play)?
The television broadcast panned the crowd and I saw a dude in Hoosier red sitting between two babes that looked like models. I thought-that must be kkott
Agree, that won’t fly in B1G. Opportunity to learn and grow. Hope they work through the specific struggles they had in this game. X would have been a big difference maker in that game. Maybe not enough, but I said that to my son pretty early in the first half. We were outmanned at the guard position when it came to handling the pressure. Totally threw us off our game and we NEVER attacked it.
Yeah, they killed us with their guards, so with X, maybe we lose by 15-20 instead of 30. I'm really just hopeful that those guys did have the flu and that accounts for the lackluster effort. I'm sure Pearl tore Auburn a new one all week in practice and they responded. They played extremely well, and I think were beating us that day, regardless if we had everyone including X and they were all healthy. They may not be a top 5 team, but they played like one Saturday, imo. The bigger issue is if the effort wasn't due to a flu bug, then we have a bigger problem. Fortunately, we get to find out Saturday, at home!
I still think there might be something to that questionable “Questionable List” prior to the game. CJ had been sick prior and I’m wondering if that’s what it was - a bug running through the roster?
Who knows, but they did not look good at all after the first few minutes, in any way. Yes, I’m fully aware of the line change at that point but the energy never returned no matter who took the floor.
A young group got smacked in the mouth and looked lost. Hopefully, they will do the smacking this Saturday.
