Interesting view of Big 10 teams

[Tasmanian Devil]

This article previews the BTT. Had to laugh at these "kind" words about our coach:

"10. Indiana
If everyone in the league didn’t dislike Tom Crean so much, he’d probably have received so many condolence bouquets he’d own FTD by now. But “Tommy Naismith” will get no sympathy for one of the worst injury strings anyone has seen in the league for a while – least of all from his own goggle-eyed zealots at Assembly Hall. Lose 8 of 11 as Indiana basketball coach and they send out the National Guard to set up a perimeter – around your house.

The injuries to would-be starters O.G. Anunoby at Penn State and Collin Hartman before the season, plus games lost to more nagging stuff for James Blackmon and Juwan Morgan did stagger this team but it still has a lot of talent. Really, there’s no excuse for their sloppiness, a chronic issue under Crean that abated only slightly during the 2016 B1G title season.
Did that really happen? The 7-10 game against a lively young Iowa group on a roll (6:30 tomorrow, ESPN2) should be intriguing viewing."

 

[BigNutsIUFan]

What? Opposing coaches hate Tom Crean. I would think they secretly like him or like playing against his teams. Do tell.

 

[kkott]

This article previews the BTT. Had to laugh at these "kind" words about our coach:

"10. Indiana
If everyone in the league didn’t dislike Tom Crean so much, he’d probably have received so many condolence bouquets he’d own FTD by now. But “Tommy Naismith” will get no sympathy for one of the worst injury strings anyone has seen in the league for a while – least of all from his own goggle-eyed zealots at Assembly Hall. Lose 8 of 11 as Indiana basketball coach and they send out the National Guard to set up a perimeter – around your house.

The injuries to would-be starters O.G. Anunoby at Penn State and Collin Hartman before the season, plus games lost to more nagging stuff for James Blackmon and Juwan Morgan did stagger this team but it still has a lot of talent. Really, there’s no excuse for their sloppiness, a chronic issue under Crean that abated only slightly during the 2016 B1G title season.
Did that really happen? The 7-10 game against a lively young Iowa group on a roll (6:30 tomorrow, ESPN2) should be intriguing viewing."

I guess I'm jaded and not objective, but I don't see this "as the worst injury string in the league for awhile". Hartman was out early and it seemed known it was a season long thing. We'd started our slide before OG went down. Highlights our inability to construct a whole roster, with adequate backups. As I've said many times, CTC should thank his lucky stars Yogi was as durable as he was, or we'd have seen a similar problem much earlier potentially (what if he'd had JBJ's or Creek's injury history?).

Bottom line is: it's time. He's done some good things here, but it's just not enough, or consistent enough for the resources and salary he has. Will our admin do the necessary thing though? That's the real question.

 

[boiler1987]

This article previews the BTT. Had to laugh at these "kind" words about our coach:

"10. Indiana
If everyone in the league didn’t dislike Tom Crean so much, he’d probably have received so many condolence bouquets he’d own FTD by now. But “Tommy Naismith” will get no sympathy for one of the worst injury strings anyone has seen in the league for a while – least of all from his own goggle-eyed zealots at Assembly Hall. Lose 8 of 11 as Indiana basketball coach and they send out the National Guard to set up a perimeter – around your house.

The injuries to would-be starters O.G. Anunoby at Penn State and Collin Hartman before the season, plus games lost to more nagging stuff for James Blackmon and Juwan Morgan did stagger this team but it still has a lot of talent. Really, there’s no excuse for their sloppiness, a chronic issue under Crean that abated only slightly during the 2016 B1G title season.
Did that really happen? The 7-10 game against a lively young Iowa group on a roll (6:30 tomorrow, ESPN2) should be intriguing viewing."

This guy picked Purdue to finish 11th before the season started lol.

 

[iugradmark]

I guess I'm jaded and not objective, but I don't see this "as the worst injury string in the league for awhile". Hartman was out early and it seemed known it was a season long thing. We'd started our slide before OG went down. Highlights our inability to construct a whole roster, with adequate backups. As I've said many times, CTC should thank his lucky stars Yogi was as durable as he was, or we'd have seen a similar problem much earlier potentially (what if he'd had JBJ's or Creek's injury history?).

Bottom line is: it's time. He's done some good things here, but it's just not enough, or consistent enough for the resources and salary he has. Will our admin do the necessary thing though? That's the real question.

I really agree with this. Yes OG had some skills but frankly we should not have been the bottom defensive team in the league without him and we should not have been turning the ball over at the rate we did, etc. This team has problems that start with the system and coaching philosophy. Our ceiling was certainly impacted by OG but our floor shouldn't have been this low.