I just listed my expectations, reread them if necessary. I’m just a realist and know it wasn’t going to happen overnight... at least not when you factor in where we are with our admin, and the never forgotten sting from the Sampson hire. We just aren’t going to get a guy that will immediately turn things around. No cheaters like Cal or Pitino...no can’t miss guys that would cost a fortune like Donovan. It was always gonna be a multi year process. How are you still hanging on? We’ve been largely mediocre for 30 years.
Your concerns are valid though, which is why I haven’t lowered myself to belittling your views or input...like you have with a bunch of people on here. I all but guarantee you’ve tried to belittle someone that’s A LOT smarter and closer to the program than you are. Nothing wrong with sticking to your guns without belittling people. It’s tacky.
It also seems that nuance isn’t something you pick up on. There are improvements, to deny that there are shows how absolute you’re looking at this whole thing. Recruiting, offensive and defensive efficiency numbers, making the NCAA versus not, not losing to teams like IPFW any more, winning a few road games In the conference, winning neutral court games against decent high major teams...there are signs of improvement. There are also areas of concern, as you’re obviously focusing on. But even many of those are improving, changing. Green riding tons of pine as the conference season wore down. To me that’s a sign that Archie isn’t going to just let guys make mistakes, as you keep insisting. And it’s a sign we have more depth, which we do.
Also, Instead of turning the 4 game losing streak into a season ending 7-8 game losing streak, or worse, like we’ve seen in his first two years...we beat two ranked teams and a solid bubble team on the road.
There are things to be optimistic about. There are things to be pessimistic about. I think the list former is growing, while the list for the latter is shrinking. Hope that continues. We’ll be a damn good team and program fairly soon if it does.
Lol.You did make excuses, even if you claim otherwise. Then, you puff yourself up by claiming to take the high road, only to do what you said you had not (belittle my views, simply and only because they differ from your own). It’s right out of the lowered expectations script.
You can continue to foster lower those much more modest goals for the program and make excuses for failure after failure to your heart’s content, as no one is stopping you. It’s just strange that you are so critical, as well as intolerant of and threatened by others who want more. Miller will be here for a couple more years, at least and, if he gets us into the top half of the conference, I’m certain he’ll be extended and more robustly compensated. If he is pushed out, however, I have no doubt that the bigotry of soft expectations will be transferred to the next coach. After all, to quote a former coach, “It’s Indiana!”[/QUOTE]
What excuses? Just listing specific counterpoints to some of your concerns. Not sure you’ve done that much with me, or others. Other than 4-11 against top half of B10...9 of which were solid NCAA tourney teams. Excuse? Or maybe a bit of nuance that should be considered...as not all 4-11s against top halves of conferences are created equal.
Not sure what I’ve typed is in any way equivalent to how you’ve interacted with many on this board. I’m pretty careful to say words like “seems” because I obviously don’t know you or what your knowledge and experiences are. You’re much more absolute with your proclamations about others...that you can’t have any way of knowing.
Anyway. Yet again. I’ve made my expectations clear a few times. Here they are again. They haven’t changed since I started following IU basketball 34-35 years ago. It’s caused me A LOT of frustration and stress because they haven’t met them since RMKs 94 team.
-Compete for Big Ten title most years
-Recruit enough elite level kids to have a shot at deep tourney runs most years.
-Get to final fours “regularly”. RMK went to what, 5? In 30 or so years. So maybe 1 every 5 years or so.
-Win titles “occasionally”. Using RMK, 3 in 30 years. So one a decade or so.
Mainly just compete for B10 regular season title most years. If he can get to that, and is good at having them ready to play in March, the post season expectations should take care of themselves.
I didn’t expect them to happen immediately when Archie was hired...
If/when Archie leaves, I likely won’t expect it to come immediately for the next coach no.
I will continue to watch the games and hope for a return to elite status. And I’ll try like hell to also enjoy the team. And when I see improvements I’ll let them buoy optimism. And since I don’t make the hiring/firing decisions, I try to not let the negatives ruin my enjoyment of Indiana basketball. Something that’s been a big part of my life. I think I did too much Of that during the Crean years. I never accepted him, even in 11-13. Maybe I’m learning from that and being too optimistic with Archie? But I do know I’m more optimistic about the long term path of IU basketball than I have been in a couple decades.