Great effort today and we started out shooting strong. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. We still have a ways to go before we can call ourselves a great team. We need to still clean up some things on defense and make our free throws. Lets see if we can put together a few Ws in a row and on the road before we start bragging and saying we should be ranked and saying Holtmann sucks or he is going to suck. Act like we have been here before.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves
- Thread starter BigNutsIUFan
- Start date
No one and I mean NO ONE has called us a great team. I'm somewhat in the Archie camp and can safely say this. Please, who is seriously bragging and not being facetious?
Thanks coach....we will practice hard and not get over confident. I’m glad you said something because I thought about taking shots with my eyes closed for the extra challenge. Thank goodness you set us all straight and focused on the right things.
It's very vital that we, as fans, stay humble. Take it one game at a time. Fans definitely shouldn't take any opponents for granted. This is the type of leadership this board has been missing.
The old adage "the next game is the toughest" comes to mind, not given much of a chance to beat OSU and now Rutgers. Good team, road game but coming off an emotional win. Tough test for both players and coaches to stay focused. Playing in BIG forces you to stay focused which is hard to do these days since many teams have beat players leaving early instead of staying 4yrs and providing leadership on how to do this
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
F that, let's totally get ahead of our selves... we're fans!
Agreed, let's definitely get ahead of ourselves! Far out!
Key season-changers:
1. Archie Miller stops trying to get the end of the bench more experience during conference games (note: but it is a great idea to get them all that early experience.);
2. Sitting the players that aren't performing in order to give them the reality check. Green playing relief role;
3. Phin looking better and better. There are a lot of keys to a good season for IU and this is maybe the biggest;
4. Start has to be good. And strong to close the game;
5. Take advantage of matchups;
6. Everyone contributes. Did you see that DeRon Davis was in for over 10 minutes and only got one foul?
7. IU's defense was good most of the game. OSU only got 20 in the 2nd half and IU had 11 steals!
As an aside...fans can do what they want...just support the team.
PS: As long as the team realizes the next game and the next play are the most important issues. And as long as Archie Miller is strict on players especially underperformers.
PPS: Improve free throw percentage made...come on! We missed how many? O.O
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yeah, the effort and attitude were 100% better today, and I agree that starts with Phinisee. Last year the team got lost, but hopefully whatever Archie said after the NW game, and I've heard several reports that it was a totally different Archie really getting after guys, brought them together and they can go on a run. I like the composition of this team and think with a little confidence, we could go on a run and be a tough team to beat.
They overcame the usual 10 min dry spell, played solid D and beat a full-strength Ahia with zero help from the zebras. I'll take that just to shut the trolls up for a few days.
IU was fortunate getting OSU at the right time. Indiana bounced back, true.
But OSU's Kyle Young is a key to their offense and he is not recovered from appendix removal 3 games ago. And their guards are a mess at this time. That leaves the front line and IU's matchups were up to the task.
And why are you trying to downgrade a nice win? Good grief.
Young is not fully recovered, SO WHAT? Neither has Phinisee for us and he is THE critical piece of IU's team IMO.
Their guards being a "mess" isn't out problem either and in no way puts an asterisk by IU's win.
I don’t think IU is a great team. But, I don’t think the B10 has any great teams. What makes the B10 look so difficult is that There are only a couple of teams that aren’t good, and there are no gimme wins. The teams that can play most consistently over the course of the B10 season will end up highest in the conference. I do think the schedule will play a factor.
I think that IU realistically should finish with around 12 conference wins.
yesterday IU played like I expect them to play. It would have been a much more lopsided win if we made some free throws.
a couple of other quick thoughts:
I loved our starting lineup. I loved it more when Phinisee looked like himself for really the first time I can recall all season. Offensively our movement was much, much improved to start the game. How consistent we are with that movement will be a key to our season.
I loved that Miller didn’t touch that lineup for the first seven minutes or so.
I hated that next stretch of basketball. OSU made their run and we went back to that “change the lineup ever 60 seconds” strategy. It’s ok to go to the bench, but during that stretch it felt like we were just experimenting. We became stagnant.
Green was better coming off the bench, and while he had a few bad moments early, during the second half he played like he should.
If Phinisee has turned a corner physically, It’s not unrealistic to think that this team can be pretty good. Good enough to win one of the at Rutgers/at Minnesota , and the next two home games. The b10 gets tougher , but our schedule gives us a realistic opportunity to start 6-3, or 7-2.
I agree with OP. We aren’t a great team and we need to stay humble. We can lose to anyone , but there’s no one we can’t beat. We have plenty of talent, and are an experienced team. Stay focused, play tough and together, strive to be consistent and we’ll have a realistic shot at being somewhere in the top 6 in the conference when it’s all said and done.
I think that IU realistically should finish with around 12 conference wins.
yesterday IU played like I expect them to play. It would have been a much more lopsided win if we made some free throws.
a couple of other quick thoughts:
I loved our starting lineup. I loved it more when Phinisee looked like himself for really the first time I can recall all season. Offensively our movement was much, much improved to start the game. How consistent we are with that movement will be a key to our season.
I loved that Miller didn’t touch that lineup for the first seven minutes or so.
I hated that next stretch of basketball. OSU made their run and we went back to that “change the lineup ever 60 seconds” strategy. It’s ok to go to the bench, but during that stretch it felt like we were just experimenting. We became stagnant.
Green was better coming off the bench, and while he had a few bad moments early, during the second half he played like he should.
If Phinisee has turned a corner physically, It’s not unrealistic to think that this team can be pretty good. Good enough to win one of the at Rutgers/at Minnesota , and the next two home games. The b10 gets tougher , but our schedule gives us a realistic opportunity to start 6-3, or 7-2.
I agree with OP. We aren’t a great team and we need to stay humble. We can lose to anyone , but there’s no one we can’t beat. We have plenty of talent, and are an experienced team. Stay focused, play tough and together, strive to be consistent and we’ll have a realistic shot at being somewhere in the top 6 in the conference when it’s all said and done.
Sorry if my post seemed to you as an attempt to downgrade the win. In fact, I believe the win possibly may turn out as a season changer. It's huge.
But the post I was responding directly to stated that OSU was at full strength. And the point I probably didn't make clear is that OSU, like many teams, was not "at full strength". They are down a player. And
Kyle Young is critical to their team. He averages 8 ppg, is good on assists and rebounds. He got one point and didn't succeed in getting their guards back on track or provide an out for the bigs when they were stopped. In watching him specifically, in earlier games, he was decidedly one step slower in the IU game. This is probably due to the fact that this was his first game back after being out for appendix surgery.
In no way was it intended as degrading the win. But in no way was OSU in a full-powered lineup.
As I previously posted in this thread, we are possibly looking at a season-changing game. And with Phin back, we may just compete for the very top of the B1G.
That's fine BUT we are not in a "full-powered lineup" either. As someone else stated, that was the first game basically all year where Phinisee looked close to his last year form and I still think his conditioning is not back to full game level. Young played 22 min and Phinisee played 29 min and I don't think that Young is NEARLY as important to OSU as Phinisee is to IU.
Most teams are dealing with injuries and players not at their peak.
Agree fully. No disagreement here.
Once again, though, I was responding to another poster who said that Ahia was at full strength. That was my only point...to respond to that.
They have one player out for the season. And the Young issue...I didn't mention illnesses etc.
In other posts I have put IU's injuries, etc., in context. As you have here. But it wasn't what I was discussing because of the previous posting.
But if you want to change the subject and not address my point...fine with me.
Let's hope but I'm reserving judgment until I see what we do in these next two road games. It was a nice win but season changing we don't know yet.
I think Yesterday's Game is an illustration of that old sports maxim, " You're never as bad as you look when you are losing, and never as good as you look when you are winning. I was going to say that a Basketball Team looks much better when it is hitting shots. However, when I looked at the box score, we only hit about 40% from the field, and 50% from the free throw line.
The difference yesterday was the intensity on Defense which forced OSU to work to get shots, and the movement on Offense which forced OSU to defend the floor and led to a large number of fouls and free throws. Now, if we would make 75% of those free throws it would make the job much easier.
The difference yesterday was the intensity on Defense which forced OSU to work to get shots, and the movement on Offense which forced OSU to defend the floor and led to a large number of fouls and free throws. Now, if we would make 75% of those free throws it would make the job much easier.
Probably right. We likely are about a .500 team in the big ten. Michigan State got destroyed at Purdue so winning on the road will be very difficult.
We don't know yet..it was only one game and we where awful for almost the whole northwestern game. We will know more after the next two games I would think.
