One of the advantages of a difficult early season schedule is that you find our quickly what your strengths and weaknesses really are. Playing the little sisters of the poor tells you nothing and when that is combined with the egos of nineteen year olds and the high praise put on them by social media, the" I am great as I am syndrome" kicks in quickly. But a more difficult schedule coupled with close games or even a loss gives a much better perspective on how good a team really is. If you do it that way, practice can be devoted to fixing the weaknesses of the team. The idea of not really knowing what the weaknesses are until late in December is never a good thing since practice is limited after that because of the return to classes and because of the rest required to play in the Big Ten. Learn early and practice hard is the answer. But that is assuming that the coaches understand that concept.
Our schedule and practice.
- Thread starter Rotonda Jim
- Start date
I think the complaining about the schedule is overblown. As it worked out, we were rife with injuries early so determining "what we had" in those first 7 games (which was the real stinky part) would have at best yielded an incomplete. After that, the schedule has been fine with the likes of FSU, UConn, ND and AR in addition to NB and WI in conference. Now we start the conference schedule and by the end of the season, I expect our SOS will be fine. No, I don't like seeing us play so many crappy opponents to start and would have preferred to see some better games mixed in, but at this point with where we are, scheduling is not a concern for me and I don't think mixing in some better opponents early would have changed much.
I hated the scheduling, but not for the reasons the OP stated. I thought it was a straight up middle finger to everyone who bought season tickets to watch this group.
As you point out, we wouldn't be any better if we'd played a better schedule. It's a matter of poor coaching and playing, not the schedule.
The only thing the schedule did was give a lot of people a false sense of the team and how good they were. The nebraska, notre dame, and Arkansas games have shown what we are. We are going to struggle in the big ten especially since we once again can't shoot the three. Honestly I'd be shocked right now if we stay within 20 of Maryland. I think .500 is about the best we can hope for.
Jesus Christ dude.. everyone, except ignorant fans like you knew what the weaknesses and strengths were by game two. This wasn't a surprise, Arkansas didn't show us anything we didn;t already know. unless you're completely stupid. Do you even watch basketball? Do you even understand the basic fundamentals or does sitting on your fat ass drinking beer and watching TV give you some kind of extraordinary insight that's missed by the professionals on our staff?
Well you are really wrong on two counts. First, I do not drink beer and second I happen to be in the Ohio Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. Just saying.
you posted this while standing in the Ohio Basketball Coaches HOF? cool.
Go ahead and shut down the forum for the day. You win.
You are really a sad individual I feel sorry for you and you’re stupid owl icon.
His incessant whining and crying is incredibly annoying and pitiful. It's like he thinks he's a victim of something. He's misnamed, he should be victimbear.
The biggest weakness on this team is inability to shoot--not just the three but everything. Do not know how you fix that except by repetition and working on mechanics. I am of the opinion that certain aspects of shooting are innate. The second weakness is very poor leadership in the few upper classmen we have. One cannot physically play. The other thinks he is still on New York playgrounds.
Proved to be The dumbest thing you wrote in 2019. Glad everyone on the board got to read and have a good laugh at your expense. Better luck in 2020 basement boy.
For the record, I coached at Cleveland John Marshall High School for many years and coached boys and girls and happen to not only be in the Ohio basketball coaches Hall of Fame but am their winningest coach in history. I am an IU grad from 1969. Look it up if you choose but unlike many others I do not lie about my accomplishments. My main point remains that you need to schedule great opponents early in the season so that reality sets in very quickly. Reacting to reality whether it is good or bad, is the hardest part of coaching. If the reality is bad, you then have a longer time to try and fix it.
Jim,
I don't necessarily disagree with your contention about playing quality opponents early. I was more interested that the winningest coach in Ohio (or just your high school?) with IU ties was posting here. I was bored with TV football the other day and did a little googling.
Your Rivals handle is Jim and you appear to live in Rotonda, FL. There is a Facebook Jim W----I who is a '69 IU grad and coached / taught at Cleveland John Marshall HS of Engineering (team mascot Lawyers??).
The winningest boys HS bball coach in OH is Dick Kortokrax. The winningest girls HS coach is Ed Zink. Neither is a Jim. No Jim W---I could easily be found via google for any sports in OH.
There is no Jim/James W----I listed as an inductee to the Ohio HS BBall HOF that I could find. No Jim there at all with IU ties that I could see. Thinking I may have misinterpreted your post, I check CJM High School's alumni HOF list. No Jim W---I listed there either. Nothing on OHSAA, either.
I'm sure I may have my wires crossed here somewhere. Any clarification you can provlde would be appreciated. Being a HOF coach certainly adds credibility to their posts. While I've followed IU bball for decades, I wasn't much of an athlete, much less a coach.
BTW - People put WAAAY too much information out there on social media.
GO IU!!
I don't necessarily disagree with your contention about playing quality opponents early. I was more interested that the winningest coach in Ohio (or just your high school?) with IU ties was posting here. I was bored with TV football the other day and did a little googling.
Your Rivals handle is Jim and you appear to live in Rotonda, FL. There is a Facebook Jim W----I who is a '69 IU grad and coached / taught at Cleveland John Marshall HS of Engineering (team mascot Lawyers??).
The winningest boys HS bball coach in OH is Dick Kortokrax. The winningest girls HS coach is Ed Zink. Neither is a Jim. No Jim W---I could easily be found via google for any sports in OH.
There is no Jim/James W----I listed as an inductee to the Ohio HS BBall HOF that I could find. No Jim there at all with IU ties that I could see. Thinking I may have misinterpreted your post, I check CJM High School's alumni HOF list. No Jim W---I listed there either. Nothing on OHSAA, either.
I'm sure I may have my wires crossed here somewhere. Any clarification you can provlde would be appreciated. Being a HOF coach certainly adds credibility to their posts. While I've followed IU bball for decades, I wasn't much of an athlete, much less a coach.
BTW - People put WAAAY too much information out there on social media.
GO IU!!
Lets dive into the reasons: ACC/B10, decided decades ago. Arkansas matchup set up before Archie got here. Jimmy V game accepted before December last year. Crossroads classic we have been doing for around a decade. 2 B10 games in Decrmber started a couple years ago. So, that's 6 December games that were decided long before filling in the gaps in the schedule. Those are 6 high major opponents with dates not entirely determined by IU. Now, let's think about the other FIVE non-conference games IU has a say in. Do you think they would rather make more money by having concession sales, ticket sales, and parking sales minus the couple hundred thousand they pay these teams to come in or not have home opponents outside of FSU and Arkansas? Give up millions just to have a more difficult schedule (with most opponents being scheduled well in advance and a team with low expectations) or take those millions with almost guaranteed wins (that literally EVERY top team in America has plenty of on schedule)? Now, let's add in the fact most really big games early in the year happen in tournaments. What if you didn't get invited to one of those or aren't eligible that year? Now, let's talk about the fact scheduling involves TWO teams. If you already have games scheduled on the days the other team can play, they aren't going to be on your schedule. Big games that aren't tournaments or challenges usually are set YEARS in advance. IU-UK's contract was signed BEFORE Calipari got there and ended as soon as they lost in 2012. Home and home series are especially difficult to schedule with any big program, as they don't want to give up home games any more than IU does (miss out on $, fans can't go, more difficult, and with the state of IU's program for the last 25 years, because it's a good chance at a bad loss). So, can you begin to understand some of the issues? Scheduling is nowhere near as easy as "We want to play you, let's play!". There are reasons when Archie got the job there was talk of scheduling Arizona for a home-home "in 3 or 4 years", because schedules have to have openings, at both schools, to make that happen. It is what was being talked about to replace the 3 year contract with Arkansas. Then again, its UnAmerican to try to understand any issue beyond surface value, isn't it? Burn Glass alive for not somehow convincing an elite team to come into AH against their own plans!
Too bad we aren't located in a basketball crazy state loaded with guys who can shoot the ball. Then maybe we could use one of our open schollies on a shooter. Oh well...
It can’t be that difficult. Purdue, MSU, North Carolina, Butler, Gonzaga, Oregon, Michigan, Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, L’ville are just some of the schools that managed to put together a challenging non-conference schedule.
You're right darkhawk how dare anybody try to hold anyone in leadership accountable for our lack of success. We just need to be good "fan boys" and celebrate our mediocrity! Maybe in year #5 Archie will make the NCAA tournament once he has all his guys. Afterall Freddy warned us this is a "serious rebuild" As far as the schedule goes tho...it doesn't matter. Archie is going to lose at least 10 B1G games regardless of who he plays in pre-season. Go IU beat the Vols!!
Yes it's extremely difficult Snarl. You must be one of the nincompoops darkhawk was talking about. Where's Faughpaw?? He could explain it to you in layman's terms
There were 7 pansy opponents, not 5, as you indicate.
You don't think Evansville would play us at home? Ball State? Dayton? Even Indiana State or Valpo? No MAC schools? Anybody with a pulse? Do you think Western Illinois, Portland State, North Alabama, Troy, Princeton, Louisiana Tech, and South Dakota State, in order, is the best we could play?
I agree, it's hard to make a non-shooter into a good shooter. Passable, especially on FTs? Yes, but not a great shooter if they don't have a shooters touch. Secondly, and I think related, is that I think this team just lacks confidence. And this is my hope for the season: I think we have a pretty decent roster and could be a good team, IF these guys just begin believing in themselves, lock in and decide they're good. And that I have seen change in the middle of a season, or go South, as was the case last year. The missed FTs, I think are as much a factor of the confidence thing as they are bad FT shooters. Here's hoping we find some confidence!
Most BT schedules managed to play 5 decent OOC opponents, some more:
Michigan....Creighton, Iowa St., NC, Gonzaga, UL, Oregon
MSU: UK, Seton Hall, VT, Georgia, UCLA, Duke
OSU: Cincy, Villanova, NC, UK, West Virginia
Iowa: Depaul, Tx Tech, SD State, Syracuse, Iowa St., Cincy
Purdue: Texas, Marquette, VCU, FSU, Virginia, Butler
Minnesota: Utah, Tex A& M, Washington, BC, OK State
Northwestern: Providence, Bradley, Pitt, BC, Depaul
PSU: Georgetown, Ole Miss, Suracuse, Wake, Bama
Wisconsin: St Mary's, Marquette, New Mexico, NC State, Tennessee
Maryland: George Mason, Temple, Marquette, ND, Seton Hall
INDIANA: FSU, U CONN, ND, Arkansas
Nebraska: Wash St., GT, Creighton, George Mason
Illinois: Arizona, Miami, Missouri
Rutgers: Pitt, Seton Hall
I didn't see anyone that played 7 more boring games in a row to begin their season.
Anyone know why we didn't participate in the BT-Big East Challenge? Did we ask out?
MSU and OSU are the type of schedules we should have each year. They also should try to schedule a big game the first or second Saturday each year. I assume it was our turn to sit out, since the Big East has fewer teams.
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If you're going to include schools like Texas, Syracuse, North Carolina, New Mexico, Iowa State, Providence, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Miami, and maybe a couple of others up there as good teams to play then you should include LA Tech since their NET ranking is higher than those teams. Their kenpom ranking is also higher than some of the teams above and 7 places higher than their NET ranking.
Big East has only 10 schools so 4 B1G teams aren't going to play no matter what. It's possible IU doesn't want to participate or it could just be a year they can't.
In theory but those programs are far better than us right now. We might just end up getting killed by 30 as we have to duke in the past. That's not much fun imo.
That's what I don't get. The same people that are (understandably) complaining that this team isn't very are some of the same that are complaining about a weak schedule and saying they'll miss the NCAAT again.
What helps the chances of making the tournament more: beating a bad team or getting beat by a good team?
Considering the conference is good enough to significantly raise at team's SOS, I'd rather have more wins on the season than an even harder SOS with more losses. The committee last year said that to them the number of wins was very important, more so than SOS.
At this point having 11 wins makes getting into the tournament possible with only a mediocre conference season of around 0.500. If they had swapped out 2 or 3 of those games for tougher opponents and lost those games then not making the tournament at this point would be almost a guarantee. In other words, a tougher schedule is great if you have a good or great team and can beat those tougher opponents or can make up the win total in conference. It's not so great if the team isn't very good and can be expected to have, at best, just over a 0.500 conference record.
I was glad IU got FSU instead of Duke this year. They always seem to get matched up with Duke or UNC when IU is not good and the other team is a top 5 or top 10 team. Bad match-up that is frustrating to watch.
IU should schedule quality matchups based on long term historical trends of the programs and etc. No one can predict how good the teams are going to be year to year. La Tech doesn’t check any of those boxes. It’s a good matchup for one of the easier games.
Wasn't the whole deal last year we didn't have enough wins and the committee didn't really even look at SOS?
But neither does Duke or North Carolina over the last twenty years. They have been far superior to us. We should not be playing a team based on what Bob Knight did 30 years ago. Florida State and Notre Dame is more in line with us.
We should always be playing those teams, if possible. We beat North Carolina and Kansas in Crean's final season. Last year we weren't a very good team and still beat MSU (2x), Wisconsin, Marquette, and L'ville.
We're also allowed to win the game, as well (Also, it isn't a given we can beat the bad teams). People point to last year, but we also beat two really good teams during the non-conference, which helped our resume. Also, does it really matter if we make the tourney as a 11 seed or miss it? Either outcome is still a bad year for Indiana standards. I'm not sure why that thought process would ever enter the A.D.'s mind when they are putting together a schedule.
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Sure, we could win but you missed my point that a lot of the people here complaining the loudest Abbott the schedule are also those complaining the most about the team's ability to win games. In other words, "this team sucks. They'll only win 6 games in conference and will surely miss the tournament" while at the same time "this schedule is so weak. We should be playing top 25 teams every game." If they're not good enough to beat conference teams, why would they be good enough to be really good non-conference teams.
More likely, they just want to complain about anything and everything.
I disagree but that's just me. We also had some really bad loses last year. We just are not an elite program yet we want to pretend that are still are in 1993.
Only 40 nch vertical lespers who cannot shoot need to apply, or the chronically injured.
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