Reoccurring Challenges

[aajohn2000]

We simply don’t have shooters. It was awesome to see Kopp finally have a game where shots are dropping for him. It’s unfortunate this was not more common this season. As a team we shot 5-20 from three. Outside of Miller, we were 1-14. That’s gawd awful and again, consistent with the rest of the season.

We turned the ball over in a critical moment. But for the game, we had less than 10 turnovers, which helped keep us in it. But the other Achilles heal outside the shooting woes is simply not executing at the end of games. It happened twice vs wiscy, @OSU, and vs Rutgers. We were on the right side of it in our other contest with Pu but that was more of the exception than the rule.

Our other issue today was the enormous discrepancy in fouls. Today we were perfect from the line, but with a 10-10 performance, PU attempted 10 more free throws. Combine that with with the woeful 3 point shooting vs PU going 9-24. Three point shots and Free throws looked like this in points
PU: 41
IU: 25

Rinse and repeat I guess. Tip hat to the players for making it a great game and putting themselves in a position to win. But once again with the chance to win, we miss wide open shots and make a turnover on second to last possession and put it all together and it’s another loss. Sucks.

 

[Courtsensetwo]

We simply don’t have shooters. It was awesome to see Kopp finally have a game where shots are dropping for him. It’s unfortunate this was not more common this season. As a team we shot 5-20 from three. Outside of Miller, we were 1-14. That’s gawd awful and again, consistent with the rest of the season.

We turned the ball over in a critical moment. But for the game, we had less than 10 turnovers, which helped keep us in it. But the other Achilles heal outside the shooting woes is simply not executing at the end of games. It happened twice vs wiscy, @OSU, and be Rutgers. We were on the right side of it in our other contest with Pu but that was more of the exception than the rule.

Our other issue today was the enormous discrepancy in fouls. Today we were perfect from the line, but with a 10-10 performance, PU attempted 10 more free throws. Combine that with with the woeful 3 point shooting vs PU going 9-24. Three point shots and Free throws looked like this in points
PU: 41
IU: 25

Rinse and repeat I guess. Tip hat to the players for making it a great game and putting themselves in a position to win. But once again with the chance to win, we miss wide open shots and make a turnover on second to last possession and put it all together and it’s another loss. Sucks.

Certainly a better performance than I expected. Couple calls go the other way and we have a sweep of those clowns.

 

[Beorik]

We simply don’t have shooters. It was awesome to see Kopp finally have a game where shots are dropping for him. It’s unfortunate this was not more common this season. As a team we shot 5-20 from three. Outside of Miller, we were 1-14. That’s gawd awful and again, consistent with the rest of the season.

We turned the ball over in a critical moment. But for the game, we had less than 10 turnovers, which helped keep us in it. But the other Achilles heal outside the shooting woes is simply not executing at the end of games. It happened twice vs wiscy, @OSU, and be Rutgers. We were on the right side of it in our other contest with Pu but that was more of the exception than the rule.

Our other issue today was the enormous discrepancy in fouls. Today we were perfect from the line, but with a 10-10 performance, PU attempted 10 more free throws. Combine that with with the woeful 3 point shooting vs PU going 9-24. Three point shots and Free throws looked like this in points
PU: 41
IU: 25

Rinse and repeat I guess. Tip hat to the players for making it a great game and putting themselves in a position to win. But once again with the chance to win, we miss wide open shots and make a turnover on second to last possession and put it all together and it’s another loss. Sucks.

Well said and the sentiment is shared. It’s bittersweet because we played hard. Unfortunately with the errors you pointed out we came up short today.

 

[aajohn2000]

Certainly a better performance than I expected. Couple calls go the other way and we have a sweep of those clowns.

That makes two of us. Not going to blame refs even though it’s warranted. But we had plenty of chances to win the game. Just did not execute.

 

[Hoosier Clarion]

...could have been a W @ PUke + 2-6 other games if IU had a sharp shooting guard/wing capable of scoring at different levels...kopp tried hard in Mackey but he's hindered by just average athleticism and PS is a mid major conference catch and shoot performer only...Bates, Trey and AL need to move their beds into Cook...being a coaches son I'm betting TG does and very possibly Leal will...

 

[.Gerdis]

I expected a close game, and thought we had better than a 50/50 chance to win but I didn’t expect the game to be so ugly. I thought it would be a higher scoring game.

Caveat: I didn’t see the first 12 or so minutes as I was stuck staring at the backsides of 2-3 zebras watching tv during video reviews of some other game. And I missed at least 5 minutes in the second half when espn went blank on my tv screen.

I expected a cleaner game, with the loser scoring in the 70s.

IU fought hard and looked like the team that cared. PU looked lackadaisical, offensively inept, and fundamentally unsound. Their ball handling was atrocious. Their decision making poor. Their free throw shooting terrible.

with PUs defensive issues of late I expected and hoped for better offense out of Race, Parker (especially), and the bench. Kopp looked a little better, but part of that was that overall our player and ball movement looked much better.

I really didn’t understand all the people predicting a blowout, nor the 10 point line,

At the end of the day it’s a loss. I don’t feel like we won a moral victory. We played hard, but far from perfect and far from our ceiling.

it will be interesting to see how we play on Thursday. One could make a case for packing it in and having a letdown after 2 emotional games. One could also make the case that if this team could play loose (lots of pressure last 2 games) this team could pop to the upside and get over a hump. Thus, not sure if we would benefit more if we felt we had our backs against the wall (and a bid on the line), or if we felt we had nothing to lose or play for.

 

[ButHerEmails]

We simply don’t have shooters. It was awesome to see Kopp finally have a game where shots are dropping for him. It’s unfortunate this was not more common this season. As a team we shot 5-20 from three. Outside of Miller, we were 1-14. That’s gawd awful and again, consistent with the rest of the season.

We turned the ball over in a critical moment. But for the game, we had less than 10 turnovers, which helped keep us in it. But the other Achilles heal outside the shooting woes is simply not executing at the end of games. It happened twice vs wiscy, @OSU, and vs Rutgers. We were on the right side of it in our other contest with Pu but that was more of the exception than the rule.

Our other issue today was the enormous discrepancy in fouls. Today we were perfect from the line, but with a 10-10 performance, PU attempted 10 more free throws. Combine that with with the woeful 3 point shooting vs PU going 9-24. Three point shots and Free throws looked like this in points
PU: 41
IU: 25

Rinse and repeat I guess. Tip hat to the players for making it a great game and putting themselves in a position to win. But once again with the chance to win, we miss wide open shots and make a turnover on second to last possession and put it all together and it’s another loss. Sucks.

With Woodson only being here one season it’s impossible to know how strength of schedule will change these numbers over time but we definitely improved a lot of areas from last season.

Archie’s 4th season saw us end with a 12-15 record overall, 7-12 in conference and a 10th place finish.

Woodson’s first season so far, with post season games remaining, is 18-12 overall, 9-11 in conference with a 9th place finish.

Here are our team rankings from Archie’s 4th and final season and Woodson’s first season.
Points scored 218th to 165th
Points allowed 147th to 64th
Offense rating 204th to 168th
Defense rating 175th to 50th

With or without TJD and every other returning player, Woodson inherited a steaming pile of shit and while only marginally improving the offense, he vastly improved the defense. We were only a slightly better offense away from 5-6 more wins and wondering what our tourney seed would be. I want to see how Woodson’s offense does with guards/forwards he’s recruited himself (not including portal). Outside of what XJ has become over the season, I don’t believe we have a guard or forward that fits Woodson’s ideal player for his offense outside of Galloway. I think Geronimo can get there as Woodson has only had one season with him.

 

[Hoosier Clarion]

Somebody yesterday said if the game was in the 60's it would be a fight. Very fitting prediction.