The basketball IQ of Smith seems to be quite low right now (hope he improves but some guys get it and some just don't). The IQ is also average at best for several others on this team. Smith was utterly schooled again today, this time by McDermott. While basketball is clearly a team game, it also isn't all that complicated. If Coach could challenge Smith to shut down (or at least limit) his man, imagine what that could do? Stay in his face, don't let him get an uncontested shot at all costs. Why is that so hard to understand? Smith is asleep a good part of the time and let's his man do whatever he wants outside. Imagine an entire team with the attitude of shut your man down?!! The hustle of a Fife, an AJ Moye, McRoberts, etc... Butler's players usually get it though we rarely do any more. Look at the hustle of Brunt and of Baldwin!! Those guys understand basketball. Although athletically gifted Smith was schooled today by his man. I do give him credit for the late 3 and the dunk but he was out played again and went back to turning the ball over. I've been saying it for years, IU needs fundamentals. I hope Archie can bring that back in time. Yes, I know the game has changed. Blah, blah, blah. The NBA has infiltrated college ball but you can still learn to play defense, see the floor and shoot free throws!! Go IU!!! Great shot by Phinisee. He IS a player that gets it and I believe he will be a 4 year star for IU.
Smith's defense and turnovers
- Thread starter fundamentalsneeded
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Do you know what it's like to play basketball with a 30" vertical leap, much less a 45" vertical like Smith has?
He's having to learn an entirely different game than he played in high school. Guys with 45" verticals almost always do. But he's much, much more effective on both defense and on the boards than you're giving him credit for. Let Archie continue to grow this kid's game. Your patience will be richly rewarded, I am confident of that.
Archie must be an exceptional coach getting all these average to below average bball IQ players to keep fighting and winning games.
I hope you are right and am rooting for the kid as I do for all of IU's players. No I never had a 45 inch vertical but that doesn't have anything to do with constantly losing your man in my opinion. Hopefully he can develop into the type of player that is a nightmare to play offense against. Right now I simply don't see it and some players just never get it. I just call it court awareness and it's amazing that it's so challenging for a lot of players. I hope Archie can pull it out of him and train the kid to be a star both defensively and offensively I really do. Time will tell.
I think he's a pretty good coach that may be a lot better than many think. Hell, I hope he becomes a legend in Indiana one day but he's just getting started. Only time will tell for sure but I'm glad to see that we won a game today that we really maybe didn't quite deserve to. Thank you Juwan Morgan for playing an incredible game and Rob for bailing us out with a great shot! The turnovers suck and are not indicative of a high IQ team. The inability of some to simply stay with (and in the face of your man) sucks as well. Big time and if it continues, we will be .500 in the Big 10. Hopefully the guys who don't get it will turn the corner and buy in, become enlightened or do whatever it takes to get there. We'll see. Go Hoosiers!
Disagree on most points you made. Butler is a very-well coached team with a really good defense. That had a lot to do with getting IU into a half-court offense. Then their quick guards do a decent job of containment...causing some errors. Turnovers do suck. And learning a new system and being on the floor executing it against upperclassmen would be a challenge for any new starter. Some get it slower than others but that does not brand a player or a team as having faulty IQ. And staying in front of a McDermott in a pack line defense is actually pretty darn difficult. Saying that a team does not have a high IQ is way too general a statement in my opinion.
And, by the way, Archie Miller is not just getting started. This is his 8th year as a head coach. Due to his coaching abilities, Miller was named a finalist for the 2015 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award. Many on here recognize that his teams play better as the season progresses. That is not just getting started.
Seems to me that Butler played harder and hustled more than IU for a lot of the first half. Did you notice how many underclassmen started on IU's team?
This team is raw at times. Makes mistakes. Wins more than one might guess looking at this being Archie Miller's true first recruiting class. Oh by the way, what offense and defense schemes were the players recruited for and taught before Archie Miiller's arrived as HC?
Let's look at Justin Smith's play. Sloppy at times. Out of position at times, yes. Is his basketball IQ low? Is it that he just isn't ready to play and might blossom later than others? Does he need more time and experience?
And I really take issue with the comment that IU didn't deserve to win. What does that mean?
Low IQ...? hmmm....nevermind.
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I thought Smith was fine today. He fell asleep a few times on McDermott (who was on fire from 3) but other than that he was fine. His offensive foul call robbed him of an And one, and was a horrible call.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
That call was terrible. No doubt. I see this more and more. Players are moving, not stationary. They are leaning forward or to the side and just because they are outside that circle under the basket it's an offensive foul.
He scares me with the ball has all the tools to be a great player but a basketball iq that is below average.
Umm you are aware that we play a packline defense right?
Rotation, help and close outs are critical. It doesn't go out 25 feet to stick on shooters (although we did expand it a little halfway thru the first half.
Rotation, help and close outs are critical. It doesn't go out 25 feet to stick on shooters (although we did expand it a little halfway thru the first half.
I’m tired of you idiots on here always blaming Smith for everything. Just stfu already. Smith’s defense wasn’t bad considering he was coming off his man to help stop the drives to the basket or are you to blind to see it.
i know. when smith started driving baseline with no room to go on our first possession of the game i said oh no. then he jumped in the air and tossed it up for grabs and turned it over. i know this can't be true but it seems like he has started 3 straight games like that. yogi did that a lot too his first 2 years. then he figured it out.
Like TommyCracker said. We play a pack line D. It’s not a simple as “just shut down your man”. If it were, we’d just shadow our man all over the floor. But what happens when your man beats you off the dribble? The pack line mentality takes a while to get fully ingrained. It has to be instinctual, which it isn’t quite yet, but getting better. Butler is a team that can exploit lapses with their shooting ability. I trust Archie will continue to bring them along, and look for them to be much sharper at the end of the season
Must have been watching a different game than I was, because I thought Smith was the better defender on McDermott all day. McDermott got the majority of his 3s when IU tried to play big with Davis and Morgan on the floor together, and Morgan had the coverage on McDermott. Also, as previous posters have pointed out, in Archie's system, there is really no face-guarding your man and offering no help. In the pack-line, there are rules and responsibilities that must be followed and executed for it to work properly. Archie has said multiple times and shown thru his coaching that he believes in his defensive philosophy and there are going to stick with it until it becomes honed in for guys. He is not sacrificing the system that he believes will lead to lots of victories for a single game here or there. He is looking at the long-term of the system, and it is pretty obvious that he thinks Justin is going to play a big role in that future by the minutes and defensive assignments that he has been giving him.
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