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wow...9-2 and people still pissed

Or maybe it could be that the last two Saturdays the Hoosiers have beaten two teams that are talented, experienced, and well-coached. Two teams that will win several games in two of the best basketball conferences in the nation.

This IU team has some shortcomings. The young guys make too many unforced errors. We lack a dead-3 shooter, which would by itself make us 10 or 12 ppg better. Yet here we are, 9-2 and a missed tip from being 10-1. We get better game-by-game, we have won our last 4 close games, including one today in which we trailed for 36 minutes.

Could it be possible that we're going to be difficult for those teams that remain on our schedule.

This is a flawed team. Nonetheless, they play hard and have found to a way to beat good teams. Good teams that have consistently beat IU recently. This is an IU team that will be annoying for others to play. I like it.
 
This is a flawed team. Nonetheless, they play hard and have found to a way to beat good teams. Good teams that have consistently beat IU recently. This is an IU team that will be annoying for others to play. I like it.
Miller said very early on offense it was chemistry, it’s happening before our eyes. Just take a poll to see at the seasons start if,Green passes or shoots last night.
 
We're winning but barely. We had arguably the 3 best players on the court today yet were still down 10 in the second half. The wins have been great but other than Marquette they've all been squeakers and while Butler, Louisville, NW, and PSU are decent none of them have even cracked the top 25. Play this way against UM, MSU, Wisky, Iowa, or OSU and we get hammered. This was a team that had aspirations of a conference title and deep tourney run. We're not anywhere close to that level at this point.
we are young at guard, not a recipe for success
 
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These aren’t mutually exclusive concepts.

Yes, we’re 9-2. We’re ranked. We have some quality wins. We’re recruiting well. Things definitely, on balance, look positive.

But we’re also still, as of today, a sloppy team offensively with a number of things that need a lot of work in order to be truly competitive in a pretty stacked Big Ten.

It’s hard to beat good (let alone great) teams when you’re turning the ball over 15 times a game. When you’re not shooting a stout FT percentage. When you’re giving up a lot of 2nd chance points.

I’m not unhappy with the record. And, yes, it’s always good to have a team that fights, doesn’t give up, and finds ways to win close games. Rather, I’m worried that these shortcomings will cause problems for us as we get into the meat of our schedule.
Some people will never be happy. I, for one, am very happy that we have a good head coach and is recruiting Indiana kids as opposed to that coaching staff we had prior. Team is heading in the right direction - it takes a bit of time before you get your players and change the culture. Be happy for what we have, where we are going and that the past coaching staff is out of here...
 
Some people will never be happy. I, for one, am very happy that we have a good head coach and is recruiting Indiana kids as opposed to that coaching staff we had prior. Team is heading in the right direction - it takes a bit of time before you get your players and change the culture. Be happy for what we have, where we are going and that the past coaching staff is out of here...


I think the comment about chemistry/culture is the point.........I'm frustrated with a lot of the things Smith & DG do. Just as an example.....Smith dribbling it to the left and out of bounds on the first play. So 5 seconds into the game you're watching and you're already pissed. But the facts are that Smith & DG 1. have talent and 2. are absolutely vital to the success of the team. So.....I know CAM also gets frustrated, but he has patience and is keeping his temper under control, and it looks like that approach is starting to pay off with both players.
 
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Opposing team defenses are now flopping and exaggerating contact on screens in an attempt to draw a moving screen foul call. That has become a defensive scheme against the weave and screens in IU's half court offense.
 
Good teams that are well coached find a way when it is winning time.
Good teams win close games.
Opposing team defenses are now flopping and exaggerating contact on screens in an attempt to draw a moving screen foul call. That has become a defensive scheme against the weave and screens in IU's half court offense.


Northwestern was really bad, or good. at that.......good thing is that the screens since that game have been fundamentally sound..........so the guys are getting smarter.
 
I think the comment about chemistry/culture is the point.........I'm frustrated with a lot of the things Smith & DG do. Just as an example.....Smith dribbling it to the left and out of bounds on the first play. So 5 seconds into the game you're watching and you're already pissed. But the facts are that Smith & DG 1. have talent and 2. are absolutely vital to the success of the team. So.....I know CAM also gets frustrated, but he has patience and is keeping his temper under control, and it looks like that approach is starting to pay off with both players.
I would like to see McBob start for Durham and possibly Smith. We need to cut down on early turnovers that put us behind. It is most important to start players that get us going quick. Smith has committed a lot of turnovers with bad passes early in the game. I would like to see him roam the baseline or cutting down the lane looking for opportunities to score and not trying to be the person to feed the ball inside. Let the guards and McBob do that.

We are still learning the strengths and weaknesses of each player. Know what you can do to help the team and work on those things you don't do well in practice.
 
Some people will never be happy. I, for one, am very happy that we have a good head coach and is recruiting Indiana kids as opposed to that coaching staff we had prior. Team is heading in the right direction - it takes a bit of time before you get your players and change the culture. Be happy for what we have, where we are going and that the past coaching staff is out of here...

Again, it’s not a binary thing: you’re either happy or unhappy.

I have very complex feelings about RMK. But I never questioned his chops as a coach - and the results speak for themselves. You think he’d be content with how our team is playing? Heck, he wasn’t even content when his teams were playing stellar ball. He even tells a funny story about Jordan during the Olympics about having to find something to be critical about (MJ had a stacked stat sheet at halftime and RMK asked him when he was ever going to see him set a screen!).

Who said I was unhappy? I never said that. What I said is that we have a whole lot to get better at if we expect to compete in the Big Ten.

First and foremost, we’re very sloppy — like Crean-level sloppy — with the ball. Great teams (heck, good teams) take relatively good care of the ball. We need to cut turnovers by at least a third.

Second, our perimeter shooting is suspect. I’m happy to see RP and JM taking more threes, because we’re not getting many conversions from anybody else.

Third, our FT shooting has been atrocious. Thankfully, we were better against Butler. Because we wouldn’t have won if we hadn’t have been.

There are other problems (ie, look how many offensive rebounds Butler got). But these are the biggies.

Pointing them out — and worrying they will cause us problems down the road if we don’t fix them — is not the same thing as being generally unhappy with the team or program. In fact, to not point them out, to suggest everything’s great because we’re 9-2, could lead to a sense of complacency and misplaced confidence.
 
Again, it’s not a binary thing: you’re either happy or unhappy.

I have very complex feelings about RMK. But I never questioned his chops as a coach - and the results speak for themselves. You think he’d be content with how our team is playing? Heck, he wasn’t even content when his teams were playing stellar ball. He even tells a funny story about Jordan during the Olympics about having to find something to be critical about (MJ had a stacked stat sheet at halftime and RMK asked him when he was ever going to see him set a screen!).

Who said I was unhappy? I never said that. What I said is that we have a whole lot to get better at if we expect to compete in the Big Ten.

First and foremost, we’re very sloppy — like Crean-level sloppy — with the ball. Great teams (heck, good teams) take relatively good care of the ball. We need to cut turnovers by at least a third.

Second, our perimeter shooting is suspect. I’m happy to see RP and JM taking more threes, because we’re not getting many conversions from anybody else.

Third, our FT shooting has been atrocious. Thankfully, we were better against Butler. Because we wouldn’t have won if we hadn’t have been.

There are other problems (ie, look how many offensive rebounds Butler got). But these are the biggies.

Pointing them out — and worrying they will cause us problems down the road if we don’t fix them — is not the same thing as being generally unhappy with the team or program. In fact, to not point them out, to suggest everything’s great because we’re 9-2, could lead to a sense of complacency and misplaced confidence.

I think you've perfectly captured the essence of some of the "discontent" or whatever you want to call it. There's a galactically-huge and pent-up desire on the part of IU fans to see IU back where we all believe IU should be. When IU is back the explosion will rock the basketball world.

Meanwhile, we can see the potential and we want to be patient but it's just like a kid waiting for Christmas and every day seems to last about 127 hours.

I've been "critical" of Justin Smith and much of that is that it's obvious he has so much talent and we want to see it all blossom at once and now. He plays defense and he rebounds but he still has lapses. I'll bet you any amount of money Archie Miller sees a lot of what he can do in practice every day and he's working non-stop to get this talent to come through consistently at game time.

So, I see unforced turnovers and sub-optimal free throw shooting and I grind my teeth and utter a few "oh, darns" but I'm as damned sure as I have been in some time that Archie Miller is leading the program in a direction we're all going to be happy about for quite some time.
 
He plays defense and he rebounds but he still has lapses
I am so sick of people saying that .. he does neither at a high level and both have been issues with him this year. His defense is worse than his offense. He plays with tunnel vision and has very low court awareness and is out of position or late constantly. He does well on the ball, but his defense off the ball has been lacking and his rebounding is the worst of our forwards per minute, per possession, and per percentage. Even McBob has better rebounding numbers than Smith. He also has the worst defensive eff rating of the four interior players.
 
I am so sick of people saying that .. he does neither at a high level and both have been issues with him this year. His defense is worse than his offense. He plays with tunnel vision and has very low court awareness and is out of position or late constantly. He does well on the ball, but his defense off the ball has been lacking and his rebounding is the worst of our forwards per minute, per possession, and per percentage. Even McBob has better rebounding numbers than Smith. He also has the worst defensive eff rating of the four interior players.
Not arguing but I am curious if the defensive efficiency ratings take into consideration who you are guarding? When we say that Smith has the worst defensive rating but he is frequently being asked to guard the other teams leading scorer how does that affect the ratings? Do they take in the players season average and then adjust the score to effectively show if the player was below or above what they normally do when assigning the defensive rating or are they just based on straight numbers?
 
Not arguing but I am curious if the defensive efficiency ratings take into consideration who you are guarding? When we say that Smith has the worst defensive rating but he is frequently being asked to guard the other teams leading scorer how does that affect the ratings? Do they take in the players season average and then adjust the score to effectively show if the player was below or above what they normally do when assigning the defensive rating or are they just based on straight numbers?

If it's anything like the NBA, defensive efficiency is extremely tough to truly calculate compared of offensive efficiency.

My understanding, and I'm not an expert in the least, is that it can only measure stats so if you steal the ball, block the ball or rebound the ball you're going to have pretty good efficiency numbers (makes sense). However I believe it can't distinguish how you are getting your steals. For example are you just over aggressive and hunt steals, therefore driving your efficiency up?

I've seen both explained. Some say it's just a calculation of steals, blocks and rebounds per minute and others say there is an attempt to get a field goal rate (which is extremely tough because unlike offense where YOU are shooting, on defense you're constantly switching).

I personally play NBA dfs and defensive efficiency numbers have never been as reliable to me vs a simple percent of average (not pts per position, what percent on average does an individual score when playing you).

A good example is Rudy Gobert. He's constantly at the top of all defensive efficiency ratings by a large amount. He's a really interesting guy to attack in daily fantasy because it's uncanny how many guys exceed expectations against him even though his steals, rebounds and blocks (and pace) are all working for him.

I just quickly checked that Capella had around 46 fantasy points against Gobert in 36 minutes last night.

A better example is probably Cliff Moore. I'm assuming that his defensive efficiency rate is really good because his rebound rate and block rate is otherworldly. However he can't see the floor supposedly because of his defense. As you saw vs Penn State, he had some great help blocks and rebounded really well...but also blew some plays on defense that made you go, ehh I'm not sure he's quite ready yet.

Anyway, my point is I'm curious to because I believe it's really difficult to get a reliable individual defensive stat.
 
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I just watch the game and see who is really playing and who isn't. I assume a lot of hardcore generational IU fans do this.

I like the stats too, but they still aren't as good as just understanding basketball.
 
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I may disagree with you on the Missing too many Threes. McRoberts, Morgan, Fitz, Phinisee, Durham all shooting 40% or better. Granted they don’t shoot many 3 pointers .Romeo is the one missing to many three’s he is 9/41 on the season.
 
I may disagree with you on the Missing too many Threes. McRoberts, Morgan, Fitz, Phinisee, Durham all shooting 40% or better. Granted they don’t shoot many 3 pointers .Romeo is the one missing to many three’s he is 9/41 on the season.

Maybe a different way to look at it- the guy shooting 73% from inside the 3pts line is also leading the team in 3pt% That isn't ideal.
 
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