Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Inexcusable

An 11-point lead with about 6 minutes to go to the worst team in the conference and you blow it.

Turnovers.
Bad shots.
Pointless possessions.
Bad coaching. (9 secs on shot clock after a TO and you end up with Roth going 1-on-1?)
Missed front-end in the clutch.
Horrific defense all game long.
The shots to win the game included hitting the underside of the rim and throwing something up falling out of bounds.

3 losses in a row.
A losing record in the Big Ten.
Haven't won a conference road game outside of Happy Valley in almost 4 years.

From Top Ten in the country to a team that looks like it may not even make the tournament.

Pathetic.
Shameful.

I wrote this to try to feel a tad bit better.  It didn't work.  I'm out.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ask the Idiot

Two questions from a reader in Cincinnati, OH:

Q: Now that we are 1/3 of the way through the Big Ten season, what are your predictions for IU's finish in the Big Ten regular season and their possible seedings for the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments?

A: I had predicted IU to be 3-3 at this point in the season even though I wrongly predicted the first OSU game and Minnesota game.  At this point, I don't see any reason to change my original prediction of 11-7.  Going 8-4 over the last 12 games in the grind that is the Big Ten conference seems daunting, but two things still have me believing in this team -- Cody Zeller and their ability to shoot the basketball.  There are concerns with this team, but I choose to focus on the positive. 

Good question on the possible seeding in the Big Ten tournament.  Right now, it looks like they could very well finish in an 8-way tie or something like that.  I'm going to go with a #4 seed in the Big Ten tournament.

As for the NCAA tournament, I'm going to go with a #4 seed there as well.  I was surprised that we only dropped to #11/#13 in this week's polls.  I thought the pollsters would use last week as an opportunity to say "told you so about the Hoosiers".  But considereing where the Hoosiers are right now, if they can go 8-4 the rest of the way, they will probably hang in the teens in the rankings.  Then, those two huge wins should treat them well on Selection Sunday.


Q: Will I ever recover from the sports disaster that I witnessed on Sunday, January 15, a day that will live in infamy?

A:  No, you'll never fully recover.  Time heals, but I am pretty sure that we share a common bond of puking a little in your mouth anytime someone says "4th and 26" and even after old-age, dimentia, and alzheimers fully set in, you'll still remember the name "Brendan Plavich".


Question from Kokomo, IN:

Q:  Is it "Opposite Day"?

A:  Today is Opposite Day.  Of course, if this statement is true and today is indeed opposite day, then that statement must be interpreted as "today is NOT opposite day". 


A series of questions from Wauwatosa, WI:

Q: When is it appropriate to use the on-side kick in a home playoff game?

A:  Only when it works.


Q:  When is it appropriate to call time out on 4th down with 11 seconds to go in the half?

A:  When you have the ball and it is 4th and Goal inside the 1-yard line and you want to decide whether or not to go for it.  Probably not the scenario you had in mind.


Q:  Do you like the State Farm commercials as much now that the Packers have lost?

A:  If you are talking about the one where Jerry drove his car up a pole and regrets dropping his State Farm insurance, I never really liked that one.


Q:  How many points is the home court advantage really worth in the Big Ten?

A:  Vegas will tell you 3-4 points, I say more.  The Indiana/Ohio State sample says about 10.5, but I would say 6-7 points in the Big Ten.


Q:  The Hoosier woes are front page news today (Monday) on the IndyStar website.

A:  Not really a question, but I'll comment anyway.  To me, this just is another example that we're back.  We're relevant again and the Hoosiers rule the state.  Any news -- good or bad -- is going to be big news right now.


Another K-town reader asks:

Q:  Why does my boy Slick Vic Oladipo Makesha take a bonehead 3 or a runner in the lane with under 3:00 min to go?  This bothers me idiot.

A:  Vic's going to be fine, just going through some growing pains right now.  There's no doubt that Oladipo has greatly improved this year, but he needs to make some adjustments to his game for conference play.  A guy like Vic looks like an NBA player against the cupcake schedule -- he gets steals from weak ball-handlers and drives right around poor defenders for dunks.  However, it's a different game in the Big Ten.  Every possession is a war and you have to be sound in every area to win the war.  On the defensive end, Oladipo needs to take fewer chances and focus on playing solid D for the entire shot clock.  On the offensive end, he needs to let the game come to him and focus on his strengths such as slashing to the basket, finding open spots in the defense, getting offensive rebounds, and dunking everything possible.  Word is that he worked incredibly hard on his jumper this past off-season, so I am sure he is very frustrated that it's not falling right now. 


I think that's all the Ask The Idiot questions for this go-round.  Perhaps we'll do it again later in the season.

Go Hoosiers!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

IU's First Disappointing Loss of the Season

I think we all knew this was coming.  I don't think any of us truly believed we were a top 10 team in the country (or top 5 if we would have been ranked appropriately).  But man, it has been a fun ride to this point and I was certainly hoping the fun would not be paused with a home loss to the 0-4 Minnesota Gophers.  With a road game at Ohio State coming up this weekend, I had planned to get a win in tonight's game and likely lose at OSU and possibly even hang onto a top 10 spot.  Now, with tonight's loss, IU needs to shock the world yet again to avoid dropping like a rock in the rankings.  I don't see that happening, but heck, I didn't even think they would win at Evansville.  Or against Butler.  Or at NC State. Certainly not against #1 Kentucky.  Maybe not against Notre Dame.  Probably not at Michigan State (which they didn't).  And no way against #2 Ohio State.  So, my lack of faith has a pretty good record so far. 

So what the hell went wrong tonight?  For starters, here's a list:
* piss-poor defense (a disturbing trend in conference play)
* Watford & Jones 1-13 with 7 turnovers
* Giving up way too many offensive rebounds, especially in key moments down the stretch
* 6 assists to 16 turnovers

But I think the biggest thing that went wrong tonight was the thing that had fueled them to a 15-1 record.  IU was just 4-18 from the arc and 2 of those makes came late in the game by Roth.  The strange thing is that I looked at one stat before this game that gave me supreme confidence that we would win the game -- IU leading the nation in 3PT% against Minnesota's 289th ranked 3PT defense.  That just plain and simply did not come to fruition tonight.  I thought Minnesota defended the 3 well and IU did not knock down the shots when they had them. 

Of course, some of the bullet points above also play into this.  Another stat that looked to be a big IU advantage heading in was Minnesota 231st in Offensive Turnover % against IU's 34th ranked Defensive Turnover %.  Yet, IU only forced 11 Gopher turnovers.  IU's defense has fueled the offense all season, but it just wasn't there tonight.  They gave up open 3s early and gave up way way way too much penetration all night long.  The penetration led to help defense, which in turn led to giving up offensive rebounds and failed to provide transition opportunities for the offense.

Then, there was the 6 assists to 16 turnovers.  Terrible!  The passing was atrocious all night long.  There must have been 15 bounce-passes that didn't bounce 10 inches up off the ground.  Cody bailed out a few of those and IU had a few fortunate bounces or the turnover number would have been even worse.  And even if it's not a near turnover, one bad pass can slow the ball movement and not allow the opportunity for the next pass to lead to an open shot.  The offensive flow has to be crisp and passes need to be on target.  When I start my new business -- Next Level Statistics -- passing accuracy will be one of the key stats.  I think it is incredibly important in basketball and it's not measured.  To me, one bad pass in an offensive possession in basketball is just like an incompletion in football.  Obviously, a turnover is like an interception.  But even a bad pass that does not directly lead to a turnover is like an incomplete pass and loss of down.  You still have the ball, but it suddenly has become exponentially more difficult to score because of one bad pass.

In the end, it's an incredibly disappointing loss, but the Hoosiers sure built up a lot of goodwill with that 15-1 start.  Maybe they shock the world again this weekend, maybe they don't.  I'm more concerned with making sure they take care of business the following week at Nebraska and home to Penn State.  The Big Ten is going to be a grind, this IU team still has some serious flaws, but they have put themselves in a prime position to have a hugely successful year if they simply take care of business and win the games they should win.  Yes, tonight was one of those games, but at least they had banked some unfathomable wins against #1 and #2. 

A few more notes in closing:

* Cody is frickin' awesome.  Without him, I'd have my hand hovering over the panic button.  With him, I truly believe we are a good team.  We may have some ups and downs, but we have Cody Zeller, so we're not going to disappear.

* In IU's 2 losses, I've at least liked the fight.  Came back from down 18 against MSU and made the final minute tonight very interesting when this game should have been over.

* Hated the final play -- at least give yourself a chance.  Watford blindly threw a baseball pass that was deflected out of bounds, then blindly threw another baseball pass that was nowhere near an IU player.  That was it?  I'd prefer to get it in bounds and at least get a heave in the air (in fairness, if that happened and failed, I'd bitch that we didn't try a baseball pass to get it past half-court).  Note: the term "baseball pass" sounds completely bizarre to me right now.  So much so, I had to google it to see if that was an actual term.  That makes no fucking sense.  There aren't any passes in baseball.  And it's not like Watford went into a windup before throwing the pass.  If anything, it's more like a football pass.

* IU's 22-25 from the line kept them in striking distance (Cody 9-9).

* Late in the game, IU was full-court pressing.  After an IU make, Minnesota inbounded and Oladipo deflected it out-of-bounds.  As Minnesota went to inbound again, the Gopher player clearly moved his feet while trying to inbound.  Sheehey went crazy indicating travel, but no call.  I saw it immediately and was also going crazy.  Am I not understanding that rule correctly?  Once the previous play had been run and it went out of bounds on Oladipo, Minnesota no longer has the right to move on the baseline -- that rule is only on the play immediately following a made basket, not after a ball is knocked out of bounds, right?  What am I missing?  This was so obvious and right in front of the official with Sheehey literally making the traveling signal to the ref.  My only thought is that maybe there is a rule that if the ball is not possessed in the court of play, then the move on the baseline after made basket rule still applies for the next inbounds pass.  Anyone know?  Because if that was just a plain missed call, it was worthy of throwing a chair across the floor.

* A couple feast or famine players -- Hulls and Oladipo.  At times, Hulls seems completely out of sorts with bad decisions that you just don't expect out of him.  But then he'll hit a big shot.  How about those two plays toward the end of the game?  Those were sweet.  But we really need him to be rock solid.  As for Oladipo, he's supposed to be our defensive stopper, but his men are getting way too much penetration.  Yes, he has been fantastic at getting some big turnovers and turning them into points, but there are certain times in the games where you just know you need a defensive stop.  You don't need the gamble, you need solid defense and a stop.  Seems like Vic is letting his man get a step and get into the lane which in turn breaks down the entire defense which in turn breaks down rebounding position and assignments.  We were the better team tonight and if we would have simply played "solid" on both ends of the floor, we should have been able to easily win this home game.

* Word was that Watford was sick earlier in the week and that ankle twist probably didn't help.  Not making excuses, just thought it was worth noting.

* We haven't talked much about Remy Abell, but definitely seeing some positive things out of the freshman.  Looks like a very promising player.

* Matt Roth needs more shots.  I don't care how they do it, just find a way to get more looks for Matt Roth.  What an amazing shooter. 

* Great to see Will Sheehey back.  12 points and 6 rebounds in only 15 minutes was outstanding.  Just wish it could have been in a winning effort.

Let's get back on track, Hoosiers.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

We're back. No, Seriously, we are back!

Hi there, how ya doin?  It's been a while since we chatted.  Not really much going on, though.  I mean, sure, we beat #2 Ohio State on New Year's Eve, but what's the big deal after you already beat #1?  Yeah, we played like crap tonight and still managed to beat a team that was ranked just below us, but the national morons will say it was another home game.  Obviously, there are a lot of teams that have beat #1, #2, and now #13 or #15 or whatever the hell Michigan was ranked.  There must be at least 11 teams that have accomplished at least that much already in the season, right?  Or perhaps voters are just idiots who look at preseason rankings and adjust a couple spots up or down based on whether teams won or lost that week.  Here's an idea -- look at the actual results and rank accordingly.  I know, a radical idea that is probably way before it's time, but I'm just putting it out there.

Listen, I honestly don't care about the rankings at this point in the season.  They are meaningless right now.  I just think it's fun to talk about because I am a fan of college basketball.  A fan of INDIANA BASKETBALL. 

The reality is that I am ecstatic to be sitting hear bitching about not being in the Top 10 because it means we are playing Top 10 caliber basketball.  We. Are. Back.   No, seriously voters, we are back.  If you took your job seriously, we should be #2 next week.  Of course, that's only if we hold up our end of the donkey and win at Penn State this Sunday.  A feat by which Purdue failed miserably at tonight (65-45 PSU).

I'm all in on these Hoosiers.  ALL IN.  I was talking to Tommy Boy this evening as he was driving down 37 approaching Bloomington -- what a great IU fan, in the Hall on a Thursday night and he'll be back next Thursday night against Minnesota.  Anyway, I told him that I am "at risk" for tonight's game because I'm all in and if they lose tonight.....well, I just might not take it so well.  But.....they didn't!  At times, it looked like they were trying to lose, but in the end, it's another big win over another ranked team.

Truly amazing.  Briefly, looking back at the NYE win over OSU, they did that without Sheehey and only 4 second half minutes from Cody.  You have to love this team.  You have to.

Tonight, they looked great building the big first half lead, but then it was turnovers, missed FTs, and horrible defense.  But you know what, good teams find a way.  They find a way to hang on at home.  Christian Watford was fantastic yet again.  I'm pretty sure he has not missed from "the spot" since "the shot".

Pinch yourselves, Hoosier fans.  IU opened conference play against 3 straight ranked opponents.  A key player in Will Sheehey was out for all 3 games.  They lost the first of those games.  But here we sit, 2-1 after a brutal 3-game stretch.

Now, it's time to win on the road in conference play.  Trust me, I love it that Purdue got dropped by 20 by Penn State, but Purdue is no slouch.  So, I don't think there is any guarantee that IU goes on the road to Happy Valley (doesn't quite sound right after the scandal, does it?) and get an easy win.  BUT, it is a game they should win and a game they need to win.  Get the W, and we will be Top 10 -- probably not #2 like we should be, but it should be Top 10.

Let's go get it.