What a horrible start for the Hoosiers. Their first 16 possessions resulted in 11 turnovers and 0-5 from the field. For a team looking to take a step to the next level, that's not exactly the start you want to see and find yourself losing to Loyola (Md) 15-0 at home. In fact, that's putting it too lightly. In actuality, the way IU started this game was downright embarrassing and unacceptable.
In fact, it could have been even worse, with the score at 14-0, Loyola missed a wide-open 3 and also had a basket taken away on a charge call. Then, at 15-0, they missed another wide-open 3.
Finally, IU scored 6 minutes and 15 seconds into the game. It took over 6 minutes to score a point against Loyola (Md).
Disgusting and pathetic.
It makes me sick that the word "pathetic" is an accurate way to describe IU basketball.
Once IU finally scored, you had the feeling that they would break out of the funk and come all the way back in fairly short order. Then it was a pair of free throws for IU to make it 15-4 and things were looking slightly better.
But not so fast my friend, next thing you know, Loyola rattles off another 9-0 run and the HOOSIERS ARE LOSING BY 20 TO LOYOLA (MD) AT HOME.
At this point, my range of emotions has now reached "why does this stuff have to happen to me?!?"
Just over 9 minutes into the game, the score is 24-4 and IU has 12 turnovers which is on pace for 50 turnovers in the game.
And then we were actually getting toyed with by Loyola as they convert an alley-oop dunk to make it a 31-9 game and now I am pissed off beyond belief.
At 46-22, I start sinking into a very deep depression.
46-28 at half thanks to a Hulls 3 at the buzzer. Hulls also had a 25-footer earlier to beat the shot-clock buzzer. Those are literally the only 2 positives I can think of from the first half.
That half of basketball was far worse than anything from even last year. There aren't words strong enough to describe that bullshit.
First half points off turnovers -- Loyola 20, IU 0. Not a coincidence to be down by 18 at half.
Un-fucking-believable. Loyola converts on a 4-point play on the first possession of the first half and it's 50-28.
And the Hoosiers answer with a turnover.
There's probably a Fire Tom Crean website going up right now.
Do you think this team needs Maurice Creek to score? After 60 points in his last 2 games, Mo had exactly 0 points 27 minutes into this game and the Hoosiers were getting blown out of their own building by Loyola. Finally, Mo gets on the board with a 3-ball, then hits another on the very next possession and IU has the lead down to 14, which sadly is as close as they have been since the early-going.
And it must be contagious because Verdell hits a 3 on the next possession to cut it to 11 with 12 minutes to go and the Hoosiers are finally showing some life.
Mo, Mo, Mo! Now a traditional 3-point play for Creek cuts it to an 8-point lead.
Crean finally went to a full-court press and it has been working. He should have done that approximately 1 full hour ago.
Lead now down to 5 and IU is on a 15-0 run over the last 3 minutes.
Ok, the disgust has finally worn off after Creek feeds Pritchard for a big-time dunk to cut it to 4.
About 30 minutes ago, I was so miffed that I thought I wouldn't even care if they came back and won. But now I am fully invested again and having fun, but they better finish this thing and win.
If they lose after all of this, I will probably say that I am quitting this blog. But don't believe me, it's not true. However, I will be traveling over the holidays and through January 3rd, so you probably won't see much, if any, blog coverage for the next 2 games regardless of how this one turns out.
IU just 2 of their last 6 from the line....can't be pulling that shit right now.
Pritchard playing some inspired ball as he fights for the ball on a Dumes airball and throws in a little fade-away to make it a 3-point game.
Loyola also missing their recent free throws, which is helping.
WTF....Rivers just missed a wide-open layup.
Thank you Jeremiah for somewhat making up for it with a nice runner in the lane to cut it to 1 point. Screw that, if you could make a damn layup, we could be winning right now.
And it's all tied up at 62 with just over 5 minutes to go. The first tie since 0-0.
We're winning! Now I forgive Jeremiah as he drains a 15-footer and gets fouled!
Rivers misses 2 FTs and then proceeds to foul a 3-point shooter. The same guy that had a 4-point play to start the half just converted his second 4-point play. IU had a chance to take a 4-point lead at the charity stripe and instead they find themselves down by 2 just 10 seconds later. Under 2 minutes to go.
Rivers going back to the line, down by 2 points with 37.4 seconds to go.....he misses both again! Son of a bitch!
I'm done with this shit. IU just lost. I'm done. Bye.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
IU 81 NCC 58
The clear-cut story of this game was the 2nd half play of Jordan Hulls and Maurice Creek. Pretty damn impressive for a pair of freshmen.
The first half for the Hoosiers was less than impressive. In fact, 18 minutes into this game, they were losing to North Carolina Central by 1 point at Assembly Hall. Not good. And it was the achilles heel for this team that was causing the biggest problem.....defense.
Fortunately, the Hoosiers woke up and went on a 41-14 run over the next 15 minutes to go from being down 33-32 to a big lead of 73-47.
This entire run was fueled by Hulls and Creek. Hulls pulled down 7 rebounds and had 8 assists on the game and Creek scored 20 of his 29 points in the first 13 minutes of the second half.
Hulls got the start in the 2nd half and made Tom Crean look like a genius for doing so. Early in the second half, Hulls led two fast breaks were he delivered spectacular one-handed left-handed passes for easy scores to help get the run started. After that, he continued to play great and finished with only 1 turnover against his 8 assists.
Jeremiah Rivers also had some great passes and also had 8 assists, but Rivers had 5 turnovers with all of them being careless and stupid turnovers. Case in point was on the final possession of the first half (while still in a tight game), he made a one-handed sling pass that went straight out of bounds with less than 10 seconds to go. That type of pass is sometimes necessary if you are threading something through the defense, but this was just a pass from the top of the key to the wing. There was no reason to throw a one-handed pass in that situation. Rivers definitely frustrated me in this game with that type of play.
Getting back to the positive.....Mo Creek is a special player. He has scored 60 points in his last 2 games....enough said.
Tom Crean used the pine in this game. Derek Elston started in front of Tom Pritchard. The good news is that Pritchard responded with a pretty solid effort. 8 points on 4-5 shooting and 6 rebounds in 21 mintues. Not spectacular, but solid. Also, Verdell Jones spent some extended time on the bench in the middle of this game. And any time you see Brett Finkelmeier getting minutes in a close game, that is a clear sign that there is some bad defense being played.
And finally, Tijan Jobe and Bawa Muniru were on the floor together at the end of the game. It was awesome. Well, actually, the idea of it was awesome. The actual occurence of it was less than awesome, but I blame Kory Barnett. He had the ball in a 3-on-1 situation where he could have fed either Muniru or Jobe for a dunk, but his pass got deflected out of bounds. I felt robbed.
At the end of the day, I think we can look past a poor first half because the Hoosiers poured it on in the second half and won this game easily. Hopefully, the next two games against Loyala (Md) and Bryant will be even easier.
Go Hoosiers!
The first half for the Hoosiers was less than impressive. In fact, 18 minutes into this game, they were losing to North Carolina Central by 1 point at Assembly Hall. Not good. And it was the achilles heel for this team that was causing the biggest problem.....defense.
Fortunately, the Hoosiers woke up and went on a 41-14 run over the next 15 minutes to go from being down 33-32 to a big lead of 73-47.
This entire run was fueled by Hulls and Creek. Hulls pulled down 7 rebounds and had 8 assists on the game and Creek scored 20 of his 29 points in the first 13 minutes of the second half.
Hulls got the start in the 2nd half and made Tom Crean look like a genius for doing so. Early in the second half, Hulls led two fast breaks were he delivered spectacular one-handed left-handed passes for easy scores to help get the run started. After that, he continued to play great and finished with only 1 turnover against his 8 assists.
Jeremiah Rivers also had some great passes and also had 8 assists, but Rivers had 5 turnovers with all of them being careless and stupid turnovers. Case in point was on the final possession of the first half (while still in a tight game), he made a one-handed sling pass that went straight out of bounds with less than 10 seconds to go. That type of pass is sometimes necessary if you are threading something through the defense, but this was just a pass from the top of the key to the wing. There was no reason to throw a one-handed pass in that situation. Rivers definitely frustrated me in this game with that type of play.
Getting back to the positive.....Mo Creek is a special player. He has scored 60 points in his last 2 games....enough said.
Tom Crean used the pine in this game. Derek Elston started in front of Tom Pritchard. The good news is that Pritchard responded with a pretty solid effort. 8 points on 4-5 shooting and 6 rebounds in 21 mintues. Not spectacular, but solid. Also, Verdell Jones spent some extended time on the bench in the middle of this game. And any time you see Brett Finkelmeier getting minutes in a close game, that is a clear sign that there is some bad defense being played.
And finally, Tijan Jobe and Bawa Muniru were on the floor together at the end of the game. It was awesome. Well, actually, the idea of it was awesome. The actual occurence of it was less than awesome, but I blame Kory Barnett. He had the ball in a 3-on-1 situation where he could have fed either Muniru or Jobe for a dunk, but his pass got deflected out of bounds. I felt robbed.
At the end of the day, I think we can look past a poor first half because the Hoosiers poured it on in the second half and won this game easily. Hopefully, the next two games against Loyala (Md) and Bryant will be even easier.
Go Hoosiers!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Bob Knight Agrees with Me About John Calipari
John Calipari is a scumbag. Those are my words, not Bob Knight's. But The General did take a direct shot at John Calipari at a recent fundraiser for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame:
I bet that single comment from Knight doubled the fundraising efforts.
Inadvertently, it's like Crean and Knight are playing good cop, bad cop for Indiana. Crean says all the politically correct things like "he's a good friend of mine" and "he's a great coach", then Knight comes in and delivers "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky, who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."
That's Bob Knight poetry at its best.
Tonight's Game:
Saturday at 8:30pm ET (7:30pm CT)
IU vs. North Carolina Central at Assembly Hall
Big Ten Network
Prediction: IU 80 NCC 64
“We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching,” he said during his speech Thursday night. “You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky [John Calipari], who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.”Now that is the Bobby Knight we all know and love. And the best part....he's right. We all know it and the real joy comes from the fact that Kentucky fans know it deep down inside. It's a ticking bomb down there in Lexington.
I bet that single comment from Knight doubled the fundraising efforts.
Inadvertently, it's like Crean and Knight are playing good cop, bad cop for Indiana. Crean says all the politically correct things like "he's a good friend of mine" and "he's a great coach", then Knight comes in and delivers "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky, who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."
That's Bob Knight poetry at its best.
Tonight's Game:
Saturday at 8:30pm ET (7:30pm CT)
IU vs. North Carolina Central at Assembly Hall
Big Ten Network
Prediction: IU 80 NCC 64
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Game Notes: Indiana 73 Kentucky 90
* Wow, what a start by the Hoosiers. IU up 12-4 in the first 3 minutes. The Hoosiers are draining jumpers. 3-balls by Creek and Watford and a 17-footer by Jones.
* The stripe-out crowd is going crazy. I don't know what will happen the rest of this game, but there is no doubt that Indiana basketball is alive and well and most certainly headed in the right direction.
* Holy schnikeys, those Kentucky freshmen are good.
* Tom Pritchard just took a charge and Crean went absolutely apeshit on the sideline. I mean apeshit. These were full-bodied fist-pumps that he stepped into. And I thought I was over-the-top.
* Oh my goodness, Maurice Creek was ready for this moment. Another deep 3 to give Mo 10 points in the first 5 minutes of this game. Keep it going, Mo!
* Apparently Capo can't dunk unless he gets a running start, but who cares because he just layed one in off a terrific pass by Verdell. IU up 17-9.
* Heat check for Mo.....off the side of the backboard. Heat check = a bad shot that is given to you as a freebie by the fans and even your coach because you've been lighting it up. If you miss, no harm done just as long as it is not a critical point in the game, but you also better not do it again. If you make it, that's when basketball is really fun.
* IU getting very sloppy now and giving up a 6-0 run to KY to make it 17-15.
* Mo Creek is johnny on the spot. Another sloppy possession by the Hoosiers ends with a loose ball scramble that IU finally retrieves, a quick pass to Mo for another 3! IU up 20-15 with 11:00 to go in the half and Mo has 13.
* Mo's last 3 changed to a 2 after replay, so 19-15 and Mo has 12. Game on.
* Another 6-0 run gives KY their first lead at 21-19. IU giving up way too many offensive rebounds out of the zone.
* Watford ends the KY run with a toe-on-the-line 2. All tied up at 21 with 9:00 to go in the first half. Time for a deep breath.
* Geez, it's scary that this Bledsoe kid is not even the best freshman on Kentucky's team. He just drained a 24-footer.
* Uh-oh, another 3 by KY gives them a 27-23 lead and that's 18-6 over the last 8 minutes. Need to be careful here and not let this thing get away.
* Another 3 by KY gives them a 7-point lead. Crean might have to come out of the zone or at least start mixing up the defenses.
* John Wall just had a play that I can't even describe. Just watch it on Sportscenter or somewhere online. That ain't right.
* Kentucky has their biggest lead of the game at 36-27 and the Hoosiers are in trouble. That's now 27-10 since IU's hot start.
* Mo Creek is single-handedly trying to keep IU in this game. Another 3 gives Mo 15 points.
* All Right! Even though Capo was camping for 7 seconds, he found an opening for another easy layup.
* And now nothing but net on a 3 from Hulls!
* And a jumper by Elston suddenly gets IU back within 1 point. IU is on a 7-0 run and the score is now 38-37.
* Dumes does a great job breaking up a Kentucky fast break and getting the turnover.
* Final possession.....Creek airballs a 3 but Dumes gets IU's first offensive rebound of the game and lays it in at the buzzer!!!! And just for good measure, Dumes gives John Wall a little shove in typical Dumes fashion.
* Halftime: Kentucky 42 Indiana 41
* Hot shooting by both teams in the first half with KY shooting 57% and IU shooting a blazing 63%.
* All in all, a very good half by the Hoosiers with a hot start and a hot finish to be within 1 point at halftime of the #4 team in the country.
* If IU wants to stay close and possibly win this game, they will need to continue the hot shooting and will need to do a better job keeping Kentucky off the offensive glass. In the first half, KY had 8 offensive rebounds and IU's only offensive rebound was with 2 seconds to go in the half.
* Let's go Hoosiers, let's see if we can shut us up some Kentucky fans!
* If you were wondering if Creek would disappear in the second half like he has in a couple other games where he scored big in the first half, he provided that answer immediately. After KY scored on their first possession, Mo answers with yet another deep 3 and we're all tied up at 44! Mo has 20.
* After trading offensive rebound putbacks, IU takes the lead on a nice drive by Rivers. IU 48-47 with 18 minutes to go.
* Yikes, alley-oop to Wall. I wish that go would have gone to the NBA at halftime. KY back in the lead.
* And that was that, Kentucky just rattled off 18 or 19 in a row and this game is officially over. IU's offense just started looking terrible with turnovers or bad shots and Kentucky was literally getting 3 points on every single possession (whether it was a long ball or a traditional 3-point play).
* 65-48 with 12 minutes to go.
* Elston tries a dunk similar to the Wall move earlier in the game, but missed it. Oh well, at this point, I still liked the attempt.
* I've stopped paying attention to the details of this game, but has Capobianco missed 5 straight free throws?!? Come on, man.
* We have a Bawa sighting....and he just got dunked on.
* Maurice Creek with another 3. He now has 29 points.
* Kentucky is up by 20 with 2:00 to go and Calipari still has his starters in. Classy guy through and through. Kentucky fans -- if you're still hanging out here and reading this, I'm not going to be nasty or offensive, but I will say that you are playing with fire with this guy. Someone already said it -- where there is smoke, there is fire and this guy left a giant mushroom cloud at both UMass and Memphis. Your day is coming. I don't know when, but trust me, your day is coming.
* Creek still diving on the floor with under 2 minutes to go.
* It was another good learning experience for the Hoosiers. They faught hard and competed with a Top 5 team for 22 minutes. The rebounds absolutely killed the Hoosiers.
* Final Score: Kentucky 90 Indiana 73
* Maurice Creek finished with 31 points. Nice game, young man.
* In closing, I will say that the Hoosiers are not yet ready to compete with Top 15 teams, but everybody else better look out.
* Enjoy the rest of your day.
* The stripe-out crowd is going crazy. I don't know what will happen the rest of this game, but there is no doubt that Indiana basketball is alive and well and most certainly headed in the right direction.
* Holy schnikeys, those Kentucky freshmen are good.
* Tom Pritchard just took a charge and Crean went absolutely apeshit on the sideline. I mean apeshit. These were full-bodied fist-pumps that he stepped into. And I thought I was over-the-top.
* Oh my goodness, Maurice Creek was ready for this moment. Another deep 3 to give Mo 10 points in the first 5 minutes of this game. Keep it going, Mo!
* Apparently Capo can't dunk unless he gets a running start, but who cares because he just layed one in off a terrific pass by Verdell. IU up 17-9.
* Heat check for Mo.....off the side of the backboard. Heat check = a bad shot that is given to you as a freebie by the fans and even your coach because you've been lighting it up. If you miss, no harm done just as long as it is not a critical point in the game, but you also better not do it again. If you make it, that's when basketball is really fun.
* IU getting very sloppy now and giving up a 6-0 run to KY to make it 17-15.
* Mo Creek is johnny on the spot. Another sloppy possession by the Hoosiers ends with a loose ball scramble that IU finally retrieves, a quick pass to Mo for another 3! IU up 20-15 with 11:00 to go in the half and Mo has 13.
* Mo's last 3 changed to a 2 after replay, so 19-15 and Mo has 12. Game on.
* Another 6-0 run gives KY their first lead at 21-19. IU giving up way too many offensive rebounds out of the zone.
* Watford ends the KY run with a toe-on-the-line 2. All tied up at 21 with 9:00 to go in the first half. Time for a deep breath.
* Geez, it's scary that this Bledsoe kid is not even the best freshman on Kentucky's team. He just drained a 24-footer.
* Uh-oh, another 3 by KY gives them a 27-23 lead and that's 18-6 over the last 8 minutes. Need to be careful here and not let this thing get away.
* Another 3 by KY gives them a 7-point lead. Crean might have to come out of the zone or at least start mixing up the defenses.
* John Wall just had a play that I can't even describe. Just watch it on Sportscenter or somewhere online. That ain't right.
* Kentucky has their biggest lead of the game at 36-27 and the Hoosiers are in trouble. That's now 27-10 since IU's hot start.
* Mo Creek is single-handedly trying to keep IU in this game. Another 3 gives Mo 15 points.
* All Right! Even though Capo was camping for 7 seconds, he found an opening for another easy layup.
* And now nothing but net on a 3 from Hulls!
* And a jumper by Elston suddenly gets IU back within 1 point. IU is on a 7-0 run and the score is now 38-37.
* Dumes does a great job breaking up a Kentucky fast break and getting the turnover.
* Final possession.....Creek airballs a 3 but Dumes gets IU's first offensive rebound of the game and lays it in at the buzzer!!!! And just for good measure, Dumes gives John Wall a little shove in typical Dumes fashion.
* Halftime: Kentucky 42 Indiana 41
* Hot shooting by both teams in the first half with KY shooting 57% and IU shooting a blazing 63%.
* All in all, a very good half by the Hoosiers with a hot start and a hot finish to be within 1 point at halftime of the #4 team in the country.
* If IU wants to stay close and possibly win this game, they will need to continue the hot shooting and will need to do a better job keeping Kentucky off the offensive glass. In the first half, KY had 8 offensive rebounds and IU's only offensive rebound was with 2 seconds to go in the half.
* Let's go Hoosiers, let's see if we can shut us up some Kentucky fans!
* If you were wondering if Creek would disappear in the second half like he has in a couple other games where he scored big in the first half, he provided that answer immediately. After KY scored on their first possession, Mo answers with yet another deep 3 and we're all tied up at 44! Mo has 20.
* After trading offensive rebound putbacks, IU takes the lead on a nice drive by Rivers. IU 48-47 with 18 minutes to go.
* Yikes, alley-oop to Wall. I wish that go would have gone to the NBA at halftime. KY back in the lead.
* And that was that, Kentucky just rattled off 18 or 19 in a row and this game is officially over. IU's offense just started looking terrible with turnovers or bad shots and Kentucky was literally getting 3 points on every single possession (whether it was a long ball or a traditional 3-point play).
* 65-48 with 12 minutes to go.
* Elston tries a dunk similar to the Wall move earlier in the game, but missed it. Oh well, at this point, I still liked the attempt.
* I've stopped paying attention to the details of this game, but has Capobianco missed 5 straight free throws?!? Come on, man.
* We have a Bawa sighting....and he just got dunked on.
* Maurice Creek with another 3. He now has 29 points.
* Kentucky is up by 20 with 2:00 to go and Calipari still has his starters in. Classy guy through and through. Kentucky fans -- if you're still hanging out here and reading this, I'm not going to be nasty or offensive, but I will say that you are playing with fire with this guy. Someone already said it -- where there is smoke, there is fire and this guy left a giant mushroom cloud at both UMass and Memphis. Your day is coming. I don't know when, but trust me, your day is coming.
* Creek still diving on the floor with under 2 minutes to go.
* It was another good learning experience for the Hoosiers. They faught hard and competed with a Top 5 team for 22 minutes. The rebounds absolutely killed the Hoosiers.
* Final Score: Kentucky 90 Indiana 73
* Maurice Creek finished with 31 points. Nice game, young man.
* In closing, I will say that the Hoosiers are not yet ready to compete with Top 15 teams, but everybody else better look out.
* Enjoy the rest of your day.
Friday, December 11, 2009
More Thoughts on the Pitt Victory and A Look Ahead to Kentucky
Additional thoughts on the big victory against Pitt:
* Not only did we beat Pitt, but we kicked their ass.
* IU played tough, aggressively went after loose balls and rebounds, and most importantly, they secured them. In that regard, they looked like a whole different team from what we had seen earlier in the year
* Devan Dumes played great. You didn't really see his name mentioned in the post-game articles, but Dumes was outstanding -- he didn't force anything on offense, he made IU's only 3-pointer, he played great defense, and did a good job on the boards. Verdell Jones also credited Dumes after the game by saying that Dumes was the one that was making sure everyone stayed focused on defense even after they got the big lead. I'm not surprised that the first big win comes on a night where Jones and Dumes had their best games of the year. The returning players need to continue to do more, which will allow the freshmen to play within the game and not feel like they have to force things or carry the team.
* Pritchard scored IU's first 6 points and then did not score again. This game, he really got screwed by the refs with the fouls. Even with the foul trouble, it was great to see Pritchard look alive in those first few minutes. He looks to be on the verge.
* The great thing was that IU won this game by double-digits and they still had plenty of areas that could have been a lot better -- they only made one 3-pointer, Creek had his first single-digit scoring night (but a career-high 8 rebounds), Watford was 3-12 from the field (but 12-15 from the line), and Pritchard was in foul trouble. Also, Rivers was nowhere near 100% healthy.
* Jim Harbaugh (aka Captain Comeback) must deliver one helluva halftime speech.
* IU had 10 blocked shots including 3 from Watford who looked considerably more active on defense. Verdell also had 3 rejections.
* Let's face it, the 2-3 zone is being used because IU is still struggling with their man-to-man defense, but it was a pretty impressive 2-3.
* Most of the year, IU has had a couple players play well each game and a few players that would look terrible. In this game, everyone that played made contributions and played pretty well. They resembled a team, a competitive college basketball team, a winning college basketball team. It sure was fun to watch.
* Now, I sort of wish we could skip the Kentucky game and just play the 3 cupcakes that we have coming up on the schedule so we could ride this momentum into the Big Ten season.
With that thought, we'll go ahead and transition into Saturday morning's Kentucky game.
* I sincerely hope that John Calipari is to Kentucky as Kelvin Sampson was to Indiana.
* Continuing with that thought, there are a lot of parallels. IU hired Sampson to replace an unpopular underperforming coach, but they did so knowing that he had some NCAA issues in his recent past. Kentucky hired Calipari to replace an unpopular underperforming coach, but they did so knowing that his two previous final four appearances have been stripped due to NCAA issues. For a majority of both fan bases, winning helped get the fans to overlook these looming issues. I just hope it unravels for Calipari and Kentucky even faster than it did for Sampson and Indiana.
* Even though Calipari is a sleezeball, he is one hell of a coach.
* Kentucky's freshman point guard John Wall is insanely good. Jim Calhoun just said he is every bit as good as Derrick Rose.
* Kentucky is off to an impressive start with wins over North Carolina and UConn as well as surviving some other scares in close games. John Wall has delivered game-winners or game-winning plays in the final minute in a few of their wins already.
* Kentucky is loaded. John Wall is getting all the attention (and rightfully so), but Patrick Patterson is a damn good player and the Wildcats also have freshmen Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins who are also playing at a high level.
* Cousins had previously committed to Mike Davis at UAB, but ended up decommitting and going to Kentucky. Still getting burned by Mike Davis....unbelievable.
* (removed due to a poor attempt at humor)
* I'd feel slightly better about this game if Jeremiah Rivers was healthy and could make John Wall work.
Now for the prediction. Unfortunately, even off the heels of IU's inspired victory over Pitt, this Kentucky team is simply more talented than IU. Kentucky wins 79-67. I'll also predict tht Kentucky goes to the final four this year. They will lose in the final four, but that won't really matter since the final four appearance will be stripped after Calipari gets nailed for illegal recruiting tactics. (removed due to bad language).
Update: Greetings Kentucky fans. Based on some unexpected traffic to this post and some comments posted today, I felt the need to update the post and provide an explanation.
I'll start by saying this is a small blog that has maybe 15-20 loyal followers. While the blog is open to the public, there has never been any commentary from opposing schools in the many years of doing this. With that in mind, this is a fan's blog where I provide strong and over-the-top opinions amongst Hoosier fans.
I can assure you that any comments by me are intended to be in the spirit of good rivalry and/or humorous (even if off-target). They are certainly not intended to be mean-spirited or malicious. With that in mind, I have removed the one comment that was a bad attempt at humor and I have removed the closing remark that admittedly crossed the line (especially now that I know that this post has been linked on a Kentucky blog).
Had I known there would be traffic from Kentucky fans, I would have taken a different direction as I would truly enjoy some discussion on the rivalry and the current state of our two teams.
I did leave the comments related to Calipari as I do think it is a risky hire and I think the topic can lead to some interesting discussion. Also, the poll question wouldn't make much sense if I removed those comments. I can see that the UK fans think that line of thinking on Calipari is based in jealousy. While I will admit to a certain level of jealousy based on where these two programs are right now, I do still think it is a risky hire based on what happened under Calipari's watch at both UMass and Memphis. The IU program was destroyed by a guy who made too many phone calls. But if Calipari stays clean, then I think IU fans will have to get used to seeing Kentucky in the Top 5.
I certainly understand if UK fans found my remarks offensive or ignorant. The intention was not to direct those remarks directly in the face of Kentucky fans, but rather to try to have a little fun amongst IU fans especially during this time where there has not been a lot of fun on the court.
I look forward to IU's rebuilding effort so that the Indiana/Kentucky rivalry can get back to being a great rivalry with competitive games year in and year out. Enjoy the game.
* Not only did we beat Pitt, but we kicked their ass.
* IU played tough, aggressively went after loose balls and rebounds, and most importantly, they secured them. In that regard, they looked like a whole different team from what we had seen earlier in the year
* Devan Dumes played great. You didn't really see his name mentioned in the post-game articles, but Dumes was outstanding -- he didn't force anything on offense, he made IU's only 3-pointer, he played great defense, and did a good job on the boards. Verdell Jones also credited Dumes after the game by saying that Dumes was the one that was making sure everyone stayed focused on defense even after they got the big lead. I'm not surprised that the first big win comes on a night where Jones and Dumes had their best games of the year. The returning players need to continue to do more, which will allow the freshmen to play within the game and not feel like they have to force things or carry the team.
* Pritchard scored IU's first 6 points and then did not score again. This game, he really got screwed by the refs with the fouls. Even with the foul trouble, it was great to see Pritchard look alive in those first few minutes. He looks to be on the verge.
* The great thing was that IU won this game by double-digits and they still had plenty of areas that could have been a lot better -- they only made one 3-pointer, Creek had his first single-digit scoring night (but a career-high 8 rebounds), Watford was 3-12 from the field (but 12-15 from the line), and Pritchard was in foul trouble. Also, Rivers was nowhere near 100% healthy.
* Jim Harbaugh (aka Captain Comeback) must deliver one helluva halftime speech.
* IU had 10 blocked shots including 3 from Watford who looked considerably more active on defense. Verdell also had 3 rejections.
* Let's face it, the 2-3 zone is being used because IU is still struggling with their man-to-man defense, but it was a pretty impressive 2-3.
* Most of the year, IU has had a couple players play well each game and a few players that would look terrible. In this game, everyone that played made contributions and played pretty well. They resembled a team, a competitive college basketball team, a winning college basketball team. It sure was fun to watch.
* Now, I sort of wish we could skip the Kentucky game and just play the 3 cupcakes that we have coming up on the schedule so we could ride this momentum into the Big Ten season.
With that thought, we'll go ahead and transition into Saturday morning's Kentucky game.
* I sincerely hope that John Calipari is to Kentucky as Kelvin Sampson was to Indiana.
* Continuing with that thought, there are a lot of parallels. IU hired Sampson to replace an unpopular underperforming coach, but they did so knowing that he had some NCAA issues in his recent past. Kentucky hired Calipari to replace an unpopular underperforming coach, but they did so knowing that his two previous final four appearances have been stripped due to NCAA issues. For a majority of both fan bases, winning helped get the fans to overlook these looming issues. I just hope it unravels for Calipari and Kentucky even faster than it did for Sampson and Indiana.
* Even though Calipari is a sleezeball, he is one hell of a coach.
* Kentucky's freshman point guard John Wall is insanely good. Jim Calhoun just said he is every bit as good as Derrick Rose.
* Kentucky is off to an impressive start with wins over North Carolina and UConn as well as surviving some other scares in close games. John Wall has delivered game-winners or game-winning plays in the final minute in a few of their wins already.
* Kentucky is loaded. John Wall is getting all the attention (and rightfully so), but Patrick Patterson is a damn good player and the Wildcats also have freshmen Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins who are also playing at a high level.
* Cousins had previously committed to Mike Davis at UAB, but ended up decommitting and going to Kentucky. Still getting burned by Mike Davis....unbelievable.
* (removed due to a poor attempt at humor)
* I'd feel slightly better about this game if Jeremiah Rivers was healthy and could make John Wall work.
Now for the prediction. Unfortunately, even off the heels of IU's inspired victory over Pitt, this Kentucky team is simply more talented than IU. Kentucky wins 79-67. I'll also predict tht Kentucky goes to the final four this year. They will lose in the final four, but that won't really matter since the final four appearance will be stripped after Calipari gets nailed for illegal recruiting tactics. (removed due to bad language).
Update: Greetings Kentucky fans. Based on some unexpected traffic to this post and some comments posted today, I felt the need to update the post and provide an explanation.
I'll start by saying this is a small blog that has maybe 15-20 loyal followers. While the blog is open to the public, there has never been any commentary from opposing schools in the many years of doing this. With that in mind, this is a fan's blog where I provide strong and over-the-top opinions amongst Hoosier fans.
I can assure you that any comments by me are intended to be in the spirit of good rivalry and/or humorous (even if off-target). They are certainly not intended to be mean-spirited or malicious. With that in mind, I have removed the one comment that was a bad attempt at humor and I have removed the closing remark that admittedly crossed the line (especially now that I know that this post has been linked on a Kentucky blog).
Had I known there would be traffic from Kentucky fans, I would have taken a different direction as I would truly enjoy some discussion on the rivalry and the current state of our two teams.
I did leave the comments related to Calipari as I do think it is a risky hire and I think the topic can lead to some interesting discussion. Also, the poll question wouldn't make much sense if I removed those comments. I can see that the UK fans think that line of thinking on Calipari is based in jealousy. While I will admit to a certain level of jealousy based on where these two programs are right now, I do still think it is a risky hire based on what happened under Calipari's watch at both UMass and Memphis. The IU program was destroyed by a guy who made too many phone calls. But if Calipari stays clean, then I think IU fans will have to get used to seeing Kentucky in the Top 5.
I certainly understand if UK fans found my remarks offensive or ignorant. The intention was not to direct those remarks directly in the face of Kentucky fans, but rather to try to have a little fun amongst IU fans especially during this time where there has not been a lot of fun on the court.
I look forward to IU's rebuilding effort so that the Indiana/Kentucky rivalry can get back to being a great rivalry with competitive games year in and year out. Enjoy the game.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
IU 74 Pitt 64
Woo-hoo! Yes Sir! The Hoosiers are back! That was frickin' awesome!
The first meaningful win of the Tom Crean era.
When IU busted this thing open and the score was suddenly 59-42 with 8:00 minutes to go, I felt like I was witnessing a real Indiana basketball team again. What a great feeling!
Then........of course, we had to make it scary at the end and allowed Pitt to get as close to 6 points still with a full minute to go. But they still pulled it out and it never got closer than 6, so there is no doubt that I will still take it!
Tom Crean's 200th career win.
I'm so happy that I don't even know what to say!
Go Hoosiers!
The first meaningful win of the Tom Crean era.
When IU busted this thing open and the score was suddenly 59-42 with 8:00 minutes to go, I felt like I was witnessing a real Indiana basketball team again. What a great feeling!
Then........of course, we had to make it scary at the end and allowed Pitt to get as close to 6 points still with a full minute to go. But they still pulled it out and it never got closer than 6, so there is no doubt that I will still take it!
Tom Crean's 200th career win.
I'm so happy that I don't even know what to say!
Go Hoosiers!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Preview: Indiana vs. Pittburgh - Jimmy V Classic in NYC
What: Jimmy V Classic
Who: Indiana vs. Pittsburgh
When: Tuesday at 9pm ET (8pm CT)
Where: Madison Square Garden
TV: ESPN
I really want to predict the Hoosiers to win this one. I gave some serious thought to predicting this as the first meaningful win of the Tom Crean era. I wanted to run with the idea that the full week off would do a tremendous amount of good for this young team. And while I do think the extra practice time will be valuable for the Hoosiers, I just don't think it will be enough to predict the upset.
Pitt is down a little this year, but I think they will be too tough for the young Hoosiers. Pitt is 7-1 and has held their opponents to 60 points or less in all 7 of their wins. Their 1 loss came to a very good Texas team.
Looking at the stats, there are a couple factors (other than solid defense) that have helped Pitt hold their opponents to low scoring outputs. Pitt does a great job in keeping their opponents off the offensive glass which obviously limits second-chance points. They also do an admirable job of playing solid defense without fouling and that limits easy points at the charity stripe. If you have checked out statsheet.com or kenpom.com, these are two of the "four factors of winning".
Pitt ranks #5 in the nation at keeping their opponents off the offensive boards while IU is #112 at crashing the offensive boards. Pitt ranks #26 for how often they send their opponent to the line while IU is somewhat respectable at #71 in the nation for often they get to the line. However, flipping that stat around shows a real problem area for IU because they are #317 at how often they send their opponent to the line (note to Tom Pritchard -- stop fouling!). Pitt is #38 for how often they get to the stipe, so that could definitely be an issue for the Hoosiers in this game.
Stats aside, I am hoping the IU sophomores show up big in this game. I feel like Pritchard is close to putting together a good game. I'm not sure the Pitt game is a good time to predict that, but I can hope. I also think Verdell needs to be effective on the offensive end if IU wants to stay close and have a chance to win at the end. The main thing is that Verdell needs to shoot a better percentage and hit the shots that he is capable of making. It would be great to see those two sophomores play well and then see what this team can do. If IU can get Rivers, Jones, and Pritchard to play at a consistently high level and then add the talent of the freshmen, then you have a team that can compete.
In this game, I think the Hoosiers can keep it close, but once again, I fear they will still lose in the end.
Prediction: IU 61 Pitt 68
Who: Indiana vs. Pittsburgh
When: Tuesday at 9pm ET (8pm CT)
Where: Madison Square Garden
TV: ESPN
I really want to predict the Hoosiers to win this one. I gave some serious thought to predicting this as the first meaningful win of the Tom Crean era. I wanted to run with the idea that the full week off would do a tremendous amount of good for this young team. And while I do think the extra practice time will be valuable for the Hoosiers, I just don't think it will be enough to predict the upset.
Pitt is down a little this year, but I think they will be too tough for the young Hoosiers. Pitt is 7-1 and has held their opponents to 60 points or less in all 7 of their wins. Their 1 loss came to a very good Texas team.
Looking at the stats, there are a couple factors (other than solid defense) that have helped Pitt hold their opponents to low scoring outputs. Pitt does a great job in keeping their opponents off the offensive glass which obviously limits second-chance points. They also do an admirable job of playing solid defense without fouling and that limits easy points at the charity stripe. If you have checked out statsheet.com or kenpom.com, these are two of the "four factors of winning".
Pitt ranks #5 in the nation at keeping their opponents off the offensive boards while IU is #112 at crashing the offensive boards. Pitt ranks #26 for how often they send their opponent to the line while IU is somewhat respectable at #71 in the nation for often they get to the line. However, flipping that stat around shows a real problem area for IU because they are #317 at how often they send their opponent to the line (note to Tom Pritchard -- stop fouling!). Pitt is #38 for how often they get to the stipe, so that could definitely be an issue for the Hoosiers in this game.
Stats aside, I am hoping the IU sophomores show up big in this game. I feel like Pritchard is close to putting together a good game. I'm not sure the Pitt game is a good time to predict that, but I can hope. I also think Verdell needs to be effective on the offensive end if IU wants to stay close and have a chance to win at the end. The main thing is that Verdell needs to shoot a better percentage and hit the shots that he is capable of making. It would be great to see those two sophomores play well and then see what this team can do. If IU can get Rivers, Jones, and Pritchard to play at a consistently high level and then add the talent of the freshmen, then you have a team that can compete.
In this game, I think the Hoosiers can keep it close, but once again, I fear they will still lose in the end.
Prediction: IU 61 Pitt 68
Friday, December 4, 2009
Bob Knight's Favorite Word
Based on the recent comments on the previous post, I really felt the need to post the video of Bob Knight's favorite word. We've had this on the blog before, but I think it is worth revisiting at least annually.
The best part about this video is that he is exactly right. Enjoy.
The best part about this video is that he is exactly right. Enjoy.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Indiana 68 Maryland 80
Son of a bitch! This game was 61-58 with 5 minutes to go, but then IU allowed a 9-0 run over the next 3 minutes and at 70-58, this ballgame was over.
They so desperately need to find a way to win a game like this.
Thoughts?
UPDATED with GAME NOTES:
• Rivers hurt and taken to the locker room after a spectacular layup and then falling on his back just a couple minutes into the game.
• Hulls – I like that he doesn’t hesitate to shoot, I was afraid he might be the type that you have to beg to shoot. But he has a quick release and isn’t afraid to put it up when he’s open.
• Liked the story about Crean’s 5-minute drill with one 3-point shooter, one rebounder, and one ball and the shooter has to try to make as many 3s possible in 5 mins. Steve Novak has the record with 72. Hulls recently hit 71. You get to pick your rebounder and Hulls picked Jeff Watkinson, the strength coach. I’m not sure what that says about the rest of the team when you pick the strength coach to be your rebounder.
• Hulls – back to back possessions, he tried to take a charge with no call. After the second one, Maryland scored a layup and Ed Hightower blew his whistle and then appeared to come over and lecture Jordan Hulls while he was still laying on the ground. It appeared he was telling him he was too far under the basket, but he was emphatic about it. Very strange. It was also odd that this appeared to be the sole purpose for the whistle which happened to be at the 11:55 mark so it led to a TV timeout. But I don’t think I have ever seen a whistle blown so that the referee can come lecture a player on a rule. Hulls wasn’t even complaining or anything. Only Ed Hightower. Not even the old bald Ed Hightower would have done that. Only the Ed Hightower with hair.
• ESPN just revisited “The Shot”. Man, that was sweet.
• Great no look through the teeth of the defense pass by Hulls to Watford who converts for a traditional 3-point play
• IU 21-20, 10:00, very good start
• Rivers back after being out with the injury for about 8 minutes.
• Watford pulls up from 14 feet and kisses it off the glass. The lost art of the bank shot, gotta love it. IU up 23-20, 8:45
• We are now seeing a version of the lineup that I was wanting to see – Pritchard goes out and Elston comes in for a lineup of Rivers, Jones, Dumes, Watford, and Elston. I completely agree with this lineup because I think it puts our top talent on the floor and I haven’t seen a Maryland big man that is simply overpowering us, so why not go with Elston and Watford without a true center.
• Dumes hits a 3 and IU leads 26-21 with 7:45 to go in half
• IU 28-21 with 6 minutes to go in first half
• Elston struggling with 0-5 on 2 recent offensive trips, including 2 shots that did not hit rim followed by 3 missed putbacks. Of course, he did Moses Malone his offensive rebounding stats with all those misses to himself. If Jobe were in the game instead of Elston, these same two possessions probably would have been 0-1 (Jobe doesn’t rebound) and 1 turnover (Jobe has bad hands). Nonetheless, it would still be 0 points on these two possessions. I love Jobe, I just want to see him shatter a backboard.
• IU still leads 28-21 with 5 minutes to go in the first half. Knowing what happens at the end of the game, I just calculated that IU will get outscored 49-30 over the next 22 minutes of the game. The next 19 minutes will be somewhat even with Maryland having a 40-30 advantage before the deadly 9-0 run over 3 minutes starting with 5 minutes to go in the game. I may have to analyze possession-by-possession what went wrong in those 3 minutes. We’ll see how late it is when I get to that point.
• Wow! Jeremiah Rivers just had an INCREDIBLE 5-second stretch. At the 2:14 mark, he had a sweet left-handed swat out of bounds on a Maryland fast break, then he stole the inbounds at the 2:12 mark, and then went flying down the floor dribbling with his left hand and outrunning the defender to go in for the left-handed DUNK at the 2:09 mark. We want more, Jeremiah, we want more! That was awesome. IU up 33-30 and the white out crowd is LOUD!
• Now Jeremiah just threw up an airball from 16 feet. Just drive and dunk over everyone, Jeremiah. I would like to say that I officially forgive the airball because that block, steal, dunk sequence was as exciting of a sequence since Eric Gordon donned the cream and crimson.
• Unfortunately, the Hoosiers give up a 5-0 run to be losing at half 35-33. Outside of the Rivers sequence, IU really stunk up the joint in the final 5 minutes of the half.
• Yikes, they just flashed a stat at the start of the 2nd half – in the last 7:45 of the 1st half, IU missed 14 of 16 shots and had 5 turnovers. No wonder their 7 point lead turned into a 2-point halftime deficit.
• Since I mentioned Elston’s putback struggles earlier, I feel obligated the mention the very nice offensive rebound and putback he just had. Md up 37-35 with 17:00 to go.
• So, I have been watching the defense very closely and rewinding anytime IU gives up easy baskets and it is the switching that is killing them in tonight’s game. In previous games, I think the biggest factor was not stopping the dribble, which resulted in bigs having to help and then the whole defense breaking down. Tonight, they are miscommunicating or someone is just making the wrong read on switches. It’s hard to tell who is wrong on these, but to this point in the game, I have seen Creek and Elston involved in 3 of these switching problems. I also noticed Pritchard, Watford, Rivers, and Jones one time each.
• In a very weird way, it might be a good thing that we are starting to be able to actually identify the defensive problems. In the first 5 games, the defense was so bad that I couldn’t tell what the hell they were thinking or even trying to do even if I would rewind it and watch it over. So, maybe it’s a sign that they are improving that you can actually see where the breakdown occurred.
• Verdell Jones shots just don’t seem to be falling. Man, we need those shots in a game like this.
• Maryland up 41-35 at first TV timeout of second half. That’s a 20-7 run going back to the first half. Maybe the last 5 minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second half is where IU truly lost this game.
• Christian Watford just drained a fade-away 15-foot bank shot in the face of a double-team. That’s what I am talking about. If he has that shot in the bag, use it! Especially until he gets stronger and can take it harder to the rack. That was his second shot of the night that has made my jaw drop. I’m a sucka for the bank shot. Glad to see Watford playing well against good competition.
• Watford with a nice swat at the other end.
• Elston airballs a 3. That’s his 3rd shot of the night without any iron.
• Daniel Moore with a nice pass to Verdell Jones who drains the 15-footer. That update was solely for TheCoach since I know he is a big fan of both players. Md 43-39 with 14:30 to go.
• Whoa, another Watford swat leads to Jones to Moore this time and Moore hits the layup with the foul! That update was NOT for TheCoach, that was just damn exciting. The crowd is going nuts as Moore is at the line with a chance to cut the lead to 1…..and the little fucker missed it. That’s ok, just d-up now and keep this momentum going! (Editor’s Note – Just because I know the outcome of the game, this is not fake enthusiasm. I am seriously fired up right now. I guess I better vote “delusional” on the poll question.
• On big momentum plays, especially ones that are traditional 3-point play opportunities because you have the whistle at the end to stop play, I always like to rewind and see the reactions of the players. The obvious reason is just to see the team pumped up when things are going well and they just had a big play. But it also tells me if the players are in this thing as a team and not just caring about their own numbers, etc. On this play, you could see 3 players besides Moore and Elston, Jones, and Watford all gave a fist pump on the basket. On another angle, you could see the bench and Creek and Pritchard were both up off the bench cheering. Good to see. Maybe I will vote “hopeful” on the poll question.
• Do you think IU would use a Tom Earth big head if I sent them one?
• Assignment: Healy, any Healy, can you do some research online to see where you get big heads made?
• Man, Dumes not hitting either. If Jones and Dumes were making shots that they are capable of making, the Hoosiers could have a nice lead right now.
• Creek jumper ties it at 43 with 13:30 to go, IU on 6-0 run.
• Ugh….we saw good Jeremiah earlier and now we see bad Jeremiah. With a chance to take the lead, Rivers tried to throw a lob to Pritchard but instead hurled it off the rim or backboard for a turnover. Then, after a Maryland basket, Rivers drives the lane and wings a pass in the general direction of Tom Crean. Two costly turnovers after IU had just tied the game.
• There’s a nothing but the absolute bottom of the net 3 by Dumes. Md 47-46, 12:15.
• My TV sucks so bad that they just flashed Dumes’ FG shooting and I can’t read it. Going to bestbuy.com, click, click, cc#, and click. New TV is on its way…..I wish.
• They just showed Fuzzy Zoeller. If Gavin is at this game, it is a guarantee that he’s stalking Fuzzy.
• Creek for 3 to give IU the lead at 49-48 with 11:30 to go. Double-figures again for Creek.
• Ooh, I like that….Maryland running on a fast break and Pritchard does not just give up the dunk. Instead, he gave a hard, but clean foul. If we are going to have guys with the size of Jobe and Muniru, there should be a rule that there will be no dunks by the opposing team while they are in the game.
• Tied at 54 with 8:45 to go.
• Rivers misses front end of 1-1 but gets his own rebound, only to see Elston get fouled and he misses the front-end. You just can’t come out of a possession like that with 0 points.
• Now a 5-0 run by Maryland and as Chris has already mentioned in the Comments, Creek and Watford are sitting at the scorers table while Crean is waiting for the TV timeout. I’ve already gone on record saying that I think Crean needs to use his timeouts whenever the moment calls for it. If you have to play-on at the end, so be it, but don’t let a game get away because you are saving your timeouts or waiting for a TV timeout. Foolishness.
• Just to further point out how young and how big of a rebuilding effort this is, we now get Creek and Watford back into the game, but suddenly you look out on the floor and your lineup includes 3 freshmen and a walk-on sophomore.
And here’s how we lost the game…..
• Let’s set the stage, it’s Maryland’s lead with a score of 61-58 with 5:12 to go after 2 made FTs by Dumes. IU now has Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Pritchard in the game.
• MD possession: Daniel Moore overplays the passing lane and gets beat on a cut into the lane for an easy 8-footer for Maryland. Md 63-58, 4:55.
• IU possession: Dumes shoots a 3 that barely touches iron, Md rebound, Creek fouls.
• MD possession: misses front-end of 1-1, but offensive rebound. Rivers gets beat back-door for an easy Maryland layup. The concerning thing here was that the Maryland play was designed to back-screen Rivers and the screen wasn’t even set and Rivers still got beat horribly. Md 65-58, 4:15.
• IU possession: IU timeout. After timeout, Jones travels. TV timeout.
• MD possession: IU plays good defense, Maryland forces up a 3 late in shot-clock and misses. IU rebounds.
• IU possession: Creek goes aggressively to the basket on fast break, Maryland player attempts to take charge and there is clearly contact as Creek wildly throws it off the glass. Ed Hightower is literally on top of the play and no call. It was not a flop, there was clearly contact and Creek ran the guy over, the only question was whether it was a charge or a block. But it can’t be a no-call and I do think it should have been a block and Creek heading to the FT line. I remember when Ed used to like IU (read as “was scared of Bob Knight”). Maryland retrieves loose ball and calls timeout.
• Interesting and depressing stat from ESPN during the timeout – IU had 11 seasons with 10 or more losses in 29 seasons under Bob Knight. They have had 8 seasons with 10 or more losses in the 9 seasons since his departure. I’ll go ahead and go out on a branch as thick as my house and say that will be 9 out of the last 10 seasons after this season is all said and done, or should I say after December is all said and done. This seems like an ideal spot for my “I fucking hate Kelvin Sampson” quote.
• MD possession: Watford gets posted-up, a nice jump hook by Millbourne. Not a whole lot IU could do on that one. Md 67-58, 2:47.
• IU possession: Creek misses a 3. Good look, but he couldn’t get it to go down. This was followed by a funny-if-u-r-not-an-IU-fan moment where Watford, Pritchard, and Jones all fell over themselves into a heap.
• MD possession: This time, a variation on the play that Rivers just got beat on. Watford is guarding the wing and Maryland sets a back screen. The Maryland wing players does a great job reading the screen and cuts high into the lane rather than going behind the screen baseline (like they did against Rivers). Watford got picked off by the back-screen, Pritchard attempted to help late and fouled the guy and he scored. FT good and that’s your dagger. Md 70-58, 2:08.
So, looking at that stretch in summary, the defense just isn’t where it needs to be right now. This team has shown signs of improvements since Puerto Rico, but I certainly don’t expect them to pull off any upsets in the next two games.
Well, I think I will finish this post with the way I started it....Son of a Bitch.
They so desperately need to find a way to win a game like this.
Thoughts?
UPDATED with GAME NOTES:
• Rivers hurt and taken to the locker room after a spectacular layup and then falling on his back just a couple minutes into the game.
• Hulls – I like that he doesn’t hesitate to shoot, I was afraid he might be the type that you have to beg to shoot. But he has a quick release and isn’t afraid to put it up when he’s open.
• Liked the story about Crean’s 5-minute drill with one 3-point shooter, one rebounder, and one ball and the shooter has to try to make as many 3s possible in 5 mins. Steve Novak has the record with 72. Hulls recently hit 71. You get to pick your rebounder and Hulls picked Jeff Watkinson, the strength coach. I’m not sure what that says about the rest of the team when you pick the strength coach to be your rebounder.
• Hulls – back to back possessions, he tried to take a charge with no call. After the second one, Maryland scored a layup and Ed Hightower blew his whistle and then appeared to come over and lecture Jordan Hulls while he was still laying on the ground. It appeared he was telling him he was too far under the basket, but he was emphatic about it. Very strange. It was also odd that this appeared to be the sole purpose for the whistle which happened to be at the 11:55 mark so it led to a TV timeout. But I don’t think I have ever seen a whistle blown so that the referee can come lecture a player on a rule. Hulls wasn’t even complaining or anything. Only Ed Hightower. Not even the old bald Ed Hightower would have done that. Only the Ed Hightower with hair.
• ESPN just revisited “The Shot”. Man, that was sweet.
• Great no look through the teeth of the defense pass by Hulls to Watford who converts for a traditional 3-point play
• IU 21-20, 10:00, very good start
• Rivers back after being out with the injury for about 8 minutes.
• Watford pulls up from 14 feet and kisses it off the glass. The lost art of the bank shot, gotta love it. IU up 23-20, 8:45
• We are now seeing a version of the lineup that I was wanting to see – Pritchard goes out and Elston comes in for a lineup of Rivers, Jones, Dumes, Watford, and Elston. I completely agree with this lineup because I think it puts our top talent on the floor and I haven’t seen a Maryland big man that is simply overpowering us, so why not go with Elston and Watford without a true center.
• Dumes hits a 3 and IU leads 26-21 with 7:45 to go in half
• IU 28-21 with 6 minutes to go in first half
• Elston struggling with 0-5 on 2 recent offensive trips, including 2 shots that did not hit rim followed by 3 missed putbacks. Of course, he did Moses Malone his offensive rebounding stats with all those misses to himself. If Jobe were in the game instead of Elston, these same two possessions probably would have been 0-1 (Jobe doesn’t rebound) and 1 turnover (Jobe has bad hands). Nonetheless, it would still be 0 points on these two possessions. I love Jobe, I just want to see him shatter a backboard.
• IU still leads 28-21 with 5 minutes to go in the first half. Knowing what happens at the end of the game, I just calculated that IU will get outscored 49-30 over the next 22 minutes of the game. The next 19 minutes will be somewhat even with Maryland having a 40-30 advantage before the deadly 9-0 run over 3 minutes starting with 5 minutes to go in the game. I may have to analyze possession-by-possession what went wrong in those 3 minutes. We’ll see how late it is when I get to that point.
• Wow! Jeremiah Rivers just had an INCREDIBLE 5-second stretch. At the 2:14 mark, he had a sweet left-handed swat out of bounds on a Maryland fast break, then he stole the inbounds at the 2:12 mark, and then went flying down the floor dribbling with his left hand and outrunning the defender to go in for the left-handed DUNK at the 2:09 mark. We want more, Jeremiah, we want more! That was awesome. IU up 33-30 and the white out crowd is LOUD!
• Now Jeremiah just threw up an airball from 16 feet. Just drive and dunk over everyone, Jeremiah. I would like to say that I officially forgive the airball because that block, steal, dunk sequence was as exciting of a sequence since Eric Gordon donned the cream and crimson.
• Unfortunately, the Hoosiers give up a 5-0 run to be losing at half 35-33. Outside of the Rivers sequence, IU really stunk up the joint in the final 5 minutes of the half.
• Yikes, they just flashed a stat at the start of the 2nd half – in the last 7:45 of the 1st half, IU missed 14 of 16 shots and had 5 turnovers. No wonder their 7 point lead turned into a 2-point halftime deficit.
• Since I mentioned Elston’s putback struggles earlier, I feel obligated the mention the very nice offensive rebound and putback he just had. Md up 37-35 with 17:00 to go.
• So, I have been watching the defense very closely and rewinding anytime IU gives up easy baskets and it is the switching that is killing them in tonight’s game. In previous games, I think the biggest factor was not stopping the dribble, which resulted in bigs having to help and then the whole defense breaking down. Tonight, they are miscommunicating or someone is just making the wrong read on switches. It’s hard to tell who is wrong on these, but to this point in the game, I have seen Creek and Elston involved in 3 of these switching problems. I also noticed Pritchard, Watford, Rivers, and Jones one time each.
• In a very weird way, it might be a good thing that we are starting to be able to actually identify the defensive problems. In the first 5 games, the defense was so bad that I couldn’t tell what the hell they were thinking or even trying to do even if I would rewind it and watch it over. So, maybe it’s a sign that they are improving that you can actually see where the breakdown occurred.
• Verdell Jones shots just don’t seem to be falling. Man, we need those shots in a game like this.
• Maryland up 41-35 at first TV timeout of second half. That’s a 20-7 run going back to the first half. Maybe the last 5 minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second half is where IU truly lost this game.
• Christian Watford just drained a fade-away 15-foot bank shot in the face of a double-team. That’s what I am talking about. If he has that shot in the bag, use it! Especially until he gets stronger and can take it harder to the rack. That was his second shot of the night that has made my jaw drop. I’m a sucka for the bank shot. Glad to see Watford playing well against good competition.
• Watford with a nice swat at the other end.
• Elston airballs a 3. That’s his 3rd shot of the night without any iron.
• Daniel Moore with a nice pass to Verdell Jones who drains the 15-footer. That update was solely for TheCoach since I know he is a big fan of both players. Md 43-39 with 14:30 to go.
• Whoa, another Watford swat leads to Jones to Moore this time and Moore hits the layup with the foul! That update was NOT for TheCoach, that was just damn exciting. The crowd is going nuts as Moore is at the line with a chance to cut the lead to 1…..and the little fucker missed it. That’s ok, just d-up now and keep this momentum going! (Editor’s Note – Just because I know the outcome of the game, this is not fake enthusiasm. I am seriously fired up right now. I guess I better vote “delusional” on the poll question.
• On big momentum plays, especially ones that are traditional 3-point play opportunities because you have the whistle at the end to stop play, I always like to rewind and see the reactions of the players. The obvious reason is just to see the team pumped up when things are going well and they just had a big play. But it also tells me if the players are in this thing as a team and not just caring about their own numbers, etc. On this play, you could see 3 players besides Moore and Elston, Jones, and Watford all gave a fist pump on the basket. On another angle, you could see the bench and Creek and Pritchard were both up off the bench cheering. Good to see. Maybe I will vote “hopeful” on the poll question.
• Do you think IU would use a Tom Earth big head if I sent them one?
• Assignment: Healy, any Healy, can you do some research online to see where you get big heads made?
• Man, Dumes not hitting either. If Jones and Dumes were making shots that they are capable of making, the Hoosiers could have a nice lead right now.
• Creek jumper ties it at 43 with 13:30 to go, IU on 6-0 run.
• Ugh….we saw good Jeremiah earlier and now we see bad Jeremiah. With a chance to take the lead, Rivers tried to throw a lob to Pritchard but instead hurled it off the rim or backboard for a turnover. Then, after a Maryland basket, Rivers drives the lane and wings a pass in the general direction of Tom Crean. Two costly turnovers after IU had just tied the game.
• There’s a nothing but the absolute bottom of the net 3 by Dumes. Md 47-46, 12:15.
• My TV sucks so bad that they just flashed Dumes’ FG shooting and I can’t read it. Going to bestbuy.com, click, click, cc#, and click. New TV is on its way…..I wish.
• They just showed Fuzzy Zoeller. If Gavin is at this game, it is a guarantee that he’s stalking Fuzzy.
• Creek for 3 to give IU the lead at 49-48 with 11:30 to go. Double-figures again for Creek.
• Ooh, I like that….Maryland running on a fast break and Pritchard does not just give up the dunk. Instead, he gave a hard, but clean foul. If we are going to have guys with the size of Jobe and Muniru, there should be a rule that there will be no dunks by the opposing team while they are in the game.
• Tied at 54 with 8:45 to go.
• Rivers misses front end of 1-1 but gets his own rebound, only to see Elston get fouled and he misses the front-end. You just can’t come out of a possession like that with 0 points.
• Now a 5-0 run by Maryland and as Chris has already mentioned in the Comments, Creek and Watford are sitting at the scorers table while Crean is waiting for the TV timeout. I’ve already gone on record saying that I think Crean needs to use his timeouts whenever the moment calls for it. If you have to play-on at the end, so be it, but don’t let a game get away because you are saving your timeouts or waiting for a TV timeout. Foolishness.
• Just to further point out how young and how big of a rebuilding effort this is, we now get Creek and Watford back into the game, but suddenly you look out on the floor and your lineup includes 3 freshmen and a walk-on sophomore.
And here’s how we lost the game…..
• Let’s set the stage, it’s Maryland’s lead with a score of 61-58 with 5:12 to go after 2 made FTs by Dumes. IU now has Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Pritchard in the game.
• MD possession: Daniel Moore overplays the passing lane and gets beat on a cut into the lane for an easy 8-footer for Maryland. Md 63-58, 4:55.
• IU possession: Dumes shoots a 3 that barely touches iron, Md rebound, Creek fouls.
• MD possession: misses front-end of 1-1, but offensive rebound. Rivers gets beat back-door for an easy Maryland layup. The concerning thing here was that the Maryland play was designed to back-screen Rivers and the screen wasn’t even set and Rivers still got beat horribly. Md 65-58, 4:15.
• IU possession: IU timeout. After timeout, Jones travels. TV timeout.
• MD possession: IU plays good defense, Maryland forces up a 3 late in shot-clock and misses. IU rebounds.
• IU possession: Creek goes aggressively to the basket on fast break, Maryland player attempts to take charge and there is clearly contact as Creek wildly throws it off the glass. Ed Hightower is literally on top of the play and no call. It was not a flop, there was clearly contact and Creek ran the guy over, the only question was whether it was a charge or a block. But it can’t be a no-call and I do think it should have been a block and Creek heading to the FT line. I remember when Ed used to like IU (read as “was scared of Bob Knight”). Maryland retrieves loose ball and calls timeout.
• Interesting and depressing stat from ESPN during the timeout – IU had 11 seasons with 10 or more losses in 29 seasons under Bob Knight. They have had 8 seasons with 10 or more losses in the 9 seasons since his departure. I’ll go ahead and go out on a branch as thick as my house and say that will be 9 out of the last 10 seasons after this season is all said and done, or should I say after December is all said and done. This seems like an ideal spot for my “I fucking hate Kelvin Sampson” quote.
• MD possession: Watford gets posted-up, a nice jump hook by Millbourne. Not a whole lot IU could do on that one. Md 67-58, 2:47.
• IU possession: Creek misses a 3. Good look, but he couldn’t get it to go down. This was followed by a funny-if-u-r-not-an-IU-fan moment where Watford, Pritchard, and Jones all fell over themselves into a heap.
• MD possession: This time, a variation on the play that Rivers just got beat on. Watford is guarding the wing and Maryland sets a back screen. The Maryland wing players does a great job reading the screen and cuts high into the lane rather than going behind the screen baseline (like they did against Rivers). Watford got picked off by the back-screen, Pritchard attempted to help late and fouled the guy and he scored. FT good and that’s your dagger. Md 70-58, 2:08.
So, looking at that stretch in summary, the defense just isn’t where it needs to be right now. This team has shown signs of improvements since Puerto Rico, but I certainly don’t expect them to pull off any upsets in the next two games.
Well, I think I will finish this post with the way I started it....Son of a Bitch.
Monday, November 30, 2009
A Look Back at Northwestern State, A Look Ahead to Maryland, A Look Back to the Last Time We Played Maryland, A Look Way Ahead to a 2010 Hoosier Christmas in Las Vegas, and Not Necessarily in that Order
Christmas in Vegas with the Hoosiers (2010):
There is no "teasing" on the IU Hoops blog, so let's good right to the good stuff. If you haven't heard already, the Hoosiers will be playing in Vegas next year right before Christmas. It sounds like a tournament where they will play 2 home games and then head to Sin City for 2 more games. Crean didn't have the dates when he was doing his radio show, but I thought I read elsewhere that it would be December 20-22.
My family just finalized plans for Xmas 2010 to take place at my parents house in Florida, but what could be a better Christmas present than Vegas and live IU basketball. On second thought, I don't think I could handle it. That would just be too much for me. But it does sound a lot like my Christmas wish list -- a trip to Vegas and anything related to IU Basketball (especially tix in Vegas).
I also heard the Hoosiers might be headed back to Hawaii sooner than later, like maybe even within the next 2-3 years. Just a rumor at this point, but I have promised myself that I will be going to Hawaii the next time IU plays there. I did hear that the tournament may move to Honolulu in the future, rather than it's current venue in Maui.
A Look Back at the NW St Game:
Prediction: IU 64 Maryland 72
Do you remember the last time IU met Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge? Of course you do, but you can re-live it with the following links:
Tom Crean talks Maryland courtesy of the IU Athletics channel on youtube:
There is no "teasing" on the IU Hoops blog, so let's good right to the good stuff. If you haven't heard already, the Hoosiers will be playing in Vegas next year right before Christmas. It sounds like a tournament where they will play 2 home games and then head to Sin City for 2 more games. Crean didn't have the dates when he was doing his radio show, but I thought I read elsewhere that it would be December 20-22.
My family just finalized plans for Xmas 2010 to take place at my parents house in Florida, but what could be a better Christmas present than Vegas and live IU basketball. On second thought, I don't think I could handle it. That would just be too much for me. But it does sound a lot like my Christmas wish list -- a trip to Vegas and anything related to IU Basketball (especially tix in Vegas).
I also heard the Hoosiers might be headed back to Hawaii sooner than later, like maybe even within the next 2-3 years. Just a rumor at this point, but I have promised myself that I will be going to Hawaii the next time IU plays there. I did hear that the tournament may move to Honolulu in the future, rather than it's current venue in Maui.
A Look Back at the NW St Game:
- Sloppy and ugly -- Neither team could get a handle on the damn ball, guys were running into each other, falling over each other, throwing balls off heads (Capo off a NW St head), throwing balls out of bounds (Jobe), and fouling the shit out of each other.
- Speaking of fouls, the good news was that the Hoosiers went to the line 44 times and made 34 of them.
- All in all, the Hoosiers got the job done against a lesser opponent. The game was never in doubt, but IU didn't exactly run them out of the gym. The game was in single-digits briefly with 12 minutes to go in the game, so definitely not a blow-out right from the opening tip. Eventually, IU made a run to put the game away and the BTN cut away from the game with 6 minutes to go because all the fouls were making the game run extremely long. Still not sure why we had to get to the opening tip of Ohio St versus Podunk U.
- Christian Watford had a pretty good all-around game with 17 points on 5-7 FGs and 7-8 FTs. He added 5 rebs, 2 assts, 2 stls, and 1 blk. Watford has certainly been effective against the cupcakes, but has struggled against the better opponents. It would be great to see him play well during the upcoming 3-game stretch against Maryland, Pitt, and the Inbreds.
- Tom Pritchard showed some very brief signs of life, but was in foul trouble the entire game. They were cheap fouls, but he has to stop putting himself in that position.
- Maurice Creek had another hot start with 13 early points and then cooled off a bit to finish with 17 points. Although he has been a little inconsistent within games (hot starts and cool finishes), he has had amazing consistency with his production in the first 6 games of his career. He has made at least 2 three-pointers in each of those 6 games and finished with point totals of 17, 14, 18, 17, 15, 17. That's pretty damn good.
- Jeremiah Rivers led the team in both assists and rebounding with 10 assists and 7 rebounds (all defensive). Those 10 dimes are really good to see. He certainly wasn't without mistakes as he did have 5 turnovers, but he played 36 minutes and that's still a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
- Not a great game for Verdell. I thought he made some really poor decisions with the basketball in the first half, but then played a little better in the second half. He finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers in 21 minutes.
- Here's a not-so-great stat from your back-up centers -- Jobe, Capobianco, and Muniru combined for exactly 0 rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
- Jordan Hulls didn't exactly help the case I was making that he should be playing in front of Moore.....Hulls did next to nothing in 7 minutes while Moore was a scoring machine with 6 points in 6 minutes plus a steal.
- Derek Elston played really well with 12 points on 5-7 FG shooting, including 1-2 from the arc. He also added 6 rebounds and 4 steals in just 18 minutes.
- It was good to see Dumes find his scoring again with 11 points. At the very least, IU needs its returning players playing at the level they were last year, most notably Dumes and Pritchard.
- And then you have big Tijan Jobe. I love the big fella, but I'm not yet sold on him seeing serious minutes. Gavin sent me the following email:
I was listening to the Tom Crean show tonight and he gave some interesting insight into Tijan's playing time. He mentioned the he is trying to get more minute with Elston and Watford on the floor at the same time. This would require getting some minutes filled at the 5 spot. Thus Tijan has gotten some time time and he has observed that our opponents have the lowest shooting percentage when Tijan is in the line up. He said that Tijan is our most relentless defender and that he is earning his minutes.
I'm not sure that Elston and Watford on the floor at the same time requires minutes filled at the 5 spot. If the other team does not have a dominant big man and IU really wants to force the up-tempo game, why not go with Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Elston for a stretch? I'm not saying you would use that line-up all the time, but why not give it a try and really try to run and play up-tempo. This might be a better option when Pritchard gets in foul trouble.
I'm also surprised at the stat that opponents have the lowest shooting percentage when Tijan is in the line up. He is an intimidating specimen just to look at and it does hurt if you bounce off him (just ask his teammates), but he just doesn't play like a 7-footer on the defensive end.
Tijan did have 2 nifty moves under the bucket for 2-2 FG shooting, but he also dropped a good pass that could have been another easy basket and he lost the handle on another one that went flying out of bounds. So, he really had an opportunity to easily be 4-4 from the field and I am pretty damn sure that would have been a career high.
He also had 2 blocked shots and one of them was a swat, but we need even more. And if he's going to commit 4 fouls in 12 minutes, then I want him thinking the opponents head is the ball and taking someone's head off. You can tell he has been learning from Pritchard on the "excuse me" fouls.
And the 0 rebounds in 12 minutes, I just can't live with that.
All in all, like everyone else, he has to make sure the good outweighs the bad. If he can keep making strides, he is an imposing figure to have out there.A Look Ahead to Maryland:
- Tuesday at 7:30pm ET (6:30pm CT)
- TV: ESPN2 (sweet, no Laskowski)
- "White Out" at Assembly Hall
Prediction: IU 64 Maryland 72
Do you remember the last time IU met Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge? Of course you do, but you can re-live it with the following links:
- Recap
- Box Score
- Big Ten Chronicle: Where Are They Now? Tom Coverdale (2007)
- Dickie V: Coverdale wills Indiana to classic win over Terps
Tom Crean talks Maryland courtesy of the IU Athletics channel on youtube:
Friday, November 27, 2009
Indiana vs. Northwestern State - Saturday at 3:30pm ET (2:30pm CT) on The Big Ten Network
Last year, IU beat Northwestern State by a score of 83-65. I would love to sit here and say "if we beat them by 18 last year, then I expect us to beat them by at least 36 this year". But, I ain't feelin' it. So, instead, I think I will go with the following prediction:
IU 83 Northwestern St 65
IU 83 Northwestern St 65
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Ask The Idiot -- The Answers
Wow, great questions. Keep the questions coming and I'll continue to provide my thoughts. I thought it might be easier to read the Q&A in a new post, so here we go with the questions that have been received thus far:
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TheCoach said...
why is dan moore playing in front of hulls?
The Idiot's Answer: I have no fucking idea. Hulls is the better player right now. Hulls has 100 times more upside potential.
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TheCoach said...
with capo having a break out game, is it about time to sit jobe and muniru both other than mop up time?
The Idiot's (very long) Answer: Not so fast, my friend. Great to see Bobby contribute with 7 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes against George Mason, but one game does not earn you a permanent spot in the rotation. But Capo's game on Sunday morning was certainly a step in the right direction. While he did have a couple awkward putback attempts, he did play with a physical presence that this team desparately needs.
So, Capo certainly earned more minutes, but I'm not ready to send Jobe and Muniru to the far end of the bench just yet. At least, not both of them (more on this in the next paragraph). My concern is that I think a big part of the defensive problems on this team is that they do not have a shot-blocker underneath that can help erase some of the defensive mistakes. Right now, the guards get beat, then our bigs try to step up and help out and they either commit a foul or the other team makes an extra pass and we get dunked on (man, we get dunked on A LOT). We need someone that can protect the basket and force the other team to at least pull up for a contested mid-range jumper or if they do make that extra pass, we need a big guy with wing span that can recover and challenge that dunk or contest a shot. In addition, right now, we are giving up offensive rebounds and also giving up easy put-backs. If you do give up offensive rebounds, those put-backs at least need to be contested by a shot-blocking threat or possibly even start a fast break by blocking a shot and heading the other way. Right now, we have no threat of blocking shots and it's hurting us in a bad way.
Now, are Jobe and Muniru the answer to that problem? No, not right now. But I say we give Bawa as much on-the-job training as possible. I don't see the point in playing Jobe (a senior) over Bawa (a freshman). Just from a timing standpoint, Jobe's upside is limited whereas Bawa's is unlimited. I think Bawa needs to get 4-8 minutes in most games to get a feel for the game and learn as much as possible. Also, I don't think Bawa's minutes would necessarily be solely for the purpose of learning. Just one drop-step and dunk in an exhibition game and 3 offensive rebounds in 3 minutes in a regular season game showed me that he can contribute while he is in there. It won't all be pretty and there will be mistakes, but that's the case with the whole team right now. I think Bawa could really be the key to future success, so I want to see the coaching staff doing everything possible to develop this guy. I love Tijan Jobe, but I think his role needs to be the most intimidating cheerleader in all of college basketball.
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TheCoach said...
isn't this zone defense the worst attempt at playing D you've ever seen at the D1 college level?
The Idiot's (very short) Answer: Yes.
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TheCoach said...
who would you start tomorrow if you were the coach?
The Idiot's Answer: Right now, I would stick with Crean's starting lineup of Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Pritchard. I see significant minutes every game off the bench from Hulls, Elston, and Dumes (more on him in a Q&A below). With Capo's break-out game on Sunday, I think he definitely gets minutes over Muniru, but as noted above, I would still like to see a handful of minutes for Muniru if at all possible. I only see Moore and Jobe in mop-up duty.
I would have definitely seen Roth as a part of the rotation, but now that he has a broken foot, he is out until at least conference play and may end up as a medical redshirt. Roth probably wasn't going to help the defensive struggles, but he typically plays mistake-free basketball and he can flat-out shoot the ball.
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TheCoach said...
NOW how many wins do you think we'll get?
The Idiot's Answer: 12
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Dumas has made some really dum-as plays this year.
Outside of the couple of nice 3's he really hasn't done anything of consequence.
Does he look completely disinterested and how much more PT does he deserve?
Is he pissed that he isn't the go to guy?
Is he becoming groin elbowing Dumas again?
Thanks. Long time listener first time caller.
Gavin
The Idiot's Answer: Excellent questions and I was definitely hoping to touch on this topic. I don't think he is disinterested and I do think he still deserves significant playing time. He might be pissed that he isn't the go-to guy, but I think it is more that he is trying to find his role on this team. Keep in mind that he sat out most of the pre-season with a knee injury, so he's probably coming in and trying to do too much.
The crazy thing is that I think he might be the key to an increased level of success this year. The thing is that he is a very good defender which this team desperately needs in any capacity. The problem has been that he has been horriffic on offense. Especially with the increased talent on this team, I think Dumes needs to focus on just being a 3-point shooter. If he can get his shot going again, it would be a major boost to this team. Remember that the best stretch for IU in conference play last year was fueled by Dumes getting hot. He had 27 points on 5-5 3PT shooting in IU's only Big Ten win. Two games earlier, he had 26 points on 6-10 3PT shooting in a 2-point loss to NW. And in the game prior to that, he had 19 points on 4-6 3PT shooting in a 4-point loss to Minnesota.
So, with this year's team, he should be able to spot up and get even better 3-point looks than he did last year. If he can stop turning the ball over at an alarming rate and get hot from beyond the arc, you can add that to his defensive efforts and this team could win some games.
Keeping the injury in mind, I definitely think Dumes needs to continue to get minutes to see if he can find his rhythm and get going.
Interestingly, Dumes saw exactly 0 minutes in the second half against George Mason on Sunday, so I think that's an indication of how Tom Crean thinks he is playing right now.
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Chris Asks:
Do you have any doubts about Tom Crean's coaching?
The Idiot's Answer: Yes. That said, I absolutely still believe he is the right man for this job right now. He is doing everything possible to rebuild this program the RIGHT way and that is great. I think Crean is a very good coach, but I would not consider him to be a great coach right now. I have found it tough to analyze him as a coach because the the team is so young and had to completely start over.
I think Crean is a good recruiter, good at getting the team ready to play, a great motivator, a great PR guy for the program, but my only minor doubts are with the half-court offense and the in-game coaching and adjustments.
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Chris Writes:
Is the "our team is young" line still valid in today's College Hoops? (so many upperclassmen leave early.)
Could this be mental crutch?
The Idiot's Answer: In this case, yes it is a valid line. What Crean had in year 1 was really unprecedented in major college basketball. What he has in year 2 is still what would be considered one of the largest re-building efforts. Even when teams lose their 5 starters or anything like that, they still at least have solid role players coming back as juniors and seniors to step in. In those cases, you can supplement with a good freshmen class.
In IU's case, you still have a team where the 12 players that are getting minutes include 7 first-year players (with 6 being true freshmen) and 5 second-year players in the program (3 true sophomores and 2 Juco transfers). This is completely starting over.
The Fab 5 are known and still remembered as The Fab 5 because it was so unique for a group of freshmen to come in and have that level of success. There are freshmen that come in and significantly contribute to a team or even lead a team (Carmello Anthony), but they always have 3 and 4 year players in the program on that team with them. Even The Fab 5 had veteran players coming in off the bench. So, when an entire team includes first and second year players like IU's current team, it is truly unprecedented. Then, you also have to add in the fact that a full recruiting year was lost and subsequent recruiting years were negatively impacted.
So, in IU's case, I do think it is a valid line and I don't think it is a mental crutch at this point.
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Chris Writes:
What is Tom Crean's half court offensive philosphy?
The Idiot's Answer: This is why they call me the idiot....I don't know. I can't seem to figure it out. It seems that it is to do nothing for the first half of the shot clock and then set up a high screen that takes place well outside the 3-point line and then it's a crap shoot off that high screen. That's the way I see it and I have to say that I don't like it. If this is Crean's half-court offense, then I really hope he gets even more serious about playing up-tempo because that half-court offense does nothing for me.
Tom Pritchard had clearly struggled so far this year, but what happened to trying to feed him in the post? Last year, especially early, Pritchard proved that he had some nifty and effective moves in the post. I thought he would have even more room to operate with the increased talent on this year's team, but he really hasn't even been given a chance. Part of that is his own fault because he has had his head up his ass and gotten into foul trouble, but a larger part has been that Crean has not called his number or tried to get the ball inside at all. Pritchard is currently shooting 65% from the field, so he has been effective with limited opportunities.
I do understand Crean's philosophy of drive and kick and I do like that philosophy, but it can't be the only thing you try to do. This is where Rivers needs to step up and deliver.
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Chris Writes:
Purdue's recent success, ranking, and level of play causes me to seriously hate Sampson, Greenspan, the NCAA, Knight's anger issues, and our lack of a 4 star big man in the recruiting pipeline.
This is more of a statement, or hatement, rather than a question.
The Idiot's Thoughts: I agree on all accounts. And I am very concerned about the lack of a true big man in the recruiting pipeline. That's why I see Bawa as the key to our future success because he is the only guy with future shot-blocking potential on the team and there is nothing in the recruiting pipeline right now.
Kelvin Sampson is a jerk-off.
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B-Healy said...
Why does this year seem to be headed down the same path as last year? Weren't we promised visible improvements this season? No defense, spotty FT shooting, guys going in and out like there is a revolving door at the end of the bench. Seems the same to me.
The Idiot's Answer: If you wanted to, you could make the argument that this year's team is off to a worst start than last year's team. In both years, they started the year by beating two cupcakes before heading off to a pre-season tournament. Last year, we won a game in Maui. This year, nothing in Puerto Rico. I personally would not make that argument, I'm just saying that you could make that argument.
My real answer is that the main reason that this year's team is resembling last year's team is because we are barely leveraging last year's experience. Even after the transfers of Malik Story and more importantly Nick Williams, we still had a core of Dumes, Jones, Pritchard, and Roth returning this year. Outside of Jones, we are getting nothing out of our returning players. Pritch is averaging only 5 pts and 3 rebs, Dumes is averaging 3 pts and nearly as many turnovers, and Roth now has a broken foot. So, essentially, we are adding a transfer and a bunch of freshmen to a still skinny true sophomore.
Bottom line is that we need more out of Dumes and Pritchard. Right now, we are forced to live and die with our freshmen. Freshmen are going to be inconsistent, that is a given. I was hoping we would have the option of periodically putting in a lineup of Rivers, Dumes, Jones, and Pritchard to hopefully steady the ship. That's not happening right now.
That said, this team is considerably better than last year's and we just aren't seeing it yet. Ithink hope that the FT shooting will be better and the worst is behind us for this season.
I also don't think that opening the season with 5 games in 9 days does a young team any favors. This team needs more practice time to improve and I think we will start to see those improvements in December (well, probably not during the Maryland, Pitt, Kentucky stretch). Regardless, if you listened to Tom Crean's last two postgame press conferences, he is not a happy camper and he is identifying exactly what is wrong with this team right now. So, I do trust that these issues are being addressed in practice and we will start to see improvements.
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andy.dart said...
Dear Mr. Idiot, I want to know if this team is going to compete or if they are going to fold up their tent and go home. Right now, it is very easy for fans to think that this is as good as it is going to get and this will be a repeat of last year but with more talent. So, we need your opinion on whether or not IU will show signs of hope and life this year (please be positive, Mr. Idiot. I fear i might jump from my roof if there is not hope)........
Mr. Idiot's Answer: This team will absolutely compete. My concern is that their youth is going to lead to a lot of inconsistency, a lot of bad defense, and some streaky shooting from the field, the line, and the arc. The good news is that their talent level will show flashes of brilliance that includes scoring in spurts, steals on the defensive end, and even the occassional dunk.
I have no doubt that they will compete. But as I have said before, I think this team will both play in a lot of close games and will unfortunately lose a lot of close games. Puerto Rico is a perfect example. The Boston game shouldn't have been close, we actually should have pulled away and won that game easily. Unfortunately, we didn't play well in the second half, allowed the game to stay close, and then failed miserably at the end. The George Mason game was different in that it was a close game the entire contest and IU even did many things that would normally deliver a win. In this case, they fell victim to a piece-of-shit-banked-in 3-pointer. Is it just me or has that happened to IU a lot in the past decade (Brian Butch, freakin' Brendan Plavich, and a few others)? Anyway, even though IU played better against George Mason and were definitely unlucky, it was still another close game that they lost.
So, they will compete, they will show signs of life and cause for hope, but it might not translate to as many wins as we were hoping for this year.
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andy.dart said...
Mr. Idiot, Also, I would hate to jump from my roof into one of my bushes, only to survive and see another 6-25 season. We need hope Mr. Idiot.
Mr. Idiot's Answer: Your roof to your bushes should result in nothing more than a few scrapes and maybe a bruise, so you're going to be OK. And the good news is that the Hoosiers will have 6 wins by the time the conference season rolls around and they will definitely win more than one game this year in the Big Ten.
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Westlake said...
Dear The Idiot,
Have you heard anything about Morrison entering the NBA dunk contest this year?
The Idiot's Answer: No
Update: I have to admit that the first time I read this, I was thinking why the hell is Westlake asking me if Adam Morrison is entering the NBA dunk contest. So, since I was reading Adam and that would be both an absurd and unrelated question, I dismissed it as Westlake just being drunk.
And now, even though I am probably right about Westlake being drunk, I do realize this question was related to Mike Morrison of George Mason who dunked on us like a mad-man.
So, I don't know if I would change my answer from "No", but I would agree that our defense did not offer any resistance at all when Morrison was going up for dunk after dunk.
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andy.dart said...
Maybe it should Dr. Idiot. And I mean that as a sign of respect. Does anybody agree?
Also, what does the Roth injury do to the rotation? Has anybody asked this yet? I like the fact that we have somebody on the team that can make 9 three pointers in 1 game. But does he give up 27 points on the defensive end?
Dr. Idiot's Answer: Tough to really say what Roth's injury does to the rotation because it has been hard to identify any real rotation thus far. Also, Roth only played 11 total minutes in the first 2 games of the season, so he wasn't seeing much action anyway. However, I am wondering if that was due to the broken nose. It's not that you can't play with a broken nose and facemask, but I wonder if Crean was just easing him back and wanting to see more of the freshmen in those opening 2 games.
I do think the injury hurts. Yes, his defense is bad, but I don't think it is as bad as others think. He is definitely slow of foot but he is also a smart player who is usually in the right position. Defense, especially off the ball defense, is as much about positioning as it is about athleticism.
I didn't see Roth getting a ton of minutes this year, but his shooting does have the ability to very quickly turn around a stale offensive performance.
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Thanks for the questions and go Hoosiers!
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TheCoach said...
why is dan moore playing in front of hulls?
The Idiot's Answer: I have no fucking idea. Hulls is the better player right now. Hulls has 100 times more upside potential.
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TheCoach said...
with capo having a break out game, is it about time to sit jobe and muniru both other than mop up time?
The Idiot's (very long) Answer: Not so fast, my friend. Great to see Bobby contribute with 7 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes against George Mason, but one game does not earn you a permanent spot in the rotation. But Capo's game on Sunday morning was certainly a step in the right direction. While he did have a couple awkward putback attempts, he did play with a physical presence that this team desparately needs.
So, Capo certainly earned more minutes, but I'm not ready to send Jobe and Muniru to the far end of the bench just yet. At least, not both of them (more on this in the next paragraph). My concern is that I think a big part of the defensive problems on this team is that they do not have a shot-blocker underneath that can help erase some of the defensive mistakes. Right now, the guards get beat, then our bigs try to step up and help out and they either commit a foul or the other team makes an extra pass and we get dunked on (man, we get dunked on A LOT). We need someone that can protect the basket and force the other team to at least pull up for a contested mid-range jumper or if they do make that extra pass, we need a big guy with wing span that can recover and challenge that dunk or contest a shot. In addition, right now, we are giving up offensive rebounds and also giving up easy put-backs. If you do give up offensive rebounds, those put-backs at least need to be contested by a shot-blocking threat or possibly even start a fast break by blocking a shot and heading the other way. Right now, we have no threat of blocking shots and it's hurting us in a bad way.
Now, are Jobe and Muniru the answer to that problem? No, not right now. But I say we give Bawa as much on-the-job training as possible. I don't see the point in playing Jobe (a senior) over Bawa (a freshman). Just from a timing standpoint, Jobe's upside is limited whereas Bawa's is unlimited. I think Bawa needs to get 4-8 minutes in most games to get a feel for the game and learn as much as possible. Also, I don't think Bawa's minutes would necessarily be solely for the purpose of learning. Just one drop-step and dunk in an exhibition game and 3 offensive rebounds in 3 minutes in a regular season game showed me that he can contribute while he is in there. It won't all be pretty and there will be mistakes, but that's the case with the whole team right now. I think Bawa could really be the key to future success, so I want to see the coaching staff doing everything possible to develop this guy. I love Tijan Jobe, but I think his role needs to be the most intimidating cheerleader in all of college basketball.
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TheCoach said...
isn't this zone defense the worst attempt at playing D you've ever seen at the D1 college level?
The Idiot's (very short) Answer: Yes.
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TheCoach said...
who would you start tomorrow if you were the coach?
The Idiot's Answer: Right now, I would stick with Crean's starting lineup of Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Pritchard. I see significant minutes every game off the bench from Hulls, Elston, and Dumes (more on him in a Q&A below). With Capo's break-out game on Sunday, I think he definitely gets minutes over Muniru, but as noted above, I would still like to see a handful of minutes for Muniru if at all possible. I only see Moore and Jobe in mop-up duty.
I would have definitely seen Roth as a part of the rotation, but now that he has a broken foot, he is out until at least conference play and may end up as a medical redshirt. Roth probably wasn't going to help the defensive struggles, but he typically plays mistake-free basketball and he can flat-out shoot the ball.
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TheCoach said...
NOW how many wins do you think we'll get?
The Idiot's Answer: 12
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Dumas has made some really dum-as plays this year.
Outside of the couple of nice 3's he really hasn't done anything of consequence.
Does he look completely disinterested and how much more PT does he deserve?
Is he pissed that he isn't the go to guy?
Is he becoming groin elbowing Dumas again?
Thanks. Long time listener first time caller.
Gavin
The Idiot's Answer: Excellent questions and I was definitely hoping to touch on this topic. I don't think he is disinterested and I do think he still deserves significant playing time. He might be pissed that he isn't the go-to guy, but I think it is more that he is trying to find his role on this team. Keep in mind that he sat out most of the pre-season with a knee injury, so he's probably coming in and trying to do too much.
The crazy thing is that I think he might be the key to an increased level of success this year. The thing is that he is a very good defender which this team desperately needs in any capacity. The problem has been that he has been horriffic on offense. Especially with the increased talent on this team, I think Dumes needs to focus on just being a 3-point shooter. If he can get his shot going again, it would be a major boost to this team. Remember that the best stretch for IU in conference play last year was fueled by Dumes getting hot. He had 27 points on 5-5 3PT shooting in IU's only Big Ten win. Two games earlier, he had 26 points on 6-10 3PT shooting in a 2-point loss to NW. And in the game prior to that, he had 19 points on 4-6 3PT shooting in a 4-point loss to Minnesota.
So, with this year's team, he should be able to spot up and get even better 3-point looks than he did last year. If he can stop turning the ball over at an alarming rate and get hot from beyond the arc, you can add that to his defensive efforts and this team could win some games.
Keeping the injury in mind, I definitely think Dumes needs to continue to get minutes to see if he can find his rhythm and get going.
Interestingly, Dumes saw exactly 0 minutes in the second half against George Mason on Sunday, so I think that's an indication of how Tom Crean thinks he is playing right now.
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Chris Asks:
Do you have any doubts about Tom Crean's coaching?
The Idiot's Answer: Yes. That said, I absolutely still believe he is the right man for this job right now. He is doing everything possible to rebuild this program the RIGHT way and that is great. I think Crean is a very good coach, but I would not consider him to be a great coach right now. I have found it tough to analyze him as a coach because the the team is so young and had to completely start over.
I think Crean is a good recruiter, good at getting the team ready to play, a great motivator, a great PR guy for the program, but my only minor doubts are with the half-court offense and the in-game coaching and adjustments.
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Chris Writes:
Is the "our team is young" line still valid in today's College Hoops? (so many upperclassmen leave early.)
Could this be mental crutch?
The Idiot's Answer: In this case, yes it is a valid line. What Crean had in year 1 was really unprecedented in major college basketball. What he has in year 2 is still what would be considered one of the largest re-building efforts. Even when teams lose their 5 starters or anything like that, they still at least have solid role players coming back as juniors and seniors to step in. In those cases, you can supplement with a good freshmen class.
In IU's case, you still have a team where the 12 players that are getting minutes include 7 first-year players (with 6 being true freshmen) and 5 second-year players in the program (3 true sophomores and 2 Juco transfers). This is completely starting over.
The Fab 5 are known and still remembered as The Fab 5 because it was so unique for a group of freshmen to come in and have that level of success. There are freshmen that come in and significantly contribute to a team or even lead a team (Carmello Anthony), but they always have 3 and 4 year players in the program on that team with them. Even The Fab 5 had veteran players coming in off the bench. So, when an entire team includes first and second year players like IU's current team, it is truly unprecedented. Then, you also have to add in the fact that a full recruiting year was lost and subsequent recruiting years were negatively impacted.
So, in IU's case, I do think it is a valid line and I don't think it is a mental crutch at this point.
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Chris Writes:
What is Tom Crean's half court offensive philosphy?
The Idiot's Answer: This is why they call me the idiot....I don't know. I can't seem to figure it out. It seems that it is to do nothing for the first half of the shot clock and then set up a high screen that takes place well outside the 3-point line and then it's a crap shoot off that high screen. That's the way I see it and I have to say that I don't like it. If this is Crean's half-court offense, then I really hope he gets even more serious about playing up-tempo because that half-court offense does nothing for me.
Tom Pritchard had clearly struggled so far this year, but what happened to trying to feed him in the post? Last year, especially early, Pritchard proved that he had some nifty and effective moves in the post. I thought he would have even more room to operate with the increased talent on this year's team, but he really hasn't even been given a chance. Part of that is his own fault because he has had his head up his ass and gotten into foul trouble, but a larger part has been that Crean has not called his number or tried to get the ball inside at all. Pritchard is currently shooting 65% from the field, so he has been effective with limited opportunities.
I do understand Crean's philosophy of drive and kick and I do like that philosophy, but it can't be the only thing you try to do. This is where Rivers needs to step up and deliver.
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Chris Writes:
Purdue's recent success, ranking, and level of play causes me to seriously hate Sampson, Greenspan, the NCAA, Knight's anger issues, and our lack of a 4 star big man in the recruiting pipeline.
This is more of a statement, or hatement, rather than a question.
The Idiot's Thoughts: I agree on all accounts. And I am very concerned about the lack of a true big man in the recruiting pipeline. That's why I see Bawa as the key to our future success because he is the only guy with future shot-blocking potential on the team and there is nothing in the recruiting pipeline right now.
Kelvin Sampson is a jerk-off.
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B-Healy said...
Why does this year seem to be headed down the same path as last year? Weren't we promised visible improvements this season? No defense, spotty FT shooting, guys going in and out like there is a revolving door at the end of the bench. Seems the same to me.
The Idiot's Answer: If you wanted to, you could make the argument that this year's team is off to a worst start than last year's team. In both years, they started the year by beating two cupcakes before heading off to a pre-season tournament. Last year, we won a game in Maui. This year, nothing in Puerto Rico. I personally would not make that argument, I'm just saying that you could make that argument.
My real answer is that the main reason that this year's team is resembling last year's team is because we are barely leveraging last year's experience. Even after the transfers of Malik Story and more importantly Nick Williams, we still had a core of Dumes, Jones, Pritchard, and Roth returning this year. Outside of Jones, we are getting nothing out of our returning players. Pritch is averaging only 5 pts and 3 rebs, Dumes is averaging 3 pts and nearly as many turnovers, and Roth now has a broken foot. So, essentially, we are adding a transfer and a bunch of freshmen to a still skinny true sophomore.
Bottom line is that we need more out of Dumes and Pritchard. Right now, we are forced to live and die with our freshmen. Freshmen are going to be inconsistent, that is a given. I was hoping we would have the option of periodically putting in a lineup of Rivers, Dumes, Jones, and Pritchard to hopefully steady the ship. That's not happening right now.
That said, this team is considerably better than last year's and we just aren't seeing it yet. I
I also don't think that opening the season with 5 games in 9 days does a young team any favors. This team needs more practice time to improve and I think we will start to see those improvements in December (well, probably not during the Maryland, Pitt, Kentucky stretch). Regardless, if you listened to Tom Crean's last two postgame press conferences, he is not a happy camper and he is identifying exactly what is wrong with this team right now. So, I do trust that these issues are being addressed in practice and we will start to see improvements.
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andy.dart said...
Dear Mr. Idiot, I want to know if this team is going to compete or if they are going to fold up their tent and go home. Right now, it is very easy for fans to think that this is as good as it is going to get and this will be a repeat of last year but with more talent. So, we need your opinion on whether or not IU will show signs of hope and life this year (please be positive, Mr. Idiot. I fear i might jump from my roof if there is not hope)........
Mr. Idiot's Answer: This team will absolutely compete. My concern is that their youth is going to lead to a lot of inconsistency, a lot of bad defense, and some streaky shooting from the field, the line, and the arc. The good news is that their talent level will show flashes of brilliance that includes scoring in spurts, steals on the defensive end, and even the occassional dunk.
I have no doubt that they will compete. But as I have said before, I think this team will both play in a lot of close games and will unfortunately lose a lot of close games. Puerto Rico is a perfect example. The Boston game shouldn't have been close, we actually should have pulled away and won that game easily. Unfortunately, we didn't play well in the second half, allowed the game to stay close, and then failed miserably at the end. The George Mason game was different in that it was a close game the entire contest and IU even did many things that would normally deliver a win. In this case, they fell victim to a piece-of-shit-banked-in 3-pointer. Is it just me or has that happened to IU a lot in the past decade (Brian Butch, freakin' Brendan Plavich, and a few others)? Anyway, even though IU played better against George Mason and were definitely unlucky, it was still another close game that they lost.
So, they will compete, they will show signs of life and cause for hope, but it might not translate to as many wins as we were hoping for this year.
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andy.dart said...
Mr. Idiot, Also, I would hate to jump from my roof into one of my bushes, only to survive and see another 6-25 season. We need hope Mr. Idiot.
Mr. Idiot's Answer: Your roof to your bushes should result in nothing more than a few scrapes and maybe a bruise, so you're going to be OK. And the good news is that the Hoosiers will have 6 wins by the time the conference season rolls around and they will definitely win more than one game this year in the Big Ten.
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Westlake said...
Dear The Idiot,
Have you heard anything about Morrison entering the NBA dunk contest this year?
The Idiot's Answer: No
Update: I have to admit that the first time I read this, I was thinking why the hell is Westlake asking me if Adam Morrison is entering the NBA dunk contest. So, since I was reading Adam and that would be both an absurd and unrelated question, I dismissed it as Westlake just being drunk.
And now, even though I am probably right about Westlake being drunk, I do realize this question was related to Mike Morrison of George Mason who dunked on us like a mad-man.
So, I don't know if I would change my answer from "No", but I would agree that our defense did not offer any resistance at all when Morrison was going up for dunk after dunk.
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andy.dart said...
Maybe it should Dr. Idiot. And I mean that as a sign of respect. Does anybody agree?
Also, what does the Roth injury do to the rotation? Has anybody asked this yet? I like the fact that we have somebody on the team that can make 9 three pointers in 1 game. But does he give up 27 points on the defensive end?
Dr. Idiot's Answer: Tough to really say what Roth's injury does to the rotation because it has been hard to identify any real rotation thus far. Also, Roth only played 11 total minutes in the first 2 games of the season, so he wasn't seeing much action anyway. However, I am wondering if that was due to the broken nose. It's not that you can't play with a broken nose and facemask, but I wonder if Crean was just easing him back and wanting to see more of the freshmen in those opening 2 games.
I do think the injury hurts. Yes, his defense is bad, but I don't think it is as bad as others think. He is definitely slow of foot but he is also a smart player who is usually in the right position. Defense, especially off the ball defense, is as much about positioning as it is about athleticism.
I didn't see Roth getting a ton of minutes this year, but his shooting does have the ability to very quickly turn around a stale offensive performance.
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Thanks for the questions and go Hoosiers!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Ask The Idiot
I apologize for the lack of a recap following the George Mason game. Sunday was a busy day and I seemed to have a case of writer's block after that tough-luck loss and a deflating 0-3 trip to Puerto Rico that included an injury to Matt Roth just for good measure.
I have read everything available on this team and definitely have my opinions on where these players and this team is at right now. And without another game until Saturday, I thought it would be a good idea to try the Ask The Idiot segment again. We did this once before a couple years ago and it turned out to be interesting and fun.
So, go ahead, ask anything from the impact of Roth's injury or why Tijan plays more than Bawa or what's the deal with Dumes or is it time to panic or anything else you can think of. And I (aka the idiot) will attempt to answer. Ask as many questions as you want.
Go Hoosiers!
I have read everything available on this team and definitely have my opinions on where these players and this team is at right now. And without another game until Saturday, I thought it would be a good idea to try the Ask The Idiot segment again. We did this once before a couple years ago and it turned out to be interesting and fun.
So, go ahead, ask anything from the impact of Roth's injury or why Tijan plays more than Bawa or what's the deal with Dumes or is it time to panic or anything else you can think of. And I (aka the idiot) will attempt to answer. Ask as many questions as you want.
Go Hoosiers!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Another Close Game, Another Loss -- Indiana 66 George Mason 69
I'll have more later tonight., but to lose on a banked-in 3-pointer is certainly a tough pill to swallow.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tom Crean's Saturday Press Conference in Puerto Rico
If you haven't yet listened to the Tom Crean postgame audio, I would start with listening to that before watching today's press conference video. The link for the postame audio is in the post below.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Indiana 67 Boston U 71
This game was exactly my worst fear.....and no, I am not talking about the lack of TV coverage. My fear with this team was that they would not only play in a lot of close games, but unfortunately they would lose a lot of close games. With last night's game, that fear was definitely realized.
Definitely disappointing to lose a game to an 0-3 Boston team, especially considering that IU had the lead the entire game until the final minute.
I don't have a ton of comments without being able to watch the game, but here are a couple items of note:
This game was so disappointing that I keep thinking of Bob Knight being disappointed. Click here for Bobby's disappointment.
Box Score
The Hoosiers close out the Puerto Rico Tipoff with a Sunday morning game against George Mason. The game is at 10:30am ET (9:30am CT) on ESPNU.
Definitely disappointing to lose a game to an 0-3 Boston team, especially considering that IU had the lead the entire game until the final minute.
I don't have a ton of comments without being able to watch the game, but here are a couple items of note:
- Maurice Creek was sensational to start the game. He had 14 early points on three 3-pointers and a dunk. He had 17 points in the first 14 minutes of the game. However, he had 0 points in the final 26 minutes.
- IU got outrebounded by 20.
This game was so disappointing that I keep thinking of Bob Knight being disappointed. Click here for Bobby's disappointment.
Box Score
The Hoosiers close out the Puerto Rico Tipoff with a Sunday morning game against George Mason. The game is at 10:30am ET (9:30am CT) on ESPNU.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Recap and Report Card: Indiana 71 Ole Miss 89
Well, that was pretty much what I expected (prediction was a 67-83 loss). However, what I didn't expect was the outstanding start by IU.
The first half was a half of runs. The first few minutes were played to a deadlock at 11-11 and I was pretty happy with that. Then, the Hoosiers went on a 9-0 run to take a 20-11 lead just 6 minutes into the game.
But then Ole Miss went on a 14-0 run of their own to take the lead 25-20 midway through the 1st half. During this run, the second team came in and looked horrible. Hulls was out of sorts as were the rest of the subs and they completely lost any rhythm. Midway through this Ole Miss run, Crean put the starters back in, but the mo-jo was lost.
Unfortunately, even after IU ended their scoring draught, the Ole Miss run extended to an overall 30-5 run over a 10-minute span to turn IU's 9-point lead into an Ole Miss 16-point lead at 41-25 with 4 minutes left in the half.
Then, some resiliency by the young Hoosiers as they go on an impressive 11-2 run of their own to cut the lead back down to just 7 with under 30 seconds to go in the half. However, a few bad notes on this run. First, this run could have cut the lead to 3 or 4 if they could hit some damn free throws (a major problem throughout the entire game). Also during this stretch, Bobby Capobianco had a nice offensive rebound on one of those missed free throws and had a point-blank layup and missed it. And finally, the Hoosiers could not close out the half on this run as they gave up an offensive rebound and put-back right at the buzzer. So, the halftime score was 45-36.
The second half started out promising with IU scoring the first 4 points of the frame and the lead was down to 5 less than one minute into the second half. Then, after trading baskets, Ole Miss went on an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 13 points at a score of 55-42 with 15 minutes to go.
The lead seemed to stay right around the 10-13 point range for the next 8 minutes. Missed FTs and lack of any type of resistance on the defensive end prevented the Hoosiers from making any dent in the lead during this stretch.
Then Devan Dumes actually had a nice stretch. He hit a 3 to cut the lead from 14 to 11, then he got a steal that led to IU making 1 of 2 FTs to cut the lead to 10. IU got the ball back and Rivers made an acrobatic layup and suddenly the Hoosiers had something cookin' by cutting the lead to just 8 points. The score was 69-61 with 5:53 to go.
Then came the key play of the game. Dumes got another steal and Dumes and Rivers had a 2-on-1 fast break. The defender jumped to Dumes, so Dumes made the pass to Rivers for what would have been an easy layup to cut the lead down to just 6 points. But Dumes and Rivers could not connect on the pass and the ball went off Rivers hands out of bounds. I've already read some other articles/blogs that are referring to this as "an errant Dumes pass", but I thought the pass was on target and Rivers simply mis-handled it. I don't recall for sure and I guess it doesn't matter because it turned really ugly after that point.
Next thing you know, Dumes is bricking 3s and Ole Miss is going down for layup after layup after layup after dunk after offensive rebound and layup and so on. Next thing you know, you blink your eyes and the lead is up to 20 and this thing was over. Final Score: 89-71.
Overall Team Performance: C
A lot of games, all it takes is a bad performance in just one area and it will cost you the game. Tonight, the Hoosiers had multiple areas that were horrible. Take your pick:
Another bright spot was offensive rebounding. Although the Hoosiers gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Ole Miss, at least they crashed their own offensive glass and pulled down 24 offensive rebounds.
And finally, I thought they ran the break effectively. In most cases, they were under control and converted on a lot of fast breaks. In the first 2 minutes of the second half, the Creek and Jones combo converted on 3 fast break opportunities.
Christian Watford: D+
Watford clearly struggled in this game. But I use the word "struggled" because you had the feeling that he was just a little off and couldn't get into the flow of the game. Nothing to worry about here, I expect him to bounce back soon....with soon being tomorrow. He opened his career with two double-doubles, but he only got halfway there tonight with 5 points and 5 rebounds. 2-10 FGs, , 0-2 3PT, 1-3 FTs, and 3 turnovers.
Tom Pritchard: B-
I thought Pritchard was pretty solid tonight with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Pritch had a straight "B" going until he air-balled that free throw, so I had to add the minus to his grade. Like the rest of the team, his defense could be more stout.
Maurice Creek: B
The thing I liked most about Mo tonight was that he was extremely active and involved in the game. Did he make some mistakes? Yes. Did he take some bad shots? Yes. That said, did he make some big shots? Yes. Did he end a couple IU scoring draughts? Yes. Did he have a couple steals and run the break? Yes. Led the team in scoring with 18 big ones. I like Mo. I just get the feeling that he is playing to win.
Jeremiah Rivers: B+
The B+ does not indicate mistake-free basketball by Jeremiah because it was far from it. However, the aggressive, explosive, acrobatic drives to the basket are exactly what we need from Rivers. Taking it coast to coast is exactly what we need from Rivers. And that's what he did tonight. 6-6 from the field so he was either finishing or getting fouled. Now, what he does at FT line after drawing those fouls is a completely different story. Good lord, son, you grew up with this game. Watch some Steve Alford footage or something -- socks, shorts, 1-2-3, swish -- it's that simple.
But back to the good part of Jeremiah's game, I did really like how he drove to the basket and he needs to continue to do more of that. The stat line was pretty darn good too -- 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers.
Verdell Jones III: B+
Verdell looked like the Verdell that we saw at the end of last year. A sneaky scorer. I thought Verdell was effective at finishing on the break and playing his mid-range game in the half-court offense. 17 points on 8-15 shooting. And then the free throws....just 1-4. Combine that with Rivers and your two main ball-handlers were 3-10 from the stripe, that's not good.
Jordan Hulls: D-
Oh man, I'm a big fan of Hulls, but that was rough. I was having a hard time watching it. When he first came in the game, it was a train wreck. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a shot to fall either. He'll settle down as we get further into the season, but it was a rough welcome to big-time college basketball. 0-3 from the field including 0-2 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, and 3 turnovers in 12 minutes.
Daniel Moore: B
Came in and got a nice hustle offensive rebound. And that was really it in just 4 minutes of playing time.
Bobby Capobianco: D
Something tells me that Bobby is going to break out with a few buckets in a game soon. But so far this year, he cannot buy a break in his limited playing time. He's had a few shots that have been half-way down and then pop out. He'll get it going soon though.
Derek Elston: C
Elston came down to earth in this game after starting his career with two outstanding games. Elston was still active and did a decent job on the glass with 5 rebounds in 17 minutes, but he couldn't get his shot to fall tonight and was just 1-6 from the field.
Devan Dumes: C
Dumes had the one nice stretch that I mentioned above where he hit a 3 and then got 2 quick steals to fuel the late IU run, but he did not play well other than that. Even at the end, with the game out of reach, he missed two 3s from the same spot in a single possession. Just prior to that, he badly missed an ill-advised long 3 and finished 1-6 from the field. But he was the sole bright spot from the FT line by going 2-2.
Tijan Jobe: C
Just 6 minutes of playing time. One authoritative rebound, but nothing else besides that.
Tom Crean: C-
After IU did a great job to build an early 20-11 lead, Crean allowed Ole Miss to rattle off a 14-0 run before he took a timeout. Unacceptable. And especially unacceptable with such a young team. I really think Crean should use timeouts throughout the games this year and not save them for the end of the game. He needs to use them any time the other team is making run to try to change that momentum. Young players are so much more susceptible to letting those things snowball. If you get burned one game because it's close at the end and you don't have any timeouts left, so be it. I'd rather have a possession at the end of a close game with a chance to win it and no timeouts, rather than being down by 15 at the end of the game because you allowed scoring runs earlier in the game without stopping the action with a timeout.
I did like the switch to some zone defenses. That seemed to work for a little while at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half.
Next Up: Boston U
When: Tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm ET (5pm CT)
TV: IU's website is not listing TV right now, but I am pretty sure it will be on ESPNU
Update: Multiple sources are now reporting no TV for tomorrow's game. Sons of bitches. The crew is there, what's the deal with not showing the damn game?!?
It appears Boston has been competitive, but they have lost all 3 of their games by about 10 points:
Prediction: IU 69 Boston U 65
I think Watford is going to bounce back with a better performance and the Hoosiers will perform better at the charity stripe. It won't be pretty, but the Hoosiers will win.
As for Sunday's game, it looks like it will either be Georgia Tech or George Mason. Right now, the game is listed at either 10:30am ET (9:30am CT) or 12:30pm ET (11:30am CT) on ESPNU.
Go Hoosiers!
The first half was a half of runs. The first few minutes were played to a deadlock at 11-11 and I was pretty happy with that. Then, the Hoosiers went on a 9-0 run to take a 20-11 lead just 6 minutes into the game.
But then Ole Miss went on a 14-0 run of their own to take the lead 25-20 midway through the 1st half. During this run, the second team came in and looked horrible. Hulls was out of sorts as were the rest of the subs and they completely lost any rhythm. Midway through this Ole Miss run, Crean put the starters back in, but the mo-jo was lost.
Unfortunately, even after IU ended their scoring draught, the Ole Miss run extended to an overall 30-5 run over a 10-minute span to turn IU's 9-point lead into an Ole Miss 16-point lead at 41-25 with 4 minutes left in the half.
Then, some resiliency by the young Hoosiers as they go on an impressive 11-2 run of their own to cut the lead back down to just 7 with under 30 seconds to go in the half. However, a few bad notes on this run. First, this run could have cut the lead to 3 or 4 if they could hit some damn free throws (a major problem throughout the entire game). Also during this stretch, Bobby Capobianco had a nice offensive rebound on one of those missed free throws and had a point-blank layup and missed it. And finally, the Hoosiers could not close out the half on this run as they gave up an offensive rebound and put-back right at the buzzer. So, the halftime score was 45-36.
The second half started out promising with IU scoring the first 4 points of the frame and the lead was down to 5 less than one minute into the second half. Then, after trading baskets, Ole Miss went on an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 13 points at a score of 55-42 with 15 minutes to go.
The lead seemed to stay right around the 10-13 point range for the next 8 minutes. Missed FTs and lack of any type of resistance on the defensive end prevented the Hoosiers from making any dent in the lead during this stretch.
Then Devan Dumes actually had a nice stretch. He hit a 3 to cut the lead from 14 to 11, then he got a steal that led to IU making 1 of 2 FTs to cut the lead to 10. IU got the ball back and Rivers made an acrobatic layup and suddenly the Hoosiers had something cookin' by cutting the lead to just 8 points. The score was 69-61 with 5:53 to go.
Then came the key play of the game. Dumes got another steal and Dumes and Rivers had a 2-on-1 fast break. The defender jumped to Dumes, so Dumes made the pass to Rivers for what would have been an easy layup to cut the lead down to just 6 points. But Dumes and Rivers could not connect on the pass and the ball went off Rivers hands out of bounds. I've already read some other articles/blogs that are referring to this as "an errant Dumes pass", but I thought the pass was on target and Rivers simply mis-handled it. I don't recall for sure and I guess it doesn't matter because it turned really ugly after that point.
Next thing you know, Dumes is bricking 3s and Ole Miss is going down for layup after layup after layup after dunk after offensive rebound and layup and so on. Next thing you know, you blink your eyes and the lead is up to 20 and this thing was over. Final Score: 89-71.
Overall Team Performance: C
A lot of games, all it takes is a bad performance in just one area and it will cost you the game. Tonight, the Hoosiers had multiple areas that were horrible. Take your pick:
- Defense - Tonight's defensive performance is what I like to call the o-lay defense. It was pathetic. There was no resistance what-so-ever by IU. Giving up way too many layups, dunks, and wide-open looks. And if Ole Miss would miss, they would get the offensive rebound and put-back.
- Free Throws - I really, really, really, really hope this team does not turn out to be as bad of a free throw shooting team as they showed tonight and in their last game because it drives me fucking crazy. I have come a long, long way in keeping my temper in check when watching IU games, but I cannot stand to watch them go up there and repeatedly miss free throws. Again, it was the entire team that was horrible tonight. I could live with Pritchard struggling from the line, but your guards go up there and knock them down. But this was the whole freakin' team. The free throws looked promising in the two exhibition games and the opener, but this has been really bad the last two games.
- Turnovers - 21 total. 14 of them were in the 1st half, so it was at least good to see a respectable 7 in the second half.
- Getting their shots blocked - Ole Miss had 12 blocks. Not too surprised by this as the freshmen are used to making certain moves and scoring. They just do it by instinct because they are so used to it, but this is another level that they are going to have to adjust to.
Another bright spot was offensive rebounding. Although the Hoosiers gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Ole Miss, at least they crashed their own offensive glass and pulled down 24 offensive rebounds.
And finally, I thought they ran the break effectively. In most cases, they were under control and converted on a lot of fast breaks. In the first 2 minutes of the second half, the Creek and Jones combo converted on 3 fast break opportunities.
Christian Watford: D+
Watford clearly struggled in this game. But I use the word "struggled" because you had the feeling that he was just a little off and couldn't get into the flow of the game. Nothing to worry about here, I expect him to bounce back soon....with soon being tomorrow. He opened his career with two double-doubles, but he only got halfway there tonight with 5 points and 5 rebounds. 2-10 FGs, , 0-2 3PT, 1-3 FTs, and 3 turnovers.
Tom Pritchard: B-
I thought Pritchard was pretty solid tonight with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Pritch had a straight "B" going until he air-balled that free throw, so I had to add the minus to his grade. Like the rest of the team, his defense could be more stout.
Maurice Creek: B
The thing I liked most about Mo tonight was that he was extremely active and involved in the game. Did he make some mistakes? Yes. Did he take some bad shots? Yes. That said, did he make some big shots? Yes. Did he end a couple IU scoring draughts? Yes. Did he have a couple steals and run the break? Yes. Led the team in scoring with 18 big ones. I like Mo. I just get the feeling that he is playing to win.
Jeremiah Rivers: B+
The B+ does not indicate mistake-free basketball by Jeremiah because it was far from it. However, the aggressive, explosive, acrobatic drives to the basket are exactly what we need from Rivers. Taking it coast to coast is exactly what we need from Rivers. And that's what he did tonight. 6-6 from the field so he was either finishing or getting fouled. Now, what he does at FT line after drawing those fouls is a completely different story. Good lord, son, you grew up with this game. Watch some Steve Alford footage or something -- socks, shorts, 1-2-3, swish -- it's that simple.
But back to the good part of Jeremiah's game, I did really like how he drove to the basket and he needs to continue to do more of that. The stat line was pretty darn good too -- 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers.
Verdell Jones III: B+
Verdell looked like the Verdell that we saw at the end of last year. A sneaky scorer. I thought Verdell was effective at finishing on the break and playing his mid-range game in the half-court offense. 17 points on 8-15 shooting. And then the free throws....just 1-4. Combine that with Rivers and your two main ball-handlers were 3-10 from the stripe, that's not good.
Jordan Hulls: D-
Oh man, I'm a big fan of Hulls, but that was rough. I was having a hard time watching it. When he first came in the game, it was a train wreck. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a shot to fall either. He'll settle down as we get further into the season, but it was a rough welcome to big-time college basketball. 0-3 from the field including 0-2 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, and 3 turnovers in 12 minutes.
Daniel Moore: B
Came in and got a nice hustle offensive rebound. And that was really it in just 4 minutes of playing time.
Bobby Capobianco: D
Something tells me that Bobby is going to break out with a few buckets in a game soon. But so far this year, he cannot buy a break in his limited playing time. He's had a few shots that have been half-way down and then pop out. He'll get it going soon though.
Derek Elston: C
Elston came down to earth in this game after starting his career with two outstanding games. Elston was still active and did a decent job on the glass with 5 rebounds in 17 minutes, but he couldn't get his shot to fall tonight and was just 1-6 from the field.
Devan Dumes: C
Dumes had the one nice stretch that I mentioned above where he hit a 3 and then got 2 quick steals to fuel the late IU run, but he did not play well other than that. Even at the end, with the game out of reach, he missed two 3s from the same spot in a single possession. Just prior to that, he badly missed an ill-advised long 3 and finished 1-6 from the field. But he was the sole bright spot from the FT line by going 2-2.
Tijan Jobe: C
Just 6 minutes of playing time. One authoritative rebound, but nothing else besides that.
Tom Crean: C-
After IU did a great job to build an early 20-11 lead, Crean allowed Ole Miss to rattle off a 14-0 run before he took a timeout. Unacceptable. And especially unacceptable with such a young team. I really think Crean should use timeouts throughout the games this year and not save them for the end of the game. He needs to use them any time the other team is making run to try to change that momentum. Young players are so much more susceptible to letting those things snowball. If you get burned one game because it's close at the end and you don't have any timeouts left, so be it. I'd rather have a possession at the end of a close game with a chance to win it and no timeouts, rather than being down by 15 at the end of the game because you allowed scoring runs earlier in the game without stopping the action with a timeout.
I did like the switch to some zone defenses. That seemed to work for a little while at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half.
Next Up: Boston U
When: Tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm ET (5pm CT)
TV: IU's website is not listing TV right now, but I am pretty sure it will be on ESPNU
Update: Multiple sources are now reporting no TV for tomorrow's game. Sons of bitches. The crew is there, what's the deal with not showing the damn game?!?
It appears Boston has been competitive, but they have lost all 3 of their games by about 10 points:
- 73-82 loss to Iona
- 59-69 loss to George Washington
- 70-80 loss to Kansas State in tonight's Puerto Rico Tipoff
Prediction: IU 69 Boston U 65
I think Watford is going to bounce back with a better performance and the Hoosiers will perform better at the charity stripe. It won't be pretty, but the Hoosiers will win.
As for Sunday's game, it looks like it will either be Georgia Tech or George Mason. Right now, the game is listed at either 10:30am ET (9:30am CT) or 12:30pm ET (11:30am CT) on ESPNU.
Go Hoosiers!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Puerto Rico Tipoff: Day 1 Video and My Prediction
It always pains me to pick against our beloved Hoosiers, but here's my prediction for Game 1:
IU 67 Ole Miss 83
....or we could say the young Hoosiers pull off an early season upset by the score of 74-73!!! Yes, your memory is correct, that was the score of the 1987 championship game.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to stick with my original prediction that this one ends up in the L column and it really won't be that competitive. Prove me wrong, Hoosiers. Prove me wrong!
Here's some good stuff from Tom Crean on the IU Athletics channel on youtube:
IU 67 Ole Miss 83
....or we could say the young Hoosiers pull off an early season upset by the score of 74-73!!! Yes, your memory is correct, that was the score of the 1987 championship game.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to stick with my original prediction that this one ends up in the L column and it really won't be that competitive. Prove me wrong, Hoosiers. Prove me wrong!
Here's some good stuff from Tom Crean on the IU Athletics channel on youtube:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Puerto Rico Tipoff -- Early Start on Thursday!
I can't say the USC Upstate game left me filled with excitement, but the bottom line is that the Hoosiers are 2-0 as they head to Puerto Rico. I am excited to see how this team responds to the big step up in competition that they will see in the Puerto Rico tipoff.
Even with the long trip to Puerto Rico, we still don't have to wait long to find out as IU takes on Ole Miss and the game is at 5:00 ET (4:00 CT) on Thursday. So, if you can't get out of work on time, make sure to set your DVR. The game is on ESPN2.
Ole Miss also heads to Puerto Rico with a 2-0 record and they have rolled easily over Ark-Little Rock (92-64) and Alabama St (90-53).
In IU's second game in Puerto Rico, they will take on either Boston U or Kansas St. That game will be on Friday at either 6:00 ET (5:00 CT) or 8:30 ET (7:30 CT).
Have you noticed that I always list the times in ET and CT. That's really just for my own benefit so I don't confuse myself and end up missing the first hour of the game. Hey, I have a lot of shit going on, all right!?!
IU's third game in Puerto Rico will be on Sunday. Time and opponent are TBD and the game will either be on ESPNU or ESPN2.
ESPNU -- You may want to check and see if you are currently getting ESPNU. Right now, I am getting 2 months free of the "Sports Pack" through DirecTV for being a loyal customer and that includes ESPNU. My fear is that it has been right around 2 months already and it will probably shut off on Friday afternoon.
If you forced me to make a prediction for the Hoosiers in Puerto Rico, I would predict that IU comes home with 1 victory and that victory comes on Sunday. TBD is not very good this year.
If they come home empty-handed....well, that would be pretty damn disappointing. If they win two games, I would be extremely excited with a 4-1 start. If they win the Puerto Rico tipoff, I'm buying Final Four tickets.
Go Hoosiers!
Even with the long trip to Puerto Rico, we still don't have to wait long to find out as IU takes on Ole Miss and the game is at 5:00 ET (4:00 CT) on Thursday. So, if you can't get out of work on time, make sure to set your DVR. The game is on ESPN2.
Ole Miss also heads to Puerto Rico with a 2-0 record and they have rolled easily over Ark-Little Rock (92-64) and Alabama St (90-53).
In IU's second game in Puerto Rico, they will take on either Boston U or Kansas St. That game will be on Friday at either 6:00 ET (5:00 CT) or 8:30 ET (7:30 CT).
Have you noticed that I always list the times in ET and CT. That's really just for my own benefit so I don't confuse myself and end up missing the first hour of the game. Hey, I have a lot of shit going on, all right!?!
IU's third game in Puerto Rico will be on Sunday. Time and opponent are TBD and the game will either be on ESPNU or ESPN2.
ESPNU -- You may want to check and see if you are currently getting ESPNU. Right now, I am getting 2 months free of the "Sports Pack" through DirecTV for being a loyal customer and that includes ESPNU. My fear is that it has been right around 2 months already and it will probably shut off on Friday afternoon.
If you forced me to make a prediction for the Hoosiers in Puerto Rico, I would predict that IU comes home with 1 victory and that victory comes on Sunday. TBD is not very good this year.
If they come home empty-handed....well, that would be pretty damn disappointing. If they win two games, I would be extremely excited with a 4-1 start. If they win the Puerto Rico tipoff, I'm buying Final Four tickets.
Go Hoosiers!
Inside the Numbers: Indiana 69 USC Upstate 61
- IU outrebounded Upstate 23-12 in the 2nd half after getting outrebounded 18-16 in the 1st half.
- IU 16-30 from the line. The poor FT shooting was really spread throughout the whole team and not just one guy having an awful night.
- IU 5-11 from the arc, even with Dumes going 0-3. The freshmen were 5-7 from the arc led by Creek's 2-2.
- This team needs to get some type of leadership from their upper-classmen or experienced players, but Rivers, Dumes, Jones, Roth, and Pritchard were just 8-26 from the field.
- Watford, Creek, and Elston combined to go an impressive 15-23 from the field.
- Watford recorded another double-double with 17 & 10. Elston was not too far off with 10 & 8.
- Bawa Muniru had 3 offensive rebounds in just 3 minutes of play. That's an impressive pace of 40 offensive rebounds in a single game if Crean would just let the big fella play. Of course, none of those offensive rebounds materialized into anything, but still an impressive stat.
- Tom Pritchard had 0 rebounds in 10 minutes.
- Jordan Hulls had 0 assists in 18 minutes.
- At the end of the night, the 2-0 record is the important stat after those 2 opponents.
Lasting Impressions: Indiana 69 USC Upstate 61
- Christian Watford is going to be a special, special player.
- Derek Elston has been mighty impressive in these first two games.
- Tom Pritchard looks more like end-of-last-season Tom Pritchard rather than beginning-of-last-season Tom Pritchard and that worries me.
- Tonight, Devan Dumes looked more like "bad Devan" from last year. We need "good Devan" like the one that led us to our sole Big Ten victory over Iowa last year.
- Jeremiah Rivers and Verdell Jones need to be better. Plain and simple.
- Really liking what I am seeing out of Mo Creek. A lot to learn, but the tools and desire are there. We learned last year that desire is not enough by itself, but Mo definitely also has the tools.
- Overall team performance was very poor. Even keeping in mind how young and how many newcomers we have again this year, I still think this was a poor performance.
- That said, it's pretty clear that this team has not gelled at all. "Gelled?" That can't possibly be right. At least, it doesn't seem right, but I can't think of how else you would spell that. Anyway, good individual efforts aren't yet resulting in a good overall team effort because there are just too many negative plays in between.
- Really, the team just had one good stretch in each half and that was it.
- Crean needs to get this offense to play better. I think it starts with Rivers and Jones. They should be driving and getting into the lane to make things happen. They both have the size that they should be able to finish if they get deep enough or kick to shooters if they the defense collapses on them or make a nifty pass to a big guy for a dunk or easy bucket.
- Very frustrating that they couldn't take the 20-point lead and completely run away with it.
- FT shooting was not good.
- Hey, it's a 2-game winning streak!
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