IUBB '24/‘25

[BGleas]

Just now, Purdue7 said:

Coming in as option 4 or 5 gives you a totally different mindset 

 

And a defined role. 

[BGleas]

1 minute ago, 94hoosier said:

Walker and Cupps can also be included. They all look better when in the floor with 3 of the starters. I truly believe as the season goes the bench gets shorted and used a differently. Some guys will play more when there is foul trouble or they come in and play good. The bench got shorted last year as the season went. But right now we have to give some minutes to these guys to see how they can perform.

Yeah, I actually had Walker listed too and for some reason deleted it before posting. 

I agree largely, but I don’t think most are saying the bench shouldn't play. We're saying stagger the minutes. 

You don't really see how these guys can perform if you're putting them all in together. It's not a recipe for success. 

[Drroogh]

Pretty wild how it was all kumbaya after the Michigan game and now…??!?!

[Parakeet Jones]

Okay, we are going to finish the non conference portion of the schedule with zero quality ooc wins. That leads me to two questions. 1. How many quality wins are available in our remaining 18 B1G games?  2. How many of those do we have to win?  
 

Potential quality wins:

Vs Ohio St?

vs Purdue

@ Wisconsin

@ Illinois

@ Ohio St ?

@ Purdue 

vs Northwestern (currently ranked)

vs Wisconsin 

vs Michigan St

5 at home, 4 on the road. 
 

We need at least, what, 4 or 5 of those?  Need to avoid bad losses too which is another topic. That’s certainly not impossible, but our margin for error is pretty slim. 
 

Edit to add:  If we play the rest of the way we did today, I like our chances. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Parakeet Jones

[KoB2011]

44 minutes ago, Parakeet Jones said:

Okay, we are going to finish the non conference portion of the schedule with zero quality ooc wins. That leads me to two questions. 1. How many quality wins are available in our remaining 18 B1G games?  2. How many of those do we have to win?  
 

Potential quality wins:

Vs Ohio St?

vs Purdue

@ Wisconsin

@ Illinois

@ Ohio St ?

@ Purdue 

vs Northwestern (currently ranked)

vs Wisconsin 

vs Michigan St

5 at home, 4 on the road. 
 

We need at least, what, 4 or 5 of those?  Need to avoid bad losses too which is another topic. That’s certainly not impossible, but our margin for error is pretty slim. 
 

Edit to add:  If we play the rest of the way we did today, I like our chances. 

Pretty reasonable assessment. Gotta win at a minimum all the home games to put ourselves into the conversation. 

[IUProfessor]

To expand upon a post I made on the Kansas post-game thread, win the next 3 then go 10-8 in the B1G here on out and you finish 20-11 (12-8) heading into the BTT. If one of those wins is Purdue, and you avoid a bad loss, that's probably firmly on the bubble. Go 11-7 in the B1G and win 2 in the BTT, and that's 23-11 (13-7) on selection day and you're in. 

If you look at our remaining schedule, it isn't crazy to think they could go 14-7 from now until the BTT:

Morehead State

North Alabama

Kennesaw State 

@ Nebraska

Ohio State

@ Rutgers

Minnesota 

Purdue

@ Wisconsin 

@ Illinois 

Iowa

Penn State

@ Ohio State

@ Purdue

Northwestern 

Nebraska

@ Penn State

Wisconsin

@ Maryland

@ Minnesota 

Michigan State

Hold serve at home, and win @ Nebraska, Penn State, and Minnesota, and that's 22-9 overall heading into the BTT. Trip up at home vs. anyone but Purdue, and you're still at 22-10 and right in the mix for a bid.

 

[KoB2011]

1 hour ago, IUProfessor said:

To expand upon a post I made on the Kansas post-game thread, win the next 3 then go 10-8 in the B1G here on out and you finish 20-11 (12-8) heading into the BTT. If one of those wins is Purdue, and you avoid a bad loss, that's probably firmly on the bubble. Go 11-7 in the B1G and win 2 in the BTT, and that's 23-11 (13-7) on selection day and you're in. 

If you look at our remaining schedule, it isn't crazy to think they could go 14-7 from now until the BTT:

Morehead State

North Alabama

Kennesaw State 

@ Nebraska

Ohio State

@ Rutgers

Minnesota 

Purdue

@ Wisconsin 

@ Illinois 

Iowa

Penn State

@ Ohio State

@ Purdue

Northwestern 

Nebraska

@ Penn State

Wisconsin

@ Maryland

@ Minnesota 

Michigan State

Hold serve at home, and win @ Nebraska, Penn State, and Minnesota, and that's 22-9 overall heading into the BTT. Trip up at home vs. anyone but Purdue, and you're still at 22-10 and right in the mix for a bid.

 

I think this is reasonable. We don’t have much margin for error IMO, but we have a path. Gotta keep building and take care of business. 

[KoB2011]

Who are these players? Since Harvard (last 5 games)…

Player 1: 119 aORtg, 56% 2FG%, 35% 3FG%, 8 OR, 18 DR

Player 2:  98 aORtg, 52% 2FG%, 43% 3FG%, 9 OR, 16 DR

Both players have a negative ATO in that stretch. I wouldn’t call either a particularly good defender.

 Who are they? Which would you rather play through?

[IUJoe]

3 hours ago, IUProfessor said:

To expand upon a post I made on the Kansas post-game thread, win the next 3 then go 10-8 in the B1G here on out and you finish 20-11 (12-8) heading into the BTT. If one of those wins is Purdue, and you avoid a bad loss, that's probably firmly on the bubble. Go 11-7 in the B1G and win 2 in the BTT, and that's 23-11 (13-7) on selection day and you're in. 

If you look at our remaining schedule, it isn't crazy to think they could go 14-7 from now until the BTT:

Morehead State

North Alabama

Kennesaw State 

@ Nebraska

Ohio State

@ Rutgers

Minnesota 

Purdue

@ Wisconsin 

@ Illinois 

Iowa

Penn State

@ Ohio State

@ Purdue

Northwestern 

Nebraska

@ Penn State

Wisconsin

@ Maryland

@ Minnesota 

Michigan State

Hold serve at home, and win @ Nebraska, Penn State, and Minnesota, and that's 22-9 overall heading into the BTT. Trip up at home vs. anyone but Purdue, and you're still at 22-10 and right in the mix for a bid.

 

They really need to come out and pound these next 3 teams to get the NET trending to a respectable level.

[13th&Jackson]

1 hour ago, KoB2011 said:

I think this is reasonable. We don’t have much margin for error IMO, but we have a path. Gotta keep building and take care of business. 

Yeah, we need to really have a strong B1G season. Went back through prior years. This is the first year since 2013-14 that we don't have a quality non-con win. Even in multiple years missing the NCAAT we had at least one quality non-con win. 

We are going to need to get multiple B!G road wins. 

[Purdue7]

Effort today ✅

MM is getting better shooting 

defense is still a work in progress 

TG was incredible 

 

Talent is there….just need more practice & a healthy XJ  

[13th&Jackson]

3 hours ago, IUProfessor said:

To expand upon a post I made on the Kansas post-game thread, win the next 3 then go 10-8 in the B1G here on out and you finish 20-11 (12-8) heading into the BTT. If one of those wins is Purdue, and you avoid a bad loss, that's probably firmly on the bubble. Go 11-7 in the B1G and win 2 in the BTT, and that's 23-11 (13-7) on selection day and you're in. 

If you look at our remaining schedule, it isn't crazy to think they could go 14-7 from now until the BTT:

Morehead State

North Alabama

Kennesaw State 

@ Nebraska

Ohio State

@ Rutgers

Minnesota 

Purdue

@ Wisconsin 

@ Illinois 

Iowa

Penn State

@ Ohio State

@ Purdue

Northwestern 

Nebraska

@ Penn State

Wisconsin

@ Maryland

@ Minnesota 

Michigan State

Hold serve at home, and win @ Nebraska, Penn State, and Minnesota, and that's 22-9 overall heading into the BTT. Trip up at home vs. anyone but Purdue, and you're still at 22-10 and right in the mix for a bid.

 

14-7 probably isn’t enough. If we go undefeated at home, 14-7 would mean only two more road wins. I think we’d need two BTT wins on top of that to feel at all comfortable 

[BruceDouglas]

13 hours ago, IUJoe said:

They really need to come out and pound these next 3 teams to get the NET trending to a respectable level.

Yeah IU still has a clean resume. Avoid any bad losses but have to get the metrics up to a reasonable level (50s) by season's end. Tough road but possible.

[KoB2011]

Once X is back, I'd really like to see us prioritize playing these guys:

Xavier Johnson(35+ MPG)

Trey Galloway (35+ MPG)

Mack Mgbacko (30+ MPG_

Malik Reneau (30+ MPG)

Kel'el Ware (35+ MPG)

Anthony Walker (15+ MPG)

Gabe Cupps (20+ MPG)

 

Outside of some circumstantial things within a given game, I don't see why anyone besides those 7 need to play big minutes at this point. Foul trouble with X, MM, MR can obviously impact Cupps and Walker playing more if needed.

I also think our best lineup could potentially be Cupps, X, Trey, MM, KW, but need to see that play together. I think that gives us our best mix of shooting, spacing, scoring, defense, ball handling, free throw shooting, etc. 

 

[Hoosier4Life53]

As team our 3 pt shooting percentage is now at 28.5% - 323 out of 351. The good news is it’s trending up….a couple more good games and we may break into the 200s!

Edited December 18, 2023 by Hoosier4Life53

[Kdug]

On 12/16/2023 at 9:13 PM, 13th&Jackson said:

14-7 probably isn’t enough. If we go undefeated at home, 14-7 would mean only two more road wins. I think we’d need two BTT wins on top of that to feel at all comfortable 

For reference here are some of the resumes of bubble teams who made it from last year as 11 seeds:

- NC St: 0 non-con wins vs tourney teams. 2 conference wins vs tourney teams

- Pitt: 1 non-con win vs tourney teams (at NW). 2 conference wins vs tourney teams

- Providence: 0 non con wins against tourney teams. There non-con was also extremely weak, with their best win being at Rhode Island…yes, Archie Millers new team. 3 conference wins vs tourney teams.

It really didn’t take that many good wins to make it last year. Pitt and NC state even had bad losses to the bottom ACC teams, which were much worse than the bottom of the big ten this year.

[IUFLA]

I don't know if anybody else heard it during the Oakland-Sparty game last night, but Dane Fife was doing the color analyst job, and he said IU had a great roster that simply needed Xavier Johnson back, and to play together a little more... 

[IUFLA]

Blurb from a 247 article rating the top 10 transfer portal players this far...Kel'el didn't make the top 10, but honorable mention and here's what they said...

"Kel'el Ware, Indiana Hoosiers: Sure, Ware has dunked all over some undermanned, mid-major frontcourts while struggling to find his footing against UConn and Kansas. But the Oregon transfer has still been a major positive for IU. He plays hard and changes the dynamic for IU's offense. Indiana’s offensive rating drops off a cliff from 112.8 to 86.2 when Ware leaves the game, per hoop-explorer"

Highlighted for our metrics folks 🙂

 

[KoB2011]

1 hour ago, IUFLA said:

Blurb from a 247 article rating the top 10 transfer portal players this far...Kel'el didn't make the top 10, but honorable mention and here's what they said...

"Kel'el Ware, Indiana Hoosiers: Sure, Ware has dunked all over some undermanned, mid-major frontcourts while struggling to find his footing against UConn and Kansas. But the Oregon transfer has still been a major positive for IU. He plays hard and changes the dynamic for IU's offense. Indiana’s offensive rating drops off a cliff from 112.8 to 86.2 when Ware leaves the game, per hoop-explorer"

Highlighted for our metrics folks 🙂

 

I'm not surprised by that. I think our best 5 man lineup when fully healthy is very likely XJ, TG, MM, AW, KW. That's the best balance of spacing, shooting, defense, toughness, rebounding, and IQ we can get I think.

Obviously a few other guys, notably Reneau and Cupps, need to have big roles for this team. But that 5 IMO can compete well with any team in the conference. 

[13th&Jackson]

Good take from TDH:

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/red-flags-emerged-for-iu-mens-basketball-against-morehead-state/

[KoB2011]

48 minutes ago, 13th&Jackson said:

Good take from TDH:

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/red-flags-emerged-for-iu-mens-basketball-against-morehead-state/

I actually disagree. I don't think any new red flags emerged in that game.

[13th&Jackson]

6 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

I actually disagree. I don't think any new red flags emerged in that game.

Good point. Emerged probably wasn't the correct term. Seemed to be mostly the title and not the article. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by 13th&Jackson

[FKIM01]

5 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

I actually disagree. I don't think any new red flags emerged in that game.

Yeah, more like several red flags became more obvious. 

I keep telling myself it's a very young team, but with as much talent as IU has, it's still hard not to be frustrated with how badly they've underperformed what they are capable of.

[thirdgenhoosier]

2 hours ago, FKIM01 said:

Yeah, more like several red flags became more obvious. 

I keep telling myself it's a very young team, but with as much talent as IU has, it's still hard not to be frustrated with how badly they've underperformed what they are capable of.

I’m not challenging you.  I’m just asking to further the conversation ONLY for the sake of conversation.  But what if I said we really aren’t that talented?  

[BGleas]