You're listening to the back home network, presented by home
field apparel, welcome back to Crimson Castillo and caviar
joining. You Scott will be along
momentarily as we talked some IU basketball and some IU football
in the middle of the week. Indiana coming off a big win at
home defeating the Wisconsin Badgers.
Us by a pretty sizable margin and getting ready to play at
Illinois. This coming Thursday.
So you may be listening to this the day before you may be
listening to it, the day of but we appreciate you listening,
nonetheless. And we're talk a little bit
about where Indiana is at right now.
Whether that Illinois, excuse me, whether there was constant
game indicated better times moving forward for Indiana or if
it was Fool's Gold and there's probably some are Must be made
in both directions on that. But we're going to chat about
it, see where we end up Landing with things.
And we'll also talk IU football. Big commit for the Hoosiers.
This past week as they pick up a transfer.
And from a familiar family, familiar name, David Jackson for
Star Quarterback out of Center Grove spent the last couple of
years at Tennessee and is going to be a member of the Hoosiers
Squad. Moving ahead, an interesting
pickup for this Indiana team to say the least.
And we'll talk a little bit about Some of the implications
and where that leaves everything as the transfer portal is
rapidly coming to a close in college football and Indiana
trying to retool off of a, couple of disappointing seasons
in a row. Now, before we get to that, just
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Again, that's home-field apparel.com will go and bring in
Scott. Now, as Scott obviously co-host
of the show and we had a nice conversation late yesterday
about all of the different things going on with IU,
basketball, what to believe what to think and what to Hope.
For, with this team as they get ready to take on Illinois on
Thursday and then hosting Michigan State on Sunday.
Scott how you doing? Good, to talk to you again,
always good to see you, man, when a wind changes.
Everything it heals? All wounds correct.
Does it does it? That's what we're going to talk
about know, maybe not. But it's definitely, it's better
than a loss. I can definitely say that.
No man, good to see you. And do you have?
I know we did that. We talked about hope that they
drop their IU line. If you haven't checked it out,
check it out. I We were privy to see it ahead
of time. I probably spent way too much.
Luckily, my wife doesn't listen to the podcast so I'm not going
to get in trouble. But yeah, bought more than my
share of hope-filled apparel today with the I you drop.
Yeah. We've learned that the sanctity
and the safety of our marriages, you know, and the longevity
really depend on our wives, not listening to the podcast to find
out how much home field apparel that we purchased my whole field
story is We've been, you know, they let us see some of the
stuff ahead of time. We could get our hands on some
of it. I got the IU rags to roses
sweatshirt, which is just phenomenal.
But, I'm showing my wife, the sweatshirt.
And I'm holding it up. And she's like, it's not going
to be too small for you. And I'm like, where are you
being mean? Or like you saying I'm fat or
like, are you saying you want the sweatshirts?
I know I want to shake. I think after a wash it's going
to be like you want to give it to me?
I'm like, all right. Well there's just ask me for
I'll buy you one. You don't need to like - me and
make me feel bad. Anyway, that's but it's causing,
right? Strife at the Scott household,
Scott, getting body shame that home.
I mean, who would have? Hi, no, I know.
This is tough anyway. We're back, we're happy to be
talking to you. Again, is certainly a, much
happier Vibe now than we had this time last week when we were
podcasting and Indiana had just lost another game and, and then
turned around and lost again after that.
And Scott were, I feel fortunate to some degree because at this
point we've got a mixed bag to talk about as opposed to a
decidedly poor bag. But it's interesting because
talking with a lot of people I've noticed.
There's there's not as much automatic like, hey,
everything's better. Clearly things are moving in the
right direction, talk, as I might have expected given how
much Indiana beat Wisconsin by. There's still a lot of.
All right. Well, let's wait and see,
because we've been down this road before with this basketball
team like numerous times over the last Several years, people
are not just automatically jumping back into the arms of
Indiana basketball expectations. And I think that's kind of
interesting. So I wanted to talk about that a
little bit today and we'll talk some football as well as they
had some big news this week and let's start with basketball the
Hoosiers. You know, they lose that game to
Penn State and that that might have been one of the bigger
morale blows that. The fan base is had in a while.
The not just the fact that they lost with the manner in which
they lost how lost they looked during the loss and then to turn
around and essentially have almost an entirely different
looking game. You know, they beat Wisconsin,
they didn't just beat Wisconsin. They obliterated Wisconsin in
that second half. It was the first time since
2005. That Indiana had beaten.
Wisconsin by double digits, it was only the fourth time in the
last 28 games period. That Indiana had beaten
Wisconsin. And, you know, it feels like
every time Indiana beats Wisconsin, these days.
It's a Fair. This was very much not that it
was not a full strength was Constantine.
There were missing Tyler wall but still a big victory and you
know an Indiana team. That themselves is not full
strength. It was nice to see them.
Come out and have the kind of Mojo that they had, especially
in the second half of that game. It was like a wild game, like, a
very Wisconsin type game. You're what, like, you know,
2120 going into the half, you know, at halftime the 41 total
points scored, you know, the modern modern basketball
analytics and shots have not did not reach this game felt very
much like, you know, where's the peach Basket in the old leather
ball? No, it's nice.
It's nice to beat was, that was definitely a Get Right game.
You definitely needed that. You know, gosh, Only scores 45
points, you know Point 71 points at possession, not great.
They've had other bad outputs this year.
I'm looking back, you know, they beat Dayton 43, 242 in another
Rock fight know. So, they've had games, they've
had these bad scoring at 42 games.
Too far this year, they had that scoring Affairs.
But you know, in a larger sense, I don't think any of anything
that we after that with. I'm kind of thinking to myself,
like, was I too hard on the last podcast?
Like, am I am I, you know, getting into the, you know,
Notre Dame football fandom or I can Up and down but I think
everything we said before. Wait, Scott.
Finally asks, am I the asshole? That's great.
It took us tickets 15 years of podcast therapy to get here, but
I'm here. So am I?
Like what's? Yeah, you know, but it's like
everything. I think that we said on the Pod,
everything that talks about with Tony on the pot, I think it's
Justified and I still think your point about people not
automatically embracing it. You know, if you take out the
Elan and Kennesaw State games of our last eight games against,
you know, real opponents, six of them, we kind of slept
walkthrough for Large parts of the game.
And so, you had two games where that wasn't the case.
You know, the majority of games, I would say, you've had these
lackluster efforts, like you and I said they weren't going to
lose out, there are going to find a way to win some games.
And unfortunately, we've been here before where you know,
teams have had these looks virtually under Archie where
they look bad and it's like, oh, they beat Iowa, it's like,
where's that been? And then they lose five more in
a row, again, we'll see where this goes, but, you know, from a
large point, the Impart to me about that Wisconsin.
When was you can look at all of the analytics and all of the
stats and they kind of back it up but just the eye test it's
like we're playing so much. I hate effort Everest not the
right word but it's just the word that has to be.
You just hear so much harder. They played with that like North
Carolina style of defense that we saw in that game where
they're picking, guys up damn near half court and they're
they're shooting the gaps correctly and there, you know,
Chris passes and they just seemed everyone seems to kind of
be humming and Again, giving full effort all the time and
it's like, man. If they played like that, they
probably would have beaten, Iowa, Northwestern and Penn
State. Like, they probably be, you
know, at, you know, for and one or got five and one of the Big
Ten right now. So, this to me, that's kind of
the frustrating part is, it wasn't like in the Northwestern
and Penn State game, like, man, you know, we just missed some
shots or this didn't go down, like it was just these mental
lapses in these Pines where you give up these runs.
And so, you know, That's where I think maybe I'm vocalizing.
What some of those fans are feeling, that's why I'm not
racing. All right, we're solve like
everything's everything's hunky-dory.
But also you look ahead to it's like, you know, at Illinois is a
tough place to play and then you know, Michigan State watch that
game against Purdue, that's a scary team.
I think there's some really athletic guards that's a team
that could come in and beat us up.
So, you know, the road doesn't get easier.
But I will say whatever whatever was done before that Wisconsin
game. If that same type of effort is
given across the board by this team.
There's no reason why this team can't win, its next three games
as well. Yeah, I mean it's important to
remember that. This is not a vintage Wisconsin
team, we've done a lot on the podcast where we've talked about
how Indiana's Tempo free statistics of looks since the
1st of December. And if you look at that
Wisconsin team, they are very similar in terms of overall
ranking. They're not very good.
I mean they if you Indiana during that time period, post
that Wisconsin game, this weekend is 85th.
In Bart tour Vic's ranking since December 1st Wisconsin's 84th.
So you know, and and they have opposite problems to some degree
where Indiana's offense has been slightly better in their defense
has been bad. And Wisconsin's defense has been
slightly better in their offense has been bad.
And this is, it was Constantine. That's incredibly, poorest
defensively in certain areas. They're letting teams shoot
really well and trying to survive on, just not turning the
ball over and without Tyler wall, it's not really a Winning
formula for them. All that said, you know, it was
important for Indiana to come out and play hard over the
course of 40 minutes to play. Smart defensively to not put
themselves in positions where they were just allowing teams to
tee off from three or allowing drives.
And you know, that's the IU, does deserve credit for that.
And I think Mike Woodson deserves some credit for making
some shifts, which we've been asking for in the way that
Indiana played and he sticks. Trace Jackson Davis in the high
post on offense, that has a, a systemic change or as a systemic
effect on the way that Indiana's playing off.
Elsewhere defensively, they didn't collapse nearly as much.
They stuck on Shooters on the outside and it worked and you
know, so there's a lot of positives there but I think if
you're the type of fan that is a little bit suspicious still of
this IU team and I think that you are very right to be.
I certainly am you look at this and you say to yourself well
hey, if it's an effort thing, as you mentioned earlier, why did
it take going through? Essentially a month of bad
effort for them to finally show up and give effort in a game.
You know, there were, there were talking on the TV broadcast
about how woods and it had a three-hour practice with the
team the day before, and it's like a 3-hour practice in
January, you know, that's kind of unheard of, but the fact that
you have to have one to try to drill it into your players,
heads that. Hey guys, we need to be giving
Better Effort, you know, we need to be doing X.
Y & Z does not speak well of Where the team's mentality was
at now? Where does that where does that
rank with players only meeting? Like that's another one that
always has. No it's not it's not quite two
players only meeting, right? Yeah, we need we need like an
emergency, like a list of emergency measures, you know?
It's like players only meetings like you know, kind of like
Frank on to force. He's right.
You're almost at the button being pressed but you're not
quite there yet. But no I mean in all seriousness
I do think that this team has clearly struggled.
And with execution, and we've hurt racetracks, and Davis
talked about it in the postgame press conferences.
We've heard about talked about in some other areas, as well.
That's concerning, you know, because clearly it's not a
talent deficiency with this team.
And as we've seen in certain games, Xavier North Carolina,
Wisconsin. Now, it's even even portions of
that Arizona game when they were making their comeback.
It's not that they can't do things.
It's that, they, they either don't do them or choose not to
do. Omit certain times and that does
present some concerns, you know, because you can, you can cry.
All you want over, Xavier Johnson and race Thompson, not
playing. But the fact the matter is,
they're not, they're not, you can't play them right now.
They're both too injured right to be playing and there's too
much talent on this roster to just say, well, gosh, we can't
really expect anything out of this group.
And so I think that a lot rides on what happens with IU in these
next two games. And I'm not even talking about
winds necessarily because I think they're both very
difficult games in terms of the opponent and when you're
catching them, but IU has proven a couple of times.
Now, against good competition, that they are capable of playing
at a much higher level than what they played at, for the duration
of the game against Iowa against Penn State.
And now, I think that becomes the standard that has to be the
standard. Like, you've seen them play that
hard against Wisconsin. If they go out against Illinois
and they can't A 40-minute game if they go out against Michigan
State, and they can't play a 40-minute game, then you have to
wonder, like, what is going on with this team, and why are they
incapable of putting consistent effort out there?
Because as we've talked about, this was present in the Archie,
Miller area, wasn't that those teams were incapable?
What was frustrating about them, was that they would have a game
or two, where they would play at that level.
And then, they would have several games where they didn't.
And that's what ultimately, I think got more frustrating than
anything, about how that season went, how those those players
played together. And how the coaching staff dealt
with it. The two things to hit off of
that, that you mentioned is how, you know, the adjustments that
Woodson has made, we've been kind of asking for you, you
worry, you know, are we in a spot where it's, like,
adjustments or three gates, too late.
That's a great. We made these adjustments.
But now against Illinois, there's one to be counter
adjustment because another coach on the other side as well.
You are, we able to keep up with the speed of the adjustments
because like, what you did now isn't going to work the other
thing, too. And it apart of this is based on
the defense Wisconsin's playing. But you know, we took Threes and
what's Wild. As you know as a team this year
we're shooting 37% from 340 fifth in the nation.
That's not bad. You know we're continually not
taking a lot of Threes And yet we're shooting threes pretty
well. You look at and again I'm gonna
highlight him, not the player but just the use case you do the
stat line from the Wisconsin game.
You know, everyone's got, you know, points and percentage of
poison Miller. Cop has 3 points 1 of 2 from 3.
You know, you look at cops numbers this year.
Year, he's shooting 45% from three on 71 attempts.
It's not like he's only taken three, it's a, it's a, not a,
it's a medium sized sample size. Think part of the problem is the
sample size. Is it big enough?
Because he's not taking enough threes.
And this is, again, I don't want to be too negative and a loss,
but it's one question that I do have is, you know, are we
continually putting guys in the best position to be successful
in that, you know, Miller cop shows that he can do one thing
at a very high level and that is shoot, open three.
Is he's not a lockdown driver, he's not a Lockdown Defender.
I'm not knocking those things. Like those are not his skill set
but yet if he's out there and he's playing, you know, 30
minutes and taking two threes, are you using Miller cop
effective and you seen this multiple games in a row where
you know, he had trouble, you know, against Penn State on the
defensive end and it's like I can I can live with that if
we're running set for him to get threes, but we're not doing
that. And so that is something that
can has concerned me through this run.
I think draw Animo was used better in Wisconsin game, so
that's good. But I continued to look at
Miller cop and it's not him, I promise, it's not him.
It's like, are we proving give you the best position to
succeed? Because we don't seem to ever be
running anything for him. He goes out there and plays a
significant amount of minutes and has like two shot attempts.
Yeah, well look, I mean part of it is the and Tony talked about
this when he was on the podcast with you and I've talking about
a little bit as well, this is not.
Coaching staff that runs a lot of plays.
You know, a lot of sets, it's a for better for worse.
It's well, you've got Trisha Jackson Davis in the post and
they want the offense to rotate around that and that's kind of
how the offensive movement tends to go and Miller.
Cop's job is essentially to space on the opposite side, in
many cases of wherever that's taking place.
And he's not getting a lot of shots because Indiana is not
doing a lot in transition right now that, you know, they're not
pushing the ball. Ball down the floor when they
get it and when there's passing taking place when cops gotten
the ball, he hasn't really taken the advantage of the
opportunities that he's got, neither, like he's not popping
the moment, he gets it, he's taken dribbles in now whether
that's by Design or whether that's him making a decision in
the moment, I don't know. But I do think it's a fair
question to ask because what's confusing about where Indiana's
offense went over the course or Their play went over the course
of that stretch of time in December and early, January is
cop had actually played and had shot at a much higher level than
what we saw out of him in any of his prior years, the previous
year in Indiana, or the years at Northwest Northwestern where he,
you know, he's still shooting the ball from 30 to 45 percent
clip. So far on the season, he still
has an offensive rating. That is among the best in the
country in terms of when he uses a possession.
He's scoring one point three points per possession used.
I mean, that's really good. If, if he had enough qualifying
possessions used he'd be in the top 30 in the nation right now.
But he's so careful with where he chooses his spots and as you
mentioned as many other people mentioned on the socials today,
they're not running plays for Miller cop to get him
opportunities because that's not the way the offense runs.
The question you end up asking yourself is well if you're not
going to, if you've got a guy who's got a very limited, but
effective skill set, you know a Kyle Korver type where his
primary skill, what he brings to the table is, you throw him the
ball, three-point line, and if he's open and he shoots it,
he'll hit it. 45% of the time. I gots a valuable skill in
basketball, but he doesn't offer a lot else.
He can't drive, he doesn't really rebound, and he certainly
doesn't give you a lot on the defensive end.
You know, there was a, there's a video from the Penn State game
that that circulated, which kind of Illustrated that.
I'm sure some of you may have seen it like that, that not
only, then are you limiting yourself in terms of what you're
getting out of the offense? Because on the rare occasions
where you've actually got something set up and he gets the
ball and he shoots that's not enough to justify him being out
there the rest of the time and you're losing something on the
defensive end because he's not able to guard a lot of the
players that he's being asked to guard.
I mean that's where inefficiency Creeps in.
That's where when you look at, how a season goes along, and how
a player is being used, and I would team fares, you're not
maximizing your advantages. And I think what's frustrating
for me is that we've seen so much of that over the course of
time with IU, basketball stretching again before Mike
Woodson got here where people weren't being utilized to their
best advantages and it led to a lot of wasted possessions and it
led to a lot of points being scored.
Because a guy who wasn't Agreed on defense and wasn't offering a
hole on the other side was getting exploited.
And so I don't know what the answer to that is.
I mean, I certainly Xavier Johnson, I think as we've
learned kind of covered up a multitude of sin because his
ability to drive to shoot to draw Defenders and do have very
good Court Vision allowed for him to essentially ad-lib,
getting the ball to Miller cop or driving drawing Defenders and
knowing that he was going to pass it back out and I mean
jail. No trophy no just isn't that
type of a player, not yet. He can draw Defenders and get
his own shot, but he's not looking two or three steps
ahead. Trey Galloway has not shown an
ability to do that and you really don't have anybody else
that can act as the triggerman for this offense.
So I don't know if it gets fixed.
I haven't had a chance to watch Cops media availability today,
where he talked about his role, but I can tell you just from
watching what's going on. The it's, it is a shame because
you Cop last year was underutilized.
He only his possession utilization last year was
thirteen point seven, which was pretty low on that team.
I, there was in it was, it was not quite nearly invisible, but
it was closed. And his possession utilization,
this year is eleven point four, which is by far the lowest that
it's been in his career and I don't know what the answer is,
other than you got to find ways to get him the ball but I don't
know if that's possible. Given the offensive system that
this coaching staff seems to want to run.
Yeah, and we don't need to linger any more on it.
It's just more. Like those are the things that
you know, in if you look at the wind a little more you know,
dissected a little more, those are things where it's
concerning. I will say, you know, you go to
North Carroll that North Carolina game cop, only had
three points in that game. You know, he only had he went
one for one from the field and had a free throw.
I'm sorry 14 from the field had two points.
Sorry, three percent of possessions went through him but
he only played 17 minutes versus 30 so you know, slightly
different but it's just, it's One of those things where, when
you look at the numbers that something in this win that, you
know, you do have to wonder how much of it was adjustments.
How much of it was Wisconsin having a rough night, but again,
the overall three-point shooting I think is just something we've
heard about on assembly called Tony's talked about that, you
know, for us to only take eight. Three-pointers is, you know,
jail hitch. If you only took two and he's
been a really good three-point shooter, it's just, it seems
like for us to, you know, if our defense is going to be You know,
a little bit shaky and this game it was great but it's like, you
know, six out of the last eight games.
It hasn't been hasn't been ideal.
We need to get some points, you know, getting a little more
volume of three-point shooting, be something the nice to see as
well, but overall, it's a win, it gets you back on track of at
least, you know, it's a win at home and you get some of that
fan Vie back, which is, which is important and look, you know, we
we were a bit despondent last week about what we'd seen in the
three game losing streak and it was nice to not just have a win
but see some adjustments made Aid that we've been asking for
the question. Now, is how sustainable is that
and this is where, I don't know what the answer is and it's a
tough pair of games coming up here.
I mean, at Illinois now the noise had their own issues
Illinois. Has they have had their
struggles? They've had that a player leave
at semester break, but the flip side of it is Illinois, is on a
four-game winning streak now. None of those teams and
situations have been overwhelming, you know, they
beat Wisconsin at home. They want at Nebraska, they beat
Michigan State at home. They want at Minnesota, you
know, they're there, a five-point favorite.
According to Ken pom in this game versus Indiana.
Indiana is not going to be scared of Illinois.
They be Towing on a neutral floor.
Last year, Illinois does not have a dominant post presence.
Like they've had the last couple of years and, you know, Kofi
Coburn's not there anymore. So I think this is definitely a
game Indiana could win but you do question, you know, given
what Illinois does well, and Then the fact that they seem to
have righted the ship, you know, I don't think that that's the
State Farm Center is a particularly intimidating
environment for teams to go and play but it's also an Illinois
team that's starting to regain. Its confidence levels.
How does Indiana play into this? And how how?
Well does what we saw on Sunday travel for this Indiana team.
Our Saturday I guess it was and then they got Michigan State at
home, which is another one, where I mean, they almost beat
Purdue at home. Home yesterday.
And, you know, that's a team that while they've been up and
down, they've, they went to Wisconsin and they want and
they've beaten Michigan already and they beaten Penn State on
the road. You know, that's, that's a team
that's pretty battle-tested. The one thing I'll say about
Penn State is, excuse me, Michigan State if they were to
beat Indiana according to Ken Palm, that would be the best
team by far. That they would have beaten on
the road so far this year. And so, that's where, you know,
again it's like You could go and lose that Illinois game.
If they come back and beat Michigan State, it's like, well,
look, that's one on one in that to game stretch.
You're able to hold serve, that's a positive.
It's just that you got to make up at some point.
You got to start making up, you know, some of the games you
didn't think you were going to lose at the beginning of the
season, one of them being that Penn State game on the road and
certainly one of them being that Northwestern game at home.
That's that's where I think Indiana is going to have to
figure out a way to overachieve. They can't just hold serve from
this point. It Forward if they're going to
get the season that they wanted to have back on track again,
that was always the problem with Archie is under performance and
then just meeting expectations. And it's like, you know, if we
go negative one and you go zero, we're still at -1 like you need
to now go plus two to get us in the positive column, and I
agree. And this is something, you know,
when you look at the Big Ten standings, it's not nothing's
over yet. But, I mean, you are three games
behind Purdue in the loss column, you know, Be at 2 & 4,
you're sitting with Ohio State and Maryland near the bottom of
the Big Ten with only two teams below that.
You know, if you go, you know, just in two days.
If you go to 2 and 6 getting to the, even the middle of the Big
Ten becomes really tough, especially two teams that are
above you. You know, Michigan State's at 4
and 3. This is a game that could kind
of bring you at least to them. Unfortunately with what the hole
that you dug, you could lose sight of the middle of the Big
Ten very quickly here in a matter of Three to four games,
you get to and 52 and 63 and 7. It becomes really hard to even,
get back into the six spot in the Big Ten.
So yeah. And this is where again, I feel
like we were all justified in what we talked about because we
see what's going to be happening.
The rest of the schedule, gets a little bit harder.
And so, you know, effectively looking like, you're
sleepwalking, through half the Iowa, Northwestern and Penn
State game. It's like, all right, this is a
real problem, because if you can turn it on, that's great, you've
got to keep it turned on. But we also can't see.
Again, is if we have a nice win against Michigan State, you
know, people are going crazy. That's, that's fantastic.
You know, that's on a Sunday. You got to travel to Minnesota
and play that, you know, it's not quite the same because I was
home and home but SEC. We also can't have just the hey
we beat Purdue, it's a huge win and sorry, I'll look ahead a
little bit. We play Purdue on Saturday,
February 4th, we then turn around and play Rutgers at home
again. Tuesday, February 7th, you can't
turn. It into a Purdue Michigan
scenario from last year where it's like, oh, we want a big
game. It's like, all right, well,
they're going to go party and like we're just going to go
ahead and lose a next game. Like, to your point, we've kind
of lost that luxury of throwing away a game here or there.
We like we've already thrown them away, that's already
happened. And so now, if you have a big
win, you unfortunately, have to do what a veteran good team is,
which is what we kind of were expected to get this year.
Is you enjoy it for, you know, a half hour and then you lock in
and you focus on your next opponent, you come out ready to
play. Again, and that's what I'm going
to be interested to see is if they do win one of these.
Next, two games. How do they react in the game
after? I mean, you know, I want to see
other play against Illinois but, you know, once you start the
real close back-to-back happens, you know, how does, how does the
team react to kind of a nice win on the next game?
Yeah, absolutely. The one thing I will say before
we move on to football and talk about that a little bit, I mean
right now Purdue is clearly, I think you know, Purdue and
Rutgers which is weird to say though.
They're kind of clearly Head and Shoulders above.
Everybody else in the conference produce six and one they
probably should be 5 into. That was kind of ridiculous.
I think of the the ending sequence of that Michigan State
game yesterday and then Rutgers is 5 and 2 and then everybody
else I mean Michigan's for and to but it's kind of hard at this
point to take Michigan entirely seriously Illinois that that
Michigan State Purdue game, Ed had zero fouls right?
Like yeah it's that's that's and that really had that happened a
full game. Where he was playing what?
37 minutes. Use 42% of possessions and
didn't commit a foul. No foul complete.
I mean, just a miracle of evolution honestly.
Like they need to sample his DNA because my goodness well and
this is just really this a duper do - this is that is not going
to happen in the tournament. I would bet a lot of money right
now do not be a gamer. He has zero fouls like you're
going to have him with two or three fouls very quickly than
Suddenly. It's like, all right Clinic.
Can you do can lawyer And Braden Smith hold the guards of Alabama
or Houston. That's what always seems to
happen. Well, 10, and teams of big guys
like that there was that there was that podcast, that the think
it was the athletic did with the former director of officiating
for the Big Ten and it's worth a list.
And everybody seems like as listen to it by this point, but
if you haven't, there's one section in there that you just
reminded me of with that statement about how they said,
you know, the guy said that while because Wisconsin is known
for not committing, a bunch of dumb.
Fouls officials won't call fouls.
On them and it's just a silver pitcher waiting thing.
And sure enough, Wisconsin gets into the tournament and they get
called for fouls because they're committing fouls.
And then they foul a bunch of guys out or give them into foul
trouble and then other teams beat them.
And it's like that's going to happen with Purdue as well.
I don't know I will never understand Big Ten officiating
the way that it has been conducted over the years and
this favoritism that they hand out to certain teams and certain
players when they know they know.
Know that it has a negative impact on those teams ability to
play in the tournament and have success.
They know it and the teams that are generally, succeeded have
succeeded in spite of the officiating that they've gotten
in the Big Ten not because of it at some point somebody May wake
up and actually realize that but it doesn't seem to be happening
any time soon anyway. Can I quickly?
Sorry, we're completely off topic but just, this is another
thing that you got, you got me onto this, this is totally your
fault for the rest of time. But again, a That is really
professional acting, like a non professional League.
Lamar Simpson was one of the officials in that game, the
Michigan State, Purdue game. I just have to do this.
I'm sorry, this is your fault. Here is his schedule of games
that he's officiated since January 1st, January 1st in New
York, January, 3rd and Wisconsin, January 4th in
Indianapolis, January 6 and Connecticut.
January 7th in Rhode Island, January 8th and New York 10th
and DC, the 11th. Here's a run.
He did. Wednesday, the 11th and
Wisconsin, Saturday, the 14th in Tallahassee Sunday, the 15th in
New Jersey and then Monday, the 16th in Michigan, that's three
days in a row, three different states we do.
That's like they're not flying private jet, Southwest has after
flights cancelled like that. Is that that's four games in six
days in four different states. That is bananas.
Well, that's insane as bob Knight always used to say, you
know, we we We are concerned when players have to play, like,
two games in a week, and these are 18 to 22 year olds and we're
having officials who are often times in their 40s, 50s, you
know, running around up and down on chords five days a week and
traveling all over the place and doing it.
And it's like, so you're gonna tell me that fatigue is going to
affect the 18 to 22 year olds but it's not affecting the the
officials. Yes, they don't run around quite
as much but this is the problem. Now in it's funny that you
mention that with Simpson because in that stretch H, he
only did two big 10 games, he did Wisconsin Minnesota on the
third and he did Purdue Michigan State, but it's not that it's
the six, Big East games that he did.
It's the five games in the Metro Atlantic that he did.
You know, that. That's where the problems come
in. And again, this comes back to
this problem. I hammer on over and over again
which is that you have you try to treat officiating like
independent contractors and what you end up with is guys
Independent contractors like well, yes, independent
contractors. You treat it like like a 1099
job, but this, but but it's also clear that there are
instructions, being given or tendencies that are being
adapted to about what, how, to call Big 10 games, versus how,
to call Big East games, because they're not called the same.
And if you watch enough college basketball, you start to realize
that. And, you know, it say, I love it
because it's people think that fans and folks like us who kind
of sit somewhere. We're in this you know weird
quasi fan quasi media position that all we do is bitch about
our own teams not getting calls and that invalidates.
Our complaints about officiating and here we are talking about
calls that happened in a Michigan State Purdue game and
it's not even that we wanted Purdue to lose.
I mean it would have been nice but I don't care, but the idea
that you're going to have a 74 guy who uses 42% of possessions.
Never commits. A foul is ludicrous.
I mean, it really is No.8 Burt Smith is also a rep in that
game. Here's his weekend, Wednesday.
The 11th. He's in your old stomping
grounds, stomping grounds, Coral Gables Florida, and then
Saturday, he's in Clemson, South Carolina, Sunday, he's in
Greenville, North Carolina. That's not a bad trip and then
Monday, he's in East Lansing Michigan.
But it's like, yeah. Would you if I told you, hey,
Gail the next four days, you gotta go from Coral Gables to
Clemson the north to North Carolina to Michigan's like
that's that's a tough, I'd be done.
Yeah. Even even doing what I do, which
is Not very physical in nature, I would be like yeah you know
that I've had enough so no, that's it's pretty wild God
anyway. Sorry I can quickly get you
home. No, no it's fine.
We've only got about 10 minutes left anyway but let's talk a
little bit about IU football. Interesting week for IU
football. Last week, the big news they
picked up a quarterback. Tevin Jackson, Trace Jackson
Davis. His brother former Center Grove
Star had been a four-star recruit who had been committed
to Tennessee. Had been there for a couple of
years. Never really broke through.
Roo looks like he's not going to have an opportunity to break
through there. So he announces that he is
enrolling at IU and transferring here.
Obviously a lot of people excited about this and it's kind
of interesting because you know, certainly that's a, that's a
talented quarterback. That's a talented athlete.
And you like to see that. We asked the question a lot
about. Like, where's the quarterback?
Play, going to come from with this IU team?
I do see two things about it that I Guess I would just maybe
advise people to tap the brakes on a little bit.
One of them is this is clearly a player that's got a lot of
potential Talent. It's also a player that hasn't
taken very many snaps at the college level.
I mean, I think it's under 20 total, maybe not even that many
and it's not, that you can't have a quarterback, who's never
taken snaps go out and play. I mean, famously antwaan, Randle
L started. His first game of his sophomore
year, having not taken a snap the previous year because I He
was on academic probation, but it is a bit, a bit of a
challenge obviously, to come in and be a starting quarterback in
the Big Ten with your first game against Ohio State, if you've
never started before. So, I would say, like, I
wouldn't expect him to come in and just start like gun-slinging
immediately, especially since there's clearly still issues
with the offensive line that haven't been addressed.
There's still a clear still clearly issues with the skill
positions. The other thing that I'm
interested in on this Scott is I you still doesn't seem to have a
clear Direction about what they want to do because unless I was
greatly deceived, they talked for like a month month and a
half about how they needed a mobile quarterback.
I scrambling quarterback, you know, they were going to build
this like RPO style thing. They put Dexter Williams in and
that was the direction they were going and Tavon Jax is not a
scrambling quarterback. I mean he was He's listed as a
pro-style quarterback. He's certainly got athletic
skill but he's also he's not the type of quarterback who you're
going to expect to be doing a lot of talking and running at
the Collegiate level. So I'm back again to being a
little bit perplexed about what direction Indiana is going on
their offense. Now may just be that they
decided. Well, this is the best available
option and we're going to go this direction but it kind of
invalidates. A lot of the things that we
heard towards the end of the season about what they had
suddenly decided they wanted to do.
I mean I think they still want that just like you know a couple
years ago I bought a new SUV and I really wanted the Audi Q7.
It's a great it's a great car. I did a test drive.
It's awesome. I think the sticker price was
like 68 thousand dollars. It's like all right well you
know I drive a Honda Pilot now and that's that's the way I roll
you know. I very much feel like that was
always you know yes having a running quarterback is awesome.
Like I bet if you asked a lot of NFL teams like is it fun to
coach Lamar Jackson, like giving - the Contracts, if I guess
that's awesome. Like, you know, yes of course,
Tom Allen wants that like I'd say, 90% of Colorado, High
college coaches, want that? That's why they're hard to find,
they're hard to get and not a lot of them are around out there
like a good running quarterback. Who could also throw, you know,
a Michael penix type, they'll come around a lot and normally
when they do, they don't look at schools like Indiana.
So I do think that was him saying that, I think he's going
to take, what he can get me. I find it.
Interesting. We shall see if it's High School
stats Jackson. Davis is high school stats look
really good, you know, passer rating of 129 and Senior year
for what it's worth, you know, fifth 21.
Touchdowns three years the options and yeah, the Tennessee
thing. You know, they're they, they're
hitting an upcycled they're loaded.
So it's like, you know, we'll see the who knows there is just
a weird feeling where it's like you're getting.
He could be the best option but it's like it is weird.
It's like the brother of our star basketball player like
Yeah, especially one that just, you know, what this whole thing,
like two weeks ago with the letter from the fan and all then
there's this whole it, right? It's been an odd, couple of
weeks from that perspective and yeah.
Anyway, sorry, go ahead. Oh no, that's just it, like I
mean he might be the best option but it is.
You have to give pause like Mandy.
We look at what has given everything to the Jackson Davis
Family. Well, I mean, I do wonder if
it's funny. If, if your Jackson Davis, you
go into the the pitch with Tom Allen like well Tom are, you
naming? The Order before the year.
It sounds like well, you know, we can we can offer you at
Almaty. Like I can give him my car.
Like you don't leave my house, we could do that.
The one thing I can't offer you is I just we don't name starters
here. So that's, that's not going to
be on the table. That is it?
I did think about that. It's like, it wasn't like, Hey,
we're going to name you the starter but we're not gonna say
it out loud. If there's something like that,
going on. Well and that super secret
promise. Like we do pinky swears here.
I do wonder. I will, I mean in all
seriousness, I mean, the transfer portal closes this.
Week. And you know, I do wonder.
I mean, and Taylor Layman is brought this up on bite-sized
bison, like does Indiana need a second quarterback in the portal
because I said that in the last pot, like you said, I gotta
joking. But it's like, yeah, I hate to
say it, but it's not your history.
I do want to pick any one player and don't want to say anything
bad about Jackson Davis, but the history of a starting
quarterback at IU is not been good of getting through the
season uninjured. So you really need to look at it
like If they're not prepared for that option, that the coaching
staff is not preparing their team correctly.
Yeah, I think it's it's going to be interesting because
ultimately, you know, you're going into next year, your your
assumptive starter in Dexter Williams is out for an
indefinite period of time and even if he is on a nine-month
recovery, I mean we're not talking, you know, with that
kind of an injury, we're not talking.
And likely about nine months and then he's fully ready to go.
We're talking about nine months before he's ready to like resume
contact and we've already seen this with Michael penix where
they tried to bring Michael penix back in the injury
happened. At almost the exact same time a
year and he was clearly not ready and then was clearly
ready. A year later, you know, which
was this past season so if you don't have Dexter Williams
you've got a bunch of shouldn't like and this is where like If
you're out and you're doing what's right for the
student-athletes and what this program needs, like, Dexter
Williams should not play next year.
Just shoving should like it. Just he needs a full year to
recover and if he's going to be a mobile quarterback, I don't
want one. Who's like, just gingerly
recovering from a full knee replacement, like so.
So just to interrupt like he has to, he really should sit next.
Yeah, but the flip side is you don't have experience elsewhere.
I mean, even with Dexter Williams, if he was healthy, you
wouldn't have that much experience.
I mean, you're talking about a guy Yeah.
Yeah. They played two games completed,
very few passes and so it's going to be this is where like
you may want to think about like yes, maybe you could play
packages with individual quarterbacks, God knows
Indiana's done that before. But do you trust, what's in your
room right now with the offensive line that you've got
and with the skill position issues and the lack of a
dominant running back? The, you know, the uncertainty
around Camp a, you know, Uncertainty about what the
offense is going to look like, can you really feel comfortable
as a fan? Or as you know, someone who's in
charge of the team with what you've got and what you're going
into the season on? And that's where I get really
interested about the Taven Jackson thing, because it wasn't
like he was in the portal and was looking at options like he
wasn't in the portal, then he entered the portal.
And then what three days later was at Indiana and it.
So if he was promised to starting position that That's,
that's a real roll of the dice. And it's also a very different
direction as I was saying earlier, from the direction that
they said, that they were going and all the names that we'd
heard bandied about, whether it was the Vanderbilt quarterback,
the Louisiana Monroe quarterback, we're all down that
channel and then all of a sudden you get this left turn and so
I'm really curious to see how that plays out.
I do give them you know I give them a lot of credit for being
able to pull a former four-star. Yeah.
A local guy and I think that that's really nice.
I'm just curious to see what it leads.
To. And certainly I use got a little
bit of time to do some more things in the portal.
They pulled several players in, some of them have been, I think
a pretty good quality. Many of them have been guys,
that either haven't gotten the snaps or played at lower levels
or some combination there in. So, it's hard to be like totally
sanguine about what's happened because it felt more like
plugging a bunch of holes rather than necessarily elevating what
you've got at any of the positions versus what was there
last year. So that'll be an interesting
thing to keep an eye on and I guess we'll find out for sure
once the portal closes for good. Yeah, we'll see about me, the,
the counter to that is we've had offseason for felt like we were
going into it with a plan and it didn't work.
So maybe this is a you may be kind of the frenetic just
plugging people in and, you know, any man goes is the way to
go. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Anyway, that'll that'll wrap it up for Scott and I Scott as
always a pleasure. And we'll talk to you again
soon. Yep.
And our thanks to everybody out there.
For listening to the show will be back.
Probably I would say either Friday or Saturday as we recap,
what happened in that Illinois game and and a reset
expectations. Again, based upon what things
look like. Can Indiana maintain the
intensity, they showed against Wisconsin as they go to take on
the fighting Illini. Interesting question open,
question will probably have it settled by about half time of
the game and we'll see where Indiana lands.
They'll either be right back in the thick of things.
Looks at three and four in conference or further and
further away from the 500, Mark in the Big Ten as we had closer
to the middle point of the Season by thanks again to Scott.
My thanks to all you folks for listening and our thanks to our
friends at home field apparel for continuing to sponsor us, be
sure to tune in to the assembly, call our partners in the back
home network, as they recap, what happened at Illinois game.
Be sure to check out the IU. Women's Basketball show with
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