You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you.
It is Sunday the 12th of November, almost halfway through
this month already, and we're here to talk some Indiana
football as the Hoosiers unfortunately had their playoff
mode out of playoff mode. Their their dreams ended
prematurely in Champaign, Urbana yesterday as they drop and over.
Tea Dreams End in Champaign, Urbana.
That is Where Dreams Go to die, Scott.
Absolutely. What are?
We're gonna Logan by the the local Commerce Department.
But yeah, they picked it. It was kind of a throwback game,
and we'll talk about why. We'll talk about what we saw in
the game and kind of the fallout from it and the implications,
and we'll probably chat a little bit about IU Basketball as they
play tonight. For those of you who are
listening today, they have their second game of the season coming
up here. But first, just a couple quick
reminders. We are on Sub Stack now on
Crimson Cast. It's crimsoncast.substack.com.
Go check it out, follow it along.
You know, you can do it for free.
You get all of our episodes sent right to your door or your
e-mail, Actually, not your door unless your email's on your
door, which I mean, refrigerators can get e-mail
now. So it's not impossible that you
could have a smart door that I'm actually shocked that all the
houses in your neighborhood, Scott, do not have smart doors.
Don't say more I I This is an idea that we need to flesh out.
Need to make a little money. This is a good million dollar
idea. So who would make the best smart
door? Would that be a Samsung product?
Is that an LG thing? Is that like a do we?
Is this Is this where like Maytag gets back in the game?
Like what's Maytag? That'd be great.
Well, you guys will find out in Season 17 of Shark Tank when
Scott's up there pitching Smart Door.
I think by season 17 you'll be hosting Shark Tank.
There's going to elbow Barbara Corcoran out of the way and
like, you know, Scott Caulfield up here now.
One of the new Sharks. Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, follow us on Sub Stack if you can do it for free.
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It's very inexpensive, $5 a month, $50 a year, you get VIP
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So again, crimsoncast.substack.com while
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Taylor's got his stuff there. Follow Assembly call on sub
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It's it's where everybody's at now.
It's great. Anyway also a reminder folks
were part of the back home network along with our friends
at Assembly call to do the work podcast which will be recording
this evening as they recap IU Stanford as the women are on the
road, Big top 15 battle going on this evening.
Plenty of other stuff on the back home network that you need
to tune into. All of us brought to you by Home
Field Apparel and just a reminder that you can get 15%
off your first order at Home Field Apparel if you use the
code home 23 and they just they keep dropping stuff.
Scott they got new Bomber Jackets which looks sick.
I mean I I almost bought a Villanova Bomber jacket.
I have zero like 0 desire to root for Villanova but I would
like to look cool and that might be the best way to do it would
be to buy that bomber jacket. Just some great designs as
always, and they always come up with new and interesting stuff.
I might have bought a Washington hoodie in honor of Michael
Pennix. That might have arrived the
other day and it might be it might be awesome.
It's it's a really, I didn't have anything purple in my
repertoire. You know I had I had some green
because of my Miami connections. I certainly have a bunch of red.
I have a bunch of charcoal. I had no purple.
So I feel like I have both paid homage to the maestro Michael
Pennix Junior, and also have brought an entirely different
palette to my overall wardrobe. It really was the perfect.
Match like, we're not going to play Washington and now they're
going to be a Big Ten team, but it's like them and Northwestern.
So it's like, it's not like, you know, if you have a bunch of
green, it's like, oh God, we play Michigan State all the
time. And like, I can't wear that.
Like purple is kind of a safe color in that respect, except
for Northwestern. Was that?
But like Northwestern, has not been one of my bugaboos.
I just don't want any. I would never ever want to be
like mistaken for rooting for Northwestern at any point.
That's that's like a big, big personal point for me.
So yeah, but hopefully all I'm saying is there's some good
stuff at home field apparel. Go purchase it.
Anyway let's get to the podcast. Scott Indiana had a chance
potentially and we we talked a little bit when I was doing the
The Pregame podcast with Taylor. We talked a little bit about the
improbability about all of this. But we We saw Indiana go into
this week with a faint but still alive chance of winning four
games in a role and headed to a bowl, and they were playing in
the Illinois team this week. That has not exactly been the
exemplar of consistency over the course of the season.
Illinois was four and five. Indiana was three and six.
Illinois was missing their starting quarterback, which one
would have assumed would have been a bad thing for them.
How wrong we were, and Indiana looked like they were on a bit
of A roll. Their offense had started to
look like they were moving the ball a bit better, at least in
the first half. Last week when they played
against Wisconsin, their defense?
It certainly looked very good and it was not unreasonable to
think that while Illinois was probably going to be the
toughest of the three games remaining on the schedule,
Indiana had a legitimate shot in this one at picking up a
victory, getting themselves to four and six, and making the
last two games of the year against a struggling Michigan
State and a struggling Purdue look even more winnable by
comparison. And certainly Indiana came out
in this game and look for all the world like they were going
to do that. They completely dominated the
1st 25 or so minutes of the game.
Well, maybe completely is a bit strong, but they were certainly
up by quite a bit at a 27 to 12 lead with about 6 minutes to go
in the first half of play. And then, you know, you know,
there's this saying, Scott, you know the wheels fall off.
Well, this wasn't the wheels falling off.
This was like the wheels turning into devices that like, crush
you in the driver's seat and then, like, fire little missiles
at you. That's essentially what happened
with the wheels of this game. Indiana goes from being up 27 to
12 to going down by, what was it, 12 points, I think, or 10
points? It was 13 points.
Sorry, me, sorry. I was going to get it at some
point. Then Indiana makes a furious
comeback, gets it to overtime and then plays surrender ball
for the only possession that they have in overtime.
And then Illinois doesn't. They score a touchdown and
Illinois wins 48 to 45. We haven't had a chance really
to talk about this, except for a couple of really hilarious
voicemail messages that you left me that I didn't record.
I promise I'm not holding that as collateral against you.
But what were your overall thoughts after watching this
game? Yeah, the voicemail that's part
of neighborhood update which will come later.
We we have to do as to why I was sending you audio voicemails,
but it's. Dude, that was a wild game.
Like I saw on Twitter was like that.
This game is drunk and it's like, yes, 100%.
I mean, that was some of the worst secondary play I've seen
in a college game on both sides. It was just guys were wide open
all over the place, bad tackling at one point.
Like when Indiana was making their final drive.
Connor Onion, who's doing play by play, who's actually should
be coming on the podcast today. We'll see.
We're having some scheduling issues, but he's probably
scheduling issues 'cause he's considering moving to another
continent after having to work with Matt Millen this entire
season. Sorry, what do you think they
Connor's like, what do you think they need here, Matt Matt's
like, oh, they got to get a big chunk play and it's like to say
oh and like then like you know Soresby throws for like 22
yards. Like there's a big chunk play.
It's just like it's like Mill was just calling it a My
favorite was Matt Millon explaining the wrong rule, or
explaining an NFL rule instead of a college rule, and then
explaining the rule that he was claiming to explain wrong.
Was one of the touchdowns. Again, I hate what let's just
say. I hate picking.
It's like, what are the touchdowns?
Like, and there's no flags, right when they put the big flag
Chiron up at the bottom, it's actually might be one.
He's like, well, I meant back on the line right now.
It's my my favorite. There was an early play we would
paddock the Illinois quarterback like almost throws an
interception out of like a third down and goal and Millan just
like oh this is a smart play by by paddock that it just like
goes on for like 30 seconds about what a great play was like
dude nearly throw an interception.
I mean it was I had I had a an unnamed student.
Keep in mind, like the students these days, all of them were
born after the year 2000. Like they they have not really
been fully introduced to the Matt Milan experience like our
generation unfortunately has. But this student texts me out of
the blue and just says I'm sorry I had to text you this.
Matt Milan is so terrible. Like, why?
Why? Why?
Why did they hire him? Why?
You know, I'm having a tough time listening.
It's that bad. He just won't shut up.
Poor Connor. Onion.
I wouldn't bring this up to Connor when you're talking to
him today, but it's just funny that even the youth realize
there's a real problem here in the booth.
Well, I mean, but this is still, you know, Big 10's still kind of
a, you know, mom and pop operation without a, oh, no,
wait, they have a $4 billion TV contract.
They get hired anyway. But no, it was funny that he
just, like said like, oh, they need a big chunk play and like,
boom, they. And it felt like every time you
turned up, there were big chunk plays.
I mean, on the positive side, Donovan McCauley looked
unguardable at times, like, you know, unguardable every time he
threw them. He either catch it or there'll
be a penalty. Like that was nice to see.
But I mean. It it was insane.
And then you something you mentioned you know it it the two
things you said you know First off the surrender ball it was
funny. I I this is one of those games I
started you know poking on Twitter just to see reaction as
it's going because like this is like bananas.
And again it's like it's funny how how much of A ghost town
Indiana football Twitter has become.
It's like the tumbleweeds going across and there's like there's
like four people who tweet about it and it's like.
Everybody else is like just not paying attention.
But I saw some Illinois fans who were pissed about their last
drive that they felt they played surrender ball, which they kind
of did. It's like these really are
mirror image teams of each other.
But then you also said about like you know how we we got, you
know, we were up 13 or so, we went down like 12.
And then with our backs against the wall, we we play better.
And like that is if I take away anything from this season or
even the last like 2 years like it.
Really is so annoying that it feels like this team back
against the wall doesn't even feel like enough of a, you know,
phrase. It's like they they have to be
against the Cliff with 1 foot kind of like dangling off and
rocks falling down in a cinematic way before they like
check back in and get going. It's like, had you just done
anything defensively in the course of the second-half and
you have those moments where it's like you have the game,
like you can put Illinois away, You don't.
It's like they always wait till they are back against the wall.
They did it in the season. Where it's like the Wisconsin
game was the last game you could possibly do anything.
This would have been nicer at the Rutgers game.
But hey, the Rutgers game, you weren't mathematically almost
out of it, so you don't play. So that that's your take away.
But definitely in this game, it's like they they kept on
checking back in when it was absolutely necessary.
Then your points like they get to overtime.
It's like, whoo, all right, We can just take a break.
And it's like, no, your backs are still against the wall.
Well, a lot of what happened last week I think got thrown
into greater question When you look at Northwestern waltzing in
to Madison and beating that same Wisconsin team 24 to 10 and
really it was 24 to 3. Like it was not that close.
Like weirdly enough, a 14 point loss at home to Northwestern
Wisconsin was actually not that close and they had their
starting quarterback back. So I mean, I when I look at that
Wisconsin game and we mentioned it a little bit in the pregame
pod, as much as that was a nice historic win for Indiana,
because any win over Wisconsin is a historic win.
I think it's pretty clear that the way Wisconsin's playing
right now, there's nothing that you could take out of Indiana's
performance in that game that we didn't keep that they'd actually
gotten better. I think they caught Wisconsin at
a very lucky time. Now when you look at this game
against Illinois, what sticks out is a couple of things.
I mean, first of all I want to talk about a couple of
positives. A I really like watching Brendan
Soresby and Brendan Soresby deserves a lot of credit for a
guy who has not exactly lit it up statistically so far this
season. He was able to take advantage of
what granted was a bad Illinois secondary, but he goes for 289
yards, 3 touchdowns. Only really weighed one major
mistake the whole game, which was that interception, but they
ended up not mattering too much. Rushed for two touchdowns, 53
yards total. Had that great run in the fourth
quarter to get Indiana, you know, back to a point where they
could think about tying the game up.
Made some tremendous throws. I'm really excited about Brendan
Soresby's ability to do a lot of things on the field, and I
really am excited about the partnership that he and Donovan
McAuley, who had also a tremendous game, 11 catches, 137
yards, 2 touchdowns, looked James Hardie esque out there in
terms of just how Illinois simply could not cover him like
that was really exciting. Trent Howland looked awesome
running the ball. You know, Josh Henderson didn't
look as awesome, but he he wasn't awful.
I mean, Indiana rushed for almost 4 yards of carry in this
game, Scott, which as we know watching this season is great.
Someone even you know, tweeted at us during the game that you
must be having a party because Indiana actually had a running
back score, a running touchdown. How do you feel about that?
First of all, let's let's dive into that.
Are you excited? It well but by the way it
happened on like it was the the closest possible non touchdown
is pop it was the ball barely crossed the I know they went to
the replay I was like no they're going to take they're going to
take them away from Scott we can't I was real I was pumped I
was like this is great I I kind of wanted that statistic to to
last throughout the season because like that would have
been a wild stat to go an entire conference season without a
running back scoring A touchdown But I was I I was keenly aware
of that they really tried to not make it happen they did.
I I'm with you on Mccully. I I thought he looked more
Hardy's a great cop. I thought it was more like Fry
Fogel in the 2020 season where just like you just throw it up
and he can go get it. The thing with Soresby agree
with all that. It's probably my last, you know,
pick up of the, the, the, the broadcast, but.
It's like I I've heard something new now because they kept on
talking about how he won the second quarterback battle of the
season. It's like the people who
invented, like, you know, second brunch or second dinner.
It's like, I don't really. I don't.
Never heard. Fourth meal quarterback battle,
4th meal. You what?
4th meal? 4th meal?
Yeah, but there's like, you know, I'm doing 2nd dinner or
like second lunch. It's like you're making up new
things that don't exist. It's like the second quarterback
battle. It's like that's a very kind way
to explain the way the quarterback situation isn't
handled. But he look you.
Look, it's like, all right, this is a steady hand like this is.
It's great. We have a great young
quarterback who is. Able to to run and throw and so
I'm with you. I look at Soresby and I'm like
that's something that you can build around for the next couple
of years. So I take a lot of stock in
that. Yeah, unfortunately, the bottom
fell out of almost everything else.
I mean, the offensive line play for Indiana was really uneven
and it, while it certainly gave Soresby some time, there were
also moments where it just kind of disintegrated.
But for once, I mean, I think the offensive line point you can
say was kind of, you know, relatively even.
It wasn't great, but it wasn't disastrous.
And like it was, frankly in parts of the Wisconsin game in
the second-half where Wisconsin was just teeing off.
But no, the big problem in this one, unfortunately, was
Indiana's defense. And it's hard to really put your
head around how bad this defensive performance was.
And what makes it even more stunning is, you know, this is
Tom Allen's side of the ball. You know, whether he's directly
calling the plays or, you know, or whether it's Matt Greeri,
this is Tom Allen's baby. You know, defense first, coach,
defense, first program. They gave up an ungodly amount
of yards in this game. 662 yards surrendered, 507 passing yards.
They allowed Paddock the the the transfer from Ball State to
average 14.1 yards per pass, not per completion per pass.
They also gave up 155 yards on the ground.
And when you look at what Indiana allowed in this game and
you think about how much this whole team is supposed to be
predicated on defensive effort and limiting the opponent and
bending but not breaking, we've heard about that for a long
time. Like this felt like the bottom
falling out of the one thing that Indiana, you know, kept
saying that they were focusing on.
It's not that surprising if you look at it in in the hole.
As you and I have talked about, Indiana's defense has not been
very good all year. The statistics play that out.
S&P Plus does not like the defense.
It's just statistically not been a good performance.
But this was like at the absolute worst time against an
opponent that, frankly, has been really bad offensively.
I mean, Illinois has been averaging about 300 and 53160
yards a game. They've only been averaging
about 20 some points a game. 2122 to allow them to score 48
points and almost double their average yardage with a backup
quarterback. Is it almost.
You almost can't find the words for how unfortunate and how
disappointing that is and for that to essentially be the thing
that ends Indiana's chances of a post season.
Again, it was always a faint hope, but I think everybody
would have expected that it would have been the offense not
coming through that would have caused the problems for the
offense to solve some of its problems, again against a weak
Illinois defense, but for the defense to completely abdicate
its responsibilities in the secondary for basically the
entire game? I don't know what you can do
other than just kind of shake your head and say, well, I'm not
shocked, but it is surprising. So the two things, you know, we
we play the drive chart game a lot on this podcast.
There's only four drives in the entire game, two each half where
Illinois didn't score points, which is not great.
My take away was this is what I was kind of digging around this
morning. You know, I I think it's really
not a a fair glimpse of this season and kind of a negative
way to just be like, well man, that was a historically bad
performance. Because here's the thing that we
let Illinois score the most points they've scored all
season, 48 points. You said they averaged 23.
I will ask you, do you know how many other teams this year we've
let score the most points they've had all season against
us? I don't, actually.
So it's it's three, but there's two asterisks for a total of 5 S
Rutgers. We gave up 31 to Rutgers, but
they averaged 24 a game and they're too high as like 34 and
36 or something. But Michigan, we gave up the
most points they scored all season.
We're tied with Minnesota. Not a great place to be. 52
points to Michigan, they averaged 39.
Maryland, we gave up the most points they scored all season,
44. They averaged 28.
And then Akron gets another asterisk as this, the second
most points they've given up all season.
And I, I, I kind of count that because you shouldn't be giving
up the second most points to an Akron type team when you're
playing them at home. They average 15 points a season.
We gave up 27 to them so. In 30% a game, not a season.
But yes, sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, they in 30% of our
games this year, we've let the team score the most points
they've scored all season in 50% of the games.
If you count Rutgers and Akron, we're letting teams score above
their average in 50% of our games.
That's astonishingly bad. Like that is just not something
you should be allowing. Three other things.
I don't want this. We're not trying to pile on, but
I think it's important to their stats, their stats and but it's
also like it's just kind of stunning.
I mean, this is the most points Illinois has scored against a
Big 10 opponent since November 3rd, 2018 when they beat
Minnesota 55 to 31. A similar kind of game from a
score line perspective. A lot of people online were
bringing up. The is like shades of 8320.
You know that loss that Indiana had to Wisconsin.
But it's fascinating. Indiana only gave up 598 yards
in that game which which is which is 60 yards less basically
than they gave up in this game. Don't break defense, Galen.
The The one other thing I think is just it's it's hard to get
your head wrapped around in this game.
Illinois. Defensively.
Well, I guess offensively feeds in this too a little bit, but
they committed 14 penalties for 139 yards and Indiana still lost
the game and gave up 662 total yards.
I mean, it is the and we've seen Indiana really struggle
defensively at times, but it's normally they're playing Ohio
State, right, or they're playing Michigan for this Illinois team
to go off like this against Indiana.
You know the the After scoring 43 points or 48 points in this
game, Illinois average points per game is still only 23.8
points per game for this entire season.
The only other time this year that this Illinois team was able
to score more than 27 points. Was when they scored thirty
against Toledo in the opening game of the season and they had
to drive down the field on the last drive of the game and kick
a game-winning field goal in that one.
So yeah, it's it's bad and I feel, I I really feel bad for
you know some of the players on defense that.
Had you know had some good individual performances
throughout the course of the year.
I've been the secondary just it was it was baffling watching it.
I mean I know you watched it the same way I did Scott and I mean
even even the commentators were talking about it like every time
it just if there was either a guy that fell down or a bad
angle taken or communication thing.
Tom Allen, the post game was like well you know fundamentals.
And I'm like I don't understand how fundamentals.
Are still a problem like basic thing Not not like.
Oh, I don't understand how you know this too deep coverage is
supposed to operate against this particular offense.
No fundamentals, like here's the angle you take to tackle a
person or I'm sorry, coaching fundamentals on in his post
game, he also said that on one of the defensive plays they
didn't get the call into the defense and so that was the
cause of one of the blown coverages.
Defense didn't have a play. And it's like, how are we at
this point in playoff time at the end of the?
Season not able to get a a freaking play in to the defense.
It's it, it's completely, I mean it's not baffling because I
think you know it's it's very, very disappointing.
But I think as we've talked about throughout the course of
this season, it became apparent early on and I think the fans
kind of caught on after a couple of games, that this team really
just never had it together. And while I think you give them,
certainly give them credit for taking care of the Wisconsin
game and and winning that at the end.
A, it doesn't look like Wisconsin's a very good team at
this point. And B, there's there's a clear
issue where this team operates like a boat that's got a bunch
of leaks and you know you plug one and another one springs up.
I mean it's it never seems to be a situation where everything is
under control and working properly and.
When you get into a game like this, the concern I had was that
Illinois, while certainly not a good team, at least understood
how to win games and be in in in in contention.
We've seen them blow important games last year.
We've seen them blow important games this year, but they've
also had the ability to kind of rise above and barely win games
that they needed and. I did worry in a situation where
Indiana had to go into a dogfight that they weren't going
to be able to do that. You know the.
I think the offense deserves a bunch of credit for that last
drive where you know, they could have just given up.
But they did drive down the field.
They got us into the into the end zone.
They sent it to overtime. I still don't understand what
the play calling was in overtime though.
And this is the thing. It's like the.
What I can't grasp, I mean, you know, there was Brandon Sorsby
was interviewed after the game. We as much as we just talked
about how bad the defense was. Clearly how bad the defense had
been, how they were incapable of of covering people regularly.
They were letting Paddock throw the ball all over the place.
Brandon Sorsby said in the post game press conference that the
last two plays, the second down and the third down play in the
overtime were designed quarterback draws, which.
That's not getting the job done when it comes to, hey, we need
to score a touchdown. It was it was almost exactly
what happened in the Penn State game where Indiana gets the
interception. You know they're at the with the
30 yard line, they they know they're probably not going to be
able to stop Penn State if Penn State gets the ball back and
they are tied. And yet they play for a field
goal here in this game. They needed to score a touchdown
because the chances that Indiana's defense, from all the
evidence that we had seen for the entire rest of the game, was
going to be able to stop Illinois from scoring A
touchdown, the chances were like almost zero.
And yet in that moment, IU decided that they were going to
essentially play for a field goal.
You don't call 2 quarterback draws on what, Second and ten
and third and eight or whatever it was and think that that is
legitimately going to get you into the end zone.
And that's really, I think again, it's not disappointing
because I'm not surprised, but it is just kind of a testimonial
on what this season has been and where this team is at right now
and and what the coaching decisions have been like.
It didn't put Indiana in a position to win.
It was in. It basically put Indiana in a
position where. They weren't going to
immediately lose, but it set them self.
It set them up for failure when Illinois got the ball back.
And that play that Illinois scored on was exactly the kind
of play that you would have expected Illinois would have
scored on A roll out off of an initial pressure where the
secondary couldn't cover and that was that.
And that to lose in that way after everything that happened
in that game just kind of boggles the mind to me.
It's even more frustrating because everything you said is
correct. But on the flip side, you know,
it wasn't just that we couldn't stop Illinois.
It's that, you know, this. This reminded me of.
I never actually had this scenario.
But like when you used to play Tecmo Bowl on the old NES, it's
like if someone's controller was, like, just jammed and they
couldn't pick one of the defenses.
It's like we had the same thing against Illinois.
Like our offense was able to just run down the field.
Soresby had just thrown two fantastic passes.
Guys were wide open and slanting across the middle and it's like
we know that if we throw run, if we throw things like that, if we
just go to Mcculley, if we do the bottom and a play on Tecmo
Bowl, the other team doesn't isn't able to run the defense
for that. So we're going to do something
and it's like now let's see what the quarterback sneak does like.
That's the frustrating part. It's not just that we knew our
defense was going to have a hard time stopping their offense.
It's that we knew that Illinois defense was going to have a hard
time stopping our offense because they just did in like 3
similar plays. And that's that is always the
galling part is like so rarely in Indiana football history do
we have somebody where it's like we have the Frye Fogel, where
it's like this guy looks unguardable and you know that
the great thing about that season is like we just kept
going to him. It's like this is great.
We have something that other teams have a hard time stopping.
You started to see that with the Soresby to Donovan Mccully
connection there and they just didn't do it once.
Like that's that combination is tailor built for an overtime.
It's like that's great, just run McCauley to the end zone, throw
it up and maybe you get a pass interference.
Maybe he catches it with A1 hand amazing catch like he did last
week. That's the galling part.
It's the same thing that was galling against Penn State and
it's the IT like you said it perfect kind of the the the
count give up ball would you call it.
Surrender. Ball the what?
Surrender, Ball. Surrender ball.
Yes. No.
It's like it it it it has this like, Oh well now like now we're
actually, there's there's real stakes We could actually win
this game. So now we got to go back to the
the the the real coaching of like you know 2 yards in a cloud
of dust like no, like just keep doing what you've been doing.
Stop overthinking this. It's it's frustrating.
It's madding. But it it kind of is.
It is what we expected from this season.
Yeah. It's just a shame.
I mean I was excited about it would have been great to have
gone into the last go to Detroit.
Well yeah, well just just the idea that Indiana you know,
could have potentially won the last four would have been such a
cool story, such an unusual thing.
And the the sad thing is you know, on the one hand if you
look at the post game win expectancy, which is basically
again for those who are new to the show, if you look at the
statistics. You can do essentially a
question of what would these statistics historically how how
likely were you to have won the game whether or not you actually
won it? Illinois post game win
expectancy in this game was 91.5%.
So if Indiana had won the game, Illinois would have been hard
done by. But to lose in this way, To
allow Illinois to just pass all over you?
To allow this transfer quarterback from Ball State to
essentially have. A career game and to put
yourself in a position where you're sitting here on Sunday
morning, your season's essentially over you.
I mean, Indiana's not going to, you know, I I really have a hard
time seeing them even getting to five and seven and getting like
an APR bowl bit at this point. But to to be sitting here and
saying, gosh, we we had that one in one way or another.
We were in the game. We were up by 15 points.
And you couldn't figure out a way to just play average defense
the rest of the way. It's just another illustration,
unfortunately, of how far away this program still is from being
competitive. I mean, I was joking on Twitter
yesterday. Like, this is for those people
who have been talking about the Wilson era but weren't around
for it. Like this game had a lot of of
reminiscent aspects of Wilson era games, but the difference
was like Indiana. They would.
They were winning five or six games in those regular seasons
and look, five or six wins or five wins, I'm sorry, six wins
is off the board. Five wins is not out of the
question with IU, but it seems unlikely because at this point I
just I have a hard time seeing Indiana being able to get
mentally up. For these games the way they
were the last couple of weeks, because as you mentioned, like
you go, you could talk about playoff mode or whatever, but
all you have to do is go back to homecoming, Rutgers game, key
game. Indiana basically didn't perform
in that one either. It's just it's unfortunate
because as much as gets talked about like Indiana doesn't have
the right talent, you know, a lot of it is that Indiana
doesn't seem to be able to properly motivate itself.
In some of these games, and the Toledo game was a great example
of that from earlier on or not, the Toledo the Akron game was
was like that from earlier this year where it's like, you know,
you're like that doesn't mentally block out a lot.
Right. No, sorry, we added that
afterwards. No, but but you know, you think
about that one, you know and it's actually there's some
analogues there where in that game Indiana had a had played
really well in the previous week in the second-half against
Louisville, they came up short. They have that Akron game.
And they just weren't engaged mentally.
And they, you know, they probably should have lost that
game, but they pulled it out at the very end here.
They're coming off a win against Wisconsin where they didn't play
great, but they played well enough to win.
And all you needed to do was kind of copy and paste the
defensive effort and the overall mental focus of that game into
this one. And Indiana showed themselves
unable to do it. And it's not like they did it
against a great opponent, this Illinois team.
I mean, they'll probably get bow eligible.
They're only one win away. But it's a, it's a it's a team
that took a step back and for them to not even have their
starting quarterback out there and allow this amount of
offensive performance on the part of Illinois, it just you
have to ask questions about like what is the preparation?
Like what is the approach? Why is Indiana constantly
struggling? To get up for games like this,
when this entire program is supposed to be built off of
emotion, you would think this would be when Indiana has the
most emotion, not when Indiana would struggle to do the basics.
And I don't think that the answer is, oh, they were too
emotional because they weren't like, look out there that this
was, this was like a pure breakdown of basic tactical and
strategic approaches. And it was the coaches as much
as it was the players. Like it wasn't, you know, I
don't think it was like just, you know, well, gosh, that they
were calling a great game. They weren't.
I mean there were plenty of problems with the way the game
was called and some of the strategy taking a time out on a
two point attempt when it didn't really matter.
I mean stuff like that. I mean that stuff was still
there but it was also that unfortunately the secondary in
particular was just not executing and and that ended up
being the death knell for the season.
Yes, yes. And you know not to take too
wide of a lens because we'll have time for this but you you
mentioned Wilson. I've been you know breaking down
the number of wins that Allen needs in this three-year stretch
to to match other coaches worst three-year stretches.
You know Wilson had five Big Ten wins from 2011 to 2013 a not a
great stretch. So Allen's going to need three
more Big Ten wins to to to beat that.
Not going to be able to do it. He can match A5.
You know, Allen now is 3 and 22 in Big 10 play over three years.
He's got two more to get to at least tie Wilson.
But you know that the larger view of this is, you know, just
like this Illinois game isn't just an outlier for this year on
the defense. This year's defense isn't an
outlier like you're you're mentioning, you know, this team
was supposed to be built on, you know, emotion and really it was
supposed to be built on defense. Like that was the whole calling
card. The last three years our defense
has been awful. So it's not just a well, you
know, something happened this year, your new coordinate.
No, this has been a a bad trend and it does always beg to answer
that question of like what what is the identity of this team?
Because it doesn't, as you mentioned, doesn't seem to be
emotion or playing with passion or getting up for the right
games. That's not, it doesn't seem to
be defense and I wouldn't say anybody's like, well, this is
definitely an offensive explosion team.
It's not there outside of this Illinois game.
So it does just kind of beg the question, you know, what is the
identity of this team? But that's we will have more
time to go a little bit bigger picture.
But that is, those are the things stewing in my mind
because, yeah, you know, as you look out the rest of this year,
you still have, you know, you still have two not bowl games
that you have, you know, trophy games, you have the Michigan
State game, you have the Purdue game.
Obviously both of them are struggling teams.
They're both games that are winnable.
But it it does beg the question, Galen, of like what?
This is a tough spot because if you win one of those two, which
seems like it could very well be a possibility of going like 1:00
and 1:00, you've now matched whatever you did last year.
You know, from a record perspective, is that is that
good enough? Like even if you get both of
them, you've won three of your last four, but you've only
increased by one win. Like you're making very small
incremental gains. I I know we'll have time at the
end of the season, but it's just at this point you do kind of
look at it as like what this is a I'm going to be very
interested to see how they wrap this up because it's like there
isn't a ton to play for, but there is because it's like, are
you going to be worse than last year, the same or incrementally
better? None of them are really good
answers. But I I think if you just, if
they don't, if they're not able to come up for any of the final
two games, you know it's it's going to be even more concerning
than it is now. Well, I think, and this was
brought up by one of our friends of the show, and I think it's a
good point, I mean. One of the problems I think that
Indiana's going to run into down the stretch potentially is that
the the defense is full of transfers.
I mean, you know, so you got two rivalry games the rest of the
way. The season's largely over.
You have to win both games to even have an outside shot at an
APR bowl. And for those who don't know
what I'm talking about, there's always more bowl spots than
there are eligible bowl teams and so.
The NCAA has this calculus where based on your academic progress
report, you could potentially slide into one of those empty
slots as a five and seven team if you have the you know if
you're good in the APRI don't know what the rankings are.
I'll look that up real quick here.
But the problem is a lot of this defensive group is either brand
new to the team because they're freshmen or they're brand new to
the team because they're transfers.
There's a ton of transfers in here.
I don't know how engaged that group as a whole is really going
to be over the course of these last two games.
I mean, and I'm not questioning their dedication, but I just,
you don't have that kind of ingrained.
Like from the moment we got here, we got to win the Splatoon
and we got to win the bucket. I don't know how much that's
actually there. I also worry because you look at
these two teams that Indiana's playing, I mean Michigan State,
while they are, they look dead on arrival.
They did manage to beat. Nebraska a couple of weeks ago
and they can show a pulse when they need to.
Yeah, when they need to. And I don't know if anybody
noticed, but Purdue offensively looked real good against
Minnesota yesterday. They put 49 points up, I think
it was. You look at Indiana's defensive
performance against Illinois and it's like, wow, at Ross Aid.
You know the one thing Purdue could do this year that would
kind of salvage their season? That's going to be a really
tough game. I don't think you can bank on
that at all And so it is, it's a bad situation.
I think that a lot of you know and what you worry about.
I think psychologically with the team you lose a game like this
the way that you lose it you're it's going to have a knock on
effect where you're going to struggle to get up for that next
game or those next couple of games.
You get guys who are just like, you know, man, I'd I'd really
just like this season to be over.
This has kind of been a season from hell.
It really is a bad scenario for Indiana going down the stretch
here the rest of the way. And I do worry about how they're
going to react as we go into this Michigan State game and
beyond. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I guess using my logic of like back against the
wall, like APR Bowl is like as, as close to the back against the
wall as you can get. Like there's no more, there's
really no more options after that.
But no, it's it's tough to, you know, this is always the trouble
of, you know, coaching on emotion or vibes, as you say, is
it. It's tough every week to be
like, all right now we're in playoff mode and you went.
Like once you're out of playoff mode, Alright, well now we're
in, you know, now we're in Splatoon mode or now we're in,
you know, trophy mode. It's like you can't keep
changing the mode. And like now we're doing this
and now we're doing that. And I know you're you're right
about the playing for something. You know the the podcast they
did a couple weeks ago with Raphael Davis, he he mentioned
that's kind of what was hurting from his view.
Indiana basketball in in the Indiana Purdue game is they had
so many guys who just weren't from Indiana and then the
coaching staff didn't really, you know engage older players.
And so he's like felt like Purdue cared more about it than
Indiana did And then you know that has changed under Woodson.
You see the results. I think it's a very great point
by you. It's like, I don't know.
Yeah, like all the Splatoon. It's like, what's this guy
talking about? Like I'm from, I'm from Florida.
Like I don't. OK Sounds great, man.
It's like I don't know how much that you're right, how much it
really matters. How much connection has been
built up. And you can't just turn on the
interest from a you just can't be like, all right, well, now
we're going to care about the bucket.
It's like, well, if you haven't built that over a season, nobody
cares. If I've if and.
I may have the wrong numbers here, but I believe Indiana's
APR ranking that they would use, and this is through the 2022
season, is 976, which is tied for 45th in the country teams
ahead of them. I mean, I don't, I'd have to go
back and look at all these rankings, but it's not.
It's not impossible that Indiana might qualify, but they're
certainly not high in the overall APR ranking set up.
They're kind of right in the middle of the pack, so.
It may not even be a possibility as far as this team's concerned.
It certainly won't be a possibility if they lose either
of the remaining two games. And at this point, I mean I this
is where you're the one thing that I was hesitant on.
Even though I picked Indiana to win the Illinois game, I thought
it'd be a close low scoring game.
I was right about half of that. But but you know, Indiana was
still rated as likely to lose that game.
Now a couple of things I'll I'll note they are according to.
ESPN Analytics FPI has Indiana as a 56% favorite against
Michigan State 56.4 to 43.6. But but Indiana is definitely an
underdog statistically to Purdue.
Purdue has a 62 1/2% shot of winning that game and so look, I
won't be shocked if they go out and beat Michigan State on
Saturday. But I would be really surprised
if they won both of the games down the stretch.
And at this point it's like, I just, I don't know what you look
at with IU and say I can count on that thing happening.
As good as the offense looked in this Illinois game, it looked
awful the week before. It looked OK, but it was really
defined by big plays the the game before that, and it looked
awful against Rutgers. The game before that, the
defense looked awful against Illinois, looked pretty good
against Wisconsin, was pretty good against Penn State, and
looked awful against Rutgers. It is almost like impossible to
count on anything when it comes to how any aspect of Indiana
football is going to perform, including special teams.
You know James Evans. Had a tremendous game against
Maryland. Had a pretty average game in
punting. You know the return game has
looked good in some games. Had like multiple penalties
against Illinois that wiped off of a big Jalen Lucas return.
I mean it's there's just such A and that really is I think
ultimately what it comes down to.
Scott, this program is so defined by its inconsistency at
this point. And that to me goes right back
to how the team is structured, how the team is being coached,
how the team is being managed. And there at this point in Week
10 going into or Game 10 going into Game 11, there's, I don't
think there's any fixing that. I think that's just who Indiana
is. And if we're being honest,
that's who Indiana has been for almost the last three full
seasons. Yeah, I mean, I was trying to
think as the game, you know, as these games go on, I try and
think, you know, what are my main feelings, 'cause I know
we're going to pot about it, you know, as it looked like Indiana
was going to win, it's like, all right, you know, positives out
of the stats and things like that.
But I was you know, my one of my thoughts was going to be it's
like it's still going to be really hard to just dive in and
be like, all right now I think we can win all four of these and
go to Detroit and win a bull. It's like, it's just it it
there's inconsistencies and it's like, you know everything.
With the Wisconsin game we talked about and even had
Indiana won that game yesterday, it's like there was a lot of
defensive red flags that would have scared me about just going
all in and being like I I have faith I'm willing to open my
guard up and go to the Michigan State game and expect to win.
Everything you said is valid and it's something that that does
need to be looked at and addressed and taken care of.
Because unfortunately you know what's going to get lost to the
sands of time is how winnable these last four games really
were. That Illinois team is not a team
that should be putting up 600 yards plus of offense.
Michigan State is not having a good season.
Purdue, while we're not favored to beat them, is also not having
a good season. This is as soft an end to a Big
10 season I I can remember us having for for years.
I mean this broke perfectly for us after year of year of the Big
10 not breaking Well for us schedule wise, this really broke
perfectly even throw the Rutgers game in there.
It's not like Rutgers or something.
They didn't what didn't score against Iowa last week.
It's not like Rutgers or something like we're just kind
of like that's what's frustrating with this is this
stuff just kind of gets rolled away.
It's like oh, who's going to be Rutgers home?
Like we should have like that's who should have won.
Like this is a, you know, you again you can't just say we'll
give us all those wins but like you win these four, you you add
the Rutgers win in there like it's A7 win team.
Like that's that's what we call a good season around here in
Bloomington. And that that really wasn't a
bridge. It should not have been a bridge
too far for a coach at this point, for what he's done and
what he's shown to be able to do.
But it's all going to get washed away and just this is another
just garbage three or four win season.
And it's frustrating because it's like, no, there really was
a lot more on the table here. And you know, we always joke
about why can't things just break our way for a season.
It's like, like I said, the schedule did kind of break for
us this year and it was there to go get a six or seven win season
with a team that probably isn't a six or seven win team.
But you could have snuck your way in there and and they just
didn't capitalize on any of that.
Yeah. No, it's it's a real shame.
And I mean, at the end of the day, you've got the micro, which
is what you just described, and you've got the macro, which is
that in the last 25 games that Indiana's played in the Big 10.
They're 3 and 22 now, and that's not going to get her done.
They've they've lost those games by an average margin of 35 to 16
now, and that's with scoring 45 points against Illinois.
And the three wins are a six point win against Wisconsin, an
8 point double overtime win against Michigan State, and a
three-point win against Illinois.
That's the only games that Indiana's won.
In their last 25 in conference and you look at the results of
this Illinois game and the way it went down and you can kind of
see why. So anyway, so Indiana goes into
these last couple of games and we'll see what happens.
Obviously there are trophy games on the line here and and you
know, one hopes that Indiana's able to, you know, pull it
together and at the very least be able to do some damage
against the Michigan State team that well, you know, certainly
we acknowledge that they are. A potentially tough opponent.
Realistically, it's it's a bad Michigan State team.
It's a team that that statistically has just dropped
off a Cliff since the start of the season.
Not surprising given the upheaval at the head coach
position. But I would be concerned if I
was Indiana because you know, at the end of it all, I just, you
know that your team's got real mentality issues and and you
know where where it's going to be interesting I think for
Michigan State is. Their Their big problem this
year has been their offense. You know, you look over the
course of the games they've played since Big 10 play
started. They scored nine against
Maryland, 16 against Iowa, 24 against Rutgers, zero against
Michigan, 12 against Minnesota, 20 against Nebraska, and then
three against Ohio State. But it's also important to note
that they were leading that Rutgers game in the fourth
quarter, and it was at Rutgers. And Rutgers has been a pretty
good team so far this year. It's not improbable or it's not
impossible. I guess that Michigan State
could come in and do some damage.
So Indiana still with some work to do put a little pride on the
end of the season and then I guess we'll see what happens
moving forward. And and again, I do like the
fact that they seem to have a starting quarterback in Brendan
Soresby and it and I think at this point it's like your goal
has to be get Brendan Soresby as many reps, doing as many things
as possible, get the offensive line reps so that they continue
to gel as a unit. You know, continue to feed
Donovan Mccully the football. Because so far it doesn't seem
like when you target him, teams can effectively cover him.
Especially not teams in this echelon, you know, not the not
the Ohio State's and Michigan's, but the Illinois and the
Michigan State's and the Wisconsin's.
And just, you know, you've got two games left.
They're both trophy games. Win those games.
And I guess we figure out what happens moving forward from
there. You can build into an offseason
like you haven't been able to do for a couple of years.
You know going into 2021 you had Pennex, but there's a lot of
questions about his health. Going into 2022, you had a, you
know you you had Baselack as a, you know, starting transfer
quarterback. I'm not picking the quarterbacks
in important spots of looking at that.
And then going into this year, it's like you you finish season
with Dexter Williams. He gets injured last year.
You come into this year with obviously the the battle we've
joked about. You know, this could be the
first time in three years if, if you like, continue to give
Soresby some reps, continue to kind of build out the framework
of an offense around what Soresby can do.
You know, you you go into next year with really the first time
in four years of, you know, we know what our plan is.
We have an identity. We have a quarterback to lead
this team. We have a wide receiver like you
have some pieces there that are interesting.
And so now is the time to go build, start building that
framework, and start kind of building toward next year.
So we'll we'll be back later on this week, and it'll be a kind
of a weird setup next weekend as we'll, Scott and I will likely
be doing a postgame pod together in person.
New York from an undisclosed location which might be the the
largest city in the United States.
So we'll, I think we can say New York without like giving away
where we're going to join to be as long.
You know, maybe we maybe we'll pop up in Dallas.
I don't know. I mean, we don't.
They've invited us to the College Football Playoff
committee. No.
So, but anyway, we appreciate all you folks for tuning in and
listening. And unfortunately, another IU
season without a bowl. Unless something magical happens
with the APR, we have to keep out a slim amount of hope that
that might happen. So I gotta, I gotta wrap up with
this. Sorry.
Just I'm going to cut in at the end here.
I got to give the neighborhood update.
This is just because it's been such fodder on the pod
yesterday. I could you wanted to podcast a
little early yesterday which sometimes we try and reschedule
these things. I couldn't because we were we
had a hard cider around the neighborhood and we were playing
yard games which was fun but so that's why I sent you a couple
of audio messages just like here if you want to do a pod, like I
just like walked away while we're playing you know can jam
and I'm just like yelling into my phone.
Well I'm like 70% drunk on cider and I got I got progressively
more drunk and worse at can jam today.
People love our we are doing a neighborhood.
We do this yearly a neighborhood chili cook off.
So we all go to one of our neighbor's house.
Everyone brings a chili. This is the first year we're
having a kids competition of chili and we have we have prizes
awards a leaderboard. So my wife made a fantastic
we've been kind of perfecting over the last couple of weeks
made it chili. We're trying something new this
year where we are a different recipe but we are she made it
yesterday has it sitting in the fridge to kind of like ferment
and try and you know hopefully get some of the the flavors in.
But yes it's it's chili cook off day here in the neighborhood.
That's what do you. OK?
What's your chili recipe? I'm curious so our go to for a
couple years was a white chili, a white chicken chili, which I
love but it it didn't it didn't win.
So we were seeing you know we we we started to do some scouting
as the Harbaugh would do. We started seeing what was
winning and it seemed to be the the more like tomatoey based
meteor chilies. I'm more on the connoisseur
eating side and the making side. So maybe this is where we might
need to bring Marcy in to do like the chili corner maybe
that's more premium that would that may not be great premium
kind of kick our premium people off, but it's it's more like a
lot of meat sausage kind of tomato based you know more
seasoned. So we're trying that last year
somebody made one with Doctor Pepper as a base and that one,
you know? Doctor Pepper.
Those who aren't watching, you've missed the disdain on
Scott's. Case as he said that just like
it's like they cheated but they won.
That's tremendous. It's like, it's like watching
Iowa win a Big 10 championship with their style of football.
That's the equivalent of using Doctor Pepper as a chili base,
right. It's, it's not something, yeah,
it seems a little bit out there, but yeah, so that's kind of
that's that that's that's what we're going with this year.
So we'll see him. Well.
Best of luck to you all. I'm I'm fascinated.
I mean, I've never had Wagyu chili before but I'm sure it
will be delightful for you in the neighborhood.
But real quick though, before we break up for for the pod for
this podcast, we're not breaking up forever.
I promise. But I'm sorry Scott, I I was
saving this until now. But Indiana played their first
game this past week in basketball.
Men's basketball. They they, of course, struggle a
little bit. Against Florida Gulf Coast but
they end up winning that game. They play their second game
later on this evening as they take on Army first time
Indiana's actually played against the service Academy
which which was an interesting I yeah, I was shocked that army
all the years under night they never played army once.
So and our our buddy IU artifacts actually texted the
group yesterday that Indiana never played Army.
But they did invite Mike Schefsky's army to come play in
the Indiana Classic I think back in 1977 or 78 so Army has played
in Assembly Hall before but they haven't played Indiana.
The Army lost that year to Washington.
So but you know the Army probably the weakest opponent
that Indiana's going to face in the non conference they're
they're pretty bad and but you know so we're I'm not too
worried they've already lost to Marist and Stonehill.
So far this season they're they're very bad offensive team.
But let me, let me, I guess start off by asking you your
reflections from that Florida Gulf Coast game now that we've
had a few days to digest it. I was.
I I still feel the same way that I did during the game.
I I was very encouraged with what I saw.
And I think you and I are kind of simpatico in what we are
looking for this season that you know, at A at a high scale of
this team is going to be I I've said this for a while, they're
going to be better and different in March than they are now and
it's going to take some time to get there.
And I think this was a perfect example of it that, you know,
you saw some corners of the fan base like, Oh my God, like they
looked horrible. They weren't ready.
And it's like, well, that that's part of the process of getting
better in March than it does now.
Like there's going to be some bumps.
There's going to be sometimes we don't look fantastic, but my
takeaways are looking for the areas where I think you can
really improve and like where are there things.
And you know to me Khalil Ware was great on defense.
You know he had a couple of tremendous blocks.
But you know after that you saw got you guys saw from Florida
Gulf Coast, they drive in and just immediately like turn
around like they like he he started to affect the game in
the post. We also just had, you know I was
saying to somebody else like just a lot of dudes like
McKenzie, Mimbako and Anthony Walker, you know just and and
you know and where. But like a lot of just big
athletic, long guys we knew were going to be there.
They didn't have awesome games and yes offensively needs to be
worked on, but defensively they were there.
They were making it just look like just such a different team
than we've seen the last couple of years And it does.
I I truly believe our ceiling is much higher than it's been the
last couple years. I do think our floor is also
lower. Whether we can get there is
going to be interesting. I thought Gabe Cubs played
really well when he was in there.
There was. So that that was kind of my very
high level take away is yes. At times it didn't look pretty.
At times there were things that didn't look great.
But to me, it's like that is, I think that's what we're going to
see for probably the next month to month and a half.
And there's going to be some losses.
You and I are going to New York. We're probably going to lose to
UConn. I'm not going to be happy about
it in the moment, but I do think this is where people need to
realize that this is what's so different about this team versus
the last couple years is the last couple years you kind of
came in with a fully formed unit and identity.
They knew what they were going to do.
This team is going to be figuring it out.
But there are flashes of parts where you're like, what?
I mean, it's not the best example, but this last week was
also the week I saw Victor Wimbunyama play in person in at
Gambridge against the Pacers and he didn't have a great game.
But there was two or three moments from it's like wow, like
whoa, that is something I haven't seen before.
And you know, I, I, I look at the same thing with Indiana.
It's like I just saw us doing things offensively and
defensively. I just haven't seen the last
couple of years. And so I to me all those
reasons, I was very I looked at the positives.
Maybe I'm trying to, maybe I'm too pollyannish, but that that's
how I viewed that game and I'm going to try and view the next
month, a month and 1/2. I agree.
I mean a couple of things. First of all, we talked before
the season. This was not going to be a team
that hit the ground running at full speed.
At the beginning in November, if you thought that, I don't know
why I really, other than just not paying attention, but but I
I do know there are people like that.
They don't pay attention to any of the preseason stuff.
And then they're shocked when the players from last year
aren't on the team anymore. It's it's a race.
Where is he? In the.
But I'll say this, a couple of things stuck out to me A.
Khalil. Khalil Ware.
It's not Khalil. It's Khalil.
We've we've been corrected on this.
My apologies. It's also apparently Xavier
Johnson, so my apologies as well.
We're. I'm going to try to fix that.
Scott is freaked right now. You should see his face.
Oh yeah. I'm just going to start.
Yeah, but. Khalil Ware did hit the ground
running. I mean eight for 12 from the
free throw line was you know it was it only took. 5 total shots
he was. He was 2 for five, hit a three,
had 12 rebounds, had four assists, had three blocks.
I mean, yes, it was Florida Gulf Coast, a small team.
He had at least a four inch height advantage over every
player except Andre Ware who came in off the bench.
But to to hear all offseason how Khalil Ware was low motor, how
he was lazy, how he was disengaged and to watch him play
that way, I was really encouraged and look.
As much as I'm not going to jump negatively on things that I see
in first games and and get overwrought over them, I'm also
not going to jump on things that are overly positive and say see,
I told you, but that was nice to see against a team that's not
bad. I mean that's a Florida Gulf
Coast team that could certainly win their conference.
That's certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with.
I think, you know, down the stretch and I think they're in
the Atlantic Sun, yes they are. I I OK, good.
I I memorized that, but it was nice.
But to watch him come out and play well was good.
I I was great seeing Xavier Johnson back on the floor.
Did he have his best offensive game?
No, but it was fine. And I thought Trey Galloway
looked really good throughout the course of the game.
You know, Imbacco certainly needs some time to adapt to the
college game. It was just nice to see him out
there in uniform, even if he didn't play that much in the
second-half. It was great to see Mike Woodson
saying, you know what, we're making an alteration here.
We're going with a three guard line up down the stretch as
opposed to, oh, we have to play Imbaco because he's a 5 star.
And I'm worried about our reputation like it was.
No, it's like, hey, you know what?
Gabe Cups as a third guard is going to give us a better chance
to win down the stretch. So I'm going to go with that.
I what I found fascinating was as much talk about depth as
happened in the offseason. In this game, at least, Indiana
really only played seven guys in double figures in terms of
minutes. I mean, CJ Gunn played 9
minutes. It's kind of on the borderline.
But even then, it's like that's eight guys and that's kind of
what we talked about, Scott. Like the idea that Indiana
needed to run 10 deep, I think was always a weird perspective
because a lot of teams do really well when they are focused on
having a smaller number of players playing the minutes.
And I was encouraged, I think, by the fact that Indiana didn't
try to force extra pieces out on the floor.
Now when Peyton Sparks comes back, that might change a little
bit. Or it might just mean that, you
know what? Hey, Anthony Walker, Caleb
Banks, CJ Gunn, you're all competing for a smaller number
of minutes or maybe not even playing, which is kind of what
you want out of your 789 guys. Like you want them to really
maximize the time that they're out on the floor and realize
that if they don't, someone else will.
I mean, Woodson, it felt like in the post game press conference
was even setting that up by saying you know, Imbaco, CJ
Gunn, Caleb Banks, these guys got a score like like they've
got to go out and do things because if they don't, someone
will, someone else will. And so I I think that's that's
what I took away that I was pleased with.
I'm concerned again about the free throw shooting.
You know Indiana end up shooting 63% which is better than it was
looking for a lot of the game. But I that's still baffling that
Indiana is still struggling from that perspective.
But for this game, I was pleased with what I saw overall.
I was pleased with the fact that Indiana held their turnovers to
under 20% given how many new faces were in the roster or in
the in the line up for the game. And it's something to build on.
They got two games coming up this week.
Obviously Army, who's not that great, and then Wright State,
who could cause some problems, although they already they kind
of look bad on defense. They got obliterated by Colorado
State on Friday. They let up 105 points, but but
look, we'll see as we move forward.
It's been a weird start to the college basketball year so far,
Scott. I mean, Michigan State losing.
Michigan State's averaging like 6.25% from 3 / 2 games.
You know, we've seen a lot of upsets.
There's a lot of parity in college basketball right now.
There's a lot of big names that aren't quite bringing it as of
yet. Maryland losing to Davidson,
Illinois struggling with Oakland for about 30 minutes in that
game. So I'm I'm pleased that Indiana
didn't stumble over that issue that they faced in in in the
Florida Gulf Coast game and Florida Gulf Coast having a late
lead. And I think there's plenty to
build on. And that's kind of all I'm
taking away from things up to this point.
Agreed. I mean that was a game that you
could have loving that Indiana win the 19 to two run to finish
the game and kind of when it got to you know scary like Oh my
God, are we gonna lose the Florida Gulf Coast time.
They they did what they had to do and yeah it's I'm it's not
like this is the you know the the the highlight of the season
but I'm with you. I see a lot of good things.
The one last thing I'll say when they went down six in the
second-half, they won the game with defense and and and the
length and the athleticism that this team has that they can
throw at teams. I mean, it worked against
Florida Gulf Coast until the very end and it'll it'll work
against other teams. I mean that's going to have to
be the calling card of this team for a while while they figure
out the offensive end of things. We talked about that before this
game. It'll continue to be this way
after this game and after the game that they play today, so.
You held the team to under one point per possession, which is
really, really good. If you can do that every game
you're you're in a really good spot and again the the opponents
get tougher, but I think this team is going to continue to get
better. I you know the things I'd like
to see. They only shot 30% from three.
I would again, it's baffling that we just cannot shoot from
three. I'd like to see a shoot, you
know, a little bit more than 13 threes a game.
But that said, you look like Michigan State where there's
they shot like what, one for 20. It's like they shot more and
didn't do much. So you know there there is a
calculus here of like if you're just not great at shooting
threes. Maybe you just don't shoot more
threes, but I would like to see us somehow get closer to A to a
normal 3 point percentage and taking a couple more.
But you held, you held Florida Gulf Coast to 38% from three
even the shot 34 of them. So, yeah.
Anyway, all right, that'll wrap it up for us on this show.
Thank you all for listening. Be sure to head over to Home
Field Apparel and check out the stuff that they got over there.
Be sure to subscribe to us on Sub Stack.
Check out the Do the Work podcast.
They will be covering the aftermath of Indiana, Stanford
and women's basketball later on today.
Best of luck to IU men's soccer as they play for a Big 10
championship this afternoon. And best of luck to IU
basketball this evening. For Scott, I'm Galen, This is
Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks.
On the flip side, bring back the Bison.
So everybody.