You're listening to the back home network presented by home
field, apparel. Welcome back to Crimson cast and
happy holidays from your favorite.
Rogue Indiana podcast as we're back.
Not exactly an annual tradition for you to do a holiday show
here. Scott, but you weren't busy.
I wasn't that busy. I was like, yeah, let's do
something. And so, here we are.
It's great to see you again as we close out for some people the
last week, before things really get crazy for the holidays, for
some other people. The first week of holiday break.
How are you handling things? How are you doing?
Everything going? All right.
I'm doing great. I think this has been like the
ideal amount of time between like, you know, Thanksgiving and
Christmas. Christmas.
You kind of get the lead up. It's like, you're almost, like
are we there yet, but you're still get the anticipation.
We're good. Yeah, went down.
Went downtown Indy last night, checked out the lights.
I love. I always love going to the
circle and checking that out. So yeah, we're good.
That's great. Yeah.
No, it's Bloomington has certainly cleared out quite a
bit. Although there was a decent
amount of people out having dinner before the game last
night. So that was nice to see and
things will get progressively more empty here.
I think over the next week or so and then it'll start to fill up.
Once again, as sorority rush comes back, always always an
interesting site. As, you know, you get to like
early January and another wise sleepy city has like hundreds of
young women. Just kind of like standing
around waiting to like be put on buses and taking place a very
odd, you know thing every year in Bloomington happens all over
the country, but it's always like do you need to do this in
the middle? Like the dead of winter?
Like who does that serve exact? Feel like that's more punishment
than reward, but I can maybe that's part of the process.
I don't know, isn't it? Out of the Greek system in a
nutshell. Yeah, I know is there's
something to be said that there's something to be said for
that. Anyway, we told you all that we
were going to be doing a holiday episode and we wanted you to
send in your comments and questions and you did that in
Spades to the point that we're not going to get to all of those
things today, but I'm happy to get to as many of them as we can
before that one. And two, of course, remind you
all that. We are a part of the back home
network and that includes, of course, our friends over at
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and everything College vintage apparel.
Comfy stuff. Scott.
What's the most recent thing you've purchased from there?
Can you tell us? It was it's still been the Cal
sweatshirt. The cow sweater is great.
Although they had the O Ski-Doo do or like something like that.
It's like a cow like the bear t-shirt, which I also big big
fan of. So some Cal stuff only because
I've bought in everything. I you related that I could get,
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So Scott, let's go ahead and dive into things here before we
get started on your questions folks.
Scott. Let's talk a little bit about
the game that took place. So Yesterday Indiana knocking
off Northern Kentucky kind of an interesting game Indiana was
dominant in the first half of this game, you know, Northern
Kentucky just couldn't score they only scored 14 points for
the entire first half Indiana really look like they were
coming into their own on both ends of the floor.
It's settle down a little bit, the second half and particularly
the last 10 minutes of the game, Northern Kentucky, hit some
shots got on a roll so it ended up not being as docile.
Mandating a performance. As it looked like it might have
been but overall. It seemed like a pretty good
performance for this Indiana team.
And, you know, when you think about the distractions that
often come from holiday break, and from this particular part in
the calendar, it's good to see Indiana.
Be able to come out and put on a mostly professional double-digit
Victory being able to cover the spread.
And just not really having much doubt throughout the game that
they were going to win it handily.
Yeah, I mean the end of, you know, if you break it up into
Quarters. The end of the first quarter
Indiana's up. 4:41. I think they went on a was at
2:36, run and then in the first part of the game, so it's it's
tough to say like I would keep that up.
It's like you can't you're not going to hold a team to 20
points. Like this is very unlikely that
said, you know, they look at it kind of take their foot off the
gas and they still won by almost 20, so it's not like it really
got that close. But yeah, I mean, it's here's
the thing. Like at the end of the year that
you really can't learn anything one way or the other.
These games that me, the thing that I like to see is I still
think you continue to see the team getting better.
You saw them trying different sets.
You try them, try to push the ball, a lot to kind of break to
got to get in there offense before.
Northern Kentucky, get set in their zone.
So, I mean, I like that. You're seeing just different
things different lineups, you know, there was a lineup that I
like, or you had in the second half, Parker, Stewart, and
Anthony Leo with Xavier Johnson, and then trace and race.
And there was some three-point shooting So that was interesting
and you know, it's funny. I saw more of a allele and
pursue the crossroad classic. I like that.
He started this game. He's a player that I don't know
if I'm just going to wish he was better.
I don't say it's a hard thing to say, but he's he I like what he
provides. I like his shooting but yet, it
doesn't seem to translate into game play because I know he can
shoot. I think in this game, he was 0
for 3 from 3. Some of them were contested but
not a great stat line, but I still like seeing him play.
More. I'm not sure we don't really
know. I just watched on TV.
No answer as to why I like Parker Stewart didn't start.
But I think we can assume Stewart didn't start because of
some kind of internal disciplinary issue.
And you know, it's I mean Mike Woodson, it's interesting.
This will tie into something. We're going to talk about a
little bit later on but Woodson was very strong in saying that
he was not going to talk about why Parker Stewart didn't play
in the first half and really seem to be kind of relegated to
the second teen even in the second half which I think is
great. I mean, whatever.
The reason. Because I'm assuming that it's
not like some kind of outlandish reason.
Like, you know, the three he played but there does appear to
be some kind of a discipline chain going on here where hey
you do something wrong or you do something that I don't like his
coach, you're going to sit and honestly, I mean maybe that was
happening behind the scenes and we didn't know about it over the
last five or six years, but it didn't feel that way.
It really felt like There wasn't much of an accountability
structure unless there had to be, unless it was like, Hey,
drug suspension. You have to sit for x amount of
time. This felt more.
Like, hey, you're out of line. You're going to get in line by,
you know, it's like the old thing that night always used to
say about the bench being one of the best motivational tools that
you have as a coach because you can just say, hey, go sit down
and I'm going to let other people play.
So that said, you know, you're right in that Anthony Lee Lynn.
His start didn't do much in terms of his He's scoring only
had two points and he didn't shoot particularly.
Well, but let's give him credit. He had five assists, which was
tied for the team lead along with Xavier Xavier Johnson, and
he had four rebounds, which was, you know, it's a pretty good
performance overall for a guy that's not necessarily going to
be around the basket all the time.
So I do think that, you know, Leal is still a bit of a work in
progress in terms of his overall developmental curve, and there's
nothing wrong with that as I've said many times.
One of the things that we just haven't had in IU basketball, to
the degree that needs to be, there is development of players
over multiple years, and the idea that you can bring in guys
that maybe aren't starting caliber as freshmen or
sophomores and they'll actually get better.
And by the time they're juniors and seniors.
They can be regular starters and they can be people that can
really contribute at a high level.
And so I do think it's great that a guy like Lille who
certainly has aspects of his game that he as to work on.
But he's he goes and he plays hard and he's gradually building
a case to be in the lineup. More often.
Maybe not as a starter. But as a starter, you know, yes,
he's taking some shooting off the floor at this moment, but
maybe in another game he won't because he has shot well in
other games and when his shooting isn't going well, he's
doing other things that are going to help the team again,
that feels knew that feels like something that we haven't had a
whole lot of with this IU program over the course of the
last five or six years, and so it's happy.
That's a happy thing for me to see that.
The other thing that I saw it was mentioned on the Big Ten
Network feed that I thought was interesting and I don't want to
it's just it's nice to see. I don't want to lament too much
on the Archie years, but, you know, they were talking about
how the defense right now, you know, the efficiency numbers are
really good, you know, the defense look in the defense does
look really good but how you know, we're really pushing the
pressure on the guards because we know that like, you have Race
Thompson, then you have traced Jackson Davis in the back and
you can basically make up for. I don't want same mistakes, but
you can gamble up front. Because Trace is just so good
under the block and it does make you wonder, you know, again, I
like Woodson's philosophy, which we talked about kind of all into
this preseason. I don't think anybody can say,
oh, we play this. It's like, we're going to play
tough defense and we're going to play a modern offense.
That's kind of, that's kind of all we have.
And I like being under that versus like, I play the pack
line defense, because you're seeing now like this team.
And again, I want to spend too much on last year.
It's like you don't need to pack when we have traced Jackson
Davis. He shouldn't be in the pack like
you should be doing what we're doing now, which is pressure up
at the guards. And then if a guy gets by you,
that's great because you have one of the best Premier Rim
defenders in the country back there.
Whereas pacline kind of gets him locked in there.
So it is nice to see, you know, a coach who does seem to be at
least for right now, making a scheme based on what his players
and do best and what what abilities those players have
well, Well, yeah, there's no question and I think there's
enough games now against enough types, different types of
opponents that what Woodson has brought to the table, from a
defensive perspective, is a Leap Forward, from what Indiana was
doing under Archie Miller. And, you know, so much of it
really does come down to this idea.
That Indiana makes it hard to shoot the basketball, you know,
they've really clamped down on all aspects of the, you know,
the setup that opposing teams offenses have had and Yes, there
have been individual moments where it hasn't quite worked out
as well. But by and large, when opponents
are only are shooting under 40% from to against your defense.
It's a lot of it has to do not just with scheme, but with
mentality and Indiana's playing this aggressive style of
defense. That was really, as we've talked
about before focused on making it difficult to take shots as
opposed to gambling, four turnovers.
This is not an Indiana team. That turns opposition's over
that much. But they more than make up for
that a in terms of keeping opponents off the offensive
glass and be just making it difficult for teams to shoot in
general. So it is nice because the pack
wine when it works works great, but when it doesn't work, feels
overly rigid. And always seemed to give up
shots at exactly the worst moments, you know, we'll have to
see how things play out because obviously, you can look at the
Wisconsin game or you can look at the Syracuse game and say,
well, hey, when you really needed a stop in those.
Games you couldn't get one. But I also think this team is a
work in progress. And as good as they've been in
terms of overall shot defense. I think they can get better.
More situationally as we move forward.
And, as you said, Trace Jackson, Davis is an anchor defensively.
When you combine his ability as a rim protector with the fact
that he's not fouling, so he's able to do all of that.
While not putting himself in danger of being taken off the
floor, that that really does make a big difference in terms
of what you're able to do consistently throughout the
course of the game. I mean right now, Trace Jackson
Davis is averaging one point six fouls called against him /, 40
minutes of play which is 120th in the nation right now.
And you know you combine that with his His rebounding rate on
defense. I mean, he's really him and race
Thompson both and I race draws commit slightly more fouls, but
rebound, slightly better, you know, I think those two when you
put them in tandem in the post have allowed Indiana's defense
to achieve a plateau that they just weren't capable of
achieving in the previous couple of years.
And so, I'm really excited to see how that partnership
continues to grow and then you throw in this sudden emergence
of Jordan Geronimo as a Confident player as a guy who
can come in and give you 10 to 15 solid minutes per game, you
know, everybody focuses on his offense because that's a bit of
a novelty. But if he can get his head
wrapped around playing defensively better that Allah
was you a lot of flexibility in terms of what you're doing in
the post and that extends to your entire defense because now
the guards have to worry a lot less about dealing with
penetration. They can focus on guarding guys
on the perimeter. And one last thing on Trace
just, you know, you mentioned the foul stats, but that's also
when he's credit again. I know we have some soft.
He's in the schedule, but he's currently averaging three point
two blocks of game. So he's averaging more blocks
than fouls. You know, you look at Ken pom.
He's, you know, ten ten block percentage of 10% 29th in the
country 7% which is s the Big Ten that I can't see where the
other teams and players are who were above him in that.
But it's just it's hard to fathom.
Anybody being better defensively at The Rim than trace, and I've
seen multiple times this year, where you see a guy go up.
It's like traceable, you know, bite on the pump fake.
It's like oh and he still gets the block.
I mean, he's just, he is so phenomenally good on his defense
and his offense. I mean he is he's truly a
transformative and he's taken a step up defensively this year
and offensively, but definitely on the defensive end, you can
see the work that he's put in and how this system is really
helping helping. Him and again with with race
there, but it's just, it's awesome to have him and watch
him play defense. Yeah, so as we think about the
game, it's a nice again solid professional win.
I would say and it leaves Indiana and a position where
they're very well positioned to finish off Big Ten play at 11
and 2. If they can beat UNC Asheville
next month's Dupree, Big Ten player, non.
Pretty big Temple. Yes, get heading into Big, Ten
play. Yeah, you know, so if they win
that game, get let's go. We're not big tits over your
house. Yeah, now, but if they beat UNC
Asheville next week, they'll be 11 and 2 and 1 and 1 in
conference play heading into that Penn State game on Sunday.
And, you know, that's going to be a tough test, but but it 11
wins going into conference play. And, yes, two of those wins are
in conference play, but you basically had 18 more games and
you have the opportunity at that point.
Really, to pick up maybe 10 more wins before you get to the Big
Ten tournament. That would leave you in a really
good spot. Spot as you head into the Big
Ten tournament for the NCAA tournament.
And I think you look at what the resume has set up a, you know,
with so far. And this was actually one of the
questions that we got from one of our listeners early on.
I actually think that things are setting up very well for this
team as we head into the in the conference play.
So Patrick asked this question, many have said I, you is right
on schedule with two losses, expected, Wisconsin, and
Syracuse both of the road games with Close.
Those games were IE, they could have or should have won both of
those games. Do you modify expectations
heading into Big Ten play. And one of those expectations
look like. So you're looking at the numbers
right now. The BART torvik website is
projecting Indiana, still at 22, and nine, and twelve and eight.
Overall. Can Pomeroy is a little bit less
optimistic. The projection there is 21 and
10 and 11. And nine overall, but a lot of
those games are very much 50/50 games are very close in either
Direction. I mean, you go down the roster
of games that I, you would have, you know, in the Big Ten that
could go one way or another. And you know, what, I generally
look at is 50/50 games or games where there's a winning
percentage for either team somewhere between 40 and 60
percent and you go down the list like the Iowa game at home.
Excuse me, on the road is one of those.
The Purdue game at home is one of those the You know, the
Marilyn game on the road is one of those Northwestern on the
road is one of those. So there's a couple of others
Minnesota on the road. If Indiana can pick up those
kinds of winds consistently, then I think the ceiling is
actually much higher. I think Patrick brings up a good
point in that 11 and 9 or 12 and 8.
I think if the season ended, if we if we told you right now with
the ending of the season was and we said, okay and he and I went
22 and nine and twelve and eight, I think.
Most people in the fan base would be like, yes.
That's great. That's perfect.
We will take that will go ahead and run with it.
They question Scott is, have you seen enough out of this team up
to this point? That you think that they can
exceed that significantly, or do you still kind of see them as
being right in that 11 or 12, or in range in the conference?
I still think it's that 1112 win range in the conference.
And it's only because, you know, in the to the two losses were
kind of the too, you know. Whether game so to speak.
A lot of the other games were against subpar, Pony thing.
St. John's win was good.
But you know, you had two tough games on the road and you kind
of lost them both in different Fashions, either, 20 points
down, or 20 points up and, you know, you're still seeing this
inability to put together a full 40 minutes, starting to get
better. But even if, you know, even if
you look at the Northern Kentucky game, it's like they
they kind of let I don't say, let him backing say 1 by 18 or
so, but it's like, you know, they let the foot off the gas a
little bit. It'd be nice to see them just
put Whether straight 40 minutes, even against Northern, Kentucky
is not going to matter because I want to see him do it against
Ohio, state of Minnesota. So no, I think, and I think just
for everybody's well-being. I think this season, it's best
to kind of keep expectations, right, where they are at.
And in the end they played well, they look like they're
improving, which is good. Which again is something we're
not used to seeing in some IU teams, but you know Syracuse is
still ranked 67th in can Palm. So it's not like they're a
world-beating team in Wisconsin. Right in our level 32, that's
that's a road loss. Is that was kind of a 50/50 game
and Syracuse probably game. We should have one and we
didn't. So if you look at it from that
respect, maybe you're lowering expectations, but I think I
should, I get, I think to me, I think everyone's going to be in
a better headspace, you keep expectations, you know, where
you're at and that's, that's kind of the fun.
I think with the season is, I've always been saying, you know, I
think we could try to finish fifth sixth or seventh in the
Big Ten. Make the NCAA tournament as a
double-digit seed and If, you know, we exceed that, that's
fun. That's great.
But let's start start moving the goalposts and then being
disappointed. Because this team, still it's
getting better. It's still has serious flaws or
in a come back and bite it many times this year, which is, when
it gets to nut crunch crunching time.
Like you said, you know, is the defense going to be able to stop
things, you know, is that perimeter defense going to
gamble too much. And then in the other side, you
know, can we get the ball to our best player when we need to?
Or are we going to, you know, are we going to have Guard
problems that, you know, rear their head evens, just to date
you a couple days ago against Notre Dame.
So it's not like that's out of it.
That's in the rearview mirror. That way you've got a problem to
solve after one game in Northern, Kentucky.
So I hear him saying but I to me, it's like I think we're
right in line. I think the expectations just
stay the same. We had a similar question from
Darryl jr. On Twitter about whether that 22
and nine ends up being what we end up with or if we see Indiana
exceed or not reach those potentials at this point, all of
you like, Both of the main. Power websites.
Whether it's torvik or Ken pom have basically identified.
That there are four teams that are clearly in the upper echelon
of the conference. In terms of projected
statistics, Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, and Ohio State,
and then, you know, depending on, if you look at torvik,
Indiana and Michigan or kind of projected as being that next
tier down and then the tier below, that is Wisconsin and,
Iowa. And then everybody else kind of
Falls in underneath that. I guess you could throw
Minnesota in because they've significantly over achieved
their expectations. Look at this point.
What I would say from this, Indiana team, if you look at the
way that everything lays out, I think that the defensive
efficiency that they've demonstrated is going to travel
very well within this conference and within the course of
conference play. The fact that they can rely on
their defense being strong is going to win them some games
that Once they've lost the last couple of years, what I still
worry about is all the things we talked about after the Wisconsin
game and to some degree, the things that were present after
the Notre Dame game as well, which is the point guard.
Situation is still a little bit unsettled.
You still don't know what you're going to get out of out of
Xavier Johnson or rub fantasy or Christian Lander on a night
tonight basis. And, you know, the turnover rate
while you could argue whether it's a product of the offense or
whether it's a product of the personnel. the fact of the
matter is the turnovers are artificially limiting what this
offense can do in terms of blossoming into something better
than you know, an offense that ranks in the 60s or 70s or 80s
as the case may be if they can solve the turnover issue if they
could reduce by three turnovers a game for instance over the
course of the Big Ten season that would equate to another
couple of wins, but I I'd be surprised at this point if they
Able to effectively do that. So I think right now my
projection would be yes. They're going to be about 12 and
8 or 11 and 9. And I think that's a nice
rebound because that number of winds coupled with the
opponent's, you're going to be getting those wins against.
That's going to get you back to the NCAA tournament.
And to me, that was always the key of this season.
It's like, get back into the tournament.
Put yourself back in that mentality and then build upon
that next year, in the year Beyond.
I mean, two things, just a positive way to look at things
is Is in the numbers about it, you know, we could talk about
our boy can overpower rank as well now to but in the numbers
on Ken Palm, you know, the one thing that I do like the
positive is you look at adjusted defense.
We are the best in the Big Ten right now on, adjust a defense.
Now a lot of that is based on, you know that it's schedule and
like if you look at the conference only, we're not big
but it's only two games sample size.
So there's a bit of a sample size of who have you played
mentality of that. But at least right now, you
know, we're ranked 14th in the country adjusted defense.
That's the best in the Big Ten. Slightly edging, Michigan State
on the negative side. Like you said, you know,
turnovers is really what you look at the kind of the for
statistics, the numbers for Indiana.
That's the one that just stands out as like, we're not good at.
You know, our turnover percentage is bad and I love the
tour of excite because you can kind of track things throughout
the season and it's not getting better.
It's not like we're seeing that slowly get better like right now
the turnover percentage has kind of leveled out to where it's
been and it's been about the same since probably the third
game of the season. The season.
It's kind of on a trend that's either going a little bit worse
or staying about the same. And so it would be abnormal to
see that suddenly, you know, a third in the season just
suddenly spiked up were that we cut the turnovers out it could
happen because I don't think I think that's one of the easier
stats that you could probably fix versus like it's like your
three-point shooting is bad. Your defense is bad, you know,
cutting out turnovers as possible, but it just it is
worth noting that when you look at the graph of it.
It's kind of like this is we are who we are at least right now
with the turnovers. Yeah and look I think that there
Is there's going to be some more development on offense?
A lot of the development really is come in the shooting
percentages and you know that that has helped nice hitting 3.
This is that and if that continues, if you continue to
get guys, get comfortable shooting the ball, particularly
Rob fennessy, who will talk about in a little bit that can
help to mitigate some of the turnover aspects as well, you
know, because when you talk about offensive efficiency,
turnovers are the worst because it just hits it completely empty
possession. At that point when it comes to
offense and fishing, See, and so figuring out a way to, I would
rather have a, you know, possessions and in missed shots,
because there's always a chance of an offensive rebound.
At least you're giving yourself a chance to do something there.
So we'll see. But these are the things to keep
an eye on as we go through conference play.
Because I think the other indicators for this offense are
pointing up by and large and that's really exciting to see.
I would also re I'm going to say one last thing.
Go ahead. If you, you know, for those who
are getting excited, I would say this wait until January 9th, you
know, if we go to January 9th, and we've beaten Penn State,
Ohio State in Minnesota, right? I think then you can maybe you
can have a discussion of putting our, you know, optimistic,
uptick a little bit because that would be a nice set of you can
win the pain, the Ohio, State Minnesota games.
You're on a better trajectory. So again, like it's going to
come. That's like for three and a half
weeks away. So So right, you know, I would
just say, hold. Let's see how those to go.
Yeah. Look, I think there's a big
question, mark about how this Indiana team is going to handle
better competition. I don't think they're going to
be scared of them. But I do worry about the lulz
that we've seen out of this Indiana team, at various points,
against teams with Talent, whether it was the first half
against Syracuse, whether it was the second half against
Wisconsin, over the first half against Nebraska for that
matter, which I have against JJ, John's or, and, and that stretch
of time in the second half against Notre Dame.
I mean, there are just moments where Team falls asleep at the
wheel and needs a kick in the butt to kind of get themselves
up and running again. They need to self-regulate on
that a lot better because there aren't going to be a lot of off
nights in the Big Ten with the array of teams that they're
going to be playing. So that that is that I agree
with you. It's like, let's see.
This team. Look, I think this team is going
to win more games than not against those types of teams,
but there's plenty of those teams in the conference so you
can win more games than not and still finish, you know, with
with eight or nine losses in the car.
France overall jumping to some other questions here.
So top 40 under 40 asks, in terms of players season
statistics. What's the most surprising?
And what do you think changes the most in the final two thirds
of the season? And and this is something where
you have to look at how everybody's doing on this team
and try to figure things out. I mean, the least surprising
thing to me has been how effective Trace Jackson.
Davis has been across the board. I mean, he's Active field goal
percentages. 62% his free-throw percentage is jump back up.
It's, you know, it's not Sterling but it's 68 percent,
which is better than I think. A lot of people thought that it
would be a nice shooting 72% on clothes 2's, he's got, you know
what? I think we saw that stat
yesterday the most dunks of anybody in division one, so I'm
not very surprised about that. I guess my most surprising thing
is maybe Twofold one is, you know, looking at the numbers
overall how efficient relatively speaking.
And and despite some issues with with with some various aspects
of his game, how efficient tomorrow Bates is able been able
to be coming in. Off the bench.
He's over a point per possession, which is always
really nice to see. He's been a positive contributor
and that's under relatively limited usage overall.
He's not really He's not doing a whole lot in terms of
Distributing the ball, but he has been able to score fairly
efficiently when he's taken that opportunity, you know, the I
guess the surprise to me there is that he's been able to do
that despite the fact that he's not starting.
And, you know, he's generally not the number one or number
two, option. Even when he is out on the
floor. So that's been nice to see the
other surprise and it's an unhappy one is how poorly Rob
finish. These offensive game has been
going. I mean, you, you look up and
down the roster. And for the minutes that fantasy
has played, he has by far, the worst offensive rating on the
team. He's got an unfortunately, High
turnover ratio and you know, while he's done a good job of
Distributing the ball and he has done a good job overall of
playing better offensively. The last couple of games.
I want to give credit where credit is due on the whole his
contributions. This season, have really been
far below the standard you would expect out of the number two,
point guard or for that matter. A guy who should have been
contending for the number one point guard job on the team.
What about you? What did, what is stood out for
you? Good and bad.
In terms of the statistics. I mean on the good side you have
to be impressed with the shooting of Parker Stewart.
I mean, he came in, you know, you know, at Pittsburgh, he shot
38% from Three Tennessee. Martin, he shot 34 percent from
three, I mean, shooting 49% from three right now, you have to
assume that it can't keep up basically shooting 50% from
three. But he's a volume shooter.
I mean, he, you know, he is averaging, you know, the first
two years about 188 threes per season and that's kind of where
he's at now, so, it's been really nice to see him continue
that and kind of grow it. But I mean, honestly you it's
the one thing that does feel like it's going to translate
because he's been getting good looks he's been hitting them.
And then you know, in the in the to quote unquote, like, you
know, really tough games against, you know, tough
opponents, you know, Syracuse he did hit 50% going. 4:12 and
against Wisconsin is 345 going over fifty percent.
So it looks like he's shooting travels and his shooting can
continue against really good opponent.
So that's that's been really nice because was just been nice
having someone you can shoot three pointers, you know, the
negative side. I would say I'm doing this off
of memory. I'm trying to find the the
overall team numbers on this, but it's the free throw shooting
is still not ideal the three free throws.
Shooting, you know, Trace Jackson Davis did hit those two
against Syracuse to put us into overtime, which I think any IU
fan would have lost any bet there where it's like, he got
fouled and you're like, all right.
Well, he's definitely going 142 from the lie, but he hits those
too, but he's still struggling to have consistency at the line.
Again. That's something that I feel
like is going to rear its ugly head, but we still are just not,
not a great free-throw, shooting team.
And I think that's going to hinder Us in some games.
We've already seen it a little bit.
Wisconsin game is going to hinder us as well.
I would love to see that continue to get better.
But those kind of my good and bad.
Yeah. No, I think I don't make sense
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Let's continue on here. Is we had some additional No
questions from folks across the board.
Dan Corral our old friend asks, how do you feel about the Mike
Woodson era on the floor so far can woods and take this team
farther than the level it is now?
Or is that a consequence of the former coach, so I'll let you
start with this what? You've had a half a season,
essentially slightly under a half a season of Mike Woodson as
head coach for Indiana. We've seen both on the court and
off the court, some of the aspects of that.
What are your impressions thus far?
I've been really impressed. I like, I like what I'm seeing,
and it goes back. Some of the things I said
earlier, you know, you see it, game, two gave you see them,
trying different schemes defensively, you definitely see
them trying different schemes offensively.
You saw them completely re-engineer how they were
playing Syracuse in the second half and they change that up
and, you know, I don't want to become totally pollyannaish and
just only look at the positives. But a lot of the issues that
this team has had, were honestly issues that were under Archie.
Don't that was always the problem.
To Archie is we'd have these stretches of non-scoring and I
don't want to say it's like Mike was to just get to pass, but
it's it's natural that some of the problems that the last team
had you're going to see residual product versions of those
problems. Continue as you kind of either
kick the dust off of, you know, what was taught by the old
regime so to speak or just some of those players, you know, are
not that set up. I like You know, I really like
what I'm seeing on the court and those things, and I like, what
I'm seeing off the court and kind of the construction of the
team, you know, the guys he brought in, you know, whether or
not you know, we'll look back on.
Savior, Johnson is kind of like it was an interesting time but
whether or not, you know, he will Annoy Us at times like
we've said, but, you know, obviously, Mike Woodson saw
like, hey, I need to get a different point guard.
To imagine. If we didn't have Xavier
Johnson. We just had Fitness e and
Christian Lander, like, where would we be then?
Like we need that. We need a bulldog.
On this team, we need someone to kind of do that.
And you seen what he, you know, the guys who have the real
talent like Trace Jackson Davis race Thompson.
I've seen them really improve wants a real towels, not the
right way to say it, but the guy, you know, the, the
high-level talented guys. We've seen him be able to seen
Woodson, be able to grow them, but also build an offense that
didn't look like we did under under Archie with trace or under
Archie with Romeo where it's like hey get the five stars the
ball. We're just going to stand here,
like you don't see that. So Oh, I really like what I'm
seeing and I feel very comfortable that we're going in
the right direction and then once woods and starts to have
some of his players on this team, we're going to be in an
even better spot with, you know, the point guard, things like
that. So I I've been again relatively
pleased to get my expectations were not, hey, we're going to
win the Big Ten and go to the final four.
This year, my expectations were we're going to be able to pack.
We're going to compete and, you know, we've not been blown out
yet, it may or may not happen this year, but we've competed,
we haven't lost too. Add team yet.
So, thus far, I'm very happy with what I'm seeing.
And sorry. The last thing I will say is
you're seeing this team play with happiness and joy and
passion. And that's the thing too, that
for so many times. In the last couple of years.
We would kind of be like, these guys are sleepwalking.
It just felt like, everyone's kind of sleepwalking.
And while yes, Xavier Johnson can be frustrating at times.
He has passion, but you can't say he doesn't have passion.
Like I think that's where Say greed, stood out so much in
those that are that he played is like he was the one dude who was
playing with passion and kind of like trying to will that team to
do something and it was like pulling a bunch of sleepwalking
zombies with him, you know, this T doesn't have that and, you
know, they they they lost a tough game against Syracuse.
They came home and took care of business against Nebraska.
They lost a tough one against Wisconsin.
They came out. Look fired up against Notre
Dame, you know, and, and so, I like that kind of mentality
where they don't seem to get down, doesn't I don't see this
team going on, like a 12 game losing streak or losing three,
four, five in a row are losing their Mojo.
So, I think that is something you've mentioned many times.
It's fun to see them play with joy, that's that, but it's also
fun to see a team kind of play with passion and heart and like
really fight. Yeah, you covered a lot of the
things that I was going to stretch out all the.
I took all the red meat. It's fine, you know, but so I'll
touch on a couple of other things that I've stood out to
me, you know, I think one of the fascinating things to watch is
Mike Woodson's willingness this to do the things that he thinks
are right without acting. Like there's a problem with him
doing them. You know, one of the there was a
tentativeness about Archie Miller is the head coach at
Indiana University. There was a tentativeness about
Tom crean as the head coach of Indiana University and what's
this? Just not tentative and I think
we've seen it in a couple of different things and they're
little things but they do add up, you know, one of them I
think has been his reaction to What he's doing with his team,
and so the we talked about the Parker Stuart thing and him
obviously getting benched in the first half of this Northern
Kentucky game and he gets asked about it in the post game press
conference, and he pretty forcefully says, you know, I'm
never going to discuss what goes on in my locker room with fans
or the media and just that like, you know, I mean, yes, I
actually think Archie did a pretty good job of protecting
his players by and large. But you you kind of get a I'm
feeling out of Mike Woodson where it's like, okay Woodson is
definitely the president and CEO of this team.
And it's this is how he's going to approach things.
He's got his own philosophy, it ties in with, I think a lot of
the traditional aspects of the Indiana basketball philosophy
that a lot of people have been hoping for and waiting to see
and there seem to be consequences for actions.
Whether it's things that we're seeing on the floor or things
that were not seeing, but a resulting in people not Hang on
the floor, and look Woodson's, also dealing with a unique and
difficult time. I think in Indiana basketball
history. So on his radio show on Monday.
He addressed fans booing Xavier Johnson during that in order
Dame game, and he basically said, you know, I was surprised.
And I don't want to hear that because, you know, we've got,
we've got this great group of fans and I want to see them
supporting our players and lifting them up now.
I think that Same words, coming out of either crean or Archie
Miller would have been met with some derision on the part of
fans when Woodson says them. It's like, oh, maybe we should
listen to what he says because our coach and it's not just his
presence. But I also think that he's he's
serious when he says it and he's I mean Dane five and I've heard
him on podcast, talk about similar things.
I've seen some similar things on social media, you know, the the
IU fan base has not been well maintained.
And over the course of the last two decades.
And what I mean by, that is, as I've said, many times the head
coach at Indiana for men's basketball is, as much, a
religious figure as they are a basketball coach.
And they essentially have a congregation in the IU fanbase,
that takes cues from them about how to behave.
I mean, this was one of the things that's hard to describe
to people who didn't live through the night air and it is
largely explains a lot of why people still have this.
Like this devotion tonight as a figure and as a basketball coach
is because he, he had a gravitas around the way that he expected
people, rooting for the team to behave that, everybody just kind
of fell in line with that. And if you look at the coaches
that Indiana has had in the last 20 years, whether it was Mike
Davis or k Samson or Tom crean or Archie Miller, none of them
really did that. None of them.
Really. They either didn't try or when
they did try it just didn't work like it.
What? Came out of their statements
didn't resonate with the fans. The fans didn't have much trust
in them. And you know, while Woodson
still has to prove himself over the course of several seasons, I
think as a basketball coach just him coming out and saying, this
is how we're going to approach things.
This is how I want people to react.
I do think is a really positive development in terms of the way
that I use, because we've talked about the so often Scott, you
know, I you fandom IU media. It's vicious.
Like, it's been a 20-year cycle of people, backbiting and
talking bad about each other and talking bad about players.
And, you know, there's this constant conflict between
different factions within the fan base and people fight over
what they think is, right, or wrong.
And look, we've been as guilty of that as anybody.
Like, it's not like we're exempt from having done this, but I do
think that ultimately that has a really negative impact on the
overall. Overall image of Indiana,
basketball, the relationship between fans and the players,
the relationship between the players and the media.
I mean, all of it is, it's kind of it toxic to use a word that I
criticize people using yesterday on Twitter, you know, there is a
toxicity to that that is real and I admire Woodson's
willingness and ability to just come in and say this isn't
right. Stop doing this.
And that's I think I make a big difference as far.
Is how people evaluate what goes on with this team?
Because honestly, when things haven't gone, right?
It's been a free-for-all criticizing this player or this
coach or that, you know, I mean, it's just this constant hamster,
wheel of negativity and something has to eventually put
a stop to it. And I think that there's a good
chance that this at least pushes things in the right direction
when it's so funny that you know, the the one of the
narratives in April and May of this year, we kind of do a
retrospective also is like, so it's Funny, you know, doing a
little bit of a retrospective to thinking, back to April and May
how, you know, we hired Woodson. We also hired five and then we
hired Thad Matta. It was kind of like, well who's
gonna be in charge? Like as you know, can Woodson
lead? This could Woodson recruit like
it's not going to be. We didn't know who was going to
leave. This triumvirate is very quickly
been like, oh no Woodson's, the coach, like he's gonna be in
charge, you'll fight has done some talking.
He has done a good amount of talking but it's like, I don't
think anybody could say, I'm not sure who's in charge of Indiana
basketball right now, like what sin is in charge and It's not
the best metaphor, but it does feel like to your point with the
fans at times which is kind of like, you know, smack in the dog
on the nose like booing. No.
No, we don't, we don't do that. Like we're not doing that here.
Like I've been charged moving on.
I like the comments about Parker shirt, like, nope, like he's not
playing, that's it. Moving on.
Like and it's, it comes from somebody who's secure who feels
very comfortable with job. Who knows?
Like, I'm not here to Pete, obviously, is proving wins, but
like, I'm not here to prove anything to anybody.
Like, I know I'm good. I've coached the NBA I'm good,
and that's It's been nice to feel like a steadying hand on
the wheel and it is, it's funny, looking back, how so many of us
were like, man, you have this like, bad modify.
Fuck who's gonna be in charge and how sitting here?
Now, I don't think that's a question at all.
I think it's a very good thing that it does feel like, Woodson
has his arms around all of what being a head coach in Indiana
and Tails. So let's jump onto another
question. I like that question.
Dan. Thank you.
Let's jump to a phone call that we got good Gentlemen of the
Pod. Happy holidays.
This is Chris from Bloomington has Rod fantasies recent
consistent play giving you hope that he could foreseeably be a
Potential Threat in the Big Ten season as we've all hoped all
along or do we see him kind of retreat back into the shadows
and Not play with consistency. Thanks.
Thank you. Chris.
Always a pleasure to hear from you.
You finish. These are really interesting
case and we've touched on this a little bit earlier with a tweet
yesterday about how hit, you know, fantasies rediscovered
offense, which is kind of an over simplification of things.
But, you know, it's funny when you think about fennessy, we
talked about his recent play, that's looked better in the last
three games and he's, you know, you played fairly well in all
three. He's yet to exceed.
An offensive rating of 100. So we still under a point per
possession utilized, which is a problem.
It really is. I mean, from a, from a point
guard perspective, you don't necessarily need your point
guard to be, you know, scoring constantly, but you need to have
more out of the point guard than just assists.
Now the, you know, now that said, I think that the Notre
Dame and Northern Kentucky games perhaps point to a Rob fantasy.
That you can trust with 20 minutes, a game, maybe more than
that, and a Rob fantasy, that's comfortable.
With the first team. You're going to need that
because I just, I envisioned this scenario where Xavier
Johnson is just going to have games where he's not completely
in it, mentally and emotionally. I just, I'm still hesitant and
I've been probably the most hesitant on fennessy of any
player in terms of like feeling like he's going to be able to
make a huge contribution overall on the season.
He's still like just offensively.
Just a very, very difficult guy to have out on the floor for any
length of time. He's only shooting 28% from to,
you know, He's yes, he's he's dishing the ball out.
But he's also turning the ball over.
It's it's still a mixed bag for me.
And I would like to say that he'll be able to build off of
what he's done, the last couple of games and continue that
process throughout the Big Ten season and maybe look, maybe
it's one of those situations where he's Going to have one of
the like the last half of his senior year.
He's going to really emerge Allah Todd Lindemann or
something like that. But at this point, I'm still a
little bit skeptical. I think that this team's
ultimate ceiling is going to rise and fall over how
controlled Xavier Johnson can be in the times that he's on the
floor. I think anything you're going to
get out of fantasy is a bonus, but I have a hard time counting
on it at this point and it's going to take a lot of
consistent performances for me to change my mind on that.
Yeah, I'm eating the last run where he had, you know, six
seven, eight games in a row of an offensive rating over 100.
Was the end of his freshman year and that's kind of been we've
all been hoping to get again. As we saw that fantasy as
freshman year and again, you know, not everyone hits a
straight line trajectory like you don't just get better every
single year and it might be that that was the best.
Rob Tennessee. We're going to see, I like you.
I'd love to see him more consistent.
This team could definitely use it.
But it the numbers, don't back it up.
And but I hope for me. I'm hopeful.
Yeah, it's just one of those things.
I don't have a good answer. I mean, I've heard a lot of
people talking about, you know, the, you know, you got obviously
injury issues or concussion issues early on at this point,
you know, the his minutes have been cut almost in half from
last year on the course, of the season.
And yes, there were some injuries earlier on this year,
but you're still talking about a significant fall off in minutes
and much. As you said earlier in
discussing, Christian Lander situation.
I don't think that that's accidental.
I think that that's Woodson is being very situational and how
he approaches these things and to some degree.
It. Just what's fascinating about
this team and I think to some degree.
What's really exciting about this team is that there are
minutes to be had and Woodson has shown if you perform well in
practice and you perform well in the opportunities that you're
given in games. I'm going to give you a chance
to play, you know, I mean Michael dirr has gone from not
playing at all early on and yes, I know he had some injuries but
He has pretty much locked down that like four to six minute
stretch and he's doing what he needs to do out there.
George Geronimo. Seeing, his minutes gradually
increase Anthony Leal has seen his minutes gradually increase
and, you know, so it's not a situation where Woodson's
completely locked into his rotation and he's not going to
change it. He really does seem to alter
what he's doing based on how guys are performing, which is
how it should be, you know, but it also indicates that there are
some performance. It's issues in players who
otherwise you would look at and say this guy's talented.
I understand why he's not playing anymore.
And I think with fantasy, you know, he brings so much on the
defensive end. Most of the time.
It's just that you know, his offense can't allow like what he
does on offense, can't overwhelm what he does on defense.
Negatively to the point that you can't put him in that's going to
be the big question mark moving forward.
And while that has gotten better.
I don't know if it's actually going to be something that you
can rely on as competition gets harder.
So over the course of the conference season, so we'll have
to see. And again, just just because
he's a senior I look at, you know, may be unconventional, but
maybe some of our better point guard play could come from Like,
You Know, Tamar Bates and he's had some really good games.
He's not a traditional point guard but to your point Woodson
seems to be trying different things.
You know, I think that if you're looking at this team, that's
where I'd like to see, you know, I think that's where you could
see more growth and hopefully, you know, get more growth out of
a Tomar Bates type. I'd be really surprised if Bates
ever. Played significant Minister.
He just he doesn't look to pass and I think that's something
we'll have to develop over time. But it's just not there right
now. Like Michael dirr as a higher
assist rate than two more big database whereas right now, so
that that should tell you something right here.
Duras Point curse point guard. That's what we was what
everybody wants. It this point.
Yes. Let's switch gears.
We had a lot of questions on basketball, but man, we had a
lot of questions about football as well.
And we wanted to tackle a few of those, you know, we Talked a bit
with Taylor. Layman on the last podcast.
We talked a little bit about it. So people are still curious
about this football team. So let's tackle some of these
from masaryk at this point. Is there any reasonable hope for
the offensive line? Lat, next year?
Are we past the point where we could reasonably expect Allen or
Bell to bring in a new offensive line coach think the answer to
that is yes. There's not going to be a change
at o-line coach as far as is there a reasonable question of
success for the offensive line. Next year.
Look, I think to some degree. It feels like they're not going
to bring in very many more Personnel.
If any on the offensive line, which I'm very puzzled by.
Yes, they bringing they bring in three freshman offensive line
recruits and and they're they're all pretty well regarded, but
it's a very dangerous proposition as we know to rely
on freshmen or or you know, young players like that to make
a big impact on offensive line. I mean, it's not just the
physical. Effects of playing the position.
It's also the mental aspects of knowing what your role on the
line is, you know, is it possible that I you could still
go out and get some transfers? It's possible, but it feels like
most of the offensive line transfer candidates.
That would significantly improve the offensive line have already
committed to other schools. And so look, I think if you're
an observer of IU football, this is a big area of concern and
honestly, if I had to guess, I'd say that this is an area of
concern that's affecting the other major area of concern for
IU football on offense, which is quarterback because Tom Allen
talked about on signing day that the plan was to go sign a
transfer quarterback and also sign a recruit.
And the problem is they've done neither so far and all of their
targets have ended up going to other places.
Tanner Bailey ends up at South Carolina, the kid ekiden slovis
from USC ends up at The kid from Incarnate Word hasn't committed
anywhere yet. But you look at all of the
projections on where he's likely to go and I use not in the top
five on any of those lists that I'm seeing.
And, you know, the more you think about, why would a
quarterback from elsewhere want to come to Indiana?
What we do you have to? This is a question.
I asked Taylor on the last podcast if I was a quarterback
looking to transfer and I was sitting down with Walt Bell and
Tom Allen and I was like, well, why would I come?
To IU. The first two things I would
want to know, would be, what's the offensive line situation?
Is it going to be better than? It's been the last couple of
years and be Why have you had so many problems developing and
maintaining your quarterbacks over the course of the last few
years because you're out in the market for a transfer
quarterback, but you've got Jack Tuttle on the bench.
It was a, I think a 4 Star Quarterback recruit originally.
When he went to Utah. You've got Donovan McCully, who
was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school.
You had Michael panics and he has penix was injured.
But hey, panics was gingered in part because his offensive line
was so bad that it kept getting hit in.
Times you've struggled as a program over the course of
really the last five or six years, having any sort of
consistency at the quarterback position.
Your most consistent quarterback in that time was Peyton Ramsey
and Ramsey never made it through an entire season as the lone
starter. So, why would I come to Indiana
to play quarterback, given the uncertainty and the instability
of the offensive line, but also given the way that quarterbacks
have not fared particularly well, Well, in Tom Allen's
various systems over the course of that time, so I know that
that answer dovetailed a bit but it is a concern because I don't
see a lot of help for the offensive line and you're
basically relying on the already existing structures of coaching
and development, which haven't really done a whole lot on the
offensive line. The last five years to somehow
make last year's disastrous offensive line.
Better next year. I'm just not seeing it right now
Scott and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm just Not seeing it at this
point. So I listened to your pod with
Taylor was really good stuff. But I was thinking, almost the
exact same thing the whole time that, you know, last season or
being, you know, this season this Co all were talking about
in last couple years, always been offensive, line play.
It's like, all right. Well, you know, we have some
good runs like we just can't get the running game going, their
offensive line, cannot get it done.
I will. Again.
I know we talked about this in a couple of PODS ago, but please,
if you have not go read the punt, John punt article.
I think it's called one firing isn't enough.
If it's just great stuff, but again Hiller, you know has had
13 high school recruits. Only one of them is turned into
a starter. So he hasn't shown an ability to
get this better. You know, it's it, you haven't
addressed it. Like you haven't brought in
high-level Talent, you know, you have a coach who doesn't seem to
be able to recruit at a high level and can't get low level
recruits to a medium. You can't move them up a level
and the numbers continue to get bad.
So there's nothing to tell you that offensive line play is
going to be better. Um and the other problem we had,
you know, every seems like every couple, you know, last year and
every year is, you know, quarterback play and it's like,
all right. Well, you know a line can't
block on our quarterbacks aren't good.
So what do you do when it's like that's kind of what our Seasons
turn into. And it feels like when we're
talking and you know, I'm not trying to piss on the parade so
to speak. But it's like all the rest of
this. Hey top, 20, recruiting class
and all these guys, the top transfer critique was like, all
right, that's all fun shiny stuff.
But like, in November we're going to be talking about Lyme
playing quarterback play and We haven't solved any of those
problems and to me that's really concerning and you could be in
the same position. We were in this year where we
had a pretty good receiving Corps who just couldn't get him
the ball and some cases guys and receiving Corps couldn't catch
the ball. But you know, and by the way,
you still think you didn't mention either.
It's like who's our running back?
Like we're talking about you know, like and that's the other
thing too is like that's again. The question I would have is you
could look at the guy we got from Auburn's like that's great,
you know his numbers or be projects.
It's kind of like a Stephen Carr.
Where All right, you know you see the car was pretty good
recruits. Okay at USC, but it's like if we
don't have wine blocking like what good is it?
You know, you need somebody who can basically, I need to get,
you know, a version of Christian Okoye, a and Darren Sproles.
The backfield was just I don't see him in, you know, in the
transfer portal right now. I don't see him coming to IU.
So to me it's like these are the two biggest problems is what we
always talked about. And it is baffling to me that
Allen Dolson that everybody just allowed.
We're just To change one thing in our offense and that's going
to be the offensive coordinator and everything else is good to
go. To me, that's baffling.
And I think next year. We're going to pay the price for
it. I just don't see how our low
whine play is better because there's nothing that suggests.
It's going to get better and it looks like we're going to start
the season with tuttle's quarterback.
So there you go. It's going to be fascinating.
And look. I mean, it's just at this point.
I think for a lot of people and I think you and I are probably
like, we're in this category. It's a lot of trust was lost in
the off season last year when these things should have been
addressed offensive line should have been addressed from a
position of strength and they weren't and it feel it felt like
well, you know, everything seemed to go great in the
offseason and then the actual season rolled around and
everything went completely off the rails.
Now, is it possible that there's some restructuring of the way
that things are done and that players end up operating better.
Under a new overall offensive scheme and a new overall
offensive coordinator. And that the position coaches
don't have as much of an impact I guess.
But that is kind of fanciful thinking when you think about,
you know, how you seem to think about this stuff and a bunch of
other places, a bunch of other schools.
So, yeah, I don't know what the answer is on that front.
I'm curious to see what occurs but it's something to keep an
eye on. We had a couple of similar
questions. From football.
Master night asked is IU football complete for next year.
Or are there some items on their Christmas list?
Still Bronson Hayes asked, what does success look like for the
2022 vintage of IU football and for Tom, Allen and staff.
So first of all, I don't think the roster shouldn't be
complete. At this point.
They have to pull somebody in at quarterback to at least compete
with Jack Tuttle and give I you a legitimate backup quarterback
that can be utilized throughout the course of this upcoming
season. Because I'll I've said this, I
said it during the regular season.
I'll say it again. Then I do not think Donovan.
McAuley is at the point physically, where he's going to
be effective at throwing the football.
Now, maybe he can pick all that up during the off-season, you
know, and certainly I'd be willing to give him the benefit
of the doubt on trying but because so much of McCully
strength is in his ability to run the ball.
You don't have a line, he can run behind like you don't have
effective blocking. We have no clue what Indiana's
got coming in in terms of tight ends or wide receivers.
So you can't really count on that and their whole running
back room is likely going to change or large sections of.
It will at least, you know, you've got this.
The kid chivers from out from from Auburn coming in.
You've got the kid from North Carolina coming in.
There's just a lot of mystery at this point.
Jack Tuttle. Theoretically, should be the
starting quarterback coming into this income.
This this 2022 season and yet you'd really be hard-pressed to
point it. You can point to To his courage
from you know, playing the Outback Bowl with essentially
what look like a separated shoulder and you can salute him
for that. You can salute him for a gutty
win against Wisconsin, where his stats probably should have been
better. If Mi Marshall had to drop that
pass, but the reality is his overall play hasn't inspired
very much at all. In terms of, wow.
I'm excited to have this player as our starting quarterback.
He kind of reminds me of of G Mertz to Degree the kid from
Wisconsin, who everybody rushed to anoint as the starter and
then you actually look at mertzes Stats and you're like
Yeah, by and large. This is not what you want.
You go back to that Michigan State game, or total did start
and or maybe actually yeah, he did start that game and he just
didn't play well and, you know, you think with slightly better
quarterback play does Indiana. Win that game.
Does it turn the season around a little bit?
So again, much like one and real.
So, enjoy do been like the thing that is going to really annoy
me. As if they just go in but hey,
no, you know what color he is getting better.
Todd looks good. Like, you know, we decided
that's the plan. It's like, all right, but you
need a quarterback because if you again, it keeps kind of
coming back to this Trope. If you haven't improved, lime
play, and it doesn't seem as going to be the case.
You're going to have Ohio State all over again.
We're total runs a nice drive, but then he gets crushed in a
play because you can't protect him like tunnel, will get hurt.
Whoever, I starting quarterback is next year, more likely will
get hurt. So it's like I it's going to be
frustrating when we get to September October.
Cobra and then it's like oh my gosh, I who would have known her
quarterback would've been hurts. Like hey, I did like I could
tell you it's going to happen. So then suddenly when you're
stuck with McCauley and then we're pulling off your Walk-Ons.
Again. It's like out who could have who
could have foreseen this, like everybody can because our
quarterbacks always get hurt because our line sucks and I
don't want to keep coming back to bed.
That's why I say, can you make it?
Can you do something about it, but we have it.
But I mean that's that's the frustrating part is like, you
need somebody to bring somebody in to not only pushed other but
just you don't need more bodies. You're gonna need five quarter.
Max next year, right? Because it happens every single
year. It happened this year.
So everything you're saying is dead-on, but it's going to be
very frustrating when they're going to kind of play the oh who
could have known Carly coming. You can't foresee injuries like
from yeah, and I you football you can.
Yeah, prefer quarterback total tunnel in that Michigan State
game was 28 for 52 to 53 percent completion percentage 54% 188
yards. So a yards per attempt of three
point six zero touchdowns two interceptions.
One of them was a pick six. I mean it Just there's not a
good performance and, you know, granted that was the only game.
He we saw a full Jack title game in, but that's, there's not a
lot to recommend on that, I guess is my concern.
And so, I think about moving forward.
What exactly the dogs agree with me on this is, you can hear ya.
The way that I you goes into the season.
You've got Tuttle, you've got McAuley who, you know, I just
quoted Tuttle stats and the colors were Efficiently worse,
we do wear for the season. Macaulay was 35, 482 for 43%, He
threw for a total of four hundred and seventy-five yards.
Two touchdowns two interceptions just was basically
non-functional in the passing game for the time that it was in
there. And yes, he was a freshman but
it just really kind of makes your head scratch.
So anyway, going back to the question.
Yes, you have to, you have to find somebody that you can bring
it, at the very least. Like you said to add to the
collection of quarterbacks who can compete for a job, who can
be a solid backup if he doesn't win the job.
And you also still need to do some things on, I think,
certainly, the offensive line. You probably need to do
something in the linebacking corps, as well.
As Indiana is lost. Another player to the portal.
James Miller entered the portal a couple of days ago.
So there's still some patches to fill now.
Going back to the larger. Question of, what does success
look like for Indiana football in 2022 and they got to get back
to a bowl. They don't have to get back to a
great Bowl, you know, but I think at the very least, they
have to win six games and get themselves into a bowl game
because otherwise, you put yourself behind the eight ball
Because unless schedules changed significantly, which they
probably not going to your back to a situation in 2023.
Where you're playing five games on the road, you're in the Big
10, you know, that you've got a window here, where the schedule
is very favorable in 2022. You've got a nice recruiting
class that you've been able to generate off of this year or at
least the recruiting efforts that led into this year.
So, you have to maintain that momentum somehow.
And I just I feel like anything less than what any less than six
wins in the regular season is To be a real disappointment and,
and really makes you question. Okay, is this thing recoverable?
Can you get it back to the levels that it was at in 2019
and 2020? Or has Indiana managed to be
eclipsed. Once again, not just by Michigan
State but maybe even by Rutgers who is like they were not Bowl
eligible, but I think they're about to go to a bowl there,
right on the doorstep. And you know, Greg Schiano has
indicated as not indicated, but he has demonstrated over the
course of time. He's going to be able to build
up his recruits. Well enough that they're going
to be somewhat successful to the point that you cannot.
Look at that Rutgers game anymore and say, that's a game
Indiana's clearly going to win. They obviously, didn't this
year, and they got to go to Piscataway next year.
Yeah, I mean to me, I've been saying this for a while, like
this is the schedule next year that we have, we should start
the season 6 and 1 like we should be Bowl eligible after
that Rutgers game. And you kind of have to be
because your first four big ten games are North Western,
Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers, you're at Nebraska and a
trucker's. That's about as good as it's
gonna get. I mean, in the end, like, you
know, you as you've mentioned like you can't just Chuck a
broker's game as win, but like in the flip side, we play the
Big 10 East, like we do, So there's good years and bad
years. It's pretty good.
The schedule ends with Ohio, State Penn State, Michigan,
Michigan, State Purdue. That sucks.
But it ends with that. You got to be at six wins, going
into that. You just have to be so you got
to be six in one maybe five and two and just hope for something
to nice to happen. But if you're five until you get
some momentum, but you you got to win five of the first seven
games. And if you do that, they'll be
some momentum and now you're in the right foot, but if you go
three and four to And two and three.
And those game like it's over. This is not going to happen and
you gotta get that into your point.
Yeah, like you get to 2023. I hate to give you hate when I
start going future, but you mentioned it.
You know, your first Big Ten game is, you know, against Ohio
State and then you also play Penn State.
Maryland, Rutgers me of Illinois, but then you finish
with Michigan state, Wisconsin, Michigan.
Purdue. It just gets tougher.
Like, this is the, this is the nicest Runway to start a season
next next year, or so. You know, it's tough because
there's going to be a lot of questions like as it stands
right now. Somebody's be answered.
But no matter what our starting quarterback is either going to
be new or somebody that has a lot of questions coming out of
this year are starting running. Back is going to be new are
wide. Receiving Corps is going to be
all new. Unfortunately.
Our offensive line coach will be the same, but our offensive
coordinator is going to be a lot of question marks, but it's like
you you've burned all of the equity and Goodwill to just it
doesn't matter like all of that. Does it matter?
You have seven games? You got to win, six of them?
Yeah, and to me that's that's what next season is about.
You start the season with seven games.
You gotta win six because you figure, you might lose out after
you start that Ohio, state run, which is fine.
If you go 6 and 6 and you make a bowl, it's, you know, when you
look across, I mean, look, I think there's a lot of things to
be excited about with IU football.
May not sound like it from what we're saying, but you know, so I
Kevin deal. Ask how many freshmen are likely
to make an instant impact. I mean, it's Hard to say on that
front. I do think that, you know, you
got one or two defensive freshman, that could make a
positive impact you notice. On the color, could make a
positive impact right away. But, you know, football is
really one of those games where by and large your, you got to
develop players, don't make you Jim, you're gonna have to
develop players, a couple of years before they're really able
to step in and, and, and have a huge impact on what's going on
with the team. And that's that's just kind of
the reality of things. So it's just going to be a team
that's, you know, in a weird spot and, you know, while I
think that I you and Tom Allen deserve a lot of credit for the
work. They've done in the transfer
market. I think they've short up the
defensive line and the transfer market.
I think they've they've addressed some of the skill
positions on offense. There's just enough major spots
on this team that you're still scratching your head about a
little bit. It makes you wonder about what
they're going to roll in the next season with now, all that.
It said everything lays out next year where they should be able
to win six or seven games even, you know, and it'll they just
could be not as good as people think they are and still win
those six or seven games. But there's also a very clear
possibility on the schedule for next year where they don't do
that, you know, because the chances are Nebraska's not going
to be quite as bad as they were last year.
Rutgers is going to be a fairly good team next year overall.
You know how far to Cincinnati fall off is, you know, it'll
fall off that much is Maryland, you know friskier next year.
You know, that's a that's a Maryland team that Indiana
couldn't beat this year. So, you know, what is it?
What's going to be different about it next year?
Other than the game being at home, and you still got to play
a Northwestern, have another bad.
Yeah, or could, they could they bounce back when they seemed
always, and you still have a four-game stretch next year.
They got to go at Ohio State Penn State at home, Michigan at
home at Michigan State. And you'd be hard-pressed even
with the Changes on this roster to look at Indiana and say, you
are in a position where you could beat any one of those
teams, let alone multiple of those teams.
And and that is. So it is a, it is a challenge.
It's always a challenge in the Big Ten and I hope that Indiana
has made some internal shifts in what they're doing.
I just I still don't have a good sense of what this team looks
like with all of the transfers and with all of the change that
I, you is Dealing with at this point.
It's really hard to get a bead on what reasonable expectations
are for that group. But I do know that
programmatically speaking reasonable expectations, are
this too intense. Season was a blip on the radar.
You got to get back to six or seven or eight wins next year.
Because if you don't, you really got a question the overall
direction of things at this stage and I've never been a fan
of this this saying, but I do think it kind of stands here
that, you know, like melt soccer, a tough hand to play at
Michigan State. You figure out a way to bring
that to Team back and they seem to be in a good spot kind of
rise in the right way. You know, this is there's not a
lot of easy answers for Tom Allen here to figure it out.
But like this is why you're making the big money now, like
you, you got to figure it out like you've got to figure out a
way to get this done. And again, it just kind of comes
down to the results and you've got to find a way to win, six
games next year or come really damn close.
Yeah, because yeah, you go, you go 3 and 9 or 4 and 8.
It's you're going the wrong direction.
It's like now, it's like you gotta make that money like you
make the big money, figure it out.
You got to find a way to figure it out.
It can be done. I got enough food questions that
I think I'm not going to answer them on this podcast.
I'm actually going to split those out to a different
podcast, which I'll record some time between now and the new
year just because we've already gone almost an hour, 20, we
might as well kind of cut this short.
I don't want to tax people's attention to much as we lead
into Christmas. So, for those of you that asked
food or drink or be Town related, which means I'm going
to get to those next time. Be sure to keep an eye on the
feed as well. Release something sometime in
the next week on that Scott. Let's go ahead and wrap up any
final thoughts from you before we finish things off today.
Now, I mean, what a, you know, it's funny.
We started the year kind of thinking we were hitting the
Golden Age of IU Sports, looking at football and basketball and
football, didn't fully hold up, their end of the bargain.
I've often said, imagine how bummed we would be if we, you
know, for Those who the fifth, you who didn't want to fire
Archie, you know, imagine if we sold our Chi as our coach, we
had that kind of malaise and basketball.
We had what's going on in football.
Like, this could be the dark coming back in the dark days.
I mean, at least we have some Hope on the basketball side and
like you said, there's still some good news coming out of
football. I'm just a lot of other work to
be done. So, you know, it's been it's
been a wild year. I mean again you think of where
we were a year ago, we were fired up for you know, we were
all Riding High. We're taking the Big Ten patch
off our logo or getting ready for the Outback.
Bowl, you know, and in that time, we played a bowl game.
We've had a new coach, we've had a new basketball coach search, a
lot of stuff has happened. So it's been a, it's been quite
a year. I will end with this just a
shout out. One of the coolest things that's
happened on this podcast in quite a while.
We got a tweet. I'm going to call her out by
Denali on a Hansen at Aliana 04. She's an Iowa fan.
She heard me on the washtub Walk-Ons podcast and has been
listening ever since. Like I mentioned some, Iowa
thing in life. Cast with Ed Fang about like I,
you know, I would fans of listening and she tweeted like,
oh, I'm listening ever since that, which is mind boggling.
So I lie on, if you're listening of a, I love it.
Thank you for listening. You know, by the way, come on
over like red and white would look great on you.
Like you are more than welcome to be a fan.
You know, when you're in Carver Hawkeye or kinnock you're
allowed to wear red. Well for you guys already
terrible, the, the stripes, you know, we're in different
divisions. You can have a team in each
division. It's fine.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm like, I'm like, I'm like a
stealth Minnesota fan, you know. And nobody knows that.
So I'm kidding. I'm actually not.
But anyway, go ahead, I gotta just so it's cool that she's
been listening to Indiana, an Indiana related pot.
I listened to some of the washdown guys.
I listen to their post game just to kind of rub it in that the
ass-kicking we got. But it's just a shout.
I love hearing that. It's like that's almost one of
the best things I've gotten on this podcast of the while that
an Iowa fan is like, I'm still listening because I like you
guys, so that's awesome. So, you know what?
Just I will will do more Iowa talk.
We'll do a little more. I talk a look at them, you know,
a little more in basketball season, but not that was very
cool. But no, it's been a another
great year man. Um, you know, it's it was while
I was thinking of the crossroads like geez, you know, if you were
to told me this is gonna go on, you know, it started under
Creed's. Okay, we're going to to more
coaches coaching the crossroads over the next ten years.
It's like wild. So wonder where we'll be in 10
years from now, but I will probably still be still be
podcasting and dogs barking in the background and Good Times
the yeah, you know, just kind of keeping Get it rolling.
It was always a pleasure doing the show with you.
And yes always a pleasure hearing from all you folks for
those who ask questions that we couldn't get to I apologize.
We try to get to as many while also having a back-and-forth and
a normal conversation during the course of a podcast.
But look in general. It's been a fun year.
It's been an interesting year, you know, I think it's hard to
with the pandemic, put everything into perspective, you
know, it was a year that from an IU Athletics.
Activia, you know, the soccer team made it to the college Cup
Final and that was exciting to see women's basketball had its
greatest season ever. And in may be embarking on a
season that ends up being better than that, but on the flip side,
I you men's basketball went 12 and 15.
You fire a coach. You got a new coach in, you've
got this big change over and IU football had, you know, one of
their two or three, most disappointing seasons in program
history, so a mixed bag to say the least with Eiu Athletics,
but it's been fun talking about it all.
And it's been a pleasure. And obviously, the big news for
us from a business perspective, was the partnership with
assembly call and with Tony and Rania with the back home
network. So we appreciate all of those
folks and all the things that they do to make things run.
We are far less of a professionalized output or
Outlet than than assembly call is.
They've done so many awesome things throughout the course of
their time and we kind of just podcast when we're both
available, which As in our current roles is increasingly
less, but it's been fun trying to try to make it work.
And so thanks to Jarrod and and Andy and Ryan and coach and all
those folks over there. And obviously, thanks to Tony
who we've known for a long time. And, you know, we had them on,
you know, back in the old days. It's great to see him doing so
well, so thanks to all you folks for following along whether you
subscribe and they're not on Twitter at all.
You're the Smart Ones, whether you're on Twitter and you happen
to have it to catch some of our shows, our Facebook group.
Group, we have a small but loyal group of people that are
constantly, are are chiming in on Facebook with questions and
comments and that's cool to see and yeah, it's not something
we've been doing the podcast now, you know, when we get the
2022, it'll be 15 years which seems really hard to get your
head wrapped around. But it's been a lot of fun and
we certainly appreciate all of the Positive Vibes, all the good
questions, all the tough questions, everything.
And we look forward to seeing you folks, whether it's in
person or just online. In 2022.
Is we move forward. So, from all of us, all of you.
We hope you have a. If you celebrate Christmas.
We hope you have a merry Christmas.
If you celebrate Hanukkah, we hope you had a great season.
You celebrate, anything else around the holidays.
We hope you enjoy that as well. Like I said, I'll be back on at
least one more time. I'll tackle some food and drink
questions for you all, and we'll look forward to talking to you
again. In the new year for Scott.
I'm Galen. This is Crimson cast.
We will catch you folks on the Side.
Bring back the Bison. So long, everybody.
We must give the symbolic on a wide berth.