You're listening to the back home network, presented by home
field, apparel, welcome back to Crimson Cask ale
and Claudia Scott Caulfield joining you.
It is Sunday morning February 26th and the Indiana Hoosiers
have swept the Purdue Boilermakers for the 20 22, 23
season, a huge win for IU. Last night as they knock off the
Boilermakers and just completely change the entire framing of the
Season. All in one Fell Swoop, we're
going to talk about that extensively here today Scott.
I'm it was funny like the game ended last night and I'm sitting
next to my wife about 30 minutes after the game.
I'm just kind of checking, you know, texts and tweets and
everything and I look at her as like, I'm sorry you like why?
And I'm like I was prepared for a whole different range of
emotion than what? Actually feeling right now, it's
gonna act, just just a tremendous tremendous
performance by this IU team. We're going to delve into it.
Scott, how are you doing? How did you process everything?
Similarly, ya know, and by the way, I go off of Martha mock
lady on Twitter. This is a mop.
It's not a sweep, we'll call this a mop.
Yeah, I watched it last night, my wife and I watched it at the
house, we were gonna have some friends over who didn't show.
And then we let my youngest my ten-year-old.
Like I want to say it. Watch the game.
It's like, I remember thinking, like, okay, isn't he normally
goes Valley, 8:30? It's like, all right.
Like you're little, you know, we'll keep it close then by the
middle of the second half, it can put him to bed.
You want 10 minutes to go? And then he stayed up for the
whole thing to have. And now it's like, you know,
just to see the good luck charm, much see if you stay up for all
games. But no, I similarly like after
the game I'm like just reading Twitter and like texting a
couple people and just it's like I can't it.
I needed some time to kind of come down.
That was that was awesome. Unexpected awesome.
And Lot of takeaways I want takeaways with performances with
players where we can put things in the historical context.
So yeah, I was I really wanted to call you but I'm like,
there's enough meat on this bone.
Let's save it all for the pods you and I have not talked.
So let's let's do it. Yeah, fresh is best when it
comes to podcasting as we know here at Crimson cast before we
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fabric, the coolest design Scott last night or yeah, I guess it
was yesterday. Late evening.
I'm getting dressed to watch the game on my couch, as, as one
does. I'm like, no, I'm, you know, I'm
going to actually go out and watch this, you know, in person
and a little bit. What do I do?
I'm going to wear what? Of course, I wore the strutted
destiny, t-shirt underneath the Bison.
Hoodie, both home-field apparel. And those got a lot of high
fives later on in the evening. And it's just one of those
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apparel for every occasion. It feels like with this
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It's just a crew. So much stuff that I, I'm always
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All right, Scott so here we have.
Indiana going into the game last night I think torvik had them is
like a nine point Underdog. They were six and a half Point
Underdog, according to the point spread or five and a half, it
was kind of hovering between those anyway.
Not a lot of people felt like Indiana had a chance to win this
game. Myself included, I thought
Indiana could win the game. I certainly didn't think it was
off the cards, but it Been a decade since I you would want in
Mackay and while they won earlier on this season, you had
to expect that Purdue coming into this game with a chance to
clinch. The Big Ten title with a chance
to get revenge for IU, kind of interrupting their momentum
earlier this month. That all of that would come
together in a way that would be difficult for IU to face you add
in what we didn't know before the game.
Did, which was that Trace Jackson?
Davis would have one of his worst statistical games in the
entire season, really? Since, like last year's Illinois
game at home or last year's Purdue game at home.
And if you told me that before the game, I would have been
like, well this is really, really going to be not just a
difficult game. It's going to almost certainly
be a loss and yet Indiana behind one of the greatest individual
performances that I've seen somebody put out in Indiana,
uniform, especially on the road. Road and especially in Mackey
Arena somehow manages, to keep it closed in the first half,
change strategies at halftime jump out, get a lead and Never
Surrender the lead. I mean, everybody, I think
myself included here was expecting the other shoe to drop
in that second half and it just never did Indiana managed to
keep a pretty good margin almost the entire set second half of
the second half. I guess you could say and they
end up ultimately winning by eight points.
For you, you know, coming into this game.
Did you think that there was a chance?
Indiana was going to win this? I mean, did you?
I mean clearly there was a chance but did it feel realistic
at all to you before the game tipped?
No, no. I mean I had been saying, I
think I said it, you partially on this podcast to you like, you
know, the goal here is you lose the game at Michigan State.
You lose the game at Purdue, you got to win the next two home
games, then you're probably locked into a for see that it
just didn't seem realistic. And I was mentally preparing
myself to be like just okay with it with a Beatdown, you know,
just, let's keep it within 10 or 12, it's not get injured.
And it's not just break, any kind of spirit.
I didn't see Any path to Victory.
You know what's funny is, I love these like, you know, let's say
things that are all true and you know, it's like in 10 15, 20
years, you know, we can be telling our grandkids about, you
know, the four years of Trace Jackson Davis will say, you
know, it's he was a great player and he was, and as statistical
anomalies and he put up huge games, and then they'll say, oh,
during that time there are some big wins against Purdue like
yeah. You know, there was two guys who
had huge games and those wins against Purdue.
It's like, oh well, why don't like well what Is Rob finna.
See who the other one was jailed Hood.
Feels like oh the guy killed in the NBA.
It's like it's it is wild at have two of the last three wins
against Purdue Trace Jackson. Davis was a nonentity, I don't
think we ever would have thought that for either of those games.
Well, I will say real quick, I don't not, and he was a non.
I will say he was a nonentity in the home game last year that the
Rob Fantasy game, I would not call him a nonentity in this
game. I mean his.
But anyway, go on statistically. If I if you said like did to
your point, I'll say it better your the way you said.
If you say isn't of 10 points today, the car let's over like I
was texting a buddy who was skiing, who wasn't watching the
game and I was, you know, it's like I could feel was putting up
a game and like we're about to win and Jackson.
Davis has 10 points. He's like what?
Like, none of like none of this makes sense.
Yeah, so yeah, I know it's no document.
And what's really interesting is, he had a bad game, but this
goes to we'll talk about shallow hoods Ruffino.
My feeling ready to get to him. You know, the other thing I was
thinking about this morning, Is this does go to, you know,
people have been us rightfully. So kind of, you know, freaked
out about Woodson's ability to make changes or adjustments, you
know. Obviously Trace Jackson Davis
either wasn't having it. A great gamer, you know, didn't
see. But it's like, we didn't push
everything through him and have him go for for 20 from the field
before we realized he doesn't have it.
Like we basically came in with a different game plan and we
change game plans throughout the game defensively.
We were trapped. EET then we weren't you know so
I don't want to get it lost that Woodson has had some great
adjustments with this but no, it was a great.
I mean just an amazing win. It kind of does change the
trajectory of the season for us like I want to get into
bracketing, talk about, you know, does this raise our
ceiling? I think it's also funny.
This might just drop Purdue off the one lighting, they are
starting to struggle. It's it's just great to win at
Mackey. It's great to take, you know,
they'll end Winning their Big Ten title, that's fine.
It's great to take this away from them.
You know I love to see people. It is fun than to troll, you
know like hammer and rails and go on some of their sites and
see them you know bitching about fouls and it's like you guys
shot like 12 more free throws and eating you know, everything
is called for you guys. 12 more free throws.
I mean let's let's not. Let's not, let's not cut it
short, pretty shot, 21 more free throws than Indiana did last
night. Now there was a comment on
Twitter from JV 10 we've all been curious at times regarding
Woody's sub pattern but this game is seemed every string.
He pulled was the right one. Maybe the best in IU.
Basketball team has executed a game plan as a complete unit
since I mean look I think honestly the Purdue game at home
in at the beginning of February was another great game plan and
it really does. I think you hit on a key Point
here that shouldn't get lost. Woodson has revealed himself as
a coach that is able to set up a game plan.
His players to buy into it. Most of the time, it doesn't
happen every time. But it doesn't really happen
every time with any coach, you know, Bill self struggles to
have his team execute. They almost lost to West
Virginia this weekend, you know. But I think about the difference
between the two games and Trace Jackson Davis is kind of a great
avatar for the different approaches that Indiana has
taken to trying to beat Purdue in that first game.
They let Zack Ed score, pretty much at will he had 33 points
and 18 rebounds on 15 of 19. A shooting Trace Jackson Davis
almost matched him, blow for blow in that game.
Trace had, 27 points, excuse me, 25 points. 7 rebounds, one
assist and five blocks in this game.
It, you know, clearly Purdue had decided, we are not going to let
Trace Jackson Davis beat us. And so yes, Jackson Davis
finishes with 10 points and eight rebounds, but he had seven
assists, he had one assist in the first game and I thought,
especially in the second half once, I use Shooters settled
down a little bit. And once I think they got a
better sense of the flow of things Jackson Davis is passing
kept generating opportunities for teammates and that's what
we've been asking for most of the season.
And, and for a variety of reasons, the stew kind of worked
perfectly against Purdue, because Purdue was so set on
over-committing to playing defense against race tax and
Davis and Indiana and Mike Woodson found a way to adjust
what they were doing now. They were able to do that
because they got a transcend Transcendent performance out of
jail and Hood. Shafi know, I've watched you and
I have both, we've watched IU basketball for a long time.
I grew up in the West Lafayette area unfortunately you know as
an IU fan in Purdue country I've seen a lot of IU Purdue games.
I was at the game in 2012 where I you kind of surprisingly one
that was the game that kind of felt like it really pushed I you
over the hump en route to the tournament that year.
Was there in 2013, when I you blooper do out and swept them.
You know, I think about all of the games that I've seen.
I you play in Mackay, there haven't been a lot of Victories,
I cannot for the life of me and I'm sure there was someone that
I'm forgetting. I cannot remember a player.
Let alone, a freshman, have the kind of game that Jalen Hood
Ruffino had for Indiana in Mackey Arena.
I mean, Matt Painter, who's seen more IU /, do games and I have
essentially kind of said the same thing in the postgame press
conference, you just don't see fresh one coming in and doing
that. I don't I mean you can't even
imagine what I you would have been without Jalen Hurd
chiffino's performance because there wouldn't have been a
performant. Like there would have been a
game essentially if I you hadn't gotten what they got out of him,
but for him to come out play that level 35 points and you
know, just he became the offense, he only had two
assists, the whole game, you know, Trey Galloway ended up
kind of becoming the point guard because Jalen is Ruffino was
scoring so much. I mean, how do you try to wrap
your head around? Around the kind of performance
that he turned to in yesterday for Indiana.
It's all the things you said and, you know, first off, I
would love if we get to know, like, what is Trey, Galloway's
middle name. I need more three name, guys.
Now, like with jlidgett Vito and Trace Jackson Davis.
Like, by the way, whoever we recruit just like, if you got
three Nate, like, I don't think we go.
It's by the way. It's Trey Alan Galloway.
There we go. So that if one of them, you get
it to Jeremy gray be like, hey, I want to go three names for the
end, the Iowa game and just, let's start every one of the
teams. Can we talk?
Can we talk tray into a hyphen is the big question.
Oh hope-filled. Where's The Hyphen hyphen?
Sure, definitely has to have it, I will say, aye, I'll give Doug,
give Jimmy Jackson's credit last night.
You know, he came up at some point during the broadcast for,
you know, Jess is just hitting shots which, that's perfect.
You know, is as much as people were failing at workshopping
nicknames for Jay, Leno Cioppino.
That's about as perfect as you get.
But no, I mean, look, when you look at that go ahead, yes,
yeah, having you You've joked about this all year about, you
know, Trace Jackson Davis, stat line being from the 70s, you
know, again, Jan Hooks, Fino had a stat line.
That was very 70s. That's like I was getting
texting, a friend who wasn't watching my, he has like, you
know, he's putting up 33 points, the time he had ended up with 35
my God, you see, hit a bunch of Threes like, no, he's 13 from 22
from the field. I mean, mid-range game just
unbelievable. You know?
Well, and it's, it's go ahead. Someone was asking last night, I
can't find the tweet. I wish I could about, you know
why? Out of people, criticize, jail
and Ruffino shot, selection for a while ourselves included.
Like, why are you pulling up with the old some of the
mid-range shots? And look, I just want to again,
I want to State. Statistically speaking, the
mid-range J is a terrible shot. It is, it is lower efficiency
than a layup and it doesn't score as many points per
possession. Is a three.
That's why people don't take them.
Jalen Hurd Ruffino is rapidly. Become the exception, like the
lone exception to the rule, about not hit, not taking
mid-range J's because he's clearly.
With them, he clearly feels like I can make this.
And yes, there have been games where he hasn't made them.
But to some degree with a player like this, you're going to take
the good with the bad, there's going to be some hot spells and
cold spells, and when you get this type of a performance, it's
like, well, that's why you do that.
And for him to show up on the biggest stage and just take
shots that Purdue was not willing to defend and make them
that completely changes the complexion of a basketball game.
No completely agree. And it's similar to why, you
know like Zaki these are great players.
Like, he's taking twos but there's such high efficiency
twos, jail hitch. If he knows mid-range is now,
you know, high efficiency, at that level and it adds so much
more to this team's game because he does a lot of it off the
pick-and-roll where if he's, that efficient hitting twos.
And then you have a trace Jackson, Davis on the, on the
other side of the Roll, who's that efficient on the post?
It really is no way to stop that.
And you saw it last night that they will produce was like,
alright, we're just gonna, you know, we're going to pull back
and defend the post and give him the Rains like okay, that he's
going to get hot. You know, I go back to what I
saw in the mission after the Michigan State game and I don't
think we had a pot. So but as a couple different
times, you know, that Michigan State game, one thing that I saw
that I really liked out of jail of the Cioppino is, he came down
and he shot an air ball. And the whole crowd was chanting
airball airball airball whatever this is.
And that's an East Lansing. Also a very tough place to play
immediately. Next possession came down,
little curl, hit a shot. It's like, okay, this dude's got
something. This guy's not scared of the
pressure. He's gonna go at it and he's
able to take it and you saw it last night, it was like on
display. He was the most poised person on
the court. He was the person who looked the
most unflappable mowing at times Purdue looked more shook.
Just by the in vo they were almost overhyped.
And no I mean the thing that I wanted to get to is he hasn't
put together the full season resume yet we still have time
but But, you know, unfortunately, I, you just
hasn't had enough one and dones to really make a list up.
But I mean, to me, it's like you were talking about the, the, you
know, the performances you seen against Purdue.
I think about, you know, who are the best one and dones, we've
had it. Indiana.
And it's like, Eric Gordon has always been at the top of that
list and I think Eric Gordon had probably a better full overall
statistical season. But when you factor in the
injuries and the factor in some of these high-level performances
and the That we still have the end of the season, where you
basically at this point near Gordon season was kind of like
done based on factors outside of his control.
You know, this he jail had Speedo could end being the best
one and done Indiana's ever. Had an unfortunate a short list
but you know he's the best one and done you know maybe the
question is have we have we seen in the Big Ten in a number of
years but the fact that he's that high on my Indiana list is
about I was trying to think, like it simmer airport.
That's right, you know, question for you, I don't know who else
you would have. Of there.
Well there I mean there just aren't many to choose from
obviously I mean, even Isaiah Thomas wasn't a one and done
because that didn't really exist during that time period.
I mean I was thinking about it from a slightly different
perspective which is I can't remember a freshman or really a
player who was quite looked quite like and played quite like
Jalen Hurd Jiffy no in Indiana history Gordon's the one that
you think about because I mean clearly it's like NBA ready, you
know needed a little bit of I did develop but once they got
going it was like, whoa, you know?
But with Gordon was like even though he was clearly a superior
basketball player from what Indiana had been used to really
for that last 15 years, he you saw something in him that you
was reminiscent of previous players, you know?
The it wasn't like completely out of left field.
I really can't come up with an analog for Jalen.
Atrophy no I mean a guy you know a 65 point guard with the kind
of handles that he's got who can I shoot who has no conscience
you know who's able to write you know and yes he's you know he's
a freshman. He's struggling at times
defensively. He struggles at times with games
where he's not shooting the ball particularly well but when he's
on he's about as talented, a guard.
As I think I use had that is clearly like engineered
physically for the NBA mean, Yogi Ferrell grew into a really
good guard who's gotten some time in the NBA, but there's
those are two. So Totally different types of
players. And, you know, I just, I can't
remember a guy kind of out-of-the-box quite as ready
for these types of moments. And it's a weird thing for an IU
fan to think about because, you know what, you hear over and
over again, this whole idea about the NCAA tournaments,
like, it's, you know, you got to have a guard that can go get you
a bucket in crunch time because it's something you can't scheme
for, and that's essentially what.
Jail,', no, did, or should I say, Jordan hood, cheffy.
No, as they mentioned on the broadcast, it It's what he did
in this game. It Purdue schemed, frankly
brilliantly. They absolutely smothered.
Trace Jackson Davis every time he tried to get the ball, like
it was a on steroids version of what Michigan state did to tjd.
And the game earlier this week and gentlemen, Jaffe.
No was able to step up and do something that Purdue could not
scheme against, which was, I am going to drive.
I'm going to go to the opposite hand, I'm going to pull up.
I'm going to take shots when you try to stop the pull up, I'm
going to drive by you and Lay It Up.
And everybody, I mean if you go back and watch the tape you'll
see Purdue players like purposefully not.
Trying to jump in because they're expecting him to pass
the ball to trace Jackson Davis because they're thinking there's
no way this guy is going to hit these shots and he did.
Now we've seen games where he didn't and you can look at this
and you could say, well there was some luck involved but
there's luck involved in every basketball game.
The fact that you have a guy who goes out scores 23 in the first
half on the road at a notoriously, difficult place to
place it on the second team. That's beaten Purdue in Mackey
Arena and unlike that Rutgers game which was I mean, producer
21 that they kind of lost it. The Very end.
This one. I you seize control of, with
about 14 minutes left in the second half and it was by that
point. Jay, Leno, trophy know, it kind
of morphed out of the I have to score every possession role and
was able to draw Defenders off of other players and that's what
made it. So fascinating, was that, that
metamorphosis in his game mate and he still scored down the
stretch, he had that beautiful teardrop on the Baseline that
put into the backup. I liked, and I think with about
three minutes to go, he was able to do that when he needed to,
but it wasn't like he had to do it every possession and it's
that. Combination of physical gifts
and his mental Acumen in situations like this.
That I find just hard to get my head wrapped around as an IU
fan. I love it, it's just not
something we see very often here, know when you hit on
something that is so true. That the dichotomy of his game
between the two halves because in the first half I think he had
like twenty three twenty four point or 27 and he had he had
probably 23 and 23 in the first half I believe.
Yeah. And I'm a thinking, like, God,
is he gonna go for 40 or 42? Because at that point say, He's
the only thing working in the offense but then your point it's
like it's dead on in the second half.
He's taking, what's coming to him, they're playing him
differently and he's getting other guys shots and were
rotating the ball, all the way around me a couple of times.
We had great rotations where you put your fee know, either drew
the defense to him and got Miller, Capo wide open three or
he drew it to one side. Then we just rotate it three
passes around to, you know, Trey Galloway in the quarter know,
the fact that he changed his game in the second half and
still was able to kind of manage the offense even with not A ton
of assist for kind of moving things around and kind of having
a bunch of hockey assist. It was, it was amazing to watch
it, you know? Yes.
He, you're gonna look back and be like, oh, there's that one
and 12 against Maryland. You know, he's a volume shooter
and that's you know that's what makes him a great NBA Prospect
and make some a great player. And this, you know, I don't want
to get too crazy but it does you're going to go back and
relook and and I'm as guilty of anybody of, you know, getting a
little bit too caught up in the moment but But you know seeing
him Blossom like this and you can see this coming, you know,
that he's had games, you know, he went eight for 14 against
Purdue in the the last time they played for 16 points and we had
21 points against Michigan. The he's had this, he's had some
moments where it's like not at this level but he's had some
really good moments but this does I think kind of reframe the
season a bit where we had that stretch we lost three or four
you know losing to Rutgers Arizona Kansas And being
Nebraska and you and I were there at the Arizona game and
it's like, you know, we're there the night before I had heard
from a friend that you know, Hood feel is not going to play
again. It's like, all right, well,
least we have tjg. It's like you tell me that now
like, hey, you tell me tomorrow gets I we don't you know,
Channel his fee. No I most of the Jordan thanks
to you. Hey girl.
You know it's like you'd be like wow that's a really we may not
win and so you look back it's like all right.
Well of course we lost three or four you know Sheila Jaffe do is
out. It does reframe this.
The season a little bit. And yeah, it was it was also the
other thing that I really enjoyed seeing, you know, is
that hopefully at some point we'll see that, you know, if we
get Xavier Johnson back but all you can go off of as, you know,
bench reactions and what you're seeing on TV but nobody looked
happier for Hood, sophina than Xavier Johnson on the bench like
Xavier Johnson was going bananas, looked like he looks so
engaged. So excited will see it's all
different when guys get on the Work.
But it does feel like if we get him back it's going to be an
additive. It's not going to be like oh now
we have two alpha dogs fighting for who's in charge of this
team. It does feel like you know, the
that that may not be an issue if we ever get Xavier back but I
don't want to dwell on Xavier because he's, you know, we don't
know. Yeah.
But yeah. Anyway that's what we'll talk
about that scenario a little bit later on is we did have some
questions about it so we'll tackle that a couple of the
things that are worth noting. First of all, I mentioned the
game plan a little bit earlier from Mike Woodson.
I think one of the things about this game that may get lost in
the shuffle that was really obvious to me as it was going
on. Was Indiana, completely changed
their defensive approach on Zack Ed to start the second half and
it completely flummoxed. Purdue for the exact six or
seven minutes that I you needed it to in order to take control
of the game. You know, in that first half,
they kind of left racetracks and Davis or whoever was in the post
on an island. Trying to deal with Zach Ed.
And he had a tremendously efficient and dominant, first
half of offensively. And then like, as soon as the
second half rolled around Indiana, just starts jamming him
in the post. They there they have double
teamed him constantly and Purdue didn't really know what to do.
They didn't know who to throw the ball to, they didn't know
who should take shots. They could not get the ball into
eating. I'll eventually they managed to
figure out ways to do so. But by that point the damage had
been done and you know I really think that Mike Woodson deserves
a tremendous Amount of credit for the patient's.
It was kind of a risk because if I, you hadn't gotten the game
that they've gotten out of jail and Ruffino in the first half
and they've been down by like ten as opposed to four at the
end of the first half. I don't know if that strategy
ends up working but because they played as evenly as they did, it
allowed them the ability to essentially spring a trap on
Purdue the Purdue couldn't get out of in time and by the time
they did Indiana knew what they were doing and it was getting
good contributions from all over the Floor.
So that to me, you think about all the little nuances?
Somebody mentioned the substitutions earlier, even
that, I mean, you know, for Woodson, to be able to manage
the number of players he had with so many fouls because of
the just bizarrely one-sided calls that were coming
throughout the course of that game and they have nobody foul
out, you know, be able to keep a rotation of post players in
there that could defend ET and still be able to play the kind.
Of physical defense that they needed in order to, you know, do
something against EDI and the second half I think is probably
one of the more underrated things about this win for
Indiana. And it's something that frankly,
that kind of did that kind of matchup that kind of strategy
that kind of adjustment at halftime.
We didn't see for several years with IU basketball and it's
almost again, kind of like the Jalen Jiffy.
No. Think it's kind of jarring to
see it all of the sudden because it's like something that we had
just forgotten could exist with IU basketball.
Ball. I almost don't want to talk
about other people, besides jail Hood your feet.
Oh but I will this was a game. I had a really good friend of
mine Teddy on the west coast who texted me and he's like you guys
are just way too hard on Trey Galway and maybe so he had a
really good game. But I think it's a fair point
that a lot of the role players. Yeah.
In this game. You know that you and I have
been I think again rightfully kind of complaining about that.
They all provided exactly what you need.
I mean Kayla Banks maybe didn't have it but that's a freshman
two minutes who cares, you know. Like Like, You Know, Tamar
Bates, who we I've been on a little bit, you know, he came in
gave you 11 minutes and didn't take anything off the table and
really that's all you need of these guys to do.
But they were adding things, especially defensively.
The other thing that I really like to see defensively.
You saw it a lot in the second half.
They were still pressuring Purdue but they were kind of
taking a step back and they were tipping a lot of those passes
going into the post, they were being very active hands, hands
up, always jumping and they had two or three that I can result
in like to see. Holes where they just they were,
you know, be able to hit the ball before it even got into the
post. And so you just had an entire
team that was locked in. And I think this is all we've
been asking for from our, our bench is, can you just come in
and not take anything off the table?
I don't, you know, we don't need to Barbados to come in and go
546 from 3B awesome. But it's like, I'm not expecting
that, but we got out of Tomorrow.
Bates was exactly what I've been looking for is great, defensive
play, and just not kind of taking things off the table by
pushing things offensively. And I think that was great, you
know, Malik were new headache at a really good game didn't foul
out, but I think he provided the minutes that needed to happen
now. So, I, it's man.
I mean, it's just such a great wind when it Mackey, doesn't
happen enough but it and the team kept their composure, I
will say this, you know, the one thing that is there and it's,
you know, it's concerning but it's also that Purdue is one of
the better hustle and, you know, rebounding teams out there and
Offensive rebounding teams. There is a couple minutes couple
moments there in the second half with you know 7 45 minutes to go
one-possession in particular where they're like off the
approve. Got like five offensive rebounds
but they did produ missed a lot of Threes that I feel like could
have could have brought that game back a little bit or at
least made it a little bit tighter than ended up being.
And we dodged a couple of bullets where we gave Purdue
extra chances. But again, I I think that's
that's good. Phil room stuff, it's good stuff
that you can work on. I can't say it's like wasn't
good effort because they were putting out effort all over the
place and it did a little bit of a homer should.
It did feel like just a lot of the bounces were going, always
straight to Purdue guys and not a lot of teams you're going to
face maybe one more time with Purdue in the Big Ten
Tournament. Like not a lot of teams are
going to have a dude who's 74, who's just Elite?
It getting offensive rebounds and so you know, I'm willing to
talk some of that up but I will say that We gave Purdue a lot of
extra bullets to put themselves back in the game.
They just didn't convert on those, as well.
Look, I think it's important to keep in mind that you're still
going up against a 74 guy, who's very good at rebounding.
I mean, Purdue is really staked, maybe, maybe, you know, in
error, they've really staked their success, to being able to
get shots up and get offensive rebounds off those shots to the
exclusion of a lot else. And so, you know, I get what
you're saying, but I also think overall, There were going to be
some things that I you had to sacrifice in this game and they
sacrifice the right things. And that's where I think
Woodson, really shined through. In terms of, they didn't try to
force the ball to trace Jackson Davis.
When it was clear, that it wasn't working, the couple of
times they did in the first half, he was not having a great
experience and the pivot that they made in the second half.
And the idea that, you know, you could play different ways.
I mean, honestly, this is a little bit of what we've been
hoping Indiana would do like that.
Last night, we've we've been concerned so much about I use on
like or inflexibility, I guess you could say.
In that everything seemed to be running through Trace Jackson
Davis at all times offensively and that ultimately is one of
those things that you don't want to be like that because if it
breaks down suddenly, you don't have a second option.
And that's honestly it's funny like if I'm Purdue I'm coming
out of this game and I'm A lot more concerned about that than I
am Indiana. Because Indiana just went on the
road beat, Purdue with a significantly below average.
You know, point total from Tres Jackson Davis.
Now he contributed another ways, he grabbed some rebounds in the
second half, he had some great passes that led directly to
baskets. But this is the versatility that
I think the the projection before the season that said
Indiana was a big ten title favorite, it could be a
contender for the What you saw in that game last night, is why
people said that because it was like, well here you have and
this is even without Xavier Johnson.
You've got an All-American candidate in the post.
You've got one or two guards, who can handle the ball, shoot
the ball, and pass the ball, and you've got role players who can
knock shots down. And you know you mentioned the
tree Galloway thing earlier. Yes we've been harsh Entre
Galloway and the whole Supporting Cast at times
Galloway, maybe more than others perhaps.
Unfairly but Galloway has really blossomed over the course of
this month. Really?
Just last month and a half. Woodson mentioned in the press
conference himself and I think what you're finally seeing out
of Galloway is a guy that's getting over or gotten over the
hump. He knows he has to shoot some
games when he's open, he needs to take shots.
He was, he was looking for shots from the perimeter.
He wasn't just automatically deciding to drive in.
You want players that are confident enough to do that.
And also, you want players, who can jump into passing Lanes, he
had that Great disruption in the second half of, I think it was
an entry pass from Newman that he intercepted and was able to
take down the floor. And and, you know, they scored.
He had that great interception and lob to trace Jackson, Davis
that put Jason Davis in double figures and kind of ice the game
like Galloway. Now to me is a far different
player than Galloway at the beginning of January was.
And again, I feel like you don't get that tray Galloway without
the Xavier Johnson injury, because you don't have Trey
Galloway, we having to play 30 to 35 minutes of game having to
go out and grind against Big Ten competition night in and night
out. And I think the same thing with
Jalen Jaffe. No, I don't think you see this.
Jalen Hurd chafee know without him being forced into a role
where I mean played 40 minutes last night on the road at
Mackey. This is a kid who.
Yeah, he's probably got the legs for it, but when you see so many
freshmen wilting down the stretch Purdue's backcourt, you
know this season. To watch Caleb Noe Trevino
going. The opposite direction is a
testament. First of all to how well he has
matured as a player and be Mike Woodson's faith in him to mature
as a player. And you can say that Woodson
didn't really have much of a choice here.
But I really think as much as people lament like Bates, not
being more of a contributor or you know, Geronimo not being
more of a contributor realistically the you know the
little bar has been raised so high now What we expect out of
jail, met Ruffino, and Trey Galloway.
And a lot of that is because they have seized the moment, and
it doesn't show up in absolutely every game.
But as we talked about on this podcast, not every team is going
to win every game, down the stretch, and you're going to
have a Michigan State on the road, every once in a while, but
you're also going to have games like this.
So I want to go back and just really quickly, like I miss said
something at the start of the pot, I didn't mean that Trace
Jackson. Davis was like a nonentity.
I just meant like, statistically, from a point
perspective, you look at that, that was Kind of my joke but I
reading some of the produce stuff it's like they were
taking, you know, the oh this this is Player of the Year
likely CT, just showed why he's Player of the Year and in a
weird way it's like I'm kind of like, actually I think this
shows my Trace Jackson. I know I thought there were
things like it's like, this is probably why he might be player
of the year because he had a game where he still affected.
He had seven assists. He still was effective when he
wasn't scoring, I don't CED be able to do that.
Anyway, that's all. No, I I agree with that.
I think that I saw that same. I think it was Jared just the
lightest from one of the radio stations in Lafayette.
And, you know, it really does illustrate the dichotomy, like,
you know, Ed is clearly an excellent player and as an
efficient score, and he is essentially the sun around,
which Purdue basketball orbits. But when things broke down, and
when ET couldn't score Edie had nowhere to go with the
basketball. Like, he really he could, he
can't pass effectively out and I don't blame him.
He's not really, he's a receiver.
Like you have to feed feeds a key D because he has to eat on
his own what race tracks and Davis.
Had a bad game. Offensive ly from a shooting
perspective but he generated like 16 points off of assists.
I mean, and this is a guy who's not doing it from the high post.
He's doing it from the Baseline, you know, that is a the
pick-and-roll that Indiana started to run there in the
second. Half that Beautiful Exchange off
the pick-and-roll between tjd and Trey Galloway that led to
the trace Jackson Davis lately. That to me, that doesn't happen
without Trace Jackson Davis, being such a threat to pass the
basketball because you now have to respect him in a couple of
different ways and, you know, you don't quite have to do that
with Zach Edie. Clearly, you can't, you can't
game plan around his rebounding ability but you can game plan
around him not being able to get good receptions in the post and
not be able to get good shots up.
And so, I do think that from a value perspective, you can use
Trace tracks and Davis and several ways.
I still think he's going to win. A or the year because that's how
the media work on these things. But I don't think that last
night demonstrated anything of the sort when it comes to like
the relative strengths of the two players.
So when you were talking about you know Trey Galloway and the
growth, totally agree with, we're seeing the growth in jail
and the Chaffee know this this taking the lens out just a bit.
It's almost been like the theme for our podcast, this season of
you know as Indiana fans were not used to X.
It's like we're not used to this right?
Used to Fresh. Coming in like this, like we're
not used to this, we're not used to it.
You know, seeing this I think the other thing that maybe you
know, we're not used to is we're turning into the profile of a
team that does well, in March, which is, we're way different
than we were in January. Like we've grown were different
and you go back and look at that.
Again, the Rucker is Arizona, Kansas stretch, like this is not
even close to the same team we had then and this is also
something that we just haven't had historically as Indiana fans
in the last 10-15 years is normally If we look back
lamenting lie at like, you know, the North Carolina game this
year, like oh man, remember we were good.
Like now we're just, you know, puttering down the stretch, you
know, trying to grab any Eddie, hope to get something going in
March. And we're just falling apart or
different this year. Like, this is, this is what
Michigan state has done for 20, 22 years, maybe not this year
with, after the loss, to Iowa, but we'll see.
But you also a Michigan state has built their bread and butter
on for 20 years is they start off, they get their ass kicked,
they have some issues, they struggle They and then by the
end of March, in Michigan, State's case for like, wow,
they're going to win the Big Ten and be like a two-seat, like
they're going to plow through March, and plus the tournament,
and there are a way different team than we.
I remember seeing them in January and we're doing that,
and it's really cool to see. And we're seeing guys grow into
roles and we're coming more Dynamic and it as Indiana, it's
awesome to be that team where it's like, yeah, we're evolving
and some of the mistakes and lessons that we took in December
and January are actually leading Eating toward us winning and
I'll just emphasize this point with this.
I had another friend of mine just say you know.
Hey man. Like you guys went nine and two
in the you know at a stretch in the Big Ten that we've now gone
ten and three, not as great sounding but still good.
He's like dude, I will take nine and two in the Big Ten at any
point. Any like I don't care any kind
of you know, well this happened that you're playing this guy's.
It doesn't matter. Like you went nine and two in an
11-game stretch, the Big Ten, we've now, gone ten and three in
the 13 game stretch, like we Are changing and becoming a better
team at the right time. Unlike you know any other year
this we're talking about you know where does Hood Fino fit.
Well when's the last time that we had a team that was really
peaking at this moment because I think of like you know last year
they turned it on for 36 hours. Like that was a team that was
DOA going into the Big Ten Tournament turned it on.
You know, I think if the number one, you know, the maybe that's
the that year is Yogi Ferrell, they won the Big Ten, they were
definitely coming on that year. Even the, the 13 season where
they're ranked one of the country.
I think we all kind of agree like this team felt like it was
starting to run on fumes near the end.
You'll maybe the 2012 year but that was more the end of March
like I can't think of a year. I mean its history, we've turned
it on like this I would say I think 2012 is the answer, you
know? Because if you people remember
as we've talked about, they were five and six in the Big Ten and
then they won all. But one of their remaining games
in conference down the stretch and I mean because I mean all of
them were a little different. I would actually argue like Team
that team was playing fine. They won some big games at the
end but they were kind of at the same level all year 2016.
They clearly one out there but then they lost in the Big Ten
Tournament. I mean it wasn't like they were
you know on our on a constant upswing.
Yeah there's a different energy. Now, I will warn, you know, 90
warns the wrong word but I will I will caution everybody to pump
the brakes a little because this is still a team that's lost two
out of their last four. They did lose on the road at
Michigan State. You're going to have that.
That as great as Jalen Hood pheno played in the game last
night. He's also had games recently
where at least offensively he struggled from you know shooting
the basketball you know as great as Trey Galloway played last
night. He's had games where he
struggled. But I think what's important
right now is that it feels and looks I think body language more
than anything else. Like this team has a different
vibe about it than what we are used to seeing at this time of
year. And you know, I look at that
most is in the play of guys like Miller cop, like cop looks far
more engaged now on the floor than I think I've ever seen him
as an IU basketball player has been that way for a few games,
you know. He still has some defensive
lapses but he's taking shots, he's hitting shots.
I look at Trey Galloway. I see the same thing.
Jalen atrophy, no always looks the same.
You know, he always looks like he's just kind of locked in and
just going possession by possession, you know?
But it does feel like there is a certain energy that surrounds
This team that feels different. Now, this is still a team that I
think is very susceptible to bad shooting games.
It's still a team that if they don't have the defensive
intensity up as happened in that Michigan State game, they can
lose ground quickly but the fact again that they have one, you
know, as many games as they won they were one in four in the Big
Ten the morning of the 12th of January.
They're 11 and seven right now to have gone tendon 3 over the
course of these last 13 games. And to be projected to win both
of their remaining games by 6. They need to win both of those
games for a variety of reasons that does make you think gosh,
this is a team that even with those speed bumps at
Northwestern and Michigan state is hitting on the right
cylinders on the right days, they're not hitting on all
cylinders. When this team has on all
cylinders. Like, if you get, if you get 25
out of traced, 25 and 10 out of Trace, Jackson Davis, and you
get 16, 16 and 9 out of. Yeah, they are.
They have all of the pieces. Has the question for Indiana is?
Will those pieces actually come together at the right time?
I really think that getting out of February, getting out of the
Big Ten. Could be the best thing for this
team because they are so hard for teams that have scouted them
in-depth to defend and play against.
When you start to get into teams that haven't been able to do
that. I think that'll be something
that this Indiana team could potentially take advantage of.
So yeah, so it's a bathtub. Wait, I was thinking of that,
you know, like I'm just going off, you know, hasn't updated
Bracketology but, you know, they play like Oral Roberts in the
first round. Then a matchup against Iowa
state in the second or something like that.
Who can you know? I'm not saying it's right.
But like, if you're Iowa State, how do you prep for this game?
I mean, obviously you do and, you know how to, but it's like
now, it's like we got to basically Double J.
Look at your feet. Oh, we got a double Trace
Jackson daily. There's two, dudes.
You got a double or we got to figure something out.
Like, we can't on the pick-and-roll.
Like what do we do? Because we got to be high and we
got to be low. And I think it's that you're
going to see a lot of teams in the tournament probably pick one
of the other and then it's like I can the other one be even
though I think we become a unbelievably hard team to scout
on like two days prep. Yeah.
Now that's 100% 100%. It's it is absolutely a it's a
fascinating team to try to get your head wrapped around from a
scouting perspective on short rest.
And you know the other thing about it is that I don't know.
How many teams are going to be personnel-wise capable of
Defending Trace Jackson Davis, and all that he does and Jalen
Hurd chafee know and all that he does Point.
Yeah. And and again the key to
unlocking this team from an IU perspective, can they pass the
ball out to the three-point line and have guys take shots and to
me, like one of the biggest changes that we've seen is that
Miller cop is actually catching and shooting, you know?
Yes, he missed a couple in the game versus Purdue but he also
hit a couple Trager. Always catching and shooting
Jalen. Atrophy, no, can move to his
left, pull up and take a 3, like that threat.
Should when you're not playing a team with the guy that's 74 in,
the post, should open up even more opportunities for IU as
they move forward. It is really exciting to watch
all of that kind of coming together and I think ultimately
there's a feeling among IU fans like, you know, out last night
watching the game. It's kind of like the if you've
been out in a crowd, you know, What the vibe feels like when
the fans aren't confident in players doing certain things.
And I'm noticing even that's changing like the crowd reaction
to Trey, Galloway shooting a three is no longer kind of like
that. Oh, it's more like there's an
anticipation there that's positive because you feel like
it's got a pretty good shot of going in and I feel that way
about cop as well. Like it's almost to the point
where you're shocked when cop doesn't hit a three.
Yep and that is a big change from what it's been over the
course of his two seasons. Is here at IU.
We had a bunch of questions and comments from Twitter.
I wanted to get to before we wrap things up because we've
already gone, 47 minutes as we are want to do.
So, let's see, where shall We Begin?
So we had a bunch of questions about the Savior Johnson thing,
you know, because we still haven't seen Xavier Johnson.
A lot of people have rumored that, we might see him back in
this Tuesday game. So, we had a bunch of people who
wrote some version of this. I'll tell use the one from the
balcony. How does Woodson ensure we
maintain continuity with ex back in the starting lineup.
He should start of healthy, but really curious to see how we get
through that period. So we talked about this a little
bit on a previous podcast, Scott.
I mean, first of all, I think that the expectation, that X
would come back like fully formed and ready to play and
start is probably far-fetched. I mean, this is a guy who has
not played competitive basketball since mid-December,
he's dealing with a broken foot. Put that is not something that
you just come back from and be like, hey, I'm here.
It's it's going to be something that is going to take time for
him to integrate back into the lineup.
You know, I guess my answer on this is that ultimately when you
look at the way that this team is now constructed, the ability
to have a player, come off the bench and be there, instead of
like the Tamar Bates minutes right now or be Love spell
Galloway for an extra few minutes so we can maintain a
level of intensity throughout the entire game or take some
pressure off a jail in a jiffy. No.
And let him get a little bit of rest.
Like that's really what I think people should be expecting with
Xavier Johnson. I don't know right now that you
mess with the starting lineup. I mean the hood should Fino
Galloway. Cop Thompson, Trace Jackson
Davis line up with, you know, Malik renew coming in at times
in the post. Like that seems to be working.
Okay, offensively at least and What I worry about with, with X
is mostly like his stamina and his defensive abilities.
Like, I think offensively they'll be some instinctive this
there, but trying to cut and do all the things you have to do.
It'll be interesting to see how much he can actually perform on
the defensive end. I use kind of blessed right now
because if they get him back, they can use them in spurts.
They don't have to have them, come back and play a huge amount
of minutes. And I think that's probably the
wisest way to go about things. I don't know what are your
thoughts on this right now? I'm going to take your side a
little bit, unlike, you know, the pump, the brakes a little
bit on the optimism in that there's tons of minutes to go
around. Like if he can provide
something, it's like they're, you know, this game against
Purdue. We basically had five guys play.
Like tomorrow, Bates played, 11 minutes, Malik renew played 10
Geronimo, played for Caleb Banks played to.
So you had a rotation of seven guys, two of those playing 21
minutes combined. So there's if Xavier has
something to provide, I'm actually not concerned at all
about where you fit, The rotation because there's a ton
of minutes out there to be grabbed.
I agree with you but just I will take the the counter just just
for fun, you know, the logic and putting him in the starting
lineup is as long as you can get, you know, Galloway.
So I think that would be the role he goes into understand
like hey man look you didn't do anything wrong but we're doing
this. You'll still probably get 35
minutes. We're just going to deal.
We're going to Xavier is going to play eight minutes.
We're just going to play too. At the start and then we'll
spread them out. And we're just going to bring
him in because, you know, he's the starter and he earned it.
And also this, you know if you can get trade to understand that
you're still getting the same number of minutes, probably
still gonna close the game. I do think maybe it gives you an
interesting wrinkle where you're moving those minutes around but
all of that said you know it's I've been saying this for a
while you know people who think we're going to get a fully form
Xavier Johnson, you know, don't expect that.
I also think we're getting, you know, we haven't had any
information on this. I think we're getting to the
point. Pretty close to Tuesday night
where I think if you don't see him playing Tuesday night, you
may not see him this year. Like this is as as just a guy
watching from the sidelines. Like it feels like if you're
going to bring him back and just give him some opportunities for
some wins, you know, mentally and physically.
It feels like this to game stretch would be perfect like
you have two games there at home.
The opponents are right, like it putting him then in the Big Ten
tournament in the NCAA tournament, those, those are now
way tougher putts. So it does feel like if he is
going To play at any point this season.
These next two are the perfect time to bring him in.
At least, give them a couple of minutes.
Yeah, I know, I see that. I think you may not see him this
year. I agree.
I think the fact we haven't seen him back yet, it's got to be an
indication that there's something about his medical
situation that isn't quite there and you don't want to rush him
back and you don't need to. I mean, you know, and look
Indiana's not getting this type of performance.
Every game, and I think a lot of it is, can you get out of the
doldrums of February and if Come out.
On the other side it's clear to me like what separates Indiana
from being a second weekend team and something, a team that can
legitimately go deeper is that one extra piece, you know,
because they really don't have a lot of depth, they can kind of
go six, if they get a good game out of Malik renew and that's
about it right now, you know, that's, that's unfortunate.
It's just kind of the brakes. And, you know, will I think
always kind of wonder what the potential of this ceiling.
The ceiling of the Season could have been If you hadn't had the
injury in the Kansas game, but at this stage the fact we
haven't seen him. I think tells us that if we do
get him back and I hope we do, it's probably going to be
unlimited minutes and it's going to be a much different setup
from what people are used to seeing.
And I think Woodson of all, you know, of all the potential
coaches, I think he understands that having been injured himself
having, you know, managed rosters for as long as he's
managed them. It's it's Be tricky.
But I also think that you can tell from X's comments on
Twitter from his actions and reactions on the bench.
Like he wants to get in and try to contribute somehow if he can
he will. I don't see this as being a
chemistry issue. I really don't because I think,
you know, if he doesn't quite realize that he will very
quickly like there's some physical limitations on what
he's going to be able to do. And I think Woodson smart enough
to know and have enough control over things to say look we've
Got something good going here. If I'm going to use you it's
going to be judiciously. And so I think a lot of the
questions about where you play him and what he does.
I think those are kind of probably going to be proven to
be Elementary after a little bit.
Let's see. We've got some other questions
here. We had a bunch of questions on
these on the hook. If, you know, they had a lot of
questions about the Big Ten Tournament, Pat, Corbett asked
what's the ideal draw for the Big Ten Tournament when the next
to. But how do we want the cards to
fall? Do we care about Big Ten?
Tournament wins. Um, you know, Midwestern views
asked, can you break down the top, four seed, race and tie
Breakers and where I use stands if they'd beat Iowa Tuesday?
So I'll be honest, I've joked. It's almost easier to project Us
in the NCAA field. Now, where we fit in the Big Ten
tournament, it's a big mess. I mean, so I will say, I will
say this, like, if all, if the home team's hold serve for the
most part today because you've got Maryland.
Northwestern Michigan Wisconsin, Ohio State Illinois, Penn State,
Hers, if Maryland, Michigan Penn State Alwyn and Illinois wins on
the road and then Indiana wins at home versus Iowa and you know
kind of the what you would expect.
The outcomes would be for the remaining games happen.
Essentially that would leave us in a situation if I've done my
math correctly, where you would have Indiana.
Second overall in the conference Purdue would be first.
Indiana, would be second Marilyn in Northwestern would be tied.
And I believe that would mean that actually Illinois would be
tied in this scenario as well, but Maryland would get the three
Northwestern will get the for Indiana.
We get the five. It's important to remember how
the Big Ten Tournament sets up, you know, one, two, three, and
four get double Buys. So they don't play till 3:00 or
4:00 till Friday. Ohio State in Nebraska and
Minnesota Wisconsin. A pretty much locked in to the
11 14 and 12 13 games. Then you've got, you know,
essentially five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten all playing
on Thursday, if Indiana was the two seed.
This is where you can't really project and I it's hard for me
to say, like what's the best scenario?
So let me take this in a couple of different directions.
First of all, do we care about Big Ten?
Tournament wins, that was that's I think a nice overarching
question. I think that what we care about
more than anything else is can Indiana, whatever the game
Outcome have something that doesn't harm their tournament
chances first and foremost if they win these final two.
So if they go 12 and 8 or 13 and 7 in conference, I guess you
guess it would be. Now obviously I think we we
really do need to win the final two.
I agree. We're I'm kind of like I think
all of the optimism and everything that I'm feeling is
kind of based on, maybe it is stupid assumption.
Like, we're going to win the next.
Yeah, I do think if we stumble in one of these next, to some of
my feelings will change a little bit, but it's based on like,
wow, we're going to finish the Game on a three-game win because
with the way we play at home, yeah we just should win these
final two which sorry last thing I'll say this is where at the
beginning of the Season. We always look at the schedule
is like man, that's a tough end. Way to end this.
That's like we always need to remember.
Like it really just depends on home on a way because you don't
know what teams are going to be. It's like we were like, man,
Ohio State. It's going to be a rough one in
January. It's about wasn't they suck?
You didn't know that. But like having the last two at
home is so nice when everyone else is kind of doing a
homeowner anyway. So it's But all the to be is
based on, we got to win the next two at home.
That really is imperative for everything else, especially to
we get to NCAA seating. So sorry to have won 11 games
and had the last two at home against whoever, let alone to
get two teams that are like smack dab in the middle of the,
of the of the standings. That that's about as nice of a
setup as you could have. Anyway.
So I look at it like this Indiana.
So I threw a scenario in and essentially, it was kind of Of
hewing to what you would expect, all the games to be.
And in this scenario, Purdue would face the winner of
Rutgers. Michigan, Northwestern would
face the winner of likely Illinois.
Nebraska, Indiana would face the winner of Iowa Penn State and
Maryland would face the winner of like Michigan state
Wisconsin. So if Indiana were to, you know,
beat Iowa on a neutral floor, that's a nice wind that's going
to help, but even if they lost to Iowa on a neutral floor,
heaven forbid, that would never happen.
I don't think that that would hurt Indiana.
The only thing that really hurts.
Indiana. And the Big Ten Tournament from
a seating perspective is if they lose to a team that's either on
the bubble or outside the NCAA tournament.
That said, if you were to win that 27 game and make it to
Saturday and you're playing, maybe Maryland, maybe Michigan
State. Like now you've essentially put
yourself in a spot where unless you get destroyed in that game,
you're probably not having an impact your seating one way or
another. Do you know the at that stage?
You're not going to prove anything to the committee that
you haven't already proven and you know, certainly they don't
factor in tournament Conference tournament games quite as much
for teams like Indiana because Indiana did what they had to do
last night. Like they won in one of the
toughest places to win in college basketball.
I mean, they're only the second team to win at Mackey this year.
That is something that's going to matter more than almost
anything they can do in the Big Ten Tournament.
So you know, I'm excited because Indiana has a legitimate shot if
they win that first game to potentially win the Big Ten
Tournament because I think being on the opposite side from Purdue
is going to give you an opportunity to play either
Maryland or Northwestern teams. I think Indiana can beat on a
neutral floor, you know? That's, that's a great Pathway
to get yourself into a championship game.
And even though the championship game, frankly, It wouldn't
matter from a seating perspective.
Because for those of you that don't know the tournament
selection committee by the time, the Big Ten championship game
starts on Sunday, the brackets pretty much done like, they've
they've seated this, the first eight or nine lines, they're not
going to flip things around at that point.
It's not going to matter. Unless you've got a team that
wouldn't make the tournament unless they won the game, then
they'd have a contingency bracket that they would make
that would be a separate scenario that they'd have to go
to. But in this case, since we've
never been there, Thought you could have said like for those
of you who don't know, the Big Ten championship game is
actually played in hat in quarters.
So when do they play in an 8-foot goal?
It's like, you know, what could happen there is, like I could
play the Boise State blue Court like who knows that we don't
know. My even they're one of my
favorite stupid factoids about myself is that I broadcasted the
only IU appearance in a Big Ten Tournament title game which was
2001 when they played Iowa Iowa. It was me, John Cole.
Wouter, Matt wrote a Walden, Brenda Stidham on that call.
And that was, I mean, it's fascinating because, you know,
the tournament was only like four years old 5 years old, at
that, he was 4 years old at that point.
And it just, it was like, okay, well, this is interesting, we
weren't sure about this Big Ten Tournament thing, but I'm sure
we'll be back to this multiple occasions.
And it's literally been 22 years since and then back it, but it
was in the United Center and it's certainly, it's is Within
Reach and it A great psychological thing.
Although the flip side of it is given that those games, aren't
really going to matter that much.
You know, someone asked a question earlier on, like, do we
want to win games in the Big Ten?
Tournament would be rather just rest racetracks and Davis's back
and I'm like, well that's a that's a legitimate question to
some degree, you know, you finally have a team that can win
the Big Ten tournament and it's like, well, it may not matter
because this team's got bigger fish to fry.
So to speak in terms of what they want to do in the big
tournament that comes up immediately afterwards.
But that's a essentially, the scenarios.
I mean right now to go back to the original question.
I would say there's the wind last night, put Indiana in a
position where they're in really good shape.
If they take care of these final two games, to pick up the 2
seed, in the Big Ten. Now, if Northwestern beats
Maryland today and that games at noon, so may already be over by
the time you folks are watching this.
That puts Northwestern in the driver's seat because
Northwestern unfortunately has the tiebreaker.
But the thing is even if that happens.
Indiana is going to be the three seed, which there's not much of
a difference. It would not even in the teams
and we're going to decide it for new and not even in the team's
you're going to play. You're almost certainly.
If you're in the two or the three, you're almost certainly
going to match up against Michigan State, Iowa, or
Michigan, depending on how the other results fall.
That's your group. That's the group.
That's kind of clustered around that five six.
Seven Rutgers could actually fall all the way to 8th, but you
might end up with Rutgers in that mix as well.
I'm not really scared of any of those teams on a neutral floor.
I'd be scared of them on the road but I'm not that scared of
them on a neutral floor. So that's that's what I would
look at. I think Indiana last night.
They it was so important for them to win that game because it
really handed them back to steering wheel of how the rest
of the seasons going to go and I think they've earned it clearly
and it's really exciting to watch Indiana being in a
situation where that's the situation moving forward, a
couple of questions. That let's see.
JB asked, obviously Jordan was Unreal.
I thought Galloway played extremely well in all facets.
Jalen, yep. Sorry Jalen zero turnovers in 38
minutes for Galloway. What would your grades be for
each player? Who logged minutes last night?
I'm not going to, I can't go through all of them, but look, I
think you look at the stat sheet from this day this team last
night. Yeah, a lot of players with a
rating above seven and a half, I mean, look even race Thompson.
Who clearly struggled offensively.
Ali gave Indiana five rebounds, you know, had a couple of
important shots down the stretch, had those free throws
early. I had a big steel, didn't turn
the ball over. You know, I wish you wouldn't
take threes, I've said that over and over again like like racist
three-point percentage is 10 to 22 percent.
That's just, that's not going to get the job done.
But you know what? I felt was, you know, you look
at Trey Galloway, he was the most efficient player.
Barely for Indiana offensively, last night, 13 points, You know,
was 24/7 from to, but was 3 for 4 from three and five assists
four, turnovers one steel. They don't win.
I don't think without that performance from Trey Galloway
but I'll also say, like Miller cop, you know, you ended up 347
from three and put the ball on the floor drove in and hit a
couple of baskets. You know.
We haven't seen that level of game from familiar cop so I was
really excited to see that as well.
I mean the whole starting lineup really felt like they
contributed and honestly I didn't think that anybody from
The bench took anything off the the, the table either, you know,
it was, it was just a good all-around performance by this
team. Let's say some other questions
for you Alan Jenkins asked when the dust settles on the season.
Are we're going to look back at the Iowa, Penn State in
Northwestern losses and think we could have won the Big Ten this
year, or were those scars needed for this team to build identity.
I think, as I would go ahead, please.
Yeah, I would, I would say I've been thinking about that.
I think it's more the latter my thing.
Back to like, this is a team that kind of was forged in the
fire of January and came out a different team.
Like I think it's, you can't just take all the wins and then
say like the T we have now they could have gone back and done
that. I, I look at it differently in
that to me. The next two were really where
we can't stub our toe that if we lose one of the next two then
it's gonna be like damn we really missed a shot to finish
the season on the right on the right foot.
I think it's easy to look back and say damn yeah.
I mean that Iowa game was there for the taking you know that
Northwestern game maybe B-but, you know, and I look more some
of like the Northwestern game on the road that we just had
February 15th. I think that's the one that I
kind of look as act and that maybe we shouldn't have gotten
down as much. But I, I look at this very much
that this is like, this was all part of the journey, I'm not
sure we get to where we're at now without some of those
struggles. And again, it's just like, this
is a different Journey than a lot of Indiana teams have had in
the past where we've learned from those mistakes that we've
come out a different and better team and so, yeah.
Me. I I don't think I'm gonna look
back IMA look back at that. Yeah, that was a, we were not as
good of a team in January. Like we were a, much better team
in March and like it had but like there's no world where like
we just don't play games in January, if we don't lose those
games, I'm not sure we're good now.
Yeah, I agree. I mean I think there's two
things because it's a good question.
I think a lot of people are going to ask the question.
Part of it is I don't think that this team is as good as they are
right now without the losses, early in the Big Ten season.
Cuz it really did that Penn State loss in particular.
It really seemed to Galvanize the team and get them to focus
on what they needed to do. And you look, I think I don't
think those losses. I maybe a couple of maybe one,
maybe perhaps to happens. I don't think all three happen
if you have a healthy Xavier Johnson, but if you have a
healthy Xavier Johnson, as we said, I don't think you see the
development from some of the other players on this team.
I don't think that you're seeing quite the response.
That the bunkering that Anna's been able to do defensively and
the different facets. They've had to uncover offensive
ly. So I don't, I mean, you know,
maybe there's a scenario where, you know, X doesn't get injured.
I, you know, gets traced Jackson.
Davis back from injury. They win two of those three and
suddenly, they're in relief. Now, there's a lot of ifs, but
this team seems to really perform pretty well with their
backs against the wall and that stretch of losses that drop them
to 1 and for put their backs against the wall, I think they
need Did that I think that that was The Crucible that this
team's identity had to be forged in.
And you think about how important that was compared to
all the teams that I use had over the course of the last
seven seasons, and how they haven't forged an identity, how
they've struggled to even know who they are.
At this point in the season, you know, the you needed this group
of personnel, you needed this coach and you needed that set of
circumstances. I think so, I think ultimately
would love to Big Ten title. I just think ultimately at this
point, it wasn't in the cards, you're going to have seasons
like that, where the injuries don't play out properly.
And that's fine. And look, Purdue had a
transcended start to the Big Ten season and they certainly earned
the Big Ten title, I'm doing my best to reverse jinx this as
much as I can Scott. It's going to actually work but
you know it is what it is. And and ultimately you know if
the biggest confounding factor is who the hell expected
Northwestern to play this? Well, I mean, if if Drum plays
the way that everybody expects them to, you know, it's like but
even with that guessing game it's like Indiana would have two
more wins. Purdue would have one more win
because they would have beaten Northwestern in Evanston and
they would still be a game ahead with a couple of games to play.
So look, I just don't think it was in the cards this year.
I think it would have been very difficult for Indiana.
Even at full strength to have gone 15 and 5 and be in the
position that they're in right now.
So you can always have a little bit of a question, the back of
your head. But I wouldn't dwell on it too
much when one question for you which is a comment like that
could there could be no better season for Indiana, Purdue that.
If Purdue started off hot, they win the Big Ten and then we have
success in March and they stumble out like that would be
the greatest. Like I have fun when the Big Ten
will go to the final point I'd say we're going to have a
question for you you know? Bracketology just like produce
stumbling like they are for the oh there they are.
You two and four in their last six games, I know it.
Ends on the teams around them. And someone also has to grab the
one seed, but are they looking at and stable a seating?
Are they getting close to losing that, that one line?
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think they are
probably the fourth one seed right now because I think
Alabama is clearly better. I think Houston has you know,
they've played so well this season.
They're going to get a 1. Kansas has exceeded produced
accomplishments on the season. The As far, but there's really
not a team below them right now. That's a bit, that's a clear
like, oh, this is a better to. I mean like the two best options
at this point are Baylor and UCLA will Baylor is closed.
They had a big win last night at home versus Texas there, you
know, but you look at their, their resume average.
It's not as good as Purdue. You look at their predictive
average. It's not as good as Purdue their
strength of schedules better, but not like exorbitantly, so
they've won fewer Road. Games and they haven't won as
many games against teams in the field.
So I just I have a hard time seeing Purdue as the Big Ten
regular season champ, not getting A 1 C.
Now the one I do have questions on though and a lot of this will
depend on how Purdue fairies in these games at Wisconsin at a
home against Illinois, is UCLA UCLA.
Could very easily finish the season 27 and for they are right
up there like you want to talk about like where the average is
aren't kind to Purdue, you know, UCLA's got great.
Volume depth of wins. They have one less loss than
Purdue does. And if they win the Pac-12
outright, I could see a scenario where UCLA gets the fourth one
seed, and Purdue ends up being the top two seat now that may,
you know, I UCLA's got more work to do than Purdue does at this
point to get to that point because they still have to play
Arizona at home. But that would be the one team I
could see threatening right now. No, but ask me again in a couple
of weeks and I might have a different answer for you.
It'd be funny to watch them at piss that away.
I would also the other Bracketology n-c-double-a
question. I have for you is I kind of left
last night being like and again, I'm assuming two wins at home.
But let's just assume that I think this this now, Harden's
our floor at the for seat, like it feels like that.
That is a pretty pretty hard wet cement for seed and now I mean,
you know, maybe dry cement dry. Yeah.
Oh, wet cement for seed. That's it.
With Jordan Hood feet, wet cement for seat is the worst
Indie band in the history of Music.
The so here you like for and maybe, well, maybe a shot of the
three but here's the thing. I'm not sure who the the bracket
revealed that happened on Sunday had Indiana as the top four
seed. Now.
Since then Indiana has beaten Illinois, lost a Michigan State
and beaten, Purdue on average, they've gotten slightly better
and teams around them have lost. I mean, if you look at It
happened yesterday and this was a question we had been a bunch
of questions on seating and things like that, you know, Alex
G asked, you know, how good was yesterday for IU in terms of
potential seating, come selection Sunday st.
Mary's lost, Tucan Agra Virginia lost to UNC Miami loss to
Florida. State, Villanova beat Creighton.
Oklahoma beat, Iowa State in Ames, there were a couple of
other games that went Indiana's way.
I mean, it was a really good day for Indiana, you know, wasn't a
complete sweep. Would love to have seen TCU and
Kansas State lose. But frankly, Indiana is
Indiana's ahead of TCU. Yeah, you're not going to get
everything that you want. I look at it like this.
I think that Indiana still needs to win the games that they have
at home. That's the big factor in all of
this. Now, both of those games will be
nice games to pick up, you know, if they beat Iowa, that's going
to be a tear to victory at home if they beat Michigan.
That'll also be a tear to victory at home and that will
give them Eight tier two victories or quad two victories,
and five, quad won victories. That's really that's nice.
You know, if you look at the teams that are around Indiana
right now in the bracket, you know what you're looking at?
Is this basically you've got your your top four seeds,
Alabama, Kansas Houston Purdue then you've got a shelf and we
talked about this UCLA's kind of on the border.
Then you've got Texas, Baylor, Arizona, who lost last night,
surprisingly, I would throw Marquette.
Into that mix. Then then you've got another
shelf and you've got this kind of weird intermediate thing.
Like, how do you position? Indiana versus Gonzaga.
I think Gonzaga probably gets seated ahead of Indiana.
I think, Tennessee, probably doesn't at this point.
I think that Indiana's resume is probably, you know, when you
think about what Tennessee is done and the way that they're
playing, their predictive Czar better but you look at what
Indiana's managed to accomplish and it's Indiana's got, you
know, one less wind, but they've won against better teams by and
large and their losses are also more impressive.
So I will be really curious to see what the committee does
there. I think a three seed is
definitely a possibility. Indiana has to win these last
two and I think Indiana probably has to win one game in the Big
Ten Tournament because when you get to that point, like the
difference between being the 11th or 12th team in the S
curve, which would be a three seed and the 13th or 14th team
on the S curve, which would be a four seat.
You're talking about minut differences and one game could
swing it one way or the other, but as I've been trying to tell
people, you know, Indiana is in a pretty good spot.
Because getting through that Purdue game means that they
control their Destiny in a way that a lot of teams around them
aren't going to be able to do because a lot of the teams that
they're going to be in conflict with have to play each other,
you know, Kansas state is going to have to play other Big 12
teams in the Big 12 tournament at Tennessee is going to run
into either. Or Kentucky or Arkansas, all of
those teams, present problems for them in the SEC.
Tournament Marquette is going to have a gauntlet to run through
in the Big East. And while they've had a very
good season, I don't think that they're necessarily like a
guarantee to finish ahead of Indiana in the s-curve.
They're actually pretty close to each other.
So, you know, right now, I think you're right.
I mean, as long as Indiana doesn't stumble in these last
two games at home. I think they have a really good
shot at know, you know, falling no further than a for and
probably having In a really good argument for 3 because of the
fact that they've got so many impressive wins away from home.
Now, Purdue Illinois, you know, Xavier like those are just winds
that Indiana has managed to collect that are going to
impress the committee. We've seen that happen over and
over again and so I'm quite fascinated to see how it ends
up, but they did themselves. A whole lot of favors last
night. Yeah.
No, it's, I mean, yeah, I can't think of how many times we've
been a three seed in the tree. I have to think, I mean we Not
often. I mean, we were a three seed in
1986 when we lost a Cleveland State.
That's, that's a, not a great memory.
But no, I mean, you know, you go down the list.
I can do all this from memory. If you want, like they were,
they were one seed and 87, they were foreseen 88.
They were a two seed and 89. They were an eight seed or nine
seat. Actually in 90, they were a 2
seed in 91. There were two seed in 92. 1
seed, in 93 4 seed and thinking 94 and then they had that run
where they went like Eight seed and 95 66 in 96. 897 and then in
98, I believe they were a seven seed.
So no, they don't really like, generally speaking Indiana's
either a six or below or at or above three, seed would be kind
of an odd spot. Honestly.
Think, you know, we want to like Game Theory it out, you'd much,
rather be a three seed this year because I think the top of the
at large I already did the top of the automatic Add profile.
Those are some really good teams Liberty you know, Drake VCU.
There's a couple of others Charleston is in that mix Oral
Roberts is certainly in that mix.
Getting a three seed means you get to play a 14 and the 14s
this year right now are, you know, you got Yale, you've got
Toledo, UC Irvine, Eastern, Washington, Colgate.
Like not teams. I mean, they're still dangerous
teams, but not teams, you're going to be that scared of, and
then, you'd rather play a six. And then a five because I think
the Shelf between the teams that are in the 45 conversation and
the team's right below. There's a pretty big Dynamic
there between those two and so and I look at it as I also think
you'll even further down the road to me the teams that
worried me the most or Alabama Houston Kansas.
I just think they present a lot of problems.
I think Indiana playing at all. Cylinders firing could beat them
but also owners have to be firing and obviously if you're a
3, you would face those Teams in the elite in the elite eight,
right? Giving them one more round to
maybe get knocked off. When you play somebody different
verses pumping, right? Like, and that's the way we talk
about the 2012 team. Like I've said this all the
time, many times like that team, I think could have gone to a
final four if they're playing anybody but that Kentucky team
in the sweet 16 like they just they got the worst break of
playing, you know? It's every time I hear it, like,
you know, just watching PTI couple days ago is like, you
know, there's no Elite teams like maybe the last elite team
was that Kentucky team with With Anthony Davidson yeah that's who
we played in the tournament right?
And we gave him the best game in that tournament.
It was like 10 to 290 or something.
Just a great game and but I think being a three alleviates
you from bumping into that team in the sweet 16 at least you get
to the elite eight within. It's like maybe they've been
knocked off and maybe you just you have that one shot of doing
it. It's tough.
I mean look it's one of those things where your it's so
matchup dependent it really is and and that's, you know, so
it's like all you can do is put yourself in position and then
hope that The draw is kind and that's what you saw last year.
You know, there were teams that just got bad draws in the NCAA
tournament field that you wouldn't have thought.
Even before the tournament started, you know, I mean the
you look at, you know, a team like like Arkansas gets drawn
last year as a four seed in the west and it seemed like a great
spot. They're going to play
Connecticut in the second round. And then gonzaga's been so
dominant all year. Well, guess what Connecticut
gets knocked out in the first round, by New Mexico state That
gives Arkansas an easier game. They barely win that one, and
then they go in, they beat Gonzaga in the sweet 16, you
know? But that, that open things up
for Duke, who was able to roll through and then they, you know,
they cat got Arkansas in the elite eight, and they win that
game. You know, Baylor looks like a
world beater last year. They're the one seed, your UCLA.
You're like, well crap, this doesn't look good.
UCLA ends up benefiting from North Carolina, beating Baylor
or. So they thought and then UCLA
ends up losing the North Carolina and the sweet 16.
And so you just can't project how these things are going to
work out. A lot of, it really comes down
to some degree luck of the draw. The seating is there from my
perspective. You want to focus on getting the
easiest possible game. You can in the first round to
get out of the first round, as you can get out of the first
round. It suddenly becomes a lot easier
to get your head wrapped around things and what I like about
this IU team's chances if they can get past that first game is
that they are built. To win in a couple of different
ways offensively and if they can play like they did yesterday
where they don't turn the ball over, they had one of their best
turnover offensive. Turnover rate games in all
season, I think they only turn the ball over 11% of
possessions. Then suddenly, you're like, if
you're the opponent and you don't have a huge amount of
athleticism or you don't have a huge amount of shooting you're
having to sacrifice something to guard.
One of the two stars on this IU team and you've got role players
that can step up and play the other.
Other big Point here, is that now Indiana is actually in the
conversation to go to Columbus as opposed to having to go to
Orlando or Albany for their first and second round games and
they're in the conversation to get to Louisville because that
was my question is Columbus is huge and I get in a bracket
racket it's fantastic. I love listening to it.
Just being a three seed, help Indiana, get the Louisville
region. Well I mean I think it would
have And what of a variable it could happen for Indiana,
whether there are three or four and it's largely because of the
lack of Big Ten teams in the top four seeds, you've got Purdue
Indiana's not going to be paired with Purdue.
The what's great for Indiana? Is that because Alabama is going
to almost certainly be the number one overall and even if
they aren't there going to be ahead of Purdue in the pecking
order. Now it means Alabama will almost
certainly get the south regional and what that means is that Ooh,
we'll go somewhere else. They'll go to the Midwest and
Indiana is the next big 10 team and the only other big 10 team.
As of right now, that's in those top 16 overall.
And what that means is when you're trying to place teams,
you can't put Indiana in the same region as Purdue.
And you're going to try to put Indiana almost certainly in
their home geographical region or close to it.
And in that case they would go to the South because they
wouldn't go to the Midwest. Most likely because you'd also
want to keep them away from Kansas.
If there are four, that's the been going to be the one big
question. It's like where Three or four
doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is where the
matchups would be and whether the committee's trying to keep
teams apart from each other, to prevent rematches before the
sweet 16. And so I think that the chances
are good, it's just really going to come down to how the season
finishes. I mean, seating is one thing,
but if you can, if you could give me take seating out of it,
if we can get Columbus Louisville as our back-to-back.
That's nice. That's take it done, though.
It's nice right now. It'd be hilarious.
If you ended up with Purdue and Indiana fans, both in the first
and second round in Columbus, which is kind of how its setting
up right now. I mean really like that would be
wild the one lot of booing and this is the one confounding
think it's the one thing where I wish Kansas state would lose
more because Kansas state would probably get Columbus over
Indiana because they would be slightly higher in the pecking
order. So, so root for Kansas State to
lose a bunch of games down the stretch here and route for
Indiana to win, and that's probably the best solution.
Anyway, we got a bunch of questions.
Since we didn't get to, I apologize folks.
We're almost at the hour and a half mark, so we need to wrap
things up. Final thoughts before we head
off into the sunset one. Last question that has to be
done. Good.
Finally.
What Tuesday night against Iowa? Yep.
Let's just, let's just bring it out.
Now, what is Fran mccaffery going to do?
That isn't going to get a technical called on him?
Well, I mean, I think at this point he could throw a chair and
not get a tech, he saw him stare down the referee, I got a tweet
them out like that, and then they'll bringing back the Him
running across the court for the Indiana game.
Like Fran has somehow, you know, just like Zaki found the
immunity card for fouling. He's found the immunity card for
technicals where, it's just like, oh, they're not going to
call Tech on me this year like to see how far I can is like
he's in a Dream. Well it's like let's see how far
I can take this. That was Bonkers.
I can't wait to see what he does on Tuesday.
I will say this. He's got the immunity idol for
technicals at home. He walks into the eye.
You are he walks into the IU huddle at Carver Hawkeye?
No, call he stares. Down a red.
I gotta say. I mean it also in all
seriousness for the Big Ten to not have already sanctioned
Fran, mccaffery for that action. You know, just I mean, I realize
I'm self-conscious or self-aware enough as an IU fan to realize.
I have zero things that I can complain about when it comes to
coaches being given a cushion by the league, I get that
historically, but, you know, as much as people complained about
Bob Knight's, Antics on the sidelines and be You allowed to
do, whatever. At least bob Knight one shit.
Like right, Fran mccaffery, like, Iowa hasn't been out of
the second round of the NCAA tournament.
I don't think in his entire tenure at Iowa.
I mean you, you go back and you look at, you know, they haven't
they lost in the first round? The second round, the second
round, the second round, the second round of the play-in
game. They've only been to the
tournament six times in the what 12 years that he's been there
and that's what I find. Amazing.
Like they've had one year where they lost single-digit games and
they lost nine that year. This is not a top-level coach.
It's he's a good coach Iowa's, a tough program to regularly win
at we've seen that. But the flip side of it is, I
don't understand why a coach who's so mid.
In terms of the Big Ten is given this much latitude to act that
way it is. I mean, it really that whole
scene in that Michigan State game, just emasculated That
official and And for That, official to not do something
about it, indicates to me that like it's part of the larger
issue. We've talked about for a long
time with Big Ten officiating of people who are like you guys,
just complain about officials we do, but we complain about
officiating for everybody. It's not just I you this is the
kind of thing that can't be allowed to stand.
And I honestly think this sets up well for Indiana, because if
you remember the Northwestern game that Iowa played right
before, Fran got tossed in that game, he picked up to To go
files and got thrown out of the game.
I would not be shocked to see Fran gone before the first half
ends because I think that whoever's officiating that game
on Tuesday is going to be like France, showed up our cow, our
colleague in that game against Michigan State and was rewarded
for It. Ultimately, because this team
won, I don't want to be looked at as someone who, let Fran
mccaffery show me up, and it's in Assembly Hall.
They're going to let me in the building, hopefully will be
packed. And loud.
And I think Iowa will probably struggle a little bit given how
emotional the end of that Michigan State game was.
So I wouldn't be shocked to see Fran, get some technicals early
and be out of there would be great or they could do what they
did also, again where they call a tech.
But don't, you know, you do the most shout out to the team, and
it doesn't kind of. It doesn't go to the scorer's
table at the wild just ran to where it's like my old, you
know. And I don't even hate, I don't
even I don't. Yeah, go ahead and just watching
him France. Terry was during a time, I'd be
like Just turn around, its bumpers are just awesome.
Yeah. Like, hey, are you just say,
hey, friend, turn around right now.
I'm tossing it. Yeah, I mean, it's I don't even
I don't hate Fran as a coach, I think, I admire friends
dedication to offense Above All Else, Meyer him.
Like being like, I'm gonna keep pushing.
I mean, his credit, he's like, all right, you're not gonna call
it right? Can you do shit?
I look, I was there going to go to the tournament.
You know that win last night, helped them tremendously, But
ultimately I I have a hard time seeing Fran skating, especially
in this game at Indiana. I decided I honestly, I think
there's going to be a Target on his back in this game and
rightfully so because that was a ridiculous display that happened
over the weekend. So anyway, gosh, I'm good and
their, no, we're great. I mean, we're great, but like
you all of this is great. You can't stub your toe this
next week. If you have to finish this at
home, you've got to win those two games.
And I'm, I'm very Cautiously but I'm optimistic.
I don't want to say we're going to but this team is different
like you. And I have been saying this is a
different team, this is a different build, it looks
unique, it's coming into itself at the right time and this this
feels like a team that's going to close out business as it
should knows there's a lot at stake here.
I mean, all the things we've talked about but also, you know,
we've had those moments where like we have a chance to win the
Big Ten title in 2013, we lost Ohio State, we're still cut down
the Nets. Like I don't want a situation
where like We have traced Jackson Davis is senior night
and we lose but yeah, it's not like you're playing the number
two, well Purdue team, receiving like these are both winnable
games. Like you have jail hitch.
If he knows going to be his last two home games.
Like, let's I think this team knows what's on the lines.
Like it's gonna suck for their last game if they lose, I don't
think. I mean to do that.
Here's the thing. All and I'm with you and I
think, you know, there's still that kind of devil perched on
every IU fan shoulder where you're just worried about the
other shoe dropping, but I'd like to note that Indiana so far
this season. Has played ten, eleven twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen games at home.
They've lost one game by one point at home.
All season, one game by one point, and most of the home
games have not been that close. I'm not saying that the point
total in the other wins. It's yeah, pretty amazing.
Yeah, I mean obviously the owner game was close closer than you
would hope. And the Purdue game was closed
because produce a really good team, but this has been a really
impressive team at home. They've defended home court
really well. I I mean, if they do pull this
off and when these last two games, as they are projected to
do the idea, that Indiana would go nine in one at home in the
Big Ten, we always talk about how that never happens.
Like, you're never just gonna go undefeated in your home games
and yet Indiana stands on the precipice of doing just that and
that is really impressive. So, yeah, I mean, look, I I have
faith that this team even if they start off, slow against
Iowa is going to figure it out because I think their defense
travels, you know, even in games where Offense isn't going
particularly well. And I note that like Iowa over
the course of the last month and a half is one one game away from
Carver Hawkeye, and that was against Minnesota.
So it doesn't count. They've gotten blown out in
those. In most of those were games,
they almost beat Michigan State on the road but they got blown
out at Ohio State. They got blown out at Purdue
they got blown out at Northwestern they lost by 12 at
Wisconsin. In a game that Wisconsin
completely dominated you know the there was a sixty one
possession game. Iowa, never play 61 In games.
So this is a good opponent for Indiana to be playing.
The still gotta play hard. They got to defend hard, but I
like their chances against an Iowa team that has struggled to
play defensively. And you saw that in that
Michigan State game and they won when they give up, 106 points
along the way. So anyway, we'll see what
happens. Tuesday, please, if you've got
tickets go God, be there, get excited.
This team is going to need the emotional support.
There's going to be a bit of a letdown after this Purdue win.
This is a tough win to kind of pick yourself back.
Up from and be like, hey, we gotta go play Iowa and two days.
Let's get, let's get excited. But this is, I think the, it'll
be fascinating for the Caillou teams.
You're gonna see. Is it last few times going to
see Jackson Davis? And the last two times you're
going to see jail Hood fee. Know, I joke, a few the last
day, I'll say it's like it's neiu fans out there.
Like, again, not getting used to seeing players like this.
Like, don't even start the comments of, oh, well, you know,
here's why it like, there are zero point zero, zero, zero
reasons. Why Jalen the Cioppino should
come back to College. He should go pro, he is a pro
and this is when people are like managed to sucks.
Yes, this is what. This is.
The downside of having a Transcendent one-and-done player
is it sucks. Like it sucks for Zion
Williamson, for Duke fans like it.
This is the great thing is you get him for a year and they're
awesome. The bad thing is like they move
on quickly because they're awesome, but like just all of
those threads do not like he has no reason to come back.
Nor should he. So enjoy his last two games.
Yeah. In an idiot.
That's why Everyone should go. I swear, I'm going to be about
the games because I want to see these guys in this team to last
times in Assembly Hall. Yeah, I agree.
Be loud. Be excited.
Enjoy this. Savor it, folks, savor it.
Yeah. You've everybody's been wanting
a good basketball team for the longest time.
You've got one? Yes.
Enjoy it. Anyway, my thanks to everybody
for listening. I know this one went long but as
you know, mr. Spock would say, the cause was
sufficient. Indiana be Indiana sweeps Purdue
for the first time in a decade and puts themselves in a really
good. Spot, as they move forward here.
Over the course of the last week of the regular season, and into
the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, will be back later
on this week with more, be sure to tune into the women's
basketball show, huge game for the women today.
They travel to Iowa. They've already clinched the
outright Big Ten title, but let's see them.
Beat the Hawkeyes one more time. Thanks to home field apparel.
Thanks to our friends at the back home network and thanks to
all of you folks for Scott I'm Galen this is Crimson Castle.
Will catch you folks on the flip side?
Bring back the Bison, so everybody