You're listening to the back home network, presented by home
field, apparel talk about the Crimson cats Galen klaviyo,
Scott Caulfield joining you. Once again, it is the 30th of
December of 2022, were almost done with 2022.
To Scott I'm not going to miss 2022 for a variety of reasons
you know looking forward to see what 2023 might have on offer
but yeah it's hard to do end of the year and we wanted to get a
few thoughts out there on some of the IU sports that we talked
about. So we decided to hop on and chat
with you folks about things good to see you.
How are you doing? I'm doing great Adam.
This wasn't that bad of a year. I mean most years I'm kind of
you know I'm not sad to see it. Go I where we differ?
Your kind of ending. The are the timeline that you
hate that doldrums like for me, I'm okay with winter in Indiana
when it's Christmassy when there's lights up and you can
listen to, you know, Mariah Carey or I know you have your
holiday music. I'm a big fan of the very
special Christmas like special album.
The 90s. It has like Tom Petty & Run DMC
like it's a great anyway, I'm okay with all that.
It's from now till like mid-February when it's just a
slog and it's just cold and There's not ending soon and
there's no fun lights like this is this is the period.
I don't like this is the next month where I'm like tell my
wife like we should really move to like New Mexico or something.
I agree with that although you know I I'm kind of the opposite
in that if I get conditioned I can deal with it, it's that
level of conditioning the transition down into it being
cold. And we really got smacked this
year more so than normal if you live in Indiana with Some really
really cold temperatures really earlier than we normally would
get them which is not ideal, but yeah, I'm kind of the opposite
in that, I just feel at this stage is like, alright, I'm
settled in. It's basketball season.
I'm not supposed to go outside. Anyway, we're just going to roll
through. And then by the time I look up
again, it's mid March and it occasionally is a little bit
warmer. So anyway, before we get started
with the bulk of the program, let's remind all you folks that
we are brought to you by home. Field apparel as our presenting
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they really can. I'm wearing a my oval IU crew
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You actually roll the sleeves up.
It's it's it's like a vest at that point.
It's actually it's quite a good look.
But anyway, home field apparel, if you are a subscriber to their
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Anyway, we wanted to talk basketball.
We wanted to talk some football. We're gonna start with
basketball, the men's team with a not inspiring week before
Christmas. I think to put it very mildly, a
couple of games where they struggled the first game was it
was, it was closed for a little bit and then kind of evened out.
And then you know, I was at Elon game, they end up winning that
game by 24. The Kennesaw State game was was
really not ideal from a variety of perspectives even though
Indiana really. From a win percentage
perspective was never in that much danger realistically
speaking. It didn't feel that way when
Kennesaw State took a 4236 lead with about 12 minutes to go in
the game. Indiana gets a lot of credit in
terms of hay, from that point, that kind of finished off the
last quarter of the game pretty well.
But Scott this IU team really looks like it's struggled a lot
with Just looking like they want to be there.
I think would be probably the biggest thing.
I mean, they really have looked like in several of these games
at their kind of going through the motions.
It's got a lot of people in the fanbase concerned.
You add on to that the exact the Xavier Johnson injury.
He's he might be out for the season.
He's certainly going to be out for.
I think the bulk of the Big Ten season given that it is a broken
foot, that is a difficult injury to come back from when you play
basketball and So I think, you know, there have been some
legitimate questions raised about what goes on with this
team now where are they at? How prepped are they really for
what's coming up in the Big Ten season which starts, of course,
basically in a week a little under a week as the Iowa game is
on that Thursday of next week. So you had a bunch of concerns
that you had texted to me. So why don't you start?
Because I think you represent a perspective that a lot of people
in the fanbase have right now about where I you men's
basketball is Heading into the new year.
Yeah, I mean it's the last couple of weeks, I mean there's
a stink about it this morning, it almost you worry.
It's like my God was North Carolina, the high point of the
Season or at least it means definitely the high point of the
the, the early non-conference. But it's you know, the last game
you really had a full strength, you know, Hood Fino
full-strength, Xavier Johnson and since that point as you said
it's just been very uninspiring basketball - a win against
Nebraska who didn't look that good.
But that's us team that also went to Iowa. 11.
So, there you go. It's you know, I'll start with
Xavier. John's, like that injury to me
is just killer like that. I think lowers the ceiling and
the floor of this team. He's so important on the
starting five, but he's also so important that it really creates
a next man up scenario where I think Jalen Hood Saffiano
throughout the year can be a really good starting point
guard. The trouble is then who's now
leading the second unit and then you have Trey Galloway moving
into the starting lineup. Line up, so he's not coming off
the ball and it's like, then you're looking at, you know,
Caleb gun, who has some sorry CJ.
Yeah. Yes, sir killed Banks.
Austega so CJ gun. It's yeah, we'll get it.
One of these years 2043 is going to be better for me but it you
know it did the second string point guard kind of becomes the
issue but no the so I really worry about this team because as
many points during the beginning of the year I've said it that,
you know, when it felt like this Team needed to get something
going. It was a viewer Johnson who did
it like, he felt like the Catalyst when things kind of
mucked up and slow down. He's like, all right, I'm gonna
drive in. I'm going to get fouled.
I'm going to do something and not be as passive.
And, you know, this is I, I'll take some of this as kind of
like, you know, be the proxy for this part of the fanbase.
It's it's scary because, you know, they said, Nebraska,
Arizona, Kansas are all games, they kind of Sleepwalk through,
didn't win, and then Kennesaw State.
It seemed like they Really lock into the last five or so
minutes. And, you know, it would be
different if we had a history of the last five or six years of
this team. All right, we know the locket
income Big Ten season but we see many years and I know some of
it's over different coaches where this team just kind of
slept walk through half the Big Ten season as well and you know
it's it's okay if you're hoping just to make the tournament like
we were a couple of years ago but it did feel like
expectations have raised for this year.
You know, this team was Was is bringing a lot of pieces back
from a team last year because the team that should be better.
This is a team that should be striving to not just try and be
500 the Big Ten and make the tournament.
It's a team that should be striving to be in the top five
of the Big Ten and right now it doesn't quite look like they're
going to be able to do that because you know, games like at
Rutgers, those are the games that you have to, you know,
theoretically win but at least really compete in.
If you're going to compete to be a top five seen the Big Ten and
it doesn't Look like they're doing it right now.
There's not a lot of history in the past to see them do it.
So I'll leave their. I mean, it's, I'll, I'll stop
now. I have more thoughts, but let me
let you talk instead of me just, you know, throwing up a bunch of
other things. But it's to me it's not just the
fact that they're losing its the way they're losing in the fact
that you're seeing some people like, hey, Will the Arizona, you
know, that was. Okay.
At least they put up a fight, where's Kansas?
Even put up a fight. It's like if we're arguing, did
they put up a fight? And if you know fifteen Point
loss or not? It's like that's not a great
place to be okay, so you know, I think with this team I'm I
really don't know what to expect going into the new year because
the team that exists right now is not the team that I you
started the season with, you know, the the entire orientation
of the team as it looked from those early stages of the season
was going to be based around kind of two separate functional
units of offense with If you know, essentially
interchangeable point guards for the lead but then consistency in
having a distributor for that second unit.
That looks like it's gone. Now with Xavier Johnson no
longer available. Now, you have to readjust
expectations. I think, given that your
personnel sets different. I think if you took any senior
starter off of a Big Ten roster, particularly the point guard,
and as you mentioned, particularly the guy who's been
kind of the straw that stirs. The Drink from a, an energy
perspective for the team for the last year and a half.
It's going to have an outsized impact on what you can and can't
do on the floor. This is where the coaching staff
really does need to figure out. Okay, how do we adjust what
we're doing? Can we adjust what we're doing?
Is there a way for us to recension Ali on the Fly?
Really, you know, change the the structures especially on
offense. And I don't know if they're
capable of doing that. I don't know if that's something
that you can do, given this Personnel set because, you know,
with Xavier Johnson, and Jalen Hood Ruffino.
This team is a lot more Dynamic offensively without with just
jail. No trophy.
No, your arguably less Dynamic than you were last year, albeit,
you're shooting a lot better, you know, I think that the
struggles that Indiana has had on offense in some of these
recent games, you have to keep in mind, that ultimately, For
the season least still. Right now, this is still a
significantly better team offensively than Indiana had
last year or the year before that.
And I'm willing to give them some time to work it out because
realistically speaking I think there's really only two games
that I would point to and what they've done thus far and say
this offensive production was completely inadequate, one of
them was the Kansas game and one of them was the Rutgers game and
I would actually argue that they lost those.
Games for different reasons. It's not like the same issue
over and over again. Except that you have traced
Jackson Davis getting taken out of his element and he has for
whatever reason not been able to figure out a way to adjust what
he does. And Woodson hasn't figured out a
way to adjust, what's going on around him yet, the rest of the
games. You know the Arizona game?
I have a hard time getting that upset about given.
How good Arizona looks? That is a legitimate top 10 team
that Indiana lost to on a A neutral court and it was a good
barometer. It said okay Indiana's not ready
for that, kind of a challenge yet, I'm fine with that.
Even the Kennesaw State game as much as it was a difficult,
watch throughout the course of it.
And he had a went into that game projected to win by 16 points,
they won by 14 points. If they had gotten out to a
30-point lead and Kennesaw State and dragged it back to where it
was only 16 or 14, at the end of the game, we wouldn't be nearly
as attuned to problems as what we saw.
Saw in the game, which was Indiana struggling and then
gradually pulling away. So again, it's like I'd love to
be overly reactionary on it. I was certainly not pleased at
the moment, but looking back on it.
I'm not as worried about that one.
As I was before all of this to say essentially This clearly
things Indiana is going to have to change about how they're
doing things, if they're going to have longer term success
within the conference. You know, you mentioned the
Rutgers game and that being game you have to win to be in the top
five. I mean I got news like right now
Rutgers in terms of like they're can Palm rating is in like the
top five of The Big Tab. That is a game that I think a
lot of people are going to struggle to win that game on the
road at Rutgers this year. Now, I might be Be proven wrong
about that. But according to the way the
numbers look right now, given the way that the season is gone,
that's not as bad of a loss, as it looks where I will get into
concerns though, is if Indiana can't win at Iowa or if they
can't win at, you know, for instance, Penn State, which is
the next Road game after that. Like, those are teams that have
not performed nearly as well, statistically as either Indiana
or Rutgers have. That's where Indiana is going to
have to make up some ground. No question.
They're going to have to win some games on the road.
Good. So taking all that into account,
I don't think it's time to hit the panic button yet.
I do think however Indiana's looking at a much different
roster in a much different set of expectations now than they
were even a month ago. And it's hard to say, for sure
what the actual adjustment should be in your brain about
what that looks like because it's it's essentially at this
stage. It's last year's offense with a
better shooting Miller, cop Tamar Bates who suddenly emerged
as A guy who can score Off the Bench and is willing to score
and a freshman point guard, who is having your normal freshman
point, guard? Games were some of them.
Look, awesome. Some of them don't look very
good at all, and it's hard to know which version of Indiana is
going to show up on a night tonight basis because of the
fact that ultimately you're relying on things you haven't
had to rely on and things that aren't necessarily that
consistent yet within what Indiana's trying to do.
Yes, I agree with all that and part of I say the Rutgers thing
because part of it to me is it goes I'm a little bit
projecting. It's like I look at Iowa Penn
State and Illinois as their next three Road games and it's like
you kind of have to be again. If you want to be in that upper
echelon, you got to go two and three in those games if you're
going to have lost the Rutgers game.
Like that's more. I guess that's more.
What I'm saying is that you, you are right?
Me Rutgers 22nd and Ken Palm right now.
That's looking like a better and better.
Good, good, good bad loss. But it's like, you can't lose
that. And then also lose the Iowa and
Penn State. Like you, you do have a little
bit of ground to catch up on. But I will say this is, you
know, some people are going to have to start stepping up.
You mentioned to Barbados, he's done.
Okay? But I will say that you look at,
he had 13 points against Arizona 143 from three, a lot of those
points came. And we were down, you know, 10
plus points. But in those other games, like
Rutgers, you know, he was basically a nose.
Osho Kansas. He was pretty much a no-show 145
from three and then he had 23 points against Kennesaw State,
you know? It's I need to see that
happening against some of the better teams.
Malik renew has done. Really well, he started the tail
off like he's got to pick it up like this is where it kind of
becomes, you know, next guys up in some of these these guys that
we've talked about having, you know, all this potential does
need to start to step up because I still look at this roster and
I everything you said about Xavier and I said about Xavier
is 100 Ensure it changes everything up but I there's
still a lot of Talent on this roster but they're still to me
enough Talent on this roster enough pieces.
That this team still should be, you know, I say top top three in
the Big Ten I still, I'll lower it a little bit.
I still think top five in the Big Ten is doable for this
roster based on what the Big Ten looks like.
I mean you're still you still have, you know, a top-tier
All-American in the post. You have a couple of five stars
you have guys who have been seasoned around here for a while
like Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway.
Like there's a lot of Talent on this roster and so to just say
you lose Xavier Mustang, you're saying this but just say you
lose a viewer and it's like, you have to readjust things with you
do to make. All right, well now we can, you
know, to me, again, if we're struggling to be 500, the Big
Ten, that is, that's a bad season.
Even if you factor in the Xavier loss, their zebra Johnson, lost
their still, a lot of Talent on this team.
And so, I like you, I'm curious to see how this gets figured out
because this does feel like this is a bit of The Crucible time.
Are you had some tough breaks but let's let's see.
You know, to me as Iowa game is huge.
It's like that's a place that you definitely can win, it's not
going to be easy but that's a place that, you know you should
be able to go in and get a win. I don't know.
You know I mean we keep you've said that a couple times because
there's a lot of Talent on this team.
I don't know how much I mean a lot of the the ideas about the
season and what we saw early on were predicated on the idea that
oh here are here, are basketball players that are going to
develop to a higher level. Ville of competition.
And I don't know that we've necessarily seen that out of
several of the players. You know, I, you can go down the
list, you know, Trace Jackson Davis has statistically had his,
you know, a really good season so far.
And I think everybody would say that his contributions have been
kind of uneven against teams where Indiana really needed them
to be. I mean, he was great against
Xavier, he was really good against North Carolina.
And then he really struggled against Rutgers Kansas Arizona
still had double-figure points in all three of those games.
But clearly was was struggling to do what he wanted to do on a
regular basis. And, you know, a lot of issues
with just not knowing Go with the ball.
You know, Trace Jackson Davis in order for this team to reach,
some kind of ceiling is going to have to kind of give that North
Carolina Xavier performance all the time.
If he doesn't get more help from the people around him and that
to me, is the larger issue to some degree in a race.
Thompson is just not having offensively speaking.
I think the year that you would have hoped, you know, he's not
really developed into a Consistent.
Three-point threat, his free throw shooting, has fallen off,
his two-point shooting has fallen off some.
It's still pretty good, but it's not the, you know, the he shot
almost 60% from the field last year from to he's only shooting
about 56 percent. This year that matters given the
volume of shots, he ends up putting up, you just, you
haven't quite gotten, I think the fifth year or I guess 60 or
performance out of race Thompson, yet that you need in
order to take some of the burden off of Trace Jackson, Davis
meleager, You started off real strong, his turnover rate right
now is ridiculously high. He's turning the ball over on
almost 27 percent of the possessions he uses.
And there's a lot of possessions now where he just looks very
lost about what that rate is also unbelievably.
Yeah, he's committing. What foul minute or something.
It's like six and a half, fouls per 40 minutes of play and you
know it's just it's a problem and you go down the list of play
in the Big East so that's not good.
I think. Miller cop deserves A lot of
credit for his three-point shooting increasing to the
degree that it has. But it's, you know, it's still
one of those situations where you're you know dis he maintain
the level that he's got right now which is at about 45%.
It's already started to regress a bit.
It was 50% before a week and a half ago and it's Fallen quite a
bit so you know, I think there's and I'm it sounds like I'm
making excuses. It's more like I'm trying to
figure out how good is this roster actually.
They looked really good to start the year, but as we're seeing
with other Big Ten teams right now, I think perhaps we were
overly optimistic based upon some early season performances
and you know, you go down the list.
I mean, whether it's Illinois who's really fallen off and is
really struggling offensively compared to what they've done in
previous years. Iowa, just got obliterated, you
know, by Nebraska at Nebraska last night and that followed a
game. One of the biggest upsets in
college basketball in the last ten years were Eastern Illinois.
I went in and beat them in Iowa, City by 9, you know, that's a
team. I think everybody thought was
going to be at least marginally better than they have been thus
far. Michigan state has struggled,
Maryland has been very, very up and down in terms of what
they've been able to accomplish. And so again it's like with
Indiana, we try to be honest on this show about what we see and
what we, what we think is going on and where I get back to the
word Johnson is such a huge loss for this team because whatever.
Concerns or questions you might have about his decision-making
at times more often than not. He's demonstrated an ability in
order on the offense. He provides a lot of you know,
an ability and interest in shooting the ball himself and
generating his own offense but also is one of the top
distributors in college basketball and has been really
for his entire college career taking that off the table and
having to rely on Jalen Hurd Shafi know, as your starting
point guard who's now your secondary point guard Trager The
way is not proved himself up to the task of being a primary
ball, handler and distributor Tamar Bates has not proven
himself up to the task. He's emerged really?
Well as a to you know as a guy who can come in and give you
points, you just you lose a lot of flexibility without Johnson
out there and it just fundamentally Alters, what you
can expect. Now, you're getting instead of
putting everybody in the roles, you want them in.
Now, you're increasingly having to put people in roles that
they're not comfortable in. And that's not even talking
about this movement, among certain people in the fan base
about what we It should just be playing.
Trace Jackson. Davis is our only big and
running Miller cop at the four. And it's like, okay, that sounds
great in theory, but like, who are your guards now, you know,
who are your wings, that are going to be playing in those
positions that you're Now vacating by not having race
Thompson out on the floor regularly, you know what
happened to Malik renews minutes at that point.
There's a lot of things that losing Xavier Johnson, makes it
a lot harder to put fixes in to make the offense and the defense
run more efficiently than they are at this point.
Point. Yeah, I mean, the other aisle
will keep on oscillating on different sides.
I'll take a positive view for next for the 2023.
You know, remainder of that calendar year.
You know, this is the first time in his career, that Trace
Jackson Davis has had some DMP coach's decision.
So he didn't play against Little Rock in the obviously been
playing in Ceylon or Kennesaw State.
He's nursing some sort of back or some kind of injury, you hope
that with basically having two and a half weeks off Able to
kind of play at a higher level because that's and if he you
know, this is where it's really tough because you don't know if
guys are playing you know injured or not I but you have to
as somebody who's watches games you have to assume if they're
out there, they're good enough to play but there was moments in
that Kansas game. Where Trace would you know like
just have a great defensive stand, block a shot and then get
great position. Get the ball and put it up as a
three minutes of like, man. This guy's owning the game and
then it would kind of just go back into neutral for five or
six minutes. He could very well have been
just, you know, nursing an injury but you know, that is a
positive look, is it hopefully this time off, has given him the
ability to rest up and be ready for what's going to be a pretty
pounding, Big Ten season. But that that also leads into
the frustration with his team. As you see, little glimpses of
me sought for like 35 minutes against North Carolina, where
this team across the board. Not just, you know, everybody is
just giving maximum effort maximum effort on defense and
you saw spurts of it against Terra.
Zone that you saw like spurts of it against Kansas.
You didn't see a lot of it against Rutgers and that's the
frustrating part is like you you got to play that for 40 minutes
and you know there's that's I think the most we can talk about
you know skill level all things you're talking about but the
effort at times it feels like a lot of these guys are just kind
of playing in second gear, third gear, and not going full
throttle and it's frustrating. When you see it, like we saw it
in North Carolina, everyone is just going at full speed.
It's like, alright, you You've got to do that every night and
like it's tough when. Yeah, you know you're playing,
you know, in the this is also worth stuff where it's like, you
know, I hope we can get past this where some people have
talked about. That Rutgers game is like, well
yeah, that big great gaming is North Carolina at home.
It's like a letdown against Rutgers like we got to stop just
having these built-in letdown games like last year's.
If we beat Purdue as I got one Michigan, like you know, that's
that's a schedule. Also, we like you can't just
have schedule letdown losses in your schedule.
That's something. We've got to grow past that
like, yeah, it's great. You had a nice win.
You did really well. Sorry, my phone's ringing rings
on every device, but it's like, now you need to do it again and,
you know, it can be done teams, do that in the Big Ten that do
it across the country, they win a great big game at home and
they go on the road and they still look locked in and play
that. And that's to me, I would say
the most frustrating part is how uneven the effort has looked
throughout games and how how easily we can.
Can just be like, well, you know, what are you gonna do?
Like, you know, big home, win against North Carolina, go to
Rutgers, he loses like those kinds of things have to kind of
stop happening and the just getting I'm with you, Arizona
and Kansas are both possible number one seeds in the
tournament. You know, no fault in losing but
just to come in and kind of get your doors blown off.
In the first five minutes. You can at least keep it a
puncher's chance for a while. So that that's what I, I'm even
oscillating between my own take. Like, that's what I hope to see.
You know, if Trace can get healthy and kind of be the one
to lead this team with that that intensity.
But again, as I say that, you know, this is this is again
where that I don't want to make excuses but losing Xavier
Johnson is just so crosstalk, so bad across the board because he
was also kind of that. Emotional leader like Trace is a
fantastic player is going to have a great stat line is going
straight into the Indiana Hall of Fame when he when he leaves,
you know, playing as a Hoosier. But he's never been like Like
the emotional leader of this team, that's not a bad thing.
It's just that's not his role, that doesn't seem to be what he
does. It was Xavier Johnson, like,
Xavier Johnson was the emotional leader of this team and so
losing that I would say, that's this, someone's gotta step up on
this team. I'm not sure who it is to kind
of be like, the, we got it. Like, we got to play harder.
We got to lock in, we got to do more, you know, and we've got to
find who that is. But, wow, as I'm ending this, I
realized I Meander and don't really have a point there.
Well, okay. Here's here's here's.
The thing I mean, there's always ups and downs.
I think with every College basketball program and Indiana
has. I think there's been legitimate
questions raised about the motors of some of the players on
how use roster and that's been a consistent issue.
Going back through the crane era.
And I think that, you know, to some degree, it is something
that frustrates Indiana fans more than anything else.
Because people have the opinion that there were never lulls in
attitude or performance like during Bob, Knight's tenure,
which if you go back, And watch the games.
That's absolutely not true. They're this stuff has gone on
forever. I think we're highly sensitive
to it right now. It's kind of like the free-throw
shooting thing where it's like, well, you know, how could any
and only shoot free throws at this level.
When in fact, if you go back and look historically, that's not
that unusual but they all go to the wedding of winning.
Well, but that, but the issue the issue remains ultimately,
yes. Indiana has to win more
basketball games, and they have to, I think, Be a harder team to
play against because they do come across in some of these
games. And this is really, this was
absolutely the case for a lot of last season, they come across as
a team, that will Wilt at some point.
Whether it's, you know, early on in the game like that home game
against Illinois last year, or whether it's late in the game,
like the, well, the Ohio State game at Ohio State or the home
gaming, it's Rutgers last year or, you know, but then on the
flip side, you know, II try to, I think he got to give Mike
Winston's group. The benefit of the doubt at
least a little bit because And they did win some games and
we're in games last year that you wouldn't expect them to be.
And whether that was both Purdue games, including the one that
they, you know, we're within two points of of tying and sending
into overtime up at Mackey. You know, the there's been other
examples like that where you go through and look at what they
did. That's where you need to some
degree. It's hard to get a full sense of
okay. Our Trace Jackson, Davis has
struggled because he's nursing an injury.
And, of course, I you doesn't release injury information to
anybody. So, everybody's left guessing
and, you know, your to some degree because social media
creates an environment where everybody is just hot taking all
the time. It's like, well, this is Tracy,
is having a motivation issue. Are the rest of the players
having motivation issues. I think in a lot of cases, the
issues that you seeing from certain players are explainable
in individual areas, I think Malik renew is Juggling with the
adaptation to the college game because he played well for the
first month then suddenly there was film on him and teams are
forcing him to wrong direction, or they're frustrating him at
points, where he's not used to getting frustrated.
You know, Miller cop is just a bad defensive player and always
has been and you're not really going to change that because he
doesn't have the physical capability to be a better
defensive player, you know, jail in a jiffy.
Know I think is clearly trying to do too much offensively.
And He is learning as a freshman.
You know what, I can't just take whatever shot because it's going
to get contested and I'm probably going to miss it and I
I'd like to see him get better at that will see.
You know it's funny because from three he's actually been really
good. He's shooting 38% for 3 so far
this season. He's from to been an atrocity,
say shooting 42%. And most of that is because he's
getting himself into positions where he can't actually complete
the shot that he's trying to take.
I do think that these things will gradually get It worked
out, but a lot of it's an open question.
Right now, I think, at this stage, Indiana has done enough
winning at Xavier being the only team that's beating North
Carolina by double digits. You know, that's that to me,
it's like old, they showed us something in those games I'm not
willing to throw all that out because we've had some
disappointing performances more recently.
Let's see what happens over this next few weeks.
I but I, you know, but again, I'll come back to what I said
like that. There's a seven-game stretch
that they'll have Really, an eight-game, stretch to start the
Big Ten season, you can even extend it to nine.
Let's take the nine games. Well, here's why here's why?
Because I think all adults the season, I feel like it's a
nine-game stretch where think of Indiana is a serious Contender
that they need to go 6 and 3 in this stretch.
And it's at Iowa, Northwestern at home at Penn State Wisconsin
at home at Illinois. Michigan State at home at
Minnesota, Ohio State at home. You have six and three and that
stretch, I think it's about what you would need to really be
competitive for the Big Ten title because honestly I mean I
think Purdue is going to fall back to Earth somewhat Purdue is
done everything. They've done so far this season
despite only shooting 30.5 percent from three, their 305th
in the country, I don't think that's entirely sustainable
because eventually teams will just dare them to beat them from
outside and they may not be able to do that.
I think the Big Ten champion this year, the regular season
Champion could end up having six or seven losses in the
conference. So I think Long as Indiana isn't
going like five and four or four and five through that stretch of
games that they're playing, prior to the game at Maryland.
That's really what they need to do.
And they're going to have to do it with a freshman starting
point guard. And with the, you know, their
star offensive player looking like he's banged up, that's
going to be a real challenge. That's where I'm really curious
to see if Indiana because we've talked so much about offense
here. I'm really curious if Indiana
can recommit defensively because to me, that's where they've
really fallen down. You know.
So with the exception of the Kansas game, I think all the
other games on the schedule will probably and maybe Rutgers
because that was kind of its own separate thing.
But I think that Arizona game was winnable if Indiana had
played better defense and and they weren't able to I think
that you know, they look much better against Kennesaw State
Nebraska if they are playing better defensively in those
games and I think it's within their grasp to do so but it's
going to be a challenge. Now that you're losing one of
the most effective and annoying Defenders and is a viewer
Johnson. For an extended period of time.
Yeah, I mean it's I will say this, we look at defense, your
we're still the third best defensive team in the Big Ten,
unadjusted defense on Ken Palm. So we're still there again.
That's where I say, like, I still see this as a team, that
could and should finish top five in the Big Ten.
Couple other random thoughts are just things.
You talked about, you know, jail Hood safiye.
Know, not only is a three-point shooting like you said at, you
know, 37 percent for the year but that's that's including an 0
for 5, you know, start against Bethune-Cookman.
So if you just take out that for I know, You can take that
everything, but like, you just take out the first game that
suddenly jumps him up to close to 40 percent from three in
basically, every game after his first game as a second game, as
a, as a college player. So, you know there, there's some
really positive attributes there with his shooting.
But I am. You nailed it with that six and
three in the first nine games, because I do think this is a
team that's going to have to for the most part, hold serve at
home. Maybe you lose one game at home.
And then you've got to pick up like, you know, a couple of
those Road games and that's where again, it comes back to,
you know, those first three Road games, Iowa Penn State,
Illinois. There's no must wins in January,
but it is that, that Iowa game. If you don't win that, it's like
you kind of, you kind of got to really pick up that Illinois,
road game, like, at some point you now have to pick up one of
those tougher Road games. If you do want to be, not just
hovering around 500 in the big tip so well and look and don't
get me wrong, folks. Like I think Indiana needs to be
better off pensively, the scheme needs to be better.
I-i've been very critical about how long it takes Indiana to get
into their possessions and sets. And I thought a lot of that
would get fixed with Xavier Johnson and JLo Jaffe.
No back because keep in mind who Cioppino was out injured for a
large stretch of this time period, that were talking about
as well. So it's not like Indiana has
been playing with a full deck. What did Mike Woodson?
And his staff do over this break.
If anything to change the way that I you approaches things on
offense if they did it. Changed nothing, maybe that will
work out, but I have my concerns.
But yeah, I mean look, if you're going to catch Iowa, this is
probably the best time to catch Iowa because they look
completely lost right now. Now, that is rarely ever
translated over because it's like whatever state a team is in
IU, seems to always wake them up and that's very frustrating.
But yeah, like I will lose the Penn State on the first and then
it's like they'll be despite 15 and go on a five-game winning
streak and it's like, yeah, we ended up catching up with the
Wrong time, you didn't realize it.
It is worth noting that with that loss to Nebraska, you know,
now Iowa is actually rated to lose the game.
Day. Indiana at home on Ken Pon by a
point. It's still very close but that
was a projected win for Iowa for quite a while.
It's also worth noting. That Iowa will have played 32
additional games. That Indiana will not have
played leading into that. They have to travel to Penn
State on New Year's Day. Then they play Indiana at home,
that might be a good thing. Indiana gets a chance to get
rested. They're going to come back.
They're going to feel the disappointment that I think the
fan base has felt in the way that they played in those two
games leading into break, but they also might look at it and
say, look at the end of it all, we won both games by double
digits by about the margins that we were supposed to win them by
without our best player to without our two best players, we
didn't have traced Jackson Davis, we didn't have Xavier
Johnson and yes, we Gold for moments but we got the job done.
That's a good basis upon which to go into the Big Ten season.
I know that's not how fans feel about it, and maybe that's not
how the team should feel about it.
But if there's one thing I think we've learned about IU
basketball, IU, basketball needs to have confidence in itself.
If they're going to be successful in these types of
games and anything that I, you can latch onto to say, look it's
easy to from the outside to look at this and say this was
disappointing. But the flip side is we did what
we had to do. Without key pieces.
Now, we hopefully get to add some key pieces back and we have
a clear sense of who we are, and what we need to be doing as a
program, that's my hope. I don't know if that's actually
what's going to happen, but that would be my hope in all of this
one last point. And then I will go to football
or I have one that's point. It is funny.
This happens every year I love doing the preseason.
Prognostications look at this schedule, but it is it's such
Folly because you get to it now and you are hitting the first
nine games, stretch there. Is a stretch there, from the
January, 28 to February 21st, we're on Ken Palm.
We are one, two, three, four, five, six.
We're projected to win six of eight.
But you look at that, stretch, I'll go through it.
That's a possible stretch where it beginning of the year, it's
like, oh my God, that's going to be, you know, a brutal stretch.
That could be an 8 and 0 stretch.
Like there is a point there where we could actually struggle
coming out of the gate up until mid-January and then your home
tool again, assuming all of our home games are going to be Very,
very good atmosphere is a tough place for opponents to play your
home to Ohio State. You're at Maryland, which that's
not super easy. But Marilyn's been a little bit
up and down, as you said your home to Purdue produce, that's
going to be a tough game, but your home home to Rutgers at
Michigan, at Northwestern home to Illinois at Michigan State.
I'm not saying any of those or, you know, total gimmes.
But that's also a stretch where it's like, I could see us going
seven and water ain't no. And so, that is a spot where you
could make some hay in the middle of the Where I think
going into the season, kind of the, the basic thought was I go,
man, the schedule gets so hard at the end.
It's like, well, it's actually a spot there where I think based
on home and away in the opponent's you could be looking
at a 7018. No, stretch.
If you can kind of get things humming so now and they probably
won't go that in that. Yes.
But but the, but the point is Yes, again when the, when the
cards get dealt, everybody assumes a bunch of things and
then you have to re-evaluate what the deck looks like.
Once you get more information and Ed, look, as it turns out, I
don't know what to make of the Big Ten at this point.
I really don't. I don't think anybody really
does, you know, you can look at a high 0 state, whose 14th and
Ken pom and yet, you know, Ohio, State should have lost her
Rutgers that game got gifted to them.
Their next Beck's, win was a neutral Court Victory against
the Texas texting. That was absolutely reeling, and
they really do anything else on their resume.
Yeah, it's Kalama. And, you know, you look at
Wisconsin Wisconsin's, 2 and 0. No in the conference but one of
those was an overtime win at Iowa and the other one was
Maryland at home and the rest of their schedule is essentially
kind of schlocky. Yes, they have an overtime win
versus Marquette. Who's been very up and down, are
they actually good? I don't entirely know.
They lost at home to Wake Forest, who's not a very good
basketball team. So the point being we really, I
think the Big Ten at this stage is kind of leveling off.
I think a lot of Early returns that look positive for the
conference have been to some degree.
Supplanted by less positive returns in games that have
happened since December 1st for a lot of teams.
And a lot of what we thought might be tournament caliber may
be protected. Seed caliber teams are sinking
back into the pack. I still like Indiana's chances
against most of those teams, but it's going to take Indiana
playing more consistently on both sides of the of the ball or
both ends of the Court. Court, I guess.
But and it's going to take Indiana trying to figure out how
to play through a freshman point guard.
When they thought they were going to be playing through a
senior point guard, and that will be a big adaptation.
So, yeah, it's a really fascinating conference.
And I, you know, you look at the projections right now produce
projected at 15 and 5 on Ken palm.
And then there's a bunch of teams at 12 and 8.
I think there's one, two, three, four, five teams projected at 12
and 8. There's another three projected
at 10 and 10, this is going to be a Ass like this conference is
going to be a bloodbath and I think you could lose, seven,
eight, nine, even ten games in this conference and still be a
pretty good team, certainly a team that could make it to a
sweet 16. So that's it's why I've yet to
like fully mash the panic button because I think this is
Indiana's gonna have to grind a bunch of games out in the Big
Ten as will. Everybody else in the conference
and who's left standing at the top, May largely depend on their
conference strength of schedule as opposed to necessarily Sara
Lee, how good they are as an individual team?
Yep. Yep.
Anyway, real quick on the IU football front, you know, the,
the big bunch of bunch of, good news, right?
When they're about to send out renewals for season ticket.
Yeah, I know, I mean, well, the big the biggest question right
now, obviously, you know, some, some, some positives there been
a couple of good players that have come through the transfer
portal, you know, you've got a fifth-year defensive lineman,
who was, you know, in Turn Michigan, it was like a second
Team, all Mac / 2 player. You've got a couple of other
players that have come through that that look like they might
be somewhat intriguing but you've also got Some question
marks I think in terms of like the players that are coming in,
you know, if you got you have a DB from the Texas Longhorns.
That looks good on paper but then you've got a couple of
giucose coming in and it's like I don't know what you provide
necessarily or is this going to be an upgrade?
You've got offers going out to there's an offer to a player at
Austin Peay which is an FCS school, there was an offer to
you know a player Liberty which is really not on the same.
Level as Indiana in terms of overall talent.
And I think the big question mark right now, is there still
no quarterback? You still do not have a
quarterback on the roster that you would look at and say that
is your day one starter and that's a bit of a concern
because you, you know, the number of options that are out
in the transfer portal. Right now is starting to
dwindle, Wisconsin just picked up or is about to pick up a
starting quarterback transfer out of SMU.
Illinois, just picked up a starting quarterback transfer.
Out of all Miss, Purdue obviously picked up.
A starting quarterback transfer already.
You've seen most of the other teams in the conference either.
Bring back somebody who's going to be in that role or already be
set. Now, Indiana, still got some
time and as was pointed out on Twitter basil, act didn't commit
until January of last year and he was a four-star prospect that
people thought was going to slide in and become the starter.
The problem is based upon what we heard out of Tom Allen
towards the end of the year. They don't want a basil act
style starter. They want like a specific person
that can both run and pass. There aren't that many of those
folks out in the portal, the ones that are, there's a lot of
competition for those those people to come in and and be
starting. Quarterbacks, I think there's a
lot of reason for concern right now because it doesn't appear.
Indiana has a clear plan about what they're going to do, what
they want to do. And this just seems like a
continuation of themes that we've seen out of football over
the course of well, really the last Few years.
I'm going to take the negative side.
This there's not a wait that wasn't the negative side.
I thought I thought I was funny - there but all the stuff you
started with your talk. You know.
The other people were looking at signing and it's like, none of
that matters. Because in the end, every the
last two years and multiple years at IU football, where were
we in November? It's like, hey, we have Dexter
Williams our quarterback, he's not good enough.
And it's like, that's, that's it.
Like, if you don't have a quarterback, none of this
matters. And the year before, you know,
Penix gets hurt tuttle's. Not playing well then it's like
we have done as McCully, he's not great at throwing, it's
like, then it's like, we all just agree.
If you don't have a quarterback, you can't.
You really can't compete. And so that is the most
important position and then people who like, oh, we sign you
a base like as a four-star in January said, yeah, he didn't
finish the season but he wasn't playing at the end of the year.
So are we going to get somebody else in January who's not going
to finish the season? And then we're stuck back in the
same spot. This should have been the a one
number prime, number one with a bullet.
Priority. It probably was I'm just not
sure who they're able to get and the trouble is we're going to be
we're going to talk ourselves into whoever it is and then
we're going to be sitting here on a podcast in
october-november. Being like, you know, but as
pissed as we are that, you know, we lost in Northwestern.
What are you going to do, when you don't have a functional
quarterback? There, it's like, you have to
have a none of this other shit matters.
Like all those other pieces, don't matter if you don't have a
quarterback and we don't have a plan to get a quarter.
Back. Well, I don't know how they're
going to. There is insensitive to path to
have a quarterback and unfortunately, you know, we had
Dexter Williams who's passing numbers weren't ideal but it's,
he's out and it is funny. You mention ideally, they don't
want to bathe black type. They want, you know, they want a
guy who can run and throw, it's like, all right, well there's
not a lot of guys, like Michael Vick out there in the Porto who
are just waiting to come to Indiana.
Like honestly, we're at a point as a program that we don't get
to pick what we get, we get whatever wants to Gus.
And then you build an offense around it.
Like honestly, that's where we are at.
We don't get to dictate what our quarterback is.
We kind of build it around that. But yeah.
It's it's there's not an answer to this.
It's just tough because all this other stuff is window dressing
and we will be sitting here November talking about how you
know, without a quarterback who can really throw and do
anything, you know, we're, we're stuck.
We're stuck in the mud. So look, I do think that they
are trying to get a quarterback. I think there's there's There's
a plan in, as much as we need to get a starting quarterback.
I think that's clear because there's just nobody.
There's just, there's nobody on the roster that you would look
at and say that's your starting quarterback and you have to have
that. But I we talked about this at
the end of the season. It's a real tough sell.
I think for any starting level quarterback to come to Indiana
because what you've got is a an offensive line that Yes.
Look, good. In some limited action towards
the end of the season, when Indiana finally decided to put a
running quarterback out there, but then, you essentially didn't
have much in the way of a passing game to go.
Along with that, you don't really have a whole lot in the
receiving Corps. There's not skill position
players that you would like to throw to.
There's not and one of them just transferred to Michigan.
There is not offensive lineman that I'd feel comfortable
standing behind as a starting quarterback.
Whether I'm running behind them or dropping back to pass.
And Indiana has essentially. Not.
Served its transfer quarterbacks.
Well, I think would be the most charitable that, a way that I
would put it if I'm Alan. I don't want base, like, giving
a Yelp review on his writer. It's well, and it's not just
basil. Like, it's also Jack Tuttle who,
yeah. You know, just transferred to be
a backup at Michigan during the last month.
I mean, it wasn't like he transferred somewhere to be a
starter. And this is a guy who's a
legacy. I you like Family Guy and so I
do a bit of the portal for like two and a half years now.
She put when he put his name in like Beginning of the Season?
No, no. It was, it was like a month into
the season but no, it's a good point.
It's like everybody looked at his stuff was like.
Yeah. So it really, it just it's very
concerning if you're, if you care about IU football and I
know for a lot of people, it's more of just a passing fancy but
if you care about, are you football?
It's not just that it's not an argument that he doesn't have a
plan for starting quarterback. It's that, that plan doesn't
have any consistency. Like they went out specifically
last year and got a pocket passing quarterback and said,
we're going to build our Fence around you and then they
couldn't and this was a year after not being able to build a
pocket, passing quarterback offense around the previous guy.
And you know, and so it's like now it's like well we need a
running quarterback, okay? But you don't have a lot of the
pieces in place necessarily to know like promise that person
you're basically saying, hey, look at this game and a half or
this two games that we did this, we're going to do the whole
offense like that. I would be very, very cautious.
If I was a player of coming into that environment and I think
that that's what we're seeing and we're concerns me is that
most of Indiana's rivals or not Rivals.
But teams they're going to have to play in the Big Ten whether
that's Illinois or Purdue, you know?
Or teams are going to be competing for for potential
bowls. I know don't laugh.
But like they're all finding quarterbacks, they're all
plugging quarterbacks in and for Indiana to be in this position
along with frankly, A pretty underwhelming hall in general in
the transfer portal and a lack of Player Development.
Like what are you like? What's going on?
Where's this is also the other piece here.
That is tough. It's like, we all say this.
We all know. It's true.
We you and I say it Ad nauseam, and we run the just continue to
say it all the time, but it's like, you know, you're not going
to make a change a head coach. You can't do what the buyouts to
big great, but it still doesn't change the fact that like
everyone kind of knows that unless things really turn
around. You probably have a 23-year
lame-duck coach period. Like, that's also really tough
to then get Guys to come, it's like hey, do you want to come
play for? A guy who may be gone in a year
or two like pediatric root against that?
And it's like so the fact that as you know the IU, you know,
Dawson's letting this kind of just sit out there for two or
three years. That's also a problem in getting
guys here because like, do I want to come play for a coach
who's basically dead man? Walking for two years, not
saying he can still turn it around, but it's like that's
another piece that makes it hard and it because we all agree,
it's not going to happen, but it's like that still doesn't
change. Is the reality that everybody's
like, hey man, why do you want to go there?
And look, I mean, this might sound like it's harsh but it
shows in the National recruiting rankings.
I mean, Alan and his staff had to scramble to get the 68th
ranked recruiting class for 2023.
I mean, there were there was a period there where it was down
in the 80s or 90s. According to most of the
recruiting services and they they give them credit.
They picked up some recruits at the tail end of things.
And now the class is rated 68, it's still 14th in the Big Ten,
it is Dead last in the conference.
And last year, it was fifth. That's a real problem.
And that is a an unsustainable trajectory for the program.
One of many other unsustainable elements of that trajectory.
So anyway, just was worth mentioning and know it sounds
Doom and Gloom but it's more. Its legitimate concern because
you're gonna have to Patchwork something together and try to
get yourself back into a position where you know, you're
winning six. Games and in position to qualify
for a bowl and it certainly doesn't look like that
groundworks being laid right now for 2023.
And the last thing I'll say about the quarterback and again
I uh nits not like they're not working on it or not trying but
the other frustrating part is that we're sitting here.
You know so many guys now are going into the portal kind of
already having their school selected like I'm hearing these
reports of guys like in the portal, they put their name in.
Like don't contact me because like they already know where
they're going and so you know, this is where I do really.
Lee. I'm concerned with how Indiana
seems to be handling the portal because you look at other teams
in the conference, like, Michigan, Michigan State.
So, it seems like they're just, you know, day one, the portal
opens, they're grabbing five or six guys, like, getting guys for
the portal for next year starts. Now, like the fact that we're
still scrambling for a quarterback.
This year, it's like you've kind of already lost.
Like people are already working on the 2023 and 2024 portal that
the fact that it seems like we're not quarterback, was the
number one issue, not that I'm saying there was Do they could
have gotten but the fact they didn't get somebody the first,
you know, two hours. To two days.
The portal is open. Makes me concerned that either.
They weren't working hard enough or more than likely.
There's probably wasn't a good fit there, and so now you're
scrambling to find it. But that's, that's the thing
with the portal that I think, you know, a lot of people don't
fully understand is, it's not like, oh, it opens up.
I'm going to look at my options, like a lot of times.
Hey, guess what things are dirty in the NCAA of people aren't
following the rules. Like, the portal stuff is
already done in cor. The time the portal opens, guys
know. They want to go the recruiting
is already happened. Well and I was less concerned
about it before Wisconsin and Illinois picked up quarterbacks
this week. And now it's like it's
officially time to be a little bit concerned.
Anyway, that'll wrap it up for us.
Yep, we'll be back in the new year.
Will definitely be around a recap that Iowa game after it
happens. We'll probably have some other
podcast content coming up. Be sure to tune into the women's
basketball show with Amanda Foster.
That's every Tuesday here on Crimson cast for Scott.
I'm Galen, thanks for listening, folks.
Thanks to our friends at home. Field, will catch you on the
Flip side. Bring back the Bison.
Happy New Year so long, everybody.
Flip side. Bring back the Bison.
Happy New Year so long, everybody.