1 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,520 You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home 2 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:23,600 Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast. 3 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,640 Alan Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you. 4 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:32,520 It is Sunday, January 12th, 2025, and we're back with more 5 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:37,880 IU sports talk as we get towards the middle part of January here 6 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,440 and continue to wind through the Big 10 schedule for the men. 7 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,840 And well, Scott, 2 steps forward, one steps back or one 8 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,280 step back with this basketball team again. 9 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,400 And we're going to dive into what happened in that Iowa game. 10 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:53,760 Look a little more holistically at what's going on with the 11 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:58,720 season since the last time we talked, and we'll see what else 12 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:00,360 we talked about as we move forward with this. 13 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:02,240 But Scott, good to see you again. 14 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:04,239 How are you doing today? I'm doing great. 15 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:08,520 I love going off off script real quick to throw you off. 16 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,160 But I mean IU football real quick, like it's better to have 17 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:13,840 won. So I don't love the idea of 18 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,880 like, hey, man, you know, we lost, but we're, you know, but 19 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:19,120 our two losses look pretty good right now. 20 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,800 If you look at the national championship game, it is, you 21 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:24,320 know, you look at that, it's like, all right, there's only 22 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:27,000 one team in the country who lost to those two teams and nobody 23 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:28,160 else. And that would be us. 24 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,960 And again, it's much better to win and, and make the finals. 25 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:35,040 But it it is funny, like there's not a lot of talk anymore of 26 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:36,720 strength of schedule or quality losses. 27 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:37,920 Like those are two quality losses. 28 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:39,200 Those are two good teams we lost to. 29 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:41,720 It is. And you know, it's funny because 30 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,400 a, I've seen a lot of people tweeting about that or posting 31 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,400 about that. And, and I think they should, I, 32 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,960 I have seen people be like, well, you know, it's loser 33 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,960 mentality if you, if you're, you know, celebrating losses. 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,960 And my response to that and what I would recommend everybody's 35 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,000 responses to that be should someone bring it up in 36 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,520 conversation? First of all, what's happening 37 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:04,640 in your life that you're talking with someone who's bringing that 38 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:07,400 up in conversation? If you're on Twitter, and I say 39 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,360 this as someone who's on Twitter all the time, that's your own 40 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,120 fault. But you know, the response is IU 41 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,120 fans aren't celebrating the losses. 42 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:20,840 IU fans are reacting to the hideously disproportionate and 43 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,800 narratively incorrect response or, or, you know, to IU losing 44 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:28,920 those games. IU loses to Ohio State, who's in 45 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:32,560 the national title game and has looked incredibly dominant in 46 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,560 most of the games that they played in this playoff. 47 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:37,880 And everybody was told, oh, Indiana lost. 48 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,520 They don't possibly belong in the College Football Playoff. 49 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:45,040 Indiana loses by 10 to Notre Dame at at Notre Dame. 50 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,040 And everybody says, oh, well, they clearly didn't belong in 51 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:51,000 the playoff. You know, Colin Coward's like, 52 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,520 let's never invite Indiana again. 53 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:54,400 And then you watch the rest of the playoffs, you're like, oh, 54 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,720 Notre Dame's actually good. Who would have thought? 55 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:00,920 So, yeah, it's it's a it's an interesting spot for IU fans to 56 00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:02,880 be in. And it's been funny watching non 57 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,480 IU fans pick up on this. Like several of the accounts 58 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:09,360 that follow college football have, you know, picked up on 59 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,000 this since then. A couple of them tweeted out 60 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:12,640 like we all owe Indiana an apology. 61 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:16,760 And I'm like, what I what I find most amazing is again, Indiana 62 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,480 has broken the national media landscape when it comes to 63 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:23,120 football, where we're still talking about Indiana and it's 64 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,920 the 12th of January. We're not talking about SMU. 65 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,160 We're not talking about Clemson. We're not talking about, you 66 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,120 know, any of these other teams. We're still talking about 67 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:33,160 Indiana. That that's that's good. 68 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:35,760 I'm curious what the narrative when the preseason polls come 69 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:37,800 out and we're ranked like 19th and what what's that going to be 70 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,120 like? You know, you can't you're not 71 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:40,480 allowed to do that. Like there'll there'll be some 72 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,800 other reason why like, you know, Feinbaum and you know, Alabama 73 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:45,480 need to be pissed at Indiana for being there. 74 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,280 It's like, it really is it. It's like the, you know, Revenge 75 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,000 of the Nerds. And like the nerd is in the the 76 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000 cool kids party. It's like, how can we get this 77 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:53,520 out? Like, how can we stop this 78 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:55,600 infestation because we let them in? 79 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,880 Illinois is coming next. Like I, I want to, I want to get 80 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:02,680 to our ad reads first, but I, you know, sorry, but I think 81 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:04,640 it's an interesting. In fact, let me we'll quickly go 82 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:07,760 to the ad reads and then I want to address that 'cause I don't 83 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:09,000 think it's gonna be quite the same. 84 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,400 But anyway, first of all, just a reminder folks, that if you 85 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:13,960 haven't yet, please go to homefieldapparel.com and 86 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:15,880 patronize the heck out of that website. 87 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,079 Scott's wearing home field. I've got my old men in Blazers 88 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:20,600 home field. I thought this was particularly 89 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,520 appropriate the the the courage crew neck given what we're 90 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:26,760 dealing with. Home field has the best Bison 91 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:28,960 gear like this. Hands down the best Indiana 92 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:30,800 Bison gear. Yeah, there's, I mean, in many 93 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,240 cases they have the only Indiana Bison gear, but it's still the 94 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:34,800 best. Even if they had competitors, it 95 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,840 would still be the best. The home Field, of course, is 96 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:41,400 our presenting sponsor here on the back Home Network, not just 97 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,920 here on Crimson Cast, but on Assembly Call, the Doing the 98 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:46,360 Work podcast, and many other shows in the stable. 99 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,680 You can use the code Home 23, Home 2-3 and get 15% off your 100 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:53,600 first order. You should also follow Home 101 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:56,560 Field Apparel on the socials. They do a great job of promoting 102 00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:58,600 and previewing the various collections that they're 103 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,200 dropping on a regular basis. And get signed up for the 104 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,160 newsletter. You get some discounts, some 105 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,680 early notifications of things that you could take advantage of 106 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:11,480 in terms of sales. So again, check out home field 107 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,880 apparel.com, your place to go for the finest in college 108 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,640 fashion. Also, just a reminder folks that 109 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,840 we are on sub stack crimsoncast.substack.com. 110 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:22,400 We'd love to have you as part of the community. 111 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:29,000 Get free messages to your inbox indicating when we have new 112 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:32,760 podcasts available and occasionally we have some extra 113 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,640 stuff in there as well. 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Let's get to well, let's well, I 125 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,400 just want to say let's get to 7000. 126 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,640 Let's let's let's get that number up there by January 15th. 127 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:17,680 Tell your friends have them subscribe to the back home 128 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:19,480 network YouTube channel. I'll put a link in the. 129 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:21,800 Sub stack message, Political joke. 130 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:23,800 Galen's calling up YouTube and like, give me 10 more 131 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:25,920 subscribers right now. Give me 10 more subscribers. 132 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:27,000 That's right. That's right. 133 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,200 So anyway, we'd love to have you on that as well. 134 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,120 I want to go back to what you said though, Scott, about like 135 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,920 Indiana's going to be ranked to start the season in most polls 136 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:36,080 in football. Better be, yeah. 137 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:39,520 And I think I said when we talked about this last time, I'm 138 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:42,240 anticipating somewhere between like 15th and 25th. 139 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:46,160 And I don't think one of the weird things about college 140 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,920 football is that the hardest period of time you're generally 141 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:55,200 going to have in terms of national perception is the first 142 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,760 year that you're really good. So you think about like, I 143 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,920 remember when Kansas State came out of nowhere in the 90s and 144 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:03,960 made it in the polls and everybody's like, what is that 145 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:05,360 Kansas State? Ha ha. 146 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,360 They can't really be there. And then they were sustainably 147 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,480 good. And now we don't blink when 148 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,480 Kansas State is in a major bowl or they're in the Big 12 title 149 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,400 game or whatever. And I think it's going to be 150 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:17,960 that way with Indiana. You know, now Indiana has to 151 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,760 remain competitive for places in the poll, certainly. 152 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,120 But I look at Indiana as probably, you know, the next 153 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:29,160 phase of how they are viewed on a national stage to be kind of 154 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:32,120 like how Minnesota is viewed. You know, someone noted with 155 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:35,760 Minnesota's bowl win in the in the Dukes Mayo Bowl this year, 156 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,520 they've won that like their last seven or eight bowl games in a 157 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:41,520 row, which is wild to think about. 158 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:45,320 But it's like Minnesota's done just enough on the national 159 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:51,160 stage consistently that no one's like shocked when they're in the 160 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,360 poll or, you know, if they put together a big run that they 161 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,120 might be in contention outside for a playoff bid, especially 162 00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:59,560 now. So I think with Indiana, a lot 163 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:03,360 of the nouveau riche, you know, negative reaction that you get 164 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:05,440 from a lot of the blue bloods and a lot of the traditional 165 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:07,200 media powers probably starts to go away. 166 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,280 I also think, you know, a lot of the arguments against Indiana 167 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,240 about, you know, well, they just have a bunch of group of five 168 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:16,320 talent that starts to dissipate as well, because you were seeing 169 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:19,680 them start to pull in more power for conference talent in this 170 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,920 transfer portal and recruiting will go up and all of those 171 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,360 things. So I, I actually don't think 172 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:27,880 anybody's going to bat an eye at IU being in the poll. 173 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:29,400 I don't think it's going to be one of those things where 174 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,280 everybody's like, well, they don't belong because this is how 175 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,440 it works. It's dumb, but this is how it 176 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:36,520 works in college football. That's fair, That's fair. 177 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:39,039 But we're not here to talk college football, sadly. 178 00:08:39,039 --> 00:08:40,799 We will be back. I think next week. 179 00:08:40,799 --> 00:08:43,320 We're going to sit down and talk through the transfer portal 180 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,240 editions and talk about where Indiana still needs to make some 181 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,600 moves and talk about how the offseason's gone so far overall. 182 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:52,120 But today, we're going to talk about IU basketball. 183 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:55,800 The Hoosiers were on a nice little streak there for a little 184 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:57,600 while. They'd won five games in a row. 185 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:02,760 Three of those games were in the Big 10 Conference, and Indiana 186 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:08,000 was four and one on Saturday at about 7:00 PM Eastern Time. 187 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,200 And we're getting ready to go to Iowa. 188 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,560 And it was a, you know, Iowa was projected to win by 5. 189 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:15,840 But it was one of those games where you looked at it and you 190 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,680 said, you know, this is an Iowa team that frankly is they're 191 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:21,160 they're not that good defensively. 192 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:23,920 They're very bad. Yes, they can score, but 193 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,960 Indiana's playing really well with this single big lineup 194 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:30,560 that's been forced by Malik Renew's injury. 195 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:32,880 They've been they've been getting good play out of Omar 196 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:34,560 Barlow. They've been getting good play 197 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:36,640 out of Miles Rice. They've gotten good play out of 198 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:39,920 several other players. And you looked at this and you 199 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:42,280 were like, this is a good acid test for Indiana. 200 00:09:42,560 --> 00:09:46,000 This is a game against a team that's borderline NCAA 201 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,720 tournament. They might make it, they might 202 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,040 not. You know, they don't really have 203 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:52,680 any, any great wins on their resume. 204 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,320 If you could go in and win at Iowa, it's going to be a quality 205 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,480 win regardless. And at the very least, let's see 206 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:02,320 Indiana go in and compete and and play to their maximum 207 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,320 potential. What we thought we saw in these 208 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:06,640 previous games that did not happen. 209 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:10,480 Indiana came out immediately allowed a huge run, which we've 210 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:15,000 seen a lot from this IU program, not just under Mike Woodson, but 211 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,600 certainly a lot under Mike Woodson. 212 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:21,320 Then they rushed back into the game, actually took a 28 to 25 213 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:23,040 lead. And and I was thinking at that 214 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,480 point, Scott is like, hey, maybe they figured it out. 215 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:29,120 Maybe they just needed to deal with that initial onslaught and 216 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,200 they'll be fine moving forward. And then they proceeded to get 217 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:35,520 absolutely boat race the rest of the way. 218 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:41,240 They they take a 28 to 25 lead and it turns into a 25 point 219 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:48,040 loss, 85 to 60 and just a almost a complete abandonment of what 220 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:50,200 you wanted to see Indiana doing on the floor. 221 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:52,920 Scott. The only surprising thing about 222 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,640 this game to some degree was that Indiana got themselves back 223 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:58,400 in it for a little while. Everything else read like the 224 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,960 exact same script that we've been seeing from Indiana, 225 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,520 certainly over the course of the last couple of years. 226 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,800 Yeah, I mean, that's the the this team is so inconsistent. 227 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:07,920 And I'm going to quote a couple times. 228 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:10,800 Like Zach Osterman wrote a great article today in the Indie Star 229 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:14,400 just kind of hammering that point home over and over again. 230 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,000 The thing that I was thinking about with this is, you know, 231 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,280 the joke you see less and less now as planes get safer, but 232 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:23,720 there is a joke for you and I will growing up of like, why 233 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:25,800 don't they just make the plane out of what they make the black 234 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,440 box out of? You don't know, like a, a plane 235 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,480 crashes. There's a black box that holds 236 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,400 all the audio recording and the joke is always like, just 237 00:11:31,560 --> 00:11:33,160 because that thing is indestructible, like make the 238 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,920 plane that and then you're fine. And you, you think about that 239 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,680 with this Indiana team, you know, like the, you know, they 240 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:43,760 have that run against Iowa where they go, hold on, let me pull up 241 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:46,360 exactly that run. It was a, you know, 18 to two 242 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:48,240 run after they they've give it up. 243 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:50,840 And during that stretch, you're like, all right, this is great. 244 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:52,480 This is kind of what we've talked about all season. 245 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:55,840 Like why can't you just do that throughout the entire game? 246 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:58,960 And, you know, on a macro level, you have this where you have, 247 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:01,200 you know, two game stretches, like we talked about last time, 248 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:02,800 where they they're shooting threes, They're looking good. 249 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:05,240 All right, just do this throughout, you know, multiple 250 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:07,680 games. And in the end, I think that's 251 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:11,440 kind of a, the fallacy of that argument is, you know, not all 252 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,440 teams can do that the entire game or else. 253 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:16,520 Like that's why some teams don't win titles, So some teams don't 254 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:19,600 make the tournament. And, and I think that's like the 255 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,400 hard reality with this team is they're not capable of keeping 256 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,000 that stretch up, whether it's their ability to do it and keep 257 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,480 mentally focused on what they need to do, the schematics that 258 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,880 they're running, or the fact that there is another team over 259 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:35,880 there that when other teams seem to make adjustments, those 260 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:39,600 problems seem to compound. And you, you know, the 261 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:42,320 frustrating part with this team and kind of the last couple of 262 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:44,680 years of IU basketball is you see glimpses. 263 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:47,440 It's like a cloudy day. The sun comes out for 12 264 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:49,160 seconds. You're like, oh, that's awesome. 265 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:50,640 Why can't it be like this all day? 266 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:52,880 And then it goes away and then you don't know when it's going 267 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:54,680 to come back. The only thing that we know is 268 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:57,120 that this is going to be inconsistent. 269 00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:59,840 And that's the thing. You know what, we might have a 270 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:02,440 stretch later on the season. We have two or three games that 271 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,480 are good or we have a couple of games or we have long stretches 272 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:09,160 within games that things are good, But it's really hard for 273 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:13,760 me to say I'm I feel like we've turned a corner on XY or Z 274 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:19,160 because every single season, one of those whatever you're talking 275 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:21,280 about, whether it's 3 point shots, whether it's effort, 276 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,760 whether it's defense, whether it's, you know, offense, whether 277 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:25,960 it's running efficient offense or any of these things. 278 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:28,920 They all seem to fall apart at different times and you never 279 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:32,800 have stretches of, you know, even four games where everything 280 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,920 kind of runs smoothly. I think that's what's most 281 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:39,080 madding about what we're seeing is it's just the the only thing 282 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:41,560 that's consistent is the inconsistency with this team. 283 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,760 Yeah, it's, I'll even go a step further. 284 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,520 I think the problem with this team is they really just fold 285 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:54,440 when put under pressure, like really put under pressure. 286 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:59,840 And it's, it's disappointing because a lot of, I think the, 287 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:04,560 the, a lot of the issues with IU really come back to the way the 288 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:08,040 fans perceive the team and the way the team is played. 289 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:10,960 There have just been so many games or so many stretches of 290 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,200 seasons where IU fans have worked themselves up to a point 291 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:16,240 where they feel like, hey, we've got some hope here. 292 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:21,520 And then Indiana just cannot measure up in games against 293 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:25,800 teams that are, you know, not necessarily any demonstrably 294 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,760 better than they are, but it feels like those teams are just 295 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,200 trying harder. And and that is the kiss of 296 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,560 death when it comes to a lot of of, of how IU is perceived. 297 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:37,800 And look, we've we've seen that even in good seasons, you know, 298 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:41,880 I'll always remember, you know, Indiana comes into that game at 299 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:45,280 home versus Iowa in Trace Jackson Davis's final year. 300 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:47,840 And you know, I think there were 11 and seven. 301 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,120 They were certainly in the hunt at that point. 302 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,200 I think to, you know, potentially win the Big 10 title 303 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,960 or or at least stay in the hunt. You know, Purdue ended up 304 00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:58,840 winning. They they had pretty was 15 and 305 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:00,880 five that season. It was going to take pretty 306 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:03,120 losing a couple of games. They almost lost at Wisconsin 307 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:08,040 that weekend, but Indiana came out against Iowa, who was OK 308 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,000 that year, and then just got smoked at home in front of 309 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,480 everybody to the point that people were leaving like the 15 310 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,880 minutes left in the second-half. I remember that I was there and 311 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,400 it's like I think we were like in the mix for like maybe 312 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:20,040 getting a two seed in the tournament, but it wouldn't 313 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:21,040 happen. But it's like we were like we 314 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,280 were in the 3-4 line. It's like, yeah, we we win. 315 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,240 We went out here. It's like, wow, this is a season 316 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:26,400 we could actually. Yeah, I remember that. 317 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:29,640 And, and, you know, that it just, it seems like every time 318 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,480 Indiana really needs to double down. 319 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,800 And when, you know, sometimes they've been able to handle it. 320 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,880 But more often than not what we've seen is the result that 321 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:42,880 you saw last night where it's not even that they lose, it's 322 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,480 that they lose by a huge margin. And, you know, you want to go 323 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:50,160 back to the the you talk about Zach Osterman's story. 324 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,760 And he might have had this in the story, but he also had a 325 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:56,520 tweet which a lot of people have been referring back to now and 326 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,520 and added, Yeah, I think reasonably so. 327 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,760 Indiana has lost 31 regular season games in league play 328 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:07,040 under Mike Woodson. Of those, now 16 have come by 329 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:11,320 double digits, 12 have come by 15 or more points, 5 have come 330 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:13,920 by 20 or more points. And and last night obviously fit 331 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:17,240 into that category. I mean, you're going to lose big 332 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:19,600 every once in a while. But I think it's the it's the 333 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,600 method by which Indiana loses big in these games where they 334 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:26,840 just abandoned all principles, aren't able to play hard or 335 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,600 consistently and look like they've just kind of waved the 336 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:33,600 white flag at a certain point in the game and then just wait for 337 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:35,560 it to be over. And it feels like it just 338 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:39,320 consumes the entire bench. People aren't up and, and, you 339 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:41,680 know, shouting orders. The coaches are largely sitting 340 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:43,200 down. The players are largely there. 341 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:48,480 You know, it's it's just kind of this acceptance that we're not 342 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,320 that good. We're not going to compete 343 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:52,400 tonight. And then there's not there's, 344 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,200 you know, you just the same platitudes end up coming up in 345 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:57,040 the press conferences at the end of those games. 346 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,920 You saw more of that last night where there's just like you can 347 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:03,960 either not take what's in it his word, or you can take what's in 348 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:05,359 it his word. If you take what's in it his 349 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:08,240 word, it's like, well, you know, the constantly he's like, well, 350 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:09,560 the team didn't come out ready to play. 351 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:13,160 And it's like, it's year 4. How is your team still coming 352 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,880 out not ready to play? How how is your team not able to 353 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:18,560 navigate these sorts of circumstances? 354 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:20,119 Not like the first time you've been to Iowa. 355 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:22,640 And it's not like this is a world beating Iowa team. 356 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,319 I mean, this is an Iowa team that you know, they've they've 357 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:28,600 they've done a few good things, but that was an Iowa team that 358 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:30,720 was 52nd in the net coming into the game. 359 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,760 Indiana was I think 56th or 57th in the net. 360 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:37,400 These were teams that were theoretically kind of on the 361 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:39,720 same plane of existence and yet they look like they didn't 362 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:44,480 belong on the same floor. So it's it's not just the loss 363 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,640 and it's not just the manner in which the team lost. 364 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:52,200 It's the consistency to, and I would actually say that the the 365 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,680 inconsistency is the consistency with this team, but the 366 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,880 consistency by which Indiana, when they start to lose games 367 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,120 like this, they don't just lose in half measures. 368 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:07,120 They go all out and lose about as badly as you can, which 369 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,760 doesn't really fill you with a lot of excitement or positivity 370 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:14,280 or the idea that somehow later on down the line they're going 371 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,240 to turn this around. And that's been the biggest 372 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,160 concern is like, you know, look again, losses happen, big losses 373 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,000 happen. I don't think you have to 374 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:27,840 overreact at one loss, but I do think you can react and should 375 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,280 react to the idea that once again, here you are on the road 376 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:38,280 in the Big 10 getting blown out by a pretty mid team and your 377 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,800 aspirations were supposedly much greater than that. 378 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,480 As Indiana, you had a you have a a huge, talented, expensive 379 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,880 roster of players who individually can all do really 380 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,600 good things. And it looks exactly the same as 381 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:55,280 last year's roster where you didn't have all of those things. 382 00:18:55,280 --> 00:19:00,200 Like there's a consistency of of falling short in these moments 383 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:03,200 that seems to arch over all of the rosters that you've seen 384 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,800 here under Mike Woodson. And you know, even again, even 385 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:09,880 the Trace Jackson, Davis, Jalen Huchafino roster was not immune 386 00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:12,360 to games like this or circumstances like this. 387 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:14,520 I brought this up a year ago or something. 388 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,400 I tried to get a name for it. Like the dead cat bounce or like 389 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,000 the dead on arrival game. But you know, just the, the game 390 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:24,600 last night when you look at the Ken Palm, you know, winning 391 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:30,760 probability at at halftime, Iowa had an 86% chance of winning. 392 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:34,640 And then within 4 minutes it was up to 94%. 393 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,080 And then it just becomes this, you know, you, you have like a, 394 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:38,960 it looks like a heartbeat and then it's just flatlined. 395 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:40,880 It's just like a second-half flatline. 396 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,440 And it, it, it echoes in the stats, what you're talking about 397 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:48,800 in real life, that for the rest of the second-half, Iowa's a 95% 398 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:50,440 chance to win. And it never changes. 399 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,040 You know, even the Nebraska game, you see some flutters 400 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:56,760 there and it gets to be a 6664 game with like 10 minutes to go. 401 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:00,160 And they ended up letting Nebraska go on a 17 to one run. 402 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,520 But you know, I, I, I did a breakdown of this at one point 403 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:07,240 last year, just how many of these losses that we've had 404 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:09,160 under Woodson and under Archie too? 405 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:12,440 That just to your point, aren't even just beat downs, it's like 406 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:15,160 in the second-half, there's not even Indiana's not ever within a 407 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,920 90% chance of, you know, a 10% chance of winning the game. 408 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,040 You go back and look at the, you know, Louisville game, it's 409 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,560 exactly the same thing. It's a little bit better just 410 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,240 because the halftime score is a little closer, but it just, it 411 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,800 becomes a straight line to zero and then just stays 0%. 412 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:34,040 You know, at 10 minutes to go in the game, Louisville had a 99% 413 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,240 chance of winning and just kept that way the entire time. 414 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:38,120 Gonzaga game, it's it's even worse. 415 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,400 I mean, it's like we go into halftime work, there are 98% 416 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,240 chance of winning and then it just never, never moves. 417 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:46,360 And it's, it's those kinds of losses that are infuriating 418 00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:50,840 because like you said, you can lose, but to have a game where 419 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,160 after halftime it's just not competitive. 420 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:54,520 Like there's just not even a chance. 421 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:56,880 Like, how can I all right, they get a stop at, you know, I'm 422 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:58,560 always doing this in my mind, like, all right, we can get a 3 423 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,000 here and they get a stop here. Like you got to put together, 424 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,280 what's our plan to get this game back together? 425 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:05,640 And you have an option for that the entire game. 426 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,800 The other thing that I will say, I'll come back to this, you 427 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,760 know, I, I think this is also going to be of trouble with this 428 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:17,440 team game to game is, you know, after the last podcast, we were 429 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,200 talking about the Penn State game and, you know, you, I was 430 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,600 kind of lamenting the fact that, you know, we had basically let 431 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:28,200 Penn State go on a point per possession when they shot, you 432 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:31,040 know, what was it like 3 for 21 from three? 433 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:33,680 I was like, that's not great defense on a team that's 434 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,040 shooting that bad from three. And then you, you had a you, you 435 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,160 can look at it, you looked at it slightly differently and like, 436 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:39,880 you know, we're having a discussion, it's fine. 437 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,520 But then it's like 2 games later, it's like, Oh no, we let 438 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:45,680 Iowa score 1.18 points of possession and just let them 439 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,680 just obliterate us on defense. And it's like you can kind of 440 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,800 start digging into the stats in little pieces and trying to 441 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,480 manipulate it. But like, in the end, this 442 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,040 team's going to come out and do what it does, which is just play 443 00:21:57,040 --> 00:21:59,520 poor defense and and now. Poor Yeah. 444 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:01,720 Here's the thing. I I do think you need to look at 445 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,080 it on a more individual basis, game by game. 446 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:10,760 I mean, as bad as Indiana's defense was last night, within 447 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,200 the confines of what Iowa normally does, that was actually 448 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,160 an OK defensive effort. I know that sounds weird, but 449 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,200 you know, if you look at what Iowa normally does in terms of 450 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:24,280 offense, Iowa, they, they don't play defense very well, but they 451 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:28,520 score, they average 118.9. You know, that's their, that's 452 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:30,840 their average offensive efficiency or their adjusted. 453 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,600 And that's exactly what Indiana allowed. 454 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:35,760 So they allowed Iowa basically their average. 455 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:37,120 Now you need to do better than that. 456 00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:41,400 The problem was Indiana offensively just didn't do 457 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,280 anything. I mean, I looking at the stats, 458 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,200 that was the worst offensive performance that Indiana had had 459 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,320 since the game at Rutgers last year. 460 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,800 And I mean, depending on how you look at it, you could even go 461 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,040 back to the previous year again at Rutgers. 462 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,360 The problem there is like, you know what Rutgers is known for? 463 00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:58,920 They're known for really good defense. 464 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:00,960 They're known for playing really hard nosed defense. 465 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:02,920 And and that's certainly given Indiana fits with their 466 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,080 physicality. Iowa is not Iowa is a really bad 467 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:11,480 defensive team and the fact that Indiana could not figure out how 468 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,800 to score with all the talent that they have on the floor 469 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,960 against Iowa and the fact that they on the game ended up only 470 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:24,120 scoring 8 like they're they were at .83835 points per possession. 471 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,000 They got obliterated on the offensive glass. 472 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,280 They they hardly pulled down any offensive rebounds and that had 473 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,320 been an area of of success. They turned the ball over a ton, 474 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,360 which is something that they had more, more or less not done. 475 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:40,440 They took four shots, Everything that you didn't want them to do 476 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,240 offensively, that's what happened. 477 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,600 It was very much a carbon copy of the Louisville game, except 478 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,360 in the Louisville game, Indiana had a lot of offensive rebounds. 479 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:51,960 They just didn't hit any shots. And this one, they didn't get 480 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,440 any second chances and they didn't hit from outside. 481 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:59,040 So, you know, it's another issue where it's like this team just 482 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,440 really has a hard time against a, a certain caliber of 483 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,360 competition putting everything together. 484 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:07,720 You can go back to the Nebraska game. 485 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:09,960 Their offense wasn't great in the Nebraska game. 486 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,520 It was probably close to being able to be an offense that you 487 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:17,040 could have competed for a win against. 488 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:18,960 But their defense was atrocious in that game. 489 00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,680 And they let they let Nebraska just do whatever they wanted 490 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,320 from, you know, all over the floor, especially just shooting 491 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,360 the ball in general, getting to the free throw line, things like 492 00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:32,960 that. So I, it just feels a lot of 493 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,720 times like Indiana seems to know what they want to do, but when 494 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,360 they can't do that, they really don't have a Plan B. 495 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:43,560 They really don't seem to be able to adapt well to 496 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,760 circumstances. And the, you know, Scott, I 497 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,720 mean, kind of looking at it more in the macro. 498 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:54,480 This is why I was very hesitant about getting overly excited 499 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,040 regarding this five game-winning streak that Indiana had put 500 00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,480 together. Because on the one hand, this is 501 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:03,520 where it's tough as a podcaster or as a writer trying to deal 502 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:05,880 with the ups and downs of an individual season. 503 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,160 You know, here you have an IU team that had won five in a row. 504 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,440 Yeah, you can kind of throw the Chattanooga and Winthrop games 505 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,280 out, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't think those were 506 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:16,200 particularly important one way or the other. 507 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:20,160 But three Big 10 games in a row, including a game on a neutral 508 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:25,320 floor, and, you know, you win all three relatively handily. 509 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,560 And you cap that off with a win at home versus AUSC team that is 510 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,040 not helpless. As we saw yesterday, that USC 511 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:36,800 team won at Illinois and and one pretty handily, but it was 512 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,760 Rutgers, Penn State and USC. You know, Rutgers and USC are 513 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,240 not going to the tournament this year. 514 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:43,680 They have some significant issues. 515 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,880 Penn State is, I mean, that's the Penn State team to turn 516 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,440 around and lost by 30 at Illinois immediately after 517 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,000 losing to Indiana by 6. So it's like, well, how 518 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,440 impressive was that victory really for Indiana? 519 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:59,600 And then they run into Iowa, and Iowa is clearly from an effort 520 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,800 perspective and from a plan perspective, a significant cut 521 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:04,600 above what Indiana's able to provide. 522 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:07,400 And then you, you know, this is where you come back to what 523 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,600 we've been talking about for a while, which is what's the 524 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,880 ultimate goal of this season? The ultimate goal of this season 525 00:26:14,120 --> 00:26:16,840 is supposed to be not just making the tournament, but 526 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,600 putting yourself in a position where you can be a protected 527 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,600 seed where you're top four in the conference or better. 528 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,080 You know, that was that was always supposed to be the 529 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,320 narrative. And yeah, the Rutgers, Penn 530 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,560 State and USC wins were, were nice. 531 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,240 Those were games, all of them, maybe, maybe all but the Penn 532 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,520 State game that you absolutely had to have. 533 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,320 And Penn State was one of those Rd. borderline games or away 534 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,760 from home borderline games where it's like you, you got to win 535 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,560 that game if you want to achieve even close to the goals you had. 536 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:48,120 Well, so was last night because again, Iowa is a borderline NCAA 537 00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:49,920 Tournament team. I don't think they'd be in right 538 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,240 now. And Indiana looked like they 539 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:53,400 didn't belong on the floor with them. 540 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,280 And that's that's really disturbing when you think about 541 00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:01,680 the sheer volume of games of that caliber or better that 542 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,320 Indiana's got right in front of them here over the course of the 543 00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:04,960 next month. Yeah. 544 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,040 And the other thing with that five game win streak, because 545 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:12,040 even within that, you know, the trouble is the losses are just 546 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:15,600 everything's laid bare. This is you, you see everything 547 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,880 poor, It's bad defense, it's bad offense. 548 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,200 And you get, you know, slacked by Iowa and you see lack of 549 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:22,600 effort. Same thing in the Louisville and 550 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,120 Gonzaga wins. Even that five game-winning 551 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:27,240 streak, you know, we're trying to find the positive things, but 552 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,520 it's like you beat Winthrop, but you went one for 20 from three. 553 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,320 Like that's not awesome. Like there's a red line in, you 554 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,280 know, you look at like Bart Torvik does a great job with the 555 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,960 stats for every game and it's like green is good, red is bad. 556 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,600 There's not one game that we have where everything is green, 557 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:45,000 which is kind of wild when you look at like some of the non 558 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,760 conference teams we've played, like a Winthrop should be a game 559 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,040 where it's just like that's not only a get right game, that's an 560 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,360 all green game. But no, you still go one for 20 561 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:54,560 in that game. You know, the the the Penn State 562 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,200 game, that's a good win on the road. 563 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,240 But even within that game, you had a feeling like you put them 564 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,360 away and then you really let them get back into the game. 565 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:06,600 You and I were at the USC game where you won that game, you 566 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,800 know, by 13 or 14 going away, but there were large stretches 567 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,360 that game in the first half where you're letting USC kind of 568 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:16,840 dictate the pace of the game. And and you know, the trouble is 569 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,320 there hasn't been those wins where it's like the wins have 570 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,160 not been as emphatic as the losses. 571 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,360 And that's where it gets really tough. 572 00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:27,720 The the other thing that I want to hit on just I will continue 573 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,160 to be, I'll probably continue to talk about 3 point shooting as I 574 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,040 tell you not to talk about 3 point shooting, but I go back to 575 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:37,000 this, you know, we, you know, they Indiana goes 12 for 27 576 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,000 against Rutgers. It's kind of it's a weird 577 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,120 schizophrenic way this team shoots and plays with the three. 578 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,920 If you go back to the Nebraska game, they went eight for 3535, 579 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,240 three-point attempts. And then it just becomes this 580 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,280 kind of slow, you know, like it's in, you know, like a half 581 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,840 life, just nuclear physical. You're losing half every single 582 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,320 time. You know, the next couple of 583 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,560 games they shoot 2020, they go 12 for 27 against Rutgers and 584 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:01,960 then they go 9 for 23 against Penn State. 585 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:03,400 That's why I said they're not going to do that again. 586 00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:07,320 And they go 6 for 21 against USC, 4 for 16 against Iowa. 587 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:09,800 They they keep making less and shooting less. 588 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,440 What what we know is that there will be a game at some point in 589 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,400 the next 5 or 6 where they're going to shoot 35 threes again, 590 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,280 Maybe they'll hit 10 or 12. And it's like, that's what I 591 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:21,040 don't want to hear. Like, oh, maybe we've turned the 592 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,320 quarter because we have it Like everything kind of continually 593 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,800 goes back to the scary thought is that, you know, maybe the 594 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,360 norm is kind of what we're seeing against Iowa, that 595 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,720 everything always seems to kind of funnel back to those types of 596 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,840 games. Well, and the. 597 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,360 The good games are maybe the the the wins are maybe more of the 598 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,080 mirages. I, I would look at it perhaps 599 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:45,600 more like this. If you look at Indiana from a 600 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,600 three-point shooting perspective, there's some very 601 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,120 disturbing trends right now. But, but I think the most 602 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:54,120 interesting one to me is right now, you know, Indiana's overall 603 00:29:54,120 --> 00:30:00,800 3 point shooting percentage on the season is 31.9%, which is 604 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,120 actually worse than last year. Now you know there are 246 in 605 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:07,400 the country and three-point percentage made and they were 606 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,200 much better than that earlier on in the year. 607 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,440 Last year, as bad as they were shooting from three percentage 608 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,120 wise, they were making more threes than Indiana's made so 609 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:17,240 far on the course of this season. 610 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:19,960 They shot 32.4% last year from three. 611 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:22,720 So far they're at 31.9% this year. 612 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,480 If you take Indiana's 3 point shooting stats against top 50 613 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:33,680 teams, Indiana shooting 28.6% from three this season which is 614 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:35,480 not great. Not good, Bob. 615 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:40,720 But what's interesting to me is they are their three-point rate 616 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:44,880 against those teams is 36.8. Now that's low, but it's not as 617 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,320 low as their overall. So they are taking more threes 618 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,240 against better teams. They're just not hitting them. 619 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,560 And you know, that's, you know, that's a real problem. 620 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,160 The the shooting's really gone to a large degree. 621 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,480 I know that that USC game and Luke Goody hitting some shots, 622 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,360 everybody's like, oh, the three-point shooting's better in 623 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:06,280 the last 10 games, Indiana's shooting 29.7% from 3:00. 624 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,000 That's three, 109th in the country over that span of time. 625 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,400 Their three-point rate in that in those last 10 games is 200 626 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,160 and 82nd in the country. You know, so they're both 627 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:21,120 shooting less threes percentage wise and they're also shooting 628 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:26,840 them less often. It's, look, you're going to have 629 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,360 variance with threes and, and I think sometimes, especially with 630 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,560 the team that clearly doesn't have an offensive system that is 631 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,840 specifically designed to focus on threes, you're going to have 632 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:37,920 those boom and bust games like you're talking about. 633 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,680 And so I, you know, I worry a little bit less about the boom 634 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,560 and bust games as I do about the overall trend line. 635 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,320 And I just, I worry with this team that they are putting 636 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,640 themselves in a position where they're either trying to force 637 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:55,000 threes into their diet or they're simply not putting 638 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,600 themselves in a position where they can succeed that much. 639 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,880 You know, they are pretty reliably the Rutgers game and 640 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,560 the Penn State game look like big outliers over the last 10 641 00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,640 games versus what they've done overall. 642 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:11,320 You know, when you shoot 23% versus Nebraska from 328% versus 643 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:17,640 USC, 25% versus Iowa, Like the so much effort and, and, and 644 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,680 focus has supposedly gone into trying to broaden the offense 645 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,240 and make it more modern and more holistic and taking advantage of 646 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,800 the three-point line, which you have to do from an efficiency 647 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,280 perspective. They, they're going the wrong 648 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:30,960 direction right now. And that really should be 649 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:32,880 concerning. I think if you're if you're 650 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,320 concerned about what Indiana's going to do long term and 651 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:38,600 whether they can snap themselves out of it, their offense looks 652 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,880 like it's going the wrong way in terms of where their points are 653 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,640 coming from and how efficient they are in those shots. 654 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,720 So if you don't mind, I want to go back to a macro point that 655 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,880 you made earlier just about, you know, what the goal of the 656 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,320 season was. Because I I think this is what's 657 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,200 also really concerning is having this game at this point. 658 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,920 You, you could lose at Iowa, but again, it's the manner we lost 659 00:32:57,920 --> 00:32:59,480 the trend lines you're talking about. 660 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:04,040 When you look ahead, you know, this is where, you know, just in 661 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,800 Ken Palm, the next seven games are, are losses. 662 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:08,880 And you we, we talked about the stretch, the schedule. 663 00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,240 We, you, you had last time kind of identified that Purdue to 664 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,840 Purdue stretch on January 31st. Like just to get to that first 665 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,040 Purdue game, you got to play Illinois at home at Ohio State, 666 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:20,640 at Northwestern, home to Maryland. 667 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,440 And then we get, then we get to what you think is the, the, the 668 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,720 toughest stretch of the season. You know, Kenpom doesn't have US 669 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,720 winning a game until we play UCLA at home on February 14th. 670 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,120 Because I'm like kind of dubious whether that that's a one point 671 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,200 win. It's a 50.50% game. 672 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,120 You know, this is where the rubber really hits the road. 673 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:42,800 And to me, you kind of run out of excuses because you are, 674 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,080 you're in your four of a 10 year, you're in the middle of 675 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,600 that season. And to me, you just, you don't 676 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,200 get the luxury of saying, oh man, it's a bunch of tough 677 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:51,280 opponents. You know, what are we going to 678 00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:53,520 do it? At some point you need to be one 679 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:55,840 of those tough opponents, but you just can't be the nail 680 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:58,560 that's getting hammered in. But this is where it gets really 681 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:02,160 tough because you know, the next four or five games, 682 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,040 statistically, they they, they, they should be losses. 683 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:06,520 They're going to be tough games to win. 684 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:07,840 You have an Illinois team is now pissed. 685 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,120 They're going to come in here, try and, you know, get right 686 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,400 game. And I I'm, I'm not sure how this 687 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:14,760 team kind of breaks out of this fight. 688 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,480 And there's also a team that over the last couple of years, 689 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,920 when they get drilled like this, they they don't always come 690 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,600 right back. And sometimes this has led to a 691 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,520 three to four-game losing streak in the Big 10, as we've seen 692 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,360 multiple years. This is what I was always 693 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,239 concerned about was this stretch of the season. 694 00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,280 It felt like we had to come in with some kind of like, we have 695 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,080 things humming and we're not just a sputtering engine that, 696 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:40,400 you know, dies on the road in Iowa City. 697 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,120 Well, the effort is and the consistency and effort's a big 698 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:47,639 problem. And, you know, you saw one of 699 00:34:47,639 --> 00:34:50,360 the things that people pointed out quite a bit last night was 700 00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:54,239 Iowa just look like they cared more and that they were playing 701 00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:59,400 harder and and that in Atlantis, like it hasn't that that. 702 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,000 Was evident in Atlantis and we're still dealing with it. 703 00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,400 Now, you know, there's a couple of things I'll say a you know, 704 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:11,520 college basketball, every year we look at it and we we look at 705 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,040 the projected wins and losses. And sometimes we forget that 706 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,480 they're going to be individual moments that don't work out that 707 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,640 way. And and you'll have really good 708 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,160 teams that'll have really bad games, especially on the road. 709 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,000 I mean, look at last night on the national stage. 710 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,880 You know, Auburn goes on the road, they get there's an injury 711 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,480 that they state and they only win by three at South Carolina, 712 00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,520 who as we know is not particularly good. 713 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:39,160 Iowa State has to go to overtime to win at Texas Tech, who was 714 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,800 unranked. You know, Kentucky struggles at 715 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:43,480 Mississippi State. Mississippi State's pretty good. 716 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:47,960 But you know, there there were a lot of instances including 717 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:52,280 Georgia beating Oklahoma yesterday, Illinois losing at 718 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,720 home to USC. You're going to have games where 719 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:58,160 teams don't play well. They're good. 720 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,720 And Indiana is talented. Like Indiana has pro level 721 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:03,560 talent. They've they've got a pro level 722 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,440 center, they've got a pro level point guard, They've got they've 723 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,720 got other players that can contribute at that level. 724 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,600 It's the lack of consistency that makes you think, well, you 725 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:14,640 know, Indiana's probably going to pull a couple of victories 726 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,080 out of a hat here that you might not expect from simply looking 727 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,080 at the probabilities. Like, and not just at home 728 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,920 either. I mean, you know, they'll play 729 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:25,400 Illinois at home on Tuesday. I won't be shocked if Indiana 730 00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,120 wins that game. They'll play what, Michigan at 731 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,240 home on the 8th of February. I wouldn't be shocked if Indiana 732 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:35,320 wins that game. But it's the whole string of 733 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:37,640 things like it's, you know, when you look at the losses in the 734 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:41,560 Kenpom projections or the Torvic projections, these are 735 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,480 probabilities that arch over an entire rest of the season. 736 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,360 Like right now, Indiana's four and two in Kenpa, in the Big 10, 737 00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:52,120 in Kenpa, they're projected to go 9:00 and 11:00. 738 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,680 Well, if you look at the actual numbers, they don't. 739 00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:58,360 They're only projected to win four games, but that's built 740 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,240 into where they're probably going to win one or two games. 741 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:02,400 They're projected to lose and lose one or two games that 742 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,200 they're projected to win. I just, what worries me for 743 00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,880 Indiana is the overall trend line of where they're headed. 744 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:12,360 This Iowa game was really important. 745 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:14,320 I think I tweeted this right after the USC game. 746 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,880 It's like what we're seeing out of Indiana in this USC game 747 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:21,720 wasn't perfect, but it was just if you could play like that and 748 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:26,200 go into Iowa and have the way that Indiana played translate in 749 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:29,120 some way to that game, that would give me an indication that 750 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:30,960 perhaps they're going to play better than we thought that they 751 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,760 would down the stretch. I didn't see that last night. 752 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,440 And we talked about this a lot last year where they went on the 753 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,560 they had the multiple losing streaks in the Big 10. 754 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,600 And a lot of it was like, I keep waiting for something to 755 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:46,600 illustrate to me that this team is going to play with more 756 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:48,240 consistency. And if you think about like that 757 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:51,400 stretch last year that started right now, they beat Minnesota 758 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,920 at home. It wasn't that impressive of a 759 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,040 game. They never really put Minnesota 760 00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,680 away. And then they turned around and 761 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,240 had to play Purdue at home and then at Wisconsin and at 762 00:38:01,240 --> 00:38:02,520 Illinois. And they lost all three of 763 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,400 those. They beat Iowa at home, lose to 764 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,640 Penn State at home. And that was that big one where 765 00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:12,720 everybody was like, uh oh, Yep, they win at Ohio State randomly, 766 00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:14,080 and everybody was shocked by that. 767 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:15,680 And then they lose four more in a row. 768 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:17,640 And by that point, you're 6 and 10. 769 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,520 And the season was almost over at that stage. 770 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,000 It essentially was over at that point. 771 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,160 And even though they won the last four to get to 10 and 10, 772 00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:28,480 the damage had been done. So that's what worries me. 773 00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:30,920 And then, sorry, just to go on to the larger points someone had 774 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,360 made, just figuring finishing that off, You go to the Big 10 775 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,520 tournament, it's like you gut out a win against Penn State. 776 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,680 It's like, OK, now maybe we can make a run in the Big 10 777 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:40,840 tournament to maybe get into the NCAA tournament. 778 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:44,320 It's like, oh, no, you play Nebraska, you lose 93 to 66. 779 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:48,880 Again, a game where at halftime you have a 98% chance of losing 780 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:50,800 and it just stays at 90 the entire game. 781 00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:53,680 So like, again, these kind of flux point moments, these 782 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:56,480 pivotal moments where like, all right, can we turn the corner 783 00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,840 and get some momentum? You not only lose, you just get 784 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:02,960 shellacked. Yeah, I mean, Indiana was four 785 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,240 and two last year and they finished 10 and 10, but the way 786 00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:10,520 they finished 10 and 10 disqualified them from being a 787 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:15,400 legitimate team to consider in the NCAA selection process. 788 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:18,640 Now they're in slightly better shape now 'cause you figure last 789 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:23,080 year when they were four and two, they were 92nd in Kenpom. 790 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,160 They were, you know, in the 90s in the NET because they've done 791 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,320 so much damage to themselves in the non conference. 792 00:39:28,720 --> 00:39:30,880 They haven't done as much damage to themselves in the non 793 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,320 conference this year. They're 56th in Ken Palm, not 794 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,320 92nd in the net. They're what was the updated 795 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:40,600 number then? They're they're 60th today in 796 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:43,040 the net. But the problem is they're 60th 797 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:45,880 in the net. And, you know, they're they're 798 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,960 there's a there's a lot of teams they have to kind of jump over 799 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,480 that they have to play moving forward. 800 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:53,600 They have to play Northwestern on the road. 801 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:55,960 Penn State still gets to come to IU. 802 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,840 You know, they all the and then you got that whole mishmash of 803 00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:05,000 teams that are between 20 and 35 in the NET, which is Maryland, 804 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:09,680 Oregon, Purdue, Wisconsin, UCLA, Ohio State, you know, Nebraska, 805 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,160 that like, at some point you're going to have to elevate 806 00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:14,040 yourself up into that conversation. 807 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,440 And what worries me again with the consistency, or lack 808 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:21,400 thereof. Is that they may pull one of 809 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:24,600 these games or two of these games, but it's hard to really 810 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,120 have a lot of faith that they're going to pull a bunch of games 811 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:32,520 in a row simply because we've seen now two of the three years 812 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,160 that Mike Woodson coached before this and certainly several of 813 00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:37,640 the years before that. As if you if you want to take 814 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:40,560 those into account, where Indiana is more likely to go on 815 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,680 multiple game losing streaks in the Big 10 than multiple 816 00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:45,240 game-winning streaks in the Big 10, well. 817 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,360 And and you know what, what we're doing, you know, we're 818 00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:51,080 trying to prevent present kind of the positive outlook of like, 819 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:53,080 all right, you know, it's projected. 820 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,800 All projected losses are not going to be losses like some 821 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,320 variants will happen. I get what you're saying that 822 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:02,560 the trouble with that is to me is not towards you, but just 823 00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:07,440 kind of that that thinking is that, you know, this is a all 824 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,120 that's trying to do is like, how do we find a path where we can 825 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:12,080 get onto the bubble for the tournament? 826 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,560 And that's kind of all we're doing because what we haven't 827 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,400 talked about is like, all right, here's our path to get back to 828 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,040 what you and I had thought kind of the and most people, not like 829 00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,120 we were out of bounds was a realistic expectation for this 830 00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:25,520 season. And honestly, take coaches and 831 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:28,760 you know, years of helm out of it should always be a realistic 832 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,400 expectation for Indiana basketball. 833 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,680 Like every year, we should go into a season hoping to win the 834 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,840 Big 10 title and getting a protected seat in the tournament 835 00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:38,400 like that. That is what Indiana basketball 836 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,920 should be going for. I mean, we haven't been, but. 837 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:44,320 I mean, at some point we just need to stop saying that. 838 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:49,400 I mean, really, you know, it's like what what evidence do we 839 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,120 have to demonstrate that that's what Indiana basketball is at 840 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:52,680 this point? I'm. 841 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,600 Just going to keep talking. Because I have no come back, 842 00:41:57,600 --> 00:41:59,440 come back. To that, but I mean that I think 843 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,880 is what most fans want to believe or, or hope. 844 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,400 And you know, hope is not anything, but that's what we 845 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,400 hope to believe. But it's that's all we're 846 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,560 talking about here is like, how can we get to just the the 847 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,400 absolute bare minimum of what a season should be? 848 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:13,640 And it's like we're having to really struggle to find that. 849 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,800 And that's what I think is disconcerting is I'd love to 850 00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,120 see, you know, not just win Illinois, like can you win the 851 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:21,520 next four games? Can you can you go into Purdue 852 00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:24,160 on a four-game winning streak? And like you look at that and 853 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,320 say, well, no evidence says you can do that and there's no 854 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:28,680 reason to believe that could be done. 855 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,320 But there's nothing to say we don't have the talent to do 856 00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:33,320 that. And that that's the frustrating 857 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,840 part is like we have the team. We have the talent. 858 00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:37,880 And the thing that we also haven't talked about at all, 859 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:42,640 we're at minute 42 in this is we have the issue of this odd 860 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,320 problem of we have maybe one of our best players who at some 861 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:48,840 point will come back to the team, at which point all Indiana 862 00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,240 fans know well that's going to muck up our offense. 863 00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:54,200 Like we're the only team that's like we need more of our players 864 00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:56,880 to not play. So our coach is hamstrung to be 865 00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:59,520 able to run an offense that actually makes sense that you 866 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,960 know, if Renu comes back at any of these next couple of games, 867 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,560 it's nothing against Renew because he might be our most 868 00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:07,560 overall skilled player on the team. 869 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,480 The way that he's utilized within the two big offense, does 870 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,120 that end up causing more problems in these games than 871 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,920 where we're at now? I mean, it's certainly an open 872 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:22,800 question. And you know, it's funny because 873 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:28,520 Indiana has slowly gotten better defensively over the course of 874 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,320 this season compared to what they did last year. 875 00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:34,720 They actually, if you look at the actual numbers on a game by 876 00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:37,760 game basis, they've kind of flatlined in terms of adjusted 877 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:39,960 defensive efficiency since the start of the year. 878 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,680 Offensively speaking, it's hard to say. 879 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,840 I mean, so much of what we talked about with Renew being 880 00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:52,160 out and with the, you know, the change in how Indiana was 881 00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:55,040 playing offense was largely tied to the fact that they played 882 00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:57,760 three pretty good offensive games against Rutgers, Penn 883 00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:00,520 State and USC. Well, last night they did not. 884 00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,800 So it it does come back to this idea. 885 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:07,960 If you're continuing to shoot fewer threes, is it a situation 886 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,960 where maybe you have to have the two big line up back in just to 887 00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:14,120 maintain some level of of offensive normalcy? 888 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,240 But then you take away the extra outside shots. 889 00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:19,880 But if if you're not going to take the shots, like they didn't 890 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:22,840 take the shots against, you know, Iowa, then what's the 891 00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,120 point? So I think you're right. 892 00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,040 And and certainly I've said similar things, but the more I 893 00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,680 think about it, it's like, I don't think the renew injury 894 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:32,680 matters that much. It's really like just how 895 00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:36,840 Indiana is choosing to play. And, you know, there there's a 896 00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:41,560 lot of effort issues and there's a lot of, again, consistency 897 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,480 issues that seem to go well beyond whoever is out on the 898 00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,040 floor at this point. And that is really frustrating. 899 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:50,320 And I just, I guess I keep coming back to this idea, Scott. 900 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:54,920 I keep waiting for some evidence that it's going to change. 901 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,360 And yet I don't necessarily see that taking place. 902 00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:03,040 You know, you can just the the one thing I'll say, and again, a 903 00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:05,800 lot of it will be, I guess, put into more relief by what happens 904 00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,720 in the next three games. Maybe this was just a big 905 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:11,320 outlier game and Indiana had that, just a bad game. 906 00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:14,960 You know, if they come back and beat Illinois, then they've got, 907 00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:17,520 you know, at Ohio State and at Northwestern. 908 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:21,280 Those are two games that are very similar in profile to what 909 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,640 they just played at Iowa. And, you know, they won at Ohio 910 00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:27,600 State last year. They've certainly struggled to 911 00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:30,320 win at Northwestern over the course of of the last several 912 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,080 years. But it's not an insurmountable 913 00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:37,680 thing for them to do, you know. But again, it all comes back to 914 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:40,960 like, what are you predicating your belief in the team on? 915 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,040 You know, what is it you're pointing to that making you say, 916 00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:46,520 I think Indiana's going to do this or I think Indiana's going 917 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:49,600 to do that? And what's disheartening about 918 00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:53,840 the Iowa game more than anything else is a lot of the things that 919 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,280 people were leaning on to say, I think Indiana's going to be 920 00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,880 better. They're rounding into shape, All 921 00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,240 just washed away very quickly in that game. 922 00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,840 And even if you want to say, gosh, that was just a bad game. 923 00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:07,440 It's like it was a bad game in all the worst possible ways if 924 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:10,480 you're an Indiana fan trying to build some degree of belief that 925 00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:13,680 your team is going to exceed expectations as they go through 926 00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:16,120 the next month and 1/2. Well, it's taking that point a 927 00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:18,800 step further. You know, it's you are right. 928 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:23,160 Good teams, great teams have outlier bad games. 929 00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,920 The only way that you turn this into an outlier bad game is you 930 00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:29,480 got to win multiple games in a row after this. 931 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:33,480 You know, you look at that 23 season Indiana, you know the the 932 00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:35,920 the trace Jackson Davis here they were they were four seed. 933 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:38,560 They did lose three in a row. They lost to Iowa, Northwestern 934 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:40,400 and Penn State. But then the rest of the way 935 00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:43,840 from this point on January 14th on, they never lost back-to-back 936 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:46,040 big 10 games. So then they they had out why 937 00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:47,720 they had unfortunately too many outliers. 938 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:51,080 But you could say from January 14th on, it's like that's a team 939 00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,840 that for the most part had it together and would have a bad 940 00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:57,080 game here or there, but would then followed up with a win or a 941 00:46:57,240 --> 00:46:58,680 two or three-game winning streak. 942 00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:01,080 That's kind of what has to happen here. 943 00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:05,240 And the the trouble is you're doing this into the the schedule 944 00:47:05,240 --> 00:47:08,040 gets tough now, like this isn't the meat of the schedule. 945 00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:12,240 So, you know, if, if you're going to lose the next three 946 00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:14,280 games, you know, it's like, you can't tell me that this is a 947 00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,000 great that was an outlier. And it's like, oh, well, it's 948 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,360 just tough opponents like that. That's too many variables that 949 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:21,560 you're compounding. They're like, I I hear what 950 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,040 you're saying. I'm not arguing with you, but I 951 00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:26,160 would say that like for that to be the case, you kind of got to 952 00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:28,840 win up to that Purdue game, you know, win or win three of the 953 00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:31,040 four, like don't lose Illinois, don't lose Ohio State. 954 00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,880 And then maybe we can talk about how that was an outlier. 955 00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:37,960 But the trouble is you have four of them so far this year. 956 00:47:38,240 --> 00:47:40,080 You know that that's the other trouble is like four of the 957 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:43,680 games that are outliers or games where you lost multiple digit by 958 00:47:43,720 --> 00:47:46,480 multiple digit points. And that that's something that 959 00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:49,120 very rarely happens to a good team. 960 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,600 You know, a good solid team that knows what its identity is and 961 00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:55,680 and knows how to win a good number of college basketball 962 00:47:55,680 --> 00:48:03,480 games doesn't normally have 4 10 + 15.15 plus losses by the 963 00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:05,400 middle of January. Like I said, that's very 964 00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:08,680 abnormal. Well, we'll see what happens as 965 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:10,320 you move forward with things here. 966 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:15,040 It's one of those deals where I, I think everybody that was, even 967 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:17,080 the people that weren't being honest with themselves, you 968 00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:19,920 know, you, you kind of looked at this and said, you know, there 969 00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,120 there could be positives that come out of this. 970 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:24,920 There could be situations where Indiana is able to go on the 971 00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:26,600 road and win games. I think those things are still 972 00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:28,120 possible. They have the talent to do it, 973 00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,680 but you know, at this point, I don't know that they've done 974 00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:35,080 enough and they they certainly didn't do enough in the non 975 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:39,560 conference to truly justify a a bid in the tournament. 976 00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,160 So they're going to have to do the work in the Big 10. 977 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,720 Now, they had crept into the lower reaches of some people's 978 00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:47,320 bracket projections. You know, that win at at to the 979 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,120 Palestras done some decent work for them, But that's that may 980 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,400 not be enough. And you know, the question 981 00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:57,280 becomes like, well, if you tread water from this point forward, 982 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,000 if you're Indiana, have you done enough to get into the 983 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:04,120 tournament? Obviously you want to have that 984 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:05,320 happen. You want to get into the 985 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,360 tournament because that matters more than more than whatever the 986 00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:12,360 pre season projections were getting in the tournament still 987 00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,360 matters. You can have the conversation 988 00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:18,440 about was all of this sufficient afterwards? 989 00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:23,680 But it does look like a team that if you were going to wager 990 00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:27,480 right now at 13 and 4:00 and 4:00 and 2:00, you know, if you 991 00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:29,400 were going to wager whether or not they were going to make the 992 00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:32,600 NCAA tournament, I don't know how many IU fans are wagering 993 00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:34,120 that IU is going to make the tournament. 994 00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,640 You know, and, and that's the people that aren't doing 995 00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:38,960 bracketology. Like I, I still do that 996 00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,520 regularly. I look at what they've got to do 997 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:44,480 the rest of the way. The nice thing is they're going 998 00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:47,600 to have plenty of opportunities to win games. 999 00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,560 And you're the bracketologist. Let me ask you this. 1000 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:52,480 And, and this is a tough question, but. 1001 00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:55,720 How many wins in the Big 10 do you think they need to get? 1002 00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:57,680 And I know, I know there's so many other variables, but like, 1003 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:02,360 give, give us the the fans a, you know, 9:00 and 11:00 I don't 1004 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,840 think gets it done. 10 and 10, you know, what level are we like 1005 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,320 that? I think that's given us a shot 1006 00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:08,920 to be, you know, firmly in the bubble. 1007 00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:11,520 See, the The thing is, I don't think you can do it that way. 1008 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:15,080 I mean, there's going to be, and I hate to be like wishy washy on 1009 00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:17,920 it, but like there's going to be I, I saw something the other 1010 00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:23,080 day, actually this morning where I think it was John Rothstein 1011 00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:25,400 tweeted something out about, you know, there's going to be 7 and 1012 00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:30,800 11 SEC teams that make the, the. So many good losses. 1013 00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:33,680 But but but, but this year, he's right. 1014 00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:36,200 I mean, the SEC is really dominant in terms of their 1015 00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:38,920 overall play. But not all 7 and 11 teams are 1016 00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,760 created paid off at ESPN 2. They're they're coming for all 1017 00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:43,800 of us. I'm trying to make a point, 1018 00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:47,200 Scott. You know, like Texas is a team 1019 00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:50,720 that cannot afford to go 7:00 and 11:00 in the SEC and make 1020 00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:55,360 the NCAA Tournament, whereas, you know, someone like Ole Miss 1021 00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:58,200 could go 7:00 and 11:00 because they've got enough on their 1022 00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,720 resume that, yeah, you know, if they if they go 7 and they're 1023 00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:03,600 three and O right now, they're not going to go 7:00 and 11:00. 1024 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,640 But they've beaten BYU on a neutral floor and they've beaten 1025 00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:08,600 Louisville on the road. I mean, there's they've got a 1026 00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:10,920 lot of things going for them. Indiana doesn't have those 1027 00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,760 things. So when you ask me what record 1028 00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:17,640 is needed, a lot of it's like, well, who are the wins going to 1029 00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:19,600 come against? Like if Indiana goes 9:00 and 1030 00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:22,760 11:00 in the conference and 18 and 13 overall. 1031 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:29,640 But their 5 remaining wins are like, you know, they win, don't 1032 00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:32,440 laugh, but they'll they win at Purdue, they beat Michigan at 1033 00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:35,400 home. They they win at Ohio State, 1034 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,840 they win at home versus Ohio State and they win at 1035 00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:40,800 Washington. That might be enough for them to 1036 00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:43,200 get in. Whereas if they go with the same 1037 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:46,480 record, but their five wins are like Northwestern on the road, 1038 00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:51,320 you know, Washington at home, Ohio State at home, Penn State 1039 00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:53,920 at home, Maryland at home. I don't know if that's enough 1040 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,240 and maybe it is. So a lot of it is like who does 1041 00:51:57,240 --> 00:51:59,280 Indiana beat? Where do they beat them? 1042 00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:01,800 You know, there there aren't a whole lot of games that won't 1043 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:05,720 help in some way if you win them this in this rest of the season. 1044 00:52:05,720 --> 00:52:08,320 I mean, at at Washington's probably not going to do much 1045 00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:11,160 for you. And you know, I would say 1046 00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:13,720 probably like at home versus Penn State's not going to do a 1047 00:52:13,720 --> 00:52:15,600 whole lot for you. And I don't know that at home 1048 00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:17,640 against Ohio State's going to do a whole lot for you. 1049 00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:24,600 But there's a ton of other games that are going to be helpful to 1050 00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:27,520 the point that Indiana almost like all they have to do is just 1051 00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:30,440 get if you can win six games the rest of the way. 1052 00:52:30,720 --> 00:52:33,840 I think a collection of six wins out of this mix probably gets 1053 00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,840 this team into the tournament. It's just they kind of look like 1054 00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:40,360 a zombie team at that point because if you're if you're 10 1055 00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:45,280 and 10 in this big 10 where everybody's kind of equal, I 1056 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:48,320 don't know that Indiana demonstrates that they're that 1057 00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:51,840 good on the national stage going into the tournament by just 1058 00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:53,760 going 10 and 10 against this schedule. 1059 00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,600 So it's like, again, it all comes back to what are you 1060 00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:59,760 expecting or what are you hoping to get out of the season with 1061 00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,320 IU? Obviously, getting into the 1062 00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:04,960 tournament is is the bare minimum, and especially with 1063 00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:08,160 this year's team and especially coming off of what happened last 1064 00:53:08,160 --> 00:53:12,800 year, but that's got to be the primary focus at this point. 1065 00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:16,360 And so you dust yourself off from this Iowa game, you're 1066 00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:18,600 probably going to play an Illinois team that that won't 1067 00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,240 play as well on the road as they do at home. 1068 00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:23,960 You're going to be pissed off. Illinois is going to be pissed 1069 00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:25,840 off because they just lost at home to USC. 1070 00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:30,640 If you can come out and win that game, I think it again resets 1071 00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:32,720 the conversation about where Indiana's going. 1072 00:53:32,720 --> 00:53:35,600 You're five and two, you have a home win against a bona fide top 1073 00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:37,760 20 team. Those are all going to help. 1074 00:53:38,720 --> 00:53:41,760 It's just I need to see Indiana win a game like that. 1075 00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:44,160 That would be they beat Illinois at home. 1076 00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:47,920 That would be by far their best win. 1077 00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:52,960 Like their highest rated win against teams in Kenpom is that 1078 00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:55,680 win against Penn State. And Penn State was 51st. 1079 00:53:56,240 --> 00:53:59,720 The, the, the four teams they've played that are in the top 50 of 1080 00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:03,400 Kenpom, they've lost to, they lost to Louisville, they lost to 1081 00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:06,680 Gonzaga, they lost to Nebraska, they lost to Iowa. 1082 00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:11,280 And then like, you know, Penn State's 51st, USC 68th, 1083 00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:14,400 Providence's 84th, South Carolina 73rd. 1084 00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:17,880 That's the echelon of teams they seem to be able to beat teams 1085 00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:21,480 that are sub top 50. I do worry at the end of the day 1086 00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:23,160 that that's not going to be enough to get it done. 1087 00:54:23,720 --> 00:54:25,560 Yeah, if you're going off of that, we got three more wins. 1088 00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:28,040 Right. And so, so now it becomes like, 1089 00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:31,640 you know, can you win, how many games can you win against top 50 1090 00:54:31,640 --> 00:54:33,080 competition? But you also. 1091 00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:35,600 Have to then win those three like no joking, you got to win 1092 00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:38,600 the the Northwestern Washington and Penn State game again, like 1093 00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:40,720 you. This is where you can't start 1094 00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:43,640 throwing in more bad losses, but you pick up a win against 1095 00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:45,760 Illinois, it's like great, you got that in the bank. 1096 00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,640 You got to keep those three. You know, again, the the sub 1097 00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,320 fifty teams. You know, any Northwestern home 1098 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,680 to Washington at Penn, you know, home to Penn State, you got to 1099 00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:56,680 win those three, like those three have to become wins no 1100 00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:58,120 matter what. And then you're just stacking 1101 00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,640 bonus wins on top of. It, I mean, to me, the, the team 1102 00:55:01,640 --> 00:55:04,440 that's going to be the biggest competition and maybe the 1103 00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:08,280 greatest measuring stick for Indiana the rest of the way is 1104 00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:11,880 Ohio State. Ohio State is 32nd and Ken Palm 1105 00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:17,600 and they're 49th, I think in, in, in Torvic. 1106 00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:20,280 And you know, they both calculate things a little bit 1107 00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:22,480 differently. And sometimes I like the Torvic 1108 00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:26,520 ratings more than I like Ken Pom 'cause I think they, they match 1109 00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:29,320 a little bit better what I'm actually seeing in terms of, of 1110 00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:32,920 game by game stuff. You know, Indiana right now is 1111 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:35,920 projected to go one and one against Ohio State. 1112 00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:37,720 That's really a team they need to beat twice. 1113 00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:40,560 You need to be able to demonstrate, especially if 1114 00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:42,920 they're as close as they look like in Torvic, where Ohio 1115 00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:47,160 State's 49th, Indiana's 52nd, you need to be able to say we 1116 00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:49,800 beat that team twice. We are clearly of the mid level 1117 00:55:49,800 --> 00:55:52,680 teams in the Big 10. We're clearly like above the 1118 00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:54,800 fray. I don't know that Indiana's 1119 00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:56,600 going to be able to do that. That's where that that game 1120 00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:59,560 really fascinates me this upcoming Friday where they have 1121 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:02,480 to go to Columbus and take on Ohio State. 1122 00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:06,040 And Ohio State's been almost as schizophrenic as Indiana. 1123 00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:08,800 You know, they, they, they, they, they beaten Texas on a 1124 00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:11,720 neutral floor. They've beaten Kentucky on a 1125 00:56:11,720 --> 00:56:14,880 neutral floor. They have a lot of good losses. 1126 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:16,440 They don't have a lot of good wins. 1127 00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:18,000 You know, the Kentucky and Texas wins. 1128 00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,480 They get credit for those. But they also, you know, they, 1129 00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:23,280 they've, they've lost to Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, Maryland, 1130 00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:25,720 Auburn, MI State, Oregon. No, no shame there. 1131 00:56:25,720 --> 00:56:27,520 They actually played Oregon pretty tight at home on 1132 00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:31,080 Thursday, but then they almost lost in double overtime at 1133 00:56:31,240 --> 00:56:33,720 Minnesota, which is a really hideous team. 1134 00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:37,120 And their overall numbers statistically just don't look 1135 00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:40,080 that impressive. But that's a team that, you 1136 00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:43,120 know, Indiana could, if they win that game, it's a big boost. 1137 00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:46,320 But if they lose that game, it really clearly defines Indiana, 1138 00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:50,440 I think as being a cut below right, what they need to be. 1139 00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:53,680 So a lot to watch for. And, you know, I know this, I, I 1140 00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:56,440 always feel bad when we have to do these podcasts and it all 1141 00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:00,840 kind of sounds doom and gloom. And I think it's hard to do a 1142 00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:04,400 podcast after you lose by 25. Really, I mean, Indiana should 1143 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:06,480 have lost that game by 30. They had a couple of shots at 1144 00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:09,040 the end of the game that that made the score a little bit 1145 00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:11,080 respectful, but that was a 30 point loss at the end of the 1146 00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:15,800 day. What do we say here that puts 1147 00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:18,640 that into a system or a situation where you feel better 1148 00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:20,320 about the pathway? I don't know that a lot of 1149 00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:23,680 people are particularly inclined to feel better about the pathway 1150 00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:24,960 that Indiana's got in front of them. 1151 00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:29,960 So I do worry about, you know, how do we how do you maintain 1152 00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:32,760 some semblance of optimism when it feels like you've seen this 1153 00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,400 movie so many times before as an IU fan? 1154 00:57:36,160 --> 00:57:39,000 And ultimately this is the break point as we kind of thought it 1155 00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:40,440 was going to be at the beginning of the year. 1156 00:57:40,440 --> 00:57:42,720 It's like once you get done with the non conference and once you 1157 00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:45,560 get through that opening spade of relatively easy Big 10 games, 1158 00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:48,480 what does Indiana do from here? How do they react? 1159 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:50,960 I'm as curious about that as you are, Scott. 1160 00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:54,320 I have my theories that I think Indiana's going to kind of mid 1161 00:57:54,320 --> 00:57:58,480 their way to about a nine win season in the conference at this 1162 00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:01,480 point and be probably just outside the bubble if I had to 1163 00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,200 project right now. But the nice thing for Indiana 1164 00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:07,920 is they clearly have the talent and the ability to do better 1165 00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:09,920 than that. It just becomes a question of 1166 00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:11,400 whether they'll actually do better. 1167 00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:16,560 Than that Yep yeah I mean my my biggest concern for this for 1168 00:58:16,560 --> 00:58:20,800 this coming stretch to kind of put a point on this is you know 1169 00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,880 if if they're not able to make any kind of hay between now and 1170 00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:27,320 Purdue if they end up do losing you know Illinois Ohio State 1171 00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,560 Northwestern Maryland. My, my concern is, I think at 1172 00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:34,120 that point, it becomes really tough to come up with a 1173 00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:36,320 narrative of how this team makes the tournament. 1174 00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:40,720 And I, I think that's tough to do when you're still in January, 1175 00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,800 January 27th, to be at a point where you and I have to do a 1176 00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:48,240 podcast where there really isn't a logical path to the 1177 00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:51,640 tournament, but you still have 10 more game, you know, seven 1178 00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:53,320 more games ahead of you. A lot of them at home. 1179 00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:56,760 It could get very vitriolic very quickly. 1180 00:58:56,760 --> 00:58:58,680 And I, I just, nobody wants that. 1181 00:58:58,760 --> 00:59:00,400 Like I don't want that. Nobody wants that. 1182 00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:03,400 Like I just, I would like to have the, the glimmer of hope 1183 00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:05,640 and maybe even more than just a glimmer of hope. 1184 00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:08,880 I, I don't want it to be extinguished before we even get 1185 00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:11,040 into February. And that that's what concerns me 1186 00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:13,240 is there's there's still a lot of opportunity here. 1187 00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:14,560 There's still a lot of ways to get there. 1188 00:59:14,800 --> 00:59:18,480 Those paths start to get very tight and closed if you don't do 1189 00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:19,960 something over the next two to three. 1190 00:59:19,960 --> 00:59:24,280 Weeks we'll see what happens feels like again, we have this 1191 00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:26,720 conversation every year. I think the one year we didn't 1192 00:59:26,720 --> 00:59:29,360 have this conversation was was 23. 1193 00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:33,600 And that was, you know, certainly one of those seasons 1194 00:59:33,600 --> 00:59:37,080 even there, it's like, you know, at this point, it's funny that 1195 00:59:37,080 --> 00:59:41,720 the that same year, that 2020 year, one in four, I mean, that 1196 00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:45,160 was actually where I was going with that On this date in that 1197 00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:48,160 year, Indiana was one in four and had lost three games in a 1198 00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:49,480 row. Now they were, you know, two of 1199 00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:52,360 them were close games, but, you know, getting obliterated at 1200 00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:54,720 Penn State. A lot of people had given up 1201 00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:57,080 hope. And you know, the nice thing 1202 00:59:57,080 --> 01:00:01,240 about that year was Indiana went out and won five of their next 9 1203 01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:04,520 and got themselves back up to 9 and five in conference. 1204 01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:08,320 And very much was eight of their next nine, eight of their next 1205 01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:11,920 9, sorry, you know, and put themselves in a position where 1206 01:00:11,920 --> 01:00:15,440 they were a contender. And, you know, and in those in 1207 01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:18,200 those games was a road win at Illinois, which was surprising, 1208 01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:21,640 a win at home versus Michigan State, a win at home versus 1209 01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:24,880 Purdue, a win at home versus Rutgers, a win at Michigan. 1210 01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:27,160 Like there were a lot of really good moments in that stretch. 1211 01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:30,200 That's where Indiana kind of sits right now, albeit with a 1212 01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:32,280 better record, right? You know, I mean, you're when 1213 01:00:32,280 --> 01:00:36,160 you're 4 and 2 instead of 1 and 4, you're you're in pretty good 1214 01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:37,800 shape. The difference was, and the one 1215 01:00:37,800 --> 01:00:41,640 thing I'll say there, Indiana's overall statistical profile 1216 01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:46,240 coming out of that Penn State game in 23, they were 33rd in 1217 01:00:46,240 --> 01:00:48,920 Kenpom. They were significantly better 1218 01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:52,080 than what this year's team has demonstrated so far. 1219 01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:56,360 And, you know, you could argue they got unlucky in those losses 1220 01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:59,920 to Iowa and Northwestern. You can't really argue that they 1221 01:00:59,920 --> 01:01:02,480 were unlucky in any of the losses that they've suffered so 1222 01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:04,440 far this season. They've just been bad in those 1223 01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:07,320 games. And that will be an interesting 1224 01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:08,720 thing to watch as we move forward. 1225 01:01:08,840 --> 01:01:12,720 Can Indiana put themselves in a position where they just play 1226 01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:15,040 better because that's what it's going to take to win the games 1227 01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:19,000 that are in front of them? So, yeah, all right, well, 1228 01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:21,280 that'll wrap it up for us on this edition of Crimson Cast. 1229 01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:23,600 We will be back with more in the future. 1230 01:01:23,600 --> 01:01:25,680 We'll have another podcast, I think coming up this week. 1231 01:01:25,680 --> 01:01:27,800 We'll probably have a football podcast coming up later this 1232 01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:29,360 week. So just keep an eye out for that 1233 01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:32,920 as we continue to move through January and Indiana takes on 1234 01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:34,480 Illinois at home this upcoming Tuesday. 1235 01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:36,680 My thanks to Scott. My thanks to our presenting 1236 01:01:36,680 --> 01:01:39,840 sponsor, Home Field Apparel and our entire family in the Back 1237 01:01:39,840 --> 01:01:41,680 Home network. I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks 1238 01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:44,200 for joining us here on the show. We will catch you folks. 1239 01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:47,440 On the flip side, stay never daunted, bring back the Bison.