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All right, there we go. We are done with the nuts and
bolts. We are ready to talk about
Indiana. Winning a tournament game for
the first time since 2000. 16. I remember where I was watching
their last tournament when I was at the god, the pizza place,
right next to it. Umbridge with my brother-in-law.
Getting ready to watch the in the Pacers.
Take on the Thunder, but we watched Indiana beat Kentucky.
It was fantastic down there Galen, man.
How you doing? I'm doing good.
I'm doing much better after the victory last night.
It was certainly an experience from a viewing perspective.
But we've one of those games where you got the sense early
on, it wasn't going to be pretty.
And I managed to not wake up too much of the hotel.
While I was watching the game, so I guess that I would consider
that all together, a pretty good positive.
Yeah, that's, that's because of you.
You didn't, like Lavin and they Avery Johnson Too Much.
No, that was really a poor Crewe in general.
I mean, that was that later, but they certainly didn't add to the
enjoyment of the game by any stretch of the imagination.
You know, look, I know. National broadcaster was, they
got a lot going on but that we just felt like throughout.
I don't know that they've watched more than 35 minutes
total of Indiana basketball throughout the course of the
Season that they just, there was a lack of information.
That wouldn't, I think, enhance the broadcast in ways that it
just didn't happen in that one. But hey, you know, this is the
problem that you run into that you'd like to have in the NCAA
tournament. I'll take broadcasters not
knowing the team as long as as Indiana's able to play in those
games. So, Indiana wins as I'm sure
everybody here, listening nose, and I guess this would be, you
know, it's kind of Is it going to be the trace Jackson?
Davis game or the Jordan Geronimo, game two guys who
definitely pulled us out, you know, Trace had a fantastic
game, 29 Points, unbelievably efficient 10 from 16 from the
field, 9 from 11, from a line. So let's keep that up.
You know, Jordan Geronimo came off the bench played fantastic,
you know, my take away from the game of the high-level was I was
really nervous because in the second half, it's like, alright,
we're better than Like this is a game.
We should win. And from that, you know, kind of
Jared on Jared Morris on Assembly Hall and Twitter.
Kind of does these like, you know, how we doing between TV
timeouts? And you know, between the Under
12 and the underrate time out. I was like, all right.
This is a point where we could kind of put the game away and we
didn't, I mean, we slowly kind of we put it away in increments
which isn't always going to work, but I was nervous because
after you got to the underrate time out, you know, it's like,
all right. This game should be over to get
to the under for it's All right, like, Wyoming a still like 13
and a steal away from this being way too tight.
And suddenly, we're in a spot where it's like, are we able to
close this thing out? So I was very nervous until the
end because it did feel like we were playing with fire in, not
closing it out. But I think a win is a win.
It's fantastic, will take it. But that's those are that's my
initial thought of the game. What about you?
Yeah. Well, I'll talk more about
individual player performances a little bit later.
I felt the same on the playing with fire thing because we've
seen so often with this team. They'll get to a certain point
in terms of win probability where it's like, all right, they
have a 90% chance or an eighty percent chance of winning this
game and then it just disintegrates.
I mean and you look at all of all of the charts.
Somebody has had a tweet that they put up here over the last
several weeks where they was set out all the games where Indiana
was a good 75 percent, or better win, percentage chance, and then
lost. And in this one, Indiana at
about the eight and a half minute Mark with a 91%.
Chance to win, you know, and if you'll recall, that was the
point where Indiana went up 49 to 40 and looked Wyoming.
This to shot, Indiana had a chance to come down, take a
double-digit lead and they didn't and instead, Wyoming
rattle off for straight points and you're like, okay.
Come on really. This is going to happen again.
Fortunately the joke and it's an inaccurate jokes, but I'm going
to make it. Anyway.
Is that Indiana finally found an opponent?
Point that loves scoring droughts as much as they do
because that's essentially what happened there with Wyoming is,
you know, they got it back to 4944 with.
I think about 7 minutes and 20 seconds left, and then didn't
score again until about the four and a half minute mark.
And it was to be fair. We really want about two points
then in that in that time period to.
Yes, but you know, but the big difference is about, I use dealt
with for a lot of the season, is that they'll get to this point.
Then their offense will go stagnant and then the other team
starts to go on runs. What was different here?
Is that Indiana's defense? Keps Wyoming from going on, any
kind of a run and it really the only reason Wyoming kept the
score is close. As they did, was Indiana made
some uncharacteristically dumb defensive plays at the end of
the game. Following three point shooters,
you know, fouling made three point, shot fouling a layup.
They gave why? Homing a bunch of points at the
end that their defense, their overall defensive performance,
didn't warrant the game being as close as it was as the end.
And so look, I think it's the n-c-double-a tournament.
You got a lot of nerds. You got people trying to maybe
over do things a little bit. You didn't have a lot of
offensive performance out of, I you, but I you on the game
overall, did everything. You could have possibly asked
him to do in terms of a full 40 minute game.
They scored a point per possession again.
A pretty good defense. They held their opponent under a
point per possession. They got really good
performances, out of a couple of their players and you know, the
end of it. They and they had a big enough
lead that they could afford to make mistakes and still win the
game relatively comfortable. Yeah, the other positive, the
takeaway from this to is you hate to think you dodged a
bullet, but you dodged a bullet because this is a game where,
you know, we've you and I have been a little critical and like,
Parker, Stuart Miller cop like They played their not going to
play this bad again, you know, Miller cop has four points or
sorry zero points. You'll Parker Stewart has four
points like they were both inefficient to say the least,
you know, they've what you whether you like them or don't
like them. This was about as bad as you're
going to see them play. You have to assume they're going
to play better. You know.
Xavier Johnson has been on a tear.
He was a, he was still really good at pushing the offense a
little bit of an inefficient score to, you know, last night
to for ten on ten points. You'd expect that to go better,
you know, race Thompson, only have four points.
You expect more out of him. He was in foul trouble.
You know, if I told you that before the game, it's like
those, all those things you're having like, we're in trouble.
It's like Trace Jackson. Davis gonna have a great game.
It's like, okay, I've seen that all the other pieces aren't
working. That's probably not going to
work and I would say, two words, you know, Geronimo.
He's probably not going to give you, you know, a 15-point game
every night, but the things that he was doing felt replicatable
like he was just fighting spots around the The room and
obviously the three put back dunks, but, you know, people are
it's not like st. Mary's is going to have three
weeks to scout for him. It's like there's not a lot of
tape on Geronimo and if he's playing with that kind of
aggression and just that kind of motor, he's probably going to
get 10 points just on and around the basket.
So I feel very positive that we dodged a bullet and that, you
know, your you basically only had the tray.
Second day was the only guy who was basically playing it at a
elite normal level. Everyone else seemed to have an
off game, you got by It with a win and I doubt all those guys
are going to have off games again.
I think you're underselling the Jordan Geronimo performance.
That was only the fourth time this season.
The Jordan Geronimo has scored in double figures.
It was only the fourth time in his eye, you career.
But Jordan Geronimo has scored in double figures.
It was his season high in points and, you know, you look at his
contributions rebounding wise. I think he only had maybe three,
four games, the Entire season, where he grabbed more rebounds,
it wasn't just a 15 points. It was the seven boards.
It was his willingness to take shots.
It's it's not normal that Jordan Geronimo would be the guy that
would be your second offensive option.
He had to be because of all the things that you said before.
I mean you weren't you weren't getting points out of race
Thompson, race Thompson. Looked totally off.
I'm it was an aberration for race and I think it might have
been just nerves or something like that, but he was, he was
certainly off of his Off of what you would expect out of him.
As you mentioned. You didn't really get much in
the way of authentic contribution from the other
starters and that was certainly concerning and eventually didn't
show up either. I mean, you know, Tamar Bates
had a nice shot at the end of the first half and then we
basically didn't see him. Again.
Trey Galloway had one of his two or three worst games in Indiana
uniform and yet with all of that Indiana was able to find ways to
win and it was largely because As bad as guys were playing on
the offensive, end the times defense stayed very strong
throughout. Yeah, there were a few lapses
here and there, but, you know, to hold a team like Wyoming, not
just under a point per possession.
They were Point 88, which is really good, but to force, 19,
turnovers and, and to do. So, in a way that, you know,
Wyoming's offense, just look, totally disrupted the entire
time. And the way that they were doing
it was they were, they were bringing Guys down on EK.
They were, they were making Maldonado have to do everything
by himself and that led the ten turnovers for him.
That all is replicatable. And that's really the identity
that Mike Woodson is built around this team and we've
talked about it a bunch of this year, this idea that you have a
defensive identity and that that is how you are ultimately going
to win games and the offense is probably going to ebb and flow,
but you know, while they look like they've never seen a
defense. It's like that whole season and
you know, I'm sure they've had one or two bad games at other
times during the year, but you know, as much as we heard before
the start of the game Scott about EK and, you know, being
this Unstoppable score, he would can credibly pedestrian.
And it wasn't like Indiana was doing anything special.
I trace Jackson. Davis was bodying him up in the
post and then they'd occasionally bring a guy down to
slap the ball away and he had no clue what to do with it.
And I'm just like, like this. Do is great.
Great defense by, are you, but it didn't.
Like Indiana did nothing special.
They didn't change their entire approach just to try to stop one
guy or two guys, and it was more than enough as it turns out is,
if he ends up winning by three possessions.
I have a different I disagree. But I did the same end and
result. Honestly, like I thought he can
look pretty good. What I thought was interesting
is again, the way I saw it as like our defense was kind of
like, all right, like EK looks like he's a not inefficient
score but a guy who takes a while to kind of figure out how
to get to a spot and Get to his post, he was pretty good once he
got in the post but we really didn't double A much.
Like all right, let him get the shots.
And then you look at the box score is a wild box score for
Wyoming. Like you have two guys in double
figures and Maldonado and EK. Everybody else is in single
digits. You only have three guys who
took two point field. Goals Maldonado is 6412.
EK was 74, 14, and Jeffries was one-for-one.
Everybody else. Nobody else shot.
A, a shot outside of inside of three on the Team, it's just a
wild box score and it did look like Indians plan was like our,
if you're gonna take it to EK, that's fine.
Like, you're gonna slow the game down.
He's going to take an entire possession to get his points.
It's like if he gets 17 points, that's fine.
Like, we're not going to double him.
We're not going to, you know, Maldonado was doing some stuff.
But yeah, I was very impressed with the defense.
It did kind of have that, you know, the horrible analogy
because he K is not Jordan. But kind of that, you know
early, you know, we're just going to let Jordan get his
points. We're going to let everybody
else beat us and that's kind of what it felt like.
As I rek you can You can do what you want.
And, yeah, I thought he looked pretty good in the post.
He was making some nice moves, but it's like it took so long
for them to get it done. And then it's like that was 30
seconds. And again, he wasn't, you know,
unbelievably efficient. But yeah, I mean they, you know,
they end up scoring, you know, point eight points of possession
and again, just a wild box score where it's basically just two
guys doing everything. I will say this.
I mean he he ends up with a relatively efficient line, but
It took a lot of making up at the end of the game for me to
get to that point. Like, you take a snapshot about
the 30-minute Mark and he's not really much of a factor and it
was interesting because down the stretch.
He almost couldn't be a factor because they were behind too
many points. They had to shoot threes at that
stage. So, anyway, regardless of what
your take on things was, I really think Indiana's.
Defensive performance overall was very good.
Wyoming didn't really have that third option that they could
regularly rely on and, you know, You know, everybody gets scared
about the three pointers and I certainly get scared about the
three pointers, you know, but and even the Wyoming seem like
they hit a bunch, they only hit six, they shot 32 percent from
three. That was a lot better than what
Indiana did on that front, but it was Indian Advance.
That's a bunch. That's a punch for us.
Well, it's funny it. I'll jump over to the Indiana
side on this one. Indiana won the game.
Despite. I don't know if Indiana could
have played worse in several phases in the game, you know,
especially from an Offensive perspective.
They do all the game. Indiana only shot 42 percent
from the field. They shot 2 for 13 from 3, which
is 15 percent which is just mind-blowing.
It was not good. They've only have.
They've only have four games this year where they've made
three or fewer three-pointers. And this was the worst from a
percentage perspective three-point shooting game that
Indiana has had since January. Now, the weird thing about this
Indiana team is of those four games now, 13 of them.
They need two shots. Two from three against Ohio
State at home. They won that game.
They made three from three against Illinois at home.
They lost that one. They made three from three
against Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament.
They won that one, and then they make two in this game and they
win this one. So, I don't know what that says.
This is clearly a team that was built for 1985 from a basketball
rules perspective. But that said, I think it says a
lot for IU that they were able to figure out a way to come.
Come. Up with the victory in this sort
of environment, despite not being able to shoot from outside
and a largely. What did it for them in this
game? At least was offensive rebound.
And they grabbed nearly forty percent of the available
offensive rebounds. In this game.
It kept possessions alive George Geronimo.
As we saw took advantage on a couple of occasions and was able
to get put back dunks or what have you, you know, they being
able to do that. And you combine that with the
fact that Indiana only committed eight turnovers shouldn't.
They weren't giving away a bunch.
Two possessions. It's that that's one of the big
underrated turnarounds that this IU team has had all seven as
much as turnovers were the main issue for the first two months
of the season. It's really, really cool to see
how much more carefully they take care of the basketball.
And, you know, I think that all told the will to win the game
from this team at the end, even with the mistakes that they made
was really impressive. And so I'm just I'm just
excited. Did that, you know, you get a
one of the old-time tournament performances from an individual
for Indiana. Basketball out of Trace.
Jackson, Davis who's waited multiple years to even have this
opportunity. He takes full advantage of it.
You get literally a career game out of Jordan Geronimo Off the
Bench. You get a pretty good game out
of Xavier Johnson and you look at all that and you're like,
gosh, they're just off pensively.
At least. A lot of guys know, showed from
a statistical perspective, if those guys can pick it up
Suddenly. It's like well, if you can win
with only three guys contributing offensively and
then c-double-a Tournament game. You feel pretty good about
Indiana's chances to play a really good game in the next
round. And so I'm just overall, really,
really pleased at the end of it all with how things turned out.
It was, it was a little closer than you would have liked a
little more of a rock fight. And I think most people would
have liked. But by the same token, Indiana,
collectively did a good job of grinding it out.
Yeah. No, I agree.
And you are right the, the the turnovers for this team.
It's done. They've done very well.
You look at the last, you know, five or six wins, especially the
Big Ten Tournament. Like.
They've had less turnovers in our opponent for a good number
of games now and then yeah, Wyoming was just Maldonado with
10 turnovers. Why me as a team 19 turnovers
are just turning the ball over left and right.
The thing that you know, I was hitting this on Twitter.
I just I want to give you the opportunity to rail.
I want a Like, we all saw it when it came out.
It boggles. I'm moving a little bit off the
Wyoming Game. It boggles my mind, you know,
these are student athletes in the NCAA cares about, you know,
student athletes and classes, and all that.
Like, you know, you're going to put this team.
Whoever plays this game is going to be in the first four.
And then obviously, they're playing the next round.
You have Regional sites in Pittsburgh, in Milwaukee, in
Buffalo, in Fort Worth, all much better traveling, distance
today. Date.
And by the way, this is that this is also going to go to
Rutgers and Notre Dame tonight. The fact that this game ends and
I see a tweet that's like Indiana's open practice time.
Like, I'm and my basement. It's like, you know, 11:45 like
roof. I'm tired.
Like, I'm tired. I'm ready to go to bed.
And I'm also 43 years old, but like I'm tired.
It's like I see a tweets like oh, yeah, Indiana's practice
time open, practice in Portland, starts in 20 hours.
It's like they are still taking a shower from this game in
Dayton, Ohio. I saw they had plane.
No malfunction plane issues. Like they didn't get on the
plane until like 4:00 a.m. Or something.
It is, it's criminal that they're doing this two teams
that like, and the fact that we're not even the effing last
game in Portland, where the first game in Portland, which is
like, what are you doing? I put it on Twitter.
I'm will agent Johnson on Twitter at a seven underscore
scenario. Had a funny tweet there.
He's like, cause I was joking about how Bad.
This is it will maybe the answer.
Do they like the unstable ask him.
Like maybe I should fly from Dayton to Bloomington the go to
class on today and then go Bloomington to Portland, which
is like a very fun and I know we're on spring break, but it's
a funny take, it's just it's mind-boggling.
Same thing for Notre Dame Rutgers tonight.
They're going to turn around and go to San Diego, which is
annoying. Like I don't think it needs that
were going to lose its just and it might actually galvanized us.
As like, it's just such a emotional rush like just keep
the high going and let's just plow through but it is, you
know, it's nuts. It's BSE.
Unfair, the NCAA shouldn't put any team through this and
honestly would have it's bad for us.
I I'll I would have almost felt worse for Wyoming.
They're flying from Wyoming to Dayton and then back to
Portland. It had they won.
Totally unfair, but that that's my rail as we look at where
we're moving from here to the next game.
Yeah. Look, I mean, I've talked about
this Bunch. It was just unnecessary.
They didn't have to do it this way.
They could have put both play in game winners or all for playing.
Game winners in friday-sunday regions.
They certainly could have put the play-in game winners in
regions. That weren't three time zones
away. Maybe there's just a lot of
things that it's more sins of incompetence, the sins of
malice, you know, it's one of those where I don't think they
looked at the bracket and said, well, gosh, how can we screw?
The play-in game winners? I don't think they look at the
bracket at all. Like the and there were a lot of
things that the The committee did that.
It was great. It really make you question what
they were doing and there have been the whole podcast devoted
to just talking about those things.
We won't get into the here. Everybody's focused on the
Indiana piece of it. Look, it just it didn't have to
be this way. And you know, I guess Indiana
had a plane issue last night. They were supposed to leave at
about 1:00. They didn't get off the ground
until 4:00 date and time least. That's what I saw today on
Twitter. I'm assuming that that's true
based upon the sources. No, so that means that they're
going to get an even later. So, you know, I think the guys
physically will bounce back, just fine.
It's not that bad a travel because I'm assuming it's a
chartered flight that there's not gonna be any belts on.
They'll be room to spread out a little bit, but it just, it
seems unnecessary when you've got a site in Pittsburgh.
And you've got a site in the walkie and you've got a site in
Greenville, South Carolina. I mean, all of these are
reasonable travel distances from Eaten.
Even if you want to put somebody in Fort Worth, which is also a
first, and second round site would have made more sense.
But look, this is the thing that we've missed out on as I you
fans for a while was you know, how screwed up some of the in
sea level is approach can be, you know, the, in this, what the
selection committee does. So I wasn't surprised by it.
I'm just dismayed by it. Now.
It's like your joke about like what, you know, last year and we
got kind of jobs out of the BCS or the, you know, the New Year's
Day six. And we're like, wow.
And it's like, yeah. Yeah, like, welcome to the party
in the air. Like this is what happens every
year to college football teams that you just.
You haven't been in the big kids Thanksgiving, Reuben.
Unfortunately, we haven't been there now, but no.
Now we are in the turn, you know, we're in a spot where you
can pick us in a bracket, which is awesome.
I'm not done my bracket until today, based on that fact, as I
want to pick Indiana Again st. Mary's, I'll ask you this.
Now, as you look at st. Mary's, you know, what do you
see with them? They seem to play a slower
style, which would theoretically help help in the Anna, you know,
how do you see this matchup with us?
Moving forward? I'm assuming they have moved the
match. I'm assuming with the NCAA as I
move the matchup and Kansas in the next, we're gonna go ahead
and Swap this to a game in the Kansas City.
Yeah, this this game is really interesting in that, it is a
matchup of teams, who statistics look very similar, but who get
there in very different ways. You know, Indiana obviously is
Led offensively generally by my three guys who are like Head and
Shoulders above everybody else in terms of their production and
what they contribute. Obviously, Trace Jackson.
Davis is the big dog race Thompson, Xavier Johnson, and
then you got a big drop-off and you get guys that will appear
out of The Ether and will contribute whether it's Jordan
Geronimo, or you'll get maybe a good Miller, cop game or
whatever. St.
Mary's doesn't quite work that way.
Really got what I would say is six guys, that regularly
contribute, their best players, from a overall contribution
perspective. Our Mathias tasks, who's a 6-10
senior. And then Tommy cuse who's a 62,
senior, they are, you know, that they manage with the way that
they play to be. Very methodical, Ross Baker
yesterday on Twitter called them like a forget.
It was like a lesson. Offensive Wisconsin or something
like that. They play a player, really slow
pace. They're not the most efficient
team offensively. They you know, unlike Wisconsin,
they don't get to the free-throw line, very often, where st.
Mary's really makes their bread and butter on offense is that
they hit their free throws when they do go.
They hit shots pretty well. Overall, the 35 percent from
three and they don't turn the ball over.
So, you know, that's, that's been kind of the pattern that it
was constant, would have had. So it will be somewhat familiar.
St. Mary's has been really good on
defense. Events over the course of the
season. They don't allow a lot of
offensive rebounds and they don't allow their opponents to
shoot from three very well. Well, joke's on you, st.
Mary's, because Indiana takes care of that part.
So, and you know, what's interesting to me over all about
the st. Mary's team is their profile
doesn't strike me as a profile of a team that is a five seed
from, you know, in terms of like big wins on the course of the
season. And most of their big wins are
either against teams that are out of the bracket or very low
in the bracket. Yes, they did meet them zaga,
that was in the last game of the regular season.
That was a home that, you know, they get some credit for that
but you're not playing at home in the NCAA tournament.
Their best wins away from home. They did win at San Francisco by
2 and San Francisco. Had a very good season there in
the NCAA tournament. They won against Notre Dame on a
neutral floor, sort of Indiana by a bigger margin.
And I would say, and then they won a game on the road.
I guess it was a, yeah, I was at Utah State by 2.
So this is not a team that away from Moraga California, where
they're based has demonstrated a dominance.
Now, Indiana has a neither, I'll give you that, but I just feel
like when I look at the st. Mary's team, it's hard to really
get a sense of how good they actually are, because they are.
In the West Coast Conference and unlike Gonzaga.
They're not challenging themselves with a tremendous
number of top level out of conference competition.
Certainly. I think that they've got a lot
of players that are going to be difficult to deal with tasks and
q's test shoots 47 percent from three, which is clearly
frightening, you know, they've got two other guys on the roster
who shoot 39 percent from three and it taken more shots from
that distance that he has Alex do.
Is shot. 39% Kyle, Bowen also shot 39 percent from three, but
I actually really like the matchup for Indiana because it
feels like a game that's going to get played in the 50s or 60s
and it feels like St. Mary's are going to do some
things that Indiana can't stop. Well and Indiana is going to do
some things at st. Mary's can't stop well and you
know, I'm sure st. Mary's defense is excellent.
But I also feel like Indiana has played.
A lot of excellent defense has so far this year being in the
Big Ten, nothing that st. Mary's going to do defensively
is going to be shocking to them. So, two things, you said
earlier. I'm going to reference back to
you joked about Indiana being an 85 offense.
Like, this is a like they should really get the old-school.
Like I have the list here. I'm not sure who is announcing
this game Obama pulled up right now nigga, lapis is on this game
if I'm not mistaken, but I'm not 100% Sure.
Thursday, Portland. Yeah, lapis, but and Andy Katz I
was saying they should get like Bill raftery and the old guys
because this is like an old school game where you have an
Indiana team. It doesn't shoot threes.
And like we basically play inside out and then you know,
st. Mary's has led by like you said,
Johnson cues and tasks like three seniors.
They also another senior on the starting line is like it's a
senior Laden team of this is like the the old-school NCAA
tournament. Imagine.
This is like, let this is this is a clear, Brent Musburger,
Billy Packer terms of I will send like, it's just for one
game. Take away the three-point line,
take away the shot clock and just just like, run with it like
that. I think would be gonna go with
the old school way and like the skinny Lane.
Yeah, that'd be great. But the other thing too is a you
mentioned, the way they play and this is where you mentioning
with Wyoming. Like they look like they hadn't
seen a defense like we have before and again, I I don't
think because Saint Mary's plays in the West Coast Conference.
Like they were, they're going to be totally blown away.
But I I do think there is something to, you know, when you
play In the Big Ten, you get used to these teams, you know,
the teams that play Indiana are used to what they say.
All we know. You know, what, that's going to
be like, you get used to it. As you mentioned, you look at
st. Mary's record and you look at
their schedule this year. It's like they, they just don't
have a lot of tough games with based on being, in the West
Coast Conference and, you know, they did beat San Francisco
twice. They did beat Gonzaga once, but
then a lot of just games against teams that are in the 200s 300s
in Ken Palm, you know. They lost to Wisconsin when they
play them like you mentioned, Notre Dame game.
Like I do think there's a and then you're not going to have a
lot of time, you know, at least from Indiana's point of view.
They could have been doing some pre-prep for st.
Mary's st. Mary's had to prep both Indiana
and Wyoming teams. So they're just starting to get
prepped now like I could also see a world where you could see
Saint Mary's a little bit. Like wow, this is this is a
defense. We haven't really faced much
before outside of Gonzaga this year.
So I think you could you could see that being a nice Advantage
for Indiana as well. Well, it's interesting because,
you know St. Mary's.
You feels like they're in the NCAA tournament every year and
yet and yet they're not like they were they were in the NIT
last year and nobody was in the tournament.
The year before in 2019. They went as an 11 seed and they
lost to Villanova in the first round, but it was a very
different team that team was a lot more offensive.
We focused that team was 23rd and can palm and offense 55th
and defense. They still played that very slow
style and A lot of the Vintage st.
Mary's teams that we've seen over the years, have been more
offensive ly focused than defensively focused.
And and so when I think about this Saint Mary's team and what
they're doing this year, it's impressive that Randy Bennett
who feels like he's been there for four or five decades like
it's hearted. He's one of those coaches where
it's just like you ever age. Do you ever go anywhere?
He's clearly created a great program at Saint Mary's but you
know for him to be able to flip A script a little bit and win
primarily with defense, as opposed to relying entirely on
offense is an interesting change.
And so overall, when I think about st.
Mary's I don't think it's a walk in the park.
I think that it's one of those. Go ahead.
Sorry, Scott. Oh, no, sorry.
No, I mean like but you are right.
Like when you when you look at their I'm kind of flipping
through here. Like yeah, they haven't been in
the tournament that off and let you go back to the last time
they were in at previous to what you were mentioning like in
2017, you know, they were a seven seed, they beat VCU, but
then lost to Arizona. Go back to, you know, 24th.
I'm going back there in the NIT a lot, which I shouldn't make
fun of. We're wait.
Thank you. We're lucky.
If we get the NIT at this stage. No, it's a 20 2013.
Like they were 11 seed. They beat Middle Tennessee.
They lost a Memphis. Like there is, you know, just
anecdotally there is kind of this history and them in the
tournament of they can kind of beat the when they play a power
five Conference Team. It looks like in the tournament
like they they don't win those games.
Well, it's going to be Interesting, because I think you
take st. Mary's lightly at your own
Peril. They're clearly a team that
knows how to score. They're clearly a team that
knows how to control possession. And they are a team that if you
don't take care of business and if you're not efficient yourself
offensively, you're going to have a lot of trouble st.
Mary's takes care of the basketball in a way that is a
challenge for a team like Indiana who, you know, Wally
Anna hasn't done a great job of forcing turnovers.
They you know, yesterday was a great example of their ability
to do so, you know, so again, as I said at the very beginning,
it's kind of a strength vs. Strength thing with this team.
And with this matchup now, you know, Ken Palm doesn't have his
projection out yet to the next round.
That'll happen after tonight torvik site, actually, as
Indiana favored by one in this game, and I think I need to
check Haslam real quick and see. Exactly.
What what the projections are for that.
The last I checked Indiana was projected as a basically a
statistical Dead Heat. Saint, Mary's is projected to
win by half a point on Haslem. My point is, statistically
speaking. These two teams are very close
to one another. This is going to be another
grind type of game and I kind of I like Indiana's chances in this
game because Three strikes and Davis.
There was a statistic that I retweeted last night that I
didn't even think was a thing. Let me find it real quick
because I think it's worth mentioning here on the podcast,
for those who haven't checked Twitter Trace Jackson Davis over
the last six games, has scored 105 points.
Shooting 65.7%. From the field, is the only
division one player in the last 25 years to score 100 or more
points on. Went shooting over any six-game
span. Now, that's a pretty, you know,
that's a pretty specific sort of statistic but it demonstrates.
How good trace Jackson Davis has been over the course of the last
six games and as much as we were concerned about his offense
falling off in the middle part of the Season up, really right
up until the end of February. He has just come completely out
of his shell. He has played at a level.
That is all. Their equality over the course
of the last six games and st.mary's will not have played a
player just quite like him and what he can do.
And if you can get contributions offensively from more people
than Indiana, got contributions from against Wyoming.
I do like their chances because if you can get 25 points out of
Trace Jackson, Davis in a game. Well, if you're in a game where
you only have to score 65 points, you just need 40 total
points and everybody else and it's Indiana's defense plays as
well as they did against Wyoming.
I do like them. Chances over all know.
And when you mentioned that the trace Jackson Davis thing, the
thing that I really has been cool to see unlocked is, that
was funny. Last night, you know, Xavier
Johnson had the alley-oop to trace Jackson Davis and it was
like on Twitter is like, oh, there it is.
If we wait for the alley-oop, it's like yeah.
Yeah. I mean, like an alley-oop dunk
is nice, but it's not something you just automatically get every
game, but yet over these last five or six games, definitely
the Big Ten Tournament. We've seen one to two of those
again, that it got kind of in the Wyoming Game.
It's like, oh well, Are we going to see the alley-oop dunk?
It's like, all right. We're I'm not sure, but it's, it
does show that like, they've unlocked something and you can
see him kind of set it because he's, you know, you can see him
try and get it set up and, like, they keep on doing the top high
pick-and-roll, but they're at a point where you literally have
five games in a row where Xavier Johnson, and Trace section Davis
have hooked up for, you know, at least one to two alley-oop, dunk
every game, which is, that's a very good thing.
So, do I have some breaking news in D, and we're taping this at?
30 on Wednesday morning and I use plane just landed 20 minutes
ago. So they are in Portland.
We could confirm that they got there.
No, your look, the the pick-and-roll that dunk.
Clear. America was the banner moment on
assembly call. Wyoming made it their mission to
keep that play from happening all gate.
And, you know, I think it's a credit to Indiana.
That is much of a huge part of the offense is that was during
the Big Ten Tournament when that got taken away, there it is.
Yeah, well, we can just go down and post up.
Trace Jackson, Davis, and everything will be fine.
And that's the level. I know it doesn't look overly
versatile necessarily but Indiana has found some wrinkles
in their offense as difficult as Indiana's offense.
Can be to watch at times. Still, they have been able to
figure out ways to have one thing work and then use that to
set up. The other thing that they do.
And I'm curious to see how st. Mary's decides to go about this
because Wyoming's whole thing seemed to we're not going to let
that high pick-and-roll happen at the expense of letting Trace
Jackson get Davis. Get position on the block by
himself. If St.
Mary's going to be like, yeah, let's just see 25 points to
trace Jackson Davis and and you know, not not allow that to
happen. Or are they going to go the
other direction? I'm curious to see what happens
with that. I'm sure they'll have an idea on
it, but I just don't know what direction they're going to go.
Yeah. So here is, here's my take, you
know, going into this weekend or this this week.
I'll say My wife that, you know, for me, it's like if if we win
two games, I think that's that's a fantastic March for me.
Like, that was going to be like, if we could beat Wyoming and we
can beat st. Mary's.
We've had an unbelievable March. Even if they play really well
against st. Mary's and losing, I don't think
it's a bad March. We're in a great spot.
Now, you know, I love people who get overly excited and it's
like, oh, you know, I think Indiana toughest games in the
elite eight, it's all right, everyone calm down, but I do
think like, you know, work as a We're halfway there and I say
again, we don't need to win to make it great.
But it's like it's we're in a great spot.
And this is again, what we've also missed in the tournament is
like there's a world where we play Saint, Mary's really tough.
We win, maybe Akron beats UCLA and we kind of get a nice easy
path into a sweet 6. A possible, sweet. 16 like
there's a world where we don't run into UCLA that happens.
Anyway, I just, I man, I'm super fired up because I'm excited to
see us play on an actual like, You know, a I'm going to use air
quotes if you real tournament day, there's tons of games going
on. I've been looking forward to
that for years, but also that, you know, we're we've already
made this a really, really good March.
And so I'm really happy. Yeah.
Gotta Miss. I'm sorry.
I'm looking at the fly to where stuff to I just pulled it up
inside. No, it's fine.
It's I mean, it's like looking at their flight track.
It's like they landed 20. I mean, dude, I went to bed.
We're doing a podcast like they just landed.
It is it is Bonkers wild but you know, hey, they care about the
students. Athletes, they really do.
Well look, I will say going back to what you were originally
saying, like, it was hard to know what success was coming
into, this NCAA tournament because there's no Benchmark for
Indiana at this point. And I think everybody was
curious about how would Indiana fare against 18 outside the Big
Ten on a neutral floor? Would they be able to carry over
the attitude and the conviction that led them to being a
successful as they? Or in the Big Ten tournament and
I think the answer here is. Yes, you know, the one of the
things that I've been keeping track of has been the barked
Orbach game ranks page where he gives basically a game score to
the games that teams play and Indiana now has three straight
games where they've scored a 93 out of 100, which the last time
they scored at 93 or better was the Maryland game at home back.
Back in, you know, what was that January?
I guess so, but the point being Indiana is playing some of its
best basketball of the Year. And that didn't end in the Big
Ten Tournament. It carried over into this first
game of the NCAA tournament. And that was despite as we
mentioned, guys, not playing particularly.
Well on offense outside of the three guys that were in double
figures. So, what is success from this
point forward look, they they are an underdog.
You're going to think marriage. I think that that line opened at
two and a half points. They will be favored in a couple
of statistical services to win the game.
They will be underdogs in a couple of statistical analyses
to win the game. Giving a great account of
yourself and losing a close game to a five seed.
As a 12 seed is not in my opinion, a disappointment.
Obviously, we'll have to watch and see how the game goes if
they win that game. I think the current is an
unqualified success, regardless of what happens afterwards
because you've demonstrated at that point, that there's a core
understanding of what you're doing and that you're able to go
and win a game against the higher-seeded team in the eyes
of the committee. And that's really all your actor
in the NCAA tournament. You know, the obviously the
equation is different. If you are a top four seat, you
know, the expectation there is you have to get to the Sweet 16.
Otherwise, it was kind of a failure in this case.
I don't think that's how it works.
For Indiana for a program that hasn't been to the NCAA
tournament and so long for a program that looked like it
wasn't going to the NCAA tournament as recently as a few
weeks ago, even just to go into the play-in game.
And when is a Real Testament, to how this postseason I think,
will in the future, be deemed a success.
If they are actually able to pull this off, where they have
to fly cross-country in the middle of the night, get a day's
rest and then arm, and then asked to go out and beat st.
Mary's, that sends it into a whole different Stratosphere,
but even if they lose Lose, I think that Indiana has already
accomplished. A lot of what is a program.
They needed to accomplish. If they got back to the NCAA
tournament, they won a game. And yes that game counts just as
much as any other game in the NCAA tournament does.
And now to some degree, it's like all right, how much higher
can you move the bar? And it's all in front of you at
this point. And the way that this team has
played even on short rest. I like their chances of making
this game competitive and maybe even Coming away with the
Victory. And, you know, I'm really
curious to see what happens in this Thursday.
Evening game against st. Mary's.
I am too, I go into it, you know, cautiously optimistic.
I really do. I think there's a, I think we're
in a good spot. And I think this is where,
again, you can run this next game.
On adrenaline. You might hit the wall against
UCLA or whoever play the next round, but it does feel like
they're onto something. And as you mentioned, like,
Trace Jackson, Davis has unlocked.
What playing at a level we wanted to play at?
I'll end on this. I just gotta roll you on this.
I don't want to get too deep into this.
But I so annoying at the end of the game Indiana wins.
And it's like the first question you have to ask Woodson is,
like, what do you think? Bob Knight would think of this?
It's like stop like can we stop with?
Not like can we saw like one, see?
What branch for cracking thought?
It's like I thought. What's his answer was fine, but
it's like it was just such a sure.
All that, all their Indiana fans are like, can we ask about
Jordan Geronimo Trace Jackson, Davis, like anybody who's
currently on? A team like do we have to talk
about Bob Knight every time? Look the sideline reporting was
among the worst I've ever seen. I'm sorry.
I mean the halftime question, you know, you're you're you
know, and the question for Rothstein about Jordan
geronimo's play. It's like, hey, there's times to
ask that like, maybe tummy indrani pointed this out.
Like, don't ask that question going into halftime and would to
just kind of blew it off. Like let's put a total team
effort. Yeah, you know, but like yeah,
that question at the end about night, the lack of any like,
Worthwhile information on what was going on with the teams and
what their focus was, it was really fascinating.
I mean, II, don't know. You always run into these
situations. It feels like with with Turner
produced games where you actively question.
Like either, what like we're why is this person asking these
questions? And why was that?
What was that? What they came up with, or in
the case of the studio crew. How many college basketball
games? Have you watched this year?
Like the crew couldn't like things?
They seem too convinced that Trace Jackson?
Davis was just traced Jackson, you know, they struggled with a
lot of basic facts that, you know, knowledgeable people would
have probably had on both teams, not just in Vienna, but also,
Wyoming and that's why I Of the year that they had Berkeley
doing because least barco is honest, but I'm watching these
scenes this year, but man, that kid for offers pretty good.
Like you just feel like he could definitely tell.
Like, he was honest about it, which I love that.
You're no. It's, I would have when they
asked that question of Woodson, like I was thinking like, you
know, if it's great if Woodson's like who coach, who like I don't
never heard of him, have a good night.
Like I will say, I will say the, the night, the folks that are
really still very much like they view the entirety of the in.
Deanna basketball program through bob Knight.
Love that answer. It was a great answer from
Woodson. It was like, the only answer you
could give in that environment. I really you touch.
This is why you teach this because like question, it's like
there's only one answer like what's, which can going to say.
Like, I don't mean night kind of soft rock.
He wasn't good and legal situations.
Like, you know what I thought about it like a Now's, the Time.
I'd like to mention. I think Coach case better than
night. Like what do you what do you?
His answer is going to be what his answer was great, but it's
like that's what his answer was going to be something.
Along those lines. Well, yeah and look up your all
right on that. But there's not much I can say
about the national questions. I will say this.
On this, in this vein, not so much about the questions, but
about the person that was being asked to Mike Woodson deserves a
ton of credit for it was a stat that came out that someone
tweeted last night, you know, Woodson brings and be out of the
tournament and wins a tournament game for the first time since
2000 16. So six years, he coached the
Knicks to their first playoff series win in 13 years and he
coached the Hawks to their first playoff win Series win in 10
years. That was from that Fortuna.
From the athletic. And you know, look there's
there's still a lot of things that it's clear that Woodson is
processing about the college game.
When you look at strategy, there's timeout issues, there's
rotation issues, but it's working and it's what he's done.
Is he's galvanized this team to think about themselves as a unit
and play as such he's gotten good performances.
Out of players different players on different nights, which is
very much something that used to happen.
A lot in the night are aware. You know, guys would just pop up
out of the blue and have great games, you know, Woodson
deserves a ton of credit for what he's done.
This year hasn't been perfect by any means and I think there's
been a learning curve, but you cannot question given the Island
of Misfit Toys roster that he ended up putting together and
taking into this season. And just in terms of how the
pieces didn't fit together, particularly, well, and you're
starting multiple transfers, you know, it was not a team that was
forged through iron and fire as a collective unit over the
course of time. This was a group of Individual
pieces, you know. And one of the things that I do
think that you know, the true TV crew did a decent job of was
talking about how a lot of the players.
One of the transfer when woods and first got there and he
managed not just to get them to think of it themselves as a
collective unit. Then over the course of the
Season, you've seen this team grow and change and start to
develop their own identity, which frankly never felt like
they did under Archie Miller and frankly at the end of the Korean
era, it was Hit or Miss in any given season whether his teams
were going to actually want to play with one another.
You know, I think in the last four years, the crane was here.
One of his team's look like they wanted to play with one another
and even that team took halfway through the season before they
really got rolling. So, I really, really excited
that Woodson and his staff were able to do what they did.
And I'm really curious to see what they do moving forward
here, you know, what happens in this next game, I think sets the
table for what happens afterwards and that is
Absolutely a good place to be if you're Indiana basketball and I
think you hit it on the head. I'll end with this, you know, as
you're saying that I'm thinking, you know, that that was the
trouble under the Archie are as that, you know, we get to these
Big Ten tournament games. I got we got to win one game and
said we were just kind of we were falling apart at the end
that seemed like at the end kind of, you know, the cream prop,
you know, 2016 kind of notwithstanding but under
Korean, it's like that was the problem with that.
Number one ranked team is that they seem to kind of fizzle at
the end. This is the first time and you
know, maybe 2016. So first, you know second time.
I'm in 10-15 years. We have a team, we're playing
probably our best basketball at the end of the season and we
just haven't been able to say that a lot.
And this Wyoming game is not a great example, but it's a game
where you had some some problems, but you won the game
like you gritted through, you won the game, you know, Trace
Jackson Davis, like you mentioned is your best player.
He's playing his best right now at the end of the season, Xavier
Johnson is, you know, outside of, you know, maybe not a great
efficiency game has played his best basketball last two or
three weeks. And so we're in a great spot and
as you mentioned And on the one of the last pods, you know, with
Wisconsin kind of using one tournament run to kind of kick
things off. And as I talked about, you know,
even Woodson kind of say, you know, saved everything in a 30
hour, span your to spot here were two or three weeks could
really save. You could just put this whole
just everything on a different trajectory.
Like you win. One more game.
You beat st. Mary's and it's like, wow, but
you win two more games you get to this teams, like, randomly
the sweet 16, which is not illogical your this.
Season that the Paradigm completely changes.
So that that is what will leave with.
I think you have some noise issues going on over there.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna, I will let you hop back on and say
goodbye. Yeah.
Goodbye. We'll see what happens on.
Thursday is great to talk to. You sounds good.
Galen is with family in a small hotel room and it looks like
he's having a ready to have a fun day at a amusement park.
Maybe with somebody with ears. So anyway, we'll be back after
the game. I don't know.
It's I'll be back 12 minutes in the, you know, Peru somewhere
below will be, will come on sometime after the game.
Hopefully, it's a win after st. Mary's and we're looking either
UCLA or Akron I want. Thank you guys all for
listening, always appreciated. Let's go.
I you I will steal galen's line and bring back the Bison but
that is definitely galen's line, but for everybody listening,
thank you so much and this is Scott for Crimson cast signing
off.