You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cascail
and Clavio. Scott Caulfield back again on
the airwaves. It is the 18th of February.
It's Sunday. We are in the aftermath of the
Indiana loss at home to Northwestern.
It just ended, what, an hour ago Scott.
Maybe slightly more than an hour ago.
I was at the game. Scott was not.
So I I have some observations from the game that we wanted to
get on on tape and Scott had some observations as well.
First of all, Scott, how you doing?
Good to see you. I'm.
Doing. I'm doing fantastic.
Good to see you. I was at the NBA All Star
Saturday last night, which was, which was fun.
I've been watching that for years and it was, it was a good
time in in Lucas Oil. Although I will say if anybody
who's listening was there, I don't know what it was.
You know, I've been to a humble brag.
I've been to a Final Four in Lucas Oil, had no problem
getting in and out. I had friends who went to the
Super Bowl. I did not go to the Super Bowl.
But, you know, it was a great Everybody glowed about the
Indianapolis Super Bowl. It was a hot mess down there.
Like they only had five or six places open to get in.
Everything else was blocked off. Like, it took us 35 minutes to
get in and we're all just like, hey, man, like you do Colts
games with 70,000 people and there's only 35,000 coming in
and then leaving. It's like they're funneling
everybody in these certain areas that you couldn't get out
either. And I realized, I think part of
it is like, just maybe the NBA took over.
It's like a celebrities and a lot of like, limbo anyway, But
it's like, dude, they have celebrities at the Super Bowl.
It was just it wasn't fantastically well run and from
at least my perspective and the way I tried to enter and it's
just it's a bummer because I know that normally Indianapolis
self you know, equips itself very well And the little things
like we're leaving, it's like we're like we're like, all right
we can hit the Convention Center because it's like 18° below all
the doors to the Convention Center are blocked off.
There's cops there like they're not letting people in there.
It's like hey this is this is a benefit the city has like you
have all this stuff connected like, but you can't let people
in. Anyway, just sorry, total rant.
Off to the side here, but it's a fun event.
But it's just like I hate. As a citizen of Indianapolis, I
hate having our city not put its best foot forward in an event
like that. I mean, the weather didn't help
much last night, but yeah, I I hear you.
It's it's always tough and you never know.
There's always things going on that you don't know about behind
the scenes, you know, I mean, and look.
But you've had great experience with this, leaving IU, sporting
events over the years like you. You should be used to this by
now, right? That that's fair.
Being funneled all into the wrong area and being told no,
it's the it's the cop, it's the Bloomington police.
No, it's the IU police. No, I shouldn't.
And that's why I've stopped going to as many games.
I'm tired of dealing with the like I've got to like.
I now get the I've got to leave early because it's like it's not
my fault. It's the IU parking's fault
anyway. Anyway, before we get started,
just a couple of reminders folks.
We are brought to you branching. On the On the Yard podcast,
we'll go to. Right.
Yeah, I was gonna say, you got your own podcast for that.
What are you doing? God, no.
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You'll hear a lot of your favorites from around Pacers
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Not just college Scott. Today Home Field announced
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They are getting in full time to the racing biz.
I I'm always excited because a former student of mine who works
for Dryer and Reinbold bought me that Dryer and Reinbold shirt
that Home Field put together. Which is awesome.
I wear that all the time. But this is taking it
significant steps further. They've got an Arrow McLaren
shirt or set of shirts coming out.
They're going to have a huge Indy 500 collection, which we
got a chance to take a look at. They're going to have a huge
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chances that somebody in your family or you, the listener like
racing pretty high and this is going to be for you.
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All right. So, Scott, I should probably get
started on this. You were there.
I'm really curious your thoughts being there in person, seeing
this, this team. So I was first of all I wasn't
originally planning on going and I want to thank my friend Nicole
for she had an extra ticket and so I sat with her and her
parents and we we we took the game in.
This was this felt like a weirdly momentous game to be at
because the vibe was dead. Like from the outset.
It was just, and it was a shame. There was some nice intro
videos. There was one I hadn't seen
before that and then you have the regular intro video which is
outstanding. And then the game started and I
mean, we might as well have been, you know, like at A at A
at an Easter egg hunt where like all the kids are over on the one
side having fun. And the parents like, OK, when
is this getting over? I mean, it really felt like
there was no juice in the arena at all.
And you know, you can obviously you could blame, oh, we got too
many old people with, you know, that donate money and get good
seats. That wasn't the reason why.
I mean, the student section was pretty much packed.
You know, it's a afternoon game, so it was pretty full.
I mean, there were a few empty seats at the start of the game
in the corners, but it was a full arena full of people who
just looked like they were waiting for a reason to get
excited and they were never really given a reason to get
excited. And that carried throughout, you
know, Indiana, just there were individual moments where Indiana
looked pretty good, but that was very fleeting.
And for the majority of things, it just kind of felt like you
were waiting around for Northwestern to make a play that
would make you kind of shake your head and turn to the person
next to you and say what the hell is going on.
And that's kind of how most of the first half went.
And certainly in the second-half it got significantly worse.
Indiana goes down 14. I had probably eight or nine
people text me or DM me and say, well, I turned the game off when
that happened. My father-in-law turned the game
off, I guess, when that happened.
Scott, this is fascinating in a way.
I've like, we've talked about this before.
Some people. We heard a lot about that
podcast that we did last week in the aftermath of the loss at
Purdue. Some people were like, right on
guys, thanks for like telling it like it is.
Other people were like, that was way too negative.
You know, that's that's way too much negativity.
And you know, we feel like you guys have jumped off the
bandwagon. It's fine.
You're allowed to interpret that however you want.
But this game to me, was to some degree a proof of concept of the
stuff that we were talking about last week.
This felt like a fan base that has kind of emotionally distance
itself from the program. I certainly felt that way, like
there was not a moment when I felt, like, compelled to get up
and yell. There were some moments I felt
compelled to cheer, but I never really got mad because I was.
Everything bad that happened to IU in this game kind of felt
like of course of course that happened.
Of course Northwestern had like their best offensive rebounding
game of the season. Of course there were wide open 3
point shooters that Northwestern was able to capitalize on and
hit shots, and of course Indiana was not able to do the same.
Of course, one of Indiana's big players had a rough night.
Statistically, it just felt, the whole thing almost felt kind of
predetermined. From the moment that you
realized that Indiana was not going to come out like a house
on fire, from the moment you realized that Northwestern was
actually going to be in the game, it was very clear how
things were going to play out. And so I think the thing I took
away from it the most was just the apathy of the fans that were
in the stands and the lack of juice in the building as a whole
and how the the team did not seem to be particularly engaged
with the game at all. The coaching staff was kind of
engaged at times. And then there were times where,
I mean there was one point where there were four different people
shouting from the bench to the floor at one time, which is
probably, as one of our mutual friends said to me on text,
that's probably a bad sign when you got all four coaches up
screaming different things at different people that that might
be an indicator of issues. And and look, I mean some credit
I guess to Indiana for going on that run at the end and and
making it at least quasi exciting at the end.
But realistically it was a game without effort that felt like it
really added up to anything. And it this type of game, that
type of atmosphere, that connection that Assembly Hall
always has with the IU basketball team that felt
severed for the first time really all season.
And you and I have been watching this long enough to know that
when that happens, that is normally a really bad sign for
where things are going. Because that is hard to get
back. And this team does not look like
it has a spark or an idea about why things aren't working.
And that is a real if you're still invested in the team
enough to think what's going to happen the rest of the way, this
game is like a huge red flag, like this is a this is this is a
a red beacon flashing in the night with a klaxon going off
saying like trouble panic like this is when you really need to
get concerned. Anyway, those are my overall
thoughts. What are yours?
Yeah, you hit on a lot of a lot of things there.
I mean, I agree with all of that.
You know, I, I'm where I'm, you know, for people who would say,
you know, we were too harsh last time, you know, I would say
enjoy that. If you want more anger, go back
and listen to that 'cause I'm feeling exactly the way that you
are, that I'm kind of just totally disconnected from this
team at this point. And you know, I'm not even sure
you know what's weird is like, I'm not even sure what's totally
wrong with this team. Like it's, you know.
I don't. I don't think they know.
No, yeah, I mean the the talent is there.
But, you know, I was, I was kind of, you know, my joke coming in
was like, all right, this, this definitely, you know, this is
kind of just like a forgotten game and a forgotten season.
And I was kind of looking back at, like, all right, you know,
let's look at one of Archie's years.
You know, like, let's look at like, you know, 2019, like,
let's find a game there. It's like, well, they lost at
home, you know, find a home loss against kind of a middling team.
It's like, well, they lost to Purdue at home.
They were ranked 5th and they only lost by 5.
And, like, they lost to Michigan State at home, but they were
ranked 6th and they lost by three.
It's like there really wasn't a loss like this in that year.
I mean, this is a season that is kind of going to be lost.
Like, maybe they make the NIT, maybe they don't.
You know, in five or seven years, this isn't a game we're
going to remember in a season. We're not going to remember.
Like to me this I was angry a couple weeks ago when there was
still some kind of light flickering.
There isn't light flickering now.
And where I get concerned is, you know, I, I just don't know
how we got here because I remember doing the season
preview with Alex Bozich looking at, you know all of the talent
we brought in in the offseason, which I've been harping on these
last couple of pods, you know, with Imbaco and with where you
get all of that talent coming in.
And then seeing, you know having at that time, you know, you had
a couple of five stars in the pipeline, but you had Mcneely I
think pretty well locked up at that point.
It's like all right I was like this is how I see our path
getting back to you know being a a power in the Big 10 and
nationally. And now we sit here where I I I
don't see it's not I don't see it being turned around this
season. But now I'm not even sure how
you turn it around next season because it's like you're
bringing in a five star. Well you brought a five star in
with Imbaca who had a slow start but he's starting to turn around
have like what, 20 points today. It's like things are working the
way they should. Like you know, where is exceeded
all expectations of what you've expected out of a player yet.
We're at this point, so I will take a step back.
I don't want to get too big picture too soon, but it's like
that's where I'm not even sure when I can reengage myself
because even if in the offseason if we get another guy in the
portal, it's like, all right, we did that this year.
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm concerned with how apathetic I am with
watching this team with this game and then just kind of
seeing the reactions on, you know, as you and I both dive
deep into IU football and we kind of see the, you know, the,
the, the, the, the old Western town with like the the
tumbleweed flowing through, which is IU football Twitter at
times where it's just like the same five people hitting,
hitting that IUFB thread. You're starting to see it in
basketball where a lot of people are like, ah, this is what I,
you know, rinse, repeat and it's like that.
This is not a great place to be, and it's wild that like
literally five months ago, I was thinking we were on the path to
respectability again. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very
odd circumstance. I mean, you had eight days to
prepare for this team and it's not.
I mean, it's a, it's an, it's. Six points in the 1st 5.
Minutes. It's an OK Northwestern team.
They're not awful. They're not great.
They've won one game on the road in the Big 10 coming into this
game, and that was a four point win at Northwestern.
Now they had been in. They've been closing some games
at. All right.
At. At Rutgers.
Yeah. At.
No. At whatever they were, they won.
At Penn State, that was the game I was trying to get to anyway.
But to have that much time for a team that just lost one of its
key players, you know, I mean that they lose Ty Berry, who was
probably their fourth most efficient player, you know,
played a lot was it was a key part of this three guard lineup
that they've been running. And yet, Northwestern just
looked more keyed in from the beginning.
And Northwestern, and this is a refrain we've had a lot this
season, Scott. They look like they knew what
they were supposed to do and Indiana didn't.
For large stretches of things, you can.
Replace Northwestern with like almost any team we've played
this year, right? And, you know, you go through
the numbers. I mean, the thing that I found
fascinating about IU's overall situation in this one is that
the, you know, there's some aspects where IU actually played
fine. They scored 106.4 points per
possession. I mean that's that's a lot
better than Indiana played against Purdue.
You know, it's a pretty good it's, you know, it's not the
best offensive performance, but they've certainly had much
worse. But the problem was they let
Northwestern score 1.12 points per possession, which if you
went back and looked at the games that Northwestern's lost
on the road, their big problem has been they do not score
efficiently on the road. They've been sub one point per
possession in a lot of those games and yet Indiana couldn't
stop them. But but the way that Indiana
couldn't stop them, it was very much not what I would have
expected for a team that feels a 610 guy and a 7 foot guy, which
is that they just let Northwestern do whatever they
wanted on the offensive glass. Northwestern had 14 offensive
rebounds in this game. They had one more made two point
field goal. Then they had offensive rebounds
at 15, made field goals from 2 and 14 offensive rebounds and
what that led to. I mean, Northwestern only shot
36% from 2:00, but they shot 28 free throws and they made 22 of
them and a lot of that was off of rebounds that then they would
go back up and get fouled on. Indiana also only turned
Northwestern over three times the entire game, a turnover rate
defensively of 4%. So you basically taken a
Northwestern team that isn't having a great shooting.
Like they only hit 8 threes. They only shot 35% from three.
It wasn't like they were lights out from three and you just
essentially made it so that a, they didn't turn the ball over,
which meant they didn't lose a lot of possessions and they were
able to extend possessions because of all the offensive
rebounds they were getting, despite the fact that you had a
height advantage that was pretty significant, you know it during,
you know, at several of the positions.
It's just kind of wild to me that that ends up being the way
Indiana loses this game is they were not able to stop
Northwestern until Malik Renew went out with that 5th foul and
all of a sudden Indiana style seemed to change and suddenly
they were a lot more aggressive and pressuring.
They were a lot more aggressive and going for boards.
It's almost like they lost their safety blanket with Renew going
out and suddenly everybody's like, oh, we got to play harder
and suddenly they started to come back.
And this is probably the biggest concern I have about this IU
team is that they don't seem to play that way all the time.
We see it in spurts. We saw it in the Ohio State game
on the road where it took them going down by a significant
margin for them to be like, wow, we got to really play hard and
boom, all of a sudden they came back and won the game.
They ran out of time in this one.
But I just, I look at the way that Indiana played throughout
the course of the game and and it's like you've not given
yourself the opportunity to put yourself in a position to win
because of how poorly you played and how poorly you executed for
the the other 35 minutes. And you know, this was always
the concern playing Northwestern because you know Northwestern is
not that talented. They're, you know, they're not
that good defensively, but they do know how to play ball
together. And this seemed like the type of
game that an Indiana team that has struggled to know what to do
on the floor for most of the season was going to struggle in.
Because Northwestern, if you can say whatever you want about
them, there's a lot of criticisms of Northwestern in
the way that they've played. But they do know what they're
doing on most possessions, and if you let them do it, they'll
do it. What's really frustrating about
this, and this may not be the best analogy or the best comps,
so please correct me if I'm wrong.
But like you look at a team like Virginia that plays a very slow
tempo, that doesn't shoot the three very well, doesn't
offensively rebound very well. But they do one thing fantastic
and they are like killer on defense and they they have a
fourth in the country turnover rate percentage.
Like they get teams to turn the ball over and you know, they're,
they're not shooting a ton of threes, like they're kind of
similar in profile to us, but they do one thing really well,
which is defence. They turn other teams over.
What's really frustrating with this style of play is you know
if, if this is what Woodson wants to do, this kind of mid
level tempo, not a lot of threes pump the ball inside.
As you and I have both said, you know you're going to have to
create some turnovers, but you're going to have to control
the glass and you're going to have to probably hit more free
throws than you do. The frustrating thing is like
rebounding is all about preparation, practice and
effort. It's just being in the right
place and having the effort to go for the ball and free throw
is just it's a lot mental and it's a lot of practice and we're
we're just not getting it done in those areas.
And if you're going to play this style and not shoot a lot of
threes, you have to be unbelievably efficient on
offense and you have to do the rebounding in the free throws.
And it's just frustrating because it's effort and practice
like that's all it is. And yet Woodson continues to
talk about how we have to get this right and kind of you know
talking about players this and that's like then get it right,
like then get guys to to hustle and then or put somebody else
in. Like I I know it's always like
the the guy on the bench. But like at some point you've
got to do something else or you've got to change it up or
you've got to change the way you're playing or realize like
hey this team isn't a hustle hard, you know playing team.
We had those like Green had those teams.
Like they didn't play super hard, but they would just shoot
the lights out And then you'd have games where you know
Devante Green would go nuts. It's like, all right, you know
you can have a path to victory that way.
It's like giving yourself like you know as many and like you
know like poker, like how many outs do you have with this hand.
We continually get in these spots where we have no outs and
that's that's the really frustrating part is I mean this
just to me it always continues to go back to the scheme and the
coaching because the things that we have to do to win games are
about practice effort and the players knowing what to do and
do you know, having things that they've done.
And I'm not even saying it's all effort.
You know a lot of times rebounding I'm I'm this is
somebody to talk about assembly calls listening a little bit the
post game before there's something Ryan was talking about
that you know rebounding isn't just effort it's like something
you just got to you practice like you just you practice and
you work on rebounding and just getting used to doing that and
it just looks like we're not doing that.
And you know if if Woodson wants to say they're doing like great,
well then you're doing a really bad job of coaching it because
we suck at this and this is the most if you're going to play
this style of basketball, this is the most important thing.
But it again, I don't want to get this worked up because it
doesn't seem like anybody cares. It's like because no one's
getting it done. Watching the team again in
person today, everything you say, I think there's some truth
to, but I think there's a more fundamental issue at play.
There just does not seem to be any team cohesion and there
doesn't seem to be a lot of belief on the part of the
players about what they're doing and how they're doing it.
And that's a hard thing to quantify.
I mean, it's not really something that's tangible in the
traditional sense. Why's that, Right?
Yeah. It's not the luck statistic, no.
One point O 4 belief per possession.
But you know but there's there's just it is so easy to knock this
team out of what they're doing especially defensively.
You know and I've been harping on the defense all season
because to me I mean the offense isn't great but the offense can
win you games. But the defense has not given
the offense the opportunity to win games over the course of
this season And that that is a bit of a concern obviously.
But the defense is largely tied to effort and attention and and
what is being done and how much communication there is and who's
supposed to be where And, you know, how how players rotate,
how they're reacting to things. That is what is missing to me
when I watch this team play basketball.
And you know, what's interesting is that you've seen a
significant shortening of the bench.
Yeah. I mean, they, they really only
played seven players for any length of time in this game.
And that was really only because foul trouble, you know, caused
Renew to have to come off the floor and then and then Cups was
in foul trouble on and off and eventually fouled out.
But the there's just not much of A center to this team in terms
of its emotion, in terms of its focus.
And even when things are going well, rarely do you see things
continue to go well with this team.
That's what made that win at Ohio State such a shock was
because normally in that situation the team goes the
opposite direction. And fortunately, I think they
just played a team that, as we saw, was about to get their
coach fired, you know, in Ohio State.
But when this team comes up against a team like
Northwestern, who isn't overly physical, they didn't even get
that great of a game out of Boo Booey tonight.
I mean he was sub one point per possession.
He he was one for 8 from 2. You know, like you would expect
Boo Booey to be the guy that kills you.
But no, Instead it was Ryan Langborg, the guy who
transferred in from Princeton, who is clearly dangerous.
Like, if you've watched any of Northwestern's games this
season, he can go off and hit four or five threes, which is
exactly what he did. But it wasn't just that.
It was, you know, Northwestern was was constantly carving open
Indiana's defense, either with drives or with passes.
Indiana was constantly late rotating, you know, or they were
rotating the wrong direction. It was just kind of fascinating
in person, watching Indiana struggle so much with a lot of
those basics. And it was, it was really
depressing because the other effort and belief area is
rebounding and to see Martinelli get 13 rebounds, to see Matthew
Nicholson get 16 rebounds in this game and to keep
possessions alive and just kind of stymie Indiana from what they
were doing. And then on the other end,
Indiana not really being able to get into the offensive flow that
they wanted on most possessions, I just, I keep coming back to
when I watch this team play. Fundamentally, they don't look
like they either look like they don't know what they're supposed
to do or they don't believe in what they're doing, and they
don't necessarily completely trust the people that they're
playing with or the system that they're playing in.
And I'd love to come to some kind of a different conclusion.
But more often than not, as we've looked, you know, Indiana
now has lost six of their last eight, you know, and you go back
to, and even really if you want to extend it, they've lost seven
of their last nine I think it is.
Or maybe it's seven of their last ten, maybe seven of their
last ten. Starting with that Rutgers game,
they've really struggled, even in the wins.
I mean the wins there. They had a 12 point win against
Minnesota, which was pretty close in the in the second-half.
They had the Iowa win that they almost gave away and they had
the Ohio State game they had to come back from.
Literally. I mean, two of those three could
have been losses. And it's the same thing over and
over again, where fundamentally Indiana struggles with the
execution of the basics of whatever the system's going to
be. And they also seem to struggle
in the areas where, as you said, it's just practice.
I mean, again, for Indiana to lose a game by 4 and miss 9 free
throws in the game is it's like, well, like this has been a
problem all season. How many games have we talked
about that where it's like, well, look at the margin of law,
so Oh well, look at the free throws that Indiana missed.
And yet you get guys walking to the free throw line.
And I mean, even Mackenzie and Bacco, who was one of the best
shooting free throw shooters, at least among new players in the
country earlier in the season, he was 5 for 8:00 today.
I mean that's he makes all three of those that he missed.
It's a one point game at the end, not, not what it ended up
being. So I don't know, Scott.
I mean, it goes back to to what you said earlier about this idea
of, you know, what is, what is the foundation, what is the
structure of where the program's at right now.
And This is why I guess we perhaps got so pessimistic on
the last podcast that you and I did together.
Because when I see that kind of performance on a Sunday packed
house, you got a crowd waiting for some reason to get excited
and you just, you can't. It's not even that you can't get
it done. Like you don't even come close
to getting it done. And you can't really even take
the last couple of minutes that seriously because that was just
not representative of how the rest of the game went.
It really does make me wonder, like what went so wrong that,
you know, last year Indiana was in these positions and they
figured out how to win these games more often than not.
This year the exact opposite is happening and it's really
jarring to watch given, as you said, there's plenty of talent
out there. It's not like it's not like it's
a a team that is bereft of talent and and struggling, but
the talent isn't performing and that is cognitively hard to get
your head around. Yeah, I mean, yes to all of
that. And like, I don't, I I mean, I
I, I hope it turns around. I always joke hope is not a
plan. But like, I don't.
I don't know. I don't know how it turns around
at this point because now it starts coming fast and furious.
Like you, you don't have a week off anymore.
The games start happening. You have, oh, you only have
three more home games. They're against, you know,
Wisconsin and Michigan State, who are markedly better than
this Northwestern team. The other one is happening in,
what, 3 days? And it's against Nebraska, who's
also statistically better than this Northwestern team.
And then the rest of them are on the road, not as great of teams
you're playing, but those are all Rd. games.
And you know, well, they they've all got something to play for.
I mean, most of them do. I mean, you know, Nebraska's
literally. I mean, they're in the thick of
playing for an NCAA tournament bid.
You know, I mean, Penn State isn't, and that's going to be an
interesting one. But Penn State seems to be
playing for, like, building a foundation.
Wisconsin. Wisconsin might be the easiest
game left on the schedule given the way that they're playing
these days, but it's hard to envision Indiana turning it
around and, you know, being 13 points better or more than they
were when they played at Wisconsin a month ago.
So yeah, it's. It's, I can't get that.
I mean, we'll still do this. It's just like I can't get that
invested in the team that is like going to, you know, kind of
going through the motions themselves.
And the team is going to probably be in, you know,
fighting to get the NIT. And like and to your point about
building a foundation is like, all right, what are we building?
Because, you know, there is a, you know, you and I are getting
older, unfortunately. But it's like every year I can't
continue to buy. And it's like, all right, we'll
meet Liam Mcneely. He's the solution.
It's like, all right, I mean he's a five star.
Mackenzie and Bako was a five. I know they're different, but
it's like Khalil Ware was a five strike.
We're getting talented guys in here.
It's not working. It can't just be.
Every year this feels like a, you know, a Ponzi scheme where
it's just like every year it's like, oh, no, no, wait, next
year. That's the five star guy.
That. That's the one we got to do.
By the way. Keep your varsity club
membership up. Oh, and by the way, we got to
fund nil. Like, at some point it's like,
hey, at some point this needs to turn around.
I know it's it's just one year. It's a bad season.
But you know that that's where I'm at.
I do have one other I have a very large take on the apathy I
want to get to, but I don't want to take us.
Too far off right now. Well and and I'll say this, I
mean I think it's I I know you're kind of focused on the
the broader picture and and rightfully so.
No, I mean I think it's worth mentioning but I think the thing
that's most disheartening to me right now is it's not just that
the players don't seem to grasp what's going on, what I hear out
of Woodson's mouth and I just have to start taking it to face
value. It does not appear that Woodson
seems to understand why his team isn't playing better and why
they're not winning games. I mean his comments at the after
today, I don't think he should have criticized Malik.
Renew. Renew didn't have a great game.
But why? Why do that?
Like why? Why Why say, well you know Renew
sucked postgame. It it serves no purpose and it
kind of misses the larger point which is that OK, he didn't have
his best game. Other people were stepping up.
Was he the reason Indiana lost. I think that that's pretty harsh
if if that's what you're arguing.
But the rest of the comments I mean you know the comment like,
well I haven't gotten a full 40 minutes yet.
Like what does that mean? Like your your team hasn't
played a full 40 minutes. Well, you're the coach.
Why don't you tell us why you you haven't gotten a full 40
minutes. You know he talked in the post
game about all these open shots that Indiana supposedly didn't
miss. I was at the game Scott.
I I I know you were watching on TV.
Maybe you had a a better angle than I did.
I didn't see this, this, the plethora of open shots that
Indiana missed, like, it just feels.
And look, I postgame comments, in the heat of the moment, there
aren't always the clearest, but we hear Mutson talk on his radio
show. We hear him in the postgame, We
hear him in availability. It does not feel like his words
indicate that he fundamentally understands why his team isn't
playing well. And that to me, of all the
things that combined with the fact that the players just don't
seem to have a lot of cohesion, is really, really concerning.
And there doesn't appear to be an easy answer for any of those
things. I'll even take it a step
further. It's not even just his post game
comments. It's like the the the team
doesn't seem to change. Like he's saying these things of
like you know we'll hit a have one game, you hit you know 7 or
10, three. He's like hey, we got to start
doing more of that and we just don't.
And it's not even it's like you watch the guys like they are
just not like they they look like they're being trained to
pass it off. You know, CJ Gunn has a good
game. I'm not saying CJ Gunn is the
answer, but like he has a good game against Purdue for CJ Gunn
standards. Woodson says some nice things
about him and then he plays 12. You know what, 10 minutes or 12
minutes against Northwestern today and like has has two shots
and it's like, all right, like, yeah, I mean, the players have
to take the shots, but it's like if if you liked what you saw.
And by the way, we're building a foundation.
Young players are going to be part of that, like maybe run
some sets to get CJ Gunn some open shots.
Like, you're a coach, you can do that.
Like, if again, you're building a foundation, Malik Renew is one
of the best examples you have of a talented player getting better
this season. Maybe don't rip them.
Like, see the forest for the trees.
Like, hey, this season's gone. Like, I don't need to start
firebombing my players right now.
Like, I'll take the heat, I'll take it and build a culture for
that. Like, I'm I'm 100% with you.
But it's like on the court. You don't see things change and
you hear him talk about things and it doesn't change on the
court. Yeah, Well, and and this even
goes back to that Purdue game where it just kind of feels like
fundamentally there's there's things you can say and do as a
coach to indicate to the fans, Look, this isn't acceptable,
right? And I think when your team is 14
and 11 and six and eight in the conference and has just lost a
home game to Northwestern. A, a friend of ours had a a
great stat like this is the fourth straight loss that
Indiana suffered in Northwestern.
And between 1971 and 2002, Indiana only lost in
Northwestern 3 total times. I think.
I think that was the statistic. I mean that's there's some
gravity here, historical gravity to losing another game on your
home floor to Northwestern. And yes, Northwestern is better
than they were in the 20th century.
But this illustrates why people are getting so upset.
Because you're supposed to be Indiana, right?
It's Indiana and yet you're you've lost four games in a row
to Northwestern, who is Northwestern, and to not
acknowledge, like that's a real problem, to just kind of treat
it like it's another game. This comes back to this
mentality issue that we've talked about and it's it is kind
of an NBA mentality in terms of well, OK, we're on to the next
one because there's 82 games where you've only got 31 games
In the regular season. They all matter.
And in a conference set up like this, they matter a lot.
And this was a game you absolutely could not afford to
lose. And to lose it in a style where
you were down 16 points with 6 1/2 minutes left in the game and
your team looked completely lifeless.
And it took your best player fouling out To change your
system to the point where your players looked free enough And
what they were doing on both ends of the floor to actually
kind of make a game of it. And then to come out and say,
well, we lost because our best players sucked and we didn't hit
our open shots. It's like that does not appear
to be a great level of recognition of what the hell
just went on in the basketball game.
And that's what I have felt through most of these games in
this last 10, where I I want to believe that Mike Woodson has a
firm grasp on what's going on with this team and knows how to
fix it. Yet the words that are spoken do
not seem to indicate that Scott and that is both sad and
concerning. I'm going to take, so you were
talking about the kind of the gravity of losing Northwestern
this many times. I'm just going to take this
because I was thinking about that.
And this is what I thought about after the game is like, you
know, we are fans and most people, they know this is an IU
basketball thing. But like, we are fans of IU.
And, you know, there was always kind of that joke that we'd suck
in footballs, we'll get you in basketball, you know?
And I was thinking like, well, damn it, like Northwestern's had
a couple of successes in football, Like like they're
better. Anyway, I just, I came up with
this, so bear with me. But this is like to your point
of where we stand in the Big 10 when you look at the the entire
football and basketball programs of Big 10 teams and and where we
are. And this is part of the apathy
and I think why people are starting to check out across the
board, sadly, myself included, I'm just going to go for like
what are really good seasons. So it's a very last since since
the year 2000. So I'm just going to we're going
to go in order as I found all right football and basketball.
I'll be real quick with this. I like I love it when Scott does
original research and doesn't tell me go ahead please.
Sorry. Well no.
I mean it's it's Michigan won a just won a football title
they've been to a Final four. They've had three Big 10 titles
in basketball. Ohio State won the 2014 football
championship 2012. Final Four has five Big 10
basketball titles. Michigan State has been to the
Big 10 bat football title game three times.
Bunch of Final Fours. Haven't counted up 8 Big 10
titles since 2000. All right, we're going down a
little bit. Wisconsin has two Big 10 titles
in football, 6 total Big 10 title games, two final.
A couple Final Fours. They've been to a bunch.
Purdue went to the 2022 Big 10 football title.
Again. That would have been a great
year for us. They've had five bowl wins since
the turn of the century. They went to the 2019 Elite 8,
and they've had four Big 10 titles.
We get to Illinois, They've had two bowl wins in basketball.
They went to the 2005 final game, five Big 10 titles, Penn
State. They're ahead of us.
A Big 10 football title, 8 bowl wins, nothing in basketball.
So it's like they're doing it all on one side.
Maryland 5 bowl wins, three of them in the Big 10.
Went to a 2002 NCAA title game and beat somebody.
I forget who will do a little research on that.
Sorry, forgive me. I'm going.
Minnesota. 10 bowl wins. Nothing in basketball.
They've had 10 bowl. Any one of those in a great
season. Northwestern, our team, we just
lost to six bowl wins, two Big 10 title games.
Nothing in basketball. Nebraska 6 bowl wins.
We think Nebraska sucks. 6 bowl wins.
The 2012 Big 10 title game. That'd be awesome.
Nothing in basketball. Iowa is above us.
They've been the two Big 10 title games and 10 bowl wins.
And then we get to Rutgers. They've had seven bowl wins, two
of which they've gotten in the Big 10.
Nothing in basketball. What Indiana 0 bowl wins?
Zero Big 10 title games, one Final Four and three Big 10
titles. But that's it.
And I know, I know they're two separate sports.
But like all of this stuff does matter, goes to like, you know
that the XS and Joe's pod, like this stuff starts to pile up.
Like the the the pod you have with Osterman, where like every
coaching failure before, that's the next coach.
Like I started thinking about how like football and
basketball, these things merge together to like there's only so
many years as a fan of a university in these two sports,
you can just continue to get kicked in the balls and watch
every other team in the Big 10 have some level of success.
It's. It.
Really, it's it's frustrating. I get pissed and then I get to a
point where I'm kind of just like, I just want to check out.
Like, I just want to check out and you tell me when we're good
again. And then even in, like again,
this combined universe of football and basketball.
It's like even when we're good, we have the one year we're good
in football. It's like the rug immediately
gets pulled out and now it's like, I'm feeling like that
here. It's like last year was a fairly
good year. It hit a dead end in the
tournament and now it's like the rug is completely, completely
pulled out. I mean, I'll put what you all
just said there in a slightly different context.
I think it's IU fans are among the most loyal.
I know many, some of you in the audience don't believe this, but
they're they're the among the most loyal.
They traveled among the best. There's a real school spirit
that is broad based throughout much of the alumni and students
that make up Indiana and it really does feel like there just
hasn't been a lot of success to celebrate.
You know you still, I mean we saw we've we've seen IU fans at
all the places we've traveled over the course of the last
several years, whether it's bowl games, whether it's you know,
basketball related items and there's just been very little to
get excited about. And you know, look I think
ultimately they're two separate problems.
They're two separate programs and and yet the collective
identity of being an IU fan perversely kind of feels like
right now it's it's among the least rewarding times, not just
because of the lack of success of the two programs in the last
couple of years. I mean, it's a relative.
I mean, last year was again, it was a nice season for Indiana
basketball on the men's side, but it wasn't like you won't
look back at that season 10 years from now and say, wow,
that was a breakthrough year. It was only nice within the
context of the lack of success that has surrounded it.
And I think this is ultimately for me, why the football season
was so disappointing and why the basketball season is be has
become so disappointing. Because in football, as you
said, you have the 2019 and 2020 seasons, you have this big
emotional high and it feels like, oh, something's been
built. And then you realize quickly
nothing was built or what was built was quickly dismantled or
rotted away and what was left was a team that couldn't compete
against the other teams in the conference.
And so you're watching everybody else get better while Indiana's
getting worse. That's what's happening right
now in basketball. You go down the list.
I mean, Indiana was a was a one point underdog on Ken Palm
today. They were I think A2 or 2 1/2
point favorite in Vegas. And I think that was largely
Vegas reacting to the Tiberi injury as opposed to the actual
numbers because I think they were also an underdog on Torvik.
But you look at the numbers right now and and statistically
speaking, if you look at Ken Palm, Indiana is the second
worst team in the conference, Michigan's worst, Indiana's
second worst, and then it's Penn State.
Those are the only three teams that are lower than 77, which is
where Rutgers is at right now in Ken Palm.
And while Indiana has, you know they'd won some games early on,
it kind of feels like that's coming around.
They've got multiple Rd. games coming up left to go.
They still have a really good chance at finishing in the
bottom for the conference down with Michigan who's who should
fire their coach at the end of the year.
If they if you know that they they may not.
Because Michigan's weird. Ohio State who just did fire
their coach. Penn State who just lost their
coach and their best player and is having to rebuild essentially
from scratch with the guy that they had to hire at the back end
of the hiring cycle and Maryland who has no explanation
whatsoever. I'm not even sure how to how to
parse Maryland out but that's the company that Indiana is in.
Oh, and and Rutgers, who's got an offense that looks like it
was like, if this was a if this was an ancient army, this would
be the army that doesn't show up with swords instead of like
shows up with stones that they throw at you.
Like that's that's where Rutgers is at.
Offensively, That's terrible company to be it.
By 9 too, don't forget that. Right.
Yeah, exactly. They they already beat Indiana
handily. So my point is to watch I I
think the frustration from you and from others and I I
certainly feel it as well. Yes, I I I'm appreciative of
what Mike Woodson and his staff did the first two years they
they got Indiana to the tournament they got Indiana to
the second round of the tournament.
These seem like small things certainly things that should be
beneath a program of the the supposed stature of Indiana
basketball. But that's that's how things go.
And then the turn around and have it just dissolve this
quickly and look this bad. And.
And when you're losing home games to Penn State and Michigan
and Northwestern in the same season, within a few weeks of
each other at a critical time of the season where you need those
wins to get to some kind of postseason.
It just kind of feels to borrow what our friend Jared tweeted
out earlier. It, you know, it doesn't feel
like Indiana basketball, at least not what we've been told
Indiana basketball is supposed to feel like.
It just feels like a program that's going through the motions
right now, which I wouldn't have predicted at the end of last
season because it felt like it was on the track and it does not
appear to be anymore. And this is, I'm stealing your
own point, but it's like this was kind of that that was always
the thing with, you know, bringing back a Night Guy is,
you know, that, you know, part of what made Indy obviously what
it made Indiana basketball was Bob Knight and the culture that
he created. So the idea with bringing back a
Night Guy is like, all right, this is somebody who's going to
bring that culture. And like that's going to be, you
know, the the ethic and the feel like the things that are
important. And like, you know, we got to
protect Assembly Hall. And like, we're going to play
with pride and we're going to play tough and we're going to
play smart basketball. That was Indiana basketball.
None of that's here. So it's like that was the whole,
like that's the whole point you bring back at night guys.
Not just because he played for Knights because he he can
instill some of that those threads from that time to here.
And as you said many time like this is just losing to Penn
State at home, losing Northwest. This is just what a normal bad
Big 10 program does. There's there's nothing unique
about this. And I'm not saying that he's got
to turn it around and turn us into a, you know, Final Four
caliber team. Every Knight had some bad years
too but he quickly turned it around and and solved it and but
that, that's me is the really frustrating part is there
doesn't seem to be any of the threads of the the basketball
teams under Bob Knight that I watched growing up in this team
this year. Well look and and it's
interesting you bring that up. I mean because one of the big
criticisms, a fair one I think for the the ending Years of the
Night era was that there was a lack of joy among the players in
the way that they played. Now that came back a little bit
at the very end and I and I always maintain that like what
made me so optimistic that last year that night was there was
that that team actually was they look like they had fun playing
together. They look like they knew what
they were doing and then of course it well we saw what
happened after that. But the that is when I think
about this, what worries me so much is like, you know, with
Woodson coming back obviously in the off season, what's the
argument? Is the argument that this was
just a bad like combination of players and OK, we got to get
new players in to fix that and they have to be different from a
constitution perspective, like they have to have some kind of a
different, you know, motor. That seems kind of harsh.
But if that's the answer, OK, fine.
But what was, what went so wrong this year?
Why was why was this such a situation that, you know it just
it just couldn't work and we couldn't fix it and it and what
worries me I guess is that a lot of what you're going to be able
to do in the off season is going to be predicated on OK, how do
people outside the program feel about coming and playing for
Indiana and stepping into this situation?
And the issue right now is we've only got 1 recruit signed.
You're not going to sign another recruit unless you do a snipe of
a player that's intended to go elsewhere, which you've had it.
You've had some mixed luck with that in terms of those players
coming in and there's been variety of reasons for that.
But at the end of the day doesn't matter, like you have to
have players perform everything, can't be a special circumstance.
Transfers are probably looking at this and saying that doesn't
look like a fun program to play for that.
You know that the the looks on the bench from the assistant
coaches and from the players, like everybody looked bummed,
everybody looked disengaged. And yes, you're going to get
that when you are losing at home.
But it's looked like that a bunch throughout the course of
the season. You know it and and then you
look at the actual play and every time we've talked about
this before, every time something seems to get fixed and
air quote something else breaks. And I just wonder as I said on
the last show, what's the attraction to coming to play for
Indiana going into next year with this being the last thing
that you see where where's the momentum where what's the
message that's being carried. And that's I'm legitimately
curious what that message is. It's like, well things didn't
work out because we didn't have XY and Z, but you're the piece
that's going to make that happen.
Well, I think a lot of players who would be difference makers
are going to have a lot of options and it's going to be
interesting to see how that equation plays out.
So I am really worried about the the overall vibe around the
program and and look we're are we contributing to it by even
talking about it? I mean I guess, but I feel like
we're just kind of observing like this is not Scott and Galen
are are being sour Pusses and are being negative and everybody
else is like yeah, things are fine.
This is where I go back to what I said at the opening of the
podcast. Like the vibe in the arena could
not have been more casual and more, you know, we're going to
wait to see, but we're not going to get excited.
Like that is always a Rubicon when Indiana crosses it.
An individual season that generally portends bad things
moving forward. And that's what worries me.
It's like all of this. There's still X amount of games
remaining. Like that's a real issue.
I know. I'm just laughing because it's
like I I I guess I'm fine like we it's OK that we have the it's
the fans fault discussion in football like that's that's
already been broached like we can't bring this to basketball
that's like wow this has never been the battle like, but to to
hear, I know it's like you're saying it's a scarecrow argument
but it's like I mean again like this is where you know what like
I'm sorry you're as a fan you're allowed to be pissed.
You're allowed to see what you want like IU basketball holds
itself to a higher standard. We do that.
That is why. No, no, no.
I'm just saying like, yes, no. But we we try to.
I mean, like what we if, if we yes, I mean we we try to hold
ourselves to a the. Fans.
The fans do. But if you do, well, yes.
But if you do, then you're allowed to be pissed at a team
that may not make the NIT like that is.
That's not a good season. Like that's just that is far.
I don't. I don't think anybody's arguing
that it's a good season. Well, I know, but I'm just
saying like then fans are allowed to be annoyed and
pissed. I well, I want to go to one
thing you said though about like next being concerned about next
season is to to everyone who continues to to say this, like,
all right, we'll just get guys in the portal.
It's like a couple things here. First off, you know, two of our
top 4 performers this year, Khalil Ware and Mackenzie and
Bako, came as transfers from the portal and we're having a ton of
problems meshing, well, chemistry this year.
So just the idea that that you're going to bring in we're
going to bring in three more guys you know how's that We
don't have a history of showing that we're meshing guys.
I don't I don't know if I agree with that.
I think I think we're has been fine we're I mean we're had a
great game today. Like, I mean, yeah, they're.
Playing fine. I'm saying as a unit they're not
meshing like. I think that's.
I think, well, I get your point. I I do understand what you're
saying. I think the problem is not.
The problem to me is more along the lines of I don't know what
they're supposed to be meshing into and and like there doesn't
the the core aspect of what makes the team work offensively
is not a modern offensive system.
It's it's. It's simply not and.
We keep saying we need to get somebody in the portal that does
things that, like this offense just doesn't want people to.
Do but it but it but. You got to get a point guard who
just shoots a bunch of threes to put in an offense that doesn't
do it, but. See, to me, the more fundamental
problem, and this extends back to last year, is the lack of
defensive intensity and the lack of coherent defensive philosophy
that has now LED Indiana to be a very, very mediocre defensive
team when it comes to power five teams.
I mean, Indiana right now defensive efficiency wise, is
96th in the country. And look, there are worst teams
defensively in the Big 10. You know, in some cases, by some
magnitudes, Michigan is a much worse defensive team.
Iowa is a much worse defensive team.
And Michigan sucks, But Iowa makes up for it because they
have one of the best offenses in the country.
And you go through and look at some of the other teams that
have questionable defenses. Alabama is a great example.
There's 73rd in the country defensively.
They're the number one team offensively in the country, you
know, so they can afford to some degree to not be as good
defensively. Kentucky is not great
defensively. They're slightly better than
Indiana but they're the 7th best team in the country offensively.
So you don't have Indiana has nothing to lean on that or this
is this is who we are. This is our identity and last
year the identity was we have Trace Jackson Davis.
Now that was essentially the entire identity of the team
until Jalen Hutchefino kind of stepped up and you know kind of
co-authored the last third of the season.
I just really I I actively question at this point again I
and I said this last time, what is the selling point for IU how
how do they how do they how does this get turned around.
Look, I I still firmly think Mike Woodson's going to be here
at least another year, maybe more.
And so so be it that, you know, perhaps with his the first two
seasons, he's earned that as much as one can at a place like
Indiana where you're supposed to have these incredibly high
standards as we talked about. But with that said, what is like
where is the what is the what I want to hear like just once and
for all just say what is the what is the real problem?
Because it's none of these things that keep getting
mentioned as the primary thing. It's not what we're missing open
shots. Well, there, there's there's a
lot of functional reasons why that's going on and it doesn't
make a lot of sense. And if it's just that it's not,
oh, we're missing free throws. That is certainly hurting.
Why are the free throws being missed?
Like that seems to be something that could be easily scoped.
What I want to hear more fundamentally is why is this
team not working together? Give us some kind of analysis or
commentary or something from the coach's seat about why
everything's not working. Because I think to some degree
if you're going to have this bad of a season there needs to be
some honesty about why it's not working and why you have a guy
on the bench in Caleb Banks who's DMP now in how many games
in a row? I mean I'm, I'm.
And look perhaps there's a good reason for that.
This is the 6th game in a row that we haven't seen Caleb Banks
at all. You know we've seen Peyton
Sparks. We've seen CJ Gunn is he's not
injured because he's not on the injury report.
What's the deal? You know, there's there's all
kinds of questions about this team and what's going on with
them that I'm really curious about more than anything else.
Because to me that's the seeds that you have to indicate that
you've planted to say, OK, here's what went wrong, here's
what we're going to fix. This is the message moving
forward. This is why IU fans who, as you
mentioned, are starved for some kind of success, some kind of
sustained success, there needs to be some kind of message.
Like, we get it, things aren't going the way they need to go.
Here's the problems and here's what we're doing to fix them.
I'm just not hearing that which really is.
Concerning. Yes.
And the last thing I'll say just about the offseason is you know
this is the bind that I think they're in that I continue to
harp on is you know you just people are like we just got to
get more out of the we got to get another dude out of the
portal. It's like you you got Khalil
Ware like the number of teams out there that are honestly this
dysfunctional that go and get two or three guys in the top 25
in the portal doesn't exist. Like we're probably going to get
more guys like Anthony Walker. Not bad just you're going to get
pieces like that you're not going to get 2 Khalil Ware's in
the portal next year. You just can't assume that.
And then the other piece that just I think people's minds need
to be open to normally on teams like this that look this on.
If we were just watching a you and I were just in Vegas
watching a game and we saw a team without jerseys.
You know names in their jerseys got to talk about jerseys too.
Names on their jerseys. You know, if we saw them, you
and I would both like who that team looks pissed off.
Like I bet that's a team that I would love to poach guys off of.
Like people need to get their heads wrapped around the fact
too. Like you just mentioned Caleb
Banks DMP not picking on him, but it's like a team that looks
this unhappy, that doesn't have this kind of success with a
coach who may or may not have a long 10 year ahead of him.
This is a team that you poach guys off of.
So the idea that we just we just got to get two more pieces like
we might need to do that. We also might need to replace 2
pieces that are already here. Like again, this infrastructure
is just we're just rebuilding everything.
And I think that's the part that is is funny to me.
When I hear people say like all we got to do is just get one
more guy in the portal. It's like we might need to get
five more in the portal because there could be this is just a
team that looks like. I hate to say it because it's
our team, but it doesn't look like a team where everyone's
going to be super excited to come back next.
Year well. And again, as I've been saying
and then we'll wrap up because I know you have to go to dinner.
But yeah, it's it's not the players alone.
Certainly perhaps you need different players we mentioned
earlier. But there's clearly something
not working with this system. And again, the when you got 2
rim protectors and you've got people who should be able to
play defense fairly well and you're 96th in the country in
defensive efficiency. And you're coming off of a
season where you had two players drafted into the NBA and you
were 45th in the country in defensive efficiency with that
group. To me, there's there's a
fundamental problem there that So what fixes and we may not
know, we'll know, I guess, when we see the team again in
November or beyond. But there's clearly got to be a
change in that aspect of things and that ends up being the
starting point for a lot of it. And yeah, right now, I mean it
just feels pretty dire because Indiana is they've been
predictably bad in certain things.
They've been unpredictably bad in a bunch of other things that
we didn't think would end up that way and the vibe around the
program right now is about as bad as it gets.
It's it's it levels that we've only seen a few times right.
You know and and that those times have generally not been
good times. They haven't been happy times,
Scott. So that's that's a big, that's a
big problem. Yeah, Well, and what's funny is
like, I, I mean I understand that broadcasters, you teach
this, you know, I I know what they're doing.
But when you hear, you know, like the broadcasters today
being like, you know, you know, they they show the remaining
schedule, It's like Indiana's got to really start picking up
some wins. They want to you know get a shot
of the tournament. It's like no, like we can you go
to Bart Torvick show us winning out all of our games.
We're not even in the discussion of the tournament like and I get
it like a broadcaster can't say that on February 18th on ATV
broadcast he like, but it's like that's that's what is funny is I
still think there are people out there.
You know there's still a couple games left.
You can get some wins here. You know, it's like, no, like we
went out, we still probably got to get to the finals, the Big 10
tournament. I don't know, like we probably
got to win the Big 10 tournament at this point.
That's our only shot and chip to make the NCAA tournament.
Like right now, to me, it's like this team is just trying to make
to Bay above 500 to make the NIT.
Like that's where they're at. I'm I I think it like what
worries me, is it gonna get even worse?
Because I think there's some fans out there who haven't come
to that realization yet. They're still like, hey, there's
still five or six weeks left. We could still, you know, just
got to get some wins, put put a streak together and we'll be
back on the bubble. It's like, no, we're nowhere
near the bubble. I wish I was more upset.
I'm not. I'm just kind of, I mean, I
nothing that has. Before I'm kind of just.
Nothing that happened today was a shock.
I mean, it would it kind of would have been a shock if if
Indiana had won it to some degree.
I mean, even with the the injury to Northwestern, 'cause, it just
feels like fundamentally Indiana is not connected with each
other, with the coaching staff. There isn't a great system
that's in place that's putting players in a position to
succeed. I don't think any one person is
to blame, including Mike Woodson.
But this whole thing stinks right now and and this and there
doesn't seem to be a great recognition of how to fix it.
And when you think about the reality that Indiana is now,
I've now started this roller coaster where they got to play
it. They played tonight, they got to
play Wednesday, they play Saturday, they play the
following Tuesday, they play the following Sunday, the following
Wednesday, and then the following Sunday.
Like, there's no getting off at this point.
Will they lose all of those? I don't think so, but I wouldn't
be shocked if they did. Given how they looked in this
game, it's hard to see them getting that much more hype for
some of the other games that they've got to play.
I guess we'll learn a lot on Wednesday night at 8:30 when
Indiana takes on Nebraska. Yeah.
Anyway, on that happy note, we'll go ahead.
Any final thoughts from you before we wrap up?
No, I mean, I hate, I hate being in this position.
I feel like I need like I I must say this.
I liked the Chrome football helmet so I'm not complete old
guy yet. I like Oregon with all the I
love multiple uniforms. I like alternate uniforms.
I understand it. Hey I'm a fan of the Indiana
Pacers City uniforms like I am not a get off my lawn.
It's got to be Indiana. I'd be cool if they did uniforms
with names on the back. So I'm I'm.
I'm cool with them trying different colors like it's it's
all I'm cool. I'm one of the cool ones.
I'm one of the cool old guys. Those uniforms sucked.
They were ugly that you couldn't read the name.
Like, if that's where we're going, those suck.
Like, I would much rather go the Chrome stripes.
Like, you can do so many things. Those were hideous and should
just be all thrown into an incinerator and be gone with
like just I'm done with those uniforms.
I just don't. I mean Ryan Cotter who if you
don't follow Ryan Cotter on on Twitter is is a really good
follow. He's a, he's a really talented
graphical artist. He he put up during the game a
mock of what those same uniforms would have looked like in cream,
which is part of the Fear of God color palette.
That would have been great. And they look really they they
don't look great. I I'm not a huge fan of the font
but they they look better than what Indiana wore out there.
It's I will say it is funny every time.
You know, we've been proponents of like, let's where, let's have
a black alternate like this or that every.
Time it goes. Bad.
And every time it goes bad, I I've gotten to the point where I
cannot argue that there is clearly some kind of karmic
force that is saying Indiana, thou shalt not do that.
And the reverse jinx, where it's like, hey, we're doing black
alternates, but we made them for Northwestern.
Like, here you wear the black jerks, right?
I know. I that way I was getting
confused during a lot of the game, 'cause I kept, you know,
kind of viscerally reacting positively whenever a player
dressed in white would do something.
And I was like, oh wait. No.
Yeah. Well, anyway, the kids, the not
the the players seem to dig them.
I will say this, I had the same reaction to you.
I I texted this to a couple of people.
It's like, OK, this is clearly my old man moment.
I I don't like these aesthetically, I don't really
get them. But surely that's just 'cause
I'm old now and the the youth actually dig them and and
actually a lot of the youth I talked to didn't dig them.
So, all right, good Sulavi. Anyway, so that'll wrap it up
for us again. We'll be back.
Tony Adrani's gonna come on here in a couple of days we're gonna
we'll have him on chat about some things we're.
Not going to a black Crimson cast logo.
We're, you know, you should mock one up.
Let's let's see. No, you can't read the font.
It's just a black. Square.
Try that. Let's see what happens.
With the way things are going on Twitter, we might move up the
like, we might get like, oh, this is great, like you can't
see your icon because you're better on X.
This was, this was what was gonna generate our social media
breakthrough. It was like, oh, Crimson cast
went black. This is nice, no?
But anyway, we'll be back later on this week.
We've got that. We've got a couple of some
football content. I think that should be coming
later on this week. And we'll see what happens with
IU basketball. They're back in action on
Wednesday night at 8:30. Whoops.
That's the wrong button. Let's hit that button instead.
Nebraska coming into Assembly Hall.
Maybe Indiana can win that one. We'll see Anyway for Scott, By
the way, big, big game this upcoming.
We will two games for the women at Illinois tomorrow afternoon
at home against Iowa and Caitlin Clark on Thursday, so be sure to
check those out. Anyway, that'll wrap it up for
us. For Scott, I'm Galen, this is
Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks.
On the flip side, bring back the Bison.
So everybody.