DISQUS

Tom · 2 years ago

Give these guys a break.Don't judge their defense until at least 10 games are played--otherwise we could fire the coaches. You are somewhat spoiled.Mistakes will be made--that's OK if they do not carry over into February and march.

PB · 2 years ago

They will definitely step up the defense tonight. We have too much athleticism not to. Although we have shown excellent explosiveness on offense, that isn't an excuse to slack off on D. Sampson doesn't allow slacking off, and if someone does, expect him to be benched until better defense is played.

Indiana 90
Chatanooga 63

Just a guess. A wild, unintelligible guess.

John · 2 years ago

Kentucky won their opener, but lost the next night.

ray · 2 years ago

i agree with what has been said. iu isn't playing up to their potential on defense. if they can continue to score 112 points a night, defense may not be so important...but i can't imagine they can sustain the offensive dominance throughout the season. i also agree that coach sampson won't put up with defensive slackers during the regular season. i expect the defense to become incredibly good with the talent on this team. they will challenge each other for playing time based on defense, so expect a lot of improvement.

ray · 2 years ago

completely off the subject...does anyone wonder if sampson will begin bringing mcgee into the rotation before the second half? one night he had 12 points and 6 rebounds in 12 minutes. next night, 18 points and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes. i could be off on these stats, but he has played some highly prolific minutes already.

Bleeding Crimson · 2 years ago

Big A,
I really don't think Kentucky has the depth that IU has on the bench. Sou Cal only returned one Sr and two Jr's the rest are So/Fr. Of course they have OJ Mayo and a few others. I'm really not worried, I know our guys are young but I do believe that they are truly more talented then most teams incoming class, esp when you figure in the Juco's. BC's prediction:
IU 106
Chat 72

ray · 2 years ago

i have a question for anyone who has an answer? is basset expected to play tonight...does anyone know what happened or how severe it is? i think he is going to be a very strong leader on this year's team. he has obviously worked on his jump shot, and he is very impressive when driving to the hoop and finishing. he will thrive this year due to the attention given to gordon.

ray · 2 years ago

another complaint i have with the squad so far (besides the lack of continued defensive pressure) is that i feel like they aren't getting the ball down low enough to get the bigs involved. would anyone agree? maybe it's the defensive sets that are causing them to shoot from the outside. i also noticed a lot of inlet passes that quickly became outlet passes, and why not if your team is shooting nearly 50% from behind the arc. just curious, does it seem like dj is getting too few looks?

ray · 2 years ago

i expect much more defense, and i'll call it:

iu 98

chat 64

Luke · 2 years ago

Wow we moved up to number 8 already and we haven't even played a game yet. I say IU 95 Chat 62. And EJ drops 32! Go Hoosiers!

Bleeding Crimson · 2 years ago

Ray,
I read somewhere that Basset twisted his ankle and is expected to have limited play.

Hoosier Hound · 2 years ago

I'm looking for rebounding tonight. In both the exhibition games, IU was just out-jumping the other players to get rebounds. That won't fly tonight, Chattanooga has some big bodies. I'm not worried so much about the defense. I think the points we gave up in the exhibition games were more a matter of the number of possesions the other teams had because IU was scoring so fast every time down the court. The only real qualm I had with defense was that there were a few occasions (not many) when I felt the attitude was, "so what if they score, that just means we get to play offense and score again." They can't EVER have that attitude.

Indiana 92
UTC 74

Big A · 2 years ago

Crimson,

I agree with you. UK is thin up front and USC is very young. I'd like to see better defense tonight and if that happens, we should all be happy.

jaime gongora · 2 years ago

Man I feel like a kid just prior to opening my gifts. 26 minutes and counting. Chips. check, Jersey. check, about to watch a kick butt game. Double check. 21 minutes and counting.

Luke · 2 years ago

I'm looking foward to seeing DJ play some real minutes in the exhibition games he really didn't seem to play that many minutes. He seemed to be moving better than ever and his foot has totally healed. I expect very big things from MR. White this season. Also am wondering how Eli, Crawford, and Mcgee will perform tonight? I belive the defense will look a lot better tonight than the last two games. And EJ will have another steller performance tonight and will begin his way on being the freshman of the year in the big ten and the country!

kelin · 2 years ago

I sit here and listen to fish on the radio and get more pissed....not at him but at this whole BTN Comcast thing.....after years of watching IU I can't believe I am missing a game because of this squabble. The good news is going to chi town for the chi-town tourney.

Luke · 2 years ago

Another fastbreak basket our boys can flat out get out and run.

jaime gongora · 2 years ago

We need to play better defense. It will come in time, but its not fun to watch an open three. They are shooting lights out behind the arch. Good offense though.

jaime gongora · 2 years ago

Block out, the bigs should not extend so far beyond the arch, and what the heck is Lance stemlar doing? He's given up four very open threes. Come on guys, they are ten times better than this. Fight hard and bunker down.

Luke · 2 years ago

man gotta play some defence. DJ can't get his shot up without getting fouled wish he would make two in a row once.

Craig · 2 years ago

My first half thoughts:
-Our defensive rotation is slow and has lacked effort.
-The announcing of this game is awful. When Gordon goes up for a layup and misses off the backboard, it's a missed shot, not an "allyoop".
-Let's continue to see Thomas and D.J. get the ball on the low block. When they have gotten these opportunities, they have scored efficiently.
-Why does Kelvin love seeing Lance Stemler out there? He has gotten burned on defense several times, brings nothing to the table on offense, and is undersized.
-Is Mike White redshirting this year? Is this a foregone conclusion?
-I predict by Big Ten play our starting 5 is Bassett, Gordon, Crawford, Thomas, and DJ.

Luke · 2 years ago

Well my giving up 62 points was way off almost gave up that many in the firs half! Your right on Craig Stemler is playing bad and the announcer with Laz is terible he hasn't said anything relivent to the game

kelin · 2 years ago

I think Mike White is redshirting. Is AJ on the bench?

kelin · 2 years ago

Has Brandon McGHee been in? Get Stemler out....

PostmanR · 2 years ago

Kelin:

Yeah, the H-T is reporting he's on the bench:

http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=996#...

#1 FAN · 2 years ago

Nice blog and great fans. I'll have to start jumping in guys. Can anyone tell me why KS is not playing McGee? Last game he played second and not even all of it and scored 18pts. I agree with Bleeding Crimson we are just too deep. Oh, by the way why do we have a KY link on this page?
Luke I agree with you about Laz announcing abilities. Craig, Mike White will be red shirted and tonights score would be more if we rotated a little more.
IU 104
Chag 82

kelin · 2 years ago

I really like McGhee too #1 fan and based on what I am "hearing" stemler isn't doing a damn thing. He can't do any worse. Hell why isn't Eli in....I guess everyone can't play but there seems to be a rebounding problem by IU and stoping the Mocs post players....I will let KS work it out....

Luke · 2 years ago

I wasn't talking about Laz I think he is decent sometimes But the guy he is with is terrible.

Luke · 2 years ago

#1 FAN, Good to have over here though should be a great season.

Big A · 2 years ago

Fan,

We link to other blogs with good writing, despite the fact that we can't stand Kentucky.

#1 FAN · 2 years ago

Luke, I meant the same thing. I don't know the guys name either but I think Laz first name is John who played for IU years ago. We like him. The other guy doesn't talk much detail or history about the game and IU. Bring on Todd L...Good game. It looked as if KS did fix the D problem or we were just too deep and they ran out of gas. I was starting to think that KS was going to redshirt McGee & Eli.

Big A, just curious about the KY link. I can't stand KY. I live in southern Indiana and have to read the KY Journal (JC).

Keep up the good work. I love the up-to-the minute news with this site.
fan

kelin · 2 years ago

Fan I think Eli is still raw but will play a LARGE role come big 10 season. I know KS wanted B-Mac to pick up his intensity in practice. HE is young I hope he continues to work his time will come at IU. I am going to stay positive about those two guys cause I think they could really help.

jaime gongora · 2 years ago

Much better in the second half. We still need to work on defense, but I think the players will see that when you have strong defense the offense will be much better.
Lance stemlar needs to cover his man, and I really do hope that Mcgee and Homan develop there game so one of them could start or take a lot of time away from Stemlar.
Eric Gordon lived up to the hype by breaking the freshman premier game scoring record. What makes him so great is that he gets his points, but is great at every aspect of the game.
Jordan Crawford played pretty well. I don't know his line yet, but he handled the ball pretty well and was not afraid to take it into the basket.

Luke · 2 years ago

Cool #1 FAN sorry about the cofusion. And yes Laz first name is John. And he is good and has been doing IU games for a long time.

dabig · 2 years ago

Gordon set a record for frosh scoring. Big deal. That might be important, if IU had ever had any frosh with any talent. Hey . . . wait a minute . . .

ray · 2 years ago

BC,

thanks for the update on basset. i'm glad to see it was nothing much, and even more glad that he was able to play minutes (high quality minutes). i'm really excited about basset, he is going to be extremely important to this team.

now, i just have one other wish...that someone watches over dj tonight. that was quite an impact (even in slow-motion his head bounced off the floor in light speed).

ray · 2 years ago

dabig,

what is your deal? are you kidding?

ray · 2 years ago

jay edwards, daman bailey, steve alford, calbert chaney, isiah thomas, jared jeffries, alan henderson,

wait a minute...you have to be kidding dabig...and if not, it's not worth even trying to walk through this with you.

ray · 2 years ago

i have often felt let down by lance as well guys...i mean considering he was juco player of the year and all, but we need to stand behind each of our players (as well as the coach for choosing his role players). after the opening of the season last year i had as much hope for stemler as i do ellis. something happened after the concussion though, and i haven't seen the same player since. i think that is where the let down comes from. either way, he's a hoosier and i'm here to have his back. i think there are other players that would be more effective if given more playing time, but let's cut out the hate. he must be doing something to impress coach sampson in practice or he wouldn't be out there. i wish we could keep things a bit more positive, but i understand the frustration as well.