DISQUS

Tom · 2 years ago

I agree on the need for the high screens involving D.J. and E.J. It's apparent E.J. will be playing more point-guard while Crawford is out and it would be a great time to use the high screen, especially if Stemler has found his 3-touch. He and Bassett could be wings-in-waiting with the attention Gordon and White would get.

Zac Pelz · 2 years ago

Dykes had me until his last comment of the game..."If Eric Gordon would have been on Georgia Tech, they would have won." Simply stunning.

Dugan Fife · 2 years ago

Besides being "blue collar," us slow talent challenged white dudes are also "intlligent."

11DFIFE11 · 2 years ago

DJ White shouldn't be more than 15 ft away from the basket. His 3 pt screens are useless.

kelin · 2 years ago

*DJ's 3pt screens are useless
*I do like his 5 questions about EJ as it relates to his NBA readiness
*I cannot understand why our offense is so 1 on 1. I know our defense will get better but our offense is more of a concern. You will not win in the NCAA tourney playing that offense.

I look at our offense and say to myself....what will happen when a Matt "freakin" Roth gets there, will he ever see a screen? KS please logon and tell us this is not our offense the entire year! Please tell us at some point we will SWITCH defenses!

E-
EJ has a solid mid range game....but given our horrible offense we don't see much of it because of how and where he gets the ball. I saw him torch Franklin Central, Pike etc. using ALL of his game. Our offense makes scoring so difficult.

Finally....I like what Jamarcus Ellis can do...which is ALOT. His jumpshot is shaky but the guy creates so so much with his passing and his ability to score.

Finally #2 I have read different opionions about Mike White last night....the one thing I saw that I like was activity on the glass. Mike Whits is 5'11 255 pounds but he goes after the ball and plays physical.....right now it can't hurt.

David · 2 years ago

I think defense is a huge problem with this team right now. They got run up and down the court for the majority of the game. Their interior defense, especially in the first half, left much to be desired.

I liked a lot of what Stemler did this game. I think he showed great hustle, as always, found his shot and showed confidence in his shot (much more important). But he also left me a little frustrated when an opponents first step blew right by him on more than one occassion.

Kyle · 2 years ago

Dykes might have provided some interesting insight but if I heard "quality road win" or "lead guard" one more time I was going to throw something. Also, I don't watch many NBA games and listen to even fewer but has "lead guard" replaced "point guard"?

Tsell · 2 years ago

Four thoughts:

-DJ only attacks the rim with authority when he has an open lane. I wish he would attack the rim and go to the line sometimes. He is big and quick enough to make that happen.

-Two personnel notes you didn't mention were that Mike White is not red-shirting (WooHoo! We got his scholarship back!), and Crawford got suspended.

-Segue to the reason for only 10 assists on 49 made FGs: our two best passers this season (IMO), Jordan Crawford and DeAndre Thomas, did not see the floor because of a suspension and ridiculous big/slowness, respectively. Those are the only two new players who have built their games on making shots happen for other players. Gordon and Ellis are both good ball handlers when it comes to making shots for themselves, but they do not have much experience with having enough talent around them to have made passing part of their regular offensive diets. Crawford has made more of those type of passes.

-PostmanE, I think your suggestion to have EJ bring the ball up is good, but in addition to EJ not being LBJ, he is no Steve Nash either. He can excellently create his own shot, but like I said above, so far he has not been able to create many shots for others.

Brian · 2 years ago

Two comments -

#1 - IU had 10 assists on only 24 made baskets (49 was the number of attempts not made baskets). That is around 42% of our baskets with an assist. My guess would be between 50 and 60% is where we need to be.

#2 - The statistic that bothered me more was that GT had 17 more shot attempts than IU 66-49. That was due to poor defensive rebounding and too many turnovers for IU. It is tough to win when the other team gets that many more opportunities to score.

That being said, IU will continue to get better and I can't wait to get our senior guard Ratliff back in the line-up. Go IU!!!

Steve O · 2 years ago

Kelvin should show the team a tape of the beat down that took place at Cameron Indoor last night. Duke's offense is like a well oiled machine. Everyone is moving, and it seems like everyone is touching the ball on every posession. I hate Duke as much as anyone else, but they beat Wisconsin by 24... That's one of our main competitors.

Also, Ellis looked great. And why not give the Big D some minutes and see what happens. He might be slow, but underneath, he is a handful for anyone. I think he was in there for like 5 seconds.

One other thing... Why not let Holman get a few minutes? He's raw, true, but he is also a good shot blocker and a pretty good rebounder. We only played 7 guys last night. EJ will never make it a whole season playing all 40 minutes every game. I guess the Crawford situation didn't help much.

Mark · 2 years ago

Our defense has to improve and we need to stop the 1 on 1 offense. EJ is terrible with off the ball defense. He got burned for at least 15 points by being out of position. He's great on his man with the ball, but off the ball is a problem. Thomas played as much as he should right now. He had a rebound taken away from him because he can't/didn't jump. Mike White is good for the team because he plays for the team, not himself or NBA scouts. We are going to see a lot of teams racing back in transition to get easy buckets until we prove we can stop it. DJ needs to keep this type of game going. Bassett hesitated driving the lane on a few occasions which could be the injury. I hope Ratliff can come back soon as his D and long arms will help. We have a long way to go and I'm glad it's early enough to fix the problems. If it becomes Jan or Feb and we are talking about these issues, we're in trouble. We got the win and we needed it. Now on to S. Ill. where we will need to play a complete game to win on the road. Thanks for a great web site!

Craig · 2 years ago

I think we need more explanation around Mike White no longer redshirting and Crawford's suspension. I had seen that he will be suspended for three games. Is this definite? Could it be longer?

With Mike White coming back, isn't this just KS telling us that Holman is not ready and Stemler will never be ready? I can't help but think that if we had Mike White then maybe the Xavier game could have been closer.

Cutter in Chicago · 2 years ago

I agree with almost all of your comments EXCEPT the Jimmy Dykes portion. He was awful. I mean ”If Eric Gordon would have been on Georgia Tech, they would have won.” Really? No kidding. The guy has apparently been torturing Arkansas fans for several years as their color guy. He offered no insights beyond what was prepared for him by the ESPN producers. I couldn't stand him, it was like having a hick read me the USA Today blurb about IU again and again. Further, both announcers spent too much time rehashing the "Phone Gate" issues and editorialized it to death. Fellas, let the big boys at the studio handle that, your job is to do the nuts and bolts and occasionally set a screen to get the lovely Stacey Dales open for us at home.

Ryan_Btown · 2 years ago

1st, I like the site, been reading for a while, first post. I feel the offense will come along better as the season progresses. I know its a concern as of right now as we start playing more talented teams and especially as we begin going on the road, but turnovers killed us. EJ made several really terrible passes to DJ and he looked very, to steal a word from Sampson, "Jittery". I think that will improve as he plays better teams. Hopefully, as the younger kids start decreasing their dumb turnovers, I look for that assist number to go up and everything else to start coming together.

McD · 2 years ago

Yes we need depth work with Eli and McGee, but last night was not the game for that, nor will Saturday unless it is a blowout.

I can't believe we are still hating on Mike White and Lance Stemler after last night. They both contribute energy and toughness and are solid team players. Yes they have their deficiencies physically a la Eric Suhr, but had solid games and without the play of either, we lose.

We need more from DJ White. He is supposed to be our senior leader, so when the team is playing defense like their senior captain (jogging in transition, poor rotation, allowing splits, weak post defense), I have to point to DJ. I taped the game last night so was able to rewind several fast breaks from GT and see DJ jogging down the floor when he could have rebounded a second chance basket or defended a 2nd or 3rd pass. SPRINT BACK!

Bottom line is this team is slowly getting better, expectations were too high, and we will be thankful in B10 play for the humble pie Xavier gave us early in the season.

DB · 2 years ago

I agree with Cutter. Dykes WAS awful. Did anyone else catch his comment about DeAndre in the first half that basically boiled down to a claim that "people of DeAndre's size" (i.e. obese people) are either jovial jokesters or shy losers? My jaw dropped.

PMK · 2 years ago

I found only two times the high screen and roll was run with DJ in the 1st half, once with Gordon and once with Ellis. At the 9:45 mark IU ran a set play (oh boy!) with DJ screening for Gordon at the arc, Gordon coming off it and dishing to DJ for a jumper perfectly within his range. At the 8:55 mark, we run another high screen on the opposite side of the floor with DJ and Ellis, DJ draws two defenders rolling off, and Armon is about as open as anyone will ever be in college basketball. He misses, but Lance is fortunate enough to have had his man helping on DJ so he gets an easy tip.

I think those suggesting DJ shouldn't set high screens should watch the success of both of these plays and reevaluate.

Credit where its due - "Blue Collar/White Jersey" Lance made his shots, so congrats to him. However, his defense and rebounding looked like that of a undersized, nonathletic player throughout the game.

DB - Great call on the Dykes comment about Deandre. If anyone wants to hear it, the comment is at the 1:15 mark in the first half. "Guys like that are either in a shell..." Too funny.

kelin · 2 years ago

Ok....here is an excuse I will give our offense right now....

Earlier in the year KS said you have to chose early what you want to be good at Early in the season.....obviously as he said they wanted to be good at Defense first cause he has a lot of players that can get baskets....makes sense now our offense is not up to par but we have guys that can get shots.......our defense is improving, I will be patient.

David · 2 years ago

When nearly all the athletes running the point of attack are all either freshman (Gordon, Crawford) or first year Juco transfers (Ellis), I think it is understandable that we are going to have some offensive issues.

I'll agree with others before who have said that the real concern on offense isn't what is happening now but it will be a concern if this type of play continues in Feb and March.

MKH · 2 years ago

Brian:
"#2 - The statistic that bothered me more was that GT had 17 more shot attempts than IU 66-49. That was due to poor defensive rebounding and too many turnovers for IU. It is tough to win when the other team gets that many more opportunities to score."

Yeah, okay, but let's not forget that we took 18 more free throws than they did too. That shot disparity is not *all* bad.

ALH '00 · 2 years ago

"...but they do not have much experience with having enough talent around them to have made passing part of their regular offensive diets"

They are constantly passing off of their drives to the bucket...sometimes the bigs are ready for the pass, though. That chemistry should improve with time. Plus Gordon probably should slow some of his rocket passes on the breaks...not everyone has his hands and coordination.

I also agree with Steve O on Holman. I thought last night would have been the perfect opportunity for him to eat some minutes, with GT's running style. They rarely scored back-to-the-basket, so there is less of a body match-up problem there.

Finally, I guess it was "good-Stemler" for everyone last night. The criticisms are much less harsh when you drop 15. Still, I though I heard the crowd really cheering when he came out of the lineup with about 15:00 to go in the 1st half? Poor kid.

mark · 2 years ago

I was at the game. I don't think there were ever any cheers because Lance came out of the lineup. May have been cheers for his effort. I can't recall that point in the game though.

Kyle Trowbridge · 2 years ago

Dykes was awful last night. He just seems better because he isn't Vitale. After the 1st half I had to switch it to Fisch and Leary.

ESPN commentators are by in lage awful, and Dykes is one of them.

slojoe · 2 years ago

Craig, although ESPN was reporting an indefinite suspension, Coach Sampson said 3 games. But I think White not redshirting was only partially due to the suspension. We did need another body with the suspension but AJ is coming back in 3 games and he is in the backcourt like Crawford. I think Coach Sampson has just had enough of our lack of interior defense and problems blocking out and rebounding. These are things that you know Mike White will give us. Yes, he will miss bunnies and have problems guarding taller and physical bigs but he can give us those two things which we don't apparently have at this time with Eli and Thomas.

ray · 2 years ago

yeah...dykes drove me insane. i couldn't stand listening to him talk again and again about quality road wins!

as for the play of gordon, again he played completely out of control in the first half.

the best part of last night's game, besides dj getting 18 and 14, was that they won...oh yeah, and that coach made a brilliant decision to play mike white (even though by now he lost 5 games of his senior season)...and i guess one more thing, ellis impressed once again.

ray · 2 years ago

as for the cheering of stemler leaving the line up...fans appreciated his effort last night...that's what fans do when a player plays well and gets sent to the bench for a much-deserved rest.

ray · 2 years ago

MCD

you are exactly right about dj, but unfortunately it's nearly the entire team that doesn't sprint back! that, as i've stated in previous posts, is all about conditioning or a lack of desire...either way, there education is paid for because the university and its fans expect this type of effort. so MCD, i agree...SPRINT BACK!

Dylan · 2 years ago

It was a toss-up which was more frustrating: IU not rotating to prevent numerous easy jams or Jimmy Dykes gushing about GT. He began with Sampson's infractions, and what other coaches thought. Kept talking about Crawford being suspended. As for the game, he either talked about Gordon or Georgia Tech. At the end, he saw time was running out, so he tried to get all his final insults in before they cut away. But he got on my nerves way before that. "I'm not convinced IU is better than Georgia Tech." Why not just say "GT really came in here and gave it all they got."? I think all ESPN announcers were told to be at least a little anti Big Ten now that ESPN is competing with the Big Ten Network...

Indiana Jim · 2 years ago

Who is EJ?