Inside the Hall - Latest Comments in The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

tacojohn — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:31:39 -0000

There's some times when I wish Eric Gordon was off somewhere else, and we could enjoy him from afar. Because now I question who is more critical and negative about EJ: us or Illinois fans.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

b_side — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:06:55 -0000

Kris Humphries from Minnesota. He killed us and was just a freshman leading the league in scoring and rebounding (22 and 10).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

b_side — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:03:46 -0000

Uh, didn't that questionable shot win an NCAA tournament game over SDSU? I'd take Vaden over Jamarcus Ellis at our other wing spot any day of the week.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Andrew — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:08:41 -0000

You write "...the thought that Dan Dakich is somehow the right coach for IU for the long-term future is just laughable. Even Dan Dakich knows this." How in the world do you know Dakich feels this way? Did he tell you himself? You really don't think he has any more pride than that? Are you basing this on the fact that he hasn't publically campaigned for the full-time job? I'm sure the majority of IU fans believe he is not the long-term solution, but to suggest that he feels that way himself - unless he told you personally, which i highly, highly doubt - is, to borrow your terminology, just laughable.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Sherron Wilkerson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:46:24 -0000

It was a bad YMCA game, no more, no less

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

briank — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:23:54 -0000

I think if IU could find a way to reconcile with him in some type of way that he would somehow accept it would help some. Thats what people want. Fans would die to see Knight in Assembly to be able to say good bye. That would go a long way into helping. Like you said Kentucky doesn't go after Rupp disiples (mainly because there really are none anymore) but they go after Pitino diciples. Coaching is like horse racing if a winner shows he can breed good you try to stick with their lineage when betting. I don't think there are really any good enough Knight lineage out there right now. At least none that deserver the IU job. I would love soem miracle though that would enable Knight to come to Assembly Hall one last time to thanks and good bye like we should of been able to.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

ALH_00 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:11:03 -0000

That rest is going to be very important. I think we'll see a more focused and energetic team. Whether they pull off a BIG road win, I don't know. IU is better than MSU, but Tom Izzo is a good coach and when's the last time IU won at the Breslin? Ever?

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

ronb — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:54:20 -0000

Maybe Rick wasn't the best example but there are dozen of examples where a good mid-major coach could not handle the big school. I am not for or against anyone. I happen to
think Bennett is a good one to interview. I was just trying to get you guys to understand
what is hot for the moment is not always best. This has to be a good choice this time. We
don't have time or money to keep starting over every 2 or 3 years. We need someone good who will build IU back to where we all want,win,follow rules and help kids get an
education. If that is a good young coach or a seasoned coach I don't care. What worries
me is who's picking!

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Agent-0 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:38:51 -0000

ah...someone else who heard KS say that during the Illinois game!!! Whew, I thought I was the only one that heard that and had issues with it!!! Saaaweeeeeet!

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Agent-0 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:37:22 -0000

DJ was removed right around the 1:00 mark I believe. There may have been less time, but I'm positive he was removed. As far as EJ goes, I completely agree with Postman R's comment about KS and DD letting EJ do his thing just like MD did with Vaden. That was the greatest thing for me about MD leaving for UAB...he took Vaden and his "questionable" shot selection with him. I can't blame Vaden just like I won't blame EJ...at some point the coach has to be the adult and teach these guys how to play as one five-man team instead of five one-man teams. It is definitely a maturity thing in my opionion.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

DC Hoosier — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:28:40 -0000

You're off in a few ways here about UK and UCLA. First, Rupp and Wooden have been retired for over 30 years. Second, each retired, rather than being dismissed. So Wooden and Rupp each decided that his career was over at the school, rather than leaving a lingering distaste with the ending. Third, both Kentucky (with trying to bring back Billy Donovan) and UCLA (with Ben Howland) either tried to or did bring in a coach with previous ties to the school with their most recent hire, although neither was a disciple of their long-retired coaching greats.

All that said, having an IU connection is important to me only in breaking ties between otherwise equally qualified candidates. I wish people would quit bringing up Knight, too. It only makes it tougher for this team and the new coach going forward.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

MPmike — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:25:16 -0000

On Eric Gordon, the most frustrating thing is that we are 28 games into the season and he hasn't improved on his ball handling and decision making. Everyone else has improved a little, even Jordan Crawford has looked better in the t/o department.
Gordon needs to slow down and pick his spots when he is driving to the hole without getting ripped or lose the ball often. He needs to better protect the ball and make better passes when he is driving. There is a lack of just being mentally smart when he is driving to the basket. He also needs to use his ability to shoot more inside of the three point range because he has a nice touch and athletic ability to get his shot over most guards and forwards.
On the Kelvin Sampson issue, at least someone in the media is looking at the Sampson ordeal in a non-bias way. I give credit to Brent Musberger in standing by his opinion since no one else has the guts too. Sampson has not been proven guilty of anything, so you need to calm down, (Postman E) on getting upset on people defending Sampson.

Also, I agree on not hiring Dakich. He has not proven that he can win on this level yet and I don't know if he can. I believe that IU will not go far into this season because they lack the great leadership from Sampson. I hope Dakich and the players can prove me wrong, but I doubt it.
Finally, I like to give credit to Kellen Sampson for staying with the program and being there for the players and for IU. He has showed true class.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Timmy — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:14:10 -0000

We've definitely lacked intensity since Coach Sampson resigned. Double D was in an admin role for a reason.

I don't see uk fans conjuring up the name Adolph Rupp or ucla fans throwing Wooden disciples at us so why IU fans keep bringing up knight to embarrass us is beyond me.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Hoosier_Hound — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:04:09 -0000

I know what you're getting at, but your examples are terrible. The jump the next IU coach might be making is from mid-major college to major college, not from college to the NBA. A better example than Rick Pitino is Dan Monson who took Gonzaga to the Elite Eight in his second year as head coach, but then flopped in six years at Minnesota.

You are off some on Tony Bennett too. This may only be his second year as head coach at Washington State, but it's his fifth year there after three seasons as the anointed successor. He recruited everybody that's currently on Washington State as an assistant, and they all knew he was going to be the head coach by now.

Lastly, since Greenspan is conducting the coaching search, that means there has been a decision made about him. He's staying, and the administration has actually made that pretty clear.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Hoosier_Hound — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:53:28 -0000

E, if you keep posting these threads later and later, before long you'll have to call them The Morning After The Morning After.

The game last night was a brickfest. All those misses along with some inconsistent refereeing made for an unenjoyable game. It felt like IU was playing Penn State or some non-conference nobody. It took a Bassett three and a Gordon putback dunk in the last two minutes to get the crowd to make any noise.

BUT, they won. IU remains tied atop the Big Ten standings for now. The team has a nice rest before they head up to MSU on Sunday. They need to use the time to allow DJ to get up to 100% and to refocus the entire team on this remaining crucial game.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

kelin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:38:26 -0000

TD...I think it is safe to say we ALL LOVE Ej since Day One (thanks hillary), the issue is at what point will we see his progress and him get better at ____________. (turnovers, ball handling, mid range)

If we were to play a REAL GOOD TEAM (UNC, UCONN, Memphis, Kansas, UCLA, Vandy) etc. 7 turnovers would get you beat and as we have seen you can stop EJ, if the 25 foot J ain't fallin...

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

Matt J. — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:29:33 -0000

I don't think it's right, either, but given the amount of "enjoy him now, you won't see him again" hype that surrounded Gordon earlier in the season, I can see how coaches would tend toward this approach to handling him.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

HoosierSmitty — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:27:13 -0000

I think many of us were lamenting Gordon's play last night is primarily because he has not improved his game in several noticeable areas.

I can't say if Gordon is at fault on this or its because the coaching staff, as someone said in an earlier thread, lets Gordon "run wild."

He takes it to the hoop with reckless abandon instead of pulling up for a midrange jumper, he leaps BEFORE he looks, and he continues to whine like every call made in the world that goes against him. He's also much more of a streak shooter than I imagined.

The one place where I've seen improvement is rebounding. He's been much more agressive on the glass, even getting some offensive rebounds (including the monster dunk on the putback).

Is some of the negative attention on Gordon a reflection of the fact that we're upset he'll be gone after this year? Perhaps, but more importantly, it's because we haven't seemn him mature this year the way I think we believed he would.

He started out unstoppable against lesser opponents, and we knew it'd be rough in the Big Ten, but we thought he had the skill set and the desire to refine his game. As it stands, I feel like EJ plays as if this is just a stepping stone to the next level, a move he HAD to make.

In the end, though, we are complaining about the Big Ten's scoring leader...even though he certainly isn't the most effecient player in the Big Ten. He might only be a freshman, but when you're a one-year wonder frosh...you won't get the same treatment other freshman do.

I'm glad he chose IU, but I wonder sometimes if he's realy interested in making the improvements necessary or if he already thinks he's prepared enough for the NBA.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

td — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:02:11 -0000

Would you agree Bob Knight going from Army to IU was one of those large steps you write about. Bennett served as an assistant for several years under his father at Wisconsin, then Washington State. He was Coach of the Year last year, in his 2nd year as a head coach. He was directly responsible for recruiting some of Wisconsin's best players, does Brian Butch come to mind? It's been said he is a lock for the Wisconsin job when Ryan retires. The quality of overall coaching is only getting better in the big-10, if we don't make a good move on our next selection, we'll find ourselves going backward faster than anyone wants to measure. Bennett coaches great defense and that's where all good basketball foundations begin.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

IndianaJoe — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:55:28 -0000

Bad analogy with Pitino here, but I get your point.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

IndianaJoe — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:51:04 -0000

I think EJ thinks that everytime there is contact when he is in the air he deserves a foul. If he initiates the contact, there is no foul hence last night. The fouls that EJ gets are when the defender is out of position. He just needs to learn or find somebody that wants to teach him because the coaches aren't doing shit. I remember a few times in the game when there was 3 to 4 people around him and eventually turned the ball over. Even if he got hacked then, refs are never going to call that foul.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

ronb — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:42:36 -0000

There are hundreds of examples of coaches going from weaker teams to the big boys and failing. They could win in the minors but when they stepped to the majors they failed. For example coach Rick at Louisville. He was great at Kentucky but he was horrible when he tried to jump to the NBA and coached Boston. IU must be careful not to hire a rookie coach from a lesser team and think he will be a superstar at IU. There is something to be said about learning from a Master coach and putting in your time. Look at Bo Ryan at Wisconsin and Tom Iz. at Michigan State they were assistants to great coaches for many years before they got their dream jobs. They will be in the hall of fame someday. There are some guys out there that grew up
with a basketball in their hands,( like Bennett at Washington State), that may do very
well at a top 10-15 school but he only has 2 years of coaching under his belt and most
of his players someone else recruited. IU can't stand another failure and set back because we jumped to hire the latest splash in the pan. I know you want to write Dakich off, but he should be interviewed with others and the Best fit for IU hired. The
idea of Greenspan picking a coach bothers me a whole lot more than hiring Dan.
If IU does not plan on keeping Greenspan why would we want him picking a Coach??
It seems to me that IU first needs to make a decision about him before we allow him
to pick another problem. Coolers heads should be conducting a coach's search not
Greenspan!

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

td — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:41:57 -0000

The people who would pick on Eric Gordon for his flawed game last night have to be from the "the glass is half empty" crowd. Talk about the kids who had a good game. Hell, we won. Why is it when we win there always has be a "but we didn't do this/that or something." Let the coaches take care of that. We should continure to count our blessings this 18 year old kid changed his mind on schools. He gives us a consistant go-to guy when things are tight, goes to the basket without fear, and doesn't get some of calls he should. Yep, he turns it over and it's something that will improve as some of us forget he's a freshman. Check his stats, in the tight games, he usually does better in the second half versus the first., the sign of a go-to guy. In addition, he plays most or all of the 40 minutes of a game and has to be fatigued on some of those turnovers. Cutting down on turnovers can be coached, EJ has a lot of things going for him that can't be.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

kelin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:38:50 -0000

CB I agree but I would wait til the end of the season or after IU is out or some of the candidates we would love are out. Lets make our own search committee share our thoughts via ITH with greeny.

Re: The Morning After: Ohio State v.2.0

CB in OR — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:31:27 -0000

A night of poor shooting, poor officiating and drama. Knight said "if you expect to win at this level you must play well enough to overcome poor officiating". Ain't that the truth. He also told us a thousand times that getting the best shot per possesion was the offense. When we shoot poorly we are not passing enough and trying to dribble out of situations instead of passing out of them. Also, what worries me about Dakich is he will win and gain the sympathy (sheesh yhis is already happening) of fans and wind up doin a Mike Davis on us. ARRGH.

I still say we should lobby a short list of bloggerbball approved candidates for head coach. We are looking to our ITH leadership to organize us against the athletic department, trustee bureaucrats and save our basketball team from being weaseled into another lame coaching choice.