Comments on: Crean talks newest 2008 recruit, Malik Story

By: BGleas

BGleas — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:50:25 +0000

If it's style then Crean can get us back on the national landscape, but not over the top. You absolutely need depth inside to win a NC. And not just role players, you need at least 2 quality big men.

By: JerryCT

JerryCT — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:52:02 +0000

I agree with you guys. Marquette and Nova both got hurt w no bigs and no depth in bigs. I hope its not a style.

By: pacino

pacino — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:28:31 +0000

Ur absolutely right. In a way I think it is a cover up for the challenge to bring in a immediate impact big. Of course every coach wants an all star big. The plain simple fact is IU has struggled recruting a class with depth at the big man position for years. DJ really had no other good big men to play with his whole career at IU. There was that one year he could of played alongside Marco Killingsworth, but then Like IUs luck DJ got hurt.

By: B_MD

B_MD — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:50:25 +0000

If it's style then Crean can get us back on the national landscape, but not over the top. You absolutely need depth inside to win a NC. And not just role players, you need at least 2 quality big men.

By: JerryCT

JerryCT — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:52:02 +0000

I agree with you guys. Marquette and Nova both got hurt w no bigs and no depth in bigs. I hope its not a style.

By: pacino

pacino — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:28:31 +0000

By: B_MD

B_MD — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:17:56 +0000

I still think we need more #'s as far as big men, but if someone like Pritchard ends up being much better than projected, then that would help a lot, especially if Elston heals nicely and we sign one more big in the '09 class that is ready to play immediately.

A lot of people say we don't need big men because of Crean's style, but I question whether small ball is his style or if that was just the type of player he could recruit at Marquette. I've never heard of a coach that didn't want talented big men.

By: JerryCT

JerryCT — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:53:15 +0000

I too am not so sure what to think about what we have but lets look at Marquette's team last year for guidance:

James 5'11", McNeal 6'3", Matthews 6'5", Hayward 6'6", Acker 5'8", Cubillon 6'0" and Burke 6'8" with another big I forget

compared to

Jones 6'3", Dumes 6'2", Williams 6'5", Taber 6'8", Pritchard 6'9" , Jobe 7'0", Story 6'5"

I think we is creating a very similar team to last year's squad.

One thing I DO know is that Pritchard WILL NOT be a role player. He was Cleveland Plain Dealer's POY and may turn out to be the best player of the bunch in either class. He is a banger

By: B_MD

B_MD — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:51:17 +0000

I wasn't talking about landing a bunch of big men in the '08 class, I'm talking about '09 where it is reported that there are a few bigger players considering IU, but as of right now (unless my #'s are wrong) we only have 1 scholarship left.

I won't complain about 5 6-8+'s because you need that many big men to win. And, It's much more than 5 perimeter players. Add in the PG's and in '09 we're slated to have 8 perimeter players. Where are all of these guys going to play? I guess we hope 1-2 transfer.

I don't mean this as huge knock on Crean, I'm very happy to have him and I understand we're in a tough situation. Maybe these 3-4 bigger players that are considering IU next year aren't giving the vibe that we're tops on the list so Crean is getting the talent where he can. That's totally plausible. I'm just asking the question, because it seems with the numbers that we have another 3 years or so of being pretty light up front.

By: Disco_Briscoe

Disco_Briscoe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:31:21 +0000

There is no problem having all these 6-5's on the team. Yes we are small this year but you can't start to recruit late and plan on landing a few 6-8+'s. All these guys are here to bring in a good attitude and competition. The better players will sort themselves out, some will leave, and some will realize they are role players and be on the bench. It will play out fine, give it time. We will hopefully have one more big (SVT?) coming in next years class and then we will have 5 6-8+'s. Will you say thats too many next year?