Rivers had a tough year last year! He could become a very valuable player off the bench this year as the Hoosiers try to step up things on the defensive end. This team could be 10 deep this year and in a long Big Ten battle could prove to be a chance to see them in the upper half by season’s end. None of the guards we have rebound better and this alone could get him the PT that I’m sure he’s wanting to have!

Very sound article. Also like CTC comments. We definitely should not write Rivers off. Even though it looked like he spends most of his time these days making beats, he is still obviously our most athletic and proven defender, and the only guy on IU to make Sportcenter top 10 plays, which I think he did twice. We asked to much of him last year putting him at starting PG, that should have been Verdell IMO, but this year there will be times again where I think we need him like you said to get a DREB and take it down the court and get a layup.

Since no one has any expectations of him this year I think he suprises, and helps this team on both ends.

Only thing I would add to this post is that his FT% needs to go up, and that we must remember his jumper got way better towards the end of the season.

I’ll admit, Pritchard was the first post guy who came to mind for me when I read that.

What does this say about how far we have come in a year? This is a guy who we were counting on to be our starting point gaurd last year and we are talking about him as an 8th man this year.

I am not sure if that says good things about our team or bad things about JR.

I agree with your assessment regarding his attitude, which I did not think was very good last year. I just thought that he thought he was above it all. He can be a very good player if his head is on straight, but its wait and see as far as I’m concerned.

I am so freaking ready for this season to start.

I like CW at the high post. If he’s defended by a 3 he can shoot his mid-range jumper over him or back him down, if he’s defended by a 4 he can blow by him and get to the rim.

Not sure how good of a passer he’d be from there, but he would create mismatches, which is what this offense needs.

My hope, for the betterment of team and program, is that Rivers was humbled over the offseason and worked his tail off. That he now better understands his role and what is expected of him and that he’s ready to utilize his skills in an effective way to help this team win some games and improve.

CW was my thought as well, but the only problem is that GMM’s man (or TP’s man) along with DE’s man (or BC’s man) would be on either side of the post, thus clogging the lane for cutters and impeding CW’s clear path to the hoop. You could move DE out to the corner (he can hit that shot) and move TP off the block on the opposite baseline (he can hit that shot), but that doesn’t clear the path for cutters as much as if we could count on TP or DE to take the ball at the elbow. Unless we use that sort of formation when CW is playing the 4 and DE is playing the 5 … I like that a lot, actually, because the 5 guarding DE would be forced to guard him in the corner, thus removing the biggest shot blocking threat from the lane (and hopefully CW could use ballhandling skills to drive around his man).

None of this would matter, however, if Rivers was a better dribbler and made slightly better decisions. I know Crean’s system doesn’t put as much pressure on the PG because the wings handle the ball too, but wow, what a difference it would make if Rivers could be the PG we thought he was going to be. Also, if he could hit free throws, that would be huge since he can get to the hoop, but a 50% clip doesn’t do us any favors (and I know this has been said before, but how in the world can a coach’s son shoot so poorly from the charity stripe? Instead of grounding him for a week, Doc should’ve made Jeremiah shoot FTs for 2 straight hours every day).

Good points, but as you said, both Elston and Capo can shoot, so they would definitely clear the lane a bit. This is why I think Capo, barring any surprises from GMM, should be the 5. He’s just as big as Pritch, but he’s far more skilled offensively and plays with an edge that Pritch doesn’t bring.

Pritch is a great screen-setter, but beyond that he really kills the offense since he can only score from about 5-ft and in. If you have Elston and Capo at the 4/5, then there’s a shooter at every position on the floor, something a team like IU needs since we don’t have a bonafide go-to-guy that can create anytime he wants.

Agree on Rivers. He could make a huge difference is he shows up this season humbled, with an improved game and ready to play his role.

I hear you on the Elston thing, but this would just be one set that they would run, not the entire offense. It wouldn’t be like Elston would spend the entire game in the corner.

On the rotation thing, I just prefer smaller rotations in general. I would start Capo/Elston/Watford and then when Elston came out I’d slide Watford back to the 4 for a bit and bring in another wing. Sort of like this:

VJIII/Hulls
Creek/VJIII or VO
Watford/Rivers or Sheehey
Elston/Watford
Capo/Pritch

With this lineup I’m assuming GMM isn’t ready to contribute and that Rivers has had an attitude adjustment and is ready to play his role. Also that Creek is ready to go.

I heard different things about Pritch. A lot of the message boards were saying his body looked different but his game looked the same. We’ll have to wait and see I guess, it was only a 20 minutes scrimmage. Lots of ball left to play.

PS: I’m so glad we’re talking basketball again. I love following the recruiting, but prefer commenting on the game itself!

Agree with your summary. I would only slide VJ III to replace Sheehey and have VO with Hulls and yes occas JR at 1 also – would try this before the BT season starts then see how it plays out before deciding on the 7-9 man rotation for BT play. I hope you are wrong about Guy – he is the only credible defensive post threat we have and I hope CTC gives him plenty of PT early on.

DE or Guy could set a high post screen and let watford pick either side; screener could role to the block. The guard on ball side of the floor could slide to the corner and opposite guard could slide to the top of the key. The off forward could slide to the lane area about 12 feet out. A lot of movement and offense finding open space on the floor.

It was actually a 14:00 scrimmage with a running clock, so it was more like a 10:00 scrimmage. I don’t specifically recall feeling one way or the other about Pritch at HH, I simply assumed that his physical improvement would be accompanied by mental improvement as well. We’ll get a better idea at “Night of the Living Red.”

It’s possible this discussion could all be for naught if we never put DE or TP or CW at the elbow to run this thing. I think, however, it would come in handy against teams like Wisconsin that typically have 2-3 lumbering big men on the court at the same time. In fact, I’m sure Crean is reading this RIGHT NOW and is taking notes. We’ll probably even get credit in the postgame press conferences.

It’s actually RJ Hunter. Ron is his father, the IUPUI coach.

what time does the dan dakich show come everyday?

Many of us (myself included) had written Rivers off this season after last years mistakes that stood out. After all it’s easy to recall the lows he had in an overall bad season for the team. So thanks Ryan for reminding me about the positives he is able to bring to the team which was most of the time defensive which is something we certainly need help on. You have now upgraded my expectation to cautiously optimistic from wishing an obscene amount splinters end up in his butt.

By bringing him off the bench and relying less on him offensively he can provide good energy and help us make some critical plays. There are several big ten guards we’ll face in which he is our best option to contain them. It’s going to be up to four other guys on the floor to handle the ball responsibly and score to keep him from being a liability. If he can’t do even this VO and Will are able to fill his minutes and a luxury we did not have last year. If he has been working as hard as the rest of the team this summer and can hit some free throws and reduce the turnovers he will earn pt. It’s up to Rivers to make something out of his senior year and I really hope he does.

12-3.

Do you think we’ll be listed as assistants in the media guide?

Off topic: the coaching staff has placed a big focus on Michael Chandler in the past few weeks (McClain at open gym today after other recent visits). Makes me wonder if he is just a ‘backup plan’ for Zeller or if he could be an oversign. If he is able to maintain grades and has the right attitude let’s get him because he can become a force in college. This would give us a great frontcourt next year Chandler, Zeller, CW, Elston, Guy, Capo, Pritch. It will be interesting to watch everything unfold in the next month.

i’m 236% sure that guy will start. they seemed to have tried to feed the ball to him frequently in the limited amount time. he also was an obvious threat on defense. they should have really cut the wii out and added more scrimmage.

He could be more of a Rondo than a Rose. If you want to run he needs to play

keep us updated tomorrow!

Let’s hope that TP’s newer, leaner physique helps his offensive game in regards to having some lateral abilities. Last year, too many times he just dropped the shoulder and tried to bull through, leading to charges–if he can take advantage of his hard work in the off-season it will do wonders for this team.

hmmm Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah, why couldn’t you be a little more like your brother?