Interesting stats from the night:

- CWat had 1 defensive rebound…..in 34 minutes
- VO led the team in rebounds (7) and second in points (16) in 21 minutes
- Creek had 0 steals, assists, and rebounds in 19 minutes
- Hulls gets 17 points (5 for 9) and continues to shoot at a high percentage because he takes good shots
- Jones, Watford, and Creek (8 for 33) do not take very good shots

Frustrating. You have all said what is frustrating. I just wanted to add, once again, that this is frustrating.

Our problem this year is the same as the last 2 but it is getting better SLOWLY. We don’t have any complete players on the team. No matter who you play they all have big weaknesses.

Very few can play solid defense.

Many don’t have a consistent offensive game if they have on at all.

Many can’t create. Others can’t handle the ball when they try.

Too few can penetrate and what do they do if they get in the paint?

Too many can’t hit free throws. Holy crap this is all mental. My daughter could hit a better % when she was 10 than this team and had to jump to get the ball above the rim. Really sad when one of these grown men is lucky to draw iron.

Some have said we are a deep team but the problem is we are deep in 3* players and that won’t cut it at the level we want. When you end up with 2-3 non scorers on the floor at the same time we will struggle against any team. For these 2 games several of our scorers dead in the water.

You can expand on the list but if you graded all of them on all phases of their game there is at least one D in there for each and very few As.

With all of these tweeners I would love to see us run more and press frequently. We have plenty more to bring off the bench. Some of our lesser scorers would probably do better with less 1/2 court and faster tempo like VO and WS.

Play the freshmen more. Play Elston more. Play Creek less till his game returns. Play VJ and TP less also.

Play JR at point and give him a green light for 6-8 drives to the rim to start and if he makes several or makes free throws it might start to open thing up for the others. JH needs to be shooting more this should free him up some. DE and CW should benefit also.

VJ driving is usually too slow to get the others open and it mostly ends up with him shooting. On nights like tonight if he isn’t hitting he forces too many or turns it over. If he gets fowled it is not much different than JR last year. It’s the same as a turnover.

We really need a good center and a PG in the off season but who knows. It would require a free scholarship.

Here it is:

“And after however many games we’ve played, after 13 games, I’m not sure I’m any closer to knowing how we’re going to play than I was when it started. But we may not be a conventional basketball team this year. That’s just the way that it is. Maybe I’ve been a little stubborn with that. But we’ve just gotta come out and figure out what’s going to get us wins and what’s going to get us relentless pressure and go with it.”

Cutter and Ace, isn’t it amazing that kids lack basic M2M principles? Anyway, we couldn’t play much zone with Colorado milking the clock up by 19 points which is why we were in man much of the second half. Zone also has its downfalls, particularly when you are a weak rebounding team (cue the pUKe game).

All good points Diesel. And trailrunner makes some interesting points about a zone press as an option. Might be worth a look (as well as a high post offensive set and, as I’ve said before, a solid pick-and-roll play).
I plan to be live and in person for the Penn State game.

I really hoped we would try to be a running team with the amount of depth we have. Press, get turnovers, and attack the basket before the defense has time to set up.

I don’t think we’re doomed until 2012. That seems unrealistic. Look at how the 09 class has developed since last year and think about how much more confidence they will be able to play with when they’re stronger. Watford and Hulls in particular have both made major steps and possess the ball more strongly as a result, but really struggle against double teams and help because they’re not strong enough in traffic. Hulls has improved a ton since last year and picks up his dribble a lot less. He does still get a bit nervous and trap himself in bad spots sometimes, but I believe he’ll be bumped off of his dribble less next year.

I think the problem with our offense is that too many of the players on it lack aggression, and some of our more aggressive players struggle to pass at times. Watford was a bit confused in the first half and handled the double teaming poorly. He sped up his offense in the second half and managed to get to the line, but Watford can’t wait until the second half to draw fouls. If he had made three trips to the line in the first half maybe another player fouls out a bit earlier and we win. I don’t want to knock him too hard, because I think he’s a real hard worker on the floor and will learn from this. He’s still hitting his free throws at a great rate but really needs to improve defensively.

Vic has the capability to drive the ball to the basket that the dribble drive needs and should be a surer finisher in 2011. I think Hulls has this in him as well but needs to grow more comfortable in his offense before he showcases it.

I’m still in love with this roster and I think we’re going to be a tournament team with Zeller and a stronger, slightly better rebounding team next year.

These two games are worrying, but I think these problems will straighten themselves out a bit as the year goes on. Hulls will begin to look for his offense more consistently, as will Elston and VO. Having our scoring a bit more spaced out should help us get better looks. Hopefully we keep running plays to get Hulls going because he’s our most efficient scorer. I’m really excited to see Hulls run the point next year.

Hopefully he and Watford will develop some inside-outside chemistry as far as passing goes this summer, they could be quite a tandem next year.

As far as this year… we’ll see… Crean is trying to find a lineup that he likes to run consistently and is struggling himself. I’m anxious to see what we have for Penn State on Monday, I think I’m going to get tickets to that one.

that-takes-a-coach clap clap clap clap

I’m sure it’s been said before, but it comes down to this. The team has no answer at center or point guard, and you can’t be successful without the two. You just can’t. You can blame deficiencies in each current players’ game all you want but the simple fact of the matter is that without a reliable player at both of those positions a team is going to be extremely limited and will continue to struggle. This team isn’t much better than last year’s team, and I’m afraid anyone that expected better (myself included) is in for a season only slightly better than last year’s. No NIT, maybe 12-14 wins. Thank God Penn State and Iowa are so bad, because with the way the teams we thought were going to be around IU are playing (michigan, northwestern, etc.) I don’t see how this team doesn’t repeat as 9th place in the Big Ten again. I hate reality sometimes…

is that a britanick reference? if so you are a good man

Frustrating!

…and that’s all I got to say about that.

Diesel if you watch a replay you will see DE on 2 consecutive possessions jog back on D with his head looking down at his own shoes and on at least 1 other occaision jog back. He had some company in CW by the way.

I made a note then that if DE does not want to play D then sit down …………. and I think that is what coach did and I commend him for it

OK. I finally got my ” come from behind ” scheme . Now lets build on it because we will need it.

If I were CTC I would consider the following changes:

+ Stop switching on D, it has become an excuse for our weak defenders to take the “easy” man and leave the difficult player to someone else. JR, WS and TP do not need the switch anyway.

+ Go defensive w every lineup eg never Hulls/Jones/Creek. Always more JR, WS, VO, DM, TP, MR

+ Hulls/Jones need to play w/o the ball to be effective so use JR and Moore at PG. Moore never hurts us on D like the guys I mentioned

+ Throw in the press and the trap during the game no matter the score

+ Dump dribble drive where nobody screens but the big and become a screening team where everybody screens to shake loose our shooters ( study NW )

+ CW must play 70% on the low block and not out in space

Also, I commend CTC for sitting DE. On 2 consecutive plays he jogged back on D looking at his shoes. He jogged back on other plays as well . Anybody , I mean ANY BODY who does not want to play D …………………….sits glued to the bench. That goes for CW as well ………… ANY BODY

Calipari is on the hot seat in lexington, he will have gone two straight seasons with the top recruiting class in the country and no title, no final 4, nothing…..do we want temporary success like that?

I’m trying to find the big picture for this team, after the last two nights.

- The fact remains that few of our guys are complete players. Guys who can play D can’t play O,and vice versa. Bigs who hit the defensive glass struggle on the offensive glass, and vice versa. Guards who are good shooters can drive and score, and vice versa. Except for Watford, the guys in position to score the majority of the time are not good free throw shooters.

- It is frustrating to see the team play a style that does not fit it’s personnel. Whether that style is the “style of the future” or is “what the recruits want to see,” I want the team to compete in and win games. I don’t think we should be starting slowly and playing catchup every game – that’s too much of a burden on a team that has as many quirky flaws as this one. Perhaps it becomes clear pretty quickly that a full court press all the time doesn’t work either, but it just seems to suit this team better than what they set out to do at the start of a game. What is the worst that can happen, since we sure are not winning games against good competition with our current scheme.

- I think the failing of man-to-man this season is that the guys don’t trust that someone else will cover for them if they get beat. Some of this is that guys that get beat don’t work to recover and pick up assignments of the guys that cover for them. More often than not, the guard getting beat just stands there and watches the carnage unfold. Capo wasn’t out on the floor very long last night, but the one positive I saw from him was during a stoppage in play, where he lit into someone after a blown assignment.

- I will say that the basketball IQ of incoming players does seem to be improving with each season, so that’s a positive sign.

I know losing these games sucks, BUT, we are MUCH improved over last year. We are in games down to the wire…which RARELY happened last year. I think coach is still trying to figure out successfule rotations, and, until you have a rotation fail, you don’t know if it will work. I am not going to bash Crean just yet, because we are much better, and let’s face it, they are sophomores…..These guys are playing their hearts out, for the most part, and it is good to see. Let’s focus on the positives, here guys, we are gonna be fine.

As far as successful rotations, I think our guard combinations at any time determine our offensive success. When Hulls is the off guard, he is better. Same with VJ3, With that in mind, Rivers and Moore….yes, Moore.. need to handle the ball and set up Hulls and Jones. It just elevates their game and creates offense for both. Coming off a screen for both of these guys gives enough separation to actually do something with the ball. They just cannot get free consistently (esp, Hulls) without help. If we could get Jones to then drive and at least dish on occasion, we would be much more effective at getting easy shots. When we go down the floor and ELIMINATE offense for our point when Jones or Hulls is running it we have stagnation…. Seems pretty clear to me…..

I dont understand all of the offensive eff. percentages, but I have to think that Elston is our best per possession player lately. I’m not saying he will be all season, but lately he is. We went through offensive lulls these last two games and we never ran a play for DE. He is a matchup nightmare if he is being guarded by a center, so we need to exploit it.

No More Stubbornness. Its the definition of insanity coach. VJ3 with the ball is a square peg and the rim is a round hole.
I just want to see the obvious adjustments made. We must play to our strengths.

Like the colts…We are a passing team with a play from ahead defense. So Jimmy C. and Clyde, if there are 17, 49, 36, or 7 seconds left in the half and we have the ball, we better be passing and trying to score EVERY TIME. That is the strength of that team. The take a knee stubbornness of the past will get you beat.
The same way slow footed man to man will. We have wings who can jump and have long arms, but arent the quickest of foot. So make the adjustment. Try something, and we will all shut up because we know that the talent and winning experience isnt all the way there yet. We had enough to be able to beat these teams though.

Bryan;

+ I agree with the “incomplete” or “flawed player” theory. Every team attacks our flawed skills as well they should. They know they can drive us and they know they can screen us. They do not need much else

+ I agree our skills are more suited to a NW style of cutting , screening , passing and shooting vs dribbling and taking it to the rim

+ I agree and add to your defensive comments that our change to “switching” has enabled some players to never try hard to stick with their assignment or defeat the ball screen. they take the easy route out.

On this last point I urge fans to replay minutes Sheehey plays and watch where he positions himself vs his man compared to Jones or Creek or Hulls. Each of whom always seem to get backed into the screen as if they were screening their “ownliest self ” .

Rivers is quick, strong, anticipates and a genius at breaking over the screen. I doubt you can teach alot of that but Sheehey is doing it with mostly with geometry . This is also why he gets steals and deflections ……………… and geometry can be taught

It seems like we had finally got Elston going the past few games then he gets benched…that makes NO sense whatsoever, especially when you don’t have another post player…..unless Cody has enrolled already and I don’t know about it.

You have VO and Will catching alley oops yet not attempt to use their athleticism in an uptempo game. YET you recruit Hanner Perea who is a one man alley oop…..get ready Hanner those days may be over at IU unless Crean can figure it out. I haven’t lost faith but I don’t have a ton of it either…..

Let’s Face it, Crean can’t coach, don’t blame the players, Crean doens’t have a clue on what is going on during the game. When do you ever see him make a good decision during the game, why didn’t he try going inside to Elston and Watford? Set up some kind a play or screen for Hulls? No all you see is that stupid weave, dribble, dribble and either a poor shot or we lose the ball. Why not sceens , cuts and try passing the ball. And as far as defense forget it, not one player know where he is suppose to be, can this be beacuse all the players are bad or un-coachable?? No, just terrible coaching. We can bring in all the talented players in the next few years but we sill are not going to beat the Kentucky’s and the big ten teams. No not without a real coach.

I thought that might have been the reason but I didn’t want to let myself believe that Tom Crean was a big enough dumbass to pull the player who was leading the comeback because he made one bad decision. Nobody came back to the ball and he had three option 1)Take the 5 second call, 2) Throw a dangerous pass – he chose this one, and 3) Call timeout. He’s a freaking freshman but the coach can’t understand why he would make one bad decision under pressure?

Let’s see, he led the team in offensive rebounds, was second in scoring, was leading the team in steals and hustle plays, and almost single-handedly bringing us back and we change the lineup and put the anemic brothers back in together because he throws one bad inbound pass?

If that’s why he got pulled and didn’t return then Crean is a dumbass and I’m going to stop defending him at all. I hope that’s not the case, but it could be!

I just think everyone has to relax a little bit and give it some time are we better than last year? YES will we be better next year? YES the year after that? YES alot of you were questioning coaches ability to recruit he proved he could recruit. Now u r questioining his ability to coach give him some time. This program was on its ass when he took it over give him 5 or 6 years and then start the witch hunt. One thing is for sure we dont want a revolving door of coaches we will never get top recruits. Everyone wanted top in state talent we are getting it now. Go CTC, GO HOOSIERS!!!

Nice post Grant. I agree with everything you said!

Not me! I was saying that there’s no such thing as a “moral victory” in year three of a rebuilding process. A winning team does not expect to lose. A winning team isn’t happy with just getting close. If they can play with a team for 30 minutes then they can play with them for 40 minutes. If they can make a fast comeback and make up 19 points in 8-10 minutes then they should be beating the team by 20!

There’s still hope that they can pull it together and have a good second half of the season but they HAVE to stop accepting “good efforts” and “our guys never quits” as good enough because IT’S NOT ANYMORE!!!