You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cascail and Clavio. Scott Caulfield back again on the airwaves. It is the 18th of February. It's Sunday. We are in the aftermath of the Indiana loss at home to Northwestern. It just ended, what, an hour ago Scott. Maybe slightly more than an hour ago. I was at the game. Scott was not.
So I I have some observations from the game that we wanted to get on on tape and Scott had some observations as well. First of all, Scott, how you doing? Good to see you. I'm. Doing. I'm doing fantastic. Good to see you. I was at the NBA All Star Saturday last night, which was, which was fun. I've been watching that for years and it was, it was a good time in in Lucas Oil. Although I will say if anybody who's listening was there, I don't know what it was.
You know, I've been to a humble brag. I've been to a Final Four in Lucas Oil, had no problem getting in and out. I had friends who went to the Super Bowl. I did not go to the Super Bowl. But, you know, it was a great Everybody glowed about the Indianapolis Super Bowl. It was a hot mess down there. Like they only had five or six places open to get in.
Everything else was blocked off. Like, it took us 35 minutes to get in and we're all just like, hey, man, like you do Colts games with 70,000 people and there's only 35,000 coming in and then leaving. It's like they're funneling everybody in these certain areas that you couldn't get out either. And I realized, I think part of it is like, just maybe the NBA took over. It's like a celebrities and a lot of like, limbo anyway, But it's like, dude, they have celebrities at the Super Bowl.
It was just it wasn't fantastically well run and from at least my perspective and the way I tried to enter and it's just it's a bummer because I know that normally Indianapolis self you know, equips itself very well And the little things like we're leaving, it's like we're like we're like, all right we can hit the Convention Center because it's like 18° below all the doors to the Convention Center are blocked off. There's cops there like they're not letting people in there.
It's like hey this is this is a benefit the city has like you have all this stuff connected like, but you can't let people in. Anyway, just sorry, total rant. Off to the side here, but it's a fun event. But it's just like I hate. As a citizen of Indianapolis, I hate having our city not put its best foot forward in an event like that. I mean, the weather didn't help much last night, but yeah, I I hear you. It's it's always tough and you never know.
There's always things going on that you don't know about behind the scenes, you know, I mean, and look. But you've had great experience with this, leaving IU, sporting events over the years like you. You should be used to this by now, right? That that's fair. Being funneled all into the wrong area and being told no, it's the it's the cop, it's the Bloomington police. No, it's the IU police. No, I shouldn't. And that's why I've stopped going to as many games.
I'm tired of dealing with the like I've got to like. I now get the I've got to leave early because it's like it's not my fault. It's the IU parking's fault anyway. Anyway, before we get started, just a couple of reminders folks. We are brought to you branching. On the On the Yard podcast, we'll go to. Right. Yeah, I was gonna say, you got your own podcast for that.
What are you doing? God, no. If you haven't, by the way, be sure to to subscribe to write up Meridian, the NBA Pacers podcast that Scott has been hosting. You'll hear a lot of your favorites from around Pacers coverage there and Scott has some great thoughts on the Pacers and what's going on with the team. It's going to be a fascinating they move, they shoot, they win. Good times, I know, so be sure to check that out. An extended part of the back home network.
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But so many other shows on the back home network. We're all brought to you by Home Field Apparel. Your place to go for the finest in college fashions. The the finest fabrics, the coolest designs. Not just college Scott. Today Home Field announced something near and dear to both of our hearts. They are getting in full time to the racing biz. I I'm always excited because a former student of mine who works for Dryer and Reinbold bought me that Dryer and Reinbold shirt
that Home Field put together. Which is awesome. I wear that all the time. But this is taking it significant steps further. They've got an Arrow McLaren shirt or set of shirts coming out. They're going to have a huge Indy 500 collection, which we got a chance to take a look at. They're going to have a huge little 5 collection. I mean, you know in Indiana, the chances that somebody in your family or you, the listener like racing pretty high and this is going to be for you.
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So check it us out on Sub Stack crimsoncast.substack.com. All right. So, Scott, I should probably get started on this. You were there. I'm really curious your thoughts being there in person, seeing this, this team. So I was first of all I wasn't originally planning on going and I want to thank my friend Nicole for she had an extra ticket and so I sat with her and her parents and we we we took the game in. This was this felt like a weirdly momentous game to be at
because the vibe was dead. Like from the outset. It was just, and it was a shame. There was some nice intro videos. There was one I hadn't seen before that and then you have the regular intro video which is outstanding. And then the game started and I mean, we might as well have been, you know, like at A at A at an Easter egg hunt where like all the kids are over on the one side having fun. And the parents like, OK, when
is this getting over? I mean, it really felt like there was no juice in the arena at all. And you know, you can obviously you could blame, oh, we got too many old people with, you know, that donate money and get good seats. That wasn't the reason why. I mean, the student section was pretty much packed. You know, it's a afternoon game, so it was pretty full.
I mean, there were a few empty seats at the start of the game in the corners, but it was a full arena full of people who just looked like they were waiting for a reason to get excited and they were never really given a reason to get excited. And that carried throughout, you know, Indiana, just there were individual moments where Indiana looked pretty good, but that was very fleeting.
And for the majority of things, it just kind of felt like you were waiting around for Northwestern to make a play that would make you kind of shake your head and turn to the person next to you and say what the hell is going on. And that's kind of how most of the first half went. And certainly in the second-half it got significantly worse. Indiana goes down 14. I had probably eight or nine people text me or DM me and say, well, I turned the game off when
that happened. My father-in-law turned the game off, I guess, when that happened. Scott, this is fascinating in a way. I've like, we've talked about this before. Some people. We heard a lot about that podcast that we did last week in the aftermath of the loss at Purdue. Some people were like, right on guys, thanks for like telling it like it is. Other people were like, that was way too negative. You know, that's that's way too much negativity.
And you know, we feel like you guys have jumped off the bandwagon. It's fine. You're allowed to interpret that however you want. But this game to me, was to some degree a proof of concept of the stuff that we were talking about last week. This felt like a fan base that has kind of emotionally distance itself from the program. I certainly felt that way, like there was not a moment when I felt, like, compelled to get up
and yell. There were some moments I felt compelled to cheer, but I never really got mad because I was. Everything bad that happened to IU in this game kind of felt like of course of course that happened. Of course Northwestern had like their best offensive rebounding game of the season. Of course there were wide open 3 point shooters that Northwestern was able to capitalize on and hit shots, and of course Indiana was not able to do the same.
Of course, one of Indiana's big players had a rough night. Statistically, it just felt, the whole thing almost felt kind of predetermined. From the moment that you realized that Indiana was not going to come out like a house on fire, from the moment you realized that Northwestern was actually going to be in the game, it was very clear how
things were going to play out. And so I think the thing I took away from it the most was just the apathy of the fans that were in the stands and the lack of juice in the building as a whole and how the the team did not seem to be particularly engaged with the game at all. The coaching staff was kind of
engaged at times. And then there were times where, I mean there was one point where there were four different people shouting from the bench to the floor at one time, which is probably, as one of our mutual friends said to me on text, that's probably a bad sign when you got all four coaches up screaming different things at different people that that might
be an indicator of issues. And and look, I mean some credit I guess to Indiana for going on that run at the end and and making it at least quasi exciting at the end. But realistically it was a game without effort that felt like it really added up to anything. And it this type of game, that type of atmosphere, that connection that Assembly Hall always has with the IU basketball team that felt severed for the first time really all season.
And you and I have been watching this long enough to know that when that happens, that is normally a really bad sign for where things are going. Because that is hard to get back. And this team does not look like it has a spark or an idea about why things aren't working.
And that is a real if you're still invested in the team enough to think what's going to happen the rest of the way, this game is like a huge red flag, like this is a this is this is a a red beacon flashing in the night with a klaxon going off saying like trouble panic like this is when you really need to get concerned. Anyway, those are my overall thoughts. What are yours? Yeah, you hit on a lot of a lot of things there. I mean, I agree with all of that.
You know, I, I'm where I'm, you know, for people who would say, you know, we were too harsh last time, you know, I would say enjoy that. If you want more anger, go back and listen to that 'cause I'm feeling exactly the way that you are, that I'm kind of just totally disconnected from this team at this point. And you know, I'm not even sure you know what's weird is like, I'm not even sure what's totally wrong with this team. Like it's, you know. I don't. I don't think they know.
No, yeah, I mean the the talent is there. But, you know, I was, I was kind of, you know, my joke coming in was like, all right, this, this definitely, you know, this is kind of just like a forgotten game and a forgotten season. And I was kind of looking back at, like, all right, you know, let's look at one of Archie's years. You know, like, let's look at like, you know, 2019, like,
let's find a game there. It's like, well, they lost at home, you know, find a home loss against kind of a middling team. It's like, well, they lost to Purdue at home. They were ranked 5th and they only lost by 5. And, like, they lost to Michigan State at home, but they were ranked 6th and they lost by three. It's like there really wasn't a loss like this in that year. I mean, this is a season that is kind of going to be lost. Like, maybe they make the NIT, maybe they don't.
You know, in five or seven years, this isn't a game we're going to remember in a season. We're not going to remember. Like to me this I was angry a couple weeks ago when there was still some kind of light flickering. There isn't light flickering now.
And where I get concerned is, you know, I, I just don't know how we got here because I remember doing the season preview with Alex Bozich looking at, you know all of the talent we brought in in the offseason, which I've been harping on these last couple of pods, you know, with Imbaco and with where you get all of that talent coming in.
And then seeing, you know having at that time, you know, you had a couple of five stars in the pipeline, but you had Mcneely I think pretty well locked up at that point. It's like all right I was like this is how I see our path getting back to you know being a a power in the Big 10 and nationally. And now we sit here where I I I don't see it's not I don't see it being turned around this season. But now I'm not even sure how you turn it around next season because it's like you're
bringing in a five star. Well you brought a five star in with Imbaca who had a slow start but he's starting to turn around have like what, 20 points today. It's like things are working the way they should. Like you know, where is exceeded all expectations of what you've expected out of a player yet. We're at this point, so I will take a step back.
I don't want to get too big picture too soon, but it's like that's where I'm not even sure when I can reengage myself because even if in the offseason if we get another guy in the portal, it's like, all right, we did that this year.
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm concerned with how apathetic I am with watching this team with this game and then just kind of seeing the reactions on, you know, as you and I both dive deep into IU football and we kind of see the, you know, the, the, the, the, the old Western town with like the the tumbleweed flowing through, which is IU football Twitter at times where it's just like the same five people hitting,
hitting that IUFB thread. You're starting to see it in basketball where a lot of people are like, ah, this is what I, you know, rinse, repeat and it's like that. This is not a great place to be, and it's wild that like literally five months ago, I was thinking we were on the path to respectability again. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very odd circumstance. I mean, you had eight days to prepare for this team and it's not. I mean, it's a, it's an, it's. Six points in the 1st 5.
Minutes. It's an OK Northwestern team. They're not awful. They're not great. They've won one game on the road in the Big 10 coming into this game, and that was a four point win at Northwestern. Now they had been in. They've been closing some games at. All right. At. At Rutgers. Yeah. At. No. At whatever they were, they won. At Penn State, that was the game I was trying to get to anyway.
But to have that much time for a team that just lost one of its key players, you know, I mean that they lose Ty Berry, who was probably their fourth most efficient player, you know, played a lot was it was a key part of this three guard lineup that they've been running. And yet, Northwestern just looked more keyed in from the beginning. And Northwestern, and this is a refrain we've had a lot this season, Scott. They look like they knew what they were supposed to do and Indiana didn't.
For large stretches of things, you can. Replace Northwestern with like almost any team we've played this year, right? And, you know, you go through the numbers. I mean, the thing that I found fascinating about IU's overall situation in this one is that the, you know, there's some aspects where IU actually played fine. They scored 106.4 points per possession. I mean that's that's a lot better than Indiana played against Purdue.
You know, it's a pretty good it's, you know, it's not the best offensive performance, but they've certainly had much worse. But the problem was they let Northwestern score 1.12 points per possession, which if you went back and looked at the games that Northwestern's lost on the road, their big problem has been they do not score efficiently on the road. They've been sub one point per possession in a lot of those games and yet Indiana couldn't
stop them. But but the way that Indiana couldn't stop them, it was very much not what I would have expected for a team that feels a 610 guy and a 7 foot guy, which is that they just let Northwestern do whatever they wanted on the offensive glass. Northwestern had 14 offensive rebounds in this game. They had one more made two point
field goal. Then they had offensive rebounds at 15, made field goals from 2 and 14 offensive rebounds and what that led to. I mean, Northwestern only shot 36% from 2:00, but they shot 28 free throws and they made 22 of them and a lot of that was off of rebounds that then they would go back up and get fouled on. Indiana also only turned Northwestern over three times the entire game, a turnover rate defensively of 4%. So you basically taken a
Northwestern team that isn't having a great shooting. Like they only hit 8 threes. They only shot 35% from three.
It wasn't like they were lights out from three and you just essentially made it so that a, they didn't turn the ball over, which meant they didn't lose a lot of possessions and they were able to extend possessions because of all the offensive rebounds they were getting, despite the fact that you had a height advantage that was pretty significant, you know it during, you know, at several of the positions.
It's just kind of wild to me that that ends up being the way Indiana loses this game is they were not able to stop Northwestern until Malik Renew went out with that 5th foul and all of a sudden Indiana style seemed to change and suddenly they were a lot more aggressive and pressuring. They were a lot more aggressive and going for boards.
It's almost like they lost their safety blanket with Renew going out and suddenly everybody's like, oh, we got to play harder and suddenly they started to come back. And this is probably the biggest concern I have about this IU team is that they don't seem to play that way all the time.
We see it in spurts. We saw it in the Ohio State game on the road where it took them going down by a significant margin for them to be like, wow, we got to really play hard and boom, all of a sudden they came back and won the game. They ran out of time in this one.
But I just, I look at the way that Indiana played throughout the course of the game and and it's like you've not given yourself the opportunity to put yourself in a position to win because of how poorly you played and how poorly you executed for the the other 35 minutes. And you know, this was always the concern playing Northwestern because you know Northwestern is not that talented. They're, you know, they're not that good defensively, but they do know how to play ball
together. And this seemed like the type of game that an Indiana team that has struggled to know what to do on the floor for most of the season was going to struggle in. Because Northwestern, if you can say whatever you want about them, there's a lot of criticisms of Northwestern in
the way that they've played. But they do know what they're doing on most possessions, and if you let them do it, they'll do it. What's really frustrating about this, and this may not be the best analogy or the best comps, so please correct me if I'm wrong. But like you look at a team like Virginia that plays a very slow tempo, that doesn't shoot the three very well, doesn't
offensively rebound very well. But they do one thing fantastic and they are like killer on defense and they they have a fourth in the country turnover rate percentage. Like they get teams to turn the ball over and you know, they're, they're not shooting a ton of threes, like they're kind of similar in profile to us, but they do one thing really well, which is defence. They turn other teams over.
What's really frustrating with this style of play is you know if, if this is what Woodson wants to do, this kind of mid level tempo, not a lot of threes pump the ball inside. As you and I have both said, you know you're going to have to create some turnovers, but you're going to have to control the glass and you're going to have to probably hit more free throws than you do. The frustrating thing is like rebounding is all about preparation, practice and
effort. It's just being in the right place and having the effort to go for the ball and free throw is just it's a lot mental and it's a lot of practice and we're we're just not getting it done in those areas. And if you're going to play this style and not shoot a lot of threes, you have to be unbelievably efficient on offense and you have to do the rebounding in the free throws.
And it's just frustrating because it's effort and practice like that's all it is. And yet Woodson continues to talk about how we have to get this right and kind of you know talking about players this and that's like then get it right, like then get guys to to hustle and then or put somebody else in. Like I I know it's always like
the the guy on the bench. But like at some point you've got to do something else or you've got to change it up or you've got to change the way you're playing or realize like hey this team isn't a hustle hard, you know playing team. We had those like Green had those teams. Like they didn't play super hard, but they would just shoot the lights out And then you'd have games where you know Devante Green would go nuts. It's like, all right, you know you can have a path to victory that way.
It's like giving yourself like you know as many and like you know like poker, like how many outs do you have with this hand. We continually get in these spots where we have no outs and that's that's the really frustrating part is I mean this just to me it always continues to go back to the scheme and the coaching because the things that we have to do to win games are about practice effort and the players knowing what to do and do you know, having things that they've done.
And I'm not even saying it's all effort. You know a lot of times rebounding I'm I'm this is somebody to talk about assembly calls listening a little bit the post game before there's something Ryan was talking about that you know rebounding isn't just effort it's like something you just got to you practice like you just you practice and you work on rebounding and just getting used to doing that and it just looks like we're not doing that.
And you know if if Woodson wants to say they're doing like great, well then you're doing a really bad job of coaching it because we suck at this and this is the most if you're going to play this style of basketball, this is the most important thing. But it again, I don't want to get this worked up because it doesn't seem like anybody cares. It's like because no one's
getting it done. Watching the team again in person today, everything you say, I think there's some truth to, but I think there's a more fundamental issue at play. There just does not seem to be any team cohesion and there doesn't seem to be a lot of belief on the part of the players about what they're doing and how they're doing it. And that's a hard thing to quantify. I mean, it's not really something that's tangible in the traditional sense. Why's that, Right?
Yeah. It's not the luck statistic, no. One point O 4 belief per possession. But you know but there's there's just it is so easy to knock this team out of what they're doing especially defensively. You know and I've been harping on the defense all season because to me I mean the offense isn't great but the offense can win you games. But the defense has not given the offense the opportunity to win games over the course of this season And that that is a bit of a concern obviously.
But the defense is largely tied to effort and attention and and what is being done and how much communication there is and who's supposed to be where And, you know, how how players rotate, how they're reacting to things. That is what is missing to me when I watch this team play basketball. And you know, what's interesting is that you've seen a significant shortening of the bench. Yeah. I mean, they, they really only played seven players for any length of time in this game.
And that was really only because foul trouble, you know, caused Renew to have to come off the floor and then and then Cups was in foul trouble on and off and eventually fouled out. But the there's just not much of A center to this team in terms of its emotion, in terms of its focus. And even when things are going well, rarely do you see things continue to go well with this team. That's what made that win at Ohio State such a shock was because normally in that situation the team goes the
opposite direction. And fortunately, I think they just played a team that, as we saw, was about to get their coach fired, you know, in Ohio State. But when this team comes up against a team like Northwestern, who isn't overly physical, they didn't even get that great of a game out of Boo Booey tonight. I mean he was sub one point per possession. He he was one for 8 from 2. You know, like you would expect Boo Booey to be the guy that kills you.
But no, Instead it was Ryan Langborg, the guy who transferred in from Princeton, who is clearly dangerous. Like, if you've watched any of Northwestern's games this season, he can go off and hit four or five threes, which is exactly what he did. But it wasn't just that. It was, you know, Northwestern was was constantly carving open Indiana's defense, either with drives or with passes. Indiana was constantly late rotating, you know, or they were
rotating the wrong direction. It was just kind of fascinating in person, watching Indiana struggle so much with a lot of those basics. And it was, it was really depressing because the other effort and belief area is rebounding and to see Martinelli get 13 rebounds, to see Matthew Nicholson get 16 rebounds in this game and to keep possessions alive and just kind of stymie Indiana from what they
were doing. And then on the other end, Indiana not really being able to get into the offensive flow that they wanted on most possessions, I just, I keep coming back to when I watch this team play. Fundamentally, they don't look like they either look like they don't know what they're supposed to do or they don't believe in what they're doing, and they don't necessarily completely trust the people that they're playing with or the system that they're playing in.
And I'd love to come to some kind of a different conclusion. But more often than not, as we've looked, you know, Indiana now has lost six of their last eight, you know, and you go back to, and even really if you want to extend it, they've lost seven of their last nine I think it is. Or maybe it's seven of their last ten, maybe seven of their last ten. Starting with that Rutgers game, they've really struggled, even in the wins.
I mean the wins there. They had a 12 point win against Minnesota, which was pretty close in the in the second-half. They had the Iowa win that they almost gave away and they had the Ohio State game they had to come back from. Literally. I mean, two of those three could
have been losses. And it's the same thing over and over again, where fundamentally Indiana struggles with the execution of the basics of whatever the system's going to be. And they also seem to struggle in the areas where, as you said, it's just practice. I mean, again, for Indiana to lose a game by 4 and miss 9 free throws in the game is it's like, well, like this has been a
problem all season. How many games have we talked about that where it's like, well, look at the margin of law, so Oh well, look at the free throws that Indiana missed. And yet you get guys walking to the free throw line. And I mean, even Mackenzie and Bacco, who was one of the best shooting free throw shooters, at least among new players in the country earlier in the season, he was 5 for 8:00 today. I mean that's he makes all three of those that he missed.
It's a one point game at the end, not, not what it ended up being. So I don't know, Scott. I mean, it goes back to to what you said earlier about this idea of, you know, what is, what is the foundation, what is the structure of where the program's at right now. And This is why I guess we perhaps got so pessimistic on the last podcast that you and I did together. Because when I see that kind of performance on a Sunday packed house, you got a crowd waiting for some reason to get excited
and you just, you can't. It's not even that you can't get it done. Like you don't even come close to getting it done. And you can't really even take the last couple of minutes that seriously because that was just not representative of how the rest of the game went. It really does make me wonder, like what went so wrong that, you know, last year Indiana was in these positions and they figured out how to win these games more often than not.
This year the exact opposite is happening and it's really jarring to watch given, as you said, there's plenty of talent out there. It's not like it's not like it's a a team that is bereft of talent and and struggling, but the talent isn't performing and that is cognitively hard to get your head around. Yeah, I mean, yes to all of that. And like, I don't, I I mean, I I, I hope it turns around. I always joke hope is not a plan. But like, I don't.
I don't know. I don't know how it turns around at this point because now it starts coming fast and furious. Like you, you don't have a week off anymore. The games start happening. You have, oh, you only have three more home games. They're against, you know, Wisconsin and Michigan State, who are markedly better than this Northwestern team. The other one is happening in, what, 3 days? And it's against Nebraska, who's also statistically better than this Northwestern team.
And then the rest of them are on the road, not as great of teams you're playing, but those are all Rd. games. And you know, well, they they've all got something to play for. I mean, most of them do. I mean, you know, Nebraska's literally. I mean, they're in the thick of playing for an NCAA tournament bid. You know, I mean, Penn State isn't, and that's going to be an interesting one. But Penn State seems to be playing for, like, building a foundation.
Wisconsin. Wisconsin might be the easiest game left on the schedule given the way that they're playing these days, but it's hard to envision Indiana turning it around and, you know, being 13 points better or more than they were when they played at Wisconsin a month ago. So yeah, it's. It's, I can't get that. I mean, we'll still do this. It's just like I can't get that invested in the team that is like going to, you know, kind of going through the motions themselves.
And the team is going to probably be in, you know, fighting to get the NIT. And like and to your point about building a foundation is like, all right, what are we building? Because, you know, there is a, you know, you and I are getting older, unfortunately. But it's like every year I can't continue to buy. And it's like, all right, we'll meet Liam Mcneely. He's the solution. It's like, all right, I mean he's a five star.
Mackenzie and Bako was a five. I know they're different, but it's like Khalil Ware was a five strike. We're getting talented guys in here. It's not working. It can't just be. Every year this feels like a, you know, a Ponzi scheme where it's just like every year it's like, oh, no, no, wait, next year. That's the five star guy. That. That's the one we got to do. By the way. Keep your varsity club membership up. Oh, and by the way, we got to
fund nil. Like, at some point it's like, hey, at some point this needs to turn around. I know it's it's just one year. It's a bad season. But you know that that's where I'm at. I do have one other I have a very large take on the apathy I want to get to, but I don't want to take us. Too far off right now. Well and and I'll say this, I mean I think it's I I know you're kind of focused on the the broader picture and and rightfully so.
No, I mean I think it's worth mentioning but I think the thing that's most disheartening to me right now is it's not just that the players don't seem to grasp what's going on, what I hear out of Woodson's mouth and I just have to start taking it to face value. It does not appear that Woodson seems to understand why his team isn't playing better and why they're not winning games. I mean his comments at the after today, I don't think he should have criticized Malik.
Renew. Renew didn't have a great game. But why? Why do that? Like why? Why Why say, well you know Renew sucked postgame. It it serves no purpose and it kind of misses the larger point which is that OK, he didn't have his best game. Other people were stepping up. Was he the reason Indiana lost. I think that that's pretty harsh if if that's what you're arguing. But the rest of the comments I mean you know the comment like, well I haven't gotten a full 40 minutes yet.
Like what does that mean? Like your your team hasn't played a full 40 minutes. Well, you're the coach. Why don't you tell us why you you haven't gotten a full 40 minutes. You know he talked in the post game about all these open shots that Indiana supposedly didn't miss. I was at the game Scott. I I I know you were watching on TV. Maybe you had a a better angle than I did. I didn't see this, this, the plethora of open shots that Indiana missed, like, it just feels.
And look, I postgame comments, in the heat of the moment, there aren't always the clearest, but we hear Mutson talk on his radio show. We hear him in the postgame, We hear him in availability. It does not feel like his words indicate that he fundamentally understands why his team isn't playing well. And that to me, of all the things that combined with the fact that the players just don't seem to have a lot of cohesion, is really, really concerning.
And there doesn't appear to be an easy answer for any of those things. I'll even take it a step further. It's not even just his post game comments. It's like the the the team doesn't seem to change. Like he's saying these things of like you know we'll hit a have one game, you hit you know 7 or 10, three. He's like hey, we got to start doing more of that and we just don't.
And it's not even it's like you watch the guys like they are just not like they they look like they're being trained to pass it off. You know, CJ Gunn has a good game. I'm not saying CJ Gunn is the answer, but like he has a good game against Purdue for CJ Gunn
standards. Woodson says some nice things about him and then he plays 12. You know what, 10 minutes or 12 minutes against Northwestern today and like has has two shots and it's like, all right, like, yeah, I mean, the players have to take the shots, but it's like if if you liked what you saw. And by the way, we're building a foundation. Young players are going to be part of that, like maybe run some sets to get CJ Gunn some open shots. Like, you're a coach, you can do that.
Like, if again, you're building a foundation, Malik Renew is one of the best examples you have of a talented player getting better this season. Maybe don't rip them. Like, see the forest for the trees. Like, hey, this season's gone. Like, I don't need to start firebombing my players right now. Like, I'll take the heat, I'll take it and build a culture for that. Like, I'm I'm 100% with you.
But it's like on the court. You don't see things change and you hear him talk about things and it doesn't change on the court. Yeah, Well, and and this even goes back to that Purdue game where it just kind of feels like fundamentally there's there's things you can say and do as a coach to indicate to the fans, Look, this isn't acceptable,
right? And I think when your team is 14 and 11 and six and eight in the conference and has just lost a home game to Northwestern. A, a friend of ours had a a great stat like this is the fourth straight loss that Indiana suffered in Northwestern. And between 1971 and 2002, Indiana only lost in Northwestern 3 total times. I think.
I think that was the statistic. I mean that's there's some gravity here, historical gravity to losing another game on your home floor to Northwestern. And yes, Northwestern is better than they were in the 20th century. But this illustrates why people are getting so upset. Because you're supposed to be Indiana, right? It's Indiana and yet you're you've lost four games in a row to Northwestern, who is Northwestern, and to not acknowledge, like that's a real problem, to just kind of treat
it like it's another game. This comes back to this mentality issue that we've talked about and it's it is kind of an NBA mentality in terms of well, OK, we're on to the next one because there's 82 games where you've only got 31 games In the regular season. They all matter. And in a conference set up like this, they matter a lot. And this was a game you absolutely could not afford to
lose. And to lose it in a style where you were down 16 points with 6 1/2 minutes left in the game and your team looked completely lifeless. And it took your best player fouling out To change your system to the point where your players looked free enough And what they were doing on both ends of the floor to actually kind of make a game of it. And then to come out and say, well, we lost because our best players sucked and we didn't hit
our open shots. It's like that does not appear to be a great level of recognition of what the hell just went on in the basketball game. And that's what I have felt through most of these games in this last 10, where I I want to believe that Mike Woodson has a firm grasp on what's going on with this team and knows how to fix it. Yet the words that are spoken do not seem to indicate that Scott and that is both sad and
concerning. I'm going to take, so you were talking about the kind of the gravity of losing Northwestern this many times. I'm just going to take this because I was thinking about that. And this is what I thought about after the game is like, you know, we are fans and most people, they know this is an IU basketball thing. But like, we are fans of IU. And, you know, there was always kind of that joke that we'd suck in footballs, we'll get you in basketball, you know?
And I was thinking like, well, damn it, like Northwestern's had a couple of successes in football, Like like they're better. Anyway, I just, I came up with this, so bear with me. But this is like to your point of where we stand in the Big 10 when you look at the the entire football and basketball programs of Big 10 teams and and where we
are. And this is part of the apathy and I think why people are starting to check out across the board, sadly, myself included, I'm just going to go for like what are really good seasons. So it's a very last since since the year 2000. So I'm just going to we're going to go in order as I found all right football and basketball. I'll be real quick with this. I like I love it when Scott does original research and doesn't tell me go ahead please.
Sorry. Well no. I mean it's it's Michigan won a just won a football title they've been to a Final four. They've had three Big 10 titles in basketball. Ohio State won the 2014 football championship 2012. Final Four has five Big 10 basketball titles. Michigan State has been to the Big 10 bat football title game three times. Bunch of Final Fours. Haven't counted up 8 Big 10 titles since 2000. All right, we're going down a
little bit. Wisconsin has two Big 10 titles in football, 6 total Big 10 title games, two final. A couple Final Fours. They've been to a bunch. Purdue went to the 2022 Big 10 football title. Again. That would have been a great year for us. They've had five bowl wins since the turn of the century. They went to the 2019 Elite 8, and they've had four Big 10 titles. We get to Illinois, They've had two bowl wins in basketball.
They went to the 2005 final game, five Big 10 titles, Penn State. They're ahead of us. A Big 10 football title, 8 bowl wins, nothing in basketball. So it's like they're doing it all on one side. Maryland 5 bowl wins, three of them in the Big 10. Went to a 2002 NCAA title game and beat somebody. I forget who will do a little research on that. Sorry, forgive me. I'm going. Minnesota. 10 bowl wins. Nothing in basketball. They've had 10 bowl. Any one of those in a great
season. Northwestern, our team, we just lost to six bowl wins, two Big 10 title games. Nothing in basketball. Nebraska 6 bowl wins. We think Nebraska sucks. 6 bowl wins. The 2012 Big 10 title game. That'd be awesome. Nothing in basketball. Iowa is above us. They've been the two Big 10 title games and 10 bowl wins. And then we get to Rutgers. They've had seven bowl wins, two of which they've gotten in the Big 10. Nothing in basketball. What Indiana 0 bowl wins?
Zero Big 10 title games, one Final Four and three Big 10 titles. But that's it. And I know, I know they're two separate sports. But like all of this stuff does matter, goes to like, you know that the XS and Joe's pod, like this stuff starts to pile up. Like the the the pod you have with Osterman, where like every coaching failure before, that's the next coach.
Like I started thinking about how like football and basketball, these things merge together to like there's only so many years as a fan of a university in these two sports, you can just continue to get kicked in the balls and watch every other team in the Big 10 have some level of success. It's. It. Really, it's it's frustrating. I get pissed and then I get to a point where I'm kind of just like, I just want to check out. Like, I just want to check out and you tell me when we're good
again. And then even in, like again, this combined universe of football and basketball. It's like even when we're good, we have the one year we're good in football. It's like the rug immediately gets pulled out and now it's like, I'm feeling like that here. It's like last year was a fairly good year. It hit a dead end in the tournament and now it's like the rug is completely, completely pulled out. I mean, I'll put what you all just said there in a slightly different context.
I think it's IU fans are among the most loyal. I know many, some of you in the audience don't believe this, but they're they're the among the most loyal. They traveled among the best. There's a real school spirit that is broad based throughout much of the alumni and students that make up Indiana and it really does feel like there just hasn't been a lot of success to celebrate.
You know you still, I mean we saw we've we've seen IU fans at all the places we've traveled over the course of the last several years, whether it's bowl games, whether it's you know, basketball related items and there's just been very little to get excited about. And you know, look I think ultimately they're two separate problems.
They're two separate programs and and yet the collective identity of being an IU fan perversely kind of feels like right now it's it's among the least rewarding times, not just because of the lack of success of the two programs in the last couple of years. I mean, it's a relative. I mean, last year was again, it was a nice season for Indiana basketball on the men's side, but it wasn't like you won't look back at that season 10 years from now and say, wow,
that was a breakthrough year. It was only nice within the context of the lack of success that has surrounded it. And I think this is ultimately for me, why the football season was so disappointing and why the basketball season is be has become so disappointing. Because in football, as you said, you have the 2019 and 2020 seasons, you have this big emotional high and it feels like, oh, something's been
built. And then you realize quickly nothing was built or what was built was quickly dismantled or rotted away and what was left was a team that couldn't compete against the other teams in the conference. And so you're watching everybody else get better while Indiana's getting worse. That's what's happening right now in basketball. You go down the list. I mean, Indiana was a was a one point underdog on Ken Palm
today. They were I think A2 or 2 1/2 point favorite in Vegas. And I think that was largely Vegas reacting to the Tiberi injury as opposed to the actual numbers because I think they were also an underdog on Torvik. But you look at the numbers right now and and statistically speaking, if you look at Ken Palm, Indiana is the second worst team in the conference, Michigan's worst, Indiana's second worst, and then it's Penn State.
Those are the only three teams that are lower than 77, which is where Rutgers is at right now in Ken Palm. And while Indiana has, you know they'd won some games early on, it kind of feels like that's coming around. They've got multiple Rd. games coming up left to go. They still have a really good chance at finishing in the bottom for the conference down with Michigan who's who should fire their coach at the end of the year. If they if you know that they they may not.
Because Michigan's weird. Ohio State who just did fire their coach. Penn State who just lost their coach and their best player and is having to rebuild essentially from scratch with the guy that they had to hire at the back end of the hiring cycle and Maryland who has no explanation whatsoever. I'm not even sure how to how to parse Maryland out but that's the company that Indiana is in.
Oh, and and Rutgers, who's got an offense that looks like it was like, if this was a if this was an ancient army, this would be the army that doesn't show up with swords instead of like shows up with stones that they throw at you. Like that's that's where Rutgers is at. Offensively, That's terrible company to be it. By 9 too, don't forget that. Right. Yeah, exactly. They they already beat Indiana handily. So my point is to watch I I think the frustration from you and from others and I I
certainly feel it as well. Yes, I I I'm appreciative of what Mike Woodson and his staff did the first two years they they got Indiana to the tournament they got Indiana to the second round of the tournament. These seem like small things certainly things that should be beneath a program of the the supposed stature of Indiana basketball. But that's that's how things go. And then the turn around and have it just dissolve this quickly and look this bad. And.
And when you're losing home games to Penn State and Michigan and Northwestern in the same season, within a few weeks of each other at a critical time of the season where you need those wins to get to some kind of postseason. It just kind of feels to borrow what our friend Jared tweeted out earlier. It, you know, it doesn't feel like Indiana basketball, at least not what we've been told Indiana basketball is supposed to feel like.
It just feels like a program that's going through the motions right now, which I wouldn't have predicted at the end of last season because it felt like it was on the track and it does not appear to be anymore. And this is, I'm stealing your own point, but it's like this was kind of that that was always the thing with, you know, bringing back a Night Guy is, you know, that, you know, part of what made Indy obviously what it made Indiana basketball was Bob Knight and the culture that
he created. So the idea with bringing back a Night Guy is like, all right, this is somebody who's going to bring that culture. And like that's going to be, you know, the the ethic and the feel like the things that are important. And like, you know, we got to protect Assembly Hall. And like, we're going to play with pride and we're going to play tough and we're going to play smart basketball. That was Indiana basketball.
None of that's here. So it's like that was the whole, like that's the whole point you bring back at night guys. Not just because he played for Knights because he he can instill some of that those threads from that time to here. And as you said many time like this is just losing to Penn State at home, losing Northwest. This is just what a normal bad Big 10 program does. There's there's nothing unique
about this. And I'm not saying that he's got to turn it around and turn us into a, you know, Final Four caliber team. Every Knight had some bad years too but he quickly turned it around and and solved it and but that, that's me is the really frustrating part is there doesn't seem to be any of the threads of the the basketball teams under Bob Knight that I watched growing up in this team
this year. Well look and and it's interesting you bring that up. I mean because one of the big criticisms, a fair one I think for the the ending Years of the Night era was that there was a lack of joy among the players in the way that they played. Now that came back a little bit at the very end and I and I always maintain that like what made me so optimistic that last year that night was there was that that team actually was they look like they had fun playing
together. They look like they knew what they were doing and then of course it well we saw what happened after that. But the that is when I think about this, what worries me so much is like, you know, with Woodson coming back obviously in the off season, what's the
argument? Is the argument that this was just a bad like combination of players and OK, we got to get new players in to fix that and they have to be different from a constitution perspective, like they have to have some kind of a different, you know, motor. That seems kind of harsh. But if that's the answer, OK, fine. But what was, what went so wrong this year?
Why was why was this such a situation that, you know it just it just couldn't work and we couldn't fix it and it and what worries me I guess is that a lot of what you're going to be able to do in the off season is going to be predicated on OK, how do people outside the program feel about coming and playing for Indiana and stepping into this situation? And the issue right now is we've only got 1 recruit signed.
You're not going to sign another recruit unless you do a snipe of a player that's intended to go elsewhere, which you've had it. You've had some mixed luck with that in terms of those players coming in and there's been variety of reasons for that. But at the end of the day doesn't matter, like you have to have players perform everything, can't be a special circumstance. Transfers are probably looking at this and saying that doesn't look like a fun program to play for that.
You know that the the looks on the bench from the assistant coaches and from the players, like everybody looked bummed, everybody looked disengaged. And yes, you're going to get that when you are losing at home. But it's looked like that a bunch throughout the course of the season. You know it and and then you look at the actual play and every time we've talked about this before, every time something seems to get fixed and
air quote something else breaks. And I just wonder as I said on the last show, what's the attraction to coming to play for Indiana going into next year with this being the last thing that you see where where's the momentum where what's the message that's being carried. And that's I'm legitimately curious what that message is. It's like, well things didn't work out because we didn't have XY and Z, but you're the piece that's going to make that happen.
Well, I think a lot of players who would be difference makers are going to have a lot of options and it's going to be interesting to see how that equation plays out. So I am really worried about the the overall vibe around the program and and look we're are we contributing to it by even
talking about it? I mean I guess, but I feel like we're just kind of observing like this is not Scott and Galen are are being sour Pusses and are being negative and everybody else is like yeah, things are fine. This is where I go back to what I said at the opening of the podcast. Like the vibe in the arena could not have been more casual and more, you know, we're going to wait to see, but we're not going to get excited. Like that is always a Rubicon when Indiana crosses it.
An individual season that generally portends bad things moving forward. And that's what worries me. It's like all of this. There's still X amount of games remaining. Like that's a real issue.
I know. I'm just laughing because it's like I I I guess I'm fine like we it's OK that we have the it's the fans fault discussion in football like that's that's already been broached like we can't bring this to basketball that's like wow this has never been the battle like, but to to hear, I know it's like you're saying it's a scarecrow argument but it's like I mean again like this is where you know what like I'm sorry you're as a fan you're allowed to be pissed.
You're allowed to see what you want like IU basketball holds itself to a higher standard. We do that. That is why. No, no, no. I'm just saying like, yes, no. But we we try to. I mean, like what we if, if we yes, I mean we we try to hold ourselves to a the. Fans. The fans do. But if you do, well, yes. But if you do, then you're allowed to be pissed at a team that may not make the NIT like that is. That's not a good season. Like that's just that is far.
I don't. I don't think anybody's arguing that it's a good season. Well, I know, but I'm just saying like then fans are allowed to be annoyed and pissed. I well, I want to go to one thing you said though about like next being concerned about next season is to to everyone who continues to to say this, like, all right, we'll just get guys in the portal.
It's like a couple things here. First off, you know, two of our top 4 performers this year, Khalil Ware and Mackenzie and Bako, came as transfers from the portal and we're having a ton of problems meshing, well, chemistry this year. So just the idea that that you're going to bring in we're going to bring in three more guys you know how's that We don't have a history of showing that we're meshing guys. I don't I don't know if I agree with that.
I think I think we're has been fine we're I mean we're had a great game today. Like, I mean, yeah, they're. Playing fine. I'm saying as a unit they're not meshing like. I think that's. I think, well, I get your point. I I do understand what you're saying. I think the problem is not.
The problem to me is more along the lines of I don't know what they're supposed to be meshing into and and like there doesn't the the core aspect of what makes the team work offensively is not a modern offensive system. It's it's. It's simply not and. We keep saying we need to get somebody in the portal that does things that, like this offense just doesn't want people to.
Do but it but it but. You got to get a point guard who just shoots a bunch of threes to put in an offense that doesn't do it, but. See, to me, the more fundamental problem, and this extends back to last year, is the lack of defensive intensity and the lack of coherent defensive philosophy that has now LED Indiana to be a very, very mediocre defensive team when it comes to power five teams. I mean, Indiana right now defensive efficiency wise, is
96th in the country. And look, there are worst teams defensively in the Big 10. You know, in some cases, by some magnitudes, Michigan is a much worse defensive team. Iowa is a much worse defensive team. And Michigan sucks, But Iowa makes up for it because they have one of the best offenses in the country. And you go through and look at some of the other teams that have questionable defenses. Alabama is a great example. There's 73rd in the country defensively.
They're the number one team offensively in the country, you know, so they can afford to some degree to not be as good defensively. Kentucky is not great defensively. They're slightly better than Indiana but they're the 7th best team in the country offensively. So you don't have Indiana has nothing to lean on that or this is this is who we are. This is our identity and last year the identity was we have Trace Jackson Davis.
Now that was essentially the entire identity of the team until Jalen Hutchefino kind of stepped up and you know kind of co-authored the last third of the season. I just really I I actively question at this point again I and I said this last time, what is the selling point for IU how how do they how do they how does this get turned around. Look, I I still firmly think Mike Woodson's going to be here at least another year, maybe more.
And so so be it that, you know, perhaps with his the first two seasons, he's earned that as much as one can at a place like Indiana where you're supposed to have these incredibly high standards as we talked about. But with that said, what is like where is the what is the what I want to hear like just once and for all just say what is the what is the real problem? Because it's none of these things that keep getting mentioned as the primary thing. It's not what we're missing open
shots. Well, there, there's there's a lot of functional reasons why that's going on and it doesn't make a lot of sense. And if it's just that it's not, oh, we're missing free throws. That is certainly hurting. Why are the free throws being missed? Like that seems to be something that could be easily scoped. What I want to hear more fundamentally is why is this team not working together? Give us some kind of analysis or commentary or something from the coach's seat about why
everything's not working. Because I think to some degree if you're going to have this bad of a season there needs to be some honesty about why it's not working and why you have a guy on the bench in Caleb Banks who's DMP now in how many games in a row? I mean I'm, I'm. And look perhaps there's a good reason for that. This is the 6th game in a row that we haven't seen Caleb Banks
at all. You know we've seen Peyton Sparks. We've seen CJ Gunn is he's not injured because he's not on the injury report. What's the deal? You know, there's there's all kinds of questions about this team and what's going on with them that I'm really curious about more than anything else. Because to me that's the seeds that you have to indicate that you've planted to say, OK, here's what went wrong, here's what we're going to fix. This is the message moving
forward. This is why IU fans who, as you mentioned, are starved for some kind of success, some kind of sustained success, there needs to be some kind of message. Like, we get it, things aren't going the way they need to go. Here's the problems and here's what we're doing to fix them. I'm just not hearing that which really is.
Concerning. Yes. And the last thing I'll say just about the offseason is you know this is the bind that I think they're in that I continue to harp on is you know you just people are like we just got to get more out of the we got to get another dude out of the portal. It's like you you got Khalil Ware like the number of teams out there that are honestly this dysfunctional that go and get two or three guys in the top 25
in the portal doesn't exist. Like we're probably going to get more guys like Anthony Walker. Not bad just you're going to get pieces like that you're not going to get 2 Khalil Ware's in the portal next year. You just can't assume that. And then the other piece that just I think people's minds need to be open to normally on teams like this that look this on. If we were just watching a you and I were just in Vegas watching a game and we saw a team without jerseys.
You know names in their jerseys got to talk about jerseys too. Names on their jerseys. You know, if we saw them, you and I would both like who that team looks pissed off. Like I bet that's a team that I would love to poach guys off of. Like people need to get their heads wrapped around the fact
too. Like you just mentioned Caleb Banks DMP not picking on him, but it's like a team that looks this unhappy, that doesn't have this kind of success with a coach who may or may not have a long 10 year ahead of him. This is a team that you poach guys off of. So the idea that we just we just got to get two more pieces like we might need to do that. We also might need to replace 2 pieces that are already here. Like again, this infrastructure is just we're just rebuilding everything.
And I think that's the part that is is funny to me. When I hear people say like all we got to do is just get one more guy in the portal. It's like we might need to get five more in the portal because there could be this is just a team that looks like. I hate to say it because it's our team, but it doesn't look like a team where everyone's going to be super excited to come back next. Year well. And again, as I've been saying and then we'll wrap up because I know you have to go to dinner.
But yeah, it's it's not the players alone. Certainly perhaps you need different players we mentioned earlier. But there's clearly something not working with this system. And again, the when you got 2 rim protectors and you've got people who should be able to play defense fairly well and you're 96th in the country in defensive efficiency. And you're coming off of a season where you had two players drafted into the NBA and you were 45th in the country in defensive efficiency with that
group. To me, there's there's a fundamental problem there that So what fixes and we may not know, we'll know, I guess, when we see the team again in November or beyond. But there's clearly got to be a change in that aspect of things and that ends up being the starting point for a lot of it. And yeah, right now, I mean it just feels pretty dire because Indiana is they've been predictably bad in certain things.
They've been unpredictably bad in a bunch of other things that we didn't think would end up that way and the vibe around the program right now is about as bad as it gets. It's it's it levels that we've only seen a few times right. You know and and that those times have generally not been good times. They haven't been happy times, Scott. So that's that's a big, that's a
big problem. Yeah, Well, and what's funny is like, I, I mean I understand that broadcasters, you teach this, you know, I I know what they're doing. But when you hear, you know, like the broadcasters today being like, you know, you know, they they show the remaining schedule, It's like Indiana's got to really start picking up some wins. They want to you know get a shot of the tournament. It's like no, like we can you go to Bart Torvick show us winning out all of our games.
We're not even in the discussion of the tournament like and I get it like a broadcaster can't say that on February 18th on ATV broadcast he like, but it's like that's that's what is funny is I still think there are people out there. You know there's still a couple games left. You can get some wins here. You know, it's like, no, like we went out, we still probably got to get to the finals, the Big 10 tournament. I don't know, like we probably got to win the Big 10 tournament at this point.
That's our only shot and chip to make the NCAA tournament. Like right now, to me, it's like this team is just trying to make to Bay above 500 to make the NIT. Like that's where they're at. I'm I I think it like what worries me, is it gonna get even worse? Because I think there's some fans out there who haven't come to that realization yet. They're still like, hey, there's
still five or six weeks left. We could still, you know, just got to get some wins, put put a streak together and we'll be back on the bubble. It's like, no, we're nowhere near the bubble. I wish I was more upset. I'm not. I'm just kind of, I mean, I nothing that has. Before I'm kind of just. Nothing that happened today was a shock. I mean, it would it kind of would have been a shock if if Indiana had won it to some degree.
I mean, even with the the injury to Northwestern, 'cause, it just feels like fundamentally Indiana is not connected with each other, with the coaching staff. There isn't a great system that's in place that's putting players in a position to succeed. I don't think any one person is to blame, including Mike Woodson. But this whole thing stinks right now and and this and there doesn't seem to be a great recognition of how to fix it.
And when you think about the reality that Indiana is now, I've now started this roller coaster where they got to play it. They played tonight, they got to play Wednesday, they play Saturday, they play the following Tuesday, they play the following Sunday, the following Wednesday, and then the following Sunday. Like, there's no getting off at this point. Will they lose all of those? I don't think so, but I wouldn't
be shocked if they did. Given how they looked in this game, it's hard to see them getting that much more hype for some of the other games that they've got to play. I guess we'll learn a lot on Wednesday night at 8:30 when Indiana takes on Nebraska. Yeah. Anyway, on that happy note, we'll go ahead. Any final thoughts from you before we wrap up? No, I mean, I hate, I hate being in this position. I feel like I need like I I must say this.
I liked the Chrome football helmet so I'm not complete old guy yet. I like Oregon with all the I love multiple uniforms. I like alternate uniforms. I understand it. Hey I'm a fan of the Indiana Pacers City uniforms like I am not a get off my lawn. It's got to be Indiana. I'd be cool if they did uniforms with names on the back. So I'm I'm. I'm cool with them trying different colors like it's it's all I'm cool. I'm one of the cool ones.
I'm one of the cool old guys. Those uniforms sucked. They were ugly that you couldn't read the name. Like, if that's where we're going, those suck. Like, I would much rather go the Chrome stripes. Like, you can do so many things. Those were hideous and should just be all thrown into an incinerator and be gone with like just I'm done with those uniforms. I just don't. I mean Ryan Cotter who if you don't follow Ryan Cotter on on Twitter is is a really good
follow. He's a, he's a really talented graphical artist. He he put up during the game a mock of what those same uniforms would have looked like in cream, which is part of the Fear of God color palette. That would have been great. And they look really they they don't look great. I I'm not a huge fan of the font but they they look better than what Indiana wore out there. It's I will say it is funny every time.
You know, we've been proponents of like, let's where, let's have a black alternate like this or that every. Time it goes. Bad. And every time it goes bad, I I've gotten to the point where I cannot argue that there is clearly some kind of karmic force that is saying Indiana, thou shalt not do that. And the reverse jinx, where it's like, hey, we're doing black alternates, but we made them for Northwestern. Like, here you wear the black jerks, right?
I know. I that way I was getting confused during a lot of the game, 'cause I kept, you know, kind of viscerally reacting positively whenever a player dressed in white would do something. And I was like, oh wait. No. Yeah. Well, anyway, the kids, the not the the players seem to dig them. I will say this, I had the same reaction to you. I I texted this to a couple of people. It's like, OK, this is clearly my old man moment. I I don't like these aesthetically, I don't really
get them. But surely that's just 'cause I'm old now and the the youth actually dig them and and actually a lot of the youth I talked to didn't dig them. So, all right, good Sulavi. Anyway, so that'll wrap it up for us again. We'll be back. Tony Adrani's gonna come on here in a couple of days we're gonna we'll have him on chat about some things we're. Not going to a black Crimson cast logo. We're, you know, you should mock one up. Let's let's see. No, you can't read the font.
It's just a black. Square. Try that. Let's see what happens. With the way things are going on Twitter, we might move up the like, we might get like, oh, this is great, like you can't see your icon because you're better on X. This was, this was what was gonna generate our social media breakthrough. It was like, oh, Crimson cast went black. This is nice, no? But anyway, we'll be back later on this week. We've got that. We've got a couple of some
football content. I think that should be coming later on this week. And we'll see what happens with IU basketball. They're back in action on Wednesday night at 8:30. Whoops. That's the wrong button. Let's hit that button instead. Nebraska coming into Assembly Hall. Maybe Indiana can win that one. We'll see Anyway for Scott, By the way, big, big game this upcoming.
We will two games for the women at Illinois tomorrow afternoon at home against Iowa and Caitlin Clark on Thursday, so be sure to check those out. Anyway, that'll wrap it up for us. For Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison. So everybody.