You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Hi, welcome back to Crimson Casket, Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you. It is the 31st of January. Scott, we're already done with the month. Kind of hard to believe but. We're about to hit that stretch where we go like we we, we're going to look up. It'll be the Super Bowl. You know, we'll get our Taylor Swift moments.
All the Swifties can be like you literally like after the Super Bowl. So you look up, it's like, oh, you know, spring training for those who remember. But it's like, oh like be like 3 weeks left, the Big 10 season and the Big 10 tournaments coming and then it's like the NCAA tournament. Then you get the Masters and IndyCar. It's like we are about to hit that stretch. Yeah, it's this is my favorite
time of the year. Those of you who have listened to the podcast for long enough know that, like this stretch from the Super Bowl to really the Indy 500 is my favorite set of sporting events and we'll see what happens with IU. As part of that we're going to talk about obviously the game yesterday as Indiana knocks off Iowa a a costly victory in a bunch of ways, but certainly an interesting one.
And we'll also talk a little bit about what we got coming up this weekend, which I will start off by talking about this time. For those of you who are not aware, we are going to be live at the Upstairs pub in Bloomington. I will be getting there probably around 11 AMI. Think Scott's getting there sometime around the same time we'll be there for the Penn State game. You can come up and talk with us if you want to. You don't have, you're not required to by any means are we?
We're caged animals that you can bring us food. You can throw us, throw us pretzel bites. That's right. Come, come, come throw like an orange at Scott and and and watch him eat it. No, but we'll be there during the game. It's promising a lot for me. And then after the game we'll have the rest of our friends from the back home network joining us at upstairs as assembly call will be coming in and doing their live post game show.
We'll be participating in that as well and you get a chance to meet a bunch of the folks that you hear on the network. So if you're in town or if you're coming in town for the game, you know whether or not you've got tickets, we'd love to see you out there being sponsored by Hard Truth Distillery, Indiana's largest distillery, one of my favorites. They're based over in Nashville. If you haven't been over to Hard Truth Hills, absolutely a place to go.
And and their whole line of spirits is is just awesome stuff. Scott, I don't know if you had some of their, if you've been to my tailgates, you've had some hard truth. Then I have then yes, I have Okay. So anyway, hope we see you all there. Again, we'll be there at upstairs around 11:30 and we'll be there for like the next five hours or so. So hope to see you there. On Saturdays, Indiana takes on Penn State. Couple of the quick notes. We are on sub stack
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across the board. They just dropped a new Duke in North Carolina collection. Not that I'm into that kind of thing, but maybe you are and you go to their social media. They do a great job with social media. Check them out on Instagram. Oh, I just heard the ACC is calling a foul on home field for getting that close to Duke. So they the home field, one foul already. They're home field in the bonus. There are Dukes in the bonus on home field. Yeah, sorry I messed.
That up Hope Field might foul out. This is this is terrible. Anyway, looking forward to enjoying all of your company and and hopefully we'll see you out in your home field. Garrett upstairs. Let's go ahead Scott and jump right in and talk about the game last night. That was quite a contest. Indiana taking on Iowa and this was a game that Iowa was actually slightly favored in going into the game.
Indiana came out and looked pretty good, like right off the bat established a big lead and and it really looked like Iowa was going to kind of sink into oblivion. At one point Indiana was on a 12 nothing run. They led 31 to 15, they led 35 to 19. But it was one of those games that it it felt like it was cursed in a lot of ways. You know, Malik Renew goes down and and kind of a quasi non contact injury never comes back. We saw him on crutches at one point, but he was basically gone
the rest of the game. And then there was that terrifying moment close to the end of the game where Xavier Johnson, it looked like he fell and and broke something
significant. Early reports are maybe it was not nearly that bad, but it certainly looked awful and it kind of felt like between those items and Indiana squandering the lead that they had built up, and Iowa even taking the lead a couple of times, that this was another game where Indiana just wasn't going to measure up. However, but despite the odds and despite the momentum, Indiana figured out a way to win
this one. They get some clutch play out of Anthony Leal, who had the game of his life in an Indiana uniform. They get an incredible performance out of a very hobbled Khalil Ware and they end up coming away with a 7468 victory at home. Scott, I mean your overall impressions from that game like what it what, how was it and and what was your what did you come
away with? Yeah. I mean I was I was there and I'm sitting right kind of by the where Xavier went down like right by that basket and it was that was a tough hit. I hope. I hope he can come back. It's just that guy's been not had good injury luck. No. I mean expanding on a lot of the things that you talked about.
You know that was a game where it's it's frustrating because you know we're up like you know 15, almost 20 in the first half and it's like you just know like this I I don't see us cruising to a 30 point victory like you just you you had a feeling Iowa was going to came come back, they came back and they actually took the lead. I think it's like 6566 they took the lead at one point and it's like oh God, yeah, once you cross that, that threshold, sometimes that's like almost too
much to mentally come back from. You've got to give this team played hard. They they fought through. There was a lot of moments where it could have been like man, like I was coming back and Xavier goes down. Like you could just not saying you folded up but you could have seen like understanding why. But you know if I would have told you if you had you know Clutch 3 by Gabe Cups on your bingo card to win the game. I I think a lot of people wouldn't have had that. But he came up huge.
Like you mentioned, Anthony Leo had the game that I think a lot of us have been like that's that's what we've kind of been waiting for out of Leo. Like we know he can shoot looking to see it. His defense has really improved. And and yeah, I mean, Khalil Ware, I'm trying to see he had three blocks, but I mean his block numbers really don't count, 'cause he gets like 9 or 10 every game where, you know, like Perkins drives in and it's like, oh, Khalil Ware was there
like I'm going to pass it out. Like a lot of times their people were going to go up for shots, but they don't. And call the We need a category for that. Yeah, like you got weird. How about, how about like, deterrence? It's like it wasn't, it wasn't a block. But yeah, he had like, he had six deterrence in that game. Yeah, and and you know, the only solace you can take is that, you know, we don't know how long Renew is going to be out. And don't take this the wrong
way. Like Renew is awesome as well. But there is a world where we're playing on his own as kind of the only big guy. You could see how much court he was able to cover, how much he was able to kind of control that lane without other people, kind of other defenders being there. And that's with him obviously still being injured, not having the same kind of lateral quickness. So he's he's an absolute revelation every, every time you
see him play. But overall to me it was I walked away with the toughness, the grittiness of that team to kind of, you know, get punched in the mouth three times, like two injury punch mouths. And then the, you know, getting having Iowa come all the way back and take the lead, but but still come back and and find a way to to grip that out.
To me, that was a big win and really a a must win if you're going to kind of turn this season around or at least get the season going in the direction you want it to. I mean, look, there were it's one of those games where if you lose your leading scorer in Malik Renew 3 minutes into the game, which Indiana did, and you lose Khalil Ware or didn't lose the Khalil Ware. But you know, Khalil Ware wasn't
even sure to play. And you know, we heard before the game he was going to be unlimited minutes and you lose your starting point guard and you're playing an Iowa team that while you know not great is is is certainly a functional basketball team. I mean, they just won at Michigan. That's not a great scenario regardless. And then you add in the problems that this team has had with kind of playing a full 40 minutes. We've talked about that a lot throughout the course of the
year. But you know, what I take out of this is kind of, I I guess kind of falls into the following buckets, The fact that so many people were able to step up and perform. Anthony Leal deserves all the credit in the world for coming off the bench when he had to be called playing 2022 minutes in the game, which if I'm not mistaken, like, you go back and look at Anthony Leal's career. He's only played that many minutes in an Indiana uniform
twice. He played 35 minutes his freshman year and then he played 22 minutes against actually three times. Sorry, still, that's not very many for a guy who's been at IU as long as he had. And for him to come in, having not played that much lately and shoot confidently and just kind of be a calming presence on the court, I mean, it's a great moment for a guy who hasn't had the opportunity to have a lot of great moments in Indiana uniform. He's been through a coaching change. You know that.
That is one of those. It feels like every player that's in an IU uniform kind of gets at least one moment like that. And for him to get that moment and really be kind of a decisive reason why Indiana wins a tight game that they might have otherwise lost is really cool to see. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, whether it turns into, you know, we get it this, this Anthony Leo, like this moving forward. Don't know. But I I agree. It was awesome to see.
But there is a world where like this does it. It it wasn't like he just completely did something out of the norm. Like Leo's a good shooter. Like that's what he came in as. And his shot has always looked good. I think sometimes he's struggled with, you know, feeling comfortable taking the shot or doing with a little bit of pressure in his face.
So there is a world where like this, this does feel like him going 3 for four or three for five from three on a regular basis doesn't feel completely out of out of the round. Plus you saw how how much this, you know, this is kind of where everyone's been trying to get our offense to do some of this. You saw like one of his threes was in 100% because he had the ball he passed into where his defender went to double team where and it's like where kicked it back.
Leal's wide open and it's like that is that's going to be there all season because there will be times where teams like we can't we can't we we we want a double team where it's like well then you're going to leave Anthony Leal open. And so it's like I there is a world where I do think some of this could be replicatable moving forward. Yeah. No, that's the thing.
And that was that feeds into the second point that I was going to make, which is that out of necessity, Mike Woodson had to change the way his team approached playing yesterday. And you know the the stat that sticks out to me about this game, and I mentioned it on Twitter afterwards, they shot 22 three pointers. They shot as many three pointers as Iowa shot. They hit two more.
And I'd like to note, Scott, that they won the game by 6 points, which if you take 2-3 pointers and multiply them by the points that you get for the shots that ended up being the margin of victory. This is a team that if you're going to take 22 threes and hit eight, you'll take that every day of the week. Indiana has to moving forward, especially if Malik Renew is injured.
But even if he's not, you know, with Khalil Ware being hobbled and also just with the way that this roster is set up right now, they have to become a bit more perimeter oriented. We've talked about this over and over again. The fact that they they shot those threes, it became part of the offense just kind of made me wonder like what exactly was the reason why they haven't been doing this up to this point. And I think to some degree this has to be incorporated more down
the line. I mean, I still don't think that the offense looks great to watch, but there was at least the threat with those open threes, including that one that Gabe Cups made at the end of the game that essentially kind of gave Indiana the final separation that they needed. Like there was a confidence level coming out of the shooters from three that you haven't seen and that's the thing I hope that they can replicate with this And you know, so I'm going to let
you talk about that. There's one other style of play aspect that I want to get to, but any thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean I, I, I hear you my cat and I I hope that's the case. My counter would be, as you look at this season, I haven't gone back and looked at like previously. If you look at this year like you know they they go four for 15 against Harvard, they shoot 15 threes. The next two games they only shoot 9 going 3 for nine against Maryland and Michigan.
It's like you're shooting pretty well to shot more. They didn't. You see these blips like again it's northern Alabama. But they did shoot 24 against Northern Alabama and then kind of start dipping back down only taking twelve against Ohio State they went, you know they shot 8 for 24 against Purdue very similar to numbers to Iowa. The next two games they go six for 14 and O for 9:00.
So now I will say when you look at the trend like the beginning of the year, they're kind of in that 1012 threes a game range. It is starting to tick up but you do kind of see this you know 824 against Purdue and then two games later you're only shooting nine against Illinois. Some of that is the teams that you're playing, some of it schematic, but that that's my only concern is you have seen these blips where they shoot a lot of threes and then you go two or three games later and
they're not doing it again. I you hope that the confidence is there that that makes it grow. What's and and this is the thing that's important. It's not just the confidence, but it is the orientation of the offense and you know, so many complaints that we've voiced over the course of the season. And and it's not just us. There's others as well have been. Why does it feel like the three pointer is a shot of last resort
for the offense? And it did feel like when when the chips were down yesterday that Indiana was starting to move the ball better out of necessity because they didn't have the crutch of throwing the ball in the post to Malik Renew to rely on. I think the trick and hopefully Malik is fine and and he'll be back in in action soon. The the trick is can you leverage having Malik renew who's a really nice scorer in the post.
He's got some great moves you can certainly rely on him but can you leverage the three-point shot as an offensive weapon and also to make it easier on Malik Renew to avoid the double and
triple teams. I mean, I think if last night's game shows anything to me, it's that you can shoot the ball from three if you're Indiana and have some measure of success if you are serious about trying it. And I just don't feel like in the Illinois game, it does not feel like Indiana was particularly serious about shooting from deep.
And that's how you get a situation where you only take 9 threes for a whole game and you don't make any and and that has to affect the confidence of your shooters. You know what stuck out to me in that Iowa game was how ready everybody seemed to be to shoot and not all the shots were great. I mean, CJ Gunn had an Air Bold 3 and you know there were a couple of threes that were way off, but Iowa had those two got Peyton Sanford air ball to three, there was another three that was way off.
Like there's there are lots of you're going to get those, but that that can't be a reason not to do that particular part of the offense. I I I hear you. I'm not trying to be contrarian. I hear you. I'm just looking at the stats from last year like they go 10 from 20 for three at home against Ohio State and then this is just attempted threes in the games afterwards. This is last season 11101261111. So like, I I I hear you. My only counter is, you know all of last week we're talking about
how this needs to change. Like one game it did. We've seen these these blips go up. I the the one thing about the confidence that I find funny, I was telling somebody this at halftime yesterday is it's like I wish we could bottle and just talk to Mackenzie and Bako and be like you're playing the 1st 4 minutes of the game, the entire game. Because the 1st 4 minutes every game he comes out like an absolute stud.
He shooting with, you know with confidence, like he shoots great and then you know maybe it's he's on the bench too long, I don't know. But like the rest of the game it feels like he's trying to reintegrate himself And he had he had one shot you know 1/3 that was way off and it's just like that's the first four minute. McKenzie is like the best possible McKenzie.
It's almost like you you don't want to take him out ever because like it feels like once he hits the bench the first time it's like he has a hard time getting back to that. But anyway. Well, no, I It's a good point and I think it's frustrating and to some degree it felt like one of the reasons why Iowa got back in the game. I mean, there's coaching going on Mackenzie and Bako's getting benched because Mike Woodson doesn't like what's happening
with him defensively and that's. He he left Stanford completely wide open for a three and that's why he. Got and and there's no question he's having bad moments defensively. Still less, less than he was having at the beginning of the season, but still not good. But I think the problem right now is that we know Woodson is doing what most coaches would do, which is, oh, you're going to screw up on defense. I'm going to put your ass on the
bench. But the problem is that Mackenzie and Bacco is having a real hard time reintegrating into the team and the game flow once that happens. And so you know you you, it's a tricky one.
And I don't envy Mike Woodson and the coaching staff on this because on the one hand you can't just let blown defensive assignments go. But on the other hand this is a guy who when he's properly engaged is is, you know, he's he's given, he's, he's had now 7, there's now six straight games in double figures offensively. And while that's not everything, realistically Indiana needs those points because they have struggled to score the points that they need to be competitive in games.
And he helped you drive to a 15 point lead to start the game, so. You know, this is where This is why coaches make a lot of money. You could try to thread that needle in terms of of how you deal with a player like that is a really complicated thing. But what you talked about with the, the variants in the threes, that is, that happens with every
team. I think the other thing about last night's game that really stuck out was for the first time in a while, Indiana, honest to God, was awesome at offensive rebounding. I mean they. They. They got rebounds on 38.2% of opportunities on the offensive glass last night. That is the highest number that Indiana has registered since the Maryland game when they grabbed basically 43% of offensive
rebound possibilities. And as we've talked about on this show, as I talked about when I was on Podcast on the Brink, that is a potentially key component of the offense that has just not shown up. And you know, part of it was yesterday. I mean, Khalil Ware just had a physical advantage over a lot of the people that were playing for Iowa. But it showed what the possibilities could be if you're dedicated to getting offensive
rebounds. And it wasn't just Mackenzie or excuse me, it wasn't just Khalil Ware that was grabbing offensive rebounds. I mean it was, it was a collective effort. You know, Trey Galloway had an offensive rebound, Xavier Johnson had one and Baco had one, Walker had one, Leo had one. There were there were three team offensive rebounds. I mean those things add up. They extend possessions and they make it so that even if you're missing threes, it is possible
to grab offensive rebounds. Like, it doesn't have to be an either or situation. Well, and it's not even a size. I'm just going back to the Ruckers game like we you know they out rebounded us in the offensive glass 19 to 8 and they have nobody over 7 foot. So to I mean to the point like it's not just about there's no one to guard Cleo where it's like Rutgers really doesn't have nobody to guard him either and it didn't happen and you also had to renew in that game.
So I'm I'm with you and and it goes down to again you don't get extra credit for effort but it's good to see it and a lot of it just can't. A lot of those team rebounds and offensive rebounds just came down to effort and just came down to like the ball kind of got tipped around and and we went and got it and and to be fair like Iowa was giving effort to they just they out effort it. I wasn't like Iowa was kind of not going after things. We just out effort of them,
which was really good to see. Yeah, what else took out since you were at the game I was watching at the upstairs pub, you were at the game. What else stuck out to you? I'm trying to. I not I mean not not anything not anything else that we haven't hit are already. I mean I guess that the one thing I would say is just it was looking back kind of interesting in a positive way how unfazed this team seem to be by the injuries.
And what I mean is not that they don't care not they don't care about their teammates, but that that's, you know Malik Renew is one of, if not the best player on this team. And then goes out and they watch him hobbling around like trying to get to the locker room. That was tough. That could have they they ended up, I think going on like A12O run after that. It didn't seem to phase them and like I said in a good way. And same thing with you know Xavier. Xavier goes down, the teams just
standing there around him. They all kind of doing that. Oh God, they have that look like, oh gosh the they could tell it wasn't good. And then that was when I was in the midst of a run. So I just, I think seeing their reaction to to those two things for a team that for the last couple weeks we've kind of been saying, you know they're they're making silly decisions. They're not seeming to be locked in or making you know less than stellar decisions on the court.
I will say I was impressed seeing the the kind of the, the mental aspect of this team, just being able to, you know, put that aside, segmented over and continue to play the basketball game and very much a, you know, like I saw Anthony Walker go in for Xavier Johnson, just be like, all right, I'm ready to go and let's just play basketball. And I think to me that was impressive to see in person. That's good to hear.
Now I mean, and even on on TVI mean most of the frustrations that people were having were just like, how is Iowa coming back in this game? Look, I mean, Iowa had two players that really played incredibly well. You know, you know, you're going to get Peyton Sanford. It's just like, oh good. We needed someone to fill that role of that Iowa guy and you. Everybody knows who that Iowa guy is. There have been that Iowa guys for like the last 40 years and obviously Tony Perkins.
Normally Fran McCaffrey makes them, but yes. Right. That's a good point. Yeah, Fran was like you know we're not forget the OE Ms. like we're we're going to do the I am the OEM. Yeah, I guess 18 years ago, Mrs. McCaffrey was like, I'm out, like I'm out. I'm not making any more Mccaffrey's for a while, although there still is a McCaffrey on the team, but yeah. But anyway, I I I think ultimately it's funny. Like there were a lot of flaws
in the game. And you know, Indiana just for whatever reason, does not seem to possess the ability collectively to put opponents away. I mean, you can look at the entire span of this season and there's really not a single game where you feel like Indiana just won it comfortably. I think the closest is probably the North Alabama game, but almost every other game on the
on the schedule. You know, even the Minnesota game a couple of weeks ago, it was just kind of like, well, they won, but it wasn't convincing. Maybe Harvard, but yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, but you know in this game you're going to get more games like this in the Big 10 than games where you're putting opponents away. And I was a good enough team that, you know, I don't think you're just going to put them
away automatically. So I was, I was pleased to see that even though Indiana lost what had allowed them to establish possession of the game, they came back. They weren't fazed by the injuries. They weren't fazed by the fact that Iowa seemed to be hitting everything under the sun for about a 7 or 8 minute span.
I mean as as much of A momentum shift has happened in favor of Iowa, for Indiana to grab it back down to with a minute 40 to play like that does that's what Indiana fans have been waiting for. I think is is something like this where and we kind of saw it in the Ohio State game, but not quite cause like that was a game where Indiana was leading that game and then Ohio State came back and made it really close. This was almost like, yes, it was.
It was a similar pattern, but in this one, it kind of felt like a lot more tenuous because of all the injuries. For Indiana to win, this one felt a little more special. It was a game they absolutely had to have, and it was a game that from a, you know, to be an underdog at home against the team that is not projected to be in the NCAA tournament right now
is a real slap in the face. But it's also a very clear indicator of how far Indiana stock has fallen based upon how they've played, based upon what the metrics say. And so it was really good to see them not just emotionally come away with the victory, but to some degree defy the analytics that have defined them so far over the course of the season by doing certain things like the three-point shooting, like the offensive rebounding that they just hadn't really done as
effectively up to this point. But also I mean that the end play, you know sometime in the second-half, maybe like 10 minutes to go or so like the Gabe Cups got a pass in the corner and was wide open and kind of just looked at it and then didn't take it and like the whole crowd was like take it, like take it, they didn't he passed it off. So it's it's nice kind of redemption that he's, he's the one who hits the final three. He was like wide, wide open. So there is some redemption to that.
So no, but I'm with you that was AI mean what was interesting too is being there. All I can say is you you can feel the assembly hall like it. It never got that crazy tense feel of like, Oh my God, like we're about to lose this. Like it. It did feel like the the crowd kind of kept getting back into it. Like there wasn't that like, oh God, like this is This Is Us letting it slip away. What you feel sometimes in those games, like it the the crowd was definitely there and it it.
Yeah. I'm with you, yeah. I mean, and you can kind of tell that on television as well. I mean it's the assembly halls are pretty good barometer of these sorts of games and it's it's interesting you watch enough of them, you kind of get a sense of how they all filter in Anyway. Indiana with that win, they move back to 500 in the Big 10 and they're kind of in an interesting spot right now in that they've got this game coming up against Penn State. We don't know.
I think at this point I haven't seen anything on Malik Renew. We haven't seen anything official on Xavier Johnson. It's very possible neither of those guys will be able to go. If you were going to have a next opponent that you had to face in that location, it would be Penn State at Indiana, you know.
But it's again, it's one of those things where Indiana, they're only a six point favorite on Ken Palm you know and Penn State is kind of a a weaker version of Iowa to some degree in that like their their best virtue as a team offensively is that they don't turn the ball over. And what's going to be interesting is the one thing they really do good defensively is that they turn their opponents over. They're they're like 21st in the
country and forcing turnovers. So it'll be an interesting challenge for Indiana in that game. I would expect them to win even if they're missing both of those players. But I am interested to see how the minutes split out and how Mike Woodson and his staff decide that they're going to approach this from a game plan
perspective. This seems like the perfect type of game to try to continue to build confidence from the perimeter, you know, so if Indiana can put a line up out there, I mean, they're not facing that. The tallest player that Penn State has is is as cute as Wahab, who's just 611. But this is not a tall team. By and large, this is a team that, you know, they're 178th
and average height. Indiana is a significantly taller team than they are, so it's going to be interesting to see if Indiana kind of lowers their height at various positions because they don't have to focus entirely on matching physicality for physicality. So I am curious to see what happens in that one. But at this point, it's really more about can Indiana put it
together with collective will? And can they get scoring from the people that are going to be out there knowing Malik Renew might not be part of the roster that day. Yeah, I mean you don't have must wins in January, but you do have them in February. So you know February 3rd. This is whether Malik Renew, Xavier Johnson are or are not playing or even how healthy Khalil Wear is.
It's like this is a must win. You just you, you cannot lose this game with what's facing you, what's facing ahead of you. You know when you look at Penn State then they haven't won on the road this year so that that helps. They haven't been a great Rd. team. They did beat Wisconsin at home, which is an outlier of sorts. But the only concerning thing with that game where Penn State beat Wisconsin is that Ace Baldwin by the way like top
level name. Like if you want to have a shooter, name your kid Ace Ace Baldwin and Zach Hicks together went 711 for three. And so that that's the concerning part is we still see this team in you know Stanford with with Iowa. He's a really good elite 3 point shooter. But this this Indiana team has had an Achilles heel of letting 3 point shooters get hot. It happens in Assembly Hall more than I would like it to.
So that would be the concern is if either Ace or Zach Hicks starts getting hot, you know they they can shoot the lights out and that's what you want to you know avoid against. And I do think the crowd might feel a little bit different if they get hot early, suddenly you're down you know five or six to Penn State and then it's like oh man, this is like that maybe that the crowd does turn a little bit.
So that that would be the concern and that's where again back to our earlier point, you know this is where if you're Woodson, it's just it's a tough balance because you have guys on this team who sometimes just do blow defensive assignments. But you you need their offense as well. You just hope they don't blow the assignments on Baldwin or Hicks giving up open threes. We'll see what happens. Penn State's going to try to push the tempo a bit. They've done that a lot so far this year.
The one thing I'm hoping for Penn State has among the worst free throw shooting defenses in the country. Opponents are shooting 77% from the charity strike. Because we don't shoot well, so. Man, if you want to talk about a get little game from the free throw strike, that's Indiana needs that more anyway, that'll be like make sure to come see us and upstairs that's kind of it for the game.
Scott, you I had a couple things that we were going to chat about a little bit more next week, but just kind of some general program related items like what what you got for us. Yeah, that's just why you're you're giving me the, the wide open lane there just to drive and go nuts. No, I was, you know, I I listened to to your podcast last week and I think they brought up a lot of good things which we can kind of parse out as we continue going in.
I think, you know, when a win, while it doesn't solve everything, it does help a lot. And looking into a Penn State game where hopefully you can get a nice win and then you start maybe making some better momentum is good. The one thing that I was thinking about is this, like I I got to come up with a better name. But you know, it's something you and Zach Osterman talked about.
The idea of, you know, creens issues kind of cascades into Archie, which then cascades into Woodson that they all kind of compound. And I, I truly believe that as a fan who's lived through all of this, like my angst gets higher every year. As I was thinking about it, like I I, I'm calling this like the happiness season index. But it kind of goes along with those same thoughts of, you know, like last year, for example, was a good year.
You know, like you, you did win. You get fourth in the, you know, fourth in the tournament. You you got a protected seed, which on the top level sounds good. But you know last year was a year where we lost by 15 at Rutgers. Like we lost three in a row. And I I mentioned it many times like we lost by 19 to Penn State. And there was a moment there where it's like, Oh, my God, is this is this season going off the rails? It didn't. But then you lost to Penn State in the Big 10 tournament.
Like, it was an uneven season. That you can't say like that season. I had a great time the whole time. Like, there were moments I was really concerned. I started thinking along those same lines, like how many years over the last 20 years have you had a season where it's just like I felt great about that year and like, so I if you if you.
OK that's that's funny. I was, I was texting with a friend of the pod, Trisha Whitaker, last night during the game and I was like all I really want is a normal IU basketball team to root for like one year. And like even last year as as as good as that season was, it was just kind of like this weird arc where there were several points where you're just like what is going on? And yeah, no, I'm it is funny.
I I we think about that a lot in terms of like happiness is in many cases anchored to consistency. And you can have Michigan State's a great example. Like you can have off years where you're like we're a seven seed in the tournament, but it's still a good year and you still feel confident because of past performances that something's going to happen in the tournament down the line. It's not as pressure packed. Right.
And I think this is what adds up to it is like again, last year, that top level, it's like 4 seed in the tournament. It's a great year but there were moments that it wasn't so I broke it down here. Eight years that just don't count. This is God it's way too many. 2004, 5910111417181921 we didn't make the tournament so, so none of those count as like at IU we can talk about expectations. You don't make the tournament. That's not a good year. Like just a hard stop. I I came up with three.
I have three years in the last 20 and 20 is just an arbitrary. I just don't want to keep doing this forever. I have three years that I would say are good years. So I'll give you the three and then I I have, I have reasons for all the other ones. So like, I'll just, you want me to go through it for fun? Yeah. So 2003, you know, go through it. There's a 5 game losing streak in the Big 10 which also includes a Louisville game oddly. And then you lost to Penn State to end the season.
So that wasn't awesome. 2006, you know, you fired Mike Davis at the end of the year. It wasn't a bad you go to the tournament, but you also lost it. Indiana State you got a 5 game losing streak which included UConn at that point in the Big 10. So those years don't count. 2007, OK. I have it as a maybe because you know you went 5-4 and five to end the Big 10 but you did. You also had a first round loss in the Big 10 tournament but it it wasn't what I would consider
an awful year. You know it's the first year with Samson and new coach are kind of there. 2008 is just like I I have it marked as what could have been because that's the second Samson year and that is that's a whole other podcast. I will just leave it at what could have been on that year because things were trending well and then something happened. 2012 I have as possibly that's the that's the year we beat Kentucky at home with the watch shot.
But that as you've mentioned before that's a year that we went two and five in the Big 10 in January. At one point we were five and six in the Big 10, but that was probably really close to being there. What's funny is 2013, everybody's like, oh, that was the year you're #1. It's got to be like, to me, actually it wasn't. Because I remember we beat Michigan, we become number one, and then we immediately turn around to lose to Illinois in a really bad, like last second
play. And then it's like we have a home game against Ohio State, which is good to win the Big 10. We don't clinch it. We lose to Wisconsin in the Big 10 tournament. You know it. It's just like anyway, it's like we have a second ranked offense in the country and we get 50 points against Syracuse. Like that season is really hard to round as like a great year. I'm taking too long. But I'll say the other one that I I have as a probably is 2016 and I think you and I are in the
same spot. That's the year with Yogi. They won the big 10. You and I, I I put this under this is my neurosis. I just never fully believed it was actually happening like it had been so long. It's like, are we really going to, is this team? When's it going to punch me in the gut? They never did until they did lose as the #1C in the Big 10 tournament to Michigan. But they never lost at home.
They won the Big 10. So probably 2016 is the closest, but like in 20 years, there's only three seasons that I have where it's like that was probably an overall good year. And my my larger point is like, I think this is what continues to build up the angst is even the years where you think like, oh man, 2013 was good. It's like it still was an uneven year. And again, as IU fans, we just were expecting more and more every year.
So I hear you there in a in a way but I think to some degree I think the idea that there is a Nirvana of consistency so true with any top team is is kind of fictional and I mean even look at like Purdue last year had a great season. They were a one seed in the tournament. They had a stretch where they lost four out of six and that was bookended by losses to Indiana like. But they had such a good year leading up to that. I think you're going to have a lot of these kinds of things
where there are swoons. And I think especially in this era, like so much of the the, you know, we we tend to focus on the exemplars, the seasons for schools where everything goes right And it's like, damn, we'd love to be those folks. But realistically, I think most programs will have games like that every two to three weeks. And I think this was the case even when Indiana was quote UN quote like you know, a top notch
program in college basketball. There were plenty of instances where Indiana would lose a home game to a team that wasn't as good as them in the night era. You know, there, there, you see that with North Carolina. Tennessee, who's at a great season, just lost at home to South Carolina last night. I mean there's there's those sorts of things that happened. So I hear you. I think we're with Indiana fans.
Where the problem is, is there's just not a lot of stacked successful seasons where at the end of it, you know, it's like that stat that I unfurled the other day where it's like if you look at the the reality of the situation over the course of the last 20 some years, Indiana hasn't made the tournament in, you know, in three consecutive years since 2008. You know, they they, they've made it. They made it back-to-back in 12 and 13.
They made it back-to-back in 15 and 16 and they made it back-to-back in 22 and 23 and like that. That will cause you to feel like everything is upside down very consistently. And so I think I'm, I'm a little bit less concerned with the ebbs and flows of an individual season to me. I think after you get through a season you can look back on it and a lot of those, the the
peaks and valleys will even out. The problem is that the baseline for those seasons for Indiana jumps so much, and you have a season like last year, which ends up, you know, kind of, it should have felt better than it did. And then you'll have other seasons like 2016 that started off bad and everybody was waiting for the other shoe to drop and never did. You never fully get confident or comfortable with what the team is putting out there.
And I think that is where, you know, for Indiana to have like a stretch, like Purdue's hat or whatever, you know, where you have a couple of chunks of like 5 or 6 postseason appearances in a row. NCAA appearances in a row like that will cure that more than anything else. But I think it's harder now in college basketball because of how much roster movement there is, because of how many older players are still in the system, because of COVID.
To some degree, it's almost like, do we need to recalibrate our expectations? Where the idea of making the tournament 234 years in a row is hard for a lot of programs, Villanova might miss the tournament. You know, this year North Carolina missed the tournament last year. That's where Indiana missed all of the good times before the system changed. And now everybody's got to get adapted to this new system where I think everybody's going to be up and down.
No and and your your point is valid because I went and I tried to look at the did a little bit. I wasn't going to look at every big 10 teams every year like what teams have had what I would consider a super happy season. It's it's hard to find. I went back in the Indiana archives and like what was a great year, You know, obviously taking the national championship teams out because those are pretty good years. It's like the best I'd come up with was the 9091 team.
That team lost at home to Ohio, they lost at Ohio State, they lost at home to Iowa, but they finished fifteen and three in the Big 10, went in the tournament as an NCAA two seed. They didn't do well in the Big 10 tournament that year, didn't finish well. I'm just joking. There's no Big 10 tournament. That's that's funny. Yeah, but but so so your your point is well taken. I think the other thing that is hurting, not just the consistency but you know the the years that we've been good and
had the spikes. You know we haven't had the top level up line success. Like we've won two Big 10 titles in those years that we were good but you know half joking but it's like there's not a lot of other Big 10 tournament success and then not a lot of NCAA tournament success where is like in 2013 if that team doesn't lose the Syracuse just makes the final four. That that glow I think covers up a lot of the peaks and valleys as well too.
You know where you're you're mentioning you know teams like Villanova, it's like I don't know, you don't mean this way. It's like you win a title that covers up seven years, you can do a lot of mistakes between here and there, even a Final Four with this team. And I think that's what also is hurting because even Purdue has had ups and downs, but they're consistently doing well in the Big 10, winning Big 10 titles,
winning Big 10 tournaments. And so last year, you know, wasn't a success for them, but they still won a Big Ten title, won the Big 10 tournament, you know, didn't beat Fairly Dickinson. But anyway, I I hear exactly what you're saying. I just my thought is that you know even the seasons that we would consider quote UN quote good had moments of kind of more peril than just oh we lost a game that sucks. Like we've had multi you know four or five game losing streaks.
We're losing 4 out of 6 even in seasons we consider good, which I think that just kind of helps stack the angst that Zach was talking about. That goes year to year and unfortunately, just like it's not, it's not getting dissipated at all like we got to, we got to have a season, we get to the final four to let the the steam out, so to speak.
No, I mean, look, ultimately there's nobody has felt consistently good about the program for like 5 years in a row in a long time and that goes back to night. I mean, you know that like the. When we were there, it wasn't awesome. Yeah, I mean people there was a lot of like what's going on? Why like is it time to hang it up, Should we move on? I mean that's that's been that has been a constant state of the program for so long.
And that was only five years removed from a final four and 10 years move from a title so. Yeah, and and so that's the nature of the beast. And you know, Indiana's had. There have been bad decisions, there's been bad luck, there's been a bunch of things that have filtered into that. For older IU fans, they've got an idyllic picture of the past, which wasn't all puppies and roses, but we tend to remember it that way because what's happened in the near past hasn't
been very consistently good. And for younger fans, this is what they've been born into. You know, it is, it is chaotic and it feels a lot of times like Indiana if you compare them to the programs that have had consistent success in terms of wins, in terms of tournament appearances. I mean, it's not just, it seems that they haven't measured up. Indiana hasn't measured up. So that was my, you know, I'm thinking that was the hope when Archie got hired. It was the hope when Woodson got hired.
Can there be some stability, not just of results, but can people feel good about the direction, the development, the the the, you know, the the way that the program sits within the larger landscape of college basketball and that just hasn't materialized and we'll talk more about that next week. This is a conversation. As you know, Indiana making the NIT is actually important for this program. I think like they need to do at least that.
Obviously making the NCAA tournaments what you want, the NIT is a poor substitute, but there has to be at least some level of consistency in terms of we're at least making the postseason, right? So that's kind of what I'm looking at. And what do you get out of the remaining games? And so we'll talk about that more in the future, but we need to wrap up now. Any final thoughts from you? No, I'm so excited for Saturday and looking forward to seeing whoever can make it down.
Excited to see the new upstairs. Yeah, it's, it's wild. It's awesome. Looking forward to it. Thank you to Hard Truth Distilling. Looking forward to having them sponsor us over there. And we'll look forward to meeting up with all you folks as we host you at Upstairs alongside the fine folks at upstairs. We'll be out there around 11:00 AM to noon and then all the way through the Penn State game and afterwards for Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson Cast.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison. So everybody.