You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you. It is the 3rd of March. I've already podcasted once today. Scott has not. That you know of. Maybe I have, I mean, I I'm OK. Let me just ask, have you podcasted already today? No. OK, what do? You put five year olds. I wasn't trying to brag.
I was just like, well, if if anybody's listening to the feed, they're like, damn, I gotta listen to Clavio again. This is not great so anyway. It is funny. I was thinking that like I got you like you bombarded me with content, 'cause I went out for a jog this morning doing training for a 5K humble brag and I'm like, all right, like the I've that that you're solo Pod Friday.
This is good. I mean listen to that like the the, the non VIPVIP post, but I got enough content to get me through a run and like I'm finishing up and then it's like boom, you and Taylor Layman. It's like, God, I'm just getting killed by Clavio today. So I I feel. You I mean. Fortunately we don't work on Commission, so it doesn't matter how many podcasts we do. I my my pay rate stays the same. It's all overtime.
Can't. Even talk to you because I have a little back pay issue we. Just oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Let me, let me pass you off to Jared for that, actually. So no. Anyway. Team at the home network, that's right. The the that's why I'm. Not getting paid, that's right. Yes, yes, they they've actually sent you checks, but they've just sent them to Caulfield. Could be any of the. Caulfields. No, no, no, Scott. Indiana Just Scott. Indian's like sending a letter to Santa Claus, right? Scott?
Here's a check. Anyway, quick reminder folks, we are sponsored by Home Field apparel as is the rest of the back home network. They are ramping it up this month as they generally do in March. 3rd month mania coming right at you starting on Monday, something new every day from the 4th until the 17th. Go sign up for the newsletter,
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My apologies, everybody. Anyway, it won't happen again. Crimson cast at substack.com. It's free. There is a paid option if you would like to support the podcast financially, but no obligation. We'd love to have you in the community. All right, big day for IU basketball and a really happy day for IU basketball. And somewhere Scott Van Pelt is sad as Indiana men and Indiana women sweep Maryland Terrapins
basketball. The Indiana women wrap up a 15 and three season and a tie for second place in the Big 10 Conference with the Win Today reports of their demise premature and greatly exaggerated and outside of a little bit of a scare with Mackenzie Holmes going down with what looked like a slight injury, she came back out of the locker room looked like she was OK. The women tie for second place in the Big 10 behind Ohio State and if the seating holds to form, they'll take on Iowa once
again in the semi final. So we wish them the best of luck as they move forward into the Big 10 tournament. Which actually, believe it or not, Scott starts in the middle of this upcoming week. We're already in conference tournament play time, men also in action, and man, that was a
bizarre game. They traveled to Maryland, a team that they I think you could make an argument that the win that they had earlier this year against Maryland at home might have been their best game, that they played against a team with a pulse so far this year. They had a big lead. They kind of let a little bit of the lead get away at the end in that one. And then today it looked like things were going in entirely the opposite direction. They looked listless and lifeless in that first half.
They they allowed a couple of big runs. They got down I think by 14 or 16 points at one point early in the second-half and then IU just could not miss from the field. They just they could not miss and I think at one point they hit eleven shots in a row, they hit 12 to 13. They finished the game shooting 8382% from the free throw line,
which is shocking. They finished the game shooting 44% from 3. Maryland, who's a really good defensive team by every metric, absolutely could not stop Indiana on offense in the second-half. Indiana ends up winning the game 83 to 78. They get a big game out of Mackenzie and Bako who has 24 points on 8 of 15 shooting, 4 for four from the free throw
line really coming into his own. Offensively, they get some really good play out of Malik Renew, despite the fact that someone tried to prevent Malik Renew from being able to reproduce in the future with a really poorly placed knee, but he was able to come back from that and ended up with 14 points and five rebounds. Khalil Ware did not have a great shooting game, turned the ball over six times, but grabbed 15
rebounds and had nine points. And Xavier Johnson came off the bench and really, really played the game that you would hope he would play 8 or 13 points and six assists in that contest. They didn't even need Gabe Cups essentially in the second-half. So Indiana with that win moves to 8 and 10 in the conference, 16 and 13 overall. Scott, obviously, you know, two wins in a row. That's great.
First time Indiana's had two wins in a row in the calendar year of 2024 and first time they've had consecutive wins since North Alabama and Kennesaw State back at the very end of 2023. It's obviously way late in terms of it mattering and you know, for, you know, tournament, you know, consideration or whatever. But it it does at least have the impact of putting Indiana in the driver's seat to perhaps avoid the Wednesday games in the Big 10 tournament.
That's at least something it's not, you know, it's it's a very small something to write home about. But what were your overall thoughts from the game? Yeah got to stay away from the got to get that double buy or the single buy at least as it's what I'm talking about in the broadcast. No I I you hit a lot of the the main stats I thought were were good. I mean The thing is this team did a lot of things today that they just obviously haven't done throughout the year.
The question is always like is this replicable. We see it again, but you know again you have Imbacco go 4 from 8 from 3 point line like the the whole team goes 7 for 16 shooting 43% on a pretty you know normal volume of 3 point shots. We haven't seen that a lot. Normally they either don't take enough or when they take this many or 15 or over they're normally shooting sub 30%. So that was really nice to see from the free throw line shoot 82%. That's been a real bugaboo all
season. They do that. The other thing too that I liked is just when you look at the game log, you know with with 949 to go in the second-half, you know, Indiana had already made that run. They were down like you said, I think you know, 15 or 16 at one point they make this run to get back. It's 6460 Maryland ahead and then Maryland just stays at 64 points like just a great defensive stand until the four minute mark in the second-half where Indiana's up 72 to 64.
We haven't seen that either. You know, Indiana has gotten down in a bunch of games. They've been able to come back in some of those, but a lot of times they get to kind of that range, that 6460 range, and it's like, all right now they kind of put her out or you know, you know, the other team gets a couple of big threes and suddenly it's a 12 point game
again. Either this was unique in that they they got down, which isn't good, but they fought back and then once they kind of got to that precipice, like, all right, now we can get over the hump. Not only they get over the hump, they held Maryland scoreless for 4 1/2 minutes during that kind of crucial point. So that was also a really good thing to see. This is a Maryland team that is one of the worst offenses in the Big 10.
So it's not saying much, but you still did it and you did it on the road and you know, would have loved to not gotten down by that much. But you know at this point I I hate to be in, you know, not moral victory, but victory. Victories are good. But it is like it's it's a win and you do the things you need to do to win. It's interesting. These are two fundamentally flawed teams and you've seen that throughout the course of
the season. I mean, Indiana has really struggled to put together games and Maryland has struggled to finish games. I talked about this on the Preview Podcast. Like, Maryland is one of the unluckiest teams in Ken Palm. And what that means is like, their play statistically has not matched the amount of wins that they've had. They've they've lost games that they probably shouldn't. And what I was, I guess, most impressed by with Indiana was they had two long stretches
where they just stopped scoring. You know, they Indiana. It was 20 to 19 Indiana, excuse me, 2017 Indiana at about the 10 minute mark of the first half and they didn't score again until the five O 8 mark of the first half. Then again at one point it was 33 or 3833 Maryland with 1:49 left in the first half and Indiana didn't score again until the eighteen O 4 mark of the second-half.
This is exactly what we saw in the Penn State game, where Indiana goes on these long lulls offensively where they just can't get anything going. And we've talked about this scenario with IU where they'll play well and then they'll just have these stretches where nothing goes in the bucket for them and that gives the other team the margin of victory. And that looked like what this game was going to be.
But then Maryland had a worse 1. Maryland like that, That three by Jamie Kaiser with 949 left in the second made it 6460. That was what you were talking about. Maryland didn't score again until the 354 mark of the second-half. And when you look at what Indiana was able to do, and especially the way that they kind of put things together offensively, it did. If you look at what Indiana has done over the course of really since the Purdue game, their defense has been the problem.
Their offense has actually gotten progressively better. It was about the same between the Northwestern and Nebraska games. But in the last two games in particular, they scored adjusted 100 and excuse me, this is this is no this is adjusted 124.6 points per 100 possessions against Wisconsin. And then their offensive rating today was 130.3 adjusted, which is really good. And it's it's interesting because they're getting contributions from different people.
Obviously in the Wisconsin game, Khalil Ware was unstoppable. He did not have it today. But Mackenzie and Bacco being able to step in, hit shots from outside drive, do the kinds of things that that he has been able to do. It really allowed Indiana a flexibility on offense that we just haven't seen out of them. They this is 2 games in a row now where they've had an effective field goal percentage over 62 percent, 62.7 today, 68.1 yesterday and they've hit threes. They've been really good.
We know from 2 point land because they've been taking some high percentage shots and their defense has been just good enough that other teams haven't been able to keep up with them. That is not the Indiana team that we have seen over the course of most of the Big 10 season.
It's just a shame that it's come together this late because you're like, well, this vintage of Indiana team could have at least competed for, you know the the edge of the bubble if they've been able to pick up one or two more wins. Well, and that's the thing that's going to get lost with this season. But like we we need to hammer home here is you know it it it. Xavier Johnson helped today. He played a good game. He definitely helps the offense.
But just just him alone it's like it I don't know how to say this about like it's not knock on him it's just like just because he's injured doesn't mean it all has to fall apart the way that it did and that's that's a struggle with this this year as you look at this game it's like the pieces are there for this to be a really good team. You know this is I remember seeing it against Harvard where it was like oh man like this is this looks really good.
You know the 1st 5 minutes against Auburn we're like damn this team like put together it like and what's weird is when they're playing well you're like this team actually has put together really well but then they don't play well and then we start looking at roster construction and management.
It's like it it does show how wins kind of take all this way but it's this is the part that is going to get lost with this season is we're just going to look at it in you know 1020 years now think it's just a garbage season and you know the in the mix it's like no this this team had the talent and it really was honestly put together when playing right. It actually does make a lot of sense when the pieces are working this way. It it just hasn't been working
this way for most of the time. And that's that's the frustrating part and see. Even this game, when you fall behind by that many points, I mean they this team looked listless in the first half. Their defensive effort was terrible. They were, they were getting beat all over the floor. Maryland look like they were in
rhythm, you know? It's so it's one of those where you you have to praise Indiana for being able to put it together, come back in that second-half, put on that type of offensive display play good enough defense. I mean you know Maryland's not amazing offensively from an efficiency perspective they've really struggled but but still they they they look perfectly fine in the first half offensively and Indiana made them look really bad in the
second-half. So how do you reconcile, and I kind of feel this way about the Wisconsin game to some degree as well, where it's like, well here you have this Indiana team that in spurts looks really good and and has score. You know they can if if everything is firing they can. Mackenzie and Bako can hit shots. Khalil Ware is hard to to guard around the basket and he cleans up so much on the glass and and Malik Renew obviously has so
much skill. But then they just go through these swoons where they do not have a clue or look like they don't have a clue about what they're supposed to be doing. And it's not just as simple as oh Xavier Johnson's back in the lineup because Xavier Johnson was in for most of that first half, including a lot of the two runs that we saw where they didn't play well. I am mystified by what makes this team tick and and why they operate the way that they do.
It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its face. And that's to me the most frustrating part of the season is that in spurts, we've seen Indiana be, you know, about as good as any team in the conference except Purdue. And in spurts, we've seen them look as bad as any team in the conference, including Michigan and Maryland. And I think this is where I forgot where I heard this.
But it's like, you know what? What makes really good athletes isn't the ability to have that high level talent. It's the ability to be consistent at a very above average level. But you know, like it's not just, it's not being able to do amazing stuff. It's like can you do really, really good stuff on a regular basis? And I think that's that's what this team has struggled with. And this you know it.
It is the kind of the hallmark of an average or a sub average team as a team that just can't put it together. Whether it be in a season, whether it be in a stretch of games, whether it be in a game itself. And like that is that isn't the end the hallmark of this team. It's like I we've been trying to figure it out all year. I think the answer is we're never going to quite figure out what's not always working. But you you are 100% right.
It's like this, this game, while a win isn't even the Wisconsin game, the last two wins, like you wouldn't say those are just like that was a great feel good win. Like we, I feel like everything is right, 'cause even in that win there were moments of listlessness and issues and you're down by 15 and I'm not trying to knock a win, but I do think this is just the hallmark of kind of a a team that is just it. It has a real hard time get getting going and like I would ask any fans like.
How? Comfortable. Do you feel now that you're just like you'd be willing to put down 500 bucks on the money line that Indiana's gonna beat Minnesota next? You know, on Wednesday, 'cause it's like, I'm I, I we we won two in a row. I'm still not sure where we are. I'm still not sure I understand where this team is AT. And if if I'm like comfortable being like I think they can win another game on the road, it's.
Funny because I I've watched a lot of Minnesota basketball because I I have nothing to do with my life, I guess. But they they remind me a lot of this Indiana team in that, like, I don't know if anybody watched that Minnesota Penn State game yesterday, but you know, Penn State went on a 23 to four run in the first half and then followed it with an 11 one run. Then at one point Penn State was up 41 to 18 on Minnesota and Minnesota won 75 to 70 because they followed up with a 17 to
three run and then a ten O run. It's so I don't know what, like I would not be shocked if this Indiana team against Minnesota, if both teams were up 20 independently at some point in the game. I have no clue who will end up winning the game. But yeah, when? You look at that Minnesota, Penn State game in in Kenpalm, it's like normally like the the big run things, like the runs things just basically the whole game. It's like just run after run
after run. Pinewood Derby. Track. I mean, it's wild. No, I mean it's so look, that's the thing I mean with this Indiana team right now. I mean look first of all the the team deserves credit. The, the coaching staff and Mike Woodson deserve credit. This was not an easy last week. There were a lot of noise around Woodson and and look I I will, I will. I want to put that in
perspective. Winning two games in a row and and beating Wisconsin I think is always a big, big step and winning on the road, especially in the game where you were a nine point underdog and that wasn't just Vegas, that was Ken Palm, that was Torvick. I mean everybody had Indiana losing this game because you know Maryland just looked at that good efficiency wise to come out and play for the 40
minutes how they did. You know you can you can point to the individual runs and say well that wasn't good or that that didn't work play wise. But at the end of the day the 40 minutes Indiana was, was the better team. They deserve a lot of credit for picking themselves up and not allowing themselves to be in a position where they were overly
affected by the noise. But the flip side is at the end of it all, as impressive as that win was and as impressive as as picking yourself up off the carpet has been, today they beat a Maryland team who is 13th in the conference out of 14 teams and is 500 now on the season and is going nowhere. And the Wisconsin game that they won, that's a Wisconsin team that has now lost seven of their last nine games, including an 8 point loss at home earlier this week to Illinois.
So it's it's kind of feels like the bearest of expectations that Indiana would have won these two games given the condition of the teams that they beat. But then you have to flip it over and say, well, given the condition of Indiana, you do need to give them some credit for the fact that they were able to win that game or both games and they had the the fortitude to figure out a way in both contests to put together a
winning effort. It's it's just frustrating because it again, as you said, the talent that's on the roster shouldn't require it to be a surprise when Indiana ends up being the better team over 40 minutes against the team that's 500 on the season. So listening to, you know, like I said, I listened to your pregame this morning, you know, and you said two things that I want to talk about now and kind of just a larger macro sense, I think are fair points before the
game and still still hold true. Now, you know, you said that a lot. You know there's a lot of noise about where the program should go and that people are starting to kind of get defensive or just solidified in their positions. I think that's true. And you also know a lot of fans and probably put myself in this category, you know, going into this game and just kind of like we're kind of like I'm just ready for this season to be over.
It's like it's not been a good year ready for it to be over. I think that's also true. You know, I, I think I'm with you. You have to give Pete, you know, credit for the win. That's all good. I I think the problem is where you're at with this program is that you have a good portion of the fan base who are kind of are that point of like we're checked out on the year or they've already made-up their mind on what should be done.
And we've seen this and I'm I'm not I'm not saying you advocate one way or the other. I'm just saying that once people have gotten to that point it's hard to get them back. And I think that's the issue that we have and and a win against Maryland just isn't going to be like all right I'm I'm all I'm all back in like all those bad feelings I have for
two months like it's over. And you know again I believe me I'm not advocating change or anything but like when you you look at like Mike Davis once people got to that point like he he was never able to win them back. You could say that you know Crean had it after the the Syracuse loss or maybe that next year he he he won a Big Ten title. Couldn't kind of get over that.
You know Archie I I would look at that that 12 of 13 game losing streak was kind of where he lost people never got people back. And I was thinking about this listening to your pod that you know if you're if you're Woodson and Woodson's back here next year.
You know to me it's like the expectations are like you got to it's it's wild but it's like you got to win the Big 10 and maybe make the Elite 8. Like you have to do something above and beyond expectations to kind of get people off of that ledge once they've already made-up their mind. And I do. I I'm just it's a bar I think that's where a lot of people are and you know so you know wall walls like hey two wins is great.
It doesn't For those people who are there it's not going to be a you know two wins against kind of middle but pack big 10 teams isn't enough to do that and it's just it's a bummer that we're at that spot but it that is reality you're you're. I think you are you're you're being overly gracious with many with Maryland. If you're calling them a middle of the pack Big 10 team, they're terrible. But your point is taken. It is interesting though there is. Might have like 2 Terrapin fans
in here, I don't know. You never know. Just trying to grow the Reach Crimson cast there is. A non zero. In fact, more than a non zero chance. Like there is a decent chance Indiana could end up as the sixth seed in the Big 10 tournament. Right now because they are 8 and 10 in the conference, they are right behind Minnesota who's
9:00 and 9:00. If they beat Minnesota, they will have the tiebreaker on Minnesota in all categories because they will have beaten them twice their last games against Michigan State. Even if Michigan State beats Northwestern, Indiana's last game would be against Michigan State and well, that would be the tiebreaker in that scenario. And the other team that's in the mix there is Iowa, who Indiana's already beaten and Iowa has to host Illinois later on this
upcoming week. I mean, so everything you just said is correct. The two things I'll say is a it's going to be hard I think for the people who are definitively in the there needs to be a change camp to argue that this season was a disaster. If Indiana actually finishes 6th in the conference and and 2nd and this is I think the larger point all Indiana fans really want is a competitive basketball program. They and that's you know the yes they want wins. Yes, you can say, well, Indiana
fans are unrealistic. The the reason why there's been so much angst over this season, and particularly over what's happened in January and February, is not the losses as much as it is how bad Indiana has looked and how bad their effort has looked in a lot of the games.
And what we've seen in both of these last two games, the Wisconsin game and and obviously this Maryland game, is an Indiana team that for enough of the time, cared enough and put enough effort in that they were able to come up with victories. That goes a long way towards calming people down. Now obviously there's two games left and if Indiana comes out in the first half or or can't comes out in either of the games like they came out in the first half against Maryland, that goodwill
is going to go away real quick. But my argument I guess would be at this point that. If. What you needed to see as an IU fan was the players caring and the coaching staff looking like they knew what they were doing well. You've gotten some of that in these last two games. You got to build on it. And I think if you follow up these two wins with two losses, well, it all goes back to some degree to where it was before
this last week started. But it is nice to see that with their backs against the wall, both metaphorically and, and to some degree, you know, from an emotional perspective, the team was able to figure out a way and the coaching staff was able to figure out a way to put it together both on the road and at home against the team that they've struggled with now for a couple of decades. So that's you know. Agreed. I hear all that and I'm I'm I'm
just kind of speak. I'm not I'm not saying I'm in this position. I'm not trying to defend it all I'm saying I hear all that and it all I'm saying is that when you you know, the cream thing is the interesting example here because I think people lost that faith in that those three-year window. He came back and won a Big Ten title and was fired the next year. You know that even a Big Ten title wasn't enough, you know, enough success to get people off of that ledge with cream.
So that's my only thing is that, you know, the last couple of weeks have been really pretty negative and toxic. And it it's it's reminiscent of all of those periods in the past where it felt like a good majority of the fan base kind of checked out. Was like I've made-up my mind and all I'm saying is like I I hear you, you're right. Like you've got to let it play out.
They could win four more. They could win two games And you know, I I still think making the NIT and making around the NIT would be a really nice way to finish off this season and and get some momentum to next year. But you know again it's like I'm just merely pointing out that you know if you have friends who are on that you know other side of it. You know two wins is not going to get them back on the hump.
It's going to take something monumentally good to make up for something that is kind of a a monumentally bad season And that that's my only point is just how like how bad the the state is that that it got in in the last couple of weeks. I totally. Agree, and so much goodwill was burned this year. There's still time to get some of it back. The last two games have helped a little bit, but there's a long way to go to to get people who have decided that this is the wrong direction on things.
And that's not even getting into offseason stuff, 'cause I think that's a different podcast that we can talk about later. But. It's like with the, you know, the part of what this bat was bad with this season, like you get a little success and it's like the rug gets pulled out. So it's like, this is a great moment in a very micro sense, like, all right, go in the next two games, like build on this
and don't pull the rug out. Like what would be worse is another rug pull in a micro where it's like, hey, we're feeling good, Two wins and you go out and you you piss the bed in two more games. Like go in two more and then look like you're you're competent and caring in the Big
10 tournament. I think that that alone would go a long way to be like, hey, we made, you know, season one's great, but like we finished, we figured out some right things and we feel confident we can continue figuring that in the next season. Like I know that would give me the confidence going into next year.
Indiana in action again On Wednesday of this upcoming week, they'll be at Minnesota. You know we needed another night game on the road to to, you know, marinate on certainly, but only two games left in the regular season for Indiana. They get Minnesota at home. They get Michigan State on the road. They are projected to lose both games right now on Ken Palm, but they were projected to lose the last two games on Ken Palm, so who the heck knows?
Anyway, Scott, any final thoughts before we wrap? Any thoughts before we wrap up here? No, no, no. Let's like I just said, let's finish off strong, man. Like like keep it going. Like there's there's no reason this team can't win the next two games. Like Michigan State is also not good. Like their record is pretty bad. Like metrically they're they're way better than us. But their record is not great. It's going to be wild.
We have a we we could win our next two and have a better Big 10 record than them and not make the term. It all makes sense but it's just like it's a weird spot that we're in. But you know, there's there's no reason you can't win the next two. And again that that is, I think every fans most frustrating part is looking at this win is like, hey, this has been there all year, like there's a lot of really good pieces there. Well, we'll see. What happens?
And we will of course be also watching to see what happens with the women's team as they're waiting on their final assignment for Minneapolis. They're the three seed and we'll probably play either Penn State or Maryland in the quarter final round, depending on what happens with the remaining games. Anyway, we'll go and wrap up here. We will be back with the VIP episode. In fact, it may be part of the e-mail that you're reading to get this episode. So check that out.
We'll have some guests later on this week. And if you haven't, go back and listen to that podcast I did with Taylor as we talk about IU football. We answer some questions. We look at some of the developments that have gone on so far in this offseason and while you're listening to that. Sign up for his sub stack just like I already signed up for it. Like it is. Fantastic. It is. I've often thought I've told this to Taylor.
Like the the content he was providing on bite sized bison before for free was unbelievable. Like it is easily worth 50 bucks a year. Yeah, 100% if you're an IU. Football fan and you should be. You need to subscribe to Bite Sized Bison, so go check that out and enjoy the podcast. We'll have more with Taylor later on. We'll have more with Scott and Galen too later on, but we will go ahead and sign off for now.
We'll give you guys the present of a short podcast for your commute or if you're out mowing the lawn because it's beautiful outside here in Southern Indiana. Anyway, for Scott, I'm Galen. This is Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the bison. So everybody.