Ep 817 - Holiday Episode Part 1

You're listening to the back home network presented by home field, apparel. Welcome back to Crimson cast and happy holidays from your favorite. Rogue Indiana podcast as we're back. Not exactly an annual tradition for you to do a holiday show here. Scott, but you weren't busy. I wasn't that busy. I was like, yeah, let's do something. And so, here we are. It's great to see you again as we close out for some people the last week, before things really get crazy for the holidays, for

some other people. The first week of holiday break. How are you handling things? How are you doing? Everything going? All right. I'm doing great. I think this has been like the ideal amount of time between like, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas. You kind of get the lead up. It's like, you're almost, like are we there yet, but you're still get the anticipation. We're good. Yeah, went down. Went downtown Indy last night, checked out the lights.

I love. I always love going to the circle and checking that out. So yeah, we're good. That's great. Yeah. No, it's Bloomington has certainly cleared out quite a bit. Although there was a decent amount of people out having dinner before the game last night. So that was nice to see and things will get progressively more empty here. I think over the next week or so and then it'll start to fill up. Once again, as sorority rush comes back, always always an

interesting site. As, you know, you get to like early January and another wise sleepy city has like hundreds of young women. Just kind of like standing around waiting to like be put on buses and taking place a very odd, you know thing every year in Bloomington happens all over the country, but it's always like do you need to do this in the middle? Like the dead of winter?

Like who does that serve exact? Feel like that's more punishment than reward, but I can maybe that's part of the process. I don't know, isn't it? Out of the Greek system in a nutshell. Yeah, I know is there's something to be said that there's something to be said for

that. Anyway, we told you all that we were going to be doing a holiday episode and we wanted you to send in your comments and questions and you did that in Spades to the point that we're not going to get to all of those things today, but I'm happy to get to as many of them as we can before that one. And two, of course, remind you all that. We are a part of the back home network and that includes, of course, our friends over at

assembly. Call our friend Tony had Rania and the Come networks presenting sponsor is home field apparel, you know them you love them. If you don't know them and love them you should and hopefully will over the course of this holiday season home field apparel your place to go for any and everything College vintage apparel. Comfy stuff. Scott. What's the most recent thing you've purchased from there? Can you tell us? It was it's still been the Cal sweatshirt. The cow sweater is great.

Although they had the O Ski-Doo do or like something like that. It's like a cow like the bear t-shirt, which I also big big fan of. So some Cal stuff only because I've bought in everything. I you related that I could get, but that's got the sticker, which is on the laptop, which is nice. Yeah. It's a little bit of everything. Now there. It's not just shirts. It's everything that you would want out of apparel, stickers, whatever. So be sure to check out home. The Peril.

I'm wearing my my oatmeal script hoodie. As I often do, when we record Crimson cast, you can use the promo code home, H ome and get 15% off your first purchase and I guarantee that won't be your last purchase. So check them out. Home-field apparel.com use the promo code home for 15% off of your purchase. So Scott, let's go ahead and dive into things here before we get started on your questions folks. Scott. Let's talk a little bit about

the game that took place. So Yesterday Indiana knocking off Northern Kentucky kind of an interesting game Indiana was dominant in the first half of this game, you know, Northern Kentucky just couldn't score they only scored 14 points for the entire first half Indiana really look like they were coming into their own on both ends of the floor.

It's settle down a little bit, the second half and particularly the last 10 minutes of the game, Northern Kentucky, hit some shots got on a roll so it ended up not being as docile. Mandating a performance. As it looked like it might have been but overall. It seemed like a pretty good performance for this Indiana team. And, you know, when you think about the distractions that often come from holiday break, and from this particular part in the calendar, it's good to see Indiana.

Be able to come out and put on a mostly professional double-digit Victory being able to cover the spread. And just not really having much doubt throughout the game that they were going to win it handily. Yeah, I mean the end of, you know, if you break it up into Quarters. The end of the first quarter Indiana's up. 4:41. I think they went on a was at 2:36, run and then in the first part of the game, so it's it's tough to say like I would keep that up.

It's like you can't you're not going to hold a team to 20 points. Like this is very unlikely that said, you know, they look at it kind of take their foot off the gas and they still won by almost 20, so it's not like it really got that close. But yeah, I mean, it's here's the thing. Like at the end of the year that you really can't learn anything one way or the other. These games that me, the thing that I like to see is I still think you continue to see the team getting better.

You saw them trying different sets. You try them, try to push the ball, a lot to kind of break to got to get in there offense before. Northern Kentucky, get set in their zone. So, I mean, I like that. You're seeing just different things different lineups, you know, there was a lineup that I like, or you had in the second half, Parker, Stewart, and Anthony Leo with Xavier Johnson, and then trace and race. And there was some three-point shooting So that was interesting

and you know, it's funny. I saw more of a allele and pursue the crossroad classic. I like that. He started this game. He's a player that I don't know if I'm just going to wish he was better. I don't say it's a hard thing to say, but he's he I like what he provides. I like his shooting but yet, it doesn't seem to translate into game play because I know he can

shoot. I think in this game, he was 0 for 3 from 3. Some of them were contested but not a great stat line, but I still like seeing him play. More. I'm not sure we don't really know. I just watched on TV. No answer as to why I like Parker Stewart didn't start. But I think we can assume Stewart didn't start because of some kind of internal disciplinary issue. And you know, it's I mean Mike Woodson, it's interesting.

This will tie into something. We're going to talk about a little bit later on but Woodson was very strong in saying that he was not going to talk about why Parker Stewart didn't play in the first half and really seem to be kind of relegated to the second teen even in the second half which I think is great. I mean, whatever. The reason. Because I'm assuming that it's not like some kind of outlandish reason.

Like, you know, the three he played but there does appear to be some kind of a discipline chain going on here where hey you do something wrong or you do something that I don't like his coach, you're going to sit and honestly, I mean maybe that was happening behind the scenes and we didn't know about it over the last five or six years, but it didn't feel that way. It really felt like There wasn't much of an accountability structure unless there had to be, unless it was like, Hey,

drug suspension. You have to sit for x amount of time. This felt more. Like, hey, you're out of line. You're going to get in line by, you know, it's like the old thing that night always used to say about the bench being one of the best motivational tools that you have as a coach because you can just say, hey, go sit down and I'm going to let other people play. So that said, you know, you're right in that Anthony Lee Lynn.

His start didn't do much in terms of his He's scoring only had two points and he didn't shoot particularly. Well, but let's give him credit. He had five assists, which was tied for the team lead along with Xavier Xavier Johnson, and he had four rebounds, which was, you know, it's a pretty good performance overall for a guy that's not necessarily going to be around the basket all the time.

So I do think that, you know, Leal is still a bit of a work in progress in terms of his overall developmental curve, and there's nothing wrong with that as I've said many times. One of the things that we just haven't had in IU basketball, to the degree that needs to be, there is development of players over multiple years, and the idea that you can bring in guys that maybe aren't starting caliber as freshmen or sophomores and they'll actually get better.

And by the time they're juniors and seniors. They can be regular starters and they can be people that can really contribute at a high level. And so I do think it's great that a guy like Lille who certainly has aspects of his game that he as to work on. But he's he goes and he plays hard and he's gradually building a case to be in the lineup. More often.

Maybe not as a starter. But as a starter, you know, yes, he's taking some shooting off the floor at this moment, but maybe in another game he won't because he has shot well in other games and when his shooting isn't going well, he's doing other things that are going to help the team again, that feels knew that feels like something that we haven't had a whole lot of with this IU program over the course of the last five or six years, and so it's happy.

That's a happy thing for me to see that. The other thing that I saw it was mentioned on the Big Ten Network feed that I thought was interesting and I don't want to

it's just it's nice to see. I don't want to lament too much on the Archie years, but, you know, they were talking about how the defense right now, you know, the efficiency numbers are really good, you know, the defense look in the defense does look really good but how you know, we're really pushing the pressure on the guards because we know that like, you have Race Thompson, then you have traced Jackson Davis in the back and you can basically make up for. I don't want same mistakes, but

you can gamble up front. Because Trace is just so good under the block and it does make you wonder, you know, again, I like Woodson's philosophy, which we talked about kind of all into this preseason. I don't think anybody can say, oh, we play this. It's like, we're going to play tough defense and we're going to play a modern offense. That's kind of, that's kind of all we have. And I like being under that versus like, I play the pack line defense, because you're seeing now like this team.

And again, I want to spend too much on last year. It's like you don't need to pack when we have traced Jackson Davis. He shouldn't be in the pack like you should be doing what we're doing now, which is pressure up at the guards. And then if a guy gets by you, that's great because you have one of the best Premier Rim defenders in the country back there. Whereas pacline kind of gets him locked in there.

So it is nice to see, you know, a coach who does seem to be at least for right now, making a scheme based on what his players and do best and what what abilities those players have well, Well, yeah, there's no question and I think there's enough games now against enough types, different types of opponents that what Woodson has brought to the table, from a defensive perspective, is a Leap Forward, from what Indiana was doing under Archie Miller. And, you know, so much of it

really does come down to this idea. That Indiana makes it hard to shoot the basketball, you know, they've really clamped down on all aspects of the, you know, the setup that opposing teams offenses have had and Yes, there have been individual moments where it hasn't quite worked out as well. But by and large, when opponents are only are shooting under 40% from to against your defense.

It's a lot of it has to do not just with scheme, but with mentality and Indiana's playing this aggressive style of defense. That was really, as we've talked about before focused on making it difficult to take shots as opposed to gambling, four turnovers. This is not an Indiana team. That turns opposition's over that much. But they more than make up for that a in terms of keeping opponents off the offensive glass and be just making it difficult for teams to shoot in

general. So it is nice because the pack wine when it works works great, but when it doesn't work, feels overly rigid. And always seemed to give up shots at exactly the worst moments, you know, we'll have to see how things play out because obviously, you can look at the Wisconsin game or you can look at the Syracuse game and say, well, hey, when you really needed a stop in those. Games you couldn't get one. But I also think this team is a work in progress. And as good as they've been in

terms of overall shot defense. I think they can get better. More situationally as we move forward. And, as you said, Trace Jackson, Davis is an anchor defensively. When you combine his ability as a rim protector with the fact that he's not fouling, so he's able to do all of that. While not putting himself in danger of being taken off the floor, that that really does make a big difference in terms of what you're able to do consistently throughout the

course of the game. I mean right now, Trace Jackson Davis is averaging one point six fouls called against him /, 40 minutes of play which is 120th in the nation right now. And you know you combine that with his His rebounding rate on

defense. I mean, he's really him and race Thompson both and I race draws commit slightly more fouls, but rebound, slightly better, you know, I think those two when you put them in tandem in the post have allowed Indiana's defense to achieve a plateau that they just weren't capable of achieving in the previous couple of years.

And so, I'm really excited to see how that partnership continues to grow and then you throw in this sudden emergence of Jordan Geronimo as a Confident player as a guy who can come in and give you 10 to 15 solid minutes per game, you know, everybody focuses on his offense because that's a bit of

a novelty. But if he can get his head wrapped around playing defensively better that Allah was you a lot of flexibility in terms of what you're doing in the post and that extends to your entire defense because now the guards have to worry a lot less about dealing with penetration. They can focus on guarding guys on the perimeter. And one last thing on Trace just, you know, you mentioned the foul stats, but that's also when he's credit again. I know we have some soft.

He's in the schedule, but he's currently averaging three point two blocks of game. So he's averaging more blocks than fouls. You know, you look at Ken pom. He's, you know, ten ten block percentage of 10% 29th in the country 7% which is s the Big Ten that I can't see where the other teams and players are who were above him in that. But it's just it's hard to fathom. Anybody being better defensively at The Rim than trace, and I've seen multiple times this year, where you see a guy go up.

It's like traceable, you know, bite on the pump fake. It's like oh and he still gets the block. I mean, he's just, he is so phenomenally good on his defense and his offense. I mean he is he's truly a transformative and he's taken a step up defensively this year and offensively, but definitely on the defensive end, you can see the work that he's put in and how this system is really helping helping. Him and again with with race there, but it's just, it's awesome to have him and watch

him play defense. Yeah, so as we think about the game, it's a nice again solid professional win. I would say and it leaves Indiana and a position where they're very well positioned to finish off Big Ten play at 11 and 2. If they can beat UNC Asheville next month's Dupree, Big Ten player, non. Pretty big Temple. Yes, get heading into Big, Ten play. Yeah, you know, so if they win that game, get let's go. We're not big tits over your

house. Yeah, now, but if they beat UNC Asheville next week, they'll be 11 and 2 and 1 and 1 in conference play heading into that Penn State game on Sunday. And, you know, that's going to be a tough test, but but it 11 wins going into conference play. And, yes, two of those wins are in conference play, but you basically had 18 more games and you have the opportunity at that point. Really, to pick up maybe 10 more wins before you get to the Big

Ten tournament. That would leave you in a really good spot. Spot as you head into the Big Ten tournament for the NCAA tournament. And I think you look at what the resume has set up a, you know, with so far. And this was actually one of the questions that we got from one of our listeners early on. I actually think that things are setting up very well for this team as we head into the in the conference play.

So Patrick asked this question, many have said I, you is right on schedule with two losses, expected, Wisconsin, and Syracuse both of the road games with Close. Those games were IE, they could have or should have won both of those games. Do you modify expectations heading into Big Ten play. And one of those expectations look like. So you're looking at the numbers right now. The BART torvik website is projecting Indiana, still at 22, and nine, and twelve and eight.

Overall. Can Pomeroy is a little bit less optimistic. The projection there is 21 and 10 and 11. And nine overall, but a lot of those games are very much 50/50 games are very close in either Direction. I mean, you go down the roster of games that I, you would have, you know, in the Big Ten that

could go one way or another. And you know, what, I generally look at is 50/50 games or games where there's a winning percentage for either team somewhere between 40 and 60 percent and you go down the list like the Iowa game at home. Excuse me, on the road is one of those. The Purdue game at home is one of those the You know, the Marilyn game on the road is one of those Northwestern on the road is one of those. So there's a couple of others

Minnesota on the road. If Indiana can pick up those kinds of winds consistently, then I think the ceiling is actually much higher. I think Patrick brings up a good point in that 11 and 9 or 12 and 8. I think if the season ended, if we if we told you right now with the ending of the season was and we said, okay and he and I went 22 and nine and twelve and eight, I think. Most people in the fan base would be like, yes. That's great. That's perfect.

We will take that will go ahead and run with it. They question Scott is, have you seen enough out of this team up to this point? That you think that they can exceed that significantly, or do you still kind of see them as being right in that 11 or 12, or in range in the conference? I still think it's that 1112 win range in the conference. And it's only because, you know, in the to the two losses were kind of the too, you know. Whether game so to speak.

A lot of the other games were against subpar, Pony thing. St. John's win was good. But you know, you had two tough games on the road and you kind of lost them both in different Fashions, either, 20 points down, or 20 points up and, you know, you're still seeing this inability to put together a full 40 minutes, starting to get

better. But even if, you know, even if you look at the Northern Kentucky game, it's like they they kind of let I don't say, let him backing say 1 by 18 or so, but it's like, you know, they let the foot off the gas a little bit. It'd be nice to see them just put Whether straight 40 minutes, even against Northern, Kentucky is not going to matter because I want to see him do it against Ohio, state of Minnesota. So no, I think, and I think just

for everybody's well-being. I think this season, it's best to kind of keep expectations, right, where they are at. And in the end they played well, they look like they're improving, which is good. Which again is something we're not used to seeing in some IU teams, but you know Syracuse is still ranked 67th in can Palm. So it's not like they're a world-beating team in Wisconsin. Right in our level 32, that's that's a road loss. Is that was kind of a 50/50 game

and Syracuse probably game. We should have one and we didn't. So if you look at it from that respect, maybe you're lowering expectations, but I think I should, I get, I think to me, I think everyone's going to be in a better headspace, you keep expectations, you know, where you're at and that's, that's kind of the fun.

I think with the season is, I've always been saying, you know, I think we could try to finish fifth sixth or seventh in the Big Ten. Make the NCAA tournament as a double-digit seed and If, you know, we exceed that, that's fun. That's great. But let's start start moving the goalposts and then being disappointed. Because this team, still it's getting better. It's still has serious flaws or in a come back and bite it many times this year, which is, when it gets to nut crunch crunching time.

Like you said, you know, is the defense going to be able to stop things, you know, is that perimeter defense going to gamble too much. And then in the other side, you know, can we get the ball to our best player when we need to? Or are we going to, you know, are we going to have Guard problems that, you know, rear their head evens, just to date you a couple days ago against Notre Dame. So it's not like that's out of it.

That's in the rearview mirror. That way you've got a problem to solve after one game in Northern, Kentucky. So I hear him saying but I to me, it's like I think we're right in line. I think the expectations just stay the same. We had a similar question from Darryl jr. On Twitter about whether that 22 and nine ends up being what we end up with or if we see Indiana exceed or not reach those potentials at this point, all of you like, Both of the main. Power websites.

Whether it's torvik or Ken pom have basically identified. That there are four teams that are clearly in the upper echelon of the conference. In terms of projected statistics, Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, and Ohio State, and then, you know, depending on, if you look at torvik, Indiana and Michigan or kind of projected as being that next tier down and then the tier below, that is Wisconsin and, Iowa. And then everybody else kind of

Falls in underneath that. I guess you could throw Minnesota in because they've significantly over achieved their expectations. Look at this point. What I would say from this, Indiana team, if you look at the way that everything lays out, I think that the defensive efficiency that they've demonstrated is going to travel very well within this conference and within the course of

conference play. The fact that they can rely on their defense being strong is going to win them some games that Once they've lost the last couple of years, what I still worry about is all the things we talked about after the Wisconsin game and to some degree, the things that were present after the Notre Dame game as well, which is the point guard. Situation is still a little bit unsettled.

You still don't know what you're going to get out of out of Xavier Johnson or rub fantasy or Christian Lander on a night tonight basis. And, you know, the turnover rate while you could argue whether it's a product of the offense or

whether it's a product of the personnel. the fact of the matter is the turnovers are artificially limiting what this offense can do in terms of blossoming into something better than you know, an offense that ranks in the 60s or 70s or 80s as the case may be if they can solve the turnover issue if they could reduce by three turnovers a game for instance over the course of the Big Ten season that would equate to another couple of wins, but I I'd be surprised at this point if they

Able to effectively do that. So I think right now my projection would be yes. They're going to be about 12 and 8 or 11 and 9. And I think that's a nice rebound because that number of winds coupled with the opponent's, you're going to be getting those wins against. That's going to get you back to the NCAA tournament. And to me, that was always the key of this season. It's like, get back into the tournament.

Put yourself back in that mentality and then build upon that next year, in the year Beyond. I mean, two things, just a positive way to look at things is Is in the numbers about it, you know, we could talk about our boy can overpower rank as well now to but in the numbers on Ken Palm, you know, the one thing that I do like the positive is you look at adjusted defense. We are the best in the Big Ten right now on, adjust a defense.

Now a lot of that is based on, you know that it's schedule and like if you look at the conference only, we're not big but it's only two games sample size. So there's a bit of a sample size of who have you played mentality of that. But at least right now, you know, we're ranked 14th in the country adjusted defense. That's the best in the Big Ten. Slightly edging, Michigan State

on the negative side. Like you said, you know, turnovers is really what you look at the kind of the for statistics, the numbers for Indiana. That's the one that just stands out as like, we're not good at. You know, our turnover percentage is bad and I love the tour of excite because you can kind of track things throughout the season and it's not getting better.

It's not like we're seeing that slowly get better like right now the turnover percentage has kind of leveled out to where it's been and it's been about the same since probably the third game of the season. The season. It's kind of on a trend that's either going a little bit worse

or staying about the same. And so it would be abnormal to see that suddenly, you know, a third in the season just suddenly spiked up were that we cut the turnovers out it could happen because I don't think I think that's one of the easier stats that you could probably fix versus like it's like your three-point shooting is bad. Your defense is bad, you know, cutting out turnovers as possible, but it just it is worth noting that when you look at the graph of it.

It's kind of like this is we are who we are at least right now with the turnovers. Yeah and look I think that there Is there's going to be some more development on offense? A lot of the development really is come in the shooting percentages and you know that that has helped nice hitting 3.

This is that and if that continues, if you continue to get guys, get comfortable shooting the ball, particularly Rob fennessy, who will talk about in a little bit that can help to mitigate some of the turnover aspects as well, you know, because when you talk about offensive efficiency, turnovers are the worst because it just hits it completely empty

possession. At that point when it comes to offense and fishing, See, and so figuring out a way to, I would rather have a, you know, possessions and in missed shots, because there's always a chance of an offensive rebound. At least you're giving yourself a chance to do something there. So we'll see. But these are the things to keep an eye on as we go through conference play.

Because I think the other indicators for this offense are pointing up by and large and that's really exciting to see. I would also re I'm going to say one last thing. Go ahead. If you, you know, for those who are getting excited, I would say this wait until January 9th, you know, if we go to January 9th, and we've beaten Penn State,

Ohio State in Minnesota, right? I think then you can maybe you can have a discussion of putting our, you know, optimistic, uptick a little bit because that would be a nice set of you can win the pain, the Ohio, State Minnesota games. You're on a better trajectory. So again, like it's going to come. That's like for three and a half weeks away. So So right, you know, I would just say, hold. Let's see how those to go.

Yeah. Look, I think there's a big question, mark about how this Indiana team is going to handle better competition. I don't think they're going to

be scared of them. But I do worry about the lulz that we've seen out of this Indiana team, at various points, against teams with Talent, whether it was the first half against Syracuse, whether it was the second half against Wisconsin, over the first half against Nebraska for that matter, which I have against JJ, John's or, and, and that stretch of time in the second half against Notre Dame.

I mean, there are just moments where Team falls asleep at the wheel and needs a kick in the butt to kind of get themselves up and running again. They need to self-regulate on that a lot better because there aren't going to be a lot of off nights in the Big Ten with the array of teams that they're going to be playing. So that that is that I agree with you. It's like, let's see.

This team. Look, I think this team is going to win more games than not against those types of teams, but there's plenty of those teams in the conference so you can win more games than not and still finish, you know, with with eight or nine losses in the car. France overall jumping to some other questions here. So top 40 under 40 asks, in terms of players season statistics. What's the most surprising? And what do you think changes the most in the final two thirds

of the season? And and this is something where you have to look at how everybody's doing on this team and try to figure things out. I mean, the least surprising thing to me has been how effective Trace Jackson. Davis has been across the board. I mean, he's Active field goal percentages. 62% his free-throw percentage is jump back up. It's, you know, it's not Sterling but it's 68 percent,

which is better than I think. A lot of people thought that it would be a nice shooting 72% on clothes 2's, he's got, you know what? I think we saw that stat yesterday the most dunks of anybody in division one, so I'm not very surprised about that. I guess my most surprising thing is maybe Twofold one is, you know, looking at the numbers overall how efficient relatively speaking.

And and despite some issues with with with some various aspects of his game, how efficient tomorrow Bates is able been able to be coming in. Off the bench. He's over a point per possession, which is always really nice to see. He's been a positive contributor and that's under relatively limited usage overall.

He's not really He's not doing a whole lot in terms of Distributing the ball, but he has been able to score fairly efficiently when he's taken that opportunity, you know, the I guess the surprise to me there is that he's been able to do that despite the fact that he's not starting. And, you know, he's generally not the number one or number two, option. Even when he is out on the floor. So that's been nice to see the other surprise and it's an unhappy one is how poorly Rob

finish. These offensive game has been going. I mean, you, you look up and down the roster. And for the minutes that fantasy has played, he has by far, the worst offensive rating on the team. He's got an unfortunately, High turnover ratio and you know, while he's done a good job of Distributing the ball and he has done a good job overall of playing better offensively. The last couple of games. I want to give credit where credit is due on the whole his

contributions. This season, have really been far below the standard you would expect out of the number two, point guard or for that matter. A guy who should have been contending for the number one point guard job on the team. What about you? What did, what is stood out for you? Good and bad. In terms of the statistics. I mean on the good side you have to be impressed with the shooting of Parker Stewart.

I mean, he came in, you know, you know, at Pittsburgh, he shot 38% from Three Tennessee. Martin, he shot 34 percent from three, I mean, shooting 49% from three right now, you have to assume that it can't keep up basically shooting 50% from three. But he's a volume shooter.

I mean, he, you know, he is averaging, you know, the first two years about 188 threes per season and that's kind of where he's at now, so, it's been really nice to see him continue that and kind of grow it. But I mean, honestly you it's the one thing that does feel like it's going to translate because he's been getting good looks he's been hitting them. And then you know, in the in the to quote unquote, like, you know, really tough games against, you know, tough

opponents, you know, Syracuse he did hit 50% going. 4:12 and against Wisconsin is 345 going over fifty percent. So it looks like he's shooting travels and his shooting can continue against really good opponent. So that's that's been really nice because was just been nice having someone you can shoot three pointers, you know, the negative side. I would say I'm doing this off

of memory. I'm trying to find the the overall team numbers on this, but it's the free throw shooting is still not ideal the three free throws. Shooting, you know, Trace Jackson Davis did hit those two against Syracuse to put us into overtime, which I think any IU fan would have lost any bet there where it's like, he got fouled and you're like, all right. Well, he's definitely going 142 from the lie, but he hits those too, but he's still struggling to have consistency at the line.

Again. That's something that I feel like is going to rear its ugly head, but we still are just not, not a great free-throw, shooting team. And I think that's going to hinder Us in some games. We've already seen it a little bit. Wisconsin game is going to hinder us as well. I would love to see that continue to get better. But those kind of my good and bad.

Yeah. No, I think I don't make sense that look inside the numbers, brought to you by the power rank, our friend, Ed uses data and analytics to make accurate football and college, basketball predictions. Don't miss the newsletter that he puts out. This this free newsletter, huge March, Madness preview, every year, packed with predictions, and its really revealing stuff for college football as well. We were right in the middle of

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Let's continue on here. Is we had some additional No questions from folks across the board. Dan Corral our old friend asks, how do you feel about the Mike Woodson era on the floor so far can woods and take this team farther than the level it is now? Or is that a consequence of the former coach, so I'll let you

start with this what? You've had a half a season, essentially slightly under a half a season of Mike Woodson as head coach for Indiana. We've seen both on the court and off the court, some of the aspects of that. What are your impressions thus far? I've been really impressed. I like, I like what I'm seeing,

and it goes back. Some of the things I said earlier, you know, you see it, game, two gave you see them, trying different schemes defensively, you definitely see them trying different schemes offensively. You saw them completely re-engineer how they were playing Syracuse in the second half and they change that up and, you know, I don't want to become totally pollyannaish and

just only look at the positives. But a lot of the issues that this team has had, were honestly issues that were under Archie. Don't that was always the problem. To Archie is we'd have these stretches of non-scoring and I don't want to say it's like Mike was to just get to pass, but it's it's natural that some of the problems that the last team had you're going to see residual product versions of those

problems. Continue as you kind of either kick the dust off of, you know, what was taught by the old regime so to speak or just some of those players, you know, are not that set up. I like You know, I really like what I'm seeing on the court and those things, and I like, what I'm seeing off the court and kind of the construction of the team, you know, the guys he brought in, you know, whether or not you know, we'll look back on.

Savior, Johnson is kind of like it was an interesting time but whether or not, you know, he will Annoy Us at times like we've said, but, you know, obviously, Mike Woodson saw like, hey, I need to get a different point guard. To imagine. If we didn't have Xavier Johnson. We just had Fitness e and Christian Lander, like, where would we be then? Like we need that. We need a bulldog. On this team, we need someone to kind of do that.

And you seen what he, you know, the guys who have the real talent like Trace Jackson Davis race Thompson. I've seen them really improve wants a real towels, not the right way to say it, but the guy, you know, the, the high-level talented guys. We've seen him be able to seen Woodson, be able to grow them, but also build an offense that didn't look like we did under under Archie with trace or under Archie with Romeo where it's like hey get the five stars the

ball. We're just going to stand here, like you don't see that. So Oh, I really like what I'm seeing and I feel very comfortable that we're going in the right direction and then once woods and starts to have some of his players on this team, we're going to be in an even better spot with, you know, the point guard, things like that. So I I've been again relatively pleased to get my expectations were not, hey, we're going to win the Big Ten and go to the final four.

This year, my expectations were we're going to be able to pack. We're going to compete and, you know, we've not been blown out yet, it may or may not happen this year, but we've competed, we haven't lost too. Add team yet. So, thus far, I'm very happy with what I'm seeing. And sorry. The last thing I will say is you're seeing this team play with happiness and joy and passion. And that's the thing too, that for so many times. In the last couple of years.

We would kind of be like, these guys are sleepwalking. It just felt like, everyone's kind of sleepwalking. And while yes, Xavier Johnson can be frustrating at times. He has passion, but you can't say he doesn't have passion.

Like I think that's where Say greed, stood out so much in those that are that he played is like he was the one dude who was playing with passion and kind of like trying to will that team to do something and it was like pulling a bunch of sleepwalking zombies with him, you know, this T doesn't have that and, you know, they they they lost a tough game against Syracuse. They came home and took care of business against Nebraska. They lost a tough one against Wisconsin.

They came out. Look fired up against Notre Dame, you know, and, and so, I like that kind of mentality where they don't seem to get down, doesn't I don't see this team going on, like a 12 game losing streak or losing three, four, five in a row are losing their Mojo. So, I think that is something you've mentioned many times. It's fun to see them play with joy, that's that, but it's also fun to see a team kind of play with passion and heart and like

really fight. Yeah, you covered a lot of the things that I was going to stretch out all the. I took all the red meat. It's fine, you know, but so I'll touch on a couple of other things that I've stood out to me, you know, I think one of the fascinating things to watch is Mike Woodson's willingness this to do the things that he thinks are right without acting. Like there's a problem with him

doing them. You know, one of the there was a tentativeness about Archie Miller is the head coach at Indiana University. There was a tentativeness about Tom crean as the head coach of Indiana University and what's

this? Just not tentative and I think we've seen it in a couple of different things and they're little things but they do add up, you know, one of them I think has been his reaction to What he's doing with his team, and so the we talked about the Parker Stuart thing and him obviously getting benched in the first half of this Northern Kentucky game and he gets asked about it in the post game press conference, and he pretty forcefully says, you know, I'm

never going to discuss what goes on in my locker room with fans or the media and just that like, you know, I mean, yes, I actually think Archie did a pretty good job of protecting his players by and large. But you you kind of get a I'm feeling out of Mike Woodson where it's like, okay Woodson is definitely the president and CEO of this team. And it's this is how he's going to approach things.

He's got his own philosophy, it ties in with, I think a lot of the traditional aspects of the Indiana basketball philosophy that a lot of people have been hoping for and waiting to see and there seem to be consequences for actions. Whether it's things that we're seeing on the floor or things that were not seeing, but a resulting in people not Hang on the floor, and look Woodson's, also dealing with a unique and difficult time. I think in Indiana basketball

history. So on his radio show on Monday. He addressed fans booing Xavier Johnson during that in order Dame game, and he basically said, you know, I was surprised. And I don't want to hear that because, you know, we've got, we've got this great group of fans and I want to see them supporting our players and lifting them up now. I think that Same words, coming out of either crean or Archie Miller would have been met with some derision on the part of

fans when Woodson says them. It's like, oh, maybe we should listen to what he says because our coach and it's not just his presence. But I also think that he's he's serious when he says it and he's I mean Dane five and I've heard him on podcast, talk about similar things. I've seen some similar things on social media, you know, the the IU fan base has not been well maintained. And over the course of the last two decades.

And what I mean by, that is, as I've said, many times the head coach at Indiana for men's basketball is, as much, a religious figure as they are a basketball coach. And they essentially have a congregation in the IU fanbase, that takes cues from them about how to behave. I mean, this was one of the things that's hard to describe to people who didn't live through the night air and it is largely explains a lot of why people still have this.

Like this devotion tonight as a figure and as a basketball coach is because he, he had a gravitas around the way that he expected people, rooting for the team to behave that, everybody just kind of fell in line with that. And if you look at the coaches that Indiana has had in the last 20 years, whether it was Mike Davis or k Samson or Tom crean or Archie Miller, none of them really did that. None of them. Really. They either didn't try or when they did try it just didn't work like it.

What? Came out of their statements didn't resonate with the fans. The fans didn't have much trust in them. And you know, while Woodson still has to prove himself over the course of several seasons, I think as a basketball coach just him coming out and saying, this is how we're going to approach things. This is how I want people to react. I do think is a really positive development in terms of the way that I use, because we've talked about the so often Scott, you

know, I you fandom IU media. It's vicious. Like, it's been a 20-year cycle of people, backbiting and talking bad about each other and talking bad about players. And, you know, there's this constant conflict between different factions within the fan base and people fight over what they think is, right, or wrong. And look, we've been as guilty of that as anybody. Like, it's not like we're exempt from having done this, but I do think that ultimately that has a really negative impact on the

overall. Overall image of Indiana, basketball, the relationship between fans and the players, the relationship between the players and the media. I mean, all of it is, it's kind of it toxic to use a word that I criticize people using yesterday on Twitter, you know, there is a toxicity to that that is real and I admire Woodson's willingness and ability to just come in and say this isn't right. Stop doing this. And that's I think I make a big difference as far.

Is how people evaluate what goes on with this team? Because honestly, when things haven't gone, right?

It's been a free-for-all criticizing this player or this coach or that, you know, I mean, it's just this constant hamster, wheel of negativity and something has to eventually put a stop to it. And I think that there's a good chance that this at least pushes things in the right direction when it's so funny that you know, the the one of the narratives in April and May of this year, we kind of do a retrospective also is like, so it's Funny, you know, doing a

little bit of a retrospective to thinking, back to April and May how, you know, we hired Woodson. We also hired five and then we hired Thad Matta. It was kind of like, well who's gonna be in charge? Like as you know, can Woodson lead? This could Woodson recruit like it's not going to be. We didn't know who was going to leave. This triumvirate is very quickly been like, oh no Woodson's, the coach, like he's gonna be in charge, you'll fight has done some talking.

He has done a good amount of talking but it's like, I don't think anybody could say, I'm not sure who's in charge of Indiana basketball right now, like what sin is in charge and It's not the best metaphor, but it does feel like to your point with the fans at times which is kind of like, you know, smack in the dog on the nose like booing. No. No, we don't, we don't do that. Like we're not doing that here. Like I've been charged moving on.

I like the comments about Parker shirt, like, nope, like he's not playing, that's it. Moving on. Like and it's, it comes from somebody who's secure who feels very comfortable with job. Who knows? Like, I'm not here to Pete, obviously, is proving wins, but like, I'm not here to prove anything to anybody.

Like, I know I'm good. I've coached the NBA I'm good, and that's It's been nice to feel like a steadying hand on the wheel and it is, it's funny, looking back, how so many of us were like, man, you have this like, bad modify. Fuck who's gonna be in charge and how sitting here? Now, I don't think that's a question at all. I think it's a very good thing that it does feel like, Woodson has his arms around all of what being a head coach in Indiana and Tails. So let's jump onto another

question. I like that question. Dan. Thank you. Let's jump to a phone call that we got good Gentlemen of the Pod. Happy holidays. This is Chris from Bloomington has Rod fantasies recent consistent play giving you hope that he could foreseeably be a Potential Threat in the Big Ten season as we've all hoped all along or do we see him kind of retreat back into the shadows and Not play with consistency. Thanks. Thank you. Chris. Always a pleasure to hear from you.

You finish. These are really interesting case and we've touched on this a little bit earlier with a tweet yesterday about how hit, you know, fantasies rediscovered offense, which is kind of an over simplification of things. But, you know, it's funny when you think about fennessy, we talked about his recent play, that's looked better in the last three games and he's, you know, you played fairly well in all three. He's yet to exceed.

An offensive rating of 100. So we still under a point per possession utilized, which is a problem. It really is. I mean, from a, from a point guard perspective, you don't necessarily need your point guard to be, you know, scoring constantly, but you need to have more out of the point guard than just assists. Now the, you know, now that said, I think that the Notre Dame and Northern Kentucky games perhaps point to a Rob fantasy.

That you can trust with 20 minutes, a game, maybe more than that, and a Rob fantasy, that's comfortable. With the first team. You're going to need that because I just, I envisioned this scenario where Xavier Johnson is just going to have games where he's not completely

in it, mentally and emotionally. I just, I'm still hesitant and I've been probably the most hesitant on fennessy of any player in terms of like feeling like he's going to be able to make a huge contribution overall on the season. He's still like just offensively. Just a very, very difficult guy to have out on the floor for any length of time. He's only shooting 28% from to, you know, He's yes, he's he's dishing the ball out. But he's also turning the ball over.

It's it's still a mixed bag for me. And I would like to say that he'll be able to build off of what he's done, the last couple of games and continue that process throughout the Big Ten season and maybe look, maybe it's one of those situations where he's Going to have one of the like the last half of his senior year. He's going to really emerge Allah Todd Lindemann or something like that. But at this point, I'm still a

little bit skeptical. I think that this team's ultimate ceiling is going to rise and fall over how controlled Xavier Johnson can be in the times that he's on the floor. I think anything you're going to get out of fantasy is a bonus, but I have a hard time counting on it at this point and it's going to take a lot of consistent performances for me to change my mind on that.

Yeah, I'm eating the last run where he had, you know, six seven, eight games in a row of an offensive rating over 100. Was the end of his freshman year and that's kind of been we've all been hoping to get again. As we saw that fantasy as freshman year and again, you know, not everyone hits a straight line trajectory like you don't just get better every single year and it might be that that was the best. Rob Tennessee. We're going to see, I like you. I'd love to see him more consistent.

This team could definitely use it. But it the numbers, don't back it up. And but I hope for me. I'm hopeful. Yeah, it's just one of those things. I don't have a good answer. I mean, I've heard a lot of people talking about, you know, the, you know, you got obviously injury issues or concussion issues early on at this point, you know, the his minutes have been cut almost in half from last year on the course, of the season.

And yes, there were some injuries earlier on this year, but you're still talking about a significant fall off in minutes and much. As you said earlier in discussing, Christian Lander situation. I don't think that that's accidental. I think that that's Woodson is being very situational and how he approaches these things and to some degree. It. Just what's fascinating about this team and I think to some degree.

What's really exciting about this team is that there are minutes to be had and Woodson has shown if you perform well in practice and you perform well in the opportunities that you're given in games. I'm going to give you a chance to play, you know, I mean Michael dirr has gone from not playing at all early on and yes, I know he had some injuries but He has pretty much locked down that like four to six minute stretch and he's doing what he needs to do out there.

George Geronimo. Seeing, his minutes gradually increase Anthony Leal has seen his minutes gradually increase and, you know, so it's not a situation where Woodson's completely locked into his rotation and he's not going to change it. He really does seem to alter what he's doing based on how guys are performing, which is how it should be, you know, but it also indicates that there are some performance. It's issues in players who otherwise you would look at and say this guy's talented.

I understand why he's not playing anymore. And I think with fantasy, you know, he brings so much on the defensive end. Most of the time. It's just that you know, his offense can't allow like what he does on offense, can't overwhelm what he does on defense. Negatively to the point that you can't put him in that's going to be the big question mark moving forward. And while that has gotten better.

I don't know if it's actually going to be something that you can rely on as competition gets harder. So over the course of the conference season, so we'll have to see. And again, just just because he's a senior I look at, you know, may be unconventional, but maybe some of our better point guard play could come from Like, You Know, Tamar Bates and he's had some really good games. He's not a traditional point guard but to your point Woodson seems to be trying different things.

You know, I think that if you're looking at this team, that's where I'd like to see, you know, I think that's where you could see more growth and hopefully, you know, get more growth out of a Tomar Bates type. I'd be really surprised if Bates ever. Played significant Minister. He just he doesn't look to pass and I think that's something we'll have to develop over time. But it's just not there right

now. Like Michael dirr as a higher assist rate than two more big database whereas right now, so that that should tell you something right here. Duras Point curse point guard. That's what we was what everybody wants. It this point. Yes. Let's switch gears. We had a lot of questions on basketball, but man, we had a lot of questions about football as well. And we wanted to tackle a few of those, you know, we Talked a bit with Taylor. Layman on the last podcast.

We talked a little bit about it. So people are still curious about this football team. So let's tackle some of these from masaryk at this point. Is there any reasonable hope for the offensive line? Lat, next year? Are we past the point where we could reasonably expect Allen or Bell to bring in a new offensive line coach think the answer to that is yes. There's not going to be a change at o-line coach as far as is there a reasonable question of success for the offensive line. Next year.

Look, I think to some degree. It feels like they're not going to bring in very many more Personnel. If any on the offensive line, which I'm very puzzled by. Yes, they bringing they bring in three freshman offensive line recruits and and they're they're all pretty well regarded, but it's a very dangerous proposition as we know to rely on freshmen or or you know, young players like that to make a big impact on offensive line. I mean, it's not just the

physical. Effects of playing the position. It's also the mental aspects of knowing what your role on the line is, you know, is it possible that I you could still go out and get some transfers? It's possible, but it feels like most of the offensive line transfer candidates. That would significantly improve the offensive line have already

committed to other schools. And so look, I think if you're an observer of IU football, this is a big area of concern and honestly, if I had to guess, I'd say that this is an area of concern that's affecting the other major area of concern for IU football on offense, which is quarterback because Tom Allen talked about on signing day that the plan was to go sign a transfer quarterback and also sign a recruit.

And the problem is they've done neither so far and all of their targets have ended up going to other places. Tanner Bailey ends up at South Carolina, the kid ekiden slovis from USC ends up at The kid from Incarnate Word hasn't committed anywhere yet. But you look at all of the projections on where he's likely to go and I use not in the top five on any of those lists that I'm seeing. And, you know, the more you think about, why would a quarterback from elsewhere want to come to Indiana?

What we do you have to? This is a question. I asked Taylor on the last podcast if I was a quarterback looking to transfer and I was sitting down with Walt Bell and Tom Allen and I was like, well, why would I come? To IU. The first two things I would want to know, would be, what's the offensive line situation?

Is it going to be better than? It's been the last couple of years and be Why have you had so many problems developing and maintaining your quarterbacks over the course of the last few years because you're out in the market for a transfer quarterback, but you've got Jack Tuttle on the bench. It was a, I think a 4 Star Quarterback recruit originally. When he went to Utah. You've got Donovan McCully, who was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school.

You had Michael panics and he has penix was injured. But hey, panics was gingered in part because his offensive line was so bad that it kept getting hit in. Times you've struggled as a program over the course of really the last five or six years, having any sort of consistency at the quarterback position. Your most consistent quarterback in that time was Peyton Ramsey and Ramsey never made it through an entire season as the lone

starter. So, why would I come to Indiana to play quarterback, given the uncertainty and the instability of the offensive line, but also given the way that quarterbacks have not fared particularly well, Well, in Tom Allen's various systems over the course of that time, so I know that that answer dovetailed a bit but it is a concern because I don't see a lot of help for the offensive line and you're basically relying on the already existing structures of coaching

and development, which haven't really done a whole lot on the offensive line. The last five years to somehow make last year's disastrous offensive line. Better next year. I'm just not seeing it right now Scott and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm just Not seeing it at this point. So I listened to your pod with

Taylor was really good stuff. But I was thinking, almost the exact same thing the whole time that, you know, last season or being, you know, this season this Co all were talking about in last couple years, always been offensive, line play. It's like, all right. Well, you know, we have some good runs like we just can't get the running game going, their offensive line, cannot get it done. I will. Again.

I know we talked about this in a couple of PODS ago, but please, if you have not go read the punt, John punt article. I think it's called one firing isn't enough. If it's just great stuff, but again Hiller, you know has had 13 high school recruits. Only one of them is turned into a starter. So he hasn't shown an ability to

get this better. You know, it's it, you haven't addressed it. Like you haven't brought in high-level Talent, you know, you have a coach who doesn't seem to be able to recruit at a high level and can't get low level recruits to a medium. You can't move them up a level and the numbers continue to get bad. So there's nothing to tell you that offensive line play is

going to be better. Um and the other problem we had, you know, every seems like every couple, you know, last year and every year is, you know, quarterback play and it's like, all right. Well, you know a line can't block on our quarterbacks aren't good. So what do you do when it's like that's kind of what our Seasons turn into. And it feels like when we're talking and you know, I'm not trying to piss on the parade so to speak. But it's like all the rest of

this. Hey top, 20, recruiting class and all these guys, the top transfer critique was like, all right, that's all fun shiny stuff. But like, in November we're going to be talking about Lyme playing quarterback play and We haven't solved any of those problems and to me that's really concerning and you could be in the same position. We were in this year where we had a pretty good receiving Corps who just couldn't get him the ball and some cases guys and receiving Corps couldn't catch

the ball. But you know, and by the way, you still think you didn't mention either. It's like who's our running back? Like we're talking about you know, like and that's the other thing too is like that's again. The question I would have is you could look at the guy we got from Auburn's like that's great, you know his numbers or be projects. It's kind of like a Stephen Carr. Where All right, you know you see the car was pretty good

recruits. Okay at USC, but it's like if we don't have wine blocking like what good is it? You know, you need somebody who can basically, I need to get, you know, a version of Christian Okoye, a and Darren Sproles. The backfield was just I don't see him in, you know, in the transfer portal right now. I don't see him coming to IU. So to me it's like these are the two biggest problems is what we always talked about. And it is baffling to me that Allen Dolson that everybody just allowed.

We're just To change one thing in our offense and that's going to be the offensive coordinator and everything else is good to go. To me, that's baffling. And I think next year. We're going to pay the price for it. I just don't see how our low whine play is better because there's nothing that suggests. It's going to get better and it looks like we're going to start the season with tuttle's quarterback. So there you go. It's going to be fascinating.

And look. I mean, it's just at this point. I think for a lot of people and I think you and I are probably

like, we're in this category. It's a lot of trust was lost in the off season last year when these things should have been addressed offensive line should have been addressed from a position of strength and they weren't and it feel it felt like well, you know, everything seemed to go great in the offseason and then the actual season rolled around and everything went completely off the rails.

Now, is it possible that there's some restructuring of the way that things are done and that players end up operating better. Under a new overall offensive scheme and a new overall offensive coordinator. And that the position coaches don't have as much of an impact I guess. But that is kind of fanciful thinking when you think about, you know, how you seem to think about this stuff and a bunch of other places, a bunch of other schools.

So, yeah, I don't know what the answer is on that front. I'm curious to see what occurs but it's something to keep an eye on. We had a couple of similar questions. From football. Master night asked is IU football complete for next year. Or are there some items on their Christmas list? Still Bronson Hayes asked, what does success look like for the 2022 vintage of IU football and for Tom, Allen and staff. So first of all, I don't think the roster shouldn't be complete. At this point.

They have to pull somebody in at quarterback to at least compete with Jack Tuttle and give I you a legitimate backup quarterback that can be utilized throughout the course of this upcoming season. Because I'll I've said this, I said it during the regular season. I'll say it again. Then I do not think Donovan. McAuley is at the point physically, where he's going to be effective at throwing the football.

Now, maybe he can pick all that up during the off-season, you know, and certainly I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on trying but because so much of McCully strength is in his ability to run the ball. You don't have a line, he can run behind like you don't have effective blocking. We have no clue what Indiana's got coming in in terms of tight ends or wide receivers.

So you can't really count on that and their whole running back room is likely going to change or large sections of. It will at least, you know, you've got this. The kid chivers from out from from Auburn coming in. You've got the kid from North Carolina coming in. There's just a lot of mystery at this point. Jack Tuttle. Theoretically, should be the starting quarterback coming into this income.

This this 2022 season and yet you'd really be hard-pressed to point it. You can point to To his courage from you know, playing the Outback Bowl with essentially what look like a separated shoulder and you can salute him for that. You can salute him for a gutty win against Wisconsin, where his stats probably should have been better. If Mi Marshall had to drop that pass, but the reality is his overall play hasn't inspired very much at all. In terms of, wow.

I'm excited to have this player as our starting quarterback. He kind of reminds me of of G Mertz to Degree the kid from Wisconsin, who everybody rushed to anoint as the starter and then you actually look at mertzes Stats and you're like Yeah, by and large. This is not what you want.

You go back to that Michigan State game, or total did start and or maybe actually yeah, he did start that game and he just didn't play well and, you know, you think with slightly better quarterback play does Indiana. Win that game. Does it turn the season around a little bit? So again, much like one and real. So, enjoy do been like the thing that is going to really annoy me. As if they just go in but hey, no, you know what color he is getting better.

Todd looks good. Like, you know, we decided that's the plan. It's like, all right, but you need a quarterback because if you again, it keeps kind of coming back to this Trope. If you haven't improved, lime play, and it doesn't seem as going to be the case. You're going to have Ohio State all over again. We're total runs a nice drive, but then he gets crushed in a play because you can't protect him like tunnel, will get hurt. Whoever, I starting quarterback is next year, more likely will

get hurt. So it's like I it's going to be frustrating when we get to September October. Cobra and then it's like oh my gosh, I who would have known her quarterback would've been hurts. Like hey, I did like I could tell you it's going to happen. So then suddenly when you're stuck with McCauley and then we're pulling off your Walk-Ons.

Again. It's like out who could have who could have foreseen this, like everybody can because our quarterbacks always get hurt because our line sucks and I don't want to keep coming back to bed. That's why I say, can you make it? Can you do something about it, but we have it. But I mean that's that's the frustrating part is like, you need somebody to bring somebody in to not only pushed other but just you don't need more bodies. You're gonna need five quarter.

Max next year, right? Because it happens every single year. It happened this year. So everything you're saying is dead-on, but it's going to be very frustrating when they're going to kind of play the oh who could have known Carly coming. You can't foresee injuries like from yeah, and I you football you can. Yeah, prefer quarterback total tunnel in that Michigan State game was 28 for 52 to 53 percent completion percentage 54% 188

yards. So a yards per attempt of three point six zero touchdowns two interceptions. One of them was a pick six. I mean it Just there's not a good performance and, you know, granted that was the only game. He we saw a full Jack title game in, but that's, there's not a lot to recommend on that, I guess is my concern. And so, I think about moving forward. What exactly the dogs agree with me on this is, you can hear ya. The way that I you goes into the season.

You've got Tuttle, you've got McAuley who, you know, I just quoted Tuttle stats and the colors were Efficiently worse, we do wear for the season. Macaulay was 35, 482 for 43%, He threw for a total of four hundred and seventy-five yards. Two touchdowns two interceptions just was basically non-functional in the passing game for the time that it was in there. And yes, he was a freshman but it just really kind of makes your head scratch. So anyway, going back to the question.

Yes, you have to, you have to find somebody that you can bring it, at the very least. Like you said to add to the collection of quarterbacks who can compete for a job, who can be a solid backup if he doesn't win the job. And you also still need to do some things on, I think, certainly, the offensive line. You probably need to do something in the linebacking corps, as well. As Indiana is lost. Another player to the portal. James Miller entered the portal a couple of days ago.

So there's still some patches to fill now. Going back to the larger. Question of, what does success look like for Indiana football in 2022 and they got to get back

to a bowl. They don't have to get back to a great Bowl, you know, but I think at the very least, they have to win six games and get themselves into a bowl game because otherwise, you put yourself behind the eight ball Because unless schedules changed significantly, which they probably not going to your back to a situation in 2023.

Where you're playing five games on the road, you're in the Big 10, you know, that you've got a window here, where the schedule is very favorable in 2022. You've got a nice recruiting class that you've been able to generate off of this year or at least the recruiting efforts that led into this year. So, you have to maintain that momentum somehow. And I just I feel like anything less than what any less than six wins in the regular season is To be a real disappointment and,

and really makes you question. Okay, is this thing recoverable? Can you get it back to the levels that it was at in 2019 and 2020? Or has Indiana managed to be eclipsed. Once again, not just by Michigan State but maybe even by Rutgers who is like they were not Bowl eligible, but I think they're about to go to a bowl there, right on the doorstep. And you know, Greg Schiano has indicated as not indicated, but he has demonstrated over the course of time. He's going to be able to build

up his recruits. Well enough that they're going to be somewhat successful to the point that you cannot. Look at that Rutgers game anymore and say, that's a game Indiana's clearly going to win. They obviously, didn't this year, and they got to go to Piscataway next year. Yeah, I mean to me, I've been saying this for a while, like this is the schedule next year that we have, we should start the season 6 and 1 like we should be Bowl eligible after

that Rutgers game. And you kind of have to be because your first four big ten games are North Western, Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers, you're at Nebraska and a trucker's. That's about as good as it's gonna get. I mean, in the end, like, you know, you as you've mentioned like you can't just Chuck a broker's game as win, but like in the flip side, we play the Big 10 East, like we do, So there's good years and bad years. It's pretty good.

The schedule ends with Ohio, State Penn State, Michigan, Michigan, State Purdue. That sucks. But it ends with that. You got to be at six wins, going into that. You just have to be so you got to be six in one maybe five and two and just hope for something to nice to happen. But if you're five until you get some momentum, but you you got to win five of the first seven

games. And if you do that, they'll be some momentum and now you're in the right foot, but if you go three and four to And two and three. And those game like it's over. This is not going to happen and you gotta get that into your point. Yeah, like you get to 2023. I hate to give you hate when I start going future, but you mentioned it. You know, your first Big Ten game is, you know, against Ohio State and then you also play Penn State.

Maryland, Rutgers me of Illinois, but then you finish with Michigan state, Wisconsin, Michigan. Purdue. It just gets tougher. Like, this is the, this is the nicest Runway to start a season next next year, or so. You know, it's tough because there's going to be a lot of questions like as it stands right now. Somebody's be answered. But no matter what our starting quarterback is either going to be new or somebody that has a lot of questions coming out of

this year are starting running. Back is going to be new are wide. Receiving Corps is going to be all new. Unfortunately. Our offensive line coach will be the same, but our offensive coordinator is going to be a lot of question marks, but it's like you you've burned all of the equity and Goodwill to just it doesn't matter like all of that. Does it matter? You have seven games? You got to win, six of them? Yeah, and to me that's that's what next season is about.

You start the season with seven games. You gotta win six because you figure, you might lose out after you start that Ohio, state run, which is fine. If you go 6 and 6 and you make a bowl, it's, you know, when you look across, I mean, look, I think there's a lot of things to be excited about with IU football. May not sound like it from what we're saying, but you know, so I Kevin deal. Ask how many freshmen are likely to make an instant impact. I mean, it's Hard to say on that

front. I do think that, you know, you got one or two defensive freshman, that could make a positive impact you notice. On the color, could make a positive impact right away. But, you know, football is really one of those games where by and large your, you got to develop players, don't make you Jim, you're gonna have to develop players, a couple of years before they're really able to step in and, and, and have a huge impact on what's going on with the team. And that's that's just kind of

the reality of things. So it's just going to be a team that's, you know, in a weird spot and, you know, while I think that I you and Tom Allen deserve a lot of credit for the work. They've done in the transfer market. I think they've short up the defensive line and the transfer market. I think they've they've addressed some of the skill positions on offense. There's just enough major spots on this team that you're still scratching your head about a

little bit. It makes you wonder about what they're going to roll in the next season with now, all that. It said everything lays out next year where they should be able to win six or seven games even, you know, and it'll they just could be not as good as people think they are and still win

those six or seven games. But there's also a very clear possibility on the schedule for next year where they don't do that, you know, because the chances are Nebraska's not going to be quite as bad as they were last year. Rutgers is going to be a fairly good team next year overall. You know how far to Cincinnati fall off is, you know, it'll fall off that much is Maryland, you know friskier next year. You know, that's a that's a Maryland team that Indiana

couldn't beat this year. So, you know, what is it? What's going to be different about it next year? Other than the game being at home, and you still got to play a Northwestern, have another bad. Yeah, or could, they could they bounce back when they seemed always, and you still have a four-game stretch next year.

They got to go at Ohio State Penn State at home, Michigan at home at Michigan State. And you'd be hard-pressed even with the Changes on this roster to look at Indiana and say, you are in a position where you could beat any one of those teams, let alone multiple of those teams. And and that is. So it is a, it is a challenge. It's always a challenge in the Big Ten and I hope that Indiana has made some internal shifts in what they're doing.

I just I still don't have a good sense of what this team looks like with all of the transfers and with all of the change that I, you is Dealing with at this point. It's really hard to get a bead on what reasonable expectations are for that group. But I do know that programmatically speaking reasonable expectations, are this too intense. Season was a blip on the radar. You got to get back to six or seven or eight wins next year.

Because if you don't, you really got a question the overall direction of things at this stage and I've never been a fan of this this saying, but I do think it kind of stands here that, you know, like melt soccer, a tough hand to play at Michigan State. You figure out a way to bring that to Team back and they seem to be in a good spot kind of rise in the right way. You know, this is there's not a lot of easy answers for Tom Allen here to figure it out.

But like this is why you're making the big money now, like you, you got to figure it out like you've got to figure out a way to get this done. And again, it just kind of comes down to the results and you've got to find a way to win, six games next year or come really damn close. Yeah, because yeah, you go, you go 3 and 9 or 4 and 8. It's you're going the wrong direction. It's like now, it's like you gotta make that money like you make the big money, figure it out.

You got to find a way to figure it out. It can be done. I got enough food questions that I think I'm not going to answer them on this podcast. I'm actually going to split those out to a different podcast, which I'll record some time between now and the new year just because we've already gone almost an hour, 20, we might as well kind of cut this short.

I don't want to tax people's attention to much as we lead into Christmas. So, for those of you that asked food or drink or be Town related, which means I'm going to get to those next time. Be sure to keep an eye on the feed as well. Release something sometime in the next week on that Scott. Let's go ahead and wrap up any final thoughts from you before we finish things off today. Now, I mean, what a, you know, it's funny.

We started the year kind of thinking we were hitting the Golden Age of IU Sports, looking at football and basketball and football, didn't fully hold up, their end of the bargain. I've often said, imagine how bummed we would be if we, you know, for Those who the fifth, you who didn't want to fire Archie, you know, imagine if we sold our Chi as our coach, we had that kind of malaise and basketball. We had what's going on in football.

Like, this could be the dark coming back in the dark days. I mean, at least we have some Hope on the basketball side and like you said, there's still some good news coming out of football. I'm just a lot of other work to be done. So, you know, it's been it's been a wild year. I mean again you think of where we were a year ago, we were fired up for you know, we were all Riding High. We're taking the Big Ten patch off our logo or getting ready for the Outback.

Bowl, you know, and in that time, we played a bowl game. We've had a new coach, we've had a new basketball coach search, a lot of stuff has happened. So it's been a, it's been quite a year. I will end with this just a shout out. One of the coolest things that's happened on this podcast in quite a while. We got a tweet. I'm going to call her out by Denali on a Hansen at Aliana 04. She's an Iowa fan. She heard me on the washtub Walk-Ons podcast and has been

listening ever since. Like I mentioned some, Iowa thing in life. Cast with Ed Fang about like I, you know, I would fans of listening and she tweeted like, oh, I'm listening ever since that, which is mind boggling. So I lie on, if you're listening of a, I love it. Thank you for listening. You know, by the way, come on over like red and white would look great on you. Like you are more than welcome to be a fan. You know, when you're in Carver Hawkeye or kinnock you're

allowed to wear red. Well for you guys already terrible, the, the stripes, you know, we're in different divisions. You can have a team in each division. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like a stealth Minnesota fan, you know. And nobody knows that. So I'm kidding. I'm actually not. But anyway, go ahead, I gotta just so it's cool that she's been listening to Indiana, an Indiana related pot. I listened to some of the washdown guys.

I listen to their post game just to kind of rub it in that the ass-kicking we got. But it's just a shout. I love hearing that. It's like that's almost one of the best things I've gotten on this podcast of the while that an Iowa fan is like, I'm still listening because I like you guys, so that's awesome. So, you know what? Just I will will do more Iowa talk. We'll do a little more. I talk a look at them, you know, a little more in basketball season, but not that was very

cool. But no, it's been a another great year man. Um, you know, it's it was while I was thinking of the crossroads like geez, you know, if you were to told me this is gonna go on, you know, it started under Creed's. Okay, we're going to to more coaches coaching the crossroads over the next ten years.

It's like wild. So wonder where we'll be in 10 years from now, but I will probably still be still be podcasting and dogs barking in the background and Good Times the yeah, you know, just kind of keeping Get it rolling. It was always a pleasure doing the show with you. And yes always a pleasure hearing from all you folks for those who ask questions that we couldn't get to I apologize.

We try to get to as many while also having a back-and-forth and a normal conversation during the course of a podcast. But look in general. It's been a fun year. It's been an interesting year, you know, I think it's hard to with the pandemic, put everything into perspective, you know, it was a year that from an IU Athletics. Activia, you know, the soccer team made it to the college Cup Final and that was exciting to see women's basketball had its

greatest season ever. And in may be embarking on a season that ends up being better than that, but on the flip side, I you men's basketball went 12 and 15. You fire a coach. You got a new coach in, you've got this big change over and IU football had, you know, one of their two or three, most disappointing seasons in program history, so a mixed bag to say the least with Eiu Athletics, but it's been fun talking about it all.

And it's been a pleasure. And obviously, the big news for us from a business perspective, was the partnership with assembly call and with Tony and Rania with the back home network. So we appreciate all of those folks and all the things that they do to make things run. We are far less of a professionalized output or Outlet than than assembly call is.

They've done so many awesome things throughout the course of their time and we kind of just podcast when we're both available, which As in our current roles is increasingly less, but it's been fun trying to try to make it work. And so thanks to Jarrod and and Andy and Ryan and coach and all those folks over there. And obviously, thanks to Tony who we've known for a long time. And, you know, we had them on,

you know, back in the old days. It's great to see him doing so well, so thanks to all you folks for following along whether you subscribe and they're not on Twitter at all. You're the Smart Ones, whether you're on Twitter and you happen to have it to catch some of our shows, our Facebook group.

Group, we have a small but loyal group of people that are constantly, are are chiming in on Facebook with questions and comments and that's cool to see and yeah, it's not something we've been doing the podcast now, you know, when we get the 2022, it'll be 15 years which seems really hard to get your head wrapped around. But it's been a lot of fun and we certainly appreciate all of the Positive Vibes, all the good questions, all the tough questions, everything.

And we look forward to seeing you folks, whether it's in person or just online. In 2022. Is we move forward. So, from all of us, all of you. We hope you have a. If you celebrate Christmas. We hope you have a merry Christmas. If you celebrate Hanukkah, we hope you had a great season. You celebrate, anything else around the holidays. We hope you enjoy that as well. Like I said, I'll be back on at

least one more time. I'll tackle some food and drink questions for you all, and we'll look forward to talking to you again. In the new year for Scott. I'm Galen. This is Crimson cast. We will catch you folks on the Side. Bring back the Bison. So long, everybody. We must give the symbolic on a wide berth.