You're listening to the back home network presented by home field apparel. Welcome as Crimson Cask ale and clavius got Caulfield joining. You it is the 13th of November talking, some Indiana Hoops as IU, basketball back. In action again, and 20 on the season, where it talked about what we saw this week and what we're anticipating coming up over the holiday season, Scott is with me Scott. Good to talk to you again. How are things? It's great, man. It's funny.
I was telling you earlier, we originally started this podcast in 2008 as a, you know, we focus on basketball. It's right. When kind of the the Samson cream thing happened. We did a lot of basketball talk. And then we both, you know, knew that we were football, fans started doing football pods and then Weird spot where we have a cycle for football. We don't we're getting back into the cycle for basketball just because we've had kind of down
bass while yours. But it's like, I look at my life and it's like, I got into this, basketball is easily. My favorite sport IU basketball is one of my favorite teams out there. And yet I find myself podcasting like, eight times more about football and it's like the Venn diagram of what I like and what I podcast about has gotten way out of whack. So I'm hoping this year to bring it back and do way more basketball talk than the amount
of football. Talk. I've said they had to endure this year. Yeah. I mean, basketball has all, you know, it's supposed to feel. I don't try to have the best way to put this. Like it's almost like a refuge from football and I you, it is, oh, hey. I'm able to talk about something joyful and the problem is that basketball hasn't really been joyful either. It's been, yeah, it's been Troublesome in a different way
over the last. Oh, I don't know, really, the whole really the last 12 that really, since we've been doing it, like, since that change over to cream, And you know that, if you look at the 80-year history of I-80, the last 80 years, like what would be the worst stretch to have a podcast? Like, probably probably? Yeah. I mean, I guess, I think if we'd been podcasting in the 60s, it would have sucked because that would have been there would have
been a lot of Bad seasons. And even, I mean, even even the, the, the Arts, but you even doing it 15 years, even the 60s, we get early night by the end of our time, by the end of that 15 year run. Well, if you, yes, if you pot, if you patent it would be. Now my brain is breaking thinking about how all this would work. But knowing my luck, even even the, oh, oh, OHS like 2000 was a pretty good season that had a bad ending and then that gets
fired. And then no one was actually a really good season that just ended disappointingly in the tournament 02. Obviously was really good. 03 was fun. Fun up until the end and it was really just 04 and 05 that were really problematic. 06 was again, a pretty good season. Overall that ended really well 07 was fascinating 08 was great. Wait until the end. And then from there it's like 09 suck, 10 sucked, 11 sucked. 12 was like the sun shining 80 for the first time in March, after
it's been great for three months. 13 was a great Thrill Ride but yeah, 14 was distorted. 14 was bad, 15 was questionable. 16 really didn't feel fun? Even though it should have felt fun and then all the rest of the years were awful. Like, they were really bad to dose, they were really bad to podcast because you're, you know, it's like you're trying to do, you're trying. To generate excitement, and yet, in the back of your head, it's like, this is tough.
Like, this is, it's tough to get fully wrapped around this. And it's what has made the start of this season already even. And again, there's a lot of basketball to be played. They've yet to play a really good opponent, but it looks and feels fun. And I mentioned this on Twitter the other day, it's almost like, it feel, it felt like fun had been forbidden from the IU basketball program, not just Just for the players but also for the fans for the longest time. And that's my biggest hope for
this year, is that it's fun. I mean, if there's championships one, great, if you know if there's if there's a huge number of wins, racked up great but I just want the basketball to be fun again. And it actually looks like it might have a chance of doing. So we're going to talk about that. When we talk about, we saw in the first couple of games before we get to that. First of all, just a reminder, we're part of the back home network here at Crimson cast and the back.
Network is brought to you by home field apparel your place, to go for the finest in college Fashions, the softest Fabrics, the coolest designs and a lot of IU stuff out there that you can purchase. We got Black Friday sales coming up with home-field apparel and then just, you know, just during the holiday season, you'd be surprised at how you will go up in the rankings of the people, you buy gifts for if you give them great College apparel from home field.
So check them out. Home is The code if you want to go there and get 15% off your first order so be sure to go and check it out. Home field apparel.com. All right. Scott Indiana to and oh and neither of the teams that they have played thus far have been show. We say the cream of the crop. Morehead State is probably the odds-on favorite to win their
conference. There in the Ohio Valley, and they have actually just turn around and beat billerman yesterday, a team that beat Louisville earlier on and then Bethune-Cookman, And not a very good team at all, but I do think it's important to think about what we've seen out of the team so far. And, and what's really been invigorating about this team is twofold one offensively.
They are really deep, like they have a bunch of guys who seem to not just want to score, but also want to pass, and there was a great stat. There's a, there's an awesome Twitter account I would recommend Everybody. Follow called, Shot quality. And what they do is they basically that The Scouting service and they'll occasionally
tweet things out. And their whole concept is basically, they want to track not just offensive and defensive efficiency, which is what you get out of like, Ken Palm or torvik. But they also tracked, like, was it a good shot. And a lot of that comes from, you know, good ball movement, or good, spacing or some combination there in and so far through a very short part of the Season Indiana is actually leading the country. Three in good shot per possession.
Their shot quality points per possession is one point two seven which is really high. They're up there with Washington State, Arizona Marquette and Alabama, and 43.8% of the shots that Indiana has taken have been good shots which is really good to see it means Indiana's generating, really good, high quality shots so that's been exciting. But then what's also been exciting is how good defensively and how committed defensively IE this team looks and that shows
even against Bad opponents. I mean, you can beat bad opponents and do it in kind of a blase style. Indiana has throttled both of their opponents from about the 15 minute, Mark of the first half on with their suffocating defense and they really look committed to it. Scott. I feel like both of those things are things that we just haven't seen out of Indiana. Over the course of the last several years, the offense hasn't been fun, and the defense has been effective.
But it hasn't looked like they've really committed to doing it with their souls. The way that I think a lot of people grew up watching, Indiana, basketball play defense. And so that's certainly been what stuck out for me. Thus far, what have you been enjoying with this team up to this point? Yeah, me I will have to agree with you out both but the defense has been has been amazing you on.
I think one of your talks with Tony were talking about like the last time we were in the top 10 of you know defensive Efficiency and can palm. And it was like, 2,000 to write that the seasoning into the final, the final game, which I got that wrong in my head, as I'm walking my dog, thinking of
the answer. There are currently six in the again, to games, like everything caveat with two games, but they're six in the country defense officially, when you look at the Big Ten, you know, they're six Rutgers 11th and everybody else is like 40th or higher and so you know compared to other teams in the Big Ten again everyone's playing, you know, varied competition. Some people are playing on aircraft carriers, what most people are kind of playing garbage opponents here. You know.
There's you can judge that and be like, alright we're probably going to be one of if not the best defensive team in the Big Ten. And that's something that it's really nice to have and to hang your hat on. The trouble is like, you know, we've had okay defenses and then just, you know, poor offenses, as you and I both know, I mean we took the bob Knight coaching class not that we're you know, when we were at IU, we took that.
But I do and I'm sorry. Got that was the norm Ellenberger coaching class of are enough. The Norville hamburger with occasional guest.
Bob not even coaching class but I remember night saying it's true like your defense travels and defense wins Road games and you offenses fickle defense is not and so it is something where, yes, we're, you know, Morehead State and Bethune-Cookman are not going to be Big Ten level opponents, but defensive, you know, you can shoot a bunch of Threes against those team, but defense is something that should translate. And so that, that's something I'm very excited about to me.
The thing that I'm most intrigued with is when we start every year, I kind of always joke a little bit when I listen to some of the pregame podcasts, ours included. We're even, I've been caught doing this where you start looking at the team and you're like, oh man there's so much depth like, you know, are we going to get enough playing time
for all these guys? And you know, we have got, you know, we have three point guards and with such a good front line and then within six games, you're like, all right, there's six guys. I like playing on this team and then it's like I don't like anybody else around II. Don't like the second you saw that. Last year, it's like second unit have flaws and this is one of the first times that I look at it.
I'm like there's real depth here, like there's real depth, you know, race Thompson hasn't played well, but against the overthrown cook, but he had what, like two points you know. It's not, it's just there's not, there's going to be times that not everyone's going to have enough to go around and that's something again. We haven't really dealt with. You have Hood Shafi, know you have Xavier Johnson. I do want to talk about Caleb Banks, but you have real
backups. Are you have real depth at a lot of positions? You know, everybody's really enjoying Malik renew, which I agree with. He's coming off the bench and probably will for the whole season. Like there's really not a spot for him to move up, you know, George run with. We haven't talked much about Trey Galloway. He like, all of these are real contributors who all can have real moments and there's going to be abs and flows.
And I mean, dude, first guy off the bench was, you know, tomorrow Bates and he played the most Off the Bench against Bethune-Cookman. It's it feels like for the The first time in a long time and we have real legitimate depth at almost all the positions and then the last thing that I will say is this is kind of like a Bill Simmons body doctor thing. I'm I've not seen this team in person, I'm very excited to get there and see them in person. But watching the games it it
feels like that. This team is together in a way that I haven't seen in a while, like they're getting fired up. You know, it's I remember some of those, like, James Blackman, jr. Years where it was like, everyone's like, I mainly can kind of tell a guy, he's getting his points and it's like, guys are kind of cheering and they kind of doing the the bench stuff but it it feels like this team is together and they're fired up and they're locked in
and they're cheering for guys. And like I don't think at all that race. Thompson is pissed that he only got two points. The game against Bethune-Cookman. I think he's happy. They wanted think he's excited. I think he knows he'll have his shot later and it again I'm reading into body language but it does just feel Like this team really enjoys playing enjoys being together and knows that there's not enough to go around but everyone will get their shot when the time comes.
And it's it's really refreshing. Like everything is just really refreshing to see. Now it is it and if there's a Vibe, that's hard to describe, and I'm sure if we tried to like quantify it, scientifically, someone be like, you folks are crazy, but you can see, it was so missing in the Archie are, ya
know? So obviously Miss what was and it was missing for a lot of the crean era to, I mean, it, They're in it was there in 12 more towards the second half of the Season. It was there in 13 for almost the whole season and it was there in bits and pieces in 16. But even that team like you said, it was like that was a really good collection of individuals that played pretty well together. But I never felt, you know, during the even, you know, that whole season.
I never really felt like Thomas Bryant and James Blackman. We're on the same page or I never put, you know, necessarily felt the Troy Williams was on the same page. Page with anybody, you know, it was it was like a really good marriage of convenience this and again, it's early. I will keep caveat in that, but this team does feel like it has a level of Esprit de corps that we just aren't used to seeing.
And I think, frankly, that we've been jealous of other teams, having, like, we've seen Purdue play like this, we've seen Michigan State play like this in the conference and Indiana. I think when they're at their best historically has had those types of teams where they look like they enjoy playing with
each other. They look like, they know that like you said, if I don't get mine but my teammate does, it's going to come around for me later on and I think that where that shines through the most is on the defensive side of the ball because that requires a level of selflessness, to be able to give of yourself effort wise without there being an immediate statistical Reward and you know, to some degree I think if this is how this team is going to play as we move through
the season and and they're able to sustain it that might be the greatest thing other than recruiting that Mike. Woodson will have brought to the program. Is this sense of look? We got all got to be part of a collective effort and that does feel like it was lacking for the last several years with IU basketball. Again, we'll see. I would say I agree with that. I think Woodson gets credit to me, I think Woodson gets a lot
of credit. It here for being able to manage those, you know, personalities, which is what an NBA coach does. Like NBA coach really is more about managing personalities and running sets, like, in the NBA guys know how to play. But I do have to say here that I saw it. So, early last year, when I went to the st. John's game, the level of defensive aggressiveness, and just locked in this, that Xavier Johnson has is at another level and if if this continues to move on, Four, two, three, four
seasons. We really get. This is kind of the new Norm for Indiana and then we become this defensive team that has this mentality. I think we have to look at Xavier Johnson because that was always, that's always a thing. Coaches kind of leaned back.
I was like we just one of the leaders who are coming in your teaching, the young guys how to do this, like get we're not in the practice but it does feel like the team has taken Xavier Johnson's passion for defense and kind of that dog mentality and really harnessed it in a good way and he's rubbing off on a lot. People.
And you know it's it it I think that he's probably going to be somebody we look back on. It's like he really was somebody who helped teach this team have that mentality and then it's like you know if you know Malik renew or Kayla Banks has that in the next couple years like they learn. He he becomes the linchpin that that all gross from like it to
me last year. It's so stood out Xavier Johnson's, you know just doggedness on defense and if he can just kind of hard to sit without some of the extra fouls, but But I think he's gonna be a huge part of what we do moving forward, if that becomes kind of our identity.
Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, I think there's a lot of fans that aren't fond of Xavier and I think that they tend to react to the worst things that Xavier does which, you know, I need that he does get overwrought when he doesn't get calls and he will get himself in trouble offensively. He reminds me of you know like some of the point guards.
I remember watching in the NBA and the 90s is Kind of a, he would Workman vibe to him at times, you know, where it's like, talented but, but very much capable of taking some things off the table that you really couldn't afford to have taken off the table. But I actually, I think in the context of this team and a contest college basketball, he's he's really important because of that mentality.
I mean he's out there defending 75 feet from the basket against Bethune-Cookman. You know, he's he's shoving his body in front of driving. And players, you know, in that same game and in the first game, you know, it was like eight minutes left in the game. That's largely that completely
settled. He's, he's sat in there and been the point guard for the quote-unquote second unit and it just gives it a whole different dimension and this was something that Tony and I talked about, in our podcast on Friday, like, I think Xavier Johnson. I'm sure, I believe, because we've seen it over the course of his career, you know, he's gonna Ratchet back to turnovers, he's going to continue to get the
high level of assists. He's going to be able to provide, I think a good offensive leadership, and he doesn't have to carry all that burden, but where he really does shine where he where he brings something that has been missing is not just the ability to defend, because I think Rob Fitness he had the ability to defend, but the mentality of being a pain in the ass Defender.
And I think in a Big Ten that is kind of bereft of Top-level guards to have him as a secret weapon that you can put out there on, you know, any top guard that you're going to see at least in this conference, is a really, really big thing. It's something that is going to help this team significantly down the line. And, you know, so as much as people I think of started to fall in love with Jalen Hood. Chaffee. No.
And, and rightfully. So, in terms of his ability to make passes and have court Vision Xavier Johnson's, going to be arguably more important for the court. This season in particular, because so much of the defensive effort and intensity is going to key off of what Xavier Johnson is able to do, while he's on the floor. So in the thing, the thing, the interplay between Hood Shafi know and I want to talk about him as a high-level Prospect of,
I'm excited. But the thing with him and Xavier Johnson, I was thinking about is you know, having huge feet of Hose. So important and having somebody who's so plug-in ready. Because that it kind of Helps mask some of the issues with Xavier Johnson because with Xavier it's like it's coaching him has to be hard because you don't want to take away too much of that passion.
You want him guarding 75 feet against Bethune-Cookman but on the flip side, like you're going to run into issues where he's going to get frustrated and probably get two quick fouls or get annoyed or like get to the point where it's like he's got to come out and you got to just cool his head a little bit and that was always our problem last year and that's where it got.
Frustrating is like Xavier, you couldn't do that and you basically had to Had to run it, you know, Reverend really high but then it's like you had to also not make any mistakes. It's like that's just not the kind of player that I see Xavier Johnson is like, he's somebody who plays the ton of passion at times. It's going to boil over. It's like you don't want to turn the gas down so much that you
don't get a lot of that. This is where it's so not like, I think that, that Purdue game last year that, you know, I think he got into foul trouble, but you know, that was the game where Rob fantasy came in. Scorpio 26 points, just played out of his mind but we were able to beat a top. Level Purdue team based on the back bit on the fact that when Xavier had to come out, we had another high-level point guard come in and that's kind of what we're looking at this year.
And that's, you know, at that point it's like all right well that Indiana team if and I'm not like picking on Rob fennessy, but if we had a point guard who can back up Xavier Johnson and play that role that fantasy played last year in, just the Purdue game. We could have been anybody anywhere anytime well and yeah, I mean that's and that's like
week. It have that this year, it looks like it and but I think the important thing to expand the conversation a little bit is that it's not just that you've got Jalen Hurd Ruffino and Xavier Johnson as The backcourt. And, you know, went and then he got trade Galloway, who can come in Off the Bench and play in either of the roles that those two gentlemen, occupy you've got tomorrow Bates, who still looks pretty limited offensively but looks really good defensively.
Like really his length and his athleticism. He He is able to do a fairly good Xavier Johnson impression, but the fact that Indiana's got that level of depth at almost every position. If Trace Jackson Davis is having a bad game or gets into foul trouble last year. You're bringing in Michael dirr. Yep.
Or you're bringing in Jordan Geronimo and he's, you know, kind of rooted in the paint because he doesn't have the confidence to do a whole lot else you don't, you know, now you've got Malik renew who looks capable of playing three different positions. You've got race Thompson. Who can rotate over to either of those positions?
You've got Animo, you've gets just so Geronimo but at a much expanded Geronimo. Logan Duncan has looked serviceable like I wouldn't I would be I would have been terrified if last year the only option was? We have to go to Logan dunk him off the bench now it's like
Logan duck. I'm kind of looks like you know, Todd Lindemann you know like a better version of Todd Lindemann his senior year where it's like wait Todd Linderman's good we you know Where he's a guy who could be functional in there. If you needed to play him, you've got Kayla Banks who leads the team right now and offensive rating, through two games. I mean he's played in relatively limited minutes but the dude just scores buckets when he's in there and grabs rebounds and so
that level of depth, yes. There's going to be some growing pains. And again, yes, this is against lesser competition, but none of these guys, nothing that I've seen out of any of those players thus far.
Do I look at them and I say, A I don't think that would translate against a better opponent and that's going to be really fascinating to watch because if you can truly get this Collective effort among these players where they feel like they're contributing to something, and they have a role to play, it's no longer like we've seen the last several years, stretching, frankly back all the way into the crane era, where it felt like there was a clear group of starters and then
a clear group of everybody else. If you've got kind of one guy, Guy that or two guys that are absolutely going to start. And then you've got seven interchangeable pieces, that's a recipe for a lot of really good basketball. Because if someone's having a bad game, it's no longer an
unavoidable catastrophe. It's something that you can fix in a relatively short period of time because you can put somebody else out there to take their place and let them get their mind back into where they can actually contribute, no. And I'm so annoyed that you took the Caleb Banks and Clubman. So like I wanted that like, Stop could hop on the pot and take it in time. There's fighting there's fighting over it on social media so you might still be able to stake a claim man. All right.
Well, I'm a I'm a one of the front rows I'm going to, I'm going to hop into the passenger seat here, pretty soon. But to me, he's a perfect example of what's so good about this team. As I feel like any previous any of the last previous eight or nine years, we would have seen this, but it's like, all right, but we need Kayla Banks to be, you know, our backup point guard, we need twenty five good minutes out of him every game or 20. Eight minutes and he's a freshman he's not going to be
able to provide. I'm not saying he's bad. It's just like that's a very hard thing to be like be a consistent player as a freshman. He looks like what a college freshman is somebody who's going to have great nights? Somebody's gonna have bad nights and that's where I look at that. And again I think let's talk about Hood, zaffino to, he looks in a different class. He will also probably have some off nights but it that's what's so nice about. This is like it. Kayla Banks is having a good
night. It's like all right, let it ride then. Let's play. To keep on rolling. But if he's having a rough night, it's like, okay, we're just not going to play you as much, but we have Hood. Sophina, we have Xavier Johnson, like maybe that's one of the nice where we play, you know, Xavier Johnson, 35 minutes a game. But then next time it's like, all right, we need, you know, Caleb Banks can have that good game against Minnesota and we
play Xavier Johnson, 22 minutes. Like that's what it always feels like. I'm saying what you said just a different way. It's like we've always had that problem the last seven or eight years where We can't rely on the backup. So we're kind of stuck with this Sophie's choice of like, do we run our starters? 35 minutes, a game and run them into the ground, or do we put our second unit in and just, you know, hope we can hang on to whatever lead we had or do whatever.
And now, it feels like that's kind of a third unit issue which is just a totally different world to be in. And it's it's frustrating because it's like the for all I hate to bring this up but I just have no good. All the people. All Time like hey, just give Archie more time. That Creed is a little more time. Like this is not that hard like Mike Woodson has not been on the job for more than 24 months and look at where we're at. Like we have a really nice team.
I understand he got some pieces but I mean he did, he kept racetracks and Davis here you know, this is it's not that hard. Indiana basketball turned around. So does everyone keep that in your mind the next time if and when we have a new coach or kind of dealing with some uncertainty, which sadly it seems to happen too often that it's like it. And take that long to get here. And it's not like Woodson, he
had some good nice faeces. He walked into a tough situation and turned it around really quick. And that's what always frustrates me when it's like, it's got to take three or four years. It doesn't know. Really really doesn't now. I agree. And then look, I mean, Woodson, you can say, he got lucky because Trace Jackson Davis stuck around but Woodson gave Trace Jackson.
Davis a reason to stick around and and you know you can say that he got lucky with Malik renew the committing because my quite Cited to go to Georgia but Mike Woodson had to go recruit Malik renew. Get him to switch around and come to Indiana. Basically sight. Unseen. And that there's a lot of things. I think that Woodson is done thus far that look really promising and he look, I'll even go back to last year when you're talking about, doesn't take
three or four years. Like, you know, the in the time that Archie, this is a not intending to turn this into like an Archie bitch Fest I promise. But in the, in the time I'm that Archie Miller was at IU. Indiana finished fourth in conference defense, his first year they finished ninth and Conference defense has second year.
This is all like, inefficiency, they finished eighth and Conference defense in 2020. They finished 12th in conference defense in 2021. And then last year in Mike, Woodson is first year they finished first in defense in the conference like, For a defensive coach to not get that far.
You know, as one coach that's not necessarily a defensive coach who's never coached at the college level 4 in 1 year, there's something special going on there and I think the Alchemy of personalities and recruits and getting guys to understand their roles. We saw some of the growing pains with that last year and some of that was choices that have been made by the previous regime, in terms of what players they brought in. And we've talked a lot about
this whole idea. Of you need to have confidence basketball players who are empowered on the basketball floor. But you also need to recruit the right types of players because it's, it's hard to grow mentality. Like, to some degree, you have to recruit mentality and that, you know, if you want to, if you want a dichotomy of where the night air is started to go wrong, it was where the personality is getting
recruited. Didn't match what needed to be done on the floor and then by the time they figured that out and started recruiting them properly, it was too late. And I think, By and large. You look at all the successful Indiana teams over the course of time. And they've been filled with the kinds of personalities that were able to understand that they were part of a whole and that they needed, you know, and and wanted more to the point to give maximal effort. And I do see the seeds of that
in this team thus far. We'll see how it goes over the course of these very difficult games that are coming up for Indiana. But I do think Woodson, thus, far deserves a lot of credit for in a very short period of time, Leary molding what we thought, Indiana basketball could be in this era and I'm, I just, I tip my cap to the whole staff for the way that they have managed to structure the approach of Indiana basketball and and how that's paying dividends thus far
on the court. Yep, the other two to one of the thing I do want to mention. So you've talked about this a little thank-you and I've kicked around this idea a little bit like the I don't think that Jalen Hood Shafi. No is such a breath of fresh air and that it's like this is a real five star who comes in and looks like a five-star and the only person I can the only player I can equate it to is Eric Gordon? Like I think back like you know Romeo Langford was very highly touted coming in.
He he was very efficient and very you know he was a good score but just didn't plug in and have that feel of it. It's just something. If you watch it a vassal, you can see like, you know, I go to Pacers games. You look at like, you know, matheran there rookie. It's just like that dude. Looks like an NBA player right now. He looks ready to play in the NBA, put your feet on. Looks like a player who's ready to just play college play one year.
And you know, I think back to that again, not the Perfect Analogy but that 08 season, you know, K Samson's second season in his last season here. That was a team that had a similar makeup of like a nice little core. You had DJ white, the the really good post player. You plug in an Eric Gordon type and and again I don't want to debate who's better? Eric Gordon who Jaffe. No but you plug in a high-level prospect.
That team was rolling. But you we think back on that like a man they lost out to a brand-new a bus on Arkansas. It's like well that tea was 17 in one on January 23rd. I mean, they still finished the season ranked 29th and Ken Palm. They did kind of lose out. They fell apart. They lost their coach. There was a ton of stuff going on. You had an interim coach. That team at one point was still 24 and 4 on February 26th, 13 and 2 in the Big 10 min that team.
If you just magically move all of that texting Scandal to the to the offseason that team could have made a final four. And so I think there's a lot of similarities here and there and I think that's, you know, we just haven't seen a player. This you know, college basketball ready. Honestly, I think since Eric Court. Well, I think you're right and they're very different types of
players. I mean, you know Garrett Gordon came in and was was was already a top-level scorer and and I don't know that Jalen Hood Ruffino is that but Jalen atrophy know does have incredible Court vision and you know just has a presence about him that is going to be really fascinating his ability to work. You know, inside the three-point line is going to be fascinating cells and hit a three, which is kind of weird to think about because so many other people.
Hit threes thus far, but he doesn't have to and that's the point and that's what I love. But yes, I think him and Malik renew the thing that stuck out to me. The most is how natural they look as college basketball players already. And this is not something that we've seen out of most IU players as they come in. I mean, I think you could make an argument that, you know, Trace tax and Davis came in and looked very similar. I mean, the guy was a top hundred player in the country.
In offensive, efficiency. Mission see his freshman year. His his first games, he ever think he scored, he scored 8 points his first game and then, and then he was in double figures for basically the next month. And that's probably the last guy that we've seen that really looked completely capable of playing on a college basketball. Court this early in there for in his freshman year and you've got two of them and look, I mean to some degree.
This highlights how important recruiting connections are how Portent recruiting high level players. And I know it's not like duh, but I mean, it just, it feels like to some degree, whether it was Miller or crean, neither of them were capable of doing that consistently. Or when they would get players, they would struggle in key elements of playing at the college level and I think even Romeo and we go ahead. Go ahead like the the renew
thing. I think, you know, I know you weren't saying this but to just be like well, you know, No, what's it got lucky? It's like well luck is a combination of being prepared, an opportunity and this is something that you know, Tony mentioned on your last pot with him like these Academy of Montrose Academy, like this is where all the talent is. And so Mom wanted virgin not not mocker, not Montrose and academies, but this that's like that's where Hood should be. No was playing.
And so, you're already working those connections. I don't just think it's, you know, he was probably talking to renew like it. I think it's unfair to be like, he just Lucky. It's like this is these are the places you need to be around and T I think where you're going right for had erupted like that's where it felt like Miller and Creed here. The end weren't quite in the right spots to be lucky to get those opportunities.
You know, Woodson is in the right places talking to the right people so that if and when a my quite leaves like all right. Well this is where you know this guy is here and he's working these guys this is the right guy to be with sorry, go ahead. No you're good, you know and and
that is essentially the point. It's it's the idea that You know, there's a, there's a combination of you have to recruit to the moment and recruit for the long-term, you've also got to be able to work the portal, which obviously would seem was able to do getting Xavier Johnson to come here. Yeah, there's a lot of those sorts of things, some of its opportunistic.
It's a different world, but a lot of it is for the players that are coming up through the traditional manner of recruiting and they're playing it at Mont verdure, they're playing it a top-level. A you even if you only get those players for one season, being able to go out and be competitive to get those players, it's just not something Indiana's. Been able to do that much over
the course of the last decade. And I you it's not let IU has not had excellent players or hasn't had players that have panned out well at the college level but it's so much easier when you're able especially to get teammates who come in with a relationship already who are physically capable and whose basketball skill set doesn't have to be Basically reset at 0 as they're coming in zits like guys were you know, we're going to have to change the way that you fundamentally do X Y or Z
and that that does feel like most of the Archie Miller era. Even I was where I was going with it before. We like even Romeo Langford, who is clearly a very talented basketball player, really struggled with that transition to the college game and struggled with the system, he was in and he's similarly, struggled at the pro level. I, you know, and there's just to some degree, I think.
Woodson coming in with all of his experience dealing with NBA players and dealing with younger prospects and trying to develop
them over the course of time. Does give him some insights and he's got a dynamite recruiting staff that's able to go out and secure players so I'm really I'm excited for the future but I'm specifically excited for this season because this is what it can be. When you've got a combination of guys that have been in the program for a while guys that come in with a lot of talent and a system that encourages them. Them to play together, collaboratively.
And and again we're getting way ahead of ourselves in terms of how we do how good this team actually is because we don't know, but I'm very excited about the promise of it and that's
what I'm hearing from. A lot of people across the board is their level of excitement with what this team looks like and where it could go. Is really you know I'd say at this point if there was excitement coming into the season among the fan base that excitement level has like ratcheted up exponentially Over the course of this last couple
of weeks the other. The other thing that I take away from the first two games I was I haven't, I've gone back to 2019, I haven't gone back further on this, but for the most part since 2019 to today, to this season, we've started every season with kind of to too bad opponents for the most part. The and the one thing that you can really extrapolate is free throw shooting because that's just it doesn't matter what the opponent is free, throw shooting.
Is a free throw in 2019. Our first two games we shot 55% from the free-throw line. We ended That season shooting 65% so it was bad and bad 2020. We shot 71% in our first two games and of the Season around 67. So it got a little bit worse. 2021, we shot 60% in our first two games. Finished the season at 66 in 2022, we shot 68 percent in our first two games, and finished the season right around 70 percent.
So it goes Up and down a little bit, but it's, you know, you can kind of get a very good feel even just in two games against Bad opponents. Based on free, throw shooting, what your free throw shooting for the year, is going to be so far this season. You had. It's a little bit of a mix match because you shot 57 percent in the first game. 95% in the second. But it still averages out to 76% free-throw, shooting in the first two games. You know, that's the best we've
had in the last five years. And, you know, we rarely broke. Seventy percent last year, you know, mid 60's, under most of the Archie era if we could just push that too. I'm not saying we have shoot 76, 77 percent from the free-throw line for the season. But if we can just push you to 72 or 73 percent, that's a huge difference that adds 3 to 4 Points a game. It also changes the way that teams can play us where it's like it's not just we're just going to foul Trace Jackson Davis.
I'd rather, you know, do that. So I do think that free throw shooting is something that you that's always a trouble, these early games, like, what can you really go? As Miller Capri, To be shooting, you know, ninety percent from three against Big Ten opponents. It's hard to say. But the free throw shooting, is the thing that I am. Very, very excited about, and, and nice to see that across two games, shooting above 70%. There's only so much that we can
say after two games. And so let's look briefly at the next opponent, which is Xavier. This is interesting on a number of levels. I came over the last time, Indiana played at Xavier, I'm sure it's happened but I don't think it's happened in recent memory. This is a Gavotte game. It's been a part of that Big Ten, Big East Challenge and Indiana's, done pretty well in the Gavotte games, over the course of even these last several Years, they take on a Xavier Squad, that is peculiar.
I think would be the best way to put it. This is a Xavier team that last year started like gangbusters, you know, they, they beat Ohio State at home. They want at Oklahoma State, they were 11 and 1 at one point and their only loss was on a neutral Florida, Iowa State. And there's no shame in that. And they went from 11 in one, they only 17 games, the rest of the regular season, they lost in the first round of the Big East tournament.
They ended up winning the NIT, which I think a lot of people forget about, but they end up making a change. At Coach Travis steel ends up getting fired. Now, he's at Miami of Ohio, they go out and get Sean Miller. That's a bold choice for a number of reasons. Not, the least of which is that Sean Miller had gotten run out of Arizona, due to suspicions of recruiting violations just to put it. Kindly, so Miller who got his
started. The head coach of Xavier, and A great run there, that included an Elite 8 and the sweet 16 in back-to-back years. And that was what propelled him to the Arizona job in 2010. He's back. And he is heading a team. That's got kind of an interesting combination of players. There's a lot of height on this team.
You know, if you look at last year you know and what they were able to do, they did lose their you know one of their highest usage players in pulse Scruggs but they It Jack nuns back, who's a 7-footer, they get Zach, Fremantle back who took a significant volume of shots. Actually took the most shots from to last year for them and and they get Colby Jones back as well. Old friend from the IU program.
Jerome Hunter is on this roster and it's a Xavier team that if you look at last year's to two sticks was fairly good offensively, like to get the ball up and down the floor was, you know, okay, defensively. It but not a top 50 team really struggled from outside. Only shot 32% from outside which was actually worse than Indiana and really makes most of their buckets and that so far. This trend has continued this far this year on assists on two pointers.
You know, they really do Focus inside the arc thus far through two games. They've actually got a lower three-point shooting rate than Indiana does and while they've hit several other threes, they're just not taking that many. Any of them. So this is an interesting challenge for Indiana going on.
The road is always difficult. You know, Xavier has been a very good program pretty much as long as I can remember watching basketball, but this is also a Xavier team that has coming off a four-year stretch where they haven't made the NCAA tournament at all. And while they've kind of poked around the NCAA tournament, they weren't able to make it at all under Travis steel and that's why he's no longer there.
So, you know, Scott Talk before the season about how Xavier was a program that represents an interesting measuring stick for Indiana to play against early on here that in the season the the having to go on the road up the difficulty level of bit. What are you expecting? I guess coming out of this gear going into this game. I love their play in this game. You know I know this is part of the Gavotte games.
I really hope that we can bring series like this back because I think back to like when you did your podcast with the Hoops, guys. Like, chronicling. I think the 92 or 93 IU basketball season as you go through it. It's like we're playing Xavier playing Cincinnati. It's like, this was one of the things that is forgotten a, not brought up all the time. With the night era is like he just did such a great job of playing Regional opponents where fans could go to games.
And again, I know this is a Gavotte game but I hope we continue to play gate but my pitch is we continue to play games like this because there's a lot of good level opponents within a two to three hour driving distance of Bloomington
that. You continue playing that said you know I look at this would be as I said before it will be a really nice game to win because if you win this you kind of run into the North Carolina game, where expectation, that could make a special night even more special. We're both teams. Could theoretically be undefeated. You could have a matchup of two Top, Ten teams North Carolina being one.
But I'm going to be curious to see, you know, if some of the things that we've talked about are born out, you know, if If we see players, get rattled, you know, if some of the younger players does a hood Shafi, know, look rattled in his first road game. And if he does, are we able to use that death? We talked about to kind of solve, it does save your Johnson able to study ship.
Do you guys like, you know, renew and the Cioppino not look rattled which would be even better, you know, how does it play out? How does a team that is almost a better Coach with a little more resources? A little more capable? How do they, how do they structure their defense against this Indiana team? I'd be very interested. Do they do they pack the post and your dearest to shoot from three? Do they have they seen on film that? They're nervous about our guard play?
I'm curious about all of those things. I think something that you've talked about to that, you know, there's this bucket of games like this game, North Carolina, Arizona, Kansas. I think it would be really nice to win one or two of those for a variety of different reasons for each one. I still think you could lose all four of those and not be like, oh my God, the sky. Guy is following your. Oh my gosh. This team doesn't have the top top level ability.
We thought I think that based on when they come and how we play them, it's possible. You go. Oh, and for in those games, we could still have a great season still win the big tent. It just depends on how it happens. But those are the things I'm interested to see. It's kind of, I really like this game. I really like it on the road. It's very much like a I'm really, you know, it's like bad
analogy. But like I got a drone a couple of years ago and it's like I just couldn't wait to take it out only when we took a trip to Tennessee. The to Gatlinburg, to go to the Smoky Mountains and I could not wait to take the Drone out to like real mountains and really you play with it with my stuff. And like, that's why I feel like this is how you basketball team. I'm very excited to take it on
the road. Take it against a real opponent, see what we do. And I don't want to get too high, but if they play really well and they're able to, you know, have a nice solid win against Xavier, I do think at that point, we might need to be like alright let's I could see expectations almost going out of control after that game but those are the things that I'm looking for in this. Game. I'm also curious, I want to know what you're looking for, but I know you're looking to go to
that game. Have you been to the Cintas Center before? I've not know this is one of the reasons I'm gonna, I wasn't planning on going, the ticket prices dropped a bit and I was going to give this a shot. It's a six pm game on a Friday. And so it's like it's reasonable. It's not too far of a drive from Bloomington. So I'm I'm always fascinated to go into somebody else's Arena. I was there last year for Syracuse that was interesting to see as well.
And so yeah, it should be an interesting experience. So, we'll see what happens. Anyway. So yeah, I Echo everything, you said, and just to wrap things up real quick here. I guess, you know, I'm very interested in seeing how Indiana's offensive approach in general travels. This is an interesting game because I think they're going to have to use the perimeter a bit more because of the size that Xavier has on the inside.
And, you know, the, you know, I think Tres Jackson Davis has proven inability to score against Too much, any type of player, so that will be fascinating to watch, you know, you look at what Xavier was able to do last year and, you know, they really did a good job of holding opponents under 50% from to. They did a really good job of defending the perimeter. You know, it's early in the season but they've done an even better job of Defending from to
so far this year. And on this really curious to see. Okay? We've seen Indiana in a controlled environment. They've Gotten off to kind of slow starts in both games. That really can't be the case. So does the first unit go out and really put their foot on the gas to start with and is this a game where Miller cops ability to hit from Deep?
You know sustains and where we see some of the other pieces for Indiana, able to pull the defense back out a little bit to give space for Trace Jackson Davis to operate on the inside. So, I mean, all the things that you said, plus that I'm really just With a lot of different elements of this game and I think it'll be a good test. It's not an overwhelming test to start the season. It is still a test though.
And I think that this is the type of, you know, a fire that can help to forge this Indiana team's mentality and give them a reality check after what was a pretty good week to start the season of where they're actually at and what the barometer is and the things that they're going to have to do for a full 40 minutes, in order to be competitive at the level that this team. Seems to want to be competitive over the course of the season. So, yep. Anyway, that'll wrap it up for us.
We'll be back with more content, both football and basketball throughout the course of the upcoming week. Busy Thanksgiving period for both as a get bucket games, we've got IU basketball, you got that lead into the North Carolina game. So lots of fun stuff to check out there so be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Spotify for Scott. I'm Galen, this is Crimson Castle, catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the bicycle. For everybody. For everybody.