you're listening to the back home network, presented by home field apparel log into Crimson, Cask ale and caviar joining you late-night edition of crimson cast here, where post this close to midnight on, Friday, the 18th, I hope you folks are all doing quite well. As I just got back from Cincinnati, got a chance to go see the Hoosiers. Men's basketball team in person as they hold on for victory on the road against the Xavier. Musketeers, I'm going to talk
about that game a little bit. Also want to do a quick preview of this weekend's football game that I use got upcoming against Michigan State before we get to that. Just a reminder that we are part of the back home network here at Crimson cast and the back home network is brought To you by home field. Apparently your place to go for the finest in college, Fashions, the softest fabric, the greatest designs just the place to go the Black Friday sale.
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All right, we're gonna start off with a little bit of basketball talk. We're going to have a, much more expanded conversation about Men's basketball on Sunday when Scott is back from his travels. But I wanted to just give initial impressions of what I saw in the Cintas Center and just a really a fun game. I mean, first of all, I want to tip my cap to the folks at Xavier. You know, I didn't spend a huge amount of time that I just kind
of got there. Got out of the car walked in, you know, watch the game and then left but really fun atmosphere. That is a really Really neat little facility seats about a little over 10,000 and it was, it was rocking like from beginning to end. There were a lot of IU fans there, but there were a lot of Xavier fans. And, you know, I love the way they've got the student section set up. I love what they're doing with the arena in terms of the vibe
and the the energy. And I mean, that place felt like it was going to go up in flames, you know, metaphorically pretty much the whole game like it really felt right. On edge and I think it was a great atmosphere for college basketball and I would go back in a heartbeat if Indiana were to play there again. So if you haven't had a chance to get over there and watch a game, you really should.
And frankly, although Xavier fans were pretty friendly around me. Had some good conversations with everybody, as far as the game itself was concerned of his was a really fascinating game. And I think, you know, a lot of people looked at Xavier these they're like, okay, that's an unrated or unranked team. That's a Game Indiana should win and I think it's easy to forget how hard it is to win on the road against Power Conference team and the Big East is
absolutely a power conference. And you could see like right away that Xavier was fired up, they were kind of firing on all cylinders offensively especially early on Indiana was really struggling to shoot, jump shots, you know, threes weren't falling. It just really, you know, there was a point early on there. I think the second time Went down, nine Indiana. Did I just kind of sat back and I said to myself? Well I don't think it's gonna
happen today. Yeah, I don't think this Indiana team is quite got it yet in this kind of an environment and lo que. So let's see what they're able to do. Given that situation and given that environment. Can they claw back and make it respectable? And at least keep it close.
And then, you know, Indiana did a I think a tremendous job of writing the ship and getting themselves in a position to be closed at halftime that they could have had the lead things didn't work out on the last possession, then they come out. They establish a lead and they kind of you know they kept a nice cushion there for a while and I think Xavier deserves a
lot of credit. I think this is clearly a, it's a talented, there's talented players on this Xavier team, and I think that clearly Sean Miller has, he's a very good coach and I think as much as you could, Certainly ask some legitimate questions about him from an ethical perspective, as far as an X's and O's guy. That's, that's a guy who knows
what he's doing. And he has already, I think taking a few of their players and really move them into the next dimension in terms of what they can do on the floor and it created an environment. Frankly, that, you know, they were never going to go away. It was, it was never going to be one of those situations where Xavier was gonna totally fold.
And I think that, Miller deserves a lot of credit for that because even though you could tell Jack nuns their Center was was running out of steam. Even though Zach, Fremantle got into foul trouble. They found ways to keep themselves in the game, but I think Indiana deserves a huge amount of credit for the way that they adapted throughout the course of the game. And I think Indiana looks pretty well, coached to, at this point.
And, you know, that Trace Jackson Davis is clearly the reason why Indiana Won the game offensively. He was Unstoppable. I mean, 13 to 16 from the floor. 30 points, 6, rebounds, you know, three blocks on the game, an offensive rating of 139, which is ridiculous and just was such, he just was so much faster. He was so much more agile than anybody that defended him tonight. It was really a master class in
low post moves. And I was really just terribly impressed with how well he was able to move himself around on the Baseline and find little creases and make things happen. And so he certainly deserves special praise. But Xavier Johnson deserves special praise as well.
I mean, that if you want to, to me, know where the turning point of the game was, at least, in my opinion, when he came back in the game, in the first half, after having sat for a little bit, I think, you know, he they put jail, Jaffe no in with the second unit and Johnson sat for a little bit and then he came back in and really it was right at that point.
Which I think was it about the 10-minute Mark 11 minute, Mark of the first half where the entire energy level of the team on the floor changed and it just it ramped up like three or four spots and it was like palpable and it was all emanating out of Xavier Johnson. Like he started pushing the tempo. He started really, you know, kind of getting it as far into the red as he possibly Possibly could and it wasn't just on offense.
It was also on defense. It was also on the boards he finishes with 23 points, 7 rebounds and offensive rating of 127, which is nuts. And yes, he was Distributing the basketball, but he was really, you know, it was he's got this interesting, we talked a lot about, you know, how was Avery Johnson handle it if Jalen Hurd Jiffy, no ends up being the starting point guard and this game illustrates why this setup might As well as it as it could work.
Because they've your Johnson slid into a role that wasn't really distributor. He was still leading the offense, but he was leading it from an initiative perspective where he was just as likely to take the shot or driving the lane as he was to pass the ball and it worked beautifully. And yes, you know, he had a couple of moments where things went over the edge. Although I still think I still don't understand what the technical foul was for.
I really, I was very close to where that happened. I still have zero clue what they thought they heard or set or saw, but I'll get into that in a second. But I think Xavier Johnson is if traced that you know, you don't have you don't win if you don't have traced Jackson Davis has points. I don't think Indiana comes back and makes it a game and it has a chance at winning if Xavier.
Don Johnson doesn't bring that attitude that he brought from about the, you know, 30 minutes before the end of the game until the close of things and the other Later, I think really deserves special praise. Is Malik, renew in 16 minutes to
score 12 points, get six boards. You play a long time with four fouls and never foul out and you know to be such an important and undaunted to borrow a phrase player for this Indiana Squad, he looked like he absolutely belonged out there and you know, it was just Just really gratifying. Yeah, we saw Pete, you know, him play really well in the first two games and you're like, okay, this is against really subpar
competition. This was against a really tough front line, and they absolutely needed him because race Thompson didn't have his bad of a game statistically, as I thought, he ended up with eight boards and five points, but race times and looked out of it, a bunch and, you know, Malik renew had to go in and basically be the power forward for large stretches of the second half and did it amazingly.
And did it in a way that I don't think Jordan Geronimo could have done and really just highlights how much depth and how much talent is actually on the Cindy. And it seems really cool to see we'll talk more about that. A quick tip of the cap to trade Galloway's, well four assists, you know, didn't score obviously but really gave IU. A third guard that could really go in and do things and help distribute and so Indiana picks up their first true. True Road.
Non-conference win since November 30th 2011 at is still a just wild statistic that it's been literally. Since the first Obama administration that I you had one a true Road game. It's been it's been 11 years almost to the day. I mean, a couple of weeks
distant from that. But, you know, that some people I think I saw a couple of mentions on Twitter, like, well they got lucky and dodged a bullet and there's a lot of work to do. You know, you had to have been, you had to really be in the arena to feel the energy in there, I don't know that Indiana is going to have a whole lot of games in environments like that, you know, probably Purdue, probably, you know, I mean, I don't think Illinois brings that
kind of an atmosphere, quite frankly, I think, you know, they'll probably run into that atmosphere. They'll do it in back-to-back games, because they'll be at Michigan State, they'll be at Purdue. I don't even know that their game at fall gallon will have quite that. At atmosphere simply because the students will likely be gone by that point in Lawrence.
So this is, we know we talked about this a little bit on the last men's basketball podcast, but this kind of game, this type of opponent is it a top five team on the road? No. But you're probably not going to win a lot of games against top 5 teams on the road regardless of how good you are but to take on what I think will at the end of the season, probably be a top 30 team in Xavier. Go in their place and win. That is a really big deal.
And I think even if Indiana had lost, there would be a lot of great building blocks coming out of this game. But this is going to be a really nice cherry on Indiana's resume to be able to go into a place like this. This is not a neutral site game. This is a true Road game against a big East opponent that I think will at least be in the conversation and the NCAA tournament. You know, we're seeing a lot of games right now and neutral. It's a lot of teams picking up some big wins.
This type of win is invigorating for the program. It'll help with the resume and it really allows you to see how Indiana is going to be able to handle a game where jail. Huh, Cioppino is not good. From the field over eight from to today and and 149 overall, where Miller cop up until that last three hadn't hit a field goal, the whole game, a game where race Thompson doesn't really contribute offensively.
The fact that they can bring renew Off the Bench they can get essentially zero points out of the rest of their bench. Yes, Jordan Geronimo, hit one free throw, but Malik renew the Indiana had 13 points off the bench in this game, Malik renew had 12 and, you know, maybe next time it's a different player but this is the versatility that we were talking about with this team and I for one am, I'm you can probably hear it in my
voice. Like I just drove, straight, two and a half hours back, sat down, you know, Kiss my wife, goodnight. Turned on the podcasting board. And, and if you can hear the energy in my voice, this is still what's emanating off of me after having been in the arena and watching this game. One last thing, I'll say Don daily, Terry Oglesby, Larry's hiroto, the officials.
I don't think I've ever seen in officiating crew that looked more terrified of a crowd, you know, maybe it's happened at Assembly Hall and I just haven't noticed. But man, those guys, you know, we've talked about, you know, like quarterback seeing ghosts, there were there. There were some ghost calls there. Where there were, there were just some whistles where you're
there. Was that foul towards the end of the game on Xavier Johnson in front of the Xavier bench, and there was no physical contact on the, on the, the there was no foul to whistle and he had a whistle, was called the two technical fouls. I mean, that was like church league technicals. I mean, it was really ridiculous, and it felt like it went against Indiana for almost the whole Game, you know that and that said, I think Indiana
did a good job of capitalizing. When they did get calls that went their way and there were look, there were some questionable calls both ways, but man, there were a lot of calls that went against Indiana in that one, and I don't even care about it. Like, even if Indiana lost, that's what you get on the road, you're going to get that type of officiating. I'm sure a lot of people are like, hey, you get that kind of officiating in your favor and
Assembly Hall all the time. My point is simply that that crew looked frightened as they were In the game. And it was, It was kind of hilarious after a while because you just you knew what to expect every time you heard a whistle. So anyway, not to be ungracious. I just kind of chuckled about it as, as the game went along because it was, it was, it was something everybody around me. Notice to whether they were in
Indiana, fan or Xavier fan. Anyway, Indiana gets a day off and they'll be back in Action up at game Bridge. Field house on Sunday, as they'll take on Miami of Ohio before that. That will have a much longer basketball podcast. We will talk about this game and what we learned out of it. So, check that out. We'll probably have that published around 11 a.m. or noon on Sunday. So be sure to tune in before we turn to football. Just a reminder to make sure to
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Crimson cast. Anyway, let's talk IU football. We're going to dive in to Tom Hollands comments on the coaches show a little bit later. We'll do that on Sunday in the post-mortem that we normally do but there is a football game to be played. Between now and then and that's Indiana taking on the Michigan State Spartans. Now, Indiana, I don't think I need to recap. For all of you is just not look like a good football team right
now. They have in the last five games that have an eclipse 17 points in any of them except one and that was against Maryland. There on a seven-game losing streak, and they are an underdog on the road as they should be going up against this Michigan State team. Now, a lot of people have kind of looked at Michigan State, and they've said, this is a team that Indiana could beat this is a team that that's, you know, that you're in the conversation.
I would be frankly, shocked if Indiana even covered in this game, the Michigan state has certainly had their struggles but when you go back and look at the struggles that Michigan state has, had they actually in retrospect, don't look bad. I mean, they lost on the road at Washington and that, I mean, Washington's. I think the nation right now that is a good Washington. Team led by Michael penix Junior. You know they lost at Maryland.
And you know Maryland is hot and cold but I think it's a mistake to look at Maryland and say that they're a bad team they're six and four and you know they've lost a couple games and other proper going to lose again this week but they'll beat Rutgers at the end of the season and finished seven and five, they lost her Ohio State, which everybody's done and they lost to Michigan. And and then the Other game that they lost in. Probably the only one that I
guess you could say was questionable was they had a big home loss to Minnesota. That's a weird Minnesota team, you know, that Miss sent Minnesota team. I mean they lost to Purdue Illinois and Penn State, but they've beaten everybody else handily. And I don't think Minnesota is like, great, but there's still seven and three. So, you know, I think the reports of minute of Michigan State's demise and I am as
guilty. As anyone of this is probably a little bit premature, they're not having a great season. Certainly by comparison to what they had last year. They they don't look good but they don't look awful. And I am pretty impressed. Actually all told with how Mel
Tucker has taken. What could have been a situation that spiraled completely out of control and has rained it back in and has given Michigan State a Fighting Chance, you know, not just to make a bowl, which if they beat Indiana, they'll be Bowl eligible and they'll go back to a bowl. Oh, but, you know, basically set the table for what could be a
good season next year. And, you know, if your Michigan State Michigan State, such a weird program, I mean, they fly close to the Sun, they have a great year, you know, they've made the the playoff they've been in top-level bowl games and then they just the bottom falls out and you're like, what the hell is happening with the Spartans and then they kind of Ratchet themselves back up again.
And, you know, last year was they, that was the too close to the Sun, you are and here, they are back to Earth. Bit. But overall, I think this is a pretty solid football team. I mean, you know, it's, the be able to go into Illinois and win by eight at a time. When Illinois was rolling, I think they some degree ruined, Illinois season, and then turn around.
And, you know, they records probably got a little closer than one might have expected, but they still beat Rutgers by a sizable margin to beat Wisconsin. When Wisconsin was playing pretty well, I think they've done enough for us to say. Yeah, that's actually a fairly decent. Team. And, you know, if they play a third cupcake in the non-conference, like, I don't know, Michigan, did you know, then right now they're sitting at six and four. And if you know, they would be 7.
And for once they beat Indiana on Saturday and he'd be like, well, what's the problem there? You know, there's another seven win season, that's a great start for Mel Tucker. And so I just I think for the IU fans who've been point of this game is like a place where I, you could get a win, you know, because it was always like, oh, well Michigan State's and Shape than I you and I got news for you. They're not. Michigan state is not graded
out. Well, you know, we like to use Pro Football. Focus College here on Crimson cast. I think it's a good way to qualitatively assess what different aspects of a team's performance have looked like over the course of the season and you know Michigan State's had some bad games. I mean you know the they didn't they look really bad against Minnesota. They look really bad against Michigan. They looked okay against Maryland and Washington but when they've won, they've looked
pretty good. I mean they graded really well against Rutgers? They graded really well against Wisconsin. They graded pretty good and very good actually in the passing game in that game at Illinois. And you know, overall their you know their defense has not been great. The problem is their offense is
actually been pretty good. And unfortunately, Indiana is not the type of team as they've proven multiple times going back to that step that I cited about not having broken 17 points in most of their big ten games this year. This is not an Indiana team that is able to make you pay for being bad. Defensively and Indiana's offense is, is truly really bad right now, you know, is it the worst offense in the Big Ten It may be.
I mean, it's it's certainly at this point an offense that is kind of bereft of execution that they really struggle in every phase of the offense, in trying to move the ball and trying to block, and trying to give the passing game enough. Time to do something with itself, they just don't look like a functional offense and and, you know, certainly some of that's been due to injuries. As we've talked about camper
being out is not helped. DJ Matthews being injured has not helped by But the flip side of it is they didn't look good last year either. And you know the excuses kind of wear thin when it comes to how your team performs on offense. This is a new offensive coordinator, a new system, and yet in conference play, you know, Indiana, they've scored 132 points and there's only four teams, three teams that have
scored fewer points than that. You know, you've got, I mean, I This is how bad it is. Iowa has scored more points in conference play than Indiana has Iowa squirt. 138 Indiana scored. 132 Rutgers is scored fewer points. Northwestern scored fewer points and Michigan state has scored one fewer point. The problem is Indiana has given up by far the most points in the conference. We talked about this last week. Indiana has given up 249 points in the conference. That is that's what 32.
Two more points in conference play than the next worst defense. Which is Rutgers and folks that's not good. That is that is bad to see and it doesn't bode well for what Indiana can do. You know the big question for Indiana going into this game? I guess is who's going to start at quarterback? And, you know, if it's this is, you know, a lot of people been saying, we got to start Dexter Williams, got start Dexter Williams. I mean, You probably do.
And this is where it gets kind of tricky because I, you know, everybody's getting excited about Dexter Williams as a quarterback. And I understand why, and I think that Dexter Williams certainly has some talents that I'd love to see Indiana. Try to figure out how to use
more effectively. The one thing about Dexter Williams that I would really caution everybody about though is that Dexter Williams has not been a very efficient quarterback, a he Did throw two touchdown passes against Ohio State and that is absolutely not. Anything I would take away from him. That is that is impressive. However, if you take away, the two touchdown passes, he was 4 for 19 with the remaining throws, he was 64 19 for the game, 31.6%, against Penn State.
He was 44 11 for 36.4% and two interceptions on the season through 30 passes, he has passed. Total yards and of the 148 was 40 or something were on that one pass that happened on the that really kind of sparked the drive that led to the touchdown against Ohio State.
This is not to criticize Dexter Williams, it's really not, but I do want to pump the brakes a little bit and say, a the problem that we saw last year because this, this exact same thing happened with Donovan McCulley, like to almost Just the same statistics or the McCully was slightly more accurate as a passer, but once it became clear that that was the person that Indiana was going to go with it.
Quarterback defense has adjusted and of course, as we have, unfortunately, seen Indiana seems under this current regime to not be capable of making counter adjustments or throwing new wrinkles in that last more than the opening Series of the game. And so, what ends up happening is that the defense dials in? They make it very difficult and It's the the performance has become less impressive as you go further in because the tape is there.
And once the tape is there, it's hard to get anybody. Like, it's hard to get people open, it's hard to give Dexter Williams time defense is make adjustments in Indiana ends up really struggling and even if I don't, frankly even if defense is don't adjust your just not going to make a living completing 33% of your passes in the Big Ten and so I'd love to see Dexter Williams, get additional minutes. I'd love to see, Dexter Williams, continue to grow.
And I think, at this point, because the season is essentially lost, you know, you do need to, at least give him a look over the course of the next couple of games. If you've totally decided that you're giving up on Connor, basil, act, which I think might be a mistake and we've talked about that and a lot of that. It's very difficult to try to grade basil. A core Williams as Long-term prospects at the quarterback position for IU because of how awful the offensive line play has been.
But this is where you know, if you're going to do it you might as well just commit to it completely. What I really hope that we don't see is Tom Allen running a quarterback out there for like three series and then try and decide to go. I got to go a different direction because it's I think it's bad enough at this point that Alan has persisted with this ridiculous. I'm not going to name I'm a starter stuff. It's not having an effect, that's anything positive.
And I think, you know, especially at the quarterback position, it it reduces the legitimacy of the starting quarterback when you keep doing things like this. And so I would, we're not going to get unannounced starter fine.
But I hope that whoever ends up starting the game just ends up staying in there and taking some lumps and learning as they go along and developing, for whatever the next task is going to be With this program and I hope they're able to do it without a running game because that just doesn't seem to be
happening either. I honestly Hope Indiana does some different things in the running game, like find a way to get Jaylen, Lucas the ball more often as a running back or as a slot receiver or as some combination, you know, get Josh Henderson the ball, more, stop running Sean chivers because it's not working and, you know, whatever you do though, like commit to the Reps, commit to the Reps.
Can, you know, commit to the The idea that look, this season's probably, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to sneak a win out here. You know, you might have a shot next week against Purdue but it's good practice to play against a good but not great. Team on the road in the conference and be honest about where you're deficient, and try to figure out how to tweak things and get your players more
experience. You know, Alan did mention that they're going to play some guys who They've been holding back because they wanted to make sure that they were playing them in not too many games because you do lose your red shirt if you play more than four games in a season.
So I hope they stick to that and I hope that they even if they lose by a bunch of points at least then there's a feeling that you're developing towards something as you move towards the future which frankly that has been something that's been in short supply or at least felt like it's been in short supply. Like this was supposed to be happening last year too.
I didn't seem to work hopefully they're able to do something on it with this game and with the game against Purdue as we move forward, Michigan State for their you know, the one thing I will say I do think Michigan State's offense, is they've struggled enough that if the defense was going to wake up out of its Slumber that it's had for, you know, the last year and three quarters and play a really good game and make it difficult on an opponent. This is the game to do it.
Probably Peyton Thorn has been a really good passer this year 63 percent completion. Percentage 2152 yards, this year, 16 touchdowns nine interceptions. They move the ball really well through the air and they haven't really moved the ball grade on the ground. I mean, Jalen Burger is their leading rusher and yardage and in touchdowns as average about four and a half yards, a carry six, touchdowns 550 yards. Which isn't that much? They really haven't relied on the Run.
That much, they've only rushed the ball for 1089 yards, their opponents of Russian for over 1700, you know. So you can tell that this is really a team that likes to move the ball through the air. And this is where the
beleaguered IU secondary. Could do a lot to bounce back and put themselves in a position where, you know, they build on something and get themselves ready for the Purdue game if they could come out and generate a couple of interceptions, you know, I think overall, there's just, a real opportunity for this Indiana team to, at least keep it close. And, you know, this is where you can kind of, you can reconcile playing younger guys, because frankly, the older players you
played in this. Season haven't performed to the level that you need them to. And so look you know what Michigan State's going to do and you know where that matches up against your strengths and weaknesses. And I think Indiana certainly has a chance to cover. I just don't the momentum of this IU team is just it's so wrong at this point. And I was just worried at this stage that You know, we saw this slide happened last year. And Indiana didn't recover and finish strong.
They went exactly the opposite direction. And they got crushed down the stretch, the Minnesota game, and then the Purdue game. There were 10 and a half, Point underdogs in this one. I don't think that, you know, being within seven, eight, nine points is out of the question. I really don't. But that said, I have a hard time seeing Indiana kind of putting the pieces back
together. Other enough to make an effort out of it. So I think all the pieces are there, if they, if they can get it together and find it within themselves to do. So, I just wouldn't hold my breath on it and I guess we'll see what happens. So, anyway, I you taking on Michigan State at noon. Hopefully you listen to this before the game and we'll be back on Sunday with more Crimson cast. As we'll talk about the football game and we'll have a separate
podcast. We've been trying Keep these things separated where we will talk about IU basketball. So, we'll hear Scott's thoughts on the game and it should be, it should be, it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Looking forward to talking basketball again. And certainly we will do our duties on the football podcasting. Front is the season is almost
over. Anyway, thanks to you folks for listening, I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend, or at least the beginning of it as we head closer to thank It's giving my thanks don't feel the Peril. My thanks to our friends at the back home network, I am Galen clabby. This is Crimson cast will catch you folks on the flip side.
Bring back the Bison so everybody It's giving my thanks don't feel the Peril. My thanks to our friends at the back home network, I am Galen clabby. This is Crimson cast will catch you folks on the flip side. Bring back the Bison so everybody