You're listening to the back home network, presented by home field, apparel talk about the Crimson cats Galen klaviyo, Scott Caulfield joining you. Once again, it is the 30th of December of 2022, were almost done with 2022. To Scott I'm not going to miss 2022 for a variety of reasons you know looking forward to see what 2023 might have on offer but yeah it's hard to do end of the year and we wanted to get a few thoughts out there on some of the IU sports that we talked
about. So we decided to hop on and chat with you folks about things good to see you. How are you doing? I'm doing great Adam. This wasn't that bad of a year. I mean most years I'm kind of you know I'm not sad to see it. Go I where we differ? Your kind of ending. The are the timeline that you hate that doldrums like for me, I'm okay with winter in Indiana when it's Christmassy when there's lights up and you can listen to, you know, Mariah Carey or I know you have your
holiday music. I'm a big fan of the very special Christmas like special album. The 90s. It has like Tom Petty & Run DMC like it's a great anyway, I'm okay with all that. It's from now till like mid-February when it's just a slog and it's just cold and There's not ending soon and there's no fun lights like this is this is the period. I don't like this is the next month where I'm like tell my wife like we should really move to like New Mexico or something.
I agree with that although you know I I'm kind of the opposite in that if I get conditioned I can deal with it, it's that level of conditioning the transition down into it being
cold. And we really got smacked this year more so than normal if you live in Indiana with Some really really cold temperatures really earlier than we normally would get them which is not ideal, but yeah, I'm kind of the opposite in that, I just feel at this stage is like, alright, I'm settled in. It's basketball season. I'm not supposed to go outside. Anyway, we're just going to roll through. And then by the time I look up again, it's mid March and it occasionally is a little bit
warmer. So anyway, before we get started with the bulk of the program, let's remind all you folks that we are brought to you by home. Field apparel as our presenting sponsor. Warm you up with their hoodies, they really can. I'm wearing a my oval IU crew neck right now and it's nice and toasty, although it's also 55 degrees outside, so it's it's great. You actually roll the sleeves up. It's it's it's like a vest at that point. It's actually it's quite a good look.
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Again that's home-field apparel.com and be sure to sign up for that newsletter, while you're at it. Anyway, we wanted to talk basketball. We wanted to talk some football. We're gonna start with basketball, the men's team with a not inspiring week before Christmas. I think to put it very mildly, a couple of games where they struggled the first game was it was, it was closed for a little bit and then kind of evened out.
And then you know, I was at Elon game, they end up winning that game by 24. The Kennesaw State game was was really not ideal from a variety of perspectives even though Indiana really. From a win percentage perspective was never in that much danger realistically speaking. It didn't feel that way when Kennesaw State took a 4236 lead with about 12 minutes to go in
the game. Indiana gets a lot of credit in terms of hay, from that point, that kind of finished off the last quarter of the game pretty well. But Scott this IU team really looks like it's struggled a lot with Just looking like they want to be there. I think would be probably the biggest thing. I mean, they really have looked like in several of these games at their kind of going through the motions. It's got a lot of people in the fanbase concerned.
You add on to that the exact the Xavier Johnson injury. He's he might be out for the season. He's certainly going to be out for. I think the bulk of the Big Ten season given that it is a broken foot, that is a difficult injury to come back from when you play basketball and So I think, you know, there have been some legitimate questions raised about what goes on with this
team now where are they at? How prepped are they really for what's coming up in the Big Ten season which starts, of course, basically in a week a little under a week as the Iowa game is on that Thursday of next week. So you had a bunch of concerns that you had texted to me. So why don't you start? Because I think you represent a perspective that a lot of people in the fanbase have right now about where I you men's basketball is Heading into the new year.
Yeah, I mean it's the last couple of weeks, I mean there's a stink about it this morning, it almost you worry. It's like my God was North Carolina, the high point of the Season or at least it means definitely the high point of the
the, the early non-conference. But it's you know, the last game you really had a full strength, you know, Hood Fino full-strength, Xavier Johnson and since that point as you said it's just been very uninspiring basketball - a win against Nebraska who didn't look that good. But that's us team that also went to Iowa. 11. So, there you go. It's you know, I'll start with Xavier. John's, like that injury to me is just killer like that. I think lowers the ceiling and
the floor of this team. He's so important on the starting five, but he's also so important that it really creates a next man up scenario where I think Jalen Hood Saffiano throughout the year can be a really good starting point guard. The trouble is then who's now leading the second unit and then you have Trey Galloway moving into the starting lineup. Line up, so he's not coming off the ball and it's like, then you're looking at, you know, Caleb gun, who has some sorry CJ.
Yeah. Yes, sir killed Banks. Austega so CJ gun. It's yeah, we'll get it. One of these years 2043 is going to be better for me but it you know it did the second string point guard kind of becomes the issue but no the so I really worry about this team because as many points during the beginning of the year I've said it that, you know, when it felt like this Team needed to get something going. It was a viewer Johnson who did it like, he felt like the Catalyst when things kind of
mucked up and slow down. He's like, all right, I'm gonna drive in. I'm going to get fouled. I'm going to do something and not be as passive. And, you know, this is I, I'll take some of this as kind of like, you know, be the proxy for this part of the fanbase. It's it's scary because, you know, they said, Nebraska, Arizona, Kansas are all games, they kind of Sleepwalk through, didn't win, and then Kennesaw State. It seemed like they Really lock into the last five or so
minutes. And, you know, it would be different if we had a history of the last five or six years of this team. All right, we know the locket income Big Ten season but we see many years and I know some of it's over different coaches where this team just kind of slept walk through half the Big Ten season as well and you know it's it's okay if you're hoping just to make the tournament like we were a couple of years ago but it did feel like expectations have raised for this year.
You know, this team was Was is bringing a lot of pieces back from a team last year because the team that should be better. This is a team that should be striving to not just try and be 500 the Big Ten and make the tournament.
It's a team that should be striving to be in the top five of the Big Ten and right now it doesn't quite look like they're going to be able to do that because you know, games like at Rutgers, those are the games that you have to, you know, theoretically win but at least really compete in. If you're going to compete to be a top five seen the Big Ten and it doesn't Look like they're doing it right now. There's not a lot of history in the past to see them do it.
So I'll leave their. I mean, it's, I'll, I'll stop now. I have more thoughts, but let me let you talk instead of me just, you know, throwing up a bunch of other things. But it's to me it's not just the fact that they're losing its the way they're losing in the fact that you're seeing some people like, hey, Will the Arizona, you know, that was. Okay. At least they put up a fight, where's Kansas? Even put up a fight. It's like if we're arguing, did
they put up a fight? And if you know fifteen Point
loss or not? It's like that's not a great place to be okay, so you know, I think with this team I'm I really don't know what to expect going into the new year because the team that exists right now is not the team that I you started the season with, you know, the the entire orientation of the team as it looked from those early stages of the season was going to be based around kind of two separate functional units of offense with If you know, essentially
interchangeable point guards for the lead but then consistency in having a distributor for that second unit. That looks like it's gone. Now with Xavier Johnson no longer available. Now, you have to readjust expectations. I think, given that your personnel sets different. I think if you took any senior starter off of a Big Ten roster, particularly the point guard, and as you mentioned, particularly the guy who's been
kind of the straw that stirs. The Drink from a, an energy perspective for the team for the last year and a half. It's going to have an outsized impact on what you can and can't do on the floor. This is where the coaching staff really does need to figure out. Okay, how do we adjust what we're doing? Can we adjust what we're doing? Is there a way for us to recension Ali on the Fly? Really, you know, change the the structures especially on offense. And I don't know if they're
capable of doing that. I don't know if that's something that you can do, given this Personnel set because, you know, with Xavier Johnson, and Jalen Hood Ruffino. This team is a lot more Dynamic offensively without with just jail. No trophy. No, your arguably less Dynamic than you were last year, albeit, you're shooting a lot better, you know, I think that the struggles that Indiana has had on offense in some of these recent games, you have to keep in mind, that ultimately, For
the season least still. Right now, this is still a significantly better team offensively than Indiana had last year or the year before that.
And I'm willing to give them some time to work it out because realistically speaking I think there's really only two games that I would point to and what they've done thus far and say this offensive production was completely inadequate, one of them was the Kansas game and one of them was the Rutgers game and I would actually argue that they lost those. Games for different reasons. It's not like the same issue
over and over again. Except that you have traced Jackson Davis getting taken out of his element and he has for whatever reason not been able to figure out a way to adjust what he does. And Woodson hasn't figured out a way to adjust, what's going on around him yet, the rest of the games. You know the Arizona game? I have a hard time getting that upset about given. How good Arizona looks? That is a legitimate top 10 team that Indiana lost to on a A neutral court and it was a good
barometer. It said okay Indiana's not ready for that, kind of a challenge yet, I'm fine with that. Even the Kennesaw State game as much as it was a difficult, watch throughout the course of it. And he had a went into that game projected to win by 16 points, they won by 14 points. If they had gotten out to a 30-point lead and Kennesaw State and dragged it back to where it was only 16 or 14, at the end of the game, we wouldn't be nearly as attuned to problems as what we saw.
Saw in the game, which was Indiana struggling and then gradually pulling away. So again, it's like I'd love to be overly reactionary on it. I was certainly not pleased at the moment, but looking back on it. I'm not as worried about that one. As I was before all of this to say essentially This clearly things Indiana is going to have to change about how they're doing things, if they're going to have longer term success
within the conference. You know, you mentioned the Rutgers game and that being game you have to win to be in the top five. I mean I got news like right now Rutgers in terms of like they're can Palm rating is in like the top five of The Big Tab. That is a game that I think a lot of people are going to struggle to win that game on the road at Rutgers this year. Now, I might be Be proven wrong
about that. But according to the way the numbers look right now, given the way that the season is gone, that's not as bad of a loss, as it looks where I will get into concerns though, is if Indiana can't win at Iowa or if they can't win at, you know, for instance, Penn State, which is the next Road game after that. Like, those are teams that have not performed nearly as well, statistically as either Indiana or Rutgers have. That's where Indiana is going to
have to make up some ground. No question. They're going to have to win some games on the road. Good. So taking all that into account, I don't think it's time to hit the panic button yet. I do think however Indiana's looking at a much different roster in a much different set of expectations now than they were even a month ago. And it's hard to say, for sure what the actual adjustment should be in your brain about what that looks like because it's it's essentially at this
stage. It's last year's offense with a better shooting Miller, cop Tamar Bates who suddenly emerged as A guy who can score Off the Bench and is willing to score and a freshman point guard, who is having your normal freshman point, guard? Games were some of them.
Look, awesome. Some of them don't look very good at all, and it's hard to know which version of Indiana is going to show up on a night tonight basis because of the fact that ultimately you're relying on things you haven't had to rely on and things that aren't necessarily that consistent yet within what Indiana's trying to do. Yes, I agree with all that and part of I say the Rutgers thing because part of it to me is it goes I'm a little bit
projecting. It's like I look at Iowa Penn State and Illinois as their next three Road games and it's like you kind of have to be again. If you want to be in that upper echelon, you got to go two and three in those games if you're going to have lost the Rutgers game. Like that's more. I guess that's more. What I'm saying is that you, you are right? Me Rutgers 22nd and Ken Palm right now. That's looking like a better and better. Good, good, good bad loss. But it's like, you can't lose
that. And then also lose the Iowa and Penn State. Like you, you do have a little bit of ground to catch up on. But I will say this is, you know, some people are going to have to start stepping up. You mentioned to Barbados, he's done. Okay? But I will say that you look at, he had 13 points against Arizona 143 from three, a lot of those points came. And we were down, you know, 10 plus points. But in those other games, like Rutgers, you know, he was basically a nose.
Osho Kansas. He was pretty much a no-show 145 from three and then he had 23 points against Kennesaw State, you know? It's I need to see that happening against some of the better teams.
Malik renew has done. Really well, he started the tail off like he's got to pick it up like this is where it kind of becomes, you know, next guys up in some of these these guys that we've talked about having, you know, all this potential does need to start to step up because I still look at this roster and I everything you said about Xavier and I said about Xavier is 100 Ensure it changes everything up but I there's still a lot of Talent on this roster but they're still to me
enough Talent on this roster enough pieces. That this team still should be, you know, I say top top three in the Big Ten I still, I'll lower it a little bit. I still think top five in the Big Ten is doable for this roster based on what the Big Ten looks like. I mean you're still you still have, you know, a top-tier All-American in the post. You have a couple of five stars you have guys who have been seasoned around here for a while like Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway.
Like there's a lot of Talent on this roster and so to just say you lose Xavier Mustang, you're saying this but just say you lose a viewer and it's like, you have to readjust things with you do to make. All right, well now we can, you know, to me, again, if we're struggling to be 500, the Big Ten, that is, that's a bad season. Even if you factor in the Xavier loss, their zebra Johnson, lost their still, a lot of Talent on this team.
And so, I like you, I'm curious to see how this gets figured out because this does feel like this is a bit of The Crucible time. Are you had some tough breaks but let's let's see. You know, to me as Iowa game is huge. It's like that's a place that you definitely can win, it's not going to be easy but that's a place that, you know you should be able to go in and get a win. I don't know. You know I mean we keep you've said that a couple times because there's a lot of Talent on this team.
I don't know how much I mean a lot of the the ideas about the season and what we saw early on were predicated on the idea that oh here are here, are basketball players that are going to develop to a higher level. Ville of competition. And I don't know that we've necessarily seen that out of several of the players. You know, I, you can go down the list, you know, Trace Jackson Davis has statistically had his, you know, a really good season so far.
And I think everybody would say that his contributions have been kind of uneven against teams where Indiana really needed them to be. I mean, he was great against Xavier, he was really good against North Carolina. And then he really struggled against Rutgers Kansas Arizona still had double-figure points in all three of those games. But clearly was was struggling to do what he wanted to do on a regular basis. And, you know, a lot of issues with just not knowing Go with the ball.
You know, Trace Jackson Davis in order for this team to reach, some kind of ceiling is going to have to kind of give that North Carolina Xavier performance all the time. If he doesn't get more help from the people around him and that to me, is the larger issue to some degree in a race. Thompson is just not having offensively speaking. I think the year that you would have hoped, you know, he's not really developed into a Consistent.
Three-point threat, his free throw shooting, has fallen off, his two-point shooting has fallen off some. It's still pretty good, but it's not the, you know, the he shot almost 60% from the field last year from to he's only shooting
about 56 percent. This year that matters given the volume of shots, he ends up putting up, you just, you haven't quite gotten, I think the fifth year or I guess 60 or performance out of race Thompson, yet that you need in order to take some of the burden off of Trace Jackson, Davis meleager, You started off real strong, his turnover rate right now is ridiculously high. He's turning the ball over on almost 27 percent of the possessions he uses.
And there's a lot of possessions now where he just looks very lost about what that rate is also unbelievably. Yeah, he's committing. What foul minute or something. It's like six and a half, fouls per 40 minutes of play and you know it's just it's a problem and you go down the list of play in the Big East so that's not good. I think. Miller cop deserves A lot of credit for his three-point shooting increasing to the
degree that it has. But it's, you know, it's still one of those situations where you're you know dis he maintain the level that he's got right now which is at about 45%. It's already started to regress a bit. It was 50% before a week and a half ago and it's Fallen quite a bit so you know, I think there's and I'm it sounds like I'm making excuses. It's more like I'm trying to figure out how good is this roster actually.
They looked really good to start the year, but as we're seeing with other Big Ten teams right now, I think perhaps we were overly optimistic based upon some early season performances and you know, you go down the list. I mean, whether it's Illinois who's really fallen off and is really struggling offensively compared to what they've done in previous years. Iowa, just got obliterated, you know, by Nebraska at Nebraska last night and that followed a
game. One of the biggest upsets in college basketball in the last ten years were Eastern Illinois. I went in and beat them in Iowa, City by 9, you know, that's a team. I think everybody thought was going to be at least marginally better than they have been thus far. Michigan state has struggled, Maryland has been very, very up and down in terms of what
they've been able to accomplish. And so again it's like with Indiana, we try to be honest on this show about what we see and what we, what we think is going on and where I get back to the word Johnson is such a huge loss for this team because whatever. Concerns or questions you might have about his decision-making at times more often than not. He's demonstrated an ability in
order on the offense. He provides a lot of you know, an ability and interest in shooting the ball himself and generating his own offense but also is one of the top distributors in college basketball and has been really for his entire college career taking that off the table and having to rely on Jalen Hurd Shafi know, as your starting point guard who's now your secondary point guard Trager The way is not proved himself up to the task of being a primary
ball, handler and distributor Tamar Bates has not proven himself up to the task. He's emerged really? Well as a to you know as a guy who can come in and give you points, you just you lose a lot of flexibility without Johnson out there and it just fundamentally Alters, what you can expect. Now, you're getting instead of putting everybody in the roles, you want them in.
Now, you're increasingly having to put people in roles that they're not comfortable in. And that's not even talking about this movement, among certain people in the fan base about what we It should just be playing. Trace Jackson. Davis is our only big and
running Miller cop at the four. And it's like, okay, that sounds great in theory, but like, who are your guards now, you know, who are your wings, that are going to be playing in those positions that you're Now vacating by not having race Thompson out on the floor regularly, you know what happened to Malik renews minutes at that point.
There's a lot of things that losing Xavier Johnson, makes it a lot harder to put fixes in to make the offense and the defense run more efficiently than they are at this point. Point. Yeah, I mean, the other aisle will keep on oscillating on different sides. I'll take a positive view for next for the 2023. You know, remainder of that calendar year. You know, this is the first time in his career, that Trace Jackson Davis has had some DMP coach's decision.
So he didn't play against Little Rock in the obviously been playing in Ceylon or Kennesaw State.
He's nursing some sort of back or some kind of injury, you hope that with basically having two and a half weeks off Able to kind of play at a higher level because that's and if he you know, this is where it's really tough because you don't know if guys are playing you know injured or not I but you have to as somebody who's watches games you have to assume if they're out there, they're good enough to play but there was moments in
that Kansas game. Where Trace would you know like just have a great defensive stand, block a shot and then get great position. Get the ball and put it up as a three minutes of like, man. This guy's owning the game and then it would kind of just go back into neutral for five or
six minutes. He could very well have been just, you know, nursing an injury but you know, that is a positive look, is it hopefully this time off, has given him the ability to rest up and be ready for what's going to be a pretty pounding, Big Ten season. But that that also leads into the frustration with his team. As you see, little glimpses of me sought for like 35 minutes against North Carolina, where
this team across the board. Not just, you know, everybody is just giving maximum effort maximum effort on defense and you saw spurts of it against Terra. Zone that you saw like spurts of it against Kansas.
You didn't see a lot of it against Rutgers and that's the frustrating part is like you you got to play that for 40 minutes and you know there's that's I think the most we can talk about you know skill level all things you're talking about but the effort at times it feels like a lot of these guys are just kind of playing in second gear, third gear, and not going full throttle and it's frustrating. When you see it, like we saw it in North Carolina, everyone is just going at full speed.
It's like, alright, you You've got to do that every night and like it's tough when. Yeah, you know you're playing, you know, in the this is also worth stuff where it's like, you know, I hope we can get past this where some people have talked about. That Rutgers game is like, well yeah, that big great gaming is North Carolina at home. It's like a letdown against Rutgers like we got to stop just having these built-in letdown games like last year's.
If we beat Purdue as I got one Michigan, like you know, that's that's a schedule. Also, we like you can't just have schedule letdown losses in your schedule. That's something. We've got to grow past that like, yeah, it's great. You had a nice win.
You did really well. Sorry, my phone's ringing rings on every device, but it's like, now you need to do it again and, you know, it can be done teams, do that in the Big Ten that do it across the country, they win a great big game at home and they go on the road and they still look locked in and play that. And that's to me, I would say the most frustrating part is how uneven the effort has looked throughout games and how how easily we can.
Can just be like, well, you know, what are you gonna do? Like, you know, big home, win against North Carolina, go to Rutgers, he loses like those kinds of things have to kind of stop happening and the just getting I'm with you, Arizona and Kansas are both possible number one seeds in the tournament. You know, no fault in losing but just to come in and kind of get your doors blown off. In the first five minutes. You can at least keep it a
puncher's chance for a while. So that that's what I, I'm even oscillating between my own take. Like, that's what I hope to see. You know, if Trace can get healthy and kind of be the one to lead this team with that that intensity. But again, as I say that, you know, this is this is again where that I don't want to make excuses but losing Xavier Johnson is just so crosstalk, so bad across the board because he
was also kind of that. Emotional leader like Trace is a fantastic player is going to have a great stat line is going straight into the Indiana Hall of Fame when he when he leaves, you know, playing as a Hoosier. But he's never been like Like the emotional leader of this team, that's not a bad thing. It's just that's not his role, that doesn't seem to be what he
does. It was Xavier Johnson, like, Xavier Johnson was the emotional leader of this team and so losing that I would say, that's this, someone's gotta step up on this team. I'm not sure who it is to kind of be like, the, we got it. Like, we got to play harder. We got to lock in, we got to do more, you know, and we've got to find who that is. But, wow, as I'm ending this, I realized I Meander and don't really have a point there. Well, okay. Here's here's here's.
The thing I mean, there's always ups and downs. I think with every College basketball program and Indiana has. I think there's been legitimate questions raised about the motors of some of the players on how use roster and that's been a consistent issue. Going back through the crane era. And I think that, you know, to some degree, it is something that frustrates Indiana fans more than anything else.
Because people have the opinion that there were never lulls in attitude or performance like during Bob, Knight's tenure, which if you go back, And watch the games. That's absolutely not true. They're this stuff has gone on forever. I think we're highly sensitive to it right now. It's kind of like the free-throw shooting thing where it's like, well, you know, how could any and only shoot free throws at this level.
When in fact, if you go back and look historically, that's not that unusual but they all go to the wedding of winning. Well, but that, but the issue the issue remains ultimately, yes. Indiana has to win more basketball games, and they have to, I think, Be a harder team to play against because they do come across in some of these games. And this is really, this was absolutely the case for a lot of last season, they come across as a team, that will Wilt at some point.
Whether it's, you know, early on in the game like that home game against Illinois last year, or whether it's late in the game, like the, well, the Ohio State game at Ohio State or the home gaming, it's Rutgers last year or, you know, but then on the flip side, you know, II try to, I think he got to give Mike Winston's group. The benefit of the doubt at least a little bit because And they did win some games and we're in games last year that you wouldn't expect them to be.
And whether that was both Purdue games, including the one that they, you know, we're within two points of of tying and sending into overtime up at Mackey. You know, the there's been other examples like that where you go through and look at what they did. That's where you need to some degree. It's hard to get a full sense of okay. Our Trace Jackson, Davis has struggled because he's nursing an injury. And, of course, I you doesn't release injury information to
anybody. So, everybody's left guessing and, you know, your to some degree because social media creates an environment where everybody is just hot taking all the time. It's like, well, this is Tracy, is having a motivation issue. Are the rest of the players
having motivation issues. I think in a lot of cases, the issues that you seeing from certain players are explainable in individual areas, I think Malik renew is Juggling with the adaptation to the college game because he played well for the first month then suddenly there was film on him and teams are forcing him to wrong direction, or they're frustrating him at points, where he's not used to getting frustrated.
You know, Miller cop is just a bad defensive player and always has been and you're not really going to change that because he doesn't have the physical capability to be a better defensive player, you know, jail in a jiffy. Know I think is clearly trying to do too much offensively. And He is learning as a freshman. You know what, I can't just take whatever shot because it's going to get contested and I'm probably going to miss it and I I'd like to see him get better at that will see.
You know it's funny because from three he's actually been really good. He's shooting 38% for 3 so far this season. He's from to been an atrocity, say shooting 42%. And most of that is because he's getting himself into positions where he can't actually complete the shot that he's trying to take. I do think that these things will gradually get It worked out, but a lot of it's an open question.
Right now, I think, at this stage, Indiana has done enough winning at Xavier being the only team that's beating North Carolina by double digits. You know, that's that to me, it's like old, they showed us something in those games I'm not willing to throw all that out because we've had some disappointing performances more recently. Let's see what happens over this next few weeks. I but I, you know, but again, I'll come back to what I said
like that. There's a seven-game stretch that they'll have Really, an eight-game, stretch to start the Big Ten season, you can even extend it to nine. Let's take the nine games. Well, here's why here's why? Because I think all adults the season, I feel like it's a nine-game stretch where think of Indiana is a serious Contender that they need to go 6 and 3 in this stretch. And it's at Iowa, Northwestern at home at Penn State Wisconsin at home at Illinois. Michigan State at home at
Minnesota, Ohio State at home. You have six and three and that stretch, I think it's about what you would need to really be competitive for the Big Ten title because honestly I mean I think Purdue is going to fall back to Earth somewhat Purdue is
done everything. They've done so far this season despite only shooting 30.5 percent from three, their 305th in the country, I don't think that's entirely sustainable because eventually teams will just dare them to beat them from outside and they may not be able to do that. I think the Big Ten champion this year, the regular season Champion could end up having six or seven losses in the
conference. So I think Long as Indiana isn't going like five and four or four and five through that stretch of games that they're playing, prior to the game at Maryland. That's really what they need to do. And they're going to have to do it with a freshman starting point guard. And with the, you know, their star offensive player looking like he's banged up, that's going to be a real challenge. That's where I'm really curious to see if Indiana because we've talked so much about offense
here. I'm really curious if Indiana can recommit defensively because to me, that's where they've really fallen down. You know. So with the exception of the Kansas game, I think all the other games on the schedule will probably and maybe Rutgers because that was kind of its own separate thing.
But I think that Arizona game was winnable if Indiana had played better defense and and they weren't able to I think that you know, they look much better against Kennesaw State Nebraska if they are playing better defensively in those games and I think it's within their grasp to do so but it's going to be a challenge. Now that you're losing one of the most effective and annoying Defenders and is a viewer Johnson. For an extended period of time.
Yeah, I mean it's I will say this, we look at defense, your we're still the third best defensive team in the Big Ten, unadjusted defense on Ken Palm. So we're still there again. That's where I say, like, I still see this as a team, that could and should finish top five in the Big Ten. Couple other random thoughts are just things. You talked about, you know, jail Hood safiye.
Know, not only is a three-point shooting like you said at, you know, 37 percent for the year but that's that's including an 0 for 5, you know, start against Bethune-Cookman. So if you just take out that for I know, You can take that everything, but like, you just take out the first game that suddenly jumps him up to close to 40 percent from three in basically, every game after his first game as a second game, as
a, as a college player. So, you know there, there's some really positive attributes there with his shooting. But I am. You nailed it with that six and three in the first nine games, because I do think this is a team that's going to have to for the most part, hold serve at home. Maybe you lose one game at home.
And then you've got to pick up like, you know, a couple of those Road games and that's where again, it comes back to, you know, those first three Road games, Iowa Penn State, Illinois. There's no must wins in January, but it is that, that Iowa game. If you don't win that, it's like you kind of, you kind of got to really pick up that Illinois, road game, like, at some point you now have to pick up one of
those tougher Road games. If you do want to be, not just hovering around 500 in the big tip so well and look and don't get me wrong, folks. Like I think Indiana needs to be better off pensively, the scheme needs to be better. I-i've been very critical about how long it takes Indiana to get into their possessions and sets. And I thought a lot of that would get fixed with Xavier Johnson and JLo Jaffe.
No back because keep in mind who Cioppino was out injured for a large stretch of this time period, that were talking about as well. So it's not like Indiana has been playing with a full deck. What did Mike Woodson? And his staff do over this break. If anything to change the way that I you approaches things on offense if they did it. Changed nothing, maybe that will work out, but I have my concerns.
But yeah, I mean look, if you're going to catch Iowa, this is probably the best time to catch Iowa because they look completely lost right now. Now, that is rarely ever translated over because it's like whatever state a team is in IU, seems to always wake them up and that's very frustrating.
But yeah, like I will lose the Penn State on the first and then it's like they'll be despite 15 and go on a five-game winning streak and it's like, yeah, we ended up catching up with the Wrong time, you didn't realize it. It is worth noting that with that loss to Nebraska, you know, now Iowa is actually rated to lose the game. Day. Indiana at home on Ken Pon by a point. It's still very close but that was a projected win for Iowa for quite a while.
It's also worth noting. That Iowa will have played 32 additional games. That Indiana will not have played leading into that. They have to travel to Penn State on New Year's Day. Then they play Indiana at home, that might be a good thing. Indiana gets a chance to get rested. They're going to come back.
They're going to feel the disappointment that I think the fan base has felt in the way that they played in those two games leading into break, but they also might look at it and say, look at the end of it all, we won both games by double digits by about the margins that we were supposed to win them by without our best player to without our two best players, we didn't have traced Jackson Davis, we didn't have Xavier Johnson and yes, we Gold for moments but we got the job done.
That's a good basis upon which to go into the Big Ten season. I know that's not how fans feel about it, and maybe that's not how the team should feel about it. But if there's one thing I think we've learned about IU basketball, IU, basketball needs to have confidence in itself. If they're going to be successful in these types of games and anything that I, you can latch onto to say, look it's easy to from the outside to look at this and say this was
disappointing. But the flip side is we did what we had to do. Without key pieces. Now, we hopefully get to add some key pieces back and we have a clear sense of who we are, and what we need to be doing as a program, that's my hope. I don't know if that's actually what's going to happen, but that would be my hope in all of this one last point. And then I will go to football or I have one that's point. It is funny. This happens every year I love doing the preseason.
Prognostications look at this schedule, but it is it's such Folly because you get to it now and you are hitting the first nine games, stretch there. Is a stretch there, from the January, 28 to February 21st, we're on Ken Palm. We are one, two, three, four, five, six. We're projected to win six of eight. But you look at that, stretch, I'll go through it. That's a possible stretch where it beginning of the year, it's like, oh my God, that's going to be, you know, a brutal stretch.
That could be an 8 and 0 stretch. Like there is a point there where we could actually struggle coming out of the gate up until mid-January and then your home tool again, assuming all of our home games are going to be Very, very good atmosphere is a tough place for opponents to play your home to Ohio State. You're at Maryland, which that's
not super easy. But Marilyn's been a little bit up and down, as you said your home to Purdue produce, that's going to be a tough game, but your home home to Rutgers at Michigan, at Northwestern home to Illinois at Michigan State. I'm not saying any of those or, you know, total gimmes.
But that's also a stretch where it's like, I could see us going seven and water ain't no. And so, that is a spot where you could make some hay in the middle of the Where I think going into the season, kind of the, the basic thought was I go, man, the schedule gets so hard at the end. It's like, well, it's actually a spot there where I think based on home and away in the opponent's you could be looking at a 7018. No, stretch. If you can kind of get things humming so now and they probably
won't go that in that. Yes. But but the, but the point is Yes, again when the, when the cards get dealt, everybody assumes a bunch of things and then you have to re-evaluate what the deck looks like. Once you get more information and Ed, look, as it turns out, I don't know what to make of the Big Ten at this point.
I really don't. I don't think anybody really does, you know, you can look at a high 0 state, whose 14th and Ken pom and yet, you know, Ohio, State should have lost her Rutgers that game got gifted to them. Their next Beck's, win was a neutral Court Victory against the Texas texting. That was absolutely reeling, and they really do anything else on their resume.
Yeah, it's Kalama. And, you know, you look at Wisconsin Wisconsin's, 2 and 0. No in the conference but one of those was an overtime win at Iowa and the other one was Maryland at home and the rest of their schedule is essentially kind of schlocky. Yes, they have an overtime win versus Marquette. Who's been very up and down, are they actually good? I don't entirely know. They lost at home to Wake Forest, who's not a very good
basketball team. So the point being we really, I think the Big Ten at this stage is kind of leveling off. I think a lot of Early returns that look positive for the conference have been to some degree. Supplanted by less positive returns in games that have happened since December 1st for a lot of teams. And a lot of what we thought might be tournament caliber may be protected. Seed caliber teams are sinking
back into the pack. I still like Indiana's chances against most of those teams, but it's going to take Indiana playing more consistently on both sides of the of the ball or both ends of the Court. Court, I guess. But and it's going to take Indiana trying to figure out how to play through a freshman point guard. When they thought they were going to be playing through a senior point guard, and that will be a big adaptation. So, yeah, it's a really fascinating conference.
And I, you know, you look at the projections right now produce projected at 15 and 5 on Ken palm.
And then there's a bunch of teams at 12 and 8. I think there's one, two, three, four, five teams projected at 12 and 8. There's another three projected at 10 and 10, this is going to be a Ass like this conference is going to be a bloodbath and I think you could lose, seven, eight, nine, even ten games in this conference and still be a pretty good team, certainly a team that could make it to a sweet 16. So that's it's why I've yet to like fully mash the panic button because I think this is
Indiana's gonna have to grind a bunch of games out in the Big Ten as will. Everybody else in the conference and who's left standing at the top, May largely depend on their conference strength of schedule as opposed to necessarily Sara Lee, how good they are as an individual team? Yep. Yep. Anyway, real quick on the IU football front, you know, the, the big bunch of bunch of, good news, right? When they're about to send out renewals for season ticket.
Yeah, I know, I mean, well, the big the biggest question right now, obviously, you know, some, some, some positives there been a couple of good players that have come through the transfer portal, you know, you've got a fifth-year defensive lineman, who was, you know, in Turn Michigan, it was like a second
Team, all Mac / 2 player. You've got a couple of other players that have come through that that look like they might be somewhat intriguing but you've also got Some question marks I think in terms of like the players that are coming in, you know, if you got you have a DB from the Texas Longhorns. That looks good on paper but then you've got a couple of giucose coming in and it's like I don't know what you provide necessarily or is this going to be an upgrade?
You've got offers going out to there's an offer to a player at Austin Peay which is an FCS school, there was an offer to you know a player Liberty which is really not on the same. Level as Indiana in terms of overall talent. And I think the big question mark right now, is there still
no quarterback? You still do not have a quarterback on the roster that you would look at and say that is your day one starter and that's a bit of a concern because you, you know, the number of options that are out in the transfer portal. Right now is starting to dwindle, Wisconsin just picked up or is about to pick up a starting quarterback transfer out of SMU. Illinois, just picked up a starting quarterback transfer. Out of all Miss, Purdue obviously picked up.
A starting quarterback transfer already. You've seen most of the other teams in the conference either. Bring back somebody who's going to be in that role or already be set. Now, Indiana, still got some time and as was pointed out on Twitter basil, act didn't commit until January of last year and he was a four-star prospect that people thought was going to slide in and become the starter. The problem is based upon what we heard out of Tom Allen
towards the end of the year. They don't want a basil act style starter. They want like a specific person that can both run and pass. There aren't that many of those folks out in the portal, the ones that are, there's a lot of competition for those those people to come in and and be starting. Quarterbacks, I think there's a lot of reason for concern right now because it doesn't appear.
Indiana has a clear plan about what they're going to do, what they want to do. And this just seems like a continuation of themes that we've seen out of football over the course of well, really the last Few years. I'm going to take the negative side. This there's not a wait that wasn't the negative side. I thought I thought I was funny - there but all the stuff you started with your talk. You know. The other people were looking at signing and it's like, none of
that matters. Because in the end, every the last two years and multiple years at IU football, where were we in November? It's like, hey, we have Dexter Williams our quarterback, he's not good enough. And it's like, that's, that's it. Like, if you don't have a quarterback, none of this matters. And the year before, you know, Penix gets hurt tuttle's. Not playing well then it's like we have done as McCully, he's not great at throwing, it's like, then it's like, we all just agree.
If you don't have a quarterback, you can't. You really can't compete. And so that is the most important position and then people who like, oh, we sign you a base like as a four-star in January said, yeah, he didn't finish the season but he wasn't playing at the end of the year. So are we going to get somebody else in January who's not going to finish the season? And then we're stuck back in the same spot. This should have been the a one number prime, number one with a bullet.
Priority. It probably was I'm just not sure who they're able to get and the trouble is we're going to be we're going to talk ourselves into whoever it is and then we're going to be sitting here on a podcast in october-november. Being like, you know, but as pissed as we are that, you know, we lost in Northwestern. What are you going to do, when you don't have a functional quarterback? There, it's like, you have to have a none of this other shit matters.
Like all those other pieces, don't matter if you don't have a quarterback and we don't have a plan to get a quarter. Back. Well, I don't know how they're going to. There is insensitive to path to have a quarterback and unfortunately, you know, we had Dexter Williams who's passing numbers weren't ideal but it's, he's out and it is funny. You mention ideally, they don't
want to bathe black type. They want, you know, they want a guy who can run and throw, it's like, all right, well there's not a lot of guys, like Michael Vick out there in the Porto who are just waiting to come to Indiana. Like honestly, we're at a point as a program that we don't get to pick what we get, we get whatever wants to Gus. And then you build an offense around it. Like honestly, that's where we are at. We don't get to dictate what our quarterback is.
We kind of build it around that. But yeah. It's it's there's not an answer to this. It's just tough because all this other stuff is window dressing and we will be sitting here November talking about how you know, without a quarterback who can really throw and do anything, you know, we're, we're stuck. We're stuck in the mud. So look, I do think that they are trying to get a quarterback. I think there's there's There's a plan in, as much as we need to get a starting quarterback.
I think that's clear because there's just nobody. There's just, there's nobody on the roster that you would look at and say that's your starting quarterback and you have to have that. But I we talked about this at the end of the season. It's a real tough sell. I think for any starting level quarterback to come to Indiana because what you've got is a an offensive line that Yes.
Look, good. In some limited action towards the end of the season, when Indiana finally decided to put a running quarterback out there, but then, you essentially didn't have much in the way of a passing game to go. Along with that, you don't really have a whole lot in the receiving Corps. There's not skill position players that you would like to throw to. There's not and one of them just transferred to Michigan.
There is not offensive lineman that I'd feel comfortable standing behind as a starting quarterback. Whether I'm running behind them or dropping back to pass. And Indiana has essentially. Not. Served its transfer quarterbacks. Well, I think would be the most charitable that, a way that I would put it if I'm Alan. I don't want base, like, giving a Yelp review on his writer. It's well, and it's not just basil. Like, it's also Jack Tuttle who,
yeah. You know, just transferred to be a backup at Michigan during the last month. I mean, it wasn't like he transferred somewhere to be a starter. And this is a guy who's a legacy. I you like Family Guy and so I do a bit of the portal for like two and a half years now. She put when he put his name in like Beginning of the Season? No, no. It was, it was like a month into the season but no, it's a good point. It's like everybody looked at his stuff was like.
Yeah. So it really, it just it's very concerning if you're, if you care about IU football and I know for a lot of people, it's more of just a passing fancy but if you care about, are you football? It's not just that it's not an argument that he doesn't have a plan for starting quarterback. It's that, that plan doesn't
have any consistency. Like they went out specifically last year and got a pocket passing quarterback and said, we're going to build our Fence around you and then they couldn't and this was a year after not being able to build a pocket, passing quarterback offense around the previous guy. And you know, and so it's like now it's like well we need a
running quarterback, okay? But you don't have a lot of the pieces in place necessarily to know like promise that person you're basically saying, hey, look at this game and a half or this two games that we did this, we're going to do the whole offense like that. I would be very, very cautious. If I was a player of coming into that environment and I think that that's what we're seeing and we're concerns me is that most of Indiana's rivals or not Rivals.
But teams they're going to have to play in the Big Ten whether that's Illinois or Purdue, you know? Or teams are going to be competing for for potential bowls. I know don't laugh. But like they're all finding quarterbacks, they're all plugging quarterbacks in and for Indiana to be in this position along with frankly, A pretty underwhelming hall in general in the transfer portal and a lack of Player Development. Like what are you like? What's going on?
Where's this is also the other piece here. That is tough. It's like, we all say this. We all know. It's true. We you and I say it Ad nauseam, and we run the just continue to say it all the time, but it's like, you know, you're not going to make a change a head coach. You can't do what the buyouts to big great, but it still doesn't change the fact that like everyone kind of knows that unless things really turn around. You probably have a 23-year
lame-duck coach period. Like, that's also really tough to then get Guys to come, it's like hey, do you want to come play for? A guy who may be gone in a year or two like pediatric root against that? And it's like so the fact that as you know the IU, you know, Dawson's letting this kind of just sit out there for two or three years. That's also a problem in getting guys here because like, do I want to come play for a coach
who's basically dead man? Walking for two years, not saying he can still turn it around, but it's like that's another piece that makes it hard and it because we all agree, it's not going to happen, but it's like that still doesn't change. Is the reality that everybody's like, hey man, why do you want to go there? And look, I mean, this might sound like it's harsh but it shows in the National recruiting rankings.
I mean, Alan and his staff had to scramble to get the 68th ranked recruiting class for 2023. I mean, there were there was a period there where it was down in the 80s or 90s. According to most of the recruiting services and they they give them credit. They picked up some recruits at the tail end of things. And now the class is rated 68, it's still 14th in the Big Ten, it is Dead last in the conference. And last year, it was fifth. That's a real problem.
And that is a an unsustainable trajectory for the program. One of many other unsustainable elements of that trajectory. So anyway, just was worth mentioning and know it sounds Doom and Gloom but it's more. Its legitimate concern because you're gonna have to Patchwork something together and try to get yourself back into a position where you know, you're
winning six. Games and in position to qualify for a bowl and it certainly doesn't look like that groundworks being laid right now for 2023. And the last thing I'll say about the quarterback and again I uh nits not like they're not working on it or not trying but the other frustrating part is that we're sitting here.
You know so many guys now are going into the portal kind of already having their school selected like I'm hearing these reports of guys like in the portal, they put their name in. Like don't contact me because like they already know where they're going and so you know, this is where I do really. Lee. I'm concerned with how Indiana seems to be handling the portal because you look at other teams in the conference, like, Michigan, Michigan State.
So, it seems like they're just, you know, day one, the portal opens, they're grabbing five or six guys, like, getting guys for the portal for next year starts. Now, like the fact that we're still scrambling for a quarterback. This year, it's like you've kind of already lost.
Like people are already working on the 2023 and 2024 portal that the fact that it seems like we're not quarterback, was the number one issue, not that I'm saying there was Do they could have gotten but the fact they didn't get somebody the first, you know, two hours. To two days. The portal is open. Makes me concerned that either. They weren't working hard enough or more than likely.
There's probably wasn't a good fit there, and so now you're scrambling to find it. But that's, that's the thing with the portal that I think, you know, a lot of people don't fully understand is, it's not like, oh, it opens up. I'm going to look at my options, like a lot of times. Hey, guess what things are dirty in the NCAA of people aren't following the rules. Like, the portal stuff is already done in cor. The time the portal opens, guys know. They want to go the recruiting
is already happened. Well and I was less concerned about it before Wisconsin and Illinois picked up quarterbacks this week. And now it's like it's officially time to be a little bit concerned. Anyway, that'll wrap it up for us. Yep, we'll be back in the new year. Will definitely be around a recap that Iowa game after it happens. We'll probably have some other podcast content coming up. Be sure to tune into the women's basketball show with Amanda Foster.
That's every Tuesday here on Crimson cast for Scott. I'm Galen, thanks for listening, folks. Thanks to our friends at home. Field, will catch you on the Flip side. Bring back the Bison. Happy New Year so long, everybody. Flip side. Bring back the Bison. Happy New Year so long, everybody.