And welcome back to Crimson cast Galen klaviyo, Scott Caulfield joining you. It is Friday, the 17th of February as Indiana, fully into the last six to eight weeks of its season here, which is hard to believe. It's been a season that is flown by the Hoosiers with a disappointing loss in more ways than one earlier on this week. We're going to talk about that. We'll also talk a little bit about what's coming up in the next couple of games.
Some very important games for this IU men's team as they try to get themselves in a better position, not just for the Big Ten Tournament, but also the NCAA tournament Scott. Good to see you. How you doing today? I'm doing great, man. Great to see you too. We're in the, we're in the great. Run a sports, talk about it every year this time. It's like you have the NFL playoffs? Yeah, you have the college playoffs. The NFL playoffs wrapping up your the Super Bowl.
It's like those of us who are into college. Basketball is not a surprise, but it feels like that. Everybody wakes up at the oh, there's like three weeks left. And then it's college basketball, you know? The tournament time for the conferences and then there's the real tournament and then it goes right in for me. It's like those in the Masters and goes right into any car opens up and then the Indy 500 and then it's like, so I love this stretch for here till May. Yeah.
No, it's great. I always talk about. This is my favorite time of year sports-wise from from basically the end of the Super Bowl. All the way through to the Indy 500. It's just like to me, like all my favorite but almost all my favorite events happened in that span, which is cool. So, just a reminder, we are brought to you here on the back home network by home field.
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order. Even if they don't have Drake or Charleston, they've got at least 20 schools that you will want to be rooting for and visualize that, when you go out to the bar or you're just hanging, Out with friends. So again home field apparel.com. Be sure to check them out. Alright Scott. So, first of all, before we get started, I do want to say this, if you haven't watched the eiu, women's team play, you need to watch the IU Women's team play.
And, and I just one of those things where I know there's a portion of our listening audience, that just hasn't put the women's team in their regular rotation of viewing, but they're on TV, essentially all the time now, and they just keep just smothering. The opponents that they're facing that her top 25. They did that last night at home against Michigan. Just smothered them in the second quarter and then pretty much kept them at Bay the whole
rest of the game. It's one of the most like, well, put together teams I've seen in a while men's or women's basketball. They've got a dominant post presence in Mackenzie homes. They have all of these shooters on the outside, they've got freshmen that are contributing, they've got fifth-year seniors that are contributing. It's a really fun team to watch and they're heading. The a really fascinating stretch of games here.
As they're going to be taken on Iowa, on the road College GameDay is going to be in Iowa City for that game. They got to go to Maryland, they got Purdue at home this upcoming weekend and then they got the Big Ten tournament and then the NCAA tournament where right now the projected to be a number one, overall seed not overall but it's the number one seed. South Carolina is the number one overall seed. But again if you haven't watched the team you need to catch.
At least, just catch a game, watch the whole thing. I think you'll be surprised at what you see if you haven't been watching them regularly. Lee and for those most of you in the audience that have been watching them regularly, you know exactly what I'm talking about now and I'm one of those people. I watched you in the last two
tournament runs. I've been watching intermittently but I made a point of viewing the IU Iowa game a couple weeks ago we can half ago and we sat with my kids and watch that dinner and it was awesome. It was fun to the point that James our friend of crimson cash. I need if he's listening he's got to help me out. I started being like I want to like I want to bet on these games.
Like how do you like and I've dug through FanDuel And points bet they don't have lines on women's basketball is able to find, but I was like, this is like, Indiana is a great bet. I wonder what the line is. I'm like, the Indiana Michigan game. I dug around, could not find us a James are listening. If anybody knows where the line is, is James, it's true. Yes, I will.
We've got him on that and hopefully, he can come up with some thoughts for us, but the women in action, again, again, this weekend and This is a game that you I don't even think you can buy tickets for at this point. Like they've sold out all the general admission, and I think the get in price is it's like significance like 50 bucks or something like that. I might be more than that.
So that's great for people. But, you know, noon on noon on Sunday on Big Ten Network, if you're not going to go in person, Indiana hosting Purdue, they have a chance for the season sweep and can clinch the crimson and Gold Cup or whatever. They're calling it now. Between the two schools and basketball. Because that would be at least three wins for Indiana against
Purdue overall. Anyway, let's talk about the men's team as they fell on the road at Northwestern by 2 and drop their record overall on the season to 18 and 8 9 and 6 in conference. Drop them back into. What at the at the moment is a three-way tie for third, but Indiana is actually in last place in that mix I believe because they have, they lost a Maryland and they've already lost one game to Iowa. So Indiana right now. Out of a double by but there's still a lot of games left to be
played. Let's talk about the Northwestern game. First Scott as you know I had a premonition before the game that this was going to be a problem. A lot of people felt the opposite. They were like you know I feel good about this I you knows what they're walking into they're gonna be able to handle Northwestern and that just isn't how it worked at all. Northwestern able to Parlay, you know what had been a relatively close game to start into a Very decisive, 2:38 run.
That took the score from 10:48. I u-233 215 Northwestern and you know, it was one of those situations where we've seen Indiana. Do this earlier on this season. We saw it against Kansas. We saw it against a couple other teams, starting and Northwestern. The first time, these two teams play and it just, it was unfortunate because we've seen it over and over again. This team just gets into these Six where everything starts going wrong, their offense, doesn't work than their defense
breaks down. And they just, they can't seem to stem the tide. And, in this case, that's what happened they made. I thought a really Gallant effort to come back in the second half. They have the game tied up at the end. Really questionable non-call at the end of the game that allowed
buoy to somehow. I guess just use his, his telepathic powers to move Trey, Galloway out of the way, created a lot of Space, yeah, created a significant amount of space gods and and so Indiana ends up losing the game. You could feel good about the comeback. And certainly, I think that is something that this IU team has not historically done, but you have to feel pretty disappointed in the way that it transpired to even get to that point.
In our last couple of losses, it will be lost to Northwestern.
They went on a 2:38 run are lost to Maryland before that, Mare Went on a 13-2 to run in the first half our loss to Penn State. I would there wasn't a major and I would say the game was an 85 266 run for pain stays in the whole game was a run but you go back to the Iowa game that was a ton of runs but Iowa had an 11-0 run in the first half on a 14-2 run in the second half of the you go to the Northwestern game in Assembly Hall, Northwestern had a 13-2 run in the first half
and a 12-2 run in the second half. And to your point that this is something that, you know, yes, they made A comeback and they they solved, it looks like they've solved some of the problems of being slow to make adjustments. Where in the first half, we looked basically inept on offense, they made some changes. They got the trace, the ball in different areas, where able to make a comeback. But it's like you you dug yourself too deep of a hole and you can't just give up a what
you know, 2:38 run. You have to stop it at some point there you can't go six and a half minutes of game time without Or and this is a problem that has plagued this team honestly predates. Mike Woodson much like three point shooting and free throws, I'm not sure how we shake out of it. We seem to have shook an out of the free-throw, shooting issues in the three-point shooting issues. This giving up runs in losses, is something that we've got to figure out.
Whether it's just calling all the time outs, whether it's, you know, being even quicker to make adjustments, I don't know. And obviously, the team is working on it too, but those Those these runs are crippling the ability to win these games because in the second half they played great. The second half they played really well. The only thing that I would say that I was kind of looking at
that. I do think, you know, they were winning coming the back on the heels of, you know, Trace Jackson Davis and Calum Hood, should be no. But it is, you know, it just Bears. Note that at the 8 Minute, Mark in the eight minutes to go in the game. Race Thompson made a layup after that. Nobody else scored excited for trace and Jalen Hood. Zaffino And they are your two
best players. You're going to lean on them and a comeback but again it comes back to like somebody else needs to step up at some point and help these guys out. You can't have eight nine minutes stretches where two people are, the only people scoring the bass while other people are doing things. But it's like, other people have
to help out in those stretches. And if even one of those guys other guys on the team had scored here or there, maybe you do turn that loss into a victory but it's it's again, it's another One of these games we're going to look at this season and, you know, in a weird way with Purdue slowly coming back to the pack, there's a world where had you won this game? It's like, well, if you went out, you coat.
When the Big Ten, like it's there, it's probably going to be harder now, and you're now falling into that morass of the third fourth place, tiebreak, you know, 18 tiebreak to figure out who gets the spot in the Big Ten tournament and it's just, you look at this as a couple of games this year where these runs have crippled the team and it's like this is all Most turning into like, man, what could have been a really good season?
Your kind of it's not the sky's not falling Is Not a Bad season but it's like you're you're digging yourself these holes that you don't need to do. And you've got to find a way to get out of it. You're kind of missing some opportunities to really further where you are as a team. Yeah, I think it's not look at it a little bit, the opposite.
Okay. I come at at it and essentially end up with the same conclusion, which is that you're gonna expect, I think you have to expect these sorts of things to happen. If you are going to go out and lean on Trace Jackson Davis to put up a 20 and 15 every single time. It is an unsustainable trajectory. And you know, I mean, Trace, I think is really grown into a leadership role.
He was asked to afterwards after the Northwestern game, and he basically put the blame on himself as like, I wasn't ready to play and it's like, you know, that's, he's, I'm shocked. He's been admirable, I'm shocked. He's been ready to play and half of these games, because of how much he's being asked to do and that has to change the same
thing with Jalen Hurd chafee. No, I mean, you know, he is playing 38, 39 minutes, he has to, because we're getting nothing out of any bench depth with the guards, especially in Road games and even in some home games, and I just don't know how sustainable that's going to be other people have to step up. I mean ultimately you know, there's a bunch of different things you can look at from the Northwestern game and say well if this had gone differently or that had gone differently maybe
India Indiana wins the game. I don't really believe in doing that because as we've talked about on this podcast before games are a Continuum. You can't like take one basket away and put another Basket in and suddenly have the rest of the the outcome be the same, but I do believe in this idea that You know, you have to look at the performances and you have to say to yourself, you know, how is it that Indiana can only rely on two players to regularly contribute and then just hope
that somebody else shows up and and why is it that those players who Indiana needs to show up struggle so much in Road situations? You know, it's it's not just that Miller cop didn't hit the shots that were open to him in the game. It was also that he was We've lost on defense for large, portions of the game because Northwestern was putting him in a really tough spot. And look, I thought, you know, tomorrow, Bates is another one, where it's like, how is it that Bates has been?
So incapable of doing anything of note, in terms of offense on the road and especially in a game like that, where he's got a lot of athletic advantages. A lot of it comes down to mental preparedness, and Malik renew honestly falls into the same category where he's had a much better last. Last six weeks than he had a month of December. But the reality is the last couple of games.
He's been really having trouble staying on the floor, you know, his foul situation and just kind of this positions, he's a lot of stuff to get put into, haven't really worked out. Now, you're going to get that with younger players and at least not so much with cop but certainly with Bates and renew, it's a big ask for them to go out and perform all the time, but the broader point is that Indiana does not have Enough consistency out of people other than trace and general Hood fee.
Know when one of those guys has an on-off half, not even an off game, it almost sinks I you from the get-go and that is concerning, you know it's really what puts a it's why you know normally you look at a team like Indiana the way that they performed over the last four to six weeks and you say to yourself that's a team that's trending in the right direction. They're winning a lot of games but then you can also look Look at it and say one thing goes wrong with this team.
In terms of those two guys performing and you kind of have to throw the game out. Like it's not really sustainable. Well that's going to happen. Like the tournament is all about. We're going to take out your best player. What else can you do at this point? Indiana doesn't seem to have a good answer to that because people just do not appear to be able to step up three-point shooting just disappears, so quickly because our guys are not ready to shoot when they get the ball.
A lot of the things that That you could be using to try to spread things out and take some of the burden off just aren't happening and that does concern. Me it finally came home to roost essentially in the Northwestern game.
Yeah, I'm in the other way to look at this trend is, you know this this run that Indiana has been on of going, you know, five, six seven, oh eight of eight, you know eight and two in a 10 game span could also just be viewed as like art you had traced Jackson Davis just playing at an unbelievably Elite level. That he's is not sustainable for 20 more, you know, 15 more games and you have jail hitch.
Be no coming into himself but also he's also been, you know, had up and down but playing really well. And that's that's the concerning thing too.
Is that Or right. When you get to the tournament, one of these guys is going to be taken out, what I'm truly going to have foul trouble in the game, and it's like, we don't have the ability to deal with either of them being out and it's not even, you know, I don't pick on guys here but it's not even like that, you know, tomorrow Bates doesn't score 17 like he did against Michigan State.
It's just can you come in and just give some serviceable minutes like make smart plays on authentic, not actively, take things away. And that's the problem is, you know, he played 17 minutes when we can renew played eleven, they're not These are all intertwined that the reason that jail has your feet. Oh, and Trace Jackson. Davis are basically playing 39 and 40 minutes of game. Is that what's it doesn't have anybody else to go to?
Like even though tomorrow Bates isn't, you know, even he's, he's scoring 0 in that game. Had a zero offensive rating was like, he made a lot of mistakes and he took it out of the offense, he's having trouble on defense. And yeah, he's still young, but it's like he's almost a junior, like he's almost done with the sophomore year, like, we're getting pretty close to the cement is getting drier and harder with, you know, tomorrow Bates.
It's like You should at least be able to come in and be a Annette - Annette you know neutral and not be a negative. So that's also causing problems is that you know Geronimo played four minutes and always coming back from you know a little bit of an injury we wouldn't know because we don't get to know that information but you know it's like that's the other issue. Is this not even the guys aren't coming in and like you know he's not hitting 3 or 4 from 3.
It's like you're just you're coming in and being such a Negative that your everything has to end. Not only You know, is jail,'. No and Trace Jackson Davis playing 40 minutes. They're doing everything. Like it's not. Like they're getting you LeBron where they can take a couple plays off. It's like everything. Those are 40 hard minutes every single game and I am getting concerned that I just don't
think it's sustainable. It's definitely doesn't feel like it's going to be sustainable when you get into Big Ten Tournament where you're playing you know 23 games and two or three days and the NCAA tournament where you're playing two games in a weekend so hopefully Two or three times in a row. I mean, ya know, and and not to pick on Bates, but he has scored 11 points total in the last five
games that Indiana has played. I mean, you know, 0 against Northwestern 0, against Michigan, 6 against Rutgers three against Purdue to against Maryland. And if you want to throw the previous two in, he scored seven against Ohio State and 0 against Minnesota. Yes. Oh yeah.
I just added up he scored 18 since he scored is that he scored 17 against Michigan State in all the games, That he scored 18 points and keep in mind, the two games before Michigan State, he scored zero points against Illinois and zero points against Wisconsin. Like this is, I think everybody has this image in their head that the tomorrow Bates that we saw against Michigan, state is The Tomorrow baits that exists.
But in reality, it's the tomorrow Bates we saw against Northwestern who isn't performing on offense and is getting consistently lost on defense and look. I've talked about this a lot with some friends of mine on text threads and so forth. And and realistically, this is what happens when you lose your starting point guard. You know, that because because you shouldn't be having to rely on to more Bates, four minutes at this point because he's just not able to contribute consistently tray.
Galloway should be in the tomorrow Bates role, where he's coming off, the bench, spelling, Xavier Johnson, and Jalen, Hurd Jaffe. No, in equal measure. And then when you need to bring in Bates for a few minutes, to maybe hoist up a couple of Threes, you know, maybe play some replacement level defense. That's fine in Ed, you had to you know, you've been pressed into a situation where despite scoring? So few points you've played him 2222, 2710 1725, 19, 9, 17, and 17 minutes.
Like, this is your primary sub in the. Backcourt Off the Bench and Indiana. Doesn't have anybody else that they can really put in? I've been Fielding a lot of people ask me like, we're just simply Place EJ gun. Why is it? CJ gutting gun? Getting more minutes. And you know what I'll say to that is two things. A you know, Woodson's drop some breadcrumbs about his
substitution approaches. And one of the things that he noted, like we asked, why didn't we see Caleb Banks against Michigan and and Woodson confirmed something that I had assumed which is that Woodson doesn't want to put his freshman in high pressure, high leverage situations on the road because he doesn't think that they're ready to handle those.
And he's probably, right and you and I have talked a lot about how You don't want to ruin a freshman psyche by throwing them into the fire and making them perform and having them fail. You know, with the problem with CJ gun is both that like he's not ready to contribute in those spots. But it's also how ineffective he's been offensively. Like, as bad as Bates was in that stretch that I just laid
out on the season. Bates is still, you know, got an offensive rating of 112 essentially Siege a gun in a Juror number of minutes than Christian Lander. Had last year, has a worse offensive rating than Christian Lander had in Lander. If you'll recall like, when he was in the game, people were like, wow, like what, what is the thought process behind? Even playing him because he's
unable to contribute anything. Now you know gun, I understand people are excited about playing him but he just he's had opportunities and has done nothing offensively and you cannot put in a player who's a zero threat offensively in Big Ten play especially. A freshman who probably doesn't understand what you're supposed to do on defense systematically as far as the teams concerned. So as much as I'd love to see, you know someone else get a shot because Banks has struggled so
much with performance. The reality is there's really nobody else right now and Woodson's having to make do with, what is very, uh, nydia situation from a backcourt perspective. And this is 100% agree with all of this and this is, I feel like we're pairing each other. This is Thing that, you know, this is kind of what happens when you have years and years of kind of piss-poor recruiting and neglect on the the overall roster is, you know, Christian
Lander was a perfect pull. I was thinking of him as well, you know, last year, a lot of talking, let's put a pin, put him in a 5-star it's like, well, just goes on the bench, doesn't mean he's good. It's like, he's probably on the bench for a reason. And yeah, sometimes, guys come off the bench, you're like, wow, I'd love to see him play more, but every time Lander came in, it didn't look great.
And now, you look at his numbers at Western Kentucky, and it's like kind of confirmed what we all knew. And I'm not, I'm not pissing on CJ gun or, you know, Banks, but it it I have trusted Woodson that he sees those things in practice and that they could do things. He's shown with Jaylin Hood, Ruffino and Malik were new. If you're a freshman and you have the skills to play, he's going to play. So it's not like, I'm not going to play freshman, so he's not going to play freshman who
aren't ready? And I just think this is, you know, the backend of our bench, we just don't have guys who can come in and solve this and so it's got to be those middle level guys. Like, that's where we're at and And even, you know, for those we're getting really close to whenever you know the we don't know, but it seems like we're getting close to the Xavier Johnson coming back. I would urge everyone to also just take a deep breath on that because who knows what? I hope he's 100%.
I hope he comes back at, you know, full for strength but normally, I see that in the NBA, you don't normally see that in college. It's just isn't something that you normally see where a guy, you see kind of what race Doing a guy comes back and it's like man, he's like 60% or 70% of what he what he was and it's like in if anything I'm more
impressed. That race is kind of playing through it and I'm just want everyone to take a pump the brakes, if Xavier comes in the next couple games, like all right, you know, and then he doesn't look 100%. It's like the guys coming off of a major injury, he probably should be done for the year. He's gutting it through to come back. Well, yeah, and it's it's going to be really interesting. There's a really neat piece.
Peace that you can find if you search the 1980 season, it was an excerpt from a book that Terry Hutchins and Tom Brew. Wrote about the missing banners, is the name of the book and there's an excerpt on one of the SI or on the SI site, for Indiana from that particular subchapter where they're talking about the 80 team. And one of the things about the 1980 team that people have forgotten is that Mike Woodson was the star of that team. Had a freshman Isaiah Thomas on that team. You had buh.
Carter is a senior Woodson right around the same time that Xavier Johnson. Got injured in the 79-80. Season suffered a herniated disc in his back, he was out for six weeks. He had surgery, he comes back way before he's ready in the middle of February and he guts it out. I mean Woodson played incredibly he actually won Big Ten player of the year that year. I'm Gabe slate or something, six of the 18, he won Big Ten Player of the Year playing. A third of the conference
season. It's one of the most patently absurd things that a player is accomplished and because it wasn't like, they just gave it to him. Like he was that valuable for Indiana in that stretch. But one of the interesting things about that that chapter is that it talks about how Woodson came back to early.
Like he just physically, he wasn't able to practice, it was one of those where he would just go out and play in the games and he really wasn't able to do anything else and you know, night to some degree, like regretted bringing him back. Too early because he just wasn't physically there. I have to think that the way that Mike Woodson is handling, the situation would save your Johnson. He's got that in the back of his head. I mean there's literally it's almost a perfect analog.
The injuries happened at almost the same time of year. You know Xavier has been out slightly longer now than Woodson was but I don't think that that's accidental. All that said I think you hit the nail on the head like the idea that you're going to just insert Johnson back in the lineup and get like 30 35 minutes. It's is kind of a pipe dream, can you get 10 to 15 really good? Operational minutes out of him. Maybe you know, what is this conditioning going to look like?
How Rusty's you going to be so much of his game was like not just the physical aggressiveness that he brought to the table in the passing but also the ability to drive and shoot and and hit shots at a pretty efficient clip, you know, that's hard to get back when you haven't played competitively in two months.
And so to some degree, it's like, I don't know that we'll ever see what this Team would have fully looked like, and that's a shame, but even within that, I think, looking at what Indiana's got to do moving forward in terms of trying to figure out how to play this group, they've got right now is about all that they can count on in terms of what they're going to be able to perform with. And this is where like Trace Jackson, Davis is performing at superhuman levels.
Jalen who Jaffe no, has performed at levels that have taken him from not even being mentioned in the NBA draft conversation to Lee, he's gotten to get will not Lee's first round pick. I've seen him starting to get mocked as a lottery pick. I mean, that's how much his
stock has risen and rightfully. So, you know, I mean, as we've talked about, like this is, this is a rare physical Talent, a 66 point guard who can like essentially create we're watching Jail, who Jaffe know, right now out of necessity, create baskets out of thin air and like Romeo Langford, kind of did that, but that's about the last player we've seen be able to do that. It's Swallow. Yes, the full perimeter defensive stop.
Yes, and so. So this is where I would, you know, on the one hand, I think this team has got a lot of fight in them and for all the people that were jumping on them at halftime of that Northwestern game and like it's the same old Indiana. They suck on the road one thing. I'd like, you all to note. Everybody sucks on the road.
This year, there was a stat. I saw Scott the other day, the top four teams in the Big East like Marquette Providence, Xavier and I forget who the fourth team is Creighton. I think they are 32 and 0 at home in conference play. None of them have lost at home in conference play. That is that's nuts that. And what that tells you look what happened to Purdue last night, Purdue? I mean, you might as well just go ahead and like pick out the
burial plot on their season. You know, gladly after that game because what that did I mean, people lose you know, when Purdue lost at Indiana. It was like well Indiana's, a good team. I think Marilyn is actually a good team, but to get annihilated on the road like that. Hey, it'll cause a lot of people to stop taking Purdue as seriously as they have. But be, I think it illustrates how hard it is for teams to perform on the road. It's not just Indiana.
It's pretty much everybody in college basketball. Nobody's able to win away from home. How that translates into neutral Court environments where you can't lean on the officials as a crutch. I mean, everybody been Indiana's. To do that, we're like you can build your defense around, how somebody's going to call your game at home, but a lot of those teams are going to lose that Advantage.
I mean if Indiana were to play Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament, I don't think that they lose for a third time because I don't think the game gets refereed the same way. If Purdue plays Maryland on a neutral Court, you know, I don't know necessarily that it would get called the way they got called in College Park. So but I also think it's a mental thing as much as anything else. And so, I look at this, I you team and I say yes.
They're struggling on the road. So it was everybody else and the fact that they came back and almost won that game. I'm far happier about that than I would have been if they had just allowed themselves to get obliterated down the stretch,
like, Purdue did. And so I so I'm not too panicked about it, but I do think that this Indiana team, they have to try to figure out how to get people to contribute more consistently because regardless of where they're playing home or away, that will ultimately be This team's undoing is one of those days where cochinos going, you know, to for 13 from the field. And Trace Jackson Davis is handcuffed by the opposition's defense. Well, like you say, we don't play the tournaments not played
on the road, so that's good. As we leave the Northwestern game and just talking about Road games, I just, I want to mention, you know, it's College, I'm not offended. I'm not clutching my pearls but you know, I've always been bugged. It's just a bit of a tangent. You know this this goes into kind of the eye you Or the now complex or the coldest back, you know, whenever you know, there's two curse words from the IU student section and immediately,
you should be Chuck crab. That's Jeremy, grab my picking on them, but they immediately come out. It's like, you know, just a reminder that you can, you know, technical foul could be called of a home crowd for language. Whatever. It's like, I always tell my dad would tell you whoever in the game with, like, the first time, that's called to be the first time I see, I've never seen that called. And yet, we're at the Northwestern, you know, the game in Northwestern just non-stop.
Fuck you Miller just fuck you Miller. From the crowd to the point, huh? Moans like joking, like you man. It's not a fan of Miller here. It's like I mean you can hear it through the TV just fuck you Miller over and over again. Again, they're college kids, I'm not clutching my pearls, I don't care college, kids can do that, but it does. I would just say to the IU brass like, can we like, not a technical was called, like wasn't called, but it just sit down I'm gonna tangent to
another tangent. We do need to stop having nightmares. And Mike Woodson bench technicals called on this team, three that and then Xavier Johnson that check called on him. Yep. When he was injured. Like, so there's there's three assistant coaches like that's and it's something I noticed when you were at the Rutgers game like Rosemont is like, way the hell out there, like, he is way past woods and he's on the court. It's like, I appreciate the enthusiasm.
I appreciate you guys getting pissed. Like don't like well. Okay, hold on. I'm gonna push back on that a little bit because I will say this, the The bench technicals that have been called. First of all, I don't think I've seen a bench technical that wasn't like obvious and egregious called on anybody else
this year. Except I you and in all of the cases officials, have gone searching for something to call a technical and Indiana's bench for happened with the Xavier Johnson thing where, you know, there was no reason for the
official even be over there. There was one, I think it was maybe it might have been Iowa. Might have been somebody else where they went into the bench and that might have been the Saviour. This one actually now that I'm thinking about, they went into the bench and started arguing with people. The one against Northwestern. They're not even yelling at Sirota or scrote. Oh, on the call. He should have just left it alone. The Baseline official.
Blew the call. There was no reason for that Tech to be called now, you're right. You know, there's clearly a Target on the backs of the Indiana coaching staff. So, you've got to take that into consideration, well, but see the problem is a like I don't think that you should have to take it into consideration when it's it's so out of character with how the rest of the games are being called and be look, I've seen that bench get upset about a variety of things that nothing happened.
It's the inconsistency, with which things are being applied from game to game. That's the thing that gets me. It's, you know, again, as someone pointed out, Fran mccaffery walked across the middle court, walked into the Indiana huddle and they didn't call a technical foul on him, a coach out of his box on the opposite side of the floor, but they're going to call. Bench technical during a play.
That is clearly a missed call. We're not even yelling at the official that signals the technical. I mean, give me a break when, and the woods and Tech was also. Like, it's like, he just gently, like, tap water. The refs are was like, like, you can't touch the rep. It's like, what back? Well, okay, first a camp like this. So minimum it is, it's a, it's minimal and be, and look what's in deserve the tech. But when if you watch the replay, he what he's reacting to
is scrote. Oh, turns away and And sticks his arm out almost like he's like trying to like visibly. Like I'm going to ignore you. I'm going to stick my arm out like that. I mean, you next time you're in an argument with somebody and they turn around and stick their arm out in front of you, see what you see, what you involuntarily do physically. Well, that's why Booboo we pushed off with the Army realize.
Yeah. Sorry, the way we do things like this is how we get Guys open Surah, is this not being called tonight. I mean, look, ultimately, the officiate I was talking with with someone that's, there's definitely a Target on Indiana. This and well, here's the thing there is but it's also I think it's actually worse than that. I think that this is probably the worst. I've seen Big Ten officiating, overall in years and look, We complain about it on and off sometimes that's playful rather
than serious. Sometimes it's more serious. But I've watched probably 75 to 80%, of all the games that have been played in the Big Ten this year, not just Indiana games, like, all of them. One of the things I think, you know, when people criticize the refs, everybody assumes that it comes from a bike solely, a position of particle Partisanship like my team's getting screwed it out at all.
I'll be honest. Like, I have, you know, I get upset when when I you gets bad calls against them but there's plenty of calls that are unfavorable for. I you that I'm like, that's actually a legitimate call. But when I watch this conference refereeing, take place across the board last night's game against Maryland. Purdue, you know, you know, watch we do, we'll watch Michigan, Michigan State. There was a Michigan, Michigan
State earlier on this. Year there was a double technical called and it was the same crew that had had trouble in the Iowa. Indiana game that had happened, like the day. Previously. This is not something that's isolated Indiana. And if you go to like the college basketball subreddit, which if you like college basketball actually go. It's one of the few nice corners of the internet where you can, like, talk college basketball with people that aren't like
insane. That's the all the Big Ten schools except for Rutgers in Northwestern talk about how bad the officiating is. Is and given the murderball style that both of those teams play. Of course, they want it officiated badly because they tend to benefit from these things. So all that said, you know, the best way I you can handle things right now is just get out of conference play.
Get into the NCAA tournament because you'll I think that the way the NCAA tournament is generally refereed will favor Indiana a lot more because there will be some actual protection given to trace Jackson Davis. And Jalen Hood. Fino, as opposed to what is essentially allowed to happen right now, which is you can do whatever we want. With those guys physically without any repercussions,
totally agreed. The frustrating thing is by getting down so much to Northwestern you lose an opportunity to win that game, and it does feel like our opportunity to get a three seed in the NCAA tournament is just slipping through our fingers and we're kind of stuck in that 45 category. Because I as I look at it like to go to your earlier point, you know Road games really hard, Michigan State and Purdue or also really hard Road games
above and beyond that. So you know you're hoping to go 3 and 2 and your last five and you know where that sits you in Big Ten Tournament, who knows? Well but you know, look, here's the thing. I don't know, I don't think there's a huge difference between going one and one in the Big Ten Tournament, where you win a 512 or six, In game and then lose in the second round versus going one-on-one. Where you're a double by and you lose in the second round.
I only, there's a big difference between that in terms of seating like, because everybody is so equal, like, 1 through 10 in the Big Ten in terms of rankings. It's not going to harm your your your overall resume. But I mean the loss to Northwestern didn't harm. I use resume. They lost by exactly the points that they were predicted to lose but they lost out to the prediction. Was they were going to lose by one.
They do. They were not a statistical outlier losing at 'The Western is a tier 1 loss. It doesn't hurt at all. It would have been helpful but act look. But here's the thing. And, you know, we had a bunch of Bracketology this week on on the Crimson cast account. If you want to go back and listen to it, I look real coordinate, this stuff.
Literally at all, no, no. That should give you as good of a sense as any like, we essentially recorded the same type of podcast, see ya. But anyway, when you look at Indiana, you know, they're favored by at least five and a half points via the computers in each of their last three home games in. Noise, Iowa. Michigan. Two of those teams are NCAA tournament teams and if they can win those games and then, even if they lose, both the road games, neither of those games
are going to hurt you. I don't think seeding, wise, there's going to be a tremendous amount of difference for Indiana between finishing, the regular season, 21 and 10, and finishing the regular season, like 20 and 9 or 22 and 9. And a lot of it depends on what happens around you. Because, you know, you're Already starting to see the Iowa, State's and the Kansas State start to lose games, and those are teams you're in direct competition with, for seeding.
You've seen Xavier struggle, a little bit, with some things in terms of, you know, they lost on the road at Marquette, who knows? I will say this. I think whether Indiana is a three, four, five, six or even seven seed in the NCAA tournament, there's not much difference. Because at the end of the day, two things, a there is Because of the parity in college basketball this year, there are liable to be multiple upsets of top four seeds within the first, two rounds of the NCAA
tournament. You want to avoid being one of those, obviously. But if you look at the group of teams that even as the two seeds, they have huge holes in some aspect of what they do. You know playing Tennessee, it's like, well, okay. That's a very heavy defensive team but they struggle to score on offense.
That's not a team that I would be upset if Indiana had to face off against in the second round, or The or in the, you know, as a 36 or even as a 27. So I'm, you know, it's great, Prestige wise to say, hey, I you got a three seed, I'm not that concerned about it because I think ultimately the experience and what Indiana's going to do is going to be less dictated by the seating and farm were dictated by the matchups. Because the matchups as we saw last year.
And I think we're going to see you again this year, going to be everything IU has to draw a particular type of team. Just like anybody else does and That's really, what matters, more than what the number is, by that team. I agree with you to a point. I think sliding agree with you all the way to 6. I think sliding 27 would be rough because then you are fundamentally playing a 2 seed
in the second round. There's a chance that they losing two seats and started to lose more and more, but when you look at who's on the two seed line now you know, Arizona is one of those teams and I mean I think Indiana, I think I think a full-strength Indiana now has a much better shot against Arizona. I mean because The, you know, keep in mind when they played Arizona the first time, they didn't have Jalen Hood Ruffino and they, they really were in a
mode at that point where they were first starting to really question what they were, and what they could do. And that that funk lasted, basically until the Penn State game, it lasted for like a solid month. I'm not to their first of all, they wouldn't draw Arizona because they've already played them, they would keep that until a sweet 16 matchup, but the other teams in that mix, like, I think Texas is beatable. I think Tennessee's beatable.
Baylor, I'm a little bit concerned about, but Baylor can be stymied, you're not going to draw Kansas because you've already played them. You're not going to draw Arizona in the second round because you've already played them and Gonzaga. If they were to sneak in as like a two or three. I'd feel pretty good about playing that team so I'm with you but I also think that realistically outside of look Scott.
Honestly the only thing I don't want to see Indiana matchup against in the tournament is Alabama like yeah because Alabama Um, I feel like is they're so athletic that it would just present a whole different set of problems for what I use used to playing. But even Alabama, I think would be beatable for this IU team, if they played really good defense. As we saw Tennessee, do this past weekend when they knock
them off. I think that there's there's very few teams in those top, three or four seed lines this year, that terrify me the way that you we've seen teams terrify Us in the past and the ones that do frankly by Kansas Indiana's played already. Probably wouldn't face them until the elite eight. Yeah, I hear you. I just, I would rather. I would rather stay at least to a 6. I think that's 63 is a better
spot. I would also say something that I also would throw in Houston as a team that kind of worries me from the athletic point of view. Yeah. The thing that the thing that I got from one thing that was interesting, which podcast would Joe from 131 Sports? Yesterday was just be kind of kicked around this idea. That, you know, it might actually behoove.
Again, Indiana plays to win the games but dropping to a 5-line, might actually Ali, not be bad for Indiana because of your the for you're going to get, basically, if you're the last four seed, you're getting the last protected pod and that and at that point all, you know, Gonzaga can make everyone's
ready. Pick the every picked everything over, and you're kind of just stuck with whatever whereas if you're a five seed you you might get a little more preference and where you go and you might be able to go to Orlando or Albany or someplace. That might, that might work a little bit better for for fans to go to. I mean, it's going to be the same for the forces. It is for the fives. Because, yeah, because gently know, basically, the for is the way that ends up working out.
That's where, like, at this point, I've done enough brackets. This cement this, the last month, or so to say that right now, we're Indiana's at like, for the first time. Things worked out in the last bracket where I actuate Indiana in Columbus. They were the last like geographically preferable first second round matchup, but the rest of the time I've had their had Indiana in Albany Albany or Do which, of course, as we know, Florida is basically just Southern Indiana extended.
So, I'd rather have Orlando, then floor than Albany, but I'd rather have Columbus, then both of them. And so that's where I think it's going to be interesting to watch how things transpire look, ultimately went and wrote just real quick. I do think that is going to be probably a bigger Factor than even the seed line we get because Indiana fans travel and we saw it with the game in
Dayton last year. Was obviously a pro Indiana crowd, you know, you saw it. You you see it in these among you and I at the in the in Vegas for the Arizona game or just shocked we're under any metrics. Arizona has at a better program in Indiana over the last 25 years and that was 75%. Indiana fans at that crowd. I mean, Indiana fans travel, they're hungry to travel and so if the location is anything easily, travel a bull like outside of Sacramento.
Sacramento, I think that that's going to be a bigger importance to Indiana if we can pull a Columbus, or an Orlando, or some place is easy to get to. I can see that becoming basically a home court neutral, site game for Indiana, which is going to be huge. Because, as we talked about earlier, we played better with the fans behind us than we do in a, you know, Road environment, destroy reminder that you know, Indiana does not seem to track where they play versus how they
do to advance. You know, when they were a You didn't join, they made the sweet 16 when they were a one seed in Dayton, they made the sweet 16 when they were a five or four seed, in San Diego, we lost the first round. So, I was there with my dad but when they were but they went to
Portland, not this last time. But back in 2012 that well and made the sweet 16. I mean it look I think it's as much as it's easy to get caught up in where what really matters is the matchups and it's like you know a lot of people I was
talking with Buddy today. They're like they're scared about the 512 matchup and I'm like, you know, the last time Indiana went to the Sweet 16. They were a 5 seed, they drew Chattanooga and beat them by 25. Now in that same tournament, Purdue was a five seed and lost to Little Rock in double overtime. That was so long ago that Chris beard was coaching Arkansas Little Rock.
So, it just goes to show. It's really more about the matchups, and I'd rather be a five seed or a six seed playing the right team in the first Ground with the right match up in the second round. Then be a four-seater. Three seed, and draw the wrong team in the first round. Well, wild question here. Yeah. Just looking at looking at the sights I think I'm gonna go on a limb and all this some of us depend on flights but a lot of
these are drivable. I'm thinking that outside of us going to Sacramento, I might be going I might be trying to go to almost any other of those sites. Breaking news Birmingham. Good. No you're you're Scott's going to travel, that's the breaking news, I travel all the time. So it's up there at birmingham's drivable, Cleo Columbus's
arrival. Like said, Orlando is easy to get to Denver, super easy to get to, from Indy birmingham's, you know, albany's might be a little bit tough, but Des Moines is, is definitely travel a bowl. What are the ones my missing? Greensboro? That's, that's dry. That's a bit of a drive, but that's drivable I think. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I mean that there's no. Other ones I can think of right now. They're all pretty. They're all reasonable
distances. If you assume that outside of Sacramento or Albany but Albany isn't that bad either of you? Just get to the right. I mean, it's less time to fly to Albany than it is to fly to Denver. Yeah. So, you know, so I don't know. It's ya know, it's an interesting spread of sites. It's it's actually really interesting this year if you take a broader, Bracketology view, like Houston has nowhere to go their closest first second round location is Birmingham, you know? And there s close.
Cyst is like Denver, like neither of the maybe Des Moines, not none of those are very actually closed. So they do have we have a lot of places that are good to go. We have a lot of places that are close to us or, you know, air quotes quotes to. It's the one thing that. I mean, if things were to break just right in Indiana, were to somehow grab either a three or four seed in the South that would route into Louisville. And that that's like, that's
really what you want. If you can get past the first and second round, that's where you have, I think What's Wild is all the other regions like Louisville would be amazing. Kansas City is not bad. Oh, isn't that? That's where we lost in a 93 to Kansas, right? No, no, I don't believe that's right, but I'd have to go back and double-check but I don't think that that you may be right, but I'm not totally sure that's right. So Kansas City is not bad, you know, New York.
That's kind of become Indiana east for a while and then the one that seems tough as Vegas. But as you and I lose you like we were just in Vegas in December and it was a lot of IU fans there. So it's the Regionals also break nicely for Indiana as well. It was st. Louis. It wasn't Kansas City in 1993 talking about the game that's coming up tomorrow. Indiana taking on Illinois. So Illinois comes in and they've had a weird season, you know, they it's funny as much as
Indiana had. You know that great stretch where they won, eight out of ten. They what they 18 out of 10 are still technically in that stretch Illinois had a stretch, where they won, seven out of eight. The one that they lost was the 80-65 home loss that they suffered at the hands of Indiana and it's bizarre because you know you look at the rest of their their Big Ten schedule they've struggled on the road some but not completely let they want it Nebraska by 26.
They wanted Minnesota by 28 they want it Wisconsin by 10 they lost at Iowa by 2. They lost in Northwestern by 13, they lost at Maryland by 5 and then they'll all jump in and roll my eyes and look at other team schedules where it's like, oh they played Wisconsin and Nebraska and Iowa State, and they still have Minnesota and Northwestern or Minnesota, Ohio, State's, and everyone, everyone gets all these bad teams we
don't it out. Sorry anyway, Illinois is right now, as I mentioned there, they're either a four or a five point Underdog, according to the computers in this game and they're kind of the flip side of Indiana in Your Indiana's offense is better than than Illinois's defense, just barely and Indiana's. Defense is better than Illinois's offense just barely they both shoot the ball very well. Illinois, turns the ball over.
More Illinois, does a better job of rebounding it on the offensive glass and Indiana and Illinois shoots the three much worse than Indiana does. So this is going to be a really interesting game because this Illinois team is just, they're very Mercurial. They Essentially suffered the same fate at Penn State that Indiana suffered when they played them, you know, month and a half ago or a month ago. I don't know what to expect out of this Illinois.
Team they have nobody on the team shooting above 37 percent from three and they are essentially kind of in this weird spot where they're relying. So heavily on Coleman Hawkins and Terrence Shannon to do so many things that it's that that's not a great spread as far as a team is concerned. I think.
This is a game that Indiana, I think you're hoping that they come out upset at the way that things went against Northwestern. But also that they remember, this is a team that they beat pretty handily back in in in early January mid-January. It's one of those games again where I think they you're probably not going to see Indiana run out and jump to a huge lead and to some degree.
I don't think you want that like Indiana almost seems like it does better when it plays even for the first 10 minutes and then, Ouches things out over the second part of the first half, but this is certainly a game where I think if you're going to see the role players coming off the bench and contributing, this is a game where it has to happen. We got to give Trace tracks and Davis in jail hood.
You know. A little bit of a break and the more that you can get points from the group that we talked about from from Trey Galloway, who had a subpar game when he played at Northwestern to Tamar Bates to Malik renew the attack. That group of players has to Contribute. Something I'll be curious, if we get Xavier Johnson in this game.
I don't think we're going to, I think we'll probably have to wait till the Iowa game to get him back, but if he does come back and even play a little bit in this game, I'll be fascinated to see what kind of a spark that might provide Indiana as well. Yeah, I was kind of thinking this might be the Xavier back game but hearing you talk about the woods and thing is it's dead on and I could see him holding it back.
I would come at this a little bit from a different angle that I do kind of hope that we can get out to a nice, you know. No jump to a lead and then I would love to see Woodson just do his best to get as much rest for Trace Jackson. Davis in general, the Cioppino as possible because like you said role players always do better at home.
Our role players are in a similar spot and I would if you can get up, I like 9 or 10 points and then it's just like sit one of those guys and it's like, roll the dice Malik renew, like do something. It just like, if it works great, if it doesn't bring it back in and then play the tough, get you go from there. But I would, to me, obviously, we need to win the rest of our home. Games, but a secondary win would be.
If you could do it with both, Trace, Jalen or one of the two, or both of them, playing 34 minutes, if you can get them, you know, if you can shave five or six minutes off here or there, I think that's a secondary win. That is almost as important as winning the home games. But I would say that we're at a point where we do really need to
finish off with home wins. So it's kind of like, however, you get it done, you've got to get it done and when your last three home games, but I do think getting those. As from rest would be, would be helpful in. This is where the role players, you could step up and do that. That'd be great that if you know, if jail and his fee no sits down, it be great if tomorrow Bates and come in and give you seven or eight quality minute, score seven or eight
points. And at least keep the lead or the game at the exact same level as when Jalen left. That allows Woodson to feel comfortable, giving Jalen, an extra two minutes in the bench, where you maybe he wouldn't have before. Yeah, I totally agree.
I think ultimately the big thing for me Side of everything you just said is can Indiana get their defense, you know, to a point where it's you know, as efficient as it was against Illinois. The first time they held Ellen oi under a point per possession in that game, which was was pretty unusual. And a, from an adjusted margin was one of the better defensive games of the Season. You know, offensively, I'd love to see Indiana. Get a little more untracked especially in terms of getting
more offensive rebounds. That is Ali something that they've struggled with the last two games against Michigan and Northwestern for different reasons. I mean, Michigan, certainly capitalized on the fact that they have hundred Dickinson and a bunch of really athletic guys. And there's Western capitalize on the fact that they were allowed to essentially commit felonious assault in the post on
every shot attempt. So you know, getting those two things to me like you know ratcheting up the defensive pressure to make it difficult for Illinois to hit shots without fouling. And Indiana doing, at least marginally better on the offensive glass. I think those are going to be two things that will, you know, help Indiana to get to the margin of victory, that we'd like them to see in this game. It's a really important game for
both teams. If Indiana wins this game, they, you know, they'll be 10 and 6 in conference with some interesting results potentially that they'll be seeing elsewhere Maryland as to travel to Nebraska this weekend Northwestern hosts Iowa. I'm fascinated to see what happens in that. One, you know, either way, because Iowa, if they win, that game would be tied with Indiana. And if Northwestern wins that game, they'd be a full game up on Indiana. So, there's a lot of intrigue Illinois.
Like, if they lose that game, they're back to eight and seven so winning this. This next game really is Paramount for them. In terms of trying to ratchet their their, their seating opportunity. I think both Indiana. Illinois are safely in the field at this point, but Illinois, really needs to pick up a road win of value. To try to get themselves back into a better seating conversation in the currently.
Got could you imagine if I had told you in like January that, you know, there's a, there's a world where Northwestern wins a big 10. That's wild. I know. But you know what? It's exactly what the big Ten's always wanted. They wanted to reward a team that has very little actual talent but just fouls on every possession. So it actually would be some. I would believe it from that perspective, I just wouldn't have believed it with North. I would have believed it with Rutgers.
I might not have believed it with Northwestern Buddhist didn't know, we had that they had it in them. Mmmmm so good for them. And what's great for them, that the Big Ten tournament in Chicago because they're Chicago's Big Ten team as they continue to tell us all the time. Even though that that's that crowd, sounded 70% Indiana fans even though as bad as Indiana's been historically in the Big Ten Tournament, the one team that's played in every single one of them.
That's got a worst record is Northwestern. So yeah, anyway, that'll wrap it up for us. Yep. Good to talk with you. As always Scott and thanks to all you folks for tuning in as we talked about Talk about Indiana, basketball, probably be back on Sunday. Talk about what happened in the Illinois game and set the upcoming week which is a big one for Indiana. As after this Illinois game. I got to travel to East Lansing on Tuesday to take on the Spartans before traveling to Mackey Arena.
Next Saturday, the 25th as they play their last Road, Big Ten game of the season against the Purdue Boilermakers, my thanks to all you folks for tuning in my, thanks to Scotts. Dog for barking at the last second, there wouldn't be a crimson After that waffles, my thanks don't feel the Peril and to our friends across the entire back home network, be sure to tune into the women's college basketball show with Amanda Foster as the, the women, as we mentioned, play pro, do this
weekend. It's a tune into that and have a safe weekend. Hopefully, you get down here and are able to watch. I you beat the Illini, we'll be back. We'll catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the Bison. So on everybody.