You're listening to the back home network presented by home field. Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson casts Gaelic labios got Caulfield joining. You it is Monday March. 6th in the night, we're doing some night. Crimson casting here. There's Cast after dark. So what you all tuned in for anyway, we were going to podcast yesterday, but Scott was still dealing with the emotional trauma of having to sit through that entire game in person.
So, we decided to give him 24 hours to cool off before we put him to the, yeah, yeah. Well, you know why actions, really? It's more for the audience. It's not for you. I because I, you know, we care about our audience and we just want to make sure that they're not exposed to unfiltered Scott because that's not me, it's right. Yeah that all on my laps yes. So but anyway well we're going to talk IU IU finishes with a double by and is in the Big Ten Tournament is the three seed.
We're going to talk about how they got there. We're going to talk about the process and we're going to talk about the Big Ten Tournament as that starts pretty soon. I you not going to plead a Friday night, but the Big Ten Tournament itself starts on Wednesday. So we're not that far away. It is Conference tournament season and Scott, I'm excited. I've already got to see, Louisiana. Knock off South Alabama. I'm watching Furman about to get in by knocking off Chattanooga.
Youngstown States, getting obliterated about 20 miles away from where you're sitting right now. It's the time of the year, man. That's the Time of the Season. I'm excited about it. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Yeah, I know and it starts in Earnest tomorrow because tomorrow is a biggie starts, right? Yeah. No ACC I believe well maybe the Big East might but I know you might hear a see.
There might be one big East game but I know the ACC like the the crap end of ACC like, you know, Boston College is playing on Tuesday and you know that like well we know, we know Boston College, like we can always count on Boston cop. I don't think there's been a year where they haven't been in one of those three Tuesday games. They're always terrible. And they're always fascinating at the same time the next two weeks are just awesome.
Like this is kind of like my Christmas Eve, it's fantastic. And the only thing that's it's so amazing.
The only the only bad part about it is like too much like in In two weeks that first Monday were, it's like, wow, there's no basketball on at 2:00, like it's like we're back to know like Price is Right is back all of which I love, but it's like you go the next two weeks or you're just like I can turn on any channel at any time and there's an elimination or a almost elimination game going on, or actually all elimination games is fantastic and just basketball wall-to-wall.
Yeah. So it's I'm I love this time of year, it's just it's great. Yeah. So we are we got to be Alden it. Like, and we need to be in the right now. That's it's yeah, honestly, I was talking with the exact singer. Who does the bracket racket podcast with me? Occasionally and we're yeah, he's a Yukon guy.
I'm an Indiana guy. It's this time of year is so much better when you actually got a good team that is in the mix that isn't like hanging on by his fingernails, trying to get into the field like not having to all of this stuff about like what can I you get to the three or could they drop to a five? I'm like, There have been years when I would have like, you know, crawled over broken glass
for like a 10 seed. You know, to be in this position early years where I've had like it's feel so dirty when you're like nit Bracketology and it's about it's like this is almost like, you know, Silk Road. Like I'm not sure this is I should be doing this on my work computer. I, it's I it's one of those, it's one of those things that's like the I love the guy that does the NIT Bracketology that is I own father. A lot of them. It's not like a slow. No.
I mean I think it's like three. It's like I think it's it might be. I forget what the guys name is. I follow him on Twitter and he keeps up to it. That I mean it's like he was updating last night because he's like well, you know, I think Nebraska you know, not be an outside shot of getting in and stalking about how Eastern Washington getting upset in the Big Sky tournament is opened up a spot to go west for somebody else.
I mean I love that but God I'm glad I'm not in that conversation right now is an IU fan. I mean goodness. Yeah. So anyway, first of all, before we get launched here, just to remind her that home field apparel sponsors the entire back home network including Crimson cast assembly called the Crimson cast, women's basketball show, doing the work, the community. All of that stuff. You can certainly Avail yourself
of the community. You should check it out, but you should absolutely check yourself out with some home field apparel, use the code home to get 15% off your first order. Again that's Home2 And Scott as we know this is home Fields, time to shine. They put all kinds of cool stuff out. They just dropped another hat that has the whole Yukon fan base of flitter. Which is, I mean that's not a hard fan base to set a flitter but there's other, you know, I don't even know what they're
planning. They don't tell me, they just, I think their whole thing is, let's put stuff out on Twitter and let's have Galen and Scott react because they're probably going to love it. And then we do, it's great stuff all the way around, and I keep seeing teams. That I know I'm from home field that are winning games in their conference tournaments it's just getting me more excited for March. Yep well you just bought USC stuff, right? I did about it buddy u.s. see
who gets a future. I know Big Ten but I you heard my moral dilemma when I purchased that but I feel like you know it's kind I could just buy a red Indiana hoodie but it's like well there's times when I don't necessarily always want to like sport the script or whatever, you know, I need to, you know, shake it up a little bit just for variety's sake. So yeah. I was I was just searching. You know there's already five teams in the tournament.
Yeah. And you know random selection home field has I didn't check all of them, they have Drake. So looking at Drake like just obviously random, they have a great Drake real a shirt a really good drink, Bulldog hoodie. So yeah and as teams fill in there will be more and more home field teams to pick from. So get a drake shirt, get a drake shirt, the Bulldogs if you and if you can if you can tell us without looking where Drake is geographically, you get a special A prize.
I can't tell you what it is, but you get a special price anyway, let's dive in let's talk, IU basketball. So the Hoosiers they finish 12 and 8 in the conference, they finish eighth and to at home, but they almost didn't. This is an IU team that, you know, that nothing could be easy as they closed out the season as they built a 14-point lead in the first half of the game against Michigan.
And at one point had a winning percentage of 92.1 that was They were leading by 27 to 13 with about four and a half minutes left in the first half and Michigan proceeded to go on a 19-2 to run and gradually built the lead up to a point where they were up, what was it? 49:38, they were up fifty four to forty two. So, it was right around that 12-point Mark and Scott, I don't know what it was like in the arena, but I can tell you at, Home.
It was not Pleasantville. This was, this was, this felt like the sum of all fears of IU, basketball on full display one of those games where it feels like every very similar to that first, Iowa game, where it felt like everything was going great. And then everything went terrible and it's like, I've seen them do this and it seems highly unlikely they're going to pull themselves out of it and what was it like in the moment
for you? It got really tense, you know, like it that's well Assembly Hall really, you know, it kind of lost its Mojo with the team. Are in a kind of, you know, started the second half as always a little bit slow in the mission started, pounding it down. And then I'm with, as you drink watch time and they had another friend out of the front Factory buddy day and he's ambitious.
He's a Michigan grad and I have some good stories of what he was saying in a sec, but like I said this and it's like, you know, 100 Dickinson, hit a three and kind of did his, you know, like the three sign down and he's II hate to admit this.
I kind of, I mean he's fun to hate but I do kind of like him like he just He cracks me up like he does it almost in a fun way anyway, but I was saying like, you can't let Hunter Dickinson get going and then they kind of 100 Dickinson get going and then, you know, jet Howard's hitting some threes. And this is why Michigan's scary because, you know, I was telling a couple other people before the game that this might be one of the most talented team in the Big Ten, like just hard to stop.
And it's also one of maybe the best constructed team that you have, you know, bump get buff kenaz a guard, you have jet, Howard is kind of that. Man, and you have, you know, hundred tickets seems like the ideal big man for college. You can pop out and hit threes, like it's well, constructed across the board. It's a lot of talent, but I was, I was getting nervous because we kind of look like we were in malaise mode and we were just kind of, you know, zoning out.
But, you know, we, you have to give Indiana credit. They just kind of put themselves on the back end and you, you know, for as much as sometimes people are like, you know, Trace isn't a leader and he does isn't the kind of the vocal leader who's going to yell and scream at people. You could see it where he was like, just I my sewing and like I need the ball and when Hunter Dickinson wasn't on him he was like I'm taking this over and you could see very visible.
He's like I'm going to score and like and then you can see his defense pick up. You definitely saw it with race Thompson and my buddy, Danny like from five minutes on once it gets within that? Like, you know, 45 Point range, he's like we will not close this out.
Like, we do not have the ability to close it out and like there will be I said it before he's like there's going to be four or five end of game situations that we are going to f up and sure enough you know Michigan had probably three or four shots to win the game. Indiana played really good defense on some of those the last play. They just threw the things through the ball away.
But you know, Indiana came up. And I read later, you know where race Thompson said, like, you know, just I'm not losing this game and you definitely saw it with his defense, you know, getting some huge steals down the end and I'm 4. A variety of reasons I'm happy but I'm also just really happy that we won because race did so much at the end there to win that game. It would have been brutal.
If we had lost based on the fact that he missed a couple free throws because he did do so much and you really just miss those free throws because he was tired. But it's like it was it was agonizing and then it's got close. It was like we you know but yeah those are it got tight but I will give the crowd credit to like they got fired up and it was a it was a very, very fun atmosphere. Glad to hear that, it was miserable to watch on television.
It will, I mean I you know, here's the thing, I wish I said I think I said this before, like in the in the podcast we did before like it'd be great if I you it just some point would just do something easy for everybody. Do it easy for themselves, do it easy for the fans, like don't don't surrender a 14-point lead and turn it into a 12-point deficit. Don't forget how to play
defense. I was, I mean, look, I think that this is one of those games that Certainly summarizes IU this season, and and this kind of weird metamorphosis that we've watched in real-time with this basketball team because there's no question that we've seen Archie Miller coach teams. Even last year, this team lose that kind of a lead and lose the game. And, you know, I think what's been frustrating about IU over the last three weeks and whether, you know, is it tiredness?
Is it there or fatigue as an Educated person would say is it fundamental flaws in the way that the team is constructed from a personal perspective, is it a lack of depth contributions? Is it just a psychological thing where this team still gets the hips essentially at the most inopportune times? Or is it some combination of all
of those? I think it's probably that, but it's one thing to talk about and then say, well, gosh, this team has proven that they can fight and they certainly done that but in the moment in that type of a moment against a Michigan team, that had to be exhausted playing after a double overtime loss and you know, having played in an overtime right before that for, for Michigan to look Lively. When Indiana had everything on the table to play for senior night or, you know, likes I
guess it was senior late afternoon, a double by in the Big Ten Tournament after literally everything is broken in their favor, leading up to the game and to to start a strong. Is they did and then just be like, yeah, we're no, we're going to let Michigan do this and do this. And, you know, we've watched this team surrender leads before, but that one felt particularly bad because it felt like, you know, the moment just
became too big for them. And for Michigan of all teams, who while I agree is a pretty well constructed. Roster from a talent perspective, they've underachieved significantly this year because of a lack of coaching Acumen. Frankly, I think on the part of what Howard tends to do with that roster for IU to struggle the way that they did and essentially allow what was it, you know, a 26-point run in terms of lead to deficit by Michigan. It's really disappointing.
They did fight their way back into it and it was the three seniors that play the most that did. So I mean you know Miller cop had a really bad shooting day but managed to hit you know a big three and then what Should have been a three but ended up being a long to although they
never changed it on television. Until it was like it wasn't even mentioned that it because like I remember going into a one of the free-throw setups and it's like I use got a four point lead and I look up and I you had a three-point lead, I'm like well what what happened? But cop you hit a couple of key. Shots down the stretch cop had seven rebounds. He made some defensive hustle plays that really did help Indiana, get back into it, you mentioned.
Trace Jackson Davis, you know, another twenty seven and nine and six. I mean that was impressive but right. Thompson, as you said. I mean, he made so many key plays down the stretch and yes, he missed the four free throws. He missed the layup attempt at the end of not quite at the end of regulation, but whatever that
was. But he also made, you know, some key steals, he made some key defensive plays, he made some hustle plays and you know, it's so it's one of those where on the one hand you can ask yourself well like why did it take getting down 12 after having been up 48? Team to kick everybody back into gear. Like why, why did that have to be the case?
But the fact that they did manage to figure out it how to get themselves back into it really was heartening and it shows a continued development and maturation of this team. It's just it is such a kick in the nuts every time they play well and then just stop playing which we've seen now on I think multiple occasions, you know, over the last month or so and it does to I think a large degree make you wonder like Like why does that have to be part of this team's DNA?
But on the flip side? It's like that's just who they are at this point and I think the next time we see them play a really dominant game from start to finish you know you look at that Purdue game at Purdue and you're like why can't that be the norm as opposed to being the exception? And that's a question. I don't think we'll ever quite answer with this particular roster. Well to answer your question of like what why does this the
malaises kind of happen? I think the answer is exactly what you said, it's a combination of all. Those things. But I think, you know, we don't need to belabor it because we talked about it all year and
it's obviously not changing. But, you know, this is something that will need to be looked at in the offseason and kind of moving forward is, you know, most of these runs with other teams like I mentioned you know, it was a couple twos here and there but then like then Dickinson hit a three and then you know they stopped us and like jet Howard hits a three.
It's like normally these runs happen when other teams are hitting threes and then we just aren't taking a lot of Threes And, you know, we only met 8530 we shot 15 but you know part of what stops these runs but is you know, you papa three, it's like, you know, you're down by 10, you know, Michigan gets it with five, you hit a three, you know, it's now eight like that's how I know kidding. So math works but you know with a Scott has been doing correspondence courses in math.
He's really what I wanted to show this off for the audience. Sorry go ahead. We're a three threes can just kind of Kickstart things and really you know, help stem the tide and we just don't do that. And like you mentioned Purdue game. You know, we didn't have a lot of Threes that game but it's like everything's running at Top Notch for that game and you got jail,' know having a great game from, you know, mid-range and so that's able to overcome that.
But, you know, this is when Indiana was up, you know, 10 or 12 in the first half, we don't have that ability to pour on eight more points like that. And push the 20, you know, it's going to take us, probably three to four minutes to get there and that gives the other team time. And so it's a flaw with this team that again, we can get off of it now. But like, that's I think that's another Factor here as to why even we get leads, other teams, come back is because other teams
start just firing threes. And that's just even when we're down that we saw against Iowa, it's not in our DNA. And so it allows us I think to be susceptible to not being able to push leads a little bit more than they should and giving that opening for other teams and it allows those things to happen and it makes it harder for us to come back when we're down. But you know, 22 I use credit they stem the tide and they claw Had their way back in this game. But like I said, that's
something. I'd love to see a little bit change next year where we can just start firing a couple more threes because that it just it makes such a difference. And I will say, I mean the other the other factor is just the near total lack of Normal offensive contributions coming off, the bench is a real problem and it's funny because it was both the problem and the solution in this game against Michigan. You know?
I mean tomorrow Bates had a really bad first half Malik renew you contributed a little bit but didn't really make up for the points that were sitting on the bench. And then Kayla Banks actually I thought gave a pretty good defensive ever. He I think he ended up being like a plus 10 in the game, despite not scoring a point. And it was largely because I mean, he was often times in there, when Dickinson wasn't in there, which kind of correlated.
But, you know, we've talked about this a lot like IU is a team that essentially only has about five and a half players and you never know who the half player is and especially with Jordan Geronimo seemingly out. Indefinitely with this injury that I'm assuming is the same injury he had before, it's hard to say and with the Mercurial nature of Tamar Bates on off, And sand with Malik renew struggling with foul trouble.
I mean Kayla Banks emerging in the rotations, been in the Sessa T, not a strategic decision that I think Woodson would have made. So I think that certainly contributes to the lulz. It's just tough though because the when you think about the way that the team has been constructed that's its you can't really avoid it and it's one of its.
One of the things that makes the Xavier Johnson absence so keenly felt Out. And then, when you have a game like this one, where Trey Galloway, who's been such a steady performer down, the stretch, has, you know, probably his worst game of the season, fouls out after only playing 25 minutes that just that just, you know, it exacerbates thing. So, you know, from my perspective, it's it's really
frustrating in the moment. You step back, you get some perspective and you're like, look, this is just how this team is, and despite their tendency, to do this. They've won, they won 12 out of 20 games in the conference, they won 21 games in the regular, Season. And I think at the even without Xavier Johnson, being out for a century, the entire Big Ten season.
If you had given that 2 IU fans, at the beginning of the year, they probably would have said we'll take that, you know, a double by in the Big Ten tournament and being able to outlast teams like Michigan or some of the other teams at IU is outlasted here over the last month.
Those are good accomplishments by and large, Indiana ends up, finishing the season, you know, winning what they want to 11 and 4. In their last 15 games in the Big Ten. And that's a, that's a hell of an accomplishment for a team that is down a senior starter and doesn't have much bench depth. And I mean, I mean, I would say this and I've had one of my friends, tell me this all year cats. This is kind of grown was like 8 and 1 or whatever. It's like, you know, 11 for hard stop.
I'll take that at any point in any Big Ten season. Yeah, I'm like that, that is a great 15-game stretch. I think that needs to be kind of remembered talk about. Like I am not. To go through it now but I mean I don't know the last maybe 2016 they had a pretty good run but you know there's only been a couple of times in the last 20 years we've had an 11 and 4 run. Yeah. That's that is not nothing. Yeah.
I mean that very good run and I would say almost any year going into the year if you said hey we're going to go 11 and 4 and a 15-game stretch in the Big Ten. I think, unless we just have a number one ranked team I'm taking that so that that needs to be really like just highlighted Solutely. I mean, you know, the, you know, the 2013 team I think, you know, they finished the year on a. No, I think they were what were they 10, and 3 in their last 14 games?
You know? And so and they were and if you add the two previous, they ended up finishing 11 and for the 2016 team when did had a better run. Certainly, but that was the, you know, those are the only couple of years where you've seen Indiana even win more than 11. Games in the conference. I mean, even that 2012 team only won 11 games in the conference. So I'm looking at 2009 it. So yeah, no, let's not do that. No, no 2009 didn't happen. Remember.
We decided that. But no. So look this puts on you in an interesting position because now they enter the Big Ten Tournament. I don't think you can say anything. But for e and the game just have to say less. It's I've always said it, I stand by it. Had Gordon. Hayward shot gone down. Yeah, Duke best game. They best shot in the history of basketball. This is not at that level but man, what a way to end his career if that Trace 3 had gone
down and that was really close. Like that was damn near as like Gordon Hayward shot. Close. You know, I had a bet with somebody the beginning of the year like Trace, you know, wouldn't hit a 3-2 win a game. And he had these videos like this to a tray that kind of a joke. I was like, I'm cashing that if that gone in like I'm cashing that that would have just just want to say like that's one of those. We always talk about the old Depot dunk.
That was missed or, you know, the Galway dunk that would have blown the roof off Mackey like that that missed shot is going to. I'm going to remember that for a while like his first made three this season and that would have been just a hell of a way to end it. I do have to mention that it is interesting because that ends up being, you know, it's funny that did not. I don't think that made it onto the official stat sheet.
I'm looking at it right now. Ken Palm still doesn't have a mate at a three-point attempt from Tres Jackson, Davis, So did that just get missed in the post game box score? Now, I'm starting to wonder because it was it was a lot of he turned and shot in point seven seconds so that which I wasn't sure with Posse, you know what the Yeah. The official box does not have a three-point attempt for Trace Dragon. Davis at all, maybe they said it wouldn't have counted. I don't know, I guess, but it,
he got it off. I mean, it was clearly out of his hand, with two tenths of a second left, so maybe they did waive it up. That's fascinating, but no, your it. And you know what? Irritates me. Not just at that barely missed because that you're right, that would have been. That would have been an all-time IU basketball shot. It would have been a reverse reverse Plavix, I think we would
call that. But the if you think about it that's the second one of those this year that Indiana's barely missed because you know, had one at Northwestern correct you know. Maybe he hits that if they don't shoot off the damn confetti cannons you know while the game still going that should have still been a technical foul. Anyway, I'm not still dwelling on that at all, but no. Yeah that's Look at just a couple of the things to note.
I mean tomorrow Bates, deserves credit as rough as his stretch has been. You know, if you look back over the course of the last gosh, you have to go the two threes. He hit in the Michigan game. Where the first two threes he had hit the first three. He'd hit since February 7th at home versus Rutgers where he hit 13 and he had. So he had gone one, two, three, four, five, six, seven games.
Without hitting a Three-pointer. And he ended up settling down after what was kind of a jumpy first half. We've been critical of Tamar, but that was a game. Indiana had to have him show up, especially when Galloway, got that foul and he did and I've been critical of them because I feel like he's at Poston bees deserve the criticism. It's not. Yeah.
Isn't it unfair? It's not that he's not hitting shots like he at he actively takes things away and this is where like when he came in there that was crunch time and it was 45 minutes to go. He played the rest of the game. He played all Although over time and I can't think of a play down the stretch where it's like, man tomorrow, you know, screwed up on defense or took that away. The, he he played exactly the role that you need him to play which is don't take anything off
the table. And just be a, you know, be part of the team and feed the right guys on offense. And it's it is frustrating cause you're like man like you did it basically for 10-12 minutes in massive crunch time. Why can't you do it for five minutes in the middle of the middle of the game but maybe maybe this unlocks. It, we're now he's like hey that's that's what I need to do.
And I need to kind of calm it down but no all credit to him and we needed that because it was crunch time, it was over time. Yeah. And and just I have to say, sitting with my buddy Danny it's like tough. Not to make fun of it, but it there was a part where it's like all of these end of game situations and like I felt really comfortable knowing that a we were going to have good defense again.
Again we've been saying this a lot here at the end of the season like all credit to Woodson for changing of Defense bringing Most of to Dickinson bringing it at different angles, but also, like there is a bit of a Checkers chess. Think you're. It's like, I don't and I'm never the one who's like, I'm smarter than these guys are. These guys know what they're doing, but there are times you're watching. Howard and Michigan at the end of games, like, I don't know what you guys are running.
I really don't know what the plan here is, and it doesn't look like anybody really knows or has a plan. Well, I mean, it's like, it felt very comforting knowing, like they're running end of game situations. I agree. You know, it's fascinating to me because the same thing happened in the game against Indiana up at Ann Arbor and you know and yet somehow they beat, what was it? Wisconsin a couple of days ago, you know, when Wisconsin screwed up at the end.
So it's because Danny was telling me he's like, dude, like Illinois, the game against you guys like Virginia. He's reading all things we've he's like we've had the final shot like in eight games this year and we've lost all of them. Well and look and for IU fans who always felt like You know, that was their lot in life with Archie Miller and Tom.
Crane, if we're being honest, it's like to have a coach like Woodson and you can criticize Woodson for whatever you want to criticize him on. But his end of game strategies
have been pretty damn good. Over the course of the two seasons that we've had em. I mean, there's been a couple of games where things have gotten messed up, but I mean, you look back over the course of IU season, like, you know, they almost beat Northwestern at Northwestern and it literally took Bowie. Like committing like assault on Trey, Galloway to get open for the shot, that they made their Mist, the missed shot. Thanks to the confetti cannon,
right? That. Yeah, you know, and I mean, I mean, I've honestly memory, hold the end of the game at Iowa. So I actually have no recollection about how that ended, but the overall, like, if I use going to lose its generally by a pretty significant margin and they do a really good job in these any game situation, and you can go back like the game at Michigan. Absolutely. Qualifies the game at home versus Illinois. The game at home.
Purdue the game at home versus Rutgers the game at Minnesota which people took for granted that, you know that like you should have blown out, Minnesota member how people were complaining about that and then you turn around and it's like, well, gosh Rutgers plots that Minnesota and Wisconsin almost lost at Minnesota that ended up being a pretty good win over. Also. Yes, game is a beer. The game is Xavier. Yeah, I was there is another
good example. So my hat tip to Mike Woodson and and I think you see the difference there between what he's been able to do and what What Michigan is one of the more inexplicable teams to me in the conference because their numbers aren't that bad, they do certain things really well, but they've lost some truly inexplicable games this year against teams, that they shouldn't have lost to.
And they've also against teams that they're about equal with they've struggled in a lot of those as well. So, anyway, so Big Ten Tournament. As you know, I you Has a few days off, which is great. You know, they play on Sunday. They don't have to play again till Friday and they don't play till the end of the day on Friday and they match up against what we don't know yet, who
will, they play? But one thing I want to say there was a fascinating stat floating around that, someone dredged back up. Again from the college basketball subreddit and it had the Big Ten standings from the day after Indiana loss to Penn State. And it fall into one and four and you know what's fascinating and I think worth remembering about this IU team and for those who don't know this stat, at that point, I you had a combined roughly 6 percent chance of getting the double by bad at of
0.3 percent chance of winning. The conference is 0.8 percent chance of finishing second, a 1.8 percent chance of finishing third in a three point, three percent chance of finishing. In forth. So Indiana, managed to grab the 1.8 percent chance, from that point being one in four, got themselves into the double by. And, you know, you look around at the other teams in that mix, like, Rutgers had the injury.
But at the time they had about a 70% chance of getting a double by Ohio State, who has two and two at the time and was playing really well. Had an even higher percentage. Chance of getting a double by, I believe there was actually about it right around the same. So just kind of a name.
Something to notice in something to remember, when you talk about, the way this season went from, where it started to where it finished, you got to really like what Indiana was able to do, again, despite the injury issues that they were facing. So one thing for the Big Ten Tournament, I was thinking about this this morning when you look at kind of our half of the the bracket but I think this goes for almost any team out there and I can kind of make the argument for any other team.
I do think this breaks really well for us based on where teams kind of feelings are at and Fan bases. Because, you know, I think these are going to be damn near home. You know, it's not an indie, they're going to be home games. He's look at our side of the bracket like Minnesota Nebraska, and they're not coming there. None of my friends are showing up, Maryland. They're not flying across the right thing in a huge contingent to Chicago.
For this maybe Illinois if they win, and then beat Northwestern and then see us in the semis, but I mean, Illinois has been
sco's. So schizophrenic, I see their fans kind of being half in and then we outdrew North Western and Northwestern. So I, you know, I know there's Chicago's Big Ten Team but we're going to draw them like I see us having a much larger fan contingent of anybody on our side even if you look at the other side of the bracket it's like Michigan Rutgers or just trying to get in you know, Purdue fans will probably be there.
But there's also a bit of like man that this last year again like you know and Michigan State probably is there but like, they don't travel as much. I just I can see all of this being a really good pseudo. Home crowd for Indiana. Just feels like there's a lot of reasons for other fan bases too kind of check out or not. Make the trip all the way to Chicago. So just just throwing that out there just a thought experiment. It does feel like it should be a very partisan crowd for the Hoosiers.
Most of these games and that's mattered so much in Prior. Big Ten turn. I've got to get all these stats out of the way Scott because we don't mention them. I know you're like we're all going through treatment detecting, the growing 3 and 3. So like dude we're oh and everything. And every I want to I just want to see the good at I want. No there's not. I want to recap what Indiana's done. No. Look If we don't what mr. T say, hey if we don't do this we won't be able to speak it out
of existence. That's the best My Philosophy. So I just want to get some numbers out of the way so you can hear them and then if somebody tries to print them, you won't have to read them later on but Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament. Has the second-worst winning percentage of any team that was in the Big Ten when the Big Ten Tournament started, which was 1998. So this is fascinating to me. Indiana 15 and 24 in the Big Ten Tournament. That's a thirty eight and a half
percent winning percentage. The only original 11 team from 1998 that has a worse. Winning percentage is Northwestern who's got a 28.6% winning percentage, northwestern's 10 and 25 in that.
Span Indiana. So in the end of 15 and 24 and Penn State is 17 to 24. So Penn State of all teams, actually has a better winning percentage in the Big Ten Tournament than I, you does, I you with obviously one runner-up and zero championship appearance, is the only other teams that have that poor of a record, other than Northwestern who has neither Penn State has zero chance, Chips.
And one runner-up, Minnesota has zero championships and won runner-up, so that's it. Now, one thing I will note is that, as bad as Indiana's been Purdue has almost been as bad in terms of total win percentage. I just want to throw that in produce win percentage only 42%. They're 16 and 23 all time.
They do have one championship in for runners up so they can be Tucson. That but overall Purdue has not performed much better than I, you know, outside of those teams just mentioned every other Original Big, Ten Tito air quote original has a championship because, yeah, I'm just going think. Michigan state has won Michigan. State has six Ohio state has for Illinois. Has three Wisconsin, has three Iowa has three.
Michigan. Has to Purdue has one Minnesota, Penn State, Indiana Rutgers, Nebraska Marilyn, Northwestern. All have zero. Wow. We need what we? So what you need to do, when you're a professor in this subject, we need to dig up some records and like maybe there is a random tournament in like 1904 and 05 where University of I was part of it and so we can get them under slotted under us. No, actually there was a 1907 Big Ten, Tournament Universe Chicago, went 0 and 3 so they're
actually worse than we are. Yeah that you know that's probably not a I've looked back. There's nothing equivalent that I can point to sadly find playing at a YMCA gym or something couple other thing. Couple other things to note about the three seed and I was really I was hedging hard for
not getting the three. A seed because the three seed has been, you know, if the Big Ten Tournament is terrible for IU, the three seed is especially terrible because the three times I use been a three seed, prior to this are as follows, okay? The first was 1999, it was the second Big Ten Tournament. I, you had played pretty well that year. They were in a three-way tie for second behind Michigan state. They're the three seed. They had the late game.
I remember this very clearly because this was still the United Center and my girlfriend at the time had we had bought, she had got me tickets. It's to IU or to the Indiana Pacers Golden State Warriors game, which was going on up at Market square Arena, which is, that was still where the Pacers replying. So, Golden State suck times, like, oh, this is great. We'll go see the Pacers win, and then we'll cut back in time for the second half of the eye.
You get well, Golden State, blows the Pacers out by like 20, get in the car turn on, you know, Don Fisher and Indiana's. The three seed, keep in mind, they're playing Illinois. Who was the worst team in the Big Ten that year, and Illinois is just made that run. Ting. Aye you at the end of the first half and I you ends up losing 211 seated, Illinois by a score of 82 to 66 that was brutal.
Not only T made it all the way to the championship game that year, they ended up missing, or losing out to Michigan State and they didn't make the tournament. So that was the first time. Indiana was the three seed. The second time that Indiana was a three seed happened in 2007, and that's why you broke up with a girlfriend, right? Yeah. Just what your bad bad bad night?
No, the In time, Indiana was a three seed he had to jump forward to 2007 that was K. Samson's first-year Indiana three seed who do they play in the second round? Illinois, the 6 seed who had beaten Penn State in that was an Indiana team that, you know, was very sound, but that struggles with scoring, they end up getting taken to overtime in that game and Illinois ends up winning 50. 8250 for in
overtime. The, the next and final time that Indiana has been the three seed was the very next season, which was, of course, you know, Calvin Sampson had been forced quit. Dan, dokic is coaching the team. Indiana has stumbled down the stretch, they are the three seed. Who do they play Minnesota? What happens in that game? Was not hofstetter. That was that? That was the Blake, ha Farber shot farmer. Yes, so, that's the legacy of IU, is a three seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
I just and again that's it's emblematic of Indiana struggles over. All the history of the Big, Ten Tournament Indiana's made one final that was 2001 when they lost to Iowa with Dean Oliver and and Steve Alford is the head coach they've made wrecker. Yeah, they've made five semi finals total or suit I6 actually. 01 02 03. Had a nice run there under Mike Davis. Of course, 2006, again under Mike Davis, Iram, 2013, when they lost in the second round in Wisconsin.
And then last year people, that was there. That was there. Most recent semi-final appearance. So all that said, the one nice thing is that, you know, they get an extra day of rest and I would not like to be Maryland, sitting there likely having to play Nebraska in the second round. Nebraska has been red-hot in the Big Ten and they are going to play against Minnesota in the first game and probably win that
watch them lose. But I mean, I probably win that game on Wednesday. That's a team that could absolutely beat Maryland, on a neutral floor, either way in He gets to play either Nebraska or Minnesota or Maryland on Friday night at about nine ish eastern time and it's nice to not have to worry too much about it, you know, overall and I say that for a couple of reasons one, you know, if you're playing Maryland and you lose the game it really, it doesn't harm you much.
If you win the game, that's great. You move on. You might get to play Northwestern who's been more snake-bitten in this competition than Indiana has historically. Yeah. And if you don't play them, you're probably playing Illinois or Penn State. Both of which I think Indiana can probably beat on a neutral floor but you don't have to. And I think that's the one other thing about the Big Ten
tournament this year. It's like One of the things that people need to understand about the way the tournament is selected is that they don't just wait till Sunday morning of bracket reveal day and just do the whole field at that point. That would be, there's no time there's voting and there's like, huge lists and they got a place teams. So they start seeding the field and placing teams in those top seven, eight seed lines on like Thursday and Friday.
And by Friday night, they normally got like the top half of the field done. They may be done with that before Indiana's done playing their game on. They night. So at this point Indiana's, pretty much got their cards on the table and, you know, even if honestly, even if Nebraska were to beat them, I think it'd be too late to harm Indiana and I don't think Indiana would be necessarily improving their seating location in the NCAA
tournament even if they win. So this ends up just being kind of bonus games that Indiana could possibly go out and win but they're not like critical games for Indiana, trying to get into the field and that I think is an important thing psychologically for this team. Yeah. Yeah, and I also look at, you know, again, just personally the teams that I wanted to stay away from were Michigan State, Purdue. I just think they're both
physical teams. I think Michigan state has some real hot shooting with Walker, like they just scared, and I was really worried of getting in the 45 and just having to play Michigan State in the first year. We were the four and we played there were the five and we played them first round with that really well like being in Michigan like having a Michigan State Purdue back-to-back games.
Like that's a those are tough 40 minutes games I think for me, Just broke about as well as you possibly could ask for that between Maryland. Nebraska Minnesota.
I think that's a very winnable game and then, you know, either Illinois, Northwestern like I'm not overly terrified of either of those teams and that kind of gets you into the finals without, you know, Michigan, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, State or the teams that I think have the best kind of chance against this Indiana team and matchup as well with us as we can.
I think we match up actually best with Purdue, it's just more the physicality and I just kind of Would rather just leave it at, you know, to a know this year. So II, like all the teams that are half of the bracket, I think we match up well, with them and even if we lose, it's not going to be an overly physical game philosophically speaking.
I can't really decide what I want out of this Big Ten Tournament because I guess like, here's the thing is because it is clear to me, I know what I don't want, I don't want to go on for well, three steep that. That's that would be nice. Yes, it is clear that IU has The talent to both lose inexplicably and win games against great competition. I mean, it it's really just who knows, like you really don't know until not even till the game starts.
If you don't know to the last five minutes in most cases over him as the game starts. And it's like, oh, they're good though, they're not. So I don't know. I really I've been thinking about this like what we'll actually get this team ready for great question. The NCAA tournament like What what psychological what would be better? Is it?
Because I do a lot of people like oh just lose the first game because it's not really going to help your seating or hurt your seating and then you get extra rest and I don't know if that's the best for this team. I feel like this team thrives when it believes in itself and as much as rest is important, they're going to get five days of rest before they play on Friday and they're going to get you know, for three and a half
four. Maybe four and a half days of rest before they play their next game. And as long as nobody gets injured knock on wood, you know, would it be better for them to go out and beat a Maryland team? That beat them pretty soundly earlier in the year, would it be good in the second round to either beat a Northwestern team that barely beat them in the previous two games on a neutral floor or beat in Illinois? Team?
That's, you know, gotten hot would how what psychological Pack would it have on this team to finally win a trophy of some sort? When the Big Ten tournament for the first time in school history, when put something put a banner up, you know, even though it's the least important of the banners. It's like the you know the league cup of heart banners to get it is, right? I mean it feels like a demon that could get slayed and I
don't know. I don't feel like that outcome would have a negative impact on playing in the NCAA tournament because I think you know we talked about this I think it would make Use with you or with somebody else but this team really does act and talk like it's on a mission like they've got stuff they want to accomplish and we talked about last year how that Wyoming Game was kind of the mission accomplished of the season and they you know it's like what we
don't have anything left that we had we do that was a goal per se that we really thought we could reach here. It feels like their sights are higher than just winning a game in the NCAA tournament. And I do Wonder from the And point of how they're going to approach this game.
This the series of games psychologically, if it wouldn't be better if they had a better launch pad emotionally than just going out and doubting themselves again because they lost in the first round of the, of the Big Ten Tournament. I agree with all that. I also like, hey, do you have like, you know, the, you know, like the the, the Alzheimer's Club, you know, like Jo like a trace Jackson, Davis. You know, if they win the Big Ten Tournament walking in.
It's like there's Jared Jeffries and it's like, hey, I went to a final four is like, Yeah, final 400 Well, done that. I want a Big Ten Tournament title and everyone's like, oh, he feels like I did. Number one team in the country is like, yeah, g. Get a Big Ten Tournament title. Like I want three games in that sucker. What you got? Yeah. Now there is funny. It's like you he we've been talking about his legacy. It's like that's, he gets something. No one else has.
Yeah, that's got no, I I agree with you and I think for this team, you know, that they're not fragile. That's not the right word. But they are definitely a little finicky at times I'll say. And, you know, sometimes things get them down and takes them a little longer to get up off the mat. And I agree with you, like I don't like the idea of them, you know, beating Michigan having that moment. Like all right.
Well, you know, I was in the rearview mirror and then if they just lay an egg against Maryland, then do they spend the next, you know, talk about rest. Do they spend the next seven days just stewing on that and that, and that becomes also, that's a tough spot. Would sit in the car. What do you do? Do you rip them? Do you not like that? I don't know. Do not know the answer there. Yeah, but now you're sitting eight days, just stewing on that loss. That could feed. I'm with you.
There is something to kind of be like, hey man, let's just win them all. Got like we have, we have a, we have a relatively easy path to the championship. So to speak, you know, we're not going to see Michigan State. We're not going to be pretty Roxy Iowa. You know, let's get to the championship and then figure it out and then let's just keep winning. Like let's let's just, we only got, you know what?
Six seven eight, nine. We got nine more games, let's win them all, it's funny because a lot of people are like, well, if you, if you make it to the championship game in the Big Ten Tournament, then you're not going to be arrested and all of this and it's like, that's not really how it's worked. Like, if you go back to 2015, here's what the champion of the Big Ten tournament did in the NCAA tournament.
In 2015, Wisconsin one, they went to the title game and they lost obviously to Duke in that horrific, refereeing display, the next year. Michigan, 81, they were the two seed and they lost in the first round in Middle, Tennessee, State in 2017. Michigan. Kind of went on a surprise run as the eighth seed, they win the Big Ten Tournament. There are seven seed in the NCAA tournament and they make it to the Sweet 16 in 2018 Michigan
wins. Again, goes on a run, makes it all the way to the title game and ends up losing to Villanova 2019. Michigan state is the one seed wins. The Big Ten Tournament. Makes it all the way to the final four and Losses to Texas Tech. There was no tournament in 2020
because of covid. Indiana is, you know I think data one that we should claim that Championship we were the highest seated we're gonna have the number one all-time be you know NCAA tournament team in 76 and put up, put up the 2020, Big, Ten title Banner like just let's see. What is anything Illinois in 2021 wins as they were the
number one seed in the Midwest? And of course, they lost in the second round to Loyola. And then last year, Iowa's, the 5c goes on Ron beats Indiana in the semis beats Purdue in the final and then loses in the first round to Richmond. So there's really no Rhyme or Reason.
It's not like well if you make it to the title game, you're screwed because you're tired, but it's also not like you make it to the title game, or win the title game and you use that as a catapult, it really does come down to less about what happens in the tournament and more about where is your team at at that point in time and what are they going to do? I don't even know if it's necessarily situation where it's like, well, how well were you playing coming into?
Do it. I mean that Michigan team that was an eight seed. I mean that team at one point was they made a bit of a run towards the end of the year but they weren't anything special like they lost in Minnesota. They lost in Northwestern. They just happen to get hot at the right time. They make it to the Sweet 16, you know? That's you can do that. If you're an eye, you that that is playing well and taking, you know, doing what they need to do, that's where it's going to
be fascinating to watch. You know, I will say, the one thing I really want to see that I'm really fascinated about Not just with IU. But with everybody is like, first of all, what does I you look like on a neutral floor against other Big Ten teams because the Big Ten has been so home dominant over the course of this season that it's really been hard to get a good sense of how much teams are actually good and how much it's just team is relying on home, court advantage
or Road game disadvantage. Might be the better way of putting it because there's been some inexplicable Road performances across the board. Now that Edinburgh That broke down a little bit. At the end of the year. You think about Indiana winning at Purdue. I will winning in Indiana, Nebraska winning at Iowa.
Northwestern winning at Rutgers. You know, like, there have been some weird quirks to the the system, but I am curious to see how that goes because I think Indiana could farewell, on a neutral floor, if there were not Big Ten referees with the Big Ten referees, I'm not as sure, but that is going to be something keeping an eye on the other thing I think is going to be really fascinating to watch is You know do we see? I you you know, are they going to be?
How does Jay Lamont Ruffino adjust to knowing that the spotlight is now going to be on him? You know as he preps to try to go to the NBA draft. How does tres Jackson, Davis respond. On the one hand, I think both of those guys are cool enough customers that it's not going to affect them. I think that especially now that Trace Jackson Davis has been doing NCAA tournament the newness of that wears off. I am just curious to see everybody else perform.
Forms especially Jalen Hurd Ruffino because you know he's had his normal kind of up and down games and I think of Indiana is going to win more than a couple of games. In either of these tournaments, he's going to have to play with more consistency and at a higher level simultaneously, otherwise it might be a pretty quick trip both times. Yeah, I mean it's there's a world where I can see Indiana, you know, getting to the finals and maybe winning the term.
It's also like that's unfortunately, it's like that takes a level of consistency. We just haven't seen, you know, on a game. Now, what's interesting here is, you know, we haven't seen that may be, it may be playing that quickly, just back to back to back. Like, it doesn't give you the time to kind of have that letdown after the Purdue win and come in unprepared against Iowa.
Like Maybe this is just a, you know, but it's it's even tougher to agree with that because we look inconsistent, even within games. Like it's not like we're great one game. And then we're like, we're Michigan was a perfect example, think we're great. And then we're not and then we come on really strong at the end. So I'm I just hope to see that. We don't have one of those complete Collective Duds.
I think, as long as we can get out of the Big Ten tournament without having an Iowa, you know, 15-point loss, I'm going to feel A pretty good about our chances in the NCAA tournament. I think that's fair. You know, and I think ultimately again I don't think it matters that much will talk about the games. Obviously, as they happen we'll do a preview podcast leading into that Friday game so that we can talk about whoever it is going to be playing, but it's
going to look. I mean, ultimately I just wanted the Anna to have a good experience, nobody to get injured and and, and get their heads, ready for tournament play. Because I do think that this Indiana team when their backs are against the wall. As we saw in the Michigan, game responds, really well, Mike
Woodson's job. This week is getting this team to realize that their backs were against the wall, every game from this point forward and like they've got a they've got to bring that energy and that intensity especially on the defensive end for more of the game than they bring bringing it in all games, except that game at Purdue, that's going to be the difference between a season that people walk away. Really happy about a season that people walk away kind of
scratching their head wondering. What if I have two questions for you to wrap up. Go ahead, one is a bracket racket question, but I'll bring it on here, they'll hang out, the listen. No, but something we talked about a lot in the crean era was you know, the the non-conference scheduling not that the high level games weren't there.
But that a lot of the low level teams were in really, The Bargain Basement. And that was always hurting our seed line because we were playing your teams in the 300s. Question is I look at our schedule this year, you know, you have, you know, Morehead State Bethune cookman your 252 346. You know, Miami Ohio, Little Rock Jackson State or 267 323 298. Amusing can Palm numbers Ilan and Kennesaw State elon's 338 you can say it's better there 129, I think they just made the
tournament they did. But every other team that I mentioned is, you know, your your the 250s you're in the 300s that reminiscent of crean era scheduling my question to you for bracket bracket, like if we sub out some of you know, Bethune-Cookman and Elon if we sold those teams out, Kennesaw State type teams in that ranking era is that was holding us back from a three seed or is that hurting our numbers enough, like
it does well under. Like I agree with it in the Korean era but it seems like no one's been talking about it with this year's team that a lot of our bad teams we played were really that. Well, it's a good question. I think, you know, look what I would say to people on the schedule is as follows Indiana. If you look at a fish, And see margin played the 14th toughest schedule in the country this
year. And then they'll and now, that's because 20 of those 31 games came against Big, Ten teams. And that's what you have to keep in mind. I mean, if you go back and look at crean era teams that they don't look as good, you know, in 2014 that was the 58th toughest schedule 51st toughest schedule in 2015, 2016, Indiana played the 65th toughest schedule. You know, even in the 2013 season, Indiana played the 17 toughest schedule and in the 2012 season and played the 15th toughest.
So this this season's worth of teams that Indiana played against was actually tougher by comparison. Then what 2012 and 2013 played against. I think my theory on this is as follows that yes, from a seating perspective, you might do slightly better if you raise the floor. But I don't think it matters that much in terms of seating because what gets you high? Higher in the seed list. As we see with the big 12 is playing against quad one teams and beating them.
And all you're doing with your strength of schedule stuff by, you know, eliminating the the 250 to 350 teams and subbing in 150 to 250 teams is, you're bulking up the overall quality of your schedule but you're not giving yourself the top end games that you would need to compete. And I think the big problem right now that what's holding
Indiana back is Two things, one. If you look at Let's take a team like Marquette. They're relatively comparable to Indiana in terms of the winds that they've got told. I mean they have six quad one wins Indiana's. Got five, marquette's got five, quad 2 wins Indiana's got six. What the difference is quite simply. That India has got more losses than Marquette and that's why Marquette is going to be seated higher than them.
If you look at a team like I'm trying to get another good example here to give you well let's take Baylor. Okay. Baylor You know, who's a 2 seed? And as Ben was knocking on the 1 seed or Baylor's, got 11 quad, one wins and and of those 11 quad one wins I think like seven or eight of them are Road in neutral.
And the problem is just a big 10 wasn't that strong, they weren't that top-heavy like the big 12 was because the Big 12 collectively said we're going to schedule stronger non-conference games. And that led to a situation in the net where a lot of teams just like Oklahoma. Who's frankly a pretty sucky team? Yes, they blew Alabama out, but, but on the whole for the season, they were pretty sucky but that's a tier 1 win, you know?
So I think that that's really what's holding you back, seating wise, if I, you would one, you know, any of the road games that they lost Maryland Penn State Rutgers Northwestern Iowa. You know, if any of the ones that would have been like halfway within shouting distance or you know I mean that those games would have been Quad one right there. And that pushes you over the edge. But Indiana, they played plenty of games.
They got you know this season was kind of weird because the Big 12 had so many quad one wins. So you can either win a bunch of games and have enough quad one wins or you could just have a bunch of your wins. Be quad, one wins and Indiana. Unfortunately had neither in this case. Yeah, I'd still like to get out of the 300 ranked. Well, I mean, I will say and if I didn't want to get too much into scheduling philosophy, I I
agree with you. I also think that Mike Woodson We looked at this team and said, this is a team that's gonna have to learn how to play differently than they played last year because I'm going to have essentially two point guards and a bunch of role players are going to try to figure out how to play in the very specific roles. And I think he looked at it and said, I had a tinkerer and experiment and get, guys comfortable. I got a freshman that's going to play a lot of minutes.
I don't want to put a situation where we're playing a bunch of, like teams that can scare you. Because remember, you know, with no Xavier Johnson, and with a struggling jail and Hood pheno Indiana, I had really rough outings against Ilan and Kennesaw State that Kennesaw State game was pretty close. And that's the tricky part of playing. Those sorts of teams is that they're not bad, you know? I mean, Kennesaw State. He said they're going to NCAA tournament, you know you want it.
Morehead State would have probably been an NCAA tournament team. I mean, they were the one seed in the Ohio Valley, so that's where it does get a little bit tricky as like, you got to schedule the right mid-level teams as opposed to just scheduling ones that are available. Horrible and you have to know what your team needs. Ultimately in order to make it
work, that's fair. The other thing you mentioned is Xavier Johnson, I think the last question I think it's a good time to mention it because will quickly get into Big Ten tournament and still a tournament. Like I'm curious your thoughts on the call to let's first take of discussion. Let's just assume you know that we don't know his health and that he's not be if he's being held back because he's not healthy. Then obviously it's the right decision. But let's say for sake of argument.
Sake. Let's just assume that maybe he could have played, he could have provided, you know, 5 or 10 minutes a game for the next three or four weeks two part question. Like what do you like the decision and then B being the Seer of seers with the n-c-double-a? Do you think he gets the exemption to play next year? Well, I mean, I'm, let's put it
this way. I don't think, I don't think I you and Xavier Johnson. Specifically would have, you know, put out that statement if they didn't feel pretty good
about getting a waiver. Yeah, you know, I've heard some some fascinating things about that whole process that that aren't really suitable for podcasting but it's an interesting situation because I think ultimately I think Xavier Johnson would have played if he was medically ready to play, you know, and I think that ultimately if there's a question mark about whether his contributions would be available or if he was going to potentially injure himself, I
don't think they're just going to hold him out because I don't, I mean, look, Xavier Johnson's. How old is David, Johnson? He's 24 or yeah. He's, he's he's not, he's not a spring chicken in college basketball leaders. When is his birthday? 10 1499. Nine. So he will be 24 that, right? Yeah, 23, 24, years old before the start of the upcoming season. That's pretty old for a college
basketball player. It's not unheard of in the covid era or if you're BYU, but it's, you know, but it's one of those things where it is unusual. I look, I'll say this. When we didn't see Xavier Johnson back by mid-February, I had a sneaking suspicion that we might end up with not saying in back at all and, you know, Goes back to a lot of things we
talked about. Like you don't want to rush a guy Mike. Woodson certainly has his own experience rushing back as part of the process, but I also think Johnson and his family likely had, you know, a lot of conversations about what's really going to be best.
And if you have a chance at getting another year of college basketball, particularly in an era where you can make upwards of a million dollars as a college basketball player, know you're going to lead a team like Indiana, you know, you're going to come in and be the starting point guard. Yeah. And and, you know that even if he went elsewhere, and I don't think he would go elsewhere because he's already got everything set up here.
But even if he were to say, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to transfer somewhere else. This is a different era than what you would have before. And I think without ni L, this is a no-brainer. If he could play, he would play. But if you couldn't play, he would just be done. And I mean, the whole process of going back and trying to get a waiver, you know, that process
is largely there. I think because you can, you can, you can make some Bank, you can get, you can play another, you're a basketball and Yo, I mean Xavier Johnson going to get a real shot at the NBA. Probably not. Is he going to go overseas? I don't know. I mean, I'm assuming he'll try to play for at least a couple of years, but if you can, like, why not put yourself in a position where you could come back and play again.
If you weren't actually able to come back and contribute and I look, I think he he likely had it in his mind that he was going to get right and be able to come back and contribute and be up and running and it would have been great if he was able to To but it's I have to think that this was a decision that made a lot of sense all the way around in order for it to come out and be made. And I'm just glad they made the announcement, you know, before the game but I think it was
interesting. Because remember, the original announcement, I think was that do I have this right? That the original announcement was that he was going to go through senior night and then yes. And then he didn't go through senior night which that, that old the whole timing and everything really is
interesting. And that's what makes me think that the waiver is more likely than not because I can't imagine That he would have pulled out a senior night only to never get a chance to like say anything to the crowd because the waiver didn't go through again. Not I don't know what's going to happen. I don't have any inside information. I just think that sequence kind of tells you that they feel pretty good about the process.
No, I agree and if you I obviously know nothing but you know he hasn't dressed since his injury but then the Iowa game, he was dressed and he was in a uniform. Now he didn't play. But it's if at that point he knew He's going for the medical Redshirt, you probably wouldn't suit up. I mean, he wasn't even just wearing his warm-ups like he was at the Jersey like he just was ready to rip off the candy stripes and go.
So like that was also odd that then he's back to street clothes after saying, I like this, I like detective Scott here, doing doing some forensics. I needed. I hadn't thought about that, but that's, that's a good Shout by you, it's interesting. Yeah, no I agree and I think, you know, from from Woodson's Did I think there's a lot, you know, there's always a part where it's like, God, if you could just get, you know, ten minutes of, you know, good Xavier, good and healthy Xavier Johnson.
It brings so much this team. But, you know, you're asking a lot and, you know, it's just, it's a long time to be off and you're coming into high pressure games. And if you're Woodson is like, do I want to risk everything? And this guy is, you know, risk, another year of Xavier just on what could be a game and a half or two games, when from a program, Aim high level perspective.
This makes a lot of sense because now like it Shores up basically a big question mark going into next season, you know if well jail hit Ruffino and you lose, you know, you're losing a little you know three starters and your point guard now it's like all right. Well now we have a point guard, that's one spot in the portal. We don't need to get because there's gonna be a lot of question marks this team next
year. Now, you've kind of already you theoretically gone into the portal and got somebody, you got save your jobs. Well and I think there's one other important point and and you essentially brought it up there already. But the portal just much like ni L, the portal changes the whole equation because it's like, you know, under normal circumstances if I'm Xavier Johnson and I'm looking at potentially coming back and playing it, I you for
another year. I'm like, really like no Trace Jackson Davis. No, no miller cop, no race Thompson. You have a very unsettled frontcourt. You've, you're not going to jail. Hit your fee. No. So you're going to be alone in the backcourt with what with Trey Galloway was, you know, not
a bad running mate. But there's not very much else that's proven on this team, you know, I mean you've got some interesting pieces that have done a few things this year and Malik renew and Caleb Banks. You've got Tamar Bates who's been a big question mark, you've got CJ gun who's barely played, but the portal means, I think I use going to be a big player in the portal, this upcoming offseason.
I mean, I use got the money, they've got the cash a they, you know, they view their going to put to play. Is potentially the first round of the NCAA tournament. Maybe one player in the lottery there, you know, they they finished in the probably going to finish in the top fifteen sixteen, the polls there. The three seed in the Big Ten tournament. They're going to be a top four seed unless something drastic that we don't know about has happened with the selection committee.
I use got some juice right now and I use going to be a really attractive destination for some top level players who are going to be like, whoo playing time at a program that matters nationally again. N and then enter your point. Like if you're Woodson to you're hitting it, it's like now I also like I can sell. Hey, if you're a swing man, I got a point guard for you, but this is not theirs. That's one question mark, we don't need. So if I'm a, you know, I'm a 69 Trio, portal guy.
It's like, back up. His Avery Johnson like that dude. Knows how to run a big 10 team like I can go and like I know I'm gonna get the ball in the right spot. We'll see what happens. But yeah, that would be my take on things and we'll see. I mean, I'm really fascinated to see how it all plays out and I hope he's back and I hope he gets the waiver and I and you
know, I'm not here. Yeah. And I wasn't more power to and look and we'll say it's like that's a guy when he's at his, Apex he is one of the top, passers and assist man in the country. And that's going to be attractive for somebody to come in and want to play with. And and he would be the Undisputed leader. Of the team, you know? I mean that that is and that's something he really hasn't had throughout his time in college and so it'll be interesting to
see what happens. Certainly anyway, alright, we are going to wrap up. Thank you Scott as always look forward to talking to you later in the week, we hope that everybody out there in basketball and enjoys what they're watching this week. Thanks to Folks at the back home network and thanks, don't feel apparel. Thanks. Don't you folks, for listening for Scott, I'm Galen. This is Crimson cast. We will catch you folks on the flip side.
Side IU plays Friday at nine ish, will podcast some time before that to talk about their opponent. Bring back the Bison. So long, everybody.