Indiana Basketball 2024-25

Omar said:
Smart would be a bust, his tenure at Texas proves he's not capable of coaching at big name programs. Things didn't really go sideways for IU until nearly a decade after Knight was fire, with the Kelvin Sampson scandal.
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Not sure what happened at Texas, but I really don't consider Texas a big time basketball program. It's a football school and has had some marginal success in hoops.
 
14Red said:
Not sure what happened at Texas, but I really don't consider Texas a big time basketball program. It's a football school and has had some marginal success in hoops.
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The resources are infinite regardless if it’s the Beta sport.
 
14Red said:
Yes, no doubt about that. However I thing some of the IU faithful - me included, think the days of being in the top 10 regularly and winning national championships are a regular occurrence. That's just not happening anymore. I never thought Notre Dame football would ever be relevant again, but here they are.
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Basketball is a lot easier to turn around. Louisville is probably the 2nd best team in the ACC and they were far worse than what IU is now.
 
Basketball you can flip the entire roster in one off-season. The right coach would have them as one of the top 4-5 teams in the Big Ten year 1.
 
Omar said:
Basketball is a lot easier to turn around. Louisville is probably the 2nd best team in the ACC and they were far worse than what IU is now.
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You're 100% correct. And sadly with NIL and the transfer portal, it's going to be hard to maintain consistency in basketball programs. I do think a template could be this, recruit the RIGHT guys - who are going to likely stick with you, around 60-75% of your roster, then add / subtract the other 25-40% of your roster annually. Hopefully if you do things right, the bulk of your team will adhere to the culture you want. I think a program like Purdue excells at this. Michigan State.
 
How about those Hoosiers? Michigan State, putting together a great season, IU falling apart. Hoosier go to East Lansing last night and beat the Spartans. The maddening part of this IU season is the ceiling is so high, and the floor is so low. Just last week, IU was down 26-4 at Wisconsin. Woodson has stopped doing pre and post game interviews with the radio team. He's done.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Same with OSU and that basketball program is an absolute dumpster fire
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I've never understood why OSU hoops don't get the same billing as the football program. Part of it is the basketball team actually has to go out an put together a program and work to win, Buckeye football just has more talent year over year and will win 10 games because the big ten just isn't great. But you'd think basketball would get some respect. I thought Thad Matta was a great coach and had some really good teams there, two final four teams I believe.
 
You gotta feel the ghost of Bob Knight was at the Breslin Center last night, knocking shot away from the rim for the Spartans. I'm so happy Izzo didn't break the record against the Hoosiers. No one whines more than Izzo.
 
14Red said:
I've never understood why OSU hoops don't get the same billing as the football program. Part of it is the basketball team actually has to go out an put together a program and work to win, Buckeye football just has more talent year over year and will win 10 games because the big ten just isn't great. But you'd think basketball would get some respect. I thought Thad Matta was a great coach and had some really good teams there, two final four teams I believe.
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Thad Matta was an elite RECRUITER but was the worse X’s and O’s coach OSU has ever had. He won with his players and nothing else, that’s why he never won a title and underachieved alot of seasons. He made the NC game in 07 because Oden was the most talented player in OSU basketball history.

It all starts with the coach. OSU has to land a big name who can recruit AND coach. Not one or the other. Jim O’Brien was the inverse of Thad. Great coach and AWFUL recruiter
 
Omar said:
But the expectations are still insanely high, they fired Thad Matta after multiple Final 4s.
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They fired Matta after a few missed tournaments and they didn’t make the NIT his final year. Once he stopped recruiting at an elite level he was done. Just look how bad he’s doing at Butler. Once he lost his recruiting touch he was done. A great COACH could navigate around that like Brad Steven’s for example

Yes expectations SHOULD be high. This is OSU and not Iowa. What Illinois has been doing in basketball is the level OSU should be operating on every single season. THAT is the expectation
 
Spartacus1987 said:
They fired Matta after a few missed tournaments and they didn’t make the NIT his final year. Once he stopped recruiting at an elite level he was done.

Yes expectations SHOULD be high. This is OSU and not Iowa. What Illinois has been doing in basketball is the level OSU should be operating on every single season. THAT is the expectation
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You’re missing the broader point, Smart isn’t built for the IU job. That would be a disaster
 
Omar said:
You’re missing the broader point, Smart isn’t built for the IU job. That would be a disaster
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No he’s not. Terrible hire for IU. Sometimes I wonder if Bob Knight WAS the IU program as they really haven’t had much success outside of him.
 
Indiana basketball coaching wish list - in no particular order

Steve Alford
Brad Stephens
Shaka Smart
Mick Cronin
Rick Barnes
Buzz Williams
Mark Few
Jay Wright
Chris Beard
Nate Oats
Brad Underwood
Greg McDermott
Michael Lewis
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Thad Matta was an elite RECRUITER but was the worse X’s and O’s coach OSU has ever had. He won with his players and nothing else, that’s why he never won a title and underachieved alot of seasons. He made the NC game in 07 because Oden was the most talented player in OSU basketball history.

It all starts with the coach. OSU has to land a big name who can recruit AND coach. Not one or the other. Jim O’Brien was the inverse of Thad. Great coach and AWFUL recruiter
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Matta won a bunch of games in Columbus. As time goes on the X's and O's become less important.
 
14Red said:
Matta won a bunch of games in Columbus. As time goes on the X's and O's become less important.
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Tell that to Dan Hurley. Back to back titles and is the best coach I’ve seen in awhile

Matta had a lot of success but none of it had to do with his coaching. It was glorified street ball out there. Nothing changed under Holtmann or Diebler either
 
Spartacus1987 said:
No he’s not. Terrible hire for IU. Sometimes I wonder if Bob Knight WAS the IU program as they really haven’t had much success outside of him.
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Maybe but they weren’t having much success at the end of his career either. They are situationed pretty well geographically being near Indianapolis & Chicago, so recruiting shouldn’t be too difficult.
 
Omar said:
Maybe but they weren’t having much success at the end of his career either. They are situationed pretty well geographically being near Indianapolis & Chicago, so recruiting shouldn’t be too difficult.
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He won 3 titles and and did not miss the tournament at least in his final 10 seasons. Didn't care to look much more. Guy is in the top 5 best college coaches of all time. Came from the Fred Taylor coaching tree, same as my Grandpa
 
Spartacus1987 said:
He won 3 titles and and did not miss the tournament at least in his final 10 seasons. Didn't care to look much more. Guy is in the top 5 best college coaches of all time. Came from the Fred Taylor coaching tree, same as my Grandpa
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He didn’t make it past the 1st weekend of the tournament his last 5 seasons. He was too stubborn to adapt, he would’ve eventually drug IU down to hell with him because he cared more about his ego than winning. Coach K surpassed him in the later stage of his career because he changed with the times.
 
Omar said:
He didn’t make it past the 1st weekend of the tournament his last 5 seasons. He was too stubborn to adapt, he would’ve eventually drug IU down to hell with him because he cared more about his ego than winning.
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It's not like he fell completely off either and missed NCAA tournaments. Look at what Indiana has been since he left.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
It's not like he fell completely off either and missed NCAA tournaments. Look at what Indiana has been since he left.
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Only slightly worse. Knight was great in his prime but IU fans need to stop glazing him bc he was declining fast. He didn’t have IU’s best interests in mind, he only cared about things being done his way. He’d rather lose doing things his way, than adapt and win.
 
To the last few posters on Knight. I'm not sure he didn't adapt, he just wasn't going to play the games that other schools did to get players and change the game he perfected as a coach. As far as adapting. he won a title in 1987 after the shot clock and 3 point line was installed. He was opposed to those rules but actually used the 3 point line with Steve Alford as a weapon on the way to winning it all in 87. I'd say one of the his best teams to not win was the 1992/ 93 team with Calbert Cheney, Greg Graham, Alan Henderson and Damon Bailey. That team went 31-4, 17-1 in the big ten. Henderson sustained a knee injury late in the season and really kept that team from achieving all they could.

Yes, the dynamics changed and Knight struggle to move along. He'd coached one way his whole life and wasn't going to succumb to the shoe companies and others getting at kids. Yet many want to criticize him for doing what he felt was right?
 
Back on the court, what a great 2nd half by the Hoosiers yesterday. It really looked like the old Assembly Hall where teams just come in and go brain dead in stretches. Purdue played a horrific second half and IU turned a 12 point halftime deficit into a rout. Oddly, Mackenzie Mgbako was a non-factor yesterday. He and Ballo didn't start and although Ballo came in and contributed well, Mgback played very few minutes. Makes you wonder what may be going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, if I were the IU AD today, I'd go into Woodson's office. Tell him great win, you've been a Hoosier legend on the floor, and he's done for the rest of the way. What a great way to send him out, big win against our rival. He's not fully engaged anyway. He's not doing the pre/ post game interviews on radio anymore or the Monday coaches show. I'd send him along.
 
2 down, 2 to go. IU beats Penn State and goes to Washington and wins. Now trip to Oregon before coming home to finish with the Buckeyes.

IU playing it's best basketball of the season now, if they can somehow find away into the tournament, they could win a game or two.
 
Had not been on this thread for a while but I'm stunned that some on here are bad-mouthing Bob Knight. Without question a top 3-5 college coach of all time. The man could coach circles around most everyone. And I'm an OSU fan - rooted against him every time IU took the floor.
 
eastisbest said:
ESPN predicting IU - Xavier. Aren't these in Dayton? The arena will break. Going to be rocking with that match-up.
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I was hoping to hit one of the Dayton play in games so that’s not great for me lol. Going to be a pricey ticket if that’s a match up.
 
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