Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 548: IU basketball routs Kansas State and an Old Oaken Bucket game preview

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POTB 548: IU basketball routs Kansas State and an Old Oaken Bucket game preview · Podcast on the Brink

0:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcast on the Brink.
0:21
Speaker 1: It's Black Friday, November twenty eighth. Indiana basketball with a
0:29
Speaker 1: convincing eighty six sixty nine win against Kansas State earlier
0:33
Speaker 1: in the week. Didn't get a chance to really recap
0:36
Speaker 1: that in podcast format given the tight schedule of the
0:40
Speaker 1: late Tuesday game turn around to Thanksgiving. So I'm going
0:44
Speaker 1: to do a little bit of that today on this
0:45
Speaker 1: week's episode of Podcast on the Brain with Josh Hoose
0:48
Speaker 1: of Inside the Hall. Also going to talk the old
0:51
Speaker 1: Oapen Bucket Game, which is coming up tonight in West Lafayette.
0:55
Speaker 1: Indiana football chance to make history with an undefeated regular season,
1:01
Speaker 1: book its trip to the Big Ten championship game next
1:04
Speaker 1: weekend in Indianapolis before we get to Josh. If you
1:09
Speaker 1: enjoy the show, please leave us the rating and review
1:10
Speaker 1: over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Over on YouTube, we are
1:14
Speaker 1: now over nine thousand subscribers still on our March to
1:20
Speaker 1: ten thousand, so like the video if you're watching over there,
1:22
Speaker 1: subscriber to the channel, really appreciate all the support.
1:26
Speaker 2: Josh.
1:28
Speaker 1: You're back in Chicago getting ready for the drive to
1:33
Speaker 1: West Lafayette and then back to Bloomington for a basketball game.
1:36
Speaker 1: Going to be a eventful twenty four hours for you.
1:39
Speaker 1: How's the what's the weather forecast looking like? I've seen
1:42
Speaker 1: some snow maps that looks like might be some snow
1:46
Speaker 1: in the Chicago Northern Indiana areas. So how's that looking
1:50
Speaker 1: on your end of things for.
1:52
Speaker 2: Travel later today?
1:53
Speaker 3: Today? We're looking good Tomorrow. I'm glad I won't be
1:57
Speaker 3: here to shovel or snowblow. About six inch is right
2:00
Speaker 3: near the lake, so I think Bloomington's gonna get one
2:04
Speaker 3: to three on Saturday. I'm not gonna escape the snow completely,
2:08
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna escape the dreaded lake effects snow, so
2:12
Speaker 3: I cannot complain.
2:14
Speaker 1: But six inches for Chicago, that's like nothing, right, That's
2:17
Speaker 1: just a normal day, like where I live in Louisville.
2:22
Speaker 1: You know, if you get six inches of snow, school
2:25
Speaker 1: shut down for a couple of days. It's not like
2:27
Speaker 1: that in Chicago.
2:28
Speaker 3: Right, No, we actually it's funny, like we don't cancel
2:33
Speaker 3: school unless it's in the negatives in wind chill, and
2:38
Speaker 3: then I think it's about like seven or eight inches
2:41
Speaker 3: in the morning. So I went to school. People drive,
2:45
Speaker 3: they don't drive well, the first few snows of the year,
2:49
Speaker 3: it's anarchy on the roads. But people tend to figure
2:53
Speaker 3: it out by January or February.
2:57
Speaker 1: So you missed Tuesday's game, the hell you weren't there?
3:01
Speaker 1: You didn't get to meet your favorite baseball player, Colson Montgomery. Like,
3:04
Speaker 1: I just noticed you got your White Sox hat on there.
3:07
Speaker 1: I mean, were you You texted me that he was there,
3:11
Speaker 1: and then I went and found him and talked to him.
3:14
Speaker 2: Was that?
3:14
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of feel like I missed opportunity
3:16
Speaker 1: for you, right, not not to be there when future
3:19
Speaker 1: al MVP couls some Montgomery is sitting right behind the
3:22
Speaker 1: scores table watching some AU basketball.
3:25
Speaker 3: Not only is he a future of al MVP, he's
3:28
Speaker 3: the teammate of some great White Sox players of a rebuild,
3:31
Speaker 3: so he definitely has some stories. So I was I
3:35
Speaker 3: got it. I think I saw his Instagram story and
3:39
Speaker 3: just felt like a sinking in my heart that I
3:41
Speaker 3: wasn't there. That that that that's someone that I want
3:46
Speaker 3: to meet eventually. I know, I know you guy. You
3:48
Speaker 3: guys talk shop. Probably whatever he gave whatever they gave
3:52
Speaker 3: him at the Arizona Complex League, they he gave you,
3:55
Speaker 3: so you're gonna be hitting fifteen home runs in the
3:57
Speaker 3: next two months.
3:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was wait. I was hoping. I asked him
4:01
Speaker 2: about that.
4:01
Speaker 1: I was hoping for like a juicy story of some
4:04
Speaker 1: crazy thing, and he said basically just said I needed
4:07
Speaker 1: to get out there and clear my mind.
4:08
Speaker 2: So and then I also asked him, which I love this.
4:10
Speaker 1: I was like, I told him, you know, it was
4:14
Speaker 1: a lot of fun watching you in the second half.
4:16
Speaker 1: It was just like every day it was a homer
4:18
Speaker 1: and he's just like smiling and nod in his head.
4:20
Speaker 1: I was like, did you even surprise yourself at one
4:23
Speaker 1: point with all the homers? He's like, no, I knew
4:25
Speaker 1: I could hit like that. So I'm like, I love
4:27
Speaker 1: the I love the confidence. I mean, I guess that's
4:30
Speaker 1: kind of how you have to roll when you're gonna
4:31
Speaker 1: hit that level. He was like, what twenty two homers
4:34
Speaker 1: after the break? So again, enough White Sox chatter for
4:37
Speaker 1: this podcast. But I just had to bring that up
4:39
Speaker 1: because I know you you were the one that tipped
4:41
Speaker 1: me off if he was there, so appreciate the heads
4:43
Speaker 1: up on that. To the game itself. Eighty six sixty nine,
4:47
Speaker 1: I really felt like Indiana could have won by more
4:49
Speaker 1: if it would have made more threes. It wasn't like
4:52
Speaker 1: they shot particularly well. What were your key takeaways? Obviously
4:56
Speaker 1: a lot was written in the aftermath about Connor Enright,
4:59
Speaker 1: a lot was written about Read Bailey going from just
5:05
Speaker 1: a little tentative in the first half to complete a
5:08
Speaker 1: complete flip of the of the switch for him in
5:10
Speaker 1: terms of just being aggressive, grabbing rebounds, being strong with
5:14
Speaker 1: the ball, getting to the free throw line. What were
5:18
Speaker 1: what were your thoughts as you as you watched the
5:20
Speaker 1: game from afar in Indiana? Now six and zero, this
5:23
Speaker 1: has been kind of a dreams start for the Darren
5:25
Speaker 1: Debrees era.
5:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good start with the Darren debris era.
5:29
Speaker 3: But what I noticed, well, first of all, the ten
5:33
Speaker 3: to three pointers by the first meet, by the first
5:35
Speaker 3: media timeout, those were all takes. I think it was
5:37
Speaker 3: three for ten that by like the fifteen to thirty
5:41
Speaker 3: mark of that first half. It seemed a bit excessive,
5:45
Speaker 3: but a decent chunk of them were open threes. You
5:48
Speaker 3: had Lamar Wilkerson. I think it was a two on
5:50
Speaker 3: one in a two to nothing game, pull up from
5:52
Speaker 3: about thirty feet and you just don't see that very often.
5:56
Speaker 3: He never really saw that in the last give it
5:59
Speaker 3: eight years or so. But what I really liked is
6:03
Speaker 3: that in the second half, when shots weren't falling, that
6:07
Speaker 3: they went to more of an inside game, that they
6:11
Speaker 3: tried to push the floor. They shot too is most
6:13
Speaker 3: of them were, I think all of them were in
6:15
Speaker 3: the paint. Got twenty two to three pointers in the
6:18
Speaker 3: first half, eleven in the second half because they weren't
6:21
Speaker 3: really falling. They let Kansas State back in the game
6:24
Speaker 3: by taking some ill advised three point shots instead of
6:27
Speaker 3: moving the ball and trying to get two point shots,
6:30
Speaker 3: and they pushed that lead out. I think it started
6:33
Speaker 3: early in that second half where they started getting fast breaks,
6:36
Speaker 3: they started running the floor, and it kind of just
6:39
Speaker 3: stretched the lead. And that's what India needs to do.
6:41
Speaker 3: They need to recognize that if the three point shots
6:44
Speaker 3: not falling, you can't shoot a team back into the game.
6:47
Speaker 3: That's what they did in the first half, and then
6:49
Speaker 3: they shot a team out of the game, but only
6:51
Speaker 3: with two point shots.
6:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, the thing I've been impressed with overall, just in
6:56
Speaker 1: terms of how this team is played. They most of
7:00
Speaker 1: their shots are coming either from three or at the rim.
7:04
Speaker 1: Obviously they're pretty good when they get in transition, but
7:08
Speaker 1: defensively they're doing a good job of It's hard to
7:13
Speaker 1: stop teams from shooting threes because there's you know, teams
7:16
Speaker 1: that can space the flour and move the ball around.
7:19
Speaker 2: You can get a three.
7:20
Speaker 1: It might be contested, but they've done a good job
7:22
Speaker 1: of contesting those looks, but chasing got teams off of
7:25
Speaker 1: the three point line and forcing them into long twos.
7:28
Speaker 1: You watch a lot of these games. Indiana's their two
7:32
Speaker 1: point field goal percentage defense is really good, and you
7:34
Speaker 1: would look at that and say, well, how is that
7:36
Speaker 1: because they don't have a lot of rim protection, they
7:38
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of bigs. Well, the shot diet
7:42
Speaker 1: that they're forcing opponents into is a lot of long twos,
7:46
Speaker 1: and I think Kansas State kind of fell into that
7:48
Speaker 1: trap a little bit. Kansas State wanted to get up
7:50
Speaker 1: more threes than they did. I think they took I
7:52
Speaker 1: think they were eight for twenty, which is pretty good night,
7:55
Speaker 1: but the game looks a little different if they can
7:59
Speaker 1: get up thirty or thirty five, and they didn't because
8:01
Speaker 1: Indiana was right there on the contest on a lot
8:04
Speaker 1: of catches and they were aggressive in terms of closeouts,
8:07
Speaker 1: and they made Kansas State put the ball on the
8:09
Speaker 1: floor and get into that kind of that no man's land,
8:11
Speaker 1: which is to me, you know, fifteen to eighteen feet.
8:15
Speaker 1: If you can force teams consistently to take that shot,
8:19
Speaker 1: that's a win because you're gonna win a lot of
8:21
Speaker 1: games doing that. So that was impressive to me. And
8:24
Speaker 1: then the thing that really just stood out to me
8:26
Speaker 1: from the opening tip And I'm curious to get your
8:28
Speaker 1: thoughts on this because you've watched him play more than me.
8:31
Speaker 1: And I remember sitting in Darren Debreese's office in late
8:34
Speaker 1: June and we were talking about this team and I
8:37
Speaker 1: asked him about Connor in right, and you know, he
8:39
Speaker 1: told me, you know, IU fans are gonna love this guy.
8:42
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of fans who the first
8:44
Speaker 1: couple of games were kind of waiting to see, like what,
8:48
Speaker 1: what are we gonna love about this guy? Yeah, we
8:49
Speaker 1: see his attitude, We see that he plays with a
8:51
Speaker 1: little flair, we see that he plays hard. But they
8:55
Speaker 1: didn't see a lot in terms of the stat sheet.
8:58
Speaker 1: But the other night, I think they saw what Connor
9:01
Speaker 1: and Wright can be just in terms of an agitator
9:04
Speaker 1: on defense. I think that's the best word to use
9:05
Speaker 1: one because he just you know, I was sitting there
9:07
Speaker 1: on Fisher Row. He was under PJ. Haggerty's skin from
9:10
Speaker 1: the opening tip. Not that Haggarty ever really reacted to
9:16
Speaker 1: any of it, but you could tell he kept looking
9:18
Speaker 1: over at the bench, like at his coach, like, what
9:20
Speaker 1: are we going to do to get this guy off me?
9:21
Speaker 3: Like that?
9:22
Speaker 1: Like there was no no break for him the whole game.
9:26
Speaker 1: And then offensively, he made a couple of three pointers.
9:29
Speaker 1: You know, he did a pretty good job taking care
9:31
Speaker 1: of the ball. And again, he's never going to be
9:35
Speaker 1: a guy that stands out with a ton of numbers
9:40
Speaker 1: on the stat sheep in the night. But I think
9:43
Speaker 1: that performance of the night earned him a ton of
9:45
Speaker 1: respect with the IU fan base, and I think he's
9:48
Speaker 1: going to be a guy now that people are no
9:50
Speaker 1: longer questioning why he's in the starting lineup, because if
9:52
Speaker 1: he can go out and play defensively like that against PJ.
9:55
Speaker 1: Haggert team, Let's let's be clear about this. He was
9:58
Speaker 1: averaging twenty eight points per game coming in. He's a
10:01
Speaker 1: borderline All American type player and he's going to be
10:04
Speaker 1: one of the better guards in INDIANFA this all season,
10:07
Speaker 1: and and Right effectively shut him out of the game.
10:10
Speaker 1: I mean, to only let Haggerdy score sixteen points and
10:14
Speaker 1: have the amount of turnovers he did is a major
10:16
Speaker 1: win for Indiana.
10:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:19
Speaker 3: I've been watching Connor Enright really since his sophomore year
10:22
Speaker 3: of high school. He's from my area. He's in the
10:25
Speaker 3: conference at Monde Line, and he's the same exact player
10:30
Speaker 3: than he was eight years ago when I started watching him,
10:34
Speaker 3: just this tough, hard nose. It's crazy that he played
10:38
Speaker 3: that role that he that we saw on Tuesday, that
10:42
Speaker 3: we saw in the Marquette game while also being the
10:45
Speaker 3: star player. He was just an agitator. Opposing student sections
10:50
Speaker 3: hated him, mostly because of his hair. They would make
10:54
Speaker 3: fun of him. That he willed a team a program
10:57
Speaker 3: that was really down in the dumps and a bunch
11:01
Speaker 3: of homegrown guys and he was the star. And if
11:04
Speaker 3: it weren't for COVID, he had been a state champion
11:06
Speaker 3: in high school. So I've been following his career because
11:10
Speaker 3: I like to follow the guys up in this area.
11:13
Speaker 3: So nothing has changed with connoran Right, even at his
11:16
Speaker 3: days with the Paul. He played more of a sixth
11:19
Speaker 3: man role there. But this is exactly what this Indiana
11:25
Speaker 3: team needs. They don't need a bunch of stars, they
11:27
Speaker 3: don't need a bunch of scorers. And he'll probably be
11:30
Speaker 3: the first one to tell you I'm not gonna stock
11:31
Speaker 3: the staff stat sheet. But then you look at the
11:33
Speaker 3: stat sheet. I think he had six rebounds, which was
11:35
Speaker 3: a team high. He flies in for rebounds. He made PJ.
11:40
Speaker 3: Haggerty stay in purgatory for thirty six minutes. So I
11:45
Speaker 3: really like what he brings to this team. A lot
11:48
Speaker 3: of people have said, oh, wait for Nick dorm to
11:51
Speaker 3: come back, he'll be starting. I don't think so. I
11:54
Speaker 3: think this is exactly in this starting five. You don't
11:58
Speaker 3: need another offensive guy. And the defensive numbers are looking
12:02
Speaker 3: really good through six games, which is kind of a
12:06
Speaker 3: surprise to most people said, Oh, Darren de Brees is
12:09
Speaker 3: going to have a bunch of offense. They're going to
12:11
Speaker 3: play a bunch offense. They're going to be a high
12:12
Speaker 3: scoring game, but they're not going to play any defense.
12:14
Speaker 3: Well that's kind of kind of wrong. The offensive rebounds, yeah,
12:18
Speaker 3: that is an issue, but at the same time, they're
12:23
Speaker 3: playing good defense. They're holding PJ. Haggerty to sixteen points
12:27
Speaker 3: and that's because of Connor Enright just taking charge. I
12:30
Speaker 3: thought Tayton Connorway would also be that guy after seeing
12:34
Speaker 3: him in Puerto Rico. But there's one thing about Connor Enright, Alex.
12:40
Speaker 3: It's the stupid pickup files. The files that are eighty
12:45
Speaker 3: eight feet from the basket. You can't have those, or
12:48
Speaker 3: you can't two arm, two four arms shove PJ. Haggerty
12:53
Speaker 3: in the back because you got mad at him on
12:55
Speaker 3: the last possession and Darren de Brees gave it to him.
12:57
Speaker 3: You could see it on the TV broadcast. He was
13:01
Speaker 3: really upset with him because you'll get five files, you're
13:05
Speaker 3: going He's I think he might average four files a
13:07
Speaker 3: game at this point, but I think that he needs
13:11
Speaker 3: to tone it back a little bit, but not too much.
13:14
Speaker 3: You just can't get violent out there.
13:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you got You're gonna have to live
13:19
Speaker 1: with some of the stuff. I know the player you're
13:21
Speaker 1: talking about where he got the foul and derees. It
13:24
Speaker 1: was like Connor was trying to explain himself as he
13:27
Speaker 1: went back to the bench and Devrees was basically just
13:30
Speaker 1: like sit down, Like I don't want to hear the
13:32
Speaker 1: X like you can't do that. The thing about him
13:34
Speaker 1: that this keeps coming to mind is he's like one
13:38
Speaker 1: of the Wisconsin players that Indiana fans have despised for.
13:43
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying he's because there's been some Wisconsin
13:45
Speaker 1: players I think people would argue, you have done some
13:48
Speaker 1: questionable things over the year. I've not seen Connor and
13:50
Speaker 1: Write do any of those activities. But you know, I
13:52
Speaker 1: remember Ben Brust that played for Wisconsin. He was a
13:54
Speaker 1: guy that a lot of fans around the Big Ten
13:57
Speaker 1: that did not like at all.
13:58
Speaker 3: And he also Mondoline, Illinois.
14:02
Speaker 2: Was he really yeah?
14:03
Speaker 1: Okay, so maybe maybe same high school, same high school.
14:09
Speaker 1: I wonder I wonder how well they know each other,
14:13
Speaker 1: because there they remind me a little bit of each other.
14:17
Speaker 1: I mean, Ben Brust was maybe a more polished scorer,
14:21
Speaker 1: but like defensively and a lot of the things he's
14:23
Speaker 1: done in the court, Like he's a guy that really
14:25
Speaker 1: reminded That's interesting. I did not know that, but but yeah,
14:27
Speaker 1: you get my point. Like it's it's like he's one
14:29
Speaker 1: of those guys that Indiana hasn't had in a while
14:34
Speaker 1: because he's we use the word agitator, people say pest,
14:40
Speaker 1: but it's nice to have. And we know this is
14:43
Speaker 1: as white Sox fans hate to get another White Sox reference.
14:45
Speaker 1: You know Aj Perzinski back in the day, God under
14:48
Speaker 1: people's skin, and those are the kind of guys that
14:52
Speaker 1: that that fans love to have on their team. And
14:57
Speaker 1: no one around else around the country is going to
14:59
Speaker 1: really a full appreciate Connor and Wright our cheer for
15:02
Speaker 1: him except Indiana fans, And that's to me, is a
15:06
Speaker 1: great thing to have on any basketball team.
15:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that as conference play goes on and
15:14
Speaker 3: you go through that first cycle of games and then
15:16
Speaker 3: the second and Indiana's on the road after Connor and
15:20
Speaker 3: Wright might have done something at Assembly Haul against their team,
15:24
Speaker 3: it's gonna be like Brad Davidson levels of booze for him.
15:29
Speaker 3: And I think he'll thrive off of that for sure.
15:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's he's gonna really enjoy it.
15:34
Speaker 1: The other thing that that really starts to me the
15:36
Speaker 1: other night was Tucker to raise really didn't do much
15:38
Speaker 1: of anything and Indiana still won by seventeen points. So
15:40
Speaker 1: I think that bodes well for this team. The the
15:47
Speaker 1: volume of guys that can step up and make plays
15:50
Speaker 1: and help them win. There's obviously Lamar Wilkerson. There's there's Tucker,
15:55
Speaker 1: There's Reed Bailey, There's Trent Sicily who continues to play
15:59
Speaker 1: really off the bench. Samuel Lexis was pretty quiet in
16:02
Speaker 1: that game too. And the other guy I do want
16:05
Speaker 1: to touch on before we get the football is Red
16:07
Speaker 1: Bailey because I think we've even talked kind of off
16:10
Speaker 1: air and through text messaging kind of wondering what to
16:16
Speaker 1: expect out of Red Bailey after some really uneven performances
16:19
Speaker 1: out of him over the first handful of games this season,
16:22
Speaker 1: and even going back to Puerto Rico. You look at
16:24
Speaker 1: the stats, nothing really jumped out and you wondered, you know,
16:29
Speaker 1: this guy, he's more of a kind of a point forward,
16:31
Speaker 1: I think, than a center, and they've got him playing
16:34
Speaker 1: the five. But I thought something changed the other night
16:39
Speaker 1: between the first and second half, because he was he
16:41
Speaker 1: was his the player that we've seen early in the
16:44
Speaker 1: season in the first half, tentative at times, not strong
16:47
Speaker 1: with the ball, and the second.
16:49
Speaker 2: Half he looked like a different guy.
16:53
Speaker 1: I don't know what you know, you know that I
16:55
Speaker 1: think they asked him to breeze it in the post game,
16:58
Speaker 1: if anything changed at halftime, what was said to him?
17:00
Speaker 1: I don't think there was anything really that they could
17:03
Speaker 1: point to, but he looked like a completely different player.
17:06
Speaker 1: Did you kind of see the same thing? And how
17:09
Speaker 1: much of that do you think is sustainable for Read Bailey?
17:13
Speaker 3: I think I saw as aggressive as Read Bailey can
17:18
Speaker 3: be in that second half. The first half it was
17:23
Speaker 3: ugly at times. It just didn't look right. He didn't
17:26
Speaker 3: look comfortable. We texted about it, just about how he
17:30
Speaker 3: maybe he shouldn't be on the floor. But then you
17:32
Speaker 3: had I believe Sam Lexi's got two quick fouls. I
17:37
Speaker 3: think everybody got two quick files in that game, because
17:39
Speaker 3: there was a whistle on every single possession. But in
17:43
Speaker 3: the second half. They might say that there's nothing to
17:45
Speaker 3: point to at halftime, but you gotta believe there had
17:48
Speaker 3: to been something said that you just can't say on
17:50
Speaker 3: camera in that second half or in that halftime locker room.
17:55
Speaker 3: But the second half he was as strong with the
17:59
Speaker 3: basketball ball. And you go to the line fifteen times
18:02
Speaker 3: in a game, it means you're going up aggressive way
18:06
Speaker 3: too often. In that first half, he kind of went
18:08
Speaker 3: up timid. He was afraid of contact, but going right
18:11
Speaker 3: through hands, going up and then going thirteen to fifteen
18:14
Speaker 3: from the line. That's what Indiana needs from Reed Bailey.
18:18
Speaker 3: The twenty one points are great, but going to the line,
18:20
Speaker 3: getting to the line, drawing fouls, getting other bigs in
18:24
Speaker 3: foul trouble early. I think it was two quick ones
18:28
Speaker 3: for the big for Kansas State. And I know that
18:32
Speaker 3: was the first half and he wasn't that great, but
18:34
Speaker 3: you gotta draw files. You got to level the playing field.
18:39
Speaker 3: I really thought he'd be the guy to come in
18:41
Speaker 3: and shoot threes and stand on a three point line
18:45
Speaker 3: based on what I saw in the preseason Puerto Rico,
18:48
Speaker 3: everything I heard about him. But if he can play
18:51
Speaker 3: this aggressive, it's just the tip of the iceberg for Indiana.
18:55
Speaker 3: Who can play four out, one in and still be
18:58
Speaker 3: really successful.
19:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, he.
19:03
Speaker 1: A couple of the rebounds that you're grabbed in the
19:05
Speaker 1: second half. You could tell because one of the things
19:08
Speaker 1: that I've noticed in the notice in the first couple
19:11
Speaker 1: of games, there's a lot of times he'd come down
19:12
Speaker 1: with the rebound. He wasn't strong, guys were poking the
19:14
Speaker 1: ball away from him. He actually cleared a couple of rebounds,
19:18
Speaker 1: like you're not going to take this ball for me,
19:19
Speaker 1: and I think that's the mentality that he's going to
19:21
Speaker 1: have to have moving forward. And I thought it was
19:26
Speaker 1: a game where that he can get some confidence moving
19:29
Speaker 1: forward to say, you know, Kansas State is obviously not
19:32
Speaker 1: a they wouldn't be a top half Big ten team.
19:34
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to be a team that
19:37
Speaker 1: they could be an NCAA tournament team. But I think
19:40
Speaker 1: they're going to be battling for that the whole season
19:43
Speaker 1: to maybe sink their way in. But they are a
19:47
Speaker 1: high major team. They do have decent athleticism. And I
19:50
Speaker 1: thought that's a game that he can go back and
19:53
Speaker 1: watch the film and say, this is how I have
19:56
Speaker 1: to play and operate on a nightly basis for me
19:59
Speaker 1: to to be the best version of myself. And I
20:01
Speaker 1: thought it was, you know, a performance. You know, the
20:04
Speaker 1: previous game, I kind of criticized him in five Takeaways
20:07
Speaker 1: for his rebounding. I think he had in the previous
20:09
Speaker 1: two games like three rebounds in twenty nine minutes.
20:12
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're six to ten, I don't think
20:13
Speaker 2: that's good enough.
20:14
Speaker 1: And I thought the other night, I mean the rebounding
20:16
Speaker 1: numbers weren't anything crazy, but getting to the line like
20:20
Speaker 1: he did. I thought it was an impressive performance and
20:23
Speaker 1: I think, you know, he deserves kudos for kind of
20:26
Speaker 1: changing the way he played in the second half. So
20:28
Speaker 1: hopefully it's something he can build on continue to improve
20:31
Speaker 1: as the season goes along. There's also a football game
20:34
Speaker 1: tonight that it's funny we talk about these IU football games.
20:37
Speaker 1: There's just not a lot of intrigue going into them
20:39
Speaker 1: because they're favored by four touchdowns it seems like in
20:43
Speaker 1: every game, which is it's just remarkable to think about
20:49
Speaker 1: where IU football is right now. But if they go
20:52
Speaker 1: to Purdue tonight and take care of business, doesn't matter
20:55
Speaker 1: if they win by a point or by sixty six
20:57
Speaker 1: like they did last year, They're going to the Big
20:59
Speaker 1: Ten Championship game. Is there anything about tonight's game that
21:04
Speaker 1: intrigues you from a matchup perspective? And I know you
21:07
Speaker 1: had your preview this morning that we ran on inside
21:10
Speaker 1: the Hall, but these games, I mean, I'm sure you'll
21:14
Speaker 1: get a little bit more into the weeds ahead of
21:16
Speaker 1: the Big Ten championship game, assuming it is Indiana and
21:18
Speaker 1: Ohio State. There's actually some things from a football perspective
21:21
Speaker 1: to talk about because it's not going to be a
21:24
Speaker 1: Indiana minus twenty nine and a half situation next week.
21:28
Speaker 1: But is there anything from a football perspective to watch night.
21:32
Speaker 1: Is there anything that could possibly be surprising or is
21:34
Speaker 1: this just going to be another example of Indiana going
21:40
Speaker 1: into a game and taking care of business and marching
21:42
Speaker 1: on to the next thing.
21:45
Speaker 3: Luckily for us, this is the last pulling teeth game
21:50
Speaker 3: game preview. We have had way too many. I was
21:55
Speaker 3: actually laughing. I didn't have to change the line for
21:57
Speaker 3: the Wisconsin game of the Purdue game, I got to
22:00
Speaker 3: keep it twenty eight and a half. I just had
22:02
Speaker 3: changed you over under like fifteen points up. But I
22:07
Speaker 3: think what intrigues me about this game is how quickly
22:12
Speaker 3: Purdue can get their will broken and how quickly will
22:16
Speaker 3: they give up. I know they had a lame duck
22:20
Speaker 3: coach last year, but it took three possessions they played.
22:25
Speaker 3: They played well for a couple of possessions, but by
22:28
Speaker 3: that fourth possession, it's cold outside. You start your offseason
22:32
Speaker 3: training programmer, you start your trip to you name the
22:35
Speaker 3: warm environment on Saturday or Sunday, and you're not playing
22:41
Speaker 3: for anything but a little bit of pride which this
22:43
Speaker 3: point you've lost eighteen straight seventeenth straight. I'll give them
22:47
Speaker 3: seventeenth straight Big ten games. You've won one Power Conference
22:52
Speaker 3: game over the last two years. It's going to be
22:55
Speaker 3: all Indiana fans. It might not show on TV because
22:59
Speaker 3: of just how cool it's gonna be, but that might.
23:03
Speaker 2: Be the only thing.
23:05
Speaker 3: Fernando Mendoza has not played in a weather environment quite
23:09
Speaker 3: like this, so that will be something worth monitoring. Even
23:15
Speaker 3: though there's no snow, it's gonna be about twenty degrees
23:17
Speaker 3: at kickoff. But Indiana just needs to stay healthy. That's
23:23
Speaker 3: that's the biggest opponent tonight. It will be health. Mikale
23:28
Speaker 3: Kamara will be back, Elijah Strat will be back, Aiden
23:30
Speaker 3: Fisher will play, but you can't sustain a big time
23:34
Speaker 3: injury because you got three, maybe four really big games
23:40
Speaker 3: in the next two months.
23:43
Speaker 1: How big is You mentioned the weather tonight and Mendoza
23:48
Speaker 1: not playing in an atmosphere in terms of the weather
23:52
Speaker 1: quite like this before. Is the run game going to
23:56
Speaker 1: be a big deal for Indiana tonight? Is that is
23:59
Speaker 1: that an area where they can really control the game.
24:03
Speaker 1: Just in terms of I don't know a ton about
24:06
Speaker 1: perdue on both sides of the ball. But how effective
24:09
Speaker 1: can the run game be tonight given the weather and
24:12
Speaker 1: the physicality that the run game typically brings for the Hoosiers.
24:16
Speaker 3: I think it's important for Indiana to establish the run.
24:22
Speaker 3: Teams are averaging like over forty yards of carry on Purdue.
24:26
Speaker 3: It doesn't really change if you pass the ball because
24:29
Speaker 3: obviously Perdue is two and nine. So I think the
24:35
Speaker 3: run game will carry it a little bit towards the
24:38
Speaker 3: end of the first half. I think India is gonna
24:40
Speaker 3: try to set the tone with the pass game in
24:43
Speaker 3: those first couple drives, establish Mendoza, maybe stat pad because
24:48
Speaker 3: this is the final game before the Big Ten Championship
24:51
Speaker 3: game for the Heisman favorite. At some point you got
24:54
Speaker 3: to just go out there and say, hey, you're going
24:56
Speaker 3: to throw eight touchdowns tonight and we're all gonna laugh.
25:00
Speaker 3: So I think passing will be important early. Run game
25:06
Speaker 3: also very important. As it gets colder, grass surface, you
25:11
Speaker 3: gotta watch, you gotta watch your legs. It's it gets
25:14
Speaker 3: rock hard on those those surfaces. I know they're they're
25:17
Speaker 3: better than a high school football field or a backfield
25:20
Speaker 3: that everybody just played their Turkey Bowl in. But you
25:23
Speaker 3: gotta be careful, got to stay the diligent in keeping
25:28
Speaker 3: guys healthy. Roman Henby came on black if if if
25:32
Speaker 3: one of those two go down, that that could be
25:34
Speaker 3: the season right there. So expect a lot of Kobe
25:37
Speaker 3: Martin tonight.
25:40
Speaker 1: What do you you mentioned a lot of Indiana fans
25:43
Speaker 1: being there. What are you expecting in terms of an
25:46
Speaker 1: atmosphere for this game.
25:48
Speaker 4: I'm expecting it will be I think if you take
25:53
Speaker 4: out the student section in what they call it the
25:56
Speaker 4: All American band there in the big drum, uh, I
26:00
Speaker 4: would say there's going to be more Indiana fans there tonight,
26:03
Speaker 4: just because if I put myself and shoes a Purdue fan,
26:10
Speaker 4: I don't think i'd ever go to a game where
26:13
Speaker 4: we don't have a I'm actually not going to say
26:15
Speaker 4: it where if a team does not have a very
26:19
Speaker 4: good chance of winning, especially against the rival in twenty
26:23
Speaker 4: degree whether I just.
26:25
Speaker 3: See it being Indiana fans packing Ross Aids Stadium. I
26:31
Speaker 3: think the coolest part of the night, and this is
26:33
Speaker 3: my boldest prediction, is that the fourth quarter is going
26:37
Speaker 3: to be pretty cool for Indiana fans. A lot of
26:40
Speaker 3: people say I'll leave it halftime because it's gonna be
26:42
Speaker 3: a forty point game. I'd recommend staying because this is
26:46
Speaker 3: a piece of history that you could be a part
26:47
Speaker 3: of tonight and it'll be all Indiana fans by the end.
26:52
Speaker 1: So what I mean is this a moment that Indiana?
26:56
Speaker 1: How long does this assuming they win this game? How
26:59
Speaker 1: long long does the celebration last from this? And how
27:03
Speaker 1: quickly do they start looking ahead because they won't know
27:06
Speaker 1: their opponent for sure if they win tonight until we
27:10
Speaker 1: get some results from across the league tomorrow. Obviously Ohio
27:13
Speaker 1: State wins, they're going to the Big Ten Championship game.
27:17
Speaker 1: But I believe if Michigan were to beat Ohio State
27:20
Speaker 1: and Oregon wins, it could be Indiana Oregon in a rematch.
27:24
Speaker 1: Is that does that sound right?
27:26
Speaker 2: What what I mean?
27:26
Speaker 1: How does Indiana just are they gonna have much of
27:31
Speaker 1: a celebration after this because we've not really seen that
27:33
Speaker 1: from Kurtz Signetty coach teams. I mean, but to me,
27:36
Speaker 1: it's like you've got to embrace them. I mean, twelve
27:39
Speaker 1: and zero regular season, it's never been done. You don't
27:43
Speaker 1: know who you're playing for sure next week. You gotta
27:45
Speaker 1: enjoy tonight and assuming they win and have a bit
27:50
Speaker 1: of a celebration.
27:52
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's a twenty four hour rule for Indiana,
27:55
Speaker 3: and it's really weird, like you can clinch a spot.
27:59
Speaker 3: They can clincher spot tonight. But there are still three
28:02
Speaker 3: teams in play, if I'm not mistaken. So if Michigan
28:07
Speaker 3: beats Ohio State and Washington beats Oregon, and then it's Michigan. Okay,
28:11
Speaker 3: Ohio State wins, obviously it's Ohio State. And then if
28:14
Speaker 3: Washington lose or Oregon goes to Seattle and beats Washington,
28:18
Speaker 3: which that's a really tough environment to play in and
28:20
Speaker 3: we've seen that happen before between Washington and Oregon. So
28:25
Speaker 3: they're gonna celebrate for the locker room. I think it's
28:29
Speaker 3: a two hour ride home. Then I'll just be right
28:33
Speaker 3: behind him, tailing the cop cars so I can go
28:34
Speaker 3: as fast as I want to. But I can't see
28:40
Speaker 3: this being a very big celebration. I think there will
28:44
Speaker 3: be some sort of celebration with the old oaken bucket
28:47
Speaker 3: because it is a rivalry game and it means a
28:51
Speaker 3: lot to a guy like James Bomba who's wrapping up
28:56
Speaker 3: his career and he's a third generation Indiana bat Indiana
28:59
Speaker 3: football players, So there'll be some guys that enjoy it
29:03
Speaker 3: more than others that you'll never see a Xander Diamont
29:06
Speaker 3: with a cigar in mouth picture. However, you're gonna see
29:10
Speaker 3: some celebration tonight because it is a great feat Kurtzignetti
29:14
Speaker 3: won't be a part of that's a celebration though.
29:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one. I think.
29:19
Speaker 1: There's a lot of great things about the portal, there's
29:23
Speaker 1: some things that maybe aren't people that fans don't like.
29:26
Speaker 2: I think the one.
29:26
Speaker 1: Thing that you'll lose kind of with all this player
29:30
Speaker 1: movement is guys that have been in a program for
29:33
Speaker 1: four or five years who have understood the rivalry of play.
29:37
Speaker 1: I mean, this is Fernando Mendoza's first time playing for
29:39
Speaker 1: DO how much could it actually mean to him. Some
29:42
Speaker 1: of the guys that came over last season from JMU
29:47
Speaker 1: with Signetti, obviously they got the experience it last year,
29:49
Speaker 1: but it's not their third, fourth, fifth time going through it.
29:52
Speaker 1: So it doesn't mean necessarily as much to the players
29:55
Speaker 1: as it goes to the fans. And so that's I
29:57
Speaker 1: think another thing that you have to take in keep
30:00
Speaker 1: in mind when when maybe you see well, it's just
30:02
Speaker 1: another game, business as usual. Well, a lot of these guys,
30:05
Speaker 1: it is they they don't know anything about Indiana Purdue.
30:07
Speaker 1: They they haven't grown up following either of these programs.
30:13
Speaker 1: They're just here for, you know, obviously a couple of
30:17
Speaker 1: seasons and then they move on. So that's that's another
30:20
Speaker 1: thing you have to keep in mind. The last thing
30:21
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about was just with the
30:24
Speaker 1: playoff potential for Indiana. Obviously, if they win this game,
30:29
Speaker 1: they're going to the Big Ten Championship game. At that point,
30:33
Speaker 1: assuming they go twelve to zero and get to the
30:34
Speaker 1: Big Ten Championship, is the expectation, no matter what happens
30:39
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis, that they're gonna get a bye to be
30:42
Speaker 1: one of those top four seeds.
30:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:45
Speaker 3: I don't see a world where Indiana does not get
30:49
Speaker 3: a buy. If they win tonight, you're either playing the
30:52
Speaker 3: number one team in the country or next week, or
30:57
Speaker 3: you're going to be the number one team in the country.
30:59
Speaker 3: And if you lose, you're gonna lose. If it's Michigan
31:02
Speaker 3: to a twelve seed or a twelfth ranked team on
31:05
Speaker 3: a neutral field, you're gonna lose to Oregon, who will
31:08
Speaker 3: be top five if they make the Big Ten championship game.
31:12
Speaker 3: There isn't a world where Indiana doesn't make or doesn't
31:16
Speaker 3: get the buye. I think what the general consensus is
31:22
Speaker 3: is that you don't really want the top overall seed,
31:25
Speaker 3: even though it'd be just incredible to see next to
31:29
Speaker 3: Indiana Football's name that number one, because at eight to
31:34
Speaker 3: nine you have to go out to Pasadena and it
31:36
Speaker 3: could be an Alabama Notre Dame game that one team
31:39
Speaker 3: comes in with momentum. But I think that there's we
31:43
Speaker 3: went from hey, Indiana could make the College Baball Playoff
31:47
Speaker 3: this year to oh, they're gonna host this year too,
31:50
Speaker 3: or get hosting. They're gonna just completely skip that round
31:53
Speaker 3: in general. So it it'll seal the deal tonight if
31:58
Speaker 3: they can win.
32:00
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you'll be there in maas Lafayette, Josh,
32:05
Speaker 1: enjoy the atmosphere of the game. I'll be real curious
32:09
Speaker 1: to see how if we get some crowd shots, how
32:11
Speaker 1: much cream and Crimson there is there in the stadium.
32:15
Speaker 1: I have to imagine, as you suggested, that there's going
32:19
Speaker 1: to be a lot of Indiana fans there as there
32:20
Speaker 1: should be. Should be fun game tonight in prime time.
32:25
Speaker 1: So appreciate you waking up early here on a Friday
32:29
Speaker 1: to join us on the show Safe travels today.
32:32
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
32:34
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody as always for listening to Podcast on the Brink.
32:38
Speaker 1: Busy week next week coming up for football and basketball.
32:43
Speaker 1: Indiana is going to go on the road in basketball
32:45
Speaker 1: to play Minnesota on Wednesday before playing Louisville in Indianapolis.
32:51
Speaker 1: It could be a busy Saturday next weekend for Who's
32:56
Speaker 1: Your Sports in Indie? Could be a doubleheader with IU
32:58
Speaker 1: Louisville there at Gamebridge Fieldhouse, followed by a Big Ten
33:02
Speaker 1: championship appearance for the Hoosiers on Saturday night. Still a
33:06
Speaker 1: lot to play out with that, so we won't make
33:08
Speaker 1: any We won't presume that anything's going to happen, but
33:13
Speaker 1: pretty strong chance that it does. If you enjoy the show,
33:16
Speaker 1: please leave us to rating and review over on Apple
33:18
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33:25
Speaker 1: be back soon with another episode of Podcast on the Brink.