Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 543: A preseason IU basketball discussion with Tony Adragna

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POTB 543: A preseason IU basketball discussion with Tony Adragna · Podcast on the Brink

0:19
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcast on the
0:22
Speaker 1: Brink Wednesday, October twenty second, exactly two weeks away from
0:28
Speaker 1: the start of the Indiana basketball season, the first year
0:32
Speaker 1: of Darren de Rees and Bloomington. Although not a ton
0:36
Speaker 1: of buzz right now for IU basketball, considering the start
0:40
Speaker 1: of IU football season seven and zero ranked number two
0:43
Speaker 1: in the Associated Press Top twenty five pole, I was looking.
0:48
Speaker 1: I think it's thirteen days until the first CFP rankings
0:51
Speaker 1: come out, so we'll get a better indication of where
0:53
Speaker 1: Indiana actually stands in the eyes of the committee coming
0:56
Speaker 1: up here in less than two weeks. Before we get
0:58
Speaker 1: to this week's guest on Podcast on the Brink, Tony
1:02
Speaker 1: and Johnya of IU Film Room wanted to take a
1:05
Speaker 1: quick moment to ask, if you get a chance, please
1:07
Speaker 1: leave us a rating and review over on Apple Podcasts
1:10
Speaker 1: and Spotify. I've been seeing a lot of those lately.
1:12
Speaker 1: Really appreciate the support. If you're on YouTube watching us there,
1:17
Speaker 1: please like the video, please subscribe to the channel. Have
1:20
Speaker 1: had tremendous growth in recent months of the YouTube channel
1:22
Speaker 1: continuing to try to push closer to ten thousand subscribers there,
1:26
Speaker 1: so every subscriber accounts. Please support us over there. Tony,
1:30
Speaker 1: it's been a while. I think it's been since the spring.
1:32
Speaker 1: You've been busy. I've been busy. Reached out earlier this
1:36
Speaker 1: week and wanted to have you on. Appreciate you taking
1:41
Speaker 1: the time. How's it going. I know things are busy
1:44
Speaker 1: over their new coaching job and obviously gearing up for
1:48
Speaker 1: the basketball season. But how you been.
1:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been fantastic.
1:53
Speaker 3: I always appreciate coming on podcasts on the Brink and
1:57
Speaker 3: whenever I get those dms, I'm all was excited to
2:01
Speaker 3: make some time to get on and talk to IU
2:03
Speaker 3: hoops and just hoops in general with you. So things
2:07
Speaker 3: have been good. Like you said, busy but excited. It's
2:10
Speaker 3: to me it's like Christmas time, like basketball season's coming around,
2:13
Speaker 3: and then you get the added bonus. Like you mentioned,
2:16
Speaker 3: I VAYU football these past couple of years. Is certainly
2:19
Speaker 3: this year number two in the country. It's like I'm
2:21
Speaker 3: living a fever dream. So it's it's been a lot
2:25
Speaker 3: of fun and certainly excited to chat some hoops with
2:28
Speaker 3: you today.
2:30
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, Tony is actually back in
2:32
Speaker 1: the coaching game. I know people gave you a hard
2:34
Speaker 1: time on X over the last year. Are you actually
2:36
Speaker 1: a coach? Well, he actually is a coach now, so
2:38
Speaker 1: you have to respect that. He's the head coach now
2:41
Speaker 1: at Greenwood Christian Academy, one a school in Indiana. How
2:45
Speaker 1: did that opportunity come about? And what I guess factors
2:49
Speaker 1: led to you getting back into the You have a
2:52
Speaker 1: lot of young kids running around there of the house
2:55
Speaker 1: and busy with work. But why did you decide right
2:57
Speaker 1: now was the time to get back into coaching.
3:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:00
Speaker 3: So, actually, for for all the haters out there, I'm
3:02
Speaker 3: coach times three right now, I'm coaching my son in soccer,
3:07
Speaker 3: coaching Greenwock Christian Academy, and then I'm coaching my son
3:09
Speaker 3: and Bitty e ball basketball right now as well.
3:12
Speaker 2: So I don't know what I'm doing with my life.
3:15
Speaker 3: I'm I'm just creating more and more work for myself.
3:17
Speaker 3: But no, it's fun in terms of the green With
3:20
Speaker 3: Christian Academy job. Honestly, it's one that I've always respected.
3:27
Speaker 2: You know.
3:27
Speaker 3: Johnny Marlin, former Hoosier and then All American at at
3:31
Speaker 3: Indiana Wesleyan had that job.
3:34
Speaker 2: It really built the program up.
3:37
Speaker 3: And be quite frank it's it's five minutes from my house,
3:42
Speaker 3: and it's values align with where I'm at. I feel
3:47
Speaker 3: like in the state of Indiana, just where where everything's at.
3:52
Speaker 3: Like basically the transfer portals opened up in high school
3:55
Speaker 3: basketball as well, I feel like I can have a
3:58
Speaker 3: greater impact at a smaller school lives and on the game.
4:02
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not just trying to accumulate talent. I'm
4:05
Speaker 3: really trying to mold and develop a program and players.
4:07
Speaker 3: So that's kind of how that came to be. The
4:10
Speaker 3: job opened up. Jackson Williams did a great job there.
4:14
Speaker 3: He's now the head coach at Martinsville, So that job
4:16
Speaker 3: opened up. It's it's close to the house, and like
4:19
Speaker 3: I said, values a line, and one thing led to another.
4:22
Speaker 2: And in and around.
4:24
Speaker 3: Like the end of May, I was named the head
4:26
Speaker 3: coach there and really hit the ground running. You know,
4:29
Speaker 3: in the state of Indiana, June is huge for basketball
4:33
Speaker 3: in the offseason. So in the June, I think I
4:37
Speaker 3: coached like eighteen games. We had workouts Monday through Thursday.
4:41
Speaker 3: So it's kind of a baptism by fire, just trying
4:43
Speaker 3: to get to know my team and stuff.
4:44
Speaker 2: But I'm super fired up about it.
4:46
Speaker 3: Our fish first official practice is less than three weeks away,
4:49
Speaker 3: and I'm excited and and I I have a sneaking
4:53
Speaker 3: suspicion There'll be some folks keeping.
4:55
Speaker 2: Their their eye on the scores of my games.
4:58
Speaker 3: And I I'm confident that when that those l's come,
5:03
Speaker 3: I'll hear about it a little bit, which is fine.
5:05
Speaker 3: It's it's all in good fun. But I'm excited for it.
5:08
Speaker 3: I'm super fired up to be the head coach there.
5:11
Speaker 1: Hopefully nobody starts at Greenwood Christian Academy Film Room and
5:14
Speaker 1: lock you in on next, but I could see some
5:17
Speaker 1: crazy out there doing it.
5:19
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm here for If somebody wants to break down
5:21
Speaker 3: my film and help me out, let's do it.
5:23
Speaker 2: I need all the help I can get.
5:25
Speaker 1: Just one other quick question on that. I know you
5:27
Speaker 1: spent some time at Southport coaching at getting back into it.
5:30
Speaker 1: How much has the landscape change in terms of rules
5:33
Speaker 1: and different things in terms of player and movement, and
5:36
Speaker 1: how will that impact just not just your program, but
5:38
Speaker 1: other programs in the state of Indiana moving forward.
5:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, it's it's nuts, you know.
5:45
Speaker 3: It's I'm all for like player empowerment and guys being
5:49
Speaker 3: able to make decisions that they feel as best. I
5:53
Speaker 3: just wish it was that player only making those decisions
5:58
Speaker 3: and there war wasn't out outside in luences.
6:00
Speaker 2: But that's the nature of it.
6:02
Speaker 3: You know, we're not naive enough to think that that's
6:05
Speaker 3: how things work, but yeah, it's it's you know, as
6:09
Speaker 3: I mentioned, the transfer portal, if you will, is kind
6:11
Speaker 3: of open up in the state of Indiana. You get
6:13
Speaker 3: one free transfer as long as you do it for
6:15
Speaker 3: your senior year. You know, there will certainly be some
6:18
Speaker 3: people that that really tried to latch onto that and
6:21
Speaker 3: and figure out how to navigate that, and you know,
6:25
Speaker 3: it's part of it.
6:27
Speaker 2: You know.
6:27
Speaker 3: There there's still not supposed to be any recruiting or
6:30
Speaker 3: anything of that sort, but as we know that that
6:33
Speaker 3: does happen, especially in the state of Indiana. But for me,
6:37
Speaker 3: like I love to see though, just how the game's evolving,
6:41
Speaker 3: there's still I mean, the state of Indiana high school
6:44
Speaker 3: coaching is second to none.
6:46
Speaker 2: Garrett Wine grew up at Fisher's.
6:48
Speaker 3: He actually had a press conference yesterday They're playing in
6:50
Speaker 3: a Daton event, and he took a couple of jabs
6:54
Speaker 3: at at prep school coaches he was he was talking about,
6:59
Speaker 3: you know, the reason that Indiana and Ohio programs beat
7:03
Speaker 3: these prep schools at this tournament is because they're better coached,
7:07
Speaker 3: which I thought was was a pretty funny little job there.
7:11
Speaker 3: And he also said, and I've got two juniors that
7:13
Speaker 3: are are very, very good, and I know all these
7:15
Speaker 3: prep schools are gonna be watching them and calling them
7:17
Speaker 3: and tell them how good their program is when.
7:19
Speaker 2: After they're done watching them.
7:21
Speaker 3: So I appreciated that from coach Wineger because it was
7:23
Speaker 3: very real. But yeah, there's a lot of movement, a
7:26
Speaker 3: lot of stuff going on in the state.
7:28
Speaker 2: But you know, ultimately.
7:30
Speaker 3: It's it's so much fun to be a part of.
7:33
Speaker 3: And the basketball in the state of Indiana is still
7:36
Speaker 3: second to none in my opinion, And there's there's so
7:39
Speaker 3: much talent, and even at the one A level where
7:41
Speaker 3: I'm coaching, there's there's still so much talent and kids
7:44
Speaker 3: really really want to be good and and and get better.
7:46
Speaker 3: And and you know, I mentioned Johnny Marlin. He's got
7:48
Speaker 3: a training academy on the south side of Indianapolis. He's
7:51
Speaker 3: got hundreds and hundreds of kids flowing in and out
7:54
Speaker 3: that just want to get better. So I don't think
7:56
Speaker 3: that the state of Indiana basketball is going anywhere and
8:00
Speaker 3: terms of the talent that it can produce, but time
8:03
Speaker 3: certainly are changing. But it's kind of like coach Signetti says, like,
8:06
Speaker 3: you know, you just got to kind of roll with
8:08
Speaker 3: those and if you're not getting better or getting worse,
8:10
Speaker 3: so you just kind of got to really dive into
8:13
Speaker 3: it and just you know, play play by the rules
8:15
Speaker 3: and and hope that everything works out in your favor.
8:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, good luck with everything with that. We'll obviously
8:23
Speaker 1: be following as closely as we can. I know IU
8:27
Speaker 1: community is very thankful for all the stuff you've done
8:30
Speaker 1: over the years with the film room, and we'll be
8:32
Speaker 1: rooting for your success. So again, good luck with that.
8:35
Speaker 1: And I know as someone I know you love the
8:37
Speaker 1: game of basketball, so I think it's great that you're
8:39
Speaker 1: getting back into it. Obviously it's a smaller school. I
8:43
Speaker 1: think you know a lot of times you can have
8:45
Speaker 1: a bigger impact at a place like that because you know,
8:47
Speaker 1: you can work, or you have you have less kids
8:49
Speaker 1: to try to deal with, and you can make a
8:51
Speaker 1: bigger impact. So good again, good luck and congratulations on
8:55
Speaker 1: that opportunity. So obviously we're here to talk AU basketball,
8:59
Speaker 1: and there was an exhibition game on Friday night, not
9:02
Speaker 1: a very competitive exhibition game. But as I watched it
9:06
Speaker 1: and texted with a couple of people throughout the game,
9:09
Speaker 1: I thought, at times in years past, maybe this it
9:14
Speaker 1: would have been a game that would have been a
9:15
Speaker 1: little bit closer than than sixty points. We've kind of
9:19
Speaker 1: had the evidence to see that. So I was impressed
9:22
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of Indiana kind of came out and
9:25
Speaker 1: put their foot down immediately, and it was an inferior opponent.
9:28
Speaker 1: But obviously can't take a ton away from a game
9:31
Speaker 1: against an NAI opponent. But I'm sure you watched it.
9:33
Speaker 1: What were your just big picture thoughts on getting a
9:36
Speaker 1: first glimpse of Darien Deriz's first IU team there in
9:40
Speaker 1: Assembly Hall.
9:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
9:42
Speaker 2: I was watching that with one of my buddies.
9:44
Speaker 3: I was actually I was down in Orange Beach, Alabama
9:46
Speaker 3: with a buddy of mine and our families and we
9:49
Speaker 3: were watching it, and I was like, you know, we're
9:51
Speaker 3: two years removed from are you being down at halftime
9:54
Speaker 3: to University of Indianapolis in an exhibition game? So it's
9:58
Speaker 3: not out of the question that some of the times,
10:00
Speaker 3: these exhibitions aren't necessarily great basketball. And even look back
10:04
Speaker 3: to I use exhibition last season against Marion, and it
10:07
Speaker 3: was just kind of like looking at stats and things
10:09
Speaker 3: that they did last year against Maryon, Indiana just pounding
10:12
Speaker 3: the ball inside where they obviously had a size advantage.
10:15
Speaker 3: Milik Renew and Omar Bala were fifteen for fifteen inside
10:19
Speaker 3: the arc, and so really, obviously you take advantage of
10:23
Speaker 3: your size and basketball because that's how it works, but
10:25
Speaker 3: like you don't really get to see a lot in
10:27
Speaker 3: that they went six for twenty five from three last
10:30
Speaker 3: season in that exhibition. This season obviously fifteen for thirty
10:35
Speaker 3: from the outside. And while you certainly take advantage of
10:39
Speaker 3: size and things, it wasn't like Indiana was just pounding
10:42
Speaker 3: it inside and saying go one on one and go
10:44
Speaker 3: to work. Like there's actually some concepts and offense and
10:47
Speaker 3: things that they were doing that was exciting to me.
10:50
Speaker 3: So I posted a short little breakdown on x that
10:55
Speaker 3: was essentially just breaking down some of the actions that
10:57
Speaker 3: Indiana was doing, and a lot of them were or
11:00
Speaker 3: like actions that you'll see in the NBA. Actions You'll
11:03
Speaker 3: see like Greg McDermott, Matt painter Dan Hurley run that
11:08
Speaker 3: are kind of what you would call modern actions, a
11:11
Speaker 3: lot of ghost screens, which is basically like when a
11:14
Speaker 3: guy attempts to go set a screen but kind of
11:16
Speaker 3: slips out of it before he sets it, which things
11:20
Speaker 3: are just that are hard to guard. I mean, that's
11:23
Speaker 3: why ultimately teams do it right, and so I liked
11:27
Speaker 3: a lot of that. They ran this five out what
11:29
Speaker 3: you would call delay action, which is you get the
11:32
Speaker 3: ball in your five man's hands with a five out
11:35
Speaker 3: of alignment and he can kind of make some decisions
11:36
Speaker 3: from there. They got a Tucker Devrees wide open three
11:40
Speaker 3: off a flare screen out of that action. And so
11:43
Speaker 3: ultimately what I liked was, you know, Indiana didn't run
11:46
Speaker 3: a bunch of sets and things like that. They really
11:49
Speaker 3: were playing out of concepts, and to me, that's the
11:54
Speaker 3: most exciting part about this. Obviously, defensively, they're just gonna
11:58
Speaker 3: be able to overpower a team like so you don't
12:00
Speaker 3: get to see a ton of what they're gonna do schematically.
12:03
Speaker 3: You know, they switched some ball screen stuff, but they're
12:07
Speaker 3: just a superior opponent, so you don't get to see
12:09
Speaker 3: a ton defensively, but offensively, was where I was most
12:12
Speaker 3: intrigued because there was a lot of modern actions. What
12:16
Speaker 3: I talked about a lot in my video was the
12:17
Speaker 3: short role action that Indiana was running, which is basically
12:21
Speaker 3: like when you set that ball screen, instead of just
12:23
Speaker 3: diving straight to the rim, you kind of dive like
12:26
Speaker 3: fifteen feet.
12:27
Speaker 2: The guy catches the ball.
12:28
Speaker 3: There a lot of times Detucker deve Reese actually catching it,
12:31
Speaker 3: and then you're in a two on one situation and
12:33
Speaker 3: you can make reads from there, and obviously you made
12:35
Speaker 3: great reads. Indiana got a ton of a wide open
12:38
Speaker 3: three point looks out of that. Obviously, them shooting the
12:41
Speaker 3: basketball fifteen from thirty from deep, the most threes Indiana
12:44
Speaker 3: had made in a game since the Tom creen era.
12:47
Speaker 3: Like those are the things that it's like, oh, okay,
12:49
Speaker 3: Like I was talking with somebody and they were like,
12:53
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of forgot how much I had
12:56
Speaker 3: to like try to talk myself into what Indiana has
12:58
Speaker 3: been doing the last eight.
12:59
Speaker 2: Seeds, Like okay, like, yeah, I guess that works.
13:04
Speaker 3: And that's not to like I'm really not trying to
13:06
Speaker 3: like put down previous regimes, but it's just like their
13:09
Speaker 3: style of play wasn't necessarily aesthetically pleasing, whereas like you
13:13
Speaker 3: watch this and again it's Marion, it's the rest of
13:16
Speaker 3: the season. We could watch and be like, whoa, this
13:18
Speaker 3: is not aesthetically pleasing. But in that game, in that instance,
13:21
Speaker 3: you saw things that give you kind of hope for
13:23
Speaker 3: the future of like this is going to be a
13:24
Speaker 3: fun brand of basketball to watch, which was most exciting
13:27
Speaker 3: to me.
13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, even on the on the thirty threes attempted making fifteen.
13:34
Speaker 1: I mean again not trying to go back into time
13:38
Speaker 1: and bash other IU teams, but I don't feel I
13:40
Speaker 1: don't feel like there's been many teams in the last
13:43
Speaker 1: eight years, going dating back to the Tom Creen era
13:46
Speaker 1: that would have made fifteen out of thirty, even with
13:51
Speaker 1: light defense being played on them. So the fact that
13:53
Speaker 1: they actually stepped up to the line and made those
13:55
Speaker 1: shots and Lamar Wilkerson wasn't even a huge part of it.
13:58
Speaker 1: So it was guys like Trent Sisley and I want
14:00
Speaker 1: to talk about both of those guys and get your
14:02
Speaker 1: thoughts on that. Ryan did a film session breakdown of
14:07
Speaker 1: targeted frees, which obviously, again we're caveating all of this
14:11
Speaker 1: with the fact that they were playing Mary, but it
14:13
Speaker 1: was also the first time we've seen him play in
14:14
Speaker 1: an IU uniform in this behal I was impressed with
14:17
Speaker 1: just how creative he was in terms of getting his shots.
14:20
Speaker 1: He obviously took some threes that were wide open there,
14:22
Speaker 1: but he had one play kind of where he did
14:24
Speaker 1: a little fade away attempt in the lane. Seems like
14:27
Speaker 1: he's going to be really good in the mid range.
14:29
Speaker 1: And also he had a backdoor cut there for a
14:31
Speaker 1: dunk at one point. I believe what what do you
14:34
Speaker 1: make of just the way Indiana seems like they're going
14:36
Speaker 1: to utilize him this year? Is he going to be
14:38
Speaker 1: kind of their go to guy offensively in your mind?
14:41
Speaker 1: And are there other things maybe that we didn't see
14:44
Speaker 1: on Friday Night that we that we could see once
14:48
Speaker 1: the season starts for Tucker.
14:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, he's one of the most slept on
14:52
Speaker 3: guys in college basketball coming into this season because he
14:55
Speaker 3: didn't play a lot last season. You know, he was
14:58
Speaker 3: coming off an injury obviously of fake injury. If you
15:01
Speaker 3: ask the West Virginia fans and you know he's one
15:05
Speaker 3: of the best players in college basketball.
15:07
Speaker 2: He just is.
15:09
Speaker 3: He's older as well, which we've seen that's a recipe
15:12
Speaker 3: for success in college basketball. But to me, with him,
15:17
Speaker 3: he's got such gravity on the floor, meaning, you know,
15:20
Speaker 3: teams have to account for him no matter what he's doing.
15:23
Speaker 3: There was a play I highlighted in my breakdown where
15:29
Speaker 3: somebody drove to the basket and there was help side
15:32
Speaker 3: from the the opposite corner. It left Connor enright wide open. Well,
15:36
Speaker 3: Tucker to Rees was on the wing next to him.
15:38
Speaker 3: That guy's not gonna leave Tucker to Rees wide open.
15:42
Speaker 3: So therefore in right had the most open three you're
15:45
Speaker 3: gonna get in college basketball.
15:47
Speaker 2: Because his man helped.
15:48
Speaker 3: And then that guy's not leaving Tucker or you're gonna
15:50
Speaker 3: leave you know, a forty three point shooter wide open.
15:54
Speaker 3: So for me, that's the biggest thing with him, Like
15:57
Speaker 3: obviously there's gonna be games where he's gonna be knocked down,
16:00
Speaker 3: he's gonna hit everything, But what also is nice is
16:03
Speaker 3: they're gonna run actions for him that ultimately he's gonna
16:08
Speaker 3: get somebody else open based on the gravity that he
16:11
Speaker 3: has on the floor. So that's what what I look
16:14
Speaker 3: forward to. Obviously, you know it's a cliche, but he's
16:17
Speaker 3: a coach's son. All indications are that he's probably gonna
16:21
Speaker 3: end up being a great coach someday himself. You know,
16:24
Speaker 3: the people that I've talked to around the program are
16:26
Speaker 3: just like, he's so smart about the game.
16:28
Speaker 2: He just understands everything.
16:29
Speaker 3: And obviously he's running his dad's system, you know, for
16:33
Speaker 3: for the fifth season, so he's very very comfortable in
16:36
Speaker 3: what he's gonna do, which to me, like, you can't
16:40
Speaker 3: discount that a guy that just knows it like the
16:43
Speaker 3: back of his hand, that can get everybody else in
16:45
Speaker 3: the right spots. You know, there was times where he
16:48
Speaker 3: initiated the offense as well, which isn't really something that
16:51
Speaker 3: we've seen from Indiana in quite some time. Like usually
16:54
Speaker 3: it's like, all right, Miles Rice is a point guard,
16:56
Speaker 3: He's gonna initiate the offense and then they're gonna go
16:58
Speaker 3: from there. Whereas you know, in this system, it looked like, hey,
17:02
Speaker 3: they're going to kind of have some point forward stuff
17:04
Speaker 3: where Tucker's.
17:04
Speaker 2: Gonna initiate the offense.
17:07
Speaker 3: So ultimately, yeah, I think Tucker to rees Is is
17:10
Speaker 3: a very very very good basketball player, and.
17:12
Speaker 2: Like I said, kind of kind of slept on. You know, he's.
17:15
Speaker 3: Transferring to a Big ten program, a brand new team,
17:20
Speaker 3: kind of a forgotten piece in college basketball, but when
17:23
Speaker 3: he's on and healthy, like, he is a dynamite basketball player.
17:26
Speaker 3: So I think he's gonna have obviously a huge impact
17:29
Speaker 3: on this Indiana team, but in more ways than just
17:32
Speaker 3: being able to score the ball. Yeah.
17:35
Speaker 1: You look at the way that Bennett Starts is being
17:39
Speaker 1: viewed coming into the Big Ten from the similar conference,
17:42
Speaker 1: same conference, Missouri Valley. He's projected by most to be
17:46
Speaker 1: a top three or four player in the Big Ten,
17:47
Speaker 1: potential All American. Tucker to Rees is obviously last season
17:53
Speaker 1: played only played eight games, but the two years part
17:55
Speaker 1: of that, he was the player of the year in
17:56
Speaker 1: the Missouri Valley Conference, So throw out last year. If
17:59
Speaker 1: he's coming in as the two time MVC player of
18:02
Speaker 1: the Year into the Big Ten, I think there's a
18:04
Speaker 1: lot more hype. So I think you can make a
18:05
Speaker 1: really good point. I agree with that. I was looking
18:08
Speaker 1: at our preseason ranking the other day of our top
18:11
Speaker 1: forty Big Ten players, we had him fifteen. I was
18:13
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I think there's a pretty good chance
18:15
Speaker 1: he can outperform that. Again, a lot of things have
18:17
Speaker 1: to go right for Indiana. He has to help them
18:18
Speaker 1: win games. But from the statistic standpoint, he's going to
18:22
Speaker 1: average I think five or six rebounds, probably three assists.
18:26
Speaker 1: He's averaged over a steal for his career, and I
18:29
Speaker 1: think he's probably good for at least fourteen to fifteen
18:30
Speaker 1: points a game. So that's a pretty good line. As
18:34
Speaker 1: you mentioned, good three point shooter, good free throw shooter.
18:36
Speaker 1: Coach's son makes a lot of good decisions, and I
18:39
Speaker 1: think it is the one thing that I really just
18:42
Speaker 1: appreciate from watching not just not obviously his film this year,
18:45
Speaker 1: but in previous year, is just his feel for the
18:47
Speaker 1: game and his awareness of situations. He's not the best athlete,
18:50
Speaker 1: but he can still get his shot when he needs
18:53
Speaker 1: to because he understands just the fundamentals of basketball and
18:57
Speaker 1: where he needs to be in positioning. So that's really impressive.
19:00
Speaker 1: The other guy that has really been impressive, dating back
19:03
Speaker 1: to the Puerto Rico trips, Trent sistlely played terrific down
19:06
Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico. Continued that on Friday Night again, it's Marion,
19:12
Speaker 1: but he made He's not gonna make all of us
19:14
Speaker 1: threes in every game if he does, and he's going
19:16
Speaker 1: to be a first round pick in the draft. Next summer,
19:18
Speaker 1: but he made four or four threes. He's the guy
19:21
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of people thought maybe coming
19:23
Speaker 1: in it was gonna take him a year to play
19:26
Speaker 1: a significant role. But you look at Indiana's front court
19:28
Speaker 1: this year and there's not a lot of depth there.
19:31
Speaker 1: Josh Harris is currently out with an injury. We don't
19:33
Speaker 1: know how soon he's going to be back. I think
19:35
Speaker 1: Trent Sislely going into the season is sixth or seventh,
19:39
Speaker 1: maybe seventh or seventh man on this team going into
19:41
Speaker 1: the season. What's impressed to you most about him? And
19:44
Speaker 1: does do you agree that he looks like a guy
19:46
Speaker 1: that is going to probably play twenty twenty five minutes
19:49
Speaker 1: a game as a freshman.
19:50
Speaker 3: I absolutely do agree with that, especially if, like you said,
19:54
Speaker 3: the Puerto Rico trip leading right into the first exhibition,
19:57
Speaker 3: it has just been dynamite.
19:59
Speaker 2: You know.
19:59
Speaker 3: I took a couple of jabs at prep schools kind
20:03
Speaker 3: of jokingly earlier in the pod, but you know, him
20:05
Speaker 3: going to montverd Is was probably the best.
20:10
Speaker 2: Thing that he could have possibly done in terms of
20:11
Speaker 2: his development.
20:13
Speaker 3: You know, and I say that as a obviously a
20:16
Speaker 3: head coach of a school team that you kind of
20:18
Speaker 3: hate to see that. But at the same time, he
20:20
Speaker 3: made a great decision for himself and went and played
20:23
Speaker 3: against top guys in the country night in, night out.
20:26
Speaker 3: You know, for a great coach that that does develop
20:29
Speaker 3: his players and isn't just trying to accumulate talent. So
20:33
Speaker 3: him doing that, I believe really enhanced his game. And
20:37
Speaker 3: you know, even when I would I would dive into
20:39
Speaker 3: some film from his Montverd stuff, it was like, Wow,
20:43
Speaker 3: I didn't realize he had that in his game.
20:45
Speaker 2: And then like the Marion dunk.
20:47
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think people necessarily expect that, you know,
20:52
Speaker 3: you know, I don't think people will necessarily think like
20:53
Speaker 3: he's a great athlete, but he is again another guy
20:56
Speaker 3: that he's got a great understanding of the game. Obviously,
20:59
Speaker 3: his dad worked with him a ton in growing up
21:01
Speaker 3: and and and you know, it shows that that he
21:05
Speaker 3: really just has a great feel. And then he's just
21:08
Speaker 3: bought in right to to coach Devree's system. And you know,
21:11
Speaker 3: I believe that that that plays a big factor, Like
21:14
Speaker 3: he just understands where to be on the floor, He
21:17
Speaker 3: runs the floor well, he plays extremely hard, like all
21:20
Speaker 3: the little things that that you know, you kind of
21:22
Speaker 3: want in a player as a coach like he does,
21:25
Speaker 3: and so that ultimately is gonna translate to him getting
21:29
Speaker 3: time on the floor. And so like, I don't think
21:32
Speaker 3: he's necessarily gonna have a huge impact scoring the ball
21:35
Speaker 3: night in night out, but I think he's just gonna
21:36
Speaker 3: do the right things that's gonna be hard for coach
21:39
Speaker 3: dev Rez to keep him off the floor. So he's
21:41
Speaker 3: been extremely impressive. You know, with freshman it's usually like
21:45
Speaker 3: that January wall where you're not used to playing a
21:49
Speaker 3: schedule of this caliber night in night out, especially against
21:53
Speaker 3: Big ten teams or kind of brus you. So I'm
21:56
Speaker 3: interested to kind of see how he progresses through that.
21:59
Speaker 3: But I do think the prep school schedule, you know,
22:02
Speaker 3: they play essentially like October to April on that prep
22:05
Speaker 3: school schedule. So I do think that also prepared him
22:08
Speaker 3: for kind of the grind of the Big ten seasons.
22:11
Speaker 3: So where some freshmen may start trailing off, he may
22:14
Speaker 3: kind of leap them. And so that's another piece of
22:17
Speaker 3: it where I think his conditioning level is probably in
22:19
Speaker 3: a really good spot to where he can His body
22:22
Speaker 3: obviously looks good for a freshman in terms of his strength,
22:25
Speaker 3: so I think those are things where usually with the
22:28
Speaker 3: freshman you're like at that you know, they can kind
22:30
Speaker 3: of trail off. I think that he's actually suited well
22:33
Speaker 3: to kind of keep pushing through that kind of freshman wall.
22:36
Speaker 3: A lot of guys hit in excel and be a
22:39
Speaker 3: huge piece for Indiana, you know, hopefully into March.
22:43
Speaker 1: What's your biggest question mark just in terms of a
22:47
Speaker 1: weakness or something you're the Indiana fans should be thinking
22:51
Speaker 1: about potentially concerned about this team that opponents could potentially exploit.
22:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, defense and rebounding.
22:58
Speaker 3: And I think it's just because of this size that
23:01
Speaker 3: that Indiana lacks. You know, obviously they read Bailey as
23:05
Speaker 3: their tallest guy, but you know, kind of a thin stature,
23:08
Speaker 3: uh and you know, also coming from a mid major
23:12
Speaker 3: programing conference, and so I think that's the natural kind
23:16
Speaker 3: of thought processes is, you know, how are they going
23:19
Speaker 3: to compete with these big ten bruisers. You know, you've
23:21
Speaker 3: got some teams that'll start two seven footers and in
23:24
Speaker 3: Indiana doesn't have that in terms of size. But also,
23:28
Speaker 3: you know, I struggled to to really think it's gonna
23:32
Speaker 3: be a huge weakness with what Devrees was able to
23:35
Speaker 3: do last season with West Virginia in terms of the
23:38
Speaker 3: defensive side of the ball. I mean, that's the reason
23:40
Speaker 3: that they were, i mean, should have been in the
23:43
Speaker 3: NCAA tournament was their defense, and that was they lost
23:48
Speaker 3: Tucker and he he really had those guys buy in
23:52
Speaker 3: on the defensive end and didn't really have a huge
23:55
Speaker 3: like rim protection threat or anything like that. So to me,
23:59
Speaker 3: it's it's in my thought process of like what will
24:02
Speaker 3: their defense and rebounding look like just because of their
24:06
Speaker 3: natural lack of.
24:07
Speaker 2: Height and kind of brute strength.
24:09
Speaker 3: But the end of the day, too, I'm like, I
24:11
Speaker 3: don't know, man, they were pretty solid last year at
24:13
Speaker 3: West Virginia with a similar makeup to this roster. So
24:19
Speaker 3: that's kind of what's in my head. Obviously a lot
24:22
Speaker 3: of guys and we got to make leaps in terms of,
24:25
Speaker 3: you know, their conference affiliation to playing big ten night in,
24:29
Speaker 3: night out. So that's another one that's I think is
24:32
Speaker 3: a natural thought process as well as just like will
24:35
Speaker 3: these guys be able to make that leap in that
24:36
Speaker 3: jump But ultimately that's not as uncommon anymore for guys
24:41
Speaker 3: to make that jump and still be able to be
24:44
Speaker 3: productive and in a lot of ways. It's easier because
24:47
Speaker 3: they're not the focal point of the team like they
24:50
Speaker 3: were in the past, and so they things open up
24:53
Speaker 3: a little bit more for them. And so those are
24:56
Speaker 3: the two things that I think are like, all right,
24:58
Speaker 3: you know, I can see how if national pundits talked
25:01
Speaker 3: about this team and whatnot, those would be things that
25:04
Speaker 3: are talking points and make some sense.
25:07
Speaker 1: Is there a player or maybe it's a player or
25:10
Speaker 1: two that you're intrigued to see in terms of how
25:13
Speaker 1: their game translates to this level that moved up.
25:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Connorway is the big one.
25:19
Speaker 3: You know, he was he was dynamite and really on
25:22
Speaker 3: the defensive end, especially like he's just got quick hands.
25:26
Speaker 3: His finishing at the rim was unique, like everything was
25:30
Speaker 3: kind of crafty and and you know, not just.
25:33
Speaker 2: Like brute strength.
25:35
Speaker 3: So he's one where I'm just like, I've got a
25:38
Speaker 3: lot of intrigue because he's also the head of the
25:41
Speaker 3: snake right on, both offensively and defensively. Like I talked
25:45
Speaker 3: about West Virginia last year, Small was kind of their
25:49
Speaker 3: head of the snake and they went kind of as
25:51
Speaker 3: he went, especially once Tucker went down. So you know,
25:55
Speaker 3: does Indiana have that in them, which is ultimately Connorway.
25:59
Speaker 3: I don't know, so he's one where I think he's
26:02
Speaker 3: gonna have a huge impact on how far and how
26:05
Speaker 3: good this team can be, you know, just be naturally
26:09
Speaker 3: being the point guard. Obviously they have in right as
26:12
Speaker 3: well that can kind of play that that on the
26:14
Speaker 3: ball offense and defense too, But ultimately I think Connorway
26:19
Speaker 3: is kind of the guy that they're going to rely
26:22
Speaker 3: upon to to push the pace offensively but defensively, really
26:27
Speaker 3: impact the ball handlers and what teams are trying to
26:29
Speaker 3: do on the offensive end as well.
26:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one the one guy that comes to mind
26:34
Speaker 1: when I when I think about that, and it's maybe
26:36
Speaker 1: it's just because we haven't seen him as Nick Gorn
26:38
Speaker 1: coming from over from Elon, I didn't know a ton
26:42
Speaker 1: about him. I watched some film, but then when I
26:44
Speaker 1: saw him a couple of weeks ago with their open practice,
26:47
Speaker 1: he wasn't participating. He was doing kind of the non
26:50
Speaker 1: contact stuff. But he's a legit six seven and built
26:54
Speaker 1: like a football player but moves pretty well. To have
26:57
Speaker 1: him on the wing potentially, along with Tucker and Lamar,
27:00
Speaker 1: you could have three guys that are you know, potential
27:03
Speaker 1: knockdown shooters on the court. At the same time, I
27:06
Speaker 1: think that's very intriguing. You know, initially when he committed,
27:09
Speaker 1: I thought Josiah Miles had a chance to be one
27:11
Speaker 1: of those guys. Didn't play particularly well down in Puerto Rico,
27:14
Speaker 1: didn't struggle really again in the Marriot Exhibition, so I'm
27:18
Speaker 1: curious to see how he develops as well. But I
27:21
Speaker 1: think from an offensive standpoint, this team's going to cause
27:24
Speaker 1: nightmares a lot nights for teams just because of the
27:27
Speaker 1: variety of guys that they have that can shoot and
27:29
Speaker 1: score the ball. I agree with you on the defense
27:31
Speaker 1: and rebounding. We'll see how that all develops. But I
27:34
Speaker 1: think from a coaching standpoint, DeFries will be able to
27:37
Speaker 1: scheme certain things on certain nights, whether that's the way
27:42
Speaker 1: they're going to do post doubles or you know, team rebound.
27:45
Speaker 1: On the defensive end, I think they're going to be
27:46
Speaker 1: able to mitigate a lot of those issues.
27:49
Speaker 2: Now.
27:49
Speaker 1: Again, I say that knowing full well that there's going
27:53
Speaker 1: to be games like the Michigan game where they're trying
27:55
Speaker 1: to deal with a Demara and Mores Johnson and Linda
27:59
Speaker 1: borg All at the same time, that's gonna be tough
28:01
Speaker 1: for Indiana to it's content with it. That's gonna be
28:05
Speaker 1: tough for any team in the Big Ten to contend with.
28:07
Speaker 1: They're going to be a difficult matchup. So there's not
28:10
Speaker 1: a lot of teams like that, and I think Indiana
28:12
Speaker 1: is gonna be able to overcome some of those obstacles
28:14
Speaker 1: just with good coaching and smart strategy. So looking ahead
28:17
Speaker 1: to Sunday's game against Baylor, admittedly I've not looked at
28:21
Speaker 1: all at Baylor. I think they have a completely new roster.
28:23
Speaker 1: But what are you looking to see on Sunday from
28:27
Speaker 1: Indiana against a team that obviously from another power conference
28:32
Speaker 1: seam with a coach that has won a national championship.
28:34
Speaker 1: So we know they're gonna be well prepared, even if
28:36
Speaker 1: it is a Brandy roster. But I think this is
28:38
Speaker 1: really the first moment where we might learn something about
28:41
Speaker 1: Indiana and what they're gonna look like this season. Again,
28:45
Speaker 1: Indiana went on the road last year in an exhibition
28:47
Speaker 1: game and beat Tennessee, and we saw how much that
28:49
Speaker 1: I ultimately meant. But I do think there's more intrigue
28:53
Speaker 1: coming into this game than what we've seen maybe out
28:56
Speaker 1: of the Puerto Rico trip or the Marian exhibition.
29:00
Speaker 3: I want to see what they do in terms of
29:03
Speaker 3: the concepts and things that they were running against Marion
29:06
Speaker 3: and how that translates against obviously a P four opponent
29:10
Speaker 3: that has a lot of athletes and you know, it's
29:14
Speaker 3: just gonna occupy more space than a team like Marian's
29:17
Speaker 3: able to. Like Indiana had great spacing against Marion, but
29:22
Speaker 3: at the end of the day too, they didn't have
29:23
Speaker 3: a bunch of guys that have seven foot wingspans, you know,
29:26
Speaker 3: guarding them. And so that'll be what I'm most intrigued
29:29
Speaker 3: about offensively, is just like how do those things that
29:32
Speaker 3: they were doing and doing very well against Marian translate
29:35
Speaker 3: the short rule stuff. Obviously that's all on film too,
29:39
Speaker 3: so so teams can kind of scheme around that as well.
29:43
Speaker 2: You know.
29:43
Speaker 3: That's like my biggest intrigue just in general, is like
29:47
Speaker 3: what does Indiana have to do to counter what teams
29:50
Speaker 3: will take away as the season progresses, because that's kind
29:54
Speaker 3: of where last season, in seasons prior, where I thought
29:58
Speaker 3: Indiana struggled was once teams took away a Molik renew
30:02
Speaker 3: or a new Marballo or whatever, and they knew what
30:04
Speaker 3: Indiana was doing to try to get them the ball
30:06
Speaker 3: in places they like to they struggled with kind of
30:09
Speaker 3: the CounterPunch.
30:10
Speaker 2: And so not that Baylor is gonna just dive.
30:14
Speaker 3: Heavy into Indiana's Marion film and try to take everything
30:16
Speaker 3: they did away, but so that's what I'm looking forward to.
30:19
Speaker 2: And then defensively is kind of the things we talked about.
30:22
Speaker 3: You know, Baylor is historically a really athletic team that
30:25
Speaker 3: plays at a good pace. They're going to push the
30:28
Speaker 3: pace and how does Indiana combat that defensively. That's I'm
30:33
Speaker 3: excited to kind of dive into that film because I
30:35
Speaker 3: think we'll get more of a glimpse of what Indiana
30:37
Speaker 3: is doing schematically on defense. You know, Devrees talked about
30:41
Speaker 3: it a lot, like he doesn't have a lot of
30:43
Speaker 3: rules for his defense like that. You know, they were
30:45
Speaker 3: like does do you switch one through four?
30:47
Speaker 2: And he was like, you know, I don't want to.
30:49
Speaker 3: I don't want them thinking too hard, Like it's more
30:50
Speaker 3: of a feel thing, like they got to play with
30:53
Speaker 3: each other to figure out like should hit he and
30:55
Speaker 3: I switch when there's an off ball screen and things
30:57
Speaker 3: like that. And I'm sure they drill that and it's
30:59
Speaker 3: not as open is that quote probably made it seem.
31:02
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day too, like I
31:03
Speaker 3: do think he truly means that and that's how he
31:05
Speaker 3: coaches in his philosophy, and so I want to see
31:08
Speaker 3: kind of what that looks like. Indiana will certainly make
31:11
Speaker 3: mistakes and then there'll be things that they can clean up.
31:15
Speaker 3: So overall, just there's a ton of intrigue. Right It's
31:19
Speaker 3: it's the first big opponent that we've seen in Indiana play,
31:24
Speaker 3: you know, now counting Puerto Rico and then Marion, you know,
31:28
Speaker 3: it's it's four teams that Indiana would never play, you know,
31:33
Speaker 3: in a NCAA event, and now you're finally getting that,
31:37
Speaker 3: and so you really kind of be able to test
31:38
Speaker 3: metals and see what they can do against opponent that
31:43
Speaker 3: would be of their caliber, if you will. And so, yeah,
31:46
Speaker 3: a ton of intrigue, you know, I really just want
31:49
Speaker 3: to see the x's and o's of it in what
31:52
Speaker 3: DeVries is kind of scheming up on both sides of
31:55
Speaker 3: the ball. That's my most excited part. Every time Indiana
31:59
Speaker 3: hires a new coach, it's like, what are they gonna do?
32:02
Speaker 3: You know, and for the first time. You know, again
32:05
Speaker 3: not trying to dog the last regimes, but Archie Miller
32:07
Speaker 3: and Mike Woodson were more liked and different in terms
32:09
Speaker 3: of how they scheme the game. Debreeze is a complete
32:12
Speaker 3: one eighty and so that's what I'm most excited about,
32:16
Speaker 3: is like, there's gonna be new things and they're trying
32:18
Speaker 3: to get shooters open and stuff like that. So I'm
32:21
Speaker 3: sure Ryan's in a similar boat with his film breakdowns.
32:23
Speaker 3: It's like there's a lot of new stuff. Like you're
32:25
Speaker 3: not like trying to bang your head against the wall
32:27
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what they're gonna do or what
32:30
Speaker 3: you can create content for. Like, there's a lot there
32:32
Speaker 3: that you can kind of pull out. So that's what
32:34
Speaker 3: I'm most excited about.
32:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be one pm on Sunday afternoon on Big
32:39
Speaker 1: ten Plus. So again, if if you've not watched anything
32:43
Speaker 1: up to this point, I would suggest at least diving
32:46
Speaker 1: in to that game because I think, well, you'll learn
32:49
Speaker 1: something more than what we've learned up to this point.
32:51
Speaker 1: And then the second game of the season is Marquette
32:54
Speaker 1: in Chicago. So it's not like Indiana has a kind
32:56
Speaker 1: of a slow ramp to get to you know, their
33:00
Speaker 1: power for opponent. They're going to play Alabama A and
33:03
Speaker 1: M to open the season. Then they're going to go
33:04
Speaker 1: to Chicago and play Marquette on a neutral court, which
33:07
Speaker 1: is a pretty important game I think for non conference performance.
33:11
Speaker 1: Because Indiana I obviously have the opportunity against Kansas State,
33:14
Speaker 1: Louisville Kentucky. You look like two games that are going
33:16
Speaker 1: to be very difficult to win. So I think Marquette's
33:19
Speaker 1: going to be a game that they're probably want to
33:21
Speaker 1: want to go up there and get a win just
33:23
Speaker 1: for a non conference performance reasons. Don't want to put
33:27
Speaker 1: too much pressure on yourself to have to go win
33:29
Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen big ten games in your first season,
33:31
Speaker 1: so we'll be looking forward to that. Tony. Thanks for
33:34
Speaker 1: making the time. I know you're busy as we mentioned
33:36
Speaker 1: at the top, and good luck with everything with the
33:40
Speaker 1: new coaching gig and with the family help. Everything's well
33:44
Speaker 1: over there, and thanks again for taking the time.
33:46
Speaker 2: Absolutely always appreciate coming on.
33:49
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody as always for listening to a Podcasts on
33:52
Speaker 1: the Brink. As we mentioned at the top, if you
33:53
Speaker 1: enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and a
33:55
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34:00
Speaker 1: appreciate the sport support, and we'll be back soon with
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Speaker 1: another episode of Podcast on the Brain.