Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 545: Reviewing IU basketball's season-opening win with Rick Bozich

Transcript

POTB 545: Reviewing IU basketball's season-opening win with Rick Bozich · Podcast on the Brink

0:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcast on the Brink, Friday,
0:23
Speaker 1: November seventh. I E Basketball coming off a season opening
0:28
Speaker 1: win on Wednesday night against Alabama A and M. The
0:32
Speaker 1: football Hoosiers back in action. Number two in the first
0:36
Speaker 1: College Football Playoff rankings. They're back in action Saturday afternoon
0:41
Speaker 1: noon on Fox against Penn State, which kind of looks
0:46
Speaker 1: like their most challenging game left in the regular season
0:49
Speaker 1: schedule between here in twelve and zero that could be
0:53
Speaker 1: tomorrow looks like, at least from a percentage of standpoint,
0:56
Speaker 1: the biggest chance for an upset remaining in Indiana's regular season.
1:01
Speaker 1: Before we get to this week's guest on Podcast on
1:03
Speaker 1: the Brank, my dad, Rick Bosich, I wanted to remind you,
1:08
Speaker 1: if you do get a chance, please leave us to
1:10
Speaker 1: rating and review over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I
1:12
Speaker 1: really appreciate those ratings and reviews helping grow the reach
1:16
Speaker 1: of the show, helping more people find the show. If
1:19
Speaker 1: you enjoy the show, the video version of the show
1:22
Speaker 1: are on YouTube. Like the video, subscribe to the channel.
1:25
Speaker 1: That really helps us continue to grow the channel get
1:28
Speaker 1: more reach over there. Number one White Sox fan now
1:35
Speaker 1: in the world, joining us. Rick Bosch, my dad, formerly
1:38
Speaker 1: of wdiv dot com Hall of Famer, Welcome back to
1:42
Speaker 1: the show. Good to talk to you on this dreary
1:45
Speaker 1: Friday morning in Louisville.
1:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little jury. It's been a long week
1:50
Speaker 2: in move well, obviously because of the events that happened
1:52
Speaker 2: on Tuesday. In prayer to those people, so many people
1:56
Speaker 2: affected by what happened. But it's exciting time year with
2:01
Speaker 2: college football reaching its crescendo and now you tried to
2:04
Speaker 2: do something it's never done before. And the basketball team
2:11
Speaker 2: making a move into a new era, and for the
2:16
Speaker 2: first time in a while, I think they've actually the
2:19
Speaker 2: coach that they've hired is actually gonna play a different
2:22
Speaker 2: style of basketball than fans are used to seeing. So,
2:26
Speaker 2: and the women's team off to a good start in
2:28
Speaker 2: their first game two, and the volleyball team heading towards
2:32
Speaker 2: making the NCAA tournament. And really the team that's kind
2:36
Speaker 2: of not lived up expectations is the men's soccer team,
2:39
Speaker 2: which needs help to make the Big Ten tournament. A
2:43
Speaker 2: lot going on in Bloomington.
2:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, a ton of a ton going on Bloomington. So
2:46
Speaker 1: I got to mention, Yeah, the women's teams, as you mentioned,
2:49
Speaker 1: played really well in their opener. I believe they play
2:51
Speaker 1: again tonight at Assembly Hall, so interested to kind of
2:53
Speaker 1: see how they get off start wise for the season
2:56
Speaker 1: they've they've scheduled, I think pretty smart in terms of
3:00
Speaker 1: just having a brand new a lot not to say
3:03
Speaker 1: a brand new roster, but a lot of new players.
3:05
Speaker 1: Scheduled pretty lightning, non conference should give them a chance
3:07
Speaker 1: to wrack up some wins, gains some confidence, had a
3:09
Speaker 1: big ten play. We're going to talk AU basketball first,
3:12
Speaker 1: men's basketball. You watched the season opener Wednesday night. Obviously
3:17
Speaker 1: hard to draw too much out of an opponent that's
3:20
Speaker 1: that was over as overmatched as Alabama A and M.
3:23
Speaker 1: But it was actually a game that counted. We can
3:26
Speaker 1: stop talking about the exhibition games and the Puerto Rico trip.
3:29
Speaker 1: We actually have a little bit of data now in
3:31
Speaker 1: terms of what this team is going to look like.
3:34
Speaker 1: I'm just curious kind of your thoughts. Kind of had
3:37
Speaker 1: a little few comments there and the opening in terms
3:39
Speaker 1: of the style of play, But from watching the game,
3:42
Speaker 1: any takeaways in your mind, anything you can glean from
3:45
Speaker 1: a game where Indian obviously comes out takes care of
3:47
Speaker 1: Business wins by forty seven points.
3:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can't draw big conclusions because you
3:54
Speaker 2: know there are any teams like that in the Big Ten,
3:57
Speaker 2: not even teams close to that. So you know, we'll
4:00
Speaker 2: find out a lot more on Sunday when they play Marquette.
4:02
Speaker 2: But the things I liked, I'll start off with energy.
4:05
Speaker 2: I mean they play with energy from the beginning to
4:07
Speaker 2: the end. Even the walk Ons played with energy. The
4:10
Speaker 2: bench was engaged, encouraging people, just the coaching staff was engaged.
4:15
Speaker 2: Devrees was up off the bench, you know, getting into
4:19
Speaker 2: guys and telling them what to do. A bunch of times.
4:21
Speaker 2: You saw him move in his hand like all right,
4:23
Speaker 2: get down court, keep get the offense going. It looked
4:28
Speaker 2: like modern basketball, the kind of basketball I've seen a
4:31
Speaker 2: lot in the SEC and you know Big twelve in
4:35
Speaker 2: some other leagues, and not as much in the Big Ten.
4:37
Speaker 2: So it'll be a be interesting to watch how it
4:40
Speaker 2: translates into the Big Ten. I like the way they
4:46
Speaker 2: were willing to share the ball, and I liked the
4:48
Speaker 2: way that they did share the ball. And there were
4:51
Speaker 2: two or three possessions that stood out, And you know,
4:54
Speaker 2: Robbie Hummell acknowledged them of how crisply they threw like
4:58
Speaker 2: three or four extra passes to make sure to get
5:00
Speaker 2: the guy for the open shot. As you pointed out
5:03
Speaker 2: in your posts, think it was yesterday, very little mid
5:07
Speaker 2: range shooting. It was either dunks or layups or three pointers.
5:13
Speaker 2: A variety of guys that can take shots. In the
5:16
Speaker 2: piggyback off the Baylor game. What are they are at
5:19
Speaker 2: thirty seven from thirty eight or something like that on
5:22
Speaker 2: free throws? Unheard of each of the last I don't
5:27
Speaker 2: even know going back how far, whether it was Race
5:31
Speaker 2: Thompson or kalel Ware or more hollow, but all of
5:37
Speaker 2: those teams had a couple of guys, even Trace Jackson Davis,
5:41
Speaker 2: who whenever they went to the free throw line, it was,
5:44
Speaker 2: you know, close your eyes and these guys all look
5:47
Speaker 2: like they can shoot free throws. And that being an
5:51
Speaker 2: old school person, seeing people that take free throw shooting
5:55
Speaker 2: seriously is what you want to see. So a lot
5:59
Speaker 2: of things were their issues. Yeah, I mean they're not
6:02
Speaker 2: real big. They don't have a lot of depth at
6:06
Speaker 2: this moment, as hum Will also pointed out a couple
6:09
Speaker 2: times when they try to double team the post. Alabama
6:12
Speaker 2: A and M took advantage of it. But as Devrez
6:15
Speaker 2: pointed out after the game, that's fine. They have stuff
6:17
Speaker 2: on Fielm that they learned they have to work on.
6:19
Speaker 2: So I don't know that much about Marquette. I don't
6:21
Speaker 2: know what Marqutt will be able to take advantage of.
6:23
Speaker 2: But I liked what I saw.
6:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the free throw shooting is an important
6:30
Speaker 1: thing to bring up because that's something that I know
6:33
Speaker 1: is annoyed a lot of fans over the last eight seasons.
6:36
Speaker 1: It just seems like it's something that maybe Indiana didn't prioritize.
6:40
Speaker 1: Do you see that you've covered college basketball for a
6:42
Speaker 1: long time, do you see that as just having the
6:45
Speaker 1: wrong personnel in the past in terms of shooting free throws?
6:48
Speaker 1: Do you think it's something that a team can emphasize
6:51
Speaker 1: and work on and get better because it's It was
6:54
Speaker 1: head scratching for such a long time because Tom Crean's
6:56
Speaker 1: teams obviously shot the free throw pretty well, always shot
7:00
Speaker 1: from the perimeter pretty well, and it just didn't it
7:02
Speaker 1: seemed like the last eight years, for whatever reason, it
7:06
Speaker 1: wasn't either a priority or something. Maybe they didn't have
7:10
Speaker 1: good enough shooters in general, but it seems like this
7:13
Speaker 1: team that's not going to be an isshoo at all.
7:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, part of it is they didn't recruit guys who
7:21
Speaker 2: their number one skill or number two skill was shooting.
7:24
Speaker 2: I think whenever they got to a decision making mode,
7:28
Speaker 2: they would go with athleticism over shooting. And part of
7:32
Speaker 2: it is the guys you know that I don't think
7:35
Speaker 2: they prioritized it, but they just had so many guys
7:39
Speaker 2: that just weren't good shooters. I mean, I can Justin
7:41
Speaker 2: Smith wasn't a good shooter, Trey Galloway wasn't a good shooter,
7:46
Speaker 2: Tray Jackson Davis not a good free throw shooter. Race
7:49
Speaker 2: Thompson not a good free throw shooter. Just so many
7:52
Speaker 2: of them, and you know, it was just too many.
7:59
Speaker 2: I didn't really understand how they could have that many
8:03
Speaker 2: guys that couldn't shoot the ball when everybody that's been
8:06
Speaker 2: paying attention to college basketball for the last eight or
8:09
Speaker 2: ten years has seen that the game has changed and
8:14
Speaker 2: shooting threes has become critical. Wasn't prioritized, wasn't emphasized, wasn't
8:19
Speaker 2: rewarded under Mike Woodson. And for any team, you know,
8:25
Speaker 2: being able to shoot the ball should be important and
8:28
Speaker 2: free throws. I'm not saying you have to lead the
8:30
Speaker 2: country and be like seventy five percent or whatever you
8:32
Speaker 2: would have to be to lead the country, but to
8:35
Speaker 2: consistently be in the bottom like three hundred or less
8:38
Speaker 2: year after year after year. When it happens that many times,
8:42
Speaker 2: it just sends the message like we don't care about that,
8:45
Speaker 2: and I think that was a bad strategy.
8:49
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a couple of individuals that
8:51
Speaker 1: obviously played well the other night and get your thoughts
8:54
Speaker 1: on a couple of those guys. Target of Reeze is
8:56
Speaker 1: a guy that the more I thought about in the preseason,
9:00
Speaker 1: and I went through the exercise with Dylan Burkhard at
9:02
Speaker 1: Hoops where he ranked the top forty players in the
9:04
Speaker 1: Big Ten, and I think we had him somewhere around fifteen.
9:07
Speaker 1: And the more I thought about it, I think in
9:11
Speaker 1: many ways he's been a little overlooked nationally. You look
9:14
Speaker 1: at what he accomplished at Drake. He won the Missouri
9:17
Speaker 1: Valley Conference Player of the Year twice. He's the current
9:20
Speaker 1: active leading scorer in college basketball, which obviously there's a
9:23
Speaker 1: lot of attrition guys leaving early, But that tells me
9:26
Speaker 1: He's proven it at a really high level for a
9:28
Speaker 1: long time, and if he weren't coming off an injury,
9:31
Speaker 1: I think there would have been a lot more buzz
9:33
Speaker 1: about him coming in to Indiana. But clearly the injury
9:37
Speaker 1: is what allowed him to have that extra year of
9:39
Speaker 1: eligibility to come to Bloomington. But he's really impressed me
9:42
Speaker 1: so far with not just his shooting, just the awareness
9:47
Speaker 1: and the passing. He's also a pretty good rebounder despite
9:53
Speaker 1: not being an overly athletic player. He does the little things,
9:56
Speaker 1: the fundamentals that make teams better and help you win.
10:00
Speaker 1: Would have been your impression just so far of watching
10:02
Speaker 1: Tucker DeVries? And do you agree that maybe he was
10:05
Speaker 1: a little undervalued coming into the season Nashally? I know
10:08
Speaker 1: he was on some of the a couple of the
10:10
Speaker 1: watch lists for preseason player of the Year, but I
10:13
Speaker 1: you know, I saw a lot of preseason all Big
10:15
Speaker 1: ten teams didn't see him on any of those. And
10:18
Speaker 1: Lamar Wilkerston obviously got a lot of pub in the preseason.
10:21
Speaker 1: He was the big transfer portal edition. What was was
10:24
Speaker 1: Tucker maybe a little taken for granted nationally coming coming
10:27
Speaker 1: into the season, and what just your thoughts on him
10:30
Speaker 1: so far watching him play.
10:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe he was overlooked, and I think it's
10:35
Speaker 2: for two reasons. One, as you mentioned, he was hurt
10:36
Speaker 2: and missed most of the last season, and two is
10:40
Speaker 2: that he came in with his dad and they didn't
10:41
Speaker 2: make a big deal out of it when they said
10:43
Speaker 2: he transferred. It was just like assumed he was. And
10:47
Speaker 2: if Tucker DeVries, if Darren DeVries would have come from
10:50
Speaker 2: West Virginia and Tucker deve Rees would have come from
10:53
Speaker 2: you know, TCU, it would have been a big deal.
10:56
Speaker 2: But he was overshadowed by the fact that his dad
10:58
Speaker 2: was the coach. And I first saw him. I saw
11:03
Speaker 2: Drake play Miami in Albany, because you have Indiana was
11:08
Speaker 2: up there played Kent State I think it was, and
11:10
Speaker 2: then Indiana got blown up by Mimami the next game,
11:13
Speaker 2: and Drake actually played Miami better than uh Indiana did.
11:19
Speaker 2: And Drake was led by Tucker Devrees and he was
11:23
Speaker 2: if you were watching the game like that, he's a
11:25
Speaker 2: good player, and he was a good player last year.
11:27
Speaker 2: I mean people, people that follow the game closer, remember
11:32
Speaker 2: that West Virginia and Louisville were the two big surprise
11:34
Speaker 2: stories that tournament in the Bahamas, and then West Virginia
11:37
Speaker 2: Beaconzaga in the first game, and then they lost the
11:40
Speaker 2: Louisville maybe in overtime, and didn't they finish the third
11:43
Speaker 2: time there?
11:44
Speaker 1: I think they beat Arizona in the third game.
11:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and I kind of compare him in some
11:50
Speaker 2: ways to Aidan Fisher in that aiden. Fisher came with Signetti.
11:55
Speaker 2: He knows what Signetti wants, he knows how Signetti wants
11:58
Speaker 2: it done, and and he makes sure the other players
12:01
Speaker 2: do it. Tucker Devrees knows what his dad wants, he
12:05
Speaker 2: knows the way he wants it done, and he can
12:08
Speaker 2: do it on the court. And he can also help
12:13
Speaker 2: explain to his teammates if they ever have questions how
12:16
Speaker 2: he wants it done. So it's a guy that comes
12:18
Speaker 2: in that knows the system already. You don't have to
12:20
Speaker 2: worry about him knowing the system. Yeah. And then he's skilled.
12:23
Speaker 2: I mean, you see the best player in college basketball. No,
12:25
Speaker 2: but I think he's one of the ten best players
12:27
Speaker 2: in the Big Ten because he can he's a triple threat.
12:30
Speaker 2: He can drive, he can shoot, or he can pass.
12:34
Speaker 2: He's an old style basketball player, and that he values
12:37
Speaker 2: those three skills when he gets the ball. If you
12:40
Speaker 2: watch him, when he gets the ball, he gets in
12:41
Speaker 2: the triple threat position where you know you've got the
12:44
Speaker 2: one foot forward, one foot back, and it's like, what
12:47
Speaker 2: are you gonna give me? Are you gonna give me
12:48
Speaker 2: a jumper? I'll take it. Are you gonna play me
12:50
Speaker 2: too tight? And I think I can blow by you.
12:52
Speaker 2: I'll do that. So's he's a great building block for
12:56
Speaker 2: this team, and I think he's He and Wilkerson obviously
12:59
Speaker 2: are the key players.
13:01
Speaker 1: Read. Bailey really impressed me the other night. Again, it's
13:04
Speaker 1: important to caveat all of this with their playing Alabama
13:07
Speaker 1: and m but I thought in the exhibition games and
13:10
Speaker 1: even going back to Puerto Rico, statistically, he was a
13:12
Speaker 1: little underwhelming. I think people had questions in terms of
13:15
Speaker 1: how he was going to fit on this team. He's
13:18
Speaker 1: six foot ten, but he's not your traditional back to
13:21
Speaker 1: the basket big man. But the thing that really impressed
13:24
Speaker 1: me and Ryan did a really good job in film
13:26
Speaker 1: session that was published yesterday looking at the big men
13:28
Speaker 1: and their passing ability. But the thing I liked about
13:31
Speaker 1: Bailey the other night is when he caught the ball
13:33
Speaker 1: in the high post or around the perimeter. He's really
13:35
Speaker 1: looking to make a good pass to a teammate, to
13:38
Speaker 1: a cutter, and to kind of make other guys better.
13:41
Speaker 1: And I think are there going to be nights when
13:43
Speaker 1: Indiana's overmatched in the paint and Bailey's not going to
13:46
Speaker 1: be able to handle a bigger guy defensively. Sure, but
13:50
Speaker 1: there's also going to be a lot of nights where
13:52
Speaker 1: teams have to account for him defensively, guard him all
13:55
Speaker 1: the way out to the perimeter. It's a unique He's
14:00
Speaker 1: a unique player to have for Indiana. I'm curious what
14:03
Speaker 1: you thought so far about Reed Bailey and his just
14:09
Speaker 1: impact on Indiana and the way he played the other night.
14:13
Speaker 2: I like the way he play. That was his best game.
14:17
Speaker 2: What I liked about him was he did come away
14:19
Speaker 2: from the basket and now just to shoot the ball,
14:22
Speaker 2: was to get others involved. He set a few screens though,
14:24
Speaker 2: and rolled to the basket and took care of that.
14:27
Speaker 2: I agree with you. When he gets against big ten teams,
14:32
Speaker 2: the ones that are going to play power basketball, and
14:34
Speaker 2: he will have some issues, but he might present some
14:36
Speaker 2: issues for them for them too by pulling big men
14:38
Speaker 2: away from the basket if he can make them fear
14:41
Speaker 2: his jump shot. I was concerned when I saw him
14:44
Speaker 2: in the Baylor game and even once in the Alabama
14:47
Speaker 2: A and N game that when he was around he
14:49
Speaker 2: couldn't finish around the rim. I've seen him struggle to
14:51
Speaker 2: finish around the rim a little bit. So if that's
14:54
Speaker 2: not the strength of his game, he probably should do
14:56
Speaker 2: that very often in games when he's physically outmatched. But
14:59
Speaker 2: he has a skills that he can lean on, and
15:01
Speaker 2: he showed him in that game. And yeah, he's another guy.
15:05
Speaker 2: He's probably more of a point forward or he's a
15:10
Speaker 2: stretch four. He's not a center. Alexis I think will
15:13
Speaker 2: have to be the center because of his strength against
15:17
Speaker 2: bigger opponents when they get into big ten, And I
15:21
Speaker 2: mean Devrees has been very honest about that since the summer.
15:24
Speaker 2: That's the one area they didn't really have success in
15:29
Speaker 2: the portal is getting a legit center. But they knew
15:32
Speaker 2: that coming of the season. I'm sure they've gained planned
15:35
Speaker 2: or set up their team in a way that they'll
15:39
Speaker 2: try and hide that deficiency and create an advantage in
15:44
Speaker 2: another way that opponents will have to take care of the.
15:49
Speaker 1: Last guy I wanted to talk about was just Lamar
15:51
Speaker 1: Wilkerson because in that first you know what ten twelve
15:55
Speaker 1: minutes of the game, you kind of saw his ability
15:57
Speaker 1: to get hot and kind of carry a team offensively.
16:00
Speaker 1: He had several three pointers, including the one where he
16:03
Speaker 1: was kind of came off going to his left and
16:07
Speaker 1: really had two guys around him, took the three pointer,
16:10
Speaker 1: got fouled, made the three, went to the line and
16:13
Speaker 1: made the freeze at a four point play. Really got
16:15
Speaker 1: the crowd involved in the game. But you know, he
16:19
Speaker 1: was the guy, as I mentioned earlier, was kind of
16:21
Speaker 1: the had had most of the buzz in terms of
16:24
Speaker 1: the transfer portal pickups. I think a lot of that
16:25
Speaker 1: was because it was a head to head battle recruiting
16:28
Speaker 1: wise with Kentucky. He ends up picking Indiana. He brings
16:33
Speaker 1: an element that Indiana just hasn't had. Really, I don't
16:35
Speaker 1: think going back to maybe James Blackman was the guy
16:39
Speaker 1: I think about from a shooting perspective, was you know,
16:42
Speaker 1: as knockdown of a shooter as Lamar Wilkerson, and Lamar
16:45
Speaker 1: Wilkerson may be a better shooter than that, so you
16:48
Speaker 1: may have to go back even further. But what have been.
16:50
Speaker 1: Your impressions of Lamar was It was interesting to hear
16:53
Speaker 1: Darren de Freese was asked after the game about a
16:56
Speaker 1: couple of those deep three pointers that he took. A
16:59
Speaker 1: couple of them were well beyond the NBA three point line,
17:02
Speaker 1: and de re said, Hey, you know, he's earned the
17:04
Speaker 1: right to take those shots. He can make those shots.
17:05
Speaker 1: He practices those shots. He did make a really deep shot.
17:08
Speaker 1: And I can just imagine later in the season a
17:12
Speaker 1: game Indiana has an Assembly Haul where maybe they're the underdog,
17:16
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's a game where the assembly hall
17:19
Speaker 1: crowd is just waiting to explode. I can I can
17:21
Speaker 1: see Lamar Wilkerson hitting a couple of deep threes just
17:24
Speaker 1: to start the game and all of a sudden, the
17:26
Speaker 1: crowd goes into to a frenzy. So he's a guy
17:29
Speaker 1: that I think ultimately they're going to lean on a
17:33
Speaker 1: lot offensively, and he's gonna have some really big games
17:36
Speaker 1: where he's making you know, five or six three pointers
17:38
Speaker 1: and carrying Indiana to some victories.
17:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. I got a couple thoughts on him. One is,
17:44
Speaker 2: first of all, he's a man. I mean, he's he's
17:46
Speaker 2: not a eighteen year old. Was he twenty two or
17:49
Speaker 2: twenty three. He's older, he's been around, he's he's physically
17:54
Speaker 2: he looks like a man, uh and that's an advantage.
17:58
Speaker 2: And he thinks like a man. And he's been in
18:03
Speaker 2: difficult situations and shown that he can as poise and
18:08
Speaker 2: knows what to do. He's very confident in his ability.
18:12
Speaker 2: He's very determined, I think, to show that he can
18:18
Speaker 2: succeed at this level. Like a lot of these guys are.
18:20
Speaker 2: They're moving up a level, and whether it's written or suggested,
18:24
Speaker 2: it's in the back of their mind that at some
18:26
Speaker 2: point they were told, Eh, you're not really good enough
18:29
Speaker 2: to play in the Big ten or the SEC or
18:32
Speaker 2: the Big twelve. You need to play here. So I
18:34
Speaker 2: think that's probably a motivation for him, and I'm sure
18:38
Speaker 2: somebody that wants to play professionally and this is his
18:42
Speaker 2: chance to show that he can do it. I'm not
18:45
Speaker 2: quite as excited as Devrees was about taking thirty five
18:49
Speaker 2: foot shots. It's okay, I guess against Alabama A and M,
18:53
Speaker 2: But if you get in the Big ten game, I
18:55
Speaker 2: don't think it's a wise piece of shot selection unless
18:58
Speaker 2: it's deep, deep in the shot clock. But if the
19:01
Speaker 2: coach says he's earned the right to do it, then
19:03
Speaker 2: it's his it's his deal. I mean, I think a
19:06
Speaker 2: few when you're getting out like thirty or thirty five,
19:09
Speaker 2: I don't think it makes much sense to do that.
19:11
Speaker 2: That's just me.
19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, those plays too. I think against the wrong team
19:17
Speaker 1: it ends up as a long rebound and a dunk
19:19
Speaker 1: on the other end potentially, so that that's the problem
19:22
Speaker 1: with that. But again, I don't think thirty five feet
19:25
Speaker 1: which I think he took one that deep that There
19:27
Speaker 1: was another one he took that was pretty that was
19:29
Speaker 1: a little closer end than he made. So you know,
19:32
Speaker 1: we'll see how the shot selection goes as the season
19:36
Speaker 1: goes along. I want to shift gears obviously to IU football,
19:39
Speaker 1: because you know, we had John late September talked about
19:42
Speaker 1: just an incredible job that Kurt Signetti's done building this
19:45
Speaker 1: football team. I know You've continued to watch, you know,
19:49
Speaker 1: I think in many ways it will probably would have
19:51
Speaker 1: been a fun season for you as a columnist to
19:53
Speaker 1: write about this IU football team and just kind of
19:57
Speaker 1: how you know, last year was kind of viewed to
20:00
Speaker 1: that Cinderella type story for Indiana football, the program that
20:04
Speaker 1: nobody believed in before the season, picked I think seventeenth
20:07
Speaker 1: or eighteenth in the Big Ten. They might have been
20:08
Speaker 1: picked last, and they make the College Football Playoff. And
20:11
Speaker 1: I think coming into the season, most people thought, you know,
20:15
Speaker 1: if Indiana can go nine to three and make a
20:17
Speaker 1: really good bowl game, that's a good season. And here
20:20
Speaker 1: we are, you know, with three regular season games to go,
20:24
Speaker 1: Indiana's nine to zero. They're going to Penn State, who
20:28
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season, I was looking at
20:29
Speaker 1: the ESPNFPI, this was a game I think Indiana had
20:32
Speaker 1: a seventeen percent chance to win coming into the season.
20:36
Speaker 1: Now they're up over seventy percent chance to win. It's really,
20:39
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier in the show, their last remaining
20:43
Speaker 1: hurdle in terms of getting to an unbeaten regular season.
20:46
Speaker 1: Not saying that they couldn't have a slip up against
20:48
Speaker 1: Wisconsin or Purdue, but it seems extremely unlikely based on
20:52
Speaker 1: the performance of those two teams so far in Big
20:55
Speaker 1: Ten play. Interesting that Indiana is going into a situation
20:58
Speaker 1: now with three Big Ten games left and none of
21:01
Speaker 1: those opponents have won a conference game. So what just
21:07
Speaker 1: I know, you made some comparisons, you know, to you know,
21:11
Speaker 1: other programs in the past remarkable turnarounds from college football.
21:15
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm not someone that's covered the sport
21:19
Speaker 1: for for a long time. You know, this is really
21:21
Speaker 1: my first year at all really writing anything about college football.
21:24
Speaker 1: But is this the most improbable turnaround of a college
21:29
Speaker 1: football program ever? And is there any way to put
21:32
Speaker 1: into perspective what what Kurt Signetty has been able to
21:34
Speaker 1: do with his IU football program historically, because it just seems,
21:40
Speaker 1: you know, unfathomable that we're talking about Indiana's potential, you know,
21:47
Speaker 1: top four seed in the college football rankings, that seasons
21:50
Speaker 1: in a team that could be not not just have
21:52
Speaker 1: to not just make the College football Playoff, but they
21:54
Speaker 1: could be a you know, a by team into one
21:57
Speaker 1: of the New Year's New Year's Eve or New Year's tables.
22:01
Speaker 2: Yet it is the most remarkable turnaround in college football history.
22:04
Speaker 2: Other teams have gotten better, but not in what twenty
22:09
Speaker 2: one games or however many twenty two games, however it's been.
22:12
Speaker 2: It usually takes time to build a program. Now, part
22:15
Speaker 2: of that makes a difficult comparison because we've only been
22:21
Speaker 2: in the transferportal era for a short period of time.
22:27
Speaker 2: And he was able to turn it around because he
22:30
Speaker 2: was able to get older players in quickly. But even
22:34
Speaker 2: with that being said, he's been able to take those
22:37
Speaker 2: guys and build them into a team and coachable guys
22:41
Speaker 2: who you know followed a plan. And you know, you
22:47
Speaker 2: keep waiting for them to have like a letdown because
22:49
Speaker 2: it's inevitable. Every team has a letdown, and really it
22:54
Speaker 2: hasn't happened yet. I mean, they go into Maryland and
22:56
Speaker 2: beat them by fifty or whatever it was, and it's
23:00
Speaker 2: ar and a victory. And then if you look at
23:01
Speaker 2: the season, there's other teams that have good road wins.
23:05
Speaker 2: There's no team in the country that has two road
23:07
Speaker 2: wins like that match up the Indiana winning at Iowa,
23:10
Speaker 2: which is an incredibly tough place to win in. Iowa's
23:12
Speaker 2: gone on to be a good team. They're six and
23:14
Speaker 2: two and winning at Oregon by double figures, where they
23:18
Speaker 2: have the longest home winning streak in the country. So
23:22
Speaker 2: you know, the people that criticize IU really aren't paying
23:25
Speaker 2: attention to what's going on in terms of what they've achieved.
23:28
Speaker 2: And you know they've dealt with injuries. Is like last
23:31
Speaker 2: week they won without their best receiver. They won without
23:33
Speaker 2: their best linebacker. They have an offensive guard that's missing,
23:36
Speaker 2: their kickoff man's missing, another linebacker, defensive end Wyatt's out
23:41
Speaker 2: for the year, another linebacker got hurt, and they don't
23:44
Speaker 2: really have a ton of depth, And so they're just
23:48
Speaker 2: incredibly well coached in terms of they don't make stupid
23:52
Speaker 2: penalties for the most part. They've had two or three
23:55
Speaker 2: games to sure where they've had breakdowns in the defensive
23:57
Speaker 2: backfield and got beat for long passes. But no team
23:59
Speaker 2: is perfect, and for them to be as consistently efficient
24:06
Speaker 2: and dominant as they've been is it's just as I've
24:11
Speaker 2: said before, it's like preposterous. I've never seen anything like it.
24:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, And for Fernando Mendoza right there still in the
24:18
Speaker 1: conversation for the Heisman Trophy, I think we when we
24:21
Speaker 1: had you on last time, we mentioned the Heisman because
24:24
Speaker 1: you voted for in a long time. I'm not sure
24:26
Speaker 1: if you still have your vote now that you're retired,
24:30
Speaker 1: but I'm curious now that we've you know, I think
24:33
Speaker 1: when we talked about this in September, it was more
24:35
Speaker 1: of a hypothetical because it was so early in the season.
24:39
Speaker 1: I think at that point they had to win over Illinois.
24:42
Speaker 1: It may have been before the Iowa game that we
24:44
Speaker 1: that we talked on the last podcast, and so it
24:48
Speaker 1: was early season buzz. But now we're getting down to
24:50
Speaker 1: kind of the nitty gritty. I think the the Heisman
24:53
Speaker 1: presentation is on December thirteenth, which is the same night
24:57
Speaker 1: in Dana is going to play a basketball game at Kentucky,
25:00
Speaker 1: and Bernando Mendoza is clearly in the mix. I mean,
25:03
Speaker 1: obviously with the Ohio State quarterback and the Alabama quarterback
25:07
Speaker 1: as well in the mix there. But what from from
25:12
Speaker 1: here on looking at this as someone that voted for
25:16
Speaker 1: the award for so long, what are you looking for
25:19
Speaker 1: over the lack of the next you know, five to
25:21
Speaker 1: six weeks and determining who you're going to vote for?
25:24
Speaker 1: Because I think the conversation is obviously going to only
25:27
Speaker 1: intensify here in the coming weeks. And they've got three
25:30
Speaker 1: regular season games, obviously the Big Ten Championship, and then
25:32
Speaker 1: the award will be presented. So what's going to be
25:35
Speaker 1: the determining factor on who wins it? It could have
25:39
Speaker 1: come down to that Big Ten Championship game between Ohio
25:41
Speaker 1: State and Indiana. Is that are will most will most
25:44
Speaker 1: ballots already be cast by then or how does it
25:46
Speaker 1: usually work in terms of when folks decide what they're
25:50
Speaker 1: going to do with their ballot?
25:54
Speaker 2: Several years ago, I don't know how many, five seven
25:56
Speaker 2: it all changed where it's all online stuff. Before it
25:59
Speaker 2: used to be had to mail your ballots in, so
26:01
Speaker 2: the ballots will do earlier now they're not due. I
26:03
Speaker 2: don't think until five o'clock on Monday after the Big
26:07
Speaker 2: Ten championship game. I think it's that's what it is,
26:10
Speaker 2: or maybe five o'clock on Sunday after the Big ten
26:12
Speaker 2: and SEC and Big twelve a SC championship games. So
26:16
Speaker 2: how you perform the last four weeks is really going
26:19
Speaker 2: to decide who's going to win and which players are
26:22
Speaker 2: actually in conference championship games, which how they perform in
26:26
Speaker 2: those games. So he's right there in the mix right
26:29
Speaker 2: now with you know two or my guy's still in there,
26:33
Speaker 2: not he's kind of falling out of it. The Vanderbilt guy,
26:36
Speaker 2: Pobby is in there. The Alabama quarterbacks in there, if
26:41
Speaker 2: the Ohio State quarterbacks in there, So it could come
26:44
Speaker 2: down to how they if it's Indiana and Ohio State
26:46
Speaker 2: in the Big Ten title game. Mendoza would have to
26:49
Speaker 2: really play well in that game, and if he beat
26:51
Speaker 2: Ohio State, I think he would have a really good
26:53
Speaker 2: chance to win. If if he didn't have a great game,
26:56
Speaker 2: and saying had a great game, I'd say Sam would win.
26:59
Speaker 2: So it's right now you just kind of know who
27:03
Speaker 2: the guys are who are candidates, and they'll be decided
27:06
Speaker 2: about how they play the rest of the way. I
27:08
Speaker 2: don't think a great you know, if you hat some
27:10
Speaker 2: monsters game against Penn State tomorrow, that would help them.
27:14
Speaker 2: But what you want to avoid is not don't have
27:16
Speaker 2: a game where your team gets upset or you throw
27:19
Speaker 2: two picks or or things like that, not have a
27:22
Speaker 2: really bad game.
27:25
Speaker 1: How much does I guess this is more of an
27:29
Speaker 1: opinion question. I'm just curious how how much you think
27:33
Speaker 1: the fact that Indiana's kind of a newcomer on the
27:35
Speaker 1: scene is going to hurt But some of the I
27:38
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a good old boy network in
27:40
Speaker 1: terms of some of the people that vote for the Heisman,
27:42
Speaker 1: But are they less likely if it's if it comes
27:45
Speaker 1: down between let's say Ty Simpson of Alabama and Julian
27:49
Speaker 1: Sayan who's obviously Ohio State, two programs that are historically
27:54
Speaker 1: relevant national powers, and Fernanda Mendoza from Indiana that obviously
28:01
Speaker 1: has just been kind of on the scene the last
28:03
Speaker 1: couple years. Is it going to be hard for him
28:06
Speaker 1: if it's close between those three, is it going to
28:08
Speaker 1: be hard for him to overcome kind of the history
28:10
Speaker 1: of value football or do you think most voters are
28:12
Speaker 1: just going to look at this season and look at
28:14
Speaker 1: it as it should go to the most valuable player
28:18
Speaker 1: because we see it all the time now in college football.
28:20
Speaker 1: You watch these different podcasts, lost different clips on social media.
28:25
Speaker 1: People are giving Indiana their credit, but they're still making
28:29
Speaker 1: comments flights when they can to get something in there
28:33
Speaker 1: against Indiana. It's like they don't want to accept the
28:35
Speaker 1: fact that Indiana is where it is and they're looking
28:38
Speaker 1: for anything that they can to kind of keep them
28:41
Speaker 1: from a conversation at the top of college football.
28:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be a percentage
28:46
Speaker 2: of people that way. There's going to be voters in
28:48
Speaker 2: SEC areas who are going to favor SEC guys because
28:52
Speaker 2: those are the guys they cover, those are the guys
28:54
Speaker 2: they watch. They think it's the best football conference in
28:57
Speaker 2: the country, and there's going to be big ten voters
28:59
Speaker 2: that are going to big ten guys, and whether it
29:01
Speaker 2: would favor an Ohio State guy over an Indiana guy,
29:04
Speaker 2: I don't know. For the most part, I don't think
29:07
Speaker 2: it'll be a huge factor because One, I've already seen
29:10
Speaker 2: a couple of these like early canvassing of voters, and
29:15
Speaker 2: he's high up in all the you know, the Heisman
29:18
Speaker 2: race projections, and b he's gotten a ton of time
29:22
Speaker 2: on television and people have mentioned him as a Heisman candidate.
29:25
Speaker 2: People know who he is and his brother and the
29:27
Speaker 2: story about his mom, and it's been a pretty highly
29:30
Speaker 2: public I mean, I think people know more about him
29:32
Speaker 2: than they do about Saying or Simpson. For the most part,
29:35
Speaker 2: I think he's gotten a lot of publicity this year,
29:38
Speaker 2: so I don't think it would stop him from winning
29:40
Speaker 2: the award. But you know, I think within the Heisman,
29:44
Speaker 2: if you if you look at the voting over the years,
29:47
Speaker 2: the day, the night of the Heisman or the day after,
29:51
Speaker 2: they usually break down the voting by like six areas
29:54
Speaker 2: of the country, and generally people in the South vote
29:59
Speaker 2: for guys who play in the South and guys in
30:01
Speaker 2: the Midwest vote for guys who play in the Midwest
30:03
Speaker 2: and some of that regional support is there?
30:09
Speaker 1: To curiousity, last question before Lego, how does that process
30:12
Speaker 1: work in terms of who they decide to give a
30:15
Speaker 1: vote for the Heisman? Is that something that your approach
30:20
Speaker 1: over a period of time cover in college football?
30:23
Speaker 2: Is there?
30:23
Speaker 1: Certain I don't like the ap pole and things like that.
30:26
Speaker 1: There's different representation based on what state you're from and
30:29
Speaker 1: things like that, trying to make it balance.
30:31
Speaker 2: Is it.
30:32
Speaker 1: I'm just curious if there's any rhyme or reason as
30:34
Speaker 1: to who gets a Heisman vote and how that's how
30:36
Speaker 1: that all works.
30:38
Speaker 2: I think they do break it down, like b areas
30:42
Speaker 2: of how many FBS programs there are in your state?
30:48
Speaker 2: Is how many votes each state gets? I was asked
30:52
Speaker 2: to vote, like in the early eighties, Billy Reid was
30:54
Speaker 2: the state chairman for Kentucky, and I don't know how
30:58
Speaker 2: many there might have been, like five or six voters
31:01
Speaker 2: in the state of Kentucky. Maybe it was him, Paul
31:03
Speaker 2: Rogers me Pat became one. Pat forty, John Clay later
31:09
Speaker 2: got one. Pat forty is now the state representative in Kentucky,
31:15
Speaker 2: and John Clay retired, and so did I. And although
31:18
Speaker 2: John and I were both willing to keep voting, if
31:20
Speaker 2: you're not actively covering college football, you can't vote, which
31:23
Speaker 2: is different than a lot of other awards, like the
31:25
Speaker 2: Lombardi Award. Sent me the ballot yesterday and I filled
31:29
Speaker 2: it out, so then thank me for doing it. And
31:32
Speaker 2: they want guys who actually cover the game. And I'm
31:35
Speaker 2: sure you know Indiana's got how many FBS programs they
31:39
Speaker 2: got ball State, they got Notre Dame, they got Purdue
31:42
Speaker 2: in Indiana. So Kentucky's only got three Western Kentucky, Louisville,
31:49
Speaker 2: and Kentucky. So they're probably more voters in the state
31:51
Speaker 2: of Indiana than there are in the state of Kentucky.
31:55
Speaker 2: And I don't I don't know how who else gets
31:57
Speaker 2: to vote. I mean, because there's like eight or nine
31:59
Speaker 2: hundred voters. Former Heisman winners are voters, but I guess
32:04
Speaker 2: the rest of the guys are media people, so must
32:06
Speaker 2: be radio and TV guys and stuff.
32:09
Speaker 1: Okay, well, thanks for the insight on that. Thanks for
32:12
Speaker 1: the time on this Friday morning. Really appreciate you coming
32:16
Speaker 1: on the show. Always good to the talk IU basketball football.
32:19
Speaker 1: It's exciting time as you mentioned at the top of
32:22
Speaker 1: the show for IU sports in general, a lot of
32:24
Speaker 1: good things going on there in Bloomington, a lot of
32:27
Speaker 1: excitement about not just the basketball team but football, women's basketball.
32:32
Speaker 1: You mentioned the volleyball team on track to make the
32:34
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament for the first time under Steve Aired. So
32:38
Speaker 1: fun times ahead, exciting time good too, good for you
32:42
Speaker 1: two to have. I use sports the track with baseball
32:46
Speaker 1: season being.
32:46
Speaker 2: Over, Yeah, congrats to coach Aired. He blew out the
32:50
Speaker 2: defending national champs, Penn State, and straight sets in at
32:54
Speaker 2: Penn State. That's I looked it up just now. IU
32:59
Speaker 2: football is two and two and twenty five against Penn
33:02
Speaker 2: State and one of the wins was the Pennix dive
33:06
Speaker 2: and they've never won in state college. So even though
33:11
Speaker 2: they're fourteen and a half point favorites, I mean, this
33:14
Speaker 2: is their Isn't this Penn State's first game at home
33:16
Speaker 2: since they fired James Franklin. I don't know what the winds,
33:19
Speaker 2: I don't know what kind of crowd they're going to have,
33:21
Speaker 2: but it's not an easy place to win, so we'll
33:25
Speaker 2: see how they perform tomorrow. And I guess Fisher and
33:28
Speaker 2: sarat are supposed to play, but that's then they got Wisconsin,
33:33
Speaker 2: which obviously just decided to bring Luke Fickle back next year.
33:36
Speaker 2: Then they got Purdue, which is dealing with the loss
33:39
Speaker 2: of their star running back Makabee. So, as you mentioned,
33:42
Speaker 2: this is the game that will decide I think, for
33:44
Speaker 2: the most part, if they can get to twelve and zero,
33:46
Speaker 2: which is hard to believe.
33:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, Josh mentioned in a preview later wrote this month,
33:52
Speaker 1: even if our this morning for the Penn State a game,
33:55
Speaker 1: even if they have seventy percent of what their normal
33:58
Speaker 1: CAD is, that's still seventy thousand approximately people, So that's
34:01
Speaker 1: still a pretty big crowd. And you know, they they
34:06
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to believe the fault that they've They've
34:09
Speaker 1: had the zero to five and the big ten. I mentioned,
34:12
Speaker 1: the schedule set up perfectly for Indiana, but they have
34:15
Speaker 1: to obviously continue to execute and play well. So we'll
34:18
Speaker 1: be tuned into that on Saturday see how it goes. Obviously,
34:20
Speaker 1: I you Marquette on Sunday plenty to talk about on
34:24
Speaker 1: next week's episode of Podcasts on Break. Thanks again for
34:27
Speaker 1: joining us, everybody. If you enjoy the show, please leave
34:29
Speaker 1: us a rating and review. Over on Apple Podcast, leave
34:32
Speaker 1: us a you know like, or subscribe as well on YouTube,
34:36
Speaker 1: and we'll be back soon with another episode of Podcast
34:38
Speaker 1: on the Brink.