Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 549: Takeaways from IU basketball's loss at Minnesota and the program's 7-1 start

Transcript

POTB 549: Takeaways from IU basketball's loss at Minnesota and the program's 7-1 start · Podcast on the Brink

0:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcasts on the Brink, Friday,
0:23
Speaker 1: December fifth. Indiana basketball coming off. I think what would
0:27
Speaker 1: most say is a disappointing seventy three sixty four lost
0:31
Speaker 1: in Minnesota on Wednesday night. Bosiers will be back in
0:34
Speaker 1: action tomorrow afternoon in Indianapolis two fifteen tip on CBS
0:40
Speaker 1: against Louisville and what will be an eventful day for
0:43
Speaker 1: Indiana fans in the Indianapolis area. They also got the
0:46
Speaker 1: Big Ten Championship just over at at Lucas Oil Stadium
0:50
Speaker 1: tomorrow night at eight o'clock. So busy day in Indianapolis
0:53
Speaker 1: for sports and in particular for IU fans. So looking
0:55
Speaker 1: forward to I'm actually going up to the basketball game.
0:59
Speaker 1: Josh Po's will be the football game. Jamie Owens our
1:01
Speaker 1: photographer doing the double dips, so going to be an
1:03
Speaker 1: eventful day for him. Ryan Krozov inside the Hall, back
1:07
Speaker 1: on the show before we get to Ryan. If we
1:09
Speaker 1: enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and review
1:11
Speaker 1: over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Like the video on
1:14
Speaker 1: YouTube if you're watching there, subscribe to the channel As
1:17
Speaker 1: we continue our march towards ten thousand subscribers. And Ryan,
1:22
Speaker 1: your film session pieces are helping us get there. They've
1:25
Speaker 1: been well received this year. Continue the great work on that. Ryan.
1:28
Speaker 1: Just before we get into some IU basketball talk, you
1:32
Speaker 1: went to IU, you wrote for the Indiana Daily Student.
1:36
Speaker 1: We're around the sports programs there. Did you ever think
1:41
Speaker 1: that IU football would be on this stage? Because this
1:45
Speaker 1: to me, you know, I've said this to a couple
1:47
Speaker 1: of people. I've tried to think of a more improbable
1:51
Speaker 1: turnaround story in college sports, and I can't really think
1:54
Speaker 1: of one better than what Kurt Signette has done in
1:59
Speaker 1: Bloomington the last two seasons.
2:01
Speaker 2: No, never thought this, not in the slightest. It's it's
2:04
Speaker 2: really pretty remarkable. And you know, going into this season,
2:10
Speaker 2: I kind of looked at it like, well, you know,
2:12
Speaker 2: last year obviously was great, and you know, Sicknetty, he's.
2:17
Speaker 3: Really only got to win maybe eight nine games a.
2:19
Speaker 2: Year, right to still look better than most, you know,
2:23
Speaker 2: pretty much any coach that's ever coached at Indiana, and
2:26
Speaker 2: he can still do great. And I think people will
2:29
Speaker 2: still be happy that Indiana is maybe in the mix
2:32
Speaker 2: for the playoff here and there, maybe getting in and
2:35
Speaker 2: short of that, still having a pretty good season. But
2:40
Speaker 2: to go out to Oregon and get that win. I mean,
2:42
Speaker 2: to go into Penn State. Obviously they're a little bit
2:45
Speaker 2: more down this year, but to come back and win
2:47
Speaker 2: that game and to finish the season undefeated. And now, really,
2:51
Speaker 2: if you look at all the analytics, it's like, you know,
2:54
Speaker 2: Ohio State's favored in this game. I think I saw
2:56
Speaker 2: a line was starting around six or so. I think
2:59
Speaker 2: it's come down to maybe three or four, four or
3:02
Speaker 2: five maybe last I saw a day or two ago.
3:05
Speaker 2: But these two are statistically the best teams in the country.
3:08
Speaker 2: And I know Ohio State has obviously has the brand,
3:10
Speaker 2: the cachet, and they won the national title last year.
3:13
Speaker 3: But Indiana.
3:15
Speaker 2: If there's any team that's gonna stack up with them
3:17
Speaker 2: almost it is Indiana, which is pretty crazy. So this
3:20
Speaker 2: I think people really do, truly think that these are
3:22
Speaker 2: the best two teams in the country.
3:24
Speaker 3: And we'll see what happens on Saturday.
3:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw yesterday the get in price last year
3:32
Speaker 1: for the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis was twenty
3:34
Speaker 1: four bucks. I saw this year like five seventy five,
3:37
Speaker 1: five eighty just to get I thought.
3:39
Speaker 2: I saw like over eight hundred recently, maybe you know
3:42
Speaker 2: the dynamic ay dynamic pricing these days on the second day,
3:45
Speaker 2: I mean, you know these things function, fuck it by
3:47
Speaker 2: the hour. But yeah, it's it's pretty nuts how much
3:50
Speaker 2: it costs to get into this game.
3:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know there's quite a few IU fans
3:54
Speaker 1: are probably gonna do the double dip as well do
3:55
Speaker 1: the basketball game in the football game. So it'll be
3:58
Speaker 1: a fun day tomorrow, Indianapolis. Looking forward to it. So
4:03
Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on this morning. Thought about
4:07
Speaker 1: doing just a general preview of the Legal game, but
4:10
Speaker 1: I thought it would be more maybe interesting for the
4:15
Speaker 1: listeners to get some thoughts on the Minnesota game and
4:19
Speaker 1: kind of what went wrong. I know you did a
4:20
Speaker 1: film session. I watched that this morning and published it,
4:23
Speaker 1: edited it, and interesting to me that Nico medved kind
4:30
Speaker 1: of the style that he plays is somewhat similar to
4:32
Speaker 1: Darren DeVries in terms of at least the offense and
4:35
Speaker 1: some of the things that they try to do going
4:38
Speaker 1: into the game. Now, I'd mentioned to you kind of
4:41
Speaker 1: offline that I was a little bit concerned about this game,
4:43
Speaker 1: first Big ten road game. I don't know if it's
4:47
Speaker 1: just the last how many years we've been doing this
4:51
Speaker 1: of covering IU basketball, that kind of just default to
4:54
Speaker 1: the idea that any Big ten road game could be
4:57
Speaker 1: a loss, because that's kind of how it's felt for
4:59
Speaker 1: such a long time, and the more I thought about it, really,
5:03
Speaker 1: in this league, unless you're an elite team with superior
5:07
Speaker 1: talent or just one or two players that can take
5:12
Speaker 1: over a game at any moment, you're capable of getting
5:17
Speaker 1: picked off in this league. That's just kind of what
5:19
Speaker 1: we see in these venues. Minnesota in particular, I've always
5:22
Speaker 1: kind of felt like the rims there are weird for
5:24
Speaker 1: whatever reason. I don't know what it is, but you know,
5:28
Speaker 1: Indiana is a really good free throw shooting team. They
5:30
Speaker 1: go in the other night, they shoot twelve to twenty
5:32
Speaker 1: from the line. You got the raised floor, you've got
5:36
Speaker 1: an environment that wasn't necessarily juiced up, and I don't
5:40
Speaker 1: know how that affects a road team. So not making
5:43
Speaker 1: excuses for the performance, but it was kind of one
5:44
Speaker 1: of those games that I saw coming. But I'm curious
5:49
Speaker 1: just if this performance in any way changes your perception
5:53
Speaker 1: of what you've seen of Indiana through the first eight games,
5:57
Speaker 1: because we saw them get this ranking, which is twenty
6:00
Speaker 1: second but a lot of that is because they're Indiana
6:04
Speaker 1: the brand, and they had some really impressive wins obviously
6:07
Speaker 1: Marquet and Kansas State, but haven't beaten it ncuaa tournament
6:10
Speaker 1: team at this point. But I think they've done everything
6:12
Speaker 1: to kind of justify moving themselves up in the analytics
6:15
Speaker 1: by how they've taken care of games and how they've
6:18
Speaker 1: beaten opponents. But yeah, big picture, does this change anything
6:21
Speaker 1: about how you thinking about this team moving forward? Obviously
6:25
Speaker 1: it makes things more difficult in terms of having a
6:28
Speaker 1: good record in the Big Ten if you can't beat
6:30
Speaker 1: one of your more winnable games on the road. But
6:32
Speaker 1: I'm curious just kind of how you come out of
6:34
Speaker 1: this game thinking about how you.
6:38
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a type of game that shows
6:42
Speaker 2: how to beat Indiana and it I think, as you
6:45
Speaker 2: pointed to all those reasons, Big ten row game, and
6:49
Speaker 2: so I don't know if it's tough.
6:51
Speaker 3: You know, there's kind of this prisoner of the moment thing.
6:53
Speaker 2: I think if you were to tell observers or fans
6:56
Speaker 2: that Indiana was going to be one and twenty six
7:02
Speaker 2: on Ken Palm with a top twenty defense, a top
7:05
Speaker 2: fifty offense before the season, I think most people would
7:10
Speaker 2: take that, you know, right, So I don't think that
7:12
Speaker 2: it's kind of a sky is falling moment. And really
7:15
Speaker 2: it's so early in this tenure and with this team
7:17
Speaker 2: that it's kind of hard to know for sure how
7:20
Speaker 2: things are going to shake out from here. But in
7:22
Speaker 2: terms of this game specifically, I do think that it
7:24
Speaker 2: was a game that again showed how you can beat Indiana.
7:28
Speaker 2: I think if you get physical and you can take
7:30
Speaker 2: away derees in Wilkerson from kind of dominating a game,
7:34
Speaker 2: kind of commanding a game, kind of getting comfortable, and
7:38
Speaker 2: you got to make everybody else on the team beat you,
7:42
Speaker 2: I think that can be problematic for Indiana, which we
7:44
Speaker 2: saw because I mean, uh, we've seen other guys like
7:49
Speaker 2: as Sisily has has helped off the bench. Well, he's
7:53
Speaker 2: a freshman in his first true road game, picked up
7:55
Speaker 2: some quick files in the first half, never really got
7:58
Speaker 2: into it. I think we're continuing to see what it
8:02
Speaker 2: seemed like Indiana needs for Reed Bailey is to score
8:05
Speaker 2: through physicality a little bit better, maybe do a little
8:08
Speaker 2: bit more of the dirty work. And I think he's
8:10
Speaker 2: he struggled to do that, and so you kind of
8:12
Speaker 2: see that gap as well, and is this a team
8:16
Speaker 2: that can go get its own bucket. I think Connorway
8:19
Speaker 2: can do that, but especially against better competition, I think
8:22
Speaker 2: it's going to be even harder for some of these
8:25
Speaker 2: guys to get to the rim. So I think Minnesota
8:28
Speaker 2: had a really good blueprint for how to beat Indiana.
8:32
Speaker 2: And this is not going to be the first Big
8:35
Speaker 2: Ten team, be it road or home, that really get
8:39
Speaker 2: after Devirees and Wilkerson and can live with other guys
8:44
Speaker 2: trying to beat them.
8:46
Speaker 1: So we saw a little bit of Indiana trying to
8:48
Speaker 1: counter maybe the defensive game plan of overplaying those guys
8:53
Speaker 1: in the perimeter with some of the back cutting. But
8:56
Speaker 1: as you kind of looked back, as you looked back
8:58
Speaker 1: at the game and kind of thought of it more,
9:00
Speaker 1: is there anything moving forward that you think when Indiana
9:03
Speaker 1: watches the film of this game or comes out of
9:07
Speaker 1: this game and says, this is kind of what we
9:09
Speaker 1: failed to do. Obviously, I mean missing eight free throws
9:11
Speaker 1: didn't help, because you know, you make three or four
9:13
Speaker 1: of those in the game, pressure feels totally different. You know,
9:16
Speaker 1: maybe things change a little bit. The defensive rebounding obviously
9:20
Speaker 1: wasn't ideal giving up fourteen second chance points, although I
9:23
Speaker 1: know they only gave up ten offensive rebounds. Every second
9:26
Speaker 1: chance point you give up is can in a close
9:30
Speaker 1: game can be detrimental to your chances of winning. But
9:33
Speaker 1: I'm curious if there's anything that moving forward that you
9:37
Speaker 1: think we could see differently in terms of trying to
9:39
Speaker 1: counter some of these attempts to just take those two
9:43
Speaker 1: guys out of the game, because we know that that's
9:46
Speaker 1: not going to stop, and it's going to happen again
9:49
Speaker 1: tomorrow Saturday against Louisville, and teams moving forward are going
9:52
Speaker 1: to know, Hey, what's let's let Tayton Connorway shoot threes.
9:57
Speaker 1: Let's you know, let's read Bailey try to finish against content.
10:00
Speaker 1: But what's not let Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker de Breese
10:02
Speaker 1: get going for the perimeter, which Marquette did the first
10:06
Speaker 1: game that we saw and they got blown off the court.
10:09
Speaker 1: So now that this blueprint is kind of established, what
10:14
Speaker 1: can be maybe the counter for Indiana moving forward. Maybe
10:16
Speaker 1: this isn't a question that you can answer many this
10:18
Speaker 1: is a question for Darren Debrees to answer, But I'm curious,
10:21
Speaker 1: just you know, you studied the film, watch these games
10:23
Speaker 1: as close as anyone, So I'm curious for your thoughts.
10:26
Speaker 2: Well, right, the overplaying on the three pointers, it's the
10:31
Speaker 2: back cutting, but I think Minnesota also was good at
10:35
Speaker 2: going with them on that and not getting baited too hard.
10:38
Speaker 2: And it's funny seeing what the stuff that they run,
10:40
Speaker 2: they do similar actions, so it's like, are they kind
10:42
Speaker 2: of used to guarding this, right ibiot in practice or whatever.
10:47
Speaker 2: But I think it was that coupled with God to remember,
10:53
Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of veterans on this team.
10:55
Speaker 2: There ain't anybody in that lineup that has ever played
10:58
Speaker 2: a big ten road game, right, And so I think
11:02
Speaker 2: even though it was a sparse crowd at the Barn,
11:04
Speaker 2: even though but it is a weird place to play,
11:07
Speaker 2: and I think that also factored into it because there
11:10
Speaker 2: were and one of the plays I broke down for
11:14
Speaker 2: film session today where the way they were like hot
11:16
Speaker 2: potato in the ball around weirdly and led to a turnover.
11:19
Speaker 3: There was more.
11:21
Speaker 2: I don't you know, maybe this team has hit some
11:23
Speaker 2: ruts maybe in some of these games against the lesser opponents,
11:27
Speaker 2: like they weren't really moving the ball as well as
11:29
Speaker 2: they had and maybe the energy wasn't up, but I
11:33
Speaker 2: don't I have not seen this team look kind of
11:35
Speaker 2: as flustered as they looked, and and just kind of
11:41
Speaker 2: being in a road environment and being, yeah, a little
11:44
Speaker 2: shook by it, And so I think that also played
11:47
Speaker 2: a pretty big factor in this game. And to your
11:50
Speaker 2: point as well, I think at halftime they realized, all right,
11:54
Speaker 2: this is a physical game. They're not really letting us
11:56
Speaker 2: do much for the perimeter. Let's get go the basket
12:00
Speaker 2: and get followed. And they had ten free throws in
12:02
Speaker 2: the first seven and a half minutes of that game,
12:04
Speaker 2: and they went three to ten or the second half
12:06
Speaker 2: rather than they went three to ten and then the
12:08
Speaker 2: last whatever, they only had I think four to three
12:11
Speaker 2: free throws the rest of that game, right, So they
12:14
Speaker 2: did again have a counter, and I think it was
12:17
Speaker 2: a good plan, but they kind of went away from
12:19
Speaker 2: it as the second half war long.
12:21
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a little tough to balance.
12:25
Speaker 2: How where the sort of percentages in terms of this
12:31
Speaker 2: was just because Minnesota guarded this way and this pretends
12:34
Speaker 2: bad things to come for Indiana. But I think on
12:36
Speaker 2: top of that, the other thing in the stew here
12:39
Speaker 2: is just that they did not handle the road environment.
12:42
Speaker 3: Well, so that's something, you know, I don't know how
12:45
Speaker 3: quickly you learn that.
12:46
Speaker 2: I know, Devrez after the game basically made a comment,
12:49
Speaker 2: you know, to that effect that they've they've got a
12:52
Speaker 2: lot of veterans on this team.
12:53
Speaker 3: I think that can definitely help, but not in this league.
12:57
Speaker 2: And you know, this is part of the balance of
13:01
Speaker 2: the transfer reporter era. I think it was good that
13:04
Speaker 2: he identified a lot of older players, but at the
13:07
Speaker 2: end of the day, this is still kind of like
13:08
Speaker 2: your mid major all star is playing in the Big
13:11
Speaker 2: Ten for the first time, and there's while they have
13:14
Speaker 2: a basketball experience more so than if he just had
13:17
Speaker 2: a bunch of freshmen that came into this season, especially
13:20
Speaker 2: at the college level and playing a lot of games.
13:22
Speaker 3: There is not Big Ten experience. And it sounds a
13:25
Speaker 3: little cliche, but I mean it's true. You know.
13:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, the other thing, and you made a point of
13:34
Speaker 1: this in film session that I think kind of disrupted
13:38
Speaker 1: the flow of the game or kind of what Indiana
13:40
Speaker 1: likes to do in terms of its substitution patterns. They
13:43
Speaker 1: brought Trent Sislely in the game, who has kind of
13:46
Speaker 1: given them a spark at times in different games and
13:48
Speaker 1: has been that positive force off the bench. He comes
13:52
Speaker 1: in and it was kind of a welcome to the
13:55
Speaker 1: Big ten type of moment that you see sometimes freshmen
13:59
Speaker 1: go throughly picks up a couple of fouls, you know,
14:04
Speaker 1: you're expecting him to play, you know, decent minutes in
14:07
Speaker 1: most games moving forward, He's proven himself to be a
14:10
Speaker 1: contributor and a guy that they can rely on. And
14:13
Speaker 1: he struggled obviously in this game. I think he made
14:17
Speaker 1: one three pointer in the second half, but that was
14:20
Speaker 1: really it in terms of what he was able to
14:21
Speaker 1: bring offensively, and I think that kind of disrupted what
14:26
Speaker 1: Indiana wanted to do in terms of just its rotations
14:29
Speaker 1: and lineups. And then obviously they brought in research for
14:33
Speaker 1: the first time and Nick Dorn, but neither of those
14:35
Speaker 1: guys really looked up ready for the moment. I thought,
14:39
Speaker 1: and again not nitpicking in terms of substitution patterns, but
14:42
Speaker 1: I thought, for the first time this season, you know,
14:45
Speaker 1: we used to always talk about so there were different
14:48
Speaker 1: lineups that kind of looked weird at times with under
14:51
Speaker 1: Mike Woodson, it was kind of a theme. I thought,
14:52
Speaker 1: for the first time there was a lineup out there
14:55
Speaker 1: at one point that they had Research and dorn In
14:58
Speaker 1: i think in right out the other two or but
15:00
Speaker 1: it was it was almost like, you're not scoring the
15:02
Speaker 1: ball very well right now, where's the offense gonna come
15:05
Speaker 1: with this group? And so that was the first time
15:07
Speaker 1: I kind of looked at it and said, this isn't
15:09
Speaker 1: the great greatest lineup to maybe be playing on the road.
15:11
Speaker 1: So I'm just curious kind of your thoughts on maybe
15:14
Speaker 1: how those fouls from Sisily impacted things and just the
15:18
Speaker 1: overall rotation in the first half, and and how that
15:22
Speaker 1: may be factored into two things. Maybe feeling off there
15:25
Speaker 1: for a bit a minute.
15:28
Speaker 3: That's exactly what I thought as well.
15:30
Speaker 2: That and it was right around that twelve minute time
15:32
Speaker 2: out in the first half where Woodson love to kind
15:34
Speaker 2: of bring his bench lineup in and you're like, who's
15:36
Speaker 2: gonna score in this lineup?
15:37
Speaker 3: And yes, I totally agree that.
15:38
Speaker 2: It was kind of this lineup where you're like, all right,
15:41
Speaker 2: things are starting to unravel a little bit here. And
15:43
Speaker 2: again you have you not only have a freshman in
15:46
Speaker 2: research on the on the court, you're a guy that
15:48
Speaker 2: hasn't played one minute in a regular season at all,
15:51
Speaker 2: and he's he's asked to come in in this road
15:53
Speaker 2: environment as well, and he's on the court with Dorn,
15:57
Speaker 2: and yeah, it was it was a little bit of
15:59
Speaker 2: a weird lineup, but I think defensively they attacked research
16:03
Speaker 2: a bit, and then on offense, as things started to
16:06
Speaker 2: tighten up, you had I think Dorn, who's been a
16:09
Speaker 2: pretty you know at times, has been a decent, pretty
16:11
Speaker 2: good spot up shooter for Indiana from from the three
16:14
Speaker 2: point range, but because they couldn't quite get anything going,
16:18
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, he's starting to like drive off
16:20
Speaker 2: the perimeter, which I don't quite think is his game.
16:23
Speaker 3: And so, yeah, it did get a little hairy there.
16:25
Speaker 2: And I agree that it was kind of one of
16:27
Speaker 2: these lines where it's like we that combot, that five
16:30
Speaker 2: has not played together all season, and all of a sudden,
16:33
Speaker 2: you're on the road in the Big ten. And you know,
16:36
Speaker 2: it wasn't like they he played for ten minutes. It
16:38
Speaker 2: wasn't like a super long stretch. But as things kind
16:41
Speaker 2: of started settling in this game and Minnesota started to
16:45
Speaker 2: pick it up a little bit more on defense, Uh,
16:48
Speaker 2: it was kind of an odd combo. There's also that
16:50
Speaker 2: like a.
16:52
Speaker 3: What do you call it?
16:53
Speaker 2: The uh when they challenged that out of that was
16:55
Speaker 2: it out Indian or out that they lost, which I mean,
16:58
Speaker 2: you know that's gonna happen, but that was kind of
16:59
Speaker 2: an other kind of decision made there that that didn't
17:03
Speaker 2: end up in their favor. But yeah, it was quite
17:05
Speaker 2: an odd lineup. And but you know, at the other token,
17:08
Speaker 2: it's like at some point they gotta you know, Cicily
17:13
Speaker 2: has been good off the bench, but uh, they do.
17:18
Speaker 2: It will be interesting to see if research can can
17:21
Speaker 2: kind of get into the lineup, maybe be another playmaker.
17:24
Speaker 2: I know, kind of what his his game is a bit.
17:28
Speaker 2: I know when they had their their trip this summer
17:31
Speaker 2: that he did pretty decent down there.
17:33
Speaker 3: So it's tough.
17:36
Speaker 2: That he had to get work done on the road
17:37
Speaker 2: to start, and you hope it doesn't kind of bury
17:39
Speaker 2: his confidence.
17:40
Speaker 3: But the reality is they got Lil Lo on Kentucky
17:43
Speaker 3: coming up next.
17:43
Speaker 2: They got all big, They got a lot of big
17:45
Speaker 2: ten games to go, and so at some point you
17:47
Speaker 2: just kind of got to hold his feet to the
17:48
Speaker 2: fire here if you want to try to work him in.
17:50
Speaker 2: It's not like he only missed the first game or
17:53
Speaker 2: two and he's able to come in against some of
17:54
Speaker 2: these guaranteed game opponents. He's if he's gonna play, it's
17:57
Speaker 2: it's gonna start to have to be against quality competition.
18:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think the reason many ways is
18:04
Speaker 1: kind of searching for what's going to be the remainder
18:06
Speaker 1: of the rotation after Alexis and Sicily because you look
18:12
Speaker 1: at Nick Dorn. He obviously played really good in the
18:15
Speaker 1: previous game to this, but didn't give them much at Minnesota.
18:18
Speaker 1: Josiah Miles. I mean, even going back to the Puerto
18:22
Speaker 1: Rico trip, he didn't get a lot of time there
18:26
Speaker 1: and didn't shoot the ball very well. And this season
18:29
Speaker 1: has really not broken through in any meaningful way in
18:33
Speaker 1: terms of getting time on the court, and you know,
18:36
Speaker 1: it's getting to the point of the season where you wonder,
18:39
Speaker 1: is he going to have a role on this team
18:40
Speaker 1: in terms of rotation. Real Jason Drake, we've not seen yet.
18:43
Speaker 1: He's think a guy that I think they're hopeful can
18:45
Speaker 1: maybe give them something in the guard position. But he
18:48
Speaker 1: played really well last year at Dreuxel but has not
18:50
Speaker 1: been able to get healthy enough to get on the
18:51
Speaker 1: court restitch as a freshman. Obviously, he's twenty years old,
18:55
Speaker 1: a little bit older. Has a lot of international experience,
18:57
Speaker 1: but as you mentioned, a little bit different coming into
19:00
Speaker 1: your first game on the road in the Big Ten.
19:02
Speaker 1: I don't care what the venue is, It's going to
19:04
Speaker 1: be a tough challenge. So I think they need to
19:08
Speaker 1: solidify beyond Alexis and Sicily like, who are the one
19:13
Speaker 1: or two guys that we can go to consistently and
19:15
Speaker 1: those are going to be your guys that you roll with.
19:17
Speaker 1: And I think that's still pretty much up for debate.
19:19
Speaker 1: The other thing I just wanted to get your thoughts
19:21
Speaker 1: on mentioned it a little bit earlier. Reid Bailey played
19:24
Speaker 1: really well in the Kansas State game, did a great
19:27
Speaker 1: job getting to the foul line. That was the you know,
19:29
Speaker 1: I was at that game. The most aggressive I've seen
19:33
Speaker 1: him in an Indian uniform was didn't back down from
19:36
Speaker 1: the physicality. He didn't back down when when Kansas State
19:40
Speaker 1: tried to you know, body him up. Did a really
19:43
Speaker 1: good job just trying to go to the rim and
19:45
Speaker 1: finish plays or get fouled. To me against Minnesota kind
19:50
Speaker 1: of reverted back to some of the things we saw
19:53
Speaker 1: earlier in the season where he looked timid one for
19:55
Speaker 1: five on twos which not a good number for a
19:58
Speaker 1: guy who's six foot ten is primarily shooting around the basket.
20:01
Speaker 1: But the thing that it's kind of set out to
20:03
Speaker 1: me and I'm curious what you think of this and
20:06
Speaker 1: if this is something that maybe that they're going to
20:08
Speaker 1: change or try to do more often. I mean, it
20:09
Speaker 1: was kind of pitched in the I don't want to
20:11
Speaker 1: say he's pitch, but we kind of looked at him
20:13
Speaker 1: as a guy that was maybe going to be capable
20:15
Speaker 1: of stretching the floor a little bit. Seventeen to forty
20:17
Speaker 1: one last year on threes at Davidson, not a terribly
20:20
Speaker 1: high volume, but at least a little bit of a threat.
20:22
Speaker 1: He's taken two to three pointers the whole season and
20:25
Speaker 1: we're a quarter of the way through the season. Is
20:28
Speaker 1: this something that you think can be effective that they
20:31
Speaker 1: need to maybe look at going more to in terms
20:33
Speaker 1: of getting him on the perimeter, taking some three pointers,
20:36
Speaker 1: maybe helping space the floor, because it doesn't seem like
20:40
Speaker 1: unless he's got unless he's on the move towards the
20:45
Speaker 1: basket and has a little bit of space, he's not
20:48
Speaker 1: been really effective offensively around the basket because he's just
20:51
Speaker 1: not strong enough to finish over bigger opponents, and that's
20:55
Speaker 1: only going to become a bigger challenge as the competition
20:59
Speaker 1: level picks up. I mean, louisgo is gonna have guys
21:01
Speaker 1: at the rim that are taller, longer, and more athletic,
21:05
Speaker 1: and a lot of these Big ten teams, you know,
21:07
Speaker 1: I've watched a couple of these games. I mean, they've
21:09
Speaker 1: got three or four guys better taller than Reed Bailey,
21:13
Speaker 1: that are stronger than Reed Bailey, that can jump higher
21:16
Speaker 1: than him. So I'm just kind of curious what you
21:19
Speaker 1: think in terms of how this shapes out the rest
21:23
Speaker 1: of the year. Is there are other things that can
21:25
Speaker 1: do with him or is this kind of gonna be
21:26
Speaker 1: a limitation of this group the rest of the season.
21:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I get why he is on this team,
21:34
Speaker 2: and I think he fits the mold of what Daren
21:37
Speaker 2: Devrieze was looking for in terms of highest this straight
21:42
Speaker 2: right and kind of fitting in with this offense that
21:44
Speaker 2: has a lot of guys that share the ball well.
21:46
Speaker 2: But I think the problem that is really revealed itself
21:52
Speaker 2: this season as what Indiana needs out of that five spot.
21:56
Speaker 2: It's just not his game, right, And so I feel like, yeah,
22:00
Speaker 2: the season wears on. It's like, oh yes, Like this
22:03
Speaker 2: game was a perfect example. The only basket he made
22:06
Speaker 2: was in the in those first six possessions of the
22:08
Speaker 2: game for Indiana, Minnesota.
22:10
Speaker 3: Had like two on the ball against Devrees.
22:13
Speaker 2: As you said, like he's good going to the ball,
22:16
Speaker 2: He's going to the rim off of these kind of
22:18
Speaker 2: short roles and there's nobody in front of him.
22:19
Speaker 3: That's what that was. He rold short.
22:21
Speaker 2: Devis made the pass, he dunked at home, and other
22:23
Speaker 2: than that, he didn't make a basketball game.
22:25
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's key. I don't know.
22:27
Speaker 2: I feel like from observing this, he's kind of in
22:29
Speaker 2: a tough spot where it's like what they need from
22:31
Speaker 2: him is not his game.
22:32
Speaker 3: So I don't really know if that resolves itself.
22:35
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's gonna be a few games here, just
22:37
Speaker 2: like a Kansas State where he does a little bit
22:39
Speaker 2: of a better job with it. But I think on
22:41
Speaker 2: the whole, it's just it's kind of a mismatch, And
22:45
Speaker 2: I think you're right that as the competition rams up,
22:48
Speaker 2: it's going to be even more exposed. Obviously Alexis can
22:51
Speaker 2: bring a little bit more, uh in that regard, I
22:54
Speaker 2: don't think he's he's the full solution and and really
22:58
Speaker 2: they've really been split in their minutes. I think in
23:00
Speaker 2: this game it was, you know, twenty they both played
23:02
Speaker 2: about twenty minutes or twenty one to nineteen. So I
23:05
Speaker 2: think Alexis can do a better job of scoring at
23:09
Speaker 2: the rim. However, his game is a little bit more
23:12
Speaker 2: one on one, which is okay. I think they they've
23:15
Speaker 2: cleared out for him, and he's got a really high
23:17
Speaker 2: percentage in the paint. But he's just kind of a
23:21
Speaker 2: guy I don't think you can ride for, you know,
23:23
Speaker 2: thirty plus minutes a night. I think just his style,
23:26
Speaker 2: and he's kind of an off the bench kind of
23:28
Speaker 2: more energy guy than I don't think they're going to
23:30
Speaker 2: be churning to him and all of a sudden Bailey's
23:33
Speaker 2: barely playing or he's just a backup for five or
23:35
Speaker 2: ten minutes.
23:36
Speaker 3: I think this split is going to continue.
23:37
Speaker 2: And so it's ultimately what people were saying about this
23:42
Speaker 2: team before the season in terms of rim protection, in
23:45
Speaker 2: terms of.
23:46
Speaker 3: Playdown low is the reality.
23:49
Speaker 2: So they're going to have to have their strengths kind
23:52
Speaker 2: of out muscle some of their weaknesses, and in some
23:54
Speaker 2: games we've seen that right. I think Kansas State, when
23:58
Speaker 2: they've defended really well and they've had Bailey, Bailey did
24:01
Speaker 2: play well, but there are going to be nights like
24:02
Speaker 2: this Minnesota game where his strengths don't really match up
24:07
Speaker 2: with what is needed in the game, and Indiana might
24:10
Speaker 2: have an off night otherwise, and you're going to see
24:13
Speaker 2: some losses.
24:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've had a people, a couple of people ask me, like,
24:17
Speaker 1: why why is alexis not starting? You know, I think
24:20
Speaker 1: there's obviously had some injury concerns last year. I don't
24:23
Speaker 1: think he's a guy that you want to routinely play
24:25
Speaker 1: thirty plus minutes a game and burn them out. I mean,
24:28
Speaker 1: it's a long season. I think they're gonna have to
24:31
Speaker 1: figure out how to get the best version of both
24:33
Speaker 1: of those guys going on a consistent basis, because, let's
24:37
Speaker 1: face it, this team's not gonna beat anybody if they're
24:42
Speaker 1: primary focus is trying to score at the rim and
24:44
Speaker 1: get these guys, you know, going in terms of post ups,
24:49
Speaker 1: and this is not the basketball that we watched the
24:51
Speaker 1: last four years. It's not going to be. They're gonna
24:54
Speaker 1: have to obviously that they want to get touches at
24:56
Speaker 1: the rim, but they want them to be clean. Looks
24:58
Speaker 1: it's not going to be. You know. I think Alexis
25:01
Speaker 1: is a guy that you live with going one on
25:02
Speaker 1: one and he's shooting over seventy percent on twos. But
25:06
Speaker 1: you look at Reid Bailey like he's in the mid
25:08
Speaker 1: fifties on two point field goal percentage right now, but
25:11
Speaker 1: look at the two previous years at Davidson, he was
25:13
Speaker 1: under fifty percent and that's in the A ten. So
25:18
Speaker 1: any any suggestion that he's going to be a guy
25:20
Speaker 1: that you throw the ball down and let him go
25:22
Speaker 1: to work, I don't think is right. So I think
25:26
Speaker 1: they've done a I think they're doing the right thing,
25:28
Speaker 1: just in terms of trying to I don't want to
25:30
Speaker 1: say platoon these guys, but split their minutes as much
25:34
Speaker 1: as possible, trying to get them going, try to unlock
25:36
Speaker 1: the best version of both of them.
25:38
Speaker 2: The other thing, well, I'll like chry am in on this.
25:43
Speaker 2: This is where I also think coaching comes into play, right,
25:47
Speaker 2: And I got a new coach in here, and how
25:51
Speaker 2: can he manage effectively manage what he has to make
25:56
Speaker 2: this team still greater than the some of his parts.
25:58
Speaker 2: To know that there are these weaknesses, and how can
26:01
Speaker 2: he kind of coach around that, coach within that and
26:04
Speaker 2: still get wins Because you know, if you look at
26:06
Speaker 2: West Virginia last year, Tucker goes down pretty early in
26:09
Speaker 2: the season and they were able to kind of still
26:11
Speaker 2: figure it out, still be pretty a really good defensive team, right,
26:15
Speaker 2: And this is sort of I think what there's been
26:19
Speaker 2: a thirst er desire for out of the head coaching
26:23
Speaker 2: spot in this program is yeah, Okay, there's some weaknesses here,
26:27
Speaker 2: and yeah, we don't have top top level talent, we
26:30
Speaker 2: don't have really kind of above the rim athleticism, we
26:34
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of size.
26:35
Speaker 3: But what do we have?
26:37
Speaker 2: And how can I effectively coach and manage this team
26:41
Speaker 2: in a way that elevates that that guts out these
26:45
Speaker 2: wins that in close games?
26:46
Speaker 3: Right? This is part of the reason.
26:49
Speaker 2: One of the many stats and one of the reasons
26:51
Speaker 2: he was hired was his record in close games.
26:55
Speaker 3: Right. It's a pretty good record in that regard.
26:58
Speaker 2: And so this is kind of the test now, right,
27:00
Speaker 2: I think there's been you know, whether this day and age,
27:04
Speaker 2: whether you like it or not, it's kind of.
27:06
Speaker 3: Like every game is what have you done for me lately?
27:08
Speaker 2: Right, we see people like freaking out over this game
27:10
Speaker 2: online about that about the loss, and so it was
27:15
Speaker 2: kind of the first time I think fans are like, oh,
27:18
Speaker 2: what the kind of what the heck's going on here
27:20
Speaker 2: with this team?
27:20
Speaker 3: And so how does he respond? How does he get
27:23
Speaker 3: the team to respond?
27:24
Speaker 2: And that's really kind of this kind of got to
27:27
Speaker 2: be the story of the season because I think the
27:28
Speaker 2: weaknesses are there and I don't think they're going to
27:31
Speaker 2: get magically figured out. I think it is what it is,
27:33
Speaker 2: and how do you work around that and how do
27:37
Speaker 2: you still get wins and make this team a tournament
27:41
Speaker 2: team based on all this?
27:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think big picture too. You kind
27:45
Speaker 1: of just look at some of the numbers, and you know,
27:47
Speaker 1: as much as we've talked about this offense and this
27:49
Speaker 1: new style of play, to be seventeenth inst the defensive
27:54
Speaker 1: efficiency through eight games, that's that's a solid number. I mean,
27:58
Speaker 1: Indiana their two point field goal defense on the season
28:01
Speaker 1: is fourth in the country. We've talked about the lack
28:04
Speaker 1: of rem protection, lack of shot blocking. That's a good number.
28:08
Speaker 1: And now I think that number is unlikely to hold
28:11
Speaker 1: up to that level when the meat of the big
28:16
Speaker 1: ten schedule arrives, and we saw a little bit the
28:20
Speaker 1: other night some concerning things in terms of I think
28:22
Speaker 1: Minnesota's guards Reynolds and Assum were ten of sixteen on
28:27
Speaker 1: twos and most of those shots were at the rim.
28:29
Speaker 1: So I think that was another thing that kind of
28:31
Speaker 1: pops stood out in the game. Letting that those guards
28:35
Speaker 1: get that deep into paint I think really hurt Indiana
28:37
Speaker 1: in particularly Reynolds, but he's a guy that's aggressive and
28:40
Speaker 1: likes to dry. But kind of going back to some
28:42
Speaker 1: of the other numbers, I mean, the twelfth in the
28:44
Speaker 1: country in terms of turnover percentage, this team takes care
28:48
Speaker 1: of the ball. They don't. I mean they lost it
28:50
Speaker 1: and they only turned the ball over six times. Imagine
28:53
Speaker 1: if they were turning the ball over the other night
28:55
Speaker 1: thirteen or fourteen times. How much different this game looks.
28:58
Speaker 1: Three point shooting percentage in the top seventy in the country,
29:01
Speaker 1: twos that are in the top thirty. Just a lot
29:03
Speaker 1: of solid things in terms of the metrics, in terms
29:07
Speaker 1: of the style play. Are you surprised, just defensively where
29:11
Speaker 1: that number is right now? Again, I don't think it's
29:14
Speaker 1: likely to end up seventeenth in the country after they
29:16
Speaker 1: get through the meat a big ten play. But I've
29:19
Speaker 1: you know, I've been, you know, I was. I came
29:21
Speaker 1: into this season expecting Indiana is going to have to
29:25
Speaker 1: just score ninety five a game to win, and they've
29:28
Speaker 1: done that on some occasions, but to be to be
29:31
Speaker 1: that stout defensively, it's been really impressive so far.
29:36
Speaker 2: I am surprised because I think so much of the
29:38
Speaker 2: focus was on the offense, the style of play. There's
29:41
Speaker 2: going to be more threes, it's going to be a
29:42
Speaker 2: little bit more open, there's gonna be better ball movement
29:44
Speaker 2: in spacing, more five hour concepts, and so there's so
29:47
Speaker 2: much focus on that that it was a little bit
29:51
Speaker 2: understated that last year at West Virginia they finished fifteenth
29:54
Speaker 2: in adjusted defensive efficiency with that roster that he had,
29:58
Speaker 2: And honestly, it's one of these things again with the
30:01
Speaker 2: coaching and the foundation, where you know, I agree, they
30:04
Speaker 2: might not keep around there if they're seventeenth now, but
30:07
Speaker 2: even if that, it's like a top twenty five thirty
30:11
Speaker 2: defense for his first season. Now, you could go back
30:16
Speaker 2: and look at Mike Woodson had a pretty dang good
30:18
Speaker 2: defense his first year as well, so you know these things,
30:20
Speaker 2: these things, as more data arises, things can change, right,
30:24
Speaker 2: But to have that foundation on defense I think is
30:28
Speaker 2: really key for a team and a program because he
30:31
Speaker 2: can rely on that, right and if he's able to
30:34
Speaker 2: kind of no matter what personnel he has, still craft it.
30:38
Speaker 2: And you know, it's pretty clear what the principles are here.
30:42
Speaker 2: It's we don't want the opposing team to shoot threes.
30:46
Speaker 2: We want to kind of run them off the line.
30:48
Speaker 2: And and a lot of these teams now Minnesota not
30:50
Speaker 2: as much, and we will again see how it goes
30:53
Speaker 2: against better competition, but it's kind of funneling teams to
30:56
Speaker 2: try to shoot mid range or longer twos, right, which
30:59
Speaker 2: is going to make them less efficient. And there might
31:02
Speaker 2: just be some teams that are like, well, we're not
31:03
Speaker 2: going to take these and we'll keep working at or
31:05
Speaker 2: we have a better counter to what Indiana is doing
31:07
Speaker 2: in that regard.
31:07
Speaker 3: But I think like what.
31:09
Speaker 2: The fundamentals and what they're trying to get teams to
31:12
Speaker 2: do on defense has led them to this number. And
31:15
Speaker 2: that's just kind of what Debrees is trying to do
31:18
Speaker 2: with his defense and the offense is what Now it's
31:21
Speaker 2: a forty seventh on Kenpom. Yes, since forty seventh, so
31:26
Speaker 2: I would have expected kind of the inverses, maybe a
31:29
Speaker 2: seventeenth on offense and forty seventh on defense. So again,
31:33
Speaker 2: we'll see as it goes. But yes, I am surprised
31:35
Speaker 2: by it, but there.
31:37
Speaker 3: Is some history.
31:38
Speaker 2: I mean, I know it's only kind of a one
31:39
Speaker 2: year sample size last year that he can have a
31:43
Speaker 2: top twenty defense without like a star Layton team.
31:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Well, Ryan, thanks for making the time
31:52
Speaker 1: early on this Friday morning. Busy weekend ahead for I
31:56
Speaker 1: USE Sports. Looking forward to to covering it all over
31:59
Speaker 1: on the Hall. Thanks again everybody for listening to Podcasts
32:03
Speaker 1: on the Break and we will be back soon with
32:06
Speaker 1: another episode if you again. If you like the show,
32:09
Speaker 1: please leave us a five star rating and review over
32:11
Speaker 1: on Apple podcast Spotify. I like the video on YouTube,
32:14
Speaker 1: subscribe to the channel as well, and we'll be back
32:18
Speaker 1: soon with another episode of podcast on the Break.