First of all, who can stay in front of Lucas and Wall? Two potential All-Americans. I do get your point. I just don't think Hulls wasn't brought in to dish out 7 assists a game and play tough on the ball defense as a FR. He'll get better when he gets stronger. Did he even see the court as a FR in high school? Let's not get too hasty with this kid.

If CTC hasn't gotten pressure to play Bawa yet I see the flares are flying and I agree. Hell, I'm starting to wonder if we should start him! If our three guards are going to chuck 50 shots a game who cares? Perhaps he would clog the lane on the five straight layups Ole Miss had against our zone. “Pritchard plays below the rim” You ain't kiddin' brother. TP has ZERO shot blocking ability and Bawa would beat him by 3 seconds in a 50-yard dash.

At least Bawa has the length to catch the ball within five feet of the basket. Whether he has the skills to finish from there isn't the point. It FORCES the defense to sag. All of us that have played perimeter defense know you instinctively turn your head when the ball is behind you. It opens up the floor. The only time Pritchard touches the ball is above the free-throw line to bail out a guard. TP could, however, be a more than adequate back-up and that's important too.

Kelin, I saw that Dumes wasn't himself when he elevated about 6 inches for that blocked layup. No way is he healthy. It's too bad because he really can light it up when he's ready. I still think he will win a few games for IU this year. But by playing him now are we delaying recovery?

By the way, CTC isn't going anywhere guys. There's a lot going on in this program right now. I think we'll get a W tonight and by mid-season have a respectable squad.

So there you have it.

PG – J Davis
SG – VIII
SF – Mo (dude can score, who need defense?)
PF – Watford
C – Bawa

Maybe they should start letting us coach. We clearly have all the answers.

either Dumes is still hurt or feelings hurt cause I don't see that “senior” leadership in his play. He seems to have digressed.

Free Throws and TO need to improve.

Substitutions: IU completely lost momentum around the 12 minute mark of the 1st half with the subs made. Rivers was controlling the game, getting VJ and Creek or Waterford involved (I still get confused which is which). All of a sudden Crean brings in 3 new guys and the wheels fall off and IU never recovered. Not saying it cost IU the game, I think it just would have delayed the inevitable but still. Not sure why Jobe is playing, I could care less what happens in practice or if he is better than Bawa. Point is, and Crean must realize, Jobe is gone next year, why play him? He isn't helping win games. Get Bawa some experience for next year and 3 years after that. Ditto for Moore, he should not be on the court unless its mop up duty. If Hulls isn't cutting it and Rivers needs a blow, let VJ play point. I understand the need to reward players who practice well but not when they are such a huge liability. Remember Rudy was a practice stud but he only got in two plays his final game.

Hulls: Sorry for all the lovers of this guy, but he didn't look much better than Daniel Moore in this game to me. Completely over matched when he was on offense. He couldn't get any penetration and couldn't get IU set up at all. Once he dribbled past half court their PG was all over him. Does not bode well that at points Crean saw Moore as a better option than Hulls in the 2nd half. As of now he isn't athletic enough to cut it. Imagine him trying to cover John Wall or Lucas from MSU? God help us. he has 4yr back up written all over him right now.

Pritchard: He tries hard, he sets quality screens, but thats about it. Certain times he looked completely lost on D and he continues to play below the rim. He is beyond bad in zone, I've never seen a team consistently drive down the middle of a zone like they did with no one stepping up. His inside game is power, but without hops ineffective. Another guy not athletic enough.

Capo: Looks like Pritchard junior.

Dumes: For me, he is in the same boat as Jobe and Moore although 100x more skill. Wont be around after this year, so he should lose the majority of minutes to guys who will. Not fair but reality. He should be a Ben Gordon type of player. Bring him off the bench let him bomb a few threes and drive to the lane. If he is hot leave him in, if not he should sit. Let others get the experience. With that said he played ok on D this game, and he looked like he belonged athletically. One of the few players on the team not intimidated.

Creek Was not good on D but this will happen with a frosh playing a more experienced team

Rivers: One of the only players who looks like he belongs on the court. You can tell he came from the Big East. Has no problem with contact and no problem putting his head down and getting to the rim. Without him on the court, the offense was stagnant and lost. His TOs are high but I'm not convinced its all his fault.

Elston: I like his game. I think the 1st half he struggled with the athleticism of Ole Miss. Once he got used to it he played very well. I think he could become a guy who averages 10 plus points and 7 rebounds a game. Seems pretty tough too.

I think the way for IU to win right now is to go small, with Rivers, Jones, Creek, Waterford and Elston starting. IU should press as much as possible. It will be the best way to stay in games.

You can tell I took a Friday off, way too much time to devout to my comments

The first team has great potential. When Rivers, Jones and Creek are running the break, they look like a high level college team. Next year will be fun to watch as they get stronger.

We keep talking about turnovers, but the thing that really kills us is “un-forced” turnovers. The turnovers are coming whether we like them or not. But just throwing the ball around senselessly is unexcusable.

Jordan Hulls in not even close to being ready. I'm talking NOT READY. Even the shortest passes are nearly picked off routinely. They smelled blood every time he brought it up the court. Until he improves he minutes are garbage time and Verdell needs to move over to the point when Rivers sits. It's downright embarrassing. Sorry.

Dumes should not be on the court until his knee is ready. Everything he did turned into a negative. Turnovers, missed shots turning into fast breaks, jacking up 25 footers. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Get him healthy.

CTC. Look coach, inserting the 2-3 zone really changed the game. It got IU back in it for sure. But they figured it out! Why stick with it? Change it up. If we would have juggled man to man and zone a bit I think they were very uncomfortable. But once they figured it out, it was really hard to watch. How many times can they split the guards and dish for a layup before you mix it up? Very frustrating.

This team is much better than last years. But last night they looked a lot alike for 30 minutes of the game.

As far as the offense, Crean himself said the team wasn't going to run as many set plays this year, but more based on principles. Can the team have a chance to learn the principles in a game situation? Growing up playing ball in Indiana you should have first hand knowledge that playing against another team is completely different than practice. I'm not arguing with your points. My point was simply, give a little time, let them learn, and let's not be so negative after 1 game. Amazing how people can bash a team as young as they are after only 3 games. Now if we still look like this going into the Big 10 season, that's a different story.

Just called the IU ticket office and purchased some tickets to IU v Maryland AND IU v PU. They do have tickets available on a limited basis on the main level and upper deck. If you are like me who has a tough time getting tickets (non scalper tickets) give em a call today….

They did tell me Kentucky is sold out! Sweet my first IU PU game………

Our Bench Is Weak:
Jobe – How is this guy the first big off the bench? That's a red flag
Hulls – I think he has a shot to be a solid player, but he picks up his dribble and is way to unsure of himself at this point. Should always be out there with Jones or Rivers.
Capobianco – He doesn't understand his role – yet. Size wize, he can be a good presence.
Dumes – Defensively he's a great sub, but he continues to force the offensive issue. He's trying, but he's trying too hard.
Bawa – Why does he not get playing time? Has a reporter asked this question?
Moore – Did he seriously play last night? I'm sorry but not unless everyone has fouled out or we're up 25 with 1:00 to play.
Roth – We might actually need him on the court more than we thought.
Elston – He's our LONE bright spot off the bench. He puts more things in the + column than the – column every time out there. Has to hit the 8 footer regularly though.

Seeing the game live and seeing the comments makes me wonder what was televised.

Creek: was awful….on defense. Which is why he sat large parts of the 2nd half. Ole Miss found him on D and exploited him shamelessly whether man or zone they found him. He killed us on D. It was if they had inside info on both he and Hulls

Hulls: could not handle 1/2 xourt defense they laid on him . He was devoured.

The best players on the floor for us were Rivers, Dumes and Elston. At one point Elston yelled at Crean not to take him out and luckily coach saw the wisdom in this and left Watford on the bench. TP should have tried to lay some moves but didn't . He was often open to do that.

Jones played well except on D and Watford got a major lesson in physical play under the bucket.

Roth: Anybody who did not miss him apparently doe snot want to come from behind to win games. When we needed 3's we were forced to rely on Creek, Dumes , and Watford but Creek was such a liability , even in the zone that Roth would have been our best hope. I talked to him and he does not know yet how bad the foot is.

Tonight I am looking for some improvement on D and some 3's. Without this in our arsenal we are in for a rough season if last night is any indicator.

The best highlight is that IU had the most and best fans present ……………by far. Very impressive from that perspective

They were clearly the better team

We do not stay with our block outs. It's terrible and it's junior high stuff. I can live with the missed FTs, because it's not like they're trying to miss…but most of the TOs and inability to focus on blocking out your man consistently are just fundamental components on the game these guys should know.

They're both projects, but Bawa is a freshmen that has time to develop. Give him his chances and let Tijan be a practice player (and give him elbow pads)

As a result I was encouraged but pretty bummed at the same time, because I see what we're capable of.

Three things cost us a chance at this game.

1. FTs – Obviously if we hit HALF of those, the game is within a few possessions down to the wire.

2. Turnovers – Just don't know what we're doing sometimes. Rivers helped the way we had hoped. Despite his strong game, he still makes silly passes. He plays out there like he's been playing pick up ball with the Celtics in his spare time.

3. Offensive Rebounds/2nd Chance Points – To me this is was the No. 1 thing of frustration. How many times did we act like we were going to box out and then not really put a body on our defender. We went through the box out motions but didn't do it with any emphasis. The instant they THINK they know where the ball is going, they release from their man and we get beat.

For as bad as we performed in certain areas, Ole Miss wasn't exactly playing great. I think if we just didn't allow all those 2nd chance points, we still could have won this game.

While I agree its not time to freak out and think all hope is lost, there is such a thing as being too forgiving and going the other way. There are definitely causes for concern. Maybe I'm just old fashioned (is that possible as a 23 year old?) but I grew up playing ball in Indiana, as did a lot of the fan base and members of our team. All of us (If you actually played high school basketball here) know what help side defense is and can run at least 3 plays. The Hoosiers can't. I know we are young. I know it's a learning experience. But you can't report about all of these marathon and tough practices then expect me to sit back and at least hope to see some TEAM defense and maybe a set play or two. They learned to stop our break after about 7 minutes of the game and we got destroyed from there, often running the Mike Davis offense of set a ball screen then someone goes 1 on 4 and throws up a shot.

I can forgive the team getting tired. I can forgive freshman turnovers when someone is quicker or more physical. I can even get over getting pushed around on the boards by a more physical team. What I refuse to excuse for this team, is to be outsmarted and to try to out class every other team athletically when every other team we play is deeper athletically than us.

Example: Rivers gets in foul trouble setting the stage for Jordan Hulls to HAVE (He can turn it over 20 times and Id still play him over D. Moore. The kid tries hard but is 0 threat to score) to play some point. Jordan Hulls is never going to get a step or two on someone and go in and finish in contact. What can he do? Get people in position and make a pass when defenders get out of position. All you have to do is look at how his HS team (Bloomington South) went undefeated and won the State Championship. They had TEAM defense and ran offensive sets that got people out of position (No I did not go to South, I actually really don't like South at all). We have the talent and smarts to do that as a Hoosier basketball team NOW!!!! Did we? No. We asked Hulls to try and be Rivers and run and have an NBA offense (1-on-1). With Rivers in should we run? Absolutely, it only took 1 coast to coast lay-up to see that. With Hulls? Heck no, set up an offense. A 6ft Hulls isn't going to school any 6-5 guard one on one, but you know what he can do? hit the kick out three and make passes the other team doesn't see coming if you we have some movement and get people out of position.

I was a big fan of the Crean hire, and still have hope, but I don't know that I can stay behind the Marathon practices to get us in shape (which actually seem to just leave us without legs at all right now, but hopefully pays off later) instead of teaching an offense and defense. We need to start learning those, we will not beat anyone by trying to get in 1-on-1 and running situations. We have to have a half-court game as well. We are going to be young the whole year, so I can tolerate mistakes, but not using age as an excuse to have no concept of help-side defense or being able to run an offensive set. Junior High teams in the state can accomplish those two things, why is it too much to expect my college team to get it?

As for tonight's game, anyone expecting a “domination” of Boston University better not listen to the game. Boston is one of the better teams in the America East conference and this game is going to be close. I look at it as a 50-50 contest. Sorry, that's just where this program is right now. I think we'll get there but last night was another indication of how far we have fallen.

If it's really that bad they maybe these Negative Nancy's need to invest in a TV that lets them change the channel.