Do you think that same thought applies to IU with yogi? I’m thinking that is the key item to watch this year for IU…team play.

I really don’t know what he was or wasn’t told by any of the other schools. For what it’s worth, I was not all that excited by what he showed in his limited time here.
Share your concerns about TC’s offense, substitution patterns (and game plans/in-game adjustments).

Each of the following players had offers on the table, most had made un-official or official visits to campus, and at one time each had indicated his solid interest in IU. If you don’t believe that anybody out-recruits him, how would you explain the facts that none of these young men will be wearing stripes this year: Theo Pinson-UNC, Devin Robinson-Florida, Chris McCullough-Syracuse, Raymond Spaulding-Louisville, Goodluck Okonoboh-UNLV, Brandone Francis-Florida, LeRon Black-Illinois, Ahmed Hill-VaTech, Michael Humphrey-Stanford, or Lourawls Nairn-MSU?

With Luke Fischer on Marquette’s roster, I bet they were recruiting Lee as a 4.

I may have qualms with Crean about the offense or subbing patterns, but I don’t believe that anybody outrecruits him.

Russell was really good in HS…but it’s not an automatic given that he’ll be equally good in college. Thompson will probably get his points on “Highlight put-backs/jams” but he’s a liability in the mid-range game…same as Lee. No idea how their other Freshman will perform and the Williams/McDonald combo are far from spectacular players. I’d put money on WI winning the B1G season and tourney. Thad Matta will probably have a really solid team ready for the NCAA’s as usual.

Perhaps he saw the IU roster at that time w/5 Guards, 8 Forwards and 1 Center and decided to take his game elsewhere. For whatever reason, I think it worked out really better for us–we got Emmitt Holt and he’s got a much better up-side than Lee, imo.

Around 3/18/2014, Jeff Goodman @ ESPN wrote that Lee was getting “serious interest” from Iowa State, Illinois, Marquette, Indiana, Louisville, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, USC, Miami, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State. I bet all those other schools except the Suckeyes also recruited him to play center. That would have really made his choice simple. If an opponent can keep him off the boards and out of the paint (where he shot 60% last year, 1 of 3 from 3-pt land and 25% from mid-range) his game sucks. I’d rather have Emmitt Holt in stripes.

I stand corrected. I’d rather have had Pinson also. I’d still put Russell ahead of Whitehead, though.

It’s for the best. His strength is not shooting. And CTC would not have brought him on for 1 year in order for him to fulfill that dream…

Lee didn’t want to play center. Lee would’ve played center for IU. I think it’s as simple as that.

Disagreed. I see them having a similar season to us last year. Not much scoring, and not to mention the most overrated player in the B1G in Sam Thompson.

Maybe Matta will run out of Miracle Gro this year or perhaps the blossoms won’t occur until after January 25th.

Lee didn’t want to come here and be the only big man. He was sold on the fact that he could be the 4 to Amir Williams’ 5, if you will.

I would have liked to see Theo Pinson and/or Isaiah Whitehead in stripes more than Russell.

Coverdale attempted lay ups? Perhaps it was because I was a youngin’ then, but I seem to remember gettin’ mad at Tommy boy cause he’d stop and pop a brick from behind the arc every time we got on the break.

I agree that Craft was a great all around player who hustled non stop. I’m just saying him and Scott together, the whole makeup of that team for that matter, was just really rough and ugly basketball. It (Craft and Scott) was like the defensive version of the Denver Nuggets a few years back when they tried to pair Carmello Anthony with Allen Iverson. They’re better of separate. Just too similar. Would they be better off if that departure had been Scott and not Craft? Probably but Scott is still an excellent player who does a lot of the same things Craft does, in some respects he does them better.

SImply put I think the additions of Russell and Lee (plus the other two top 100 freshmen and redshirt freshmen) are infinitely greater than the loses of Smith Jr and Ross. The loss of Craft will allow Scott to play more naturally and comfortably, and should allow the entirety of the Ohio St offense to run much more smoothly. I also think the collective efforts of Scott, Thompson, and Lee can at least somewhat makeup for the leadership void left behind by Craft. All in All I expect Ohio ST to have a much better season than last year (yea I’m aware they had a good year last year) IF the pieces come together smoothly, especially in a “down” year for the BIG.

I understand what you’re saying about individual potential, and maybe down the road their players will one day do great things. I just think that if you put the rosters side by side, I’d take who Wisconsin has over OSU any day regardless of coach or system. If we’re talking skill level in “real time” I don’t know of a more effective way of defining talent.

I think Wisky is better, but I think OSU has more talented players. Talent can be unproven. Russell has the potential to be great, but he may be mediocre. We see it happen all the time with highly touted recruits. However, that doesn’t diminish his potential.

Thanks for the compliment, Dave…even if you are wrong about this comment! 🙂

Look, I couldn’t stand Craft, and I think the refs gave him the Jordan treatment, and he couldn’t hit water off of a cruise ship shooting. But his leadership skills, ball handling and defense made him a winner. If he played for IU these last four years, we would have been wanting to hang his number from the rafters. He is an “Indiana” player: hardwork, hustle, doing the little things type player that we typically love.

I’m a big baseball fan, and if you follow baseball’s SABRmetric stats, you will know what WAR is: Wins Above Replacement. The simplified idea is that the last player on your roster is worth 0.0 WAR, so what is everyone else worth? In baseball, they take everything into account: defense, offense, baserunning, etc. If we did that for Craft, I’m guessing he’d have one of the highest WARs in the B1G over the past four years.

And I agree with you on Russell. I think he is a star, and of all the 5 star players we recruited but did not get, he is the one I’d take over all the rest. We are going to learn to really dislike him.

More talented than Wisky? Considering much of what they have is unproven, I’m not so sure.