Posted by: @tammany

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My favorite Woodson coached game was Oregon in the BTT because he was gone after that.

Exactly! I love this team if nothing more because Woodson isn't the coach! I understand the frustration with IU basketball over past 20 years. I have been very critical at times, Archie and then Woodson, couldn't have had two worse coaches. The players were lacking as well only caring about $ and themselves in a lot of cases. Having said that let's turn the page now. We all got our wish as Woodson is gone, it's an entirely new roster and coach let's be supportive and positive instead of finding reasons to be negative only two games into the season. Is IU going undefeated or winning a natty? Of course not, but I'm good with coach DD and this roster, I have enjoyed watching them thus far and see a big improvement in effort and cohesiveness already. Too many negative Nancy's on here but if and when the win they will have suddenly changed their minds. IU is in a good place now, football is killing it and hopefully basketball on the way back, enjoy the Hoosiers and stop the whining.

@hoosierific I care more than 99.999% of people. And wear my emotions on my sleeve. I want nothing more than for IU to be excellent and won’t settle for anything less.

Posted by: @iunorth

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‘Connor has no business starting, and playing big minutes, on a high level P4 team’… that’s much closer to accurate. 

That is accurate... but also incomplete without recognizing that likely the only reason he's starting and playing this much is how short-handed we are. I think his starters role will disappear as soon as Dorn is back and shows he's ready to roll. I also think Ristic will take some of his minutes based on what we saw in PR, assuming he gets back and healthy. Who knows about Drake, but he's also part of our backcourt depth. To bitch and moan like that, seems to imply the coach is choosing to play CE. We literally, imo, have no other option. Oh yeah, and to top it off, we beat what historically has been a solid and tournament team by 23. A better question for Cav, is do you think as it stands right now, that CE should not be playing? 

@kkott I don’t think he should have been brought on this team, I think adding him was a huge mistake.  Surely with top 10 money we could have got a better backup PG. I put that on coach.  If he’s the best option we have right now, that isn’t good regardless of injuries.  Again, he was awful at DePaul,  no reason to think he could be a back up here.  Prob gave him 500-750k. That is bad IMO.

@cavanagh I agree that there were maybe better backup PG options in the portal, but the fact that he had ran CDD's offense in the past is a big deal, especially since the entire team is tranfers.

@curtdog I still think we should have kept some guys.  Rice Tucker kannan all better options IMO. That’s coaches choice.

But I am a bit confused if he is the back up PG why is he playing when our current PG and SG are healthy.  He is starting next to them? 

Why not start Trent over him? He is a forward and brings more size.  We don’t need any more guards with Tuckers ball handling and Lamar.   Especially because Baileys best attribute is ball handling.  

@cavanagh yeah, hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Again, Enwright was the very first recruit, with no one besides his son on the roster, an entire roster to fill, time ticking and he knew him and valued him as a player. Who knows, maybe he did hold off on a 6'9" dog of a defender/rebounder that we could really use right now and lost him? You're bitching about a guy who I believe was meant to be a backup, and as curtdog mentions, probably here for culture and was only meant to be an "energy guy" distributor and defender. CDD said one of the early games he went to see CE when he was recruiting him at Drake, he controlled the game and didn't score a point. Were there likely better backup options: maybe. Could we have gotten them, who knows. With Ristic and Drake back, we have a pretty complete backcourt corp, and we're still lacking frontcourt depth. If you want to complain, at least do it where it's a more realistic problem.

@kkott I’ve complained about the front court depth already, but still confused why everyone here is saying he’s our back up PG yet we are plying him next to our two starting guards, looks like he’s not backing up anyone.  Again why not start Trent or even Alexis if he is meant to back up the guards.  We are playing 3 guards right now.  

@cavanagh Here you go with the hyperbole.  He wasn't "awful" at Depaul.  He averaged 7 points and 6 assists a game.  And he did that with a torn labrum in his right shoulder.  And DePaul lost 7 out of their last 10 games after his last game (Surgery in February, last game was February 2nd)... including the first 6 games after he stopped playing... they played better with him, than without him.

You don't have to go this level to prove a point.  It makes your depth of knowledge on the game of basketball seem very, very shallow.

His value to this team is he played multiple years with Tucker DeVries, he knows CDD's system very well, he is a solid ball handler, he is a pesky, high energy defender.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but I suspect it probably is, to some degree... but I'm sure he's helping guys like Connerway, Wilkerson, etc... get to know all the various drills, terminology, expectations, etc... from CDD's program.  And for a team that was assembled from scratch in April and May, every progression that they can make to being more comfortable with CDD's program, is hugely important.

And... obviously... he wasn't brought in by CDD to start and play big minutes.  CDD went after quite a lot of guards after Enright committed.  Obviously he knew going in that he wasn't likely going to be a starter.  As it stands, potentially 3 guys that CDD probably planned to be fighting for main rotation backcourt/wing spots, are in street clothes.  When Dorn, Drake, and Ristic get healthy... his role will change back to what CDD intended it to be.  

Posted by: @cavanagh

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@kkott I’ve complained about the front court depth already, but still confused why everyone here is saying he’s our back up PG yet we are plying him next to our two starting guards, looks like he’s not backing up anyone.  Again why not start Trent or even Alexis if he is meant to back up the guards.  We are playing 3 guards right now.  

Probably because we have 3 other guards who are out - Dorn, Drake, & Ristic.

Who would you have play that position? Miles? Rayford? One of the walk-ons?

@cavanagh it's 2 games in. There's a reason the term security blanket exists. CDD obviously trusts CE. Sisley is 2 games removed from not scoring vs Baylor and having  chicken littles on here wondering if he and Bailey are overmatched at this level. I don't think CE will go to the bench the first time Dorn returns, but expect that will happen over time. MU is also a pressing team, so he probably valued having the extra ball handler in the game. Oh yeah, and did I mention we controlled the game and won by 23? Relax, we've got an entirely new coach, staff, roster and system, and we're winning! Save your bitching for when we lose and/or at least look bad. Going back to PR, this team has not lost, and is what, 7-0? Pretty damn good for a new coach, roster and system!

@cavanagh He's implementing a high energy, extended ball pressure defense.  He also has two very, very good, high volume shooters and scorers in Wilkerson and DeVries.  Enright isn't capable of shutting down elite opposing ball handlers (like Leal did), but he does speed guys up, and has caused more than a couple turnovers from it.  And then offensively, he's facilitating ball movement, and that's obviously one of the central focuses of CDD's offense.  Sisley isn't a very good perimeter defender, and while he isn't a ball hog... his benefit is, for sure, more scoring oriented than distributing.

Its early... establishing HOW we play, is equally, if not more important than who we play.  And on both ends of the floor, Enright is likely helping CDD do that.

Posted by: @cavanagh

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@curtdog I still think we should have kept some guys.  Rice Tucker kannan all better options IMO. That’s coaches choice.

IMO, you had to flush all the guys who were part of that Woodson system. Why would CDD want to deal with any of them who were recruited into a system that is 180 degrees from what he's trying to do?  Never mind the NIL implications.

Rice is throwing shoes from help side at Maryland and Carlyle is sub 40% from the field at FAU right now.  Tucker may have been worth keeping, but the rumor was he had a bunch of parental baggage.