Indiana is bad in all 4 of those areas.
Worst in the league in fouling. That means you send the other team charity.
They dont rebound well. That means they give other teams 2nd chances.
They dont steal the ball on defense. That means fewer easy transition baskets and more shot opportunities for their opponents.
And IU does not block shots. That has led to easy put backs and a lot of easy dribble peneteation by opponents.
These are 4 statistical reasons why Indiana is very mediocre. The 5th reason, is because they are not mentally strong defensively and tend to give up easy baskets after getting decent leads in the 12 min to 5 min area of the 2nd half.
Its a shame because they are fun to watch on offense with a lot of guys who can score. Passing and finding open guys has been pretty solid. Simple basketball like spacing and give and go, has been good. 3pt shooting, a sight for sore eyes, has been good.
But with several glaring problems this late in the season, I think the best we can hope for is hot shooting and some lucky breaks from here on out.
Its year 1 for DeVries. I dont see the same red flags I saw with Crean, but mediocrity on defense....that absolutely has to be addressed as the first priority in the transfer portal this off season.
You mean we suck at the intangibles
Can you really teach mental toughness or do you have to recruit that? I.e. is it mostly just in the personality of the player?
good question... imo it's not teachable at that stage . It's either innate or learned at a young age. There are always exceptions but
Indiana is bad in all 4 of those areas.
Worst in the league in fouling. That means you send the other team charity.
They dont rebound well. That means they give other teams 2nd chances.
They dont steal the ball on defense. That means fewer easy transition baskets and more shot opportunities for their opponents.
And IU does not block shots. That has led to easy put backs and a lot of easy dribble peneteation by opponents.
These are 4 statistical reasons why Indiana is very mediocre. The 5th reason, is because they are not mentally strong defensively and tend to give up easy baskets after getting decent leads in the 12 min to 5 min area of the 2nd half.
Its a shame because they are fun to watch on offense with a lot of guys who can score. Passing and finding open guys has been pretty solid. Simple basketball like spacing and give and go, has been good. 3pt shooting, a sight for sore eyes, has been good.
But with several glaring problems this late in the season, I think the best we can hope for is hot shooting and some lucky breaks from here on out.
Its year 1 for DeVries. I dont see the same red flags I saw with Crean, but mediocrity on defense....that absolutely has to be addressed as the first priority in the transfer portal this off season.
Watching the game live (for once), I thought they were putting forth the effort when it came to rebounding, but the results were still poor. I do give them better grades for attempting to block out.
Enright's about the only guy on the team who seems to have a 'nose for the ball'. Frequently, we seem oblivious to where the ball is. Also, other than Enright and Devries (and possibly Miles), we're pretty passive when it comes to actually securing the ball.
Weirdest thing about this team is how the O always falls apart in the last 6 minutes and LW just ends up going one-on-one. But I will say Wisconsin was playing tremendous defense the last 5 minutes and in OT. They looked like the better team, for sure. We were very lucky to win.
Overall, I don't have much interest in this team, nor do the fans. As soon as the game was over, people cleared out fast. I'm waiting to see what the portal brings, as I don't get into the bubble watch much.
@tr32 Our present team is short compared to other B1G teams and we are short staffed with two team members still injured. Some of our better rebounders are 6'2" and 6'5". I doubt that some of our deficiensies can be coached out of our quickly assembled team in one season.
I'd be pissed and worried if they had been in the area of top 80 HS talent.