You misspelled "Shitty" in your headline.

@gthomas damn auto correct

Looked like the team had some fun Saturday at the football game. 🍺

We didn't play well and shot poorly.  Unless it develops into a trend, I'm not going to worry.  We're going to have off nights. 

But, some people are going to melt down at any opportunity.  Is what it is.

I didn't think it was gritty, that's the part that was lacking. 

But, they did close it out, so some grit.

I'll go with what coach says, better to have things to learn from after a win than a loss.

Maybe Incarnate Word will be the Old Dominion of basketball this season. When they hit shots at the end they looked good. 

@openwheel that’s fair. Yes, it’s easier to learn a lesson from a win than a loss. 

IU is going to have nights like this with how they play. You just hope it’s few and far between.

The lack of a consistent post presence showed which I know we all worried about coming into the season. For this game at least, there didn't seem to be a fallback option when we weren't able to get one to go down.  We just kept trying to see 3's go through the hoop. 

@yothn I think that's obviously part of it.  But I also think its just the most obvious excuse.  The ball and player movement stopped in the second half.  I spent too much time on the last site trying to explain to people how much easier it is to shoot the ball when you're in rhythm, moving in to open spaces instead of standing still for long stretches, etc... I think our poor shooting was a combination of just being off, but also that we weren't running the offense how we had been the first 3 games.

In short, we put up 100 on two teams that are much better than Incarnate Word.  We weren't ready to play yesterday, and we never really "woke up".  If we play that team 5 times, we probably have a couple 30-40 point margin games.

What it shows me, unfortunately, this group is capable of poor focus and effort performances.  Most teams are, its not the end of the world.  But some teams aren't.  Some teams have enough...leadership...grit...whatever... to not allow entire games happen like yesterday.  Purdue had a game like this against Oakland, so I'm not saying the sky is falling.  But Purdue has quite a lot larger margin for error on things like this.  There are a handful of B10 teams Purdue could sleepwalk through the game, and still beat.  I don't think there are any that IU could.  

The good news...we've seen what dialed in and making shots looks like.  And this group can beat any team in the country when they're playing well.  Lets hope they learn from this game, and figure out how to shake the cobwebbs off when they have a game like this.

This sounds very cheesy...but if I'm CDD, and a game like this happens... I literally channel Norman Dale, and require a couple possessions in a row where there are 5 passes, at least 2 ball reversals, etc.... 

I wouldn't mind seeing CDD play with the starting lineup/minutes some too. I think Alexsis is earning minutes or a start with his play. I like Bailey's skillset, but with what we know is coming in the B10 and bigger and more physical teams, I think it would make sense to start Alexsis and bring Bailey off the bench. I thought there were 3-4 times in the first half alone where Bailey got 2 hands on a rebound or loose ball and still had it taken away. I also think at some point someone's going to supplant Enright and allow him to run the second unit and spell Connerway. Alexsis and Dorn or Sisley would give us a lot of added size and post presence and may even improve perimeter shooting. 

I'm a little annoyed with Bailey.  He's too experienced to foul so much.  And I'm surprised he hasn't utilized his strengths (mobility, ball skills, fundamentals) to mitigate his lack of strength.  He should be better than this and I think he still could be.

Bailey may well be what we have seen so far as a player. After IU plays Kansas State, Louisville and Kentucky the picture will be very clear as to what he brings to the team.

@bigmike Certainly could be.  Hope not.

@thenickeldimer This is what I was thinking as well.

It wasn't just 3s but they missed a lot of free throws and missed several dunks. Sluggish all around.

@surjay After thinking a little more about it... if we go 22-26 from the free throw line, 8-24 from the 3, and make say 2 more of the bunnies that we missed... all of those things still poor outings versus the first 3 games... the game is never in doubt, and IW might not have had the will to make some of those plays at the end of the game that they did.  Might not have been quite as bad an effort as we're all making it out to be.  

I don't think we'll have a game the rest of the year that we shoot as poorly from both the 3 and the FT line, as we did last night.