Postmortem article from the Whisky board....5 Things

[HeyHuey]

2. Rutgers figured out Ethan Happ, and other teams will follow suit.
Coming off one of the most-well rounded performances of his career (28 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals) Ethan Happ and his teammates were hopeful his play could translate on the road against the Knights.
Although Happ managed to finish with a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds), the Scarlet Knight defense made sure he wouldn't repeat a strong showing.
Wisconsin's All-American finished with a season-high 7 turnovers, and can thank sophomore Eugene Omoruyi and senior Candido Sa for a frustrating performance.

"We had relentless effort" Rutgers head coach Streve Pikiell said of his team's efforts. "Our defense was good from start to finish."

Granted, Rutgers entered Friday's contest boasting the conference's best scoring defense and was facing the conference's lowest scoring offense, but Happ was shut down from start to finish.




https://wisconsin.rivals.com/news/five-things-rutgers-defeats-wisconsin-64-60

 

[RUinFla]

Good point--Happ carried them in that win over Indiana. For some reason, the announcers seemed to regard Wisconsin--at home--as the underdog, even though Indiana has had a couple of odd losses--like us. Indiana should not have fired Crean. But if you fire Bob Knight you can fire Crean.
TL

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Indiana hoops like Michigan fotrball. They once were giants.

 

[rucoe89]

Indiana hoops like Michigan fotrball. They once were giants.

Let’s wait until we play them. Would be nice to knock them off, but will depend on which team shows up for us.

 

[Russ Wood]

Good point--Happ carried them in that win over Indiana. For some reason, the announcers seemed to regard Wisconsin--at home--as the underdog, even though Indiana has had a couple of odd losses--like us. Indiana should not have fired Crean. But if you fire Bob Knight you can fire Crean.
TL

I like Crean but it seemed like he had taken the program as far as he could. Plus I heard he had lost key donors who were closing their wallets until he was gone.

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Ruco I just wanted to get an obscure band reference in a post..;)

 

[RURM85]

I like Crean but it seemed like he had taken the program as far as he could. Plus I heard he had lost key donors who were closing their wallets until he was gone.

I've watched a number of games where Crean is now an Analyst on the ESPN broadcast (i.e. last week's Iowa Michigan game). I think he's doing a great job and is informative and easy to listen to. Better announcer than coach.

 

[Russ Wood]

I've watched a number of games where Crean is now an Analyst on the ESPN broadcast (i.e. last week's Iowa Michigan game). I think he's doing a great job and is informative and easy to listen to. Better announcer than coach.

I agree.

I met him at a Florida practice in early October. Crean wasn't anything like I expected. He actually walked over to me before practice started and says "Hi, my name is Tom. It's nice to meet you."

It seemed very genuine but I thought I was getting punked, like I didn't know who he was.

Crean, Florida HC Mike White & I talked after practice (Well, Crean & White did 90% of the talking I mainly soaked up knowledge like a human sponge).

I have to admit though, after listening to him I wondered why his Indiana teams didn't get deeper into the NCAA tournament.

 

[RURM85]

I agree.

I met him at a Florida practice in early October. Crean wasn't anything like I expected. He actually walked over to me before practice started and says "Hi, my name is Tom. It's nice to meet you."

It seemed very genuine but I thought I was getting punked, like I didn't know who he was.

Crean, Florida HC Mike White & I talked after practice (Well, Crean & White did 90% of the talking I mainly soaked up knowledge like a human sponge).

I have to admit though, after listening to him I wondered why his Indiana teams didn't get deeper into the NCAA tournament.

Thanks. Good story about Coach Crean.

My daughter will be graduating IU in May. Have watched all the Indiana games since the 2013-2014 season (Noah Vonleah, Yogi's sophomore year). Here's my 2 cents.

I believe Coach Crean hit a ceiling and an occasional B1G Championship and Sweet Sixteen appearance wasn't going to work for their fanbase, realistic of them or not.

As for last year, my untrained eyes told me (excluding critical injuries):
Offense - Best summarized as they did not value each possession. Without citing stats, the turnovers ratio was horrendous. Coach Crean likes to play fast and many times they looked out of control with players out of position. Hard to tell if it was too complicated sets for the players. For example, Thomas Bryant became the tallest and biggest 3 point specialist in the country. It wasn't that he was bad shooting the 3 pointer, however, it completely diminished a role for him to play near the rim where he would be more valuable.

Defense - My biggest gripes were with their defense. It's hard to say whether it was complete lack of fundamentals, or lack of effort/intensity to play defense. Way to many uncontested shots, unimpeded opponent drives to the basketball, limited boxing out on the boards. They were good at getting their arms in the lanes to deflect passes, but that's it. It looked like Crean lost the team.
2 years ago, after the Duke blowout in the ACC Challenge, Yogi made the commitment to improve his defensive play and the rest of the team followed his lead. It led to them winning the B1G and looked competent on the defensive end. Not last year.

Recruiting - While Crean has had some success including in Indiana with Zeller, Yogi, Blackmon, he missed way too many in-state top rated players. The trend was not good.

I do believe Crean can become a successful Coach again in a different environment. That being said, I really like him as an Analyst. he's full of knowledge and insight and does a pretty good job communicating on the broadcast to the simpletons like myself.

On another topic, I strongly believe Coach Miller is the right coach for Indiana to get to where they need to be. His pack line defense focus will eventually resonate with their kids and they'll come a day where their defense is really good.

 

[bowlgoal]

I thought Happ would be better. We shut him down. Not impressed by him at all.

 

[blueoyster]

Ruco I just wanted to get an obscure band reference in a post..;)

 

[Russ Wood]

Thanks. Good story about Coach Crean.

My daughter will be graduating IU in May. Have watched all the Indiana games since the 2013-2014 season (Noah Vonleah, Yogi's sophomore year). Here's my 2 cents.

I believe Coach Crean hit a ceiling and an occasional B1G Championship and Sweet Sixteen appearance wasn't going to work for their fanbase, realistic of them or not.

As for last year, my untrained eyes told me (excluding critical injuries):
Offense - Best summarized as they did not value each possession. Without citing stats, the turnovers ratio was horrendous. Coach Crean likes to play fast and many times they looked out of control with players out of position. Hard to tell if it was too complicated sets for the players. For example, Thomas Bryant became the tallest and biggest 3 point specialist in the country. It wasn't that he was bad shooting the 3 pointer, however, it completely diminished a role for him to play near the rim where he would be more valuable.

Defense - My biggest gripes were with their defense. It's hard to say whether it was complete lack of fundamentals, or lack of effort/intensity to play defense. Way to many uncontested shots, unimpeded opponent drives to the basketball, limited boxing out on the boards. They were good at getting their arms in the lanes to deflect passes, but that's it. It looked like Crean lost the team.
2 years ago, after the Duke blowout in the ACC Challenge, Yogi made the commitment to improve his defensive play and the rest of the team followed his lead. It led to them winning the B1G and looked competent on the defensive end. Not last year.

Recruiting - While Crean has had some success including in Indiana with Zeller, Yogi, Blackmon, he missed way too many in-state top rated players. The trend was not good.

I do believe Crean can become a successful Coach again in a different environment. That being said, I really like him as an Analyst. he's full of knowledge and insight and does a pretty good job communicating on the broadcast to the simpletons like myself.

On another topic, I strongly believe Coach Miller is the right coach for Indiana to get to where they need to be. His pack line defense focus will eventually resonate with their kids and they'll come a day where their defense is really good.

I believe he'll coach again. He's been at some HS events in Florida. Gotta believe he's maintaining relationships & evaluating talent

 

[mikefla]

When Happ was on you could see he had a good shot & good moves.
Gene O and Sa made him just enough "off" many times.
He had half of his total turnovers & looked frustrated.

Credit goes to Omor and Sa

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I have to admit though, after listening to him I wondered why his Indiana teams didn't get deeper into the NCAA tournament.

ask archie

 

[Russ Wood]

ask archie

Huh?