Indiana is a team with a ton of tradition, obviously under Bobby Knight and before that, Branch McCracken and others.. Their fanbase in basketball DO NOT take kindly to any type of losing streak, regardless if the reason is legitimate. Fans, players, and Coach Tom Crean have all voiced disapproval of what has happened to the team this year...
Some things cannot be helped.. Collin Hartman, Juwan Morgan, OG Anunoby, and James Blackmon Jr have all had injuries and that is the heart of that team. That takes leadership, shooting, energy guys completely out of that team.... Huge losses for them.. Blackmon is back and they still have talent, so this is frustrating for Tom Crean and staff as there was high expectations going into the year, otherwise.
The tougher 'pill to swallow' for coach Crean is that he cant seem to get the guys motivated on offense to move, off the ball...... They have Thomas Bryant, who is a mobile big, that has worked hard on the court and trying to show leadership which Crean has mentioned that a couple times in press conferences.. I think Crean is frustrated with his guard play and some other guys that have stood around.. They have NOT played bad defense so that has been their positive but just are not converting on the offensive end, well enough. They have highly rated players but Crean has called them out publically a few times now...After the last press conference a few days ago, I saw a frustrated Crean who left me thinking that he may be one of the first Big 10 coaches to resign or get fired after this season.
They have talented scorers in Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr.. This team DESPERATELY misses a PG like Yogi Ferrell for leadership and guidance in the backcourt. They need a floor general to get those guys to move for open shots, DeRon Davis was highly rated coming out of HS...
We will find out if Crean is losing his guys or not.... They can be a dangerous team.... WIth all the injuries, they still have talent. This should be interesting to see as they have been disappointing in their play recently, to say the least.... It would be interesting to see the practices and will be interesting to see the body language of the players after that last frustrating press conference by Crean.. Will they respond or be on their own agenda???
This will be an interesting game for the Gophers as we need to keep them down.. Come out hard with the mind of an assassin. Get the Hoosiers down early... We can feel bad for the Indiana program AFTER the game. Our defense needs to be at a top notch level and we HAVE to get Reggie Lynch to play without foul trouble. Bryant is the type of guy that can get Lynch in foul trouble early.. I would watch for that. Same story in keeping Indiana from 2nd shot opportunities.. Cannot give them a glimmer of hope.. Keep pounding until we get the victory.. I think we get it at the Barn but we have to have a mentality of going for the kill... This is NOT a team we want to mess around with, tomorrow night.
Some things cannot be helped.. Collin Hartman, Juwan Morgan, OG Anunoby, and James Blackmon Jr have all had injuries and that is the heart of that team. That takes leadership, shooting, energy guys completely out of that team.... Huge losses for them.. Blackmon is back and they still have talent, so this is frustrating for Tom Crean and staff as there was high expectations going into the year, otherwise.
The tougher 'pill to swallow' for coach Crean is that he cant seem to get the guys motivated on offense to move, off the ball...... They have Thomas Bryant, who is a mobile big, that has worked hard on the court and trying to show leadership which Crean has mentioned that a couple times in press conferences.. I think Crean is frustrated with his guard play and some other guys that have stood around.. They have NOT played bad defense so that has been their positive but just are not converting on the offensive end, well enough. They have highly rated players but Crean has called them out publically a few times now...After the last press conference a few days ago, I saw a frustrated Crean who left me thinking that he may be one of the first Big 10 coaches to resign or get fired after this season.
They have talented scorers in Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr.. This team DESPERATELY misses a PG like Yogi Ferrell for leadership and guidance in the backcourt. They need a floor general to get those guys to move for open shots, DeRon Davis was highly rated coming out of HS...
We will find out if Crean is losing his guys or not.... They can be a dangerous team.... WIth all the injuries, they still have talent. This should be interesting to see as they have been disappointing in their play recently, to say the least.... It would be interesting to see the practices and will be interesting to see the body language of the players after that last frustrating press conference by Crean.. Will they respond or be on their own agenda???
This will be an interesting game for the Gophers as we need to keep them down.. Come out hard with the mind of an assassin. Get the Hoosiers down early... We can feel bad for the Indiana program AFTER the game. Our defense needs to be at a top notch level and we HAVE to get Reggie Lynch to play without foul trouble. Bryant is the type of guy that can get Lynch in foul trouble early.. I would watch for that. Same story in keeping Indiana from 2nd shot opportunities.. Cannot give them a glimmer of hope.. Keep pounding until we get the victory.. I think we get it at the Barn but we have to have a mentality of going for the kill... This is NOT a team we want to mess around with, tomorrow night.
