Recent content by …INI

I don’t get all these kids going into the portal. If you are not going to make money professionally playing basketball, at what point does it make more sense to finish the degree at your current school rather than chasing a few more bucks for one year at a different school? It seems like those...

Yes, I think our offense depends on all players being a threat from 3. That’s what opens driving lanes for Wagler, Boswell and AS. More inside out action would help when defense sags. Edey’s Purdue teams ran this brilliantly. I think Tomi can be very effective, too.

Yes, our playbook is 1. Shoot a 3 2. Get rebounds off misses and follow with a make 3. Win the turnover margin 4. Get defensive rebounds off opponent misses. If those fail our defense is not good enough to beat good offensive teams. See Michigan game.

Let’s see how the season plays out, but I think BU’s current formula (recruiting, NIL$, scheme, player development, etc) is a winning formula; it’s not a championship one. It prioritizes offense over defense too much. Arguably we should be content with being a sweet 16 contender every year. As...

Missouri did not bring their A game, but that was an impressive win nonetheless. It looked like a different defensive team compared to Nebraska. What changed over the week? Was it just better effort and intensity? Or were there defensive scheme adjustments? Does anyone have any insight?

If expectations are to achieve a top 5 finish in the BIG and a 4-6 tourney seed then I don’t think yesterday’s loss was significant. If expectations are to compete for a BIG championship and a final 4 then I think yesterday’s loss hurt a lot. Not just because they lost but because there are...

True, and arguably it is not fair. FWIW I think ND is one of the 12 best teams. However as an independent it seems ND may get held to a different standard and the P2 determines the standard so play good P2 teams and beat them. Then ND doesn’t sit in the margins. I am surprised ND got left out...

Yes. I think ND needs to schedule at least 5 or 6 games against the top half of the BIG and SEC and win those games. This year they played 4 P2 games; they lost one game and 2 teams they beat were a combined 0-17 in conference. Otherwise I think ND will live on the bubble and the powerbrokers in...

Wow. Political statement that ND needs to join a conference or schedule better teams. I’m just surprised that it comes now

I’m not a Bama fan, but I agree. ‘Seems like you kick out Oklahoma from SEC before Alabama. I know that OU beat Bama but OU also had 2 conference losses compared to Bama’s 1 loss.

Very encouraging. 2 things jump out to me. Tomi brought his A game, maybe because he is fully healthy. And only 6 TOs with 7 fewer TOs than UT. In last years game we had 7 more TOs than UT. Wagler takes better care of the ball than KJ did.

Was Andrej playing on a bad ankle and may be why he underperformed?

Other than Boswell I’m not sure we have the dudes to win these big games. AS showed it against TT. Underwood is right, when the shots aren’t falling dudes are able to win in other ways (defense, free throws, playing through contact, etc). Our guys just keep shooting.

One area of improvement this year compared to last year is TO margin. Both teams today had 10 TOs, and I think UCONN plays an aggressive defensive style. TOs were such a momentum killer last year and we rarely created TOs to get momentum back.

I like Underwood’s presser message on getting tougher, nastier, grittier etc but those are cultural behaviors that often take multiple seasons to develop with roster consistency. I hope he’s not counting on that to suddenly develop with new players over the course of a few practices.