Thoughts on Guy-Marc Michel

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*Credit to iuhoosiers.cstv.com

By now you're aware of the fact that the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee has denied Indiana University's appeal regarding Guy-Marc Michel's eligibility. As a result, Guy will not be allowed to play for the Hoosiers. So, what does this mean for IU? Pondering the situation I can't help but think back to those old Tootsie Pop commercials where the curious young child asks the old wise owl, "how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?"

"The World May Never Know."

Besides from the 14 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, Guy accumulated in his 28 minutes of IU's pre-season scrimmage, we really don't know what kind of talent he possessed. Hoosiers fans recent memories of seven foot centers include the incredibly raw, uncoordinated images of Bawa Muniru and Tijan Jobe. No offense to Bawa and Tijan, but this doesn't leave Hoosier Nation with much to get excited about.

But, for some reason I had a feeling that Guy was different. No, I did not think that Guy would be Tyler Hansbroughish or Blake Griffinesque, but I did feel like his 7' 1", 265 pound frame was capable of helping the Hoosiers during their Big Ten schedule.

Guy, who showed excellent shot blocking ability during is two years with Northern Idaho, would have given this year's Hoosiers team a legitimate "Big Ten body" to patrol the paint. Tom Pritchard has already been disqualified from two of the first six games due to fouls and aside from the performance he turned in against Evansville (8 PT, 8 RBs, 5 BS, 3 PFs) what kind of resistance will Pritch offer against the Big Ten big men? Another big body to block shots, set screens and give us five more of those precious fouls would have been a welcomed addition to this year's Hoosiers team. That is exactly the reason why Tom Crean went out and got him, and I think that we can all agree that Tom Crean hasn't been sleeping on his recruits lately.

Sure Pritch is going to have to step up in Guy's absence but all of the responsibility shouldn't fall on Pritch's shoulders. The Hoosiers are going to have to do it by committee. It may be a different guy every night but in order for the Hoosiers to be competitive in the Big Ten they will have to get solid contributions from guys like Pritchard, Bobby Copobianco, Derek Elston and I'll even throw Christian Watford into that mix.

Are these guys up to challenge? That question will be answered this season, but as for Guy-Marc Michael's possible contributions to the Indiana Hoosiers Men's Basketball team...

"The world may never know."

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Coach talks Boston College

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Do you love IU bball?

If so, and you have a passion for writing, drop your e-mail in the comments section or e-mail us at btownbanners@gmail.com if you'd be interested in being a featured blogger.  You will have free reign on what you write, you will just submit it to us and we can get you posted on our site.  It's a great way to get your thoughts out there and build up a following of IU sports fanatics!

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Game 6: Northwestern State (+/-)

This was the story of two halves on Friday night.  Overall the Hoosiers came out on top and played a great game.  I'm excited about this team advancing to 6-0.  Let's see where we can keep going with this momentum!

Before we get into the stats, we'd appreciate you becoming A follower of the site at the left and always leaving us comments below to help us get stats out in a better way and open up dialogue on how people interpret these stats.  With that mini advertisement, here are the stats!

Northwestern State Game Stats


Great stretch from Bobby C with his 2.0. He now matches the high of the season with VO at 2.0 for one game. Sheehey had his best (+/-) effort of the year as well. I'm pretty sure this is the first game that VO has been outside of the top 3. Not necessarily a look at his play, but everyone else on the team had great games in this all around effort from the Hoosiers.
Overall through 6 games


Here is something fun to think about. How do you think this lineup would do overall?
PG: Moore
SG: Sheehey
SF: Oladipo
PF: Watford
C: Capobianco
Before this thread blows up on how that lineup would be awful, judging from this year alone, maybe they wouldn't be so bad. Anyway, I just saw that and thought it was funny.

Best and Worst Lineups of the Week

As you can see the best lineup came with under 5 minutes to go in the game. Overall there were multiple lineups that ended with -2 so I didn't list them.

Crean used a total of 25 different lineups and of those, 21 were even or positive for their stints. This shows a great overall performance by the Hoosiers in this game.

Trend Analysis



Overall i find these Trend Analysis to be very informative. People have expressed some mixed emotions ,but I think it really shows how the player is trending over the last 5 games.

Lineups Used

Thanks for checking this out and We'd appreciate you following us to the left and commenting below!

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Hoo's Next: The Demons

Today, the 5-0 Hoosiers face the 3-2 Northwestern State Demons. NW State is led by both Will Pratt (22.4 ppg) and Devon Baker (18 ppg). The Demons are a fast paced, high scoring team averaging 86 points per game, scoring over 100 points once this year. NW State has played two “big-name” teams this year in both Memphis and LSU. They lost to MU by 15 and to LSU by 9. NW State shoots 39% from beyond the arc and 64% from the charity stripe. They make around 8 3-pointers per game and almost 18 free throws a game. Baker, the team’s best free throw shooter, hits 81% of the time from the line.

Northwestern State opponents are averaging 85 point per game against the Demons. Opponents are also shooting 49% from the field, making around 7 3-pointers per game, 24 free throws a game, and out rebounding the Demons by 5 per game. NW State does, however, make some of this up by averaging three more steals per game and five more blocks per game than the opponent.

Keys to Today’s Game
• Defense – If the Hoosiers want to improve to 6-0 on the year they will have to slow NW State down and make them set up their half court offense.
• Free Throws – IU will have to advantage of all the opportunities that the Demons give them from the charity stripe.
• Rebounding – Pritchard and Bobby C. will have to own the glass.

The “Experts” Predictions
• Jeff Sagarin: Indiana 79.28 – Northwestern State 67.33. Predicting IU by 16 (add 3.97 for home court advantage).
• Ken Pomeroy: Indiana 87 – Northwestern State 67.

My Prediction: The Hoosiers will win this game but it’s not going to be an easy one. They are going to have to limit their turnovers while making sure to get back on defense. Mo Creek and Jordy Hulls are going to have to hit from the outside and VJ III has to convert his FT attempts. Freshman VO will have to continue to play tough D and Will Sheehey will need to bring his spark. In the end, it’s going to be your Indiana Hoosiers 85, Northwestern State 74.

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Game 5: NCCU (+/- Analysis)

Great win for the Hoosiers tonight as they advanced to 5-0 for the first time since 2002. It's great that this team is building some early season confidence and hopefully they can carry this confidence forward into their first real tough matchup @ BC. It's time to dig into the numbers!

MORE ANALYSIS TO COME LATER

NCCU Game Stats:

Overall through 5 Games:

Best and Worst Lineup of the Night:

Trend Analysis:

Lineups Used:

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vs.

Hoo's Next: The Eagles

Up next for your Indiana Hoosiers are the 1-2 North Carolina Central University Eagles (NCCU). The NCCU Eagles are coached by LeVell Moton. Moton is a former standout at NCCU and was named the head coach in 2009. Prior to becoming the head coach, Moton was an assistant coach for 3 years with NCCU. NCCU is no stranger to “big name” universities having played two of them in the first three games in Oklahoma University and the University of Miami. The Eagles come to Bloomington fresh off a 88-65 loss to the U. Guard CJ Wilkerson was the Eagles high scorer with 27 pts, shooting 3-6 from behind the arc and 10-15 from the floor. Wilkerson was not only the high scorer for that game but leads the Eagles on the season averaging 19 point per game. Wilkerson, a senior from Oxford, NC, stands at 6’3 and weighs 200 pounds. His supporting cast includes junior guard Landon Clement (15.7 points per game), junior forward Nick Chasten (9 points per game), junior guard Justin Leemow (5.7 points per game) and sophomore forward David Best (5.3 points per game).


Keys to Winning the Game:
• Shutting down Wilkerson. Need to shut him down early so he doesn’t get hot.
• Free throws, free throws, free throws. Shooting lets than 55% won’t cut it.
• 3 point shooting. IU has shot the ball fairly well (42%) from deep and needs to continue hitting from outside this game.

The “Experts” Predictions:
• Jeff Sagarin: Indiana University 79.88 – North Carolina Central University 61.41. The Sag predicts IU by 22 (add 3.97 for home court advantage).
• Ken Pomeroy is predicting IU 76 – NCCU 55.

My Prediction: Hoosiers win this one easy. Wilkerson will be shut down by the defense of freshman Victor Oladipo and IU will finally get off to a hot start behind the 3 point shooting of Mo Creek and Jordy Hulls. Watford and VJ III will dominate the midrange, while Tom Pritchard has another good game down low. I look for Will Sheehey to see more minutes and have a better game than last (one of 2 players that had a negative plus/minus game). In the end it’s going to be IU 82 – NCCU 59.

Staff Predictions:
Josh S. - wins 82-59
Jake S - wins 74-58
Jason E. - wins 77-59
Stefanie E - wins 72-68

Who you got? Post in the Comment Section!

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Thoughts from the Student Section (Evansville)

The state of Indiana must be on threat level red, because Tom Crean has this place on lock-down. While still reveling in recent news of Cody Zeller’s commitment and ongoing buzz about Park Tudor guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell’s future decision, the Hoosier nation was blind-sided with unexpected and great news regarding two other top Indiana players. After a Hoosier victory over Evansville last night, both Devin Davis (Warren Central) and Colin Hartman (Cathedral) gave their verbal commitment to Coach Crean. Add these two to the tally, and Crean now has nine in-state commits for the next four years with hopes of adding more. This is an incredible turnaround, especially considering that over the last four years, only four Indiana recruits were locked down for the Hoosiers. Coach Crean is bringing the Indiana talent back to where it belongs. Home. Hoosiers playing for the Hoosiers is what IU is all about.

With all that being said, let’s turn our focus to last night’s game. My student season tickets had me posted up in the balcony for last night’s game. However, the lack of fans on the student side of Assembly Hall made it easy to relocate seats which were more appealing. The turnout of students continues to be dismal so far this season in Bloomington. Granted, the absence of students last night can most likely be associated with the beginning of Thanksgiving Break. I hope to see the student section fill up after break when the competition thickens.

The Hoosiers put on an ugly display throughout the first half. As one can see from the +/- stat chart below, Indiana had a horrendous first twenty minutes, doomed by turnovers and fouls. IU’s free throw shooting for the game was also terrible, less than 54%. There were positive things happening in the game, however, such as Tom Pritchard’s performance. Pritchard has come a long way since being the guy that no one in the crowd trusted to make a layup. He had a solid showing tonight and continues to show endless effort on the court. Five blocks and eight points from a guy with a broken shooting hand is enough to earn respect from me. In fact, his stats from last night did not do his performance justice in my opinion. He simply brought a lot of energy out onto the court. Verdell Jones had another nice game as well with 18 points. But it would be nice to see him lower his turnover count and increase his assist count (4 turnovers, 3 assists last night). Although he seemed to be struggling early, Maurice Creek ended up with a great performance himself. It’s great to see him scoring again with 19 points last night, 12 of which came within two minutes. At the end of the day we came out with a victory, and that has us sitting at 4-0 to start the season. I’d like to see the Hoosiers play well for forty minutes instead of just the last twenty, and ultimately I think we may be able to give some more talented teams a little bit of challenge. We are making progress one game at a time.

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Game 4: Evansville Purple Aces (+/- Analysis)

Welcome to the 6th edition of the +/- Player Analysis.  This have been changing at a crazy pace around this site.  We are currently developing a new site at www.btownbanners.com which will provide us a much better avenue to deliver the information you want and crave.  Blogger has been good to us so far ,but we are looking for bigger and better things.  Please help us out by clicking to follow the blog on the left side of the screen and make sure to bookmark the blog to come back and discuss the articles and team with fellow Hoosiers.

Tuesday night we are going to attempt to host a Live Chat on the blog for fans to talk about the game and we'll be posting our +/- stats throughout the game.  With that little advertisement behind us, here are the stats for the Evansville game.

Game Stats:
I don't normally do this, and I wouldn't expect it in the future, but once we got to half-time I captured the +/- to show everyone how pitiful the first half was.  I had a feeling this game would be a story of two halves, and that sure came true.  The second half numbers overwhelmed the first half so by looking only at the final stats, you wouldn't get a the impression how bad the first half was. 
First Half Stats:

First half Stats show a different picture than the end of the game.

As you can see, only Watford and Sheehey were positive and everyone else was struggling.  Luckily the Hoosiers relied on CTC to spark some fire in them and they came out in the second half on a tear!

Final Stats for the Game:

+/- for the Entire Game.  As you can see this has a much more positive appearance.

My Thoughts on the Game 

1. VO continues to lead the team in this stat.  I think a big part of this is due to his energy coming of the bench.  He is able to instantly pick the team up with his attitude and overall crowd appeal.
2. I am extremely happy for Tom Pritchard.  People love to hate this guy, and it's not fair.  He goes into the game and hustles from the beginning to the end.  He will not stuff the statsheet (although 8pts 8rebs and 5 blks is one heck of a night).  He will help this team in the future and we will be in games because of his help.
3. Creek, Creek, Creek, Creek.  Was that not an amazing site to see?  Seeing Creek get his confidence back and a little pep in his step will help the Hoosier team out more than we can imagine

Updated Stats through 4 Games:

Overall Stats through 4 games shows only Sheehey in the negative

 Incredibly VO has increased his +/- to over 1pt/min of game time.  The means when coming off the bench, he provides the perfect spark to get the team righted and on the correct path.  I mentioned this in the last column as well, as long as the player is above 0, that is GREAT news.  Once we suffer our first loss (knocking on wood) these numbers will likely show more players in the Red, but that is okay.  If our main contributors can stay positive it will mean good things for this program to come.

Best and Worst Lineups of the Game:

Best and Worst Lineup of the Game

The starting lineup for the game, who also started the second half, were the best lineup of the game tonight.  They only had two stints together, but they came out +11.  The worst lineup of the night came at an inopportune time, 5:00 to go in the game.  Over a 2 minute 20 second span, the Purple Aces hit 3 3-points.  Coach Crean reacted quickly by subbing out Sheehey and inserting Rivers to guard the suddenly hot Colt Ryan.  This seemed to do the trick as IU was able to maintain their lead from that point on to close out the game.

Trend Analysis
These seemed to be a hit last time around so I've continued.  Let me know if they are too cluttered.

Interesting to note that Moore has plummeted over the last 3 games, Sheehey is very inconsistent, VJ3 was our highest guard and is seperating himself from the rest.  Our point guards are both on the decline, not good.

I want to single out Tom Pritchard again.  He is above Zero every game except for the Miss Valley St game.  He had a great effort against Evansville and was our third highest +/- Forward/Center for the game.

Roster Lineups for the Game:

Those are the numbers for the game.  Overall, IU played strong and tough in the second half and were able to overcome their first half battles.  As with every week, Please leave your comments and suggestions below! Thanks for reading and Go Hoosiers!

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INDIANA IS OFFICIALLY LOCKED DOWN

2013 Commit Devin Davis

2013 Commit Collin Hartman

 When Coach Tom Crean was hired, he said it was going to be his priority to get top Indiana high school players to come to Indiana.  Coach has turned that statement into a fact over the last few months and especially today.  Multiple sources are confirming that the Crean and the Hoosiers have picked up two verbals from top 2013 talent.

IU had both Devin Davis (6'5" SF, Warren Central) and Collin Hartman (6'6" SF, Indianapolis Cathedral) down for unofficial visits today for the game vs Evansville.  IU not only won that game, they won two great athletes that become the first two commits for the 2013 class.


According to Kyle Neddenriep of the Indianapolis Star, Hartman was halfway home before telling his mother to turn the car around to come back down to Bloomington and commit to Coach Crean.  It has turned out to be an incredible day for the Hoosiers!


You have to think that a certain someone (see picture below)  will be the next domino to fall. He has already hinted through Twitter that something big will happen November 24th... Stay tuned for more!

I think it is safe to say that CTC has this state locked down!

What do you guys think?  Discuss in the Comment section!

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Hoosier Gameday Predictions!

It's that time again Hoosiers, What's your final prediction for the IU vs Evansville game?

67 vs. 54
Staff Picks
Jason E. -     wins 75-47
Josh S. -     wins 85-52

Jake S -      wins 68-50 - Game 4 Winner!

Stefanie E - wins 79-62

Leave your predictions down in the comments section!  Go Hoosiers!

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Hoo's Next: The Purple Aces

The Indiana Hoosier’s next opponent is Marty Simmons' Purple Aces from the University of Evansville.  Simmons is in his fourth year as head coach of U of E with a combined record of 37 wins and 56 losses.  In 2009, he led U of E to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, the team’s first post season appearance since 1999. The Purple Aces come in with a 2-0 record, recently beating the University of Texas-San Antonio 77-73. U of E was lead by sophomore Colt Ryan G/F (15 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists) and junior F/G Denver Holmes (15 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists). On the season, U of E’s leading scorer is junior F/G Kenneth Harris, averaging 15.5 per game.  The Purple Aces have three other players averaging double digit points: Colt Ryan (10.5), freshman G/F Jordan Jahr (10.5) and Denver Holmes (10).  One key to Evansville’s success is their ability to get to the line.  They have attempted 52 free throws in two games, shooting 67.3%. Holmes and Harris have shot 27 of the 52 free throws.  The Purple Aces do not present much out of an outside threat only converting 8 of 22 3-points attempts on the year. 

The “Experts” Predictions:

Sagarin rates IU at 79.4, Evansville at 71.65, predicting IU by 12. 
Ken Pomeroy rates IU at 72 and Evansville at 62.

My Predictions: 
I am fully expecting the Hoosiers to win this game by 25 + points.  Like the past two games, I can see IU starting off a little slow and then putting the pedal to the metal.  The Purple Aces will have to play their best basketball just to stay in the game.  The Hoosiers have too much talent and athleticism for the Purple Aces to handle.  Victor Oladipo, last game’s +/- leader, will have another great game.  With his lock down defense and quickness, VO should be licking his chops over this match-up.  I also fully expect VJ III and Mo Creek to have better performances in this game.  In the end, it’s your Indiana Hoosiers 85, Evansvilles Purple Aces 52.

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Game 3: Mississippi Valley State

Welcome to the 5th +/- Player Analysis. As many people suggested in the last article on this, I have dropped the first two exhibition games from the statistics. These now rely 100% on the three games played so far. With that said... here we go.

Here are the Stats for the Miss Valley St game:

As you can see, Victor continues to dominate these stats. Bobby C has also followed up a solid effort from Friday with another > 1.0 performance. Creek and Pritch obviously struggled and gave up more points than they earned.

Overall through first 3 regular season games

Victor made a huge jump from last game and is now our most effective player.

Best/Worst Lineups
I figured out how to track the lineups using some crazy binary equations and such to calculate. I will say through the first 3 games, Crean has used 54 different lineup combinations. This number will go down eventually, but it is pretty crazy he has used that many so far. I also included the best lineup we have used so far to date. They are currently plus 10 as a group.

Trend Analysis Through first 3 games



Finally we have all the lineups used throughout the game:

That's all I have for now!  Please leave your thoughts and comments below!  And go ahead and subscribe at the very bottom!

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Game 2: Wright State

Overall it was a pretty good win for this team.  I thought the game was going to be much closer than the final score showed.  Overall the stats were about what you would expect and seem consistent with the last few games.  I'm trying out some new charts to show the players over the 4 game stretch so let  me know your thoughts on if I should continue using those.
>
Wright State Stats:


Through 4 Games:


I also thought it would be interesting to see how each player has done game vs game. What player is trending up? What player is trending down? I broke them out into two seperate graphs as it was extremely confusing to read before.



All the Lineups for the Game:

I don't really have time to analyze all the information right now. But as you all can see Daniel Moore appears to be head and shoulders above the other PGs. It was also interesting to see Verdell being so low for the game as he played really well in most people's minds.

As always, you can click the link immediately below to see past games and also more analysis of the games.

What sticks out to you guys?

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Game 1: Florida Gulf Coast

Florida Gulf Coast Game Stats
Overall, CTC put 27 different lineups out there with an impressive 20 of those lineups being positive or even for that stint. Here are the numbers for the Game:

 Things of Note:
1. Moore, Pritchard and Rivers are our three highest for the game (who would have guessed that?)
2. Bobby C was the only negative player on the day and surprisingly only got 6 minutes of PT.
3. Elston had a nice game and helped his average out a little.
4. VJ3 obviously struggled in this game compared to our other players. Hopefully he'll get his legs soon from his injury.


Here are the stats through 3 games:

 It is very interesting to see Moore up there at the most efficient player so far.  It should be interesting to see where this goes.

Lineups for the game:

 

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