Originally Posted by T-Bone 84
So, the new IU coach finished his first season with a record of 16-15 (pending participation in the NIT or some tourney other than The Dance). The old IU coach finished his last season with a record of 18-16. Now, I know the new IU coach is better than 16-15 in the long run. But transitions aren’t necessarily easy, and improvement doesn’t necessarily happen overnight.
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It is true that coaching transitions are tough. However, anyone who watched Indiana all year(as I did) noticed a marked improvement during the regular season. IU started the regular season with an embarrassing blowout loss at home to Indiana State, and finished the regular season with a tough double ot loss to Ohio State on a 25 foot 3 pointer with 2 secs to go. They lost close games to Duke, Purdue, Michigan St, and OSU, and beat ND back when they were ranked and still had Bonzie Colson. The improvement in their team defense was drastic, they were awful defensively in the beginning, and finished no.1 in defensive efficiency in Big 10 conference games.
Tonight their offense wasn't clicking, and Rutgers hit a ton of tough contested shots. A ton.
UD on the other hand, never improved, and actually regressed as the season went on. As a diehard, I have never seen a team quit like this one has. Last night was probably their worst performance. I won't blame it all on Coach Grant, but I thought he did a **** poor job coaching this year. I wasn't happy with the hire, and this season nothing I saw has changed my opinion. I just hope he can monster recruit, because I think his X's and O's leave a lot to be desired.
The biggest difference in IU and UD's teams this year is that IU played hard and looked like they gave a ****, and UD not so much, especially down the stretch. Coaching, coaching, coaching