October 16, 2025 • 32 mins
The overlap has arrived, and that means IU basketball will be in action Friday and football will battle Saturday for Homecoming. We break down Indiana's two marquee events and what to expect for both.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
I am doing everybody. I'm Ken Bikoff and welcome to
the Peags podcast Big Week. The crossover begins, the overlap,
as we call it, begins as IU football. We'll be
taking on Michigan State homecoming Saturday afternoon. I suppose it
is three thirty kickoff Eastern time at Memorial Stadium as
(00:30):
the Hoosiers tried to pick up their seven straight win
and win a knockoff Michigan State, number three team in
the country, the Hoosiers are. But Friday night you have
Indiana taking on Marion in their first exhibition game of
the season and the first game for Darren Devrez as
(00:50):
head coach of the Hoosiers. I'm very, very excited for
this upcoming basketball season. I'll explain why. Well, you know what,
we're gonna hold off on that. I'm very excited. I'll
explain why in a few minutes. So first I wanted
to start with football. Normally I run Kurt Signett's press
(01:12):
conference along with this podcast, but that actually ran in
our last podcast, the call In Show, that we did
Monday night and that most you probably listened to on Tuesday,
so you've already heard from Sig. With that, I wanted
to talk to you a little bit about what I
expect on Saturday night, whether it has the potential to
(01:32):
be a factors supposed to be rainy in Bloomington on Saturday.
Not huge wins, but wind so it's going to be
less than ideal conditions. And this is really the first
time that the Hoosiers have faced this this year outside
of later in that Oregon game it was kind of misty.
This seems like it's going to be more than missed.
(01:54):
But the key for the Hoosiers are twofold one. You
want to be able to run the football. That hasn't
been a big problem for Indiana. The depth in the
running back room has been very very good. Roman Hemby
and Kaylon Black have been fantastic. Kobe Martin didn't get
(02:16):
any carries against Oregon, but he has shown his flashes
as well. And so winning the battle up front against
Michigan State is going to be key. But again, that
is something that Indiana has been able to do pretty
much all season. And I'm talking against teams that are
really considered very very good along the offensive line. In
the defensive line, including Iowa, including Oregon, Indiana has beat
(02:40):
them all. So establishing the run and giving yourself that
option I think is going to be really important. And
then you have Indiana's defense is going to have to
lock down against a Michigan State team that has not
been great offensively, really struggled last week. I think they
scored thirteen points against Northwestern, just was not a very
(03:01):
good outing for them, and so being able to really
take the wind out of the sales of Michigan State
early step on their neck will be really really important
for this Hoosiah ball club. It is it's not a
trap game. I don't think Indiana really has a trap
game at this point because of this coaching staff and
(03:22):
because of the way that the players and the coaches
are approaching every single week. Yeah, they're ranked with the
highest ranking in program history, but it's also a team
that is very, very focused on what they have to
accomplish and what opportunities they have. This is not a
(03:43):
program that's going to get a big head because of
Kurt Signetti. He's gonna make sure everybody stays with their
feet firmly planted on the ground. That said, the crowd's
going to be great, regardless of the weather. The crowd's
going to be great homecoming is important and they're going
to have a fantastic time out there. Fernando Mendoza, his
(04:10):
accuracy has been very, very good, and if there's a
lot of rain, a lot of wind, look for a
lot more shorter passes to almost serve as an extended
running game for Indiana and get the ball to Elijah
Surat and Omar Cooper in space, give them an opportunity
to create. Michigan State's defense is nowhere near as good
(04:33):
as Oregon's was, so they're going to do what they
can to try to get the most out of those
guys and should be an interesting game. By all metrics,
Indiana should win and win easily if they play the
way that we've seen them play throughout the year. Weather
is a factor, but we'll see how it goes. Weather's
(04:53):
also going to be a factor when it comes to
the call in show after the game. Normally I do
that from the Memorials Stadium parking lot, but if it
is raining, I'm not going to be putting all this
expensive electronics out in the rain, and so I will
do it in a different location. Stay tuned for whether
or not that's going to be live and outside on Saturday.
(05:16):
That will literally be a game time decision on what
I'm going to do with that, but we will have
one after the football game, you know, come hell or
high water. Hopefully it's not high water because that would
be bad considering all the rain. But looking forward to that. Now,
(05:37):
across the Farris family farm at Simon Scott Assembly Hall,
Darren Devrees will be starting his first season for the Hoosiers,
and again, I am really really excited for this year
just because of the endless possibilities that it brings. We've
all had this situation once before. It's a completely different program.
(05:59):
You've heard me say. Anybody who's listened to this podcast
for a while has heard me say that there are
multiple iterations of Indiana basketball. You have the historic program,
the original program that basically ended with Kelvin Sampson, huge
(06:20):
turnover in the roster turnover and the coaching staff. You
had Brett Finkelmeyer and Kyle Tabor as the only players
who were left after the Samson Cream exchange. So what
you had was a brand new program cobbled together in
the spring of two thousand and eight, I think it was, yeah,
(06:42):
two thousand and eight, cobbled together and you did the
best that you could, and that was a rough year.
And what you had was an IU program that was
like an expansion team that had been in a city before.
Think the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, they
(07:05):
become the Baltimore Ravens. A couple of years later, a
new Cleveland Browns is established with the same history, the
same uniforms, but it ain't the same team. It ain't
the same franchise. That's what you had during Crean's first year,
and you had it with a team that was just
kind of cobbled together. In the spring, Mike Woodson retires,
(07:32):
gets fired, whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You want to call it.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
He goesside, he leaves. Every player from that roster is gone.
The administrative people, almost to a man, are gone, including trainers.
In the whole deal. It is a brand new program
with the same history and wearing the same uniforms, but
(07:56):
it ain't the same program. This is IU three point
zero is coming up, and there's a huge, huge, critical
difference between what Crean was dealing with and what Darren
Dvrees is dealing with. And that is the transfer portal,
and that is the ability for Indiana not to just
cobble together a roster in the spring, but actually build
(08:21):
a roster of talented, experienced guys who want to play
at IU, who want to play at that level, who
want to play for Darren Devrees, and the fact that
Indiana has the nil resources to draw really quality players
makes this a very exciting season. This is, as far
(08:43):
as I'm concerned, the most difficult season to project for
Indiana in any that I've covered. Crean's first year, you
knew they weren't going to be very good because of
the level of player that they were bringing in the
past couple of years has seen a lot of turnover
on the roster, and it's still made it difficult. But
(09:05):
you knew what Mike Woodson was bringing to the floor.
You knew what his program was going to look like
and how things were going to go together this year.
Darren Devery, you could look at what he did at
West Virginia or Drake and understand, you know what kind
of style he likes. But in terms of all the
players fitting together, we don't know. We haven't seen him
(09:28):
on the court in any kind of meaningful situation. You
have scrimmage, as you have practices, but that is different,
and now you have the first exhibition game. It's one
of those seasons where fans are going to need a
program to understand who everybody is. Yeah, you could study it,
(09:50):
but you know, to learn the numbers, to learn everything
about it is like it's a brand new program. But
you do have guy guys that you know are extremely
talented and can put up numbers. We know that this
team is going to be able to shoot. That's something
that's been missing from the program for the past few years.
(10:12):
But you have different guys that could knock down threes.
They've done it elsewhere, they'll do it at IU. You
have guys that could create off the bounce that was
something that was lacking last year as well. You have
a defense guys that are skilled defensively that could shut
(10:35):
people down. But again, it is being able to see
how everybody works together and picks up on what they have.
You know, you talk about for instance, a guy like
you know Tayitan Connorway, Okay, average fourteen point two a
game last year at Troy. He has that experience. He's
(11:00):
a guy that goes to the bucket, But will he
be asked to do different things this year? We'll see
about that. We'll see about that same thing with Connor Enwright,
who over it to Paul, you know, was seven and
a half point six point two assists. Really did a
nice job of distributing. But again, what is he going
to be asked to do? What is the role and
(11:21):
so you know, we're not really sure. Yeah, you can
listen to what Darren DeVries has and we'll have him
on it just a few minutes. But you know, a
guy at Sam Houston State, you know, like Lamar Wilkerson
averages twenty four and two point one, knocks down the threes.
(11:42):
You know, is a guy who is a decent ball handler,
somebody who could create but also knock down threes. Fitting
these pieces together are going to be the key. Tucker Devrees,
he's a shooter, He's guys that you know, they've all
done their own roles at different spots, but usually they
(12:05):
were one of the top guys. And now fitting all
the guys together at what generally is a higher level,
because again we're talking about de Paul, we're talking about Troy,
we're talking about you know, West Virginia obviously is a
higher level. But you have you know, re Bailey from Davidson.
You know you have, you know, a pile of different
guys that you know, a guy from Elon, a guy
(12:26):
from smaller spots, smaller destinations. Fitting together is important. What
am I expecting against Marion is just to see a
lot of mistakes, a lot of guys getting their feet wet,
(12:47):
a lot of guys starting to understand what it feels
like to play at Simon Scott Assembly Hall and the
fan base that is there. And they're not going to
be crisp. If there are, I'll be stunned. They're not
going to hit the ground running. But what I want
to see in every game this year is improvement from
(13:08):
game to game as guys figure things out, as guys figure, uh,
you know what it is that they're supposed to do
their role and get comfortable in it and let it
become second nature. Nobody on the roster has that.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Nobody.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
One of the upsides of Kurt Signetti when he came
was he brought a bunch of guys from James Madison
with him, and so they knew what their roles were
going to be and how it was going to work
under the same coach. You don't have that right now
and so there will be hiccups along the way, there
will be sloppy possessions, but what I'm looking for is
that there aren't multiple stacked possessions where I'm thinking to myself,
(13:45):
what the hell were they even trying to do? And
then we saw that with Mike Woodson from this from
year one to year four, we saw that every single
year where their possessions You're like, what the hell is happening?
So figuring things out is going to be really important.
I want to mention that we're not going to do
a call and show after the Marrion game. It's on
(14:08):
Big ten Plus streaming. The reason it's on there, that
one and the second exhibition is on there is because
each team has to have X number of games on
Big ten Plus. The Big ten network likes to get
Indiana's games out of the way on that service as
(14:28):
quickly as possible because Indiana Basketball garners some of the
biggest ratings that the Big ten network has, if not
the biggest, So try to get that out. My point
is it's a game that I think a lot of
people aren't going to see, or a lot of regular
fans aren't going to see. So if I'm on there
(14:49):
taking questions, you know, and trying to describe what happened
for a game that a lot of people didn't get
to watch. What's the point of that. So in the
regular season we'll get going with the call in for basketball.
That will happen again this year. It's just a matter
for these exhibition games we're not going to have that.
We will have it on Saturday night for football, but
(15:12):
not for basketball Friday night. Now, I've talked a lot
here about basketball and what to expect for the season.
Wanted to bring you comments now from head coach Darren
Dvrees during his press conference Thursday afternoon prior to the
Marian exhibition to give his thoughts on what to expect
come Friday night.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
All right, we'll start with Alex Buzzich.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Hey, coach, thanks for the time, appreciate it. Just curious
I was looking through kind of your coaching profile on
Ken Palm and offensive rebounding percentage kind of caught my eye.
Midway through your tenure at Drake, you had some years
where I think you guys were top third in the
country an offensive rebounding percentage, and then the last three
years kind of at the bottom third, are you your
(16:00):
philosophy on that, and i'll kind of you view the
risk reward of crashing the offensive blast and how much
that's based on the personnel you have.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Yeah, we would we would love to be a great
offensive rebounding team. That's you know, something that you know,
if you can get extra opportunities, obviously that's a big advantage.
A lot of that's been based on just a little
bit of our personnel of you know, the type of
lineups we had out there, what we thought and prioritized
for our team. Every year was a little bit different,
So I would say on the pecking order, we prioritize
(16:32):
you know, a couple other things more than offensive rebounding.
But again it's it's mostly just based on kind of
our personal and what we think we can be good
at and kind of play off of that.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Daniel and then Mike, Yeah, coach.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
You know, last time we saw y'all in live action
was obviously against Mega hintful of it was like, what
August eleven, twelve, just in that time span, where have
you seen y'all grow and what kind of can what
are you expecting us to kind of see and learn
that's maybe improved these last handful of months.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
I think the biggest thing is just defensively, I think
we've gotten a lot more connected from our trip to
Puerto Rico. You can just see it in the way
we are a lot more aggressive, more attacking as we
understand positioning and where we're supposed to be a little
bit better, so we're not, you know, a half account
late maybe to stuff like we were in the summertime.
So I think that part has been really good. And
(17:28):
then our ball movement and kind of the Christmas that
Christmas there has been good.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
The other day, you know, we're charting Live five and five,
and I think we had a day like this early
in the summer. But yesterday we had thirty one assists
in three turnovers in our practice. So that shares just
tells you a little bit about, you know, what we're
doing on the offensive end in terms of the way
we move the ball and things. So kind of excited
about where we may progress at both ends the four
But those are kind of the two main areas Shuman.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And then there's Yeah, which I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 8 (18:01):
Nick Dorn curious if he was able to make it
back to five on five this week and kind of
what your expectations are for him for these two exhibitions
coming up.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Yeah, he's uh, he's starting to work his way back
into some action. We don't anticipate in playing in playing
any tomorrow night the Baylor game, I would I would
probably say doubtful as well.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
We'll see where that leads.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
But we're we're certainly getting closer to getting him to
you know, full practice type stuff, but we still.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
Got a little bit of a time, a little bit
of time to go there yet.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
And then Rabbi, Yeah, coach, the last couple of years,
you've gone through similar rebuilds with having to replaced a
lot of players. Is there something you learned in the
in the last couple of years for how to structure
kind of like the preseason practices. I know, your plans
to plan, but anything that you have to emphasize or
you know, versus early in your career when you maybe
(18:56):
didn't have the kind of turnover you had.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Yeah, I think the hardest part is just you got
to get into summer. You have to let you know,
kind of roles play out a little bit because you
want you don't want to limit guys either, you want
them to everybody to kind of figure out, you know,
what they're good at from a coaching staff standpoint too,
just uh, you know, how can we best utilize this
group and maximize you know, all the individual potentials along
(19:20):
with you know, us as a group and and then
kind of you know, working off of that.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
But you know, I think the biggest thing is just again.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Getting getting your guys connected on both ends of the floor,
so they're they're just learning how to play off of
one another. So we do a little bit more for
five on five in the summertime than maybe a lot
of schools do. Now, we've been been lucky that we've
had trips you know, on the years where we've had
a lot of new guys, So that's a lot of
some extra practice time. It's allowed us a little more
(19:47):
you know, freedom to kind of do some installs and
some things like that too, so you're able to kind
of catch up with an entirely new group a little.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Bit Raby and then Pete, Yeah, coach, just want to
get your thoughts.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
What are the main things you want to see on Friday?
Speaker 9 (20:03):
What would be a successful exhibition outside of just winning
the game.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
What are the things you look at and say hey,
I want to I want us to do AB and
C really well on Friday.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I think the number one thing, I just want us
to play as hard as we can. That's that's number one.
That's number one every single night that we go out there, like,
are we maxing out you know, at both ends of
the floor in terms of our effort, our communication, and
then be just especially on the offensive end, just the
unselfishness and the ball movement. I think that's going to
be a big key for us to be effective as
(20:34):
a unit because we don't have a lot of one
on one guy, so we really rely on kind of
that type of movement and actions and cutting and those
type of screening, uh to kind of generate some of
those paint touches, and those are going to be critical
for us on the offensive side.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Pete and Trevor, Yeah, hey, coach, what makes it special
and unique to coach or some and do you envision
him years from now hopefully being a coach as well?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
Yeah? I think makes it so special.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
It's just you get to spend you know, all that
time or or even see all the time he puts
into you know, getting ready for a practice, getting ready
for a game.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
And that's the type of work that you see a
lot of our guys. But when you get to see
your own son do it and and you know recognize that,
you know how much he cares about and how passionate
is about the sport and wanting to be good, and
then to see that work pay off for him out
on the game floor, I think that's you know, one
of those unique and special things. And then I think
you always talk about guys that when they retire from sports,
(21:37):
the thing they missed the most is the locker room.
So so for me, just getting to be a part
of that with him, you know, whether it be road
trips or meals and those type of things, uh, you know,
in addition to all.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
The game day experiences that we get to do.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
And then yeah, I think he I know, he wants
to coach when he's done. You know, that's I think
one of the things that you know makes him kind
of special as a player. Everybody talks about his shooting,
but his feel and his IQ for the game.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
You know, he just grew up around it.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
He's been you know, chasing you know, our our our
teams around for a long long time. And and so
he gets it and understands it, you know, probably at
a different level just because he's you know been almost
force spread it, you know, for his entire life. But
so I know that's something he certainly has an interest
is when whenever he's done playing ever.
Speaker 11 (22:22):
And then Zach Ostraman, Hey, Darren heading into the exhibition
game with a whole new group, how much of your
offense and defense do you have installed at this point
and how does it kind of compare to your first
season obviously at West Virginia and Drake.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, for the most part, we have everything in the
offense and stuff will will constantly add throughout the year,
especially as we start to play games and and see
how guys or other teams are going to play us
and guard us, and then you know, try to make
some adjustments off of that. Defensively, for the most part,
have everything in you know, special situations is probably the
thing that we're we're cleaning up the most now as
(23:01):
we lead into these last couple of weeks. But outside
of that, like I said, on the defensive end, we
don't get over complicated, you know, we just want our
guys to play fast, play physical, and then give you know,
in game or pregame type adjustments, game planning type things.
But outside of that, it's all in So now it's
just you know, getting better at it, you know, as we.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
Go along, Zach and then Seth Darren started to kind
of jump in with another injury question. But I'm just curious,
especially kind of from a point guard perspective, you know,
sort of where Alexa and Jason are, like if either
one of them is maybe a little bit kind of closer,
and how you balance that position while maybe a couple
of the guys that you might look to to at
(23:45):
least sort of you know, absorb some of those minutes
are out.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, that's unfortunately, both those guys probably going to be
out for a little while yet. So it's certainly not
going to have them for the start of the season
and probably a few weeks into it for sure, which
does make it challenging. You know, those are two guys
that we're we're counting on to hopefully give us some
you know, some minutes and some depth, and so we
we got to be a little creative until one or
(24:11):
two of those guys get back and give us a
little more flexibility with our lineups.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Seth and then Josh.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Darren just wondering how you know, it's still early obviously,
but at this point, how good of an idea do
you have right now about what your rotation will look
like on a night's night basis? How many guys do
you see yourself playing in a typical game? And then
I guess what's your philosophy as far as you know,
how far into the season do you try to trim
that down?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, it's just just it's going to be challenging early,
just with with Nick making his way back, how quickly
he can get back kind of into that that game conditioning,
and then also just you know, for us to get
a little feel for you know, where the best utilize
him and you know, plug him in and you know
the other two guys that you know they're going to
be a while, so then how how quickly can they
(24:58):
you know, just get thrown in there, you know, and
find their roles.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
And be able to fit.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
So those are those are things that we don't know
yet because of injuries, We're gonna be a little bit limited.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
On our depth right now.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
You know, I anticipated being you know, seven to eight
guys here early and then you know, as those guys
start to come back get more in that eight nine
and maybe even ten on certain nights. You know, from
a depth standpoint.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Josh and then Zion, Hey.
Speaker 13 (25:26):
Coach, I wanted to ask about Taytan we saw in
Puerto Rico and over the summer or how he kind
of wrecked the game and was able to turn defense
into offense. How vital is he for the success of
the offense as the season progresses.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Yeah, He's really critical for us, especially on the offensive end,
because he's that one guy that we do have that
can break the defense down and you know, he has
elite speed and you know, be able to get in
and get by people and then create you know, for
himself and at the rim.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
So you know, we need him out there. We need
him to be be you.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Know, aggressive and making plays for us because he is
one of those guys that can free up some of
those shooters and that's going to be a big part
of our offense.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Zion and then Zach Browning.
Speaker 14 (26:07):
Darren, when you talk about your rotations and whatnot, and
especially with the injuries right now, just how much do
you anticipate your want to experiment in these two exhibition
games knowing that you can kind of get right to
it with that second game being the Marqute game.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Yeah, well, we'll experiment some and we've been doing a
lot of it in practice, you know. You know for
exhibition games, you know, you probably aren't, especially on the
offensive end, aren't going to show a lot, you know,
even though we want to win the games, we also
understand that, you know, the regular season games are more
of our priority to us, So these preseason games it's
going to be on the offensive and more about just
(26:41):
us kind of functioning with some of our motion Defensively,
we'll be able to do some things and try some
different things, but we can also experiment with some lineups,
you know, as we are a little shorthanded, so it's
going to almost force us to kind of look at
some things like we've been doing in practice, and and
you know, I've liked some of the things that you know,
we've been for to look at, you know, so maybe
(27:01):
it opened our eyes to a couple of different types
of line ups that maybe we can utilize this this season.
You know, it starts to get into November and December.
Speaker 15 (27:10):
Zach and then Rick, Hey, coach, how much freedom do
you want to give your bigger guys like like Read,
like Sam, like Trent to push the ball in transition
after miss baskets and off of defensive rebounds versus you know,
getting that to a guard and having them push the tempo.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Yeah, both those guys have the freedom to do that.
I think Reads.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Really really one of those guys that we want to
take advantage of his skill set. We want him bringing
the ball in transition. It just creates such mismatch opportunities
for us. When you got a center bringing the ball
up the court. It's just not you know, common for
defenses to have to get matched up that way. So
a lot of times what you'll see is now the
point guard may take him, and now everybody's you know,
(27:49):
off off in terms of like, hey, I was supposed
to guard him, and they got to figure it out.
And what we would love to happen is before they
figure it out, you know, we got something at the
rim or three going up in the air, so we
want to we want those guys to grab it off
the rim and push as much as possible, especially read.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Rick. And then we'll wrap with Alec.
Speaker 16 (28:09):
Yeah, coach, a little bit of an off the wall question,
But the football team has become a national story and
what they've achieved this year plus last year. Just in
your time that you've been there, have you seen anything
or learned anything from coach Signetti and what he does
that is something that other coaches can can hone in on.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Yeah, we haven't been able to, like in the locker
room or any of that, or at practices per se.
But just you know, when you listen to their team
and how they talk, you can tell they're they're they're
very engaged and in prioritizing, you know what what they
you know, what they know is important. You know, they
don't turn the ball over, They prioritize that. They're very tough,
they're very physical, they're very disciplined. I think it's all
(28:51):
the things that translate to you know, really in every
sport they're they're elite at you know, and that's uh,
you know, something we talked to our guys about and
we've used football as a reference of this is.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Why they're good.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
You know.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Part of the reason is here's what we see.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
We're not football coaches, but this is why you win
games and football, this is why you win games in basketball,
and we got to be you know, just as good
in those areas no matter what the sport is. But
you know, we want to be elite and not turning
the ball over. We want to be elite in our discipline,
you know, we want to be elite in our toughness.
And if we can do those things, then you're gonna
have a chance to win on most nights.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Last question alec.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
To play a little bit more together and more specifically,
now that they've had more time on the floor, what
do they provide from an offensive standpoint being able to
play off of each other for you guys, Sorry.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
I missed the very first part you cut out on it.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yes, Sam and Reid, Just what have they been like
now being able to spend a little bit more time
on the floor together and kind of what do they
provide you guys offensively?
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Yeah, they've they've been actually really good and we've we've
done that a lot more. We did it in Puerto
Rico and I like that lineup. We just weren't able
to do it a lot in the summertime practice wise,
because we didn't have the depth there, you know, and unfortunately,
you know, we lost one of our other big so
it's it's been a little hard in practice sometimes to
do it as much as we would like. You know,
it's also going to limit us a little bit during
(30:16):
the year potentially on how much we can utilize the
two of them together, just because of lack of depth.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
But I do like that lineup.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
We want to utilize it, you know, a decent amount,
because I think it gives us just some exercise, you know,
for us to take advantage of and.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
Read so versatile on what he can do.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
You know, that's and he's so smart and moves and
you can play off the bounce, and you know, he's
got good athleticism and speed. So it's something we're going
to use and try to use as much as we can,
you know, whenever those opportunities come.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And there is Darren Devrees, he's excited for the season.
I'm excited for the season. You should be. But I
also think that there's a level of patience that should
be involved with this year, especially in certainly these couple
of games. He's October games in November and the early
(31:08):
part of December. It's gonna take some time for things
to figure be figured out. That's gonna come down, so
being able to overcome some of those early hiccups is
going to be really important. I'm excited to see what
comes after that, though, because this program desperately needed a refresh,
and Darren De Freeze is going to do that. I
(31:29):
like his resume, I like his age, like the fact
that he's younger and will have the opportunity to be
here for a while. I have a ton of faith
that his system can work because he's done it at
different spots. And I'm just really excited for the upcoming season.
Even though I'm sure it won't be a smooth ride,
(31:51):
it's gonna be fun. It's going to be exciting, and
the unknown can be very interesting and that's what we're
shooting for with this Again, no call in show after
the basketball game. There will be one after the football
game on Saturday, first huge weekend of UH you know
of the overlap and excited to see how it all
plays out. What's all the time we have on the
(32:13):
Peaks podcast this week. I want to thank you for listening.
I don't want to remind you to visit peaks dot
com for the very best in IU football and basketball coverage.
You're gonna find anywhere nobody covers. Who's your recruiting better
than Jeff rab John's, Matt Weaver, Trevor adders Shock, and
Jared Kelly. So come be a part of a thriving,
an excited community at peaks dot com. Folks, you are
not going to be disappointed. Folks were out of time,
(32:33):
But for now and for Jeff, Matt, Trevor and Jared,
I'm ken Bikoff saying thanks for listening. Everybody,
I am doing everybody. I'm Ken Bikoff and welcome to
the Peags podcast Big Week. The crossover begins, the overlap,
as we call it, begins as IU football. We'll be
taking on Michigan State homecoming Saturday afternoon. I suppose it
is three thirty kickoff Eastern time at Memorial Stadium as
(00:30):
the Hoosiers tried to pick up their seven straight win
and win a knockoff Michigan State, number three team in
the country, the Hoosiers are. But Friday night you have
Indiana taking on Marion in their first exhibition game of
the season and the first game for Darren Devrez as
(00:50):
head coach of the Hoosiers. I'm very, very excited for
this upcoming basketball season. I'll explain why. Well, you know what,
we're gonna hold off on that. I'm very excited. I'll
explain why in a few minutes. So first I wanted
to start with football. Normally I run Kurt Signett's press
(01:12):
conference along with this podcast, but that actually ran in
our last podcast, the call In Show, that we did
Monday night and that most you probably listened to on Tuesday,
so you've already heard from Sig. With that, I wanted
to talk to you a little bit about what I
expect on Saturday night, whether it has the potential to
(01:32):
be a factors supposed to be rainy in Bloomington on Saturday.
Not huge wins, but wind so it's going to be
less than ideal conditions. And this is really the first
time that the Hoosiers have faced this this year outside
of later in that Oregon game it was kind of misty.
This seems like it's going to be more than missed.
(01:54):
But the key for the Hoosiers are twofold one. You
want to be able to run the football. That hasn't
been a big problem for Indiana. The depth in the
running back room has been very very good. Roman Hemby
and Kaylon Black have been fantastic. Kobe Martin didn't get
(02:16):
any carries against Oregon, but he has shown his flashes
as well. And so winning the battle up front against
Michigan State is going to be key. But again, that
is something that Indiana has been able to do pretty
much all season. And I'm talking against teams that are
really considered very very good along the offensive line. In
the defensive line, including Iowa, including Oregon, Indiana has beat
(02:40):
them all. So establishing the run and giving yourself that
option I think is going to be really important. And
then you have Indiana's defense is going to have to
lock down against a Michigan State team that has not
been great offensively, really struggled last week. I think they
scored thirteen points against Northwestern, just was not a very
(03:01):
good outing for them, and so being able to really
take the wind out of the sales of Michigan State
early step on their neck will be really really important
for this Hoosiah ball club. It is it's not a
trap game. I don't think Indiana really has a trap
game at this point because of this coaching staff and
(03:22):
because of the way that the players and the coaches
are approaching every single week. Yeah, they're ranked with the
highest ranking in program history, but it's also a team
that is very, very focused on what they have to
accomplish and what opportunities they have. This is not a
(03:43):
program that's going to get a big head because of
Kurt Signetti. He's gonna make sure everybody stays with their
feet firmly planted on the ground. That said, the crowd's
going to be great, regardless of the weather. The crowd's
going to be great homecoming is important and they're going
to have a fantastic time out there. Fernando Mendoza, his
(04:10):
accuracy has been very, very good, and if there's a
lot of rain, a lot of wind, look for a
lot more shorter passes to almost serve as an extended
running game for Indiana and get the ball to Elijah
Surat and Omar Cooper in space, give them an opportunity
to create. Michigan State's defense is nowhere near as good
(04:33):
as Oregon's was, so they're going to do what they
can to try to get the most out of those
guys and should be an interesting game. By all metrics,
Indiana should win and win easily if they play the
way that we've seen them play throughout the year. Weather
is a factor, but we'll see how it goes. Weather's
(04:53):
also going to be a factor when it comes to
the call in show after the game. Normally I do
that from the Memorials Stadium parking lot, but if it
is raining, I'm not going to be putting all this
expensive electronics out in the rain, and so I will
do it in a different location. Stay tuned for whether
or not that's going to be live and outside on Saturday.
(05:16):
That will literally be a game time decision on what
I'm going to do with that, but we will have
one after the football game, you know, come hell or
high water. Hopefully it's not high water because that would
be bad considering all the rain. But looking forward to that. Now,
(05:37):
across the Farris family farm at Simon Scott Assembly Hall,
Darren Devrees will be starting his first season for the Hoosiers,
and again, I am really really excited for this year
just because of the endless possibilities that it brings. We've
all had this situation once before. It's a completely different program.
(05:59):
You've heard me say. Anybody who's listened to this podcast
for a while has heard me say that there are
multiple iterations of Indiana basketball. You have the historic program,
the original program that basically ended with Kelvin Sampson, huge
(06:20):
turnover in the roster turnover and the coaching staff. You
had Brett Finkelmeyer and Kyle Tabor as the only players
who were left after the Samson Cream exchange. So what
you had was a brand new program cobbled together in
the spring of two thousand and eight, I think it was, yeah,
(06:42):
two thousand and eight, cobbled together and you did the
best that you could, and that was a rough year.
And what you had was an IU program that was
like an expansion team that had been in a city before.
Think the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, they
(07:05):
become the Baltimore Ravens. A couple of years later, a
new Cleveland Browns is established with the same history, the
same uniforms, but it ain't the same team. It ain't
the same franchise. That's what you had during Crean's first year,
and you had it with a team that was just
kind of cobbled together. In the spring, Mike Woodson retires,
(07:32):
gets fired, whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You want to call it.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
He goesside, he leaves. Every player from that roster is gone.
The administrative people, almost to a man, are gone, including trainers.
In the whole deal. It is a brand new program
with the same history and wearing the same uniforms, but
(07:56):
it ain't the same program. This is IU three point
zero is coming up, and there's a huge, huge, critical
difference between what Crean was dealing with and what Darren
Dvrees is dealing with. And that is the transfer portal,
and that is the ability for Indiana not to just
cobble together a roster in the spring, but actually build
(08:21):
a roster of talented, experienced guys who want to play
at IU, who want to play at that level, who
want to play for Darren Devrees, and the fact that
Indiana has the nil resources to draw really quality players
makes this a very exciting season. This is, as far
(08:43):
as I'm concerned, the most difficult season to project for
Indiana in any that I've covered. Crean's first year, you
knew they weren't going to be very good because of
the level of player that they were bringing in the
past couple of years has seen a lot of turnover
on the roster, and it's still made it difficult. But
(09:05):
you knew what Mike Woodson was bringing to the floor.
You knew what his program was going to look like
and how things were going to go together this year.
Darren Devery, you could look at what he did at
West Virginia or Drake and understand, you know what kind
of style he likes. But in terms of all the
players fitting together, we don't know. We haven't seen him
(09:28):
on the court in any kind of meaningful situation. You
have scrimmage, as you have practices, but that is different,
and now you have the first exhibition game. It's one
of those seasons where fans are going to need a
program to understand who everybody is. Yeah, you could study it,
(09:50):
but you know, to learn the numbers, to learn everything
about it is like it's a brand new program. But
you do have guy guys that you know are extremely
talented and can put up numbers. We know that this
team is going to be able to shoot. That's something
that's been missing from the program for the past few years.
(10:12):
But you have different guys that could knock down threes.
They've done it elsewhere, they'll do it at IU. You
have guys that could create off the bounce that was
something that was lacking last year as well. You have
a defense guys that are skilled defensively that could shut
(10:35):
people down. But again, it is being able to see
how everybody works together and picks up on what they have.
You know, you talk about for instance, a guy like
you know Tayitan Connorway, Okay, average fourteen point two a
game last year at Troy. He has that experience. He's
(11:00):
a guy that goes to the bucket, But will he
be asked to do different things this year? We'll see
about that. We'll see about that same thing with Connor Enwright,
who over it to Paul, you know, was seven and
a half point six point two assists. Really did a
nice job of distributing. But again, what is he going
to be asked to do? What is the role and
(11:21):
so you know, we're not really sure. Yeah, you can
listen to what Darren DeVries has and we'll have him
on it just a few minutes. But you know, a
guy at Sam Houston State, you know, like Lamar Wilkerson
averages twenty four and two point one, knocks down the threes.
(11:42):
You know, is a guy who is a decent ball handler,
somebody who could create but also knock down threes. Fitting
these pieces together are going to be the key. Tucker Devrees,
he's a shooter, He's guys that you know, they've all
done their own roles at different spots, but usually they
(12:05):
were one of the top guys. And now fitting all
the guys together at what generally is a higher level,
because again we're talking about de Paul, we're talking about Troy,
we're talking about you know, West Virginia obviously is a
higher level. But you have you know, re Bailey from Davidson.
You know you have, you know, a pile of different
guys that you know, a guy from Elon, a guy
(12:26):
from smaller spots, smaller destinations. Fitting together is important. What
am I expecting against Marion is just to see a
lot of mistakes, a lot of guys getting their feet wet,
(12:47):
a lot of guys starting to understand what it feels
like to play at Simon Scott Assembly Hall and the
fan base that is there. And they're not going to
be crisp. If there are, I'll be stunned. They're not
going to hit the ground running. But what I want
to see in every game this year is improvement from
(13:08):
game to game as guys figure things out, as guys figure, uh,
you know what it is that they're supposed to do
their role and get comfortable in it and let it
become second nature. Nobody on the roster has that.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Nobody.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
One of the upsides of Kurt Signetti when he came
was he brought a bunch of guys from James Madison
with him, and so they knew what their roles were
going to be and how it was going to work
under the same coach. You don't have that right now
and so there will be hiccups along the way, there
will be sloppy possessions, but what I'm looking for is
that there aren't multiple stacked possessions where I'm thinking to myself,
(13:45):
what the hell were they even trying to do? And
then we saw that with Mike Woodson from this from
year one to year four, we saw that every single
year where their possessions You're like, what the hell is happening?
So figuring things out is going to be really important.
I want to mention that we're not going to do
a call and show after the Marrion game. It's on
(14:08):
Big ten Plus streaming. The reason it's on there, that
one and the second exhibition is on there is because
each team has to have X number of games on
Big ten Plus. The Big ten network likes to get
Indiana's games out of the way on that service as
(14:28):
quickly as possible because Indiana Basketball garners some of the
biggest ratings that the Big ten network has, if not
the biggest, So try to get that out. My point
is it's a game that I think a lot of
people aren't going to see, or a lot of regular
fans aren't going to see. So if I'm on there
(14:49):
taking questions, you know, and trying to describe what happened
for a game that a lot of people didn't get
to watch. What's the point of that. So in the
regular season we'll get going with the call in for basketball.
That will happen again this year. It's just a matter
for these exhibition games we're not going to have that.
We will have it on Saturday night for football, but
(15:12):
not for basketball Friday night. Now, I've talked a lot
here about basketball and what to expect for the season.
Wanted to bring you comments now from head coach Darren
Dvrees during his press conference Thursday afternoon prior to the
Marian exhibition to give his thoughts on what to expect
come Friday night.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
All right, we'll start with Alex Buzzich.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Hey, coach, thanks for the time, appreciate it. Just curious
I was looking through kind of your coaching profile on
Ken Palm and offensive rebounding percentage kind of caught my eye.
Midway through your tenure at Drake, you had some years
where I think you guys were top third in the
country an offensive rebounding percentage, and then the last three
years kind of at the bottom third, are you your
(16:00):
philosophy on that, and i'll kind of you view the
risk reward of crashing the offensive blast and how much
that's based on the personnel you have.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Yeah, we would we would love to be a great
offensive rebounding team. That's you know, something that you know,
if you can get extra opportunities, obviously that's a big advantage.
A lot of that's been based on just a little
bit of our personnel of you know, the type of
lineups we had out there, what we thought and prioritized
for our team. Every year was a little bit different,
So I would say on the pecking order, we prioritize
(16:32):
you know, a couple other things more than offensive rebounding.
But again it's it's mostly just based on kind of
our personal and what we think we can be good
at and kind of play off of that.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Daniel and then Mike, Yeah, coach.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
You know, last time we saw y'all in live action
was obviously against Mega hintful of it was like, what
August eleven, twelve, just in that time span, where have
you seen y'all grow and what kind of can what
are you expecting us to kind of see and learn
that's maybe improved these last handful of months.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
I think the biggest thing is just defensively, I think
we've gotten a lot more connected from our trip to
Puerto Rico. You can just see it in the way
we are a lot more aggressive, more attacking as we
understand positioning and where we're supposed to be a little
bit better, so we're not, you know, a half account
late maybe to stuff like we were in the summertime.
So I think that part has been really good. And
(17:28):
then our ball movement and kind of the Christmas that
Christmas there has been good.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
The other day, you know, we're charting Live five and five,
and I think we had a day like this early
in the summer. But yesterday we had thirty one assists
in three turnovers in our practice. So that shares just
tells you a little bit about, you know, what we're
doing on the offensive end in terms of the way
we move the ball and things. So kind of excited
about where we may progress at both ends the four
But those are kind of the two main areas Shuman.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And then there's Yeah, which I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 8 (18:01):
Nick Dorn curious if he was able to make it
back to five on five this week and kind of
what your expectations are for him for these two exhibitions
coming up.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Yeah, he's uh, he's starting to work his way back
into some action. We don't anticipate in playing in playing
any tomorrow night the Baylor game, I would I would
probably say doubtful as well.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
We'll see where that leads.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
But we're we're certainly getting closer to getting him to
you know, full practice type stuff, but we still.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
Got a little bit of a time, a little bit
of time to go there yet.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
And then Rabbi, Yeah, coach, the last couple of years,
you've gone through similar rebuilds with having to replaced a
lot of players. Is there something you learned in the
in the last couple of years for how to structure
kind of like the preseason practices. I know, your plans
to plan, but anything that you have to emphasize or
you know, versus early in your career when you maybe
(18:56):
didn't have the kind of turnover you had.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Yeah, I think the hardest part is just you got
to get into summer. You have to let you know,
kind of roles play out a little bit because you
want you don't want to limit guys either, you want
them to everybody to kind of figure out, you know,
what they're good at from a coaching staff standpoint too,
just uh, you know, how can we best utilize this
group and maximize you know, all the individual potentials along
(19:20):
with you know, us as a group and and then
kind of you know, working off of that.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
But you know, I think the biggest thing is just again.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Getting getting your guys connected on both ends of the floor,
so they're they're just learning how to play off of
one another. So we do a little bit more for
five on five in the summertime than maybe a lot
of schools do. Now, we've been been lucky that we've
had trips you know, on the years where we've had
a lot of new guys, So that's a lot of
some extra practice time. It's allowed us a little more
(19:47):
you know, freedom to kind of do some installs and
some things like that too, so you're able to kind
of catch up with an entirely new group a little.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Bit Raby and then Pete, Yeah, coach, just want to
get your thoughts.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
What are the main things you want to see on Friday?
Speaker 9 (20:03):
What would be a successful exhibition outside of just winning
the game.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
What are the things you look at and say hey,
I want to I want us to do AB and
C really well on Friday.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I think the number one thing, I just want us
to play as hard as we can. That's that's number one.
That's number one every single night that we go out there, like,
are we maxing out you know, at both ends of
the floor in terms of our effort, our communication, and
then be just especially on the offensive end, just the
unselfishness and the ball movement. I think that's going to
be a big key for us to be effective as
(20:34):
a unit because we don't have a lot of one
on one guy, so we really rely on kind of
that type of movement and actions and cutting and those
type of screening, uh to kind of generate some of
those paint touches, and those are going to be critical
for us on the offensive side.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Pete and Trevor, Yeah, hey, coach, what makes it special
and unique to coach or some and do you envision
him years from now hopefully being a coach as well?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
Yeah? I think makes it so special.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
It's just you get to spend you know, all that
time or or even see all the time he puts
into you know, getting ready for a practice, getting ready
for a game.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
And that's the type of work that you see a
lot of our guys. But when you get to see
your own son do it and and you know recognize that,
you know how much he cares about and how passionate
is about the sport and wanting to be good, and
then to see that work pay off for him out
on the game floor, I think that's you know, one
of those unique and special things. And then I think
you always talk about guys that when they retire from sports,
(21:37):
the thing they missed the most is the locker room.
So so for me, just getting to be a part
of that with him, you know, whether it be road
trips or meals and those type of things, uh, you know,
in addition to all.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
The game day experiences that we get to do.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
And then yeah, I think he I know, he wants
to coach when he's done. You know, that's I think
one of the things that you know makes him kind
of special as a player. Everybody talks about his shooting,
but his feel and his IQ for the game.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
You know, he just grew up around it.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
He's been you know, chasing you know, our our our
teams around for a long long time. And and so
he gets it and understands it, you know, probably at
a different level just because he's you know been almost
force spread it, you know, for his entire life. But
so I know that's something he certainly has an interest
is when whenever he's done playing ever.
Speaker 11 (22:22):
And then Zach Ostraman, Hey, Darren heading into the exhibition
game with a whole new group, how much of your
offense and defense do you have installed at this point
and how does it kind of compare to your first
season obviously at West Virginia and Drake.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, for the most part, we have everything in the
offense and stuff will will constantly add throughout the year,
especially as we start to play games and and see
how guys or other teams are going to play us
and guard us, and then you know, try to make
some adjustments off of that. Defensively, for the most part,
have everything in you know, special situations is probably the
thing that we're we're cleaning up the most now as
(23:01):
we lead into these last couple of weeks. But outside
of that, like I said, on the defensive end, we
don't get over complicated, you know, we just want our
guys to play fast, play physical, and then give you know,
in game or pregame type adjustments, game planning type things.
But outside of that, it's all in So now it's
just you know, getting better at it, you know, as we.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
Go along, Zach and then Seth Darren started to kind
of jump in with another injury question. But I'm just curious,
especially kind of from a point guard perspective, you know,
sort of where Alexa and Jason are, like if either
one of them is maybe a little bit kind of closer,
and how you balance that position while maybe a couple
of the guys that you might look to to at
(23:45):
least sort of you know, absorb some of those minutes
are out.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, that's unfortunately, both those guys probably going to be
out for a little while yet. So it's certainly not
going to have them for the start of the season
and probably a few weeks into it for sure, which
does make it challenging. You know, those are two guys
that we're we're counting on to hopefully give us some
you know, some minutes and some depth, and so we
we got to be a little creative until one or
(24:11):
two of those guys get back and give us a
little more flexibility with our lineups.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Seth and then Josh.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Darren just wondering how you know, it's still early obviously,
but at this point, how good of an idea do
you have right now about what your rotation will look
like on a night's night basis? How many guys do
you see yourself playing in a typical game? And then
I guess what's your philosophy as far as you know,
how far into the season do you try to trim
that down?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, it's just just it's going to be challenging early,
just with with Nick making his way back, how quickly
he can get back kind of into that that game conditioning,
and then also just you know, for us to get
a little feel for you know, where the best utilize
him and you know, plug him in and you know
the other two guys that you know they're going to
be a while, so then how how quickly can they
(24:58):
you know, just get thrown in there, you know, and
find their roles.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
And be able to fit.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
So those are those are things that we don't know
yet because of injuries, We're gonna be a little bit limited.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
On our depth right now.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
You know, I anticipated being you know, seven to eight
guys here early and then you know, as those guys
start to come back get more in that eight nine
and maybe even ten on certain nights. You know, from
a depth standpoint.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Josh and then Zion, Hey.
Speaker 13 (25:26):
Coach, I wanted to ask about Taytan we saw in
Puerto Rico and over the summer or how he kind
of wrecked the game and was able to turn defense
into offense. How vital is he for the success of
the offense as the season progresses.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Yeah, He's really critical for us, especially on the offensive end,
because he's that one guy that we do have that
can break the defense down and you know, he has
elite speed and you know, be able to get in
and get by people and then create you know, for
himself and at the rim.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
So you know, we need him out there. We need
him to be be you.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Know, aggressive and making plays for us because he is
one of those guys that can free up some of
those shooters and that's going to be a big part
of our offense.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Zion and then Zach Browning.
Speaker 14 (26:07):
Darren, when you talk about your rotations and whatnot, and
especially with the injuries right now, just how much do
you anticipate your want to experiment in these two exhibition
games knowing that you can kind of get right to
it with that second game being the Marqute game.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Yeah, well, we'll experiment some and we've been doing a
lot of it in practice, you know. You know for
exhibition games, you know, you probably aren't, especially on the
offensive end, aren't going to show a lot, you know,
even though we want to win the games, we also
understand that, you know, the regular season games are more
of our priority to us, So these preseason games it's
going to be on the offensive and more about just
(26:41):
us kind of functioning with some of our motion Defensively,
we'll be able to do some things and try some
different things, but we can also experiment with some lineups,
you know, as we are a little shorthanded, so it's
going to almost force us to kind of look at
some things like we've been doing in practice, and and
you know, I've liked some of the things that you know,
we've been for to look at, you know, so maybe
(27:01):
it opened our eyes to a couple of different types
of line ups that maybe we can utilize this this season.
You know, it starts to get into November and December.
Speaker 15 (27:10):
Zach and then Rick, Hey, coach, how much freedom do
you want to give your bigger guys like like Read,
like Sam, like Trent to push the ball in transition
after miss baskets and off of defensive rebounds versus you know,
getting that to a guard and having them push the tempo.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Yeah, both those guys have the freedom to do that.
I think Reads.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Really really one of those guys that we want to
take advantage of his skill set. We want him bringing
the ball in transition. It just creates such mismatch opportunities
for us. When you got a center bringing the ball
up the court. It's just not you know, common for
defenses to have to get matched up that way. So
a lot of times what you'll see is now the
point guard may take him, and now everybody's you know,
(27:49):
off off in terms of like, hey, I was supposed
to guard him, and they got to figure it out.
And what we would love to happen is before they
figure it out, you know, we got something at the
rim or three going up in the air, so we
want to we want those guys to grab it off
the rim and push as much as possible, especially read.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Rick. And then we'll wrap with Alec.
Speaker 16 (28:09):
Yeah, coach, a little bit of an off the wall question,
But the football team has become a national story and
what they've achieved this year plus last year. Just in
your time that you've been there, have you seen anything
or learned anything from coach Signetti and what he does
that is something that other coaches can can hone in on.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Yeah, we haven't been able to, like in the locker
room or any of that, or at practices per se.
But just you know, when you listen to their team
and how they talk, you can tell they're they're they're
very engaged and in prioritizing, you know what what they
you know, what they know is important. You know, they
don't turn the ball over, They prioritize that. They're very tough,
they're very physical, they're very disciplined. I think it's all
(28:51):
the things that translate to you know, really in every
sport they're they're elite at you know, and that's uh,
you know, something we talked to our guys about and
we've used football as a reference of this is.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Why they're good.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
You know.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Part of the reason is here's what we see.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
We're not football coaches, but this is why you win
games and football, this is why you win games in basketball,
and we got to be you know, just as good
in those areas no matter what the sport is. But
you know, we want to be elite and not turning
the ball over. We want to be elite in our discipline,
you know, we want to be elite in our toughness.
And if we can do those things, then you're gonna
have a chance to win on most nights.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Last question alec.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
To play a little bit more together and more specifically,
now that they've had more time on the floor, what
do they provide from an offensive standpoint being able to
play off of each other for you guys, Sorry.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
I missed the very first part you cut out on it.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yes, Sam and Reid, Just what have they been like
now being able to spend a little bit more time
on the floor together and kind of what do they
provide you guys offensively?
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Yeah, they've they've been actually really good and we've we've
done that a lot more. We did it in Puerto
Rico and I like that lineup. We just weren't able
to do it a lot in the summertime practice wise,
because we didn't have the depth there, you know, and unfortunately,
you know, we lost one of our other big so
it's it's been a little hard in practice sometimes to
do it as much as we would like. You know,
it's also going to limit us a little bit during
(30:16):
the year potentially on how much we can utilize the
two of them together, just because of lack of depth.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
But I do like that lineup.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
We want to utilize it, you know, a decent amount,
because I think it gives us just some exercise, you know,
for us to take advantage of and.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
Read so versatile on what he can do.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
You know, that's and he's so smart and moves and
you can play off the bounce, and you know, he's
got good athleticism and speed. So it's something we're going
to use and try to use as much as we can,
you know, whenever those opportunities come.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And there is Darren Devrees, he's excited for the season.
I'm excited for the season. You should be. But I
also think that there's a level of patience that should
be involved with this year, especially in certainly these couple
of games. He's October games in November and the early
(31:08):
part of December. It's gonna take some time for things
to figure be figured out. That's gonna come down, so
being able to overcome some of those early hiccups is
going to be really important. I'm excited to see what
comes after that, though, because this program desperately needed a refresh,
and Darren De Freeze is going to do that. I
(31:29):
like his resume, I like his age, like the fact
that he's younger and will have the opportunity to be
here for a while. I have a ton of faith
that his system can work because he's done it at
different spots. And I'm just really excited for the upcoming season.
Even though I'm sure it won't be a smooth ride,
(31:51):
it's gonna be fun. It's going to be exciting, and
the unknown can be very interesting and that's what we're
shooting for with this Again, no call in show after
the basketball game. There will be one after the football
game on Saturday, first huge weekend of UH you know
of the overlap and excited to see how it all
plays out. What's all the time we have on the
(32:13):
Peaks podcast this week. I want to thank you for listening.
I don't want to remind you to visit peaks dot
com for the very best in IU football and basketball coverage.
You're gonna find anywhere nobody covers. Who's your recruiting better
than Jeff rab John's, Matt Weaver, Trevor adders Shock, and
Jared Kelly. So come be a part of a thriving,
an excited community at peaks dot com. Folks, you are
not going to be disappointed. Folks were out of time,
(32:33):
But for now and for Jeff, Matt, Trevor and Jared,
I'm ken Bikoff saying thanks for listening. Everybody,
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