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IU Departure: Does this one hurt?

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SuPurduePer

Nov 25, 2011
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Just announced:
The Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball program suffered a tough blow on Friday morning with the announcement that soon-to-be-senior forward Justin Smith would not be finishing his career with the Hoosiers.

Smith comes off of his junior year where he started all 32 games for Indiana. He played an average of 30.4 minutes per game for the team, averaging 10.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound Smith is a graduate transfer and will be eligible right away at his next school.
 
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SuPurduePer said:
Just announced:
The Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball program suffered a tough blow on Friday morning with the announcement that soon-to-be-senior forward Justin Smith would not be finishing his career with the Hoosiers.

Smith comes off of his junior year where he started all 32 games for Indiana. He played an average of 30.4 minutes per game for the team, averaging 10.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound Smith is a graduate transfer and will be eligible right away at his next school.
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He was their 3rd leading scorer, best defender, and played the most minutes per game. I’d say it hurts a little bit lol.
 
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Definitely hurts. One of the most experienced players, most versatile defenders, and really showed strong improvement after a dreadful sophomore year. Offensively he was out of place as a tweener 3/4, but this hurts more than it helps.
 
I would love him at Purdue. He was forced to play the 3 at IU which hurt him. He is clearly a college 4. He doesn't shoot the 3 as well as say Eifert but certainly better than Wheeler last year. Also can rebound well and is a heck of an athlete. May still be more athlete than basketball player which generally doesn't fit with what Painter wants, but for just 1 year, sign me up.
 
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I think I can try to effectively summarize this with Purdue context:

It hurts in the exact same ways as the Eastern transfer, but without the extremes in any category.
  • As a positive skill, he was IU's best defender, but not by as wide a margin or to the level that Eastern was at Purdue
  • As a negative skill, he was the worst shooter of any IU rotation player (career 3pt% 25%, 26% last year), but not as big a detriment as Eastern
  • He was the (reportedly) the worst IU player for parental "involvement", but not to the Eastern extreme.
 
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This one definitely hurts. I’d put it on the same level as the Haarms transfer.

It will be interesting to see who replaces him in the starting lineup. I think there are two possibilities. I’d guess the first one is more likely.


RP
Durham
Hunter
Race
TJD

RP
Lander
Durham
Hunter
TJD
 
HoosierfanJM said:
I think I can try to effectively summarize this with Purdue context:

It hurts in the exact same ways as the Eastern transfer, but without the extremes in any category.
  • As a positive skill, he was IU's best defender, but not by as wide a margin or to the level that Eastern was at Purdue
  • As a negative skill, he was the worst shooter of any IU rotation player (career 3pt% 25%, 26% last year), but not as big a detriment as Eastern
  • He was the (reportedly) the worst IU player for parental "involvement", but not to the Eastern extreme.
Click to expand...

Good assessment. Had tons of potential and upside given his athletic ability. Smith never put it all together but was making strides. Will miss his experience but was detriment in some ways as he lacked leadership for an upperclassmen and occasionally clashed with staff and other players. Interesting to see what path he takes. By all accounts he's a phenomenal student (graduated Kelley in 3 years), could see him bumping to a smaller program to become a go to guy or he could be a valuable asset to an immediate title contender.
 
Hausta01 said:
I would love him at Purdue. He was forced to play the 3 at IU which hurt him. He is clearly a college 4. He doesn't shoot the 3 as well as say Eifert but certainly better than Wheeler last year. Also can rebound well and is a heck of an athlete. May still be more athlete than basketball player which generally doesn't fit with what Painter wants, but for just 1 year, sign me up.
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He and his family desperately wanted him to play the 3. His Dad spent most of his first two years frustrated with the fact that he was playing the 4.

When you have his size and athleticism, the NBA is a reasonable goal, so I get why they wanted him to develop his perimeter skills and play the 3. The thing is, at some point you have to be able to hit 3s and/or be a threat off the bounce. He just doesn't have that ability.

Still, he's a great kid who had a good career and who leaves IU with Kelley business degree in only 3 years.
 
BTBall said:
He and his family desperately wanted him to play the 3. His Dad spent most of his first two years frustrated with the fact that he was playing the 4.

When you have his size and athleticism, the NBA is a reasonable goal, so I get why they wanted him to develop his perimeter skills and play the 3. The thing is, at some point you have to be able to hit 3s and/or be a threat off the bounce. He just doesn't have that ability.

Still, he's a great kid who had a good career and who leaves IU with Kelley business degree in only 3 years.
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Ah didn't know that. Do his parents/himself/people around not realize the NBA doesn't care what position you play in college? They can see your skillset, they are professionals.

Anywho, IU's roster lent him to being a 3 this season anyway with Brunk, TJD, and Davis (when he decided to not foul every other trip down the court).
 
Hausta01 said:
Ah didn't know that. Do his parents/himself/people around not realize the NBA doesn't care what position you play in college? They can see your skillset, they are professionals.

Anywho, IU's roster lent him to being a 3 this season anyway with Brunk, TJD, and Davis (when he decided to not foul every other trip down the court).
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IU's best lineup last year was with TJD at the 5 and then Smith or Race at the 4 who came on strong late. Am guessing that was the direction IU was going to go this year with a more guard oriented offense given Lander's reclassification.
 
once again, it appears a player leaves his school because he wants to showcase his personal talents. Nice to see he finished his degree.

I'd love for him to come to Purdue, but not if he refuses to play the 4.
 
Coach Geez said:
IU's best lineup last year was with TJD at the 5 and then Smith or Race at the 4 who came on strong late. Am guessing that was the direction IU was going to go this year with a more guard oriented offense given Lander's reclassification.
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IU didn't/doesn't have the guards to do that often last year.

Forgot about Race, he came on pretty well at the end of the year. Hopefully he can stay healthy
 
Bright kid good defender. Terrible outside shooter. Below average free throw shooter. I expect Hunter to take his place.
 
Does that hurt them more than losing Haarms and Eastern hurts us? I think we're in the same boat that IU has been in for several years now - hoping our incoming players are all they have been hyped up to be.

I know I'm an old curmudgeon, but I already miss the old days where players hung around four years and NBA teams were willing to draft graduating seniors with first round picks.
 
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Losing a double digit scorer and upperclassmen doesn't help IU, Smith if he came to Purdue is in my opinion a day 1 starter.
 
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indyogb said:
Does that hurt them more than losing Haarms and Eastern hurts us? I think we're in the same boat that IU has been in for several years now - hoping our incoming players are all they have been hyped up to be.

I know I'm an old curmudgeon, but I already miss the old days where players hung around four years and NBA teams were willing to draft graduating seniors with first round picks.
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In my opinion, the Smith leaving will have about the same impact as losing Haarms. I don’t really think Eastern is that big of a loss individually, but losing Haarms and Eastern who were your two best defensive players by far hurts Purdue more than IU losing Smith. I’m not trying to say IU isn’t losing anything by losing Smith or that it’s addition by subtraction at all.
 
TrojanFan004 said:
In my opinion, the Smith leaving will have about the same impact as losing Haarms. I don’t really think Eastern is that big of a loss individually, but losing Haarms and Eastern who were your two best defensive players by far hurts Purdue more than IU losing Smith. I’m not trying to say IU isn’t losing anything by losing Smith or that it’s addition by subtraction at all.
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Haarms wasn’t even a starter.
 
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punaj said:
Haarms wasn’t even a starter.
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Haarms started over half the games he played. The biggest issue with Haarms leaving though is that you don’t really have a replacement for him. The 15 or so minutes that Trevion Williams is not on the court will leave Purdue very weak down low.

Justin Smith leaving does hurt IU, but we do have capable replacements.
 
Iu was already extremely thin in the front court. They are talking about using hunter at the four. He can’t rebound and just shoots threes.
 
meenie said:
Iu was already extremely thin in the front court. They are talking about using hunter at the four. He can’t rebound and just shoots threes.
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Extremely thin in the front court? Our starting front court last year was TJD and Joey Brunk. They are both back. Worst case scenario they can play those two again even though that’s not the plan.

It’s likely Race Thompson and TJD start at the 4/5. Hunter is also going to get minutes at the 4, but that’s also his natural position. An inch shorter than Wheeler and 15 lbs heavier. He will be fine at the 4 if he needs to play there.
 
TrojanFan004 said:
Extremely thin in the front court? Our starting front court last year was TJD and Joey Brunk. They are both back. Worst case scenario they can play those two again even though that’s not the plan.

It’s likely Race Thompson and TJD start at the 4/5. Hunter is also going to get minutes at the 4, but that’s also his natural position. An inch shorter than Wheeler and 15 lbs heavier. He will be fine at the 4 if he needs to play there.
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Wouldn’t call it extremely thin but it’s not great. TJD and Brunk on the court is a bad combination. Race doesn’t do anything to spread the floor and he doesn’t have a face up game like Smith who could at least attack the basket. I agree Hunter can play the 4 and if his offense takes off could be a very good lineup. Still worry about him defending opposing 4’s. His defense in general leaves a lot to be desired.
 
punaj said:
Fixed it
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Another dumb comment. Both had offers from numerous Big Ten teams.

Brunk:

IU
Iowa
Michigan State
PURDUE
Northwestern

Race:

IU
Minnesota
Northwestern
Nebraska


For reference, your backup centers were offered by a combined 3 Big Ten schools.

Dow:

Purdue
Rutgers

Edey:
Purdue
Minnesota
 
TrojanFan004 said:
Another dumb comment. Both had offers from numerous Big Ten teams.

Brunk:

IU
Iowa
Michigan State
PURDUE
Northwestern

Race:

IU
Minnesota
Northwestern
Nebraska


For reference, your backup centers were offered by a combined 3 Big Ten schools.

Dow:

Purdue
Rutgers

Edey:
Purdue
Minnesota
Click to expand...

Why are you here? That’s rhetorical. Don’t bother answering. Just leave.
 
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Brunk couldn’t get on the floor for a bad butler team and race looks like he is running in quicksand
 
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