Justin Smith

[moores2]

I feel like the Bart Torvik methodology for project defense is essentially exogenous and does not account for what new players might do on the defensive end of the court and the boards, which is going to affect your net rating and projection, obviously.

If I remember the "documentation" correctly (or really just a blog post), BT projects defense based on a trend analysis of the past few years and makes some adjustments for the physical height of your roster and likely lineups.

So we are doomed to be projected as sucking at defense because... well, our program has sucked at defense for a long time now. So that is a reasonable enough supposition. One of the best models for predicting the weather is just assuming whatever happened yesterday is going to happen again tomorrow.

I wonder how well that projection is going to work on us. The fact we are just bad as a program at defense is a strong argument, but then again, you would hope adding Smith on the boards along with a bunch of rangy wings to guard 3-4-5 and Foster to block shots would help quite a bit on defense. We also lost some comically bad defenders who did play at least rotational minutes for us at times.

Then again, we lost Haliburton -- our best defender -- and have never proven we can be good at defense and rebounding in the past decade, so just assuming it stays that way might be the reasonable thing to do. Either way, it is that end of the floor where we need the most improvements next year.

Calling Haliburton our best defender is ... aggressive. He was incredible at guessing and getting in passing lanes creating steals. He wasn't a great, but serviceable on ball defender. Struggled a bit in the pick and roll ( an NBA scout knock on him), and often used his athleticism to bail himself out. I think Jackson may be our best defender next year and hopefully Smith or Conditt are our second best defenders.

 

[Halincandenza]

Calling Haliburton our best defender is ... aggressive. He was incredible at guessing and getting in passing lanes creating steals. He wasn't a great, but serviceable on ball defender. Struggled a bit in the pick and roll ( an NBA scout knock on him), and often used his athleticism to bail himself out. I think Jackson may be our best defender next year and hopefully Smith or Conditt are our second best defenders.

Haliburton was the best defender. Doesn't mean he was perfect and had weaknesses but let's face it most of the team was pretty bad at defense so being the best at defense on the team doesn't mean he was an all league defender.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Calling Haliburton our best defender is ... aggressive. He was incredible at guessing and getting in passing lanes creating steals. He wasn't a great, but serviceable on ball defender. Struggled a bit in the pick and roll ( an NBA scout knock on him), and often used his athleticism to bail himself out. I think Jackson may be our best defender next year and hopefully Smith or Conditt are our second best defenders.

Our adjusted ORTG did not drop when Haliburton went down.

Our adjusted DRTG started trending downwards once he went out.

I address this here...

https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/th...ecruiting-thread.230362/page-113#post-7136203

Haliburton was the best defender. Doesn't mean he was perfect and had weaknesses but let's face it most of the team was pretty bad at defense so being the best at defense on the team doesn't mean he was an all league defender.

Precisely. He was not flawless, but he did not have much for competition.

He had incredible length and instincts and gambled a lot for steals, yes, but he was right more often than he was wrong. He was also aggressive about crashing the boards and had the ups and lengths to do something while doing it.

He's a potential Top 5 pick in the NBA draft because he has such potential on both ends of the floor, not because he is some sort of Point God.

 

[BryceC]

In what world is a guy who led his team in minutes, finished third (very nearly 2nd) in scoring, 2nd in rebounding, 1st in steals a "complementary role player"? Sounds like a guy the coach didnt want to take off the floor despite their tumultuous relationship.

A very solid case can be made he was the second best player for the Hoosiers last year behind Trayce Jackson-Davis who is a former McDonalds All-American.

Again, people are vastly overestimating not only what we can get in the transfer market but what is out there. This guy would be absolutely freaking fantastic to get and people that don't see that just don't realize what transfer recruiting is in 2020.

 

[Clyde4cy]

This past season was only the second time in the last ten years that ISU fielded a team with 0
Top 100 hs players(defined by 247 composite). The other was Fred’s 1st season.

If Steve can somehow land Smith we will have 3 next season(JCL, Smith and Foster). Two of them will be grown men. Blum wrote an article many years ago about ISU being at its best as a last chance hotel.

JCL and Smith may have had somewhat disappointing careers to date but have the talent to really shine at ISU in their final seasons.

 

[Clyde4cy]

Our adjusted ORTG did not drop when Haliburton went down.

Our adjusted DRTG started trending downwards once he went out.

I address this here...

https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/th...ecruiting-thread.230362/page-113#post-7136203



Precisely. He was not flawless, but he did not have much for competition.

He had incredible length and instincts and gambled a lot for steals, yes, but he was right more often than he was wrong. He was also aggressive about crashing the boards and had the ups and lengths to do something while doing it.

He's a potential Top 5 pick in the NBA draft because he has such potential on both ends of the floor, not because he is some sort of Point God.

We missed TH’s defensive rebounding the most.

 

[ForeverIowan]

Again, people are vastly overestimating not only what we can get in the transfer market but what is out there. This guy would be absolutely freaking fantastic to get and people that don't see that just don't realize what transfer recruiting is in 2020.

Freak athlete, experienced P5 senior, capable of getting 12-13 ppg and 6-7 boards per game and a versatile plus defender. What in the hell is not to like?

 

[WIB]

I'm a noted Prohm disliker, but if he gets this guy I'd be pretty happy. Would put us in bubble territory IMO. It seems as if Pollard has no intent of moving on any time soon, so might as well make the best of it. If we got Smith and Gach, I'd actually think we had top half Big 12 potential.

 

[Cyforce]

An athletic 4 that can defend. Comparing his production to an outgoing senior is pointless. Smith brings a piece we've been missing and that's why he'd make us better.

 

[isutrevman]

An athletic 4 that can defend. Comparing his production to an outgoing senior is pointless. Smith brings a piece we've been missing and that's why he'd make us better.

The comparison shouldn't be Smith vs. Jacobson. It should be Smith vs. Griffin or Luke Anderson. That's who he would be replacing.

 

[Cyforce]

The comparison shouldn't be Smith vs. Jacobson. It should be Smith vs. Griffin or Luke Anderson. That's who he would be replacing.

He'd be a day one starter so not really.

 

[Chitowncy]

This past season was only the second time in the last ten years that ISU fielded a team with 0
Top 100 hs players(defined by 247 composite). The other was Fred’s 1st season.

If Steve can somehow land Smith we will have 3 next season(JCL, Smith and Foster). Two of them will be grown men. Blum wrote an article many years ago about ISU being at its best as a last chance hotel.

JCL and Smith may have had somewhat disappointing careers to date but have the talent to really shine at ISU in their final seasons.

Exactly. Would be great to land Smith!

 

[TheHelgo]

Indiana basketball fans are basically the equivalent of Nebraska football fans.

They made the title game in 2002. Since then they have 3 Sweet 16's but no further. They've only made the tourney 8 out of 18 years since. They are absolutely a good program but their production is about as far as you can get from a blue blood. Heck West Virginia has been a lot better than them in that time frame.

I am admittedly an IU fan, so I do have bias here. However, 5 National Championships would argue against your stance. I don’t care that the last one was 1987.

 

[CYphyllis]

I am admittedly an IU fan, so I do have bias here. However, 5 National Championships would argue against your stance. I don’t care that the last one was 1987.

You may not, but the rest of the sports world does.

 

[Drew0311]

I am admittedly an IU fan, so I do have bias here. However, 5 National Championships would argue against your stance. I don’t care that the last one was 1987.

San Francisco Dons have two National Titles. Just sayin

 

[mdk2isu]

San Francisco Dons have two National Titles. Just sayin

And thank God for one of those. Could you imagine the additional insufferibility of Iowa fans had they beat San Francisco in the title game? Who cares that it happened 50ish years.

 

[ChickenNuggetMan]

Also not the biggest Prohm fan, but I’m always a Cyclone fan, and I want to win, regardless of who is coaching. These are the players we need to land to make watching games FUN again!

 

[Sigmapolis]

Also not the biggest Prohm fan, but I’m always a Cyclone fan, and I want to win, regardless of who is coaching. These are the players we need to land to make watching games FUN again!

#MWGFA

 

[Cat Stevens]

Many have stopped being thrilled, if not stopped following, until a new staff is brought in.

Please stop trolling with straw mans. Either comprehend the conversation or don’t respond.

Despite his athleticism, Smith has been a complementary role player. I’m thrilled to add P6 role players to next year’s roster. We needed all forms of help. Hopefully he’s more, he could improve for his senior year and unshackled from more rigid coaching, but it’s not clear as had been suggested.

Oh swarthy. Good to see you’re back to being you.

your attempts at faux optimism were making me sad for you.

 

[Cydkar]

I am admittedly an IU fan, so I do have bias here. However, 5 National Championships would argue against your stance. I don’t care that the last one was 1987.

yOu JuSt pRovED hIs PoINt.