Welcome back to a new episode of Podcasts on the Brink Thursday morning, August seventh.

Indiana victorious on Wednesday night and it's exhibition opener down in Puerto Rico.

Josh Post of Inside the Hall is on the scene for us.

It's gonna be actually your first introduction to Josh hereon podcast on the Brink.

But if you've been follow on the site for the last what month or so, been writing some football content and getting going strong now with basketball as well.

Really happy to have Josh part the team.

Also happy to have him down in Puerto Rico.

Before we get to the show, I just want to ask those of you watching on YouTube, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, helps us grow our audience there over on YouTube, and those listening on the audio only feed, whether it be on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please leave us a rating, five star rating preferably and a review.

We really appreciate that, Josh.

It was not a close game obviously last night, but first look at well, second look, we can count the open practice that we were at a couple weeks ago, but you know, first look, in terms of game action for Indiana basketball on Wednesday night, what was what were your impressions from the game and just big picture takeaways.

I think it started right up.

First of all, I'm Josh, nice to meet everybody.

I'm glad to be on inside the hall this year.

I'm a senior.

But my first impression was right when we got to the stadium alex It was full warm ups from the get go.

Usually last year we saw just shooting around till about the forty five minute mark.

No, there were drills going on all the way up until Indiana went back to their bench with about a minute left on the clock.

So that was a start right there.

You could feel something new was there, and then the game there was just an intensity despite playing what I believe people called the equivalent of an NAIA team, the intensity from the jump, from not only the starters but the guys that came off the bench.

The big picture, the score didn't matter in this game.

It was what you saw from individual players and how they came together as a team, and I really liked what I saw.

Obviously, it was August sixth, so it's gonna be hard to make any predictions based off an August sixth game exhibition in Puerto Rico, but overall very good defensively and turning rebounds into fast break layups.

So obviously I only saw the video that you posted in some other video highlights that were on social media, But having kind of been on one of these trips of four back all the way back in twenty fourteen up to Montreal, I can remember going to five different venues, I think, in six days watching Indiana play exhibition games.

Not a lot of fans made that trip.

I was thinking that there might be a stronger contingent of IU fans down at this destination because it's obviously a beach and it's the time of year where people would like to go on vacation and get away and get in the sun.

Kind of similar to twenty twenty one when they went down to the Bahamas and played a couple of games.

But just from judging what I saw on the background of the videos and just the atmosphere, didn't look like there was a strong contingent of fans down there.

Was that surprising at all?

Anyway, What did you kind of expect going in and how did that match up with reality of what you actually saw in terms of atmosphere.

I expected a little bit more, but then I realized after talking to Zach Osterman, that school has started in the state of Indiana, so it's hard for people to bring their kids down for a family vacation.

To make it an Indiana basketball family vacation.

There are a couple sprinkled in there.

It was a lot of varsity club members.

Uh.

There was an event for them with food and drinks, and they kind of went to the to the court side seats and then people filed behind.

I think from what I could hear, when a guy would score, there was a lot of cheering.

There were families that came as well, made that a family vacation as well, families of players that came, but really an empty gym with the only energy coming from the Indiana players.

You from your vantage.

Point, you were just a little bit elevated up in the just up in the stands, like within the regular seats.

Is that right?

Yes, we had regular seats and we had a regular ticket.

I wish I had it on me right now.

Yeah, you were.

You were multitasking very well there.

I wanted to point out everybody if people had asked this kind of what to expect in terms of the coverage, Josh was keeping stats, which he pointed out to me before we hit record that he was upset that he missed a couple rebounds and assists.

But we did get a fit.

We didn't no, I think before the game that we were going to get official stats, So I know you wanted to keep those just to kind of have an idea of something to go off when you were writing.

But you're also holding your phone trying to get as many video clips as possible in addition to posting updates on social media.

So good job there.

I wanted to get just some of your thoughts on players.

Obviously, I want to caveat all of this with this was August six, This was an exhibition game.

This was an over clearly overmatched opponent.

But I think we can at least glean some observations from just what you saw in terms of players and maybe some style of play things in terms of how things were running offensive and defensively.

But I want to start with Trent Sisley, who you wrote about for this morning on Inside the Hall.

Obviously, Trent's a name that a lot of people are familiar with because he was recruited for quite a long time by the previous coaching staff signed with Indiana under Mike Woodson, the coaching change happens.

He is solid as you can be with the program, sticks sticks it out.

Is obviously now a freshman on campus.

Spent last season at Montvert Academy down in Florida after playing his first three years of Heritage Chills, and I think, just from talking to Trent in the spring, really used that year down in Florida as a development year in terms of getting an opportunity to work in an atmosphere that's much more college like than what he would have had back at Heritage Chills and play against the national schedule.

They traveled around the country, played a lot of great teams, and while his stats didn't jump off you know the paper when you looked at him from a senior season, definitely showed some growth.

Shot the three ball really well.

Is last year of high school, and it looks like that translated to last night's game where he went three for three from deep, but started a little bit slow, but once he got into the swing of things, played really well.

Was Indians leading score last night.

Got to talk to the media.

Don't see that very often for a freshman in their first college action.

So just you your thoughts on Trent how he looked, And obviously I don't want to look into projections in terms of how much well he played, but do he look the part of a guy that can maybe help Indiana the season.

He not only looked a part of a guy that could help Indiana this season, he could be a guy that leads Indiana at some point, maybe not the entire season.

And again it's August seventh as we record this right now, but he got off to that slow start, but then hit that first layup off a great feed, and then the next possession after a defensive stop or right wing three, didn't even graze the rim, and it was game on from there.

He think he came out late in that first half, and then in the second half he exploded.

I think it was sixteen second half points.

He made both of his threes, six to nine from twos, He was seventy five percent overall.

He had the most field goals, and he didn't just dominate offensively.

He was a presence defensively.

And it's hard to be the four at his size in the Big Ten play in college basketball.

He had no issue with that against this team that probably didn't have it.

They didn't have a guy that was over six foot four, So Indians Biggs had everything going for them, but Trent Sisley sharing the ball, rebounding the basketball, defensively, and in most importantly offensive explosion in game one, and Darren DeVries said, that's a pretty high bar.

He said it, but it's good to have confidence for the freshman.

As far as Lamar Wilkerson goes, I didn't pay too much attention in terms of his final stat line.

I looked more at the fact that the amount of attempts that he got up, which was I think over ten.

I think maybe he took don't have it right in front of me.

Let's see thirteen threes, So he was three for thirteen on threes.

I don't think we've ever in the last eight seasons of Indiana basketball seen a player take thirteen threes in a game.

I'm not saying that's what he's going to do on a regular basis, but I can see him getting up seven or eight a game pretty regularly.

Didn't obviously make the percentage that he would like to.

But just what were your thoughts on Lamar Seeing him last night live and going up and down, And we know he's a talented scorer.

We know there was a reason that a lot of schools wanted them.

Indiana was fortunate to get his commitment back in the spring.

But seems like he's going to be a big piece of the puzzle this season for the Hoosiers.

Yeah, he was trying to shoot himself out of this slump early on and was putting up good shots but not the right shot in a Darren Devriez offense.

But what led me to be excited about Lamar was his defensive intensity.

Despite his shooting, it never wavered.

So when Wilkerson he's on the floor with Connorway and en Right, there was never a point where the opponent's guard was not harassed by one of the three of them, and it was really impressive to see that the offensive struggles didn't bleed over it onto the defensive end.

So Darren de Freese said, I'd love for him to shoot twenty shots game.

If he goes two of twenty, I'm alright with it because the next game he might most likely will go eighteen of twenty.

So I think that his defensive intensity kept him afloat despite a three or thirteen performance, and he only shot one two point field goal, he's oh for one.

Teyton Connorway, I know your messages in me a little bit throughout the game with someone I think that impressed you.

You know, I watched a lot of film on him back in the spring, and he really just stood out as a guy that can control the game really on both ends in terms of how he facilitates, but also defensively kind of spearheading things in terms of ball pressure.

Again, can't take a lot out of a game where Indiana wins by fifty one points.

But with Taytan Connorway, I know you were impressed with some things.

What stood out with him and what makes him somebody that Indiana fans should be excited about heading into the season.

Well, first of all, his three point shooting.

His increased significantly over the summer.

He said, he's been working really hard on it.

He was three for three yesterday and or sorry, three for or one for one.

He made us loan three.

I was thinking of Trent Sisley.

I apologize, but his defensive effort on every single play.

Indiana was up by twenty at one point and there was not an inch of room.

I said it last week when we were watching the practice to someone he might be in the running for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

There is not a lack of effort at all.

There's diving for loose balls.

There was going into the stands for a loose ball, diving on the floor, and it was just an all around effort.

He played twenty one minutes and I was impressed every single step of the way.

Another guy that didn't shoot particularly well, but kind of stuff the statue.

Tucker to Reese plays twenty minutes, obviously coming off of a season enning injury.

Go scores nine points, but eight rebounds, seven assists, three steals.

Kind of did a little bit of everything, I mean, and that's necessary, that should necessarily be surprising.

Two time player of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference.

You look at his rebounding and assist numbers when he back when he was at Drake, they were always pretty strong.

And I think on this Indiana team, he's going to have to do a little bit of everything.

We know that the front court isn't going to be overwhelming in terms of size.

He's gonna have to be a guy that rebounds the ball effectively.

But the thing I like there is the is the assist numbers, because that tells me, you know, he's looked at as a guy that can go out and score twenty five in the game.

But when he's being unselfish and moving the ball, I think for Indiana, that's a really good sign.

And that's just the kind of player I think from from watching Tucker, you know, a little bit last year at West Virginia and then obviously going back to his days at Drake, he was a kind of a household name in college basketball.

People knew him was one of the best mid major players.

But his versatility in terms of not just being able to shoot but also facilitate with others has to be something that should be a positive as Indiana prepares for its first season in or Darien Devrez.

Yeah, like you said, it didn't jump out on a stat sheet, but the way he played in his defense, I'm just gonna keep harping on defense, but everything was spilling over.

He was great in transition.

I think there was three alleops that he threw.

I think Indiana committed on three of four alleops.

One was taking Connorway throwing one off the backboard for Sam Alexis, who wasn't ready for it.

All around funny moment.

He missed it, got it back.

But Devrees is great in transition.

He might not look the part as a guy that can really push the pace just with his size in his build, but as soon as Indiana got on in transition, it was Tucker Devrez that was leading the charge and trying to get his teammates open.

It was the extra pass he was driving to the lane and a kickout to someone in the corner for an open three.

Lamar Wilkerson usually would make that shot, didn't yesterday, but it was really impressive to see the ball movement led by Debrees to get an open look.

Could go for the layup sometime, but with the open guy in the corner, especially an exhibition game, you want to you want to test things out.

A lot of times in a game like this, players will revert to maybe some bad habits and kind of it'll it'll it'll turn into kind of like a pickup game where you know things are just happening and that it's clear the other team can't stop them, so you know, maybe it's easy to take the the chance and take a bad shot or something like that.

Was Indiana pretty focused and kind of organized throughout the game, or was there any point where it got to be kind of I don't want to call it an NBA All Star Game exhibition type up and down, but was in was Indiana continuing to run its offense and staying organized throughout the game.

Up until about the sixth minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Indiana was running sets the entire time.

They were slowing it down mostly in the second half.

The first quarter was a bit competitive, nothing out of the ordinary for a game like this, but they went into sets and UCB went into a zone like a ball press.

It's not going to be the best one ever in Indiana broke it at ease, but they really tried to run their stuff.

They're out of bound set where baseline out of bound sets were set plays.

They weren't just trying to find there was two guys wide open under the basket.

They still ran the play that last seven minutes.

It was rough to watch.

I am not gonna lie.

There were guys that should not have been on the floor together and I'm not talking Indiana players.

It was.

It got ugly at times.

Just just the other team in terms of who they had out there.

It was just a complete mismatch.

I mean, obviously it's a fifty one point game.

I'm just it was it is it from the same point that they just had no business being on the court with Indiana.

Yeah, it was like Naia bench players against Trent Sisley and Indiana's depth players.

It wasn't like there was walk ons on the floor.

Ian Stevens saw the floor in the fourth quarter.

But it was a complete mismatch.

What about Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis.

Obviously both of those guys had some strong stats, some strong games, and you can't really tell a lot.

You mentioned that they didn't have much size, so we don't know how this is going to translate.

We're gonna get a better idea of that against uh coming into the weekend games against you know, the Serbia team on Saturday and again on Monday.

I think that'll be a better test of what the front court looked like.

But it seemed like Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey both played pretty well in their first time in an IU uniform.

Yes, sam Alexis, a lot of his looks were just open dump offs for a dunk, but he was rebounding the basketball, he was boxing out.

It was an impressive sight to see.

But as for Reed Bailey, I was thoroughly impressed with the way he started the second and the third quarter.

He cannot only get a rebound, but if there's no one open for an outlet, he's willing to take the ball up the court himself.

And last year we saw it with Malik Renew.

It is a complete one point eighty.

There's actual ball handling skills and he's comfortable taking it.

He went coast to coast off of a rebound, dished it off, drew a foul, and it was very nice to see a positionless when he was on the floor, positionless offense.

When Reed Bailey was on the floor, he was out and he didn't shoot a three, didn't attempt to three, so you don't really have anything there.

But he was active at for ninety four feet and it was impressive to me to see a guy with sighs not just take advantage of the size against a team like this.

He was working out what he needed to work on and got ten points and eight rebounds, So I was impressed.

With him in terms of some of the other guys just just quickly going through Jo High miles it and seemed like he shot the ball particularly well last night.

Struggled a bit with that.

Connor en Wright started, played seventeen minutes, only score two points.

But we know in terms of stats, you know, Dan Derives talked a little bit about that he might not be a guy that the stats ever jump out, but the little things, the intangibles that he brings are always going to be part of the deal with him.

And then Josh Harris played gets a double double in fifteen minutes, thirteen points, ten rebounds.

Kind of look at him right now, is one of the guys maybe a little bit lower down in the rotation when you look at the depth chart, but I think it's a good thing for him to get those minutes and play well.

And then Alexa Restitch gets some some minutes.

We didn't know for sure as of last week if he was going to even be on this trip.

He gets in to Bloomington late last week, score six points, goes three or six from the field.

You know, just kind of touched on each of those guys a little bit in terms of what you saw.

You can start with Miles and then if you need a reminder on any of the guys, I know three four guys at you there, but hopefully we can just get a brief rundown on the four of those guys and what you saw.

Yeah, Josi Miles had his struggles yesterday, not only on offense but defense.

The coaching staff was imploring him get in the gap.

That was the big thing at practice last week is getting in the gap.

And they were really yelling at Josh Harris for the majority of last week's practice that we saw, But Josi Miles was It seemed a little bit disjointed out there.

In his first game.

It just couldn't get anything going.

Got an easy bucket late to be the last of the players to score.

I think all eleven scored for Indiana.

As for Connor and Wright, looking at a stat sheet doesn't really do anything for me when it comes to him.

I've seen him play for multiple years now, dating back to high school, and it's not going to be a stat sheet filling night every single night for him.

He'll have those games.

I think the zero of two from three he's taking two to three, two to four threes per game would be fine in a Darren DeVries offense.

He decided to avoid going for a layup at one point.

It was wide open layup on for the three as is, as you do in an exhibition game.

But he's going to be someone that does all the intangibles in a game against a competitive team.

It's really hard to get going in that aspect as that kind of player, as a glue guy kind of player against a team.

In August from Puerto Rico, Josh Harris, I think it was the next name that you mentioned, correct, all right.

It was one of those games where I think eighty five percent of those ninety percent of those points and rebounds came in the second half.

But he was using his size to his advantage in getting buckets and was a fairly efficient six of nine from the field with those ten rebounds.

One of two Hoosiers with a double double, like you said, probably lower on the depth chart, but a confidence boost, kind of like Trent Sisley and then Restitch.

We had no idea if he was gonna play.

He's wearing the number twenty one, even though on the roster his jersey's number thirteen.

That's how new he is to the team.

But he was pretty good.

He didn't really jump out necessarily in his nearly seventeen minutes on the floor, but just being there watching him warm up.

I know I accidentally posted a video of him missing a layup.

And you win some, you lose some, but his warm up routine, I don't know if I've seen that many threes made in a row, so there is potential.

And another thing is, sorry, go back to the warm ups.

Those weren't open looks that they were taking.

They were contested.

There was a big emphasis on contested threes during warm ups instead of just shooting around just to shoot.

The other thing I noticed was from one of the videos that you put in the highlights, which you don't usually see video of the bench in a highlight REROLD, but I thought it was interesting that you put that in there.

There was obviously a reason you did in terms of the fact that this was I don't know how many people were there, A couple hundred maybe, is that is that?

If that's that, yeah, okay, so you're you're playing a game on August sixth, that doesn't count for anything in Puerto Rico in front of less than a couple hundred people.

You're beating this team pretty convincingly in the fourth quarter, and the benches or I don't know, exactly when that clip was it was, it seemed to be in the second half.

The bench was up, cheering.

Everything was that like an consistent thing in terms of the energy.

I mean, that's what we saw in the open practice last week.

Was basically from the minute those guys jumped came into the gym, it was clapping.

It was everyone in constant movement, Everyone had a role, everyone was doing something.

And when I saw the video that you showed last night of the bench, that's instantly what popped into my mind.

It was there was nobody sitting down.

They were all cheering, they were all engaged, And to me, that's kind of how things need to be in terms of this team, because they're not going to go out there and win every game just based on the talent.

There's not a ton of NBA guys on this team.

But in terms of the camaraderie and the energy and the togetherness that they showed, to me, that's a good sign that the bench is interacting that way in a game that really means nothing.

In early August, yeah, it wasn't the entire game that they were standing, but everything good that would happened to made basket.

There was energy not only from the players but the coaching staff.

They were really trying to push energy and the camaraderie.

You saw it in that video that Indiana posted.

I think that was Tuesday, when they were touring around Old San Juan.

I was talking with someone, this team is so tight knit already here in August in.

This trip was meant for them to all get together and become a unit.

And then from those last eight weeks of practice that we've heard about to yesterday's game, you could see that this team was closer than teams in years past.

And like you said, they're not gonna win based off talent alone.

It's gonna be willing themselves to victories, willing each other to victory.

But that video I posted, because it was a forty five point game at the time, it was in the fourth quarter and you had bench players in.

You had to walk on in, and every single starter, including the guys that were also on the bench, were standing up and doing defense chance for their teammates.

And that's a very good sign because it's so easy, especially on a vacation trip, to just start getting squirrely and looking around and talking on the bench to each other.

But there was a focus the entire time, and then I think I posted in the highlights as well defensive play made in the first half, or the entire bench got up and it felt like they were all going to go pick the guy up.

I can't remember who got got knocked over, but there was a sense of urgency and a sense of togetherness in game one of this group.

So what's what's the what's the schedule for the rest of the week.

Obviously there's games on Saturday and Monday.

What what do Indiana fans have to look forward to, just in terms of the rest of this trip.

I think them is your expectation.

The competition levels should step up over the weekend and we should maybe get a better sense of of what we're looking at in terms of this Indiana basketball team.

We will get a good test of what we will see.

I think sad Day's game will be the better tests rather than the eleven am Monday game.

With the flight coming out against Serbian professional team Mega super Bet is.

They're playing playing the two in a row, and again, when you're playing a team twice in a couple of days, who knows what happens on the on the second day.

I agree with you.

The Saturday night contest seems like it'd be the one where they will be more energy maybe and more and it's it's it's in the bigger arena, I believe too, the one that's more in San Juan.

Yes, it is in Roberto Clemente believe.

But the only issue is is that there is a Bad Bunny concert.

He has a residency here in San Juan, so okay, might not have the crowd just given that probably whatever that place holds where he's going is going to be filled.

I won't be there.

I don't listen to Bad Bunny music.

But there there is a there's a sense of all right, got this game out of the way.

Now let's have a litmus test against a professional team with actual big guys.

You're going to see some big dudes out there, the big European guys, which you might see in a game against Illinois and Champagne in January.

So it's going to be a test to see will this lack of size hurt Indiana or will they be able to run a big team out of the gym with their speed.

Well, we'll look forward to your coverage and we'll obviously get your back here on the podcast at some point over the weekend or early next week to talk about that.

What do you have playing?

Just in terms of getting out and sight seeing, maybe seeing some things around the town.

What have you had a chance to experience so far.

We went around Old San Juan yesterday and that was a really cool area.

I've never been out to Puerto Rico before, so it was cool being a tourist.

Again.

I don't usually play tourists.

I don't like playing tourists, but I feel like I have to might go back down there or over there.

Was that just a walk for you guys, or it was an uber could have been a walk, but a little bit of a time crunch on a game day.

But there's a shuttle that goes to the beach.

There's no doubt I'll be playing in Atlantic Ocean waves at some point.

Good hopefully not by myself.

That'd be a little strange, but if I have to, I will.

But I'm excited to see the food food play here in San Juan.

I've heard a lot about it.

Caribbean style food, plantains, all that kind of stuff.

So it's gonna be a dangerous week.

Well, looking forward to it.

Josh We're thrilled to have you as a part of the team.

Glad you were able to make the trip down there.

I know everyone appreciate your coverage and all the multitasking you did on Wednesday night.

You only got to do it for two more games, so no pressure to keep that up.

And again, make sure if you're not falling Josh on on social media, you go ahead and do that.

Read all of our coverage on Inside the Hall.

Josh has a story up this morning about Trenton.

I did a recap, a quick recap last night.

There's highlights, there's press conference video.

There's even another post that kind of has a rundown of every player stats, so make sure you check that out.

Thanks everybody for listening.

Thanks Josh again for waking up early and coming on the show.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks everybody as always for listening.

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