Observations after catching up on everything here over the last several days-

Here's my conspiracy theory. Without evidence, I'm suggesting that some guys may have aftereffects of Covid. Many people who recovered easily say that they have continuing symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog.

Number one suspect is Kaifes. By the end of the 2019 season this guy was doing everything: he was on every loose ball, stealing rebounds, creating short range shots, and playing good defense. This year, although he's almost 40% on 3s, he's not getting any other shots and he doesn't seem to have his head in the game on either end of the court. That's not who he is at all. Or it could be taking a year off. Other suspects: Hall maybe; Kennedy has regressed a little. I thought Clemons for a while, but it looks more and more like it was the leg injury.

Like everyone else, I'm thrilled to see the development of Welch and I thought the Krutwig-Welch offense looked pretty cool. Some work to do on defense for Welch, but what a pleasant surprise.

As someone already mentioned when you're suffering through an 8 point (and counting) run, you want to get it to either Krutwig or Kennedy to take it to the basket to at least get fouled. (I'd say Hall too, but I don't want him to get fouled) You can go back to shooting 3s when the game gets back to normal, but you have to break the run.

I love Kennedy's skills. On the other hand, sometimes he dribbles way too much for our offense. To me it looks disruptive. I wonder if that's contributing to his decrease in minutes.

Indiana State effectively took Norris to the basket with bigger guys early in the first game. I don't know why they stopped doing that, but I hope we have a way to deal with it.

Big reminder from the double header: it's all about defense.

I’m not sure that Kaifes is underperforming because of COVID, he did tear his labrum last season. Who knows though it could be a mixture of both.

This is the elephant in the room. We'll probably never know what the real effects are on individuals, but it's hard not to jump to this conclusion when one sees just plain odd stuff happen on the court.

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I was told by someone (that I would trust to be accurate) that 4 of our players (which includes Frank) were really suffering from injuries ...and one, Kaifes might be season ending. that was a while ago.You can draw any conclusions that you wish based on the fact that he is here and playing...mine is that he is still feeling the effects of his injury and is still not in the physical condition he was in his freshman year.

I mean, that can’t be an easy injury to come back from. Something AJ Green will have to fight through next year as well.

It's all still speculation. Kaifes has played in every game save for St Francis when we rested several guys. That does indicate something could be off, but he very clearly got pulled from the second ISUb game because of the glaring defensive lapse.

We know that Frank (hasn't played) and Keith (season high minutes last game) were two of the other guys with injuries.

Point being, if Kaifes has a potentially season-sending injury, his season hasn't ended yet, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

FWIW, his hip surgery was like 18 months ago. It's a tough recovery, but once you're back, you're back. Hip should be fine.

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It really does seem like we've just been "banged up" across the board this year. I know they said that Marquise has been dealing with an ankle injury for most of the year as well; Keith's been wearing a knee wrap, and it looked like Cooper has shoulder tape(?) during this weekends game. Gotta think COVID + having to recondition during live competition plays a part in that.

I also actually thought the last game kind of showed why we haven't seen a lot of Tom at the four with Krut. Tom moves extremely well without the ball, but is a bit slower on the dribble, I don't think he's someone you can expect to drive an kick at this point (though maybe by next year). He was O.K. guarding the wings in limited time, but I don't think he's quick enough to guard the top end talent yet and while his interior defense is much better than it was, LaRavia was still able to back him down with relative ease. That all said he can be an absolute nightmare for opposing teams on the pick and roll though; he's missed a few quick passes under the basket, but with more reps... watch out. Someone compared him to Aundre Jackson and I think that's spot on.

So you can spin left and jump to conclusions as good as new?

Yep!

Great post, Blers. Forgot about Coop's taped up shoulder and about Marquise being kind of banged up.

Two games on ESPN national TV this weekend! Hope we're at full strength!

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Can we talk about Norris? He has shown quickness and OK passing. But overall, I think he has been a bit disappointing. Other than when he caught fire in the 2nd half vs Richmond, his three point shooting has been just OK. On offense, he has the ability with a quick first step to drive to the hoop, but with his size, he has no finishing ability and basically finds himself downlow with the only options being to kick out or dribble out (which sometimes works great, sometimes not). On defense, ISUb was really taking it to him. They inexplicably stopped that approach (even though it was working).

At this point, I think Clemons is the best PG on the roster.