In Episode 1 of Xs and Joes, Mike and Bob provide the backstory on their decades-long research project and conversation trying to identify what it takes to build a winner in college basketball. Then they jump right into exploring one of the Big Questions they've been wrestling with since 1996.

Here's the outline for the episode:

Segment One: The Conversation at 7th and Washington that launched the primary question.

1) Dec. 7th, 1996...A Date That Lives In Infamy.

2) Comparing the two teams

3) The Initial Findings: Talent does matter, and IU was quite talented in their heyday

Segment Two: The Hoosiers Mythos: The movie is not a documentary.

1) Mike's Process: How Excel aggregated the paradigm?

2) Elements of Winning Programs: Two Good Examples and Butler.

3) "Convincing" the Barbershop

Segment Three: Is talent enough?

1) 2015: Wisconsin Saves the 1976 Legacy

2) The Tobacco Road Scrolls: Dean Smith on System vs Flexible Coaching

3) What this means for IU right now? Can Woodson get "buy in"?

Segment Four: 1996-97 Season Epilogue

1) A Trip to Tobacco Road, A Disaster, and An Open Practice: recognizing just how special the sauce has to be.

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