Big Jack
- Decatur
I would agree if he just wants a shot at playing and no NIL is involved. We are gonna have extra ships unless DM and CH come back.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
Sounds like a good day.....
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
I can confirm there is an Iron Chef, loyalty version, coming. The mystery food is cottage cheese.
Big Jack
- Decatur
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
While I never believed he was some Xs and Os mastermind ... MAN, I was on the bandwagon for JFG in his first year on about December 17th or so...
- 12-0 record
- Ranked #10 in the nation
- Maui Invitational champs for the first time
- Had recently won at #10 Gonzaga
- Braggin' Rights showdown with #12 Mizzou on the horizion
- Recruiting momentum seemed really solid
Man, did it go south. Also unfortunate because John just seemed like a really likable guy.
The Cliff hat trick combined with the Quentin flip (on the same day!) was, both in retrospect and at the time, the biggest nut punch of all nut punches. Like the Basketball Gods decided to follow an upper cut to the gonads with...
...and destroy Illinois basketball for a decade.
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sacraig
- The desert
I wasn't that bothered by the Snife flip. Louisville was his dream school, being a local. I get it.
Cliff was cruel. He knew what he was doing.
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
I want to submit my humble apologies to Rob (and Aaron) Jordan and Malcolm and his dad for my poor memory and incorrect info. I met Rob and talked with him a few times at Scotty’s Brewhouse before games as he sat at the corner of the bar, with his laptop on the bar top, working. He was such a nice and friendly guy to us. I can’t believe I forgot his name. Yesterday was a rough day. Sorry, all.
Cliff was very low intelligence. I genuinely don't think he knew that was a dick move. He just thought it was funny.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
"Snakebites" was on the Loyalty Bingo card in those days. So many different things went wrong, often with a degree of randomness and usually with horrible timing. Recruiting disasters, injuries, player discipline issues, the works.
But with the benefit of hindsight and Underwood's success I think we can really see how much of being a program leader means A. doing what it takes to always be adding great players and B. making things go right.
Every "snakebite" that happened 3, 4, 5 times to Groce has happened to Underwood once. It's about how you respond.
The Cliff hat trick combined with the Quentin flip (on the same day!) was, both in retrospect and at the time, the biggest nut punch of all nut punches. Like the Basketball Gods decided to follow an upper cut to the gonads with...
...and destroy Illinois basketball for a decade.
Watch this at playback speed .25.
We were suck a snake bitten program for so long... we deserve all the success we are getting now.
"NIL" has aways been a thing, except Illinois refused to play it. Bringing it to the light was the best thing that happened to this program.
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Planning your day in advance is a good practice.
didn't we do that in the 60's?Yes. Sometimes I go through all the adversity that Underwood has gone through that likely would have sunk some of our prior coaches. To wit,
1. Losing Mr Basketball and having him transfer to one of our biggest rivals.
2. Failing to land EJ Liddell
3. Losing your back court of the future to transfer (Ace/Belo).
4. Having your preseason all conference/all American watch PG get concussed in the first game, miss most of the year, and never really recover.
5. Losing your whole coaching staff in one offseason.
I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting. But Underwood has weathered his fair share of storms. Gives me confidence that no matter what happens we will be fine, it’s just a matter of degree. Losing an assistant or losing out on a couple of our top transfer targets if that happens isn’t a big deal. We will pivot and find a good assistant and good players and keep rolling.
Retro62
- North Bethesda, Maryland
I think, for Loyalty, "Best Stressed" is a better category.
hooraybeer
- Pittsburgh, PA
Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of major knee surgery. Definitely a hard pass knowing that
Don’t forget gif master!
uiba99
I'd rather be at Allerton
I'm on day three of Covid isolation (which isn't bad for a mom tbh but I just got back from Vegas (work conference) so my poor husband is on week 2 of flying solo) so this stuff is getting me THROUGH, along with Ken Burns documentaries.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
The thing that made me an Underwood beleiver is when he admitted (to himself) the pressure defense was not working and scrapped it. Those that adapt survive. Now he's doing a great job adapting to the portal era.
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