Nebraska 75, Illinois 60 POSTGAME

#26      

FinalFour88

Charlotte, NC
Have to laugh at all the Div. 1 coaches and assistants posting here with all the solutions to our problems. I did not see today’s game, but have watched every other game this year. The product on the floor falls short of what we would like to see, but it’s still better than Groce-ball or Weber-ball. We knew this year was not going to be what we want to see in Illini BB, but yet we insist on believing we’re going to turn into KY or Duke in a couple of years. Weber and Groce left us with fecal matter for talent, and it takes time to recover from that. Any other expectations beyond .500 for this year were delusional. I think that’s where we’ll end up, if maybe a touch above, with an eye towards a tournament team next year and beyond.

I’ll try to enjoy watching the games this year and not throw things at my tv, but I certainly won’t let our flagship sports define my outlook on life.

I L L

Are you serious that this is better than the Illini teams Weber put on the floor? Weber's worst Illini team was his last one. That team would destroy the current Illini. Give Weber credit for what he's accomplished in his career. Underwood has a long way to go before he matches it.
 
#28      

Deleted member 236589

D
Guest
What I don’t understand is why other coaches can just come in and win. Ohio state and Indiana both have teams that weren’t supposed to be good yet they are. Did this program really get left that high and dry by Groce? I just don’t get it.
Underwood lost the class that Groce had in place, then the transfers, then he lost his own recruits after one season and hasn't replaced them with enough size, speed or ability since.

Losing Tilmon, JCL, Greg E, Finke, Smith, Black...that's a lot of shooting, it's a lot of size and it's a lot of athleticism that went out the door in less than 2 years.
 
#29      

SKane

Tennessee
Have to laugh at all the Div. 1 coaches and assistants posting here with all the solutions to our problems. I did not see today’s game, but have watched every other game this year. The product on the floor falls short of what we would like to see, but it’s still better than Groce-ball or Weber-ball. We knew this year was not going to be what we want to see in Illini BB, but yet we insist on believing we’re going to turn into KY or Duke in a couple of years. Weber and Groce left us with fecal matter for talent, and it takes time to recover from that. Any other expectations beyond .500 for this year were delusional. I think that’s where we’ll end up, if maybe a touch above, with an eye towards a tournament team next year and beyond.

I’ll try to enjoy watching the games this year and not throw things at my tv, but I certainly won’t let our flagship sports define my outlook on life.

I L L

This is wrong on so many levels and personally insulting to Paul, Richardson, Abrams, Egwu and others. At the very least they all knew how to play good defense and had a coach who actually coached defense. Plus Weber has been gone for 6+ years. That's an eternity in college basketball.
 
#30      
Are you serious that this is better than the Illini teams Weber put on the floor? Weber's worst Illini team was his last one. That team would destroy the current Illini. Give Weber credit for what he's accomplished in his career. Underwood has a long way to go before he matches it.
Let's not kid ourselves..Weber ball was really hard to watch in the back half of his Illini career. Last yr was a more enjoyable game to watch. This year has been strange. Maybe the players are just way over matched due to their age. This team looks like trash right now and that is on Underwood.
 
#31      

RedRocksIllini

Morrison, CO
Are you serious that this is better than the Illini teams Weber put on the floor? Weber's worst Illini team was his last one. That team would destroy the current Illini. Give Weber credit for what he's accomplished in his career. Underwood has a long way to go before he matches it.
This is so, so painfully true.
 
#32      

illini80

Forgottonia
Have to laugh at all the Div. 1 coaches and assistants posting here with all the solutions to our problems. I did not see today’s game, but have watched every other game this year. The product on the floor falls short of what we would like to see, but it’s still better than Groce-ball or Weber-ball. We knew this year was not going to be what we want to see in Illini BB, but yet we insist on believing we’re going to turn into KY or Duke in a couple of years. Weber and Groce left us with fecal matter for talent, and it takes time to recover from that. Any other expectations beyond .500 for this year were delusional. I think that’s where we’ll end up, if maybe a touch above, with an eye towards a tournament team next year and beyond.

I’ll try to enjoy watching the games this year and not throw things at my tv, but I certainly won’t let our flagship sports define my outlook on life.

I L L
I'll give that you have a great outlook, but for your prediction to be correct, my quick math shows we need to go 14-8 the rest of the way. I would love to hear where you think those 14 wins will come from.
 
#33      
We can’t shoot. Small ball can’t work if you can’t shoot. That is always the caveat. Ayo’s finishing at the rim has also been...bad.

We make no contact at all on the screens for our cutters, particularly cutter one. Cutter 2 can be hard to screen for, or the right play to not screen at all. But there is no excuse to whiff on cutter one screens.

The way giorgi sits the ball on his hip in the 2 man game is infuriating. It’s good for 2 turnovers a game.

We foul a lot. No doubt. But we also get no slack on the 50/50 calls. The giorgi foul in the trap at halfcourt set me off. And the Nebraska’s player broke the cylinder in the same way in the corner, that I think ended in a travel.

I also wonder if the fact the our defense gives so many layups gets the other team in a such a rhythm that they make more difficult shots than normal. Even when we force bad shots I feel like the other team hits them at a higher than typical rate.

Also did Trent get fouled on a 3 and only shoot 2 free throws?
 
#34      

FinalFour88

Charlotte, NC
Let's not kid ourselves..Weber ball was really hard to watch in the back half of his Illini career. Last yr was a more enjoyable game to watch. This year has been strange. Maybe the players are just way over matched due to their age. This team looks like trash right now and that is on Underwood.

You enjoyed watching a 4-14 Big Ten campaign last season? I understand some styles of play are more fun to watch than others, but sports comes down to wins and losses. I'll take a hard-to-watch 9-9 Illini team over a fast-paced 4-14 squad all day.
 
#35      

illini80

Forgottonia
You enjoyed watching a 4-14 Big Ten campaign last season? I understand some styles of play are more fun to watch than others, but sports comes down to wins and losses. I'll take a hard-to-watch 9-9 Illini team over a fast-paced 4-14 squad all day.
I agree. Yes, some (many) of Weber's games were hard to watch. But apathy was not an issue. A thread like this would be 15 or 20 pages long already. It was time for him to go, but we have continued to regress since then and we are very close to rock bottom.
 
#36      

FinalFour88

Charlotte, NC
I agree. Yes, some (many) of Weber's games were hard to watch. But apathy was not an issue. A thread like this would be 15 or 20 pages long already. It was time for him to go, but we have continued to regress since then and we are very close to rock bottom.
I've been watching Illini basketball for a pretty long time now (I'm 43 years old), and I've always been locked into games. The saddest thing currently for me is that these games are legitimately boring to watch. I feel bad for saying that, but these games are BORING. Seems like every game we're just shooting three-pointers and hoping 12-15 of them will go in so we can finally win. The most frustrating thing is this defense. Underwood has a high-pressure system that's supposed to be tough to play against, but this defense is terrible. I think you have to put that on the coach more than anyone else.
 
#37      

SuperMetroid

Evanston
I don’t remember EVER turning off a game - in 35 years. EVER. Did it today at the 25 minute mark. it actually hurts to think how far this program has fallen. Weber has the 12th ranked team in the nation. We have this.

Kudos to you. You held out a LOT longer than most of us.
 
#39      
Illinois has not lost 6 of their first 8 games since the 1906 season....second season in program history. I would say this falls shy of any rebuilding expectations
 
#40      
Wow what a hot mess this team and program are. This team does nothing well and almost everything that requires basketball skills and knowledge poorly. I don't even know where to start. I guess 1) stop fouling, 2) stop the dribble drives leading to layups. After these are fixed, see where you are at. I really hope that if needed, Whitman has a short leash here. Hopefully Underwood can figure it out because I am not ready to throw in the towel, but my God we are awful.
 
#41      
Underwood seems whipped in the press conf....like he's at a loss. We were out-matched tonight....but you have to wonder if a super tough nonconference was the best for this team.

I really don't care about W and Ls but would love to see steady progress and consistent play....I'm still searching for that.
 
#42      
It does appear that BU has decided to play his system at all costs for the future. However, I agree with you that that could backfire spectacularly. Recruiting may become much tougher if this season does not resurrect itself.

Is he? Because it looks like we have really dialed down the pressure that was causing us to give up a layup line earlier in the season.

Here are the things I see. No communication or fight on defense. There were points today where we switched everything and people were getting so lost in the switching that NE was getting easy layups or we’d foul on late recoveries. It was a completely disjointed mess. In the second half we settled down some and it looked somewhat better.

On offense, I still can’t figure out what we are trying to run. Guys rarely cut. I’m pretty sure that’s why little Underwood got so much tick early, he’d do what Brad was asking. The only thing we do consistently is the post handoff, and NE had that scouted and easily took it away. We never adjusted.
 
#43      
We don't have the players to compete right now and currently only have one 2019 recruit. This team is going to struggle to win more than 3-4 Big 10 games unless something dramatically changes. Without an influx of talent from transfers or recruiting next year may not be much better. Lets be truthful this is not football where it takes 40-50 players to turn things around this is basketball where turn around can happen much quicker because a couple players can change things dramatically. I will give Underwood some rope this year but if there is not significant improvement by next year he is in deep trouble. I never thought with the players our state produces I would ever see the Illinois basketball program this bad. The question has to be asked how many power 5 teams are poorer than us at this time? Not many
 
#44      

mattcoldagelli

The Transfer Portal
This is the most relevent question to ask. The answer is recruiting. Our brand aint sellin.

Underwood isn’t getting it done in terms of game planning, rotations, player development. And oh yeah, he’s a minus recruiter to this point.

I was over the moon when we hired him, but this is bad and I’m struggling to see the signs pointing in a better direction.
 
#45      

westms77

Gilbert, AZ
It does appear that BU has decided to play his system at all costs for the future. However, I agree with you that that could backfire spectacularly. Recruiting may become much tougher if this season does not resurrect itself.

He might be playing his system as part of his soon to be job interview at Western Illinois. I never in my life expected Illinois basketball the be the utter disaster it is but here we are. All of the optimism I had after the Gonzaga game has been flushed down the drain. There is no excuse for this. Sure, toss them all out there. I’ve used them all but this is nothing more than a sad joke. “Give him more time”, I’ve said. Truly though this will still be a lower half of the BIG team in 2 years unless something drastic happens. Very, very sad.
 
#47      

I Bomb

Stylin' and Profilin'
Seems like the game plan for every team facing us is: 1. drive the lane, you probably already have a size/speed mismatch. 2. If that doesn't get an instant layup, find the guy whose man rotated late to try to cover you - he's wide open.
 
#48      
Kane not capable of playing at this time and may never be able to play at this level. I am shocked he wasn't immediately red shirted.

Not picking on you as your's seems to be a common opinion, but...

If we aren't sure Kane can EVER play at this level, why would we redshirt him? I like giving him the garbage minutes just to see what we've got. Hasn't been pretty so far, that's for sure, but he could grow a ton in 1-2 years
 
#49      
I think they may have all ready decided he won't ever be able to play otherwise it would be obvious to redshirt him if only going to play a minute or two a night.
 
#50      

Deleted member 645583

D
Guest
Anyone know what the worst start in program history is? Are we getting close?


I took a quick look at media quide.

This season , through first 8 games, ranks with the worst at 2-6.

1960-61: 3-5 (finished season 9-15, 5-9 Big 10)

1965-66: 3-5 (12-12, 8-6)

And the winner through first 8: 1906-07: 1-7 (finished 0-8 in Big 10). Losses to Peoria and Chicago YMCAs and Wabash!