Same old with this squad, where to even begin. Damonte - Minutes should be limited, to posters talking about his "grading" lol, he is an absolute non-threat on offense, he should only be in game to provide a rest to other players when we are on defense or in extreme foul trouble. Not the reason we lost but its so apparent to anyone that knows anything about the game.
Our recruiting of players with intangible skills has been abysmal. Basketball IQ and mental toughness are almost non-existent on our squad, its been that way for years. This team is the most athletic we have had in some time and that doesn't seem to translate to wins. Case in point, Luke Kasubke, I watched him own Ayo's team in the Highland tournament. Granted Ayo was injured (not injured enough to prevent him from cheap shotting Luke in the face and drawing a technical). Adam Miller was a stud in that game. I digress, we need a player like him. Good decision making and great shooter. I see big things from him at K State. Seems like the type of player that goes to Iowa or Wisky and drops 25 on us.
Kofi appears to be an exception to these recruiting issues, he's very mature for a freshman.
Ayo. Talented, but not as talented as we thought. Average shooting skills, handles, and decision making. Good size and decent penetration skills. His lack of improvement and development is evident and Adam Miller isn't coming here. His arrival hurt Trent's game and the staff has done nothing to counteract this (that is noticeable).
Hero ball. A combination of poor chemistry (not recruiting intangibles) and no real offensive scheme. For having two new coaches since then, I see so much of later years "Weber" offense with no actual ball screens. I honestly don't understand what our weave hopes to accomplish besides making things easy on opposing defense.
Three point shot attempts. This one is just a personal pet peeve of mine. We shoot too many threes. I don't have the statistics to validate this assertion, but we lose so much momentum and potential rebounds shooting transition threes. I can understand (but not appreciate) a last second shot clock three, since we have no offense, but transitions 3's are momentum killers. We do not have good shooters and have not recruited any.
Giorgi/Kofi. Did our staff not realize this summer that it would be challenge to utilize these players simultaneously? Did practice sessions not reveal this?
Penetrating to directly under/behind the basket and passing back out to perimeter. We do this constantly. Penetrate to behind the backboard and throw a pass (while teetering out of bounds) past 2-3 defenders. Turnover waiting to happen.
Learning the defense. Previous posters have made excuses these guys are just learning the new defense and need more time. Defense is not complicated, see ball and man, defending passing lanes/trap or don't, play zone or a match up, switch or don't, and block out. These kids have been playing defense for years. The scheme is different than last year, but it's not complicated. I don't put this on the coaches because its too simple to coach. We have players that are not athletic enough to stay in front of some opposing players and too low of basketball IQ to follow simple directions. We need to occasionally slip back into last years defense to exert pressure, we have the bigs to defend the back door that we were previously lacking.
Kool Aid. Previous posters are also complaining about our fan base declaring were a final four team after beating Michigan and then complaining were done after "one" loss. The reality, the upper ranks of the big ten are not nearly as good as their rank would suggest. There is a lot of parity in the league and away games will as usual be brutal. This loss was a huge blow to morale and was lost in an uninspired manner. As others have correctly pointed out, its not necessarily that we lost, its how we lost. This Missouri team is bad.
Brad Underwood. This Missouri loss is his worst loss at Illinois. This team has about as much talent as were going to get at Illinois until we become more relevant. He has to win with it, or we will never climb back into a top 25 program. If we give the coaches the benefit of the doubt, that theie schemes are effective and the players are being properly instructed how to execute them, we are in big trouble.
