I'm not calling for BU to be fired but who cares about Kenpom rankings? We don't WIN games. We were under .500 Underwood's first two seasons. That used to be unheard of in Illiniland. This year, we've lost to ever serious competitor.
Maryland 59, Illinois 58 POSTGAME
I look at it this way, we took the 3rd ranked team down to the wire. Should have won. Could have won. Holding them to 59 points is a very good def game. It was a stab in the heart. On to the Mi game.
Yeah...realistically many of us expected 2 losses at this point. Miami game was senseless.
We just need to keep same Intensity and confidence we had in 1st half at Maryland and call that our new normal play and we should be fine in most games. The end of game situational coaching needs improvement in order for us to be a regular dancer in future, IMO. Hoping a guard can drive and draw a foul is not a great default for our end of games.
How come other teams have plays for certain situations. Don't we practice scenarios like up or down two or three points with a certain time left on the clock. I am tired of the Reno Gray dribble around at the end of the game. If we ran a planned play and it didn't succeed, so be it. A friend of mine was a scrub on Bobby Knight's Indiana teams. They always practiced situational basketball to the point they didn't even have to call a timeout. Jeesh !!!!! How hard is that?
PostersLastStand
- Wayne County, IL
I signed off Loyalty last night before I mouthed off too much
I really tried to stay positive, but I couldn't. When you you have been "jilted" so many times it is just hard to be positive. As a life long Illini fan, heartbreak manifests itself in every possible way. Yes it's just one game, but I find I am invested, probably way too much in all teams Illini. I know I do not find this solely a me thing, but reading this posts, it's an us thing. We love our Illini, all teams Orange and Blue. I drink the Orange Kool-Aide, I bleed Blue, I hope we will win on the last play, but in the back of my mind...
I really tried to stay positive, but I couldn't. When you you have been "jilted" so many times it is just hard to be positive. As a life long Illini fan, heartbreak manifests itself in every possible way. Yes it's just one game, but I find I am invested, probably way too much in all teams Illini. I know I do not find this solely a me thing, but reading this posts, it's an us thing. We love our Illini, all teams Orange and Blue. I drink the Orange Kool-Aide, I bleed Blue, I hope we will win on the last play, but in the back of my mind...
Cody Westerland via the front page of loyalty...
"With 2.1 seconds left, Maryland hit first of two free throws to go up 59-58 on Illinois. Brad Underwood then used his final timeout between FTs.
Maryland intentionally missed and Illinois didn’t get a shot off before buzzer.
That’s coaching malpractice — as dumb as it gets"
Apparently I'm not in the minority here
"With 2.1 seconds left, Maryland hit first of two free throws to go up 59-58 on Illinois. Brad Underwood then used his final timeout between FTs.
Maryland intentionally missed and Illinois didn’t get a shot off before buzzer.
That’s coaching malpractice — as dumb as it gets"
Apparently I'm not in the minority here
Tacomallini
- Washington State
FIFY, Lou
PostersLastStand
- Wayne County, IL
But there is a next game, we will win despite my trepidation. Someone will step up and make the shot, the pass, the winning play will be executed perfectly and the refs call Will go our way. And Illini Nation will be healed for that moment and my personal demon squelched. I hopefully more moments on more moments happen until happiness overtakes heartache. 
PostersLastStand
- Wayne County, IL
Knight berated the refs the whole game too, getting every call at the end of game. I would like to know how many close games he won or lost not calling a timeout. By the way was never a Bob Knight fan, but I thought I heard he has severe dementia, which no one should have to suffer from, my thoughts and prayers to him (and for everyone suffering from this horrible disease).
Chilliniwek
- Chicagoland
And that's not really how that play went. Sorry TI, I should have responded to Lou himself, getting old!
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BU is 3-20 in away games at Illinois. Groce won 5 away games his first year, including 2 against ranked opponents. Then his second year he won 5 away games, including 2 against ranked opponents. He won at Gonazaga, MSU twice, and Iowa twice. But BU's three wins against Rutgers, OSU, and Grand Canyon clearly show he knows what he's doing unlike that last moron of a coach.
I’m glad we played it close but I have two thoughts. First, the timeout after Cowans first FT is just incredibly poor judgement. If you have two then fine. But you can’t burn it there so you can’t stop the clock right away.
Second, we lost mainly because we stopped pushing the pace. We have been and will continue to be a poor half court offensive team. The weave isn’t an offense. If we don’t get out in transition we struggle to get any kind of decent shot.
Second, we lost mainly because we stopped pushing the pace. We have been and will continue to be a poor half court offensive team. The weave isn’t an offense. If we don’t get out in transition we struggle to get any kind of decent shot.
This team right now has no one that can get his own shot and that will be a problem until they are able to fix it
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
This is so absurd. Expecting Illinois basketball to be in the tournament pretty much every year is not some "kids today" thing. Neither is expecting an experienced team with a coach in his third year to be able to finish games.
Groce inherited a good team
I’ve had some time to digest this loss and am still bitter.
I think it’s because this is...what...the third excruciatingly awful way we’ve lost to Maryland? I mean, do we EVER just get beat by them? I’m sure I’m missing a loss here or there but, to wit, I remember 4 games.
1 win
The Damonte overthrow when we were AHEAD
The Alstork foul with no time left
And now the phantom loose ball foul that wouldn’t have been called during the first 39 minutes and 57.9 seconds.
E.X.C.R.U.C.I.A.T.I.N.G.
I think it’s because this is...what...the third excruciatingly awful way we’ve lost to Maryland? I mean, do we EVER just get beat by them? I’m sure I’m missing a loss here or there but, to wit, I remember 4 games.
1 win
The Damonte overthrow when we were AHEAD
The Alstork foul with no time left
And now the phantom loose ball foul that wouldn’t have been called during the first 39 minutes and 57.9 seconds.
E.X.C.R.U.C.I.A.T.I.N.G.
IIRC, those actually happened in the same game. Damonte's overthrow in regulation which allowed Maryland to tie it up and then Alstork's foul in OT.
Damonte's overthrow is still one of the biggest oncourt nutpunches in recent memory. Alstork flashed open right in front of him. He gets it to him and we likely win :frustrated:
My mind must not be able to cope with the double nut punch in the same game and divided it for my memory to better deal with.
Ugh
In year 2, when he again won 5 true road games with 2 of those being against ranked opponents, he had 3 Weber players (Abrams, Egwu, Bertrand) and 7 new guys he brought in.
BMoreIllini
- Baltimore, MD
This board kills me. I was at the game and I had to sit on the shuttle back to the parking lot for 40 minutes listening to a bus full of excited Maryland fans so trust me, it was a painful loss for me too, but we have 3 losses so far this season. 2 of those we were supposed to lose and the other one we should have won, but it was far from a gimme. We should have won tonight - we make more than 2 FG in the last ~11 minutes, Cowen doesn't hit that 35' jumper, we call a timeout and run a good play at the end of the game, etc. The fact all of those went south is excruciating, but if we would have played them close from behind the whole game and lost by 1 the board wouldn't be having this meltdown, it's the way in which we lost it is causing the meltdown here. To a point I get it, but a loss is a loss and this is a game we were supposed to lose handily, so enjoy seeing what this team is capable of. For everyone putting this loss solely on BU - he isn't the one that made 6 FGs in the entirety of the 2nd half and only 2 in the last 11 minutes. This loss goes on everyone, I'm sure if you asked the players they would agree that they didn't play well enough in the second half to win.
Side note: you should have heard all the Maryland fans complaining about the refs after the game. I honestly didn't think they were bad one way or the other. The long pauses to check replays were frustrating though.
Side note: you should have heard all the Maryland fans complaining about the refs after the game. I honestly didn't think they were bad one way or the other. The long pauses to check replays were frustrating though.
I remember a statistic in the late 90's that was made by the announcers while watching an Illinois vs. Indiana game. It was winning percentage in 3 point or less games. The announcer said Bobby Knight had won nearly 70% of his games that were decided by 3 points or less. Our beloved Lou Henson was around 40% in those games.
They said that Indiana (or coach Knight) made sure his best and most trusted players had the ball with the game on the line and that's why they had a high winning percentage.
Not sure if any service publishes statistics on games won and lost in 3 point game outcomes or less, but to me (in my opinion) that would be a very interesting comparison of coaches. My guess is that great coaches win a significantly higher percentage of close games than mediocre coaches.
Illini in Indiana
- Indiana
This games still stings. 3 takeaways from this side of my TV.
1) We are definitely a better team. But we don't know how to win the close ones
2) Why do we have so much trouble with turnovers? We have Andre, Trent, & Ayo
3) From my view, I'd rather have Trent with the ball in his hands with 5 seconds left. Ayo will be the Pro, ...but Trent has the magic.
1) We are definitely a better team. But we don't know how to win the close ones
2) Why do we have so much trouble with turnovers? We have Andre, Trent, & Ayo
3) From my view, I'd rather have Trent with the ball in his hands with 5 seconds left. Ayo will be the Pro, ...but Trent has the magic.
You can’t seriously look at the first two years as BU teams. He lost eight players in a complete rebuild. What kempom shows is the steady progress he’s made and with the recruiting class he has coming in, there’s no reason to believe the improvements won’t continue.
The program needs coaching stability to ensure future recruits that this team is staying together and that they won’t have to worry about transferring out in the event of a coaching change. Even Lou Henson had a slow start. After his fifth year things started coming together.
Look at Penn State! PC is in his eighth year (iirc) and has been a bubble team in recent years. He has them currently at 24 in kenpom. They easily could have changed coaches and started the vicious cycle of starting over again, but chose to stick with him and continue to improve his program. (please don’t hammer me for comparing us to Penn State. I’m only stating a point that BU has begun to right the ship and needs more time too).
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
I think you can be happy with the overall direction of the program, while being pretty unhappy with our current performance. Will we get where we want to someday? I sure hope so. Are we currently underperforming? Absolutely. Should BU be fired? It all depends on how you think the latter feeds into the former. Different people will evaluate that very differently.
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
Honestly I don't mind the comparison to Ped St on the b-ball side. That's really the level we've been for the past decade. I do agree on the stability thing to an extent. I really think BU is figuring things out as he goes along. He's learning how tough it is to be a HC in the B1G, where he's facing probably the best coaching fraternity of any conference. It's a far cry from SFA and even Okla St in the Big 12. Big Ten is a grind it out conference with a lot of elite defensive teams that will wear down a team over the course of a season. Requires a toughness mentally and physically that a coach has to instill while bringing an A+ gameplan every time or else you'll get beaten out of the gym.
The good news is that BU seems to be willing to adjust his system to his players and seems to be humble and wanting to solve this riddle. I truly believe he wants to win and be successful here and be a top coach and team in the B1G, but he's taking his lumps right now for sure. Because of his willingness to so totally adjust his system of course it takes time to gel and develop that chemistry as a team. We haven't seen it yet fully but it has gotten better it seems the last couple games (second half Miami and most of this past game). Obviously he still has things to work on - situational coaching being one of them (especially how to hold on to a lead and end-game situations/clock management). IF he can fix those we can be a very good team. Even the team we all expected to be earlier this season. I hope it happens this year because I think long term he can be quite successful here, but I don't think he has that much longer to prove it. Make it happen, Brad!