He needs to develop better instincts to know when to score and when to distribute. He can’t just do strictly one or the other. He needs to expand his game.Another thing I thought of when reading the postgame comments - didn't we hear about 3 games ago that Underwood told Trent to be more of a distributor? I think there is a direct correlation between that and Trent's poor performance's ... just let Trent be Trent, he's a phenomenal scorer - why not let him get buckets?
I would rather him just be who he was than try to mold into something different. Trent is an ELITE scorer - just let him score if he can't be the distributor you wish him to be?He needs to develop better instincts to know when to score and when to distribute. He can’t just do strictly one or the other. He needs to expand his game.
As much as I would love for that to happen....Jones looked lost, standing around, hence the Coach speak on tempering expectations for him...Griffin will be our next Williams with a shot imo. Williams is exactly what we need from a 3...occasional offense, all the time intangibles.
I don’t consider him an elite scorer. He’s too streaky, and doesn’t really shoot a high enough percentage to be considered elite. He’s more a high quantity scorer, but needs to put up a lot of shots to do so. That’s not very good team play.I would rather him just be who he was than try to mold into something different. Trent is an ELITE scorer - just let him score if he can't be the distributor you wish him to be?
Let's blame Underwood for the inability of our players to catch a wide open pass?
I suppose, if disgust is an emotion. Same nonsense over and over but it's never on the coach, right? Whatever.Wow, emotions control your post much.
Northwestern's last possession, whatever Collins drew up, completely broke down, took a wild 3, missed, got a loose rebound and made a shot.
Our last possession, whatever Underwood drew up, kids fumbled the ball, took a wild 3, missed, time expired.
The prior possession (shot clock violation), whatever Underwood drew up, defense forced it to break down, young team (Georgi) looses track of clock.
What these games typically come down to (nail biters) are kids making a play, very rarely does a coach truly influence a lot. They made the final play, we didn't.
Still wish we would see more of our Freshman, mistakes or not, we're losing regardless.
I suppose, if disgust is an emotion. Same nonsense over and over but it's never on the coach, right? Whatever.
Other than maybe KofI announcing his commitment this is the best news I have heard all day.
These kids care. A lot. I saw great emotion out of Ayo, Kipper and ADR today. I don’t want to go as far as saying they “just need one win” to break this thing open because I just don’t think we have the experience and talent yet. A win against a good team will go far for this team. We will win a few B10 games this year because there will be a few games that we finally put 40 minutes together. I will say this for the 100th time. We need Tevian and Griffin on the floor as much as possible. They are going to make a ton of mistakes, but they aren’t going to get better playing on scout team in practice against AJ and Kip who are every other team’s least athletic player.
Coach Underwood is responsible for "drawing up the play", one of the assistant Coaches is assigned the duty of reminding every player multiple times the time left on the shot clock. Especially making sure the primary ball handlers watch the shot clock. I listened to the post game on radio. It was mentioned by both Illinois radio commentators that Coach Underwood practices these plays over and over. It comes down to player execution. Each time the game is on the line, the players are tight and consequently fumble the ball, then panic. The end result, a loss. It was also mentioned that Kipper was supposed to break back door for a game tying two, maybe also drawing a foul. The other option was to set a screen for Ayo a three. But we know that no Illini fought for the long rebound before the second chance made three, the play before the shot clock violation. Just keep backing up, watch each empty pocession or missed defensive assignment that lead to scores. It all adds up to a loss. The Coach is frustrated, the Players are frustrated and we fans are frustrated.The shot clock violation is on BU. Ask any high school or college coach and 99% of them would have called a timeout in that situation to get a shot, even if it is a 23 foot three. The play at the end of the game and the loss are on the players. I am not as high on BU as I was when he was hired, but there were enough plays left out there today to say we should have won that game. At some point accountability is on the players to execute and make plays.
Interesting that Whitman was in the post game press conference at the 9:35 mark. Arms folded and looked like he had been on a bender.
And for the 100th time you are wrong. They need to earn their playing time in practice. It seems pretty obvious that they are not able to outperform AJ and Kip who in your own words are every other dlteams least athletic player. If Tev and Grif can't be better than those two every day they don't deserve to play ahead of them. Also this team can not afford for them to be making a TON of mistakes trying to figure it out. Again, that's why practice is for.
I agree with you on Jones. But what the heck has he been doing the last 2 months?
I hate to blame officiating in this game - and that's not what I'm trying to do - but there were some really bad block/charge calls (in fact, I don't think there were any charge calls, all blocks) but there was one on DeLaRosa and another on Williams that led to 4 points via FTs that just memorized me in the last 8 minutes of so.
Is there a stat for the amount of charges a team tries to take per game? I feel like we would be at the top of that list. And usually it’s a foul on us.
I would put AJ on staff in a heartbeat based on his commitment to this program and character he shows. But these traits don’t overshadow the fact that against B10 talent he disappears.
He played 15 minutes today and had “0’s” in every column. In 30 minutes against IU he had 2pts and 4 reb and 1 assist. So I will give him 6 pts and 4 reb in 45 minutes. I won’t say anything about his D in the IU game because I think Romeo scores at will on anyone in a man to man situation at the college level . 2 TO’s as well.
AG has played 10 minutes in past two games with 5 rebounds. 3 TO’s.
I am in no way saying AJ needs to watch from the end of the bench. But AG and TJ would benefit from splitting 15 of those 45 and in no way would that hurt our chances of losing one of the 3-5 games we have a chance of winning the rest of this season. It would however give them opportunity to gain valuable experience. If after 5/6 games they still suck then they go back to the bench and TU can have the minutes...
Kipper is harder to take minutes from because of his potential to actually show up and play like and all conference player. So confusing and sad.
All I am saying is these freshman don’t get game speed experience in practice as they are almost certainly running schemes other than ours. Give them consistent game minutes and they may surprise you. What do we have to lose??? BU talks up Kipper more than just about any other player and continues to put him in the starting lineup and he is rumored to be leaving the program. Build for the future.
We're talking about two different things altogether. You're talking about a couple plays at the end. I'm talking about everything that led up to those failed plays as well as a whole lot of our other struggles. What I see is a team that doesn't do the little things well (set screens, box out, communicate, etc etc). This makes it very difficult to accomplish the bigger things (run a coherent last possession, win games, run some complex system).I’m a HUGE Underwood critic as a coach. From his complete ignorance that we don’t have the personnel to run the ad he wants, to his odd player rotations and this weird offense that creates no space whatsoever.... but today’s loss wasn’t on him (except the timeout with 7.5 seconds to go - I would have just let Trent make a play off the inbounds - calling a TO there allowed NW to draw up a defensive possession as well)
I guess my point is that we were up 1 with the ball and about a minute to go - we shad a shot clock violation on the players - failed to get a rebound (players) and then some weird pass/handoffs that led to a long 3 at the end (players)
And there it is....If the foul calling wasn't such a disparity we would have won going away....clearly a home crew for NW....
I agree completely ....I commend AJ's work ethic and loyalty to the program but he is not talented enough to be a B1G player worthy of starting for a 4-11 team that needs to get experience for AG and TJ....Sorry, but it is true and BU needs to realize that asap.... He always plays better in the non conference games but DISAPPEARS in B1G play ....The stats above don't lie and in the IU game his defense was non existent...