Just needs to make the fundamentally correct play. No argument about his talent.
Houston 68, Illinois 53 Postgame
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I purchased some cameos from the players today. I find it a great way to say thanks to them personally.
Heartbreaking to hear trent talk about the Twitter trolls. They all deserve better than the toxic posts. I hope that 99 percent of twitter posts are positive. I may have to sign up for social media to let them all know how much trent and the crew have meant to me and my family this year and over the past few years.
From a pub crawl in London today, I could not watch the beloved. I did follow on line, and commend these young men on what appeared to be a valiant effort.
Again, I didn’t see the game...but until fairly late it appeared we were in the hunt.
I have not seen stats, certainly have not read the post game on loyalty at this point.
What I will say is this....
This team has been frustrating at times. However, Illinois basketball is back.
Big time.
My fellow compadres and loyalists...it’s been a very good season. We have terrific young men returning, and a great class coming in.
There is no question this team was faced with adversity and worked their arses off.
I for one commend
our program, players, and coaches.
We are back baby.
I L L....
Again, I didn’t see the game...but until fairly late it appeared we were in the hunt.
I have not seen stats, certainly have not read the post game on loyalty at this point.
What I will say is this....
This team has been frustrating at times. However, Illinois basketball is back.
Big time.
My fellow compadres and loyalists...it’s been a very good season. We have terrific young men returning, and a great class coming in.
There is no question this team was faced with adversity and worked their arses off.
I for one commend
our program, players, and coaches.
We are back baby.
I L L....
The simplest stat to go by is +/- and Damonte is very rarely a + even in the games we win. In his 5th year his shooting was statistically his worst. He shot 30% from the floor, 50% on FTs and he only averaged 3.8 points in 29 minutes a game.
He’s fine against teams like penn state and Minnesota but the competition is elevated he is out of his league.
I thank him for coming to illinois and helping build the program. But that doesn’t mean I have to just blindly support him.
MDchicago
- Lake Norman NC
I'll stand on my head on national tv if that is true! For me, it's 1987, 1st round, 3 vs. 14 loss to Austin Peay, the fourth place team from the Ohio Valley.
Trigger warning: Austin Peay 35th anniversary (video in the linked story includes the Dick Vitale footage as well as a re-creation last week by the Austin Peay player who made the game winning FTs).
Loyola loss in the second round last year was hugely disappointing as a fan (mainly due to the lost opportunity), but they were an objectively good team (top 10 Kenpom going into the tournament). Our Kenpom adjEM rating edge over Loyola was smaller than Gonzaga's KenPom adjEM rating edge over Baylor in the title game (based on pre-tournament ratings), but most folks seem to accept that Baylor was good enough to win a % of the time and they did. Don't have to be happy about it (and am not), but the same applies to Loyola. We just need to keep beating on the door, hopefully as a perennial 4 seed or better, and good things will eventually come.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Thank you to all the players for fighting through a difficult season. Happy to hang another banner. Appreciate the memories.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Agreed. Lack of confidence is contagious. In some ways, that's the benefit of putting freshman out there. Sometimes they don't know enough to be scared yet. In the end, I just think the injuries and lack of continuity prevented us from building any momentum. It never really came together for us. I don't blame anyone for that. It's just unfortunate all around.
MDchicago
- Lake Norman NC
If I was Kofi I would turn pro. Nothing else to prove in college ball and he's got to be tired of being hammered on, usually with no call.
If I were to write a book about this season the title would be:
“FIGHTING through Adversity”
From Kofi’s suspension to Trent’s pinkeye and everything in between.
“FIGHTING through Adversity”
From Kofi’s suspension to Trent’s pinkeye and everything in between.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
You are minimizing the impact of winning the conference. Sure, we want to do well in the tourney, but a program that is routinely winning conference titles will be well regarded, have fan interest, and get recruits. Would you prefer Michigan’s season so far to ours?
Good question, and who knows what the answer to your question is.
I will say that sometimes a player hears his coach saying "he's a good shooter, he just needs to hit them" in a counterproductive way, feels pressure I mean. Or sometimes a player hears a coach's encouragement to "get yourself going by getting some easy shots first" as criticism.
Or sometimes a coach's exasperation with missed shots -- let's say across his entire team, not just one guy -- is unfortunately heard by one particular guy as pressure to "Make a shot, dangit!!" I've heard that latter expression, or versions of it, a lot and I never think it is something a kid you want to have shoot the ball should hear.
Finally, a lot of the best in-game shot makers are kids who just don't ever give a **** what ANYBODY (coaches, team mates, dad, fans, girlfriend ...) thinks about their shot selection or how many misses they've piled up. It is weird that, from a coach's point of view, you almost need a me-first guy or two like this, a guy or two who despite substantial recent failure (say 1 for 7 in a half) is nonetheless certain his next shot is going down. That kind of belief is hard, or in my view impossible, to teach. You can stoke confidence, but in the end, blind belief in oneself arising from who knows where within is what cold-blooded shot makers just have.
Tacomallini
- Washington State
Probably not, but they're still playing
Grateful for the good season and for all of the guys, whether they are/were here for one year or 5. Refuse to let the fact that Illini basketball is relevant again in what's been an impressive stretch over the last 3 years get lost in the sadness of the day. It does feel like the end of a cycle and next year's squad will be something else entirely to behold...
The conspiracy theorist in me (just one of several voices in this cavernous noggin of mine) is convinced that what shall forever be known as "the pink eye snake bite" came from either an Indianapolis strip club, or JBo somehow gained access to the team's hotel rooms and bare-assed farted on Trent's pillow. Retaliation for owning him so many times over the last 5 years... We'll never know the truth, but blaming such a random, terrible stroke of luck on such ludicrous speculation is cathartic in a way...
Cheers to the boys, strap in for an interesting off season and look forward to what the future holds!
I-L-L!
The conspiracy theorist in me (just one of several voices in this cavernous noggin of mine) is convinced that what shall forever be known as "the pink eye snake bite" came from either an Indianapolis strip club, or JBo somehow gained access to the team's hotel rooms and bare-assed farted on Trent's pillow. Retaliation for owning him so many times over the last 5 years... We'll never know the truth, but blaming such a random, terrible stroke of luck on such ludicrous speculation is cathartic in a way...
Cheers to the boys, strap in for an interesting off season and look forward to what the future holds!
I-L-L!This is the key point for me. Michigan had an extremely disappointing season but are heading to the sweet 16. We are the B1G champions and lost a game earlier. I wouldn’t trade the championship for a win today.
I hope the players get over the disappointment of today quickly and feel the pride that comes with being the Champs that they are. And I hope we as fans can too.
This sounds like a bad team mate, which I don't mean. I just mean it seems like it is generally easier to get a player who ALWAYS thinks his shot is going in to share the ball and trust his team mates than it is to coach a highly-skilled shooter to become a cold-blooded shot maker, that is, someone able to disregard recent poor shooting.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
Well, 2 of the 5 this year lost in the first round, a third in the second, and 3 of the 5 lost in the second round last year. Doesn’t seem like a first team all American automatically gets you to the sweet sixteen.
Where do you find game by game plus minus stats? Have been looking but can’t find it anywhere.
Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
I couldn’t disagree more. He has a lot to prove.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
1987 vs #14 austin peay was not worse?
Nothing Kofi can do at this level will improve his potential. He needs to see what he can do at the next level, and we need to build based on that happening.
These are the things that make Belo a very good rebounder for a guard his size,I would agree! I'm 5'10" and played point guard (not a great athlete eitherand was the third leading rebounder on our team. It's about reading the shot, knowing where to be on the court, and timing your jump when it comes to rebounding (in addition being able to do multiple things at once - having your head on a swivel). As for defense, again, agree for the most part. The words are "discipline" and "consistency" when it comes to defense. Effort is certainly part of it, but you have to be strong mentally and know where to be on the court at all times.
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