This is what BU said he wanted when he took the job (Ala Flying Illini).
It’s hard to see it until lately in his recruiting.
Illini Basketball
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It’s hard to see it until lately in his recruiting.
'89 Flyin' Illini. Switched everything, and other teams hated playing against it because they really couldn't create any mismatches or get seperation off of screens. Houston did the same thing to us and completely sidetracked any semblance of offense for us. With 3 small guards on the court we were heavily reliant on getting some seperation off of screens for our shooters and to create driving lanes. But, I think that's where Underwood seems to be heading the way he's been recruiting, and talking about having to get more length on the team.
It's possible he cannot learn that. I think it would be a lot easier for him to learn than learning to be a stretch center and shoot 17 footers. If he cannot learn either then it just shows he isn't quite as valuable as his 22-10 indicates. Because he does clog the middle. A lot. His defense got way better over the course of this year, so he can learn. I'd like to see them at least try. And if they couldn't get him to learn that, they could have him literally just stand on the weakside short corner every fourth trip up to take a break and maybe get a dump off.
Is Kofi even going to be back next year? I'd assume he'll try to go pro, even if it means Europe or something. If his pro career is going to be that of a journeyman sub-NBA type, he needs to start making that $200k / year (or whatever a european guy makes) asap. I have no idea how that works, so maybe he can make more in NIL at Illinois than he can in Europe or the G-League or whatever.
This is pretty harsh for a guy that was 6th Man of the Year as a freshmen and then suffered a serious concussion that kept him out 12 games and missed parts of others. If he's 100% next year, I love that he's on our team. Yes he turns it over, but he does so many small things throughout a game that most don't even see. Let him get healthy then we can judge. People seemed to like him quite a bit last year as a freshmen. You don't win 6th Man of the Year in the Big 10 (as a freshman mind you) if you're not pretty darn good. Let him get 100% healthy and get his conditioning back and I think many will be singing a different tune next year.
They were. It just so happened last year the PAC 12 did extremely well so gained some respect this year. Also, Arizona looking like they did throughout the season helped.
Otherwise, the conference was viewed as weak.
Skyy would be a huge get (I know obvious) and here's why. As a 5-star and with Kofi, attention will be on those two. Remember how good Curbelo was when attention was on Ayo and Kofi? If Skyy or any other top caliber talent transfers over it makes life so much easier for Curbelo, Hawkins, Melendez, Goode, Dainja, Podz, Rodgers, Epps, Harris, (maybe Grandy), pretty much everyone. Wow, is that a deep, talented, long, athletic team!!!! Trying not to get my hopes too high, but hard not to think about how "elite" that team would be 
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33% from the field, 18% from 3, 3 turnovers per 19 minutes a game. In his last 10 games of the year he shot 30% from the field, 12% from three, averaged 3 turnovers, 2.5 fouls and took 64 total shots. He averaged 19 minutes a game. He had flashes, but I think a lot of that had to do with our other guards not being very dynamic at driving to the basket. I like his defense and rebounding, but Im personally getting tired of having someone on the floor that doesnt offer consistency on both ends of the floor. Curbelo isnt someone you build a team around. He is one of those "X-factors" that can come in and boost your team in times of need. Until he shows otherwise, he has no business running the show at Illinois. And in fairness, I dont care what you think my bball iq is lol.
Pretty cool. Plummer is probably jealous
That's awesome!!!
We can’t judge yesterdays outcome by the run Houston is on. For all we know, they will cut down the nets in two weeks….
If you play in the “First Four” as a borderline blue blood P5 school (& lose) it’s safe to say you didn’t meet your goals that season.
I guarantee there aren’t many MSU fans that took UCLA’s run as much consolation.
Agree. The kid seems to be really high energy, a hard worker at his craft, and a great teammate. Not to mention he can make 3’s and dunk. And no, I’m not related to the kid, but I think Judge Smails is.
Even though we are excited about Andre returning, freshman PODS, and recruits Epps and Harris you go out and get Skyy Clark.
Nobody predicted Andre missing almost the entire season and never being more than 50%. You can never recruit too much talent.
I remember when we imploded in 1979 after Steve Lanter went down due to weak guard play. Lou went out and signed 5 star pg Derek Harper a JC all american PG Craig Tucker and as well as an 2G in Mitch Arnold.
Nobody predicted Andre missing almost the entire season and never being more than 50%. You can never recruit too much talent.
I remember when we imploded in 1979 after Steve Lanter went down due to weak guard play. Lou went out and signed 5 star pg Derek Harper a JC all american PG Craig Tucker and as well as an 2G in Mitch Arnold.
Or could be getting his brain bounced hard enough to make you vomit, COVID, and the flu made it really tough to get practice and conditioning time in.
I don't know what your actual IQ is but your basketball one isn't going to get you any head coaching gigs.
I'm surprised no one has brought up how thoroughly the Big 10 teams have each other scouted, but when you hit the NCAA Tournament there's very little time to scout the team you're playing and get your guys prepared. Superior scouting and game planning for a Big opponent can make up for slight disparities in talent, but once you hit the NCAA that advantage disappears.
The Conference. The Players. The Coaches. Injuries. The Refs. The breaks. The position of the Moon.
Everyone has a focus on what caused the Illini season to be what it was and end the way it did. There is something to be said for all of these answers – at least a bit. And other reasons beyond these.
It’s hard to classify what kind of season the Illini had. Yes, we love the Big Ten title and what a great accomplishment that always is. But our sights were higher. We don’t feel satisfied.
With a hungry Kofi and Trent coming back for this season and the bad taste from the prior year early exit we wanted to think that this year would have a better ending. With Hawkins and Curbelo bringing some court experience into this season and the addition of the young out-of-state studs it seems the ceiling for the team was justifiably higher.
Yet, the season almost disastrously ended in the first Dance game. It was a miracle that the Illini survived. That would have been an even more bitter end to this season.
How do the Illini actually feel about this past season? Coach is doing what a coach should do – putting a good face on it and keeping things positive. But when he gets home... what does he REALLY think? Is he as frustrated as many of us are?
And the players. We now hear about just how difficult it was to get through this season. And they get all the credit in the World for doing that and playing with class and representing Illini ball well. But the players must also be frustrated apart from their positive expressed feelings about this past year and the season yet to come.
I guess if you have to ASK if it was a successful season you already have a good part of your answer.
Courage? Yes. Classy way to handle adversity? Yes. A real teamwork feeling of brotherhood? Yes.
But as fans... its not wrong to want more. That’s what being a fan is —craving the greatest success. As hard as it might be to do so... we have to be patient a little longer.
Next season, the focus should be on post-season play and not the conference title. Of course you try to win the conference. But everyone should be laser-focused on advancing in March. Playing in on that high-pressure stage and LOVING that you’re doing it.
That will make everyone happy. The team... the coaches... and we the eager fans who love Illinois ball.
Everyone has a focus on what caused the Illini season to be what it was and end the way it did. There is something to be said for all of these answers – at least a bit. And other reasons beyond these.
It’s hard to classify what kind of season the Illini had. Yes, we love the Big Ten title and what a great accomplishment that always is. But our sights were higher. We don’t feel satisfied.
With a hungry Kofi and Trent coming back for this season and the bad taste from the prior year early exit we wanted to think that this year would have a better ending. With Hawkins and Curbelo bringing some court experience into this season and the addition of the young out-of-state studs it seems the ceiling for the team was justifiably higher.
Yet, the season almost disastrously ended in the first Dance game. It was a miracle that the Illini survived. That would have been an even more bitter end to this season.
How do the Illini actually feel about this past season? Coach is doing what a coach should do – putting a good face on it and keeping things positive. But when he gets home... what does he REALLY think? Is he as frustrated as many of us are?
And the players. We now hear about just how difficult it was to get through this season. And they get all the credit in the World for doing that and playing with class and representing Illini ball well. But the players must also be frustrated apart from their positive expressed feelings about this past year and the season yet to come.
I guess if you have to ASK if it was a successful season you already have a good part of your answer.
Courage? Yes. Classy way to handle adversity? Yes. A real teamwork feeling of brotherhood? Yes.
But as fans... its not wrong to want more. That’s what being a fan is —craving the greatest success. As hard as it might be to do so... we have to be patient a little longer.
Next season, the focus should be on post-season play and not the conference title. Of course you try to win the conference. But everyone should be laser-focused on advancing in March. Playing in on that high-pressure stage and LOVING that you’re doing it.
That will make everyone happy. The team... the coaches... and we the eager fans who love Illinois ball.
Underwood clearly can coach as someone noted his accolades. However, he knows the coaches, players, and conference really well.
I feel he struggles without that information and he hasn’t figured out how to help his team be effective when the game plan is not effective.
I could attribute this to
1) not playing more as a team concept (eg ball movement, zone D),
2) not running plays that help individuals be effective (eg run plays for DMW to get a set shot for 3)
or
3) the fact that our current players are limited in ways they can’t overcome with god given abilities (eg length and athleticism).
This is why we are always faced with matchup problems and we wonder why we can’t stop a player yet they can stop us.
Other teams often easily exploit these limitations.
We seem to exploit them on other teams in the B1G. Maybe this comes from the philosophy of not allowing the other team dictate how you play.
Perhaps we should blame Brad for playing him at the time of all of these issues that effected his game so much to cause him to perform so poorly on offense. I have no idea if you actually played competitive basketball or not, but I did. I understand the concussion stuff and he gets a full pass during the time he was playing with that going on, but after he was cleared there are no excuses. Sitting out for these things doesnt cause players to make stupid decisions on the court or miss layups. Oddly, none of these things seemed to hurt his game on the opposite end of the court. In fact, if we use your excuses, Covid, the flu, and a bad concussion, gave him the power to rebound better and defend better.
Perfectly said!!
Well, I happen to have a family that has 3 from MSU and their respective alumni, and I’d say you are not right.
I would be more forgiving if Houston cuts down the nets, as I am already less negative than most on here since this was a final 4 team from last year.
Just being realistic. Using MSU as an example of failure for their body of work in the ncaa tournament is not very effective. BU could take some advice if it is offered.
To be fair, this year projects to be the first time we (big ten) will have more than 3 first round picks. This year is a bit of an anomaly
I dunno. Houston had us scouted pretty well.
You need chemistry on defense, but not the same way you do on offense. On defense when you play man to man you 1) don't let your guy by you and 2) see man and ball so you can help and rotate. On offense there is so much more to it. I would argue that after sitting for so long he didn't have near the amount of time to get his offensive chemistry with the team. I mean he missed 12+ games with a concussion. He missed more games with COVID. He wasn't as conditioned as he needed to be. And Underwood said they missed out on 20 practices bc of everything that happened this year. Think of how many full practices Curbelo missed! With Ayo and Miller as starters leaving, it takes time to build that chemistry on offense with a new starting 5 or bench and Curbelo never got the time needed to build the chemistry.
Sure, look how many amazing coaches never fared well in the Tourney…let alone win a championship. There’s obviously a lot of luck and variables involved in the NCAA tournament success even with a stable full of All-Americans.
AND every coach that ever lived wins some he shouldn’t and loses some he shouldn’t. They all get out coaches sometimes from John Wooden on down. (Newell gave Wooden fits.)
Curbelo’s biggest issue is in his head.
Too much yapping to the officials, usually a sign that you’ve given your best and can’t offer anymore so you need the calls to be right.
Too much negative body language, shows he is getting down on himself.
He’s thinking too much of himself as an individual that has to make things happen. In fairness, that is exactly how he’s been used the previous season and again this season after injury.
He just needs a good off season to adapt to being the starting point guard that doesn’t have to “spark” but “orchestrate”, imo.
Most importantly, he has to have fun again.
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