3 point girl
- texas
Big Fish Little Pond
Former Illini in College Hoops
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Goillinikobd
- Southeastern US
Curbelo is in concussion protocol again and missing today‘s Big East Tourney game against Butler, who themselves lost two key players just yesterday due to academic reasons.
Love him or hate him, putting other issues aside, Curbelo can’t seem to get a break relative to concussion problems.
Love him or hate him, putting other issues aside, Curbelo can’t seem to get a break relative to concussion problems.
Curbelo and Miller could have been part of something special here if they chose to buy in. They would likely both be starting, and Illinois might have been a top 15 team in the country. They instead thought Underwood held them back. Now neither will be playing in the NCAA Tournament, neither has a shot of making the NBA. They both made horrible decisions, I hope the remaining players here learn from their mistake and see the value in sticking it out.
Miller wasn't content starting every game as a Freshman on a 1 seed and eventually growing into a leading role, wanted the faster route. Well congrats, you shot 34 % on a team that went 2-16 in its Conference. Maybe you weren't the superstar you thought you were?
Miller wasn't content starting every game as a Freshman on a 1 seed and eventually growing into a leading role, wanted the faster route. Well congrats, you shot 34 % on a team that went 2-16 in its Conference. Maybe you weren't the superstar you thought you were?
Miller wasn't the reason Miller left.
lol, dude come on, Melendez played 21 MPG and shot 25 % from three. Podz was Co-WCC player of the year, he would absolutely be playing like 30 mpg.
We don't even have a significantly better offense than Santa Clara...
KenPom Adjusted Offense:
Illinois - 64th
Santa Clara - 70th
15 MPG, dude, that's just haterade. There is not a SINGLE team in the country where Podz isn't playing more than that, let alone our projected 8 seed of a team, lol.
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Whenever he played last season he looked too slow for the Big 10… I watched him against Gonzaga this year and it was the same story. Sure, he can hit a deep pull-up 3 every now and then but he can’t beat a single decent athlete off the bounce, and that’s a huge problem in the NBA… or even the big 10. It’s a different level of competition he’s playing against.
He got better this offseason. That is pretty clear, imo.
Podz had 17 and 14 against Gonzaga. Any team in the country would take him. He's a borderline NBA level athlete. His biggest issue last year was adjusting to college play, now that he has he's one of the best players in the country and would start on probably every team.
Podz still couldn’t guard you or I…..there’s a lot of teams where in P5 conferences where he isn’t playing more than that….but okay.
To your point, 11 of our players have a better defensive rating than Podz does. JE, the Frenchman and a walk-on are the only players worse.
Yea. And Santa Clara University is a great place to be a (THE) bigshot on campus.
Podz has certainly made a huge leap this year, but I have a hard time imagining him starting for Houston, Alabama, Kansas, or UCLA. Unless his lateral quickness has gotten a lot better than what it was last year, don't see him cracking one of those starting 5's. But I've been wrong before.
This is a fair point, but being good enough on one side of the ball still gets you minutes. Plummer wasn't a good defender and DMFW wasn't much of a scoring threat but they both got their minutes, and rightfully so.
Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
This thread sucks.
I can be wrong since I don't really watch Podz's games. But judging from his athleticism (or lack thereof), I suspect his defense is worse than that of Plummer.
You need to watch a game, or look at the stats of his steals, blocks, and rebounds. A 6'5" guy who isn't athletic isn't nearly leading the conference in all of those categories. He is a very good defender because of his brain.
Big Jack
- Decatur
Soccer school
Those Podz highlights are pretty good. He’s a lot shiftier than I remember, and his range is deep. I believe someone said that the coaches were surprised by his jump in play.
Maybe a change of scenery is what he needed. Maybe it fueled him to improve so he could show his old coaches “you messed up.” From what I could tell, he was a kid doing all the things right off the court, maybe he got tired that Curbelo got a long leash when he may not have been a team oriented guy and thought “I’m out of here”
Nonetheless, I’ve been a fan of his ever since his name started popping up. He was stuck behind 5th year guys and while I wish he found success here, heck I wouldn’t mind going to school in Cali for a year or three. Some of our most beloved players never got more than a quick cup of coffee in the NBA, but he’s obviously worked and played his way into consideration.
Maybe a change of scenery is what he needed. Maybe it fueled him to improve so he could show his old coaches “you messed up.” From what I could tell, he was a kid doing all the things right off the court, maybe he got tired that Curbelo got a long leash when he may not have been a team oriented guy and thought “I’m out of here”
Nonetheless, I’ve been a fan of his ever since his name started popping up. He was stuck behind 5th year guys and while I wish he found success here, heck I wouldn’t mind going to school in Cali for a year or three. Some of our most beloved players never got more than a quick cup of coffee in the NBA, but he’s obviously worked and played his way into consideration.
I know many of you follow Podz, Miller, 'Belo, etc. for a variety of reasons, i.e. watched him since high school, former Illini, any number of reasons. Personally, I don't have to interest or the bandwidth to follow anything other than the team we have (and sometimes the team we're gonna have).
During yesterdays game, announcer said "curbelo had left the team". Hard to know what the true story is here...
Curbelo tweeted yesterday that due to his last concussion (elbow to the head I read), he’s done for the rest of season unless they get to the dance.
He’s not even on the bench. I’m assuming his career with SJU is over.
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