Arkansas 73, Illinois 63 Postgame
- Status
Was it?
A 9 seed for a P5 basketball school feels kind of meh. Team didn't finish strong, quite the opposite.
Not gonna pile on, being a fan has ups and downs. Underwood has done well overall, no question in my mind. Just thinking that when all's said and done, this year is pretty forgettable. Kind of bummed with the effort down the stretch or feeling like we know whose gonna play big in big games next year.
This was the most frequently mentioned concern on this board before the season began - two freshmen PGs. It went from two to one then to none. Hard to overcome that especially with all the other short comings.
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
I would have liked to keep Grandison. The blueprint for what this team was going to do changed mid-season. We got rid of the switching defense and freestyle offense and replaced it with what we were last year, a few offensive sets for our best players and tough man-to-man drop coverage D. I think Grandison would have stayed if that's what we were at the beginning. His 3 pt shooting would have been appreciated too. I thought Mayer would show up today, but he had some rough turnovers and a couple in and out 3s, and was pretty bad defensively overall.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
SO MUCH dribbling by players you don't want dribbling
I was always confused when the announcers would say how 'talented' the team is. I mean compared to me and you, yeah they are incredibly talented, but on the court with other D1 players they didn't really look anymore talented than anyone else they were playing. TSJ had moments when his raw speed made him look like he had next level skills. But everyone else looked like really good college basketball players. I think Brad got the most he could out of these guys. They actually came out a lot better than they should have given their lack of offense so I'm not as disappointed as others here. They done pretty good this year.
Welp, that didn't last long! 4-7 since Feb 1.
We pride ourselves on improvement over the year, and this year was the opposite. Not to mention, two building blocks quit during mid-year. Very poor taste in my mouth and unless we reload quickly the trend will not improve next year. No one seems poised to bust out next year scoring-wise. Who is coming back who scored more than 15 points in any of the past ten games? And you need FOUR of them to hit 60!
I value Underwood as a coach, but I don't think bought in to his required style. Minimum three transfers in NEEDED for success-- Lead guard , high scoring wing and a dominating big man.
But the MOST important need-- improved team chemistry.
Love the guys coming back, but they are role players. And the two freshmen-- as Mcguire said "the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores!"
I anticipate a tough year up-coming....
We pride ourselves on improvement over the year, and this year was the opposite. Not to mention, two building blocks quit during mid-year. Very poor taste in my mouth and unless we reload quickly the trend will not improve next year. No one seems poised to bust out next year scoring-wise. Who is coming back who scored more than 15 points in any of the past ten games? And you need FOUR of them to hit 60!
I value Underwood as a coach, but I don't think bought in to his required style. Minimum three transfers in NEEDED for success-- Lead guard , high scoring wing and a dominating big man.
But the MOST important need-- improved team chemistry.
Love the guys coming back, but they are role players. And the two freshmen-- as Mcguire said "the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores!"
I anticipate a tough year up-coming....
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
I hope you’re mistaken. I want to see Epps graduate in orange and blue. Priority numero uno is keeping our guys
I'd make one observation RE: Robert.
He is ridiculously optimistic about Illinois football. Basketball, not so much.
BIG problem. Not really many players on this team you wanted dribbling.
100%
We don’t run any screens off the ball to get players shots everything we run is ball screen then one on one. Everyone else just stands in place.
Yeah…I know they were SUPER loaded ….but I think I see why Mayer got role player minutes at Baylor.
I think part of that was undoubtedly his dadgum shortcomings on defense. I dug the shot blocking that he brought…but it’s like he has: selective peripheral vision, doesn’t give goddamn or isn’t fundamentally sound enough to simply snap the head& get that deny hand up going the other way. (That’s basic basketball) If he’s gonna play in the NBA he’s got some work to do.
I was excited at the beginning of the year about the switching defense because we had multiple guys with experience playing that way…I still see no reason why that couldn’t of worked.
Captain 14
- The Last Best Place
Onward and upward to the football threads
In retrospect, did signing Mayer hinder RJ's development? Ever since that NU game in Evanston, I thought MM was a liability and this was going to contribute to this team's downfall. He did have some nice games, but there were many times, Illinois did well without MM on the court.
I think I've typed this before, but I felt coach "caved in" to a player's sensitive nature. Then others refused to go into games. When the player was chucking three pointers and playing hideous defense, BU never really held him accountable. It was hero ball and NIL situations for him. And coach kept putting him out there, so he can chuck more three pointers and play more lackluster defense. Seeing him chuck three straight 3 pointers against Michigan when a two-pointer would've probably sealed the game was a confirmation to me that this team was going to end up as a 9th seed, be down by double digits against the 8th seed at halftime, make a comeback to get it close and then eventually lose the game.
I like BU; he has earned the right to continue to be coach, but I hope he learns from this. He has led UI to the dance three straight years, but I hope he looks in that mirror and be true to himself and his style of coaching.
And please recruit tough-minded individuals. Thanks.
I think I've typed this before, but I felt coach "caved in" to a player's sensitive nature. Then others refused to go into games. When the player was chucking three pointers and playing hideous defense, BU never really held him accountable. It was hero ball and NIL situations for him. And coach kept putting him out there, so he can chuck more three pointers and play more lackluster defense. Seeing him chuck three straight 3 pointers against Michigan when a two-pointer would've probably sealed the game was a confirmation to me that this team was going to end up as a 9th seed, be down by double digits against the 8th seed at halftime, make a comeback to get it close and then eventually lose the game.
I like BU; he has earned the right to continue to be coach, but I hope he learns from this. He has led UI to the dance three straight years, but I hope he looks in that mirror and be true to himself and his style of coaching.
And please recruit tough-minded individuals. Thanks.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
My best guess would be an unwillingness to do as instructed. But it's just a guess
It's not all that surprising to me. Ty and Sencire completely bought in to the coaching staff and the system he was trying to run. It's why all season whenever they were on the court it seemed like the court tilted in our favor. The two of them almost certainly led our team in plus/minus as a result. The problem is, not everyone bought in and so when they were on the court, things broke down and we looked disjointed. And when you have an upperclassman actively rebelling against the coach wanting to do his own thing you're going to see it on the court. Especially during tourney time where individuals don't win, teams do.
And sadly the best point guard in Illinois high school who won a 4A championship scoring 28 in the title game is going to frickin Iowa. I don’t know if we even recruited him but his brother is on Illini baseball team . 
Probably right.
Not saying today it was about the season as a whole. He was off today
Yeah... Sadly that's what I heard from an insider from another program a few weeks ago. Unfortunate, but sadly seemed like the writing was on the wall as he didn't seem like he was completely buying in. Sigh...
Seems like we had a number of guys who were able to ride their athletic ability to results against weaker opponents but really got exploited against talented, well-coached teams. Mayer (among others) seemed to gamble quite a bit, which works if you can get back to the spot and get a few fingers on the ball, but if your guy is too quick or knows what's coming they can avoid getting blocked for the most part. Penn State was especially and unsurprisingly good at making us look dumb when we got too aggressive or lost discipline out there.
I think Dain was another guy who thrived against lesser competition. In a perfect world he would've been great coming off the bench to run up some easy buckets against backup centers, but we didn't have the luxury of keeping him in that role.
I guess you have to go to war with the army you have. The last two years it seems like we had too many holes to paper over and really struggled at the end of the year as we got scouted and teams shut down the things that we made work earlier on. Not much you can do about that, I guess.
- Status