Time to reload. Love the core of Luke Goode, RJ Melendez, Jayden Epps, Ty Rodgers, Sencire Harris and Dain Dainja to build around if they all want to come back. If Hawkins doesn’t wind up in the draft he could be all-league as a senior, but I suspect he’s gone. Can’t see Terrence coming back. Need to go portaling for a point guard and some shooting. Wouldn’t mind another frontcourt piece as well if we lose Hawkins, as I thought we lacked in that department at times this year. I think this offseason will be telling for the staff — are we able to keep guys like Melendez, Rodgers, Epps and Dainja around to grow into 4-year leaders, or will they hit the portal for better opportunities, necessitating we do the same? I think it’s clear transfers can plug holes, but in Underwood’s system / culture can’t necessarily be relied upon to be the team leaders with no prior experience at Illinois. I think RJ has the opportunity to develop into one hell of a college basketball player and could lead us in scoring next year. He started to prove it on the defensive end of the floor this year, and the kid finally played the way we all hoped he would in the last 2-3 weeks of the season. If Rodgers can work on his jumpshot this offseason, he has everything else in his bag to be our best player as a sophomore. Epps could be a significant piece next year as well. Excited for the future, and all things considered, really happy we went dancing in a serious “rebuilding” year.
Arkansas 73, Illinois 63 Postgame
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One thing I know for sure: It's easy for us to criticize when things don't work out. It's a lot harder to have to make judgements about whether to rein in a player or give him some leash during the season.
As a totally outsider just looking at the way they played, I think Underwood may have learned a bit about where he sets his standards, and how he inspires guys. EVERY coach has to deal with players pushing back, and how they want to deal with that. If you recruit highly competitive players, they tend to police themselves. Even then, you can get a competitive guy who has a selfish sense of competing. I feel like the best coaches either recruit to the personality type they work best with, or have a gift for knowing how to motivate all kinds of personalities. I don't think Underwood has found the sweet spot.
I'm maybe a rare fan in that I'm ok with losing if I see guys playing hard, making good decisions, and developing. I liked several of the pieces, but unfortunately, didn't feel that way about this team overall. And I'm concerned with clearing the slate and resetting for next season. Hope the staff has a good post-mortem on the season, admits where they could have or should do better, and has a lot of optimism moving forward. Can't change the past.
DICKnaggie
- Champaign
Love SH, and you may be right, but he has some serious issues with his shot mechanics that need to be fixed, both at the line and for jump shots.
The bolded is spot on from my perspective. The underscored I call out further because it made me laugh, but I also really fell for this player.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Are our assistants really a hot commodity after this season?
Also Frazier leaving would put us in hot water with more than Sencire...Hansberry as well.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I admire the tenacity with which RJ kept at it through his woes this season. His emergence at the end of the campaign as a bright spot amidst stagnation gives me hope that he can be a consistent contributor next season. BU started him recently for a reason.
Yes, he deserves to be praised for the character he showed. That's exactly the kind of player we need.
Totally correct on the shot mechanics. I watched, as everybody else did, his 2 missed free throws. I commented to my wife that his free throw mechanics need some adjustment. I assume their is somebody on staff that deals with that.
3 point girl
- texas
I have asked this question many times, but still dont know the answer. Who on the staff is in charge of free throw shooting?
DICKnaggie
- Champaign
He also often shoots sideways on his jumpers. No idea how that wasn't corrected up to this point.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
If Lonozo Ball can do it, Sincere can.
Our expectations are that we should do better in the tournament. Fortunately, in terms of trying to figure out whether or not those expectations will be met in the future, the people in charge of this decision will evaluate more than five games out of a 190 game tenure.
As far as I know, but I don’t know much. Would be happy to be corrected.
Totally correct. You would think a D 1 recruit would have been taught these at a lower level.
Illini_1979
- Oregon
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
If we are reaching 20+wins each season and making the tournament, but can’t reach the sweet 16, I personally would really be ok giving him another 6-7 years.
At some point it would be time to try for more success but the drums would be so loud at that point for his head that Josh (or whomever) couldn’t ignore it. They would have to have a home run waiting though.
If he keeps falling (1 seed, 4 seed, 9 seed, out, out out) and we have 3-4 mediocre non tournament seasons I think that leash goes to about 3-4 years
Not to bend over backwards trying to defend him, but I think Brad was likely stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think he realized fairly early on that the players going off-script and not following the game plan were not going to change and when he challenged them there was basically an open rebellion in which he risked fully losing the team. And when the freshman PG you recruited quits the team midseason, that is an eye-opener as well. So my guess is that Brad was forced with 1 of 2 unenviable options: Play only those willing to follow the game plan and bench the rest, hoping they too don't leave the program and the possibly crippling national media story that would follow it, or take a step back, try catering to the players, and let the inmates run the asylum while focusing on trying to coach up and develop the freshmen. Brad in my estimation chose the latter. It was probably the worse of the two options in terms of building a team and the frustrating on-court performances, but it was probably the better decision for the longevity of both his coaching career and more than possibly the program itself.
It's a tough decision to make. Sometimes you know it's a bad decision but you hope for the best only to realize that best is never coming.
It was the best bad option, and one that is pretty easy to defend (especially if you remove the benefit of hindsight).
And if
If you bench them you have no chance of winning. Which leads to even worse reactions from “fans”. And he did bench them at times. Mayer sat at times and so did Dain. Epps spent a lot of time on the pine at the end of the year.
Yeah, I agree. It's a lousy position to be in, but when you know you're likely taking the L either way, from a risk assessment standpoint you take the one that has the lower risk of causing long-term irreversible damage. It's a sucky decision, and one that I do not envy him having to make, but he probably did make the best choice in protecting the longevity of the program.
I think the transfer portal and NIL is going to change the way coaches think about team-buidling and even their basketbal philosophy, two pretty radical transformstions to the game of college basketball.
2-12 vs Quad 1s isn’t a good season.
20-13 is a very low bar given 15 of those wins were vs cupcakes or the bottom of the Big 10
No, I am not ok with that. Give me success in March over however many wins and winning the Big10. I could care less about either of those. You should be judged on how you do in the tournament and so far Underwood has been very underwhelming. So far. I don't see an improvement next year. Not sure how long before he actually puts an Illini team in the sweet sixteen.
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