Coach Underwood did a great job this year considering we couldn't hit a 3. We had a chance at winning the B10 with 2-3 games left, we all new starters, and nobody could shoot. IMO, we were weak mentally and never could get started, but man we could comeback with our defense and barely lose. I saw coach "acting a fool" a couple times during the year to get the team stronger mentally, but it just wasn't there. I think Goode will help next year, and maybe Rodgers. Man do I miss Trent, as we needed a leader on the floor that would say "give me the ball I'll make the shot".
Yeah, posted in the locked thread that I saw article about how ASU should dump him. Maybe ASU AD read all the speculation about all the movement among big time programs on here and felt they’d be better off waiting a year to make a change.Little surprised by the Hurley news. He was on the hot seat for a majority of the year.
Maybe he has opportunities elsewhere or didn't live up to the expectations we all had. It's hard to know/see for the everyday Joe what his actual impact was. I did not see much in-game coaching from him, huddle talk, or players sitting down for in-game instruction from him. I was at nearly every home game and I'm sure I missed some, but I watch for that type of stuff. Who knows what the story is. We probably need to get the head coaching stuff figured out before the portal gets hot and heavy.One thing I’ve found interesting is all the salivating over the AC staff of Cohen, TA and OA given that would mean Chester is out. Where is all the “it’s great having former Illini on staff” crowd. Don’t get me wrong, that staff sounds great. Just find it a bit amusing.
Feels like Chester is setting himself up to be the Illini HC at some point. I guess all things considered he was probably hoping to be the heir apparent after underwood, but definitely isn’t ready right now. If all this shakes out (all hypotheticals, I very much believe Brad is going nowhere), Let him land a HC gig at another program and then in 10 or so years come back homeOne thing I’ve found interesting is all the salivating over the AC staff of Cohen, TA and OA given that would mean Chester is out. Where is all the “it’s great having former Illini on staff” crowd. Don’t get me wrong, that staff sounds great. Just find it a bit amusing.
Oh I get that. And the speculation and giddiness about that new staff on here has nothing to do with possibly having other opportunities elsewhere. I think he’ll land on his feet regardless of what happens. Again, just found it amusing given how excited people were about getting him on staff and the recruiting he’s done. And I believe he handled the D, which was very good. But changes happen.Maybe he has opportunities elsewhere or didn't live up to the expectations we all had. It's hard to know/see for the everyday Joe what his actual impact was. I did not see much in-game coaching from him, huddle talk, or players sitting down for in-game instruction from him. I was at nearly every home game and I'm sure I missed some, but I watch for that type of stuff. Who knows what the story is. We probably need to get the head coaching stuff figured out before the portal gets hot and heavy.
Avoided diving into whatever the heck the thread was yesterday, so hopefully a day to reflect has people off the “Brad sucks” bandwagon. It sounds like the base case is that he’ll continue to be our coach, and I’ll continue to be very happy that he’s our coach.I totally disagree. Leadership start by holding players accountable for poor decisions and sometimes benching them if they don't follow your plan. Also He should have brought in a transfer PG that could shoot but was openly fine with just our freshman and lack of experience at an important position. Imo he also gave certain players to much freedom to dribble excessively, go one on one, turn the ball over, jack up poor shots, and not run any real offense. You can bench guys if they don't do what you tell them too! The loss to Arkansas he said they didn't run my sets the first 3 minutes. Our poor shooting is largely do to poor offense and no Kofi being doubled n tripled Watching our sets vs most other teams was night and day. We were not the only team reloading. And if being "one of the youngest teams in the country" especially at PG is a problem he should have addressed it. At least he did change his incorrect scheme when we lost the first 3 games in the B10. This team had talent but was just dribble a lot and go one on one.
He is in NYC. So that should not be a problem.Rick Pitino on making St. John's relevant again
Jay Bilas calls St. John's under Rick Pitino 'an immediate player' as Red Storm hire Hall of Fame coach — 247Sports
Before St. John's introduced Rick Pitino as the Red Storm's new head men's basketball coach Tuesday, Jay Bilas joined members of the college basketball media who approved the hire Monday. Bilas explained on SportsCenter.apple.news
"We'll probably have to bring in six to eight players from this basketball team and that's going to take a lot of work."
I wonder how many strippers they'll bring in?
I've heard it both ways from two different sources. He does have a son still playing high school ball, and I guess he's pretty invested. The current thought (per my hawkeye father-in-law) is he would stay until that son is in college and gets to play for him.Has anyone heard similar rumors about Fran wanting out of Iowa? I heard it yesterday, but not seen anything and refuse to look at any Iowa message board
You don't feel that we could have taken Skyy and some type of veteran transfer to help? We had plenty of talent to win more games. We were considered the most talented B10 team. Where do you feel BU ranked in coach of the year in the league this year? I'm not hating just stating whats obvious. We had a ride we saved for Perrin i guess right? Also did you like the flow of our offense? I know this. If Coach Henson had players turning the ball over and taking poor shots without running any offense as often as thus years players did they would have found the bench very quickly. I would love a staff like we had with Henson, Yates Collins and Nagy what we saw tolerated on offense would not have happened. I like Coach Underwood and he can recruit and I also feel he may learn more from this year as any in his career and improve. I certainly agree I would've taken Skyy and he bet huge on the kid and lost. Its frustrating Skyy bailed.Avoided diving into whatever the heck the thread was yesterday, so hopefully a day to reflect has people off the “Brad sucks” bandwagon. It sounds like the base case is that he’ll continue to be our coach, and I’ll continue to be very happy that he’s our coach.
Anyway, there’s a lot of hindsight going on in this post. The trade off last offseason was clearly whether we go get Skyy or we get a veteran PG (Skyy does not come here if we had gotten a transfer). If you had polled hardcore illini fans or pundits, i bet you at least 9/10 would have said Skyy (as did Brad). That obviously played out in the worst way possible, but that happens when the success of your team is tied closely with the success of your 5 star freshmen.
I do think that the transfer portal makes it especially hard for coaches like Brad to instill that culture and toughness that he wants in a team. We were extremely fortunate to have guys like Trent and Damonte for as long as we did (even if their ceilings maybe weren’t as high as some other guys). The amount of transfers is concerning to me for that exact reason. Know every team is going through it now, but intuitively seems easier for the “roll out the ball and play” type of coaches (easier schemes?)
Looking forward to this offseason and next year to see how we can grow. Exited for a potential new (old?) assistant coach, and to see how much better rj and ty can be. This “disappointing” year was the 3rd best in the last… 15 years? So i dunno, glass half full I think!