I'm glad Dain is staying. His play had good and bad moments this season, but I think he realizes that he's made a big jump already in the past year thanks to the support system here. Another year of development for him could be huge.
Illini Basketball
- Status
Kids gotta take the game planning and mental side of basketball a little more seriously.
Dr Copejam
- The Rock
Are you surprised that he's back?
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
yep.......we saw his concentration and effort wane at times last season......
Plural kids...
Illini_1979
- Oregon
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
speculation was he had issues in the class room
We’re still going to need another big regardless,bigs are prone to foul trouble.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
sacraig
- The desert
It seems several people on the team could have used that advice this past season.
3 point girl
- texas
Have to get someone to teach him how to properly shoot free throws first. Shaq shot thousands the wrong way in practice & it didnt help him in games. I think we win 3-5 more games this past season if we could shoot free throws.Great news! Ton of potential and we saw some awesome flashes of what he can do this year. Now if he can put them together every game then we’ll be rolling…. after we get some shooting of course.
Also, I hope everyone (especially Dainja) is getting free throws up like crazy during the off-season. I can’t stand how many points we leave on the table that is considered to be from the “charity stripe”. How many more games do we win if we hit a respectable number from the free throw line?
Looking forward to seeing how it all settles at the end… I hope.
3 point girl
- texas
Do we? If we do have a coach that helps with shooting technique then we need to change him out. Why not bring in Trent Meacham to help out on that.But do we have a FT coach?????
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I will take ANY players back from last year's team, honestly ... talent was very clearly not our issue. Talent-deficient teams do not beat UCLA or Texas, IMO. I'm not 100% sure you can name any one given issue that did last year's team in (i.e., there were multiple), but I do believe that the rumors surrounding team chemistry might have been the biggest single factor.
I acknowledge that it might be irrationally optimistic to take a stance (for instance) like, "Well, Mayer might have been the issue ... so with him gone and everyone else back, we are a top 25 team with way more consistency next year!" I also like Matt (in his own little weird way), so I feel bad doing that with no clear-cut evidence that he was the issue. However ... two things have me excited:
(1) In this weird age of the portal and NIL, every single player who is on the team next year will WANT to be on the team next year. We can talk all we want about Dain's body language or whatever, but every single one of those guys who returns at least bought into Underwood's message enough to give it another go. That alone can only improve team chemistry, right??
(2) Assuming chemistry is improved, it is NOT that wild to get really optimistic about this returning core. If we can snag a PG and a shooter from the portal, we are all of a sudden looking really good. RJ and Goode were starting to look like their old selves by the end of the year (perhaps coincidentally just as Mayer was hitting a slump?), a sophomore leap for Rodgers and Harris is exciting to think about, a senior season of Coleman and Shannon with maybe a bit more defined roles without Mayer is REALLY exciting to think about and another year of refining Dain's raw talent might make a really big difference.
After this season, I will certainly not go into next year and expect us to hum along with the machine-like consistency of the 1998 to 2006 stretch ... but I WILL expect a much better overall season than last year. And we were still a clear-cut NCAA team this past season with some big wins. This Tournament proved that your seeding isn't everything, and the pieces REALLY are there. We just have to get them to all fit together. I am optimistic that a failure to do so last year is not necessarily indicative of our chances to do so next year!
I acknowledge that it might be irrationally optimistic to take a stance (for instance) like, "Well, Mayer might have been the issue ... so with him gone and everyone else back, we are a top 25 team with way more consistency next year!" I also like Matt (in his own little weird way), so I feel bad doing that with no clear-cut evidence that he was the issue. However ... two things have me excited:
(1) In this weird age of the portal and NIL, every single player who is on the team next year will WANT to be on the team next year. We can talk all we want about Dain's body language or whatever, but every single one of those guys who returns at least bought into Underwood's message enough to give it another go. That alone can only improve team chemistry, right??
(2) Assuming chemistry is improved, it is NOT that wild to get really optimistic about this returning core. If we can snag a PG and a shooter from the portal, we are all of a sudden looking really good. RJ and Goode were starting to look like their old selves by the end of the year (perhaps coincidentally just as Mayer was hitting a slump?), a sophomore leap for Rodgers and Harris is exciting to think about, a senior season of Coleman and Shannon with maybe a bit more defined roles without Mayer is REALLY exciting to think about and another year of refining Dain's raw talent might make a really big difference.
After this season, I will certainly not go into next year and expect us to hum along with the machine-like consistency of the 1998 to 2006 stretch ... but I WILL expect a much better overall season than last year. And we were still a clear-cut NCAA team this past season with some big wins. This Tournament proved that your seeding isn't everything, and the pieces REALLY are there. We just have to get them to all fit together. I am optimistic that a failure to do so last year is not necessarily indicative of our chances to do so next year!
It was his first year playing College BB.. Remember he is a "freshmans" -- was a freshman..
He might have realized another transfer meant he'd sit out another year, based on those NCAA guidelines sent out which seemed pretty strict.
turnaround3
- 1st & Daniel
I could be alone on connecting-dots-that-aren't-there-island on this one but Dain's tweet really raises eyebrows for me about Sencire now.
As in, if there was a clear team mandate not to announce declarations of staying in Champaign on Twitter, why would Dainja so blatantly disregard that so quickly? Did he simply just get a little too overzealous with the old "Send Tweet" button or should this be raising some flags with regard to the actual reason Sencire pulled his post down?
As in, if there was a clear team mandate not to announce declarations of staying in Champaign on Twitter, why would Dainja so blatantly disregard that so quickly? Did he simply just get a little too overzealous with the old "Send Tweet" button or should this be raising some flags with regard to the actual reason Sencire pulled his post down?
Great news! Ton of potential and we saw some awesome flashes of what he can do this year. Now if he can put them together every game then we’ll be rolling…. after we get some shooting of course.
Also, I hope everyone (especially Dainja) is getting free throws up like crazy during the off-season. I can’t stand how many points we leave on the table that is considered to be from the “charity stripe”. How many more games do we win if we hit a respectable number from the free throw line?
Looking forward to seeing how it all settles at the end… I hope.
Or perhaps
Hearing good things about Sencire coming back as well
turnaround3
- 1st & Daniel
Lolololol what incredible timing. If everyone could please disregard my post from 30 seconds ago, thanks.
Dainja is staying! LFG! 
- Status