Nebraska 80, Illinois 74 OT Postgame

[IllinistrandedinHouston]

Also notice that lately 6'9'' Ben can't even make those little fadeaway jumpers close to the basket.

Or Free Throws

 

[OB positive]

A couple of changes I would like to see Brad to make.

1. Pull Ben from starting lineup. Might help in two ways. Someone else getting more play and Ben gets going coming off the bench.

2. Put a limit on kylan Boswell threes. He is more likely to shoot us out of a game than help us.

 

[Se Il Illini]

Turnovers have been an on going issue.

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

Who are the multiple future NBA'ers? Do you see an NBA player in KJ since Tomi has been out? He's a turnover machine that can't shoot a lick.

 

[LouHenson]

The problem is he created this mess with Ben with the way he constructed his roster. Ben, has to play with Tomi out and Rez in foul situations. The Booth bust and Ty redshirting was simply to much arrogance on the part of our fading 61 year old HC.

 

[Coop70]

With all I have to concerned about these days, not caring anymore is something of a relief.

 

[ginabackes00]

You drastically change the landscape of college basketball and coaches have to figure out how to manage $, donors, and players who all have different values; monetary and skills. They don't always align

 

[DeeIL89]

Boswell continuing to get more minutes than DGL is comical. Ben was awful, Boswell has been right there with him.

He needs to stop taking bad contested threes. In one sequence, he attempted a terrible step back three with plenty of times left in the shot clock. Boswell can spin out of control when he add more stuff to his plate when it's not needed.

 

[azillini1]

And a coach who has more discipline over his players. We have 3X the talent as Nebraska but playing playground ball and not running plays cost us the game. How many layups did Nebraska make versus our team? 15 assists to 7 because BU lets them jack-up threes without running plays

 

[zentrails]

You genuinely wouldn’t believe how much.

Sunk cost fallacy at work here
BU pays BH a lot of NIL cash so he "can't let that money go down the drain"

 

[Old Farm Illini]

You guys are wild The Postgame thread shouldn’t open for 24 hours after a loss.

Get Tomi back, we’ll be fine. B10 title is gone but we can still beat anybody in the country and get hot in March

We can certainly recover but with being just a few weeks away from March, you’d expect this team to be further along and more polished even without Tomi. The frustration is from the team looking closer like their floor at the moment thanks to subpar coaching decisions.

 

[SVSTORM]

Sunday should be interesting. Donors are not happy.

 

[Indy Illini Fan]

You can’t be serious.

Oh he is …

 

[NASchamp]

DGL needs a public apology for being taken out of the game when he was one of the few reasons we were still in it.

Ben needs to sit and slowly prove himself off the bench.

Coaches need to get their together and actually start coaching.

 

[LvilleILL1]

Not gonna pile on because some will, but that was pathetic. Had zero. buisness losing that game. Terrible effort, Brad had awful in game coaching, and just horrible shots. Hummer will be upgraded over this offseason unless something drastically changes with his game

 

[NashvILLe05]

You can’t be serious.

 

[IMPE Legend]

Boswell was either lazy getting around screens or over committing to a shot fake on the other side of a screen. Also his jumper is always so hard with minimal touch. I thought he was going to be a much better shooter than this

I literally said out loud before his brick at the end of regulation that he was going to chuck up a terrible shot. Two minutes in regulation, we are down, and KJ is out? Boswell takes terrible shots and his defensive calling card isn't enough. Who was he guarding again tonight?

 

[FloridaMan]

I agree with whoever said time to reset my expectations. I don't think the season is lost but I don't think we will surpass last year's if the current trajectory continues. However I do feel underwood always has had an atrocious loss where it gets him energized and we see a nice run arise from it. Am I being too hopeful

In my opinion, yes. We've had 3 atrocious losses so far this season, with several more to come barring a miracle turnaround at this point. Seriously concerned we may not even make the tournament without winning the B10 tourney and I don't see this team stringing together that many wins in a row.

 

[Oldskoolkoach]

Brad will never own it. He's as stubborn as a mule

 

[JSpence]

Ironically i think Matthew Mayer would fit this team more than Ben

Ehhhhhh court play alone, I don't want his hogging. Or his defense. I also don't think he'd be even a decent rebounder on this team.

 

[spillini]

Here’s my opinion … Who gives a …

What’s Ben gonna do ? Sue ??? Too late for a “mental health” redshirt like some of these kids did …

He ain’t a connected guy to any AAU team … His little brother ain’t a 5 star … I could give 2 if we tick off his “circle” …

meet bench … It’s time to win and win now …

The best 5 play … Period …

Man do I miss the Trent and DMFW days …

Maybe I just don’t know what NIL deals are really like, but it seems extremely wild to me for a coach like BU to make pt promises to a DIII guy who is also getting paid a ton of money and letting that affect winning. Mad world.

 

[steveinspringfield]

Sure the kids were awful at times this game, and probably deserved to lose with all the turnovers and bad shooting. But, it's been clear Underwood struggles with end of game situations. I've heard Brad say many times that you should not call a timeout in a final possession of the game with the shot clock off. What does he do? Calls a time out and lets Nebraska get their game plan to foul three times. He had to know they were going to foul. Once we have the ball we had to attack the rim to get them to foul us as quick as they can. Instead we hold the ball to under 10 seconds waiting for them to foul us. Then throw the ball 15 feet over the half court line to take another 5 seconds off. Got lucky they were called for a foul on an attempted steal. But since we did not have a final timeout we panicked, through the ball in the corner with no where to go and through a prayer. Brad chocked as much as the team tonight.

I'm sure a lot of us thought this exactly. If you know they have 3 fouls to give, make them give them quickly. We lost all that time to jack up a prayer from the corner with no time left. I didn't get the plan. Still don't.

 

[illini510]

But Hawkins is the least of their problems

 

[JJE]

Oh he is …

Wow. I guess you have to lay in the bed you make. That’s crazy.

 

[Flyin' Illini]

I'm intrigued by the nuances of the NIL and coaching. I don't want to get too deep into its impact, but to me, it appears to be playing a big role in not only recruiting, but how a game is coached and decisions

Why is that the case though? The NIL money is a sunk cost, so why not just put the best players on the floor? Do coaches have to go out of their way to try to justify the money spent so donors don't feel like they wasted their money? If so, that isn't going to work.