Michigan State 79, Illinois 65 Postgame

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#876      
Pikeillinifan
Dragons89 said:
Morez was rocking and was the first player subbed for last night. The camera zoomed in on Morez and his reaction was written all over his face. We all see it and the players feel it. Bad player management isn’t helping. Admitting it after the game multiple times this year. Wake the hell up during the game.
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That was exactly what I saw too, Morez was on a roll and he was the first subbed out? I assumed he was gassed but still, made no sense to me. It almost seemed like they didn’t want to have him take over and they pulled him to change the game.
 
#879      
GatorMcKlusky
Brad's first mistake was thinking he could put any five players out there and come away with an Elite 8 team. It's called hubris. Second mistake was falling for Ron Guenther's "To be the best you have to play the best" non conference schedule.
 
#880      
illiniguy24
sacraig said:
I disagree. That is not a similar scenario.

We have a better AD now.
NIL puts us in the top 10ish of jobs available.
We haven't endured 6 years of slow but steady decline.
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I agree with you. I was simply playing devils advocate. It’s never as simple as “our program is in a good spot, if we lose our coach we will be fine because we will find an upgrade”
 
#881      
GatorMcKlusky
BashCtIllini said:
It's quite simple. Without Stephen Gentry on the bench, don't expect any adjustments.

Remember, Underwood was struggling big time at Ok State. They (Stephen Gentry) made an adjustment, and the team took off ending very strongly. Gentry got Underwood the job here. Then when we adjusted our defense here, because remember we were awful the first couple of Underwood years, guess who.

From what insiders relayed, Gentry is probably a dork. Didn't mesh well with the other assistants, so Underwood took the recruiters and let the strategist go to Gonzaga. I'd assume if we had 5 coaches back then, we'd have kept Gentry around. But without Gentry on our bench, we have not adjusted at all.

And I still keep coming back to last year. People say well look at last year, that proves.... I don't agree. Last year we had a stud just play hero ball over and over and over, and he kept making it work. We had a second guy that was bigger and stronger than most people who guarded him and was able to make booty ball work over and over. Notice when Ben tries it, his defender often just pushes him back, and it doesn't work.

My fear is that last year was more a testament to the dominance of Terrance Shannon as college player than it was Underwood being a great coach. I would have said Underwood is a great GM. He can get the players and coaches, though this year I'm very suspect of the coaches. But he is not a bench coach. Hey being a great GM will win you a ton of games. But my question ultimately becomes, in an NIL world, can any coach land a group of studs with the money we spend? And then, can a better bench coach perform better, even if they don't land the exact same quality of players, because our NIL will always land us a top 5 talent roster in conference.
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100%. Brad caught lightning in a bottle (TSJ) and it went to his head - like a lot of Illini basketball and football coaches. Hopefully Bret handles success better than his predecessors.
 
#885      
Oldskoolkoach
Classic Bobby Knight: ”a$$ meets bench, bench retains a$$. A$$ transmits signal to brain, brain transmits signal to body. Body gets a$$ off bench and plays better!”

Current Day Brad Underwood: "you challenge me, bench retains you permanently, unless you can promise to miss a lot of 3s and get beat on defense."
 
#886      
Snoopy
GatorMcKlusky said:
Brad's first mistake was thinking he could put any five players out there and come away with an Elite 8 team. It's called hubris. Second mistake was falling for Ron Guenther's "To be the best you have to play the best" non conference schedule.
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Scheduling Duke late in the year suggests Brad's ego really believed he had a final four/elite 9 team, would currently be fighting for the regular season title, and win or lose it would be a decent experience. Now with 7 conference loses, there is a lot of pressure to show out in MSG and in the B1G tournament. Anything can happen in March, but time is running out to turn things around. Wonder if we can get Jay Wright to consult again.
 
#887      
Trueblue777
I don’t think he’s capable of making adjustments as he’s too stubborn and based on the way he answers questions not all that bright
 
#889      
Ill in Cols
DeeIL89 said:
When this team was 12-3 earlier in the season our defensive efficiency was top 4 in the country. Now, since mid January the team’s defensive efficiency is 105 in the country.
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May be getting in late to respond here, but seems to me the same thing happened last year. Early on great defensive efficiency tanks later on. I suppose that could be due to making/not making adjustments?
 
#894      
21ChampaignSt
Ill in Cols said:
May be getting in late to respond here, but seems to me the same thing happened last year. Early on great defensive efficiency tanks later on. I suppose that could be due to making/not making adjustments?
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This surprised me - The only year that our defense improved over the course of a season under Brad was 2021.
 
#898      
skyIdub
LvilleILL1 said:
Barring something crazy happening, Morez is staying.
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Something crazy?

You mean like, Tomi mono, Tomi rolled ankle, flu bug, Tre "illness", banner disaster, TA leaving, Hamer coaching our "defense", Tyler getting an "assistant" coaching position, shooting 1,786,432 three point shots, and only making 26 of those shots?


Or something crazier than that? /s-ish
 
#899      
Roundball Sage
illiniswish09 said:
One of the more pathetic losses I can remember in some time
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Michigan State played with poise and confidence. Our Beloved did not.

Despite not being able to buy a Three at any price for much of the game... the Illini could not come up with a floor leader. No one seemed to want to take charge and settle things down when the wheels were falling off.

This is concerning as we approach the part of the Season that matters. There is a lot of talent on the Illini – one of the most talented teams maybe in history. But these individualized skills have still not come together as the well-oiled machine that they could.

These is still time to fix this. But, no time to waste.

Such a great opporunity to shine on the Saturday night National TV stage. And the Illini... laid a big egg.

Well, maybe not an egg. Eggs are quite valuable these days...
 
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