Illinois 76, VCU 55 Postgame

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#276      
HouTexIllini
Second place is 1st loser said:
Two Sweet 16's in 3 years. Pretty sure he's getting into the rarified air of Illinois basketball second weekend appearances. Anyone who gives him trash now(outside of basic, well thought out, good natured, in game criticism).....hit ignore.

The guy gives us extremely competitive, fun, entertaining basketball year after year.
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I agree with this for the most part. Based on your screen name I assumed a different response.

I am a big fan of Brad, but am critical of the direction and changes the past two years. The staff departures, subsequent hires, and other stuff has the roster construction and play calling lacking to my personal liking. But, hey, it’s his job not mine. I’ll love the state, the school, and any Illini team even if they suck.

Criticism is warranted but getting better results, a better man (as far as I know), a so-called better coach is a difficult task and those overly ambitious and simultaneously misguided and addlepated people who call for his firing will be unhappy no matter what.

It is fair if people think he should be on the hot seat or made to improve his staff. But, calls to replace BU I think are dumb.
 
#277      
band camp
RickBB said:
I can’t believe they are playing NCAA games on the only court in the country with the benches on the baselines. That would drive me crazy as a coach.
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If something so trivial as bench location would drive you nuts, I believe you made the right vocational choice to not coach.
;)
 
#278      
band camp
CleverHandle1 said:
Very impressive tonight. Even if VCU's player didn't get hurt, Illinois still blows them out of the damn gym.

Tonight? Illinois was that lion annoyed by the jackals and hyenas. After being slightly annoyed, the lion devoured these inferior opponents.

VCU has this reputation. They've earned it. They had a very impressive winning streak. They beat St. Louis. They won the A10 Conference Championship.

And in the end, they became the hunted and the roles were reversed.

Illinois sent those jackals, hyenas and prairie dogs away whimpering not knowing what the hell hit them!

Illinois would have dominated North Carolina tonight--something I wanted to see. But, you play who's in front of you.

And this is what we, fans, have desired. A talented team who can get right back up and smack anyone in the mouth.
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VCU lost to SLU in St. Louis. And they tried a bunch of cheap stuff that caused a bench clearing brawl as SLU tried to dribble out the clock. Its on YouTube.
 
#279      
ILLINI_Post Ayo
Illini Alumni living in Houston. I’ll be taking the fam to the game Thursday. Should we plan for an orange 🍊 out? Also wondering if any sites do 2 day shipping on jerseys? I only have white jerseys.
 
#282      
ILLINI_Post Ayo
band camp said:
Defenses have to guard Jake from 3. They can play off AS a bit. Jake spreads defenses out. Thats why he starts.
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Agree on Jake starting. His effort to crash boards, knock down threes, forces D to look for him and it really spaces out the paint. I personally love his willingness to bring a little extra grit to the other team. No premadonna there!
 
#283      
jumpingjack
ILLINI_Post Ayo said:
Agree on Jake starting. His effort to crash boards, knock down threes, forces D to look for him and it really spaces out the paint. I personally love his willingness to bring a little extra grit to the other team. No premadonna there!
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Cheers Salute GIF by Apple TV
 
#284      
Gravy Train
So sweet it is…40+ year Illini fan and of course I want it all but sweet 16 has always been my measuring stick for a great year. Everything else is gravy…I-L-L
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I concur…I really, really do.
 
#288      
wncillini
Pre-game and pre-2nd half warm-ups against Penn, Z was throwing up airball after brick after airball from 3. He may have but I didn't see him make a 3 until right before 2nd half where he was messing around and hit 2 30ish foot 3's in a row. He and the bench got a laugh out of it. T's shots for the same time looked like they did in games and went in at about 1 of 4-5 clip. The mostly looked fine. Mostly looked on-line. Mostly looked like they were going in but shots just coming out a little odd and or flat. Before the 2nd game both were making more in warm ups and shots seemed closer to what we saw earlier in the season. Was more optimistic that one or both would hit some. Of course no on Z but T had some good looks and all but 1 barely hit the front of rim looked good.

I was a little embarrassed at the Illini fan section. So both VCU and UI fans chose to eat dinner during the Duke game instead of attending so we weren't alone in this. Both games were during dinner time. To those of you that watched the Duke game on TV, I'm not sure if it showed but there were rows upon rows of empty seats behind the illini bench up most of the way of the lower section. Maybe 150 to 200 empty seats. VCU had empty seats but maybe half of that (allotted fewer seats?). The sections of fans still wearing the gear of teams already eliminated showed up well. Also just an observation without an answer. The Illini section that showed up to watch both games were 80% decked in orange. The illini section that showed for just the Illini game was 25% decked in orange and the rest was random Illini gear.

It just reminded me a lot of the game I caught this year at the SFC. Too many people go to our basketball games like it's a mid-season MLB game. Just there to hang out and eat a hot dog and passively watch the game like it was on TV.

We did have some fans really into the game. I would say except for Z's dunk which got he entire place going regardless of team affiliation, about 20% of the fans were really into the game. It could be that it was more noticeable since Duke and UNC fans are much more passionate. The 20 or so UNC fans around me were chearing harder for the UI to beat VCU, then then Illini fans were and were more vocal about it. I wouldn't change Nebraskas passion for our success, but wish were could get some of the energy back from the early 2000's.

I know we have had some student section issues as well. However, are there schools that pay for students sections to go to to NCAA tournament games in addition to their big donors or is that not a thing? Our section seemed much older than the other school sections, though that might just be bias due to the lack of energy.

Heading over to the Houston board they have similar complaints. I wonder if we are in that between state where our fans expect tournament appearances so the excitement won't happen until we start progressing further as a program, or at least sustain this long enough to grow the next generation of fans. I'm sure that dead 10 years of success blunted some of the youth fan enthusiasm and growth.

However........I did take my young daughter to her first Illini game earlier this year. She was instantly hooked despite knowing nothing about basketball. I've tried to get her interested before but it didn't stick until we went to a game. She can now tell you all the big ten coaches, the Illini players heights, place of birth, stats, and who made the AA teams from the Big Ten. Took her to both of these games and she is hooked for life. Even yelled at me when I forgot to yell back I N I. Trying to do my part.
 
#290      
band camp
ILLINI_Post Ayo said:
Agree on Jake starting. His effort to crash boards, knock down threes, forces D to look for him and it really spaces out the paint. I personally love his willingness to bring a little extra grit to the other team. No premadonna there!
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That is a great point. He is a responsible player.
 
#292      
pruman91
I liked that play where Mirko-Man drove to the rim and passed to Tomi who caught it and shot a reverse all in one motion for a bucket.......told me Tomi was back...............it really really did.................
 
#297      
BrimfieldBomber
#298      
FreshlySqueezed
I agree with this for the most part. Based on your screen name I assumed a different response.

I am a big fan of Brad, but am critical of the direction and changes the past two years. The staff departures, subsequent hires, and other stuff has the roster construction and play calling lacking to my personal liking. But, hey, it’s his job not mine. I’ll love the state, the school, and any Illini team even if they suck.

Criticism is warranted but getting better results, a better man (as far as I know), a so-called better coach is a difficult task and those overly ambitious and simultaneously misguided and addlepated people who call for his firing will be unhappy no matter what.

It is fair if people think he should be on the hot seat or made to improve his staff. But, calls to replace BU I think are dumb.
Click to expand...

It's fair that Underwood should be on the hot seat?

What the F is wrong with you people?
 
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