Illinois 120, Fairleigh Dickinson 45 Postgame

#176      
Yes…. guys that play well fast🙂 Wagler did great with keeping a snails pace. Coleman looks like he plays better up tempo …. the game was fast last night and the passing was quick with very little dribbling… interesting change! Fun stuff…. run run run🙂
Fascinating. Coleman is definitely twitchier, but that's a fairly significant shift for one player.
 
#179      
To put this further into perspective:

Illinois scored 1.591 points per possession.
FDU scored 0.597 points per possession.

That mathematically means that if the two teams played 100 possessions, Illinois would win by:

159.1 - 59.7 = 99.4 points (!)

.....

The actual game was 75 possessions and Illinois won by.... 75 points.
 
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#180      
It was probably just a bad game and ramping up to real moments that matter, but it seemed like they're working on something with him that's giving him some hesitancy on the defensive end. Not sure if it's getting burned on pump fakes or something, but he seemed like he was second-guessing himself on the defense, or just didn't really have the dog in him that I remembered last year. Honestly, I was thinking that he looked more like Carey Booth on defense than the Z we know and love. I'm sure it's just ramp-up stuff that he'll get past.
Hope so.

Makes me wonder if he's nursing some injury. He looks stiff at times.
 
#181      
...

You think someone who’s one of the greatest offensive minds of his generation (crafted the #3, #14, and #2 offenses in the country by age 29 (the first 3 offenses of his career) and is on pace for the #1 offense at 30) was a hire worth criticizing as our 5th and lowest paid assistant at 24?
...
There is a big difference between questioning and criticizing. I saw far more questioning in the forum than criticizing.
 
#182      
There is a big difference between questioning and criticizing. I saw far more questioning in the forum than criticizing.
This is all from is from one recruiting thread in 2023. We made the E8 in large part due to Tyler’s evaluations and offensive design that very season:

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The hire was heavily criticized here and elsewhere.
 

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#187      
This is all from is from one recruiting thread in 2023. We made the E8 in large part due to Tyler’s evaluations and offensive design that very season:

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The hire was heavily criticized here and elsewhere.
Crossed wires? These posts seem to criticize Brad for the hire which is different than criticizing Tyler. My comment was about Tyler. There were more questions of Tyler's readiness than criticisms (this does not imply there were no criticisms). There were many criticisms of BU.

I'll freely admit that I'm one of the people who questioned the choice to hire Tyler and Zach. Tyler as an offensive coach has worked out great. Zach on defense was (IMO) a disaster. I give the blame for that to BU for sticking with Zach when it was clear he didn't have it. You can't blame the new hire for trying their best.
 
#189      
Every recruit we are interested in should get a copy of this game and be asked, "Do you want to play in this system?" The answer should be, "Where do I sign?"
 
#190      
Feels like splitting hairs a bit with the “questioned it” vs “criticized it”. I think the salient point is that no matter which of those camps you were in: you were wrong.
 
#191      
Tyler's hire and push through the program was unequivocally nepotism, he was not qualified in an objective resume sense for the jobs he got, and everybody knows perfectly well there is absolutely zero chance whatsoever the same guy named Tyler Jones gets those jobs. There's no subtlety to any of that, it's not a close call, TU just got pushed directly toward full assistant coach status in the Big Ten the second his playing eligibility expired because his Dad wanted it that way.

But real life does not always operate on the principles of objective qualifications and just desserts. Brad believed in his son, and while fathers have been regularly wrong about that in every line of work throughout human history, Brad was very, very right.

Nepotism is, in the aggregate, a path to mediocrity and unfairness and failure. But there are exceptions to every rule.

Tyler is an extraordinary young basketball mind and we are very lucky to have him. Nobody needs to apologize to anybody for the wrong process having the right result.
 
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#192      
😂Hey, I’ll eat my plate of crow. Happily.

Tyler deserves a metric ton of credit for his effort and results.
Questioning or “criticizing” the hire at the time was perfectly reasonable in the realm of a fan message board.
I don’t think a single person on this board could have predicted this type of success.

Coaches kid is clearly a basketball sponge and analytic student that has earned his place.
 
#193      
Tyler's hire and push through the program was unequivocally nepotism, he was not qualified in an objective resume sense for the jobs he got, and everybody knows perfectly well there is absolutely zero chance whatsoever the same guy named Tyler Jones gets those jobs. There's no subtlety to any of that, it's not a close call, TU just got pushed directly toward full assistant coach status in the Big Ten the second his playing eligibility expired because his Dad wanted it that way.

But real life does not always operate on the principles of objective qualifications and just desserts. Brad believed in his son, and while fathers have been regularly wrong about that in every line of work throughout human history, Brad was very, very right.

Nepotism is, in the aggregate, a path to mediocrity and unfairness and failure. But there are exceptions to every rule.

Tyler is an extraordinary young basketball mind and we are very lucky to have him. Nobody needs to apologize to anybody for the wrong process having the right result.

Not to mention the “fool us once” carry over from the Football Smiths.
 
#194      
Tyler was a grad assistant for like 2 years before he even had a real role on the staff. Then he had a hand in recruiting and scouting, but was NOT an official assistant until the 23-24 season. He had spent time at two lower levels prior to becoming an assistant coach.

Not the fast-track that everyone seems to be framing it as.

It also isn’t just his dad pushing him through these promotions. It has to go through the Athletic Director, it has to go through the Administration and hiring Committees, and as a third process has to be approved by the Board of Directors.

If we want to say all of those people were wrong in granting these promotions… well, okay.
 
#195      
To put this further into perspective:

Illinois scored 1.591 points per possession.
FDU scored 0.597 points per possession.

That mathematically means that if the two teams played 100 possessions, Illinois would win by:

159.1 - 59.7 = 99.4 points (!)

.....

The actual game was 75 possessions and Illinois won by.... 75 points.
Very cool, but I'd pump the brakes on getting too jazzed. FDU is KP 341. Gonna be curious to see how the the pace adjustments translate against Duke & UConn. Duke is deep, and UConn will dictate pace like they do against everyone.

Butler currently mauling FDU by 23 at the half.
 
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