I did but maybe if we tried to run an offense instead of just “street” ball we would get players In positions to score. I am sorry but our offense was not much better with Curbello in than not. Playing through Kofi is our only option and traditional passes into the post may make more sense than the flashy play we are trying now?
Cincinnati 71, Illinois 51 Postgame
Agreed. Not Curbello's fault. We can't expect him to be Ayo. He can't get an assist if his veteran teammates stink it up so bad.
Serious question, who is the leader on the team?
Don’t we have two 5th year seniors in the starting 5?
Agreed...it appears they ran out of Beet Juice after 8 minutes.....
IlliniRon
Illini Basketball Fan Forever
- Ft Worth, Texas
Well, I was fooled and thought we were a top 10 team based on our talent coming into the season. We played so poorly, like the Marquette game, and got killed by Cincy. Game comments:
Point guard. Need one badly. Curbelo thinks he has become a 3 point shooter but we need a leader on the floor who makes the team better, runs the offense.
Shooting. It didn't show up tonight.
Center/Cockburn. His hands looked really bad tonight after a great start. Maybe that's why he was not ready for the NBA last year.
Defense. It looked like we would rather foul than play good defense tonight. Fouling a 90% FT shooter like Saunders is really stupid guys.
Rebounding. Need to work on blocking out on defense, way too many second chances for Cincy tonight.
Coaching. If Brad continues to be low key about a problem performance like this one, he has lost control of the team, and will struggle this year. He needs to get upset with poor performance and make some changes. I would bench Curbelo if he could locate a better option at PG.
I guess we are likely to face Bruce Weber in the next game. So it could get worse if Weber beats us by 20 points.
Point guard. Need one badly. Curbelo thinks he has become a 3 point shooter but we need a leader on the floor who makes the team better, runs the offense.
Shooting. It didn't show up tonight.
Center/Cockburn. His hands looked really bad tonight after a great start. Maybe that's why he was not ready for the NBA last year.
Defense. It looked like we would rather foul than play good defense tonight. Fouling a 90% FT shooter like Saunders is really stupid guys.
Rebounding. Need to work on blocking out on defense, way too many second chances for Cincy tonight.
Coaching. If Brad continues to be low key about a problem performance like this one, he has lost control of the team, and will struggle this year. He needs to get upset with poor performance and make some changes. I would bench Curbelo if he could locate a better option at PG.
I guess we are likely to face Bruce Weber in the next game. So it could get worse if Weber beats us by 20 points.
We
did to the locker room.
Every single issue exposed by Loyola is still an issue.
Good question. Somebody better step up.
Problem with shooting woes is no offensive flow/sets/etc. Plummer literally shot a 3 from top of the key after standing in the same spot for 5 seconds.
After initial run, centered around Kofi dominance, theres 0 flow.
After initial run, centered around Kofi dominance, theres 0 flow.
We did not see a cohesive effort until Hutch, BVV, and RJM were in together. All bring pluses to the floor. BBV can board with anyone but has no finish. Just needed those guys earlier to provide a spark, but not sure they meld well with starters. Really lack an alpha dog. Wondered who that would be for months. Still am. Kofi is the star, but he is neutered by a triple team when he will not pass out. If we don't see that soon, this season is doomed to be one of the most disappointing in Illini history. Hutch showed signs of being that kind of guy, but two seasons of watching have not helped him. BU has a tough task ahead. Gotta change the mindset, infuse confidence, and fuse this team together. I have no idea if he knows how to do that without Ayo, but we will find out. Losses to two unranked teams, of which the Illini will soon be a part, have grossly deflated interest in Illini basketball after two great seasons. This should have been a third, but playing the games have a way of exposing weaknesses. The balloon has burst... it was filled with hot air.
This^^^
No sugar coating it. We stink. I can handle poor execution but the lack of energy and effort tonight was inexcusable, esp. coming out of a loss that we had to sit on for a week. Purdue would absolutely destroy us right now.
I thought RJ looked good too.
Whitmans Sampler
- Eastern Iowa
Bring back angry in your face, red in the face, throwing clipboards Brad
Let’s hope we just got dirt rolled by 2 teams that were vastly underrated 
I’m
It’s not that he doesn’t actually care. By carefree I mean his loose style of play. He can be effective playing like that(even if it gets him in some trouble) but MOST players cannot play that way. It leads to a complete lack of focus. His attitude can be his own…but it cannot be the attitude of the team, and that is really hard to prevent when it’s your point guard. When a guy has the ball in his hands as much as curbelo does(and should) it is hard for him not to become the de facto leader come game day.
It’s not that he doesn’t actually care. By carefree I mean his loose style of play. He can be effective playing like that(even if it gets him in some trouble) but MOST players cannot play that way. It leads to a complete lack of focus. His attitude can be his own…but it cannot be the attitude of the team, and that is really hard to prevent when it’s your point guard. When a guy has the ball in his hands as much as curbelo does(and should) it is hard for him not to become the de facto leader come game day.
I've seen a bunch of 30 and 40 year olds at Lifetime Fitness run a more coherent offense than what I saw tonight.
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Yep. I keep bringing up Brad's comment about "not watching the tape yet" as being kind of alarming because it might be a sign that he didn't see it as anything other than a fluke -- rather than being fundamentally exposed and needing to have better gameplans with alternatives that you've practiced. The latter seems to be the case.
Our strategy really seems to bank on beating teams with athleticism and a good strategy by an opponent can clearly overcome that. It's showing.
Cincy is a top 20 team...their coach is truly elite.
We have alot of potential...that's all we can conclude at this point.
The D pressure against Kofi is soooooo predictable and yet we do not have a counter. We need to waive off the hype and truly get a dog mentality and figure out and drill like crazy the counters to Kofi triple teams.
Disappointed in BU
We have alot of potential...that's all we can conclude at this point.
The D pressure against Kofi is soooooo predictable and yet we do not have a counter. We need to waive off the hype and truly get a dog mentality and figure out and drill like crazy the counters to Kofi triple teams.
Disappointed in BU