I lived through the "glory" Weber years (went to UIUC from '05-'10). Why do you all have to trigger my PTSD with flashbacks to these games and this era...
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ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
That's a bummer, he's a terrible basketball coach who was showing great promise as a studio analyst.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I also liked him in the studio. Had the right mix of personality and analysis. Kind of a bummer from a viewing perspective as I'm sure we'll get some novice to replace Pastner on the ESPN and Peacock broadcasts now.
Yeah I've watched Purdue play. Loyer could absolutely not start for every team in the country. He wouldn't even get on the court for Duke.
Anyone can score in the mid range against the Illini when Illinois defenders often end up behind everyone.
Loyer is soft and can't handle strength or athleticism. Good defensive teams can take him out of the game. The same can't be said for Smith or TKR.
I mean he does the same exact thing to every other team they play. He basically scored his season average against us.
This is getting too far off-topic, probably. Lets agree to disagree!
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Totally agree, I was just under the impression that we went into last offseason with our new offensive scheme already planned and brought in guys that were supposed to fit the 3-point spam offense. Unfortunately some of those missed evals really hurt.
robertgoulet
IL Board Resident Crooner
- Austin, TX
Humrichous going into the freezer and never really unthawing is a really underrated storyline for this season. 42%+ from 3 would have changed a lot about the team, imo.
Ehhhhhhh, Penn State did suck, but hard to knock that defense either. That '09 team only allowed 0.88ppp and was considered the 4th best in the country. Only our '00 and '01 teams were statistically better on that side of the ball this century. Closest a Brad team has come to that mark was the 2021 Kofi, Ayo, Trent, Damonte team at 0.89ppp which needless to say was still outstanding.
This isn't advocating a return to those days, but our defense was a consistent Top 10 back then. Saying that defense wasn't good is fairly similar to saying our offense last year wasn't good in my opinion. Both were great
Bigtex
- DFW
TBH the defense you mention against Loyer also worked well against Will Riley.
Whoever brought Humrichous on board seems to have sold him as an elite shooter but at Evansville he was incredibly streaky, shooting pretty well in the first half of the season and then dropping off quite a bit in the second half probably due to better scouting. Poor evaluation and that’s coming from someone that defended him quite a bit this season on this board. I was never sold on him being more than a 15 minutes a game kind of guy but someone on the staff saw him in a completely different light.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
It's the best defense for controlling PNRs, but it's also the hardest to find a big that can do it. You need the optimal combination of size, length, and footwork. There's been one big at Illinois in the past 30 years who could do it (Augustine). Hawkins could also do it but was almost always asked to drop for rebounding reasons. Sampson does it the best because 5-6 of his rotation guys are springy, 6'8 wings that are positional-less.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
A consistent top 10 defense?
The year before (2008) it was 29th and the year after (2010) was it was 49th. Our defenses were very good under Weber but they were not consistently top 10. More accurately would say top 25-30ish defense.
Thanks to all of you on here with lots on hands on experience, playing and coaching.
It really helps me, as merely a fan, with zero of that experience, to gain some perspective.
As an inexperienced observer, I would say our guys showed lots of skill, and generally played hard, with intensity, and never quit.
Since I bleed orange, I am very proud of that, and some of the immense victories we had this year.
Overall, our defense is clearly a bigger concern than our offense.
My memory isn't the best, but did we beat anyone by shutting them down with our D this year?
And when we ran into skilled teams that were bigger than us (Duke, MD), yikes!
As a side note that might be a tell, I didn't see us get many steals this year.
On offense, we may rate top-20 and average 84 points a game, and run complex sets that I can't recognize,
but I think our 2 games in the BTT are a curious indicator: 109-94 win over Iowa and 88-65 loss to Maryland.
In those 2 games only, we averaged 87 points a game, and "held" MD to 21 points under Iowa.
So if you're a stats guy, you can say good things, and these 2 games add to our season stats in a positive way.
But should they?
If you're an eyeball guy (like me), you wonder how the heck can Iowa score 94 on us (bad D),
and did we really only score 65 on MD (bad O, on top of bad D)?
Sorry for rambling. I will always be a fan and wish the players, coaches and us fans nothing but the best!
ILL !!
It really helps me, as merely a fan, with zero of that experience, to gain some perspective.
As an inexperienced observer, I would say our guys showed lots of skill, and generally played hard, with intensity, and never quit.
Since I bleed orange, I am very proud of that, and some of the immense victories we had this year.
Overall, our defense is clearly a bigger concern than our offense.
My memory isn't the best, but did we beat anyone by shutting them down with our D this year?
And when we ran into skilled teams that were bigger than us (Duke, MD), yikes!
As a side note that might be a tell, I didn't see us get many steals this year.
On offense, we may rate top-20 and average 84 points a game, and run complex sets that I can't recognize,
but I think our 2 games in the BTT are a curious indicator: 109-94 win over Iowa and 88-65 loss to Maryland.
In those 2 games only, we averaged 87 points a game, and "held" MD to 21 points under Iowa.
So if you're a stats guy, you can say good things, and these 2 games add to our season stats in a positive way.
But should they?
If you're an eyeball guy (like me), you wonder how the heck can Iowa score 94 on us (bad D),
and did we really only score 65 on MD (bad O, on top of bad D)?
Sorry for rambling. I will always be a fan and wish the players, coaches and us fans nothing but the best!
ILL !!
How about stressing the importance of not getting beat/and getting organized in transition? Maybe they could start there…?
I agree with being multiple defensively but you also have to consider if your team can handle it.
Not just talking to you here, but does anybody feel comfortable with a 7 footer who is a foul prone cone on defense blitzing or hedging? Your best bet is to keep him between the ball and the basket where he can wall up and use his size as a detriment. I’m probably in the minority here but drop coverage with Tommy is absolutely the right coverage.
With Morez, sure he has the physical ability to play more aggressive coverages, but he is also foul prone. Do we want him picking up blocking fouls hard hedging or trapping 35 feet from the basket or do we want him on the court?
If you want to be multiple defensively, we gotta get more guys who move like Tre and Morez. Obviously we have to score too so those guys have to be skilled offensively. The problem is everyone is fighting for those guys and there aren’t enough to go around, so you build your system around what you have.
I will meet you at transition defense is highly effort based. But it’s almost impossible when it’s off a turnover behind your 3 point line, and 3-4 offensive players are below the ft line for spacing.
It’s also a losing cause if you’re effort is great, but the other teams transition offense effort is great, AND they are more athletic than you, like Kentucky.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Sac State investing in athletics like it's 2005.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
That was such an ugly Wednesday night of basketball, that I had to spend 4 hours at Murphy's to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Still not sure how I made it into class on Thursday morning.
Edit: Box score shows 71 total points scored and 64 total rebounds in the game. Truly one of the worst games in my lifetime.
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ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
2008-09 was really the one season in Weber's entire tenure where he had a team playing his basketball with his culture.
Not a lot of talent on that team, but they were gritty and hardworking and defended as a unit.
Now, remember, in that era of the Big Ten you could commit assault and battery without a whistle blowing, and you could also draw a charge if an athletic ballhandler so much as looked at the rim. It was reprehensible basketball to watch and thank heavens the sport has changed, but that team was a nightmare to play against under the rules at that time.
The year before was the Randle and Pruitt sulk-fest, and then the year after Chester and Trent Meacham were gone and Weber had begun his alienation campaign against his best player McCamey. It was never going to work here, Weber didn't want to work with the players Illinois needed in order to succeed.
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