I'm sorry to break it to you but it hasn't been that great. It's been good no doubt, but you're equally as jaded by the Groce years. If you want to look at 4 year spans, Underwood has won 88 games these past 4 years. Groce's best 4 years was 77 wins. Weber's best was 112. Sure you can say but Weber inherited a monster. Ok that is true. If you start after the title game, the next 4 years, Weber won 89 games. And that included a really bad 16 win season. Underwood's best season is 24 wins. Weber did that or better 4 times. Groce's top was 23 wins.
So if you look at Illinois basketball over the past 30ish years, Lou had us rolling and satan killed it. Lon Kruger brought us back, Bill Self took us to the summit (or at least close), Weber continued the climb to the peak, but his poor recruiting brought us back down to just a good team. Groce was the flop. He couldn't get us any better than good. In the last 20 years, which encompasses all of Weber, Groce, and Underwood, the 2 worst seasons belong to Underwood.
These are just the facts. I think Underwood is certainly a very good coach, and there is no debating that. However, I also don't think he is someone like Self where you feel deflated if he leaves. I personally don't think he is a top 10 coach in the nation, despite being paid like one. Ultimately I think Underwood is here next year, but if he's not, I'm personally not too concerned.
my friends watched American bandstand .........I was more a Soul Train guy.....Hmmmm that explains your BrookTaylorFan portfolio lol . Just kidding. loved to watch me some Don Corniellius and Soul Train too
It’s one game. Doesn’t hold much weightObviously things are not linear, but how does Josh's view of Miller possibly change if Texas man handles Xavier given that Brad beat Texas and that we keep hearing that RT's stock is tied to Texas' performance? It's a one off, but given that Josh is apparently there(?)...what are the metrics? Is it already decided based on previous performance? Fascinating time of year!
Is it fairly standard for a coach to turn to coaches/players on the bench and go at them immediately after a bad play on court? Just something I’ve noticed Brad do, that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another coach do, at least not consistently. Comes across on tv like hes saying “this is all your fault, I f$@&ing told you!” I could be way off, I’m never there in person.
my friends watched American bandstand .........I was more a Soul Train guy.....
my friends listened to the Monkees......I was a more Temptations & Supremes guy....
Love , Peace & Soul........
Nuke , I was born in 1951 and one day down in the basement my dad was canning some pickles and making his homemade wine and he hollered out " Hey lil pru , come here "......so i obeyed like the good lil boy I was ......He had the cardinals on the radio and it was harry & Jack on the call,,,,that's the day he said " son , you can be anything you want to be in life except for one thing "....Born in 1961. So yeah really don't remember them together. I was a watching the Cards/Cubs on WGN in 1985. Wille McGee makes a good play in CF. Harry says something like "that McGee is one heck of Centerfielder. Not as good as our Bobby Denier but pretty good." McGee goes on to win the Gold Glove, Batting Title and MVP that season. But not quite as good as Denier LOL. Harry.
I never liked to listen to Steve Stone.......monotone voice,,,,,,,,boring to be exact , but I never watched WGN except for Soul Train............
"For all you youngsters out there..."
Just kidding, but as someone who wasn't a big baseball fan growing up, listening to Steve Stone on Cubs games in the mid to late 90s taught me a ton about the game.
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Maybe we’ll pull a Midnight Special Loyalty After Dark primo portal PG in the coming weeks.
Thats cool..............
Just kidding, but as someone who wasn't a big baseball fan growing up, listening to Steve Stone on Cubs games in the mid to late 90s taught me a ton about the game.
One change above.......I think this year we found Brad's recruiting ceiling. I don't think this is the cause of the friction, nor do i think the donor situation is, directly anyway, but i do think that is why we would be moving on soon even if there were no friction.
Brad's been recruiting dawgs (and signing them and winning with them). Not only dawgs, but i think Epps, Harris, Rogers, Hansberry, and Morez all fit the bill. Trent and Monte as the OGs, Ayo, Kofi learning dawg while he was here. His first years it was dawgs and dice rolls for the most part, with Giorgi a winner (against his rating) and Hutcherson coming up snake eyes. He took 'em and won games with 'em.
Skyy (and Matt too) represented something new for Brad - a talented non-dawg. Both had some red flags, maybe just orange, but Brad wanted/felt he had to move up the talent ranks. This is something his job performance is judged on. As a poster said the other day 'no one with any basketball knowledge takes a vet for one year over Skyy.' And yet it failed, spectacularly. If you are Josh Whitman looking to see how a talent upgrade moves the needle for your team, what is your takeaway?
I think i am safe in saying that the higher up the recruiting rankings you go, the fewer Underwood-style dawgs you see. Yet that top 10 salary has barley got us a sniff from any top 10 talent. (Whitmore was an even bigger miss in retrospect.) Underwood has proven that he can win with a team of his 30-100 ranked guys, but if you can rarely even make a play at a top 10 guy... Then you factor in that the highest rated Dawgs every year are going to have some blue blood program after them.
If you are, let's randomly pick, uhhhh, Xavier, you don't have to recruit dawgs only. You can go and get a one and done showcase guy. You can target any high school player and see what happens. You can recruit dawgs too, everybody needs 'em, but you are not limited to only them. Have some made up numbers!
Top 100 Players our competition can recruit: 100
Top 100 Players Underwood can recruit (with the expectation they can handle his style): 60?
Top 25 players our competition can recruit: 25
Top 25 Players Underwood can recruit (with the expectation they can handle his style): Just 1 or 2, maybe
Brad is out here winning games with one hand tied behind his back. It really is impressive, but i feel like we learned this year that it isn't going to change, and Whitman would prefer a coach who can and will use both hands. Those donors who would be happy to spend money to help Illinois succeed would like to spend it on even higher level recruits and then have them stick around or get drafted. That doesn't seem like the Brad Underwood trajectory at this point.
I was watching on WSIL Channel 3 in Harrisburg, and they lost the feed with about a minute to go. Caught the game winning shot by Anthony Smedley on the radio.Carver over Centralia by a point. I remember watching that game on TV. 1963
Seems valid. (See Steve Fisher -- Michigan 1989).RT will likely be the head coach of Texas if they win this game and beat Miami on Sunday
Why not judge Miller as many hear do with Underwood. Bad play in the tournament seems to be the main measuring stick to many these days. Sean Miller has the same number of final 4's as Underwood. I would argue Miller has done less with far more talent.It’s one game. Doesn’t hold much weight
We have some really ignorant posts sometimes.Why not judge Miller as many hear do with Underwood. Bad play in the tournament seems to be the main measuring stick to many these days. Sean Miller has the same number of final 4's as Underwood. I would argue Miller has done less with far more talent.
He’s got 7 more s16 than Brad thoughWhy not judge Miller as many hear do with Underwood. Bad play in the tournament seems to be the main measuring stick to many these days. Sean Miller has the same number of final 4's as Underwood. I would argue Miller has done less with far more talent.
my friends watched American bandstand .........I was more a Soul Train guy.....
my friends listened to the Monkees......I was a more Temptations & Supremes guy....
Love , Peace & Soul........
I don't really blame BU for his tournament woes. It's still a small sample size and really only one of his teams underperformed their seeding. That being said, Miller is in the Sweet Sixteen right now, in his first season in this 2nd stint at Xavier. BU hasn't made the Sweet Sixteen once in six seasons at UI. It's not really the same thing.Why not judge Miller as many hear do with Underwood. Bad play in the tournament seems to be the main measuring stick to many these days. Sean Miller has the same number of final 4's as Underwood. I would argue Miller has done less with far more talent.
Grrr.Seems valid. (See Steve Fisher -- Michigan 1989).