Dan
Admin
2pm Monday. (presser is some sort of Ubben/hoops upgrade announcement with Whitman, Underwood, Nancy Fahey)There is a press conference tomorrow @ 2, let’s hear what the AD and the head coach have to say
2pm Monday. (presser is some sort of Ubben/hoops upgrade announcement with Whitman, Underwood, Nancy Fahey)There is a press conference tomorrow @ 2, let’s hear what the AD and the head coach have to say
2pm Monday. (presser is some sort of Ubben/hoops upgrade announcement with Whitman, Underwood, Nancy Fahey)
In the interests of being productive, here is what I would do now if I were in Underwood's shoes:
1. See if Ebo and Matic are willing to entertain coming back. That may be unrealistic, but it's worth a shot. He should want both guys to return and be willing to address their concerns from their first year here.
2. If you can't get one or both of those guys back, hit whatever is left of the grad transfer market and find at least one big man who can soak up 10 minutes without getting annihilated on defense or fouling out. Two would be better still. It's totally unrealistic to expect Kane and Giorgi to give us much of anything as raw, fringe-y true freshmen who aren't even native English speakers.
3. Call Erik Pastrana, Underwood's assistant at SFA now at Florida Atlantic, and Stephen Gentry, also an SFA assistant who was our DOBO before leaving for the same position at Gonzaga, to see if they would be willing to join as an assistant. Failing them see if there is anyone else who is familiar with our offensive style in particular with experience who would be willing to take the job at this late juncture. If so, let go of Jamall Walker tomorrow. We need Chin to keep Ayo, Antigua has the big man coaching challenge of his life ahead of him, Walker's clearly the chair you open if you have to open one, and we really really do to get someone with a background in UnderwoodBall.
4. Reach out to both Kipper and AJ and gauge their comfort and willingness to totally redefine themselves as a full-time starting 4. Pick one of them (AJ is a guy who will do anything for the team so he'd put his heart and soul into it, but if Kipper is eager for it he probably has the more natural skillset for the role), and assign them all of the nutrition, weight training, and one-on-one coaching they can handle to make that transition. Rather than juggle nine million guys playing out of position, sacrifice one to the cause full-time.
5. Retaining as much terminology, base concepts, base skills and whatnot as possible, ease up on the pressure D for the time being. Do pre-emptively what OSU did on the fly during his year there. We just don't have the personnel for it physically or experience-wise, and it would be demoralizing for all these young kids to just get posterized over and over again.
6. Get your team together and level with them. As the coach, it's your job to make a balanced roster, and you've failed. You've put them in a bad position, and put them in a spot where they're going to face a lot of havoc and make a lot of mistakes. You coach hard, you're not going to change the way you coach, but you also understand that you have not put the pieces together in a way that can make everything fit the way it does in your head. Create some sort of a pathway outside of regular practice and meeting times where each player can discuss the way they're being coached and their concerns. Nurture those lines of communication. Make clear that if they're willing to work for you and willing to stick with you that they have not just a scholarship but a playing role on the team for the duration of that scholarship.
Then you have to go coach and recruit your behind off of course. But that's just my short-term idea to stop the bleeding.
FWIW, I do think Kane can be about what Ebo was to us last year.
Or this is the fellow with the most uniquely biased opinion on the board... [emoji848]Hey guys, this fellow is the only one on this board not wildly speculating about what is happening. Faith. Listen to the man.
Or this is the fellow with the most uniquely biased opinion on the board... [emoji848]
Illinois basketball is in a very bad place, no two ways around it. The loss of Ebo, or Smith, or Vesel, or non-Underwood recruits like Lucas, Black or Finke are, in isolation, not the issue. It is a factor in the concern, no doubt. Also of concern is the '18 recruiting. Hard to point to Ayo as validation of recruiting chops, when it required hiring an assistant to seal the deal. No other signed recruit was even a plan D option in the fall. That isn't to say that Jones/Griffin/Kane/etc. cant be productive members of the team, but to suggest recruiting is an exhibited area of strength at this point is a real reach.
Okoro was, in my opinion, a REALLY glaring indictment of this staff's ability to attract talent. That is a miss that can't happen and is a big red flag. You compound that with the misses in the fall and some of the head scratchers this spring, it is impossible to sit here and not wonder what the H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. is going on.
What concerns me most is the amount of stock we put into his season at OSU. It feels undeniable that Underwood's tenure at SFA was better than Groce's at Ohio, but his ONE year at a P5 school was uncannily similar to Groce's first year at Illinois. It is not enough to validate coaching skills.
I certainly hope that Underwood figures this out, but his first year on the job has been bad. Real, real bad. We need talent, we need highly sought after talent. Diamonds in the rough are great, and who knows, maybe he found a few. But he missed wildly on his first year's pursuit of diamonds in the rough, I am struggling to believe he nailed it in year two.
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The failure speaks louder than the why.Anyone with more than message board info on Okoro knew that it was going to be almost impossible to get Okoro.
At the end of the day, the silence on these boards is the most glaring indictment of it all.
At the end of the day, the silence on these boards is the most glaring indictment of it all. I would love to see Illinois Loyalty's page impressions monthly, year over year. Annectdotally, someone recently said they had to catch up on FIVE PAGES in one day. That feels like what was the norm a few years back.
As a data nerd, I would be very interested in Illinois Loyalty "statistics" that get at fan interest over time. :cough: Dan :cough:
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In the interests of being productive, here is what I would do now if I were in Underwood's shoes:
1. See if Ebo and Matic are willing to entertain coming back. That may be unrealistic, but it's worth a shot. He should want both guys to return and be willing to address their concerns from their first year here.
Or this is the fellow with the most uniquely biased opinion on the board... [emoji848]
Illinois basketball is in a very bad place, no two ways around it. The loss of Ebo, or Smith, or Vesel, or non-Underwood recruits like Lucas, Black or Finke are, in isolation, not the issue. It is a factor in the concern, no doubt. Also of concern is the '18 recruiting. Hard to point to Ayo as validation of recruiting chops, when it required hiring an assistant to seal the deal. No other signed recruit was even a plan D option in the fall. That isn't to say that Jones/Griffin/Kane/etc. cant be productive members of the team, but to suggest recruiting is an exhibited area of strength at this point is a real reach.
Okoro was, in my opinion, a REALLY glaring indictment of this staff's ability to attract talent. That is a miss that can't happen and is a big red flag. You compound that with the misses in the fall and some of the head scratchers this spring, it is impossible to sit here and not wonder what the H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. is going on.
What concerns me most is the amount of stock we put into his season at OSU. It feels undeniable that Underwood's tenure at SFA was better than Groce's at Ohio, but his ONE year at a P5 school was uncannily similar to Groce's first year at Illinois. It is not enough to validate coaching skills.
I certainly hope that Underwood figures this out, but his first year on the job has been bad. Real, real bad. We need talent, we need highly sought after talent. Diamonds in the rough are great, and who knows, maybe he found a few. But he missed wildly on his first year's pursuit of diamonds in the rough, I am struggling to believe he nailed it in year two.
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You are spelling "turd" wrong.Havent posted in awhile. Had to after reading all the post from strokes freaking out about BU and program. BU had to get rid of the terds and players that didn't want to be an illni bb player. After last year BU knew he had to start over basically. Only real loss was Black. The rest of players that left transfer were a terd fest. Have a great class coming in. Not sure why everyone worried about thin front court. Look Golden State Warriors don't need a center. Need shooters and guys that can score we have that with incoming class. Will be a much better and improved team from last year. Young and fun team to watch. In BU we trust will make Illni great again.
This is not Dr. J, Ebo what did he avg like 2 pts and 2 rebounds, lets wait to see who transfers in before freaking out.
In all honesty, his "hand-picked" guys were brought in on an incredibly short recruiting window. I'm sure he found what he thought was the best options or possibly the best upside that was available at the time, save for Mark Smith.
We'll be fine.