Illini Basketball 2021-2022

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#526      

illinitiger

I
illinitiger
alexander58 said:
I doubt there are many bad D1 coaches . It seems some are more inclined to make strategic adjustments, while others feel you do what you. You need to get your guys to do it better. I’ve noticed some are better at getting points out of time outs than others. When Lou was here, I thought those inbounds ended up with a lob pass for an Efrem Winters dunk More often than not. As often as it happened , I thought it amazing the other team wasn’t ready for it.
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Ref. "doubt there are many bad D1 coaches"

.....well some Mizzou fans believe they may have found an exception...
 
#527      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
Joel Goodson said:
The Sergio thing is flat out wrong. Sergio was thisclose to wearing clown pants. Griffin was the kid that wanted to play for us (and not the loosiers), and he convinced his bud to pull the trigger.

While Kruger didn't love recruiting, but that's true for a lot of coaches. I don't think it fair to say he was disinterested. Chicago recruiting was shut down because CPL coaches felt Collins was snubbed. Not Kruger's fault. Kruger was fortunate that the downstate crop was strong early in his regime.
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I'm not sure how you're saying I'm wrong about Sergio. Yes, Griffin was a big factor and Sergio was absolutely enamored with IU. How does that change whether Kruger gets credit for landing him?

It was more than Chicago recruiting that didn't go well. Really the whole of the suburban area that we were hoping to get into. You hire coaches to recruit as well as coach and he didn't bring a lot of energy to the effort from what I saw.
 
#528      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
ties will be resolved
Joel Goodson
BretMyBeachHouse said:
I'm not sure how you're saying I'm wrong about Sergio. Yes, Griffin was a big factor and he was absolutely enamored with IU. How does that change whether Kruger gets credit for landing him?

It was more than Chicago recruiting that didn't go well. Really the whole of the suburban area that we were hoping to get into. You hire coaches to recruit as well as coach and he didn't bring a lot of energy to the effort from what I saw.
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With sanctions/less rides, we were coming off some relatively mediocre seasons. Somewhat similar to what Underwood had to deal with. It's not easy to sell top kids when the program is down. Considering the headwinds, I think Kruger did ok, recruiting wise. As far as coaching chops go, he was excellent.
 
#529      

trtl

T
trtl
alexander58 said:
I doubt there are many bad D1 coaches . It seems some are more inclined to make strategic adjustments, while others feel you do what you. You need to get your guys to do it better. I’ve noticed some are better at getting points out of time outs than others. When Lou was here, I thought those inbounds ended up with a lob pass for an Efrem Winters dunk More often than not. As often as it happened , I thought it amazing the other team wasn’t ready for it.
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Coach Martin says hello.

Edit: @illinitiger beat me to it.
 
#532      

Homecoming 2019

Homecoming 2019
Chicago
Homecoming 2019
alexander58 said:
Doesn‘t he coach the Missouri team the Illini has been outplayed by the last two years?
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3 YEARS
Rip Do Not Want GIF by nog
 
#533      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Rap73 said:
Lou Henson brought Illinois back to prominence, best overall coach in Illini history when everything a coach does is included.
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Yet Harry Combes had a better winning percentage, more B10 championships and more final fours. His teams played an exciting uptemple style. One negative, though, was the Slush Fund.
 
#534      

WyattEarp

WyattEarp
WyattEarp
BRucks said:
Yet Harry Combes had a better winning percentage, more B10 championships and more final fours. His teams played an exciting uptemple style. One negative, though, was the Slush Fund.
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So Harry Combes is sort of like the forgotten man in a sense? Sounds like he def. deserves more respect than he gets. I wonder why exactly…Pre-Big time media?
Not enough flashy teams? Simply Too Long Ago?

The “Slush Fund” doesn’t sound too good.? I’ve got a pretty good idea what that’s all about…but I think it’s worth a google.
 
#536      

Se Il Illini

Se Il Illini
Se Il Illini
At the time of the slush fund, Harry Combs had assembled a very good roster. At least 2 players, Steve Kuberski (Bradley) and Rich Jones (Memphis State) transferred. Jones only played one year as a sophomore. Freshmen were ineligible at this time. I think he average close to 15 ppg. as a sophomore.
 
#537      

Boomauer

Boomauer
Boomauer
Lon Kruger was a really good coach. His time here coincided with the Pat Kennedy regime at DePaul. Kennedy was a slimy fast talking con artist....who got commitments from the top Chicago area talent(Q Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams). As someone else pointed out we were shut out of that market for several reasons. Comments from Ron Guenther about Illinois needing to find players that were a good "cultural fit" were taken as meaning an anti-innercity Chicago...didn't help.

Kruger's lone Big Ten title was the result of good coaching, a senior laden, tough nosed roster and a rare weak Big Ten that year. If I remember correctly Purdue upset MSU in the last game to get us into a tie for the Big Ten title. That was a fun team that truly was a team effort led by Matt Heldman. RIP.
 
#538      

ElGran

E
ElGran
Boomauer said:
Lon Kruger was a really good coach. His time here coincided with the Pat Kennedy regime at DePaul. Kennedy was a slimy fast talking con artist....who got commitments from the top Chicago area talent(Q Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams). As someone else pointed out we were shut out of that market for several reasons. Comments from Ron Guenther about Illinois needing to find players that were a good "cultural fit" were taken as meaning an anti-innercity Chicago...didn't help.

Kruger's lone Big Ten title was the result of good coaching, a senior laden, tough nosed roster and a rare weak Big Ten that year. If I remember correctly Purdue upset MSU in the last game to get us into a tie for the Big Ten title. That was a fun team that truly was a team effort led by Matt Heldman. RIP.
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Agree that Kruger was a good coach.

"Con artist" is the perfect term for Pat Kennedy. Great salesman ..... he had a couple years where that roster was absolutely loaded with elite talent and they did nothing. The one class they got Q. Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams, and 7-footer Hunter (same here we got F. Williams). That's Kentucky/Duke/UNC level recruiting.
 
#539      

MDchicago

MDchicago
Lake Norman NC
MDchicago
WyattEarp said:
So Harry Combes is sort of like the forgotten man in a sense? Sounds like he def. deserves more respect than he gets. I wonder why exactly…Pre-Big time media?
Not enough flashy teams? Simply Too Long Ago?

The “Slush Fund” doesn’t sound too good.? I’ve got a pretty good idea what that’s all about…but I think it’s worth a google.
Click to expand...

A couple videos from the News-Gazette for those looking for more background on Harry Combes and the slush fund:

Harry Combes video

Harry Combes early years
 
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#542      

ILLINI76

ILLINI76
Springfiled, IL.
ILLINI76
This is what some conferences are doing. If you can’t play a game it’s a forfeit for your conference record but not your overall record.
 

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#543      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Someone who follows this more closely can hopefully explain this to me...

How did Serven get listed as being from a small west central Illinois town like Bushnell end up playing at St. Rita?
 
#544      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
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#546      

texillwek

texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
texillwek
Question - I've noticed Kofi's stats do not appear in NCAA leader lists. What is the qualification threshold? I thought I read playing in 75% of the team's games, but wasn't able to find quickly, so asking the crew. If so, I guess he'll display after Tuesday's game.
 
#547      

Monticello

M
Monticello
Boomauer said:
Lon Kruger was a really good coach. His time here coincided with the Pat Kennedy regime at DePaul. Kennedy was a slimy fast talking con artist....who got commitments from the top Chicago area talent(Q Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams). As someone else pointed out we were shut out of that market for several reasons. Comments from Ron Guenther about Illinois needing to find players that were a good "cultural fit" were taken as meaning an anti-innercity Chicago...didn't help.

Kruger's lone Big Ten title was the result of good coaching, a senior laden, tough nosed roster and a rare weak Big Ten that year. If I remember correctly Purdue upset MSU in the last game to get us into a tie for the Big Ten title. That was a fun team that truly was a team effort led by Matt Heldman. RIP.
Click to expand...
The year before, they didn't too shabby. Kruger's first year saw Jerry Hester go down with a back injury. He managed to get the best out of Chris Gandy, something Henson couldn't quite get done. The Illini managed a respectable 4th place finish. The year everyone talks about is Kruger's second-1998 saw Cory Bradford have to take an academic redshirt, Bryant Notree transfer, and extremely low expectations. The five seniors, Heldman, Hester, Johnson, Gee, and Turner with the help of sixth-man Sergio played one of the more memorable seasons in the past 25 years.
 
#548      

Monticello

M
Monticello
Monticello said:
The year before, they didn't too shabby. Kruger's first year saw Jerry Hester go down with a back injury. He managed to get the best out of Chris Gandy, something Henson couldn't quite get done. The Illini managed a respectable 4th place finish. The year everyone talks about is Kruger's second-1998 saw Cory Bradford have to take an academic redshirt, Bryant Notree transfer, and extremely low expectations. The five seniors, Heldman, Hester, Johnson, Gee, and Turner with the help of sixth-man Sergio played one of the more memorable seasons in the past 25 years.
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And speaking of recruiting- Kruger's regime recruited the entire 2001 (Elite Eight, Number 1 seed) roster.
 
#550      

DeonThomas

DeonThomas
South Carolina
DeonThomas
Just noticed that we're now the 16th best 3-point shooting team in America (39.0%) among D1 schools -- and yet 4th in the state of Illinois behind Western, ISU and Loyola. Mizzou is ranked 354 out of 358 schools.

Purdue leads the BigTen and we're second in conference. Colorado St. is #1 nationally at 44%.
 
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