IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
COVID led to the rise of a lot of online classes, even for undergrads. He could still be enrolled and taking online classes from LA, keeping him eligible and avoiding awkwardness.
Illini Basketball 2022-2023
- Status
Very true, makes a lot of sense.
Alright, with 5 games left in what, for me, has been an underwhelming season, here is what it would take for me to call this year a success. Again, based on my personal preseason expectations.
5-0 finish to regular season + s16
5-0 finish to regular season + BTT champ
BTT champ + S16
E8 or better
Anything less would be a bit disappointing to me although not necessarily a bad year objectively. Ie finishing ~6th in the B1G and getting to the S16 is a respectable year but probably not quite as good as I anticipated going into the year.
FWIW I believe this team is capable of all the above and more.
5-0 finish to regular season + s16
5-0 finish to regular season + BTT champ
BTT champ + S16
E8 or better
Anything less would be a bit disappointing to me although not necessarily a bad year objectively. Ie finishing ~6th in the B1G and getting to the S16 is a respectable year but probably not quite as good as I anticipated going into the year.
FWIW I believe this team is capable of all the above and more.
Bigtex
- DFW
And he did. He was 3rd in minutes before his departure
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Make the s16 and I’m happy regardless of how the regular season/BTT tourney shakes out
Big Jack
- Decatur
My understanding is that he is gone and finished at Illinois, not taking classes online or in person. Always possible he is enrolled at UCLA or somewhere else.. Worst case if he isn't he would sit the fall semester.
I just had an epiphany.
This season is exactly what we thought it would be, we need to stop trying to figure it out and take it for what it is.
After we lost the Big Ten Regular season title in 2021, we went on to win the BTT that year, but lost in the second round. After we lost to Houston no one cared about winning the Big Ten regular season title, we knew we needed to build a roster that would win in March.
We are there.
This team beat UCLA & Texas in the non-conference. Those are quite literally two top 5 teams in the country right now, top 6 at worst. One from the B12 & one from the P12. Possibly, two P5 conference champions in their own right. . We played down to the wire with a great Virginia team, the final score was a 9 point loss...but it was anywhere from a 1-3 possession game for 38 minutes. That's a 2-1 record against possible P5 conference champions in their own right. However; we are 0-5 against the top 5 teams in the Big Ten.
Guys, I think it's actually working. And the best part? We're pretty stinkin' good. I firmly believe that this team is better, tougher, more skilled and talented than just about any other team in the country, especially 1-8. Up and down the roster, we got dudes. We beat the likes of UCLA & Texas, and we looked like we belonged. Today, we looked like we belonged. But Big Ten games are just ridiculous. On both sides. The way these games are played and called are an embarrassment to the conference, not just for Illinois but for everyone. Every night it's this call, or that call, phantom call this, kids getting hit in the head, Rutgers losing @OSU when the ball was out of bounds, whatever. You get my point.
And the best part? Ty Rodgers has arrived. Mayer is a go-to scorer. We did this today without TSJ, who Ithrived in the non-conference. Other teams in other conferences guard differently too, our roster and guys are built for that. It's the whole stinkin' point of all of this. To win in March, in non-big ten games. We're in this for the long haul.
Go Illini. Can't wait for the game thread for the weekend of March 25th.
This season is exactly what we thought it would be, we need to stop trying to figure it out and take it for what it is.
After we lost the Big Ten Regular season title in 2021, we went on to win the BTT that year, but lost in the second round. After we lost to Houston no one cared about winning the Big Ten regular season title, we knew we needed to build a roster that would win in March.
We are there.
This team beat UCLA & Texas in the non-conference. Those are quite literally two top 5 teams in the country right now, top 6 at worst. One from the B12 & one from the P12. Possibly, two P5 conference champions in their own right. . We played down to the wire with a great Virginia team, the final score was a 9 point loss...but it was anywhere from a 1-3 possession game for 38 minutes. That's a 2-1 record against possible P5 conference champions in their own right. However; we are 0-5 against the top 5 teams in the Big Ten.
Guys, I think it's actually working. And the best part? We're pretty stinkin' good. I firmly believe that this team is better, tougher, more skilled and talented than just about any other team in the country, especially 1-8. Up and down the roster, we got dudes. We beat the likes of UCLA & Texas, and we looked like we belonged. Today, we looked like we belonged. But Big Ten games are just ridiculous. On both sides. The way these games are played and called are an embarrassment to the conference, not just for Illinois but for everyone. Every night it's this call, or that call, phantom call this, kids getting hit in the head, Rutgers losing @OSU when the ball was out of bounds, whatever. You get my point.
And the best part? Ty Rodgers has arrived. Mayer is a go-to scorer. We did this today without TSJ, who Ithrived in the non-conference. Other teams in other conferences guard differently too, our roster and guys are built for that. It's the whole stinkin' point of all of this. To win in March, in non-big ten games. We're in this for the long haul.
Go Illini. Can't wait for the game thread for the weekend of March 25th.
I think that you might have underestimated the job that BU had in front of him, while overestimating the talent that we had coming in. You're not alone there.
BU had to replace his entire starting lineup (which included a first team All American and a lot of senior leadership) and his 6th man.....all in one off-season. After losing all of that scoring, rebounding and leadership, it's pretty remarkable that he has us on the cusp(pending a decent finish) of getting back to the dance
We knew that December and January we're going to be difficult. He's trying to make an entirely new roster fit together on the fly. Losing Goode for three months didn't help, Sky not working out didn't help and RJ's complete meltdown hasn't helped. All of the above has, to date, resulted in abysmal perimeter shooting/play with very unpredictable outcomes.
IMO, we overestimated what TSJ could do based on a couple of games early(he looked like an All American). He's been good, not great. We severely overestimated Clark's potential impact. That was just unfortunate.
Conversely, we underestimated how good DD was going to be and I'm stunned by how good that Ty's development has been. Those are good things.
So, as we sit here now, we have freshmen playing major minutes, at crucial positions (Epps at PG), we don't have a true go to guy late in games, this predictably we're losing tight games late. Wins @Iowa and @Indiana would have made us feel amazing about our group. Two heartbreakers.
Given all that has occurred, if we have a good week, we'll be in a pretty good place overall. Can't ask for much more than that.
I honestly think that we, as a fan base, need to take a step back off the ledge and truly understand what this team faced from the get go and the progression to where we are now. Pretty good stuff.
Great post. The only contention that I have would be the comment about Mayer being a go-to guy. He has had great halves, where he's gone on heaters. That said, he doesn't have the ball in his hands late in games. Not sure why that is? I'm not sure that they really have a reliable go to guy on the roster and it's hurting us badly at the end of tight games.
You're kind of making the same point I was making. This team, for various reasons, hasn't lived up to its preseason hype. Sure, we could move the goal posts forward to suit what we know now. But I'm talking purely about my preseason expectations/local and national prognostications vs reality as it is today.
Were the preseason expectations unreasonable? I don't think so. I mean we were pretty unanimously thought of as a top 2 or 3 team in the B1G. I'm pretty sure if you had picked this team to finish 6th or 7th in October, you would have been called a troll and bullied off the board.
Or imagine if someone said, "Brad Underwood failed to assemble a team capable of winning a Big Ten championship."
I went into this year fully aware of the challenges we faced. My posting history will reflect that. This year was an experiment and it was always going to be a question of whether the team could jell in time to be "elite". So far, that answer is still TBD but closer to a no than a yes.
As I said in my original post, we could still finish strong and have a very good season. Still at least a month of basketball left. But if you're viewing this season in its totality, we are running out of time to make it a good one and will soon be putting all our chips on getting hot and making noise as an underdog in March. Not where I want or expected to be going into the year.
Want to lead with the disclaimer, this is nothing against Epps at all, he's been great, but..
When TSJ gets back I want to see more of the Ty, TSJ, Mayer, Coleman, Dain lineup
Ive seen enough from Ty facilitating to be confident in it on short spurts and the length in that lineup is unreal
When TSJ gets back I want to see more of the Ty, TSJ, Mayer, Coleman, Dain lineup
Ive seen enough from Ty facilitating to be confident in it on short spurts and the length in that lineup is unreal
Against IU I heard the team as a whole battled strep throat. Mayer tried to play through it the first game against IU. Does anyone know when the team had it and did it affect any other games?
Nothing personal, because I do really want you to be right. But this just sounds like moving the goalposts to me. You predicted an 8-1 finish with 9 games left. We've gone 1-3 in the first four of those nine games and now suddenly Big Ten results don't matter because the refs are bad (on that we agree!).
That 2-1 stretch was 2.5 months ago. Of course it's a valid data point - we have beaten some of the best this year. I guess I just weigh recent performance more.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
love this team
I think this team has shown the past few weeks if anything that they are capable of winning league games against who they’re supposed to. Iowa and Indiana road games were a possession or two and that’s fine in the long run. We’re like 286th in luck. I’d rather be consistently good than lucky. Our guys will be fine.
- Status