Illini Basketball 2023-2024
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Before Brad arrived, we had gone over .500 in the big ten 0 times since 2010.
He’s now done that 5 years in a row.
If you don’t let yourself enjoy this season cuz BrAd hAsN’t MaDe a S16, I feel so bad for the way you fan.
Also saw this on Twitter (shoutout to the Boardroom guys):
Gard & Howard have combined to win the B1G coach of the year 3x. Brad has yet to win it.
Since 2020, Brad is now 15-0 against Gard & Howard.
He’s now done that 5 years in a row.
If you don’t let yourself enjoy this season cuz BrAd hAsN’t MaDe a S16, I feel so bad for the way you fan.
Also saw this on Twitter (shoutout to the Boardroom guys):
Gard & Howard have combined to win the B1G coach of the year 3x. Brad has yet to win it.
Since 2020, Brad is now 15-0 against Gard & Howard.
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Cannot LIKE this enough. Long live Brad.
Does MD somehow have two heads in this scenario?NW 41% W
PU 45% L ( we got outrebounded by 15)
MSU 42% W
Md 46% L (we shot 33%)
MI 48% W
Ru - 37% W
NW - 55% L OT (problem was we shot 41%)
IU - 46% W (despite ILL shooting 37%)
OSU- 50% W
Neb 43% W
MSU 53% - L (problem was we shot 43%)
MI 43% - W
MD 41% - W
PSU 54% - L (we shot 48%, but had 18 turnovers)
IA 48% - W
Mn 60% - W
JMO - combination of recency bias and bad optics from high scoring games . MN win, PSU loss, and NW loss were only games where we allowed opponent to shoot 51% or better. Mn shooting 70% from 3 on 20 attempts may not happen again in another 20 years. Take away the PSU choke job and people would be clammering for a #2 seed.
Our offense became more high powered/shoot faster once TSJ returned.
People have expectation we should be blowing teams out by 20 points like we did early in year. It turns out that beating up FAU and Missouri was fools gold. We outscore our competitors by 12 ppg for the year. That is good enough.
I think Brad is only concerned about stacking wins and staying healthy for the big dance. Imagine the discussion board if TSJ had not gotten the injuction. Be thankful for what we have. #2 team in B10. Everybody healthy. High ceiling with 3 headed monster TSJ, Marcus and Domask.
Kidding, and thanks for the analysis!
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
pure serendipity
And BU had less to work with when he got here. UM and UW weren't the dumpster fires that the Illinois program was. Unfortunately, it is Coach of the Year, not "of the Last Five Years. I don't mean that to sound heartless or whatever but it is what it is. Maybe if they had a Coach of the Decade BU would win. I think Hoiberg will win it this year.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
The NCAA tournament is basically a random event these days. I fail to understand why people get so upset.
I get it - I want to see Illinois play in the Sweet 16 as well. But the real test of a program's direction is the regular season - not some single elimination crapshoot.
If Illinois makes the Final Four as a 4 seed this year, will all of these people just start shouting from the rooftops about how great Underwood is just because we won four random games?
There’s a large element of luck to the tournament but saying that the games are random is just silly. If that was the case then why does a #1 seed win the tournament about 50% of the time?
Yes they shout how good he is if he makes a final four. People are judged based on the tournament. Every single Purdue fan would trade their regular season title for a final four run.
Are regular season wins the reason some people (not me) consider IU a blue blood but not us?
Tournament success matters. It's what separates the historically good from the historically great. And it's not a crapshoot. You get tournament success by being consistently good in the regular season. The champion is almost always one of the top 10 teams from the regular season. It's not the result of 67 random events.
I get that being good enough makes some people feel comfy. You do you. But you don't have to pity me for wanting our program to be great.
People act like you either have to be pro tournament or pro BU. But I'm pro BU because I'm pro tournament.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
If there is one thing that I’ll never be accused of, it’s accepting mediocrity.
If you want to gauge a coach on being successful in a lottery, I won’t stop you. But the results are a coin flip and have been for years.
He’s been overlooked, including by me.
That win in Wisconsin and the adversity the team dealt with, along with his usage of the transfers and emergence of Coleman puts him firmly in the run. The offense alone is incredible without the benefit of an Edey (or Cockburn), which is why he was overlooked in the past.
Gard, Collins, Pikiell, Hoiberg would have been strong candidates at different times in the season.
Painter is the only real contender, imo. But he started with higher expectations and has relied on Edey as mentioned.
We win out, BU is coach of the year no doubt. Beat Purdue, I still think he wins.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Maybe because the have the easiest path to the Final Four? Their most difficult path is the 16-8-4-2 matchups to get to the FF. By design the #1 seed is supposed to have the cake walk into the tournament.
TOP 4 SEEDS
Seed Matchups
1 16-8-4-2
2 15-7-3-1
3 14-6-2-1
4 13-5-1-2
BOTTOM 4 SEEDS
Seed Matchups
13 4-5-1-2
14 3-6-2-1
15 2-7-3-1
16 1-8-4-2
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
Because that stat includes times where college basketball was more top heavy than it used s today. That is an outdated stat.
Last year was two 4s, a 5, and a 9. Double digit seeds routinely make deep tournament runs now.
Until the NCAA tournament has beat of 7 or best of 5 series, it’s a fun made for TV event. But it’s not determining the best team.
This is fake news.
How about this - let's wager our beach houses on who will win the championship. I'll take the top 8 seeds and you can have the field. By your logic, you have about a 90% chance of winning the bet.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
I'm actually going to do a coin flip bracket this year. I'll pick 1 and 2 seeds in the first round, but then every game after this is a coin flip. Heads for the higher seed, talis for the lower seed. I am confident that my coin flip bracket would be in the top half of a bracket challenge pool and would be 70-75% of my "real" bracket.
Just look at past years Look at all of the lower seeds making the Final Four. Facts are facts - the tournament is a random event today.
2011 - #8 seed and #11 seed
2013 - Two #4s and a #9
2014 - #7 and #8
2015 - #7
2016 - #10
2017 - #7
2018 - #11
2021 - #11
2022 - #8 seed
2023 - #4, two #5s and a #9
The last time all four Final Four teams were #4 seeds or higher was 2009 (#1, #1, #2, #3). FIFTEEN years ago. Not sure how much clearer the facts can be.
With the right matchups... The Beloved is well capable of reaching Elite Eight in the Dance this time around.
And once there, it becomes ‘Any Given Sunday’ Time.
The road ahead... Will it turn out to be a ‘Spring to remember forever’? Or ‘Another dark day on the Prairie’?
With their defensive ranking lately let’s hope the Illini shots will be raining down with success for this team to have a chance. Get ready to give up lots of points in the paint. Need to compensate for that.
And once there, it becomes ‘Any Given Sunday’ Time.
The road ahead... Will it turn out to be a ‘Spring to remember forever’? Or ‘Another dark day on the Prairie’?
With their defensive ranking lately let’s hope the Illini shots will be raining down with success for this team to have a chance. Get ready to give up lots of points in the paint. Need to compensate for that.
The only thing that matters after the last 5 games is 4-1.I kind of want to see this chart for our defense, then again maybe not.
Bigtex
- DFW
I will take the 1 seeds. You use the coin flip. Lets see who has a better record
See the thing is the defense has been this way intentionally. You saw at the beginning of the season how good it can be, it will return. This is the time , this is that season we've been waiting for since 04-05. Been all Illini since mid 60's ,,it is time to win this thing.
That's one of the things I love about March Madness - everyone has a chance. However, the better your seed is, the better your chances. That fact is pretty clear.
Here are a couple more facts:
13/15 national champions since 2008 were ranked in Torvik's top 10 prior to the tournament.
37/60 Final Four teams since 2008 were ranked in Torvik's top 10 prior to the tournament.
It's a wild coincidence that teams who prove to be the best at basketball from November to March are also the best at flipping coins in March and April.
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