Illini Basketball 2025-2026

HereSoIDontGetFined said:

I think we need to consider that perhaps lack of effort will undo any schematic changes the coaching staff might make anyway. Why did we leave people open? It wasn't designed that way. It never is. Players lose focus all the time, or underestimate a shooter or overthink decisions. Not just ours. If we ran every play perfectly, we'd win every game 120-15 and 10 of those 15 would be free throws that we'd be arguing were bad calls.

Click to expand...

We do intentionally leave some people open- Brad is big on analytics and will play the averages. We did in fact have a game plan to leave Dailey Jr. open based on the averages he's shot this year (Brad mentioned this). That isn't necessarily what I'm criticizing though. I didn't see that as lack of effort- not diving on the floor for a loose ball- effort, not boxing out your man- effort, giving up a rebound and layup on a free throw- effort, not fighting through, under or over screens- effort.

I'm also not criticizing a few examples of lack of effort. If you watch that whole game and walk away thinking we gave maximum effort- I think we see that game very differently. Obviously every team is going to have dips in a game- we lacked effort and intensity throughout most of the game- that can't be happening this late in the season.

EmeraldCityIllini said:

Do you feel there's been any games this year where you've seen in-game adjustments that have led to wins?

Click to expand...

I'm sure there have been & part of my post is frustration. Maybe "tactical" isn't the best word to use. But there to me are a few recurring themes in Brad's tenure.

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

-Less than good late game situational stuff (defenisve breakdown at the end vs UCLA as exhibit A)

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

No one of the above is a "deal breaker" & you can win lots of games with some of these flaws. And by no means am I suggesting Brad should be on a hot seat or anything of the sort. I just see some of these as the things that maybe only matter a few times a year but when they matter they really matter. That game Saturday brought some of that bad juju up again at least for me.

And no doubt I'm being hyper critical but I see these as valid concerns to ever getting over the win 6 games in a row in late March/April hump.

And I'd love nothing more than to get on here the first Tuesday in April & proclaim Underwood as the best coach in the country cause he got the job done.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

For the bulk of this season I was feeling fairly positive about the direction of the season and potential for a difference making run in March. Saturday brought back a lot of the lingering Brad doubts for me that frankly I’ve had since Loyola in 2021. I’m now of a mind they’ll win 2 games and then will run into something that requires in game tactical adjustments and that’s where it ends.

Click to expand...

This is EXACTLY how I felt in 2024 after we lost to Penn State. We had checked so many boxes up until that point: Shannon was back and unstoppable. Marcus was in his bag. We had size & depth. Up until that gross Northwestern loss in OT, we had also been a top 25 defense... But then the defense deteriorated and Hamer became a hated name. I remember thinking to myself that this was BU's ceiling...until we made the elite 8. I get the sentiment, but I think we're in better shape.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

I'm sure there have been & part of my post is frustration. Maybe "tactical" isn't the best word to use. But there to me are a few recurring themes in Brad's tenure.

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

-Less than good late game situational stuff (defenisve breakdown at the end vs UCLA as exhibit A)

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

No one of the above is a "deal breaker" & you can win lots of games with some of these flaws. And by no means am I suggesting Brad should be on a hot seat or anything of the sort. I just see some of these as the things that maybe only matter a few times a year but when they matter they really matter. That game Saturday brought some of that bad juju up again at least for me.

And no doubt I'm being hyper critical but I see these as valid concerns to ever getting over the win 6 games in a row in late March/April hump.

And I'd love nothing more than to get on here the first Tuesday in April & proclaim Underwood as the best coach in the country cause he got the job done.

Click to expand...

- I'm surprised by the inbound stuff - I haven't noticed that much as struggling with pressure. I think our inbounds plays are slow developing, because we just use them to clear the matchup we want - I agree it doesn't always look sexy, but i think we score a ton off it - in fact, i'd venture a very educated guess based our our effienency numbers, we score as much off out of bounds as anyone. It just doesn't register in the mind because it doesn't happen within the first 3 seconds or off the first action. The 2019 Maryland game ya, but at the same time, it's 2019.

- I'm with you on the bench. The Houston game sticks out to me because it was abundantly clear, like 5-minutes in Damonte, Plummer, and even (gasp) Trent Frazier would struggle with the length and athleticism. I give Brad a ton of credit for that game early, because he pretty much immediately pulled the plug on a few 5th year seniors for the Goode/Melendez freshmen combo - and they played well. It was a very quick (again gasp) in-game adjustment, but you're spot on, those guys hadn't been developed a ton throughout the year. I was disappointed Harmon's role shifted so much later on, too. And I wish we incorporated Lee a bit more this year somehow, or the Petro situation wasn't a miss - a big senior defensive-minded guard would be great, although the staff would probably argue that was Ty Rodgers.

- Tennessee and UCLA both have a straight-line drive - totally. Agreed.

- I think every single team in the country has valid concerns about winning 6 games in a row and i'd add ball screen navigation to the top of your list as one of mine. I guess my point is, I think we're really good at finding flaws in the lack of adjustments in the losses, and we tend to subconsciously ignore or minimize the adjustments in wins (and Brad has won a lot, so i find it really difficult to believe all those wins have come without adjustments) - or honestly, part of ingame coaching too is determining if you should stick with the plan or not. If you stick with it and win, that's the right call too.

All this to say, I didn't think the UCLA game was Brad's finest hour. I think a timeout should have been called in the first half. I think we needed to try something a little different than trailing every ball screen on Dent. And player execution or strategy, the final play is a "losing team" play. I don't think we're losers, so let's learn from it like we're supposed to.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

-Less than good late game situational stuff (defenisve breakdown at the end vs UCLA as exhibit A)

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

No one of the above is a "deal breaker" & you can win lots of games with some of these flaws. And by no means am I suggesting Brad should be on a hot seat or anything of the sort. I just see some of these as the things that maybe only matter a few times a year but when they matter they really matter. That game Saturday brought some of that bad juju up again at least for me.

And no doubt I'm being hyper critical but I see these as valid concerns to ever getting over the win 6 games in a row in late March/April hump.

And I'd love nothing more than to get on here the first Tuesday in April & proclaim Underwood as the best coach in the country cause he got the job done.

Click to expand...

Brad will never escape the hypercriticality of fans. No coach ever has. If he wins a NC, the expectations will increase to a place we've never seen and this message board will look more like a Duke/UNC/Kentucky message board. Which means, it will look exactly the same other than some folks will have profile pictures of their favorite player hoisting the NABC NC trophy.

Coach K never escaped criticism, neither did Knight, nor did Dean Smith nor Jim Calhoun. Duke fans lamented Coach K's overall offensive scheme (they believed despite his defensive prowess, his offensive strategies could be exploited), not to mention his boorish behavior and handling of certain players. Knight caught heat mostly over his demeanor, but toward the end of his career there were tons of questions from Indiana fans about his motion-based offense that he himself helped to innovate over his career (it was wild). Dean Smith was constantly bemoaned by his own fanbase for the four corners stuff, stifling of individual players and of course had the "can't win the big one" tag early in his career despite high-level on court performance (sounds familiar). Anyway, those are just a few examples.

I'd honestly love to see some of the really granular statistics like 'points off out-of-bounds plays' because I think it might surprise a lot of people. I think there is some overgeneralization there because we notice when OOB plays don't work... we don't mentally record every time it does work, in sort of a "I always get called on when I don't read the book" type of thinking. I'd read an article last week that cited Calipari as being consistently tops in the nation in points off OOB plays, which surprised me, because he's just always had this label of a slimy recruiter that couldn't coach.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

I'm sure there have been & part of my post is frustration. Maybe "tactical" isn't the best word to use. But there to me are a few recurring themes in Brad's tenure.

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

Click to expand...

It’s hard for me to take critisicm of this year’s offense seriously. Is it perfect? No, of course not. But it’s still arguably the best offense of all time.

If we don’t make a deep run in the tourney, it’ll be because of our 30th ranked defense, not our 1st ranked offense.

With regard to the baseline inbounds plays, I’ve watched a lot of games this year. Almost every team uses a similar lob in-bounds play except in situations when the shot clock is really short. It seems like most teams would prefer to get into their offense rather than try a high-reward, high-risk in-bounds play.

This is EXACTLY how I felt in 2024 after we lost to Penn State. We had checked so many boxes up until that point: Shannon was back and unstoppable. Marcus was in his bag. We had size & depth. Up until that gross Northwestern loss in OT, we had also been a top 25 defense... But then the defense deteriorated and Hamer became a hated name. I remember thinking to myself that this was BU's ceiling...until we made the elite 8. I get the sentiment, but I think we're in better shape.

Click to expand...

I get that, but that team was led by long-term college hoops veterans and a generational talent in Shannon, Jr. This year's team is led by two freshmen, Wagler and Mirkovic, and that scares the hell out of me, especially seeing Keaton with jelly legs the last few games.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

I'm sure there have been & part of my post is frustration. Maybe "tactical" isn't the best word to use. But there to me are a few recurring themes in Brad's tenure.

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

-Less than good late game situational stuff (defenisve breakdown at the end vs UCLA as exhibit A)

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

No one of the above is a "deal breaker" & you can win lots of games with some of these flaws. And by no means am I suggesting Brad should be on a hot seat or anything of the sort. I just see some of these as the things that maybe only matter a few times a year but when they matter they really matter. That game Saturday brought some of that bad juju up again at least for me.

And no doubt I'm being hyper critical but I see these as valid concerns to ever getting over the win 6 games in a row in late March/April hump.

And I'd love nothing more than to get on here the first Tuesday in April & proclaim Underwood as the best coach in the country cause he got the job done.

Click to expand...

Fact is, most of these complaints could be made for pretty much every program from time to time. It's just because you're a fan of Illinois, and follow that one team so intently, you're inclined to think of it in that manner.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

Click to expand...

Firstly, if you're talking about this season in particular, I legitimately have no clue what you're referring to. But I will concede AT TIMES it's been a concern (I mean, FWIW, the game you brought up.... 2019.... was seven years ago?).

Anyways, here's UConn giving the game away last season on an inbounds play to an ABYSMAL Seton Hall team:


Here's Kansas giving the game away on an inbounds play last year as well:

(note: end of 1st OT)

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

Click to expand...

Not exactly sure what you mean here. Layups?

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

Click to expand...

Here's Duke "fizzling away a big lead" against Houston in the Final Four. They were up 14 in the second half:


Here's Duke fizzling away a big lead just a few months ago against the exact TTU team we beat to start the season. They were up 18 in the second half:


Here's Purdue just one month ago fizzling away a lead against the exact UCLA team we lost to. They were up 6 with 1:40 remaining:

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

Click to expand...

Arizona's a pretty decent team this year, no? They seem to be doing pretty well with an 8 man rotation:

Curbelo Fanboy said:

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

Click to expand...

I mean, didn't Kansas lose to Cincinnati at home like.... 3 days ago?

Also, to take a fellow in-conference rival, here's Tom Izzo's home-loss history over the last 3 seasons:

Michigan State opened the 23-24 ranked #4 preseason. They opened that season with this home loss to James Madison:


They also lost home games that season to Iowa and Ohio State, two teams that missed the tournament.

As good as they were last season, they did have a home loss to Indiana at home, also a team that missed the tourney.

......

Here's the teams that have had the least home losses in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons:

1. Purdue: 9
2. Michigan State: 15
3. Illinois: 16
4. Iowa: 20
5. Indiana: 22

(I'm stealing this data from the State Farm Center thread)

Also, Big Ten wins since the 2019-20 season as it currently stands:

1. Illinois: 94
2. Purdue: 93

Fly Illini Fly! said:

Fact is, most of these complaints could be made for pretty much every program from time to time. It's just because you're a

Also, Big Ten wins since the 2019-20 season as it currently stands:

1. Illinois: 94
2. Purdue: 93

Click to expand...

Post of the Year! Thank you so much for compiling that.

Every coach has bad plays and bad games. And bad seasons if they coach long enough.

The beauty and the curse of college basketball is the single elimination and just not that many big games (20-25 a year when you eliminate cupcakes). The skill and the talent differences are so much smaller. A 6 point line comes down to 3-4 total plays out of 150 possessions.

The variance that is going to happen in that sample size is just focused in (myself included). When is the last time anyone cared about a regular season NBA game?

If we played a best of 7 against UCLA, we win the series in 5-6 games. If we played them ina 4 game season series, we probably go 3-1. But because of how college works, just a microscope on everything.

I was super pissed Saturday night but I’m just gonna try to enjoy watching this team the next 3-6 weeks. When this season ends, we’re all going to be hoping that next years team has a ceiling like this one.

Bigtex said:

why is it 8 from B1G and 2 from Big 12? SEC? ACC? Big east?

Or why is it 3 from Illinois, 3 from Purdue and 2 Nebraska

Click to expand...

The NIL store starting in Champaign might have something to do with it

Fly Illini Fly! said:

Here's the teams that have had the least home losses in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons:

1. Purdue: 9
2. Michigan State: 15
3. Illinois: 16
4. Iowa: 20
5. Indiana: 22

(I'm stealing this data from the State Farm Center thread)

Click to expand...

Correction* — over the last 6 seasons, not 5.

Also, IU is at 23 home losses (not 22).

Wisconsin is also at 23 home losses.

Both teams are tied for 5th.

RabidDawgClassic said:

This team reminds me of the 1986-87 Illini, which lost five excruciatingly close conference games, three of which were in overtime and one of which came after having 22 point lead (with 12 minutes left). All five losses were to three teams — Iowa (2), Purdue (2) and Indiana (1).

We also had an ugly one point loss to (ugh) Loyola and our worst loss was a 90-77 affair at North Carolina.

That team was really, really good and those close losses were crushing. But optimism was still high as Illinois earned a #3 seed.

Against #14 Austin Peay.

Let’s hope history doesn’t completely repeat itself.

Click to expand...

That was Ken Norman's senior season.We had a talented freshmen class but Nick Anderson was a Prop 48 casualty. That really hurt not having Nick. We split our two games with National Champion Indiana. The 1987-1988 team was also awfully good. Glyn Blackwell's senior season. We were a 3 seed that year and Kansas won the national championship as a 6 seed. Lou Henson had a tough NCAA tournament in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Our teams were loaded and we got upset in the tournament.

I'm sure there have been & part of my post is frustration. Maybe "tactical" isn't the best word to use. But there to me are a few recurring themes in Brad's tenure.

-continual struggle to get the ball inbounds when faced with pressure. Not to mention rarely getting a freebie off an inbound play. I still have nightmares of the Maryland game in like 2019 where we failed to get the ball in like 3 times in a row late in the game.

-conversely, giving up a lot of freebies to the other side

-a string of crap the bed games where we fizzle away a big lead. UCLA, @PSU 2 years ago, Wiscy a couple weeks ago (tho we were short handed)

-a seemingly recurring trend of the bench getting perilously thin as the year progresses. We play 10 guys early in the year & it's down to 8 or less by late in conference season. That is very thin with foul trouble, injuries, fatigue.

-Less than good late game situational stuff (defenisve breakdown at the end vs UCLA as exhibit A)

-inexplicable no show games especially at home (Loyola in 21, PSU at home 2 years ago, USC last year)

No one of the above is a "deal breaker" & you can win lots of games with some of these flaws. And by no means am I suggesting Brad should be on a hot seat or anything of the sort. I just see some of these as the things that maybe only matter a few times a year but when they matter they really matter. That game Saturday brought some of that bad juju up again at least for me.

And no doubt I'm being hyper critical but I see these as valid concerns to ever getting over the win 6 games in a row in late March/April hump.

And I'd love nothing more than to get on here the first Tuesday in April & proclaim Underwood as the best coach in the country cause he got the job done.

Click to expand...

Remind me which games this year we couldn't get the ball inbounds...

Fly Illini Fly! said:

Correction* — over the last 6 seasons, not 5.

Also, IU is at 23 home losses (not 22).

Wisconsin is also at 23 home losses.

Both teams are tied for 5th.

Click to expand...

24 now.

Fly Illini Fly! said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026716393106751925

Click to expand...

Not to take away from HRF's spotlight - he's one of my 3 favorite basketball players ever.

But the end of this clip is a Dicky V monologue during a timeout. In the background you hear the band non stop. Crowd stays hyped.. they clap and scream "hey!" on queue during that one (dun dun duuundun "Hey!" dundun dundun) song.

Now, during timeouts it's some corporate give away with a milquetoast pop song playing over the speakers. And we wonder why the atmosphere has gotten stale over the years.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026706150029230535

Click to expand...

I don't want to play wisconsin again.

Fly Illini Fly! said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026716393106751925

Click to expand...

Until Keaton Wagler vs Purdue, this might have been the greatest stretch of individual brilliance I’ve seen from an Illini player. Frank was magical that night.

Fly Illini Fly! said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026686069987496315

Click to expand...

OK guys, win one for MOM.

2qtslow said:

OK guys, win one for MOM.

Click to expand...

She deserves a win in ALL of them!

2qtslow said:

OK guys, win one for MOM.

Click to expand...

I sent it to my mom already so we have to win all 3