Illini Basketball

altgeld88 · Mar 23, 2022

Illiniindian said:
Not to make excuses, but I am going to anyway.
I think with a healthy Grandison and Trent not suffering from pinkeye, we win that game…

+ cut those 17 turnovers in half. Completely agree. Even simply by cutting the TOs in half (many were unforced, via foolish decisions) I believe we win that game. With Jake and Trent healthy, no question, IMO. Jake was giving us 10 ppg and was third on team in assists. His passing (as BU and other posters have noted), particularly into the post to KC, was "elite." Houston was completely healthy. We weren't.

Also with the "we never peaked this season" talk. Of course we didn't peak. We were never completely healthy. We never had lineup continuity for any amount of time. Yet we slogged and staggered to win a BT title over a 20-game conference schedule.

pruman91 · Mar 23, 2022

altgeld88 said:
+ cut those 17 turnovers in half. Completely agree. Even simply by cutting the TOs in half (many were unforced, via foolish decisions) I believe we win that game. With Jake and Trent healthy, no question, IMO. Jake was giving us 10 ppg and was third on team in assists. His passing (as BU and other posters have noted), particularly into the post to KC, was "elite." Houston was completely healthy. We weren't.

Also with the "we never peaked this season" talk. Of course we didn't peak. We were never completely healthy. We never had lineup continuity for any amount of time. Yet we slogged and staggered to win a BT title over a 20-game conference schedule.

View attachment 16596

Sorry bro , but Houston was missing 2 key players .........Sasser was their leading scorer and I can't remember the other player ( lazy on gummy bears ) but he was also an important player for them......

We just played like crap since we beat the Idiots for a share of the B1G championship , starting with our game versus the loosiers in the BTT and then both games in the dance ....

We lost .............playing so much differently than we had for most of the season .......Did we run out of gas ??.......maybe.................Were we tight .?...most definitely ..............................When our 3 point game suffers , the rest of our offense suffers.....We played great D in the Chat. game and that saved us from another embarrassing defeat , but the game against Houston was filled with , like you said , unforced foolish turnovers and continued shooting woes.....

I have finally come to grips with the season being over and what a ride it was .......I'm "" stoked "" about next year and can't wait to see the finalized roster before that first exhibition game ..

Go Illini

sully · Mar 23, 2022

Dan said:
As today marks the end of the current season & beginning of the new, please use this thread to look ahead to 2022-2023 or reflect back.

Thanks again to everyone who joined us here to share in the glory & heartbreak Go Illini

Updated Scholarship Grid (3/21/2022)

Thank you Dan for all your hard work and putting up with overly emotional misfits like myself lol I promise to do better! Excited about the future of this program.

GO ILLINI! :illinois:

Emerson Bigguns · Mar 23, 2022

pruman91 said:
View attachment 16597

View attachment 16598

Sorry bro , but Houston was missing 2 key players .........Sasser was their leading scorer and I can't remember the other player ( lazy on gummy bears ) but he was also an important player for them......

We just played like crap since we beat the Idiots for a share of the B1G championship , starting with our game versus the loosiers in the BTT and then both games in the dance ....

We lost .............playing so much differently than we had for most of the season .......Did we run out of gas ??.......maybe.................Were we tight .?...most definitely ..............................When our 3 point game suffers , the rest of our offense suffers.....We played great D in the Chat. game and that saved us from another embarrassing defeat , but the game against Houston was filled with , like you said , unforced foolish turnovers and continued shooting woes.....

I have finally come to grips with the season being over and what a ride it was .......I'm "" stoked "" about next year and can't wait to see the finalized roster before that first exhibition game ..

Go Illini

Tramon Mark- Sophomore PG. (another 6'5" guy...) Was an emerging player for them. Had scored 18 and 22 in the 2 games prior to hurting his shoulder.

altgeld88 · Mar 23, 2022

pruman91 said:
View attachment 16597

View attachment 16598

Sorry bro , but Houston was missing 2 key players .........Sasser was their leading scorer and I can't remember the other player ( lazy on gummy bears ) but he was also an important player for them......

We just played like crap since we beat the Idiots for a share of the B1G championship , starting with our game versus the loosiers in the BTT and then both games in the dance ....

We lost .............playing so much differently than we had for most of the season .......Did we run out of gas ??.......maybe.................Were we tight .?...most definitely ..............................When our 3 point game suffers , the rest of our offense suffers.....We played great D in the Chat. game and that saved us from another embarrassing defeat , but the game against Houston was filled with , like you said , unforced foolish turnovers and continued shooting woes.....

I have finally come to grips with the season being over and what a ride it was .......I'm "" stoked "" about next year and can't wait to see the finalized roster before that first exhibition game ..

Go Illini

Yep right you are. Tramon Mark was the other guy out, had identical stats to Jake before he had shoulder surgery.

Gamefan49 · Mar 23, 2022

pruman91 said:
View attachment 16597

View attachment 16598

Sorry bro , but Houston was missing 2 key players .........Sasser was their leading scorer and I can't remember the other player ( lazy on gummy bears ) but he was also an important player for them......

We just played like crap since we beat the Idiots for a share of the B1G championship , starting with our game versus the loosiers in the BTT and then both games in the dance ....

We lost .............playing so much differently than we had for most of the season .......Did we run out of gas ??.......maybe.................Were we tight .?...most definitely ..............................When our 3 point game suffers , the rest of our offense suffers.....We played great D in the Chat. game and that saved us from another embarrassing defeat , but the game against Houston was filled with , like you said , unforced foolish turnovers and continued shooting woes.....

I have finally come to grips with the season being over and what a ride it was .......I'm "" stoked "" about next year and can't wait to see the finalized roster before that first exhibition game ..

Go Illini

But I believe I read somewhere that they had been out since December. So that means Houston had time to get used to each other with the new way to play without these players. In other words they were able to gel whereas we never did because we always had someone new out.

Se Il Illini · Mar 23, 2022

pruman91 said:
View attachment 16597

View attachment 16598

Sorry bro , but Houston was missing 2 key players .........Sasser was their leading scorer and I can't remember the other player ( lazy on gummy bears ) but he was also an important player for them......

We just played like crap since we beat the Idiots for a share of the B1G championship , starting with our game versus the loosiers in the BTT and then both games in the dance ....

We lost .............playing so much differently than we had for most of the season .......Did we run out of gas ??.......maybe.................Were we tight .?...most definitely ..............................When our 3 point game suffers , the rest of our offense suffers.....We played great D in the Chat. game and that saved us from another embarrassing defeat , but the game against Houston was filled with , like you said , unforced foolish turnovers and continued shooting woes.....

I have finally come to grips with the season being over and what a ride it was .......I'm "" stoked "" about next year and can't wait to see the finalized roster before that first exhibition game ..

Go Illini

This is not a criticism at all, because I think that you are correct about your assessment. However, I do not understand why this team was tight. You have young men, who have spent their playing days from youth basketball, traveling teams, high school, in some cases prep school, AAU, etc. preparing themselves for this moment. I just do not get it.

doowink · Mar 23, 2022

We're all disappointed with the way the season ended...but if at this time last year someone would have told me....we would lose 3 assistant coaches, would lose AM to the transfer portal, would start the season with Kofi serving a suspension, play through a variety of health issues....concussions that would linger for weeks to 3 key players, leg and shoulder injuries to Trent and Grandson, Covid , a round of influenza to most of the players and you're telling me we'll win a share of the B10 season championship......I would have ask what in the world are you smoking...we had a hell of a season given all that was dealt with by this team.....were we elite?....not really....were we great?...at times......were we bad?....at times.....but this team battled through all of this to bring us a B10 banner.....Thanks guys....can't wait to see what the off season and next season brings.....Thanks Dan for keeping a rein on this board.....looking forward to whatever is to come!

Fanview · Mar 23, 2022

i'm excited for all the people who clamored to get minutes for RJ, Podz, and Luke to now ask for Epps, Rodgers, and Sincere to play over the latter. And the cycle continues

IlliniShelt · Mar 23, 2022

Fanview said:
i'm excited for all the people who clamored to get minutes for RJ, Podz, and Luke to now ask for Epps, Rodgers, and Sincere to play over the latter. And the cycle continues

I get what you are saying but for the most part when RJ played, he played well. Could he have done that for 30 mins a night? Maybe or maybe not. No denying when Luke and RJ played vs Houston they played well

Bleedorangeandblue44 · Mar 23, 2022

Fanview said:
i'm excited for all the people who clamored to get minutes for RJ, Podz, and Luke to now ask for Epps, Rodgers, and Sincere to play over the latter. And the cycle continues

This will never change, for good or bad (and probably mostly bad). I'm sure there's a lot of people here who can remember Rich McBride would come in and bump Deron Williams out of the starting lineup.

812Jamie · Mar 23, 2022

PIT_ILL said:
I think the arena hurt the Illini a lot. None of the teams there shot particularly well. Hockey arenas don't make for good basketball arenas.

Also I think Trent was significantly hampered by his eye. It was obvious even during warm ups that he was off.

From a philosophical standpoint, I don't think Underwood wants mid range jump shots. They are statistically the worst shots.

That athlete thing is about to change in a big way. This team had good players under 6'4" and over 6'10". RJ, Luke, Ty, etc are going to change that trend to have more length in the team over the next 12 months.

I do understand the analytics of this, but guys like Derozan and Leonard make a living at 17 feet.

812Jamie · Mar 23, 2022

I have read lots about the B1G style and how it doesn't translate to the tourney. I don't at all disagree.

Early in the BU tenure, he wanted to play fast (shoot in under 7 seconds) and press & trap (see forcing 25 TOs vs Michigan State) but moved away from it because it was deemed to difficult to win like that in the league. But isn't that really about the athletes? Didn't Illinois just not have enough top tier guys back then but maybe they do now? I'd like to see that again...

727ill · Mar 23, 2022

IlliniShelt said:
I get what you are saying but for the most part when RJ played, he played well. Could he have done that for 30 mins a night? Maybe or maybe not. No denying when Luke and RJ played vs Houston they played well

RJ will find out what it means to be at the top of the scouting report next year. Teams will know who he is now.

NarrowJ · Mar 23, 2022

812Jamie said:
I do understand the analytics of this, but guys like Derozan and Leonard make a living at 17 feet.

Well... we have neither of those guys on our roster, though.

Bigtex · Mar 23, 2022

Fanview said:
i'm excited for all the people who clamored to get minutes for RJ, Podz, and Luke to now ask for Epps, Rodgers, and Sincere to play over the latter. And the cycle continues

Some vocalized that playing guys 30+ minutes and others 0-5 minutes didn't make the team better. This team (likely all teams) lacked certain qualities and there were guys on the bench who could fill deficiencies of the top 7.

illini0440 · Mar 23, 2022

727ill said:
RJ will find out what it means to be at the top of the scouting report next year. Teams will know who he is now.

Right behind Kofi.

illini0440 · Mar 23, 2022

812Jamie said:
I have read lots about the B1G style and how it doesn't translate to the tourney. I don't at all disagree.

Early in the BU tenure, he wanted to play fast (shoot in under 7 seconds) and press & trap (see forcing 25 TOs vs Michigan State) but moved away from it because it was deemed to difficult to win like that in the league. But isn't that really about the athletes? Didn't Illinois just not have enough top tier guys back then but maybe they do now? I'd like to see that again...

I don't buy the style in the B1G translating to the B1G not playing well in the tourney. A lot of the tourney is luck of the draw and matchups. Loyola last year based off advance stats should have been a 4-6 seed and were one of the most veteran teams in the country....rough draw for us. As for the style of play when BU first got here...we were baaaaaad. Had pretty much no talent, basketball IQ, and didn't understand what went into winning at a high level. BU struggled a lot internally the first couple seasons, it was super rough on him.

GrayGhost77 · Mar 23, 2022

illini0440 said:
Right behind Kofi.

Chukwuwumba · Mar 23, 2022

Bigtex said:
This is more reflective of the B1G conference but also applies specifically to Illinois:

-B1G has some star power but style of play doesn't bode well for NCAA tournament success.
-Why do we regularly see scores of less than 30 in the first half?
-Watching NCAA games - it was evident for the most part B1G teams don't take the ball down the lane and finish.
-Mid range jumpers are very effective (high percentage shots)
-Athletes - Seems like other teams have faster, stronger, better jumping athletes who are also good basketball players.

Maybe touched upon already, but PG was relatively week this year in BIG. Frazier was strong (inj in tourney) and Curbelo was supposed to take the next level but inj season.
Didn’t face someone like HOU PG in the BIG, though Walker did catch fire. Maybe that was a flag to address, and was not.

Chukwuwumba · Mar 23, 2022

Ferd said:
I hope that Podz stays. Everything that we saw from him was good, but then he went to the bench and never came back. Even if he wasn't getting a message from coach, I know that he was hearing one. I'm obviously not happy with his minutes ; )

I thought going into HOU matchup he would see more mins. HOU goes after offensive Rebs, and Podz showed to be a plus rebounding guard, bigger size. And player injuries.
Maybe staff had reservations about 3 freshman on the court at same time, not sure how much practice they had in that kind of lineup.

Chukwuwumba · Mar 23, 2022

Chukwuwumba said:
Maybe touched upon already, but PG was relatively week this year in BIG. Frazier was strong (inj in tourney) and Curbelo was supposed to take the next level but inj season.
Didn’t face someone like HOU PG in the BIG, though Walker did catch fire. Maybe that was a flag to address, and was not.

Andres Feliz would have really helped out his team ( and last years team, and future teams lol)

Emerson Bigguns · Mar 23, 2022

812Jamie said:
I do understand the analytics of this, but guys like Derozan and Leonard make a living at 17 feet.

It's an efficient shot for them, because they are incredibly good from their spots. Most players can't make those shots at the rate those guys can.

Emerson Bigguns · Mar 23, 2022

812Jamie said:
I have read lots about the B1G style and how it doesn't translate to the tourney. I don't at all disagree.

Early in the BU tenure, he wanted to play fast (shoot in under 7 seconds) and press & trap (see forcing 25 TOs vs Michigan State) but moved away from it because it was deemed to difficult to win like that in the league. But isn't that really about the athletes? Didn't Illinois just not have enough top tier guys back then but maybe they do now? I'd like to see that again...

I think so. You need length to effectively trap at this level. Outside the 5 spot, we've been relatively short during Brad's tenure. That seems to be changing.

Not sure you can trap consistently and be successful in this league, but I do think we will see him deploy it a lot more often in spurts when things aren't clicking or we are behind.

I think the tempo will be dictated by Kofi's decision. If we have the big man, we can be really efficient offensively in the half-court. (as long as he is surrounded by shooters) IMO, we need to be more aggressive in finding transition opportunities, but there is no reason to press the issue if numbers aren't there.

If Kofi moves on, I bet we will be actively trying to push tempo.

TheFameProtector · Mar 23, 2022

812Jamie said:
I do understand the analytics of this, but guys like Derozan and Leonard make a living at 17 feet.

I think it's similar to what the NBA has slowly come to terms with over the last couple seasons: the ideal shots are at the rim or from 3, but when defenses key in on taking those away and ramp up the pressure in the playoffs, you need guys that can get a reliable, clean shot off. Typically this comes from the mid-range, which is what defenses (usually) are most willing to give up (as is the case with Underwood). Having an Ayo is good for a whole bunch of reasons but his ability to get to his spot in the mid-range is something this team really lacked this year.