DFW has his limitations, and it would have been great if another player (Hawkins) or one of the freshmen advanced to the point where they overtook minutes from him, and he could fit into a niche role better suited for him.
Illini Basketball
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Wouldn’t it have sucked to have played the freshman more and because they weren’t quite ready at the time, lost an additional 1-2 games, which cost us the B1G championship …
… and *still* lost to Houston because they were a better team and the marginal increase in skill that our freshman received by playing more minutes wasn’t enough to make a difference?
Then we’d have absolutely nothing to show for this season.
So you think it's just a coincidence that our offensive struggles coincided with Jake's shoulder injury? I don't...
Good comments. Underwood is going to play the guys that will help win games. If someone plays better, they get more time on the floor. I don't think any one of the players on the bench showed the toughness that Williams displayed game in and game out.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
To add to my previous comments:
Maybe Underwood made a mistake by not playing the freshman enough. He’s not perfect.
But my assumption is:
If the freshman were ready to play meaningful minutes, they would have.
Because BU is not shy about starting/playing freshman.
Mark Smith, Ayo, Giorgi, Kofi, & Ace all started as freshman. This is the first year that he hasn’t played at least one freshman meaningful minutes.
So my outside-looking-in assumption is that BU likes playing freshman, but he felt like the seniors gave us a better chance to win.
For the most part, he was right. We won the B1G.
Did it cost us a game in the tourney? Maybe. But even if our freshman were fractionally better, I don’t see us beating Houston.
Maybe Underwood made a mistake by not playing the freshman enough. He’s not perfect.
But my assumption is:
If the freshman were ready to play meaningful minutes, they would have.
Because BU is not shy about starting/playing freshman.
Mark Smith, Ayo, Giorgi, Kofi, & Ace all started as freshman. This is the first year that he hasn’t played at least one freshman meaningful minutes.
So my outside-looking-in assumption is that BU likes playing freshman, but he felt like the seniors gave us a better chance to win.
For the most part, he was right. We won the B1G.
Did it cost us a game in the tourney? Maybe. But even if our freshman were fractionally better, I don’t see us beating Houston.
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Final thoughts regarding the freshman:
Most assume that a player only improves by playing game minutes and the more game minutes they play, the better the player becomes.
If that were the case, why then do we typically see the biggest jump in player improvement happen in the summer between two seasons, when no games are being played?
Kinda seems like improvement tends to happen in practice, not games.
Most assume that a player only improves by playing game minutes and the more game minutes they play, the better the player becomes.
If that were the case, why then do we typically see the biggest jump in player improvement happen in the summer between two seasons, when no games are being played?
Kinda seems like improvement tends to happen in practice, not games.
I noticed that all but Kofi and sometimes Hawkins or Curbelo did not pursue offensive rebounds for the second half of the season. It was like John Groce became our offensive rebounding coach. Early in the season, perhaps because we were playing lesser teams, we were dramatically outrebounding other teams, especially on the offensive glass.
That was the one thing that really struck me in the Houston game. No one was going to the offensive glass, but were getting back into defense following a shot. I would like to know from BU if this was intentional. We were specifically worried about Houston getting out and running off missed shots? Was our transition defense not up to the task?
illini80
- Forgottonia
He lead the team in 3 point %.
The
The Conference’s “style of play” is just fine.
BigTen has made more appearances in the Final Four from 2000-present than any other conference. Six different teams have made the Final Four: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin & tOSU (not including Maryland, which got there twice while still in the ACC).
The Conference’s “style of play” is just fine.
Houston was daring CoHawk to shoot... No way they would do that to a healthy Jake.
I was shocked by how much we struggled w/o him. Under-appreciated player.
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
Yes, part of rebounding and 50/50 balls is your fight. However, another part of rebounding is luck. Part of the equation for the guards is being really good at predicting where the ball will go. Houston was really good at that. They were also really good at missing 3s REALLY BADLY, which ups the ante for the board battles.
I agree that our guys didn't seem to get in that fray, but that would have been an uphill battle considering how much size we were giving up to Houston. I know you are talking about the second half of the season more than just one game. But, in the game that ended our run, that was not going to be the stat line that was going to get us over the hump. The FG% drop definitely killed us. Plus, we did have a lot of barely missed shots, which tend to pop up in the air, or at least be more predictable in where they end up.
We got into a lot of our half court sets this year through Jake…..sorely missed
For me the most frustrating part of that game was Damonte just refusing to shoot…I didn’t understand. The ticket to winning that game was hitting outside shots and he just wouldn’t let it fly. There was one play a wide open Damonte passed to Curbelo for a 3 and the announcers were confused why he’d pass it off to an even lower percentage shooter.
Interestingly, that’s not far off from the selection committee though. Of the teams the selection committee put in the top 16 (4-seed and higher), 10 made it to the Sweet Sixteen (9 for Kenpom). And unlike KenPom, the selection committee's ranking of team is self-fulfilling to some extent because higher seeded teams have an easier path to advance. Also, 3 of the selection committee's top 8 have been eliminated vs. 2 of Kenpom's.
With Ayo we had great team chemistry. The ball flew around the perimeter or was feed into Kofi. Ayo strength was driving to the hoop and scoring in transition. Up to the Loyola game it was a joy to watch. The BTT felt like it was 2005 again.
This year our opponents double and triple teamed Kofi. Other than Plummer our team was hesitant to shoot. We allowed teams to push our offense well outside of 3 point line. We rarely ran the fast break unlease Andre got the rebound. We did not have Ayo to bail us out at critical moments of the game. Honestly a lot of games it was painful to watch.
RJ, Luke and Pods played loose the few minutes they were on the court. They were not afraid to drive to hoop or shoot the open three.
JMO but our upperclassmen layed an egg in both NCAA games. I wish Brad would have pulled a Bobby Knight and benched all the starters. I love our seniors but they looked terrible and seemed to be playing not to lose. It would have been embarassing for the seniors but we might have beaten Houston. Hopefully Brad learned from this.
This year our opponents double and triple teamed Kofi. Other than Plummer our team was hesitant to shoot. We allowed teams to push our offense well outside of 3 point line. We rarely ran the fast break unlease Andre got the rebound. We did not have Ayo to bail us out at critical moments of the game. Honestly a lot of games it was painful to watch.
RJ, Luke and Pods played loose the few minutes they were on the court. They were not afraid to drive to hoop or shoot the open three.
JMO but our upperclassmen layed an egg in both NCAA games. I wish Brad would have pulled a Bobby Knight and benched all the starters. I love our seniors but they looked terrible and seemed to be playing not to lose. It would have been embarassing for the seniors but we might have beaten Houston. Hopefully Brad learned from this.
I don't understand why DMW shot even less often than last year. last year we wished he would shoot even more because he was making threes at a 55% clip. he was wide open multiple times this season and passed the ball. BU is always saying how he wants guys to let it fly so I don't understand the hesitation
That is BS. The only reason anyone was clamoring for Goode, Melendez and Podz to get minutes is because our offense had become stagnant and we needed a shot in the arm. You can't keep playing good teams 4 on 5 or at some times 3 on 5 and expect to win.
Was looking at end of year stats for our weaknesses.....viewing categories that we were ranked >200 among 350+ college teams and could probably aim for improvement going forward....
Those categories (opportunities for improvement):
-- 2PA (even with Kofi 2p shots
)
-- FT% (barely over 70%)
-- steals
-- Turnovers
Perhaps we can live with these weaknesses...but hopefully we can improve on some of these.
Epps and Harris may help on playmaking and quickness (2p and steals)... cant afford to stay weak on turnovers....
Those categories (opportunities for improvement):
-- 2PA (even with Kofi 2p shots
)-- FT% (barely over 70%)
-- steals
-- Turnovers
Perhaps we can live with these weaknesses...but hopefully we can improve on some of these.
Epps and Harris may help on playmaking and quickness (2p and steals)... cant afford to stay weak on turnovers....
Starting on Jan 17 when we lost to Purdue at home our record was 10-7
we barely won vs UT Chattanooga, home Penn State, @Northwestern
It was obvious that teams had figured that you could triple team Kofi and that Plummer was our only reliable outside shooter.
I am happy that our team gutted it out and came away with a B10 regular season title. JMO with an injured Andre, injured Jacob, and Pink eye Trent we were crippled in the BTT and NCAA. I know RJ Luke and Pods are only freshman but due to Miller transfer and Andre injury we had no sophomores or juniors ready to come in and save the day.
we barely won vs UT Chattanooga, home Penn State, @Northwestern
It was obvious that teams had figured that you could triple team Kofi and that Plummer was our only reliable outside shooter.
I am happy that our team gutted it out and came away with a B10 regular season title. JMO with an injured Andre, injured Jacob, and Pink eye Trent we were crippled in the BTT and NCAA. I know RJ Luke and Pods are only freshman but due to Miller transfer and Andre injury we had no sophomores or juniors ready to come in and save the day.
I completely agree. The game before he hurt his shoulder (against Michigan State) Jake scored 24 on 8-12 shooting and 6-10 on 3's with 5 assists and 1 turnover.
All I can figure is the entire fan base and everything associated with Illini basketball wants a championship so badly it permeates to the players on the court.
sdfidaho
- Boise, Idaho
I don't know that "most" assume this. But pretty sure most do assume it helps with their development.
Having said that, I'm not one that has been beating the drum that BU (you know...the coach that led the Illini to the BIG Title) should have played them more.
This might be unpopular, but maybe others agree...
I think the Big Ten the last two years has been very, very overated. I'm not saying that it was not good, but it was not 9 teams in the NCAA worthy.
As such, I think that while we were better than Loyola, the gap wasn't much. I'm ok using the deer in the headlights perspective there.
However, we weren't as good as Houston this year and the disparity, while not great, was clearly evident. They were more athletic, they were bigger on the perimeter and they had multiple ways to score. We were undersized and limited offensively.
From my perspective, it had nothing to do with BU's coaching this time around. They were just better than us and he has to bring in the size and athleticism to compete with teams of that caliber. I think that applies to all Big Ten teams, which is why we're seeing these results in back to back years.
I was there. Was amazing
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