Illini Basketball

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#303      

NarrowJ

NarrowJ
NarrowJ
I have definitely seen Bruce lay into some guys, but I just imagine its more like GOLLY GEE WILLIKERS WHY DIDNT YOU BOX OUT ON THAT PLAY!! DADGUMMITT!!!

Imagine something like Philip Rivers, who a lot of defensive guys said they absolutely loved to play against because he'd trash talk you intensely all game without using any curse words at all.
 
#304      

Battle89

Battle89
Battle89
Fighter of the Nightman said:
(i.e., maybe a bit like Luther was on our 2005 team?)
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#308      

Iloveorangekoolaid

Iloveorangekoolaid
Iloveorangekoolaid
This post might get a little long so feel free to scroll past.

TLDR: The Big10 is taking heat right now for being overrated and I think it’s inflated by the past 3 seasons with the top teams losing early in the tournament.


I really think the Big10 was a deep league this year with not a lot of great teams. You saw older teams who were picked to be in the lower half of the league(Northwestern/Penn State) making it tougher night in and night out. I felt like 2021 and 2022 the Big10 had true contenders to make runs in March. This year felt like Purdue but everyone saw the writing on the wall with that team with how they can be pressured. Everyone really played to their seed except Purdue underwhelming and MSU getting an upset. I agree the conference has issues but I also think if you put Xavier in the B10 this year, they definitely wouldn’t get a 3 seed. They are starting Jerome Hunter(former IU player and Jack Nunge(backup to Garza at Iowa a few years ago). They barely beat Kennesaw St and got to play Pitt to go to the sweet 16. This brings me to my actual point that you gotta have some luck and the Big10 has been pretty unlucky to not have a championship since 2000.

Backed up by stats:
2001-2022
ACC: 8 Champs/ 3 Runner ups/16 final 4 teams total
BigEast: 6 Champs/0 runner ups/14 final 4 teams
Big 10: 0 Champs/7 runner ups/13 final 4 teams
Big12: 3 Champs/3 runner ups/ 13 final 4 teams
SEC: 3 Champs/1 runner up/ 10 final 4
PAC 12: 0 Champs/ 2 runner ups/ 6 final 4
Others: 1 Champ/5 runner ups/ 11 final 4

Note: I counted teams like Maryland 2002 as an ACC title and UConn 2014 as American, etc.
 
#309      

john1952

john1952
john1952
AyoDos11 said:
Would you prefer John Groce?? He did good things here... 🙄
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He did have one good year before he was "seduced by the dark side."
en.wikipedia.org

2012–13 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The 2014–2015 season was once again disappointing for the Illini. Illinois finished with a record of 19–14, finishing tied for 7th place in the Big Ten with a record of 9–9. The Illini were then beaten in the first round of the NIT.

The 2015–2016 season ended with the fewest total wins in almost 20 years, since the 98–99 Lon Kruger crew won only 14 games. Groce's squad finished with a record of 15–19, taking 12th place in the Big Ten and receiving no post season tournament invitations.

The 2016–2017 basketball season was another disappointing season for the Fighting Illini, as they finished the season at 18–14 and 8–10 in conference, failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year.
 
#310      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
ChiefGritty said:
I'm glad our fans care a lot and have high expectations, those are some of the biggest assets the program has.
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The Illini fan base SHOULD have high expectations. That’s what Winners – or those aspiring to be – have.

But continuing tournament disappointments just rubs us the wrong way on multiple levels. Yes, there are reasons for those quick exits – many of which having been well outlined on these pages. But we’re still stuck with the empty FEELING. And we’ve had enough of that. And that feeling wears further on our patience.

As fans, we have the added problem that we are powerless to do anything about the situation. We can’t work on our shot or go to the weight room or design foolproof offensive schemes or motivate the players or recruit young ball savants. All we can do is hope that others can do this for us (and themselves) to enhance the Program.

It’s frustrating like doing a performance review for a member of your Staff at work. You have employees who are ‘pretty good’ and performing better than some people that they replaced... yet your current employees still aren’t fully listening to you or taking your direction or working hard enough to get along or perfect their craft. The dreaded ‘B’ student who is better than average but who doesn’t perform to ‘A’ levels. You’re stuck in a no-mans-land just short of the Promised Land.

The only thing we can do as fans right now is what we don’t want to hear. That is... we have to still be patient. Let things sort themselves out further and see where we are with the Program. Everyone and everything can still be better than what has been shown. There is no doubt in that.

Is there another Program anywhere in the Nation that cares about ball as much as Illini fans do and still remains so starving to succeed in the Dance? Can’t think of any.
 
#311      

the national

the national
the Front Range
the national
sacraig said:
There were legitimately people saying that. I vividly remember them trying to argue that we would be better without him because we could play position less like Brad always wanted.

They were crazy people, but they did really exist.
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They is us, loyalty after dark stuff, when the crazies came out. I was supremely disappointed when Kofi didn’t come back and thought we’d be in a full “rebuild” this season and thought Brad held our 20win and NCAA-birth standard well. It was those darned UCLA and Texas games that got me too excited. They raised the bar of my expectations. Vegas was awesome.
 
#312      

greyghost70

G
greyghost70
MetroLeast said:
Have you ever noticed that the majority of left handed basketball players are really left handed? They can and do show the the right hand but generally that's all it is, a show, and it's right back to their very dominant hand. It just appears that right handed players by and large are more apt to use their off hand more often. With that being said there are too many players that can't use the correct hand around the rim.


You're not wrong. I understand that the way he plays means he's in a crowd and there's lots of arms in their but that's definitely something that needs work, among other things.
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That is also where spacing comes in. A lot of times when he drove Meyers was too close to him and the guy guarding him was the one the got the strip.
 
#313      

alaskaillini

A
alaskaillini
21ChampaignSt said:
I agree with your last sentence. But it sounds like we would disagree about whether or not BU is the man for the job?

I can't explain it well, but I think BU will get us to the Final Four because he believes he can. I know how that sounds, but I never really got the impression that BW and JG actually believed Illinois was an "elite" program worthy of Final Four aspirations (even after BW himself took us there). I'm not sure that they ever thought of themselves as one of the elite program leaders in cbb either. I'm not trying to hate on them, but they dont have that alpha personality or that chip on their shoulder that BU does. BU, IMO, is going to do whatever it takes to add a Final Four to his resume because he thinks he's one of the best and he wants to prove it. Again, I know this sounds cliche or whatever, but the first step in accomplishing something is actually believing that you can do it.

But beyond that unquantifiable, fluffy, personality stuff, if you take the last four years and repeat those results for the next four years, BU would have 4 B1G titles, 2 BTT championship, 8 consecutive tourney appearances, and 2 #1 seeds. That would be one of the elitest 8 year resumes in cbb and there's no reason to think he can't achieve that (and no, I'm not saying that would be my minimum expectation either).

My point is that BU is on pace to have one of the best tenures in recent B1G memory. Matta or Ryan or Beilein - esque. He just needs that one special team who makes a deep tourney run. Let's not give up on him yet.

We do agree that post season success should be a requirement at Illinois though and if we do go 4 more years without making any kind of noise in the tourney, I'll start to have my doubts about BU as well. I don't expect that to be the case though.
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Yes. But I would not even engage Douuugy. He is a troll.
 
#316      

alaskaillini

A
alaskaillini
Emerson Bigguns said:
Effective leadership is about relationships. Expecting a guy to lead a team he joined a few months before the season wasn't going to work. TSJ will have a better opportunity to be that guy if he returns. Hawkins' issues have, IMO, been about maturity. Not everyone matures at the same rate, but often when people are college age it happens suddenly. I think everyone learned a lot about what teamwork doesn't look like this year. Failure is a great teacher and motivator.
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TSJ appears to be a little bit of an introvert. I think he became a part of the team this year but you are right, he was not going to be seen as a leader from the outset. It can be different next year. Also, think you are right about Coleman. He was a role player last year, and did not bring any leadership from last year to this one. He had let everyone else lead. His interview after the last game showed some maturity, and showed a recognition of what he needs to do to lead. If he comes back, he will also have a lot more to bring from a leadership point of view. I am not that worried about leadership if we get both back for next year.
 
#321      

Illinicpa14

I
Chicago
Illinicpa14
To our insiders - With the recent lack of big ten teams success in the tourney, is this coming up at all within the actual big ten coaching circles or pushing for reffing changes (that seems to be at least an argument being made today)?

Or is everyone just saying it’s luck/matchups more than anything?
 
#323      

nichi

N
nichi
Illinicpa14 said:
To our insiders - With the recent lack of big ten teams success in the tourney, is this coming up at all within the actual big ten coaching circles or pushing for reffing changes (that seems to be at least an argument being made today)?

Or is everyone just saying it’s luck/matchups more than anything?
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I am curious what reffing changes. In the tournament games I watched, the refs seemed as bad as B1G games.

The biggest thing that stuck out for me was how much reaching in and arm grabbing was allowed on defense.
 
#324      

zentrails

Z
zentrails
21ChampaignSt said:
I can't explain it well, but I think BU will get us to the Final Four because he believes he can. I know how that sounds, but I never really got the impression that BW and JG actually believed Illinois was an "elite" program
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BU can recruit excellent PGs, the other 2 HCs you mentioned could not except for maybe McCamey.
I suspect that we will have TWO excellent PGs next season, one for sure. PGs are kinda important to win in the dance
 
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