I've been wishing that myself.
Illini Basketball
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I like Epps and saw him as a guy that will stick around a few years and improve. He’s apparently is gone. Watching the makeup of teams in the NCAA tournament this year has shown you can get players that can help your program quickly. I expect Underwood and company to do that. Epps is solid but hardly irreplaceable.
I've had my doubts for a while now, especially offensively. Brad needs "dudes" to have an even middling offense, guys like Ayo who could get their own shot any time they wanted, or Kofi who just was too big to stop down low. Even when he has those guys, the lack of a cohesive offense is still glaring most of the time.
I'm not wild about his sideline antics, but could give it a pass if he wasn't losing so many transfers year after year. That tells me he's either taking guys that don't fit his mentality or that he doesn't know how to get through to them.
It culminates in the tourney record, which has frankly been abysmal. Are we better than under Bruce (post Dee and Deron)? Or Groce? I think it's clearly yes, but not really where we want the program to fully be.
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This is the new reality of college basketball.
It is normal to look for causation and blame.
I would imagine multiple factors interact in complex ways to explain a player's decisin to leave a program.
Some may not be logical There is probably not just on specific cause.
. A player may not be able to explain concretely why they are leaving, other than a "gut feeling."
In my mind the new reality have significant upsides and downsides.
Losing a good player/good person is one of the downsides.
Just spit ballin here ...and not sure it would hold up legally....but could schools or (boosters of NIL money) have athletes sign 2 maybe 3 year contracts? Then if student/athlete leaves early for whatever reason, they would have to pay a portion of that money back??? Or the student/athlete's new school or booster NIL money source would have to pay a buyout.....much the same way coaches salaries and buyouts are handled???
Trent and Ayo would like a word with you
These days really make me appreciate Trent Frazier and Ayo even more. Both could have left, were on a crappy team with a coach that "yelled a lot." Then went on to win the big ten in a stacked year (sorry Michigan) and won the btt. Just wish we could re-play that Loyola game, just was not our day
Georgetown also has special appeal to Hampton Roads kids going back to Allen Iverson.
I'm torn on Epps. He had some shortcomings but that's to be expected from a freshman. The one thing that I think he would provide going forward for this team is that he is a pure scorer, which is something the Illini haven't really had. Ayo was just an all-around fantastic basketball player and winner, Trent was a phenomenal shooter and a dog, Kofi was a monster, Hawkins is kind of a unicorn with his size & ability, & TSJ is a ridiculous athlete. But none of them were/are what I would call pure scorers. I'm all for having "dawgs" & love the toughness that brings, but you need guys that just wake up in the morning ready to score and I think Epps could be that guy especially if he continues to improve. Got some good pieces, but I think one of the biggest missing pieces has been/is a pure walking bucket.
I find the talk about the players who transfer or possibly transferring quite interesting.
On one side you have the "he's gonna be very talented player"
then the other side
"he's not good, i'm not impressed" which then makes me think...why on earth did we recruit him then?
On one side you have the "he's gonna be very talented player"
then the other side
"he's not good, i'm not impressed" which then makes me think...why on earth did we recruit him then?
There you go spouting facts and being objective on Loyalty. Don't you know that's not allowed?
How did he under achieve? He had basically a new team and unfortunately they just didn’t gel. All this portal stuff is new. Coaches are trying to figure it out.
So this official?
some are figuring it out better and faster than others
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
I don't know that I've seen anyone suggest he can do no wrong, but most of the criticism seems to be about a particular trait (being animated and loud) that is extremely common in the coaching ranks, or that he's somehow a complete failure despite being the most successful in-conference coach in terms of W/L for 4 years running. Plus 2 regular season titles (F U Michigan) and 1 BTT title.
Yes, there are things he needs to improve, most importantly showing guys the pine when they aren't running the schemes, but calling him a failure or trash or many of the other things that get thrown around here just isn't accurate. Good recruiter, good X and O guy, good motivator for a certain type of player, but with some glaring weaknesses that he needs to address.
theNewGuy
- Dallas, TX
I don't know about anyone else, but this season it seemed particularly hard for him to get his team motivated prior to tip.
Not sure if that is a BU thing or just a team leadership/ chemistry thing
Not win as much as the armchair coaches expected. To be fair to the armchair coaches, a nearly $6 million salary raises expectations.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Given that online college sports spaces have only two settings: "coach cannot be criticized" and "coach must be fired", I think it's actually pretty extraordinary how LITTLE there is defense of Underwood as if he can do no wrong around here.
I was vocal about being disturbed by what I was seeing around 2018-ish and it was still very much in "protect the savior coach" mode. There's less resistance to criticism now, even with two Big Ten titles in the bag.
But even as seemingly one of BU's strongest defenders around here, there's no denying that there are some unhappy vibes hanging over the program at the moment. I just hope that doesn't become self-fulfilling.
Probably? I would assume this would required significant changes to NCAA bylaws & enterprise strategy. The NCAA seems to be pushing schools in the opposite direction in an effort to honor amateurism and maximize profits.
Muting words would be neat.
He makes 4.2 mil…..
It’s 6 years later. Whatever the program looked like 6 years ago is irrelevant. The year that Groce got fired:
Groce’s 5th year. 18-14 (8-10)
Underwood’s 6th year: 20-13 (11-9)
Not that much different. Underwood’s issues is his record without Kofi, and the yearly attrition of key players that will prevent this team from getting to the next level.
Most fans aren’t happy with this level. Better than Groce isn’t enough. Not 6 years into a regime.
Just my opinion
I like your post. I don't think it was for lack of trying for BU. Whether he's yelling, talking up his players in press conference/interviews, celebrating with them after games, he's always trying to motivate him. We lacked a floor general/leader. Had a guy like Trent or Ayo been on this team I'm convinced we'd have been battling UConn in the Sweet 16 with a chance to win it all. My two knocks are that I don't care for the offense and lack of in-game adjustments. A leader/floor general also helps with both of those deficiencies. A lot of people freak out on here that we only had 20 wins and got bounced again early by a good team in the tournament w/out a PG/player leader and an entirely new team. I think our trajectory is still on a very good path. How many teams could get to 20 wins in a power 5 conference with a tough preseason schedule when it's an entirely new team? I don't believe very many. We were one true veteran PG away from being extremely good. Let's find that guy in the portal and bring most of this team back next year and enjoy watching the newly found chemistry while we make a deep run. ILL!
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