Illini in the Pros (Basketball)

Grandpa said:

The Morez interviewer asked why he left. He said that he thought he would be able to develop better elsewhere. They asked why, he answered. He hasn't developed the political skill of answering a different question than the one that was asked and then leaving. He didn't write a press release criticizing the Illini.

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You're (I believe, just willfully) assuming he is really dumb... he doesn't need to be a professional politician to be aware he's being asked a very straightforward question and also giving an equally straightforward response. There's no crazy wordsmithing here.

Grandpa said:

If a big can't shoot from distance when he gets here and is good under the basket, Underwood doesn't exactly encourage them to develop those skills. They need the skills to go to the NBA. If I thought that I could shoot and Underwood took me out of the game when I did, I would leave. Morez did and it was the smart move.

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Pretty sure you just made this up. What evidence do we have that Brad doesn't encourage players to develop skills (I mean, seriously now... )

I actually think Morez's minutes were fine for the last stretch of games before he got hurt:

34 - Northwestern
25 - Nebraska
31 - Ohio State
22 - Rutgers
15 - Minnesota
20 - UCLA
25 - Michigan State (game he got hurt)

That's 6/7 games at or above 20mins. All but 2 of those games Tomi played too.

However, before that stretch, he only hit or surpassed 20mins 4 times in the first 19 games.

Obviously the lone difference is how much he was used at the 4. It was biggest factor behind his minutes -- how much he was used alongside Tomi. The backup 5 minutes were always his.

Grandpa said:

May be the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen on here. Think about what those guys did.

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Yes Eric Gordon screwed us. But he screwed us once and then he was done. Morez Johnson seems to have made it his mission to try and screw us in the public eye whenever he gets the chance.

Grandpa said:

If a big can't shoot from distance when he gets here and is good under the basket, Underwood doesn't exactly encourage them to develop those skills.

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BretMyBeachHouse said:

Morez Johnson's comments won't have 0.1% of the negative impact that Pearl had on our program and won't have 0.01% of a negative impact on any individual as compared to what Pearl did to Deon.

As I understand you, some BU detractors take Morez's side so now in a twisted way Morez is worse than the man who did more to set back our program than anyone in history.

Get help.

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The way you understand me is "not well." Re-read my posts and then ask a friend to help if you're still struggling. What Pearl did to the program was terrible but it's way in the past. What Gordon did was also bad but also in the past and really ho-hum compared to what goes on in the transfer portal era. And these things have zero impact on current Illini basketball.

Morez is on TV, as an NBA player, telling the world, right now, that Illinois was messing up his development and he wasn't going to make it to the league unless he left. He doesn't have to do that. 99% of players who transfer out of a program aren't doing that. Glazing a guy that actively hates and wants to damage the program you root for is wild.

Does there need to be a separate thread for the Morez discussion?

PleaseMakeABowlGame said:

Bingo.

It's not hard to look at the individual boxscores of games and realize this was the case. Especially from December to Early January (before Tomi's issues). If Tomi never got hurt and sick, Morez's minutes would've never broken through because Hummer was always ahead of him àt the 4 (which should've been Morez's role).

About the foul argument - sure he had some struggles. However, he did not have 5 fouls every game. We'd see him fouled out in each one of our games if it was that brutal.

Bottom line is his minutes were lower because the other guys were thought to be better basketball options on the court. I personally fully respect his decision.

Glad we figured it out with Mirk though.

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It wasn't just about the fouls though. Right when it appeared that he was really coming into his own and getting a little better on his fouling issue he got hurt basically killing his momentum.

OB positive said:

It wasn't just about the fouls though. Right when it appeared that he was really coming into his own and getting a little better on his fouling issue he got hurt basically killing his momentum.

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This. His minutes were up from earlier in the season, and had a few tremendous games (I’ll never forget the OSU game; he was a MONSTER).

That injury was a very crushing momentum killer.