Looking back on recent Illini Basketball history

ILL in IA · Sep 13, 2018

Second and Chalmers said:
Honestly he's up there with Richmond and Shaw and Crandall Head as the biggest busts in recent Illini history.

The overall point is correct, but Richmond is his own list of bust compared to those other guys IMO. Basketball wasn't the problem for Rich like it was for the other guys listed.

Second and Chalmers · Sep 13, 2018

ILL in IA said:
The overall point is correct, but Richmond is his own list of bust compared to those other guys IMO. Basketball wasn't the problem for Rich like it was for the other guys listed.

Well, it was part of the problem. Not the most significant piece, true. From what I've heard having him on the team was an absolute nightmare for everyone.

He's the #1 bust, no question.

ILL in IA · Sep 13, 2018

I'll try not to derail the recruiting thread with the list of busts in our future. The Richmond reference made me go back and look at his season at the beloved and that team in general. Its a crime we went 9-9 and finished 5th in the conference that year.

Second and Chalmers · Sep 13, 2018

ILL in IA said:
I'll try not to derail the recruiting thread with the list of busts in our future. The Richmond reference made me go back and look at his season at the beloved and that team in general. Its a crime we went 9-9 and finished 5th in the conference that year.

Shameless self-quote from the other thread:

when you can take the single most talented team in the B1G and one of the four most talented in the entire conference over the last 11 years and end up a bubble team who lost to a 12-20 Indiana and a 7-24 UIC, that suggests that you ought to look at other issues.

Here are those four most talented teams btw:

2008-09 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, NCAA Runner-Up
2009-10 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four
2010-11 Illinois: 9-9 in Big Ten, Second Round
2011-12 Ohio State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four

Greensboro · Sep 13, 2018

Second and Chalmers said:
Honestly he's up there with Richmond and Shaw and Crandall Head as the biggest busts in recent Illini history.

And none of them are close to Darius X 2

Second and Chalmers · Sep 13, 2018

Greensboro said:
And none of them are close to Darius X 2

Meh, was Darius gonna be a star? Not likely. We wasted a remarkable number of scholarship-years on a guy who never played for us, but it's not like he was hyped for huge contribution like Alstork was.

ChiefIllini · Sep 13, 2018

Second and Chalmers said:
Meh, was Darius gonna be a star? Not likely. We wasted a remarkable number of scholarship-years on a guy who never played for us, but it's not like he was hyped for huge contribution like Alstork was.

Agreed. Thorne and to a lesser extent Cosby, were both bigger busts in my opinion. Theres a difference between a guy who takes up a scholarship and never plays vs one who turns out to be a below expectation player (for whatever reason that may be).

doowink · Sep 13, 2018

ChiefIllini said:
Agreed. Thorne and to a lesser extent Cosby, were both bigger busts in my opinion. Theres a difference between a guy who takes up a scholarship and never plays vs one who turns out to be a below expectation player (for whatever reason that may be).

I would think Alex Legion would fit into this group somewhere....I can remember the reports about the number of consecutive shots (mostly 3pts) he was making in practice

Greensboro · Sep 13, 2018

Second and Chalmers said:
Meh, was Darius gonna be a star? Not likely. We wasted a remarkable number of scholarship-years on a guy who never played for us, but it's not like he was hyped for huge contribution like Alstork was.

in the excuses after missing elijah, Darius was the one the staff really wanted comments ...considering where we were at with bigs, some even label Mav as a star...not a very high bar at the time for a 4/5 to make a significant contribution over what started out as 3 years of impact

madcrazeeballa · Sep 13, 2018

ugottabjoshinme said:
Like the Get Mark Alstork to 20ppg powerpoint slide.

If you want to go back further there’s probably some great content on the projections for Alex Legion somewhere on the forum too.

Ramrod2010 · Sep 13, 2018

One of the quoted posts in here led to the recruiting thread... I thought I entered the twilight zone for a minute.

FiveStar · Sep 14, 2018

ChiefIllini said:
Agreed. Thorne and to a lesser extent Cosby, were both bigger busts in my opinion. Theres a difference between a guy who takes up a scholarship and never plays vs one who turns out to be a below expectation player (for whatever reason that may be).

Don’t know about Thorne. He was impactful until he got hurt. Hard to label injury related issues as a bust as opposed to poor luck.