This might have been the most unwatchable game since the BTT game against Michigan a couple years back. It's unbelievable how bad this team can look at times and unfortunately those moments are far too frequent. Even Penn State looked somewhat competitive when they got their butt kicked by NW yesterday. I still believe that we have a somewhat high ceiling, but our floor is too damn low for fans to enjoy watching many of the games. I won't completely lose hope with the players due to a road loss against a future ranked team but I no longer trust that this staff has the ability to lead our players in reaching their potential.. it sucks as a fan and it sucks to watch the kids go through that.
Maryland 84, Illinois 59 POSTGAME
After the team's 7th 25+ point loss this calendar year, if people are starting to do their 'Fire Groce' dance, there's at least some justification for it.
Groce has been handed a gift this year by getting two 6th year players, a healthy team and an unbelievably soft B1G schedule.
Here's how I see a team with this much talent should win no fewer than 11 B1G regular season games this year:
From a recent Lunardi's Bracketology:
4/Purdue
4/Wisconsin
5/Indiana
7/Maryland
9/Michigan
10/Michigan St.
10/OSU
11/Minnesota
12/Northwestern
Here's how the Illini's schedule plays out against those 9 teams:
1 @Purdue
1 Wisconsin
1 @Indiana
2 Maryland
2 Michigan
1 Michigan St.
1 OSU
1 Minnesota
2 Northwestern
That's 12 games. So if the Illini just win the 6 games against teams who aren't in the above list (i.e. bottom 4 in the conference Rutgers, PSU, Nebraska and Iowa), all they need is to win 3 of those 12 games to go 9-9.
If Illinois beats tOSU, Minnesota and Northwestern at home and then drops all of the rest? That puts them at 5-4 at home and 4-5 on the road with no good road wins.
Defend the home court in 2 of 3 games against Michigan, Michigan State and Maryland (wow, that's not looking as easy now is it?) and voila! There's 11 wins without beating any of the 3 "elite" (i.e. currently ranked teams) in the B1G and without even a single notable road win.
The Illini could win 11 in the B1G this year and still have a pretty weak resume (but 11 wins almost certainly gets them in). Missing the tourney this year with this team and this schedule is totally inexcusable.
Anyone here think that the Illini get through the rest of the season without another 20+ point loss? Psychologically, this team has lost it's grip and is sliding down the side of a mountain desperately looking for something to grab onto before crashing at the bottom. The Illini really need to bounce back at home and get a win against tOSU and break Groce's current 6 game losing streak to his former mentor Thad Matta.
Go Illini!
Dan
Admin
Haven't checked the new poster numbers, but overall a bad loss tends to produce a big boost of short term activity to the site & leads to a long term decay of interest as the season drags on.
Tate should not be playing more than 5 minutes a game. In the first 10 minutes he had a five foot bunny he did not want to shoot and that Freshman guard was leaving him in his dust. How can you be a division 1 player and not have any confidence in your shot? Groce is too nice of guy, he is loyal to his seniors and rarely correct players during the game when they make mistakes. Being a nice guy does not make you a winner. Finke should have been pulled from the game after he got the offensive rebound and stood under the basket like a 5 foot guard instead of going up strong with the ball right away. A coach should have no tolerance for something like that.
I do not think Illni basketball was so fun and exciting in the mid 70's
But problems were being addressed. Got rid of Schmidt, got Bartow, then Henson.
The trend was up and there was reason to hope for improvement. I believe we've won less games each successive year under Groce. The trend is going the opposite direction.
I was a student from 1971-75. Iirc the last home game I saw as a student was against Iowa. Blew a good lead in the last two minutes. Not sure if we even got the ball across half-court the entire two minutes. That is still the low point of Illini basketball for me.
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Maybe there are some fixes to our problems in the next version upgrade.
Lol
I'll have to send a bug report
Yes, but that would be the same as to say that if we get a a new coach and make the tournament in 2020-21, basketball in the mid-2010's was fun and exciting.
I live in DC and have been able to attend only four Illinois games in the Groce era.; loss to Michigan in the BTT, loss at Clemson in the NIT, loss to West Virginia at the Barclay Center and loss to Maryland last night. I begin to wonder if I am somehow responsible for all of this!
I live in DC and have been able to attend only four Illinois games in the Groce era.; loss to Michigan in the BTT, loss at Clemson in the NIT, loss to West Virginia at the Barclay Center and loss to Maryland last night. I begin to wonder if I am somehow responsible for all of this!
Start rooting for Indiana.
Deleted member 3875
D
Guest
I live in DC and have been able to attend only four Illinois games in the Groce era.; loss to Michigan in the BTT, loss at Clemson in the NIT, loss to West Virginia at the Barclay Center and loss to Maryland last night. I begin to wonder if I am somehow responsible for all of this!
Send your receipts to Josh W. and ask for a justifiable refund.
Yes, but that would be the same as to say that if we get a a new coach and make the tournament in 2020-21, basketball in the mid-2010's was fun and exciting.
Hahaha. Fair enough. I'd take it though at this point.
I attended game yesterday
I went to game yesterday in college park. Good Illini crowd that left with huge disappointment. I was so embarrassed for the team and to be an Illini basketball supporter. They looked like they didn't care, outplayed by 3 freshman andb1 sophomore.
I really like Groce but he needs to go. Losing by 25 to a mediocre team is inexcusable. I left early greeted with apologies from the MD fans. Most saying wow. Just can't believe how bad you are. So sorry.
I went to game yesterday in college park. Good Illini crowd that left with huge disappointment. I was so embarrassed for the team and to be an Illini basketball supporter. They looked like they didn't care, outplayed by 3 freshman andb1 sophomore.
I really like Groce but he needs to go. Losing by 25 to a mediocre team is inexcusable. I left early greeted with apologies from the MD fans. Most saying wow. Just can't believe how bad you are. So sorry.
Yes, but that would be the same as to say that if we get a a new coach and make the tournament in 2020-21, basketball in the mid-2010's was fun and exciting.
Looked up the timeline and we're behind schedule. 1974-75 was Bartow's year. 1975-76 was Henson's first year. I'll still maintain that something was being done to try to remedy the situation and the remedy had been found by this time in that long ago decade.
LOL. I feel like a masochist given the four games I'm attended, but worry what cheering for Crean might make me!
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
Maryland was missing two big men and started three freshman against the most experienced team in the Big Ten. No problem, because they knew from game film that we (a) can stop penetration, (b) have no interior defense, (c) can't feed the post and (d) rely too much on threes. Knowing those things makes for a pretty easy game plan, especially when you have multiple players who can both drive and shoot.
Meanwhile, we knew they would be lacking two big men and be starting inexperienced players. We, however, had very few post feeds, and were unable to pressure their guards because of our aforementioned lack of perimeter defense.
Our roster is full of players with a single skill: rebounding OR shooting OR dribbling OR defense (wait, scratch that last one, nobody is good at that). Meanwhile, the teams we face have players with multiple skills -- dribble AND shooting, rebounding AND defense, etc. And they combine that with game plans to maximize their skills, and hide their deficiencies. Lacking big men on defense? Double the ball in the post and make our bigs pass out. Oh, wait, our bigs can't do that. Lacking big men to feed on offense? Run pick-and-roll all day, or just run right past our guards for layup after layup.
This loss was not on Tate or on our shooting or on our interior defense. This was a program loss, starting with recruiting that missed on multi-skilled prospects and instead filled the roster with role-players, continuing with a lack of player and skill development over several years, and concluding up with ineffective game planning and poor in-game coaching and adjustments.
I'm not even angry as I type this. We've been seeing this for years now. And we'll see more of it for the next few months, at least. There is no fix by putting in Lucas, or AJ or Kipper. There is no fix by switching to more zone. The only fix is from changing the program and starting over. Again.
Meanwhile, we knew they would be lacking two big men and be starting inexperienced players. We, however, had very few post feeds, and were unable to pressure their guards because of our aforementioned lack of perimeter defense.
Our roster is full of players with a single skill: rebounding OR shooting OR dribbling OR defense (wait, scratch that last one, nobody is good at that). Meanwhile, the teams we face have players with multiple skills -- dribble AND shooting, rebounding AND defense, etc. And they combine that with game plans to maximize their skills, and hide their deficiencies. Lacking big men on defense? Double the ball in the post and make our bigs pass out. Oh, wait, our bigs can't do that. Lacking big men to feed on offense? Run pick-and-roll all day, or just run right past our guards for layup after layup.
This loss was not on Tate or on our shooting or on our interior defense. This was a program loss, starting with recruiting that missed on multi-skilled prospects and instead filled the roster with role-players, continuing with a lack of player and skill development over several years, and concluding up with ineffective game planning and poor in-game coaching and adjustments.
I'm not even angry as I type this. We've been seeing this for years now. And we'll see more of it for the next few months, at least. There is no fix by putting in Lucas, or AJ or Kipper. There is no fix by switching to more zone. The only fix is from changing the program and starting over. Again.
My apologies, that should be 24+ points and not 25+ points... clearly the Indiana loss was only by 24 points.
103-69=34
Link??
Does anybody know how many 25+ pt losses we had under Lou? I'm thinking Lou had very, very few bad losses because his teams always played good defense.
You've been around long enough that you saw the boost when Groce took over and made the dance his first year, and the subsequent years that have trailed off in terms of performance. I'd guess it would mirror ticket sales, i.e. if we've dropped 20% in attendance, we'd have seen similar drop off in page views. That a fair statement?
I remember fans mocking Henson for one point losses. In a close game he'd rotate one finger in a circle telling the team to run the offense. We would change that to claiming he was telling them to Lou.......Z by one.
I really feel we under appreciated Lou at the time. I got to see several post season games in a much smaller field. I suppose it was a hard time to coach in the BIG with the strong personalities at other institutions. Henson teams put out great effort. Loved my time on campus 81-85 and through 1989. Lots of ups and downs since.