Well said, I love this post. Agree 100%
Missouri 93, Illinois 71 Postgame
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As some have stated before. Scheme aside and #'s aside. If there is not a trust between the players, a willingness to play for the team instead of yourself, a sense of pride in what you are doing, and an overall want to from these guys nothing else will matter including which defense we run, what kind of shots we get, etc. It starts with a selflessness attitude, wanting to fight for your brothers on the team, making the right pass, passing to your teammate for a great shot rather than a good one. Start here and the other things will become much easier. Selfish teams that dont communicate that dont play dont win
I love this post! Selfless teams win, and I feel that we had that in last few years.
I would add that it's important in screening for selfless recruits (btw I love our Freshmen and believe with time they can gel and win).
The Illini used to bring real passion to this Bragging Rights game. Lately, that passion has been missing.
Maybe the new players every year just don't get what a big rivalty game this is. When the Illini were mostly home-grown players, They knew this. But with guys now coming from all over... the gravity of this game for both sides seems to be not recognized.
Someone (it doesn't have to be Coach but it could)... can do a better job of getting these guys amped up for this game. Technically, that's always a necessity. But EMOTIONALLY they need to be much more in to it.
Basketball is a game of skill but also as much a game of Passion. You gotta WANT IT more than the other guys. And Mizzou wanted it like that.
Chester should never let these guys ever forget that, through four years as a player, two years as a grad assistant and two years as an assistant coach, they are responsible for his only loss in this series.
So many good points in this post. I agree…except the part about 5-O not working. It very much could work. It’s NOT working because there is no execution and buy-in…our heads are totally up our duffs.
“Nearly anything will work if you believe in it and run it right” said every coach, ever.
But if you don’t believe in it, and do not execute it..simply won’t. One guard front, Two guard front…1-4 high…stacks, box-plays whatever.
Until we play like a team, It isn’t gonna matter much. Sure there would be some pros and cons to a given scheme but it’s a ultimately a wash if you can’t play as a team.
…‘ 57 Chevy, A Ferrari, and WWII Sherman Tank all have various, excellent features…but if you can’t drive it the way it was intended/or at all…what’s the point?
A secondary alternate def. scheme: I agree. I’m not crazy about guarding things the same way all the time. It bugged sometimes how we seemingly fought over the top of screens 90%of the time in Ayo’s last year. Was some of if it lapses? not deferring to the scouting report? I dunno? But we almost always fought over the top. We had Kofi in drop coverage…so that dictated a lot of it. With him in the game we kinda had to. But, the point remains the same…
guarding actions the same way all the time is way predictable. If you’re gonna guard it the same way everytime it almost has to be flawless…and that is a pretty tall order.
But obviously Brad knows all this..There are DVDs somewhere online of him showing about 3-4 different ways that they guarded ball screens at SFA or SC one…can’t remember. (Icing sideBS, blitz trap, Over, Under…I think?) THAT’s JUST BSs to say nothing of all the other actions…dude is a good coach.
My point is certain teams, personnel, sometimes dictate a KISS situation. In theory the switch-everything approach allows you to do that…to a point. When you’ve got lengthy, athletic and quick 1-5 that approach is quite alluring. (The credo of: Teach a little less, and perfect what you do? ) The trouble is…when you’re only doing it one way…it had better be damn good…and you’d better be jumping to the ball and locked in…and locked in…we are not; most of the time.
Trust that they’re gonna get the ball back: I think you’re exactly right…Brad alluded to it too in the presser as well.
(Honestly, that depresses me more than anything else about this team.)They don’t even wanna set screens for each other? Yikes.
Basketball Truism;
“The screener is often-times more open than the screen-ee.”…said every basketball coach ever.
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Something else to think about is the last three games we have been favored, a couple heavily. They played the same way against all three with a lack of focus and effort.This team seems to have a problem getting after it and staying focused when they are playing lesser competition. While this isn't uncommon for teams to do sometimes do, they need to get it stopped. They went into the Missouri game knowing Kansas had just throttled them and figured they would have an easy game because of how well they did against Kansas in their practice scrimmage. You create your own trap games when you start thinking like that.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
misery had just as many new guys to the rivalry as we did , if not more......They beat us .....badly.....had more " want to " than we did........You can spin it however you want , but we got our a$$ kicked , by 22 points , by misery , and it wasn't even that close......
With the portal structure in place , there will be few and far between teams that grow old together like before the portal........Coaches have to recruit their own players to stay and new players to come onboard....class balance will be skewered .....one tough word or benching of a player might lead to a transfer .....
I would not enjoy being a coach at a P5 program , no matter the salary being thrown out there.......
But I doubt I ever get a chance to ...................lol......................
It's a trying time in the roughly mid season point of our schedule and we look and play lost.........I'd even venture we are playing scared and afraid to make mistakes..........We really need that leader , that Alpha , that go to guy to emerge , cause he or we ain't there yet and such a promising season with a boatload of talent could be wasted over petty differences or as one insider posted , playing for the name on the back instead of the front....
I am puzzled as to why we are floundering , but we need to get our sh*t together before it's too late....
JMHO.....................HAPPY HOLIDAYS ILLINI NATION AND ALL MY MANY FRIENDS HERE......BE SAFE AND PARTY ON GARTH !!!!!!!!!!
Is there a way that there can be some sort of event with students to send off the team with a spirit boost? Relatively small venues, band and cheerleaders, maybe burning a tiger in effigy. You know, real 1950s stuff.
You are spot on with your analysis....can I add one more point???.....for most of these kids this is probably one of their first real doses of adversity on the basketball court....my guess is that most of these kids as players have never had an !!! kicking in basketball of the likes we got from Missouri the other night....most of these kids have been impact players on their jr. high, high school, AAu or whatever teams they have played on to this point...most have been dominate either scoring, rebounding, blocking, defense, etc They're use to being competitive and winning. They are use to playing hard and things going right for them....or a half time adjustment took care of any difficulties they may have experienced in a game....suddenly for whatever reason things are not going right...not even close....whatever adjustments that have been made don't seem to be working....they're frustrated....they're looking for answers (as we all are)....How this team handles this adversity and learns from it will determine the fate of our season. I trust BU and staff, plus the players themselves, will provide those answers and get this team back on track again....hopefully sooner rather than later.
A lot of good takes here. I think they start with getting Hawkins off the ball and use TJS and Epps to start the offense. Start running more standard high ball screens and both of those guys can penetrate. We have nothing going to the hole right now and do not make the D react to anything.
Can still spread the floor, but Hawkins has 5 games with 5 or more TOs and only 46 Assists while running point. Over 3 TOs a game. He has no perimeter shot right now (27% from 3) and for some weird reason will not attack the basket. Only shoots 42% overall. He is below 100 in KenPom Off Rating. You cannot have your primary possession guy be that unproductive.
He is being played out of position. He is a guy who gets his points on Off putbacks, runouts, backdoors, high lows, and screen and poputs. He is not a central guy. Should be 3rd or 4th option.
I do not think he can mentally handle the leadership role on offense.
Can still spread the floor, but Hawkins has 5 games with 5 or more TOs and only 46 Assists while running point. Over 3 TOs a game. He has no perimeter shot right now (27% from 3) and for some weird reason will not attack the basket. Only shoots 42% overall. He is below 100 in KenPom Off Rating. You cannot have your primary possession guy be that unproductive.
He is being played out of position. He is a guy who gets his points on Off putbacks, runouts, backdoors, high lows, and screen and poputs. He is not a central guy. Should be 3rd or 4th option.
I do not think he can mentally handle the leadership role on offense.
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I think BU is an outstanding coach, but things don't always work out the way you plan them. I believe he will adjust the defense and bring the team together. If that means some players that consider themselves more important than the team have a diminished role, so much the better. They will buy in and produce, or they won't play.
Yeah, but in roughly the same amount of minutes as Curbelo had last year, Hawk has a slightly better assist/TO ratio. Of course, if you take away his triple double game, he’s barely over 1:1. Like you said, given the rate of turnovers plus the stagnant offense, it seems hard to me that anyone could conclude having him trigger the offense is a good thing. Yes, he can dribble. Yes, he can make some very nice passes. But he’s not a point guard, point forward, offense trigger man or whatever you want to call him. And I still contend that some of the offensive stagnation is a result of CoHawk being the trigger man because breaking down the defender off the dribble is no where near a strength.
The only roll Coleman needs is 3 seats to the right of Chester. Worst player on the team.
He's not playing well but this is over the top. Glad you are not the coachWhat is so frustrating about Coleman is that he has shown flashes and has so much potential, but makes quite possibly the most boneheaded mistakes. I’m starting to agree with the contingent that he needs to play his actual 4/5 position and stop bringing the ball up.
I should have clarified about the 5 out thought. I do not see Co Hawk being the answer in the offense.
If staff keep having him run point, we are going to go 8-12 in BT and miss tourney. He is a role player with nice athleticism. That's it.
Hot garbage
At IU game when they drained like 40 threes and beat us by 30
Ridiculous post. While I think many here overrate him, he’s one of our 5 best players.
Cincy game last year too. Sometimes the wheels fall off.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Down the row from Chester—
I always wondered where they keep the team oven!
Worst spellers on team Loyalty need to post from the end of the bench…
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