Nebraska 83, Illinois 80 Postgame
- Status
rmlsr
- El Paso,IL
Just want correct information we tied for 7th last season so not really close to 5th. I am not sure if we will get in top 5 this season but guess we’ll will have to wait and see. I do agree that we have seen Brad’s ceiling and that as an Illinois fan is very disappointing because my hopes for Illinois Basketball are not good the longer Brad’s in charge. Overall you have some good points though
To be fair, I fell for the same gag.
Take a look at John Wooden's NCAA success at UCLA before his first championship brought to you by his sugar daddy.
Last edited:
You wont find any posts from me calling for Brad to be fired so that's not the point I'm trying to make but:
In the interest of accuracy, if anyone still cares about that...
Sampson went to one sweet 16 and one final four in his first 8 years at Oklahoma.
Jay Wright went to two sweet 16s, an elite 8, and a final four in his first 8 years at Villanova.
You're right about Painter though.
Yes... If I hear "bad week of practice" after another loss again, I may hurl.
However, the NEW term this year is "lack of maturity." Are the Ivisic twins and some of the Balkan boys just goofing off during times when they need to be dialed in? Kylan mentioned "lack of maturity" too now.
Just btw the last time a chunk of this board was calling for Brad to be fired these were the main guys people wanted to replace him with, and their current record:
Chris Beard - 6-4 (including losses at home to Utah and Miami)
Sean Miller - 7-4 (including a loss at home to ASU and a 19 point loss at home to UVA)
Todd Golden - 6-4 (including a loss at home to TCU)
Chris Beard - 6-4 (including losses at home to Utah and Miami)
Sean Miller - 7-4 (including a loss at home to ASU and a 19 point loss at home to UVA)
Todd Golden - 6-4 (including a loss at home to TCU)
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Totally agree with this. I think we are really close to making a jump from good to very good, and I don’t really think the changes are all that hard to make given how well Underwood recruits.
1) Recruit more athletic ability to the roster
2) Prioritize defense more. We don’t have to totally overhaul the identity and become Iowa State or Houston where they prioritize defense and grit over skill. There just has to be a little more balance.
3) Have a Plan B on offense that doesn’t always rely on five out and floor spacing. We have the players who can do this.
These feel like changes that can be made without deviating a lot from the overall vision and identity Brad wants at Illinois.
Does anyone know what is actually going on with Petrovic? It seems like Brad Underwood has someone in the doghouse/unhappy almost every november/december and then the guy transfers. This is starting to look like a "Brad" issue as opposed to a Gibbs-Lawhorn, Clark, Melendez, Podziemski, Adam Miller issue. I omitted Morez Johnson, assuming he left for money (like Hawkins) and not because he was unhappy, too.
I was surprised given how flat they came out against nebraska that Petrovic didn't see any playing time at all. Individually, I'm sure one can make excuses for each of these guys as to why they didn't "fit" or whatever, but it's not a great record of the guy leaving being bad (see Podziemski). It's going to hurt recruiting over time.
I was surprised given how flat they came out against nebraska that Petrovic didn't see any playing time at all. Individually, I'm sure one can make excuses for each of these guys as to why they didn't "fit" or whatever, but it's not a great record of the guy leaving being bad (see Podziemski). It's going to hurt recruiting over time.
I couldn't figure out why there were so few comments on this until I looked at the guys twitter account. He has another "story" about a U Conn player who will miss the next game due to "night terrors."
They give the Z technical at Duke, MSU, KU- etc? nope.. Scouting report, who's was it, epic bad... should have tagged kid with almost 30 in first half wayyyy sooner, D is optional with this group.. Offense, walk ball up, 1on1, maybe a screen, movement is rare. bad bad loss.. Nebby good tho
I did not watch the game. I listened on the Illini radio network. They did a great job of describing the game. I caught coach Underwood's interview afterwards. 3 points jumped out. Sam Hoiberg was great and was plus 23 while on the floor. Mirk was essentially unplayable. And finally Nebraska is an old team which contrasts with the lack of maturity concept.
Todd Golden will never make a Final 4, am I right?
He is just looking for clicks and engagement.
Yes, and the fact that it is t fixed doesn’t change that.
Very... I question how we aren't consistently ready to start a half. In this game, they outscored us by 4 during the first 4 minutes of the first half and tied the first 4 of the second. Its the second 4 minutes of the each half where we lost the game. We were outscored by 13 in that time. Not sure what it is. Substitution patters or just adjustments made by the opposing coach that are better than what BU can do, but it just seems to happen from time to time like this.
I don't get this guy's schtick - it's obviously meant to be a satire account and some posts are worded that way - but others are just false and not funny at all. He also reported Darryn Peterson left the Kansas program for instance. I guess it's just click bait, if he says something he knows will get clicks until people figure out he's not a reporter. So, just an idiot making idiots out of other people that retweet and post about his tweets - maybe that is his game, that people believe anything on X, so he just posts false stuff to get people to spread it/report on it?
Sampson took over Oklahoma in 1994 the final four was in 2002 and Elite 8 in 2003, the lone second weekend before 2002 in 1999 - so we can amend it.
The Wright one going through again isn’t a great example - agreed.
A lot of people did for a minute. But you didn't go and post multiple celebratory messages patting yourself on the back saying "I told ya so".
When Elon started paying people for engagement it made x/twitter so much worse by incentivizing this kind of thing. People will post stuff knowing it will get people lathered up because there is now a monetary incentive to do so. Posting stuff like this to a message board without doing any research to its legitimacy only further helps this guy make money.
Sampson lost in the 1st round like 5 straight seasons iirc. Didn't he coach in the Pac 12 for a long time prior to Oklahoma and missed the tourney every single year too (edit: missed the tourney all except 1 year at Wash St)
I think Scott Drew is a good example, it took him like 5 years just to make the tournament?
Just finished listening to Hoiberg’s post-game presser. He’s really an impressive coach. But my main takeaway was that he thinks more highly of the Illini than many on this board. Seemed genuine.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I tend to be in the "mad in the heat of the moment and calmed down the next day" camp of fans, but I do feel a need to say something here. There is a HUGE gulf of reasonable perspectives between these two extremes:
(A) Guys like that Illinijoe who never say anything positive, gloat when their negativity is proven warranted (an especially sick thing to do, as we all want the Illini to win, no...?) and generally add no value.
(B) Guys who treat any criticism of the team as treason and question the fanhood or loyalty of anyone who gets frustrated with a performance ... this one hasn't been nearly as prevalent these days since we have been good, but think of some of the more extreme "The Merrymen" during the late Weber years, haha.
It is also super important to re-emphasize that not all outcomes that are the same on paper are created equally. Remember our loss to Virginia in Vegas a couple years ago right after we beat top-10 UCLA? VERY few people were upset ... because we played well, and Virginia just played better and earned the W. Both were Quad 1 games before the New Year, and neither was harmful to a resume ... but one was not like the other. It's entirely unfair to reduce the angst after games like these to some stupid strawman that fans expect to win every single game, lmao ... that's absurd and entirely in bad faith! We all know that the issue that worries people is we just simply should N-E-V-E-R come out on our home floor for a big game and look flat. Period. That's not overly dramatic, that is a reasonable expectation for a top 15 basketball program. Will it reasonably happen as a fluke from time to time? Yes, of course ... statistical outliers are never impossible. Should we have come to practically EXPECT 3-4 of these per year, depending on how good the team is?? Absolutely not, and you all know that! That can't be part of this team's DNA if we are to make any serious run in March, and if we are feeling about the same as this year's prospects as we were in March 2025 ... that has been a disappointment of a season, beyond any reasonable argument.
Is it a big deal in isolation that we lost to what could be a really, really good Nebraska team? No. Will we get another shot at them in Lincoln? Yes. That really isn't the point, though ... we all want a deep Tournament run, and the odds for that improve exponentially with a top 3 seed. It's going to obviously upset fans when the Tennessee win got us back on track for a #2/3 seed, and now we probably need to steal one (e.g., in Lincoln) to make up for a home loss. We can't explain away every lost opportunity as a reasonable loss and expect to get to that top 3 seed line, and I think that should be the goal here ... perfectly reasonable to get upset when self-inflicted wounds are preventing you from reaching your goal.
No one can reasonably critique a single fan here who is afraid of a repeat of last season ... can we all agree on that? We have higher goals this year, for good reason, than getting a #6/7 seed and going home before the Second Weekend yet again. So when we see the type of energy out of the gate for home games like what we saw vs. USC or Maryland last year, it's incredibly concerning. Again, if we had played with intensity from the word go and came up short, you wouldn't have this "doom and gloom" attitude. The fact it's always followed up by Underwood saying it's on him because he didn't prepare the guys properly is almost like salt in the wound, too ... you can't control everything about a basketball game, but you CAN control the effort you give.
(A) Guys like that Illinijoe who never say anything positive, gloat when their negativity is proven warranted (an especially sick thing to do, as we all want the Illini to win, no...?) and generally add no value.
(B) Guys who treat any criticism of the team as treason and question the fanhood or loyalty of anyone who gets frustrated with a performance ... this one hasn't been nearly as prevalent these days since we have been good, but think of some of the more extreme "The Merrymen" during the late Weber years, haha.
It is also super important to re-emphasize that not all outcomes that are the same on paper are created equally. Remember our loss to Virginia in Vegas a couple years ago right after we beat top-10 UCLA? VERY few people were upset ... because we played well, and Virginia just played better and earned the W. Both were Quad 1 games before the New Year, and neither was harmful to a resume ... but one was not like the other. It's entirely unfair to reduce the angst after games like these to some stupid strawman that fans expect to win every single game, lmao ... that's absurd and entirely in bad faith! We all know that the issue that worries people is we just simply should N-E-V-E-R come out on our home floor for a big game and look flat. Period. That's not overly dramatic, that is a reasonable expectation for a top 15 basketball program. Will it reasonably happen as a fluke from time to time? Yes, of course ... statistical outliers are never impossible. Should we have come to practically EXPECT 3-4 of these per year, depending on how good the team is?? Absolutely not, and you all know that! That can't be part of this team's DNA if we are to make any serious run in March, and if we are feeling about the same as this year's prospects as we were in March 2025 ... that has been a disappointment of a season, beyond any reasonable argument.
Is it a big deal in isolation that we lost to what could be a really, really good Nebraska team? No. Will we get another shot at them in Lincoln? Yes. That really isn't the point, though ... we all want a deep Tournament run, and the odds for that improve exponentially with a top 3 seed. It's going to obviously upset fans when the Tennessee win got us back on track for a #2/3 seed, and now we probably need to steal one (e.g., in Lincoln) to make up for a home loss. We can't explain away every lost opportunity as a reasonable loss and expect to get to that top 3 seed line, and I think that should be the goal here ... perfectly reasonable to get upset when self-inflicted wounds are preventing you from reaching your goal.
No one can reasonably critique a single fan here who is afraid of a repeat of last season ... can we all agree on that? We have higher goals this year, for good reason, than getting a #6/7 seed and going home before the Second Weekend yet again. So when we see the type of energy out of the gate for home games like what we saw vs. USC or Maryland last year, it's incredibly concerning. Again, if we had played with intensity from the word go and came up short, you wouldn't have this "doom and gloom" attitude. The fact it's always followed up by Underwood saying it's on him because he didn't prepare the guys properly is almost like salt in the wound, too ... you can't control everything about a basketball game, but you CAN control the effort you give.
- Status