I just don't agree with Brad not caring about one guy going off. It gets them going and confidence. I would have no problem having a defense in the 50s if we got turnovers at least, but we don't.
Nebraska 83, Illinois 80 Postgame
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
What's he going to say? We are thankful that Illinois came out flat and spotted us such a big lead so we could scrape out a 3-point win??
We always make it harder than it needs to be.
I give him more credit than that. Didn’t sound like coach speak to me. He explained the different runs in the game and what each team did to counter the other. Was actually educational. Worth the listen.
Don't think it would be worded so brutally even if he did think that... maybe more of the "they probably didn't play as well as they wanted to today" variety comments that are actually quite common... but he didn't say anything like that... If I had to guess, he probably thinks his team is pretty good, played extremely hard/well, and deserved to win
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
And he would definitely be right to think that last part. My point is simply that it seems pretty obvious we weren't ready to match the Huskers' energy out of the gate, and that clearly made a detrimental difference in a game that was tied with seconds to play. We are an interesting basketball team with a lot of skilled players, and Brad is a respected coach ... I expect opposing coaches to have good things to say about us, more often than not, even if those coaches know we weren't prepared.
Nice try. This was posted in response to the incessant complaints about how a loss at home against Nebraska is unacceptable and how this season is lost because we've lost three games, all against ranked teams. Golden had a great run last season, but the start his Florida team is off to is worse than BU's start this season.
Also, two other things since we're moving so far from the original point:
1) Hiring Golden was never realistic. Miller and Beard maybe, but Golden wasn't going anywhere;
2) You know his championship at Florida doesn't go with him if he leaves right? That we don't get to raise a banner because our new coach won before he joined us? We'd have gotten the Golden that is currently 6-4 and lost at home to TCU. I think Golden is a good coach and will probably rack up other successes, but it's not a guarantee. Kevin Ollie also won a national championship. Anyone on this board clamoring to hire him? Bill Hodges took Indiana State to the National Championship game in his first season and then never even made the Tourney again. The best indicator of future success is not the result of one instance of a single-elimination tournament but the ability to get there on a consistent basis.
I saw a Sandfort comment in the game thread that he'll "eventually cool off" and was thinking the whole time theyve got this guy named Rienk Mast, their leading scorer, who had done nothing and will eventually be a factor when the D (eventually) focuses on stopping Sandfort.
I hate the mindset as well. Particularly with a defense that is absolutely horrific upfront in man when forced up top.
I was just saying its extremely uncommon for coaches to say things like that anyway... he might say something like what you were saying, but not in those literal words... imo, it would be dialed down quite a few notches from the verbiage you chose as a template/example is all
Its clear that we didn't play as well as we needed to on defense to win the game comfortably, but I also am choosing to give Nebraska a lot of credit here as well (which I think is front-and-center in Fred's mind as well... his team is pretty darn good... I was not a believer but am now)
He'd be right. My takeaway is that Nebraska is playing outstanding team ball. Tremendous ball movement, and defensive rotations.
Nebraska> Sum of its parts.
The Illini still look more like an All-Star team. The ball sticks too much on offense, and defensive communication and rotations break down far too often.
Sum of parts> Illini
This team still has a very high ceiling, but they are playing at or close to the floor right now. Everything looks hard.
Got another week to figure it out. Hopefully they do. Bragging Rights is always a rock fight.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Your NET ranking isn’t used in your seeding. Instead, the committee uses NET to see who you beat and who you lost to. Mainly, how many good wins do you have (Quad1-2) and how many bad losses do you have (Quad3-4)
We’re one of just 10 teams to have 3 or more Quad1 wins and all 3 of our losses are Quad1 losses. So we currently have the ~#10 resume which is roughly equivalent to a 3 seed.
I'm very much in the same camp with you....pretty p*ssed right after the loss to Nebraska...but given a couple days to reflect it's not quite as bad I originally thought....Oh, I'm still p*ssed that we lost, but it''s not the end of our season type loss. We lost to a ranked team (although ranked below us) and at home...give the Huskers credit they played well, shot the ball well and responded well when we made a late 1st half run to get us back into the game....was pretty sure we would have a couple home court losses during the B10 schedule, was just hoping this wasn't one of them....coming off a couple nice wins against OSU and Tenn, was really hoping the Illini were set to run off 7-8 wins in a row. Having said that, what bothers me the most is the inconsistency of our play...I understand individual inconsistency from time to time due to match-ups, nagging injuries, or a certain player just doesn't have it some days....some players disappear in games for various reasons....but our inconsistency(as a team) in shooting from the perimeter, our inconsistency from the FT line, inconsistency on the defensive end, and at times rebounding can even be inconsistent....I have a hard time understanding that...next Monday against Mizzo....I have no idea how we'll shoot the ball from the perimeter...no idea how we'll shoot from the FT line...will we rebound effectively??...this team just really hasn't shown any consistency.....except that they're inconsistent....and I think you can include physical effort and mental preparation in that inconsistency as well...so what do I expect from the Mizzo game.....I really have no idea...but some team consistency would be a great.....start!
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Extremely well said, as usual! Agree 100%!!
If you thought we played great, you need to share whatever mushrooms you are taking.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
We played great on offense. 1.27ppp (elite).
Our record in our previous 22 games where we scored more than 1.20ppp? 22-0.
We’re now 22-1 over our last 23.
The problem was, our defense played really, really bad (1.34ppp), especially early on in that game.
Hoiberg is a good coach and a solid Midwestern guy, I really enjoy his post game pressers.
sacraig
- The desert
You are mixing up satire with trolling. Satire has some kind of social commentary or point to make. This guy does it for the lulz.
Our offensive tempo is like molasses in winter. Our ball movement and player movement is a major problem. We have some players that can score downhill...otherwise, we are just not good.
We have very little movement without the ball. We don't make all five of their defenders play defense all at once. Usually just two or three have to defend at any one time. Every now and then we have a cutter...but that's like spotting Haley's comet.
Our ability to get to the free throw line makes our offense look way better than it actually is. But, getting to the line is good...but it is a blessing masking a bigger problem.
And, our defense is just terrible. Our defensive posture is bad (or non-existent). We are lucky to have one player in a defensive stance. Therefore, our footwork is bad...which is why we give up so much dribble penetration. And, because our footwork is bad, we have too many players out of position, and our rotations are slow or non-existent. Which is why our communication is bad or non-existent. Which is why we give up so many rebounds in scramble situations. We have no real defensive philosophy that I can see. Supposedly, we try to take away 3's and force hard 2's. Really?
We have been fed a lot of lip service, but left empty handed.
It's always some player(s) didn't put forth the effort. Or we didn't follow the scouting report.
BS...we have a major college coaching staff that can't teach defense.
8 years of it.
I think the best way to put this…
Outside of scandal, how many coaches can this board name who have been terminated from their position who have had 3 straight years of being a single digit seed?
Honestly, how many coaches can you name who have been terminated after only 1 year as a single digit seed? Cal and…?
(Obviously underwood’s streak is longer than that so I’m even drastically shortening the requirements)
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
So you’re saying the #3 ranked offense in the country is a… bad offense?
Good stuff. Good stuff.
What a terrible era of Illini hoops we live in!
Seems like a few very good "metric streaks" were broken with this game.
I'll choose the optimistic route and believe that if we continue to hit those numbers (offensively) for the rest of the year, we'll win most, if not all of those games we do so. This was an outlier due to lack of defensive bite on our part, as well as lights out shooting by them.
If we do look at this from a neutral perspective however, it is quite unreasonably negative if anyone wants to believe that a bulk of our remaining opponents will continue to shoot 46.2% from 3 (and that we've consistently been THAT bad in three point defense).
As this post points out:
I'll also add our other five high major opponents' three point shooting this season:
Texas Tech: 27.3%
Alabama: 36.1%
UConn: 35.7%
Tennessee: 30%
Ohio State: 32.1%
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Thanks Fighter, been wanting to write something like this but you did it already. Well said.
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