United Center. Never again
New Mexico State 74, Illinois 69 POSTGAME
illinibri92
- Evansville, IN
Whatever BU is doing at halftime (smashing garbage cans, etc.) he needs to do pre-game as well. These guys simply don't get up for tip off.
Sad,play so inconsistent, only B1G team to lose today. So many things happen to make you feel good, but we are finding ways to lose. Same ways seems like. Learning is going to be painful.Chicago has been bad for us recently but our pattern remains much the same this year whether in Chicago, at home, or on the road.
NCAA dreams over before Christmas....again
Deleted member 236589
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Correct.
For those thinking this a tournament team... Please stop. Need to recruit and need to develop. That's all. That's what this season is about. Record wise, we will probably finish 14th this year, with luck 12th.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
Deleted member 631370
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Yep, and that needs to stop immediately.
We are absolutely sunk if we cannot focus and come out of the gate prepared to play basketball. We have way too many deficiencies to spot teams a bunch of points early.
Deleted member 652352
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I think it's time we all strap in for what's likely a pretty long season. We've played a pretty (very?) soft schedule and are 8-5.
The future looks bright. But man, we're coming up on what, a decade of irrelevance now?
The future looks bright. But man, we're coming up on what, a decade of irrelevance now?
Deleted member 236589
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It was over before the season started. If you had NCAA hopes for this group, you were very much misled.
New coach, new system, the best players are freshman, no senior leadership, no viable interior defenders and no viable interior offense.
These were all facts before game 1.
This is no surprise.
Deleted member 631370
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Well, Leron kept us in it. AJ has been playing well all year. TJL played well in the second half.
Let's not get into this "can't wait for these players to graduate" routine.
It's not about our upperclassmen ruining it for the younger guys. It's about not having enough talented upperclassmen to lead the way. That's the problem.
I will say, though.....I'm really concerned about Finke. He needs to show up in these games if we are to have any prayer this season.
Deleted member 652352
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Let's be clear. Throwing the ball away on an inbounds play is not a coach error. That's a player mistake.
I hate to say it, but BU seems to ride hot hand as he should. He may have a hand in TF doing some of what he does.
i'm not sure that is true. There won't be many, but there are some other pretty weak teams in the BIG besides us.
Deleted member 631370
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Well, that's contingent on our ability to actually recruit some bigs.
We could be pretty good next year if we add a solid big. But absent that, we're going to have the same problem leaving the rim open to opposing teams and not being able to generate a lot of offense in the paint.
We could be really, really good in 2 years if we get Liddell and Okoro, but there's no guarantee that happens.
Again......gotta recruit ourselves out of this mess. BU has a good start with Ayo, but we don't need more PGs right now.
Leron is turning into what I envisioned him to be when he committed to the Illini
Deleted member 236589
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100% correct on both needs/requirements.
Deleted member 631370
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I dunno.
Rutgers beat a top-20 team and has a legit go-to guy in Sanders. Nebraska nearly just beat KU. Indiana beat ND. Even Penn State has looked better than us.
I think it's just Iowa right now that's worse than us in the Big Ten. I'd rank NMSU above us, Iowa, and maybe Rutgers?
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
I don't get it. Apparently you're seeing something good the rest of us aren't. Who in the conference do you think we are better than? Maybe Iowa. Wisconsin is off to a bad start but I won't believe we can beat them until it actually happens. This is maybe a six win team in conference.
I don't care who recruited these players, whatever, they're division 1 basketball players, if they could simply get the ball in bounds in the final (tonight 33.7, Maryland 4.6) 38.3 seconds, we should be 10-3. Underwood has a free timeout on the review and the best we can do to get the ball in bounds is the same out of bounds play we run every possession under the hoop. Falls strictly on the coach.
Love his overall system, love how we defend (once we wake up after halftime), but the basics are really mind numbing.
Love his overall system, love how we defend (once we wake up after halftime), but the basics are really mind numbing.