IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
I think that's the crux of the issue, unfortunately
Northwestern 73, Illinois 60 Postgame
- Status
It's a pro set! QB under center, with 2 half backs split. Once the QB says "hike" they hand off to someone and whatever happens from there is anyone's idea. However, if "Omaha" is called, the current QB throws an interception which usually turns into a pick 2.
It's a work in progress obviously but by the time April hits, we should be averaging 30 interceptions thrown a game and 38 ppg on offense.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Ty Rodgers was born on May 3, 2004.
We will have a full roster of players who weren't born when the 2005 team played before you know it.
Glad you mentioned Hawkins, dude hasn't provided the leadership I thought he would, once a role player always a role player I guess.
didn't last year he had a attitude about Brad as well? in some post season interview
BMoreIllini
- Baltimore, MD
Are we sure the players don't like each other? There definitely seems to be some friction between select players and the coaching staff and a certain player seems to rub some teammates the wrong way. The chemistry definitely seems off compared to previous squads, but I'd be hesitant to say they don't like each other.
I do think your assessment of the personnel issue is spot on. I think Coleman has been thrown into a point forward position WAY more than he needs to be (and more than the coaches hoped he would be) due to the lack of a true, performing PG. Coleman just isn't comfortable or decisive enough in that role against decent teams, hopefully that improves as the season progresses.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I'm not an insider, I don't know.
But the interpersonal friction has been remarkably public with this team, and what we can all see out on the floor is a lack of camaraderie among our guys. It would be an awful lot of smoke for there not to be a raging fire somewhere in there.
Agree with most posts. They are hard to watch but I’m an Illini fan and I’ve seen worse. That said, I have never seen an offense more adverse to going into the paint in my life. Their passing is atrocious, shot selections are lazy beyond belief, and they look miserable in the uniform. Maybe the message is that we need to home grow our players instead of portal raids. Melendez and especially Hawkins were better players last year. We obviously miss Goode and letting Podz go was a mistake. On a final point every time there is a pre season draft projection the Illini players identified as likely high picks (Curbelo, Melendez, Shannon, Mayer, and Hawkins) underperform. Ayo is the exception and Kofi just seemed to enjoy the game playing in the moment, rather than thinking about the NBA. Lots of games lefty
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
Living by the portal is high-risk/high-reward. I think we all kind of knew that going in (and have seen both outcomes already and it's not even the middle of January).
Taking solace in the fact that building block/multi-year guys seem to be overperforming and have been the bright spots.
Taking solace in the fact that building block/multi-year guys seem to be overperforming and have been the bright spots.
illini80
- Forgottonia
I’m not directly replying to your point, but I have thought about this years team so far and how it could impact future NIL$. If I was sold on laying out a large chunk of change on the premise NIL money was needed to bring in MM and he was the missing piece that could take us to a FF, I’d be a bit reluctant to do that again next year if this continues.
Obviously I’m not running with the guys who will throw around big money, but I wonder how sustainable that money flow is. We started strong, but this is a never ending and always growing need for cold hard cash. If the on court/field results slip it could be a challenge to keep the money pipeline full.
Yes! Plan to go back to Evanston to watch the game on January 22nd! Hopefully, better results than last night…
Not just Hawkins, but this, this, this.
Add the conventional turnovers to the long missed 3s with no rebounding, and stir in the terrible free throw shooting which leads to many 1-and-1s being an effective turnover. We give the ball away so many times a game.
Personally I think the 3-ball offensive strategy is directly correlated to the bad FT shooting - Brad does not want FT attempts. But as I said above I'm no basketball wizard, so who knows.
Maybe if we can scrounge together some extra NIL money they will start playing better
Wait. Are we..are we being extorted for more NIL money? Is that what's happening right now?
My opinions about the portal are beginning to coalesce around the following:
DO NOT GET IN PORTAL
- Guys who think they are NBA bound and want an opportunity to show out for a year
GET IN PORTAL
- Guys who have been on OK teams but want a chance to play for a championship/tournament success
I understand that everyone is disappointed. We have two of the best wins in the country in non-conference and were set up to be a highly ranked team at this point. But if you did not see struggles coming, you were drinking orange Kool-Aid while wearing orange sunglasses. Six of 12 scholarship players are freshmen and five of those are important parts of the rotation. The most likely candidate as a returning leader is injured on the bench. We lost 86% of our scoring from last year.
I would say to those who say they are giving up on this team and that this is a lost season that I am glad you were not a teammate of mine. You can be whatever kind of fan you want to be, and post your hot takes here (I enjoy reading most of them), but those giving up on this team just need to take a deep breath.
People complained that BU hadn't accomplished anything in March, so this team was put together to succeed in March. Well, it isn't March yet. There are still 17 conference games to play, along with the BTT. Sure, it is possible that BU has lost this team and this could be the beginning of a collapse, but it is way, way too early to decide that is the case.
None of the guys on this team have ever been part of a losing team. I don't think that their pride will allow that to happen. They are going to try to find their way. No one on this team or the coaching staff is going to just accept losing.
If you have been paying attention this year, you will have noticed that consistency has been largely absent in P5 basketball. You might want to adjust your standards accordingly.
I would say to those who say they are giving up on this team and that this is a lost season that I am glad you were not a teammate of mine. You can be whatever kind of fan you want to be, and post your hot takes here (I enjoy reading most of them), but those giving up on this team just need to take a deep breath.
People complained that BU hadn't accomplished anything in March, so this team was put together to succeed in March. Well, it isn't March yet. There are still 17 conference games to play, along with the BTT. Sure, it is possible that BU has lost this team and this could be the beginning of a collapse, but it is way, way too early to decide that is the case.
None of the guys on this team have ever been part of a losing team. I don't think that their pride will allow that to happen. They are going to try to find their way. No one on this team or the coaching staff is going to just accept losing.
If you have been paying attention this year, you will have noticed that consistency has been largely absent in P5 basketball. You might want to adjust your standards accordingly.
I’m not talking about a pick and roll offense. I’m just saying set a screen for the hall handler every once in a while. We rarely do. Yet others seemingly do it all the time and that gets us switched to bad matchups. Then we get to hear about people going under screens when they shouldn’t have.
We are asking players to beat their guys one on one off the dribble. Set a simple screen for the ball handler. Like someone else said. Go back to basics I guess.
Strong agree with this. Skyy is the best ballhandler we’ve had in God knows how long, he’s hitting a learning curve in terms of decision making and confidence for sure, but I’d love to see his usage rate be much higher, especially in PnRs
When the losing starts, adjust your standards eh? Just move the goal posts?
This isn't a freshman problem. They're some of the best players right now.
I’m not sure it was a mistake necessarily. Skyy is lacking burst, has wavering confidence lately and struggles defensively and with decision-making, yes.
He’s also really talented, a spectacular ball-handler and a capable scorer.
It feels like after his turnover issues early in the season he’s gotten far fewer opportunities, and IMO he needs the chance to play through it.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Not to disagree, but I don't think there's any slowing down of the portal-ization of CBB and CFB, and so making that work well is going to be a critical part of any program.
Because let's be candid here. It's not that we might lose one of our promising freshmen this offseason. We will. It is statistically improbable that we wouldn't, that is just the way college basketball is now. And that's not even considering how awful the vibe is for this team in particular.
You re-recruit your own roster every season, and like with high school recruiting, you don't bat 1.000. No one does, no one can.
All of that said, to go from Kofi-Trent-DMW as a long-term leadership group to bringing in Mayer and Shannon from the outside to lead a young, inexperienced team was an unusually large culture transplant. The theory seemed to be that those guys coming from winning programs would bring some of that DNA to us. Hasn't happened. I agree with the general principle though, that we should be eager to have guys like Harris and Epps take more of those leadership reins in the coming years. But that does not mean we won't be back in the portal as well.
I'm still steaming today, so I'm going to venture into a territory I don't normally go to which is meatball/hot take time on what is wrong with the Illini.
1. Mayer is a clubhouse cancer- he dogs it on defense, has poor attitude/just wants to do his thing, and he's gotten others on the team to follow his lead. Not because they agree with him or think of him as a leader but because they're like eff this, if he doesn't have to play within the team, neither do I. I think there was a reason why we were playing our best as a team when he was struggling and playing less minutes a game. Interesting that 4 of his 6 highest minute games and 3 of his 5 highest scoring games were losses. We start winning again when Underwood puts him in street clothes
2. CoHawk is not who we want him to be, he is who he is. As the most senior member of our team he's expected to be the responsible, fundamentally sound, mentally strong leader, who can captain the offense/defense effort. That's not him and has never been him. He's not any of those things and doesn't have those capabilities. The mere suggestion of any of those additional responsibilities overburdens him. Where does CoHawk excel? When he's given simple straightforward tasks. "Coleman go out and shut down Player X defensively." or "Coleman, go out and crash the boards on offense". That's when we get good CoHawk. The minute we put more on his plate is the minute he starts overthinking, attempting to do a little bit of everything but nothing well and losing focus on what is important. Simplify his role and instruction for what he needs to do on the court.
3. RJ has needs to understand how to be an effective player. Show him film of the two times last night he made a quick first step and drive to the basket, leading to an open layup for him and an easy assist for an open layup on an effing loop for 48 hours. Then tell him to either do that while playing with effort on defense or just sit on the bench. His choice.
4. Skyy is a freshman PG. In the B10. Historically, those players struggle. Hard. Skyy is no different. Kid needs time. Also, it generally takes at least 18months to truly start feeling like yourself after an ACL tear. Clark just hit that mark. We need to back off him as fans a bit. Goal for him needs to just be steady improvement and a hope that he can be a capable PG next season and not jump ship.
5. Underwood. Yelling no longer works with the upperclassmen of this team. They've tuned you out. Use the bench as their motivator instead. Simple as that. Continue teaching up the underclassmen in the way you see fit as they're the future of this program and you're going to have to rebuild your team culture and identity with them as the upperclassmen don't have it.
1. Mayer is a clubhouse cancer- he dogs it on defense, has poor attitude/just wants to do his thing, and he's gotten others on the team to follow his lead. Not because they agree with him or think of him as a leader but because they're like eff this, if he doesn't have to play within the team, neither do I. I think there was a reason why we were playing our best as a team when he was struggling and playing less minutes a game. Interesting that 4 of his 6 highest minute games and 3 of his 5 highest scoring games were losses. We start winning again when Underwood puts him in street clothes
2. CoHawk is not who we want him to be, he is who he is. As the most senior member of our team he's expected to be the responsible, fundamentally sound, mentally strong leader, who can captain the offense/defense effort. That's not him and has never been him. He's not any of those things and doesn't have those capabilities. The mere suggestion of any of those additional responsibilities overburdens him. Where does CoHawk excel? When he's given simple straightforward tasks. "Coleman go out and shut down Player X defensively." or "Coleman, go out and crash the boards on offense". That's when we get good CoHawk. The minute we put more on his plate is the minute he starts overthinking, attempting to do a little bit of everything but nothing well and losing focus on what is important. Simplify his role and instruction for what he needs to do on the court.
3. RJ has needs to understand how to be an effective player. Show him film of the two times last night he made a quick first step and drive to the basket, leading to an open layup for him and an easy assist for an open layup on an effing loop for 48 hours. Then tell him to either do that while playing with effort on defense or just sit on the bench. His choice.
4. Skyy is a freshman PG. In the B10. Historically, those players struggle. Hard. Skyy is no different. Kid needs time. Also, it generally takes at least 18months to truly start feeling like yourself after an ACL tear. Clark just hit that mark. We need to back off him as fans a bit. Goal for him needs to just be steady improvement and a hope that he can be a capable PG next season and not jump ship.
5. Underwood. Yelling no longer works with the upperclassmen of this team. They've tuned you out. Use the bench as their motivator instead. Simple as that. Continue teaching up the underclassmen in the way you see fit as they're the future of this program and you're going to have to rebuild your team culture and identity with them as the upperclassmen don't have it.
- Status