If you don't count all of Underwood's good players and all of Underwood's success and all of Underwood's best moments then actually he sucks. I am very smart
Ohio State 72, Illinois 60 Postgame
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Totally not the case. Kofi's foot work and game came along way under BU and assistants. And let's give credit to Fletch as well. Go back and see pics of Kofi coming in his freshman year. Que for the Mic drop now!
What!!!
sacraig
- The desert
You might want to double check. Rivals had him as the 9th best center, ranked #45 overall, with 4 stars.
I would be surprised if he had committable offer from KU or UCLA. UConn was our chief competition.
The only Big Ten coach currently I would want above BU is Painter. He has had success but has had a few down years
Izzo does not have many years left
Howard has had tournament success but would not want him representing my school
Everyone else does not have success that BU has had both regular and post season
BU is a good coach in all aspects. Could a coach do better with the talent we had I don’t know.
Remember Weber was a great x and o coach but couldn’t get talent so he got fired. Self was thought to get talent but couldn’t coach until he won a championship
Izzo does not have many years left
Howard has had tournament success but would not want him representing my school
Everyone else does not have success that BU has had both regular and post season
BU is a good coach in all aspects. Could a coach do better with the talent we had I don’t know.
Remember Weber was a great x and o coach but couldn’t get talent so he got fired. Self was thought to get talent but couldn’t coach until he won a championship
Are you just pulling stuff out of your rear end now?
Rivals Profile: Kofi Cockburn (4 star recruit, ranked #45 overall)
Schools listed are Illinois, Arizona State, Auburn, Cal and Cincinnati. Looked at some of the other scouting services and they list pretty much the same schools.
The RSCI Index is actually an aggregate of all relevant scouting services: 2019 RSCI Recruit Rankings Index (Kofi #43)
As far as his improvement from arrival on campus to end of last season:
- FG% improved by 6 percent
- Rebounds improved by 2 rebs per game
- Scoring improved by 8 pts per game
Think I'm done responding to you now...
Dude you have lost all credibility. Sorry.
Kofi was a unicorn. Just by his sheer size and athleticism.
Jacob Grandison was a role player/spacer on the court. I’m not talking about him. Neither Damonte Williams who was another role player.
Ayo, Shannon, Mayer, Frazier, Curbelo, Miller, Clark, Epps. All those guys could get their own shot. Perhaps not Clark but he was at least expected too. Most high major D1 teams have guys like that. That’s why I say they are a dime a dozen. The difference maker was Kofi surrounded by those guys.
2018-19 we finished #84 in Kenpom.
2019-20 we finished #30 in Kenpom.
2020-21 we finished #4 in Kenpom.
That’s Kofi. You take most of the exact same guys in 18-19 that stunk, put Kofi in the middle, and suddenly you go 84 to 30. That’s why I said Underwood coached very poorly in 18-19. Either Underwood stunk that year, or Kofi is a generational talent that changed things, or both. It has to be one or the other or both.
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InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
If BU sucked as much as some folks are pushing, Kofi would have played somewhere else, and someone besides you would have lost his blue binder…
Or would he have?
Kind of makes your head spin, doesn’t it?
AyoDos11
- Southern Illinois
Is Kofi's blue binder in reference to something? Did Kofi actually lose a blue binder?If BU sucked as much as some folks are pushing, Kofi would have played somewhere else, and someone besides you would have lost his blue binder…
Or would he have?
Kind of makes your head spin, doesn’t it?
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
OA would like to have a word with you
Maybe Rudd21 and bluemountain think that BU doesn't know what he's doing ,but he is just REALLY lucky
“The best thing about freshmen is that they play at exactly the same level for their entire careers, meaning you can give all of the credit for a team’s improvement to that year’s newcomers.”
— Al McGuire
I know you’re being intentionally obtuse here as a trolling tactic, but I gotta hand it to you. There is actually a player who was disproportionately responsible for Illinois’ success over those years. He hit multiple game-winning daggers, put up two triple-doubles in the span of about a week, showed exemplary character on the court and in the locker room, was an absolute go-to guy when you needed a bucket or a stop, and is going to have a decade-long NBA career. And instead of citing him as Underwood’s crutch, you decided to point at the guy standing next to him.
Well done. I mean, that little flourish is something that would never have occurred to me.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
WOW....just because you have a thought pop into your head and you then post does it make it true.
You finally lost all cred with this garbage post so it's ignore for you....I'd advise others to follow suit to stop wasting their time, but to each his own.....bye-bye....
Ayo was a great individual player who will have a long NBA career. However, Underwood managed to finish 84 in Kenpom with Ayo before Kofi arrived. I’d say Kofi was the difference maker to that group. You go 84 to 30 with basically the same roster and adding 1 guy to it. It’s math. I can’t argue math. You either accept it or you don’t.
And Ayo was actually statistically worse his Soph year than his FR year. So it wasn’t Ayo getting magically way better to make them go 84 to 30. He actually was worse. Ayo shot 29% from 3 his soph year.
I'm really old and really bored. Thanks for the entertainment! You probably don't know this, but you have something in common with the coach you love to criticize. You both are really stubborn. Then there are 2 things you don't share. He recognizes talent and along with his staff develops it. And the third thing is he can coach and I would be willing to bet you can't or you wouldn't be on this board with the rest of us!
Have a nice night!
Ayo was more efficient with an expanded role. I don’t know how you take that to mean he was statistically worse.
Ken should give you your $21.95 back.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
You're using a single statistic to prove that Ayo regressed from his Frosh to Soph years? You've got to be trolling. His 2pt % increased, his PPG increased, his FT% increased, his assists were lower by 4 (for the entire season, and his rebounds increased. So in looking at the complete picture, Ayo was actually statistically better his Soph year than his FR year.
And to top it off, all those stats then increased from his soph to junior season. But sure, Kofi.
Ayo Dosunmu - 2020-21 - Men's Basketball - University of Illinois Athletics
Ayo Dosunmu (11) G - Dosunmu Awards | Dosunmu 2020-21 Season Bio (PDF) | Dosunmu's Career & Season Game-By-Game Stats (PDF) 2020-21 Junior USA Today National
fightingillini.com
That's Mr. Pom to you.
The team stats comparison between 18-19 and 19-20 are remarkably similar:
18-19 19-20
ppg 72.7 72.2
rbg 33.0 39.5
apg 13.5 13.3
topg 13.2 12.1
FG% 43.1 44.3
FT% 70.2 72.8
3pt% 34.5 30.9
The difference is we gave up 75.2 ppg in 18-19 and 65.3 ppg in 19-20. Kofi had a big impact on that improved defense, and was the reason for the increase in rebounding, but the difference between the 18-19 season and the 19-20 season was defense. If I remember correctly we changed the defensive system between those 2 years as well.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
This thread
Yep. The defense in 18-19 was terrible. It was coached terrible. It was ball pressure 45 feet from the basket with no rim protection, which meant either we got turnovers or gave up layups and fouled a ton. It was a system that was destined to fail at the high D1 level. Guys handle the ball too good at that level to pressure like that. I read a story that it took an analyst coming to Underwood and saying that it was the wrong way to play. But obviously having a rim protector in Kofi helped out a ton with that.
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