By the end of the season, he just might be there!
Ohio State 72, Illinois 60 Postgame
- Status
Agree. I know I will collect flack, but I dont consider BU an elite coach.
We have been very successful in B10 and I love our progress under BU but I generally believe that we have underperformed with our available talent most years under BU, including this year. The years not over though.
RJ shooting 24% from three and Luke shooting 22%. Case closed.
Oh, heck yeah. Plenty to complain about but if I did that I'd be just copying the majority of posts today (and throughout the season) and reposting.
To me this is example of the mentality of the team.
Yep, I want one of my key players pre-game thinking, man if I can somehow get a play to give a shoutout to the Crush.
Someone mentioned it in the game thread, but where does the "heat check" mentality come from? Whenever anyone on this team makes a three, they seem to think they are entitled to another attempt, even if it is well behind the line and contested. It isn't just one or two guys either, it's everyone. I don't notice guys on other teams doing that nearly as much, so what is it about our team that is different?
Having Ayo, Kofi, and Trent for a few years covers up a lot of mistakes and gets you a lot of wins that you don't get with the players the Illini have now. I'm not saying we don't have good players, but they aren't anywhere close to what Brad had the past couple of years.
illini80
- Forgottonia
No idea what other coaches philosophy on this is, but our guys clearly have the green light and so they take it.
Some of you guys, man… Coleman was *by far* the best player we had today, and his 2/5 from 3 performance you’ll take all day. Why even name him here?
Mayer, Shannon, even Harris were worse offenders than him today. This board just loves to hate Coleman.
BOLD: amen to that.
Non-Bold: We can’t play fast/change the tempo on teams if we can’t show enough focus and determination to consistently rebound both defensively AND offensively…in some sort of consistent organized way.
PAINFULLY OBVIOUS STATEMENT: On defensive because it starts the break. On offensive because of the greater odds to end it satisfactorily…
That is a good one for your “luck”-“character” discussion. If you show enough effort to consistently rebound you make at least a little of your own luck.
Our two sophs who have made sophomore slumps instead of sophomore jumps.
I don’t know that having those guys covered up anything. What we did have was continuity and a lot of 3-4 year guys who executed down the stretch and knew how to win close games, especially on the road.
This year we have almost no continuity and are leaning heavily on freshmen, who have been great but have made enough mistakes to cost us a couple of close games. Usually the price you pay leaning on freshmen and we are no different. In fact Trent/DaMonte Ayo etc had some excruciating losses early (anyone remember Maryland where DaMonte just had to inbound the ball?) before they learned how to win.
We win at Iowa and IU and the season looks a lot different even with this blemish and getting swept by Penn state.
Think Underwood is in the upper echelon of BIG coaches which means he is in the upper echelon of coaches in the country. Recruiting is great, and he seems ahead of the curve on the portal/NIL era. We are in good hands.
That fits right in on this team
ginabackes00
CrazedUIFan
You can’t make that the case for Goode. He is coming back from an injury that affects every aspect of the game; shooting, conditioning, defense…
Yup this is why redshirting was the correct move
I appreciate the word play. But Goode has been back for about 5 minutes.
Not sure when they shut Key down, but the results of their 4 games prior to today were:
Lost to Michigan St by 21
Lost to Iowa by 17
Lost to Purdue by 27
Lost to Penn State by 4
ginabackes00
CrazedUIFan
Things that are freshman mistakes I‘m seeing are small but impact us defensively…going for the big play, whether it be a loose ball, long rebound, or a steal they 90% won’t get that takes them out of the play creating a four on five.
Mayer is now shooting 36% from 3, or about 25 points higher than Shannon. That’s one more make per 40 shots. He’s also 14-46 in his last six games and laid a pretty big egg today. He freelances as much as anyone out there and the fact that he does get hot from time to time doesn’t change the fact that he’s not executing the offense. People see him make a couple in a row and his halo becomes blinding, I guess.
Underwood has likely been making the point that his team needs to run the offense and defensive schemes as planned all season long, because they’re not doing it. He basically said as much a couple of months ago. They can either buy in, or just keep doing this and hope that guys get hot and carry them as far as they can.
When you lose by double digits luck is quite a bit less important.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
So painful.
- Status