I know attendance appears to be down this year. But would guess the weather kept a few people away. Covered in mostly ice west of Springfield.
Penn State 74, Illinois 52 POSTGAME
I know attendance appears to be down this year. But would guess the weather kept a few people away. Covered in mostly ice west of Springfield.
The top 3 highest paid head coaches under Whitman make over 6 million this year and are 2 and 32 in Big Ten conference play. That has to be a record.
I laughed hard at this. Sad...
Yes + 40 minutes of bad basketball weekly x 2!
Oldtoysrock
- Sarasota, Florida
So if everybody leaves, this staff still have not proven they can recruit, that’s my concern.
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I don’t agree this team is poorly coached. A coach can only do so much. Lucas can’t shoot or score regularly, or hit free throws. Alstork can’t shoot. AJ won’t shoot. Damonte can’t shoot. Finke can’t shoot. Smith is still shell shocked. Kipper can’t find consistency. We have no supporting cast at all next to Frazier and Black. The low talent level on this teaml can’t be understated
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
Boston College went winless in the ACC in both basketball and football in 2016. That and Northwestern in the 70’s/early 80’s are the closest comparisons to where we’re at right now. This is historically awful stuff.
The talent level was clearly there the first half of the Missouri game!!
Yet I traveled 200 round trip miles in the sleet and snow to watch illini tennis last night. I wouldn’t leave my driveway to watch this basketball team.
I stopped traveling to basketball two years ago. I’ve been to over 300 illini basketball games but why spend the time, money and emotion now? Just isn’t worth it.
I would argue that he is underpaid at this point...my god, the talent he has to work with is alarming to say the least, the effort albeit there at times is fleeting, the ability for no more than 2 players to generate offense if atrocious.
Frazier and Black are the only 2 talented enough to take this offense and do something with it.
Just getting back from game. What a disappointment! Nobody looks like they want to score except Black, Frazier, and Kipper. We are severely undersized and do not have the athletes other BIG teams have. I am most disappointed that the fight seems to have left this team and that was what I was praising BU for early in season. This might take awhile to rebuild.
Not much talent on this team. I lost most interest in this team when I saw them at EIU.
That said, they've managed to coach these guys up enough to hang in a lot of games. Eventually the weight of all those losses become to much and effort goes down. Also, a scouting report comes in on the new coach and his team.
Some were expecting an Underwood repeat of last year's Okie St team. That wasn't likely with our talent and youth. I think our only real BIG level talent is Leron and Trent. Maybe a few others will turn out to play at this level.
I do like the the Underwood defensive pressure. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens the next few years.
That said, they've managed to coach these guys up enough to hang in a lot of games. Eventually the weight of all those losses become to much and effort goes down. Also, a scouting report comes in on the new coach and his team.
Some were expecting an Underwood repeat of last year's Okie St team. That wasn't likely with our talent and youth. I think our only real BIG level talent is Leron and Trent. Maybe a few others will turn out to play at this level.
I do like the the Underwood defensive pressure. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens the next few years.
Some guys can’t shoot free throws, but the coach owns a piece of team wide poor fundamentals- and free throws are part of that.
Alstork commits two hideously stupid fouls per game. He’s either not getting coached on it, or he’s ignoring the coaching and getting minutes anyway.
AJ “won’t shoot” —- coachable.
Losing attitude - coaching.
This “low talent” team was beating a Big Ten team 82-41 at one point this year.
There’s a really good chance that this will be our worst conference season ever in the Big Ten.
And we’re supposed to believe we have great coaching but our talent is just that much worse than ANY Illini team ever?
It was much of the same. Black had 20, Frazier had 22 while Lucas, Alstork, AJ, Damonte and Kipper combined for 7 points. That day the biggest difference was Finke had 10 and Smith was confident in front of his people.
Yes, the talent level is truly that low! Is the beat down you’re referring to the Rutgers game? Rutgers is worse than us, believe it or not. You can’t tell me the staff hasn’t repeatedly addressed Alstork’s fouling. We literally don’t have a better option. It’s been said in post game pressers over and over that guys need to pull the trigger when open. You can lead a horse to water but...
I just don’t buy that this is the least talented Illini team in Big Ten history. Go read the preseason prediction page.
For example, Kathy, who just summarized my criticism with “that’s bull” predicted a 24-9 season (11-7 Big Ten) and let us all know we could praise her at the end of the season.
I really hope that BUs change in style and system is just too much to combine with freshmen, roster turn, and mediocre talent. If that’s the case, we can hope for a record that is better than our talent next year. I firmly believe our bottom-feeder record is below our mediocre talent this year.
Not sure what happened but this is not the same guys that beat Mizznoz,, but it definitely is not the same fans that were there. Finding fault is easy, having ways to make things better is not so.
The coach can only take it so far but making adjustments to make it tolerable and have some semblance of guys making a effort, is mostly up to the leader, the coach. Sure, our talent may not be the best, but up till now, we were in most games. Now, it's like they can't wait to get the game over.
Have been a fan for over 50 years, so I have seen bad, but as fans we still need to make sure we are on there side, not kicking more dirt on top of the pile. Coach needs to own up to his shortcomings, make adjustments, and players need to give an effort to make themselves proud. Think the lack of team concept has set in, aand that all is on the coach to make happen.
We as fans have bite the bullet , except the team as it is ATM, and hope to God, that they can figure it out. I will continue to support these guys,as frustrating as it is, knowing it has got worse, so it can only get better.
Keep fighting Illini.
Need Williams and Smith to start playing like their rankings coming in they seem to be regressing. Tonight we certainly looked a long way from being a competitive team next year but a lot can change in a year. Right now number one concern is if the team packs it in for the rest of the year which would be a really bad omen for next year. Unfortunately not a lot of positives in the program right now. One of the lowest points I have seen Illinois basketball at.