Penn State 79, Illinois 76 Postgame

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#526      
Just my two cents... Illinois "Loyalty" does not mean Illinois "Homerism"

The vast majority of people who come to this site love this team or they wouldn’t be here. And there is a great passion for this program and what it stands for.

Everyone has every right to how they feel. Our feelings come through the heart and are not filtered through our head. And sometimes our heart makes ‘sense’ and often it doesn’t. Sports has a large meature built in of not being rational but purely emotional.

What everyone shares is that losing games hurts. And having disappointing ends to seasons hurts more. And nobody likes or reacts well to pain.

But pain is part of this and every other game and sport. We risk pain so that we can enjoy success and the thrill of winning. Nobody hands out victories at the beginning of games. Two teams just go for it and everyone lives with the results.

No one in the Illini program is trying to lose. Because no one involved in Illini basketball likes losing any more than Illini Nation does.

The point is to get out of the hurting mind set and do the work necessary to get that winning feeling and confidence that champions have. We have a right to feel bad at times but we accomplish nothing by lingering in that frame of mind. Games are won in the mind before ever winning them on the court. And they are lost there, too.
 
#528      
The vast majority of people who come to this site love this team or they wouldn’t be here. And there is a great passion for this program and what it stands for.

Everyone has every right to how they feel. Our feelings come through the heart and are not filtered through our head. And sometimes our heart makes ‘sense’ and often it doesn’t. Sports has a large meature built in of not being rational but purely emotional.

What everyone shares is that losing games hurts. And having disappointing ends to seasons hurts more. And nobody likes or reacts well to pain.

But pain is part of this and every other game and sport. We risk pain so that we can enjoy success and the thrill of winning. Nobody hands out victories at the beginning of games. Two teams just go for it and everyone lives with the results.

No one in the Illini program is trying to lose. Because no one involved in Illini basketball likes losing any more than Illini Nation does.

The point is to get out of the hurting mind set and do the work necessary to get that winning feeling and confidence that champions have. We have a right to feel bad at times but we accomplish nothing by lingering in that frame of mind. Games are won in the mind before ever winning them on the court. And they are lost there, too.
GIF by Sports Illustrated
 
#529      
Nope.

Reload: get talent that (hopefully) provides immediate results. Use the portal and NIL to maximize the potential.

Rebuild: get talent with a focus on developing the talent and not on immediate results.

We tried the prior last year when we had the option of the latter. Nothing to do with a coaching change.
We were almost an entirely new team this year. Putting two transfers in with a bunch of freshmen is not going to work. Putting a couple of transfers in with 6 or 8 returning players is a different story.
 
#530      
We were almost an entirely new team this year. Putting two transfers in with a bunch of freshmen is not going to work. Putting a couple of transfers in with 6 or 8 returning players is a different story.

Why is it so difficult? So, was it a reload or a rebuild?

Brad and many analysts (Pipper, etc), over the season, have either said or implied that it is a reload. Brad still claims this team can make a deep run - because they have proved it. Analysts, today, are perplexed - clearly, they disagreed with the bolded part.
 
#531      
Why is it so difficult? So, was it a reload or a rebuild?

Brad and many analysts (Pipper, etc), over the season, have either said or implied that it is a reload. Brad still claims this team can make a deep run - because they have proved it. Analysts, today, are perplexed - clearly, they disagreed with the bolded part.
firmly believe the team has one more loss in them.....
 
#533      
Why is it so difficult? So, was it a reload or a rebuild?

Brad and many analysts (Pipper, etc), over the season, have either said or implied that it is a reload. Brad still claims this team can make a deep run - because they have proved it. Analysts, today, are perplexed - clearly, they disagreed with the bolded part.
Culture. Teamwork. Chemistry. You are starting with zero with transfers and freshmen. I should have said that to make a team of transfers and freshmen work is improbable, because nothing is impossible. Still, to be a team far greater than the sum of your parts takes time - the more parts that have to be integrated the harder it is and the longer it takes. That was my point.
I am not giving up hope that these guys can pull it together and make a run, but not going to see it as a failure if they don't. I see what they accomplished this season as a success given the size of the reload ("transfers") and rebuild ("freshmen") that happened.
 
#534      
Still hurts today. Hate it when we suck in the post season, which unfortunately has kind of become our identity.
 
#535      

InDaAZ

Eugene, Oregon
Hawkins is gone, the sooner we accept that the better for everyone's mental health. He might even be a Draft Pick. I'd LOVE to be wrong, but I just don't see it. He wanted to declare Professional last year before even having a starting season under his belt. He doesn't strike me as a guy that cares that much about a degree.
Fran Healy Reaction GIF by Travis
 
#537      
Well a lot still depends on who we draw but one thing that might benefit us in the tourney is we’re less likely to face a team with an unorthodox star early on. Those types of guys seem to be more common in our conference (TJD, Edey, Pickett) and usually give us tons of trouble directly or indirectly because they demand so much extra and unusual attention.

Chances are we will face a team that’s more normal in terms of builds and playing styles. First round most definitely and if we make it to the second round, probably.
 
#538      
Players generally transfer if they are being recruited over or aren’t good enough. But with IL, they’ve had far too many guys leave who are good enough for this level:

Adam Miller
Andre Curbelo
Brandon Podzemski

That’s 3 guys who could all be 3-4 year starters. Gotta keep your future foundational guys happy. That’s part of coaching. If you are constantly rebuilding with 1 year portal free agents, you aren’t gonna build any chemistry
Andre Curbelo is currently out with another concussion. He has evidently had behavioral issues both on and off the court at St. Johns. What I saw in some video -- no thanks. I hope he gets some help.

Adam Miller is shooting poorly at LSU. He averages more turnovers than assists. No thanks.

I don't know the story on Podz. I read he was behind Melendez and Goode last season. Rodgers and Harris had signed. Shannon was being recruited. It could be he didn't see a lot minutes here. I wish he had stayed.
 
#540      
Illinois is very incapable of the big dagger/momentum-changing all three. Any time things are going well and things are hyped, feels like there's a clean look from three, BRICK. And then the momentum changes to the other direction.
I agree. We can never seem to hit the critical 3, even when it’s a good look by one of our better shooters. It’s baffling,
 
#541      
I’d argue by priority of who we most need back:

Epps
Hawkins
Shannon
Melendez
Dainja
Rodgers
Harris
Goode
Lieb

Epps is only PG we have. Gotta have him back. Hawkins would be a huge boost back defensively. Shannon was 1st team All Big 10.

I think the top 3 are obviously the keys.
I’d rather have Goode back than Shannon,
 
#544      
There's a lot of conversation here but the answer is simple. It's been simple all year, this team cannot shoot. We win when against quality teams when someone gets hot. If that doesn't happen in a game, we're out of luck. Very few team wins this season.
I remember reading one of the very first posts after Illinois's very first game this year saying they are bad at hitting three-point shots and thought this would be their downfall. Unreal.
 
#547      

azillini1

Scottsdale
Shannon makes me want to pull my hair out.
Yeah, doesn't he lead the 1st team BIG Players of the year in air balls? If he could improve in that area, he would be a special player.
 
#548      
With one notable exception, every higher-seeded team has lost so far in this tournament. I know this loss stings, but things could be so much worse.
 
#549      
Shannon plays hard on offense and defense. He cares…. I would love for him to come back for his last year. Imagine a 5th year like Pickett?

Won’t be sad to see Mayer gone next year…. His defense is subpar (trailing d and wide open looks for Funk yesterday) and he doesn’t want to run the offense. Still cheering for him and the team to do well next week.
 
#550      
Why? He's our number 1 scorer and our most athletic player.
That doesn’t mean he couldn’t play more under control or rely a little more on his teammates. Send like every game he takes 2 or 3 awful shots from three or turns it over with a careless pass or two. He had a couple Ill advised threes and a careless cross court pass last night. Physical mistakes are easier to deal with than mental ones.
 
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