I have a saying that I use frequently in business. Nobody is going to pay you 100k for shoddy work.
Sure, ultimately Underwood is in charge and needs to make a change. However, Hammer is making enough to shoulder some of the blame here.
Penn State 90, Illinois 89 Postgame
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I have a saying that I use frequently in business. Nobody is going to pay you 100k for shoddy work.
Sure, ultimately Underwood is in charge and needs to make a change. However, Hammer is making enough to shoulder some of the blame here.
While I agree we don’t have any true signature wins this year, I do disagree. As someone else mentioned, there is so much potential and we can play with anyone this year. We have shown that much. Now, can we finish? I’m skeptical on that for obvious reasons, but when we are on, we are on and can’t beat anyone. Unfortunately we just seem to have a hard time getting over that hump.
Yadda yadda “name checks out”
Big Jack
- Decatur
Pru I am with you... could not even be pissed to read any garbage last night as I had already watched enough garbage in that game... Makes me sick to my stomach as a life long fan to basically end up feeling the same way every year with BU teams.. This reminds me of the 80s with Lou as coach.. Teams with a lot of potential only to end up playing like !!!! come the end of the season and then one and done in the tourney.. I honestly believe this team loses 3 more games in season, then a first round loss in the B1G tournament and flames out in the first game of the NCAA's. Hope I am wrong but just have that feeling again.
If it does happen add me to the list of people who will not be wasting $1500 on season tickets until Brad is gone..
One thing I will add… the fact that we are talking about “underachievement” with a team and season like this is awesome compared to where we have been in very recent history. Many people keep saying it, but thank you Undwerwood for changing that for us. We still have our obvious flaws, but I believe we are still moving in the right direction regardless of our recent frustrations and shortcomings.
I read the article before I posted, it hits all the major points articulately. And it doesn't do it with the ignorance and vitriol shown by many that have posted in the (now) 32 pages in this thread.
Never mentioned how people should feel - we all feel the emotions I did mention, plus obviously a few more. What I did comment on was the overreaction, hyperbole, and absolutely criminally stupid comments.
I hope Brad and the team fix the glaring problems, or our season will not finish out how we have been fervently hoping for, but none more than the team and the staff. But the sun came up this morning, and there are more important things than the result of one game (not many more, but there are certainly more).
Name checks out. Thank you!
One of the most frustrating things is that Brad was so smug earlier this season about all the smarts and experience this senior-laden team supposedly has. #fail
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
About Last Night:Fortunately I had to miss last night's game to attend my grandson's Jr. High basketball game, followed by my granddaughter's 6th grade basketball game. I did peek at the score in between games and saw the Beloved up by 7 (?) at the half. I didn't check again until I got home around 9 last night, only to see that we lost by one. I checked the box score and play by play on the ESPN, and decided that I didn't need to watch the turd that we laid in the last few minutes.
However, I the think that turd is dwarfed by the 29 pages of steaming, stinking fecal matter in this thread. Maybe unprecedented.
Like all, I'm, sad, hurt, depressed, whatever . . . But the amount of "hot" takes and downright idiotic comments here rivals the game threads . . . nay, EXCEEDS the game threads by a factor of oh, say, a million. According to various posters here, Brad should be fired; Luke, Marcus, Hawkins, Ty, Q, Dain, DGL, Moretti, Harmon all should be thrown out . . . I'm sure I missed some other stupid take . . .
Purdue lost to Ohio State (and Nebraska and Northwestern) . . . UCONN lost to Creighton . . . we lost. Fix the problems and on to the next game.
My brother, I would normally agree with you. In this case, though, you really had to see it in its entirety. The serial PSU back door cuts for easy layups. The failure to fight through screens and instead capitulate below them surrendering open looks. CoHawk appearing intermittently as though he was indeed wandering around a very Happy Valley having ingested a large quantity of shrooms, and at other times as though he had emotional dysregulation challenges and too much Red Bull in his system. The maintenance of a 7-12 point lead throughout the 2H while failing to widen it to 25, where it should have been by playing even a modicum of D consistently. The ability to make Maryland castoff Qudus Wahab look vaguely competent on the court as he scored in double figures.
TSJ had the ball just over half court with 40s remaining and a 7-point lead, running down the shot clock. I thought to myself: I think these guys can close this out smoothly. Why did I allow those thoughts to creep into my addled mind? As BU noted, they did absolutely everything possible in those 40 seconds to lose. And then they did.
It's one game. But it's the trend on defense that we've seen since January. It's letting PSU shoot an eFG of 67% in the 1H and end up around 55%. It's the 18 turnovers to PSU's 6. It's the horror. W/O TSJ's career night (utterly wasted, of course) we could have been looking at one of the beatings they administered to us last year with a much better team.
I'm deeply concerned and I have to say, while I usually roll my eyes at a lot of postgame thread nonsense after losses, I didn't last night.
These guys can play at the highest level if they want collectively to do so. I hope they decide to do it consistently at some point. And that's all we have: hope. Not confidence after last night or the track record they're establishing.
His body language was awful all night. Didn't want to be there. Brad needs to glue him to the bench when he's actively hurting the team.
Yet this will likely go down as one of the best offenses in Illinois history from a statistical standpoint. What happened in the last 40 seconds last night has nothing to with not having a point guard. The best players on the team made multiple errors on both ends of the court that cost the team the game.
My biggest worry is that Brad doesn't seem to get it - not just based on his post game presser where he laments Goode not making a wide open three (he should lament him shooting it) or the defensive lapses, etc. all true, but you are up 7 with 40 seconds left, and you as a coach continue to make the same mistakes over and over again to let these games slip away or give up big leads - because of your decisions - not the players, but your decisions as a coach
We talked last week about finding something with the lineup of TSJ, Domask, Ty, Harmon and Hawkins - that this group barely played any mintues together all year long, but got 12 minutes last game and were by far the best lineup and all year they are +25 in about 20 minutes played, yet we didn't see that lineup at all that I could tell vs. Penn State. Why? Why is Ty on the bench in the critical minutes to close out games and Goode is on the floor - why? Why is Harmon inbounding the ball in critical situations when he would be one of your few ball handlers to break a press?
Yes, Hawkins was awful all game and lost us the game single handedly in the end, but you have to put the players in a better position as a coach and not leave it up to them to make a play - that doesn't work with this team
We talked last week about finding something with the lineup of TSJ, Domask, Ty, Harmon and Hawkins - that this group barely played any mintues together all year long, but got 12 minutes last game and were by far the best lineup and all year they are +25 in about 20 minutes played, yet we didn't see that lineup at all that I could tell vs. Penn State. Why? Why is Ty on the bench in the critical minutes to close out games and Goode is on the floor - why? Why is Harmon inbounding the ball in critical situations when he would be one of your few ball handlers to break a press?
Yes, Hawkins was awful all game and lost us the game single handedly in the end, but you have to put the players in a better position as a coach and not leave it up to them to make a play - that doesn't work with this team
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
Lol...well la dee da Mr. Oh Well No Big Deal On To The Next Game!
How ironic that this is maybe the worst take in 29 pages. I literally just read back through every single post (as some of you might notice the late "likes" lol), with a pretty critical eye after nine hours of (chemically induced)
sleep. Not one "fire Brad" post. Not one "throw out" any players.Definitely a couple of "maybe a tad bit overreaction" posts....but after last night....not over the top.
Lots of very justified "hot take" comments and questions about the state of this team after last night.
Do you keep your high horse in a glass house?
A lot of fans not seeing and accepting what the team is showing them.Lol...well la dee da Mr. Oh Well No Big Deal On To The Next Game!
How ironic that this is maybe the worst take in 29 pages. I literally just read back through every single post (as some of you might notice the late "likes" lol), with a pretty critical eye after nine hours of (chemically induced)
Definitely a couple of "maybe a tad bit overreaction" posts....but after last night....not over the top.
Lots of very justified "hot take" comments and questions about the state of this team after last night.
Do you keep your high horse in a glass house?
One thing -- maybe the biggest thing -- in roundball that really, really, really ticks me off is when a team has a good lead and is in control of the game and does not put the hammer down and go for the throat to finish it off.
Easing up.... lack of focus... lack of intensity... weakness of spirit... whatever it is there is no excuse to let this happen.
Of course the other team will likely make a push. Or several. But when you are challenged you are supposed to RESPOND and meet that challenge. This Illini team has a real weakness in that area.
Good teams find ways to win even when they shouldn't. Teams lacking in winning character when challenged find ways to lose games that they should win.
The Illini still have a creditable won-loss record. But their chronic weakness shows up when they let other teams back into the game when they shouldn't be.
Credit to the home team here. They did not quit. When they got behind they did not pout but quickly responded... especially at the end when it's all on the line.
A credit to the 200-or-so people who showed up at the arena at a football school.
It should NEVER have come down to free-throws at the end. That was inexcusable and unncessary.
I hope this Illini group can dig down and find some additional game character before the Dance. Illini Nation does not need another quick wash-out. No does the program in general.
We do not need Shannon scoring 40 and still getting swept out before the tourney really gets interesting.
Maybe Coach is really trying with this group. Sometimes you can only do so much with what you've got to work with.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Goode missed that (truly wide wide open shot, defense overcommitted to TSJ pushing the break, same action as the last play before the half against Michigan) with 2:06 left leading by 8. He was 3-4 from three at that point, and had swished all three from that same spot in the corner.
Shooting that is absolutely the right decision and the higher expected value than playing for time, it's not even close.
I actually will say the opposite. While I like the team as constructed, I think not having that top PG out there in the last 40 seconds is a huge reason why that collapse happened. That is the time where having a "floor general" would have made a difference. A real ball handler makes a huge difference at times like that. So while I like our team without a traditional point guard 99.9% of the time, the situation that happened last night took a lot of craziness to happen...but not having a PG to take control when things went crazy definitely contributed to it.
Well ... What if I told you that he is making double that amount ...
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
We'll have to agree to disagree. With a game managing PG:
1)Hawkins isn't handling the ball late in games
2)Hawkins isn't shooting free throws
3)Guys are not dribbling into corners to get trapped
4)He's handling coming to the ball in the backcourt
5)He's running your offense
6)He quick enough to guard another teams PG
7)He's getting to the line
8)He's calming things down when momentum is slipping away.
Those things are showing up time and time again.
Think about all of the breakdowns yesterday and by who. Yes, we score a ton, but when do we break down? It's late in games, where that position is of most importance.
We have Rodgers who can't play offense, Goode who can't play defense, Harmon who really doesn't do much of anything.....so it falls on Domask, who because he's out of position, struggles late.
You left out the defensive side. Have you noticed that we continually get torched by smaller, quicker guards? The theme during the game threads is always, "of course player "x" is having a career game against us." and "we can't keep guards out of the lane!".
There's a reason for that.
You're asking bigger, slower footed guys to stay in front of the other teams guards. Goode and Domask get roasted because they've being assigned to a guy that they simply don't have the quickness to cover.
We don't have an answer there. Last night was not a one off.
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