Pregame: Illinois at Wisconsin, Tuesday, February 18th, 7:30pm CT, FS1

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#301      
LurkerintheOpen
Our season currently
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#303      
NashvILLe05
Miles Leonard said:
Are we screwed?
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It’s not good, but we just need to limp into the NCAAT. Beat Iowa at home and steal one other game. Then win one in the B1G tourney and I think we safely make it. Maybe Morez is able to come back for the NCAAT and we have a shot at winning a game or two.

The way Morez broke his wrist….I’m so proud that young man wears an Illinois uniform. No way anyone should give up on this team with effort like that. We owe it to them even if we’re disappointed.
 
#307      
PopChampaign


Listen here.... Ben is broken and this has been a complete and utter failure by Underwood and staff by continuing to play him. They are losing fans, Brad's seat is warming due to this and our season has went downhill. It's almost as if Underwood made a promise to Ben that can't be broken. It has to be obvious to a seasoned coach and coaching staff that he's playing like !!!!. Seems like there's some SERIOUS favoritism going on :unsure:❔❕ ❕ Can't think of any other reason. Something isn't right.
 
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#310      
sacraig
NashvILLe05 said:
It’s not good, but we just need to limp into the NCAAT. Beat Iowa at home and steal one other game. Then win one in the B1G tourney and I think we safely make it. Maybe Morez is able to come back for the NCAAT and we have a shot at winning a game or two.

The way Morez broke his wrist….I’m so proud that young man wears an Illinois uniform. No way anyone should give up on this team with effort like that. We owe it to them even if we’re disappointed.
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We have enough horsepower to win a lot without Morez. What we don't have is the game planning.
 
#311      
sacraig
PopChampaign said:


Listen here.... Ben is broken and this has been a complete and utter failure by Underwood and staff by continuing to play him. They are losing fans, Brad's seat is warming due to this and our season has went downhill. It's almost as if Underwood made a promise to Ben that can't be broken. It has to be obvious to a seasoned coach and coaching staff that he's playing like !!!!. Seems like there's some SERIOUS favoritism going on :unsure:❔❕ ❕ Can't think of any other reason. Something isn't right.
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#312      
Illini in Italy
AirNeazy said:
Using +/- for a single game is well known to be extremely misleading and flawed at best.

What isn't flawed is seeing clear as day that the opposing team has been coached to take it at Ben's chest every chance they get. He's been scouted and identified as a weak defender and teams are scheming around it. See the NU game where Martinelli's eyes literally lit up everytime he had Ben Iso'd. Brad could tell as much, which is why in the second game, he switched Ben onto their 7' plodding center who is averaging 5ppg. And to be honest, don't care too much about Ben's defense cause that's not what he was brought here for, he was brought here to make shots and shoot 3's at a high clip, which he was completely failed at.

And I'm sorry, but with the current effort this team is showing at the moment, I can live with a little gambling on defense if it means DGL and his intensity are on the court. We put DGL on a short leash because of defensive gambling, meanwhile Ben continues to get big minutes the entire first half of the season while letting point guards outrebound him?

Sorry but the math ain't mathin on this one.
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Your dislike for Ben seems to be well documented, but his 3 pt shooting is well above average for this team. The one aspect of his game that is ripe for questioning is his FT shooting at 65%.

And let me guess, you were not a math major? 😉

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#313      
Illini in Italy
PopChampaign said:


Listen here.... Ben is broken and this has been a complete and utter failure by Underwood and staff by continuing to play him. They are losing fans, Brad's seat is warming due to this and our season has went downhill. It's almost as if Underwood made a promise to Ben that can't be broken. It has to be obvious to a seasoned coach and coaching staff that he's playing like !!!!. Seems like there's some SERIOUS favoritism going on :unsure:❔❕ ❕ Can't think of any other reason. Something isn't right.
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#314      
21ChampaignSt
If Brad doesn't deploy a zone, play DGL at least 39 minutes, sit Ben for at least 39 minutes (unless Ben makes 5 threes in his first minute), forbid the team from shooting threes, get red faced and sweaty, fire Tyler by the first media timeout, heal Morez's wrist with magic sage blessed by Chief Illiniwek, or let Tre White borrow his car to take his girlfriend on a date in Madison after the game then Josh Whitman should have Brad arrested, hire Sean Beard, and then fire himself immediately thereafter for gross incompetence!!
 
#315      
sacraig
21ChampaignSt said:
If Brad doesn't deploy a zone, play DGL at least 39 minutes, sit Ben for at least 39 minutes (unless Ben makes 5 threes in his first minute), forbid the team from shooting threes, get red faced and sweaty, fire Tyler by the first media timeout, heal Morez's wrist with magic sage blessed by Chief Illiniwek, or let Tre White borrow his car to take his girlfriend on a date in Madison after the game then Josh Whitman should have Brad arrested, hire Sean Beard, and then fire himself immediately thereafter for gross incompetence!!
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Cheers Yes GIF by MASTERPIECE | PBS
 
#317      
OrangeKrush1981
I like Ben Humrichous. I think he has heroic qualities. I also know what that "h" word means.

Greatness is something almost never achieved, by even the great. I hope for this, but I very much doubt it will happen this time.

God I hate English. Or at least my ability to use it to express my feelings.
 
#318      
BfosterL
illini0440 said:
Do we really think KJ was getting to the rim all game and then just stopped because the coaches told him to? No. The 20% of bad 3s we take seem to over shadow the 80% of open looks we take. We had at least 3 WIDE open looks with about 7 minutes to go that we couldn’t make. You HAVE to take those shots. If you don’t take the open looks it becomes even harder to score inside. Also contrary to popular belief we were + when Ben was on the floor and -when he was off.
Dravyn comes in and gambles on defense like he always does and gives up 2 baseline drives for easy buckets.

And don’t make me go back to last year and find everyone’s posts about Tyler being a good offensive coach lol
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THIS
 
#320      
ILL-Intentions
I’ve read a lot of these comments about poor shooting, bad shots, not taking it to the rim, etc but what amount of that could have been curtailed with a larger rotation? Need legs under shots, not gassed and taking a 3 as an easy way out… to be honest, I don’t know the answer but I have to think DGL more than 2 plays would have helped. He had some bad defensive plays but those guys need some rest when the other team plays 11 guys
 
#321      
BfosterL
PopChampaign said:


Listen here.... Ben is broken and this has been a complete and utter failure by Underwood and staff by continuing to play him. They are losing fans, Brad's seat is warming due to this and our season has went downhill. It's almost as if Underwood made a promise to Ben that can't be broken. It has to be obvious to a seasoned coach and coaching staff that he's playing like !!!!. Seems like there's some SERIOUS favoritism going on :unsure:❔❕ ❕ Can't think of any other reason. Something isn't right.
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100% of this post isn't right. Brad's seat is not warm. Name me one Illinois fan who now actively roots for another team because of the last 4 weeks since we are losing fans? If there are, good riddance, I'm guessing they weren't around for the Groce years.
 
#322      
Steelyunk
I want Underwood to retire in glory from Illinois but I swear I am sick of his poopoo in these media availabilities. I don’t even have to listen anymore. Just the headlines show how full of poopoo he is.
 
#323      
New Creation
NashvILLe05 said:
Check out these 3pt shooting trends after Gentry left for Gonzaga following the 2020-21 season.

3PA: 3 point attempts per game
3P%: % 3’s made
Then added their rank among teams in the league.

After Gentry, the next 3 seasons saw our 3PA increase ~50%. Then this season our 3PA have increased another ~30% over the last 3 year average.

2020-21 (Gentry leaves after season)
3PA: 17.5 (Rank 14 of 14 B1G Teams)
3P%: 37.3% (Rank 3 of 14 B1G Teams)

2021-22
3PA: 24.9 (Rank 2 of 14 B1G Teams)
3P%: 35.9% (Rank 6 of 14 B1G Teams)

2022-23
3PA: 24.7 (Rank 2 of 14 B1G Teams)
3P%: 30.8% (Rank 14 of 14 B1G Teams)

2023-24
3PA: 23.9 (Rank 2 of 14 B1G Teams)
3P%: 34.9% (Rank 8 of 14 B1G Teams)

2024-25
3PA: 30.3 (Rank 1 of 18 B1G Teams)
3P%: 31.1% (Rank 17 of 18 B1G Teams)
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Some of us feel like this years team is like the 2022 team.

These stats back up those feelings...
 
#324      
OrangeKrush1981
The other night, when Morez landed, rolled, and grimaced, I thought: I've been there! And I was immediately so relieved that somehow he was ok! At that moment, as he rolled over and grimaced, it flashed through my mind about the two times I'd broken a wrist in basketball and how those tiny tragedies affliced me (to be clear: I was never within two orders of magnitude of anything like Morez, even though rebounding was my game ...).

And then I realized: Morez is not like me, he's MOREZ!

And now, tonight, I realize: even Morez can break his wrist on a monster play. I wish he'd not blocked that shot, though I burn with Illini pride at the warrior-nature that led him to do so.
 
#325      
Second place is 1st loser
PopChampaign said:


Listen here.... Ben is broken and this has been a complete and utter failure by Underwood and staff by continuing to play him. They are losing fans, Brad's seat is warming due to this and our season has went downhill. It's almost as if Underwood made a promise to Ben that can't be broken. It has to be obvious to a seasoned coach and coaching staff that he's playing like !!!!. Seems like there's some SERIOUS favoritism going on :unsure:❔❕ ❕ Can't think of any other reason. Something isn't right.
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With Morez out, we're damn lucky he's been getting those minutes. He and Tomi are our only remaining bigs. I think that you should be warming up to him pretty quickly because we have nothing else.
 
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