Truly peak Illini fandom here
Tennessee 66, Illinois 64 Postgame
- Status
This sentiment is actually not very reassuring to fans and donors. We don't want to be ok. We want to be excellent.
For me I want to be top 25 every year. Seasons we aren't are failures to me.
1. People who know ball, both inside and outside the organization, know we have a good one in Brad. The few crazies who are calling for his job or whatever are mostly alone on Instant Gratification Island.
2. You can be critical of BU without wanting him to be fired. That's mostly what I see on here. But some folks see criticism as blasphemy and can't reconcile that it's possible to criticize someone you actually like. Man, when I would have a bad game as a kid, my dad would tell me about it. Sometimes it was hard to hear, but I never got the impression my dad wanted to put me up for adoption because of it.
3. My crackpot theory is that part of our fanbase has some kind of football hangover. In football, pretty much every game is extremely important. Less so in basketball. Are some fans still in a football mindset? Thinking that every game we play could make or break our season? This would explain the angst over losing three Quad 1 games as well as the peculiar phenomenon of every game we play being a "must win".
2. You can be critical of BU without wanting him to be fired. That's mostly what I see on here. But some folks see criticism as blasphemy and can't reconcile that it's possible to criticize someone you actually like. Man, when I would have a bad game as a kid, my dad would tell me about it. Sometimes it was hard to hear, but I never got the impression my dad wanted to put me up for adoption because of it.
3. My crackpot theory is that part of our fanbase has some kind of football hangover. In football, pretty much every game is extremely important. Less so in basketball. Are some fans still in a football mindset? Thinking that every game we play could make or break our season? This would explain the angst over losing three Quad 1 games as well as the peculiar phenomenon of every game we play being a "must win".
Last edited:
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Once again, agree with you to a great extent. It just seems to me that Occam's Razor here points to poor execution rather than poor design (i.e., as I diagrammed, I see a clear progression to multiple options on the inbound play for KJ and pi$$ poor execution.) Ultimately, it's on the players to execute and to have the IQ to do so. One thing neither of us raised is that we don't yet have a floor general (or a light-a-fire-under-teammates'-a$$es leader) and (IMO) we need one.Entertaining.
I know it probably seems that way from a couple of these posts. But I don’t think I’m gonna have an aneurysm. LolGood call…on the old tagline…truer words were never spoken.
There is no doubt our inexperience/unfamiliarity with each other is a factor…I don’t profess to know how much of a factor it is comparatively speaking. I would very much like to give them the benefit of the doubt, myself…but man that’s a pretty tall order.
I would push back a little here to say:
1.) We already have seen it in Jan/Feb/Mar with a number of Underwood teams.
2.) I feel like a well devised set play…(because that’s what this is) outta take a lot of the guesswork out of predicting a teammate’s action. IMO.
You might be right too…and it prolly is a combinations of factors. BUT it might also be that they simply don’t all know the play(s) as well as they should.
I sympathize, because it’s a lot of stuff to cover with an all new team…and to get down well…but that is a staff problem.
3.) The primary objective of an inbound play is getting the ball inbounds.( If you can utilize the opportunity to score…even better…because you’re attacking from a different vantage point than your general Half Court, O-attack.) But, at bare minimum…it seems to me a well-devised SLOB would generally have AT LEAST two potential targets/options…since that is the goal. Preferably happening simultaneously…preferably with some sort of consecutive action. (That sounds more complicated than it is….I’m sure you get it)
4.) It seems to me that we should be better at executing OOBs than we are…solely based on the fact that our playbook doesn’t seem all that robust. Think about it. How many BLOBS have you seen us run in one season? How many full court press breakers? (What ever happened to starting in the same alignment and running about 3 separate plays out of that alignment?) If I am wrong someone please tell me…How many do we have?
5.) Two botched plays in a row out of timeouts…followed by a failure to call one to set up our D. Yeah, that’s kind of a lot.
But who knows? We'll see in a couple months. In the meantime we're in violent agreement that it's got to end, otherwise the team is limiting itself.
People are upset we:
Lost to a veteran team in OT on the road where we were up 10
Lost to the #1 team in the country at home when we controlled the game for 30+min.
Our offense needs to find a rhythm, somewhere between instant 3 pointer and dribbling until there's 10 on the shot clock.
Lost to a veteran team in OT on the road where we were up 10
Lost to the #1 team in the country at home when we controlled the game for 30+min.
Our offense needs to find a rhythm, somewhere between instant 3 pointer and dribbling until there's 10 on the shot clock.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Holy cow #2. Yes. Please pin this on every hoops thread. Just this week some posters' loyalty was questioned (complete with sarcastic tie-in to the site name) for daring to criticize.
Earned loyalty and trust is a wonderful and great thing. Blind loyalty is a terrible thing. Brad is terrific and has more than earned loyalty and respect, but such respect should never be 100% unquestioned, in anyone.
I think a lot of the arguments on here about criticism and whether its justified or not tend to take extreme positions and accuse the other side of saying things they aren't saying (and I'm saying this about both sides). It's rare to see arguments on here that do not devolve into these strawman positions where we end up with one side saying 'AM I NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE AN OPINION??' and the other side saying 'WE CANT FIRE THE COACH HE IS TOO GOOD' where honestly neither thing was said by anyone.
Anyway, I really (really) do enjoy 99 percent of you, I promise
Anyway, I really (really) do enjoy 99 percent of you, I promise
Thank you, dude. Thank you. It’s some weird quirk of human nature/peculiarity of fandom I guess? More than one thing can be true at any given time…More than one perspective can actually be simultaneously valid. lol.
I think we had the same Dad. lol.
I finally gave him a piece of mind one day though:JUST KiDDING…I had a great dad. Sounds like yours was alright too.
Also…Thank you!I think a lot of the arguments on here about criticism and whether its justified or not tend to take extreme positions and accuse the other side of saying things they aren't saying (and I'm saying this about both sides). It's rare to see arguments on here that do not devolve into these strawman positions where we end up with one side saying 'AM I NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE AN OPINION??' and the other side saying 'WE CANT FIRE THE COACH HE IS TOO GOOD' where honestly neither thing was said by anyone.
Anyway, I really (really) do enjoy 99 percent of you, I promise
So true. You and Chambana 21St…so right on the money with your posts.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Obligatory for modern timesThank you, dude. Thank you. It’s some weird quirk of human nature/peculiarity of fandom I guess? More than one thing can be true at any given time…More than one perspective can actually be simultaneously valid. lol.
I think we had the same Dad. lol.
JUST KiDDING…I had a great dad. Sounds like yours was alright too.
I think we had the same Dad. lol.
JUST KiDDING…I had a great dad. Sounds like yours was alright too.
BU could potentially have 5 guys that were either commits or on the team at some point get drafted - KJ, Will, Hummer, Fears, Perrin. We’re in good hands.
The problem is we have 8 days to b*tch about losing to the #1 team on a last second shot before the next game. I’m just as guilty. Beat Missouri and everyone will change their tune.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
And we likely will be by end of year.
We’re currently top 25 in all advanced metrics, so there’s a good chance our record catches up with our talent and we appear in the top 25 of the AP poll too.
- Status