Wisconsin 95, Illinois 74 Postgame

“new guys who will be open to the culture you’re creating — and to actually instill it in them.”

I am struggling to understand what culture has to do with anything in the new NIL/portal work?

What is OUR culture and how is it different from that of the other 20 some teams now in the BIG?

Why would anyone want to come here based on our culture, whatever that is?

How do you sell our culture to prospects in the portal?

In short what is it and what difference does it make?

Iloveorangekoolaid said:

I think that’s more of what my point was originally meant to be. We have enough resources to compete every year. The ball won’t always bounce our way and March if fickle but we should expect to be in those conversations annually. Think how much harder it is to compete in football. But look what happens when you go 10-3 and win the Citrus Bowl. Money comes in. Recruits look at you differently. Thanks for having a decent conversation on here without attacking each other. My first response to you was probably too harsh because I have high expectations for this program and I think all of our fans should.

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Hey its no problem! I get harsh on here too sometimes. We are all here because we are passionate about the University and it's sports programs, and that passion can cause some intense discussions. I've certainly had much more heated back & forth with other folks here and I think (hope) we've forgotten about it (I know I have).

Anyway, I certainly think we have enough resources to compete every year, if this year's roster is any indication. We have a lottery pick and another player being talked about in the mid-to-late 1st round. The results thus far have been underwhelming, but I try to remember the team is very young for the most part and we've had many more absences to key players than most teams have had to deal with.

I'm still hopeful for something great to happen this season, as we've witnessed the potential already. The trend has been downward, but you never know, it could help them grow in some ways. A broken wrist can heal enough in 5-6 weeks that Morez should be back before the season ends.

I remain optimistic, and if I'm wrong, that's totally fine with me.

EyeoftheIllini said:

Very true. He’s also shooting about 50% from 2 during that span I believe.

My point in my original post was about roster construction/personnel and that most people were very happy when he signed with Illini. There isn’t much doubt that he has not met expectations, but overall his stats other than 3-pt % are on par with his previous numbers. As I also pointed out in OP, I don’t think it is common for someone who shot that well in past to drop 15 percentage points. I mean S. Harris is down by more than 20 percentage points, but he wasn’t as good in his freshman year at Illinois as Boswell had bean in the past.

I think DGL should be taking some minutes away from KB. He has earned them. But Kylan overall has not been atrocious and there is plenty of blame to go around this season and during this miserable stretch.

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I disagree he's been really quite bad. Beyond just the three ball, DGL is outplaying Kylan in their minutes. Kylan has some of the worst on/off numbers on the team. The team has just been a lot better when he sits, including on defense where he seems to have fallen off a cliff. You can't play a game who is bringing nothing on offense and very little on defense it's a blackhole. Now I'm not saying DGL is a world beater, but I still think DGL should play more less because he's the best player we have but more he's just simply a better option than Kylan. I would further say that the team being better defensively when Kylan is maybe the single biggest issue with this team. Your supposed defensive stopper isn't stopping anyone in months and that has killed the defense which has been by far our biggest issue.

dainjazoner said:

DGL clearly just cares more and is also a higher ceiling on offense. how is this still a debate right now. Tomi and morez are guys you have to bring back and get veteran guards in the portal.

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No one is going to confuse DGL with Trent Frazier when playing defense. DGL is a skilled offensive player. Unfortunately he can't play PG