NU is 2-12 since first Illinois game; Illini are 7-7
- Thread starter lou v
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Still, the Illini now have 4 consecutive seasons with at least 15 losses for the first time in program history, with their best player likely leaving for the pros...
For as miserable as this streak has been, has anybody noticed Bryce Drew's Vanderbilt? 0-16 in the SEC with a 17 game losing streak. Yes, they did lose their five star Frosh guard (who was averaging 16 a game) early in the year to injury, but the lineup they are rolling out there has three four-star (Soph, junior, and a Frosh) and another five star Frosh so you'd think it wouldn't have gotten this bad. But confidence is a fragile thing as we are seeing with the Cats this year and one big missing piece can be game changing. Oh, and of course, some "internet fans" want Drew fired!
Indeed, confidence is a big deal in college basketball, Look no further than Penn St. as an example. Their talent hasn't changed from when they were 0-10 in conference play, but their confidence is far higher...
Still, with all of the defections last year and the way they started the season, the Illini have made a lot of progress. Illinois improved; I don’t think NU has. I think the Cats have regressed. If I told you at the beginning of the year that one of these teams would be 3-15 and one 7-11, which record would you have picked for NU? I bet 7-11. No way did I think the Cats would lose 15 games in conference this season...and it may be 17 by the end of next weekend. This will be Collins’ worst record in B1G play. In Year Six.
Illini have had plenty of them on recent years. Hasn't resulted in wins for them, though...
If 11-18 is progress, I look forward to them progressing to a similar record next year...
Again, they are .500 in B1G play since early January, starting two freshmen and two sophomores. That’s definitely progress. And more than I can say for NU.
Of course it progress; because they started out from such a low bar (5-14). And one of those freshmen, their best player, will almost certainly be off to the NBA. And no one's arguing we've made progress this year, but making the Illini sound like their a good team all of a sudden when they're 11-18 and nearly lost a Tier III game at home tonight to a team that lost 9 in a row just seems strange to me...
Oh just stop. It turns out you're not clairvoyant and don't know everything about basketball. Big whoop.
Two things from a friendly Illini homer perspective:
1) You might be right about Ayo leaving, I’m not sure. I hope he doesn’t, though; he could REALLY benefit from one year, IMO. If Ayo does stay and with Kofi coming in next year, I think we could be a Tournament team next year. Hope so, anyway.
2) The stat you just referenced actually drew me to a somewhat opposite conclusion: Illinois has a pretty good basketball history, and it wasn’t just one coach (e.g., Boheim at Syracuse), so the potential is there. This, as you said, is HISTORICALLY awful for Illini basketball ... it might become our new norm, but I think a more likely outcome is SOME coach gets us back on track. Might not be Underwood (though I admit I’m sold), but I’m not of the opinion it’s hard to win at Illinois.
Good game today. You guys fought back, and I think both teams looked better than the insult to basketball that I witnessed in Evanston in January!
False. Since the national title team they’ve had a single drafted player. But keep selling false narratives. (And that lack of high level talent is why they have sucked, to be clear).
Who said anything about being drafted? According to this site. you've had three players play in the NBA since 2012. compared to one for us since 1999, and our one has played in all of three games.
https://basketball.realgm.com/ncaa/conferences/Big-Ten-Conference/2/Illinois/3/nba-players
Congratulations. Finally, a reasonable reply from an opposition fan instead of the name calling, chest thumping that are prevalent from other people that come out of the woodwork to ***** or gloat.Two things from a friendly Illini homer perspective:
1) You might be right about Ayo leaving, I’m not sure. I hope he doesn’t, though; he could REALLY benefit from one year, IMO. If Ayo does stay and with Kofi coming in next year, I think we could be a Tournament team next year. Hope so, anyway.
2) The stat you just referenced actually drew me to a somewhat opposite conclusion: Illinois has a pretty good basketball history, and it wasn’t just one coach (e.g., Boheim at Syracuse), so the potential is there. This, as you said, is HISTORICALLY awful for Illini basketball ... it might become our new norm, but I think a more likely outcome is SOME coach gets us back on track. Might not be Underwood (though I admit I’m sold), but I’m not of the opinion it’s hard to win at Illinois.
Good game today. You guys fought back, and I think both teams looked better than the insult to basketball that I witnessed in Evanston in January!
Two things from a friendly Illini homer perspective:
1) You might be right about Ayo leaving, I’m not sure. I hope he doesn’t, though; he could REALLY benefit from one year, IMO. If Ayo does stay and with Kofi coming in next year, I think we could be a Tournament team next year. Hope so, anyway.
2) The stat you just referenced actually drew me to a somewhat opposite conclusion: Illinois has a pretty good basketball history, and it wasn’t just one coach (e.g., Boheim at Syracuse), so the potential is there. This, as you said, is HISTORICALLY awful for Illini basketball ... it might become our new norm, but I think a more likely outcome is SOME coach gets us back on track. Might not be Underwood (though I admit I’m sold), but I’m not of the opinion it’s hard to win at Illinois.
Good game today. You guys fought back, and I think both teams looked better than the insult to basketball that I witnessed in Evanston in January!
Excellent post! Ayo is projected as a late first-rounder with guaranteed money. Hard to see him risking injury to stay.
The last time any of these players played for Illinois was six years ago. You call that recent?
Far more recent than us, save for one guy who has played in the NBA for all of 3 games...
So, Ilinois has had less talent than us over the last 5 years ? Congrats on that, I guess.
And I don't get worked up over anything on the internets...
That’s not what you said though. You said they had plenty of players recently but it hadn’t resulted in wins. Illinois hasn’t had anyone recently and when they did it did result in wins.
Oh noes, an Illini fan called me an idiot on an internet message board! How will I go on?
Dude, you MAY be a NU grad but you certainly are a Fighting Undie fan. No one knows wtf you are? You conveniently show up 3 weeks ago when it was clear the Fighting Undies were on the upswing and NU stunk. Then you start name calling and blasting people that have been around here for years. GTF back to Illinois Loyalty as you are giving the Illini fans a bad name. If you really are an NU grad, you are way worse than a troll and an embarrassment in fandom. Me thinks your NU grad comment is BS. Now go tuck your grandkids in bed.
Carmody’s worst season’s at NU were season 7 and 8 (3 conference wins combined), and he still (sort of?) turned things around.
It doesn’t help when one of our own has kept starting new threads ripping on his bad they are. It was gloating when we were better than them. Now it’s just sad.
Collins should have things righted in a few years. This team should be good as Kopp and Nance develop.
Who the F cares about Carmody? This is about year 6 of the current coach, and to say it is disappointing is an understatement. With a brand new arena and a $3 million+ contract NU has make the investment to be competitive. Last place doesn't cut it.
Spot on. NU’s two best players are moving on too... next year could be ugly, while ILL will probably be a trendy pick to finish in top third if Ayo stays. I still believe in Collins though, he’s bringing in talent. I just hope the team has better composition moving forward than this group.
Nah, I’m still in with Collins, but, like everyone else, I have some concerns. I’m just pointing out what a disaster this year has been.
Is he bringing in talent? He's brought in 6 four-star recruits during his time so far (not counting the one for next year). Of those, Law was decent, but never an all-conference level player (maybe an HM this year, but not so sure). Of the rest, three were busts - Rap, Falzon, Benson - there is just no denying that anymore. The other two are frosh who didn't exactly light the world on fire on a team that needed players to step up. He hit a home run with underrated BMac and Pardon, but that's about it. Not so sure anymore about the improved talent thing.
Rap was not a bust. He got hurt. Can’t do anything about that. Falzon has had injury problems the last two and a half years. I’m not sure just how much he has been permanently limited by injury, but I don’t think he’s the player he could have been. The only one of those three that I would call a true bust is Benson, a highly ranked four-star who just didn’t take that next step. He plays hard and is a great teammate, but he’s often a liability out there.
Do you have a problem with using a similar scenario to explain that we’ve been in this spot before and seen improvement? Scream and rant all you want...as history has proven, the end of the road isn’t a black hole. And of course, our current coach actually achieved the seemingly impossible.
He’s bringing in talent, and some of these guys just haven’t developed. I think Kopp is going to be really good, I also think Nance will be good. Expecting freshman to carry you is not a good thing unless you have Zion and RJ. Beran and Jones are highly rated players too. Their class is ranked number 2 in the BIG next year. So yes, I think he’s bringing in talent. But it doesn’t mean much if they don’t improve and show results on the court.
As an Illini, I have to agree with you.
Though I was impressed that NW still played hard last night, good sign that Collins hasn't lost the team. I don't pay a ton of attention to your recruiting, but it seems like he's having similar issues to Groce. Decent recruiting, but missing out on getting some PG skills on the team. Seems like losing the Lathon kid (and the Vassar stuff) has really damaged the trajectory of the program. There seems to be some decent talent otherwise. But other than maybe Nebraska, it seems like the rest of the bottom half of the Big Ten is getting better for next year.
For the Illini, I'm encouraged but still have a number of concerns with Underwood. I need to see an off-season without another mass exodus of players. I expect a couple that are known (Higgs and probably Nichols), but we can't have another 2-3 guys leave. I expect Ayo will put his name in for the draft, but am guessing the feedback he gets will have him back for another season. Going along with that, trying to fill 3-5 spots every spring is not a long term recipe for success even though we did get a couple of nice additions last spring. And I"m not a huge fan of his defense, though it can be effective at times and against some teams, I don't think it's going to work to get back to contending for titles in this league.
I won't miss Law, he really plays hard and has always had a huge chip on his shoulder to play against Illinois. Pardon, too for that matter.
I give him a ton of credit for doing the seemingly impossible.
I also fault him for having 4 losing seasons in his first 6. And finishing dead last with a veteran team of his recruits. And having seasons with 8, 10 and 10 (and counting) B1G losing streaks.
Very hard for me to see that the team is trending up. The NCAA tournament season is looking like a unicorn not a trend.