Yeah, if I'm Illinois, I make it an even 6. That'd be, after whatever incentives are thrown in, nearly THREE TIMES what he's making in Virginia. I don't think they'd match that. It'd give him a hell of a decision to make.

.

He just grinds the games down to an intensely slow tempo.

This is the worst UVA offense in a few years, and it's still top 40 in efficiency in the country, scoring nearly 1.14 points per possession.

Matched with a still-league-best defense, that's a potent combo.

____________________

<================== Learn the name now before everyone gets dunked on

Groce's problem is that he got the job because Burke and Hardaway had a bad day 5 years ago, rather than by being a good coach

>Groce's problem is that he got the job because Burke and
>Hardaway had a bad day 5 years ago, rather than by being a
>good coach




your "brilliant x's and o's" lost to a 13 seed bc he got outcoached, again (same ole problems, weak rebounding, weak defense, and over reliance on the 3)

groce got that job bc he did a good job at Ohio U, and bc he was a strong recruiter once upon a time, not just because he upset an overrated 4 seed

edit, beilein went 5-2 vs Groce...congrats. he has a winning record against Big 10 coaches without a final four banner on the resume.

ELITE!!!!!!!

pressed would be claiming a coach got hired strictly based on the outcome of a single ncaa tournament game.

youre wrong. admit it. and keep it moving.

he's got a great thing going at UVA.

but damn, that's a lot of bread.

you dont see anyone knocking down Keith Dambrot's door and he just won his 3rd MAC COY in 5 years.

MAC coaches dont get hired for being really good in the league. They get hired by winning tournament games a la Stan Heath (SHAMROCKS!) at Kent State. By 2012 everyone had forgotten about OU's 2010 tournament.

hahahaha...East Saint repping for the HEELS??!! Maaaan, listen.

Good shot blocker and rebounder. Decent step out jumper.

Reminds me of a lil more athletic Al Jefferson with skill set, some early Serge Ibaka in the other areas.

kids in state

I'm not convinced this isn't a *better* hire. Certainly is for whatever the price would've been for Bennett. Underwood is a fantastic coach, runs the PnR as good as or better than any coach in America, took Oklahoma State's exact same roster from last year and added eight wins, turning them into the most efficient offense in the country.

all the media are saying off the record that their insiders think this is a great hire for us. We'll see.

for aome reason i thought your anti KU agenda was indicative of Tiger status

I for one am absolutely astonished by this news!

has been that they can't recruit Chicago

Underwood is a brilliant player developer and Xs and Os coach. His offense is PnR-heavy, which will attract any Chicago-area pro prospect with a brain.

It used to be an unwritten rule that the top Public League players packed for Champaign. But after the Jimmy Collin debacle, a lot of coaches made it known that they wouldn't send their kids to Illinois anymore.

a guy that outside of 1 season at Oklahoma State his head coaching resume basically consists of 3 years in the Southland conference

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19084810/center-jeremiah-tilmon-wants-release-commitment-illinois-fighting-illini

He helped bring in Nerlens Noel, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins. Great hire by Illinois. If Tilmon still decides to leave and join Mizzou after Antigua arrives, no team in the world was keeping him.

>He helped bring in Nerlens Noel, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus
>Cousins. Great hire by Illinois. If Tilmon still decides to
>leave and join Mizzou after Antigua arrives, no team in the
>world was keeping him.

in Champaign

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-illinois-basketball-controversy-haugh-spt-0407-20170406-column.html

He has phone numbers of NBA players, has sat in rooms with the parents of elite prospects. The moment wouldn't be too big for him. He's a good body to bring in to try to lift recruiting.

great of a hire as you're making it out to be

.

I'm sure we'll continue to get ThaTruth's blazing hot takes about how Underwood can't recruit for the Illini either way.

>I'm sure we'll continue to get ThaTruth's blazing hot takes
>about how Underwood can't recruit for the Illini either way.

you bring "right"?

>you bring "right"?

"*being* right"?

He just landed the first Illinois Mr. Basketball since 2010 for the Illini. Is that not enough? Of course it isn't. You're ThaTruth. You'll move the goalposts further.

If Tilmon re-commits, you have to recuse yourself from ever discussing college basketball again on this board. It's a coin flip imo, because Cuonzo is a beast of a recruiter and he's got his claws in deep, but Underwood will sell his incredible PnR offense to Tilmon and work hard to get him to stay, especially now that he has next year's PG in place. So if Tilmon stays? Yeah, you're done talking college basketball here. For good.

Everyone already knows that you don't watch college basketball. That's a given that everyone on this board accepts. If Elon Musk could harness energy from the eye rolls that your college basketball analysis generates, he could provide power to the state of California. So if you were also *that* epically, painfully wrong on your home area coaching hire?... yeah, that'd be that. Even more than it already is.

And if that doesn't happen (like I said, coin flip), then when Underwood makes the NCAA Tournament by Year 2 with the Illini, you get to have an Underwood avatar for a year with the signature "I was wrong, I don't know college basketball." Tourney by Year 2 for a young team isn't even the arbiter of success for a new coach with a young team, but I just don't think Underwood will need a full four to get the Illini to the Dance.

And if, after three years, Underwood hasn't made the tournament, then I'll make my avatar for a full year the homoerotic Boston image (or some other homoerotic sports image you inevitably have saved on your desktop) and make my signature "ThaTruth's posts in OkaySports are both witty and insightful."

>He just landed the first Illinois Mr. Basketball since 2010
>for the Illini. Is that not enough? Of course it isn't. You're
>ThaTruth. You'll move the goalposts further.
>
>If Tilmon re-commits, you have to recuse yourself from ever
>discussing college basketball again on this board. It's a coin
>flip imo, because Cuonzo is a beast of a recruiter and he's
>got his claws in deep, but Underwood will sell his incredible
>PnR offense to Tilmon and work hard to get him to stay,
>especially now that he has next year's PG in place. So if
>Tilmon stays? Yeah, you're done talking college basketball
>here. For good.
>
>Everyone already knows that you don't watch college
>basketball. That's a given that everyone on this board
>accepts.

But that's a lie, I'm pretty sure I watch more Illinois and Mizzou basketball games than you and know a lot more about those programs than you.


>And if that doesn't happen (like I said, coin flip), then when
>Underwood makes the NCAA Tournament by Year 2 with the Illini,
>you get to have an Underwood avatar for a year with the
>signature "I was wrong, I don't know college basketball."
>Tourney by Year 2 for a young team isn't even the arbiter of
>success for a new coach with a young team, but I just don't
>think Underwood will need a full four to get the Illini to the
>Dance.

I wouldn't be mad at that at all.

>And if, after three years, Underwood hasn't made the
>tournament, then I'll make my avatar for a full year the
>homoerotic Boston image (or some other homoerotic sports image
>you inevitably have saved on your desktop) and make my
>signature "ThaTruth's posts in OkaySports are both witty and
>insightful."

What you fail to understand is that I'm an Illini fan and I hope Underwood IS successful even though I didn't think he was the right hire at the time so if I'm proven wrong about that I'll be more than happy to take that L.

>If Tilmon re-commits, you have to recuse yourself from ever
>discussing college basketball again on this board. It's a coin
>flip imo, because Cuonzo is a beast of a recruiter and he's
>got his claws in deep, but Underwood will sell his incredible
>PnR offense to Tilmon and work hard to get him to stay,
>especially now that he has next year's PG in place. So if
>Tilmon stays? Yeah, you're done talking college basketball
>here. For good.

Meanwhile, those of us who have followed both major conference college basketball and Brad Underwood for the last several years will still have great confidence in his ability to both coach up talent *and* attract talent with his style of play.

his belt at the major conference level so who knows what he can do really.

I don't follow every team in the nation like you do but I know the programs and the recruits from this area very well.

http://www.thechampaignroom.com/platform/amp/2017/5/25/15680720/jalen-coleman-lands-transfer-illinois-fighting-illini-basketball-roster-news

Kid was a one-dimensional player who was destined for seventh man minutes duty now. They even mention that in the article you posted.

It's almost like you haven't, and don't, follow the sport or any of the actual developments.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/belleville-east-s-pickett-commits-to-mizzou/article_ed3562bb-b8e1-5be7-a065-ee5459c23576.html

So it would've been hard for Underwood to "win" a recruiting battle for a player they were no longer offering and no longer recruiting.

Not that I expect you to understand any of this. You're the weirdest alleged "fan" of a team ever. I hope you enjoy finding weird and inexplicable reasons for shitting on "your" coach while you can-- you were probably one of the people who said during last season that Texas made a mistake with Shaka Smart too. (Shaka Smart is the coach for Texas, in case you didn't know who that was.)

I'm a VCU fan tho so don't mind me...

but I still think folks over looked his lack of offensive production in the half court the last few years with VCU.

https://www.thechampaignroom.com/2018/3/5/17081440/mark-smith-intends-to-transfer-illinois-fighting-illini-brad-underwood-big-ten-michigan-state

Shaka won 11 games in his *second* year at Texas, and I still thought that was a great hire too. A team's individual situation matters.

But feel free to keep upping posts about a sport you don't watch. I won't be doing the back and forth with you in 2018. I'll check in on this post again March 2019.

Oklahoma State and he was something like 1-9 vs. ranked teams, almost half his wins were against bs opponents.

At Illinois he had 4-14 conference record, he'll probably be back in the southland conference in another year or two.

>Shaka won 11 games in his *second* year at Texas, and I still
>thought that was a great hire too. A team's individual
>situation matters.
>
>But feel free to keep upping posts about a sport you don't
>watch. I won't be doing the back and forth with you in 2018.
>I'll check in on this post again March 2019.

And like I said before I'm sure I watch way more Illinois and Mizzou games than you and I have a lot of insight to those those programs.

And seeing how this post is looking like a major L for you right now I don't expect you to do a whole lot of replying.

Smart started coaching major college basketball when he got to Texas, so he has 1 more year of experience with major CBB

one Cinderella run to the final 4 doesnt change what conference they played in, nor the fact that they never got past the 2nd round again.

Great for Shaka’s pockets but he is going to give out in a year or 2.

He had success his second year at VCU but the offense fizzled and most of the players on that Final Four team weren’t Shaka’s.

After the run they were decent but they struggled in the half court and lost a lot of winnable games due to coaching down the stretch.

Still thankful for that run tho...

Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg
http://Tupreme.com

*throws chair out of window, Rips off Illini T-shirt, tears down all Illini posters and other assorted Orange and Blue shit, falls down on the floor in a heap and cries like a little bitch*

Why don't we win anymore? In ANY sport ?!?!?

>*throws chair out of window, Rips off Illini T-shirt, tears
>down all Illini posters and other assorted Orange and Blue
>shit, falls down on the floor in a heap and cries like a
>little bitch*
>
>Why don't we win anymore? In ANY sport ?!?!?

Its got to start at the top

He hired Lovie, and he hired Underwood, so he's trying to get back to respectability. Whitman played (football) at U of I, so he's part of the family, not just some random guy who worked his way up the food chain somewhere else. We'll see what happens.

He went to the cross town hs. Good dude from what I recall


He was a good bball player, but obviously football was his strength

He's a nice guy, and he didn't shy away from the questions about how shitty we are right now.

That's WAY more than you'll get from most AD's

been coaching in the NFL for 20 years to jump back into the college game.

Right? I honestly worry about an Illinois resurection

it's tough. A lot of my classmates are jumping ship, but I'm hangin' in there until they get right again.

Jalen Brunson, Charles Matthews, Glynn Watson, Charlie Moore, Justin Smith, Isaiah Roby (did UI even recruit him??)

all of Illinois's best talent hit the road

>Jalen Brunson, Charles Matthews, Glynn Watson, Charlie Moore,
>Justin Smith, Isaiah Roby (did UI even recruit him??)
>
>all of Illinois's best talent hit the road


in the last 20 yrs, Mr Basketball has stayed in state only 6 times. (Four of 'em went to Duke, and two went to The League)

i understand Duke, MSU, Kentucky...but you cant have Nebraska raiding the pantry for the 3*/4* guys that dont get elite offers

on the plus side, one class of sweeping the top 3 could turn it all around.

.

First time in a long time that's happened. So there's reason to be optimistic in that area.

I won't reply to posters who aren't capable of coherent/genuine arguments, but I'll reply to you.

Here's the upside:

- Illinois went from a Top 100 team in experience to sub-300. Meaning they went from very experienced to very inexperienced quickly. (For another example of this this season, look at what happened to Wisconsin.)

- Illinois is learning a brand new style of play. They're moving from a very average style to a fast-paced tempo. Especially on defense. Combine that with inexperience, and you'd have been a fool to *not* expect some struggle this season.

- Mark Smith was bad. Straight up. He was given a lot of opportunity early in the season, as I'm sure you know, but it became painfully apparent to Underwood and everyone else that this dude not only wasn't The Answer that people wanted... he honestly isn't even a true PG. And he certainly wasn't committed on defense. This ties to the good news...

- Trent Frazier is dope. Underwood moved from Smith to Frazier, and the PG position immediately had better defense, better shooting, better A:TO... better everything. Rumors are Smith was talking about transfer for over a month now, because he knows what we all know-- Frazier is almost certainly the starting PG next year. And he's likely to be a 4-year guy for Underwood, which is *great* news for the future.

- Te'Jon Lucas, Aaron Jordan, and Kipper Nichols make a nice core to bring back. All played good minutes, all will bring back nice experience. Underwood plays a deep bench which'll be good for both the style of play and player development. (Rumors are that Leron Black will consider going pro/playing overseas-- if he came back, it'd obviously be a bonus.)

- Underwood brings in Ayo Dosunmu from Chicago next year, a five-star combo guard, Top 25 in his class. (Weird how people who question Underwood's recruiting prowess don't bring up that he already bagged the top player in the state of Illinois for next year, the only five star from Illinois in the class!) He'd go nicely alongside Frazier in the backcourt.

- Underwood wants to do three things, three things his team's have done from Stephen F Austin to OSU to now. Turn opponents over, crash offensive boards, and make 3 pointers. The first two areas, this Illinois team did exceptionally well. Top 5 in the *country* turning opponents over, and Top 30 in the country in offensive boards-- impressive considering they play five guys 6'7 or under, and huge improvements in both of these areas compared to the Groce era. The biggest problem is these guys just couldn't shoot. They'll bring back guys who shot 36, 38, and 44 percent, respectively. If Black comes back, he shot 50% in limited attempts. They'll lose Smith, who can't shoot; Alstork, who can't shoot; Finke's a likely transfer too, but he also can't shoot. They'll bring in Dosunmu, who can shoot. There's reason to hope that next year, they can shoot closer to 38% as a team and get that offense humming.

You can look at the record and get mad, but be honest-- you knew they wouldn't be good this year. This was a transition year. And just like with Wisconsin, I like Illinois's chances to improve notably next year. Hopefully Underwood can snag Tevian Jones, an upside wing from Culver City, who seems less likely to be enticed by the Arizona offer now that they're in a shitstorm, and grab a grad transfer to help shore up the bench.

https://247sports.com/Player/Alan-Griffin-45573405

son of adrian. committed last week. underrated player. excellent shooter (48% from 3 this year)

>The biggest problem is these
>guys just couldn't shoot. They'll bring back guys who shot 36,
>38, and 44 percent, respectively. If Black comes back, he shot
>50% in limited attempts. They'll lose Smith, who can't shoot;
>Alstork, who can't shoot; Finke's a likely transfer too, but
>he also can't shoot. They'll bring in Dosunmu, who can shoot.
>There's reason to hope that next year, they can shoot closer
>to 38% as a team and get that offense humming.

A 91 year old lounge singer just falls ass backwards into a second career? All these young black coaches that could take and run with this opportunity? 'Cism!

KenPom went from 102 to 84 to 30 to 3. Woulda made the Dance easily last year, a title contender this year. In four seasons.

Just like he grew SFA every year and made Oklahoma State immediately better.

And he’s doing it led by a local recruit.

Yeah. Just nudging this up. lol.