more out of conference wins really is meaningless as they keep expanding how many teams are in the conference so of course that number is going to go up.

We are just around the same stuff. I do not see a good conference right now and I do not see an Illini team that is close to the best in the country. You disagree.

We will see how things shake out in the tournament.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Illini travel to Lincoln tonight for a match up with the Huskers, who happen to be mired in a 6 game losing streak. They got completely hammered over the weekend by the Badgers 83-55. It appears Ivisic will miss yet another game which will hurt down low. If there was a game for the Illini to get well from beyond the 3 point arc, this would be a game I'd be circling.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

This might hurt their March seedings.

i'm referring to Nebraska.

Throw up a bunch of 3's. Doesn't matter how bad we are shooting. Keep doing it.

- Brad Underwood

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These guys stink. Geez.

more like the Road to the final 256, amirite?

“We’re going to keep going at Donovan Clingan," Underwood told NCAA correspondent Andy Katz. "If he blocks a hundred, he blocks a hundred. We’re not backing down. We’re going to do what we do.”

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"Julian's thinking is clearer than Ricky's thinking."

There is definitely no "Plan B" with Underwood, just keep taking as many threes as possible. The Huskers were playing incredibly tight perimeter defense because they knew Underwood would never adjust out of it. At least last year they let Domask back it down, but this year there is NONE of that, just whip it around the perimeter until someone takes a three or they turn the ball over. KJ was terrible last night. For every three he made, he turned the ball over twice it seemed. Losing Ivisic has REALLY hurt this team. Morez is a great balance to Ivisic off the bench, but right now Morez is all by himself. Booth is unplayable and they have no other big men. Ivisic is such a great passer and rebounder he is desperately missed.

Didn't see the game but just reviewing the box score. 17 turnovers to 6 for the Huskers. My god, take care of the ball. 23.8% from three, YUCK. Every game from here on out becomes big. 10 regular season games left and it may be a struggle for them to win 6 of them to get to the 20 win mark. Ivisic is clearly the lynch pin for this team and its success. Hope he can get back on the court soon.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I wouldn't have thought that, but I believe you're correct. You would think you could just plug Johnson in and go right on, but Johnson, for all his ability, is a foul machine.

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Freedom is our Strength.

You can see this is going to be the problem with this team. If they can shoot any reasonable percentage from three, they're very difficult to beat. But it's not like these guys are Steph Curry and Mark Price firing from out there. When they get to the Tournament, there's just no way they're going to string together six straight games where they shoot well enough from outside to win. They may get away with a bad night in the first round- or maybe not- but that's about it.

They have to be able to score other ways when they're having a cold shooting night. It's frustrating because they have the pieces to do that, but Underwood seems completely uninterested.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Johnson is definitely a work on progress. I was expecting way more from him being a big time recruit but he is definitely a bit more limited offensively than I figured. He certainly has had some challenges on defense this season.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

They don't even try to do anything different when they aren't shooting well. Nothing.

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I have no problem with what Johnson has shown so far, I think he has played well. But he isn't 7'2" and doesn't have the ball skills Ivasic does. He is a guy that benefits from Ivisic being in the game, he is the recipient of a lot of those amazing passes. Right now, the guy that is bothering me the most is Humrichous. I think he has a real confidence issue. Sure, he will pop wide open threes, but damn son, you're 6'9" tall, get in there and mix it up and take advantage of those size mismatches you generate. Pump fake and drive and go strong. having him just floating around hoping for wide-open threes and then missing them is really irritating the shit out of me.

He's gotta get some kind of old-timer who knows how to recognize his. This is such an insanely obvious flaw in his coaching that I am surprised that the AD hasn't brought someone in. It's a decent college program and not the Bulls, so not a great comparison, but no one in any sport made better adjustments than the Bulls did, and it was probably due to their assistant coaches. They could have been to a Final Four (not last year, but the year they were the # 1 overall seed). It's just depressing because you see these happening at 5 minutes in and then just before half you know they are going to lose.

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"Julian's thinking is clearer than Ricky's thinking."

Nice comeback win today. Did someone tell them to lay off the 3's in the second half? Look what happened when they did.

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First round exit avoided, bumped up to round of 32 exit.

That was more like it, and it is the formula they should employ more often. They have some good finishers on this team, the three-point shooting should be complimentary to the identity of this team, not the focal point. It is clear that Underwood absolutely changed philosophy at halftime, and after that, they dominated Ohio St. Interestingly, they were at their best when KJ was off the floor, he was benched for a large stretch while Ivisic, Riley, Boswell, Gibbs-Lawhorn and Johnson kicked ass. KJ is undeniably talented, likely the most talented player on the floor, but he is so reckless and turnover-prone it almost isn't worth having him out there. He really needs to settle the fuck down. Ivisic and Morez on the floor at the same time is a formidable pairing, great to have Ivisic back. They have Rutgers and Minnesota coming up, those are winnable games, they have to beat these guys.

They all read the board!

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Freedom is our Strength.

I can't believe they are playing someone with mono who is sleeping 16 hours a day. They say to wait 6-8 weeks. He missed 2 weeks.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

He must have gotten a vaccine!

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Should be an interesting game tonight.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Rough start for the Illini. Still think they can make this a game by half. Stop the turnovers!

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

STOP. LAUNCHING. THREES. You are BAD at it

They should give Humrichous like 4-6 Domask-like back downs a game. He is a really big dude and a matchup nightmare.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

NIT bound if they're lucky. Bad karma for harboring a rapist last year.

Another very ugly loss last night. Everything was back on track until Ivisic got hurt, and when he had to leave Morez quickly got his 4th foul and had to play soft the rest of the game and that was it. KJ was absolutely terrible again last night. I am not sure what happened to this guy, but he went from freshman of the year to almost unplayable in the blink of an eye. Something has gone terribly wrong with this young man and I don't know if he is homesick, or having a crisis of confidence or what, but I have never seen a kid go from so good to so bad so quickly. I really think they need to start Will Riley and just let this kid play, because he is their only source of consistent scoring right now and doesn't seem to have any problem taking charge. I dunno, I keep thinking that as long as they straighten things out by February everything would be OK, but this team keeps getting worse and worse, and they have a gauntlet of ranked teams coming up on the schedule, and they are capable of losing to anyone right now. Start Riley, Ivisic, Johnson, Gibbs-Lawhorn and Boswell and take some of the heat off of KJ for a little while and let him come off the bench.

Most here already thought you were a ridiculous character. You don't need to underline it.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Finally a solid shooting game. I didn’t get to see the game but sounded like they scored a lot of points in the paint. MOFO on point with his call to get Riley more involved on the offensive end.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami