Still going with this angle even though you were clowned about it last year? Good stuff.

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There's always next year

the team played pretty good, and if some of these shots went down, they woulda won.

This was an even matchup despite the fuckin score.

Bad Illinois showed up early and they could never claw back in the game. They’ve been awful about taking care of the ball all season but you can’t just throw it around like that in the NCAA tournament. I’d love to see Riley and Jakucionis come back next year, neither of them is ready for the NBA and a game like today really showed it, but realize with agents in your ear and the thought of big money they will likely be gone and buried on a bench for a few years before playing internationally. Riley should stick around and bulk up for a year at least. Will be an interesting offseason and nice to see the Illini able to reload. Only one senior on the team was Humrichous who was a big disappointment as a transfer this year. He brought size and rebounding but couldn’t shoot as well as advertised. I’m sure we will get some guys who hit the portal to leave Champaign and we will have Ty Rodgers back. One of the more underperforming teams in recent memory.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Disappointing game, the early turnovers were hard to stomach. They did show some fight, thank God Boswell came to play. As far as KJ goes, good luck to any NBA team rolling the dice on him. He is so loose with the ball he is a liability, even with his offensive skills. I was puzzled why it took so long for Underwood to take the ball out of his hands in this game as far as playing point and bring the ball up the court. Personally, I am ready for him to be gone. For all the fancy passing and admittedly clutch shooting, he is a turnover machine and I just don't enjoy watching him play as much as I should. I'd love to see Riley, Morez, Ivisic and Boswell back next year, i think that core plus whoever Underwood brings in would lead to another successful season. I just can't handle another year of KJ, but I am sure I am in the minority on that, I just personally find his mistakes unbearable and he seemingly did nothing to clean it up all year, if anything it got worse. I can't see any way he ever sees the floor in an actual NBA game playing like he does, but every seems to think he is a lottery pick or at least top 10. I hope he is.

Fun year everyone, I look forward to seeing who stays and how goes for next season.

This is another strange thing about the strangest team I have ever seen. It's very easy to make the argument that Jakucionis is the best player on this team. And he probably is. But I honestly think they will be better without him.

We're in an era of almost positionless basketball. 7 footers stand out beyond the arc and fire threes. And players are allowed to do so much carrying and traveling that ball handling skills have taken a backseat to other things. But you can see with a team like the Illini how important having a real ball handler can be.

The things that sank this team were continuing to fire up threes when they are obviously so terrible at it and having a number one ball handler who turns it over so much.

But I mainly blame Underwood for this team not reaching its potential. There are coaches who would have done a lot more with the talent Illinois had.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

I've been praising Tre White for his ability to hit open three's, so it figures he missed wide open back-to-back threes yesterday that would have brought the Kentucky lead down to 5 or 6 late in the game. No matter how you slice it, Illinois flunked the eye test yesterday from the get-go. They never looked like the better team. And while they did win the rebound battle, they weren't getting the second-chance points they need for the "chuck it up" offense the run to work. Kentucky has many more skilled players than a team like Xavier, and Illinois have proven over and over they can't beat teams like that.

Oh, and Brad, while you are out shopping for next years team, please find one of these lights out 3-point shooters that seemingly every team has EXCEPT Illinois. Thank you.

I was think the same thing yesterday. Go find another Doug Altenberger.

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Arkansas and St. John’s don’t have them either, they were a combined 4-40 something from 3.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

When you have 14 turnovers and 12 assists in your 35th game of the season, there's only one guy you need to look at and that's Coach Brandon Johnson.

The Better the competition, the worst that KJ performs. Which doesn't bode well for his future NBA prospects it would seem. Underwood allowed him to play with too much freedom this year. Which was apparent on one of their last plays of the game when he jacked up 2 consecutive contested 3 point shots with the team down 6 with a guy wide open 10 feet away.

This team should have made more noise given the level of talent that it possessed but it seemed that Underwood had difficulty identifying roles. You cannot have your role players behaving as if they are star players. And when I watched Illinois play that occurred far too often. It seemed that everyone on the roster save for Morez Johnson, had the green light to jack up 3's whenever they wanted. And I can even remember Underwood stating that his goal was to shoot 40 3s in every game or something stupid like that. When their offense happened to click, it clicked because they happened to play downhill more often than not. But some reason they were married to the 3 even though their 3 point shooting was rather bad.

They also were a terrible defensive team too. Couldn't handle 3 point shooting and also couldn't defend anyone's guards at the point of attack either.

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huh? Jakuciounis is considered a lotto pick lock and will definitely not be buried on anyone's bench before giving up and heading to Europe.

Riley considered a 1st round lock and will also get plenty of NBA opportunities.


Weird take from bitter Illini fan.

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Uhm, I think you're saying the same thing here.

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Spoken like a guy who watched very little Illini basketball this season. Also as a supposed NBA fan you should know that just because he might be a lotto pick that he isn't going to break right into a starting lineup in the NBA. He doesn't have the ball skills that translate well to the NBA game and he makes a lot of risky passes that will be picked off in the pro game. His jumper is not ready for primetime either. Not a bitter fan at all. I just believe that he and Riley need more seasoning in college to be more successful pros instead of going for the money grab. We've seen this happen for years now where the next big thing leaves college as a freshman or sophomore and get flushed out the bottom of the NBA without reaching their potential.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

There is no way KJ is ready to break into an NBA starting lineup right now. The volume of turnovers alone will keep him from ever seeing the floor. I'll say this about him - he is still very young, and clearly has elite traits. There is no question he would benefit from an additional year in college. Riley also has the skills, but does NOT have the body to play a full season of NBA basketball. I think he would be making a big mistake at 18 years old making the jump but I will never fault these guys or ANY player making the jump and getting paid if the opportunity is there.

And so it begins… Carey Booth gone

Less than a day after the Illini's season ended, a report broke that Booth is entering the transfer portal for the second straight year. After appearing in every game for the 2023-24 Irish and starting 19 of them, he came off the bench in 21 games this season and didn't play at all in the Big Ten Tournament or NCAA Tournament.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Who?

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

As long as Ivisic and Morez are in Champaign, that beanpole was never going to get regular minutes. Honestly he played so little it was hard to gauge how good he was. He seemed like he liked to shoot 3's.

I'm not upset about it, just reporting the news. Some interesting and frankly really exciting comments from Underwood about scouting Euro players...

Illinois has a shown a deft ability to navigate the international game, something Underwood thinks fits his team well. So far, the Illini have been reported to be in the running for Serbian 7-footer Aleksa Dimitrijevic and also in the mix for 21-year-old Israeli guard Or Ashkenazi, according to recruiting expert Joe Tipton of On3.com.

"It's a small world that way ... every month, every six weeks, we're somewhere in Europe, our staff," Underwood said this weekend. "It fits our university. We have a very diverse university with a lot of international students. I love coaching them. I think there's a maturity and a love for the game that I have great appreciation for.

"So we're continuing to recruit over there, and (Name, Image and Likeness) has helped us be able to go get some of those top players, and we'll continue to be involved in that market."

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Illini need to sign more studs like this one

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DUmvyhz1j/

you're right, I didn't watch a single Illini game this year. But that doesn't change the point, he's not going to sit on an NBA bench until he decides to leave for Europe. He might sit on the bench all rookie year, but eventually he will get his shot to be a productive NBA player. Just like every other lottery pick.

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Wait a sec. Illinois has two first rounders and they were this bad?

DUH Bears have a GENERATIONAL TALENT at QB and will never win the Stupid Bowl.

it's relative. Wait til you hear about Rutgers who has two top 5 picks and didnt even make the tourney

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Underwood coaching them too?

No one is going to draft a guy that high and not play him at all, just saying he is going to have a struggle getting regular playing time based on what I saw from him this season.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Possibly four after it's all done.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

Pulled up the latest CBS mock draft, and they have the 2 Rutgers players going #2 and #3. Rutgers was 15-17 this year.

There's two Underwoods coaching?

Morez entering the portal. If they lose him it will be a huge blow. He is the one guy (aside from Riley who may also be gone) I have really been excited to see grow down there. Losing him would be crushing to the program.