College Basketball 2024-2025

[gflore34]

While Underwood has raised the floor, I do not believe he's the coach to get them over the hump.  Over and over again we see his coaching decencies, once in a great while, such as the Purdue game.  We'll see him make an effective adjustment.  Yesterday, it more of the usual, opponent gets comfortable, Brea, and no attempt is made to throw something different at him.  No doubling, trying to wall Brea up, nothing, and it was a very winnable game that's the most frustrating aspect.

[mul21]

1 minute ago, gflore34 said:

While Underwood has raised the floor, I do not believe he's the coach to get them over the hump.  Over and over again we see his coaching decencies, once in a great while, such as the Purdue game.  We'll see him make an effective adjustment.  Yesterday, it more of the usual, opponent gets comfortable, Brea, and no attempt is made to throw something different at him.  No doubling, trying to wall Brea up, nothing, and it was a very winnable game that's the most frustrating aspect.

Eh, he made a significant adjustment against Xavier in the second half by limiting the number of minutes Ivisic and Johnson were on the floor together because that pairing was killing their offensive flow because of the way Xavier was playing them.  He was damned if he did, damned if he didn't yesterday because whoever KJ was guarding was scoring at will.  

[gflore34]

6 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Eh, he made a significant adjustment against Xavier in the second half by limiting the number of minutes Ivisic and Johnson were on the floor together because that pairing was killing their offensive flow because of the way Xavier was playing them.  He was damned if he did, damned if he didn't yesterday because whoever KJ was guarding was scoring at will.  

I guess so, I still would have liked to have seen an attempt at something different.  I would have sent two trying blitz him maybe, even give a hard foul going for steal, anything to try and knock him off.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Yeah, I see KJ in the lottery in all these mocks and I just don’t get it. Slow, turnover prone PG and a negative on defense.

He’s obviously gone and I’d be pretty shocked if Riley stuck around. Boswell, White, Ivisic and Johnson would be a nice foundation for next year, but they have a lot of work to do in the portal. Last I heard they were in good shape with Dame Sarr, SG from Italy and I believe a former KJ teammate. Sounds like a good Riley replacement. They’ll need someone who can facilitate the offense as well.

Edited March 24, 2025 by Bobson Dugnutt

[gflore34]

3 minutes ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

Yeah, I see KJ in the lottery in all these mocks and I just don’t get it. Slow, turnover prone PG and a negative on defense.

He’s obviously gone and if he pretty shocked if Riley stuck around. Boswell, White, Ivisic and Johnson would be a nice foundation for next year, but they have a lot of work to do in the portal. Last I heard they were in good shape with Dame Sarr, SG from Italy and I believe a former KJ teammate. Sounds like a good Riley replacement. They’ll need someone who can facilitate the offense as well.

KJ leaving may turn out to be a net positive, believe even Underwood will notice his deficiencies outweigh the positives.  Believe he'll go hard after a PG with good handles and plays defense.

[Rex Buckingham]

I believe that KJ will flourish in the NBA with more talented teammates (not that Illinois wasn't a good college team, but they're not a team full of NBA guys). I think some of his issues stemmed from teammates not seeing the game like he did and him feeling like he had to do too much, combined with general inexperience. He has tremendous talent, but he's still 18 and working with the best players in the world (yes, even on a lottery team) will help elevate his game. Sucks that he won't be back for another year, but that's the game now

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I'd say the AD at Drake is on a hot streak. Their last 3 head coaches have gotten jobs leading B1G teams in the past few days.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

5 hours ago, Rex Buckingham said:

I believe that KJ will flourish in the NBA with more talented teammates (not that Illinois wasn't a good college team, but they're not a team full of NBA guys). I think some of his issues stemmed from teammates not seeing the game like he did and him feeling like he had to do too much, combined with general inexperience. He has tremendous talent, but he's still 18 and working with the best players in the world (yes, even on a lottery team) will help elevate his game. Sucks that he won't be back for another year, but that's the game now

I think the “sees the game in a way his teammates can’t” originated with Underwood. He also used to say that about Curbelo. Personally, I think it’s BS. If you’re the PG and you’re constantly throwing the ball away because you’re not in sync with your teammates 35 games into the season, that’s on you. And half his turnovers seem to be on lazy passes 22 feet from the basket.

[Hot Sauce]

21 hours ago, soccer10k said:

SEC with 7 teams in the S16, breaking the record of the ACC in 2016.

Until next year when we will probably have a new record. This is the unfortunate reality of college hoops now. Cinderella is dying by the sword of NIL. 

[soccer10k]

Decent chance Juju Watkins just blew her knee out.

[mul21]

11 hours ago, soccer10k said:

Decent chance Juju Watkins just blew her knee out.

Yeah, it certainly looked that way when it happened and it was confirmed this morning.  Just awful.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Saw the highlight and heard the fans booed for the rest of the game. Give me a break, there was no egregious contact, it was just terrible luck.

[gflore34]

16 hours ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

I think the “sees the game in a way his teammates can’t” originated with Underwood. He also used to say that about Curbelo. Personally, I think it’s BS. If you’re the PG and you’re constantly throwing the ball away because you’re not in sync with your teammates 35 games into the season, that’s on you. And half his turnovers seem to be on lazy passes 22 feet from the basket.

 I think it's addition by subtraction with Jakucionis leaving, his bad TO's fed into runs that put them into big holes from which they never could recover.   The game against Kentucky being the latest example.

[BigbadB]

20 hours ago, gflore34 said:

 I think it's addition by subtraction with Jakucionis leaving, his bad TO's fed into runs that put them into big holes from which they never could recover.   The game against Kentucky being the latest example.

He looked pretty inept on D as well. Not sure how he's a top 10 draft pick based on what I saw of him this season. Kentucky was living in the paint that entire game, also. Very few of their shots were beyond 6 feet.

[Derwood]

Bama is on pace for 120 points and BYU is on pace for 106

[Derwood]

Imagine scoring 88 points in a college basketball game but you lost by 25

[gflore34]

Maryland is done, super early prediction Illini >> Maryland next season, the Terrapins dominance of the Illini will end.  In addition to Queen and Reese, the Terps may also be losing their coach, the Illini are going to wipe the floor with them.

[cwood218]

6 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Maryland is done, super early prediction Illini >> Maryland next season, the Terrapins dominance of the Illini will end.  In addition to Queen and Reese, the Terps may also be losing their coach, the Illini are going to wipe the floor with them.

Where do you think he is going?

[gflore34]

3 minutes ago, cwood218 said:

Where do you think he is going?

There's been speculation about Villanova also, he's been at odds with the football HC over NIL money and the AD just left for SMU.

[Derwood]

Just days after appearing in the tournament for the first time in 33 years, St. Francis announces that they are moving from D1 to D3. Apparently the student athletes found out via a campus wide email

[mul21]

Last night was fun.  I went from 11th place to 4th in my pool and I think I have a great shot at winning if Florida wins it all.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

On 3/24/2025 at 11:22 AM, Bobson Dugnutt said:

Yeah, I see KJ in the lottery in all these mocks and I just don’t get it. Slow, turnover prone PG and a negative on defense.

He’s obviously gone and I’d be pretty shocked if Riley stuck around. Boswell, White, Ivisic and Johnson would be a nice foundation for next year, but they have a lot of work to do in the portal. Last I heard they were in good shape with Dame Sarr, SG from Italy and I believe a former KJ teammate. Sounds like a good Riley replacement. They’ll need someone who can facilitate the offense as well.

So much for this idea. Morez in the transfer portal.

[soccer10k]

Auburn looks terrible. So many careless turnovers and sloppy plays.

EDIT: This post appears to be aging poorly.

Edited March 29, 2025 by soccer10k

[soccer10k]

Last time we had a pretty much chalk EE (2019) we had a pretty awesome EE round and FF. Let's have that again then.

[UMFan83]

Man I can’t complain about a Sweet 16 appearance after winning 8 games the year before but up 9 with 12 mins left, I started to think we had it. Can’t believe they ended up losing by double digits. 

probably better for my mental health that Michigan isn’t facing Michigan State for a trip to the Final Four on Sunday though.