bukie

Assuming both Epps and Shannon are healthy (Epps was in concussion protocol for the last week, Shannon had an ankle injury during the BTT game) they have a lot of length and interchangeable parts, as everyone not named Dain Dainja can play and guard anywhere. They did a lot more switching early on in the season and pressured defenses. Now they play mostly straight up, but they'll tinker with lineups during the game until they find something that works both offensively and defensively. If Illinois is engaged from the start, they are a super dangerous team, as they beat UCLA and Texas on the road, took Virginia, Purdue, Indiana, Maryland and Iowa to the brink on the road, and will occasionally look like world beaters, particularly in the second half of games. However, if they are not engaged from the start, they tend to really go through stretches of terrible play, long offensive droughts, and really slow starts (see, every game against Penn State, game vs Missouri, game at Northwestern). Offensively, Illinois is a poor 3 point shooting team that takes a lot of bad 3's (heat checks from the logo, turnaround fadeaway 3's, 3's with a defender in their face), and they don't really have a go-to scorer most of the time (Shannon destroyed UCLA but has been mostly quiet the last month. Meyer is occasionally amazing and occasionally just disappears on both ends of the floor, Hawkins is 100% energy but can take bad shots, Dainja can't make anything more than 5 feet from the rim, and everyone else has been some version of injured/ineffective during the season). They've had injury issues all season between concussion protocols for Shannon, then Harris, then Epps, and a broken foot for Goode, but it looks like everyone might be healthy for one of the few times all season. Defensively, Illinois is one of the best shot blocking teams in the country, and defends well against 2 point baskets, forcing a lot of long jumpshots. They tend to struggle against good 3 point shooting teams that can pass their way through the defensive pressure. When engaged they're a fantastic rebounding team (and when they aren't they can't get a rebound to save their life). I can only assume they'll be ready to go from the jump Thursday, because if not then, then when? WTF? Why all the concussions? I can only assume they practice hard, just wish it translated into games more often. But yeah, they began the year with a 10 player rotation, then Skyy was a disaster and Perrin was upset that they wanted him to do strength training before jumping into game minutes, and Goode broke his foot playing Kansas, and suddenly they're staring at a 7 guy rotation for the majority of the year with 3 freshmen who they weren't really expecting to get majority minutes so early. Then the concussion rotation started and they got really thin really fast, particularly in early January after Skyy Clark left. They played like absolute garbage for 2 weeks before Clark left, which we can only assume was to team chemistry issues where Clark was a starter but was putting in zero effort offensively and defensively. Then he left and they suddenly played amazing for about 6 weeks, despite being without Shannon for 4 games, then without Harris for 4 games, mostly thanks to Mayer being the obvious go-to guy and relishing the role. Then Mayer just took a dive in effort that he's claiming was due to caffeine poisoning or dietary issues or being overworked in practice or having an improper offensive scheme or defensive scheme (there was a new excuse from him after each poor game). The past 3 weeks, then, it's just been they get down big early while pretending they're a good 3 point shooting team, Underwood lays into them at halftime, urging more post play and trying to get Mayer and Hawkins dominating down low, and seeing the team play awesome for the last 20 minutes, only to come up short at IU, Purdue, and against PSU in the BTT (though they were actually on a roll against PSU until about 8 minutes to play, then got jump shot happy again). The only good 3 point shooters they have are Melendez, who has effectively had the yips all season (finally made a 3 the last 2 games) and Goode (who is just finally starting to get into a rhythm after spending 3 months completely out), but most of the 3s are being taken by Shannon and Mayer, who are shooting below 30% from deep the past month. It's like Eamonn Brennan said in the bracket analysis today: the West bracket is totally stacked, but this goofy Illinois team could absolutely win it if they can click like they were before the player health dominoes started.

They will not have to worry about Kansas, Arkansas wins comfortably. Something has got to change, I'd really like to see Underwood replace Mayer in the starting lineup with Epps, Mayer has been terrible lately. In fact, I'd go with a bench rotation of Harris, Goode, Rodgers and Mayer. How’s the guard play for Illinois? Arkansas’ guards are really long and can defend and are the strength of the team. If they get neutralized, the Hogs do not score. Assuming both Epps and Shannon are healthy (Epps was in concussion protocol for the last week, Shannon had an ankle injury during the BTT game) they have a lot of length and interchangeable parts, as everyone not named Dain Dainja can play and guard anywhere. They did a lot more switching early on in the season and pressured defenses. Now they play mostly straight up, but they'll tinker with lineups during the game until they find something that works both offensively and defensively. If Illinois is engaged from the start, they are a super dangerous team, as they beat UCLA and Texas on the road, took Virginia, Purdue, Indiana, Maryland and Iowa to the brink on the road, and will occasionally look like world beaters, particularly in the second half of games. However, if they are not engaged from the start, they tend to really go through stretches of terrible play, long offensive droughts, and really slow starts (see, every game against Penn State, game vs Missouri, game at Northwestern). Offensively, Illinois is a poor 3 point shooting team that takes a lot of bad 3's (heat checks from the logo, turnaround fadeaway 3's, 3's with a defender in their face), and they don't really have a go-to scorer most of the time (Shannon destroyed UCLA but has been mostly quiet the last month. Meyer is occasionally amazing and occasionally just disappears on both ends of the floor, Hawkins is 100% energy but can take bad shots, Dainja can't make anything more than 5 feet from the rim, and everyone else has been some version of injured/ineffective during the season). They've had injury issues all season between concussion protocols for Shannon, then Harris, then Epps, and a broken foot for Goode, but it looks like everyone might be healthy for one of the few times all season. Defensively, Illinois is one of the best shot blocking teams in the country, and defends well against 2 point baskets, forcing a lot of long jumpshots. They tend to struggle against good 3 point shooting teams that can pass their way through the defensive pressure. When engaged they're a fantastic rebounding team (and when they aren't they can't get a rebound to save their life). I can only assume they'll be ready to go from the jump Thursday, because if not then, then when?

I have a feeling the Big 12 will be this year's version of the past couple years of the B1G's "clearly the best conference, but the regular season kind of inflated every team's profile" and teams ended up a bit overseeded and will disappoint in the tournament.

Well, Rutgers is in the NIT. Would have to imagine Michigan is also there, Wisconsin...maybe?

The key against Illinois is to dress in PSU uniforms. Then they don't start playing until there's 2 minutes left.

Couple of Kansases, sure no problem.

I am unreasonably concerned about the bracket selection this year.

The dangers of fouling up 3 at the end of the game: [tweet] [/tweet]

What in the world were those Great Britain uniforms? Did Nike forget they were in the WBC until this morning and someone just laser screened the country over the front?

For those who want to hear immediate in depth analysis of the trade, Robert Mays of The Athletic is doing an emergency podcast right now with Nate Tice and Dane Brugler (Mays is a huge Bears fan and was sold on Fields from the start):

In that case, triple trade down go. Houston, then Indy, then lower end top 10 pick.

Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis finishes his college career with 3664 total points, 3 shy of Pete Maravich's NCAA record, as Detroit loses in their conference tournament. Davis finished the game with 22 points, missing a 3 at the buzzer.

Keep trading down, amass all the picks.

Well, prior to this latest 21 game stretch, the Blackhawks were 8-30, a good 5+ games worse than any other team in the NHL. But now they've gone 13-8 over the last month, and have now passed Anaheim and Columbus in the standings. It's still a draft lottery, but they went from 40% odds to like 20% odds in this streatch. They can still collapse yet, but now there's 20 games left in the season and actually are in a competition with 5-6 other teams for the top spot.

Plus now they've won 5 straight to not only catch up to the rest of the league in points but actually dig themselves out of the cellar.

Ha - thanks! I was really only going to sell it to a group that said they like the culture and want to keep it going. You sold the site to the DuCross brothers?

I did a trade with Houston for 2 and 12 and they went and took Anderson with the #1 pick, out of what I can only imagine is spite for winning that last game of the season.

This, this is the best Valentine I've seen this year: [tweet] [/tweet]

Back on the topic of college basketball disaster seasons in this seemingly bizarre season where nobody's sure who's actually good, LSU was 12-1 and receiving votes at the end of December, and since then have lost 11 straight, falling to last in the SEC.

Not unexpected, but bizarre timing since they signed Wes like, what, last week?

There isn't a "Guess what an idiot with 7 SB rings did again?" thread and the playoffs are dead until probably media day next week. There is a "Black Monday" and an offseason thread, though.

The potentially amusing thing here is the US will not automatically qualify for Copa America, they'll have to qualify via a yet-undetermined method (likely this year's Gold Cup) to find the 6 CONCACAF nations that will participate. So they'll be heavily favored, but will have to qualify.

More like the Raid-ed, am I right? Good haul, but a terrible mock pick of a player not even ranked in the top 25 of any reputable draft board right now (hell, CBS has him ranked 43), and at an increasingly less important position. Take the best available line prospect, or if for some reason there's a run on OL/DL in the top 5, take the best available CB in a bind (note, the likeliness of this happening is about none and there's a good chance one of Anderson/Carter/Murphy will be there).

Honest question, if the Bears don't end up finding a trade package they like, and end up just taking Carter or Anderson with the #1 pick, is that a successful use of draft capital at the top?

Sometimes teams just have "their guy" and will trade almost anything to get him, even if it means trading up just one spot.