I can’t help but think that probably in 10-20 years we will still be talking about this as the year that could have been.
Illinois came into the season ranked #11.
Kofi Cockburn was preseason B1G player of year and All American. Andre Curbelo was preseason AA by some outlets based on some incredible flashes down the stretch last year.
The losses of two guys who are now doing a pretty good job playing for money were a big concern so we added a bouncy former top 50 athlete in Payne to give some more defensive versatility and a dead eye shooter in Plummer.
Coleman Hawkins impressed all off-season with his development. Austin Hutcherson was healthy and was expected to give us some additional athleticism and shooting on the wing.
Jacob Grandison played for the Finnish team and got a lot of great experience. DaMonte was returning from a season where he shot the three at a very high level.
A lot of us knew being small at guard was going to be a problem unless Goode or Podz could step up.
Then Kofi got suspended.
Trent has a shoulder injury and misses time. Wears a shoulder brace all year.
Curbelo landed on his head and hasn’t been right since. Our preseason AA had two good games all season and was a March no show.
Hutcherson goes down for the season with sports hernia. Guy has absorbed a scholarship for like three years now in exchange for like 30 some minutes total. Feel bad for the kid.
Hawkins shows some flashes early but reverts to bad body language, bad fouls, and losing his cool and mostly rides the pine til late Feb.
Illinois plays something like 9 or 10 different rotations in first 12 games trying to find some kind of spark and chemistry.
Kofi gets a bone bruise then a concussion in first Purdue game and misses two games. Never does look as explosive as he did earlier in season.
BBV and Melendez go down right as Melendez starts becoming an impact player on both ends of the floor and we need depth at the 5 when Kofi is in foul trouble.
Podz and Goode showed signs at times this year but as most non elite freshmen are were often liabilities on D and shaky with the ball and couldn’t supplant the minutes from Williams who despite sucking at offense shut down some really good players all season long.
Payne doesn’t show any progression and is mostly worthless.
Grandison goes down and is not a factor the last three weeks of season after dropping 27 at MSU for a huge road win.
Senior leader Trent Frazier could not hit the broad side of the barn in March posting 11%, 40% , 0%, and 26% shooting in last 4 games. Most of the shots where even close and had no rotation or arc. He had been driving and kicking a lot and that disappeared too. He played his last two games with his left (shooting) eye swelled half shut.
Outside of his four threes against PSU, DaMonte Williams has given us nothing on offense for most of the year.
Half the team gets viral pinkeye the week of the NCAA tourney.
Illinois draws a Chattanooga team with the size and physicality to give us all kinds of problems, and not surprisingly, they do. Their coach instructed them to beat the shit out of us, and they oblige.
After gutting out a supremely ugly win, Illinois gets the much better version of Chattanooga in a Houston squad that is
second in KenPom and a matchup nightmare with an outstanding coach. Illinois hangs tough but gets run off the floor the final five minutes under the recently pressure of Houston’s D.
All season long this team was touted by national media as a title contender because of all the pieces we had. But outside of some stretches early before Curbelo came back, this team always had a lack of cohesion and chemistry and plenty of inconsistent performances. This was always a team that for a lot of reasons played as less than the sum of its parts and the two biggest reasons are the small guards and constant injury issues.
Curbelo was always the Panacea but I think we actually got worse as a unit when he got back. Sure our schedule got tougher, but working someone like that back into a rotation halfway through the season presented plenty of challenges. Especially when you don’t know if you’re going to get Good Belo or Bad Belo. He can play himself right into Good Belo and a big run or play us right out of a game and how do you know which to expect? Total double edged sword.
Same with Plummer. Dude almost had to be on the floor because he can light anyone up at almost any time. But then he gets routinely abused on D and when he’s not hitting he’s an enormous liability. You kinda have to take what you get in the portal and he was certainly a net positive this season, but we cannot be so reliant on midget guards going forward.
All that said, the Illini still won the B1G regular season, had an AA, and gave a team that is frankly better than us 35 mins of competition with two freshmen on the floor for most of that. I had recalibrated my hopes to a S16 appearance after everything had unfolded the way it did, and we still fell short. But props to Houston, their D is going to give Arizona some issues although I still like the Cats to win if Kriisa can return to form.
The recipe for B1G success is not the same as NCAA success. Which is why the B1G continues to struggle in the tourney more often than not and hasn’t won a title. You need height, length, athleticism and bigs that can spread the floor, plus a good draw. Michigan had seen a lot of success the last decade in the tourney by not being like most B1G teams.
If Underwood indeed sticks around (and I’ve said this 50 times probably) I want to see this roster rebuilt with athletic players that can switch on D, attack the basket, draw fouls, spread the floor, be active, etc. even if it costs us some B1G games.
Guys like Melendez and Goode are a great start. Not sure on Podz yet but think he has the tools. Sincere Harris and Ty Rodgers definitely fit this mold. Epps is a big time scorer but undersized and not super athletic much like Trent was coming out of HS. But it’s ok to have a small guard you just can’t have three of them getting huge minutes.
In the post-Kofi era, which I am going to assume started today, I would like to see more modern bigs. Can’t imagine Kofi wants to come back to be beaten and battered for 30 some games again. Teams that rely on guys anything like him are not getting deep in the tourney anymore.
Pretty disappointing ending to a very frustrating season. I don’t have a ton of gripe with the rotations. I mean he threw two freshmen out there today for 20 mins, they played well so he kept them out there, and limited DMW to 20 mins which is what I said the other day I’d like his maximum to be. Not sure why he was back in late but it’s not like we had some magic bullet on the bench other than Bad Belo who obviously did something to piss Brad off earlier. I’ll be surprised if he’s back and honestly I don’t even care anymore.
Flame suit on from everyone who are somehow surprised by this outcome after watching this team struggle to come together or play consistently all season.
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