You're a fucking idiot. Underwood is ten times the singer Jim Croce was. Underwood also has dabbled in rap.

In all seriousness, I love that they have a watchable team, and getting to the Elite Eight was a blast. Maybe he learns from this, I don't know. He lacks the kind of experience many coaches his age have.

It seems like he is incredibly popular in Champaign, too.

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But they got him

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He definitely has made Illini basketball relevant again. He gets credit for that. Just don't expect him to out x and o anyone in a big game. He's a bad bench coach

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This is part of the reason the Cubs were horrible for years. Don’t accept mediocrity because it’s a fun experience.

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If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

I've been saying that for a while. It's good to get confirmation of this.

I don't know if that asshole Hurley is a great coach, or just a guy with great talent, but as you or Man of Few Opinions and Many Romantic Conquests said, he certainly made halftime adjustments.

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Yeah, that's the fear. What we don't need is ten years of 19-13 seasons. I'm just torn because of recency bias.

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Hey all I know is that the program is better now than it was before, I’m not out to run him out of town, but he got schooled today and it was obvious. That said Illinois has a decent thing going and next year will be a year of new challenges. I know there is a lot of “championships or nothing” mentality but he’s made Illinois a better program and I can live in a world where illinois is in the mix every year. He’s a good coach in a lot of ways and I’m pretty proud of the program he has helped develop, even if he shit the bed today (which he did in my opinion).

See you all next season. I'm out.

Shoutout to T-Bone, who was almost right on this thread title!

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Hopefully in the NIT.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Any report if Dr. Ken is still with us?

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2018
#ExtendLafleur

What a way to go through life, it's always "The White Man's" fault or the coaches, or in this case both

I'm shocked that in a discussion about Sports, once again Caller Bob decides to bring up race. But hey, he ain't a "race baiter", just ask him.

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Again, an in improvement is nice but that shouldn’t be enough. Bruce Weber was better than this. Don’t settle.

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If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

Weber did well when he had Bill Self recruited players. Not so well when he had to get his own players.
And I'm not mad about an Elite Eight finish. That's solid. But when you watch a Brad Underwood coached game, you kind of see why it might be difficult to ever go much further than that.

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Nobody is complaining specifically about making the Elite Eight. That is great. I just don’t feel confident that their coach is why they got there.

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If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

Congrats to all the Illinois alumni and fans on the forum. Great season and a great tourney run. Team played great ball in the tournament, not many teams get this two week run. Very cool for fans of the Illini.

I don't think that's quite right. Weber had a very specific style of basketball that he wanted to play and he would have been fine if he had been allowed to recruit players to play that system. Instead he succumbed to pressure from boosters who insisted he recruit guys like Jereme Richmond who he didn't really want.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

His "style of play" has nothing to do with the point. The pinnacle of his success occurred when he coached Bill Self Recruited players. That is an irrefutable fact. When he had to win with his own recruits he had far less success.

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Absentee Viewer Bob believes that it is bigoted to actually provide a critique of Underwood's coaching ability. Just Ask him

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Very disappointing and historically bad 2nd half. Painful to watch. It will be interesting to see where the program goes from here, who sticks around, and who comes in from the portal. The way Underwood didn’t make any adjustments is concerning long term but he’s made the Illini relevant again. Groce couldn’t even get the team in the tournament with his players. Ive been doing this thread for a few years now and it’s always fun to talk Illinois hoops with other fans on here. I never would have guessed they’d be an Elite 8 team so it was a fun ride while it lasted.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I've enjoyed having something to root for in march. With the hawks being bad, we haven't had that for some time. Of course I wish it lasted another week but still, it is a decent bridge to the draft and schedule release.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Losing in the Elite Eight to possibly the best team in the country is nothing to be ashamed of. Completely collapsing in the 2nd half after showing you had the pieces to play with them is something to be ashamed of. That's on Underwood. There is no way that a team with the talent Illinois has should ever allow someone to go on a 30-0 run. They completely melted down. And it's not like UCONN's talent is all that great. No team in college happens to be.
As far as Underwood goes you can't fire him. He has made Illinois relevant again and has shown that he will continually keep them in the top 15-20 range. However he has also consistently shown that he will be outclassed in games that matter regardless of his talent. Thus Elite Eight is probably his ceiling. And if that's it, that isn't all that bad.

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The point is, those weren't really "his" recruits. They were players that were forced on him by the demands of boosters.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

Do you ever not fabricate information? Just Asking A Question. Jereme Richmond wasn’t "forced" on him by anyone. He was a top 5 recruit that Weber recruited from the moment he entered high school and committed early in his high school career. Every team in the country wanted him. There was no "forcing" of anything.

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Why do you follow up MANY of your questions, which are easily identifiable as questions by your use of the question mark, with the statement, "Just asking a question?" Seems redundant to me but I am not an educator. Just curious.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

He didn't do all that great at Kansas St. with players he recruited. Did he succumb to booster pressure there as well? If so, maybe he's just a punk-ass bItch. If not, maybe he's just a pretty good coach and nothing more.

As far as Underwood goes, he routinely gets outcoached. It happened against Loyola, happened against UConn, and will continue to happen for the rest of his career. But maybe that doesn't matter as much if he can continue to find players like Shannon and the rest of this group.

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Underwood is a great coach, he should get a lifetime extension.

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

Giving him.an extension after that embarrassing 30-0 run and stupid game plan that he doubled down on in the 2d half would be an Illinois thing to do.

Let's hope so.

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

Absentee viewer Caller Bob thought the game plan was great and Underwood just happened to lose to a better team.

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