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Illinois vs. UCLA

WinOneThisCentury II

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Sep 19, 2021
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Anyone else catch any of this game. Man...it sounds like Illinois stole DePaul's entire recruiting class by adding their assistant coach. I have to tell you...Illinois is long, and athletic. They had a few breaks where it seriously to two seconds to get the layup. They have serious speed on the break and play that aggressive physical defense that Underwood is known for. They are going to be a handful.

I like that our guards will be able to handle the physicality, but these guys are going to be hard to keep off the glass on the offensive end. So far, they have impressed me the most in regard to these early games...with Michigan State right behind. Michigan State has a true Tom Izzo type of team...after a few years of not looking like the old Michigan State.
 
I saw the game and was certainly impressed with the athletes on the floor....was wondering where in the heck do the Illini find these players (??) and now I know and didn't realize this about DePaul's entire recruiting class and assistant coach so thank you for the info.

Crazy/tenacious game in my view.....it wasn't a cohesive/united play from either team. UCLA was mostly Tyger Campbell and Jamie Jaquez playing 37/39 minutes accordingly and way too much one on one basketball controlling the ball 9-23 attempts for Tyger and 8-22 attempts for Jaques....check it out....

As an example, Kris was 10-20 attempts for 29 points and we scored 83 total against SH and UCLA scored 70. The Illini scoring was better distributed, similar to Iowa against SH and you can see this with 79 points...but again, the game was just a bit Helter Skelter for me.....

I am glad though we play the Illini once.....in Iowa City, Feb 4th with no visit to Champaign....:)
 
Shannon (guard) and the big center for Illannoy looked impressive. They are definitely one of the B1G contenders.
 
They had quite the recruiting class, but don't think any of them were showing interest in Depaul. They did flip a kid who was committed to Providence and then Skyy Clark was originally a Kentucky commit.
Their "Illinois Guardians" NIL collective was up and running quickly last year and once Kofi didn't come back that opened up quite a bit of funds for them to go after 2 of the best transfers in the country in Shannon and Mayer. Though Illinois needs to write a check to the Michigan admissions office for how they fumbled the ball on Shannon as that's apparently where he originally wanted to transfer to.
 
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They had quite the recruiting class, but don't think any of them were showing interest in Depaul. They did flip a kid who was committed to Providence and then Skyy Clark was originally a Kentucky commit.
Their "Illinois Guardians" NIL collective was up and running quickly last year and once Kofi didn't come back that opened up quite a bit of funds for them to go after 2 of the best transfers in the country in Shannon and Mayer. Though Illinois needs to write a check to the Michigan admissions office for how they fumbled the ball on Shannon as that's apparently where he originally wanted to transfer to.
Underwood hired a DePaul assistant coach...Tim Anderson and I thought they said a few players flipped to Illinois from DePaul when Anderson took the job. I believe I didn't heard it correctly...he was responsible for some top 100 guys that went to DePaul. I stand corrected.
 
Underwood hired a DePaul assistant coach...Tim Anderson and I thought they said a few players flipped to Illinois from DePaul when Anderson took the job. I believe I didn't heard it correctly...he was responsible for some top 100 guys that went to DePaul. I stand corrected.
Yeah Anderson apparently has some good connections to Montverde which is the #1 prep school in the country the past few years. That's where Clark is out of and is where the kid they just flipped off of Purdue for '23 is out of.
 
The Portal has been a big deal for several Big Ten schools. Illinois and Nebraska are prime examples. Not sure I like it but that is the current world. Hopefully Fran can fill roster holes effectively using either new freshmen or the Portal.
 
They had quite the recruiting class, but don't think any of them were showing interest in Depaul. They did flip a kid who was committed to Providence and then Skyy Clark was originally a Kentucky commit.
Their "Illinois Guardians" NIL collective was up and running quickly last year and once Kofi didn't come back that opened up quite a bit of funds for them to go after 2 of the best transfers in the country in Shannon and Mayer. Though Illinois needs to write a check to the Michigan admissions office for how they fumbled the ball on Shannon as that's apparently where he originally wanted to transfer to.
Key word being apparently … Michigan fans are obsessed with repeating this because they can’t fathom a kid from Chicago coming to Illinois I guess? Doesn’t matter either way!
 
Illinois is diffidently the best team right now in the Big Ten no question. They have everything you need to make the final four. Really impressive.
 
Key word being apparently … Michigan fans are obsessed with repeating this because they can’t fathom a kid from Chicago coming to Illinois I guess? Doesn’t matter either way!
I think that was based on a Hunter Dikenson Twitter hissy fit. Doubt there was any there there. Great player but the kid certainly isn't the brightest bulb...lol.
 
Key word being apparently … Michigan fans are obsessed with repeating this because they can’t fathom a kid from Chicago coming to Illinois I guess? Doesn’t matter either way!
I think that was based on a Hunter Dikenson Twitter hissy fit. Doubt there was any there there. Great player but the kid certainly isn't the brightest bulb...lol.
Eh, I know some Illinois fans that certainly think there's validity to it. TSJ was up and working out with Michigan for a good chunk of time. I think Dickinson insinuated it was Texas Tech's fault though which I don't think that's true. I have heard it had something to do with Michigan not taking some of his coursework from Tech, which for a senior who was close to earning his degree is a pretty big deal. I'm sure they would have figured something out if he really wanted to go there though.
 
Eh, I know some Illinois fans that certainly think there's validity to it. TSJ was up and working out with Michigan for a good chunk of time. I think Dickinson insinuated it was Texas Tech's fault though which I don't think that's true. I have heard it had something to do with Michigan not taking some of his coursework from Tech, which for a senior who was close to earning his degree is a pretty big deal. I'm sure they would have figured something out if he really wanted to go there though.
Meh...like I said...not much there there. Typical insufferable Michigan bs.
 
A really good defensive battle between Illinois and UVA.

Shannon was really good shooting yesterday when he was sizing up his guy. Hasn’t gotten going on catch and shoots.

Still probably a question who Illinois will be looking for late in games. Went to Dainja a couple of times which seems iffy against teams with size like UVA. Shannon couldn’t get much going to the rim. UVA did a great job cutting off his angles.

Still Illinois looked really good these 2 games. No shame in splitting against UCLA and UVA.
 
Illinois is long and athletic. Call me crazy, but I think we can match up with them pretty well.
 
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Illinois is long and athletic. Call me crazy, but I think we can match up with them pretty well.
lol

Ok. Kris blows Hawkins away.

Now...name the rest of the matchups that are going to go "pretty well."

Who matches up "pretty well" with Dainja?

Terrence Shannon?

Sky Clark?

Epps?

Rogers?

Melendez?

Do you think Iowa could stay within 10 points of UCLA on a neutral court right now? I don't.
 
UVA must be pretty good. Every time I stopped by that game today, UVA was leading and they won. Screw Illinois
 
lol

Ok. Kris blows Hawkins away.

Now...name the rest of the matchups that are going to go "pretty well."

Who matches up "pretty well" with Dainja?

Terrence Shannon?

Sky Clark?

Epps?

Rogers?

Melendez?

Do you think Iowa could stay within 10 points of UCLA on a neutral court right now? I don't.
Rebraca has beefed up, he can handle Dainja. My broader point is that each team has a bunch of 6’3” to 6’9” athletes.
 
Illinois is diffidently the best team right now in the Big Ten no question. They have everything you need to make the final four. Really impressive.
Like I said....Illini....a bit helter skelter for me and losing today only helps validate this a bit....best team in the B1G....maybe?? Maybe they will be everything they need to be to make the final four too......?? Long season ahead.... how about Iowa right now??
 
Like I said....Illini....a bit helter skelter for me and losing today only helps validate this a bit....best team in the B1G....maybe?? Maybe they will be everything they need to be to make the final four too......?? Long season ahead.... how about Iowa right now??
UVA played an emotional game, remember the 93 Hawks playing emotional against Michigan St/Michigan after losing Chris Street? No way Iowa was better then those two teams. Virginia came out and beat an extremely talented team in Illinois but don't sleep on Illinois just because they lost to UVA. Illinois will be a player for the Big Title and maybe in the NCAA tournament. No one in the Big Ten is going undefeated this year.
I like Iowa but again Fran has a propensity to manage winnable games into losses, will see if that continues this year.
 
Underwood has had a couple good teams and they've both choked in NCAA tourney, so talk of them being a Final4 team seems premature.
 
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Do you think Iowa could stay within 10 points of UCLA on a neutral court right now? I don't.
Maybe I am dumb but I think we could. I saw UCLA and they are very good. Also sloppy and undisciplined. Our guys can play a little, too.
 
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Underwood has had a couple good teams and they've both choked in NCAA tourney, so talk of them being a Final4 team seems premature.
2021? Sure. 2022? Losing in the Second Round as a 4-seed to a criminally underseeded 5-seed Houston team that went on to the Final Four is not really choking, IMO.
 
2021? Sure. 2022? Losing in the Second Round as a 4-seed to a criminally underseeded 5-seed Houston team that went on to the Final Four is not really choking, IMO.
I think Underwood is great at using the portal and assembling a roster. Really excellent. As an in the moment bench coach? He's average to poor, imo.

That Loyola loss was terrible. He did literally nothing to adjust for the entire game. Huge red flag performance, imo. That dude might never make a sweet sixteen without a ticket.

He's been consistently out coached by the likes of Painter, Turgeon, Izzo and Pikiell. Bennett out coached him badly last night. Sampson schooled him last year.

Yeah...he's won the most games in the B1G over the last few years but I'm telling you ...in the tourney, on short prep against talented staffs? Not impressive at all so far.

jmo

Illinois has a lot more talent than Syracuse but I'll bet you right now that they struggle with them if not outright lose to them because boeheim, even at 102 years old, is 3x the coach that Underwood is.

We'll see....
 
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Maybe I am dumb but I think we could. I saw UCLA and they are very good. Also sloppy and undisciplined. Our guys can play a little, too.
I don't think we have any guard even close to Campbell, Singleton or Clark. We have no answer for Bona.

I think UCLA would kill us. jmo

I think the Duke game will tell us a lot about where we stack up against teams with legit elite talent.
 
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