Agreed with pretty much all of that.  Sounds like Lovie is about to get some optimism on the recruiting front.

I've truly been stunned by how bad Underwood has been.  I don't get how so many people are just accepting this season as lost.  He put himself in that position!

Basketball and football are overrated. I'd much rather be awesome at golf, tennis, and womens volleyball. Country Club U!

On 12/7/2018 at 12:04 PM, Buehrle>Wood said:

Nah, they were not alike at all. That's revisionist history there based on how bad Illinois basketball has been. First off Illini basketball simply has inherent advantages over football. Also Football inherently as a sport flat out needs more time to rebuild. Underwood took over a 20 win team, not some dumpster fire. Obviously what carried that team to 20 wins (Malcolm Hill) was gone but Groce had a great class committed to Illinois to try and bridge that gap. There was not some player abuse scandal like on the football side either. Recruiting has been very poor so it's not like there's much hope on the horizon. Basketball is now staring down a single digit win season while other coaches who took programs the same year as Underwood have seen much greater success. Hopefully Underwood turns it around but theres a lot of work to be done. He's done a bad job so far.

Lovie deserves at least another year. And if the recruiting rumors are true, than perhaps more. He took over a truly unwinnable situation. Basketball was never in that boat.

You are right about football needing more time.  Especially considering the dumpster fire that was Tim Beckman.  But, Groce didn't really have a system.  And because of that, Underwood's rebuild to his system is going to take longer.  I'm not ok with this season so far.  They have been playing just well enough to lose.  But, they aren't far off from what I've seen.  They are REALLY young (like football).  Now if they are struggling next year and have a crappy recruiting class...I will probably move over to your side of the fence.  But, after 1 1/3 seasons, I'm not ready to jump ship yet.