It seems that Groce has now reached Jay Cutler status in your world.

 

I'm more passionate about Illinois basketball than any other sport so I tend to go overboard with my posts. I would trade every Bulls, Sox, Bears and Blackhawks championship for one Illinois championship. That's where my fandom in sports lives and dies. And it kills me that simple things are not done right, repeatedly. And the program continues to be mediocre save for a few bright spots for almost a decade now. Let's put it this way: 2 years ago I was a 100% believer that Groce was going to get Illinois back into the national discussion again on an annual basis. Now? It's probably 40%. He continues to disappoint me with some pretty obvious stuff. His leash with players is way too long. I get that's part long-term coaching (don't want to kill a guy's confidence so early in conference play) and part style of play, but it's infuriating that he can't coach the players to read who is hot and who should be getting the ball at important junctures in the game.

 

His recruiting at this point has been good but not spectacular. He's really no better than Weber on average. He's obviously got much more potential and it's nice that he's in on the big boys but he's yet to reel one in. Missing on Ulis was big, but somewhat understandable given he was a late bloomer. Bates-Diop was a bigger miss, right next door. The handling of Brunson is well documented and I think the reason we didn't get him.

 

His coaching in terms of play designs is excellent. Always impressed with his out of bounds plays.

 

His coaching in terms of development has been pretty solid, I guess, but there's not much sample size here. Morgan and Colbert haven't improved at all. Nunn and Hill improved, but how much of that is their natural talent and just getting bigger and how much is coaching. Tate didn't improve his shot at all. Rice may or may not have developed without the coaching staff. This one is too difficult to tell right now, when Black, Finke, JCL, etc. develop we'll see.

 

His coaching in terms of halftime adjustments has been average. They routinely lose leads in the 2nd half and there are rarely adjustments to stop the onslaught.

 

His coaching in terms of substitutions is downright terrible. His biggest issue. He has really strange reads on momentum. A game like last night, Tate was actually playing really well despite not scoring the ball. He penetrates. He kicks. He plays very solid defense. He just has a knack for setting guys up. Yes, it sucks that he can't hit a jumpshot, but so long as he penetrates he's finding guys that can hit jumpshots. Starks...ugh. Groce and Co. will point to the 3-4 jumpshots he hit which were big, but so many terrible shots. 17 games in that shots haven't stopped. It's crazy that he hasn't gotten benched at least to send a message to play smarter.

 

And the misc. coaching (use of timeouts, getting T's, working the refs, etc.) is probably average. He doesn't appear to get calls, but I suppose that has more to do with longevity and success than anything else.

Since the defender can sag off of Tate, he can not only stop Tate from penetrating, he can also easily help cut off drives from the wings. This is a big problem for a player like Hill whose game is so reliant on driving to the hoop.

 

 

Since the defender can sag off of Tate, he can not only stop Tate from penetrating, he can also easily help cut off drives from the wings. This is a big problem for a player like Hill whose game is so reliant on driving to the hoop.

 

I thought Tate drove the ball pretty well last night. And I also think if you look at the numbers, when Tate was playing it happened to be when guys were hitting their shots. That's mostly because Tate was driving and dishing to Cosby and Nunn when they were wide open, instead of Starks dribbling the ball for 15 seconds on the perimeter and then passing to someone being guarded closely, resulting in a contested shot.

 

It's having a legit PG who sets up teammates versus a rec league guard who dribbles the ball up the court. I'm making Tate out to be some All-Big Ten player when he's clearly not, but I just think the entire offense runs better with him in the game. Illinois went on a big run to get up 11 or so and Starks comes in and Illinois immediately goes cold. I don't think it's a coincidence.

Tate was 0-3 for 0 points with 2 assists last night in 17 minutes. Starks was 4-13 for 10 points with 4 assists in 24 minutes. I agree that the offense seems to run better with Tate out there, but I can't fault Groce too much for playing one terrible guard slightly more than the other terrible guard. Tate probably should have been in there at the end because Starks has more than established himself as a chucker, but at the same time Starks is also 93.3% from the free throw line right now.

 

 

D'Angelo Russell one and done?

Yay Heads!

Yay Heads!

 

 

Yay me!

 

How fun is the Big 12 going to be this year?

These two teams may have their holes, but Indiana-Illinois games are always fun.

Yay me!

 

How fun is the Big 12 going to be this year?

Poor Texas Tech.

This has not been a pleasant first 5 minutes.

I enjoyed the next 2:30 much more.

The Illini are so much worse when Starks is in the game.

Ridiculous that the Nunn basket didn't count. Should have been going to the line for a 3 pt play. And I would literally never pass the ball to Egwu unless he was wide open under the rim if I was an Illinois guard. He is horrible in the post, does a s***ty job sealing the guy guarding him and he has terrible hands.

Egwu seriously sucks and looks like the Northwestern game was an aberration for Cosby and not a return to his Seton Hall form.

I enjoyed the next 2:30 much more.

 

You're an Indiana fan......?

That ally-oop layup was ridiculous.

Ahmad Starks playing a fantastic second half. Easily the best he has looked in an Illini uniform. No if only he and Cosby can play well at the same time.

Black showing of his potential too. Real nice to see them respond down 10.

Cosby. Jesus. Dumbest fouls in every game.

Tate can not get a call. Blow on Yogi wrong and he gets it come on.

Wow that last call against Egwu was awful. It isn't a foul when you can get the ball cause you are taller than the other guy.

Helluva game however this ends.

That Leron Black missed bunny is looking like the difference if Illinois loses right now. Too bad cause he played a really good game.

Good game. I felt like the game really turned when the Illini were up by 9 and brought egwu back in the game. Egwu was pretty bad today. It just seemed like a bad matchup for him.

Good game. I felt like the game really turned when the Illini were up by 9 and brought egwu back in the game. Egwu was pretty bad today. It just seemed like a bad matchup for him.

 

He just isn't good. He was playing against a bad frontcourt and he still can't do anything. He is also still a really bad rebounder.