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NCAA basketball 2014-15 thread


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QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 02:26 PM)
Elite Eight Memories: The Heart-Stopping 2005 Arizona-Illinois Showdown, 10 Years Later

 

10 years ago, sigh.

 

After the 2005 sports year, I never thought the Illini and White Sox would combine for 4 postseason wins in the following 10 years.

 

I thought both were signs of "we're here to stay for a good while." How f***ing wrong was that.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 26, 2015 -> 08:29 AM)
Kenny Battle comments on the current frustration surrounding Illinois program:

 

http://m1.qconline.com/article.html#!/...e5f6780921abf77

 

100% agree with him. It's time Deon, Kenny, SOMEONE from those great Illinois teams gets a spot on the bench. Someone that bleeds orange and blue and can sell it. And can also coach them to be a good, physical team.

Edited by Jenksismybitch
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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 02:26 PM)
100% agree with him. It's time Deon, Kenny, SOMEONE from those great Illinois teams gets a spot on the bench. Someone that bleeds orange and blue and can sell it. And can also coach them to be a good, physical team.

 

Why? What has Kenny Battle done to deserve an Asst. Coaching job? Bill Self didn't have any former players recruiting for him. Jimmy Collins wasn't an Illinois alum. What makes a former player uniquely qualified to recruit and coach at Illinois?

 

And the complaints about recruiting seem overblown to me. This year, barring whatever happens with late signings, Illinois has the 2nd best class in the B1G. I know there isn't a PG in that class, but there is a top 40 player from Indiana - a guy who Illinois was never supposed to have a chance with because no Illinois coach ever landed a meaningful player from Indiana.

 

Until the last 2.5 games of this season, was motivation, or guys not bleeding orange and blue a problem? If you want to complain about x's and o's, fine. Do that. But I fail to see why Kenny Battle is qualified to improve the staff there. Or why a guy who, to my knowledge has never recruited before (or with Deon or Roger ever successfully recruited at a high level) is going to make a huge impact on recruiting because he was a part of a famous Illinois team.

 

This is and has been a rebuild. The talent in the program is on the way up. If the results on the court don't follow in the next year or two, then Groce will be done at Illinois. But I just don't understand why being on the '89 or '05 team makes someone uniquely qualified to lock down Chicago.

 

 

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QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 04:56 PM)
Why? What has Kenny Battle done to deserve an Asst. Coaching job? Bill Self didn't have any former players recruiting for him. Jimmy Collins wasn't an Illinois alum. What makes a former player uniquely qualified to recruit and coach at Illinois?

 

And the complaints about recruiting seem overblown to me. This year, barring whatever happens with late signings, Illinois has the 2nd best class in the B1G. I know there isn't a PG in that class, but there is a top 40 player from Indiana - a guy who Illinois was never supposed to have a chance with because no Illinois coach ever landed a meaningful player from Indiana.

 

Until the last 2.5 games of this season, was motivation, or guys not bleeding orange and blue a problem? If you want to complain about x's and o's, fine. Do that. But I fail to see why Kenny Battle is qualified to improve the staff there. Or why a guy who, to my knowledge has never recruited before (or with Deon or Roger ever successfully recruited at a high level) is going to make a huge impact on recruiting because he was a part of a famous Illinois team.

 

This is and has been a rebuild. The talent in the program is on the way up. If the results on the court don't follow in the next year or two, then Groce will be done at Illinois. But I just don't understand why being on the '89 or '05 team makes someone uniquely qualified to lock down Chicago.

 

I don't see the talent in the program being much higher than with Weber. Yeah, better than the last couple of years maybe, but overall Weber had the same types of 75-100 rated recruits as Hill/Nunn. JCL is the first really good recruit, but Bruce got Richmond and Leonard. Shoot, even the hind-sight terrible Abrams/Egwu/Henry/Shaw was top 15 in the country at the time.

 

And I think having guys that sell the program is big, especially if the message is keeping Illinois guys home. You don't think someone like Dee would be an asset? It's the same reason they just hired Juice for the football program. You want to make inroads with Illinois kids and the best way to do it is using recruiters who were in the program and can really sell it. An asst coach selling the school when he's been here for 2-3 years doesn't work as well, IMO. I think Deon Thomas and Kenny Battle and those guys have some credibility throughout Chicagoland. Maybe not with the players directly but with their coaches, parents, etc. who remember who they are and what they did.

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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 04:15 PM)
I don't see the talent in the program being much higher than with Weber. Yeah, better than the last couple of years maybe, but overall Weber had the same types of 75-100 rated recruits as Hill/Nunn. JCL is the first really good recruit, but Bruce got Richmond and Leonard. Shoot, even the hind-sight terrible Abrams/Egwu/Henry/Shaw was top 15 in the country at the time.

 

And I think having guys that sell the program is big, especially if the message is keeping Illinois guys home. You don't think someone like Dee would be an asset? It's the same reason they just hired Juice for the football program. You want to make inroads with Illinois kids and the best way to do it is using recruiters who were in the program and can really sell it. An asst coach selling the school when he's been here for 2-3 years doesn't work as well, IMO. I think Deon Thomas and Kenny Battle and those guys have some credibility throughout Chicagoland. Maybe not with the players directly but with their coaches, parents, etc. who remember who they are and what they did.

 

Black was ranked around the same as JCL (at least on Rivals). Weber had the ship righted from a recruiting standpoint in '09 and '10. But it took a number of years and a number of bad classes to get there. Groce recruited at that level almost from the word go.

 

I would be thrilled if Illinois gave a job to Dee eventually - much like the way they handled Jerrance Howard. Dee has the personality for the job, but he's playing professionally still (pretty sure), so that's a moot point. As far as the other guys go, if they were willing to take a video coordinator job (or whatever Jerrance started as) and work their way up, great. But I still fail to see what qualifies any of those guys to be an assistant on Groce's staff... particularly if xs and os are the biggest problem.

 

EDIT: And on Weber, if the '10 and '11 classes had played to their rankings, Weber would probably still be at Illinois. But they didn't. So the rankings of Weber's last couple classes are irrelevant.

Edited by illinilaw08
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QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 28, 2015 -> 06:30 PM)
Bryce Alford was chosen by the ncaa for a stop sexual assault on campus commercial? I mean really?

 

 

On one hand, the sins of the father shouldn't pass down to the son.

 

OTOH, with all the attention the Pierre Pierce case is STILL getting more than a decade later (like Bruce Pearl/Deon Thomas), it's a bit of poor taste...can you imagine the women involved in the Iowa case seeing Alford doing a commercial and "haunting" them still 13-14 years after they thought it might all be over?

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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 03:22 PM)
I thought both were signs of "we're here to stay for a good while." How f***ing wrong was that.

 

And yet people in this various thread still defended Weber when I said he destroyed Illinois basketball. The guy is a clown who did more damage to Illinois basketball than sanctions in the 90s. He is close to completely destroying KSU as well (although easier to do that than Illinois). Groce isn't doing a good enough job but I'll never forget how much Weber killed Illinois basketball when a good hire post Self had the chance to cement Illinois at the top of the Big 10.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 28, 2015 -> 10:12 PM)
Except for Bryce/Steve Alford and any combination of Bill Walton and Magic Johnson announcing.

I think you're missing the point. Anthony was arrested for soliciting a prostitute and the decision was made shortly after that Anthony would not call the Final 4. Therefore, by "they" I meant the NCAA.

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QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Mar 28, 2015 -> 10:24 PM)
I think you're missing the point. Anthony was arrested for soliciting a prostitute and the decision was made shortly after that Anthony would not call the Final 4. Therefore, by "they" I meant the NCAA.

 

 

Dave Leitao is returning to DePaul as Head Coach. Bobby Hurley and Bryce Drew both turned it down.

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QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 29, 2015 -> 01:55 PM)
Lol wow. Depaul job is a lot worse than I thought.

 

 

The facilities are terrible. The arena isn't on campus. There are many issues. What other D1 school kicks the basketball team out at a certain time so that the Girls Volleyball team can practice. They should have fired Lenti-Ponsetto and gone from there. Oh well.

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QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Mar 29, 2015 -> 02:23 PM)
The facilities are terrible. The arena isn't on campus. There are many issues. What other D1 school kicks the basketball team out at a certain time so that the Girls Volleyball team can practice. They should have fired Lenti-Ponsetto and gone from there. Oh well.

 

They're building a brand new arena in the middle of the third largest city in the country with plenty of talent (enough to get a decent high-major recruit every now and then), have shown they'll pay an obscene amount to an atrocious coach, and actually had some young, hungry, bigger-name up-and-coming head coaches that, who the f*** even knows why, were actually showing interest and interviewing and could breathe some life to a once-proud program...and ponsetto pulls this s***?! An old f***ing retread that absolutely NOBODY wants nor was even looking to hire?! f*** ponsetto. f*** this s***. I'm done.

 

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QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 29, 2015 -> 06:39 PM)
They're building a brand new arena in the middle of the third largest city in the country with plenty of talent (enough to get a decent high-major recruit every now and then), have shown they'll pay an obscene amount to an atrocious coach, and actually had some young, hungry, bigger-name up-and-coming head coaches that, who the f*** even knows why, were actually showing interest and interviewing and could breathe some life to a once-proud program...and ponsetto pulls this s***?! An old f***ing retread that absolutely NOBODY wants nor was even looking to hire?! f*** ponsetto. f*** this s***. I'm done.

 

 

Two of those coaches you speak of did turn the job down though. It's not like they didn't offer Hurley and Drew.

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QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Mar 30, 2015 -> 09:56 AM)
Two of those coaches you speak of did turn the job down though. It's not like they didn't offer Hurley and Drew.

 

Do you honestly think that there was nothing in between them and leitao? You really think that was the very best they could do? C'mon now. There was a chance to at least bring a little buzz to the program and ponsetto continues her streak of making the worst possible decisions she can.

 

Anyways, doesn't matter. Being a DePaul fan has been like being in an abusive relationship. No use in even trying to be optimistic that it'll ever get any better after all this s*** so I'm done for the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

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QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 30, 2015 -> 11:04 AM)
Do you honestly think that there was nothing in between them and leitao? You really think that was the very best they could do? C'mon now. There was a chance to at least bring a little buzz to the program and ponsetto continues her streak of making the worst possible decisions she can.

 

Anyways, doesn't matter. Being a DePaul fan has been like being in an abusive relationship. No use in even trying to be optimistic that it'll ever get any better after all this s*** so I'm done for the foreseeable future.

 

Very possibly, yes. When you have mid-major coaches who don't want to touch your program, that is very telling to what the perception of the job is.

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