I dislike Illinois greatly (as a Purdue fan, not in reference to their team build or anything like that), but this loss doesn’t really change my view of them as a team. KJ was out and after running Penn St off the court I think they took this one for granted and got caught sleeping. Obviously not great. Obviously get why Illinois fans would be pissed by the result, but bigger picture I think this team will be fine. Especially if the KJ injury is short term.
Illini fan here that dislikes Purdue for the same reasons you stated (But have a ton of respect for the program). This is a great take. I was at the game and was exactly what it seemed like, a team that thought they'd steamroll a lesser opponent even without their best player, and got caught napping. Not worried the rest of season, so long as KJ comes back soon.
@ sometimes have to remember these are all young college kids. After smoking Oregon and Penn St in the matter of 1 week and hearing all of the national media singing their praises I’m sure they started drinking the Kool-aid a bit and felt like just showing up was going to be enough to win this game at home against USC. Wouldn’t be surprised if this game has a similar effect on this Illinois team and the Michigan loss had on Ohio St football. After losing that game at home that they never should’ve lost you saw a switch flip with Ohio St football and they came ready to play each week after that.
@@BurnerBall I hope you're right and could definitely see that play out that way. Best of luck the rest of the season...I mean, except when you play us! 🤣
Mid T. New name. Also this was a classic Brad game. Where something the other team is doing is killing Illinois over and over and over, and he just watches it happen until the game is over.
I gotta say Kasparas body language the 2 games out has been fantastic!! Standing engaged he is the leader of this team. Body language PhD he wants to be back ...
Underwood has been an A++ recruiter (especially at Illinois' historical standards), and has rescued the program for a damn decade of apathy. He is not without weakness, and is not a Izzo/Self/Hurley level coach. I don't think any Illinois fan would argue that. With that said, this team's variance level was so high going into the season, that we just need to (unfortunately) wait and see. They likely can beat damn near anyone, and they can lose to USC at home. They could win out in the Big Ten season and be a 1 seed, or finish 3 games over .500 and be in the 8/9 game. I think the objective concern here was hit on at the 25:00 mark. Are they a good shooting team? Underwood uses the word "elite" like a college student in a Speech Communications class uses the filler "ummm". One of 3 scenarios may present itself: 1.) the shooting gets better, progresses to the mean (look out, they will dominate everyone), 2.) the team is NOT a great shooting team and we continue to shoot 30+ per game and work at the offensive glass to win games, or 3.) we pull a 2023-24 season and completely pivot the offensive gameplay like we did with Domask last year.
Honestly Illinois lost this game because they had absolutely no energy. They got out rebounded by one of the worst rebounding teams in the country. They also had absolutely zero rim protection .
Illini will be fine. KJ will be back vs Indiana and Illini have two road win opportunities this week, which would take them, to +3 if you follow Sean Harringtons +5 to win the Big Ten theory (which has been dead on accurate the last 4-5 years). As a sidenote, if you like channels where the hosts just blabber off Kenpom/Net/Box score BS, and clearly dont watch the games the recap, this is your follow. Keep up the good work fellas.........
Des Claude from my home State CT. I grew up playing bball with his uncle , a good friend of mine, I know his mother and aunt really well. Des is bucket
At 42:55, Greg says, "What's the hierarchy on Illinois's to-dos? (1) Get Brad's gut figured out. (2) Get Kasparas's forearm figured out. (3) Make sure there is enough sage on the bus for the trip to Bloomington." And Cart agrees, including on the ordering. Nah, come on, guys, Brad's gut is in response to Kasparas's forearm, and the sage is because Kylan's head isn't in the game, like his 6 TO against USC or, historically, like the night at the blackjack table in Las Vegas, when Kyle should have been back at the hotel and resting for a on a Big 12 tournament game. Instead, the forearm fix is the clear #1 (and also fixes Brad's gut), and #2 is where to lump things concerning Kasparas's supporting cast. The truth is that they don't need every cast member on fire, but they do need about half of Ivisic, White, Boswell, Riley, Humrichous and Johnson playing well and scoring (along with Kasparas) to win these critical upcoming games.
illini fan hatred, I can't stand every year the Illini lose several games to weaker teams like USC, and North Western, yet beat higher level opponents like at Oregan. It gets so old. That along with some no-name always having a CAREAR game against us.... So tired of it.... It just gets so OLD! Then followed by Coach saying My bad.... GET BETTER! HOLD YOUR HOME COURT!! BEAT THE TEAMS YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BEAT!!!! DO THE THINGS TO BE GOOD!!!! DAMN..........
Sadly as an Illini fan, I could not agree more. We can say Illinois will be fine and that this loss will light a fire under them, but even if it does, it will come at the cost of their Big Ten title chances
Agree with yall both lmao probably a matter of time before it happens again. To be fair they usually do really well after performances/ results like this. Reminds me of MS game back in 21 where we lost badly but then won like the next 7-9 games straight.... but then it happened again lol
Surprise from Brad's post-game presser was him saying he should've played Tomi more, when Tomi was playing soft and like he was lost the entire time he was on court (on both ends). Other learning from today's podcast is that, like the Illini don't fare well at 11am starts, Greg probably doesn't fare well with 7am video starts...
As a Duke fan , I think Illinois overated . The best two teams in the big ten in opinion are both the Michigan teams . It will come to those teams and one of them is going to make it deep in the big tourn and March madness
I know you’re not gonna win them all but it would be nice if maybe one year BU teams wouldn’t lose to inferior opponents. He lost to 2 of them this year. It’s getting old.
IL wins a lot of games with size or shooting. When those don't work, they need to run an effective offense. Boswell has come a long way, but he needs to drive and dish, not drive and get stuck and miss super tough layups. Frankly KJ doesn't run that great of an offense either if the pick and roll to Tommy doesn't work.
Kasparas brings an energy to this team that you can see on the court. His presence makes everyone else more confident. He’s the head of the snake. Can’t go live long without it.
In reference to KJ, I think you’re on the right track. Brad is visibly annoyed when asked about KJ not playing and it goes against Brad’s toughness code. I’d bet Brad is thinking KJ needs to toughen up.
I'd guess against that. KJ has shown his toughness (including his mental toughness) on the court a bunch of times, and I think Brad knows it. Instead, Sleepers Media's recent guess of an accident, including something Brad didn't like (like Cart's idea, in their last video, of a scooter-related or goofing-around-on-the-snow/ice-related accident, might be about right. I can say, like Greg did, that I carefully re-watched the last 7 mins of the Washington game. Kasparas's arms (both of them) looked great and seemed to be in perfect working order then. So, I think it's very likely that this injury occurred only back in Champaign, after the team came home from that Washington game. Had it been at a pregame warm-up, then it still might be something goofy, like physical play around the rim on a dunk attempt by Kasparas, that similarly disappointed Coach Underwood, as something he often warned the team not to be doing, especially right before games.
These early home tips are always trouble. Factor in no students, no KJ, an unheralded opponent and coming off a 39-point win over Penn State (in which PSU's offensive incompetence was the key factor) and it was definitely a trap game. Defensively, Underwood lost faith in the 'tough twos' strategy in the first half and started pressuring on the perimeter. He admitted that it was a mistake in the post-game presser. Boswell got his third foul early in the second half and it fell largely to DGL to guard Claude for a while, and that went terribly. This change in defensive strategy also hurt Illinois on the defensive glass, which in turn limited their transition opportunities...when you're forcing those mid range shots, you are in better rebounding position than when Ivisic/Morez is constantly having to come help. KJ's absence was felt on both ends. He's an underrated defender and rebounder in addition to his offensive prowess. Supposedly he practiced all week. I think they held him out as a precaustion because we had such an easy time against PSU, who was supposedly a better team than USC. Not totally convinced we would've won with KJ, but it would've been closer, and in a close game, I'll take the team with KJ.
Ivisic being a non-factor is killing Illinois. Preview yall talked about it. When all those shots aren’t falling, why don’t they get the ball inside and force either a double to kick out, or let Tom work
The way I’d look at this as an Illinois fan is Illinois won the Oregon game on the road that they weren’t expected to win, now lost a game at home that they were 100% expected to win. Those two balance out. You go 1-1 in those two games. Had you lost at Oregon and beat USC at home I don’t think anyone would be worried. Don’t let one game cause too much panic. It was a total stinker of a performance. It happens.
You mean 4-loss UConn who struggles in nearly every game? They just went down to the wire against an Ed Cooley team 🤣 I know you’re not acting like #112 rated defense UConn is a force to be reckoned with.
Highly agree with Greg. Illinois isn’t a B1G title team. They’re built better for March. Unfortunately Joe that’s you’ve lost to NW and USC your seed only gets worse.
Illinois deserved to lose this game and I’m glad they did(maybe they will realize they actually need to try). Brad was a terrible coach, but the players were even worse. Brad cannot rebound or shoot for his team and I never want to see Kylan Boswell shoot a 3 pointer again. Tomislav Ivisic is a joke and both he and Morez did not show up. That being said, making up rumors to attack the character of an 18 year old who is likely dealing with some form of tendonitis in his wrist/forearm is a terrible thing to do.
@@noahhagenYTSorry I should’ve been more clear. I meant that a team whose best player is a freshman has a low ceiling. A team whose best player is a tough and tested junior or senior has better odds.
I dislike Illinois greatly (as a Purdue fan, not in reference to their team build or anything like that), but this loss doesn’t really change my view of them as a team. KJ was out and after running Penn St off the court I think they took this one for granted and got caught sleeping. Obviously not great. Obviously get why Illinois fans would be pissed by the result, but bigger picture I think this team will be fine. Especially if the KJ injury is short term.
Illini fan here that dislikes Purdue for the same reasons you stated (But have a ton of respect for the program). This is a great take. I was at the game and was exactly what it seemed like, a team that thought they'd steamroll a lesser opponent even without their best player, and got caught napping. Not worried the rest of season, so long as KJ comes back soon.
@ sometimes have to remember these are all young college kids. After smoking Oregon and Penn St in the matter of 1 week and hearing all of the national media singing their praises I’m sure they started drinking the Kool-aid a bit and felt like just showing up was going to be enough to win this game at home against USC. Wouldn’t be surprised if this game has a similar effect on this Illinois team and the Michigan loss had on Ohio St football. After losing that game at home that they never should’ve lost you saw a switch flip with Ohio St football and they came ready to play each week after that.
@@BurnerBall I hope you're right and could definitely see that play out that way. Best of luck the rest of the season...I mean, except when you play us! 🤣
Sleepers nailed it early - it's a thing that Brad lets people torch us without adjustment & it's a problem. Loyola nightmares revisited
Mid T. New name. Also this was a classic Brad game. Where something the other team is doing is killing Illinois over and over and over, and he just watches it happen until the game is over.
I gotta say Kasparas body language the 2 games out has been fantastic!! Standing engaged he is the leader of this team. Body language PhD he wants to be back ...
If he's the leader that says alot about the roster.
Greg plays Illini fans when they are playing well, but his true feelings come out when they play bad. He hates the Illini 😅
can you blame him
Because they have beaten Michigan 7 straight times.
Underwood has been an A++ recruiter (especially at Illinois' historical standards), and has rescued the program for a damn decade of apathy. He is not without weakness, and is not a Izzo/Self/Hurley level coach. I don't think any Illinois fan would argue that. With that said, this team's variance level was so high going into the season, that we just need to (unfortunately) wait and see. They likely can beat damn near anyone, and they can lose to USC at home. They could win out in the Big Ten season and be a 1 seed, or finish 3 games over .500 and be in the 8/9 game. I think the objective concern here was hit on at the 25:00 mark. Are they a good shooting team? Underwood uses the word "elite" like a college student in a Speech Communications class uses the filler "ummm". One of 3 scenarios may present itself: 1.) the shooting gets better, progresses to the mean (look out, they will dominate everyone), 2.) the team is NOT a great shooting team and we continue to shoot 30+ per game and work at the offensive glass to win games, or 3.) we pull a 2023-24 season and completely pivot the offensive gameplay like we did with Domask last year.
Honestly Illinois lost this game because they had absolutely no energy. They got out rebounded by one of the worst rebounding teams in the country. They also had absolutely zero rim protection .
Illini will be fine. KJ will be back vs Indiana and Illini have two road win opportunities this week, which would take them, to +3 if you follow Sean Harringtons +5 to win the Big Ten theory (which has been dead on accurate the last 4-5 years). As a sidenote, if you like channels where the hosts just blabber off Kenpom/Net/Box score BS, and clearly dont watch the games the recap, this is your follow. Keep up the good work fellas.........
Illinois is 2-11 at 11am starts.
These guys didn't watch the game. It's plain as day.
Des Claude from my home State CT. I grew up playing bball with his uncle , a good friend of mine, I know his mother and aunt really well. Des is bucket
At 42:55, Greg says, "What's the hierarchy on Illinois's to-dos? (1) Get Brad's gut figured out. (2) Get Kasparas's forearm figured out. (3) Make sure there is enough sage on the bus for the trip to Bloomington." And Cart agrees, including on the ordering.
Nah, come on, guys, Brad's gut is in response to Kasparas's forearm, and the sage is because Kylan's head isn't in the game, like his 6 TO against USC or, historically, like the night at the blackjack table in Las Vegas, when Kyle should have been back at the hotel and resting for a on a Big 12 tournament game.
Instead, the forearm fix is the clear #1 (and also fixes Brad's gut), and #2 is where to lump things concerning Kasparas's supporting cast. The truth is that they don't need every cast member on fire, but they do need about half of Ivisic, White, Boswell, Riley, Humrichous and Johnson playing well and scoring (along with Kasparas) to win these critical upcoming games.
illini fan hatred, I can't stand every year the Illini lose several games to weaker teams like USC, and North Western, yet beat higher level opponents like at Oregan. It gets so old. That along with some no-name always having a CAREAR game against us.... So tired of it.... It just gets so OLD! Then followed by Coach saying My bad.... GET BETTER! HOLD YOUR HOME COURT!! BEAT THE TEAMS YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BEAT!!!! DO THE THINGS TO BE GOOD!!!! DAMN..........
Sadly as an Illini fan, I could not agree more. We can say Illinois will be fine and that this loss will light a fire under them, but even if it does, it will come at the cost of their Big Ten title chances
Agree with yall both lmao probably a matter of time before it happens again. To be fair they usually do really well after performances/ results like this. Reminds me of MS game back in 21 where we lost badly but then won like the next 7-9 games straight.... but then it happened again lol
To be fair Desmond Claude is not a no name
Out of curiosity, who is Michigan’s best win this year? UCLA at 31 on kenpom? Or the same Wisconsin team that is Illinois’ best win?
To be fair they've stated Illinois is better than Michigan
Surprise from Brad's post-game presser was him saying he should've played Tomi more, when Tomi was playing soft and like he was lost the entire time he was on court (on both ends). Other learning from today's podcast is that, like the Illini don't fare well at 11am starts, Greg probably doesn't fare well with 7am video starts...
As a Duke fan , I think Illinois overated . The best two teams in the big ten in opinion are both the Michigan teams . It will come to those teams and one of them is going to make it deep in the big tourn and March madness
We’ll see in February at the garden
I know you’re not gonna win them all but it would be nice if maybe one year BU teams wouldn’t lose to inferior opponents. He lost to 2 of them this year. It’s getting old.
IL wins a lot of games with size or shooting. When those don't work, they need to run an effective offense. Boswell has come a long way, but he needs to drive and dish, not drive and get stuck and miss super tough layups. Frankly KJ doesn't run that great of an offense either if the pick and roll to Tommy doesn't work.
Kasparas brings an energy to this team that you can see on the court. His presence makes everyone else more confident. He’s the head of the snake. Can’t go live long without it.
desmond going to be on illinois next year 🤔
In reference to KJ, I think you’re on the right track. Brad is visibly annoyed when asked about KJ not playing and it goes against Brad’s toughness code. I’d bet Brad is thinking KJ needs to toughen up.
I'd guess against that. KJ has shown his toughness (including his mental toughness) on the court a bunch of times, and I think Brad knows it. Instead, Sleepers Media's recent guess of an accident, including something Brad didn't like (like Cart's idea, in their last video, of a scooter-related or goofing-around-on-the-snow/ice-related accident, might be about right. I can say, like Greg did, that I carefully re-watched the last 7 mins of the Washington game. Kasparas's arms (both of them) looked great and seemed to be in perfect working order then. So, I think it's very likely that this injury occurred only back in Champaign, after the team came home from that Washington game. Had it been at a pregame warm-up, then it still might be something goofy, like physical play around the rim on a dunk attempt by Kasparas, that similarly disappointed Coach Underwood, as something he often warned the team not to be doing, especially right before games.
These early home tips are always trouble. Factor in no students, no KJ, an unheralded opponent and coming off a 39-point win over Penn State (in which PSU's offensive incompetence was the key factor) and it was definitely a trap game.
Defensively, Underwood lost faith in the 'tough twos' strategy in the first half and started pressuring on the perimeter. He admitted that it was a mistake in the post-game presser. Boswell got his third foul early in the second half and it fell largely to DGL to guard Claude for a while, and that went terribly. This change in defensive strategy also hurt Illinois on the defensive glass, which in turn limited their transition opportunities...when you're forcing those mid range shots, you are in better rebounding position than when Ivisic/Morez is constantly having to come help.
KJ's absence was felt on both ends. He's an underrated defender and rebounder in addition to his offensive prowess. Supposedly he practiced all week. I think they held him out as a precaustion because we had such an easy time against PSU, who was supposedly a better team than USC. Not totally convinced we would've won with KJ, but it would've been closer, and in a close game, I'll take the team with KJ.
Ivisic being a non-factor is killing Illinois. Preview yall talked about it. When all those shots aren’t falling, why don’t they get the ball inside and force either a double to kick out, or let Tom work
The way I’d look at this as an Illinois fan is Illinois won the Oregon game on the road that they weren’t expected to win, now lost a game at home that they were 100% expected to win. Those two balance out. You go 1-1 in those two games. Had you lost at Oregon and beat USC at home I don’t think anyone would be worried. Don’t let one game cause too much panic. It was a total stinker of a performance. It happens.
Also of note -- the USC game is trending toward being a Q2 loss. Not great but not a catastrophe.
That’s what Kylan gets for trying to summon demons on the court
When the guy you need to be that dawg is going around burning sage before the game... are you really concentrating about the game
KJ dresses but didn't take one dribble or shit in pre gane
And you guys want a rematch with UConn???
You mean 4-loss UConn who struggles in nearly every game? They just went down to the wire against an Ed Cooley team 🤣 I know you’re not acting like #112 rated defense UConn is a force to be reckoned with.
This season? Yeah give me Illinois over UConn on a neutral. Rematch of last year’s teams UConn wins for sure.
I’ve been trying to say this for 2 weeks
Highly agree with Greg. Illinois isn’t a B1G title team. They’re built better for March. Unfortunately Joe that’s you’ve lost to NW and USC your seed only gets worse.
I-L-L
I-N-I
Illinois deserved to lose this game and I’m glad they did(maybe they will realize they actually need to try). Brad was a terrible coach, but the players were even worse. Brad cannot rebound or shoot for his team and I never want to see Kylan Boswell shoot a 3 pointer again. Tomislav Ivisic is a joke and both he and Morez did not show up. That being said, making up rumors to attack the character of an 18 year old who is likely dealing with some form of tendonitis in his wrist/forearm is a terrible thing to do.
Hail Purdue
Do yourself a favor quit covering Illinois Greggy you will not be missed lol!
And just like that Illinois big ten title hopes went down the toilet… Sunday is going to be ugly for Illinois
3 best teams in the big ten are Michigan , Michigan State and Illinois.
They will have at least 6or 7 losses won't win big ten
The Illini’s best player is a freshman = low ceiling.
Top 10 draft pick.
@@noahhagenYTSorry I should’ve been more clear. I meant that a team whose best player is a freshman has a low ceiling. A team whose best player is a tough and tested junior or senior has better odds.
NBA Talent level freshmen win championships all the time in March what’re you talking about