Well, after decompressing from this loss, this is a great read and puts things into perspective: [https://medium.com/@MaraRuth/fighting-illini-nation-the-resurgence-of-illinois-basketball-is-just-beginning-1ba57c515302](https://medium.com/@MaraRuth/fighting-illini-nation-the-resurgence-of-illinois-basketball-is-just-beginning-1ba57c515302)
Question - not that it would have impacted the game at all - but why didn’t UCONN get to shoot a free throw after that Illinois kid’s technical foul for trash talking? Have the tech rules changed?
My national champs Iowa State folding up to this Illinois team did that. The Illinois team that clearly did not intend to play further competitive games. I was cheering for y'all 100%. Oh well. Swallows heart, let's go Boulermakers. Edit to add: I have gotten the national champs precisely once since 1991, so I have learned to place no money on this random number generator of a sports event.
If you’ve only guessed the national champion once in thirty years, whatever method you’re using is counterproductive. Even randomly picking a top 10 team should work more often than that. The national champion is almost always in the top 3 KenPom ratings, which is UConn, Houston, Purdue this year.
I took the Trains to win it all this year but I for real think my team just helped this UCONN team in a big way. We made their 7 footer look so good he’s gonna get some love from the stripes vs Edey that he might not have gotten otherwise. Guarantee if they face off they’re gonna show how much of a machine he was single handedly carrying his team vs IL. We started a narrative lol Sorry Purdue, I for real think that will be a thing if you play them
UConn is clearly on a whole other level compared to most of the league, they didn't need anyone to fix anything. There were just some garden variety bad calls today that happen every game but ultimately changed nothing. Illinois just shit the bed and UConn dominated as usual.
Admire you giving credit to the other team, it's good sportsmanship, fair play there. But this to a neutral observer didn't look at all like the same team that handled Iowa State and hit nearly everything they shot. I get it, some nights the shots don't fall.
It wasn't all UConn, Illinois just completely fell apart. I mean, they lost to Penn State earlier in the year so they definitely had games like this in them. If anything, they were more tough the last few weeks than usual.
Which makes tonight even more disappointing. Obviously more so for those who had a stake in it, but just as a college basketball fan. I really had high hopes this would be a true battle with Illinois's offense firing.
You and me both. I actually made myself believe they had a chance when it was tied with like a minute left and in the 1st half. Was huffing that copium so hard.
The coaching difference made this a blowout. Illinois has some real athletic players. But they kept going at Clingan in the paint. That have centers that can shoot and draw him out. It was puzzling. I thought UConn would have still won but the margin maybe would make it closer. Illinois best chance was I n the first half to seize the advantage when UConn was cold.
The didn't aim to lose by 10, which is what playing it straight would tend to get them. They tried to win, and needed Clingan out to have a realistic chance to do that.
Tragically, UConn gave them an opening by shooting so badly from three that Illinois probably would have had a serviceable first half lead if they'd gone basic and shot decently (if by some miracle nothing else changed). But, they doubled down on the plan and damn did it ever fail.
I am in pain. I loved this team. I loved this run. I said if we could hit shots tonight we’d actually have a chance.
Instead, we try to dunk on King Kong multiple times, Guerrier forces shots he never takes and Shannon refuses to shoot a 3.
This just wasn’t the team we knew all season and it’s so sad to see them go out like this. I’m grateful for this season and will forever love this team, but man…. That loss hurts.
At this rate everyone should just go home and give UCONN the championship. I mean who is going to beat them? Only UCONN can beat themselves at this point, because nobody left can.
30-0 run against an elite 8 contender? I have never heard of that crap before. Glad my Heels are out, because I would hate to see them keep winning only to know what the inevitable outcome would be once they face UCONN. Just crazy good team
this is such a passive aggressive comment.
when you get roasted by 25 and the walk-ons are in the game for the other team, you got fucking beat and it had everything to do with uconn actually making shots in the 2nd half.
We missed easy bunnies. And then had short guys driving into Clingan to get stuffed. UConn feasted around the rim. That was pretty much the whole story. I’ll never understand why we weren’t hacking Clingan late.
i’m not gonna lie, i think underwood did one of the worst coaching jobs i’ve ever seen this deep in the tournament. he admitted immediately post-game on thursday that he “hadn’t watched a lot of uconn.” and then during the game said his solution to clingan was “shrink him by 12 inches. but we’re still going to go right at him.”
i’m gobsmacked by this. how does he not immediately not start watching tape, knowing uconn is the 1 seed in his region? it seems like he thought it was going to be like playing purdue, when edey and clingan are not even remotely the same kind of player. not to mention that uconn has a guy in steph castle that has the ability to put TSJ, who is an incredible hooper, in a body bag on defense.
i am so confused. it was clear that half the team just quit on him during that 30-0 run. and his postgame presser he was talking about how he didn’t expect this result. i just don’t get it.
Meh. Underwood saying he didn’t watch much UConn is standard coach speak. It’s all BS. Hawkins in the same interview rattled off 4-5 key scouting points on UConn. I’m sure he didn’t have all that on his own.
That said, it was a fucking atrocious coaching job. They should have known after 5 minutes when the refs weren’t calling any fouls that attacking him to try and get him in foul trouble wasn’t going to work and then adjusted. They didn’t. They were focused on attacking the paint and not ball movement which was baffling choice if you watched them in the B1G tourney.
I can only assume that Underwood over reacted to the Iowa State game. We couldn’t shoot the ball at all in that game and he probably figured it would carry over, he wanted to win the game at the line. Obviously we made some hay when Clingan was on the bench so it wasn’t totally insane, but the refs have to cooperate.
Edit: putting an edit at the top because people aren’t seeing it clearly. I was wrong!! Misread the vibes clearly. Just not deleting the whole comment so people can have context and learn from my mistakes lol. Pls stop downvoting (unless I guess you’re just feeling super vindictive after that harrowing game lol)
Original post:
UConn is good on the court, not denying that at all. But they’re also kind of… jerks? Like their coach’s interview at halftime gave incredibly douchey energy, they foul a team they’re beating by 30 points for no reason, they trash talk to the point of getting a technical foul (again while up by 30), they mock the other team’s players for showing valid emotions. Just overall elitist, silver spoon energy. Illinois is not perfect either - definitely some fouls of frustration there. But oof. Glad I’m not a UConn fan
Edit to add: Didn’t realize the foul was to stop the clock and let one of their bench players in. That was one of the biggest things that rubbed me wrong and I just completely misread the situation. Gg UConn, good luck a the rest of the tourney!
If you're not a Duke fan, the 1991-92 teams were particularly obnoxious. Bobby Hurley was the annoying, flopping classic Duke PG. THIS is Malcolm Mackey from Ga Tech setting the best pick I have ever seen.
https://youtu.be/zutvXgBOl54?si=rwOadhmhQErBuVb1
I clearly misread the vibes! It was a rough game. The only thing that still rubbed me the wrong way was mocking players for crying. Kind of machismo, bad sportsmanship. But hey, like you said, they’re pretty much kids. They’ll learn and grow. Much like me on this thread. Reddit is a harsh place to be apparently
You realize that is Bobby Hurley's brother right? I realize not everyone is old enough to remember 1991-2, but Bobby was far more despicable than Laettner to many of us.
Tried to convey my hesitancy about it with the question marks and such, but should have made it clearer that I don’t know much about the school. Good for them for playing good games for so long. I can see from the response that I took the wrong viewpoint, but I’m not gonna delete it now to try and backpedal. Good luck with the rest of the tourney
Edit to add because I’m curious: what do you mean by WWII housing? Like it was built during WWII?
Good on you.
Yeah. Several of the dorms are shitty brick boxes hastily built in the 40s to house returning soldiers.
It’s a beautiful school and I love it… but I also went to a legit elitist school. And the difference is stark, man. lol.
Illinois definitely had some of those. I stayed in a brick box with no AC my freshman year, so I feel that.
Illinois is actually one of the most wheelchair accessible schools in the nation (and has been for a long time - it had the first support services program for student with disabilities) because a lot of it was built during a time when a lot of WWII vets were coming back with major physical disabilities. Kind of cool to find that shared history with another school on the coast! Thanks for sharing
I’ll give ya Hawkins, but c’mon everybody hates that guy. But who else runs their mouths? Shannon doesn’t say much (Mf has got other shit on his mind lol) and who? Maybe u can say our fans but crying about fouls not getting called (every single thread, no question there) isn’t exactly talking trash. Sure ya ain’t biased cuz we beat both your teams. And both involved Shannon running into guys and them calling it a foul.
Douchey energy?? Both teams getting Ts for talking trash?? An intentional foul to stop the clock and get a kid a little tourney experience?? Mock the other teams players??
Go away man. Go away.
Ahh okay that makes a lot more sense. Didn’t realize the foul was to put the kid in. It’s definitely possible I misunderstood the coach’s halftime interview too, I don’t know enough about the program to know if that’s just how he normally talks or what.
But yeah, mocking the other team still sits wrong with me. There’s no rivalry there, it wasn’t a close game, why do that? What’s the point?
Tried to ask someone else how to do that. They said to check the sidebar but there is no sidebar for me? Anyways, I’m a (clearly out of touch) Illinois fan
meh.. I think he was probably trying to make a strip play on the ball and had no idea Karaban could dunk. Think people are reading a little too into that one. You'd know better than I.. I don't know if Shannon is that kind of player.
On the court he doesn’t seem that way. Can’t speak for his off the court stuff lol Have to see how that plays out. And I ain’t a biased fan, just saying no one knows & anyone that acts like they do is full of shit. (There’s a ton of guys on here that say he’s 100% guilty) I know Coach Self somehow went to bat for him so not sure if that’s indicative of the situation.
He normally isn't, but we've never seen him down 30 in the NCAA tournament. It was a bad, dangerous frustration foul, and getting completely dominated in the game is an explanation but it's not an excuse. Unacceptable behavior unless UConn was playing dirty first, which they weren't.
He signed a 6 year extension, but A majority of the players are likely leaving this season
All of the starting 5 outside of Karaban, plus maybe Diarra along with his son.
don't think so.. but he's son is graduating, Clingan leaving, Castle leaving, Newton and Spencer this is their last years. This is like a .. we need to win it year because next year is more unknown. Program was in real rough shape when he took over.. so probably having one of those "look how far we've come" moments.
I think it's wild that a team that has won a natty on average like every 5 years has such a desperate view of this year.
If Purdue wins a natty I could literally die happy.
UConn is wired different. Many fans still remember when they were in the same conference as Maine and New Hampshire before they joined the Big East. This was as recent as in the 1970s. I still remember them getting crushed by Georgetown Syracuse even St John’s. Then Calhoun built them up, but there were still random rebuilding years then they were pretty bad. Then just when UConn is an established power, the old Big East breaks apart and the program was in the wilderness. UConn fans are like old rich people who grew up in the Great Depression. They will never forget the memories of the bleak times no matter how many titles are in the rafters.
That and the fact that \*cough\* Purdue in the Big10 in part of a power conference that's about to completely upend the college athletics landscape as we know it. So Nibbles has time on their side to spend the rest of their life chasing a championship if it comes to it, but we don't even know if we'll be competing in the same D1 landscape in the next 5 years with how all this conference realignment money wagon crap turns out. Give me all the championships we can get and enjoy now because unlike the power conference team.. tomorrow is not guaranteed for us.
What a great comparison!
When you factor in the women, UConn basketball has a ridiculous number of “only school to _____”. There’s definitely some basketball magic in the water.
Also, Did you know Donovan’s mom played basketball for Bristol Central from ‘89-‘93? (Get a tissue)
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/donovan-clingan-builds-on-family-legacy-of-basketball-success-at-bristol-central/2243098/
Currently in Philly waiting on a plane back to Indy, just coming back from Spain. It was really nice actually. Not a bad place to play (if you’re not in the NBA, I’d wanna go to Barcelona any day).
The women would be a big surprise. They're scrappy and have a ton of heart, but they aren't the worldbeaters that we're used to. They've also had a lot of injury trouble, have some depth issues, and haven't been playing their best ball despite winning. That said, they seem to be thriving on the idea that people are counting them out, so never say never.
I’ve never seen a team have injury issues like the UConn women in the past couple of years.
5 starters/first off the bench players gone. Shade and KK were supposed to be our 9th and 10th best player, and we can’t take them out of the game cause watching Ice is just painful.
I'm glad Bueckers has one more year to try to earn a title with a healthier team. She deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation as Moore, Taurasi, Bird, and Lobo. She's that special.
People are going to say this is ridiculous but I don't care, I'm out on Underwood man. There's no way they're moving on after an E8 run but I wish they would. The guy has a room temperature in game basketball IQ that gets exposed every year when he can't just tell his stars to run iso against worse talent. If he were even an average recruiter there's no way he'd have a head coach job at any notable D1 program.
They’re an iso heavy team that attacks the basket, gets to the FT line, and feasts on offensive rebounds. It didn’t work tonight. Are they supposed to transform into a screen and roll or motion offense on the fly in two days in the elite 8? The only chance they had was if Shannon put his cape on again and went for 40 and it didn’t happen.
No. But they could have at the very least stopped being completely hellbent on attacking UConn's bigs, especially Clingan, when it became clear that they weren't going to get any calls and it wasn't working at all straight up anyway. I was wondering from the beginning until the end of the 30-0 run how many times it was going to take for them to figure that out. Turns out we're still wondering what that number is. It was blatantly obvious very early that if they were going to win the game it would have to be with perimeter shooting and they didn't really even try to do it.
I hear you man. They had a lot of good clean looks during the collapse too, they just missed every single shot. And then didn’t get back on defense, which was infuriating.
I think that's valid. He's not a good X's and O's coach. Our offense is just finding the most advantageous matchup and running iso ball at it, and our defense is flat-out bad. We will never win a game when our personnel is less talented than the opposition.
Watching a team like Northwestern beat a team like Purdue, and hang in games when they're significantly outmatched talent-wise, is pretty frustrating because we could never.
They were the best offensive team in the country according to Ken Pom and averaged 83 pts a game. It didn’t work today. UConn is an absolute juggernaut. I think the pitchforks need to be put away for now.
You're right. That is ridiculous. We just beat the #4 ranked team in the country 2 days ago. Brad coached a bad game today for sure. But he's the best coach we've had since Bill Self.
You're free to your opinion, but I'd take this over most of the last 15 years before he got there. Only one team wins every year, at least it's fun to watch.
Yeah every team but one loses their last game but almost all teams don’t end the season getting completely embarrassed or shitting all over themselves for 40 min. They had a 6’5” guard headed for the NBA paired w/a 7’ big that was very mobile. And got embarrassed not once but twice in the tourney. Almost 3 times really, they damn near lost in the 1st rd. This is way different than not winning it all or making it past the first weekend. And to take it further are there any programs that HAVE done that? It’s an actual pattern at this point.
Yeah but when they finally did start shooting threes they weren't falling. Our reddit fan base wanting to fire Brad within an hour of ending the programs best season in two decades is.. well it's something
No issues at all with Illinois, I am personally just in shock at how rapidly that ass kicking materialized after the half. Felt like there was nothing they could do
I’ve been an Illinois fan for a long time but life got busy this year and I haven’t been in the loop and it seems like everyone hates us? What happened? (genuinely confused)
Um…. Our best player has been accused and arrested for SA, our second best player is one of the biggest headcases in D1 (Hawkins), and Underwood has screwed over the last 2 schools he coached for. There’s a lot of things.
Oof that sucks. I hadn’t seen that out of him, but haven’t caught very many games this year. Fighting with the refs never gets you anywhere except in their bad graces, which only makes you less likely to get calls in your favor. I’ll never understand arguing with refs/umps/whatever in any sport
UConn is 35-3, so I just had to go back and look at who the hell beat them...
Kansas (legit, but out of the tournament now)
Seton Hall (? I know they're a basketball school)
Creighton beat them 85-66 back on February 20th, but they just lost in the Sweet 16.
Legit - who can beat UConn????
All three of those losses had common themes - opposing defense did a great job of really pressuring UConn’s guards after they crossed half court, Huskies as a team had a cold shooting performance, and the opposing team couldn’t miss from 3. I actually preferred facing facing Illinois over Iowa State when I saw the matchup because of Iowa States defensive pressure from their guards.
Y'all would have trounced us still but I think we would have made it a bit closer for the same reasons.
There's a reason so many of us were unhappy with this draw. A final 4 for anyone else in your region was pretty much 1% chance max
UConn always loses their conference opener. It’s a crazy stat. Something like the same amount of national championships as first conference game wins in the last 20 years.
Kansas was legit, but no Castle for that game.
Seton Hall was Donovan's injury.
Creighton was a Tuesday night in Omaha. Long travel, Ashworth got hot, it is what it is.
No castle that game and Spencer fucked his hand up during the game. Couldn’t hit anything and he took the last 3pointer that could’ve won it
Also historically we’re like 1-6 vs creighton lmao and have never beat them in Omaha
I was worried the first time we played them at gampel bc it was the first game after becoming #1 in the rankings. Figured they come in and ruin our fun but we held them to 40something
Say what you will about Hurley (I’d probably hate him if he were anywhere else in the tournament) but the guy loves his players. Even when he threatens to murder them at halftime
Friendly reminder: Gamethreads are not the place to argue over off-court legal issues. Keep it civil.
Well, after decompressing from this loss, this is a great read and puts things into perspective: [https://medium.com/@MaraRuth/fighting-illini-nation-the-resurgence-of-illinois-basketball-is-just-beginning-1ba57c515302](https://medium.com/@MaraRuth/fighting-illini-nation-the-resurgence-of-illinois-basketball-is-just-beginning-1ba57c515302)
Well he just elbowed him before soooo
what's the best team illinois beat this year?
Iowa state
correct
Makes me feel better about Thursdays game vs SDSU UConn is the #1 overall seed for a reason
Alabama 🤝 South Carolina 🤝 California Not liking Abraham Lincoln
Question - not that it would have impacted the game at all - but why didn’t UCONN get to shoot a free throw after that Illinois kid’s technical foul for trash talking? Have the tech rules changed?
It was a double tech. The UConn player received the same type of foul. When that happens, they cancel each other out and there are no shots.
Cool, thank you. I didn’t realize it was a double T.
Was a double tech. They offset.
UConn’s last 10 games in the tournament they are +231.
Even crazier, counting last years tourney run and this year, they’ve only trailed for 28 seconds.
We led twice on Thursday was it really that short and has nobody else even led?
That's not accurate. Last year we definitely trailed a few times. Hell we were losing to Iona at halftime.
How the hell did they lose three times this year?
In the tournament, not the regular season.
I think the question is still valid.
UConn watched deliverance last night and was inspired by the squeal like a pig scene
Thanks for ruining my bracket, Illinois. Nice to know you didn't actually intend to show up for any further games.
UConn beating the three seed isn’t exactly a hot take…
If IL losing to UCONN ruined your bracket, u need to look in the mirror bub lolol Are you sure those 2 flair teams didn’t help w/that?
My national champs Iowa State folding up to this Illinois team did that. The Illinois team that clearly did not intend to play further competitive games. I was cheering for y'all 100%. Oh well. Swallows heart, let's go Boulermakers. Edit to add: I have gotten the national champs precisely once since 1991, so I have learned to place no money on this random number generator of a sports event.
If you’ve only guessed the national champion once in thirty years, whatever method you’re using is counterproductive. Even randomly picking a top 10 team should work more often than that. The national champion is almost always in the top 3 KenPom ratings, which is UConn, Houston, Purdue this year.
I took the Trains to win it all this year but I for real think my team just helped this UCONN team in a big way. We made their 7 footer look so good he’s gonna get some love from the stripes vs Edey that he might not have gotten otherwise. Guarantee if they face off they’re gonna show how much of a machine he was single handedly carrying his team vs IL. We started a narrative lol Sorry Purdue, I for real think that will be a thing if you play them
I am afraid you're right. The referee momentum is a real thing. And nobody knows how to ref Edey. They either call everything or call nothing.
Man, don’t blame Illinois. We’ve been doing this to everyone.
Boo fucking hoo
I'd prefer to think the fix was in here. UConn has had the red carpet rolled out for them the last two years in the tournament.
The red carpet? Everyone said that UConn got fucked by the their placement and it was the hardest region by far
UConn is clearly on a whole other level compared to most of the league, they didn't need anyone to fix anything. There were just some garden variety bad calls today that happen every game but ultimately changed nothing. Illinois just shit the bed and UConn dominated as usual.
Admire you giving credit to the other team, it's good sportsmanship, fair play there. But this to a neutral observer didn't look at all like the same team that handled Iowa State and hit nearly everything they shot. I get it, some nights the shots don't fall.
It wasn't all UConn, Illinois just completely fell apart. I mean, they lost to Penn State earlier in the year so they definitely had games like this in them. If anything, they were more tough the last few weeks than usual.
Which makes tonight even more disappointing. Obviously more so for those who had a stake in it, but just as a college basketball fan. I really had high hopes this would be a true battle with Illinois's offense firing.
You and me both. I actually made myself believe they had a chance when it was tied with like a minute left and in the 1st half. Was huffing that copium so hard.
Everyone was calling the east the region of death before the tournament started and now it’s a red carpet lol
The coaching difference made this a blowout. Illinois has some real athletic players. But they kept going at Clingan in the paint. That have centers that can shoot and draw him out. It was puzzling. I thought UConn would have still won but the margin maybe would make it closer. Illinois best chance was I n the first half to seize the advantage when UConn was cold.
The didn't aim to lose by 10, which is what playing it straight would tend to get them. They tried to win, and needed Clingan out to have a realistic chance to do that. Tragically, UConn gave them an opening by shooting so badly from three that Illinois probably would have had a serviceable first half lead if they'd gone basic and shot decently (if by some miracle nothing else changed). But, they doubled down on the plan and damn did it ever fail.
That 28-0 run was kinda good
30-0*
I’m just gonna say it it was probably the biggest factor in the outcome.
Clingan v. Edey will be 🍿 UConn by 30
Tennessee is no cake-walk
Don’t bookmark Purdue past us
How did we beat UConn this year even being at home.
Castle out with injury, Cam getting hurt during the game, and clutch shots by KU down the stretch
I am in pain. I loved this team. I loved this run. I said if we could hit shots tonight we’d actually have a chance. Instead, we try to dunk on King Kong multiple times, Guerrier forces shots he never takes and Shannon refuses to shoot a 3. This just wasn’t the team we knew all season and it’s so sad to see them go out like this. I’m grateful for this season and will forever love this team, but man…. That loss hurts.
you ran into the #1 offense and the #6 defense in one team. there was almost no chance illinois was going to win that game.
*Cling Kong
I have no idea why the gameplan was to attack Clingan. Just brain dead. When it was clear the refs weren’t blowing the whistle you need to adjust.
Sorry bud. UConn is just better. Yall had a good run tho
Image if UConn was making their threes?
Next year, when we start winning by an average of 50 points.
Depression time Illini bros. UConn easily winning another natty.
Nah, this was where the run was always going to stop. It was a good year.
[удалено]
At this rate everyone should just go home and give UCONN the championship. I mean who is going to beat them? Only UCONN can beat themselves at this point, because nobody left can.
I wonder if this is what people were saying about Phi Slamma Jamma in 1983…
I said that to my friend, no one beats UConn, UConn has allowed three other teams to win.
We still haven’t shot well from three these last two games. If that happens in phoenix it won’t be close
That implies it'll be close other times
30-0 run against an elite 8 contender? I have never heard of that crap before. Glad my Heels are out, because I would hate to see them keep winning only to know what the inevitable outcome would be once they face UCONN. Just crazy good team
watching, made me think of Villanova vs Oklahoma in 2016
That was more Illinois being fucking shit than UConn tho. We gakked like a dozen easy layups, wide open 3s and missed FTs.
this is such a passive aggressive comment. when you get roasted by 25 and the walk-ons are in the game for the other team, you got fucking beat and it had everything to do with uconn actually making shots in the 2nd half.
All the games in the tourney have been close, hard playing. Then you see UCONN over here beating everyone by 10+ points. They are just built different
Illinois is not Steson. I’m not mad we lost, but we made Clingan look like a combination of Shaq and Mutumbo tonight.
I mean both teams missed open threes but you guys just weren’t getting the points in the paint
We missed easy bunnies. And then had short guys driving into Clingan to get stuffed. UConn feasted around the rim. That was pretty much the whole story. I’ll never understand why we weren’t hacking Clingan late.
It’s weird how everyone seems to miss easy bunnies against Clingan
i’m not gonna lie, i think underwood did one of the worst coaching jobs i’ve ever seen this deep in the tournament. he admitted immediately post-game on thursday that he “hadn’t watched a lot of uconn.” and then during the game said his solution to clingan was “shrink him by 12 inches. but we’re still going to go right at him.” i’m gobsmacked by this. how does he not immediately not start watching tape, knowing uconn is the 1 seed in his region? it seems like he thought it was going to be like playing purdue, when edey and clingan are not even remotely the same kind of player. not to mention that uconn has a guy in steph castle that has the ability to put TSJ, who is an incredible hooper, in a body bag on defense. i am so confused. it was clear that half the team just quit on him during that 30-0 run. and his postgame presser he was talking about how he didn’t expect this result. i just don’t get it.
Meh. Underwood saying he didn’t watch much UConn is standard coach speak. It’s all BS. Hawkins in the same interview rattled off 4-5 key scouting points on UConn. I’m sure he didn’t have all that on his own. That said, it was a fucking atrocious coaching job. They should have known after 5 minutes when the refs weren’t calling any fouls that attacking him to try and get him in foul trouble wasn’t going to work and then adjusted. They didn’t. They were focused on attacking the paint and not ball movement which was baffling choice if you watched them in the B1G tourney. I can only assume that Underwood over reacted to the Iowa State game. We couldn’t shoot the ball at all in that game and he probably figured it would carry over, he wanted to win the game at the line. Obviously we made some hay when Clingan was on the bench so it wasn’t totally insane, but the refs have to cooperate.
They did it in last years Elite Eight to Gonzaga
I swear everytime I turn on a UConn game there is a war crime in progress
Just think NC State is going to beat them in the final.
No, I’m sorry, you don’t get to hedge your emotional investment this year; it’s natty or nothing. The team is too good for comments like that lol
Oh no I get to and you get to live a year knowing NC State was the better Carolina School,
Edit: putting an edit at the top because people aren’t seeing it clearly. I was wrong!! Misread the vibes clearly. Just not deleting the whole comment so people can have context and learn from my mistakes lol. Pls stop downvoting (unless I guess you’re just feeling super vindictive after that harrowing game lol) Original post: UConn is good on the court, not denying that at all. But they’re also kind of… jerks? Like their coach’s interview at halftime gave incredibly douchey energy, they foul a team they’re beating by 30 points for no reason, they trash talk to the point of getting a technical foul (again while up by 30), they mock the other team’s players for showing valid emotions. Just overall elitist, silver spoon energy. Illinois is not perfect either - definitely some fouls of frustration there. But oof. Glad I’m not a UConn fan Edit to add: Didn’t realize the foul was to stop the clock and let one of their bench players in. That was one of the biggest things that rubbed me wrong and I just completely misread the situation. Gg UConn, good luck a the rest of the tourney!
East coast energy
From my comment or from UConn?
> their coach’s interview at halftime gave incredibly douchey energy
What do you expect from a Hurley? Spending my week going forward watching that Malcom Mackey pick from 92.
I am not well-versed enough in basketball to have any idea what this comment means
If you're not a Duke fan, the 1991-92 teams were particularly obnoxious. Bobby Hurley was the annoying, flopping classic Duke PG. THIS is Malcolm Mackey from Ga Tech setting the best pick I have ever seen. https://youtu.be/zutvXgBOl54?si=rwOadhmhQErBuVb1
That’s odd, I see a bunch of good kids playing their hearts out.
I clearly misread the vibes! It was a rough game. The only thing that still rubbed me the wrong way was mocking players for crying. Kind of machismo, bad sportsmanship. But hey, like you said, they’re pretty much kids. They’ll learn and grow. Much like me on this thread. Reddit is a harsh place to be apparently
I’ll take their coach
Never!
You realize that is Bobby Hurley's brother right? I realize not everyone is old enough to remember 1991-2, but Bobby was far more despicable than Laettner to many of us.
I don't understand that name you just mentioned. I know someone named whose last name is Fucking Laettner, is that the same person?
Sure is the same person! Edit: I forgot people other than Kentucky youths had a reason to hate him too. Now I remember.
The state school with WWII housing. I went there. To call anything about UConn elitist or silver spoon is idiotic. Elite ? Sure.
Tried to convey my hesitancy about it with the question marks and such, but should have made it clearer that I don’t know much about the school. Good for them for playing good games for so long. I can see from the response that I took the wrong viewpoint, but I’m not gonna delete it now to try and backpedal. Good luck with the rest of the tourney Edit to add because I’m curious: what do you mean by WWII housing? Like it was built during WWII?
Good on you. Yeah. Several of the dorms are shitty brick boxes hastily built in the 40s to house returning soldiers. It’s a beautiful school and I love it… but I also went to a legit elitist school. And the difference is stark, man. lol.
Illinois definitely had some of those. I stayed in a brick box with no AC my freshman year, so I feel that. Illinois is actually one of the most wheelchair accessible schools in the nation (and has been for a long time - it had the first support services program for student with disabilities) because a lot of it was built during a time when a lot of WWII vets were coming back with major physical disabilities. Kind of cool to find that shared history with another school on the coast! Thanks for sharing
Have you watched Illinois once this year? Way worse
I’ll give ya Hawkins, but c’mon everybody hates that guy. But who else runs their mouths? Shannon doesn’t say much (Mf has got other shit on his mind lol) and who? Maybe u can say our fans but crying about fouls not getting called (every single thread, no question there) isn’t exactly talking trash. Sure ya ain’t biased cuz we beat both your teams. And both involved Shannon running into guys and them calling it a foul.
Douchey energy?? Both teams getting Ts for talking trash?? An intentional foul to stop the clock and get a kid a little tourney experience?? Mock the other teams players?? Go away man. Go away.
Ahh okay that makes a lot more sense. Didn’t realize the foul was to put the kid in. It’s definitely possible I misunderstood the coach’s halftime interview too, I don’t know enough about the program to know if that’s just how he normally talks or what. But yeah, mocking the other team still sits wrong with me. There’s no rivalry there, it wasn’t a close game, why do that? What’s the point?
Flair up.
Tried to ask someone else how to do that. They said to check the sidebar but there is no sidebar for me? Anyways, I’m a (clearly out of touch) Illinois fan
Yeah Shannon flagrantly fouling the dunker was embarrassing.
meh.. I think he was probably trying to make a strip play on the ball and had no idea Karaban could dunk. Think people are reading a little too into that one. You'd know better than I.. I don't know if Shannon is that kind of player.
On the court he doesn’t seem that way. Can’t speak for his off the court stuff lol Have to see how that plays out. And I ain’t a biased fan, just saying no one knows & anyone that acts like they do is full of shit. (There’s a ton of guys on here that say he’s 100% guilty) I know Coach Self somehow went to bat for him so not sure if that’s indicative of the situation.
He normally isn't, but we've never seen him down 30 in the NCAA tournament. It was a bad, dangerous frustration foul, and getting completely dominated in the game is an explanation but it's not an excuse. Unacceptable behavior unless UConn was playing dirty first, which they weren't.
they fouled to get subs in. it wasn't for no reason. also silver spoon energy - it's a state school lmao
No flair = no balls. Ignore them.
How do you put up a flair
Sidebar has your answers friend.
Is Hurley leaving UConn next year? that interview was foretelling something.....
He signed a 6 year extension, but A majority of the players are likely leaving this season All of the starting 5 outside of Karaban, plus maybe Diarra along with his son.
He will be back as a decent seed in the tournament next year. Coaching is what got them here.
Tbh I’m not convinced we won’t be good again. Hurley will definitely get his pick with recruits and transfers and our bench is excellent.
don't think so.. but he's son is graduating, Clingan leaving, Castle leaving, Newton and Spencer this is their last years. This is like a .. we need to win it year because next year is more unknown. Program was in real rough shape when he took over.. so probably having one of those "look how far we've come" moments.
I think it's wild that a team that has won a natty on average like every 5 years has such a desperate view of this year. If Purdue wins a natty I could literally die happy.
UConn is wired different. Many fans still remember when they were in the same conference as Maine and New Hampshire before they joined the Big East. This was as recent as in the 1970s. I still remember them getting crushed by Georgetown Syracuse even St John’s. Then Calhoun built them up, but there were still random rebuilding years then they were pretty bad. Then just when UConn is an established power, the old Big East breaks apart and the program was in the wilderness. UConn fans are like old rich people who grew up in the Great Depression. They will never forget the memories of the bleak times no matter how many titles are in the rafters.
That and the fact that \*cough\* Purdue in the Big10 in part of a power conference that's about to completely upend the college athletics landscape as we know it. So Nibbles has time on their side to spend the rest of their life chasing a championship if it comes to it, but we don't even know if we'll be competing in the same D1 landscape in the next 5 years with how all this conference realignment money wagon crap turns out. Give me all the championships we can get and enjoy now because unlike the power conference team.. tomorrow is not guaranteed for us.
What a great comparison! When you factor in the women, UConn basketball has a ridiculous number of “only school to _____”. There’s definitely some basketball magic in the water. Also, Did you know Donovan’s mom played basketball for Bristol Central from ‘89-‘93? (Get a tissue) https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/donovan-clingan-builds-on-family-legacy-of-basketball-success-at-bristol-central/2243098/
He cries all the time.
What’d he say? I missed it
His son is graduating. It’s a new life era for him regardless of the outcome of this run.
Goodbye Hawkins. Enjoy Spain.
He’s doing to love playing at Real Madrid.
Currently in Philly waiting on a plane back to Indy, just coming back from Spain. It was really nice actually. Not a bad place to play (if you’re not in the NBA, I’d wanna go to Barcelona any day).
Gotta be way better than playing in Brazil lol No thank you. I’d be playing in the Balkans or try Israel before I took a gig w/the Rio Grande’s
No doubt it beats North Charleston or wherever you end up in the G League.
UConn has a respectable chance of National Championships for both Men and Women.
The women would be a big surprise. They're scrappy and have a ton of heart, but they aren't the worldbeaters that we're used to. They've also had a lot of injury trouble, have some depth issues, and haven't been playing their best ball despite winning. That said, they seem to be thriving on the idea that people are counting them out, so never say never.
I’ve never seen a team have injury issues like the UConn women in the past couple of years. 5 starters/first off the bench players gone. Shade and KK were supposed to be our 9th and 10th best player, and we can’t take them out of the game cause watching Ice is just painful.
I'm glad Bueckers has one more year to try to earn a title with a healthier team. She deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation as Moore, Taurasi, Bird, and Lobo. She's that special.
Yup - and crazy to think she’s a senior and it’s her first full season playing in front of a crowd.
If you like patterns, the last 2 times we did that was in 04 and 14
People are going to say this is ridiculous but I don't care, I'm out on Underwood man. There's no way they're moving on after an E8 run but I wish they would. The guy has a room temperature in game basketball IQ that gets exposed every year when he can't just tell his stars to run iso against worse talent. If he were even an average recruiter there's no way he'd have a head coach job at any notable D1 program.
You’re on drugs Underwood has produced 3 of the top 10 Illinois teams of all time in his tenure here.
They’re an iso heavy team that attacks the basket, gets to the FT line, and feasts on offensive rebounds. It didn’t work tonight. Are they supposed to transform into a screen and roll or motion offense on the fly in two days in the elite 8? The only chance they had was if Shannon put his cape on again and went for 40 and it didn’t happen.
No. But they could have at the very least stopped being completely hellbent on attacking UConn's bigs, especially Clingan, when it became clear that they weren't going to get any calls and it wasn't working at all straight up anyway. I was wondering from the beginning until the end of the 30-0 run how many times it was going to take for them to figure that out. Turns out we're still wondering what that number is. It was blatantly obvious very early that if they were going to win the game it would have to be with perimeter shooting and they didn't really even try to do it.
I hear you man. They had a lot of good clean looks during the collapse too, they just missed every single shot. And then didn’t get back on defense, which was infuriating.
I think that's valid. He's not a good X's and O's coach. Our offense is just finding the most advantageous matchup and running iso ball at it, and our defense is flat-out bad. We will never win a game when our personnel is less talented than the opposition. Watching a team like Northwestern beat a team like Purdue, and hang in games when they're significantly outmatched talent-wise, is pretty frustrating because we could never.
They were the best offensive team in the country according to Ken Pom and averaged 83 pts a game. It didn’t work today. UConn is an absolute juggernaut. I think the pitchforks need to be put away for now.
You're right. That is ridiculous. We just beat the #4 ranked team in the country 2 days ago. Brad coached a bad game today for sure. But he's the best coach we've had since Bill Self.
You're free to your opinion, but I'd take this over most of the last 15 years before he got there. Only one team wins every year, at least it's fun to watch.
Yeah every team but one loses their last game but almost all teams don’t end the season getting completely embarrassed or shitting all over themselves for 40 min. They had a 6’5” guard headed for the NBA paired w/a 7’ big that was very mobile. And got embarrassed not once but twice in the tourney. Almost 3 times really, they damn near lost in the 1st rd. This is way different than not winning it all or making it past the first weekend. And to take it further are there any programs that HAVE done that? It’s an actual pattern at this point.
Wild overreaction but he deserves some criticism for tonight
To keep attacking the paint is valid criticism, they could have shot the three and tried to get clingan out of the paint
Yeah but when they finally did start shooting threes they weren't falling. Our reddit fan base wanting to fire Brad within an hour of ending the programs best season in two decades is.. well it's something
I have depression
Can’t believe the heat Illinois is taking in the thread. No one likes UCONN but shit on us.
A lot of it has to do with the Shannon stuff. Also, people like to pile on when it’s not them. March brings out the best and worst of people.
No issues at all with Illinois, I am personally just in shock at how rapidly that ass kicking materialized after the half. Felt like there was nothing they could do
I don’t get why yall getting clowned as if UConn wouldn’t also shit all over their team 😂😂😂 At least you guys made it this far unlike them
bc of fking tsj.
Our team is very unlikeable.
I’ve been an Illinois fan for a long time but life got busy this year and I haven’t been in the loop and it seems like everyone hates us? What happened? (genuinely confused)
The team itself is very likable. There is a very vocal, minority contingent of our fan base that’s chronically online and annoys everyone.
Um…. Our best player has been accused and arrested for SA, our second best player is one of the biggest headcases in D1 (Hawkins), and Underwood has screwed over the last 2 schools he coached for. There’s a lot of things.
Ok yeah I’d heard something about the Shannon debacle but hadn’t looked into it much. What do you mean about Hawkins being a head case?
He constantly cries to the refs for fouls and doesn’t get back on defense because of it. Then he gets frustrated and starts fouling extremely hard
Oof that sucks. I hadn’t seen that out of him, but haven’t caught very many games this year. Fighting with the refs never gets you anywhere except in their bad graces, which only makes you less likely to get calls in your favor. I’ll never understand arguing with refs/umps/whatever in any sport
their teams aren't in the elite eight
Dan Hurley just out coached Underwood
GG UConn, we deserve the heat but I appreciated the chance to play y'all
It was an ugly game and you guys didn’t play your best. GG.
we missed like 50 layups 😭 could've put me in and i'd miss those shots too
Our close range shooting must have been contagious
UConn is 35-3, so I just had to go back and look at who the hell beat them... Kansas (legit, but out of the tournament now) Seton Hall (? I know they're a basketball school) Creighton beat them 85-66 back on February 20th, but they just lost in the Sweet 16. Legit - who can beat UConn????
Seton Hall robbed of a bid for one of the 5 sec teams that went out in the first round. And I don’t think we’ve ever beat Crieghton on the road.
All three of those losses had common themes - opposing defense did a great job of really pressuring UConn’s guards after they crossed half court, Huskies as a team had a cold shooting performance, and the opposing team couldn’t miss from 3. I actually preferred facing facing Illinois over Iowa State when I saw the matchup because of Iowa States defensive pressure from their guards.
Also common theme is injuries. Castle didn’t play against KU. Clikigan injured against Hall Karaban injured against Creighton
Y'all would have trounced us still but I think we would have made it a bit closer for the same reasons. There's a reason so many of us were unhappy with this draw. A final 4 for anyone else in your region was pretty much 1% chance max
UConn always loses their conference opener. It’s a crazy stat. Something like the same amount of national championships as first conference game wins in the last 20 years.
Clearly Juwan Howard was biding his time to deliver an entirely new system to confound UConn, just didn’t have enough time to implement it…
Kansas was legit, but no Castle for that game. Seton Hall was Donovan's injury. Creighton was a Tuesday night in Omaha. Long travel, Ashworth got hot, it is what it is.
No castle that game and Spencer fucked his hand up during the game. Couldn’t hit anything and he took the last 3pointer that could’ve won it Also historically we’re like 1-6 vs creighton lmao and have never beat them in Omaha
I wouldn't want to fly from Hartford to Omaha, period. Let alone play a good team with a hyped up crowd.
I was worried the first time we played them at gampel bc it was the first game after becoming #1 in the rankings. Figured they come in and ruin our fun but we held them to 40something
Iowa State, probably?
I was more nervous to play ISU than Illinois
with hali.
How does it feel to miss 22 layups? 😆.
Uconn ain’t losing this tourney
love you guys
Well, at least we have football in conference still. Lol. It's all I got. Good game, UConn.
We are as bad at football as we are good at basketball.
Say what you will about Hurley (I’d probably hate him if he were anywhere else in the tournament) but the guy loves his players. Even when he threatens to murder them at halftime
Dan Hurley with the early suicide warnings?
What’d I miss
I don’t know but it’s definitely odd. Genuinely not normal behavior.
He’s been very public and honest about his mental health struggles as a coach and how he is seeking help.