nustudent

Seems accurate

I dont see the athletes yet from top to bottom

Again...not advocating taking rapists here. And Im not so concerned about some sketchy character guys. Most teams that win have some of those guys. Key is finding balance.

On a team that struggled to score, while losing its best scorer....I'd say it's a pretty big thing to think about.

Especially when you aren't a duke, Kansas or Kentucky

A. What's that have to do with this. B. Not advocating taking a rapist C. Last I checked, his on the field stuff panned out.

Because you need to win now and in order to do that, you need talent, especially at the position he plays. He's proven to be a productive player. White was a stain too...don't tell me that we were better off without him this year.

I agree that we likely aren't going to get him. Just saying that it'd be a mistake to turn that production away in our situation for fear he is a locker room cancer.

IMO...I think there's little risk at this point. It's basically do or die time. Take the talent.

Good point...you could bring him in and go 12-19 or something. Not sure we are in any position to be turning down (assuming he'd even be interested in us) 19 PPG scorers. Especially at a position where we just lost our best player and is the weak link on the team right now.

A talented guard at a position of need?

New Mexico G Elijah Brown (ave 18.8 ppg) transferring and eligible immediately. Hopefully Chris can steer him our way.

While true...but he obviously felt comfortable enough with location. Dynamite pickup, but hope we are exploring backup options.

Would make sense. Wasn't he committed there for baseball?

Departures Impacting Big 10 teams thus far: Ohio State: Tristan Thompson (declared early for the NBA draft, believe agent was hired so he can't comeback) Penn State: Terrance Samuel and Isaiah Washington (reserves/role players transferring)

John Groce did...howd he do at Illinois? I think Underwood is a good coach. Point is....it's not a guarantee

I can name some guys at Butler, UTEP and Colorado State where it didn't translate

Think Underwood is a good coach. And it may end up being a good hire for Illinois. Certainly not a wow or splash hire though

Agreed. And why are we reserved to the idea that the 13th guy has to be a guy to fill a spot or a stretch. Why can't he be a talented guy? AJB is right in that the rotation is usually 8-9, maybe 10 guys. But personnel never goes as expected here. 1 guy flakes, 1 guy transfers unexpectedly, 1 guy gets hurt...now those 12th and 13th spots become relevant. No such thing as too much depth

Losing a starter didnt help them either

After my trip through Champaign earlier this fall....this could be considered an improvement

Yep.

You can view it as taking shots...but its just the truth. The fact is he wasn't a major conference player but yet started and played a lot of minutes his junior and senior year. Not surprisingly, we struggled. Appreciate his effort, but that doesnt change the fact that when he is starting and playing 25+ minutes a game for you...it means you are pretty thin at guard and probably not very good. And our results supported that. Had a Biggs or Hawkins or Smith or even Webster early on, panned out...Parker plays fewer minutes and we probably have more wins.to show for it

While possibly true....a couple of points... A. Copeland has yet to play 1 minute here. Im super excited for him and think his ceiling is through the roof...but lets keep things in check until he produces here. B. To play devil's advocate, couldn't we say that had we done better at filling needs and holes earlier, maybe the need for Copeland wouldn't be as much? C. Or maybe we wouldn't have taken Taylor and had an opening for Copeland. Point being...a lot of what ifs in this area.

This will probably end up being his undoing. The swings and misses here caused depth, inexperience issues and lesser talented guys like a Parker to play further into Miles tenure than they shouldve. He's upgraded the talent, but the fact he missed early and now also isnt having success with the better talent bases are things you can't combine.