have this feeling underwood is the next Bill Self. To the point that if Self gets fired or steps down from Kansas over these cheating aligations , Illinois would go after him.
***Official 2019-2020 Transfer Thread***
- Thread starter ruflosn
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have this feeling underwood is the next Bill Self. To the point that if Self gets fired or steps down from Kansas over these cheating aligations , Illinois would go after him.
You are right that we have had either Morris, Weiler-Babb, and Haliburton at the PG spot for seven years now. That is a pretty nice run of stability there.
That being said, our adjusted offensive efficiency was actually slightly higher once Tyrese went out last season. I elaborate on this here --
We will miss Haliburton for his defense more than for his offense. We do not really need to worry if the incoming roster can really score that much.
We need to worry if it can hope to rebound and stop.
If we rebound and play a lot better defense we are just better by default. The offense will come.
Nothing against Nixon and Jacobson, but hopefully replacing their minutes with 3 wings with great length and a mobile 7 footer will help.
Haliburton made a lot of positive plays on that end (blocks, steals, deflections) but I still expect a big improvement as a team.
Size and athleticism wise, we are better. Johnson alone but the freshman could be an added bonus... and hopefully transfers to come.
I’m curious how people would rank our top 7 players. Not starting 5, but just our best players.
I’m curious how people would rank our top 7 players. Not starting 5, but just our best players.
I like Conditt and he has the current edge over Foster, do to experience. I am looking for Foster to move ahead of Conditt fairly quickly however.
I would go with:
Bolton
Johnson
Young
Conditt
Blackwell
Jackson
Foster
If Conditt has a good off-season, he has more upside than Young because of defense and shot blocking.
I would put Harris right there with Johnson.
It's critical we get consistent post offense out of Young/Conditt. If opposing defenses have to cheat or help in the post- it helps jump shooters.
I expect Foster’s game to be much different than Conditt’s. Conditt scores most of his points from the paint. Based on film, Foster can definitely score from the outside.
Conditt definitely over Foster. But I disagree with the fairly quickly. Conditt will explode when it starts to click for him. Foster has a high upside. Let's hope they're both so good that we can have a twin towers setup.
I think they can both be really good, but they are just different. If it clicks for Conditt and Foster can play the 4 that’s big time. But I also just like Foster more at the 5 for offensive purposes.
But this team needs defense more than anything right now.
Prohm needs to figure out what he wants George to do offensively, last year, for whatever reason, we continually ran a high ball screen and fed George the ball between the FT and 3pt line. He always looked lost and he doesn't really seem to be an attack off the dribble or mid range type of guy, he was caught in that spot way too often. It could easily be that GC is running something wrong on that play but Tyrese was giving him the ball in this spot as well, that makes me think it was by design bc I mean its Tyrese, the ball always goes where it is supposed to go. George finding his niche offensively will be a big factor next year, he's skilled, he just needs the ball in spots that set him up to do well.
I think part of it will be in developing a feel for the defense, and adjusting to it. Early last year, Tyrese and George were eating that play up. Then defenses made the adjustment.
That's a common counter to certain PnR coverage. In high ball screens we saw a lot of hard hedging with the heavy help side tagging hard to take the middle away (good defensive adjustment again our bigs that don't shoot the three and when we had a lack of other shooting to create spacing). The general way to attack that are 1) Pick and Pop (GC hasn't displayed an ability to shoot the 3 so this isn't really an option with him on the floor) or 2) a short roll to the FT/elbow ish area). The intent with the short roll is to give the ball handler and out and then you can attack remaining defenders 4 vs 3. The challenge is as you mentioned GC didn't do great shooting the mid range shot or attacking off the bounce. Things were also made more difficult for him by not having great shooters in 1-2 (sometimes 3) other positions so people could help hard off of other players to make it difficult for him to attack. It's an area GC is going to have to develop. He's athletic enough to be successful in that spot. Improving shooting around him would help a lot, less help allowing him to take a dribble and then shoot his jump hook against a smaller help defender should be an area he can be successful. I wouldn't rate Solo as a great mid range shooter, but he did a decent job knocking that 15 footer down late in the season. I also think it's area that XF has a higher potential.
Summary - good defensive adjustment and having poor shooters in several spots on the court makes it tough to counter.
Foster could excel in that role, and if we are able to run both George and him in the same lineups, it presents some interesting options on the roll if defenders help off George.
I’m afraid to see what the defense would look like. GC is athletically capable and makes some good blocks, but he was a mess on defense at the end of last season. I doubt Foster will be better when defending screens on the perimeter.
I don't think next year we'll see a ton of GC and XF together, but I do think it will be a lineup used sparingly. That is some crazy length in the front court that could be fun to watch even if it is only for a single rotation.
