Brad Underwood is losing it.
"No B1G championship means much".
Like this guy hasn't heard about the pandemic having an impact on teams schedules. What an ass.
https://michigan.rivals.com/news/illinois-brad-underwood-no-big-ten-championship-means-much-
"No B1G Championship means much"
I mean, first of all......what in the fuck does that even mean? Is he complimenting us, insulting us, waxing poetic about sports role in the cosmos.....what???? I cant get terribly worked up over some idiot who is incapable of delivering a cut such that the person (or team) he's trying to insult can understand it. I mean isnt that the first rule of trash talking? Make the insult understandable so the person receiving it is offended?
"Hey Michigan. Your laundry wasn't properly separated and you took over 15 items into the express line. SO MAYBE JUST MAYBE THEY SEASON 8 OF G.O.T. SUCKED!!!!!"
The frustration with the condensed scheduling of multiple road games is fine. I would be annoyed too if the schedule had to be changed but they kept the road games and smooshed them into a short window. Moving 3 games back that all happen to be on the road sucks.
That being said, his frustration seems to be without direction and he makes comments like "our guys have done everything right related to Covid" when other programs (like Michigan) did as well.
So be annoyed with the Big Ten rescheduling 3 road games at the end of the season. If you're going to be upset with Michigan, be upset with MSU and Nebraska too, especially since they had positive cases.
The reality is that COVID-shaming people is stupid anyway. You can "do everything right" and still end up with an outbreak. Look at our football team. They were doing great for most of the season when other teams were struggling, and then something happened near the end and all hell broke loose.
Yeah, it was a stupid mistake that UM allowed the kid to come back from the UK and expose people. I'd also argue that it was an overreaction to shut down the team for 3 weeks even though they were acting on recommendations from the state health department. But blaming that on the team, or claiming they were trying to game the system to win a title is just absurd. None of those kids wanted to stop playing.
He's supposed to be a leader of college kids, but he's setting a really terrible example. EVERYONE has been in this S*** for a year now, and we're all trying our best to get through it. For him to be all whiny crybaby about it is just sad.
I don't disagree in the slightest. His frustration with the overall situation is fine. Playing a bunch of rescheduled games late in the year, a lot on the road sucks. No one would disagree.
His thinly veiled references to other programs is what's annoying especially considering he is seemingly unaware of the situations at other schools. Like I said, Michigan did everything "right" but you know he's mad about Michigan specifically. He won't be "mad" about other programs though which shows it's not a frustration with the situation at large, but specific factors within the greater environment (Michigan and the Big Ten colluding to really stick it to a top 5 Illinois basketball program for... reasons?)
They didn't move back three road games. The @Michigan road game that got rescheduled to this week was replaced at the time by another postponed road game (@Nebraska) so that one is a wash. In the end, the only games they really had to make up was @MSU last week and @Michigan this week. Illinois is in the process of playing 5 games in 11 days. Michigan is doing the same thing right now too.
The @Michigan road game that got rescheduled to this week was replaced at the time by another postponed road game (@Nebraska) so that one is a wash.
True. I more meant that they had 3 postponed games that all happened to be on the road and were all rescheduled for the last month of the season. Nebraska's being played almost 20 days ago does take the fatigue part of the equation out of it especially considering it was replacing another road game.
Michigan is doing the same thing right now too.
Yup, but that's not ever going to be his or Illinois' point. They had stoppages, had to play more games overall, a lot on the road yada yada yada. Can't argue with a person that's starting from a place of "Michigan and the Big Ten screwed us."
I can see these sour grapes from Illinois fans, but coming from the head coach is pretty wild.
Illinois is in the process of playing 5 games in 11 days to make up two of their postponed games. Michigan is going to have to do the same this week. I would have liked to have seen Michigan make up one more game (either @PSU or Indiana) to reduce the amount of whining, but it is not going to have made a difference as the three games Michigan is not going to make up are some of the easiest matchups left on paper.
The laughable thing about his comments is that Illinois has benefited from an easier schedule than Iowa, OSU, and even Michigan. Illinois has played all the worst teams in the Big Ten twice (Nebraska, Northwestern, PSU, Minnesota, and Indiana) going 10-0 in those games. Their record against Michigan, Iowa, OSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Maryland: 4-3. Michigan is 8-0 against those same teams (Illinois, Iowa, OSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Maryland).
If Illinois was 15-3 in conference right now I could even see more frustration, because finishing 1 game back in the loss column while playing more games is frustrating.
But they already have 4 losses. Even if they beat us, we would have had to drop 2 more games and they would have to win out for them to catch up if we had the same number of games. With the teams we skipped, does Underwood really think there are 2 Michigan losses in there?
There’s a line in one of the Scott Turow novels about something sounding like it was translated from English to Japanese and then back to English. This is some next level word salad
1. There's a grain of truth to what he's saying. A regular season conference championship is held in less regard these days (to my dismay), as conference tournaments have gained importance. I don't understand why the Big10 would put more weight on a 3 or 4 game season than an 18 game season, but they do. So, if the question is, is a regular season or tournament championship more important, maybe neither means that much.
2. Underwood is of the modern "coach-for-hire" mold. He spends a few years at a school, then takes the next "big" job. To him, and many others, conference championships don't mean as much as NCAA tournament exposure, that puts them in line for that next job. He barely has time to develop a passion for the school he's at, much less an affinity for the conference on the whole. Another reason to be appreciative of having Howard as the coach.
I’ve always valued the regular season championship more than the conference-tournament one, and assumed the majority of fans felt the same.
They're both important, but I think having the best conference record is more impressive. Random shit happens in the tournament.
But on point 1, that has been true ever since they ditched the double round-robin format. It has really nothing to do with COVID.
If you want to be ticked that the Big Ten regular season title isn't a level playing field anymore, then go for it. But COVID has just made the problem more obvious. The inequality in scheduling will ALWAYS make the Big Ten regular season title somewhat random and unfair.
I don’t want to win a close one tomorrow. I want an absolute clinic.
If by "clinic" you mean "beat down, curbstomping, embarrassment", then I couldn't agree with you more.
He’s quickly approaching Izzo for whiniest bitch in the Big Ten, except with 1/100th of the success.
Underwood and McCaffrey have really revealed their true character here recently, if they hadn't already.
Everyone, let's take some time to appreciate just what this season has been to all of us that have been through the lows and highs of our beloved basketball program! Coach Howard has this team playing at an extremely high level and we are taking no prisoners. I think we broke OSU and we have apparently send Coach Underwood into a downward spiral so awful that he thinks that winning the B1G doesn't even matter anymore......
Enjoy this, please enjoy this, this has been a season for the ages thus far with the potential to be so much greater!
Let's win this game, and with extreme cruelty.
Watch the presser - He was actually very complimentary.
Thanks for sharing. Not only is he complimentary of the team, he shows empathy for Juwan perhaps being frustrated when forced to pause when no one on the team had COVID.
This has been brought up elsewhere but the only thing between Michigan winning this conference by an historic margin and just a really impressive margin may well be the decision to not reschedule those games against NW, PSU, etc.
I think Underwood realizes a bit that his team underperformed this year compared to expectations; they're highly ranked but also have a couple of inexplicable losses (MSU, Maryland, Rutgers) that cost him a conference title, and even in some of their wins they've looked disjointed and heavily reliant on Ayo and Cockburn. It's why I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play Ayo against UM - it saves his best player for a later tourney run and it protects him a bit when UM wins by saying his squad wasn't at full strength.
This basketball season is completely valid. We had a year to live with covid and figure out how to manage it by the time it started.
Talk about a punchable face
Has anyone ever seen Brian Kelly and Brad Underwood at the same place/same time? Can we be sure they aren't the same person?
Not enough purple in this face so your theory, while appreciated, is incorrect. ;)
Yeah, that's definitely more mauve
You Mad Bro?!!!!
If a B!G Championship doesn't mean much then why is he bitching so much about the season? What a bunch of ridiculous word vomit. Just another trash coach and trash fanbase that deserve each other.
It's foolish to expect a pig to do anything more than grunt. . .
I fucking hope we hang 100 on them
This probably won't go over well, but in defense of Underwood he is both exhausted and frustrated at the moment. He's been dealt a bad hand. His team was peaking at the time UM was originally scheduled. The B1G reacted slowly to rescheduling, giving Illinois a long layoff followed by a compressed travel-heavy and heavyweight schedule. And his best player was assaulted and injured before the toughest part of that reschedule.
I'm willing to cut him a little slack at the moment, especially in light of his comments about not rushing Ayo back. Yeah, this definitely comes off as a whiny lashing out. But he has a long way to go before earning a spot in the pantheon of drivel next to Izzo.
I mean, his team was peaking a bit but so was Michigan before the shutdown; they weren't happy to not be playing either. And I'd add that even if Illinois did beat them on the original date they'd still be 2 games back of UM. I know he's frustrated but he should recognize that when you play down to your opponents a bunch of times and wind up losing a couple of those games, you're going to be in the pinch if other teams take care of business.
He's not Izzo by any means but that's an incredibly low bar to cover.
Crazy thing to me is with the way things are likely to finish (Michigan winning out), we could just forfeit those 3 games Brad Underwood has his panties in a bunch about and we would still win the conference. Guy is setting himself up to look like a complete jackass.
To be fair to Underwood, if Izzo, K or Calipari said the same thing--and they kinda have--people, or at least the media, would give them far more leeway.
He sounds mad. Just wait until tomorrow night after he gets stomped
He made a mistake. I wonder if he'll ever recognize it, or take the easy way out all of us often do, and find excuses why the stupid thing he said wasn't really stupid.
Man Illinois is whiny from top to bottom. What's their deal
Sorry Brad, shitposting only works on Twitter
Brad Underwood, you're an asshole
Translation:
Michigan is really good and our best hope for beating them was right after their extended Covid break, but the Big10 took away our chance.
and
If we had a chance to win the Big10 regular season then that would be very important to us. But since Michigan has all but wrapped up the title I need to keep my guys motivated and focus on the NCAA tourney instead.
What an inspirational leader, accepting defeat before the game is even played. Wow. Just awe-inspiring stuff.
Does he know that this isn't over yet? If his team wins out all he needs is MSU to beat Michigan back-to-back...yes, unlikely, but MSU has already shown they are capable of beating good teams. Rivalry games make things weird too.
Just...I don't get the whining. What sort of attitude does his team have right now? That can't be good for anything.
Come to UI, where our coaches don't care about winning B10 titles.
Actually, this explains A LOT when you think about UI athletics
Big Ten Championship trophies and rings mean stuff.
I just hope the refs & Big Ten don't screw Michigan here at the end of the season.
I have my doubts.
Go Blue.
Howard's emphasis on defending without fouling (carried over from Beilein) leaves us in a decent spot with the refs. The only game I feel like we had to really fight was Iowa, when ALL the block/charges went against us.
Our guys are really good at knowing when to avoid a useless challenge and just concede a bucket.
“It would be very easy to say, ‘Hey, we’re the fifth-ranked team in the country, and we’re not going to play them.’ I think there are a lot of life lessons in this that go beyond this game, the next game, whatever. Certain programs do what they do. I don’t care about that. The Big Ten scheduled these games, we’re a member of the Big Ten and we’re going to show up and play.”
Uhhhhhhh...yeah, I think Michigan is doing the same thing. Playing the games that the Big 10 scheduled.
Suck it up and play! If Michigan would have played those cancelled games, more than likely, your hopes would have been over 2 weeks ago. (In terms of winning the Big 10)
I thought last week’s comments were a little strange but along with this week’s... what is with this guy?!?! What a dandy. I hope we blow them out of the water tomorrow night. If we do, his post game presser should be interesting.
Who is Bud Underhill?
It's funny how he says he's "going to be bigger than that" and yet...
Beat Illinois!