Illinois 94, USC 64 POSTGAME

[classof2016]

Originally Posted by IlliniRunIn07

Here's an interesting stat. At our current clip, we're on pace to shoot 920 threes this season (not including the BTT). What's impressive is we're on pace to make 384 of those 3's. Now we are surely going to cool off some, but we've written this team off as a bad 3 pt shooting team in years past. I don't know if I buy that anymore. We have been a bad 3 point shooting team because it's hard to find a good 3 pt shot with the shot clock winding down every time you shoot.

We all know DJ can light it up from the outside. Griffey has been touted as a great shooter, but we haven't really seen it in games until this season. The jury is still somewhat out on BP since we all know he is streaky. Henry is a very good shooter. And Abrams appears to be much improved in that area.

It'll be interesting to see if we can keep hitting at a high clip. If we do that, we may be in for a veryyyyy good season.

The Orange Krush will be donating a lot of money if that's the case..

[Illwinsagain]

Originally Posted by hin10

I stayed up and watched the entire game and the thing that stood out to me the most was that in the first half, while the game was still in question, we imposed our pace on USC and made them have to adjust to us. It's very refreshing and going to fun to watch if we are able to be the aggressors and make other teams play at the tempo we want to play at. It looks like the days of us seemingly being on the defensive and trying to adjust to the other teams' style of play are behind us.

I just love Groce's attitude of always being on the attack, both on offense and defense. It appears the team is really buying into this methodology. It seems like there has been a lot of talk about this roster not really fitting Groce's style and how he wants to play, but I would argue this roster is much more suited to this style of play than a methodical ball-control offense.

Waaay past my bedtime, yeah, I'm old. But very worth it. It was my first time seeing the team this year. My only complaint, those had to be the ugliest Hawaiian shirts EVER!

[Foo G]

[CaliforniaIllini]

I think it's safe to say that John Groce has won over the fan base with these first few games.

[IlliniByProxy]

Originally Posted by SOILL-ILLINIFAN

If USC would have won that would be the first highlight they would have shown

I agree, I don't buy that they didn't show clips because it was the late game. In today's 24 hour new cycle there is no reason they can't have clips up and prepared the following morning. I really hope we put away Chaminade and have a respectable showing in the championship game so we can start getting some national press coverage.

[Foo G]

I think USC is going to pound Texas today.
Last night's win will probably look a lot better in February and March.

[Juice]

Damn, what can I say... That game was awesome to watch.

[ctblaisdell83]

Couple things:

Looks like a lot of us geezers fell asleep watching Bears debacle...then woke up to watch the beloved. I did manage to getback to sleep...just

Regarding the second half - I think we started it 30 ahead, and we ended it 30 ahead. USC at that point had nothing to lose, able to play loose. They made a run, and we answered it.

As far as the hot shooting and whether it can continue. Several D1 teams last year shot 40% or better from 3. Groce says we are a good 3-point shooting team and encourages the guys to take those shots. It's possible that as our 3-pt shooting percentage regresses to the mean, it regresses to 40%. Maybe we are a good shooting team

Saw the rebound stats this AM. We were worried USC would handle us on the boards after Hawaii; instead we handled them. I don't care if they're a crappy team...they're a big crappy team, and we had almost as many ORebs as they had total rebounds

As far as how bad USC really is, let's see what next few days brings. We should know more about our guys and also about USC

[Illini_1979]

Well, this is kind of wierd. Went to Youtube looking for the game and found this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYtY4as2YGQ

It appears to be the second half of the game watched in a mirror with no sound. Never seen anything like it.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by WesterveltVictoryCigar

We don't know enough yet to be able to say so definitively.

We actually do. We watched them play. They suck. Sure they have length and athleticism but nobody on that team looks like an all-B1G caliber player. As a unit they are awful. I fully expect them to get better but that is true of most any team. They simply lack the talent to be a good team at any point this season.

[CharlesLawrence]

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

[Botb9]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

I think they had bad execution in the first half. They were very undisciplined and played too fast. Once they slowed down a bit they were able to jump into passing lanes and force some turnovers, then took it to the other end and made a few shots that looked more in control.

They were intent on running a track meet with us and the boys had no problem meeting the challenge.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

They outplayed us for 8 minutes in the second half when we were having trouble making shots, got out of our rhythm, lost our shot selection and tried a weird group of 5 on the court. Then for the next 14 minutes or so we beat them by 12 points while we were just playing so-so.

You don't have to look at a scoreboard though. They just are not good. Their offense is unstructured. Their defense is ATROCIOUS. They don't have great shooters. They are not active on the glass. In a word, BAD.

[JLAandLKR]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

Answered yourself.

[89illinigrad]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

Did they out play us or did we just get sloppy/lackadaisical due to the large lead?

[Loyalillini10]

I don't think USC "clearly outplayed" us in the second half; I don't even think they outplayed us in the second half. They DID outscore us (by one) in the second half. I think there is a big difference in these two things. We were very good, and I hope we can play with the same intensity (with less turnovers) tonight.

[Dan]

youtube video highlights!

[URH Snyder 490]

Fun. FUN! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed watching Illinois basketball that much. Just fun to watch.

I'm smiling ear to ear.

That's all I got

[illinisc]

Originally Posted by DaytonIllini

We actually do. We watched them play. They suck. Sure they have length and athleticism but nobody on that team looks like an all-B1G caliber player. As a unit they are awful. I fully expect them to get better but that is true of most any team. They simply lack the talent to be a good team at any point this season.

I wouldn't say USC lacks talent. They have several highly rated recruits on their roster. JT Terrell, Jio Fontan, and Ari Stewart were all highly rated recruits coming out of high school. Also Aaron Fuller was an honorable mention All Big Ten selection his last year at Iowa before he transferred and I believe their center Dedmon is considered a pro prospect. Their problem is that they're so many new faces that its going to take them a little time to figure out how to play together.

[illinisc]

Originally Posted by 89illinigrad

Did they out play us or did we just get sloppy/lackadaisical due to the large lead?

Probably a little bit of both. USC came out and pressured the ball a little bit more and we had a hard time adjusting. Some of our turnovers were just careless though and USC took advantage.

I'm actually pretty happy we looked sloppy in the second half. Groce could use that to build on for the rest of the tournament. Did we have over 10 turnovers in the second half?

[OrchardDowns]

Originally Posted by Illini_1979

Well, this is kind of wierd. Went to Youtube looking for the game and found this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYtY4as2YGQ

It appears to be the second half of the game watched in a mirror with no sound. Never seen anything like it.

Wow! Hard to watch actually....

[SOILL-ILLINIFAN]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am not sure why people keep saying USC is a bad team. They clearly out played us in the 2nd half. WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE A BAD TEAM. That bodes really well for us. When is the last time we have made a "BCS" school look like a bad team. We beat this team worse than our Division II games.
Remember when everyone was worried that USC would beat us because of the Hawaii game? Now people are making excuses why we beat them so bad. We played am amazing first half and the reason shots were falling was because of our execution.

Amen!!

[Loyalillini10]

Man, that is an awesome highlight reel! It is getting me pumped up for tonight...and doing the dishes! My wife will be so happy and she has Illinois basketball to thank.

[2005ILLINIWHITESOX]

Bring on chaminade! I-L-L

[Illini_1979]

Originally Posted by Dan

youtube video highlights!

So many highlights, so little time.