Illinois 72, Western Carolina 64 POSTGAME

[zoggle101]

Originally Posted by Groundhogday

You are never as good as you look in your best game or as bad as you look in your worst. That is true for both the team and individual players.

Very true

Originally Posted by Groundhogday

FWIW, we were saying the same thing a year ago at this point in the season.

Games late in the fall semester are always tough on the players as they are taking exams and writing papers just as most guys start to hit the first wall. I'm keen to see how the team responds against Gonzaga.

+1,000,000

Originally Posted by Groundhogday

That is to a certain extent the tradeoff we make in playing Griffey and Henry at the four. In return, we hope to hurt teams with shooting from the stretch 4 position, but that didn't happen tonight.

I agree with those who think this might be our weakest team on the interior since...? I honestly can't think of when our inside play has been this weak since the early Henson years, though I might be forgetting a few forgettable seasons.

I agree with first part and its still debatable on the second.

I'll chalk this one up to also looking past this game and to the Gonzaga game. Let's see if the Bulldogs because I know 34 hates when you call them Zags have a letdown vs. the Brock Motum lead Washington St. Cougars

[peace davids]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

Or if the seats arent filled at the under 12 media timeout in the first half, let people fill those seats in. Never going to happen, but something has to be done. Looks like crap.

This could absolutely happen if it were made policy. "All season ticket holders must be aware that if they don't show up in their seats by 10 minutes to play in the first half (25% of the game), they will be filled by seat holders. Seat holders will be selected by ushers and used as needed. If the ticket holder comes to the game late, they can retain their seat at any timeout, and the seat holder will return to their original place."

The best way to do this is to enlist GA students from Krush to be seat fillers. This is the overflow that didn't make it to the floor (does that happen anymore???) They could be controlled by DIA, and return to their section if the season ticket holder shows.

This is done at lots of major events for TV purposes. This would also help the atmosphere close to the court.

It absolutely COULD and SHOULD happen.

[illinibb76]

For the most part Illinois doesn't have fans or a crowd we have an audience. There to be entertained and not a true 6th man. When we win it's loud when it is close it is quiet when we're behind they head to their cars!!!!

[Dan]

#illini Groce: "Unacceptable" when DJ dove for basketball and no teammates went to pick him up.

http://twitter.com/WernerESPNCU

Groce calls 'Defense is the calling card'. Thought the 2nd half defense was 'unacceptable'. Didn't pick up Paul when he drew a charge.

http://twitter.com/Sturdy32

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

Dan, that has to be tickets sold, not actual attendance right. I think the Cubs announced like 39,000 for one of their last games this year and there was probably 20,000 people there if that.

Correct, that's tickets sold.

[Dan]

Groce: "We're not goign to apologize for being 9-0." Can't control rankings and such, team can control gameplan and execution

Groce: suit "probably not salvagable."

http://twitter.com/WernerESPNCU

[trevdv]

Originally Posted by Dan

Correct, that's tickets sold.

We should be able to count the tickets scanned by those little scanner-machines, that way we would have at least a slightly more accurate reading of the people actually ATTENDING the game.

[Holdemall]

Originally Posted by trevdv

We should be able to count the tickets scanned by those little scanner-machines, that way we would have at least a slightly more accurate reading of the people actually ATTENDING the game.

Not the best way to entice sponsors.

[mdonsbach]

Is it just me or do the Illini look a little better playing the zone the last couple games over man?

[IlliniKat91]

Originally Posted by Illinidreamin

Good Grief!!! I just realized, I didn't use one comma in there. Sorry for the no punctuation. Illinikat?? do you tutor???:laugh:

:laugh:

As long as your boss/prof. isn't riding you, you'll be fine.

I'm with the "a win is a win" crowd, but I don't like how flat we seemed to be for this one. We come out flat Saturday, I expect to be run over.

[OrangeAndBlue217]

Originally Posted by mdonsbach

Is it just me or do the Illini look a little better playing the zone the last couple games over man?

We do when it comes to interior defense. Our guards on the perimeter have done pretty well. I like the zone as long as we dont get lit up from the arc. If that started happening, no doubt Groce would switch back to man. So I dont mind playing around with both.

[ajg1865]

Our bench was the difference in this game. WCU finally ran out of gas in the second half while we were just fresh enough to outlast them. Groce's decision to constantly bring in fresh bodies paid dividends tonight and I figure this deep rotation will continue throughout the rest of this season.

[danielb927]

Groce said on the radio the suit was from Columbus, OH, not Delbert's. So no big loss there

[lexwaldez]

Well then. At least we didn't peak too soon?
The only thing to be said is bring on the Zags, that and gratz on another win.
The trip out west scares me a little. I hope we see a solid effort with some season personal bests.

*fingers crossed*

[lexwaldez]

For what it's worth, we had the trap game after our tourney and then maybe we're caught looking ahead a little to the Zags. All in all they've perservered against adversity. More adversity ahead.

[classof2016]

As Groce was high-fiving us after the game I said "Beat Gonzaga." He responded with: "we're going to have to play a hell of a lot better than that, I can assure you."

Amen.

[illinifaninaz]

I kinda have this feeling that is one of those "look ahead" and "we can just show up and win." Very excited that the illini won! Now on to bigger and better things like the Zags!

Go ILLINI

[classof2016]

Originally Posted by IlliniFreak7

The crowd actually is a massive issue. It is just sad in every way and needs to be fixed. If you watch the Maui tournament, the traveling fans there were really into the game and our players absolutely fed off of it. At home we might as well be playing in a library and our players have a hard time really building up momentum and getting excited. I spent the last four years attending games as a student and I wont lie, most games were incredibly boring because the crowd just could not get into it. The same is true for football. Remember when coming to U of I used to be hell for other teams? The crowd was into it back then. However, this trend has been reversed and if we really want to be a momentum shooting team, were going to need to crowd to get excited again.

I agree. I've been going to games for about 13 years, and this is absolutely true.

[troydove]

Originally Posted by ajg1865

Our bench was the difference in this game. WCU finally ran out of gas in the second half while we were just fresh enough to outlast them. Groce's decision to constantly bring in fresh bodies paid dividends tonight and I figure this deep rotation will continue throughout the rest of this season.

Would like to see 20 minutes for Myke and 25 for JB everygame. TA missed 5 layups,can't have that and expect to win.

[classof2016]

Another thing I notice is how we warm up. Our seniors mess around and jack up half court shots and don't take the drills seriously. This is fine if we're raining threes and blowing teams out, but when we come out and shoot/play like crap this type of stuff bothers me. The seniors should be out there going harder than everyone else from the time they step onto the court for warmups until the final buzzer.

[OrangeAndBlue217]

Originally Posted by troydove

Would like to see 20 minutes for Myke and 25 for JB everygame. TA missed 5 layups,can't have that and expect to win.

He missed the lay ups but at least 3 of them were put right back in easily. The penetration resulted in easy buckets. We need that every game.

[scubadunk]

We havent seen Latulip in a while is a redshirt possible?

[HeartofaChampion]

Originally Posted by Botb9

Jeremy Werner had a great point. This team still shies away from contact. Get this: WCU's bench only played a TOTAL of 21 out of 200 minutes. They contributed 0 points. Yet no one was trying to draw these guys into foul trouble. That drive by Paul that ended up with a missed layup is a great example. He faded away from the rim instead of going right after their bigs.

+1000. BP hates contact, including in practices and scrimmages. It's the main reason he doesn't consistently drive the lane and attack the rim.

[lstewart53x3]

Originally Posted by troydove

Would like to see 20 minutes for Myke and 25 for JB everygame. TA missed 5 layups,can't have that and expect to win.

We get it. You don't like TA. Had DJ missed another three, you'd probably be bashing him too, like usual. :rolleyes:

[Dan]