Needs guys to hit open rythmn 3’s.
Luke could very well be the key to a tourney run.
Luke could very well be the key to a tourney run.
Pregame: Illinois vs Morehead State, Thursday, March 21st, 2:10pm CT, truTV
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Zorak
- Naperville
Couldn’t care less what they think
I would say Chattanooga was better. Morehead has the size, shooting and an experienced (4th year) point guard to create some issues. The SoCon is a much tougher conference, so while their performance relative to their competition is pretty similar, Chattanooga came in much more proven, as they played a schedule that would be considered fairly middle of the road by all of D1 standards, Morehead's is considered very weak and that's even with a very challenging out of conference slate, so similar results against much weaker competition give a big edge to Chattanooga.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
What I love is that opposing coaches have to come up with 2-3 game plans to account for our various weapons and the diversity of styles we can throw at them.
Either the Batman is going to swoop past you (or through you) before you can react, or Robin is going to grind you down to dust…
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
TJ brings so much joy the court. I’m gonna enjoy every minute of his last few games in an Illini uniform.
2008-2019 . . . . .
I was hoping to find a GIF with the line from this scene as well.
"I like these guys. They are funny guys!"
Hansbrough still has us missing the tournament and is just waiting for the selection committee to finalize it. So we should really just be thrilled that the bubble broke our way and that we lucked out in making the dance.
Honestly though, not sure anything different from Field of 68 should be expected. Haven't heard Hummel make his predictions yet, but outside of him and Dauster, I don't think anyone there has been high on us at all. I was more surprised that most of them didn't have us losing to Morehead to be honest.
But none of this matters. Just gotta show up and play the games.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
This is why I am sure most objective fans of other teams look at Illinois and say, “Uh-oh, we may have some problems here.”
This Illinois team is elite offensively. Think about it-they are scoring 90+ in many games where I look back and think “They really didn’t play THAT great offensively.” If Hawkins is on his game, you have three guys who can score on their own. Then you add Ty who is a matchup nightmare rebounding, and Illinois is very challenging to even slow down.
Defense is another issue, but we are a major headache for other teams.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
I have noticed this past weekend, TSJ has done some more side drives (don't know what else to call it), where he legitimately doesn't create contact. Of course, sometimes he just drives in and commits what used to be a charge and gets the call. I think he can back off of that, at least for teams with less size upfront.
Morehead St. is going to look to get Number 15, Kalil Thomas, going early. In their semifinal win, he hit three 3's in the first three minutes to score their first nine points. He broke the single season record for made three pointers by a Morehead St. player this year. 43.5 % shooter. Don't fall asleep and let him out of your sight early on.
Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day, POB.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The nightmare of playing Illinois is that we'll run so much offense against your 4th and 5th best defenders with bigger and longer players.
We don't force things to a given player in the half court, we're always probing the different matchups looking for a weakness and with our talent there usually is one.
The good news of playing against Illinois is that we let teams be themselves on offense. That's gonna bite us eventually.
It is the coach's call concerning press availability. Enough said.
Honestly not as worried about defense as I was a few weeks ago. Need to see a full game of it but I thought they really made adjustments and tightened up in all 3 of the Big10 tourney games.
They were a top 10 defense in kenpom before conference play so maybe some of the Big10 officiating hurt their defensive play style. Also, they do a good job of running opposing teams off the 3 pt line.
Some of the allowing a bunch of points is simply the pace which theyve played at over the last few months. More possessions means opposing teams will score more.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
It's time to find a friendly drinking establishment
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Are you sure? Do you get TBS and TNT?
truTV usually isn't hidden on some bonus package. Who's your provider?
It was close most of the way, and UT Martin lead for a lot of it (up 5 with 13:13 to go). Morehead St. made a big push about halfway through the 2nd half (tied with 9:06 to go to up nine with 6:12 to go). Then they were a bit sloppy and let the game continue longer than it should have but as you said kept their distance.
It's an interesting bit of game film for the Illini coaches to watch (I think they played 3 times with Morehead going 2-1). Morehead St. loves to go slow and UT Martin is the 7th fastest paced teams in the country. They have a point guard that really attacks and scores on three levels even though he had a rough three point effort in that one. UT Martin was giving them all sorts of problems with the fast break in the first half and built up a decent lead, they played a good game overall I thought. Morehead St. really stayed in it through lights out three point shooting. Number 15, Thomas, in particular, was 7-10 from three. Once it got to the second half, UT Martin was turning it over a lot more.
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illini55
- The Villages, FL
Sign up for YouTube tv. If you watch it for a month on free trial, you'll sign up, for good, and cancel your existing provider.
Kalil Thomas is the guy we need to watch out for on Morehead. Wouldn't be surprised to see Terrance on him.
This.....I have no doubts that we'll score...we have too many weapons and can score in different ways....but to me the question is....can we stop other teams from getting into the lane and scoring easy buckets .....we've shown improvement the last 2-3 weeks in this area....also I like the idea of throwing a zone defense at our opponents for just a possession or two occasionally (when the situation warrants)....most teams scout on us probably says that we're strictly man defense...a zone 3-4 times during a game might disrupt other teams rhythm and create a couple TO's that could be the difference.....soooo.......let's D up and go play like there's no tomorrow
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