Northwestern 68, Illinois 66 POSTGAME

#101      
I thought I heard BU state NW was one of the top teams in the country for assists due to their great system play?

#46 NW...01 ahead of Fl Atl. at 16.0 per....ILLINI is 121. Not sure #46 is tops?
 
#102      
Another thing I thought of when reading the postgame comments - didn't we hear about 3 games ago that Underwood told Trent to be more of a distributor? I think there is a direct correlation between that and Trent's poor performance's ... just let Trent be Trent, he's a phenomenal scorer - why not let him get buckets?
He needs to develop better instincts to know when to score and when to distribute. He can’t just do strictly one or the other. He needs to expand his game.
 
#103      

NBB1979

UIUCFAN1
Springfield, IL
He needs to develop better instincts to know when to score and when to distribute. He can’t just do strictly one or the other. He needs to expand his game.
I would rather him just be who he was than try to mold into something different. Trent is an ELITE scorer - just let him score if he can't be the distributor you wish him to be?
 
#104      
As much as I would love for that to happen....Jones looked lost, standing around, hence the Coach speak on tempering expectations for him...Griffin will be our next Williams with a shot imo. Williams is exactly what we need from a 3...occasional offense, all the time intangibles.

I agree with you on Jones. But what the heck has he been doing the last 2 months? That has to be on the staff to some extent. Where is the development?
 
#105      
I would rather him just be who he was than try to mold into something different. Trent is an ELITE scorer - just let him score if he can't be the distributor you wish him to be?
I don’t consider him an elite scorer. He’s too streaky, and doesn’t really shoot a high enough percentage to be considered elite. He’s more a high quantity scorer, but needs to put up a lot of shots to do so. That’s not very good team play.
 
#106      
Let's blame Underwood for the inability of our players to catch a wide open pass?

Not blaming him for anything other the play calling. Say what you will, but any other P-5 fan base would object and specifically point this out as well if there team had done so. A wide open pass anyway didn't lead to a shot clock violation either?
 
#107      
If the foul calling wasn't such a disparity we would have won going away....clearly a home crew for NW....:unsure:
 
#108      

SKane

Tennessee
"ILL 72 - Northwestern 66.

I think that ILL will be ahead double digits at halftime and somehow hang on to win this one. It's got to happen sometime so why not this time?"

I hereby plead guilty to a wrong prediction in the pre-game discussion.
 
#109      

RedRocksIllini

Morrison, CO
Wow, emotions control your post much.

Northwestern's last possession, whatever Collins drew up, completely broke down, took a wild 3, missed, got a loose rebound and made a shot.

Our last possession, whatever Underwood drew up, kids fumbled the ball, took a wild 3, missed, time expired.

The prior possession (shot clock violation), whatever Underwood drew up, defense forced it to break down, young team (Georgi) looses track of clock.

What these games typically come down to (nail biters) are kids making a play, very rarely does a coach truly influence a lot. They made the final play, we didn't.

Still wish we would see more of our Freshman, mistakes or not, we're losing regardless.
I suppose, if disgust is an emotion. Same nonsense over and over but it's never on the coach, right? Whatever.
 
#110      

NBB1979

UIUCFAN1
Springfield, IL
I suppose, if disgust is an emotion. Same nonsense over and over but it's never on the coach, right? Whatever.

I’m a HUGE Underwood critic as a coach. From his complete ignorance that we don’t have the personnel to run the ad he wants, to his odd player rotations and this weird offense that creates no space whatsoever.... but today’s loss wasn’t on him (except the timeout with 7.5 seconds to go - I would have just let Trent make a play off the inbounds - calling a TO there allowed NW to draw up a defensive possession as well)

I guess my point is that we were up 1 with the ball and about a minute to go - we shad a shot clock violation on the players - failed to get a rebound (players) and then some weird pass/handoffs that led to a long 3 at the end (players)
 
#111      
Other than maybe KofI announcing his commitment this is the best news I have heard all day.

These kids care. A lot. I saw great emotion out of Ayo, Kipper and ADR today. I don’t want to go as far as saying they “just need one win” to break this thing open because I just don’t think we have the experience and talent yet. A win against a good team will go far for this team. We will win a few B10 games this year because there will be a few games that we finally put 40 minutes together. I will say this for the 100th time. We need Tevian and Griffin on the floor as much as possible. They are going to make a ton of mistakes, but they aren’t going to get better playing on scout team in practice against AJ and Kip who are every other team’s least athletic player.

And for the 100th time you are wrong. They need to earn their playing time in practice. It seems pretty obvious that they are not able to outperform AJ and Kip who in your own words are every other dlteams least athletic player. If Tev and Grif can't be better than those two every day they don't deserve to play ahead of them. Also this team can not afford for them to be making a TON of mistakes trying to figure it out. Again, that's why practice is for.
 
#112      

PostersLastStand

Wayne County, IL
The shot clock violation is on BU. Ask any high school or college coach and 99% of them would have called a timeout in that situation to get a shot, even if it is a 23 foot three. The play at the end of the game and the loss are on the players. I am not as high on BU as I was when he was hired, but there were enough plays left out there today to say we should have won that game. At some point accountability is on the players to execute and make plays.
Coach Underwood is responsible for "drawing up the play", one of the assistant Coaches is assigned the duty of reminding every player multiple times the time left on the shot clock. Especially making sure the primary ball handlers watch the shot clock. I listened to the post game on radio. It was mentioned by both Illinois radio commentators that Coach Underwood practices these plays over and over. It comes down to player execution. Each time the game is on the line, the players are tight and consequently fumble the ball, then panic. The end result, a loss. It was also mentioned that Kipper was supposed to break back door for a game tying two, maybe also drawing a foul. The other option was to set a screen for Ayo a three. But we know that no Illini fought for the long rebound before the second chance made three, the play before the shot clock violation. Just keep backing up, watch each empty pocession or missed defensive assignment that lead to scores. It all adds up to a loss. The Coach is frustrated, the Players are frustrated and we fans are frustrated.
 
#113      

PostersLastStand

Wayne County, IL
The Illini Radio broadcasters, Deon Thomas and the ageless Brian Barnhardt. Both were optimistic about the teams play the last two games. Lookiing ahead, because unless we can get in the "Way Back Machine" Mr. Peabody, we aren't winning the last two games. I am very afraid of a great MIchigan team. I just hate typing that last sentence. But unless the team is flawless on both ends of the court, its going to be so ugly for us.
 
#115      
Dang, just one three-pointer and the game was ours. And then I'd get to read about how we didn't beat them by enough.
 
#116      

Deleted member 4960

D
Guest
Georgi has made 2 inexcusable shot clock violations in the last 2 games. Sorry when you make a crappy pass to screw up the last possession that is not on BU.
 
#117      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
And for the 100th time you are wrong. They need to earn their playing time in practice. It seems pretty obvious that they are not able to outperform AJ and Kip who in your own words are every other dlteams least athletic player. If Tev and Grif can't be better than those two every day they don't deserve to play ahead of them. Also this team can not afford for them to be making a TON of mistakes trying to figure it out. Again, that's why practice is for.

I would put AJ on staff in a heartbeat based on his commitment to this program and character he shows. But these traits don’t overshadow the fact that against B10 talent he disappears.

He played 15 minutes today and had “0’s” in every column. In 30 minutes against IU he had 2pts and 4 reb and 1 assist. So I will give him 6 pts and 4 reb in 45 minutes. I won’t say anything about his D in the IU game because I think Romeo scores at will on anyone in a man to man situation at the college level . 2 TO’s as well.

AG has played 10 minutes in past two games with 5 rebounds. 3 TO’s.

I am in no way saying AJ needs to watch from the end of the bench. But AG and TJ would benefit from splitting 15 of those 45 and in no way would that hurt our chances of losing one of the 3-5 games we have a chance of winning the rest of this season. It would however give them opportunity to gain valuable experience. If after 5/6 games they still suck then they go back to the bench and TU can have the minutes...

Kipper is harder to take minutes from because of his potential to actually show up and play like and all conference player. So confusing and sad.

All I am saying is these freshman don’t get game speed experience in practice as they are almost certainly running schemes other than ours. Give them consistent game minutes and they may surprise you. What do we have to lose??? BU talks up Kipper more than just about any other player and continues to put him in the starting lineup and he is rumored to be leaving the program. Build for the future.
 
#118      
I agree with you on Jones. But what the heck has he been doing the last 2 months?
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#119      

t7nich

Central IL
I hate to blame officiating in this game - and that's not what I'm trying to do - but there were some really bad block/charge calls (in fact, I don't think there were any charge calls, all blocks) but there was one on DeLaRosa and another on Williams that led to 4 points via FTs that just memorized me in the last 8 minutes of so.

Is there a stat for the amount of charges a team tries to take per game? I feel like we would be at the top of that list. And usually it’s a foul on us.
 
#120      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
Is there a stat for the amount of charges a team tries to take per game? I feel like we would be at the top of that list. And usually it’s a foul on us.

My wife knows nothing about basketball. On about the third failed charge attempt she looked at me and said, “Why do they keep trying that same thing? It’s obviously not working to their benefit.” We had two today in which we were a foot inside the circle and had time to look down before the offensive player ran into us.
 
#122      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
I would put AJ on staff in a heartbeat based on his commitment to this program and character he shows. But these traits don’t overshadow the fact that against B10 talent he disappears.

He played 15 minutes today and had “0’s” in every column. In 30 minutes against IU he had 2pts and 4 reb and 1 assist. So I will give him 6 pts and 4 reb in 45 minutes. I won’t say anything about his D in the IU game because I think Romeo scores at will on anyone in a man to man situation at the college level . 2 TO’s as well.

AG has played 10 minutes in past two games with 5 rebounds. 3 TO’s.

I am in no way saying AJ needs to watch from the end of the bench. But AG and TJ would benefit from splitting 15 of those 45 and in no way would that hurt our chances of losing one of the 3-5 games we have a chance of winning the rest of this season. It would however give them opportunity to gain valuable experience. If after 5/6 games they still suck then they go back to the bench and TU can have the minutes...

Kipper is harder to take minutes from because of his potential to actually show up and play like and all conference player. So confusing and sad.

All I am saying is these freshman don’t get game speed experience in practice as they are almost certainly running schemes other than ours. Give them consistent game minutes and they may surprise you. What do we have to lose??? BU talks up Kipper more than just about any other player and continues to put him in the starting lineup and he is rumored to be leaving the program. Build for the future.




I agree completely ....I commend AJ's work ethic and loyalty to the program but he is not talented enough to be a B1G player worthy of starting for a 4-11 team that needs to get experience for AG and TJ....Sorry, but it is true and BU needs to realize that asap.... He always plays better in the non conference games but DISAPPEARS in B1G play ....The stats above don't lie and in the IU game his defense was non existent...
 
#123      

RedRocksIllini

Morrison, CO
I’m a HUGE Underwood critic as a coach. From his complete ignorance that we don’t have the personnel to run the ad he wants, to his odd player rotations and this weird offense that creates no space whatsoever.... but today’s loss wasn’t on him (except the timeout with 7.5 seconds to go - I would have just let Trent make a play off the inbounds - calling a TO there allowed NW to draw up a defensive possession as well)

I guess my point is that we were up 1 with the ball and about a minute to go - we shad a shot clock violation on the players - failed to get a rebound (players) and then some weird pass/handoffs that led to a long 3 at the end (players)
We're talking about two different things altogether. You're talking about a couple plays at the end. I'm talking about everything that led up to those failed plays as well as a whole lot of our other struggles. What I see is a team that doesn't do the little things well (set screens, box out, communicate, etc etc). This makes it very difficult to accomplish the bigger things (run a coherent last possession, win games, run some complex system).
 
#124      
If the foul calling wasn't such a disparity we would have won going away....clearly a home crew for NW....:unsure:
And there it is....

We had a fast break towards the end (and I apologize for forgetting exactly who), defender in front of him completely wiffs on hitting our player or the ball, still gets called for a foul and we get an and 1. If the tables were turned, this board would be talking about that for a week.

Bottom line is, most sports fan feel wronged by officials. If you happen to be a Bears fan, I bet you're at least miffed a little by what happened on that catch fumble no clear recovery, yet that's how the rulebook states officials need to call it; Eagles fans I'm sure thought that was all kosher.

Also, before you claim a disparity, we had 19 fouls against us, NW 22.
 
#125      
I agree completely ....I commend AJ's work ethic and loyalty to the program but he is not talented enough to be a B1G player worthy of starting for a 4-11 team that needs to get experience for AG and TJ....Sorry, but it is true and BU needs to realize that asap.... He always plays better in the non conference games but DISAPPEARS in B1G play ....The stats above don't lie and in the IU game his defense was non existent...

Called this at the beginning of the year...AJ would be supplanted and he will. He will be fine with it, because it helps the program and unlike many others he is all about the ILLINI and a team player. AJ is someone that I could see being a very likable person to return as a coach in some capacity down the road. He is all about building bridges imo, not burning them.