Michigan 79, Illinois 69 POSTGAME

#101      
Very tight team on offense for the most part. Not everybody of course and not every game, but shooting has been a problem. Shooting 44% last nite was a rarity for Illini. I thought KN would be one of the keys to the season.Could he consistently produce on offense. He had some pressure before the season to be the man from some. Not all players can respond to that role. I was hoping he could. It's hard for players like Griffin and Jones to play well given the time they get on the court. Tough to get comfortable. They haven't shown me anything offensively but again they really haven't had the opportunity. Underwood's trying to win games and he obviously doesn't think those two give em' the best chance to do it. I would like to see them play some more, though, to get a better look
 
#103      
T
4 serviceable bigs get us maybe to the NIT.
4 great bigs get us in the top 25.

Next year a good big, Georgi
3 serviceable to good

Hopefully at least one becomes great, or at least very good.


There's nothing serviceable about Kofi. He's just plain good. Yes, there will be ups and downs, but the guy led EYBL in rebounding for a reason. Kofi will be an impact 5 just like Ayo is an impact guard this year.
 
#104      
Very tight team on offense for the most part. Not everybody of course and not every game, but shooting has been a problem. Shooting 44% last nite was a rarity for Illini. I thought KN would be one of the keys to the season.Could he consistently produce on offense. He had some pressure before the season to be the man from some. Not all players can respond to that role. I was hoping he could. It's hard for players like Griffin and Jones to play well given the time they get on the court. Tough to get comfortable. They haven't shown me anything offensively but again they really haven't had the opportunity. Underwood's trying to win games and he obviously doesn't think those two give em' the best chance to do it. I would like to see them play some more, though, to get a better look

Until this basketball team is taught and can execute defensive principles, we will not be a competitive basketball team. Michigan was toying with us all night. At one point they had 9 straight baskets on either a layup or a dunk. 9 straight!
 
#105      
My concern about our team is development of talent. I'm seeing guys getting worse, not better.

Kipper, Damonte, Frazier, Aaron Jordan have all lost their confidence. Motivate, give a hug, kick in the !!!, whatever it takes,
but coach 'em up. A little better shooting and a few less turnovers and we have a great chance to knock off the #2 team in
the county.

I think the team has improved. In fact, Ayo and GB have improved. The rest have to collect themselves and play the game - execute.

They will be fine. At the tail end of this season, which is the only -ve that I can see. BU was expecting them to be at their best around Jan 1.
 
#107      
Until this basketball team is taught and can execute defensive principles, we will not be a competitive basketball team. Michigan was toying with us all night. At one point they had 9 straight baskets on either a layup or a dunk. 9 straight!

Michigan averages like 8 TOs a game and had more than that at half and ended up with 13, so yeah, toying with us.
 
#108      
Until this basketball team is taught and can execute defensive principles, we will not be a competitive basketball team. Michigan was toying with us all night. At one point they had 9 straight baskets on either a layup or a dunk. 9 straight!

They have been taught what is to be taught.

They execute, one can see it in certain halves, especially the 1sts.

Consistency is what they need to develop. 40 minutes of O and D.
 
#109      
This team seems to seriously lack lateral quickness. It might be the most alarming thing about this team to me. Low major talent easily turns the corner against us 8/10 times. I dont get it. Maybe it's time to evaluate Fletch.

Also dumb fouls. DMW and Kipper are the two biggest culprits. That feed to their big man (Teske?) where DMW lazily grabbed his arm when he went up for that shot... I'm all in on having active hands, but when you're fouling a guy 150+ lbs heavier and stronger you either keep your hands away or you foul him hard enough to miss the shot and force him to make 2. The and 1 is the second worst possible outcome on defense. Those shouldn't happen.
 
#111      

Deleted member 29907

D
Guest
Beilein in his post game interview stopped short of calling it a gimmick defense.
Pretty childish if he implied a deny / rotation defense is gimmicky - not sure I get the point of getting close to that unless he's just sour about the 13 TOs.
 
#112      

Deleted member 11196

D
Guest
The real MVP of this game is the kid that ducked Underwood's coat!

This is perhaps the one thing that scares me about BU.... His temper... Or perhaps it's best described as 'flash-temper' is not good, and gets out of control. The days of the RMK tantrums should be over....
 
#114      
Beilein in his post game interview stopped short of calling it a gimmick defense.

I wonder why.

In his pre-game interview, with IL radio, he very clearly stated that it will be a battle of a team that prides in no TOs vs. a team that lives on TOs.

On that count, Beilein lost.

That his team, that averages 8 per game, TedO 13 times is IMHO the reason for him to say it is a gimmick. Beilein is either fibbing or is a great politician.
 
#118      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
Until this basketball team is taught and can execute defensive principles, we will not be a competitive basketball team. Michigan was toying with us all night. At one point they had 9 straight baskets on either a layup or a dunk. 9 straight!

“toying with us”???

Teams don’t go 30-1 over a stretch because they take nights off or “toy” with teams of lesser talent. This isn’t the AAU circuit or CPL. I assure you they did their best to beat us by 17+ like they have almost all of their other opponents. I watched the entire game. Sure looked like their kids were sweating and playing hard.
 
#119      
There were a lot of mistakes and missed shots but this game gives me more hope. Ayo is terrific and Georgi does a lot of good things that don't show on the stat sheet. Having a Kofi to rebound and screen the shot blockers will make a big difference. Hopefully a year will make a big difference in Tevian and Alan. They both have a lot of ability IMO but need to adjust to the college game. Georgi has had a lot of coaching before he got here and it shows. Ayo is just plain good and Trent will contribute defensively and offensively. Hopefully OA is developing Kane to the point he can become an effective backup. I do worry about the coaching adjustments but maybe that is a problem of an inexperienced team as opposed to ineffective strategy.
 
#120      
Beilein in his post game interview stopped short of calling it a gimmick defense.
I didn’t see the interview but I have to think he didn’t mean it as a shot at Underwood. Beilein was basically known for his “gimmicks” while at WVU. They’d play all sorts of defenses: 1-3-1, press, zones, etc.
 
#121      
Georgi made some early in the season and needs to be capable if he is going to play the four. Just don't want to see Kofi more than twenty feet from the board. Also like to see Georgi take it to the basket and/or shoot it from the post. That would open up the cutter. Samba did take it in a couple of times for the dunk. We need a lot of improvement from him as well as the wings. Would actually like to see DaMonte play the wing if he was more aggressive looking for his shot.

Giorgi needs to practice his FT line jumpers so we can go high/low with him and Kofi next year.
 
#122      
Or, you know, Griffin is a fresan who has, so far, played abysmal defense to the point of outweighing ant offensive contribution he might make. It doesn't matter if you score 12 points a game if your defense is so bad that you give up 7 easy layups.

And he turns the ball over a rate like double everyone else.
 
#123      
Its pretty simple - 1) they played a #2 team and score 15 points above that team's average for teams they play. 2) Giorgi's inside play was very good considering the competition, and 3) Ayo scored 19 in the first half. 4) we actually got more than a few passes to the rim for baskets. 5) More than a few blocks at the backboard.

Yes we made dumb young team stupid plays (usually at the moment of closing the gap) and missed some bunnies. Its frustrating but did you expect a 10 point win tonight?

Sorry, you can't run the team down, and then say "Oh, well Michigan didn't play well". Most seemed to play close to their averages and Simmons had a season high as I recall. Give some credit to the boys when due - they had something to do with Michigan not playing well.

Who did I throw under the bus? No one. The team IS making a ton of execution errors whether you would prefer to sugar coat it or not. Is saying we're 4-12 running the team down? Just stating a fact around here seems to make people emotional. We were down 12 with 4 minutes to go, and I personally never felt Michigan was doing any more than needed to keep the game under control. And why would they? They simply didn't need to assert themselves much against us. So while I suppose you can spin it that we made a game of it because we "only" lost by 10 our own home floor, I disagree.

To directly answer your question, we played about where I expected, but my expectations are really low. We lost right about where the line was --think when I checked it was +8.5, but it moved a couple points depending on the site.

You are free to evaluate this team and say they're getting there where ever "there" might be for you. In fact, every team needs that kind of support. More power to you. I'm looking for certain signs of improvement as well, believe it or not, and I saw things that you probably did not and formed my own opinion. What i saw said we're a long way from where we should get to, and might struggle just to stay out of last place. I sure hope they improve enough to do so, but I could see it happening, and that concerns me because the worse we are, the farther we need to go to get back to the dance in a future season.
 
#124      
I remember a few weeks, ago, Underwood mentioned some of the frosh have a problem with keeping track of the ball and their man. This was something the staff was teaching them. I couldn't believe it when i read it. That is such an elementary principle. I gotta wonder what some high school coaches are teaching and/or allowing players to get away with. Don't start bashing me high school coaches that is what Unsderwood, said. He didn't mention high school coaches, though,. My point is some players (not all) come in their freshman year with little knowledge of even basic defensive principles. Astounding!
 
#125      

ILL in IA

Iowa City
I remember a few weeks, ago, Underwood mentioned some of the frosh have a problem with keeping track of the ball and their man. This was something the staff was teaching them. I couldn't believe it when i read it. That is such an elementary principle. I gotta wonder what some high school coaches are teaching and/or allowing players to get away with. Don't start bashing me high school coaches that is what Unsderwood, said. He didn't mention high school coaches, though,. My point is some players (not all) come in their freshman year with little knowledge of even basic defensive principles. Astounding!
Some of the guys get away with playing good defense at the high school level by size/length and athletic ability along. It's true in most College sports. the elite athletes need to work out the bad habits they got away with in high school.