Time for Underwood to dust off the “fat little girlfriends” speech:
Issues at Hand: Stats per ESPN
DaMonte and his offense are not one of them, Griffin or whomever off the bench in place of anyone else is not one of them....simply put the stats don't lie! Through 8 games played:
Illinois Steals as a team...tied with such powerhouses as Tennessee Tech, Northern Arizona, South Carolina Upstate @ 6.0 per game- 241 Nationally
Illinois Blocks as a team... tied with such powerhouses as Purdue Ft Wayne, S. Illinois, Clemson, Appl. St. @ 20 total -256 Nationally
Illinois Assists as a team...tied with such powerhouses as Utah St., Iowa St. Richmond, ahead of Gonzaga @ 17 per game - 24 Nationally
Illinois FG% as a team...following right behind Indiana and Louisville @ 512% and 8th Nationally
Illinois PtsGame...Tied with Arizona for 2-4 Nationally
Our issue as discussed @ nauseam....defense is killing us. We over commit trying to pressure and create steals, we just are bad at creating them. Without fouling, the steals are minimal when giving up layups/short jumpers or leaving best opposing players wide open time and again. Blocks are extremely low for us having, what one could argue would be a top notch front court if used effectively?
Offensively, BU has gotten this team to the exact point that he wanted and we wanted...88 Pts per game. Now that said, we may not like the way we get to 88 Pts per game, and that number is inflated against inferior opponents, BUT we are still scoring nearly 88 Pts per game. Someone else HAS to get a defense that works?
Zone I am afraid is the best option for us....hell Syracuse makes it work every single year, one or two years for us should not be an issue until better athletes can start playing for us to play havoc ball the way he wants to do on defense as well?
Man to Man is killing us, quit over committing BU, play sound defense and push offense from there. Kofi and Giorgi stay down low then and our chances for success will go up short term at least.
I along with others here will hold you to this
Issues at Hand: Stats per ESPN
DaMonte and his offense are not one of them, Griffin or whomever off the bench in place of anyone else is not one of them....simply put the stats don't lie! Through 8 games played:
Illinois Steals as a team...tied with such powerhouses as Tennessee Tech, Northern Arizona, South Carolina Upstate @ 6.0 per game- 241 Nationally
Illinois Blocks as a team... tied with such powerhouses as Purdue Ft Wayne, S. Illinois, Clemson, Appl. St. @ 20 total -256 Nationally
Illinois Assists as a team...tied with such powerhouses as Utah St., Iowa St. Richmond, ahead of Gonzaga @ 17 per game - 24 Nationally
Illinois FG% as a team...following right behind Indiana and Louisville @ 512% and 8th Nationally
Illinois PtsGame...Tied with Arizona for 2-4 Nationally
Our issue as discussed @ nauseam....defense is killing us. We over commit trying to pressure and create steals, we just are bad at creating them. Without fouling, the steals are minimal when giving up layups/short jumpers or leaving best opposing players wide open time and again. Blocks are extremely low for us having, what one could argue would be a top notch front court if used effectively?
Offensively, BU has gotten this team to the exact point that he wanted and we wanted...88 Pts per game. Now that said, we may not like the way we get to 88 Pts per game, and that number is inflated against inferior opponents, BUT we are still scoring nearly 88 Pts per game. Someone else HAS to get a defense that works?
Zone I am afraid is the best option for us....hell Syracuse makes it work every single year, one or two years for us should not be an issue until better athletes can start playing for us to play havoc ball the way he wants to do on defense as well?
Man to Man is killing us, quit over committing BU, play sound defense and push offense from there. Kofi and Giorgi stay down low then and our chances for success will go up short term at least.
Problem is we have no one else who can play the 4 effectively either.Hoping the Giorgi/Kofi experiment is abandoned, or at the very least put on pause. Giorgi guarding the perimeter is a problem. Kofi & Giorgi could also be a hell of a 1-2 punch subbing for one another.
So you think Kofi is going to play in Europe next year? Unless you are Shaq Jr., the NBA wants you to be able to stretch the floor with your shooting.We're Illinois. No way do we get something as good as Kofi for more than one year.
Ayo horrible on last play. Selfish. Long way from going pro. And coach 4 first half timeouts and not one adjustment. Smh
I think there are situations that we can use them both at the same time... such as the other team has a lot of bigs on the floor... That being said... most teams these days are guard oriented and we need 1 more quicker guy on defense.Hoping the Giorgi/Kofi experiment is abandoned, or at the very least put on pause. Giorgi guarding the perimeter is a problem. Kofi & Giorgi could also be a hell of a 1-2 punch subbing for one another.
As a side note, anybody else notice a couple guys (Giorgi and Monte) hanging on the rims for no good reason last night? Giorgi did have a really nice put-back slam after the whistle but other than that it seemed they just thought it was fun to hang and wiggle the rim even when not involved in the play. While I can appreciate how awesome that feels, it seemed weird--I'd rather have them attack the rim ferociously during play but respect it when the play is not active.
I would've put money on Giorgi getting a tech after one of them, he had no good reason and it was a solid couple seconds.I noticed that also. Several times it was after a made basket and they hung on the rim for several seconds. I don't know why they did this and was glad they didn't T'd up.
It happened right in front of him. Anybody paying attention would have seen it, I saw it right on the edge of the screen live as the camera was panning. Probably would have been a no call had lykes not reacted but with replay the instigator can't get away with as much as they used to.most games i watch... the commentators don't have time / unction to go over a foul... he's watching griffin for that small bump which you needed a 2nd or 3rd camera angle and it's a judgement call... and his judgement anti-illini. i'm like... shush that man. he can't comment illini games
I think Ayo and Trent play well off each other now. I think Feliz is the new dynamic that causes me concern. He's clearly trying to show his ability this year to make an impression on scouts (over seas of course). I'd really like to see Tev in there instead, but until he is free - lets go with an offensive threat like AG. Trent and AG on the floor at the same time can really cause a problem for the D if we can get a point guard who is focused on creating and not just getting to the rim. With another game or two - I think (am hoping?) AG can get in better flow and settle down.I'm definitely not an X's and O's expert so this may be a dumb post, but I wouldn't mind seeing Underwood go with two different units where Ayo and Trent are not on the floor at the same time as well as Kofi and Georgi. Maybe pair up Ayo with Kofi and Trent with GB and fill in the other guys around them. You could go back and forth with different combos but I don't think Kofi and GB are good enough defensively to be on the court together and Ayo and Trent might play better if they weren't playing together too.
Does anyone know for sure Lykes got his T after AG brushed by him? I thought I saw the ref T him up prior to that. And then AG just sort of rubbed it in. Kudos to AG for coaxing a T out of him if it happened after the brush.It happened right in front of him. Anybody paying attention would have seen it, I saw it right on the edge of the screen live as the camera was panning. Probably would have been a no call had lykes not reacted but with replay the instigator can't get away with as much as they used to.
He heated up in the second half, which was good. However, Lykes absolutely abused him in that first half....on both ends of the court. So, he had 14, but how many did he give up? There were some live ball turnovers in there that led directly to 2 on 1s.How
is Trent playing worse? He went 4-7 and had 14 pts? There are other scoring options now on the team (Ayo, Kofi, Giorgi, Feliz) he doesn’t get the volume of shots nor have the ball in his hands as much as his Freshman year!!
I saw both players with putbacks that were waived off for various reasons.As a side note, anybody else notice a couple guys (Giorgi and Monte) hanging on the rims for no good reason last night? Giorgi did have a really nice put-back slam after the whistle but other than that it seemed they just thought it was fun to hang and wiggle the rim even when not involved in the play. While I can appreciate how awesome that feels, it seemed weird--I'd rather have them attack the rim ferociously during play but respect it when the play is not active.
Giorgi is our best entry passer to Kofi. Giorgi, AG and trent spreading floor with Ayo installing a new "pass first" mentality and regularly driving to draw a crowd...kick out for a giorgi high -low pass to Kofi...or Ayo drive and pass to a wing for Trent or AG to rain 3s.I think Ayo and Trent play well off each other now. I think Feliz is the new dynamic that causes me concern. He's clearly trying to show his ability this year to make an impression on scouts (over seas of course). I'd really like to see Tev in there instead, but until he is free - lets go with an offensive threat like AG. Trent and AG on the floor at the same time can really cause a problem for the D if we can get a point guard who is focused on creating and not just getting to the rim. With another game or two - I think (am hoping?) AG can get in better flow and settle down.
Also, if GB is not on the floor alot with Kofi - you'll see Kofi's numbers drop dramtically. And we need size for rebounding, etc. Kofi / GB doesn't concern me as much. We just need GB to get a better feel for how to defend the line. HIs problems have been on switchoffs - I don't remember him having as much of a problem in staying on another 4. GB was by far our best defender against Happ last year. Yes, he's not shooting at the 3pt line, but he was a pretty deft backdown, dribbler.