Arizona 90, Illinois 69 POSTGAME

#176      

AZis

A
AZis
I've seen 2 or 3 mentions of it being hot at McKale Center ..... I was there, it wasn't ....... :noidea:

Going into halftime, I felt like we could hang close and might have a shot at the end. I think the Giorgi/Kofi thing will take some time to figure out... Fortunately we have a slate of games coming up that should be winnable even if they aren't in sync for a while.... And of course TO's...
 
#177      

pvaughn8

P
pvaughn8
AZis said:
I've seen 2 or 3 mentions of it being hot at McKale Center ..... I was there, it wasn't ....... :noidea:

Going into halftime, I felt like we could hang close and might have a shot at the end. I think the Giorgi/Kofi thing will take some time to figure out... Fortunately we have a slate of games coming up that should be winnable even if they aren't in sync for a while.... And of course TO's...
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The hot gym thing is a joke. Some people pointed to a hot gym as a reason for the team's summer loss in Italy.
 
#178      

Greg Mendel

G
Greg Mendel
Beendownsince99 said:
Out coached out played... Wasn't expecting a win here, but you need to be competitive with top 25 teams. Hopefully we see improvement. We definitely have a cupcake schedule until big ten play. Get confidence don't lose to lower competition, and just win in the big ten. Go illini
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I have concerns about the basketball team.

20 + Turnovers every game = Bad Trend
Surrendering double digit leads to less than stellar competition = Bad trend
No reliable depth other than Alan Griffin = Bad Trend
Bad trends against a top 25 opponent = 20 point blowout.

Underwood is a great coach. At Oklahoma State he had the courage to make a philosophical change mid-season and led OSU to the tournament. Remember, he was only at OSU for 1 season. He may need to tweak his philosophy some to get the most from our team. Without Jones, our bench is anemic at best. We have too many turnovers for lack of toughness. In truth, the basketball team needs to take a page from the football team as it pertains to toughness. We do not seem to be very cohesive. We are playing individualistic basketball, which is disconcerting. Yes, we are young but not trending well. Kipper and Damonte have yet to show up. I would recommend starting Kipper to attempt to maximize his strengths with four other scorers on the floor. Bring Dre and Griff off the bench; giving us a little more punch. Based on the interviews I've seen with Underwood, he does not seem very excited to discuss things surrounding Tevian Jones. It would not surprise me if Tev has been given an ultimatum. On another note Nicholls State game may not be as much of an aberration as first thought, as they beat Pitt 2 nights ago.
 
#179      

PlayAZ

P
PlayAZ
Illiniguy90 said:
Frazier got 8 of his 14 points in the first 3 minutes 20 seconds. He scored 12 of his 14 points in the first 11 minutes 5 seconds of the game. That means he only scored 2 points in the last 28 minutes 55 seconds. Sure he came out hot but they put Mannion on him and he went ice cold after that.
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Frazier is good, and I absolutely love the kid for choosing us...that said Mannion on him should have shut him down, he is a 5* afterall. That is how a 5* is supposed to affect things.
 
#181      

Xraycat

X
Xraycat
Visiting Arizona fan here. Thank you for letting me write my thoughts and be a part of your forum, it's a privilege.

I really liked the way Illinois played! I was very impressed. I know the score and the game got away from you but even as the lead began to stretch, I was not comfortable watching that game. I thought this was an excellent early season match up and both programs will be able to learn a lot from this game. I don't know enough about UI's individual players to comment specifically or how the other teams in the Big 10 are predicted to do but you guys looked every bit like a NCAA tournament team to me. A little more chemistry, tighten up on turnovers and I expect the Fighting Illini to make some noise this year. By February this going to be seen as a high quality win for Arizona and good loss for Illinois.

Good luck the rest of this year. I'll be keeping an eye out.
 
#182      

AZis

A
AZis
pvaughn8 said:
The hot gym thing is a joke. Some people pointed to a hot gym as a reason for the team's summer loss in Italy.
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I remember that, didn't make the connection.... silly me.. lol. Thanks for the clarification....
 
#183      

CoalCity

C
St Paul, MN
CoalCity
bobby said:
at least we didn't have to listen to bill walton pontifications. arizona was just a hell of lot better. time to move on to cupcake city.
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You just gotta get yourself in the right frame of mind. Once you do that Walton is a blast to listen to.
 
#185      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
CoalCity said:
You just gotta get yourself in the right frame of mind. Once you do that Walton is a blast to listen to.
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My trippin days are long gone...Walton acts like he trips everyday....no thanks...

120430.gif
 
#186      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
PlayAZ said:
"I didn’t see the AZ game, but might be s bit early to proclaim Nnaji a 1st rounder next year based off one game against an outmanned N. Arizona team"

https://tucson.com/sports/arizonawi...n_7a493236-04e3-11ea-a6cc-539135ff6472.html#5

Fran Frischella?
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Well to be fair, Fran's statement was after 2 games and he did say in 2020 or 2021. :p But no doubt he has talent. Though they are different types of players, I'm not sure he's as good as Ayton. The big difference is Ayton's rebounding. He was a beast. But Nnaji's numbers stack up pretty nicely against Ayton's after two games

Nnanji 27.5 mpg 75%FG 75%FT 19.5 ppg 4.5 rpg 1.5 apg 1.0 bpg 0.5 spg
Ayton 31.5 mpg 64%FG 73%FT 19.0 ppg 12.5 rpg 1.0 apg 2.5 bpg 0.5 spg
 
#187      

PlayAZ

P
PlayAZ
EyeoftheIllini said:
Nnaji's numbers stack up pretty nicely against Ayton's
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I agree, I think the biggest difference is Nnaji will never be the bruiser type that Ayton was and is...he also will not be drafted as such either imo. We will see how it plays out, but I really wished we could of had this kid here.
 
#188      

illinitiger

I
illinitiger
PlayAZ said:
Frazier is good, and I absolutely love the kid for choosing us...that said Mannion on him should have shut him down, he is a 5* afterall. That is how a 5* is supposed to affect things.
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That represents a great coaching adjustment also. Pressure D creates momentum. We saw the benefits in some games last year. I haven't seen us try to use it this year. Supposedly a better defense we have now...but against AZ, we could have used some of the 10+ points/game we got last year from steals and fast breaks.