At least we aren't reading posts that this is the end of the world. How many years did MSU play a tough schedule and get beat by good teams, but in the end they play for the BT title? The BT will be very tough this year. I don't think WI or IA would have beaten Baylor last night. We were told how good their def is. The only way IA would beat them is if Garza is hitting 3's. Boy if Kofi would have stayed out of foul trouble. But what hurt is we missed 4 free throws during the beginning of the game. OUCH!
Baylor 82, Illinois 69 Postgame
Maybe it is a sophomore jinx for 5’s at UI. Giorgi was back to his frosh year and Kofi took a step backwards. Not a good look for developing big men. In an area where we thought we had the advantage we were outplayed. Was impressed with the defense of all the frosh but Ace forced a lot of shots and didn’t do well. Ayo didn’t have a great game but it had a lot to do with the defense. In total not a downer game for me. Tells us where we are but a lot of positives in Belo and Hawk potential. We have some experience but we are still dependent on three frosh to make it to a championship. Stay the course!
Illini in OC
In. The. Alley.
Reminds me of the season-opening starting lineup with freshmen Dee and Deron starting (as expected) but also included freshman Augie... to my most pleasant surprise
Could be the makings of an awesome multi-year run. Would be great for the rest of the B10 fandom to talk about these guys like Jess Settles after being around for like, 100 seasons. Pretty sure Jess played with Don Nelson
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
We hung with the #2 team in the country for the majority of the game, proved we at least somewhat belonged on the floor with our two star players being pretty much non-existent for a large portion of the game. Can't be too angry about it.
Their defensive intensity, size on the perimeter and ability to switch everything, and second chance points in the last 10 minutes made the difference. We still showed up like a top 10 team (perhaps not top 5) should be expected to do. Also, man Curbelo impressed me.......true freshman in his 4th game of his career and really took it to the second best team in the country. Dude is a freakin' baller.
This game did once again highlight to me why I've always been baffled with Kofi NBA talk. Modern NBA bigs need to either have range, or be quick and mobile enough to guard the pick and roll effectively (which is the bread and butter of current NBA offenses). Right now Kofi can do neither and would 100% go undrafted.
People forget we lost to Arizona, Miami, and Mizzou at a similar point in time last year and we turned out fine. Overall we look a lot better this season at the same point and I saw a lot of encouraging things that should help against Duke and the B1G.
(P.S I always love the comments you sometimes find in postgame threads re: everyone's favorite magic word *adjustments*. If it really was that easy to just tell the players "pass the ball and cut to the hoop !11!11!" then any schmuck off the street could coach college basketball. That's not how it works.)
Their defensive intensity, size on the perimeter and ability to switch everything, and second chance points in the last 10 minutes made the difference. We still showed up like a top 10 team (perhaps not top 5) should be expected to do. Also, man Curbelo impressed me.......true freshman in his 4th game of his career and really took it to the second best team in the country. Dude is a freakin' baller.
This game did once again highlight to me why I've always been baffled with Kofi NBA talk. Modern NBA bigs need to either have range, or be quick and mobile enough to guard the pick and roll effectively (which is the bread and butter of current NBA offenses). Right now Kofi can do neither and would 100% go undrafted.
People forget we lost to Arizona, Miami, and Mizzou at a similar point in time last year and we turned out fine. Overall we look a lot better this season at the same point and I saw a lot of encouraging things that should help against Duke and the B1G.
(P.S I always love the comments you sometimes find in postgame threads re: everyone's favorite magic word *adjustments*. If it really was that easy to just tell the players "pass the ball and cut to the hoop !11!11!" then any schmuck off the street could coach college basketball. That's not how it works.)
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Unfortunately, we have to consider defense as well. Belo may be ready to start, but we can't take both our best defenders out of the lineup. Need either Trent or Monte on their best player.
sacraig
- The desert
Curbelo looks like he's already a pretty good defender. With some experience, I bet he's a lockdown defender in a year or two.
I Bomb
Stylin' and Profilin'
This. I felt the pain for our guards on the perimeter
Agree with you, but also agree with the poster you responded to. Frazier and DMW are 2 of our best defenders. I could definitely see Curbelo starting helping us, BUT, and this is a big BUT, I don't see Underwood benching Frazier or DMW, as they are 4 year starters.
BTW, I miss the Trent that was an electric scorer who was a near 15 point scorer as a freshman and sophomore. (12.5 and 13.7.....but that second half of his freshman year, he had to have averaged over 15 a game.)
He had four fouls.
I rewatched this game again (because I like torture) and 2 of Curbelo's fouls seemed like good basketball moves. Maybe with some practice he can get quicker and make those plays without fouling. The other 2 just looked like he got beat and he fouled out of either frustration or because he was just out of position. I would hope he's being coached away from making those types of fouls ASAP since we can't afford to have those occurring at the end of this season if we're going to be a real Final 4 contender.
Curbelo and Kofi both could have been keys to our victory last night - but both got in foul trouble and that ultimately is likely the number 1 reason we lost the game.
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Slow your roll Mr. Siwash. I'll be impressed if he comes within 100 career assists of Bruce Douglas unless he plays a lot more games. Douglas averaged 191/year over his four years (765 total). Only two other Illini have been within 100 of that number - McCamey (733) and Brown (674).
This! Kids have good games and bad games. I trust the coaches/head coach to determine the starting lineup. If you think the coach is failing at that, it seems like it would be hard to have much faith in any decision that's made.
Deleted member 380722
D
Guest
I love this fan base, but some of you are just outside of your minds with your logic.
Monte got abused last night. Hawkins played better and is longer. I want to see CH get more minutes next week against Duke.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
Haven't had a chance to watch the game yet - traveling. But it's worth pointing out that Ayo had a SLOW start to both of his first two seasons. Hopefully this is his version of slow this year and he makes another leap in in the next two games.We hung with the #2 team in the country for the majority of the game, proved we at least somewhat belonged on the floor with our two star players being pretty much non-existent for a large portion of the game. Can't be too angry about it.
Their defensive intensity, size on the perimeter and ability to switch everything, and second chance points in the last 10 minutes made the difference. We still showed up like a top 10 team (perhaps not top 5) should be expected to do. Also, man Curbelo impressed me.......true freshman in his 4th game of his career and really took it to the second best team in the country. Dude is a freakin' baller.
This game did once again highlight to me why I've always been baffled with Kofi NBA talk. Modern NBA bigs need to either have range, or be quick and mobile enough to guard the pick and roll effectively (which is the bread and butter of current NBA offenses). Right now Kofi can do neither and would 100% go undrafted.
People forget we lost to Arizona, Miami, and Mizzou at a similar point in time last year and we turned out fine. Overall we look a lot better this season at the same point and I saw a lot of encouraging things that should help against Duke and the B1G.
(P.S I always love the comments you sometimes find in postgame threads re: everyone's favorite magic word *adjustments*. If it really was that easy to just tell the players "pass the ball and cut to the hoop !11!11!" then any schmuck off the street could coach college basketball. That's not how it works.)
Chuckled a little bit when I read this. College basketball is littered with guys that took a spot at a school d/t non exposure or a myriad of reasons. Once they blow up the P5 schools come looking. Saying a kid from Presbyt. can't be better or more developed than a 4 or 5 star is just not understanding the collegiate landscape. Tell the Preston kid that had only mid major Ohio and one other low major offer that he should not be able to play against the likes of any 4 or 5 star recruit is ludicrous.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
What I wonder is why we continue to be so bad at feeding the post even when BU says we try to emphasize it. Second is everyone knows Baylor is going to ball pressure and overplay a lot like we did 2 yrs ago, so why were we not trying to swing the ball more, back cut them, and dump it into our big when they pushed out to double our guards and pin them on the sideline? Instead we ran that dribble weave all night which does not seem to be a good choice to counter their type of defense.
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I loved the game because we have arrived. The kids lost, Baylor is legit and they game planned really well. Hawkins and Curbelo are really nice players and I would like to see Curbelo get more tick. Go Illini!
Vital is 6’5” 250# and too big for Monte. We need some size at that position. Would have liked him to play instead of Ace along with Cole. Need a third man to rotate with Kofi and Giorgi in the front line.
I will be surprised if Curbelo or Hawkins start this year unless because of injury. And I’d say Hawkins is the more likely of the two to start just because of the size difference between he and DaMonte. But I’d guess that wouldn’t happen until at least halfway point of season. I could see Curbelo’s minutes increasing to where they are about even to Trent’s as the season rolls on. There is a reason BU has the starting lineup he has. He trusts them. And I think there is a loyalty factor involved too. Not sure it makes sense to potentially mess with team chemistry when he can just increase the number of their minutes throughout the game.
danielb927
Orange Krush Class of 2013
- Rochester, MN
Just posted a bit more detailed visual breakdown — first 25 minutes vs. last 15 minutes — over on Twitter.
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