Illinois 77, Ohio 75 Postgame

#76      
Frazier won’t get a ton of credit for that last play, but reminiscent of last year’s final play against Iowa where he read it and completely blew it up. I think our main weakness remains the 4. Vander Plas took our lunch money today with his inside-outside game, and we really had no answer for the 2-man game. Plenty to improve upon as the season goes on, but 3-0 is 3-0, and I’m very happy we pulled that out...
 
#77      
This game reminded me of NW a home last year when the lacrosse guy (name?) was living in the paint on pnr action all game. If we defend the pnr like that against a team like Iowa we will have a long night.
 
#78      

GallopingGhost

Denver, CO
I’m glad we won, but I’m gonna chalk it up to 3 games in 3 days, after thanksgiving nap. If we play these guys fresh last Wed I think we win by 20+.

thank god for our starters they saves us the last 4 minutes. Also that Preston kid is amazing.

on to Baylor!! Rest up and get that W
 
#81      
Lucky to win. I would've liked to see some coaching adjustments though. As we obviously couldn't consistently stopping them. Damonte needed to be on Preston and someone taller and longer on the big guy that killed us (Grandison?). Damonte's D is better suited to guard a guard or wing, not a tall stretch 4.
Other teams are going to take notice, they need to figure that out. Tall point guard and tall 4 is going to give us trouble. The other coach won the matchup game.
 
#83      
Definitely a game that was ripe for the upset. 3rd game in 3 days, guys didn't look 100%, the other team gave us a whale of a game, Preston played all-world, making our defense look silly way too many times. They gave us their best shot, and that's how it should be. Tip of the hat to them, they look like a team that could make the dance.

You can say the glass is half empty, but the bottom line is Ohio didn't fold --quite the contrary, they made plays down the stretch and put this Illini team up against the ropes, and made them make MORE plays.

Wonder how Curbelo's doing. Had that ankle roll, and it looked pretty rough. Feel for him --he was struggling to play under control, and now he gets an injury.
 
#84      

Steelyunk

Tobacco Road
Frazier won’t get a ton of credit for that last play, but reminiscent of last year’s final play against Iowa where he read it and completely blew it up. I think our main weakness remains the 4. Vander Plas took our lunch money today with his inside-outside game, and we really had no answer for the 2-man game. Plenty to improve upon as the season goes on, but 3-0 is 3-0, and I’m very happy we pulled that out...
Absolutely right. We got nothing from our 4-5s on D. Kofi didn’t alter or block anything and DMFW was overmatched - but he was critical on O and that’s huge for the season. 3-0 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
 
#86      
I haven't felt that much anxiety in a while. Good feeling when it ends up in a win.
Nervous Ted Striker GIF by filmeditor
 
#87      
I really hope BBV gets healthy and is our solution to stretch 4’s. I think that may be our biggest weakness this year. Kofi can handle the big plodding bigs down low well enough. Like others have said, it’s the stretch 4 that steps out and exploits weaknesses in foot speed that will hurt us. Because then we stick Damonte on them and he just can’t hang down low. Too small and he got abused today. Hawkins isn’t ready yet. GB is a great bench piece in my eyes. Not a starting caliber player.

Preston has a great story, and I’ll be rooting for him the rest of the season. He lit us up.
 
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#88      
The fact a mid major team ran the same set every time down the floor and we were unable to stop them is a concerning fact. We all knew exactly what Ohio was running down the stretch and Brad failed to adjust-not trying to be a negative Nancy but hard for me to ignore. Win’s a win, insert “if we play like this against Baylor we’ll lose by 20” here.
Wohld have either liked a press or zone to disrupt flow
 
#89      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
That's the best game that Preston kid will have in his career. He might have a better stat line in a game in the MAC...but he won't have a better game.

Poor start, lots of mistakes, poor FT shooting, some shots that went in the last two days didn't go in today......and they had a career day from their PG.

Still won.

That right there is a March tourney matchup in the second round that you have to win to advance. Check that box.

Ayo just won't let us lose games like that this year.
 
#90      
Couldn’t be happier for Damonte — especially after how so many on this board have hated on him. And don’t expect anyone else but him at the 4 during crunch time until mid season at the earliest. Grandison and Hawkins aren’t ready for it no matter the mismatch at the 4.

Glad they got the win, but that performance doesn’t result in too many wins against the remaining opponents moving forward. Need to be much improved if they are going to meet the expectations that many on the board have for them. One thing I thought was interesting is that in the game thread multiple posters felt Illini’s depth would grind Ohio down. Not quite sure where this mythical depth is that people see. Hopefully by mid season we can say that, but really don’t see this team as being particularly deep right now. And was it just me or would others have felt a lot better the last 10 minutes of the game if Feliz was still playing? Have a feeling this game isn’t the only time I feel that way this year.
 
#92      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
Other team recruiters will probably show that to recruits.
Good. I don't believe it deters MSU's recruits. Izzo and BW rip into their players because they're imbuing toughness and they care. Curbelo doesn't appear to be a guy who's going to fall apart under that kind of scrutiny. And do we want someone on the floor for us who will? Perhaps I'm old school but when my coach ripped me a new one it was because he cared about my performance. The worst thing that could happen was if he didn't get on my case or, worse, ignored me.

Mark Smith apparently didn't fit. That's unfortunate for him but fine with me. Each to his own.
 
#94      
Most people have listed main gripes but Holy hell Kofi. How many times are you going to bring the ball low after a pass/reb and get it knocked out of your hands??? That happened constantly today and was driving me nuts. Happy to survive.
 
#95      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
It has been 20 years since Frankie dazzled us and it appeared effortless. I can't be the only one who finds it wonderful that his son, laboring under his dad's long shadow, has worked and persevered and become the player and young man he is. I love it. Loved seeing him come into his own last year defensively. Can't wait to watch him get even better this year on O. I'll remember him, and what he gave to his teams, 20 years from now, too.
 
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#96      
Yes, we know that Ohio also had 3 games in a row... The difference is this was their Superbowl and for us, this was a MAC team. Lack of energy isn't surprising. Just glad the cupcakes are out of the way so no more underestimating our opponents.
 
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#97      
Yes. We were upside down on TOA again...14 assists 16 turnovers. DMW and Kofi with double doubles. 63% free throws for team is not ideal either:(
I didn't feel like the FT % was even close to 63%.
Amazing what a 73% afternoon would have felt like.
 
#98      
I’m glad we won, but I’m gonna chalk it up to 3 games in 3 days, after thanksgiving nap. If we play these guys fresh last Wed I think we win by 20+.

thank god for our starters they saves us the last 4 minutes. Also that Preston kid is amazing.

on to Baylor!! Rest up and get that W


Didn't Ohio play 3 games in 3 days as well????.......Ohio just played a better all around game than we did today....hopefully we don't many of these type games throughout the B10 schedule
 
#100      
That's the best game that Preston kid will have in his career. He might have a better stat line in a game in the MAC...but he won't have a better game.
I'm not sure about this, both Trent and Ayo are solid defenders and he was able to score in a variety of ways. I like to follow him to see how he does the rest of the way. Tall kid for a college PG poses lots of problems.

For those that hate player comparisons, Preston looked like Michael Carter Williams as a rookie giving Derrick Rose all he could handle.
 
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