Illinois 78, Iowa 76 POSTGAME

[KnoxIllini2]

We don’t go to many games, but man, this did not disappoint. I brought the 6 year old and I think she might now be hooked (whew, go me).
I haven’t read any posts so I’ll apologize now for redundancy.
The atmosphere was sensational. Iowa could have knocked the crowd out in the 1st half, but the disgust towards the refs kept us rowdy.
There was a possession in the first half where Ayo played tremendous defense. He trailed his man, fought through screens (at least three), and was still able to contest the shot. Awesome play.
Good Kipper, and much deserved Good Kipper. So happy for him on Senior Day.
Man, that second half though, huh? Give Iowa a lot of credit (eew, I know), but they didn’t quit. Garza is National Player of the Year, no doubt. Dude’s a beast. Kofi got the last laugh though.
Beyond happy we got the W. And I’m ready to see them on Friday for the rubber match.

 

[CV Illini]

It was 2005 loud at the SFC tonight! When you lump the hawkeye team and their fans together it becomes a pile of all that I despise in the world. If we play the idiots out wandering around on Friday I hope for a similar result.

 

[illini62707]

Not sure how you created the illusion that I meant that.. I just said that no one would be complaining had it went in (obviously)

We are up 6, with a minute 30 to go, and we get a wide open 3 for a chance to end the game from a guy that although he has struggled I think we all consider still to be a good 3-point shooter.

He took the shot with 22 on the shot clock, so we could have pulled it out and wasted 15 seconds and got who knows what quality of look.

I'll take the shot, but even more importantly the mentality

Bad shot at that time. Underwood, lit him up pretty good during time-out

 

[Pop'sBlackDog]

I have not watched the game yet, but I was fortunate enough to give Andres Feliz a hug and Thank You for myself and all ya'all...it was evident that he apreciates being an Illini and representing the University of Illinois. He was having dinner with I believeve was his family at Niel street Blues.

 

[Tacomallini]

As much as I loathe and despise Iowa...I still root for BIG teams in the Dance...Iowa may sorely test that practice

+1

 

[JudsonFTS]

Btw those Krush signs making fun of Fran were simply AMAZING!

That must be why he gave the no comment press conference post game.

He knows his Whining got called
Out and did a good job avoiding the confirming sound bite pst game....not so much at half time.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

I'm pretty sure this fool committed two fouls in one possession lol

"I don't complain alot, but I was fouled on every play".... hmm. As someone mentioned - they mirror their coaches whiny nature. TF got him to react - got a T - took him out of the game. AAU grown wuss.

 

[BWBW]

"I don't complain alot, but I was fouled on every play".... hmm. As someone mentioned - they mirror their coaches whiny nature. TF got him to react - got a T - took him out of the game. AAU grown wuss.

I read comments from Iowa fans about home cooking. Made me happy. I assume the game was called fairly well, with Garza limited to 10 fouls instead of the unlimited number he gets at home.

 

[ChocolateThunder]

“I’ve been playing basketball a long time and I’ve never been guarded like that before."

 

[ChocolateThunder]

"In your face, disgrace, your Mama slam dunk."

 

[RML]

Love the win, and the contributions from so many different guys. Kipper! And is Giorgi back? If everybody plays like that, and Trent gets his shot back, we could go deep.
Hey CJ, that's quite an out-bounds-play of yours where your tight end drives our linebacker into the stands. /s
But I am impressed with how fast and hard Iowa does run and cut off the ball. Hope we take a lesson from them there.

 

[TheFameProtector]

Wow feliz should lose minutes and not Frazier? That's a take i don't agree with. I get frazier has to take bad shots at time but it isn't even close whose been a better player this year. And the shooting is about the same.

There are arguments to be made for both, no doubt, and I can cherry pick the stats I want to make the argument Frazier is the better choice. TO rate, historical shooting percentages and the law of averages, etc. The fact is that our season turned around when Frazier was made our PG. I don't have the stats on this and I'm not sure they're even calculated for college players, but the eye test suggests Frazier has greater gravity on the court given his better historical shooting. That tiny bit of extra space that creates on the court really matters in the otherwise congested college game. Not to mention his reliability as a ballhandler.

Feliz has been great for us this season, and I don't want to take away from that. Last night's game was more evidence to this. But Frazier's impact on our team is totally underrated, and box score stats just don't capture his impact.

 

[BuddyJ]

Love the win, and the contributions from so many different guys. Kipper! And is Giorgi back? If everybody plays like that, and Trent gets his shot back, we could go deep.
Hey CJ, that's quite an out-bounds-play of yours where your tight end drives our linebacker into the stands. /s
But I am impressed with how fast and hard Iowa does run and cut off the ball. Hope we take a lesson from them there.

seriously. they draw up physical plays like that and have the gall to complain about the other team playing physical defense. Hypocrites.

 

[IlliniFandom]

I loved the toughness and the grit this team has. There is no doubt that tough play (not 80's/90's tough) is allowed in the B1G. I just wonder what it means though for the NCAA tourney? I wonder if the officials are going to allow us to play or will they crack down and will that impact our ability to play tough defense and impact our psyche in the game. Perhaps over analyzing a bit, but that's got me at least curious to hear what others think.

 

[DRS]

What a fitting finish to a tremendously competitive Big 10 regular season. This might not be the 'best' conference year of my watching, more truly national title contenders in previous seasons, but this is best conference play from top to bottom I can remember. Battle after Battle after Battle.

Think about this, Iowa, on the road, just out rebounded their opponent, shot 50% from the field, 9/19 from 3 and a perfect 15/15 from the line but still lost! That is winning basketball but not last night.

So many heroes last night where to start? I think we need to recognize that Iowa got off to a dream start where the hoop was the size of a garbage can and guys who have been massively struggling for like a month could not miss, yet Illinois never wavered and kept them within striking distance. Damonte, Kipper and Kofi all giving massive contributions. Kofi was rim wrecking for a bit there and it is so fun to watch. Damonte's recovery from that dismal January has been unreal, He is literally above 50% from 3 for the last month! That seems impossible. and what can you say about Kipper, so happy that he had this game at home on senior night, such a loyal trooper for us. He had an incredibly efficient 18 minutes, didn't miss a single shot last night and 3 offensive boards in the second half were HUGE. Dre was great, 2 massive 3s during the surge, and hell Giorgi even had a nice game. He seems to have found his footing again, despite missing that bunny late off the dime from Ayo, that was kinda a big miss when coupled with missing the front end of two 1 and 1s. When you are trying to salt away a game you can't be doing that. It led to exactly what a good team will do, start making 3s on you. Iowa got blazing hot at the beginning and ending of the game from deep, jeez that was painful.

I've got to continue to have a seperate paragraph for Ayo. Shot was not really there tonight and the free throws did hurt, but good lord what a battler he was tonight. That second half was monstrous and those two mid range jumpers in the last few minutes were so clutch. His passing tonight was the best I have seen it coupled with mansize rebounds on both ends and this is one of the best performances of his career. If he had made both free throws on the 1 and 1 late to seal the game this might have been his best all-around game. If he goes pro, which he should but the draft can be weird, he will leave a crater sized whole in this team. Just about my favorite Illinois player ever now. Still has a bit to go to pass some of the greats, but a tourney run just might do it.

Also, without getting into the Xs and Os of this, we shredded a zone tonight without shooting well from 3. Great offense and the best way to beat a zone is beat it done the court.

 

[ugottabjoshinme]

-Love beating Iowa, don't want to play them again Friday.
-Will root for Iowa in the NCAA tourney like I do all big ten teams.
-Garza will be a load against some unsuspecting team in the tourney, guy is a gamer
-Very cool to see Garza's dad high five ayo after the game, the guy loves hoops
-Garza took pics with orange Krush after (hard to dislike the garza guys after all that)
-Thank you Ayo for everything you have done for Illinois basketball
-Dre has entered into my all time favorites at Illinois , has a nick Anderson edge to him

I definitely want to see them again Friday.

I definitely will not be rooting for them in the NCAAs like I do for the rest of the BIG.

 

[sadinoel]

I loved the toughness and the grit this team has. There is no doubt that tough play (not 80's/90's tough) is allowed in the B1G. I just wonder what it means though for the NCAA tourney? I wonder if the officials are going to allow us to play or will they crack down and will that impact our ability to play tough defense and impact our psyche in the game. Perhaps over analyzing a bit, but that's got me at least curious to hear what others think.

If they crack down on fouls then how are other teams going to stop Kofi?

 

[ILL in IA]

In general, we need to be nice people and get along, but I am all for hate and anger in sports. Continue to get football relevant, and I am all for heated games against Iowa. Save the trophy games, this is our biggest rival IMO.

 

[Alfonz24]

I loved the toughness and the grit this team has. There is no doubt that tough play (not 80's/90's tough) is allowed in the B1G. I just wonder what it means though for the NCAA tourney? I wonder if the officials are going to allow us to play or will they crack down and will that impact our ability to play tough defense and impact our psyche in the game. Perhaps over analyzing a bit, but that's got me at least curious to hear what others think.

If we get refs from the non P5 for the dance, how will that affect us (and other B10 teams)? Will there be any slight bias for the non P5 opponents?

 

[Calvin]

One thing I liked about that last play, was how packed we had the 3 point line. Best they could do was tie us, and Kofi made sure that didn't happen.

Great win!

 

[IlliniKat91]

If we get refs from the non P5 for the dance, how will that affect us (and other B10 teams)? Will there be any slight bias for the non P5 opponents?

I'd worry less about bias for non P5 teams and more about the style of officiating. Like it's been said here, Big Ten refs seem content to let 'em play. I don't know how that would fair with refs from conferences where finesse seems to be more the order of the day.

 

[goillini30]

Great win. Really happy for Kipper and Feliz having big games on senior night.

I thought we took our foot off the gas for a stretch once we had a big lead. Seemed more focused on running clock than attacking. Allowed Iowa to get back in the game.

Except for Iowa uniform I really have no problem with Garza. He is a really good player that plays hard. Some of their other guys are not hard to dislike though.

I actually disagree that we weren't focused on attacking. We were still getting good shots, we just didn't finish. Giorgi missed what should've been a pretty easy layup, Trent missed 2 wide open 3's (in the same possession no less), Ayo missed that fast break layup (thought he should've got it to Kofi for the dunk), and we missed some free throws. Were there a few clunker possessions? Sure, but that happens throughout the game too. If we finish any of those chances we don't have to worry so much at the end.

 

[goillini30]

Correct, Frazier's 3 was taken with only 8 seconds into shot clock or 22 remaining at the 1:33 mark. We were also up by 6 points. At that point and up 6, the clock is your opponent. Didn't need a 3 at all. A 2 pointer and another 18-20 seconds off the clock would have sealed it. Just not good BB IQ on that shot.

I would have liked to see him attack the basket, but be willing to pull it out if they defended it well

 

[Rap73]

Big Ten refs are poor at best. They call little reach in fouls and let mugging on drives to the basket. Three of Kofi's fouls were reach around on Garza, cheap

 

[illiniguy24]

There are arguments to be made for both, no doubt, and I can cherry pick the stats I want to make the argument Frazier is the better choice. TO rate, historical shooting percentages and the law of averages, etc. The fact is that our season turned around when Frazier was made our PG. I don't have the stats on this and I'm not sure they're even calculated for college players, but the eye test suggests Frazier has greater gravity on the court given his better historical shooting. That tiny bit of extra space that creates on the court really matters in the otherwise congested college game. Not to mention his reliability as a ballhandler.

Feliz has been great for us this season, and I don't want to take away from that. Last night's game was more evidence to this. But Frazier's impact on our team is totally underrated, and box score stats just don't capture his impact.

Respectfully, strongly disagree. Trent has been an important player for us no doubt - but Dre has made so many important shots and plays for us this year while also being an excellent rebounder.