Illinois 82, DePaul 73 POSTGAME

[dweebs19]

'dominate' is a verb. Not an adjective. Sorry. Just a pet peeve of mine

 

[westcoastillini]

fun game, fouls aside

this is was a hard fought game. i am really excited about the deny/help defense underwood is setting up, as well as how hard the kids hit the boards and loose balls. we haven't seen this mentality in a long long time.

 

[JFGsCoffeeMug]

This is a new offense for Alstork too. I look forward to seeing the light turn on for him. Too early to give up on him.

 

[illiniguy24]

Didn’t know that JCL played with a stress fracture his first two years here.


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[Redbull]

By the way heard over the radio that the crowd was almost sold out. Pretty impressive considering students are off for break.

Nowhere near sold out. Actually I thought crowd would have been bigger. Come on Illini fans - these guys are fun to watch!

 

[Ga65]

This is a new offense for Alstork too. I look forward to seeing the light turn on for him. Too early to give up on him.

Was convinced AJ is outplaying him and deserves the starting spot but on reviewing the game he is playing good defense and BU likes the positive off the bench. No question in my mind that MS is the best player on the team already. We seem to over value the recruites but MS is living up to the hype as are the other freshmen. Also think we need to respect the play of Finke. He is playing tough.

 

[JFGsCoffeeMug]

Was convinced AJ is outplaying him and deserves the starting spot but on reviewing the game he is playing good defense and BU likes the positive off the bench. No question in my mind that MS is the best player on the team already. We seem to over value the recruites but MS is living up to the hype as are the other freshmen. Also think we need to respect the play of Finke. He is playing tough.

Players are making mistakes, and sometimes they seem lost. But I don't think there is any question that everyone (and I mean everyone) is playing hard. There is an energy and excitement up and down the roster that is really refreshing to me. Players are buying in and having fun.

Losses will come. But as long as our players are putting in the effort and improving, I can live with that.

 

[RichBradIllini]

This is a new offense for Alstork too. I look forward to seeing the light turn on for him. Too early to give up on him.

I agree. He's got 4 years in another system that he has to unwind.

 

[TheLegendaryOne24]

Was convinced AJ is outplaying him and deserves the starting spot but on reviewing the game he is playing good defense and BU likes the positive off the bench. No question in my mind that MS is the best player on the team already. We seem to over value the recruites but MS is living up to the hype as are the other freshmen. Also think we need to respect the play of Finke. He is playing tough.

Finke is playing well as is Black but battling in the trenches and picking up a few fouls early as TJL....this D relies heavy on the bigs rotating effectively for it to work ..

 

[goillini30]

Offensively we mixed it up a tad more. I counted 3 new deviations/counters/sets that we hadn’t previously run.

1) instead of going straight to the 2 man game we drove middle and flared that guard off the high post guy. Saw this a few times. Don’t remember seeing in the first two games. Good for when teams deny both the high post and reversal guard.

2) changing the way we filled around behind the 2 man game. Normally it’s a straight circle fill but sometimes they fill from the block when teams help from that position on the two man game.

3) high post usually indicates the top two will cut and cross out while the side guys fill up. We ran a set from that where one guard screens for the other while they cross for a post up. Think we entered to Kipper for the post and he missed but it was well executed.

As far as refs. It sucked to see that many fouls called but I thought they were VERY consistent. As a coach all we ask for is consistency. It’s the inconsistency that drives us insane.

Alstork: not worried yet. I feel like most of his mistakes yesterday were him trying to be too unselfish. Got to the paint a couple times where he could jump stop and pull-up or shoot a floater and tried to dump off for a big. Mistakes you can live with. Defensively he’s been good. He’s also been great at drawing fouls.

Overall: I think BU is bringing us along slowly. Limited sets and counters right now. Probably really just wants guys to see what they can get and how successful they can be out of the basic spread flow once they get it churning. There were some good moments tonight.

Is it just me, or are they not being patient and letting the offense cycle through 2, 3, or 4 times to get a good look?

 

[combes]

We’ve had good looks.

 

[PtownIllini8]

Nowhere near sold out. Actually I thought crowd would have been bigger. Come on Illini fans - these guys are fun to watch!

Students were gone.

 

[goillini30]

We’ve had good looks.

And we've forced some shots and drives. I remember two times that alstork drove into 2 defenders in the 2 man game instead of letting the offense keep running. Another where kipper dribbled at the top of the key instead of reversing the ball and starting a new cycle. It just feels like when they get good looks it's usually the first time through.

 

[PtownIllini8]

+1 on all points.

Clearly, the team is playing very hard D and really moves the ball. The refs went way overboard. That said, you have to adapt and we didn't. As myriad others have pointed out, our front court thinness, their predilection for foul trouble and mediocre defensive play is going to hurt us. Our perimeter D generally has been pretty good, but each opponent has had a guy or two that've caused huge problems.

And how bout that Jordan kid?

We got 15 pts. 14 reb. from AJ and Da'Monte off the bench and 17 from Kipper alone. Depth was on display big time. We don't lose much bringing those three plus Frazier, we don't lose much 1-9, and Ebo is a good 10th guy. This team will be SO fun to watch develop under a great coach like Coach U.

 

[illiniclub]

I think I need more than 3 games to answer that

Is Smith the first Illinois freshman to score more than 20 points in one of his first three games?

I seem to remember James Griffin scoring a bunch of points in his first game.

 

[eMitch]

Enough about the referees!! You the play the game by the way it's called. You deal with it.

That's what you tell players. We're fans. We can criticize all we want.

 

[illini80]

Didn’t know that JCL played with a stress fracture his first two years here.


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My understanding was that was part of the reason he left. Staff wanted him to have surgery and he said no.

 

[skyIdub]

Foul!

 

[illiniguy24]

My understanding was that was part of the reason he left. Staff wanted him to have surgery and he said no.

But he had surgery this summer?


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[illini80]

Alstork played pretty good D I thought and that's a good sign. TJL I thought got away with a lot last year. This year he's not getting by with the same stuff so far. Probably good if he learns now to clean it up.

Most worried about the complete lack of screen outs. It's fixable, but lets don't wait until we lose to do it.

 

[illini80]

But he had surgery this summer?


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Did not know that. Pretty sure Tate was where I heard it, but that was at the time he transferred.

 

[FiveStar]

Is it just me, or are they not being patient and letting the offense cycle through 2, 3, or 4 times to get a good look?

I think there are a couple reasons we haven’t turned it multiple times per possession with much consistency.

1) probing too long in transition or running a secondary set that takes some time off the clock. When the SFA teams were turning it 4 times they had a 35 second shot clock. That 5 seconds makes a big difference.

2) In my experience running Spread, most points are scored from the backside two man game. Players know this and become ultra aggressive in this part of the offense. It’s a catch 22 because the drive usually looks open early, but can close quickly late. Its gonna come with more experience that they can recognize early when to score, when reverse out of it, and when to overpenetrate and hit the drive and drift to the opposite corner.

When we get to the point where we consistently turn it 3-4 times it’s gonna be awesome. Nobody wants to be screened 10 times per possession, all game.

 

[FC Illiniman]

I think there are a couple reasons we haven’t turned it multiple times per possession with much consistency.

1) probing too long in transition or running a secondary set that takes some time off the clock. When the SFA teams were turning it 4 times they had a 35 second shot clock. That 5 seconds makes a big difference.

2) In my experience running Spread, most points are scored from the backside two man game. Players know this and become ultra aggressive in this part of the offense. It’s a catch 22 because the drive usually looks open early, but can close quickly late. Its gonna come with more experience that they can recognize early when to score, when reverse out of it, and when to overpenetrate and hit the drive and drift to the opposite corner.

When we get to the point where we consistently turn it 3-4 times it’s gonna be awesome. Nobody wants to be screened 10 times per possession, all game.

Smith will make a killing off the pivot post pic, right down lane, right or left side.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

I think there are a couple reasons we haven’t turned it multiple times per possession with much consistency.

1) probing too long in transition or running a secondary set that takes some time off the clock. When the SFA teams were turning it 4 times they had a 35 second shot clock. That 5 seconds makes a big difference.

2) In my experience running Spread, most points are scored from the backside two man game. Players know this and become ultra aggressive in this part of the offense. It’s a catch 22 because the drive usually looks open early, but can close quickly late. Its gonna come with more experience that they can recognize early when to score, when reverse out of it, and when to overpenetrate and hit the drive and drift to the opposite corner.

When we get to the point where we consistently turn it 3-4 times it’s gonna be awesome. Nobody wants to be screened 10 times per possession, all game.

I am waiting for the point where the team trusts it enough to get a bunch of backside dunks off the help D or the backscreen. LB's is the only attempt I can recall a few games back - but he had to bank it in. Hoping to see more Flying Illini jr. in the next month - unfortunately we then run into B1G play.

 

[IlliniReb]

I think there are a couple reasons we haven’t turned it multiple times per possession with much consistency.

1) probing too long in transition or running a secondary set that takes some time off the clock. When the SFA teams were turning it 4 times they had a 35 second shot clock. That 5 seconds makes a big difference.

2) In my experience running Spread, most points are scored from the backside two man game. Players know this and become ultra aggressive in this part of the offense. It’s a catch 22 because the drive usually looks open early, but can close quickly late. Its gonna come with more experience that they can recognize early when to score, when reverse out of it, and when to overpenetrate and hit the drive and drift to the opposite corner.

When we get to the point where we consistently turn it 3-4 times it’s gonna be awesome. Nobody wants to be screened 10 times per possession, all game.

5tar- really appreciate your insights, they've been very educational. Also love the post game analysis. Keep up the great work and keep Austin weird