Illinois 86, Mississippi Valley State 67 POSTGAME

#27      
Didn't see the game, but by highlights, it was good/refreshing to see Mr. Kane and Mr. Griffin in the game. Both seem to have nice looking form when shooting. Mr. Griffin had 4 TO, but he will get better during the year. Mr. Kane and Mr. La Rosa close to the bucket, work on rebounding, especially defensively, offensively not so much due to easy to foul.

Could not discern defense since no video. Hopefully improving. Nice to wee twin towers at once.

I see where GB was in foul trouble and only 2 points in 15 minutes. Seems puzzling after is nice performance against Gonzaga.

keep on truckin

joe
 
#28      

mattcoldagelli

The Transfer Portal
Not even Alan Griffin?

Oh, I agree, there's been some positive signs from individuals....but the dividends for those won't start coming home until next year at the earliest. I meant more in the scheme of "can we somehow surpass some expectations this year/are we seeing some things lock into place at either end of the floor?"
 
#32      

the national

the Front Range
Trent, AJ, and Ayo played more minutes than any Nebraska player in their win. Did you think Tim Miles just played his starters all game?
Well, that’s a fair point. I suppose my comment was more about him trying different combinations of things. He used this game to experiment. My comment had little to do with Tim Miles.
 
#33      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
I think this was to be expected from a young team that probably came back pretty down after pushing the Zags to the end and then getting beat pretty handily the next two games. Trent said in the post game, “bad team” and then he and Ayo chuckled as I think he realized his mistake. Our weaknesses so far this year have been what everyone knew they would be. Our inability to keep guys from penetrating and getting to the basket is a little more glaring than I thought it would be. Other than that a lot of people, including me, thought starting 2-4 was probable.

We beat a team by 19 that we easily could have beat by 40+ today. The real measuring stick is the next 3 games. All three games need to be highly competitive and absolutely need to win at least one, probably two. Still think this team surprises a few teams by the end of the year.
 
#34      

Tacomallini

Washington State
I think this was to be expected from a young team that probably came back pretty down after pushing the Zags to the end and then getting beat pretty handily the next two games. Trent said in the post game, “bad team” and then he and Ayo chuckled as I think he realized his mistake. Our weaknesses so far this year have been what everyone knew they would be. Our inability to keep guys from penetrating and getting to the basket is a little more glaring than I thought it would be. Other than that a lot of people, including me, thought starting 2-4 was probable.

We beat a team by 19 that we easily could have beat by 40+ today. The real measuring stick is the next 3 games. All three games need to be highly competitive and absolutely need to win at least one, probably two. Still think this team surprises a few teams by the end of the year.
That was pretty funny, comes at about 1:30 in the video and Da'monte and Ayo shot each other a look and a smirk too
 
#35      

Tacomallini

Washington State
Ayo played really well. Glad to see Samba in the game, and give him a B performance. Long term, I'm sure UI is better in the long run redshirting him, but we definitely need another big now. I think he had a legit block, plus another that won't be counted as a stat after a blocking foul on Feliz, to go with his 6 points and 2 rebounds in 12 minutes. Set a few decent screens. Had a couple good looks for points that didn't fall. MSVU so take all that for what it's worth. Looked more like Ebo than Mattic, at least.
 
#36      

sacraig

The desert
I suppose I have decided to not read too much into a game against a team that at least some of our guys clearly didn't take seriously, while they were exhausted from a grueling Maui tournament, and where BU seemed to use it as a teaching opportunity.

Let's get some more Ws.
 
#37      

illini80

Forgottonia
I suppose I have decided to not read too much into a game against a team that at least some of our guys clearly didn't take seriously, while they were exhausted from a grueling Maui tournament, and where BU seemed to use it as a teaching opportunity.

Let's get some more Ws.
Understand your point, but how does a team that just lost 4 in a row not take ANY game seriously?
 
#38      
Wow people. Step BACK from the ledge. 13 people played. Got time for all the freshmen. Encouraging signs everywhere. This board is depressing. Sure we didn’t blow out the worst team we will face all year by 60.

However, the game was NEVER in doubt. Everyone got to play. Everyone got to learn. I saw some encouraging things. No, we are not good this year. However, signs look good for next year and the year after. I never wanted to be a one and done factory.

I think the Uk strategy is difficult. I prefer to get players for 3/4 years. We ARE going in the right direction. You don’t see it? Too bad. Can’t be fun for you to watch.
 
#40      
However, signs look good for next year and the year after. I never wanted to be a one and done factory. I think the Uk strategy is difficult. I prefer to get players for 3/4 years. We ARE going in the right direction. You don’t see it? Too bad. Can’t be fun for you to watch.

Meh... It has nothing to do with preference. Given the chance to get one-and-done players, we would gladly do it as most programs in the country would. Problem is that we can't get these one-and-done players and reality is that recruiting is not going that well either for players ranked below one-and-done level. Not sure what others see but it is a highly pretentious statement to say that "We ARE going in the right direction." Based on what? We have serious gaps in the frontcourt, performance on court has not been that good, we finished one of the worst seasons in 20+ years (if not more), and recruiting is not going well. That is reality. Yet, we think we are going in the right direction.

Now, even the multiple posts in the off season that we will overachieve this season and attract recruits by winning seem to have disappeared. What happened to those? Seems some posters have already given up on THIS season, saying that "signs look good for next year and the year after." We had been an NIT program pretty much the entire previous coaching regime and we all thought it was not enough. Taking an NIT program and expecting NCAA appearances is not an unreasonable expectation, neither does it necessitate driving the program to the bottom before we "supposedly" start a great ascend.
 
Last edited:
#41      

The Recruit

The Eternal Optimist
Denver, CO
Sure looks that way. No indication this team is capable of an invitation to the NIT

Calvin, I agree with a lot of what you say, but I feel like it's a little early to say something like this. Sure, we have seen some pretty poor decisions and play. However, we have seen some bright spots that show the potential. Tap into the potential, and we'll see what happens. I mean, how much did we lose to Gonzaga by? Maybe it was a fluke game? Maybe that is a glimpse of what is to come this season with more consistency on the way?

I just think it is too early to be making claims like this. You may be right, but I think we can all agree we have seen some great potential of what we can be this year. Time will tell.
 
#43      

Deleted member 626650

D
Guest
I suppose I have decided to not read too much into a game against a team that at least some of our guys clearly didn't take seriously, while they were exhausted from a grueling Maui tournament, and where BU seemed to use it as a teaching opportunity.

Let's get some more Ws.
Please, stop using Maui as an excuse. Stop pointing to 1 game against Gonzaga as a benchmark this team can play at, when there's 4 other games showing that the 1 that many people are pointing to is the outlier.

Right now, this is no time a good team. The defense is beyond porous.
 
#44      
Understand your point, but how does a team that just lost 4 in a row not take ANY game seriously?
Because you can't take every game seriously. Even the best and most experienced teams can't maintain that type of focus over a full season, and this team is very young. Simply adapting to the college game is going to be difficult enough for this group, so a minute to breathe won't hurt them.

Based on his post-game comments, I'm assuming that Underwood knows this and correctly identified this game as both the only break his team would get for a while and one they could win by simply farting their way through a lazy Sunday afternoon of basketball, so that's what we got. FWLIW, they didn't completely coast for the last 12 or so minutes of the first half and pretty effectively shut MVSU down. The balance of the game wasn't a D-I effort, and I'm ok with that given the context.

If they come out with the same slack effort in South Bend, I'll feel very differently about things.
 
#45      

sacraig

The desert
Understand your point, but how does a team that just lost 4 in a row not take ANY game seriously?

It's pretty easy when a player can think about it in terms of "we just nearly knocked off the now #1 team and this team lost by a billion to Nebraska." Now, that's not a good attitude for the team to have and it needs to be corrected, but it's at least understandable that it could happen.
 
Last edited:
#46      

sacraig

The desert
Please, stop using Maui as an excuse. Stop pointing to 1 game against Gonzaga as a benchmark this team can play at, when there's 4 other games showing that the 1 that many people are pointing to is the outlier.

Right now, this is no time a good team. The defense is beyond porous.

No, I am not going to stop taking the exhaustion factor into consideration. 4 games in 1 week is a lot. It's the same reason teams without byes rarely win conference tournaments even when they are the hot team at the moment. I'd also like to point out that I never pointed to 1 game against Gonzaga as evidence that this team is somehow a world beater. Clearly it shows that this team has a high ceiling, but the following two games show that this team also has a relatively low floor. This season will be all about whether this team can put the pieces together before they dig the hole too deep.
 
#47      
It's the same reason teams without byes rarely win conference tournaments even when they are the hot team at the moment.

I think this is mostly because the teams without byes in conference tournaments are lower ranked (weaker teams) versus the teams with byes (stronger, higher ranked).
 
#49      
This is a very rare hot take from you.

At this very second in time, that is true, but we have a whole season ahead of us.
We have 80% of a season ahead of us. 6 games in college is not a sample size to be discarded lightly.
 
#50      

sacraig

The desert
I think this is mostly because the teams without byes in conference tournaments are lower ranked (weaker teams) versus the teams with byes (stronger, higher ranked).

Notice the part where I said "even when they're the hot team?" Obviously you'd expect teams without byes to go farther on average. That's a no-brainer. But it's also pretty common that a team gets hot at the right time, makes a run, and then runs out of gas.

Plain and simple, a young, tired, and flawed-but-filled-with-potential team overlooked an opponent and won by a smaller margin than expected. I simply refuse to read too much into that. I am more interested in why we handled ISU in the first half and then collapse and just generally looked flat against Xavier. Those games are far more concerning.