I've been all the sky is falling lately myself, but I was pleasantly surprised with tonight's game. Ayo and Georgi played well. DeLa Rosa came in and was a decent back up center. Seemed like the defense in the first half of the first half, we weren't doing the mad go double everything and actually played some fairly decent defense. The switch to zone a few possessions was ok, but IU quickly found the gaps in it (not sure why we can't do the same). And although everyone is crapping on the offensive system, its simple and creates mismatches when its executed (and we make shots). It always seems to me when we take the screen at the elbow, and do the fan dribble to reverse direction, we actually turn our back to the post just at the time he is open.
But, we simply aren't long and athletic enough at enough positions...and that includes Trent Frazier who is my favorite player on the team, and Demonte, who is the son of my all time favorite illini. If we had 3 guys who were long and athletic, you could overcome their shortcomings. Justin Smith would look great in Orange and Blue...he'd be what we unfairly expect Kipper to be.
And for everyone pining for Finke...c'mon. I appreciate his desire to be an Illini as a legacy and am a fan of his, but he's averaging less than 10 Pts for GCU, is shooting 33% from 3, and doesn't have a block yet this year. If he was playing for the Illini we'd still be asking why aren't we seeing more Samba.
I can't disagree with the fact that we play a bit robotic at times...and Griffin needs to work on his handle. I'm hoping Underwood lets Tevian play and he makes us all wish he hadn't missed 8 games.....we shall see.