We look like we've never seen a zone defense in our entire lives. No matter the coach, it always seems the best strategy we can come up with to combat a zone is by throwing high looping passes over defenders arms and then chucking up a desperation three. We made Maryland's job easy.
Maryland 75, Illinois 66 POSTGAME
Giorgi is scouted. He is a decent complimentary player. He goes to the boards hard. He is not a creator on offense. We got out of our roles. We did not try very hard to go to Kofi. Turgeon adjusted on defense and pretty much shut us down the rest of the game
Beat ourselves with the free throws. Give Maryland credit. Thought they got lucky against us at their place. Don’t think that was the case here, they were impressive. Cowan reminds me of Frazier with crazy handles. He kept them in the game when Illinois could’ve blown it open to 25.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Well, none of the men on the floor for us have. They have another one on Tuesday. It's likely this experience will be useful to draw on then. I recommend you go back and look at the game-by-game results from the teams in the '80s. They were used to games like these and still put their feet in it from time to time. These boys and the program are just getting started here.
Gotta give credit to the Turtles. They came into Champaign (were down 14) and didn't get rattled. They earned that one but man, we really did some bone head things in the 2nd half. Giorgi did made some lackluster decisions and couldn't make anything tonight. We must do better starting next game.
For sure! I cant believe he told Giorgi to make that pass and have the team miss all those free throws.
Got out played in the second half. Just could not hit a shot.
Not sure what to think. We kind of reverted back to pre-January play. Totally out of sync for 75% of the game. We're not a B1G championship contender IMO. But it'll still be nice to hopefully see their name called on selection Sunday. Haven't felt like this since Miami tourney loss. But arrow is still pointing up depending on your perspective.
I agree it was the zone was a good move, but I think that everyone was in foul trouble is what hurt our team the most the first half.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yes they are. And their fans regularly call for Turgeon to be fired. Be glad you're not a Maryland fan. You wouldn't believe how detached from reality they are.
The guys were HOT from outside early, too. Gutsy call without a rout staring them in the face. I get the feeling that it was desperation. If the Terps weren't getting eaten alive in every phase, switching to zone probably would not have happened until much later in the game.
Deleted member 746894
D
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Full expecting a 5 game skid at this point.
LeinieGuy
Will work for bourbon
- Lexington, KY
Not pissed. I only get pissed when we lose badly to sub-par teams like the Illinois-Penn St games under Weber, or every game like that under Groce. We had a chance in this one but I don’t think the coaching is as much to blame as the execution.
I know we are all frustrated but Coach did not have a good game tonight
He brought it.... 6-7 layups right into the waiting defenders. Not even a hint of maybe kicking it out. His boneheaded selfish play down the stretch was a contributing factor in damning us.
Giorgi’s bad pass turnover changed the momentum of the game.
Missing tons of freethrows at home.
Maryland is better than what some fans on here gave them credit for. They have fast long players that choked out all the lanes keeping Illinois from having an offensive flow. You can tell Illinois was throwing in the towel when they started heaving up threes instead.
Players got out hustled and out smarted. Heads up, we got another ranked team coming in.
Yea, Turgeon who is not considered a good in game coach, won that battle tonight.