Pregame: Illinois at Penn State, Tuesday, February 18th, 5:30pm CT, FS1

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#1      

Dan

Admin
Illinois at Penn State
Tuesday, February 18th
5:30pm CT
FS1

:illinois:
 
#3      
Interested to hear when Ayo might be back. Some good things today but we are not deep enough to lose our best player causing everyone else on the roster to play up and out of their role
 
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#5      
This is a very interesting game. This will likely be their craziest home atmosphere in a very long time, maybe ever. Sometimes that can cause the home team to play a little too amped up. Hopefully we can keep it close.

A 5 game losing streak, while not fun, is completely ok with how tough the league is this year. Question is can we stay mentally tough enough to ride out the storm and come out of it playing confident against teams we should beat?
 
#7      
Why will playing Illinois create their craziest atmosphere ever?

Because we are only 2 games behind them and we will be the best team PSU has played at home since their fans finally realized they had a good team. They have been a little late to the party, unlike Rutgers fans.

Even when they had decent bubble teams their home court was pretty quiet.
 
#8      

illini80

Forgottonia
Defense, defense, defense. It’s our ticket to a fighting chance. Without Ayo I expect we will continue to struggle offensively, but if they play through Kofi I think we get a lot better looks. That’s probably my only disappointment in the season so far is that we have failed to execute that regularly.
 
#9      
Not as confident in this one. Stevens is a tough cover for any team, but I’m not sure we have anyone to slow him down. Maybe DaMonte, but there’s a serious height and weight advantage there for PSU.
Lets just avoid another injury and maybe (hopefully, please) steal a W.
 
#10      
Not as confident in this one. Stevens is a tough cover for any team, but I’m not sure we have anyone to slow him down. Maybe DaMonte, but there’s a serious height and weight advantage there for PSU.
Lets just avoid another injury and maybe (hopefully, please) steal a W.
Minny challenged them at Penn on 8 Feb..gave PSU a game..its doable.

Turning off this streak is a coaching challenge. Injured team both literally and figuratively require special coaching effort to break out of a 4 game skid. We can do this...win it.
 
#11      
We can beat Penn State if we pass the ball more effectively and get better looks. Most of our shots from outside are contested. Gee Maryland crushed Michigan State down the stretch, 3 different players, hitting five 3's, largely as a result of good passing.
 
#13      
WE can certainly win this game. PSU is very good. That being said were do they actually rank in the conference? Teams unfortunately dont play the same schedule and imo they are about the the 3rd or 4th best team. We get enough clean looks most games we just need to make them. If we make shots we can beat anyone. WE need to stay focused on our bread and butter of defense, hitting the offensive glass, and play inside out. I also hope that either TF and Dre can learn to be a little more of a distributor of the ball than a scorer looking to dish inside our to open shooters that often dont get the pass when they could. We hit shots and defend we can beat anyone the way we hit the offensive glass and rebound. We usually get more shots so when we make them we are tough. That is whatit is gonna take to get the W on the road in this league. Especailly with out Ayo. It will take team work since we really dont have the guy who can consistently create his own shot without Ayo.

It is crazy how tough this league is on the road and why winning at home is so important. That last 10 seconds at home vs MSU hurt us and helped MSU out on so many levels. I would have loved if MSU was starting at maybe 9 or 10 losses and Ayo was healthy for these games. Things can change so fast. Lets knock down shots and change them in our favor on Tuesday night.
 
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#14      
The best way to defend Lamar Stevens is to attack him offensively. He usually plays the 4 so we have to feed Giorgi. Been saying that all year, maybe one of these games we'll see it.
 
#15      
We can beat Penn State if we pass the ball more effectively and get better looks. Most of our shots from outside are contested. Gee Maryland crushed Michigan State down the stretch, 3 different players, hitting five 3's, largely as a result of good passing.

This. Go back and watch some 2005 highlights ... those players were obviously very talented, but they didn’t just dominate by taking players one on one or making circus shots. They looked like any other average to good team until - before the other team knew it - their constant passing and moving off the ball produced multiple open looks, looks that we capitalized on. We stayed in games with our defense and offensive talent, but we put teams away night after night with good passing and hitting open shots.
 
#16      
This is going to be a tough one. PSU and Maryland are the two best teams in the league. They are playing great and have a big in Watkins who can match up defensively with Kofi. They also have shooters in the backcourt and most concerning a 6 ‘8” wing in Stevens for which we have no matchup answer. We need to make some shots to have a chance and that starts with Trent getting out of his slump.
 
#24      
I would not be surprised to see Underwood start Kipper to match up against Stevens. We need the length, athleticism and the fouls.
Wouldn't it be great to have the Kipper who put up 31 in the BTT 2 years ago (and 27 vs MSU)? We could win this one if THAT Kipper shows up (and plays defense like he has this year)
 
#25      

TMC999

Not Iowa
Because we are only 2 games behind them and we will be the best team PSU has played at home since their fans finally realized they had a good team. They have been a little late to the party, unlike Rutgers fans.

Even when they had decent bubble teams their home court was pretty quiet.
It’s about time we rain on someone else’s parade. Play with a chip.
 
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