Pregame: Illinois vs East Tennessee State, Saturday, December 15th, 1:00pm CT, BTN Plus

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#1      

Dan

Admin
Illinois vs East Tennessee State
Saturday, December 15th
1:00pm CT
BTN Plus

Please direct all questions/comments about BTN Plus to the BTN Plus Thread

:illinois:
 
#2      

foby

Bonnaroo Land
#WEWillWin
 
#3      
I am so glad we have a W coming into this week break. This place would be awfully ugly if we had choked for real.
 
#4      

foby

Bonnaroo Land
Won’t be a gimme. They are better than unlv from what I’ve seen/read.
Most likely a hair or two below UNLV. I couldn't see UNLV losing by 17 to Wofford at this point in the season.
 
#5      
Hit the books this week boys and be ready to win on Saturday.
 
#6      

GortTheRobot

North Bethesda, Maryland
I hope Samba plays a lot. I was impressed with his flashes. Also, I think Griffin is going to be a very good player when all is said and done...he’s a competitor.
 
#7      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
Bold statement coming. 15+ point win. I just feel this team needs a little break and some much needed confidence only a W today could have provided.

Samba needs as many minutes as he can handle, AG and TV need to get 12 to 15 a game in the next 3 games. This should help some with depth. B10 will be challenging though. There just isn’t a “bad” team this year.
 
#8      
Bold statement coming. 15+ point win. I just feel this team needs a little break and some much needed confidence only a W today could have provided.

Samba needs as many minutes as he can handle, AG and TV need to get 12 to 15 a game in the next 3 games. This should help some with depth. B10 will be challenging though. There just isn’t a “bad” team this year.

Rutgers says, “Woohoo! We aren’t “bad”!”
 
#12      

GortTheRobot

North Bethesda, Maryland
I’m gonna roll with the guys got tight at the end of the UNLV game, knowing they needed a win to get back on track. I think we see a looser team against ETS.
 
#13      
Won’t be a gimme. They are better than unlv from what I’ve seen/read.

Won't be a gimme because this team isn't very good yet.

Personally, I'm looking for measurable improvement, as well as the eye test. A couple games ago, we were around 90 in KenPom, and have been dropping (currently down to 106).

Another metric you I look at, is how we're trending against the spread, since presumably Vegas would have the smart money view of whether we should be winning/losing, and by how much. We're currently 2-6 vs the spread at home, which is lousy. Trent's injury is an issue, but I also think we're just not that good, and not being coached up, at least thus far.

Subjectively, we're not passing the eye test IMHO, but being young, I expect a lot of freshman mistakes. I don't expect those to go away, but as we get further into the season, I would expect us to get tougher mentally, improve our execution, and have better decision-making. Not night and day improvement, but improvement.

This game and Missouri are roughly toss-ups. Then we have Floridad Atlantic which we'll be favored for, maybe even double-digit. Then it's trial by fire in the BIG, with the only Rutgers below us. Eek!
 
#14      
I would guess that BU is indeed stubborn to a fault, although I have no knowledge. Just watching his ingame demeanor, he is extremely intense and some stubbornness goes with that, imo. Not that intensity is all bad, in fact it is not.
 
#15      

illini80

Forgottonia
I'm hoping we show growth in the these next 3 games and don't just survive as I feel we did with UNLV. Every W is a good one. But I want more from this team. I want to see we have grown to the point of competing with anyone. I want to see smart decision making down the stretch. I want to see we have learned how to throw a dang lob pass without 50% of them being turnovers for cripes sake. 80% of this teams weaknesses are mental. Yes we have too many physical limitations, but that's not the main reason we are where we are.
 
#16      
Hey at least this isn’t the Chicago Bulls, talk about a dumpster fire. Go Illinois, love the improvements I am seeing with the system!
 
#17      
In good news, we have passed Rutgers in kenpom and T-rank.

In more important news, East Tenn is horrible at shooting FTs. So that will be good for us. They also don't get to the line too much, but I am sure we'll up to the challenge of getting them there.
They are a good rebounding team on both ends, so that will be rough.

We'll have to be better at turning them over than we were against UNLV.
 
#18      

Illwinsagain

Cary, IL
In good news, we have passed Rutgers in kenpom and T-rank.

In more important news, East Tenn is horrible at shooting FTs. So that will be good for us. They also don't get to the line too much, but I am sure we'll up to the challenge of getting them there.
They are a good rebounding team on both ends, so that will be rough.

We'll have to be better at turning them over than we were against UNLV.
I laughed, only because it is so true...
 
#19      
Came here to post something about how I want to see us win by at least X points ... but honestly, let's just win two in a row. Beat a team we should beat at home to get on what could be the last winning streak of the year if we don't improve and then take it one game at a time. Regardless of the year, we should never go into the Braggin' Rights Game EXPECTING a loss. :cool:

I'll go with a 77-61 Illini victory ... closer than we'd like, but I'll rarely complain about a W.
 
#20      
Most likely a hair or two below UNLV. I couldn't see UNLV losing by 17 to Wofford at this point in the season.

They only lost by 6 to Creighton earlier in the year...Creighton only lost by 11 to Gonzaga, but lost to Nebraska by 19...soooo....
 
#21      

TownieMatt

CU Expat
Chicago
My quick KenPom analysis suggests this will be a tough game. They're no. 7 in the country in Off Reb%, we're 312 in Off Reb% allowed. However, they rank 249 in TO%, we're 10th in forced TO%.

If we force TOs and don't give up second chance buckets, we'll win.

I think #WeWillWin, but with the way we close out games (or rather don't close out games) I can't pick us by much:

ILL - 76
ETSU - 70
 
#22      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
After the last game and I aged 10 yurs in the last 4-5 minutes of that game , i just want a win...1 point or 30 points , a win is a win for the Illini right now...post it in the lerft column as BU says and move on...

Illini 78
ETSU 66
 
#24      
Came here to post something about how I want to see us win by at least X points ... but honestly, let's just win two in a row. Beat a team we should beat at home to get on what could be the last winning streak of the year if we don't improve and then take it one game at a time. Regardless of the year, we should never go into the Braggin' Rights Game EXPECTING a loss. :cool:

I'll go with a 77-61 Illini victory ... closer than we'd like, but I'll rarely complain about a W.
Always cringe at a guesstimate score. Seriously, Illinois (as in, "it's so Illinois to defy logic and lose in as many mathematically ways possible "...who cares about a final score or margin of victory.?We win by 1, cue Pharrell Williams.
 
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