Pregame: Illinois vs Michigan, Wednesday, December 11th, 8:00pm CT, BTN

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#51      

jrod1286

Pat Chambers
Illinois
Who will show up for the Illini against Michigan? The licking their wounds Illini after a collapse loss against Maryland or an Illini team who can put together 2 first halves like they did against Maryland and show that they are a team than can be taken seriously?
Wow...
 
#52      

illini80

Forgottonia
Gotta win at home. Michigan is really really good. Better than MD imo. Still, gotta win at home.
 
#54      
The tourney field this year is looking to be very heavy in the middle. 1 and 4 just went down to PSU and TT. We HAVE to win tomorrow.
 
#58      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/col...cle_64b83888-d179-5f8d-8ad6-e3305c5d057f.html

“I think the one thing that I’ve told our team is everything we did in the Maryland game can be carried over,” Underwood said. “The scouting report is different. Maryland is a different team than Michigan, but the attention to detail, the toughness. We played like a physically tough team. There were collisions at the rim. There were charges. There was skin left on the floor. There was blood on the floor. Those things can carry over.”
 
#59      
Not sure I'm buying what you're selling here. There are teams that are good at losing by a possession or two, and teams that are snake-bit by unlucky breaks late in games.

I see a team with an average amount of fight in it, that handles success poorly by giving away leads, and no-shows for extended periods with sloppy, unfocused play. For this team to get over the hump, they need greater determination and focus than we've shown. The raw talent is there, but the mental discipline and hunger isn't quite. When I see a team that punches back hard, I'll buy in. Really hope we get that, but so far it's been disappointing to see us struggle when the game reaches crucial moments. This team has too much talent for moral victories --that's just an excuse for missing the tourney.
Maryland punched back hard...but the refs didn’t call the fouls.
 
#61      
Brad talking about the officiating against Maryland, “I don’t wanna get fined” ha
He answered all of the timeout questions and he’s right on the road you lose too much time for the timeout to do you any good but the administrative technical would have been great I would never have thought of that so maybe we all cut him some slack and just see how he handles the rest of the season
 
#62      
We are -1.0 tonight. Wow. We must really have impressed Vegas with our Maryland effort. Just wow.
 
#64      
Michigan has beaten #6 UNC, #8 Gonzaga, lost to #1 Louisville and just beat Iowa by 12 but somehow we are the favorite. What? 😅
 
#66      
Looking forward to this game. Need protect home court and I think we do. I see Kofi with 14 and 9 — getting a jump start on another freshman of th week award.
 
#67      
As much as the 10th game of a season can be a must win, for our tournament hopes, this is a must win.

We need signature wins.
 
#68      

illinihawk16

Chicago
To be fair to Vegas, Kenpom has us losing by 1pt. My read on it is that Michigan is still undervalued by Vegas/KenPom, and we're slightly overvalued because of our expectations entering the year.
 
#69      
I think we win.

However, even if we do not, I think we are on the rise. IMHO, we need a leader to lead this team. We have them but have not identified them as such.
 
#70      

illinihawk16

Chicago
I think we win.

However, even if we do not, I think we are on the rise. IMHO, we need a leader to lead this team. We have them but have not identified them as such.

I want Trent to be that guy to step up, and I think he will be.
 
#72      
Before this Miami/MD/Michigan set of games I found it very unlikely we would go 0-3 or 3-0. I honestly though 1-2 was the most likely, with the W being against Miami (of course).

If we do come out of the 1-3 with the win being against Michigan what does that mean w/r/t my expectations? Theoretically winning against MI is better than I expected but losing to Miami is much worse. Are we who I thought we would be or are we above/below that expectation?

Given I expected 1-2 (with most likely 2 double-digit losses) I think beating Michigan puts us ahead of where I expected based upon progression (playing better in each consecutive game, culminating in a win vs a top 5 team).

Of course ending this 0-3 makes my curl up in the fetal position and cry for a couple of weeks. If we can win AND actually play well, I think I'm OK when with where we're at when I look at it objectively (although in my gut I still don't feel great).
 
#73      

JFGsCoffeeMug

BU:1 Trash cans:0
Chicago
Assuming we end up with the same record under either scenario, I'm still not sure what's worse: being so bad that the occasional big win surprises and delights, or being consistently competitive but losing the vast majority of our close games. Both are forms of torture, but they are very different kinds of torture.
 
#74      

The Sprouting Divot

Invisible and Bulletproof
Miracle Mile
Assuming we end up with the same record under either scenario, I'm still not sure what's worse: being so bad that the occasional big win surprises and delights, or being consistently competitive but losing the vast majority of our close games. Both are forms of torture, but they are very different kinds of torture.
I am at the point in my life that the time invested in following our teams is a substantial sacrifice, and to that end, I would almost prefer that a team be categorically bad just so I could quit caring so much and take the "ignorance is bliss" approach of a more casual fan (i.e., no "appointment viewing" of games, not caring if I miss a game or two or three or more, and even instances of checking the outcome before making the decision of whether I want to watch a game or just delete it and move on - a hallmark of the later Groce and Beckman eras...) The constant agony, time commitment, and general overall disappointment of the two scenarios you describe are in some ways much worse than just sucking so bad it's impossible to care, though I certainly realize and appreciate that others will feel differently.

But I'd say that the first scenario is worse because there's presumably less basis to hope for improvement.
 
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