Pregame: Illinois vs Minnesota, Thursday, January 30th, 6:30pm CT, FS1

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#126      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
Leonardite said:
Huge game. Our next four are incredibly tough games, so we need to win the ones we're supposed to.
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Our next 6 are incredibly tough. This home game against Minnesota and then 5 straight games against ranked opponents. 3 on road and 2 at home against arguably two best teams in the league.
 
#127      

RedRiver24

R
RedRiver24
I'm struggling to see how Minnesota is tough at home. I fear them only a little more than Northwestern, based on what I've seen from them in their games.
 
#129      

RML

R
RML
haasi said:
Our next 6 are incredibly tough. This home game against Minnesota and then 5 straight games against ranked opponents. 3 on road and 2 at home against arguably two best teams in the league.
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"two of the three best teams in the league."

Thankfully, we don't have to play ourselves.
 
#133      

618Illini618

618Illini618
618Illini618
1970 John said:
Would love to see DaMonte go off. He's really genuinely overdue.
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I think we’d all enjoy seeing Damonte go off, but he knows his role and rarely even looks at the basket when he gets the ball. I can’t see him scoring more than 5 in a game at this point.
 
#134      

TCTORNADO

TCTORNADO
TCTORNADO
618Illini618 said:
I think we’d all enjoy seeing Damonte go off, but he knows his role and rarely even looks at the basket when he gets the ball. I can’t see him scoring more than 5 in a game at this point.
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5 points would be like winning the lottery. He's only scored a total of 3 so far this year in 9 B!G games.
 
#135      

RedRiver24

R
RedRiver24
sacraig said:
In fairness, we've shown our ability to play down to teams like Northwestern.
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I don't think Illinois played down to NW. I think they played well.

I'm suggesting Minnesota is not far off of NWs best shot.

In my estimation.
 
#136      

Illini_05

Illini_05
Illini_05
if we can control Carr and Oturu, we should win comfortably, i expect us to do so, seeing that our defense has been great this year
Illini 69-58
 
#137      

Illini_1979

Illini_1979
Oregon
Illini_1979
Let's keep this going! :illinois:

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#138      

bombayIllini

B
bombayIllini
haasi said:
Our next 6 are incredibly tough. This home game against Minnesota and then 5 straight games against ranked opponents. 3 on road and 2 at home against arguably two best teams in the league.
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I have not looked at their boards. Wonder what they are saying about us?

Bet, they have more fear of us than we have of them.

And, that is a great thing, considering where we were at the start of the season and then at the start of the B10 season.
 
#140      

AZis

A
AZis
Illini_05 said:
if we can control Carr and Oturu, we should win comfortably, i expect us to do so, seeing that our defense has been great this year
Illini 69-58
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Que up the 'relatively unknown player goes off for a career high game' meme.....
 
#142      

urbanite

U
urbanite
RedRiver24 said:
I don't think Illinois played down to NW. I think they played well.
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Conveniently, Torvik's site calculates per-game performance and can answer this for us (from a purely statistical standpoint, at least). Based on the whole season, Northwestern's expected win percentage against an average team is 71%. For this game, it was 85%. Our expected win percentage, based on the whole season, is 88%. For this game, it was 76%. Northwestern played up and we played down.

RedRiver24 said:
I'm suggesting Minnesota is not far off of NWs best shot.
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This is pretty dead-on, going by Torvik's stats. Minnesota's expected win percentage is 86%.
 
#146      

Illini in Indiana

I
Indiana
Illini in Indiana
After 2 big road B10 wins, this is a trap game. Miami & Missouri come to mind. No Mercy, get on them quick. I feel it's time for a big game from Georgi. Ayo & Trent get 15 a piece too.
 
#148      

bombayIllini

B
bombayIllini
The challenge is to get "up" for every game. This team did a dynamite job at PU and nearly dropped the ball at MI.
 
#150      

abqbball47

A
abqbball47
Illiniguy90 said:
This is one of 4 remaining games that may end up being less than Quad 1. Therefore this is a "MUST WIN" in my book.

Oturu is predicted to go top 10 in the 2020 NBA draft and is averaging 19.7 pts per game (including ~30% from 3). This is a great opportunity to see if Kofi can handle real NBA talent.

We don't need to completely shut down Oturu as long as he doesn't shut down our production inside the paint. If Ayo keeps being a 3 level scorer, Trent keeps hitting from deep, and Kofi slams it home down low I think Illinois can create offense. The key is going to be our defensive game plan. If Kofi can at least keep Oturu in check (under 20 points) without getting into foul trouble I would expect Illinois to avoid using a double and instead focus on shutting down the guards (Marcus Carr, Gabe Kalscheur, and Payton Willis). I think this is a game where we're going to wish we had Alan Griffin on the floor.

PREDICTION: 72-69 ILLINOIS
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I would like to see Georgi guard Oturu away fro basket, let Kofi handle the lane. I do not like it when Kofi is away from basket on Defense. He doesn't have that in his tool box yet. He will get there! Go Illini....
 
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