Pregame: Illinois vs Mississippi Valley State, Sunday, November 25th, 1:00pm CT, BTN Plus

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#26      

Atgers

Birmingham, AL
Does anyone know if this game will be available as a replay? I will be on the road Sunday and have two options. Leave super early in the morning and watch it live. Or, leave at a decent hour and catch it as a replay. I prefer the later option.
 
#30      

illini80

Forgottonia
Would have considered traveling to this game if not for the dang weather! Not sure we will learn a lot from this game, but the guys need a win.
 
#31      

illini80

Forgottonia
To someone who knows Underwoods system better than I, is the defensive problem based on poor rotations? I thought I had heard Lou Henson brag about Underwoods defense at OSU. Something is broken there.
 
#32      
To someone who knows Underwoods system better than I, is the defensive problem based on poor rotations? I thought I had heard Lou Henson brag about Underwoods defense at OSU. Something is broken there.

I don’t know the defense like I know the offense, but the basic premise of pressure defense is that you will force enough turnovers and bad shots (that you rebound) to offset the layups and open 3s you give up.

It doesn’t matter if a team shoots 83 percent on layups if that comes on 5/6 shooting, or 80 percent on 3s if that comes from 4/5 shooting, throughout an entire game. Those are extreme numbers, but you can see the theory, you win points per possession because of all the forced turnovers and defensive rebounds, which equal lost possessions for the opponent.

We are currently living in the world where the turnovers don’t offset the offensive shooting percentage because they’re getting too many layups, hitting their good looks, or were not defensive rebounding they way we need too.
 
#34      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
To someone who knows Underwoods system better than I, is the defensive problem based on poor rotations? I thought I had heard Lou Henson brag about Underwoods defense at OSU. Something is broken there.

Poor rotations is part of it, and lack of discipline and awareness to avoid fouling another, but lack of inherent rim protection and rebounding ability is probably the biggest part.

West Virginia gets blocks and one-and-done rebounds of misses forced by contests coming suddenly and from weird directions.

Illinois fouls and allows layups and second chance opportunities.

And for the record, Underwood's defense wasn't very good at OSU even when they made the system tweaks. And the defense was just okay and behind the offense in his first two years at SFA as well.

In a way the defense isn't meant to be efficient per se, it's meant as a vehicle for the way Underwood wants to play as a whole, generating fast break opportunities and not giving the opponent the opportunity to run offense and feel their way into the game. The offense and defense are part of the same whole, intended to be hard and frustrating to play against.

That has only very intermittently been the case at Illinois. Our opponents get rattled by the ball pressure at times, but you can see they've been coached to be patient and that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if they keep moving the ball and stretching the defense, which is true because we can't protect the rim.
 
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