Pregame: Illinois vs Winthrop, Monday, November 21st, 7:00pm CT, ESPN3

Status
Not open for further replies.
#1      

Dan

Admin
Illinois vs Winthrop
Monday, November 21st
7:00pm CT
ESPN3

:illinois:
 
#2      

illinitrav

NW Suburbs
This game has scared me since I saw it on the schedule. Winthrop will likely be a tournament team and is a big step up in competition from what we've seen so far, although they didn't challenge Florida State tonight as much as I thought they would.
 
#7      

FinalFour88

Charlotte, NC
My wife is a professor at Winthrop. I always like to see them do well -- but not this time!
 
#8      

UofIChE06

Pittsburgh
so what are the chances people on here are up in arms when the winthrop game is close? 90%? 99%?
 
#10      

illinitrav

NW Suburbs
And looking at the box score on ESPN, that appears to have been without their best player, Keon Johnson.

Good observation. I did some research and it looks like he suffered an unknown injury in practice and is listed as day-to-day.
 
#11      

illinitrav

NW Suburbs
so what are the chances people on here are up in arms when the winthrop game is close? 90%? 99%?

The uneducated fans definitely will be. KenPom has Illinois winning by 8. This one won't be easy, folks.
 
#12      

UofIChE06

Pittsburgh
The uneducated fans definitely will be. KenPom has Illinois winning by 8. This one won't be easy, folks.

On the flip side UI is not moving much on the KenPom scale because of the level of competition currently. If they want to get any movement with these types of metrics they will need to do so against the Top 100 type opponents like Winthrop. Even playing WVU tight would be more helpful than beating these low major opponents.
 
#13      
I don't wish injury on any of these kids, but if Keon Johnson is out or limited I like our chances.
 
#15      
Does this qualify as a trap game, or is that not giving Winthrop enough respect?
 
#16      

UofIChE06

Pittsburgh
Does this qualify as a trap game, or is that not giving Winthrop enough respect?

Definitely a trap game. No students + Big game later in the week in a big venue + holidays + no competition to this point. Add in that UI will be integrating Leron into the line up for the first time and you definitely need to preach focus in practice.
 
#18      

Illini1221

Peru,IL
My first post on here, but anyway, this team looks like they can really score it. Our defense will need to be locked in the entire 40 minutes, otherwise it could be a frustrating night
 
#19      
I think Lerons return alone is enough to get the guys jacked for this one. You know he's going to be flying around and setting the tone out there.
 
#20      
Eagles don't have a single guy on their roster above 6"8 and one of their top scorers is only 5"7

If we wanted to match them and go small I like a lineup of

Abrams
Tate
Williams
Hill
Black

Not predicting these guys will start by any means, but this lineup has the potential to be a good spark of energy, length and athleticism. It's nice to have options again huh
 
#21      

Serious Late

Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Win this game by double digits and we can feel very good heading into the tough portion of the non-con. Honestly, this feels like the start of the tough part of the non-con, so just winning should be enough, but a convincing win will feel so much more refreshing...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
#22      

EfremWinters84

S. Carolina
I'll take any type of win in this one. We need to get to 5-0.

After four games, my biggest surprises are:

-- Tracy's overall contributions. But esp. his shooting. If he stays healthy and continues hitting from the outside, it will be a huge plus!

-- DJ's game has shown improvement. I'm not watching him much on the defensive end, but he looks very smooth on OFF. Very nice mid-range game.

-- Tate getting minutes over TJL is a shocker to me. I guess it's JG going with the senior experience. Let's see how it continues to play out as the competition improves.
 
#23      
-- Tate getting minutes over TJL is a shocker to me. I guess it's JG going with the senior experience. Let's see how it continues to play out as the competition improves.

Really? Groce has typically brought along even much higher rated freshmen (Hill, Nunn, JCL) slowly, not to mention TJL was only cleared for full practice very late in the off season after recovering from a very significant leg injury.

I get it that people want to see him play more, but this really shouldn't be that surprising. I had assumed Tate would be getting most of the minutes early on and then it might shift towards TJL over the course of the season. But Tate's been doing pretty well so far so it's not all that surprising that he's continued to get the bulk of the playing time.
 
#24      

Deleted member 10676

D
Guest
-- Tate getting minutes over TJL is a shocker to me. I guess it's JG going with the senior experience. Let's see how it continues to play out as the competition improves.

Or maybe it's this: Jeremy Werner ‏@JWernerScout 10h10 hours ago

Tate leads #illini this season in plus/minus at +99 Malcolm Hill second at +85 Finke third at +80


Or that he's got 23 assists to 8 to's. Or that he scraps and hustles every minute he's out there.

I don't know what the kid has to do for some people to get off his case and just enjoy his play. Te'jun will get his shot, in the meantime listen to Groce. He's not playing him out of pity.

[FONT=&quot]Jeremy Werner ‏@JWernerScout 11h11 hours ago [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]#illini Groce: Right now, (Tate) is in such a groove. Playing best basketball of his career.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Jeremy Werner ‏@JWernerScout 11h11 hours ago [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]#illini Groce: "I thought Tate had incredible command of the game."[/FONT]
 
#25      
Aside from last year with the finger issue, I feel like Tate has always flashed in the non con. We'll see how it goes when bigger, longer, better scouting big ten teams come in and play 10 feet off of him. But right now let's give him the credit he deserves.

Finally, we should probably all be thankful Tate is holding it down. It gives tjl more time to adapt and get better on D. Anybody remember what happened last year when we had to play freshmen who weren't ready?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.