Regarding those post game interviews, Underwood was as expected. He was frustrated with the wheels coming off. I was not a big fan of how AG handled that interview. If you want to be a big time player in a big time league....have to handle the cameras a little better. That was a guy who looked like he may have had a rough conversation with coach in the locker room. Probably better to have a Feliz or Frazier taking questions in that scenario.
Rutgers 72, Illinois 57 POSTGAME
I think he and Miller would have helped greatly if they were on the court.
What a cr@ppy arena the RAC is. It looks like a bunker from the outside and inside it's a warehouse. Looks like a pole barn with corrugated sheetmetal. I've seen better-looking pig barns.
The inside has lousy foot traffic accommodation, and the toilets would be adequate if everybody didn't want to go at halftime.
My wife won't go back, regardless. Of anything.
Rutgers is "The University of New Jersey"? There's too much money in New Jersey to make that their...anything.
The inside has lousy foot traffic accommodation, and the toilets would be adequate if everybody didn't want to go at halftime.
My wife won't go back, regardless. Of anything.
Rutgers is "The University of New Jersey"? There's too much money in New Jersey to make that their...anything.
You're correct in that we don't always take good shots.....but I've seen several of our players have clean open looks (good shots) that they've missed throughout the season....when that happens on a regular basis....then we are most of the time "a poor perimeter shooting team"
".can one of the Jones disciples please tell me again why we should have been playing him all year? His shooting was just not there...great hustle block, but man quit shooting if it isn't your night." So I guess because he missed some open jumpers we should just turn him into someone that doesn't look at the basket like Damonte. It amazes me that some players can do nothing right while others get 20+ minutes a game showing no offense yet they're irreplaceable parts of the team. I would rather have 4 or 5 Tevians rather than 4 or 5 Damontes. Unfortunately we haven't had for several years and that is why we are mediocre. All I see is complaints about Kofi playing like a freshman and Tevian brings nothing to the table and its BS. If we don't start getting more athletic players like them we are going to be right where we've been for quite a while. Watch the Duke's, the Kentucky's, the Kansas teams. A Damonte couldn't sniff their team, but they do have some athletes like Tevian and Kofi ever year. I am not here to knock Damonte, as I appreciate what he brings to the team, but his upside is what it is. However, you never fail to knock Jones no matter what he does. If you think Damonte's upside is the same as these other two then enjoy the kind of basketball you are seeing. It's not going to be pretty.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
This (bolded portion) is just a plain old bad take. I get your overall point: we need talent, and Jones oozes it. But if you truly are taking what Tevian is bringing to the table right now over that of Damonte...well, then pass whatever you're smoking.
Luckily, we have measurements to quantify the value of what Damonte and other defensive-minded, offensively-limited players bring to the table. Tevian has an overall box plus-minus of -6.8 this year, broken down to a -6.7 on the offensive end and -0.1 on defense. Damonte? He's at 0 on offense and +5.8 on defense, for an overall +5.8. So, to your point, Damonte is irreplaceable, is by far our team's best defender (by nearly a factor of 2), and brings a ton of positive value due to his defense while being a zero on offense, compared to Tevian's huge negative on that end. Now, these stats are skewed by sample size, who the person is playing with (both are very significant in Tevian's case), and other factors, but when they are +/- to that degree, they typically reveal something close to reality.
I generally agree with you that people have been too quick to write off Tevian and that we want players with the potential to really pop, whether that's as freshmen or later on, and Tevian is one of those. I hope he sticks around for his junior year, because by the end of that year we'll know if he has it in him or if he's a DJ Williams-type tease. But, I needed to stick up for Damonte, because despite his frustrations, that man brings a lot of unheralded value to this team and people all too often want to replace him with the next shiny object (myself included! mea culpa), despite his measurable value to this team and to winning.
THIS is the post-game analysis I'm here to see.
Made FG's in 2nd half...
18:25 Griffin makes 3 pt
16:33 Cockburn dunks
15:19 Feliz makes 3 pt
8:17 Griffin makes 3 pt
7:06 Feliz makes layup
0:44 Jones makes 3 pt
0:18 Feliz makes layup
Yup 7 FG's..
illini80
- Forgottonia
That is true, but what frustrates me is the rest of the guys don’t find open space to give him some passing lanes out. Watch how they stand around waiting for him to shoot. He typically has no one to pass the ball to.
But if you truly are taking what Tevian is bringing to the table right now over that of Damonte...well, then pass whatever you're smoking. How do we know what he can bring to the table right now. This is the first he has gotten real minutes. I understand your points, but my point is that Tevian is one of the few players we have that can get his own shot in this league. Yet all I hear is he wasn't hitting so he should quit shooting. Okay, quit shooting, as usual with us when we struggle who is going to get the points for us then.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
Good point, for sure, and why I mentioned the sample size part. I think both points can be true: what we've seen of Tevian hasn't been great, but he also hasn't exactly been given a long leash (until yesterday) to get comfortable and prove what he can do. At the very least, it's encouraging he's been earning more minutes of late. I don't know if he'll ever be what we thought he could be last year, but I sure hope he proves us all wrong and makes me eat those words.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
We should rarely have a 6+ min FG drought. Twice in one game is mind-blowingly bad.
Just as mind blowing, only 4 guys made FG's in the 2nd half and the total of those were 18 points.
Two times we had seven MINUTE gaps with no field goals! Rutgers is the best defensive team in the NCAA!
Oh boy....someone struck a Tevian nerve.
Tevian has upside and Damonte is steady....Tevian is relatively raw and we know Damonte generally wont do bonehead things.
All that said..let's just say we view these two road games as throwaway games where you can experiment and somehow produce some new late season line-up chemistry.. If that's the view (which maybe it should be)...I kinda agree .. maybe use it as a scrimmage ground for Tevian to play and shoot and gain confidence...a good thing.
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I think Tevian’s biggest issue is all the missed time at the beginning of the season and relative lack of game time since he has been back. The last few games have been like a start of the season for him. His own fault but, is what it is.
I don’t think his defense looks that bad. He didn’t get back quickly enough after a shot but, made up for it by getting the block. Otherwise he seems to be getting in correct position most of the time. Sometimes a little slow recognizing a defensive rotation but, that isn’t unique to him on our team.
As far as his shooting if our standard for playing is making shots and not taking bad shots we wouldn’t have anyone playing. I have about as much confidence watching his shot go up as I do for anyone except Griffin.
This year I just think he has the most potential to add something to the team of anyone. Everyone else has been out there and their improvement has already come to some extent.
I don’t think his defense looks that bad. He didn’t get back quickly enough after a shot but, made up for it by getting the block. Otherwise he seems to be getting in correct position most of the time. Sometimes a little slow recognizing a defensive rotation but, that isn’t unique to him on our team.
As far as his shooting if our standard for playing is making shots and not taking bad shots we wouldn’t have anyone playing. I have about as much confidence watching his shot go up as I do for anyone except Griffin.
This year I just think he has the most potential to add something to the team of anyone. Everyone else has been out there and their improvement has already come to some extent.
I didn't "knock" Tevian, I just ask for a TJ disciple to come to his aid and defend why we should have been playing him all year so far? I don't say TJ doesn't have value, but in this game...shot after shot after shot...clanged like mostly everyone else.
The difference is that other players/ DMW, Griffin, Feliz, etc have shown the propensity to do other things as well, it's called defense/hustle/etc. TJ had an awesome hustle play and block...noted as such, other times he seemingly is lost on defense alot. Possibly if he learns the nuances of everything other than shooting/scoring, he would play more and also contribute more say like DMW. BTW. DMW was your comparision not mine, that said, he is hard to replace based on what he does bring to the table, many if not almost all the rest of the team cannot do or WANT to do what he does for us.
You are right DMW may or may not "sniff" the Blue Bloods of the world, guess what TJ wouldn't either...so if that is a point of contention, I am sorry it is not a very good one either.
Look at the end of a day, so far, DMW has proven his worth to not only the team, the program, the school, can TJ say that as of yet? I sincerely hope that he does and he turns into the UBER shooter/slasher that we all thought he could be, until then, his playing time might very well be questioned?
I agree with this for the confidence level, however, he should have earned these in the pre-season non conference portion? It is not the time now, if Ayo is back, if not, then why not? Continue to work him in as long as he uses his abilities to do other things as well (blocks-hustle) as well as shooting.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
As Virginia shows us -- painfully, sometimes -- you only need to score more points than the opponent.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
RU plays an aggressive overplay on D, what I don't get is why we didn't backdoor the crap out of them like teams did to us when we played that D. One pump fake and go to the basket. I know we're not a stellar passing team, but it's a pretty simple setup. At least a few times to force them to hedge that and perhaps not play so much deny ball.
Ryllini
- Lombard
Tev is definitely in the position he is in because of his own choices. I hope he sticks it out in Champaign and has a hell of an off-season. This kid is as committed on the defensive end as I have seen in his time here and once he can hit the 3 with consistency and then learn how to deck the ball and get to the hoop or hit the midrange, he is an impossible cover on the college level given his size. He has pro level athleticism and skills. With it looking like Ayo going to the next level next year, Tev could be an x-factor for us to having staying power. I wouldn’t mind him starting in the front court with Kofi in the front court next year.