I saw a LOT of things to love Friday night, and some things that have to be worked on.
LOVE
Tempo--sure, these guys aren't there yet, and legs got tired in the second half, but this kids looked pretty comfortable pushing the ball against the man defense.
Transition--goes with tempo a lot, but these kids attack after a defensive rebound.
Passing--The box score only shows 8 assists, but there were some possessions where the ball was moving very well. Not 04-05 well, but better than we've seen quite a while
Team play--I can't think of a single play where I thought "Hero Ball"
Alstork--For all the hype about Mark "going to get his points" (I was kind of worried about Ray Rice 2.0), this guy was doing the little things to help make plays. Tough D, 6 boards, 2 steals, and he got his 14.
Jordan--Every game this kid comes through in a different way. KenPom has him with the 5th highest ORating among all players (not filtered for minimum possessions)--Right behind Jalen Brunson.
Needs work--
Captain obvious says the offense against the zone. I'm not a great X/O guy, but there's got to be a better way to attack the zone that what we showed the other night. This one's on the coaching staff, and if they don't get it sorted we're going to struggle.
Free throws--Sure, they shot 80%, but TJL's misses were pretty critical, and at a critical point of the game.
3 point shooting--16.7%. Oh boy. Not going to beat Rutgers shooting like that.
Leron--Don't get me wrong, I love the energy the guy plays with, but sometimes...just dumb stuff. Even if he didn't start the jawing that led to the double-T, just walk away. And if he did start it, that's harmful to the team because his rep isn't going to get him any slack with the refs.
tl;dr--even with the loss, I think we're trending up. I think NU's a better team than a lot of people are giving them credit for, but I'll also agree that this game was Illinois' to win, but they couldn't solve the zone.