Illinois 64, Austin Peay 57 POSTGAME

[blackdog]

Just got home from the game and it was an all around ugly affair. Ugly basketball by both teams and the crowd just plain sucked. Didn't expect much but man it was pathetic.

Austin Peay really gets after it on defense. They play like we will when we have more experience. Still lots of really sloppy passing, especially entries into the high post. They stripped that pass almost every single time.

Gotta give a lot of credit to Leron and Finke in this one. They were consistent about getting buckets down low and without that we lose this game. Finke also rebounded pretty well and took a couple of early charges. As a whole though team rebounding was pretty weak.

 

[Deleted member 236589]

Well. That was not fun.

On the plus side, I'm stoked about our freshmen. BMW and Frazier are looking real nice. Smith will get there, just adjusting to playing ball without being the main man.

Te'jon looked a little pissed near the end of the game - avoiding eye contact with BU. Hopefully he takes it upon himself and doesn't begin to form a riff with coach.

Then he probably shouldn't be driving to the hoop and getting a cheap bucket with one second to go, when AP had surrendered.

He needs to never do that again.

 

[SKane]

Te'jon should have known better than to take the last shot at the end.

The game was over.

 

[BillyBob1]

Kansas about to lose to Washington at home! On ESPN2

 

[clusterbuster75]

It was like the basketball gods thought the refs had cost the illini lately so they made sure the refs helped the illini tonight.

Maryland burned us with the backdoor cut. We needed more hard backdoor cuts tonight.

 

[PlayAZ]

Plus'... We won, no injuries, (including the coach), extra experience, upper classman led the way. Other than that an ugly game, ugly offense, glad its over.

 

[JFGsCoffeeMug]

Turnovers have become an epidemic for us: Lucas with 5, Black with 5, Finke with 4. 25 overall.

78 possessions for us that game. Nearly a third of them ended with no shot attempt? That is insane.

 

[illinibri92]

BU still not appeared for WDWS post game comments. Well past normal time frame. Someone may want to check locker room for signs of life.....

 

[PlayAZ]

Te'jon should have known better than to take the last shot at the end.

The game was over.

He didn't know better than throw a 30 ft alley oop with game on the line, what makes you think he should know better than to shoot it for a bunny when other team concedes?

 

[kcib8130]

25 TO's against Maryland and 24 tonight has got to be a back to back school record for TO's. Anybody find worse??

we had 25 tonight and 16 against Maryland. Maryland had 25 TO's against us.

 

[TCTORNADO]

we had 25 tonight and 16 against Maryland. Maryland had 25 TO's against us.

Haha!! Whoops my bad. I stand corrected. Still a lot for 2 games.

 

[Rall]

Well we all were shocked when we couladn't close out the Maryland game.

We closed out this one and it was in doubt till the last minute.

We faced a reflection of ourselves on defense and we didn't like it and it showed. 24 turnovers? But we focused in the end and closed out the game that we couldn't afford to lose.

I'm betting that we play up to the competition that's coming.

 

[PlayAZ]

Root Canals, Ex's, Politics, us playing AP...a few things that I could do without ever again.

 

[kcib8130]

Haha!! Whoops my bad. I stand corrected. Still a lot for 2 games.

True. 16 against a B1G team in overtime isn't ridiculous, but 25 against the team we paid to job us is.

 

[Rall]

Well we all were shocked when we couldn't close out the Maryland game.

We closed out this one and it was in doubt till the last minute.

We faced a reflection of ourselves on defense and we didn't like it and it showed. 24 turnovers? But we focused in the end and closed out the game that we couldn't afford to lose.

I'm betting that we play up to the competition that's coming.

 

[KSmooth]

After two tough losses I was really hoping to see us take out our frustrations on a subpar team. The fact that we couldn't tells me this is still a bottom half of the league team.

 

[PlayAZ]

DaMonte Williams is the true Mr. Basketball on this team sorry it others don't see it, but he is leaps and bounds ahead of Mark S. Mark will have a very good career no doubt about it, but DaMonte seems to play for the most part very fluid, rebounds, defends, and plays heads up offense as well. Mark S. seems overwhelmed, and that would make sense due to being "committed" to basketball for one year.

 

[SycIllini]

It was like the basketball gods thought the refs had cost the illini lately so they made sure the refs helped the illini tonight.

Maryland burned us with the backdoor cut. We needed more hard backdoor cuts tonight.

It seemed even when we did get a backcut or someone cutting low below the defense we weren't looking for it. Inevitably we would then get a terrible pass out top stolen.

 

[blackdog]

DaMonte Williams is the true Mr. Basketball on this team sorry it others don't see it, but he is leaps and bounds ahead of Mark S. Mark will have a very good career no doubt about it, but DaMonte seems to play for the most part very fluid, rebounds, defends, and plays heads up offense as well. Mark S. seems overwhelmed, and that would make sense due to being "committed" to basketball for one year.

Smith is still the better offensive player but he has a tendency to try to do too much.

Defensively there is nobody else on the team that makes more hustle plays than Damonte does. Just comes out of nowhere for steals and deflections. Always in position, makes good rotations, moves his feet, rebounds well. He is going to be a nightmare defender for a lot of team the next couple years.

 

[TCTORNADO]

DaMonte Williams is the true Mr. Basketball on this team sorry it others don't see it, but he is leaps and bounds ahead of Mark S. Mark will have a very good career no doubt about it, but DaMonte seems to play for the most part very fluid, rebounds, defends, and plays heads up offense as well. Mark S. seems overwhelmed, and that would make sense due to being "committed" to basketball for one year.

Smith looks a step slow.

 

[FeelYourPaign]

DaMonte Williams is the true Mr. Basketball on this team sorry it others don't see it, but he is leaps and bounds ahead of Mark S. Mark will have a very good career no doubt about it, but DaMonte seems to play for the most part very fluid, rebounds, defends, and plays heads up offense as well. Mark S. seems overwhelmed, and that would make sense due to being "committed" to basketball for one year.

This is certainly true to date. I hope they end the season with co-Mr. B as their title, but DaMonte is playing very well both ways, all 96 feet of the floor. Salute to you DMW

Edit: I certainly don't mean to suggest that I don't have faith in Mark Smith; I do. He started the year very, very well and I suspect he will return there.

 

[GallopingGhost]

Hey. I’m just glad we won. This one goes in the W column instead of the L column and that’s what matters come tourney time. Let’s hope we learn from it instead of beating ourselves up.. UNLV will not be easy.

GO ILLINI!!!

 

[TALKTOCHUCK]

Mark Smith and DaMonte moved forward. Brutal game but a WIN

 

[Ubermensch]

:huh::hand::tsk::suspicious::frustrated::rage::doh::noidea::rant::crazy: :smash:

:hurl::hurl::hurl:

 

[EllderIlliniFan]

Considering the schedule the team is doing very well. 11 games in 30 days. 2 days of prep for 5 of the games and 3 days of prep for 3 of the games. Learning new system, new coach, new teammates. No time to extend the learning of the new offense. First time ever having 2 BIG10 games in early December.