Nebraska 64, Illinois 63 POSTGAME

[helppitch]

Up until now, the problem with the team seemed to be our big men (or lack thereof)—getting out rebounded/giving up easy inside baskets. Tonight, we dominated rebounding and Ebo and Leron seemed to handle Nebraska's bigs fine. Guards just didn't deliver.

On another note, I'm glad that Finke is getting his swagger back, but I maintain there are negatives to him that don't show up on the stat sheet. When he was at center, Nebraska frequently just blew by him. He's too much of a defensive liability, in my opinion, to play more than half the game.

Also, not to be overly negative, but I don't see this as a "great to see the fight in us, but we lost" type game. We shot terribly, especially from three. Made stupid turnovers and committed stupid fouls. I was hoping we would come out similar to the Iowa first half.

Finke is slow. He can't do much about that, but if he can contribute offensively (which in general, he hasn't), he'll be a real asset.
As for defense Nebraska's players pretty much blew by most of our guys when we played man to man. Our zone gave them trouble.

 

[Illinimobile]

I felt good about this game for no obvious reason.
Good enough to put my beach house on it beforehand.

Where can I win a new beach house?

Didn't you take the points??

 

[GoIllini23]

Villanova
Virginia
Purdue
Wichita State
Texas Tech
Arizona State
Clemson
Tennessee
TCU
Miami

... I am sure there are more

Still in good company

 

[Dan]

[YOUTUBE]xjIAAYle6-w[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]2Iaw4sj6x0I[/YOUTUBE]

 

[westcoastillini]

I am telling myself this is like the 98-99 team; the year before frank Williams is eligible to play

 

[Thor015]

I am telling myself this is like the 98-99 team; the year before frank Williams is eligible to play

Exactly. Said before season even started

 

[bleedsorangenblue]

How snakebit is this team? Really thought the freshmen mistakes had done the team in before Fink's three. Was given hope that we might luck out and win this one only to have fate dash any intervention of luck.... LOL! Have to think that at some point, we will earn a victory the old fashioned way, by beating a team soundly and without question. This team will turn that corner and I think sooner rather than later. I can see how this team is getting better and, one of these nights, they will put a complete game together. Look out!

 

[icengineer]

Man, you can just see the frustration in Coach Underwood during that radio interview! All of our losses have literally come down to a few possessions or less that have turned or decided the outcome. I'm frustrated as heck, so I know BU is probably 10 times more so then I.

Part of me wants to fast-forward 1 year, and yet I don't want to miss out on seeing these younger guys mature as they get games under their belts....

 

[Serious Late]

The game highlights made Sportscenter! We. Are. Back!

 

[Kathy]

Once I saw that there were still 8.1 seconds left after Finke made the 3-pointer and free throw, I laughed to myself and said, "There's still a decent chance that they lose this game." Oh how cynical I have become. And my cynicism was proven valid.

Maybe it wasn't cynicism. Maybe you have ESP (N)......

 

[pruman91]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/coll...cle_20a1a05c-6160-5c52-90cf-73215f883412.html

Illinois • The Illini are one of the most snakebit teams in the nation. They’ve led in the second half in eight of their nine losses, and in four of them they’ve had the ball with either the lead or in a tie with less than a minute left.

went to bed sick to my stomach...got up this morning hoping it was only a bad dream....

 

[bbpeoria]

I am telling myself this is like the 98-99 team; the year before frank Williams is eligible to play

Exactly. Said before season even started

X2. Bring in Ayo and get these guys this valuable albeit tough experience and things will start coming together. I will be shocked if this in not a NCAA tourney team next season but they need all the key players back. So as long as our snakebit fanbase does not run off players that will be needed by eating their own through frustration.

 

[Love the Illini]

Wow that was a tough one to stomach at the end we can't get over the hump. Played hard but an absolutely awful shooting night and bad turnovers made it really tough for us on the road. Has been a long school year no conference wins in football and none yet in basketball has made it tough on Illini nation. Wisconsin certainly a beatable team the way we are playing but at some point this team has to start limiting the number of mistakes they make on a nightly basis to win some of these close games and get things going back in the right direction

 

[Deleted member 4960]

This constant refrain that we suck because we are not athletic or have enough talented bigs is monotonous. If you watched the games we lost most of them because of bad guard play and silly unforced turnovers. I totally agree adding some additional height and athleticism would improve this team and maybe help us improve these losses to larger point differential wins but If you analyze what most of our issues have been it's not that we get dominated inside or opposing bigs score and rebound at will.

 

[Deleted member 4333]

This constant refrain that we suck because we are not athletic or have enough talented bigs is monotonous. If you watched the games we lost most of them because of bad guard play and silly unforced turnovers. I totally agree adding some additional height and athleticism would improve this team and maybe help us improve these losses to larger point differential wins but If you analyze what most of our issues have been it's not that we get dominated inside or opposing bigs score and rebound at will.

We need shooters.

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[Deleted member 4960]

We need shooters.

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I agree our guards (everyone besides Trent) and Kipper made a total of 4 shots.

 

[ritster]

I'd say I don't believe in curses, but literally every time I say that it's like the universe has to prove me wrong. Every. Single. Time. I mean, how much crap does a fan have to go through before they finally get thrown a bone? We have to be the most maligned fans in the world of sports.

Sent from my XT1526 using Tapatalk

I, for one, would be 1000% behind funding an exorcism on the Illinois revenue sports programs. Can we get a priest lined up. And soon?

 

[Illiniguy13]

It's pretty simple. We're getting far, far, far too little from Alstork AND Mark Smith AND Kipper. When combined with a very thin and small frontcourt, that's a recipe for a really bad season.

To me it seems like the magic combo is Finke and Alstork. Both of those guys need to have just OK games for us to have a chance. We’re screwed if either of them puts up a stinker.

 

[purcy51]

Maybe we need to sage the locker room before each game to get rid of any bad Joo Joo...


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[purcy51]

I've seen it mentioned here on this thread and i mentioned it on an earlier thread, this year may be like 98-99 where we went 3-13 on conference and made an run on the big tourney, however we're missing key players like Lucas Johnson and Sergio McClain. Ya know, guys who were scrappy as hell and were kind of the glue that held the team together. We need someone to fill that roll. So far I'd say Alstork is as close to that as we've got right now.

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[IlliniMed]

This constant refrain that we suck because we are not athletic or have enough talented bigs is monotonous. If you watched the games we lost most of them because of bad guard play and silly unforced turnovers. I totally agree adding some additional height and athleticism would improve this team and maybe help us improve these losses to larger point differential wins but If you analyze what most of our issues have been it's not that we get dominated inside or opposing bigs score and rebound at will.

So you're saying that John Groce didnt recruit Power 5 players? This, for one, is complete news to me

 

[doowink]

Did anyone notice the huge bear hug BU gave Finke on the sideline right after he'd made the 3 and drew the foul?????.......I like this coaching staff....they will get the job done...sooner or later....hopefully sooner.....in the mean time there's nothing to do but keep on working hard and don't feel sorry for yourself....because Wisconsin needs a win just as badly as we do.

 

[Genesis]

If only all these losses were getting us closer to the top draft pick.

 

[FC Illiniman]

It's pretty simple. We're getting far, far, far too little from Alstork AND Mark Smith AND Kipper. When combined with a very thin and small frontcourt, that's a recipe for a really bad season.

Inconsistent and not enuff. Truly believe that this team is better than the record shows. Lack of shooting from perimeter makes us easier to guard. No AJ in last few games.

Love the system and our hearts, but lack of execution and fouls kill us every game. Chalk it up to inexperienced players learning, but it still makes it frustrating to watch. Monte plays great defense, rebounds, but can't make a layups, and makes terrible choices . This will improve with time. Like all these things, we just have to grow with these guys.

Biggest concern I have is the coaching choices, decisions at times seems like it confuses the team more than helps. Player substituted so quickly they don't have an idea what going on. Our zone defense is working, but BU doesn't seem to want use it. It's hard for him to make choices when his options are limited.

All will get better with time, hopefully our time comes soon.

 

[PlayAZ]

The ILLINI will be fine, the future is good, and our Coach is the Coach...he seems to genuinely care about the state of the program and more importantly the players.

These players, especially the players are being asked to train and run a system none of them are prepared for...they are getting it. With future recruits, we may very well be scary good, and that could be as soon as next year. My $$ would be on 2019-2020 though and beyond. Enjoy the effort and the competiveness until then...wasn't long ago that we were all questioning whether that was even present on our ILLINI team!