He 100% wrapped around his waist with his right hand. I saw it live and understood why they made the call. Not sure how no one else saw it? Maybe it shouldn't have been a foul, but anytime a player wraps their hand around another player's waist like that it will probably get called regardless.
Illinois 75, Indiana 71 OT Postgame
I was a senior by the time that game finally finished. AARP here I come!
Deleted member 746826
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You can talk about poor posessions if you like but you better refer back to dakich saying ayo was lazy at times and he does have some lazy passes so you should just put on your orange glasses and be happy belo saved the day for us.
which he did!
He did not "wrap around his waist with his right hand." I saw it live AND I watched the replay they showed.
EDIT: The game is On Demand on WatchESPN. I just watched it again, in real time, and in the replay and it is, without a doubt, NOT wrapped around his waist. It occurs with 2:56 remaining in the 2nd half, for anyone who wants to see for themselves. The replay shows it from the back angle. His wrist and maybe a bit of his forearm make contact with Race Thompson's midsection but it is not "wrapped" by any stretch.
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I agree... The main element missing was mental toughness and with that game - with everything stacked against us - and we still win. That shows mental toughness!
I don’t even know what most of your post means. And sure Curbelo was a key to victory as were Kofi and Trent. I’m not sure why feeling Curbelo has room to improve strikes such a chord in others. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree that Curbelo’s decision making is sometimes wanting and leads to empty possessions.
Curbelo drew at least 5 fouls in the 2nd half with his fast paced play. I think at one point he drew fouls on 3 straight possessions when no one could score. That's huge. Archie apparently tracks that stat because in the post game he mentioned Ayo drawing a bunch of fouls too.
Sure he's a bit out of control and you'll find yourself screaming at the TV at him (I did at that one offensive rebound TJD got and layed in because I thought Curbelo had the rebound and was dribbling too far away from himself), but he only turned it over once and he made a bunch of winning plays last night... and he's just a freshman.
Quit complaining and enjoy the ride!
I'm not sure it's fair to characterize the "decision making" as "wanting." He does make risky decisions, and he does it intentionally. The fact that some don't work doesn't make those decisions "bad". (If someone offers 10 to 1 odds that Illinois will win it's next game, taking that bet isn't a "bad" decision, regardless of whether the bet ultimately pays off.) What people can legitimately quibble with (imo) is where Belo draws the line at what is TOO risky. (And I think that's where you are.) At the start of the season, I saw room for improvement there. Now I'm OK with where he draws it, though maybe we would be better off if he were a tiny bit more conservative. Though not so conservative that he doesn't make that last pass to Kofi.
You mean Dosunmu
and who is to say Ken Pomeroy's rating is accurate
I'm not sure it's fair to characterize the "decision making" as "wanting." He does make risky decisions, and he does it intentionally. The fact that some don't work doesn't make those decisions "bad". (If someone offers 10 to 1 odds that Illinois will win it's next game, taking that bet isn't a "bad" decision, regardless of whether the bet ultimately pays off.) What people can legitimately quibble with (imo) is where Belo draws the line at what is TOO risky. (And I think that's where you are.) At the start of the season, I saw room for improvement there. Now I'm OK with where he draws it, though maybe we would be better off if he were a tiny bit more conservative. Though not so conservative that he doesn't make that last pass to Kofi.
Well said.
To the OP, I don't think anyone is saying that Curbelo doesn't have room for improvement. Personally, I don't think pointing to last night's game is the best or most appropriate time to harp on that. Curbelo acknowledges that he takes some risks and that he's learning what risks are worth taking at this level and which ones aren't.
Deleted member 746826
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The point is you are singling out a player
however all of our players have not played perfect
dmw is scarred to death to shoot the ball, probably because he knows he will return to normal percentage for a three. Plus he leaves his man wide open too often on defense.
georgi has problems getting his hands on the ball, wether it is a pass or a rebound.
adam goes a way at times when not hitting his threes
ayo has terrible dribbling when imitating belo and he also has some lazy passes
kofi needs to play like the man he is for both halves
trent needs to be a foot taller.
so yeah, i get what you are saying that belo could improve, but why are you always looking at him?
The problem here is that you can call something similar most plays, especially for Kofi
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
I'm glad belo is an Illini and that he brings energy and excitement to the court...tired of the weave and years ago under Bubbles and JFC dribbling 30 ft from the rim then heaving a shot as the clock goes off...
For years we have wanted a true PG and now that we have one, who is great and only gonna get better...Nobody plays a perfect game and I shutter to think what our record would be without Belo....You can say that about any player about what our record would be without them, but , hot damn, he is fun to watch ...i'll take a PG leading the B1G in assists per game and not starting any day of the week.......
The complaining about Belo is nonsense....
However you look at each individual player, the Illini won a game last night in which their best player for the season was arguably their worst player for the evening.
Ayo couldn't get shots to fall, was hampered offensively and defensively by stupid foul trouble all night, only was able to generate 2 assists and played 29 minutes, got 10 points mostly on FTs, and the Illini won on the road.
The MVP of the night for the Illini was Frazier, who both produced efficiently offensively and locked down Franklin for most of the game.
Kofi managed a somehow quiet double double (16-10) while completely locking down Jackson-Davis in the second half and not fouling out. Just outstanding work from halftime on.
Curbelo generated a bunch of offense on the day with 12 points and 4 assists with just one turnover, all the while with his own foul trouble to deal with, and that was with him being the primary ball handler for the final 8+ minutes of the game, including overtime.
Georgi managed just 16 minutes of time on the floor, and fouled out on some questionable calls, but still contributed efficiently offensively and the team was dominating IU when he was on the floor (+23 in 16 minutes is crazy).
DMW finally looked healthy today, didn't take a shot, but played 28 minutes, the majority of which in the second half, contributed to a lock down defensive effort, and still scored 4 points with some clutch FTs.
Miller had a rough offensive outing, but still put in 32 minutes, 3rd most behind Trent and Kofi. Sunk 1 of 6 shots and again contributed defensively to pretty much lock down IU's guards all night.
The only player that was better than average offensively for IU was Race Thompson, and even he hurt IU at the FT line, going 6 of 12. Jackson-Davis was a problem offensively for the first half, but was completely taken out of the game in the second half/OT session.
Ayo couldn't get shots to fall, was hampered offensively and defensively by stupid foul trouble all night, only was able to generate 2 assists and played 29 minutes, got 10 points mostly on FTs, and the Illini won on the road.
The MVP of the night for the Illini was Frazier, who both produced efficiently offensively and locked down Franklin for most of the game.
Kofi managed a somehow quiet double double (16-10) while completely locking down Jackson-Davis in the second half and not fouling out. Just outstanding work from halftime on.
Curbelo generated a bunch of offense on the day with 12 points and 4 assists with just one turnover, all the while with his own foul trouble to deal with, and that was with him being the primary ball handler for the final 8+ minutes of the game, including overtime.
Georgi managed just 16 minutes of time on the floor, and fouled out on some questionable calls, but still contributed efficiently offensively and the team was dominating IU when he was on the floor (+23 in 16 minutes is crazy).
DMW finally looked healthy today, didn't take a shot, but played 28 minutes, the majority of which in the second half, contributed to a lock down defensive effort, and still scored 4 points with some clutch FTs.
Miller had a rough offensive outing, but still put in 32 minutes, 3rd most behind Trent and Kofi. Sunk 1 of 6 shots and again contributed defensively to pretty much lock down IU's guards all night.
The only player that was better than average offensively for IU was Race Thompson, and even he hurt IU at the FT line, going 6 of 12. Jackson-Davis was a problem offensively for the first half, but was completely taken out of the game in the second half/OT session.
You're not wrong. I also don't know what the answer is. Get better refs? Where do you find those? At the end of the day they're human, they will make mistakes, and they usually make up for it at the other end of the floor. I mean, IU got plenty of touch fouls called too. Without looking at the stats I can safely say the fouls were pretty even. They called traveling on IU when he caught the ball and jumped. Shooters do that all the time and it never gets called. The tech on TF to start the game was most likely because they were chirping pregame, refs told everyone to chill, and TF didn't. To us it looks like the refs suck, but it was probably justified. I would rather see us questioning why Giorgi can no longer keep his cool for an entire game than complain about the refs after every. single. game.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Belo is a freshman and he seems to be improving. For example, his defense appears to be significantly better than it was at the beginning of the year. Also, I doubt BU was comfortable leaving Belo on the court during critical late-game situations earlier in the year. Even if it was partially out of necessity yesterday, BU trusted Curbelo to help close the game out for us. He did and we won. That's worth celebrating.
Imagine how much we would want him if he were on a different team. People love to complain, rather than appreciate what you have.
A freshman, on the road, running our offense in overtime against a good team makes the game winning pass and people are complaining. It's unreal.
I think we’re basically on the same page here. As I said in my original post, kid has amazing talent and skills. My main point was that people keep bringing up his TO/A ratio and mentioned that he only had one TO, and I don’t think that tells the whole story with his game. Honestly, I was surprised he only had one TO last night because he had a pretty lengthy stretch in second half where his play/decisions wasn’t very good and led to empty possessions. So as you say, I still have a problem at times with his “too risky line.” Do I think he’s gotten better in that regard? Yes. Do I think he still has room to improve? Yes. Am I advocating for him to see less time? No. He is an important part of the team now and will be even more so in the future. But I do wish he would read the game situation better at times and not take “bad risks.” And as to the last pass to Kofi, I didn’t see that as risky at all, just a great basketball play by a player with great court awareness. And I think I’d still think that even if it hadn’t worked out. But real glad it did.I'm not sure it's fair to characterize the "decision making" as "wanting." He does make risky decisions, and he does it intentionally. The fact that some don't work doesn't make those decisions "bad". (If someone offers 10 to 1 odds that Illinois will win it's next game, taking that bet isn't a "bad" decision, regardless of whether the bet ultimately pays off.) What people can legitimately quibble with (imo) is where Belo draws the line at what is TOO risky. (And I think that's where you are.) At the start of the season, I saw room for improvement there. Now I'm OK with where he draws it, though maybe we would be better off if he were a tiny bit more conservative. Though not so conservative that he doesn't make that last pass to Kofi.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
There were so many games during the Groce era where we lost because our players seemed to be scared to make a mistake, so they did nothing and gave away any chance to win. We were also plagued by this early on in BU's tenure. For better or for worse, Belo doesn't suffer from that fear of failure. I will always root for a player who is doing everything he can to make the winning play, even if it ends in failure. Belo's skill and playstyle may drop our floor a little bit, but they also significantly raise our ceiling as a team. He is a big part of our potential this year (and every season he remains on our roster).
There's a reason why other fanbases are jealous we have Belo and they don't. He's really special (even if he is a work in progress).
My original post wasn’t meant to “single out” Belo. I didn’t mention any other players because my post was not about other players. To be honest, I think my post was pretty moderate considering how polarizing his play seems to be. On one hand there are some that seem to want to see him benched at times for his over aggressive play. On the other hand you have those that act like he can do no wrong and point to his TO/A ratio is “proof” of that. I was just pointing out that I don’t think that ratio tells the entire story when it comes to Curbelo’s decisions making. As frustrating as I find his play at certain points of a game, I am closer to the latter group than the former group, and very happy Curbelo wears the orange and blue.
I hope you didn't watch the whole game again.... I'm trying to forget a lot of what I saw. Everywhere I go, I'm hearing whistles... I might be a bit traumatized...