Loyola Chicago 71, Illinois 58 Postgame

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#201      
zentrails
MaineIllini said:
Like every other fan I’m pretty upset but am still as proud as ever of this team. I tip my hat to Loyola-Chicago.

We know Ayo has some facial damage; he said on ESPN radio he might need surgery. In the B1G tournament championship game against Ohio State I saw him take a pretty good shot to the chin. From my tv view in Maine I don’t know if that had a lingering effect but I think maybe it did. I don’t think he was quite himself.
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Exactly and he had to play with a mask. We needed someone else to step up and it just didn't happen like it did many wins before in this season. Tough loss, but I'm already mentally on to next season.
 
#202      
Deleted member 186590
Loyola deserved to win and were clearly the better team today- we never cut it to less than 6 so we were never really a threat to win the game

Hats off the Underwood and team for an incredible season that brought me and all Illini fans a lot of joy.

But I will forever be perplexed by how we played and the complete lack of intensity and adjustments the whole game. We’ve never been completely out of a game for the entire game like that all year. At some point you have to try something different and we never did. The players and fans deserved better- heck even Loyola deserved a better game- I will never understand that performance as long as I live
 
#203      
APS iMBA
Miller and Curbello have played really well, I look forward what they can do next season. I just hope Curbello doesn't hurt himself.
 
#204      
EyeoftheIllini
D1959 said:
Where was the halftime adjustments?
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This is what I was wondering. It seemed like they had no idea what Loyola was going todo offensively or defensively. Like the coaches forgot to tell them and only concentrated pre-game plan on what we wanted to do offensively and defensively and Loyola would just bow to our will. And then we just couldn’t stay in front of guys.

Ayo’s play was unsettling, but bad games happen. To me what hurt was no injury or sense of immediacy by the team. Played like they thought they were better than Loyola rather than they were better and were out to show just that. Evidently Loyola didn’t get the memo.

Tough way to go out, but this team in general and Ayo during his career have given us plenty of great memories — and one bad one. With a little time I’ll remember more of the former than the latter. But still need some time. Great season guy.
 
#205      
FromTheLogo
Haven't seen it, but bet Underwood takes all the blame for losing. His high character will come out. "Gotta put our guys in a better position to succeed". "Hats off to Loyola". "They are elite at: ___ and ___." There really isn't much more to say.
 
#207      
VA Illini Chief
Man the life of an Illini fan for the last 50 years. Brutal but love these guys. Thought it may be the tourney to compensate for old wounds. Sigh...
 
#209      
zentrails
BlindLoyalty said:
This season was a fabulously enjoyable journey. However...coaches, teams, players and seasons are ultimately judged by success or failure in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately the 2020-21 Illinois team will always be remembered (by everyone sans IL fans) as failing spectacularly in the tournament.
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Not really, we'll be hanging a BTT championship banner. 20 years from now it will still be there.
 
#212      
IceCuban
APS iMBA said:
Miller and Curbello have played really well, I look forward what they can do next season. I just hope Curbello doesn't hurt himself.
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To me they were the only two trying to get a spark going. Just couldn't string anything together. Then Miller pulled...
 
#213      
azillini1
We go down and now it appears Iowa is the only team with a good chance to go far in the tournament. I just can't see Michigan going very far without Livers.
 
#214      
ejam21
1. Hats off to Loyola. They played about as close to a flawless game plan against us as ive seen
2. BU needs to have some counters......why not zone? why not some off ball screen action to get ayo going to the basket or to the elbow
3. Off game in general

My takes that many probably might disagree with.

4. Im still pretty proud of teh season and the one before. Watching this team play has been one of the few things ive looked forward to during the pandemic

5. Thanks Ayo for picking the state school and being a big part of getting us back to being on the map nationally. You made illinois basketball fun to watch again, and this game doesnt change my opinion of your contribution in my eyes

6. Time for Andre and Adam to carry the torch forward
 
#216      
illinitiger
bootsy said:
This is what bothers me the most. We played no energy or urgency from the start. This is the NCAA tournament it's now or never and we came out so flat in this game and never changed. I know we've had stretches this season where we played like this but we started to see this change late in the season. I want my favorite team to have a killer instinct and we didn't show that at all today.
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I thought Curbelo diving on the floor with a mild hip pointer and diving to save an out of bounds flicked to DMW looked urgent.

Our players were doing what they thought was best but Porter had a great gameplan that defeated our strengths and we didn't adjust.
 
#220      
tell it like it is
Henson71 said:
Loyola deserved to win and were clearly the better team today- we never cut it to less than 6 so we were never really a threat to win the game

Hats off the Underwood and team for an incredible season that brought me and all Illini fans a lot of joy.

But I will forever be perplexed by how we played and the complete lack of intensity and adjustments the whole game. We’ve never been completely out of a game for the entire game like that all year. At some point you have to try something different and we never did. The players and fans deserved better- heck even Loyola deserved a better game- I will never understand that performance as long as I live
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Wish I could like this more than once.
 
#221      
tyrannosaurus scorus
VA Illini Chief said:
Adjustments?
* Press earlier and harder
* Zone mixed in for sure
* Utilizing our length and athleticism
My biggest fear was a slow start and Loyola gets confidence. Well that happened
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The weird thing is, I don't think we even practice zone. It seems like an afterthought when it comes to Underwood. Hopefully, we can start mixing it in more moving forward.
 
#222      
Deleted member 747277
BlindLoyalty said:
This season was a fabulously enjoyable journey. However...coaches, teams, players and seasons are ultimately judged by success or failure in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately the 2020-21 Illinois team will always be remembered (by everyone sans IL fans) as failing spectacularly in the tournament.
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Exactly. And honestly, I think by Illinois fans as well. They were prepared to be in the 89, 05 discussion. This was a once every 10-15 year team in terms of experience, talent, Kofi, etc. and they laid an egg. They’ll get the ‘01 treatment where people will need to explain to casual/new fans how good they were (usually in the context of talking about 89/05)
 
#225      
Deleted member 11228
azillini1 said:
We go down and now it appears Iowa is the only team with a good chance to go far in the tournament. I just can't see Michigan going very far without Livers.
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I can't believe what has happened to this conference this weekend. I can't really explain it. Was it the toll of everyone beating up on each other? Were we just not as good as we all thought? I don't know. It seems like stepping out of the conference that the teams in our conference didn't make the adjustments. I refuse to believe these teams are not that good.
 
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