orange100
time to hop on the wife
yeah- A lot of those bad passes don't happen with Belo running point.
Illinois 68, Michigan 53 Postgame
sencirely
Reminds me of the Illini in BU’s first year
Just got home from the game. I'm tired. A few thoughts before I pass out.
Refs were absolutely awful. EVERY time the crowd got loud, they would kill the vibe with a whistle on bad calls. Still wonder why we don't ever get home cookin.
BU's game adjustments are almost non existent. Why he doesn't play Podz, Goode, and Melendez more is extremely puzzling.
DMW needs to play fewer minutes.
Frazier saved our butts AGAIN.....
I miss Curbelo!!
With good hands, Kofi would score 40 per night regularly.
This team can beat any team in college basketball.
This team can lose to any team in college basketball.
Let's beat Purdon't!!
Refs were absolutely awful. EVERY time the crowd got loud, they would kill the vibe with a whistle on bad calls. Still wonder why we don't ever get home cookin.
BU's game adjustments are almost non existent. Why he doesn't play Podz, Goode, and Melendez more is extremely puzzling.
DMW needs to play fewer minutes.
Frazier saved our butts AGAIN.....
I miss Curbelo!!
With good hands, Kofi would score 40 per night regularly.
This team can beat any team in college basketball.
This team can lose to any team in college basketball.
Let's beat Purdon't!!
Yes but Roundball Rock
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
I forgot to add . . . before getting a critical basket.
Oh Twitter 
And this 
Took one shot (Hawkins). It was awkward looking but he got fouled. Made one of two free throws. Technically, in the record books it won’t go down as a shot, but he did attempt it.
I didn't mark this up, but given he's even playing out of position and still doing this, I had to share... Recognize the dude while he's still here.
One of the Legends
One of the Legends
blackdog
- Champaign
Every game there seems to be some stretch where Trent just goes nuclear and takes over. Wish he would do that more often but it's probably really tough with how much effort he puts in on defense. I feel like if we had the ability to hide him a little on defense like what happened with Ayo last year he could be a dominant offensive player but I don't think he would go for that.
blackdog
- Champaign
Honestly BUs presser are must watch TV anyway. Always entertaining and informative.
Wonder if he mentioned we gave up 20 orbs and 8 steals to Mich.....we can't do that much more and aim for b10 champion.
Dude is team first all day every day 365. That's why Brad loves him.
But also why his offensive top line stats don't blow anybody away at first glance. He's been reinvented from a microwave scorer as a freshman into a lockdown defender often required to cool off the hottest hand on the opposing team. He's also the guy who is looked at for the last shot when the offense stalls or Kofi is out, meaning he's taking a lot of lower percentage heaves just to get the ball on iron.
I have been following Illini basketball religiously for almost 40 years and he's one of the single name dudes in the modern era based on his current level of play relative to comp and context (team, system, rules).
Coach is going to give you a straight answer when he wants and coachspeak when he wants. His style is to be candid by default and transparently cagey about stuff he's not going to answer. While the situation of no Frazier/Belo for extended minutes is a scary proposition, it's not a particularly productive topic for press pool interviews, and BU as much as anyone tries to avoid spending much mental effort in that arena. In short, there's no point in asking a combative question that gets answered [almost] every time the Illini play.
Sure, the Illini would be in trouble if Frazier goes down (or if he hadn't come back)
2019 was a rough recruiting class for our guard depth. That happens sometimes, and that is in the past.
Transfers in would be facing a roster with most (or all) of: Trent, Monte, Ayo, and Belo... with Mr. Basketball Adam Miller available.
Sure, the Illini would be in trouble if Frazier goes down (or if he hadn't come back)
2019 was a rough recruiting class for our guard depth. That happens sometimes, and that is in the past.
Transfers in would be facing a roster with most (or all) of: Trent, Monte, Ayo, and Belo... with Mr. Basketball Adam Miller available.
blackdog
- Champaign
Sure it's not ideal but when your defense gives up under 40% shooting for the season you can get away with some bad stretches on offense. I think it's easy to forget sometimes just how good defensively this team is because they don't force a lot of turnovers or have big highlight plays. They play sound fundamental defense and force the other team to make difficulty contested shots. I know in the NBA there are stats that measure how wide open shots are and I wish we had that for the college game because I would bet good money Illinois would be up there with how close the defender was on a shot.
Trent is morphing into a good point guard right before our eyes. He penetrates hard from time to time and either takes it strong to the rim or fires off a strong pass to an open guy on the perimeter. He was making passes last night that I hope Curbelo was watching. Give Michigan plenty of credit for hanging in there short-handed. 6-0 in the league; I'll take it. Now we need to take care of Purdue. Go Illini! Frazier should be Big 10 player of the week.
I'm not so sure about that. Frazier was an excellent point guard in all respects. It would have been a "25 point beat down" if we could've hit the broad side of a barn in the first half.
Well, we didn't need him last night. We had exceptional point guard play from Frazier. 18 pts. 7 assists (with only 2 turnovers) as he penetrated often and made excellent passes to open teammates on the perimeter. Whatever shortcomings we may have had, none of them involved point guard play. Oh almost forgot. Frazier also knocked down some treys. Curbelo doesn't have that card in his deck.
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Before Curbelo went down i was concerned about PG depth. Hutch was our 3rd option and now he is out. I thought yesterday Hutch could have helped, especially when we were getting trapped at the 3 point area extended. There were cutting/driving opportunities that he could of helped us. So in reality we are misding two rotational players.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
No. 25 Illini handle Michigan for 6-0 Big Ten start
Cockburn leads 68-53 win in Champaign.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Kofi Cockburn scored 21 points and hauled in 10 rebounds to help No. 25 Illinois beat Michigan 68-53 on Friday night.
“No matter who is on the court, no matter what player it is, I always go out there and try to destroy them and dominate them,” Cockburn said. “That’s the narrative I’m trying to set. I don’t care who it is.”
DeVante’ Jones led Michigan with 17 points on a seven-of-16 shooting clip, and was the only Wolverine to make a 3 — on 10 attempts. Jones brought the Wolverines back within six points with his jumper with 5:16 left, but from there Illinois’ Trent Frazier took over. Frazier scored 16 points in the second half, on five-of-11 shooting, including a stretch in which he scored 11 straight points for Illinois (13-3, 6-0 Big Ten). He finished with 18 points and seven assists, the latter a career-high.
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GO ILLINI
You are most likely not going to make a a run in the " Big Dance" with your bench only scoring "3" points