And he caused us match up issues in both games. Ty Rodgers should be able to help next year against players like him
Maryland 81, Illinois 65 Postgame
Yeah, I'm not gonna fault any of our individual defenders. You're right, he has length on them. But I think the focus on how Scott did is misleading. We've won plenty of games where one guy feasted on us. Their whole team looked good against us. But they're not good. Only 3 of their 10 wins are against P5 teams. Those teams are Florida (2-3 in SEC play), Northwestern, and now us. The only game they won by more than tonight was against Lehigh, who is #312 in Kenpom. I'm not saying we're a bad team. I'm saying we lost to a bad team. It's just a fact.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
That game was brutal to watch in person. It would be generous to say the arena was half-full. The Maryland fans around me were embarrassed by the turnout. As for the play, that level of effort just can't happen from a team with as much experience as we have. I'm gonna try to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind it out of my memory hole. Hopefully, this is just a horrible, but brief, speedbump before a successful run this March. I still believe in this team. We just need all the pieces back up and firing at the same time.
I may be a Stan, but I can acknowledge a poor performance when it happens. And hey, it happened! He played like crap, the whole team played like crap.
But man, the overall team effort is still bugging me. Plenty of film shaming to go around for all this weekend.
Rather than sulk on this game, we need to move on and rally around these guys, especially if Kofi is out for awhile. Sparty is coming in riding high, and at the top of the league. Let’s tie it back up.
I didn't want to post too soon after the game because I didn't want to be irrational. The fact of the matter is that without Kofi, this is a below average team.
They play with undersized guards and when Kofi isn't there, there's no rim protection. If Kofi is in the paint, Scott isn't getting layup after layup.
The don't have a "big bucket getter". That don't have that guy that stop a run by either getting to the rim and finishing, getting fouled and converting or creating their own high quality looks. How many times this year have we seen huge scoring runs against us? Last year, we had Ayo. He was the guy who got things on track when the game was starting to get away. They don't have that guy this year.
They don't have a player that can play or guard the 4 sufficiently. Again, Kofi on the back end helps that.
Outside of Kofi, they don't have a starting caliber big man. BBV and OP are guys who do well playing spot minutes.
Your comment about this being a very experienced team is right on.
The quality of the roster....you're overrating it. They have a lot of holes, which the big guy covers up for. There's no one NBA caliber player on the team.
With Kofi, this is a solid team, with the capability to win a couple of games in the tournament.
Without Kofi, there's not a game that they aren't capable of losing.
Uh, I don't think that they're going through have any trouble unranking us. We haven't beaten one top 25 team. We have zero notable wins. We just added a horrific loss.
Without Kofi, this is a bubble team and that's being generous. He effects everything they do. They have undersized guards that Kofi negates on the back end of the defense. The offense clearly runs through Kofi. The lack of a presence at the 4 or 5 makes this a three point reliant team. They live by the three and die by it.
There's a ton to be concerned about right now.
Agree 100%. Most common sense post of the night. We have yet to beat anyone of substance. We beefed our record up against the bottom half of the conference. Just focus on getting better, getting healthy and just get into the tournament. Right now, there's not a game left on the schedule that I feel good(better than 75/25) about.
If we can find two or three "quality wins"...it would be welcome.
the national
- the Front Range
We do live and die by Kofi quite a bit. However, there have been spurts this season when the offense has run smoothly without him. Granted that was a small sample but this game seemed different. We looked gassed, more tired than usual. If I didn’t know any better, it looks like we are coming off injury. Maybe the Purdue game took it out of us. No sure but we looked tired tonight.
Was this a setback, yes. We are capable of losing to any team in the Big 10 but we are also capable of beating any team in the country. There are parts of our game that we don't excell at and probably never will but when we are clicking on the things we are good at we could ride it to the final four. We just need to find a way to play at our top level to counteract our deficiencies. If we do this the sky is the limit. Just gotta keep the faith.
I agree but making some of his open 3s would of really helped
;(
I don’t feel bad for him. I feel bad for his defense.
but I agree he has a huge upside. He’s going to be very important to our future teams IMO.At this juncture, we can’t say anything about his defense because he literally does not play. Any time he has gotten tick he’s making things happen on offense as a three level scorer and has had some great assists.I don’t feel bad for him. I feel bad for his defense.
What could it have hurt tonight to give him a few minutes in view of the defensive effort that was on the floor and our offensive struggles?
I said it earlier in the thread, but this was a quintessential “Brad is stubborn” game, and when those games happen against, I don’t know, Loyola Chicago, it means our season ends early.
That was a gutsy move by coach putting in lieb, and honestly i dont think we would have won that game without him. It was apparent that bbv was getting pushed around too much and op wasnt doing it all by himself. Lieb was able to pull in some rebounds and he was great at the lob pass from curbelo.
Calillini
Now appearing in Tampa
I don’t think we are capable of beating any team in the country unless we have 100% healthy roster and Belo is on, Trent is on, DMW hits at least 3 baskets and the refs call fouls on the hackers beating up Kofi and the other team has a bad shooting night. In other words, this is not a national championship caliber team.
we had a better team last year and we all know how that ended.
No disrespect to thehass or anyone else on the board who's upset about this loss, but Coach's game plan was to make shots. In Crunch Time, his players failed. Also, the game plan was to get stops. We failed there at times too. I know it sounds redundant. But the bottom line - it's that simple.
The Terps couldn't miss. It happens. Maryland played probably their best game of the year. They played us tough at home. They are not a bad team.
Every year good teams go through a two or three game stretch, usually in mid-January, like this. Look what happened to top-five Baylor a few weeks ago. It happens. But our team is tested; we are tough. we will rebound.
Let's give this team a break. It was two tough losses to two B1G teams, one on the road, the other where our All-Star Center was hammered into concussion protocol. Yes, we could've, should've, would've won if....., but...
Let's prepare for MSU, like our lives depend on it, and take command in our march toward March.
Go Illini
I think it's so funny how people go from thinking this is a final four caliber team to knit picking every flaw. This team did not play great, clearly. In my opinion, getting Belo back with Kofi was going to take time to adjust. Now there is no Kofi and Belo is still working his way back to find out he is now sick. This team will be a work in process for a while longer, but I believe it has the pieces, when clicking on all cylinders, to beat anyone. Hopefully everyone is back in due time to get our chemistry right.
Yep and it isn't even close really. How you can watch that game yesterday and not think theres a chance to get him in that game to provide a spark boggles my mind.
Other than the obligatory postgame discussion regarding whether Damonte is good or not, I don’t see a lot of that. Effort, lack of smart decisions, and no adjustments were the issue, and from a veteran team with three five year guys in the starting lineup it’s rather inexplicable.
I'm being serious when I say this and am not stirring the pot.
I think it's funny that people think that this could be a final four team when they don't have one signature win. Not one top 25 win. Not one win of note. However, they do now have a terrible loss.
Last year's team put expectations on this year's team, right or wrong. They have a lot of tough games coming up. They already played the soft part of the conference schedule, which I believe is what gave fans a false sense of security. You don't want to go overboard after back to back losses, but you do have to be honest with the appraisal for the work done so far
If you look at the schedule going forward, there's not one game that you can feel good about, yet pitfalls are all over the place. I would be happy with 14-6, 13-7, maybe even 12-8 at this point. As we sit here today, that's just about where they belong....mid tier, looking to secure a tournament birth, trying to stay off the bubble.
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Or, and stay with me here:
They lost on the road to a team that started the season ranked because of its returning talent, and without our guy in the middle who averages 22 and 11.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Hi. We're still 13th in the NET with no Quad 3 or 4 losses. We're nowhere close to the bubble. We lost a game on the road in the B1G. It happens.
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Love this post. Very Astute! Where is Giorgi? We are undersized and Kofi is the equalizer.
Our lack of effort is my concern. Oh, and perhaps the minutes we are asking 3 guys to log. I do not believe this can continue for the rest of the season.
Our guards can penetrate but the offense is not designed for this although TF saved us in the Michigan game. We settled for 3s last night.
BU has been around long enough to get this fixed but the minutes are going to haunt us down the road.
Our defense can not be that much worse with RJ, Goode and Podz. Now is the time to give them some playing time and reduce some minutes for some guys if nothing more to help with legs in the long run. If we are going to do anything in BT Tourney or NCAA we will need more than 6 players.
Maryland 3 Pt % > 33, TOs 10 , Made More Fts than we attempted (sound familiar) , More Rebounds Result W
We need to find a way in to the paint other than Kofi. Purdue found the 3 from screen the screener action and a couple back doors in OT. I ran the dribble hand off as a quick hitter and out of transition with a big doing the hand off when I was coaching but when this is all you do teams will defend better and reduce the shot clock to force more of a one on one action. Ball rotation will create flow and break down the defense.
Curbelo, TF, Grandi, Hawk and Kofi DMW versatility can then be on stage and Plummer can be the 'secret weapon, instant offense' and let the freshman on the floor.
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altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Two of those three five-year guys played very solidly last night. DMW had a very solid game on the rebounding and assist end but had some D lapses. Trent can't score 25 pts every night. He was right on his scoring average of 13. For me it seemed that the margin of losing was our play underneath. No boards to speak of and an inability to contain Scott (inside and outside) after Manning sat Wahab and moved Scott to the 5. The entire energy of Maryland changed at that point, and the Illini had failed to capitalize on a solid four minutes that opened the second half.
It was an off night. BBV has played 20 and 24 mins the past two games, and started last night, after averaging ~ 5-6 off the bench up to that point. He's got a challenge, for sure.
The only antidote to Kofi's absence, IMO, is consistent, tenacious defense and denial of penetration and passes. We did little to none of that last night.
Plummer is such an asset. His ability to find a spot, set and release quickly is eye-popping in person. He made a bonehead move trying to draw that foul late by leaning into the MD defender along the baseline. Otherwise, he was an absolute treat to watch. Not a great defender but his shooting is so valuable.
We will feel the lost of Orlando through our Big men.. or lack of big men.. Still not a fan of Omar or Hawkins.. I keep getting beat up on this board for me not liking our 4 or 5 positions at all after Kofi... Scott showed that big time yesterday..