2/10 Games

#276      

frozenrope9190

frozenrope9190
Aurora, IL
frozenrope9190
RabidDawgClassic said:
I don’t understand the concept of not rooting for what’s in the best interests of Illinois. Tonight, Illinois’ best interest was for Michigan to win. Saturday it will be the same thing. I have distaste for Indiana, but this weekend I’ll be hoping they win in East Lansing.

Seriously… I’m puzzled by illini fans who can’t see the big picture.
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I'm not concerned about Michigan winning the B10 title, if we get down to 5 or 6 losses there will be other teams we have to worry about winning it. I'm worried about seeing a Michigan team starting to 'get it', because I think they're far more dangerous than their early season woes. Meaning they can beat us in Ann Arbor, beat us in the B10 Tourney, and make a run in the dance including beating us there. And I prefer Purdue to be the team to worry about than Michigan. I knew Purdue was going to be at the top, I didn't want another talented team gaining confidence, especially a big rival. And I have a lingering suspicion that's what happened yesterday. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows. But I felt a lot more comfortable having that team stumble and bumble early in the season than I do now. More than Michigan State, more than Wisconsin, more than Ohio State, they're the team I worry knocking us out of post-season stuff.

Our 'big pictures' look a little different, that doesn't mean I'm not looking at it.
 
#278      

RockfordIllini

R
RockfordIllini
The other thing that UM did last night was they mixed up their defenses between straight man to man, zone, and some full court press which I think kept Purdue off balance and contributed to their poor shooting.

I realize the ship has sailed this year on changing things up. And I totally get why Brad sticks to our drop coverage, as with Kofi in it is truly elite. However, I hope in the future Brad considers incorporating some different defenses in case drop isn’t working or just to keep the other team off balance. I think it’s analogous to a pitcher with a great fastball…sometimes they are just hitting it and you need a curveball just to keep them honest.

Purdue definitely hit a lot of 3’s against us and I think would have won the game based on that anyway, but if you look at where Ivey did most of his damage in the second half, it was precisely what our drop coverage is meant to give up…midrange 2’s and floaters. He just happened to hit alot (almost all) of them.
 
#283      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
hoopsfan47 said:
Pretty easy answer if you know all the history....Michigan. No team has cheated more or accomplished less with their talent while claiming to be elite in a more arrogant and totally unsubstantiated manner.
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It all started with losing that game in the national semifinals in 1989 to a MI team we were clearly better than. That stung. Then Steve Fisher gets The Fab Five (which underperformed) and that's all we hear. I was so ticked at Dicky V overnight switching his "allegiance" to MI, which somehow carried over for nearly a decade and infected the whole media. Billy Packer was more reasonable. Then there was last season, and they still get a five star recruiting class. YES, I get it. However, I honestly forget if there were cheating sanctions.
 
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#284      

hoopsfan47

H
hoopsfan47
Rocky said:
It all started with losing that game in the national semifinals in 1989 to a MI team we were clearly better than. That stung. Then Steve Fisher gets The Fab Five (which underperformed) and that's all we hear. I was so ticked at Dicky V overnight switching his "allegiance" to MI, which somehow carried over for nearly a decade and infected the whole media. Then there was last season, and they still get a five star recruiting class. YES, I get it.
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Michigan started cheating with arrogance almost 100 yrs. prior to the Flyin' Illini. Those years you mentioned just confirmed their commitment to remain in the gutter and fail their student athletes...and it will continue into the foreseeable future from all available evidence.
 
#285      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
hoopsfan47 said:
Michigan started cheating with arrogance almost 100 yrs. prior to the Flyin' Illini. Those years you mentioned just confirmed their commitment to remain in the gutter and fail their student athletes...and it will continue into the foreseeable future from all available evidence.
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I am going to apply Hitchen's Razor to that argument. "Anything that can be claimed without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." Not being cheeky. I just don't know all the details and sanctions.
 
#286      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
RockfordIllini said:
The other thing that UM did last night was they mixed up their defenses between straight man to man, zone, and some full court press which I think kept Purdue off balance and contributed to their poor shooting.

I realize the ship has sailed this year on changing things up. And I totally get why Brad sticks to our drop coverage, as with Kofi in it is truly elite. However, I hope in the future Brad considers incorporating some different defenses in case drop isn’t working or just to keep the other team off balance. I think it’s analogous to a pitcher with a great fastball…sometimes they are just hitting it and you need a curveball just to keep them honest.

Purdue definitely hit a lot of 3’s against us and I think would have won the game based on that anyway, but if you look at where Ivey did most of his damage in the second half, it was precisely what our drop coverage is meant to give up…midrange 2’s and floaters. He just happened to hit alot (almost all) of them.
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That's what struck me as throwing off their attack last night .....and another poster stated about their arms being tired from patting themselves on their back so much after beating us .
 
#289      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
RabidDawgClassic said:
I don’t understand the concept of not rooting for what’s in the best interests of Illinois. Tonight, Illinois’ best interest was for Michigan to win. Saturday it will be the same thing. I have distaste for Indiana, but this weekend I’ll be hoping they win in East Lansing.

Seriously… I’m puzzled by illini fans who can’t see the big picture.
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Pretty certain everyone wants IU to beat the Spartans. We always want a team we have beat and only play once to win, unless they themselves threaten our title hopes.
 
#291      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
Quite happy to see that a neutral court loss to Cincinnati early in the season is just a Quad 2 loss. Cincy is NET ranked # 71.
 
#292      

Emerson Bigguns

Emerson Bigguns
Emerson Bigguns
Point-Illinois said:
Does Dickinson being able to hit 3s make him NBA draftable now? I’m not sure if he hit 3s last year.
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Certainly helps. He will be looked at pretty similarly to Garza. Although I thin Dickinson is a much more limited player in the post. (His post moves seem to be hit them in the chest with my shoulder, if that doesn't work, do it again...) His ability to shoot may offset his very limited athleticism to a degree, but no one will be running to the podium to take him. He going to have to make a team.
 
#294      

Arrow 7

Arrow 7
Arrow 7
ptgd1 said:
I just hope that they beat each other up and wear each other down so much that whoever wins this game loses their next five games and whoever loses this game loses their next six games.
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There needs to be a laugh icon to choose here. Belly laugh button pushed
 
#295      

Piotyr

P
Piotyr
Last night's blowout put Illinois back in the conference lead for efficiency margin (they had been bumped to #2 from Tuesday's blowout):

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Rutgers starting to actually look respectable in margin as well as record. Wisconsin continues to defy margin by winning a bunch of close games.

Nobody is really dominating the conference at this time, as the two leaders were brought back into the pack by blowout losses.

Michigan is still a good team, even if the results aren't all there yet. Last night was a huge result for the tourney hopes.
 
#297      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
Point-Illinois said:
For those of you that struggled with “rooting” for Michigan tonight, I have your solution.

Do what I did and simply don’t watch the game. Then you don’t have to actively root for their players to make shots and their coach to call good plays…it’s so much easier.

You can simply look at the final score, laugh that Purdue lost, enjoy that they are no longer tied with us, and then say Muck Fichigan and carry on with your evening.

Note: This strategy may not work if you’re a basketball junkie with lots of time on your hands. I have 2 kids that occupy most of my time outside of work so Illini games are usually the only games I watch.
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Or in these situations you can just buck it up and root for the outcome to be what benefits the Illini no matter your preference (or hatred) for a particular team. As fans we laud players who put the team first over individual accomplishments. How many times have I read on here one of the things that is great about Trent is that he he did what was needed for the team to succeed when Ayo came on board. Everyone wants him to have a banner or some team award named after him. Well those may not happen. But if it makes fans feel better to root for a team they don’t like because it helps the Illini, you can say, “I hate school X, but gonna pull a Trent, put team first and root for them.
 
#298      

Chad Fleck

Chad Fleck
Eureka, IL
Chad Fleck
Illiniam1984 said:
When you type in Illinois Fighting Illini basketball in google it says that we are in 2nd place. Why is that? We beat Wisconsin and are currently the #1 seed in the BTT if the regular season ended today.
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I believe it has to do with the winning percentage for their entire schedule. I'm sure those charts are coded, and that would be the easiest way to automatically order the list:

First: Conference record percentage
Second: Total record percentage

Let's not take this personally.
 
#299      

Tacomallini

T
Washington State
Tacomallini
I cannot start new threads - but this is an exciting B1G weekend coming up. No games today.
Saturday 2/12:
Rutgers at WI - this trend continues there will be a cutoff point for "rooting" for Rutgers, but man I hope they pull this one off
IU at MSU - okay, vomit in your mouths or whatever. May the Spartans lose.
anOSU at MICH - I just want to watch this game. May the Buckeyes get the "L"
PSU at Minnesota - who cares?
Sunday 2/13:
Maryland at Purdue - I can only imagine the Boilers are tired after their games this week. Would be sweet to see another loss
Illini beat down on them Kitties
Nebraska at Iowa - would be nice to watch the Squakeyes crash and burn

Not impossible - there is a path to being all alone on top of the standings on Monday
 
#300      

Arrow 7

Arrow 7
Arrow 7
Rocky said:
I am going to apply Hitchen's Razor to that argument. "Anything that can be claimed without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." Not being cheeky. I just don't know all the details and sanctions.
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You gotta think somethings up when he gets couch of the year and the title because he figured out how to not play games he would have lost.