Illinois 60, Penn State 55 Postgame
They have played almost everyone close, not just us.
KU barely beat TCU Zona struggled against Stanford tonight. You only need to beat the team you play against. We did that. PSU is better than their record. They beat Iowa and MSU. They also lost to Wisconsin by 2 this year and played Purdue tough
I hope Grandison is OK. Frazier has been wearing shoulder protection almost all season. Shoulders are a notoriously nasty injury.
I wish folks would cut DaMonte Williams a lot more slack. He's a terrific fierce player and he's taken a lot of "stuff" from people who have probably never even held a basketball.
I wish folks would cut DaMonte Williams a lot more slack. He's a terrific fierce player and he's taken a lot of "stuff" from people who have probably never even held a basketball.
I'm with you Juiceman. We're down to one game left in the regular season and we've yet to play up to the level we're capable of. Blame it on injuries, or covid, or whatever. But we only have three guaranteed games left and with each passing game I'm feeling more and more irrational for thinking everything is suddenly going to click.
That said, it's possible that it'll all come together this week or next. And even if it doesn't, we're the type of team who could just get hot from three one weekend and suddenly find ourselves in the Finar Four.
Hawkins. Even Goode.
And in the future, RJ. Small guards are a problem.
I haven't read the first six pages of thread but I thought Damonte looked solid tonight. I wanted him to shoot on more open looks - job done. I wanted him to drive to the basket, go up strong, and shoot (draw the fool - make the two) rather than pass it away - job done. He played solid defense (looked a LOT better with him than out). He grabbed some boards and played with a bounce. Someone hating on his game tonight? No way. Damonte looked like the player I've been wanting to see all year. Omar looked good (damn he's quick!) but I don't think the guards give him the opportunity they should in that rotation. Curbello needs to force that ball inside a lot less... dude there 15 seconds on the shot clock... chillax and move the ball around the permimeter. It was a slow, methodical game but I bet Coach Underwood is happy with his defensive effort if not the energy in the first half. I didn't see a bad game. Our shooting is our shooting... we're going to get hot one night and I'm waiting very patiently for that to happen. Eventually. Some day.
The fact that we're in contention for a league championship heading into the final weekend and "we've yet to play up the level we're capable of" is not a reason for concern, I would think.
This team more often than not has manufactured ways to win in a very tough league in spite of the roadblocks. That makes me optimistic, not worried.
i don't think we're the team that catches fire. i think we're more of a team when three people are down another three pick it up and carry the game. that might come down to individual matchups or someone getting hot... i don't think we, as a team, all get hot and stay hot. we're not that team. we keep it close, we don't give up, and we are learning to finish (LEARNING). i liked what I saw tonight... grandison, damonte, frazier, belo, and plummer driving to the basket... not everyone knows how to finish and make that layup/reverse but they made some progress tonight. are people unhappy with the win? i'm happy with a win.
IMO...Frazier has played hurt/restricted for a while...everything else agreed. Also Kofi seems thicker...slower and tired...would say last 3-4 games.....and do we crash the boards anymore? Or is our defense so bad we have to run everyone back after a shot? Appreciate the late semi press to change up things last minute.
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You will not catch grief from this man. Frankly, we got beat in every category but free throws and IMO out coached by a country mile. Who the heck talks about Final4 as a Coach and player experience, expectations, and comes out and performs like that. The players and coaches just horrible. Kudos to Micah and his team of band aids. 1. Get Kofi up top, he cannot play the high pick and roll. 2. Force us to 1 side or other and make us play 3v5. We are in trouble folks. I hate saying it! Iowa is peaking and it will make send my TV out the door if they beat us.
frozenrope9190
- Aurora, IL
I know everyone wants the trajectory of the last two seasons where we found a stride and finished the season on a big win streak. I would love to have my stress level go down a bit myself. I was disappointed we didn't blow out Penn State today.
But I can't get freaked out about the future winning games. I just can't. We're 14-5 in one the best and deepest leagues in the country. We seem to win games when we're not playing well more often than not. Iowa is HOT HOT HOT right now and they can't catch us in the standings.
Because despite all the adversity we've faced, we did a pretty damn good job of winning the games. Iowa didn't. Purdue didn't. Wisconsin did, which is why they'll hang a banner (and they have had some dud games themselves that they powered through).
But I can't get freaked out about the future winning games. I just can't. We're 14-5 in one the best and deepest leagues in the country. We seem to win games when we're not playing well more often than not. Iowa is HOT HOT HOT right now and they can't catch us in the standings.
Because despite all the adversity we've faced, we did a pretty damn good job of winning the games. Iowa didn't. Purdue didn't. Wisconsin did, which is why they'll hang a banner (and they have had some dud games themselves that they powered through).
frozenrope9190
- Aurora, IL
Trouble how? If Iowa beats us on Sunday, they can't catch us in the standings. It's over. We've beaten them in the B10 conference race this season. Like we did last season and the season before. We're not going to play Iowa in the Dance unless we both meet in the elite 8 or something.
If you're worried that them beating us will have an impact in the BTT or the Dance, it won't. No correlation.
I mentioned a few keys plummer defense, damonte taking and making open shots, defending of tall 3s and 4s and tonight the team did decent in all these facets. We literally shut them down the last 5 minutes of the game even with their crazy amounts of ricochet offensive rebounds due to their bad shots. We shot poorly as a whole but never looked out of control or panicked. Honestly it was a game we could easily have not played with intensity, but rode strong defense to victory. Bad shooting happens but defense and intensity will always help a team through shooting slumps. Overall thought it was a good job on a bad shooting night.
Gonna need a mini documentary on this
PSU was denying Plummer and Kofi every chance they had and left Williams open to make that possible. Thus the shots for Williams.
I agree with your points. But I will stay this we are 4-3 in our last seven games that's all I'm going to say.
I posted nearly this exact thought a week or two ago. So I understand what you're saying. Yes, it's impressive that we can get second place in the B1G without having hit our stride. But if you have final four aspirations, you would like to see the team perform at a final four level going into the post season. And we haven't done that yet.
frozenrope9190
- Aurora, IL
You know who was 0-4 in their last 4 games of the season last year, including a first round exit in the conference tourney?
UCLA.
Damonte is a g!!!amn Illini legend. Trent is the jersey that should hang in the rafters. But Damonte is a guy like Sergio or Lucas who should never have to buy a drink or a dinner in Champaign. If you’re here to bag on Damonte, I will fight you. And more importantly, so will Damonte. And then he will save an out of bounds ball by spiking it off your face.
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We’ll he only had one FGA that wasn’t a three so… I guess you’re technically correct with “at least one”. Me being a glass half full kind of guy I’d say “only one”.
I’d guess we didn’t see Hawkins much in the second half because BU wanted shooters out there to try and open things up for Kofi and Hawk had gone 1 for 5 in first half including 0-3 from 3 along with 1 rebound. DMW and Grandy shot 43% from 3 on the game. But to Hawk’s credit he came up big in the last minute or so, which really shows his growth. Not sure we would have seen that from him a month ago.