Loyola won because Kofi couldn't pass out of a double team. He has fixed that.
Pregame: Illinois vs Chattanooga, Friday, March 18th, 5:50pm CT, TNT
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YesssI am going to root for every BIG team just to get Seth Davis to STFU
He has fixed that but thats not what bogged down our offense against Loyola.
None of our guards knew how to break the trap defense. That’s the main reason. Personally I put the responsibility squarely on Brad. To be fair, that type of defense can be hard to deal with when executed right. Think about our 2005 squad, lots of teams couldn’t handle it including CP3 WF. I sure hope Brad learned his lesson in case we see one this year.
There was a lot more to it than just that.
Absolutely correct. When I said "not killing themselves", I meant Iowa's defense has been efficient. They just don't have to expend the energy as other teams might for the same result. They switch between man to man and zone frequently. Their press is deceptively simple. They're long and get into the passing lanes.
Purdue on the other hand ... although Purdue did show some stellar D against MSU, but just not consistently from game to game.
Stuart Scott
He is great when he is making his shot but when he isn’t he is too much of a defensive liability compared to Belo. Jake not as good defensively as DMW but considerably less downside and no trade off in shooting percentage from Plum.
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
Vin Scully, talking about Andre Dawson being out with a bruised knee.
Bigtex
- DFW
I would contend as the season has progressed that Kofi has chosen (coaches, him, ?) to make fewer passes back out.
Sometimes.
In fairness, his teammates have chosen to make fewer jump shots.
(I know, it's not a choice. I'd offer that we're making fewer shots because we're playing better teams, and likewise the quality of defensive rotations and doubles that Kofi has faced has also markedly increased and that's made it more difficult for him to locate and hit the open man.)
Plummer will probably remain as the starter. But for his defense and streaky shooting, I don’t mind replacing him with Belo if he is ready. It might not be a bad idea to let Plummer defend opponents’ 2nd unit more often.
Bigtex
- DFW
can't disagree. Chicken or Egg scenario. Pass out more to make more outside shots or make more outside shots to see more passes back out?
Agree... "Sometimes" is fair. He's better, but still not great. When he's indecisive and the ball sticks...he brings it down and that's where the turnover happens. If he were to ever become decisive with passing out of the post or be decisive and turn and go up strong, with purpose....he'd be literally unstoppable. His misses are so excruciating because they're point blank shots that he tries to finesse instead of dunking it.
I think part of Plummers problems excluding Michigan is that for the first time in his career the last few games have been played on a much bigger stage with much brighter lights. At Utah they were .500 both years and lost in the first round of the Pac12 tournament. This is his first experience in post season. It would really help to get a couple of good games under his belt.
In the latter part of the season Kofi seemed to be pushing thru the double and triple teams instead of kiicking it out as often as he did earlier, but the thing I noticed most was that when the double/triple team occurred our outside shooters were often not in a position to get a kick out for the open shot. Sometimes it was due to the angle of the pass coming into Kofi, but it seemed it was too often there was no one in easy eyesight for Kofi to throw to. I might be out in left field with no bat, no ball, and no glove on this, but the Mark I eyeball seems to have this one correct.
All of the 6 power conferences have had a conference tourney since 2002 (the PAC has had longer but for some reason did not have a tourney during 1998-2001). The B1G tourney champ has won round one 17 out of 19 years in the ncaa tourney since 2002. Advanced to sweet sixteen 13 times in those 19 years. To elite eight 7 times. To final four 5 times. To championship game 4 times. Champs 0 times.
If you include all 6 power conferences, our tourney champ and PAC have done 2nd best to ACC in first 2 rounds. 7 of the 19 years, the conference champ of a power conference has won it all. Big East leads the way there with 4.
If you get past the first weekend, the whole notion of being spent physically and/or emotionally from the conference tourney goes out the window. A rate of getting to the sweet 16 of just over 68 percent of the time is not too bad. The tourney is tough enough to begin with, and it's almost all about matchups.
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I think you should really watch the Mike LaTulip film breakdown of Andre Curbelo!
https://www.illinoisloyalty.com/post/ncaa-tournament.28262/page-4#post-1736566
I think more of Plummer's problem is that he is at the top of the scouting report right behind Kofi! Teams are doing everything they can to keep him from getting hot...if he starts feeling it, that helps open up the middle for Kofi!
I tend to agree. His output dropped off right around the start of the conference games. That tells me it is the strength of the defense. That is why I suggest to let him spend more time facing opponents' 2nd unit.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Hot take, but the only way this team sniffs the Elite Eight … and maybe even the Sweet Sixteen … is if Plummer is hot from deep. The reason we all thought this team was capable of a deep run is because we retained last year’s great inside game but had much better 3-point shooting. Really need Plummer, Grandison, Trent, etc. to hit shots when it counts, starting Friday!
Looks about right. We are like a 50/50 team. It also implies Houston is a tougher matchup than most people think. Either way, I think we need a 80%-90% Andre back to have a better chance. You don't want to be like flipping a coin every game.
And it confirms most ILL fan's impression on Wisc, a suspect team.
It is not as simple as that. Houston is a good team in a weak conference. It's pretty easy to go on a run when you are a better team. Gonzaga is a national power in a mid-major conference. If they are anything but 1st there's a problem. Arizona is a top notch team in a conference that only got 3 teams in.
On the other hand the Big Ten got 9 teams in, over half the conference, and 3 more than any other conference. Hard to consistently go on runs when every night you are playing strong teams.
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