That game was extremely well coached on the Illini side. Wow.
Very good adjustments by our staff.
That game was extremely well coached on the Illini side. Wow.
Matt had trouble naming nba teams, including ones from his home state!Matt at the 6 minute-ish mark says "Oh shoot, whats his name? Walker?" haha love it
More of this gif here pls
He surprised me in a good way tonight. When he went out with his second foul it seemed like the team started drifting away from running the offense and really bogged down, especially Hawkins. And when he came back in they started moving the ball again. We didn’t see that as much from him last month, and it’s a great sign.Something that was pretty evident today was how much more Mayer was engaged with team mates compared to early in the season. He was really making an effort to be encouraging and connecting that he wasn't before.
Certainly agree the BU/Mayer relationship is evolving and improving, but I think you meant put Mayer back in with 2 fouls in first half since he didn’t pick up his third foul until second half. Though I think putting him back in had a lot to do with necessity. Hawk wasn’t scoring, Shannon had cooled off, Epps wasn’t doing much offensively — they needed Mayer’s firepower in there.The turning point of this season might be the mutual trust earned between MM and Coach in the first half when he put Mayer back in with 3.
Meaning, if Mayer is all-in, every game, then we're pretty damn good even when we have some weird games from the other starters. When 3 guys are clicking, we're a pain in the !!! for anyone. If that whole squad is linked up for 40, that's natty time.
The refs reined in thug ball.
Wouldn’t dispute this at all, but I do think we as fans are often guilty of looking at things in a vacuum with only results/outputs considered. Mayer came in later than others and was hurt (or recovering from injury) and not in great shape. He then started off the season poorly. So you have a highly regarded transfer who is under performing in part at least because of conditioning dealing with a new system, new coach who has a drastically different demeanor, and new teammates. It’s easy to see why he was more in his own head and not seemingly engaged. It’s easier to be engaged with your teammates when you finally have your house in order. Again, not saying you are wrong at all.Something that was pretty evident today was how much more Mayer was engaged with team mates compared to early in the season. He was really making an effort to be encouraging and connecting that he wasn't before.
Yeah, the game thread is usually not a place to be during a game . . .My wife had the littles at a birthday party, so I had the rare treat of watching the game live and following along with the cesspool that is the in-game thread. Had to put the game on pause once they got back, just as a bunch of y'all were wanting to send CoHawk to a firing squad. Very thankful that none of y'all are actually coaching this team, lol (well...who knows about 0440...).
But glad to read your takes and hot-takes all the same. Helluva win tonight!
Be more specific?
The Tech was called after TJ had his inflight meal slammed to the ground like he was on a Pan Am flight. The guys need to know the coaches are gonna fight too.Couple have mentioned about Brad and his T. It wasn’t called on him, it was on an assistant. He will be introduced to the treadmill tomorrow!
In person, it was the same color of the warm ups...which were kinda weird and muted orange colored, but also looked super bright on the big screensJust one complaint about BU. Lose the ugly rose colored jacket that isn’t orange. Probably cost us 5-10 points.
Great post. I come here for the hot takes, but stay for the thoughtful analysis. Also, anything posted by Roundball Sage.Well first of all this game reinforced a general philosophy Brad has of making them take tough twos. They made a bunch of them but like he says “they can’t make enough” based on analytics.
And they obviously took away the three was which was a focal point. So much of the “excellent coaching” I was talking about was done pregame.
But the layups and close shots may for early was partly bc of breakdowns on defense that were corrected in game. I saw a lot of coaching going on in the huddle tonight especially with the big guys and cutting off the drives to the basket. I can’t wait to watch it again
And on offense. I love that we have so many weapons we can run plays for. I’ve been advocating for getting MM more shots out of designed plays all season and the last few games we have done that. Especially coming out of halftime. It seems like the plan the last few games has been to give the other team a bunch of Shannon in the first half and then hit them with Mayer after the break.
We ran really good stuff through Dain and Mayer.
And finally. We didn’t see the maniacal, out of control Brad but saw a different approach in the huddle. I felt that it was effective and kept the guys focused and composed.
Who ever helped Dainja with his free throw needs to help Rodger and Harris.I saw Dain Dainja make 2 free throws twice tonight. What a miracle! Geez this win feels good.
I thought we needed to make adjustments, and man, I have to give BU a ton of credit, whatever he did worked. We were on a bad trajectory, but these guys are back having fun on the floor and its enjoyable to watch them again.Thought brad was a mean coach and our season was over? This felt like a vintage win the past couple of seasons
ILL