Very good adjustments by our staff.
Illinois 75, Michigan State 66 Postgame
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Very good adjustments by our staff.
BillyBob1
- Champaign
Matt had trouble naming nba teams, including ones from his home state!
More of this gif here pls
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
What a great and fun win! I’m totally hoarse from yelling. So great to see these guys play together unselfishly as a team after all the tumult they’ve been through. Very, very scary watching Sencire roll around on the floor. REALLY hope he’s ok (although he didn’t have a very good game tonight). The ‘Ex-Baylor Boys’ were awesome, as was that other ex-Texas kid. Thank goodness for the portal so these guys could end up being Illini. And finally, watching the freshman Epps play with such poise, leading this team to victory over a very, very tough MSU team is amazing. He just stays even-keeled and focused. Kudos to these players (and coaches) because they didn’t give up when down nine, like so many of the recent teams before Brad would have done. Finally, as I sat behind the MSU bench, I got a chance to watch Izzo closely. What a whiny, crybaby jerk he is…P.S. Pregame at Pia’s and taking their free game bus to the game, and then celebrating the victory is phenomenal. Highly recommend if you get the chance. I-L-L
Ignatius Shang
5th year PhD, school of Information Sciences
- Champaign, IL
A huge win and great efforts throughout the game!
When Sencire Harris was injured (hopefully he will come back soon!), the guy stood behind me said: "No wonder Draymond graduated from there".
When Sencire Harris was injured (hopefully he will come back soon!), the guy stood behind me said: "No wonder Draymond graduated from there".
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.
He was helping himself out of position a bit on D, which is something we’ve seen a lot from him. But you could say that about the whole team for about the first 29 minutes of the game. If this team cools that down and runs what they’re supposed to run a bit more they’re gonna win a lot of games.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Dain Dainja, Matthew Mayer power Illinois past Michigan State
Dain Dainja was an inside force Michigan State had no answer for as Illinois ended the Spartans seven-game win streak with a 75-66 win on Friday night.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Dain Dainja was an inside force Michigan State had no answer for and Matthew Mayer hit clutch 3s in the second half as Illinois ended the Spartans seven-game win streak with a 75-66 win on Friday night.
Dainja, a player Illinois coach Brad Underwood calls "a dancing bear," powered inside and scored with both hands to put up 20 points and lead the Illini. Mayer hit 3 of 6 from distance and scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half.
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 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.
I think as fans we are too geared toward hot takes and instant “analysis.” Just have to look at game threads to see that. I think we’d be better off if we let things play out a bit more and realize that we see a fairly small percentage of what is happening with these players and the team — and that percentage is during high stress moments of big time basketball. To me it is kind of like the difference between the majority of US TV/movies and their British counterparts. The US stuff is faster paced and often like a ball rolling down a hill. British TV and movies are often slower paced and really let scenes breathe. Unfortunately as fans (and I’m not immune to it) letting things breathe and play out before fully forming opinions — and letting people know your hot takes — isn’t a strong suit.
Again, I agree with what you said and the rest wasn’t aimed at you. Your post was just a good segue into it.
Turns out the rumors of our demise weren’t true.
Brad isn’t letting this baby off the rails.
Brad isn’t letting this baby off the rails.
Yeah, the game thread is usually not a place to be during a game . . .
illini80
- Forgottonia
5 turnovers. 15-18 from the line. Didn’t shoot 30 3’s when they weren’t falling. Tough defense in the 2nd half. Great formula for success!
So one thing I can’t figure out is how a team goes from 18 turnovers every game to 5. How does that switch just get flipped? Nebraska was similar until late in the game.
So one thing I can’t figure out is how a team goes from 18 turnovers every game to 5. How does that switch just get flipped? Nebraska was similar until late in the game.
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.
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.
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 screens
Great post. I come here for the hot takes, but stay for the thoughtful analysis. Also, anything posted by Roundball Sage.
Who ever helped Dainja with his free throw needs to help Rodger and Harris.
USAFILLINI
- Florida
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.
- Status