Illinois 69, Ohio State 60 Postgame

[IllinoisssssssVarsity]

So who can explain why we aggressively doubled Key most of the night, but didn’t do that against Indiana’s TJD?

My guess is Indiana has better shooters that will burn you more if you double off of them.


RJ’s defense was great tonight. His shot doesn’t look as smooth as it did last year. I know there was talk that he hurt his shoulder, and that could obviously be it. But he just looks out of sync in general when he’s trying to shoot the ball. Like the motion doesn’t look rhythmic at all, especially as clean as it was last year.

 

[RML]

In addition to what everyone else liked, I also liked that we had only one drive-into-traffic-and loft-the-ball-up-five-feet-above-rim-hoping-for-a-circus-"layup" shot. While those count as layups, I hate them (when they don't go in).

 

[State of Chicago]

My guess is Indiana has better shooters that will burn you more if you double off of them.


RJ’s defense was great tonight. His shot doesn’t look as smooth as it did last year. I know there was talk that he hurt his shoulder, and that could obviously be it. But he just looks out of sync in general when he’s trying to shoot the ball. Like the motion doesn’t look rhythmic at all, especially as clean as it was last year.

I think RJ starts getting hot in March. By the time the tourney rolls around he will not factor into any scouting reports. Then, bam - he starts hitting 3s at a 40% clip.

 

[OrangeLife]

Crowd sounded loud on TV…?

I was there and cheering the Illini, the crowd was pretty good when we were doing anything to cheer. Not as loud as some other games, but pretty good.

 

[rbse]

Hawkins showed what we've been waiting for, Mayer played a great game, another solid game from Shannon, they looked good. Think Underwood held Dain out too long

 

[EyeoftheIllini]

I thought the move of Epps into starting lineup was big. At this point, Harris is still mainly an energy/D guy, so would rather use him as a spark off the bench. You can bring him in earlier and have him play more minutes if game and team play dictate. Last night team had strong defensive focus and his spark wasn’t needed as much and he only played 7 minutes.

 

[RockfordIllini]

Sort of a low key big win last night. Madison is always a tough play to win. You can play well in there and leave with a L. Glad we don’t need a win to guarantee .500 through our first half of the conference season.

Of course I want more, but 10 wins is still the magic number. With our non-con wins, if we clinch .500 in conference we are a lock for the tourney IMO. Still not out of the question to get 12 or 13 conference wins but let’s make sure we get into the dance and then let the chips fall where they may.

 

[derrick6]

So who can explain why we aggressively doubled Key most of the night, but didn’t do that against Indiana’s TJD?

Evolution

 

[Bbuck21]

Maybe the 6pm gametime killed the energy in here like in did in the arena. It felt like crickets for a vast majority of the game outside of nuggets free throws.

Another great defensive outing. Kept them off the 3 point line and shooting a lot of mid range shots. Gave up some offensive rebounds early but once they got that under control there was no looking back. Sensabaugh had 9 points fairly early but once he got in foul trouble Illinois took him out of rhythm in the 2nd

At one point I said to my wife, "There must be something wrong with the mics. I don't hear the crowd at all".

 

[EyeoftheIllini]

At one point I said to my wife, "There must be something wrong with the mics. I don't hear the crowd at all".

If Bardo had been announcing the game rather that Hummel, I’m sure we’d have posts on here blaming Stephen for not being able to hear crowd.

 

[illini0440]

Hawkins showed what we've been waiting for, Mayer played a great game, another solid game from Shannon, they looked good. Think Underwood held Dain out too long

Dain was a - last night while on the floor plus he was in foul trouble.

 

[Bigtex]

Tonight the wrong shooters were forcing up threes, too bad they don't work to get rhythm 3s for the best 3 point shooters instead.

Maybe that was OSU's defensive plan. Who are the best 3 pt shooters for Illinois? - I know it is not Harris

Tonight Illinois' best free throw shooters shot all of the free throws. they were not 9-23....

 

[Bigtex]

Absolutely agreed. The game was a blowout in everything but the final score. Our defense was truly exceptional tonight, forcing a typical OSU possession to end in a low percentile shot. In fact, almost the entire night, OSU's shot quality was unfathomably terrible. While people can look at OSU's 37% FG% and think they had an off-shooting night, in reality, they had a tremendous shooting night for the shots they took, as their expected FG% had to be under 25% for the game. Our defense was that good. Quite frankly, there's no way OSU should've been able to put up even 50pts today.

When we play defense that way, shoot free throws the way we did, and play aggressively, we are an incredibly tough team to beat. Just got to bring it consistently game to game. If we can get there, sky is the limit. 2 huge road games in our next 3 games, just bring what we brought today and good things will happen

I think we scored 2 points in the last 5 minutes....as Illinois was essentially running down the clock and not worried about scoring.

 

[danielb927]

Dain was a - last night while on the floor plus he was in foul trouble.

We really saw what that free-flowing, mostly-interchangeable 5-man offense can look like last night in the 2nd half with Dain out. Not to knock Dain, I like his game a lot; but when CoHawk is our 5, we're basically an offensive amoeba especially in transition - and when it's working, it's super fun to watch.

 

[WyattEarp]

Ill

 

[Se Il Illini]

I believe every analysis emphasizes taking shots that you can make.

Totally agree. Do analytics say pass up a lay-up and possible foul for a corner 3?

 

[Bigtex]

We really saw what that free-flowing, mostly-interchangeable 5-man offense can look like last night in the 2nd half with Dain out. Not to knock Dain, I like his game a lot; but when CoHawk is our 5, we're basically an offensive amoeba especially in transition - and when it's working, it's super fun to watch.

agree thought our 5 "wings" were very effective last night especially on defense.

 

[NASchamp]

Some Illini chatter right at the beginning.

Tyler Hansbrough sounds like he made it through college with basketball privilege, let's say. Guy is brutal to listen to. Includes a take that Coleman isn't 6'10". That's new to me, I don't get it. Looks that tall to me.

While we’re talking about heights…at one point during the broadcast they showed the Illini bench and Perrin looked an inch or two taller than Lieb. Maybe the conversion of his height from cm to in was off

 

[Champaignheat]

I saw that Harris played less than seven minutes. I think Epps should be starting but I was surprised Harris only got that much time considering the game was fairly comfortable in the second half. I would have thought that he could be used in 3-4 minute spurts for about 12-15 minutes a game. He definitely needs help on his offensive game but defensively he brings a lot of energy.

 

[727ill]

I saw that Harris played less than seven minutes. I think Epps should be starting but I was surprised Harris only got that much time considering the game was fairly comfortable in the second half. I would have thought that he could be used in 3-4 minute spurts for about 12-15 minutes a game. He definitely needs help on his offensive game but defensively he brings a lot of energy.

At this point, Brad is going to go with the hot hand between Sencire and Ty. Matchups will dictate who plays more as well. Also much easier to play Ty when you have a lead.

 

[Champaignheat]

Another thing, can anyone explain how Ohio State has a higher NET ranking than us, they have a worse record, worse Quad 1 record, worse Quad 2 record and we just beat the snot out of them. Lastly, we have two better wins than they have. Just asking.

 

[danielb927]

Totally agree. Do analytics say pass up a lay-up and possible foul for a corner 3?

Not an "analyst" but I would think (neglecting the foul part) the answer is no as long as your likelihood of making the layup is at least 1.5x the likelihood of making the 3. If you're passing it to a 40% 3pt shooter, that'll net you 1.2 points per shot on average... so take the layup if you'll make it at least 60% of the time.

 

[danielb927]

Another thing, can anyone explain how Ohio State has a higher NET ranking than us, they have a worse record, worse Quad 1 record, worse Quad 2 record and we just beat the snot out of them. Lastly, we have two better wins than they have. Just asking.

They are higher on KenPom as well. I would guess it basically comes down to their having lots of big wins and close losses. Their 9 losses are by an average of only 6 points, ours are by an average of 13.

 

[Bbuck21]

While we’re talking about heights…at one point during the broadcast they showed the Illini bench and Perrin looked an inch or two taller than Lieb. Maybe the conversion of his height from cm to in was off

This is probably going to be a problem for Americans. I say we should take up the cause and start being the examples for evrybody else. I would say that Perrin is every bit of 2.1m, but probably no more than 14 stones.

 

[Se Il Illini]

Not an "analyst" but I would think (neglecting the foul part) the answer is no as long as your likelihood of making the layup is at least 1.5x the likelihood of making the 3. If you're passing it to a 40% 3pt shooter, that'll net you 1.2 points per shot on average... so take the layup if you'll make it at least 60% of the time.

Illinois was 5 for 28 from 3 last night. If you have a team that shoots 40% from 3 the theory works well. However, I do not believe Illinois is there yet.