Penn State 79, Illinois 76 Postgame

[RockfordIllini]

We must lead the country in “weird” games the past few years. Between all the slipping and the freak technical, this was another one.

Stinks to lose to PSU 3x. I thought the effort was generally okay. Too many mistakes on defense and missed FTS cost us late. Credit to Penn State. They really swing the ball when you get out of position and usually get a wide open 3 out of it. Felt like they made us pay for every mistake. Wouldn’t shock me to see them in the second weekend. Really hard to team to match up with.

There was some good. Took pretty good care of the ball. Dain got his mojo back after a slow start. Luke and RJ look dialed in. TJ was solid.

But ultimately it looked like we just ran out of gas at the end. Mayer has been lethargic ever since his monster incident. Let’s get some rest, let TJ’s ankle healed, get jaden back up to speed and see who we draw. Stranger things have happened and still think we present matchup problems for people.

 

[BTM33]

I just think we are young and ill fitting.

We are not seasoned, we are talented but everyone has a "thing".

- Mayer's shot selection
- TJ's ball handling
- Dain is lackadaisical
- Coleman's offense
- Sincere is all defense, no offense
- Ty can't shoot
- RJ's confidence

Along with all this, Goode hurt out the gate, Epps gets a significant concussion, Skyy leaves...

It's been a hard year with a roster that is flawed. Everyine gets a little blame, and maybe they pull out a game or 2 in the tourney.

 

[pruman91]

Meh. There’s no pressure on this team now. Maybe that’s what they need, either way they’ve been a fun distraction from life.

I want to commend you Manual for the last couple of pages of the game thread and your standing your ground with the negative nancys.........You did a great job sir.........................

 

[Zorak]

Meh. There’s no pressure on this team now. Maybe that’s what they need, either way they’ve been a fun distraction from life.

I was actually thinking this is the least fun I've ever had following a sports team.

 

[ejam21]

What positive would you have us take from this? Honest question

I think many would be happy if we could count on this 17 point 4 A/TO ratio hawkins to show up every game? All i got ha
Maybe that and good to see Goode lookm well.........Good

Other than that i aint got s****

 

[GallopingGhost]

I think we are just merely ok. Good maybe. Have great moments. But we aren’t a great team.

And I’m not gonna have as much heart invested in this team next week. I can’t take it. I’ll be watching. But I won’t be emotionally there.

 

[FrankNitty30]

Missed free throws alone doomed us. To say nothing of any other issues.

Dain started 1-7 from 1 foot, including a missed dunk. He ended up playing well but he left at least 8 points out there.

 

[Illinifan533]

Not that it matters much but I have been busy using the ignore button tonight......Might just be me and you Ran and select other friends by the time i get done......

This year has been the poorest excuse for so called Illini Nation fans with the amount of awful vitriol thrown at the Illini players............

So easy to be an internet tough guy......I always wonder what would happen if the negative nancy's said what they have posted face to face with the illini players they ripped on.........

All I know is I will be in front of the screen watching the Illini's next game and rooting my arse off for an Illini win.......All you debbie downers can pound sand........and please put me on your ignore list .............I don't care at all..........

On to the NCAA tourney and LETS GO ILLINI...................

In the heat of frustration, it's been easy to rip on this team. Of the last 4 years, this team has had the lowest basketball IQ with repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot in multiple ways, and it hasn't even been the youngsters at the root of the problem. It's been the vets like Shannon, Mayer, Hawkins, and Melendez. Ironically, without those guys we don't even win 20 games much less make the tourney. This season has been a grind, and a lot of close games didn't go the teams' way. Part of it was the odd structure. Shannon and Mayer are good but are not primary scorers. Shannon averaged 12.9 and 10.1 PPG his last two years at TTech. Mayer average 8.1 and 9.8 PPG his last two. Part of that may have been due to the depth and scheme of those teams but there needed to be another guy to help shoulder the scoring load. Hawkins was too inconsistent from a scoring standpoint and Melendez had his problems for whatever reason. The freshmen, as expected, were inconsistent, and Goode's injury certainly wasn't helpful either. Oddly enough, I'm really hoping nearly everyone that's eligible to return comes back. It would be a battle-tested group with a chip on their shoulders.

 

[zentrails]

Anyone want some of those missed 1 and 1 back

Yes, for our next 2 games

 

[OrangeLife]

We are in concussion protocol.

The whole team

The entire fanbase.

 

[Eternal Optimist]

But we win every game in practice, right?

 

[Battle89]

strong post to name ratio hah

@SkyysNotFalling is just owning his previous words and that is to be admired. He was very optimistic (predicting an 8-1 finish to the regular season) long after I was.

Outside of one half vs NW I have seen little to think this team is great (at least since early December), let alone that this team can change and grow.

Tonight they did some of what we asked…fewer turnovers, fewer threes, more driving. And they still lost because that was not enough to overcome their shortcomings.

So disappointed at what might have been.

 

[Dragons89]

I love Illini basketball, but this team drives me crazy. I will continue to root for them, but can’t say I’ll be sad when this season ends. My wife won’t miss all the yelling at the TV either.

Mine too! The horrible flying at shooters and letting Pickett do whatever he wanted late was just killing me. I’m pretty sure Brad is thoroughly frustrated with players not playing to the game plan. Coaching is not easy….I think he’s just as frustrated as we are.

 

[RockfordIllini]

We need shooters. Period. End of story.

We will never know, but I honestly think a healthy Goode all season and we win 2-3 more games and get a 1st round bye.

Not just bc of his production, but because of its mere threat and bc others around him probably aren't taking as many "bad" shots.

It would have been addition and addition by subtraction.

Also Luke rarely makes a defensive mistake. There’s a reason he was the first frosh in the rotation last year. Think we have a lot fewer blown switches/getting lost on screens/other breakdowns that seem to have plagued us this year.

Agree I think Luke is good for 2-3 more wins. When he went down I said it was a sneaky big loss. He provides continuity, toughness, leadership and shooting. We’ve lacked in all 4 all year.

 

[HensonHall71]

We just don’t play hard and we are an awful defensive team. How many back-cuts are we going to give up?

It doesn’t matter how talented you are if you don’t want it more than the other team

 

[Saturdaze]

Y’all do realize that the reason the players look lost, disengaged, execute poorly, and result to hero ball is because they’re out schemed on the court? The stuff they’re trying to run is being shutdown, so they resort to hero ball. The whole effort thing is a red herring. Without a working scheme more effort just becomes more chaos, more fouls, and more frustration.

 

[Redbull]

You put an elite shooter like Funke on this team we probably win five or six more games

Only if you have a half court offense that would get him the ball

 

[Flyin' Illini]

I was actually thinking this is the least fun I've ever had following a sports team.

Frustrating, yes, but we have had some stretches of bad teams that were no fun at all. Despite the disappointing season, it has still been more fun than not overall.

 

[Oldskoolkoach]

One of the biggest reasons this team has been so inconsistent. Not enough shooters. Cannot double Pickett because of their shooting. That why they are a hard matchup for us.

Low basketball iq, hero ball, lack of ball movement, stepback 3s are the reason this team is inconsistent. They haven't and won't figure out what you have to do as a TEAM to win.

 

[Illini8420]

We won’t magically become good shooters in a week. We should ride our defensive lineups full throttle and make that our identity in the tourney. Play to our strengths. Make every game a rock fight. We can get points from stops and transition. More Harris and Rodgers please.

 

[Illini in Indiana]

Sure we are 20-12 and going to the dance

But on the Bright side - we've only lost to 9 teams this year.

Wow, I have to keep watching because I'm starting to enjoy the pain.

Please oh please, get to the 2nd weekend to make the pain worth it.

 

[Illini4life79]

Low basketball iq, hero ball, lack of ball movement, stepback 3s are the reason this team is inconsistent. They haven't and won't figure out what you have to do as a TEAM to win.

Agree, I just pointed out one.

 

[IMPE Legend]

Underwood owns this one.

Hawkins unstoppable inside? Stopped feeding him.

Mayer 1-15 last 2 games on threes? Keep allowing it.

Funk being Funk? Keep leaving him. Junior high coaches are smart enough to know what shooters you don't double off of.

Our offense is consistently worse than our opponents. We take harder shots every game. We are a collection of great talent but very seldom a good team.

That is coaching.

Is recruiting enough? We might have to hope it is, because I don't see the X's and O's in this staff.

 

[RickBB]

What does PSU not do against other teams? I’d be so confused if I was a PSU fan.

 

[ugottabjoshinme]

Not a loaded question.

Go back to last summer, knowing what you know now, and pick a trio to be on this team

Group a
Podz
Omar Payne
Jacob Grandison

Group B
TJ
Mayer
Skyy Clark

That said, we get a good draw and win a few in the tourney it changes everything.

Lol

Group B easily

This season sucks but group A probably would have been brutal