Illinois 105, Minnesota 97 Postgame
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
We do run teams off the 3 point line. We're 5th in the country in 3PA/FGA allowed at 27.5%.According to Torvik, Brad’s defense that is designed to run teams off the 3 point line now ranks 182nd in 3pt%D.
Scheme is a problem but Brad seems too stubborn to change.
EDIT: illiniballknower beat me to it.
Has anyone mentioned that Chester is now sitting beside BU on the bench instead of Hamer. It looked like Hamer was relegated to a row back. Not sure if it means much, if anything, but I'm going to take it as a good thing.
This. And to add, as Pomeroy said, "3-point defense is among the lowest-hanging randomness fruit. "
KenPom: Shooting and defending the 3 is random business (i.e., relax! It's early)
Looking back at the last three seasons collectively, early 3-point shooting defense may not be inconsequential, but it’s close to it.
theathletic.com
Captain 14
- The Last Best Place
Of course winning trumps everything elseIdk about that as I love my Illini and honestly would rather lose the money
What are you talking about? Hamer was right next to Joey Biggs as he has all season. From scores table down it goes Biggs, Hammer, TU, BU, whichever of the 3 have the scout, then a couple open for first guys off the bench, the 2 that don't have the scout and Fletch.
TA was next to Brad last night since it was his scout.
Or maybe go under a screen way out there and risk a 35 foot shot attempt rather than being forced into a trailing position into the paint?
It isn't ALWAYS death to go under rather than over.
Fair point!
This was one of today's version of NBA-style games. Magical offense... and nobody wants to play defense.
What is it with roundball today that to play defense is just considered too old-school from a past era or just not worth the effort?
The saying used to be be, 'Defense Wins Championships!'
But now, the new word of the day is, 'Score Like Hell and Just Try To Allow One Less Point Than What You Got!...'.
Good offense AND good defense is good roundball. Balance in All Things, Daniel-San.
Offense... ON. Offense... OFF. BIG circles...
the national
- the Front Range
I dunno. We just played two really good offensive teams in Iowa and Minn. They also want track meets so it’s now shock to me that those two games turned out the way they did. Saturday, we will need better defense.
I'm in complete agreement. The stats clearly show a much different story about Minnesota's 3pt shooting and our 3pt defense than many members on here think. But I've seen this type of argument before in other sports. Like some hockey types adamant there's no such thing as puck luck, or that multiple bloop broken bat singles in an inning isn't good fortune it's bad pitching, or that all fumbles go to the team that wants it more.
Basically, you have good things happen, you're good. You have bad things happen, you're bad. For some reason they think there's no allowance that multiple things can be accurate. Of course your defense can be bad AND a team shoots out of their mind for the quality of shot they're getting. Hell, Minnesota's defense was worse than ours was last night and our threes were of much better overall quality. We shot 46% which is a really great shooting night. If a 1.38ppp on your three balls were guaranteed to you before tipoff, you'd take that every single night. Minnesota shot 70%! 70%! They could play against 5 of our random board members and not hit that percentage in 10 games! That's 2.10ppp! I mean good lord...
Point is, our defense has been lousy, AND Minnesota torched the nets from 3. Both can be and are true. I mean we saw Matt Mayer take those off dribble type of threes all year last year. How often did he shoot 70%? Was it really just the defense he was facing? Minnesota shot well- props to them.
sacraig
- The desert
Which coach is the best at creating the scout for other teams and getting us prepared for their stuff?
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
sacraig
- The desert
I was about to ask the same thing. What is the W-L for the team broken down by who scouted the opponent?
Or maybe not W-L. Perhaps better would be performance against Torvik/KenPom/etc. expectations.
Illini offense starting to look like the legendary offense of Paul Westhead and Loyola Marymount of the late ‘80s era.
This gives Our Beloved something to aspire to. Loyola Marymount once led College Ball Division I in scoring for three years in a row... averaging at over 110, 112, and 122 per game. The games were wild to watch. A frenzy of running and shooting and ball movement. Sort of like running the video/tape of a regular roundball game and speeding it up to twice the normal speed. Every time they took ball possession, they used to try to get a shot up in something like 7 seconds or less... or something like that. They once won a game in 1989 with a score of 181–150.
That’s a good rule of thumb! Hold your opponent under 150 and you have a good shot at winning...
This gives Our Beloved something to aspire to. Loyola Marymount once led College Ball Division I in scoring for three years in a row... averaging at over 110, 112, and 122 per game. The games were wild to watch. A frenzy of running and shooting and ball movement. Sort of like running the video/tape of a regular roundball game and speeding it up to twice the normal speed. Every time they took ball possession, they used to try to get a shot up in something like 7 seconds or less... or something like that. They once won a game in 1989 with a score of 181–150.
That’s a good rule of thumb! Hold your opponent under 150 and you have a good shot at winning...
I don't post often, but read here a lot. This is exactly what I was thinking when watching the game. Hawkins (especially) drops way too far. Fundamental defense would have him much higher and (at a minimum) "showing" to the pg to slow him up and give his teammate time to recover. In this pic, Hawkins is guarding nobody.
I have some ongoing issues with Underwood's coaching. Not sure the Illini can do better than Underwood so I guess we just have to live with it. Tthe teams have been consistently good, so I cannot complain too much. However, I can't help but think if there was a little more creativity and discipline this team could be a top 5 type of team. Sometimes I wonder what they do at practice. They have fundamental flaws this late in the season on defense, they never play zone or mix it up, their inbound plays both offensively and defensively are uninspired, they constantly make one-handed passes for no reason, make a lot of head-scratching turnovers on cross-court passes, and their offense (while very good due to their high level of talent) includes a lot of 3 guys watching motionless from the weak side while two players take turns (this is the least concerning thing since this year they have like 5 guys that can create their own shot). Their free throw shooting has been good (and Dainja's lack of improvement at the line has cost him minutes) so that is a counterpoint.
EDIT: The other thing i've noticed on defense is that often on defense our players somewhat lazily chase their guy to the wing on cuts. They give the other team that pass with hardly any pressure at all. Illinois commits a couple turnovers a game on plays where a guy picks up his dribble and can't find someone open just to get rid of it. Our opponents almost never commit that turnover because we aren't pressuring them at all.
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Thanks Pru! Sometimes life gets in the way!
sacraig
- The desert
I just only read posts by @illini0440 because I figure having an assistant coach posting is probably the purest information source.I noticed that I've just automatically started to not even read posts that complain about our offense.
When I hit the first sentence that contains complaints about it, I noticed my fingers immediately swipe upward on my phone. It's so weird.
And obviously your post since I replied to it.
They all have their strengths. But this staff as a whole is probably the best I’ve seen at Illinois regarding not having much of a drop off depending on who has the scout. Geoff obviously has an offensive back ground and he’s more inclined to figure out how to score against the defense and what actions should work and Chester obviously has more of a defensive back ground and is more inclined to focus on defensive intricacies for the opponents offense.
I think Raphael meant that TSJ should demand to guard their hottest player while their hottest player is in the process of going on a bender if he believes highly in his defensive capabilities. Not saying that should be the case. You're right. Underwood needs to recognize that and make adjustments in-game and not just after the half. Raphael speaking more as a former player I think. Maybe that's what he used to do as a player? I don't know. I didn't watch enough Purdue games to know.
Honestly Raphael has a double standard for TSJ and Ace Baldwin. He always says TSJ should ask to shut down whoever is scoring but was proud Ace held Perkins to 10 points the other night even though PSU gave up 90 and Sandfort had a triple double.
band camp
- STL City
