Northwestern 70, Illinois 66 OT Postgame

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#402      
This. They’ve shown they can play together in high-low action. Morez definitely clogs the lane a bit for KJ and others to make plays but his value outweighs that IMO
Morez is tough and I like how he plays but sometimes appears to be a little lost. He doesn't seem to be in the right position at times and needs to get better at moving to the open spaces to give our drivers an outlet. When he figures those things out to go along with his rebounding and defense he will be even more valuable on the floor.
 
#403      
Ben made a lot of money coming here. Definitely plays a role in Brad sticking with him but you have to identify in a one game sample size that last night was not his night and need to adjust accordingly.

Any team whose go-to guys are 6-7 types like NW will pose us the most problems due to our lack of a defensive stopper at that size.

Gotta split next week at the very least. I feel good about the Wisconsin game, a much better matchup. Would be a big win and allows us to go into the TN with a lot less pressure.
I like Ben but definitely needed to pull him last night. Also, for all the heat that Quincy took last year for disappearing offensively in Jan/Feb, I took his strength and physicality on D for granted. Could’ve used it last night.

As for Ben’s money, it’s a sunk cost regardless of performance, but we owe him nothing in terms of playing time. Having more minutes for Morez will make it less likely he leaves next offseason because you know he’ll be back-channeled like crazy by other schools for a bigger role and a big paycheck.
 
#406      
Maybe this has been mentioned but I'm not looking through all the posts. How was the play out of the timeout with a close game and only a couple minutes left for Will Riley to chuck an off- balance 30 footer with 12 on the shot clock?!!! One of the more bizarre play calls of the game. It was a crucial possession and that shot was directly out of a timeout. Really really bad
People keep bringing this up and I highly doubt the play called was for Will to shoot a 3 from two feet beyond the arc with that much time on shot clock. Just because it happened doesn’t mean it was the play called. Reminded me of a couple of years ago when Matt M would disregard play called and just heave up a bad 3.
 
#407      
Did I imagine it or late in the game did Hummel say something about Kylan tweaking his leg? I didn’t catch the name of the player, but they showed KB flexing his leg like he was trying to get something loose.
 
#410      
I think this game was very much on Underwood. I haven't seen much complaint about what I felt was egregious: down 1 with 38 seconds to go, 9 second differential, Underwood waits 13 seconds and then tells the team to foul. He was that worried that a team shooting 19% from 3 for the game was going to hit one to put the game out of reach?

9 seconds is more than enough time to score, and we had a timeout left. Hold them on defense, call a timeout, and set up your play. Or even if they score, you still have plenty of time to scheme up a look. But the compounding of error is, if you're going to foul, don't waste 13 seconds just to foul an 86% FT shooter.

Add that to the awful plays coming out of timeouts, while Collins schemed up easy scores out of his timeouts, and Underwood's insistence on playing Humrichous all game on an off shooting night, and you get beat by a mediocre at best team like Northwestern. It's unacceptable.

Now that I've seen this team play, I'm far less optimistic than I was looking at the team on paper. They're simply not athletic enough. We don't have anyone capable of breaking down the defense, maybe Riley, but that's not his style of play. We don't have anyone on the wing that can guard a great athlete. These next 3 games will be interesting. Right now our only good win is Arkansas, and is Arkansas any good?
The comments here and elsewhere about athleticism are what resonate with me. I thought we were quicker than this.

Maybe I was spoiled last year with TSJ, but NU has a bunch of lumbering old guys who look like the Hanson brothers, and they beat us down the floor almost every time. Did we have any fast break points at all? I remember 1 or 2 KB drives that ended in layups but that's it (and not sure if those even were end-to-end fast breaks).
 
#412      
Did I imagine it or late in the game did Hummel say something about Kylan tweaking his leg? I didn’t catch the name of the player, but they showed KB flexing his leg like he was trying to get something loose.
Definitely saw that at the game, was under the basket and then he kind of skip flexed back down the court. Don't think he left the game though and I wouldn't know what Hummel said.
 
#413      
51 out of 62 percent of Ben's shots are threes!! I kind of like the Jake Grandison role mentioned, shoot and crash the glass

I haven't seen anything from Ben that tells me that he has the instincts, strength, or athleticism to be a difference-making rebounder. Ben should not start another game unless he proves he can be much better in other aspects of basketball than shooting and passing. He should be a spot-minute role player. But I have no confidence at all that Brad will recognize any of these things. I expect Ben will start and play heavy minutes in our next game and I expect our team will pay the price.
 
#415      
I agree, but unlike 02-03 we may lose 85% of our roster next year. As to NW game, road wins in the BIG are GOLD. This was one of the easier games on our schedule to bank some of that gold. We got our lunch money taken instead. Not getting any easier from here on out.
A good bit of the roster will likely be back. Really bad loss though. We are the way better team. Not Brad's best coaching game as well. Learn from it and get both next week.
 
#416      
A good bit of the roster will likely be back. Really bad loss though. We are the way better team. Not Brad's best coaching game as well. Learn from it and get both next week.
It Has To Get Better 13 Reasons Why GIF by NETFLIX
 
#418      
This board is the worst place to go after a loss. All rationality is lost.
Look, I love Underwood and I'm extremely grateful for how he has built our program back to being respected and legit. But I think the run from last year masked some of the warts that Underwood still carries with him. It's not irrational to critique him, because he certainly has weaknesses. Here have been my issues with Underwood throughout his time here:
1) His out of timeout play calls have been awful. To the point I almost don't want to watch them because I know they won't work. I'm sure many times the players don't do what he wants but again, that falls on coaching. See lasts nights step back contested 3 out of the timeout as exhibit A.

2) Underwood rarely calls a timeout when our team needs one. He relies too much on the players figuring it out. I know we need players to lead but sometimes we need you to lead Underwood.

3) His stubbornness with analytics drives me absolutely crazy. Shoot 50 3's Underwood says... Let Ben shoot as many as he wants. Rarely ever critiques bad shot selection. Emphasizes that our d give up midrange jump shots all day long because they are "low percentage"- blah blah. But heres the problem, some players, like Martinelli thrive off midrange and their stats are different than the average team or player. You have to change your philosophy for those players. Also, sometimes a player is in his feels and hitting, again, you adjust accordingly. I think one of the flaws in his analytic approach is that he says, well said player shoots 20% from 3, so we are going to sag and letting rip. Ok, cool, I get it, BUT that player is likely shooting 20% because teams still guard him and contest shots. So that player is a 20% shooter with solid defense on him and contested shots. Said player will likely shoot better than 20% against us because he's a college basketball player that is left WIDE open and shockingly can shoot at a higher clip than 20%. AKA, why so many "BAD" shooters, shoot well against us.

Brad's a good coach, a good recruiter, and usually has a good eye for talent and is solid at getting the most out of players. But he DEFINITELY has flaws and if it wasn't for our run last year, I'd start to get a little annoyed by him.
 
#420      
The officials didn't lose us this game. KJ got a way with the most blatant travel at the end. However, they did make it soo confusing for the players as there was no consistency from them all night and it made the game hard to watch.
 
#421      
Lol...it's not panic time....this is freshman and transfers getting a crash course in B1G life on the road.

Every game is competitive, and every team is coming for the most successful B1G program of the last 5 years. We came out of the gate good for about 5-7 min....then relaxed.

We then let NW dictate the pace and physicality and made our offense look choppy and indecisive.

If Brad and the B1G didn't have their attention before, it sure as hell does now.

No Will Riley for a large portion of the second half is absolutely mind boggling. He was the most impactful scorer for the last 10 min. of the first half...nothing in the second.

I get BU loves Ben and has fallen in love with the 3pt barrage, so if that's your game plan in the B1G, you'd better be able to get guys like Ben tons of easy looks. I'm not so sure that's going to happen in the B1G. It sure as hell isn't going to be easy.

KJ's threes were insane off the bounce, step back fade away contested threes. Ben ain't gonna give you any of that.
Will Riley can. Ben is a static on the wing set shooter that requires wide open looks...and he bricked 99.9999999% of those he got last night.
Will's defense is also noticeably better than Ben even as a freshman.

It's going to be VERY interesting to see how this plays out with BU's rotation decisions.

Under no circumstances can you lose Morez Johnson next year because of Ben Humrichous playing time. Same for Will Riley if he needs another year before jumping to the NBA.

Get yer' popcorn ready! 🧡 :illinois:
 
#422      
All I gotta say is Humrichous attempting to close out on shooters was one of the funniest things I've seen on a basketball court in a while.
 
#423      
The only issue I have with this loss is that it might mean the difference between a B1G championship or none or a 3 seed vs. 4 seed in March.
I think that the expectations need to be tempered because the unrealistic expectations are probably the reason for the board meltdown. As THIS point, this team is a LONG way from worrying about one loss being the difference in seeding and conference finish. The focus needs to be on improvement and growth as we move along.

Given the turnover and youth, a top 4 finish in conference and a 4, 5 or 6 seed would be a heck of a year and a phenomenal coaching job. I think that a more realistic expectation would be a 6th, 7th or 8th place conference finish and a 7 thru 10 seed in the tournament.

This feels very similar to the Matt Meyer team of a couple of years ago. We had some great wins, but some befuddling losses because BU was mixing and matching all season. He had to completely change is defensive philosophy and had the same issue with the launching of threes as the offense situation.

I think that we have a couple of supremely talented guys, but we have more holes than we probably have answers for this year. When you put 99% of your roster together on the fly, this is going to be the result 95% of the time. I despise how the off-season worked out and I'm hoping that we don't have to do it again next year. We should be supplementing a really good roster each year, not totally rebuilding it.

Yesterday's game is going to be a microcosm of the year. There are going to be a lot of wow moments mixed in with a lot of what the heck was that moments.

That was a long post.
 
#424      
Watching the game there wasa point when I thought Illini could extend their then 10 point lead and pull away easily. But it all evaporated with turnovers, poor shots and lack of defense. Morez (even White) are better defenders than Humrichous. Ivisic and Johnson are a better combo than what Brad relied on. Shut Martinelli down and Illini win handily. Illini pick and pop strength was not much on display. Hard to believe NW shut that down. The freshmen didn't play like freshmen (except Riley's wild 3pt shots), Jakucionis and Ivisic were best players on Illini once again.
 
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