Illinois 81, Washington 77 Postgame

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#227      
PasadenaIllini
Way to pull out a win under difficult circumstances in a hostile building against a scrappy team on the road. Defensive player of the game has to be DGL. He has grown into a player that we can rely upon to play really good defense on one of our opponent's best perimeter players. KJ...what more can be said. Watching the game, I thought Kylan had a relatively quiet night...until I looked at the box score and I saw that he went 5-10 with no turnovers. I love that Ben is starting to feel comfortable being a bit more aggressive offensively when the situation calls for it.

As for my Morez, Tomi, and Ben...the low post defense NEEDS to improve. We are ceding way too much ground. We need to learn to body up and move our feet down low defensively so that opposing post players don't get the easy shots or free throws that they got this evening. Today was just a rough one for Morez. I'm hopeful that he grows and learns from this. I was critical previously about him getting too few minutes, but I don't think either he nor I can complain about the minutes distribution this evening. Morez just didn't have it this evening...particularly on the defensive end which is where we consistently need his contributions. Frosh low post players generally need time, and he clearly has talent, so I'm optimistic that he'll grow from this one moving forward.
 
#228      
Uihoop2023!
Mobi said:
While it is understandable to compare this team with the 2005 team due to the talent level, the B1G was much smaller and weak at that time, at its valley. Pretty much we were the only good team (msu might have been ok). Now this year while B1G is not the best league, it's still very competitive so lots of games will be dicey.
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Not true..Wisconsin and Michigan state were elite 8 teams
 
#229      
OrangeBlue98
EyeoftheIllini said:
They’re using karate for seeding purposes now?
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karate kid GIF by IFC


Of course, this GIF shows how badly the kick did miss . . .
 
#230      
derrick6
I’m looking for a shot chart but one thing I know (at least in the 90s) about AA Arena is that certain shooting angles are challenging to the depth perception senses.

I’m hypothesizing that had an effect.
 
#234      
OB positive
NashvILLe05 said:
Focus and awareness but also holding the ball like you got a pair. It wasn’t this egregious but felt like it at times.
Stealing Season 4 GIF by ABC Network
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Some of the balls that Morez loses or fumbles aren't touched by anyone but him. Definitely a part of his game that needs to be worked on. Not anything new it has been an issue from game one. If he can clean it up it would make him even more effective.
 
#237      
Chillinini
What’s Kofi doing nowadays? Maybe he can join practices from time to time and go against Tomi.
That’ll toughen him up.
 
#241      
BalloonsTheElephant
I love Morez probably more than most here, but he's still really raw on offense. His defense is still a half step slow against mobile bigs.

However, his off ball movement and effort are unmatched on this team. He seals off guys on drives, he is around the ball on every rebound, and does all the right things you need him to do.

He's your typical freshman. If he leaves, someone will get a gem. Also, I will lose my freaking mind. Ben has been better the last two games, but I'd rather see more Will and Morez.

This all based on some rando saying Morez's NIL will free up.

Angry Season 3 GIF by The Office
 
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#242      
BretMyBeachHouse
GrayGhost77 said:
I mean, I wouldn't say it was THAT weak. We were a year or two removed from Indiana having been in the NC game, Wiscy was decent under Bo Ryan and made the Elite Eight that year, MSU also was very good and made the Final Four. tOSU was decent also and if you recall was the one team to beat us before the NC game. The following year they made it to the Final with Oden, Conley, etc.
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Well your IU point and OSU point have nothing to do with 2005. Big ten was a bit down that year. Definitely part of our gaudy record. Nevertheless there's never been a year in my 50 watching the Illini where road wins weren't tough. Every team can win against every team at home. Every bad team pulls off an upset or two at home. When you win as many as we did that year it's very very impressive.
 
#243      
KingWolf11
Im not Indy or any of the other guys I'm not reporting anything I have just heard he is less than thrilled with his role so far and I just know how those situations usually end up these days
 
#244      
Bigtex
OrangeBlue98 said:
I'm genuinely torn on this.

If your team's identity is shooting 3s and you're getting open looks, it's kind of hard to go away from that. But, on the other hand, we were owning them inside. Sometimes, you have to just say "damn the analytics" and go with what's working in a game. This kind of goes with my general idea that Underwood is great at working with a team over the long-term and game to game while not always being the greatest coach at making in-game adjustments. But the success is awfully hard to argue with.
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Agree. Also over the last 2 years how many guys had season highs against Illinois? Not all of the games are loses but watching a guy go off and no visible adjustment:
Pickett, Perkins, young (Maryland), buie, tominaga, brown (miznoz), TJD, Newman (Purdue). In game adjustments don’t seem to be evident.

Still nice to win 2 on west coast.
 
#245      
BfosterL
ILLFAN67 said:
Again, it wasn’t the Outabounds play that was called That was the issue. It was the execution! I recall we made at least two baskets off of inbound plays today.
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KJ messed up the inbounds play, forgot in college you can cross the center line on an inbounds. A learning lesson, great win today!
 
#246      
Mobi
EyeoftheIllini said:
Actually, pretty much yes. Though some on the board don’t understand nuisance and considered it an insult to Illini.
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You are right. He basically threw the whole team under the bus. Their defense was probably as good as Arkansas'.
 
#247      
Nohops 73
TheodoreRex said:
Is Osobor really making $2 mill? If so, man alive is that a colossal waste of $-I wasn't impressed at all by him. 9 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals is not worthy of a $2 million dude. We paid Tomi significantly less and he went for 9 points, 9 rebounds, and I thought it was one of his worst games.
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Tomi missed 3 point blank shots over a guy 5 inches shorter than he is, and a couple looked rushed. This is not the first game where this has happened either. This should be a point of emphasis in practice, or maybe he should use the backboard to give him a bigger margin for error. Would make him a much more effective player.
 
#249      
Mobi
ChiTown said:
With the way Tre is playing so far can’t imagine what his NIL value will be after this season.
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Kind of wonder how much NIL we need to spend next year to buy back the whole team minus KJ and plus a new star player.
Explode Season 10 GIF by One Chicago
 
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