Pregame: Illinois vs Xavier, Friday, March 21st, 8:45pm CT, CBS

[OrangeBlue98]

Xavier applauds fans for big lift in rally vs. UT

Xavier erased a 13-point deficit in its biggest comeback win this season to beat Texas and advance to play Illinois on Friday night in a Midwest Region game at Milwaukee.

www.espn.com

For Friday, Illinois should be in the Xavier position. Need a big Illini contingent in Milwaukee tomorrow.

 

[RML]

They got blown out by Michigan at a neutral site early. We blew out Michigan at their place in March. Come to play Illini, and win.

Lol, yeh the transitive rule. We blew out Michigan, and Maryland blew out us. That's why Maryland won the B1G tournament

 

[21ChampaignSt]

Illinois second chance points vs Xavier fast break points could be the difference.

 

[1970 John]

Living in Texas, I have to say I HATE to see Texas lose...

Wear your O&B!

 

[1970 John]

I live in PA. I wear th O&B every day.

 

[Big Jack]

If BRAD allows HAMER to screw this defensive game plan up, then I hope he is shown the door immediately following the game. Morez and Tomi should have a field day in this game but I wander if we will even see the hi-lo offense..

 

[RockfordIllini]

I like the Xavier matchup better I think.

Conwell is a great shooter but doesn’t look like he can really get his own shot. And he’s 6’4. Kylan ought to be able to bother him. I like that a lot better than Johnson for Texas. He looks like if he gets going not much you can do.

Fremantle is a good player and tough but he’s 6’9 230. My guess is we will be content to let him try and score over our size.

Don’t leave Conwell. Hug their other shooters. Make Fremantle work for his shots. Take care of the ball and limit their transition points. I think we’ve got a good shot.

 

[Idea Gardener]

Wear your O&B!

Better yet just wear the orange. Xavier is blue too.

 

[NarrowJ]

I like the Xavier matchup better I think.

Conwell is a great shooter but doesn’t look like he can really get his own shot. And he’s 6’4. Kylan ought to be able to bother him. I like that a lot better than Johnson for Texas. He looks like if he gets going not much you can do.

Fremantle is a good player and tough but he’s 6’9 230. My guess is we will be content to let him try and score over our size.

Don’t leave Conwell. Hug their other shooters. Make Fremantle work for his shots. Take care of the ball and limit their transition points. I think we’ve got a good shot.

This is it. Should be similar to how we approached Purdue imo. Limit looks from 3 and let the undersized big put up as many 2 pt shots as he wants against the 5 inch height disadvantage.

TKR scored 29 but needed 23 shot attempts to get there. They only got up 18 threes and made only 5.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Dont want to be a Debbie downer, but michigan also beat Maryland...

If anything, adding Michigan into this equation mostly just highlights how uniquely and thoroughly Maryland owns us!

 

[CDRUSN]

Time to show these Mouseketeers who's the leader of the club. His name starts with Chief, not Mickey.

 

[Illinicheez]

Is there an Illini pre game party in Milwaukee?

Uncle Buck's in the Deer District

 

[BlueLeader]

Is it seriously not apparent to the staff that Hamer is incompetent?

 

[ChiTown]

I am always cautiously optimistic because I know we can beat anyone and we can also lose to anyone.

 

[Vinegarben]

I am reading a lot of "IFS" here. If we play our game, If we can stop the 3's, If we can make some 3's, If we drive to basket, If we can get Fremantle in foul trouble, If we can keep Tomi and Rez out of foul trouble! If never won anything. It is time to put up or shut up and go home!

 

[USAFILLINI]

DRIVE THE BALL down their throats all game!

 

[I-L-L 1318]

We should beat them up on the boards. Can't wait to watch Swain go 4/5 from 3 after we try dorking him. Overall, if we show up with energy and will to win, we will be okay.

 

[Big Jack]

View attachment 40666

 

[Orangetool]

There is some great stat analysis here in previous posts.

However for this Illinois team the stat that really matters is: who wants it more.
Gotta come out pissed with great energy, use the bench early and tell them to use up some hard physical fouls.
Play BIG style basketball. (assuming the refs let us)

Oh, and lotsa Morez.

 

[HensonHall71]

Will, Tre, KJ and Bam need to get downhill and attack the rim this game. Texas was doing that in the first half (particularly when Freemantle was out) and there was no answer defensively for Xavier. Then inexplicably, Texas abandoned that strategy with about 10 minutes remaining and you know what happened after that.

Even feeding the post with Tomi and Rez should be effective or at least get them in foul trouble, it looks like they will double Tomi in the post which should lead to open threes and or Tomi finding a cutter. Plus we should have our way on the offensive glass similar to what Texas did for a stretch. If we execute offensively I think we just need to "out offense" them this game. I'm not confident we stop them or hold down their three point shooters all night, just need to hold them under 1.2 ppp this game and I think we win going away

 

[blife]

GO right at Freemantle and try to get him in foul trouble early and often.

 

[aveseaboy]

Beat Xavier, beat Kentucky, beat Tennessee

 

[altgeld88]

View attachment 40659
The kid at the Maryland game:
Can the Beloved turn things around Friday night and ease his Illini trauma?

We wouldn’t want to see him develop long-term damage to his amygdala, which we know in extreme cases can lead to such tragic conditions as bi-polar coach approval flip-flops (BPCAFF), game-thread turrets posting (GTTP), and obsessive-compulsive searching for just the right cottage cheese gif (OCSFJTRCCG)…

I came for the BPCAFF and stayed for the turrets. I'm partial to the Victorian variety. The medieval ones leave me cold.

 

[BBlock24]

View attachment 40666
DRIVE THE BALL down their throats all game!

Sounds painful.

 

[From the cheap seats]

The Illini look to match up well physically at every position. I'm not sure Xavier has an answer for Will's ability to cut to the basket and his ability to slice through the defense and finish. Until Texas stopped trying to run any team offense, their point guard was able to get deep into the lane whenever he wanted. I think Will can do that with his quickness and I think Kylan can with his strength. Kylan has been finishing well around the rim the past several games. Nor do I think Xavier can keep Morez, Tre and others off the offensive boards.
As others have said, KJ does not have to win the game; he just cannot be loose with the ball and give Xavier runouts off of turnovers -- they've scored about 20% of their points on fastbreaks this year and it is where they get a lot of open looks from the arc.
IMO, Xavier has to win the game from the 3-point line. The Illini don't need to fire up 30 3's in this game given their advantage inside. But I'm sure Xavier will do all that they can to invite the Illini to fire away from the arc...if we take the bait, we'd better be all over the offensive boards.
Illini 80, Xavier 73