Well I hope Brad and Petro get things worked out. I don't know what they are seeing in practice but Petro needs to be on the floor 25+ minutes. He didn't come here to sit on the bench and not be a starter. He doesn't look like the type of person that would take this well and we could have the whole situation implode. I hope it doesn't come to that. With Clark at least we were waiting to actually see how much impact he was really going to have. Petro has already shown he can be a difference maker much like Tyler Kolek at Marquette.
Illinois 87, UT Rio Grande Valley 73 Postgame
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I think he will improve a ton over the course of this season, Will had a tough stretch when the comp got tougher last season too.
Thing about Wagler last night was, yeah tough shooting night, but he had 8 rebs 0 turnovers and generated 5 FT attempts, so he gives you a lot of positives even when he isn't making shots.
Our defense has been s##t all year without Petro on the floor. It looked to me like he can stay in front of his man better than most of the others we have been playing. How much more could he impact our terrible defense. Things are leaning in the direction of another year of us hoping our offense makes up for our poor defense unless they figure things out.
"He does not look like a person that would take this well". That sort of stuff is not good for team culture, if true.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
For all the talk about the defensive issues — which are no doubt real — one eye opening stat on the offensive side gives me hope. This Illinois team has scored at least 80 points in each of its first seven games. The last Illinois team to do that was the Flyin’ Illini. That’s some very rare company to keep.
It's also a super weird assumption, imo.
"does not look like"... what's that mean? Is it the 5 oclock shadow, hair/eye color, neck length somehow attributes to emotional disposition?
He played a ton in the 2nd half. I think we'll have a rotation set soon, but it is only our 2nd game with everyone playing (and Tomi is still on a minute restriction, etc).
He’s been working his way back from a bad hamstring injury. He’s got some spunk but I really don’t think he’s upset with the coaches or anything like that. I don’t think you can say anything specific about his playing time yet either considering he isn’t fully healthy.
Should we be saying the same thing about Tomi only getting 22 mins yesterday? No. He’s not 100%.
Again. Stats do not tell the story. We are giving up WIDE OPEN threes. The small sample size highlight that stats are not telling the full story. We will stack losses if defense doesn't improve. I think the coaching staff would agree with that statement.
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The game was hard to watch overall, no flow, bad D, struggled to pull away and make it comfortable like it should have been.
Very weird given that there are 120 mpg available at the 1-3 spots between basically 4 guys - plenty of time for all.
Much more worried about our front line. These guys just aren’t quick defensively and i’m not sure that can be fixed. Ironically, given all the (justified) criticism last year, Hum has been our one big that’s played good defense.
If I were BU, I would bite my tongue. You're not going to get 30+ inspired games, but you do need inspired games in the post-season where they all count, and the competition is good or great. A 14 point win like this is fine with me. UConn is going to be tough and a much better measure of how well they're progressing.
80'sIllini
- Arizona
Agree with everything in this post. Love KB as a player and person but he doesn't create good shots for his teammates, especially in the half court. The offense flows so much better and the generated shots are so much higher quality with MP in the game. Keaton missing a lot of shots short- just think he still lacks the strength to finish those shots in traffic. I'd like to see the total guard minutes allocated as: 30% each KB, MP and KW and 10% BL.
Tomi looks slow and weak, Z makes so many mental mistakes on D it's frustrating. Neither good defending the perimeter and below par for rebounding and toughness.
Once again, I don't see us being more than an average 3 point shooting team. Impressed with Ben's improvement on D and rebounding but his shooting is uninspiring yet at least he is taking good shots- just not hitting them at a preferred %. DM- he needs to play much better on the defensive end.
Still, we have the POTENTIAL to be a FF team. Will be excited to see how we fare against U Conn who will play smart and tough. If we get blown out hard not to have lowered expectations for the whole season even though it's just one game but if we play and compete well it will surely affirm our high ceiling. Glab BU called out the team after this disappointing game.
A C- game we won by 14. I'll take it. Even in year we have been very good we've had these types of games.
In 20-21 - we beat Ohio by 2 in a nail biter...(ended up 2nd in the B1G, sadly no tournament)
In 21-22 we had a nine point win over this same Texas Rio Grande valley program. (Ended up a #1 seed.)
In 23-24 we had an 11 point win against Oakland.
Last year, we beat Oakland by 12.
Oddly, the only time in the last 5 years we haven't had a trap-game type under-performance against a mid-major was in 22-23, when we subsequently imploded at the end of the year.... Maybe this is a good sign? (lol)
There is plenty on that tape to use to get better.
In 20-21 - we beat Ohio by 2 in a nail biter...(ended up 2nd in the B1G, sadly no tournament)
In 21-22 we had a nine point win over this same Texas Rio Grande valley program. (Ended up a #1 seed.)
In 23-24 we had an 11 point win against Oakland.
Last year, we beat Oakland by 12.
Oddly, the only time in the last 5 years we haven't had a trap-game type under-performance against a mid-major was in 22-23, when we subsequently imploded at the end of the year.... Maybe this is a good sign? (lol)
There is plenty on that tape to use to get better.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I think you’re off by one year in all your examples, but your point stands all the same.
And in 1989 they were much less dependent on the 3 point field goal, which in my view, makes the 1989 stats even more eye opening.
This is the statistic I care most about. Started 6 in week 1, to 7 in week 2, now 14. Fall below a 3 seed in the tournament, and the chances of winning it fall precipitously. Statistically speaking, of course.
Werner pointed out that a lot of the reason we’re now giving up more wide open threes is the move to a new defensive philosophy where we are gambling more on that end for steals/blocks/turnovers than we had in the past.
Small sample sizes don’t highlight anything, in fact it does the opposite: it causes one to overreact and clouds the overall picture here which is that we’ve defended the 3 really well this season outside of this single game (a game against a team that shoots 43% on the season from three).
This is just one game, but yes the effort on that end sucked. In fact, effort has lacked since the Texas Tech game, imo. These guys beat a good team and settled in, and they can’t do that. We just have to hope, as skyldub says, that heads are removed from hind ends prior to Friday.
I’m more concerned about our Bigs defensively. None of our 4 Bigs are particularly quick. Z is the only one that’s very athletic, but he is just not smart defensively.
Everyone knows we can put up points. But defensively we have weaknesses that may not be fixable.
I said this last year and the conditions haven't changed so I'll say it again - we would be a better defensive team if we made zone defense our primary defensive scheme. Boswell is our only decent on the ball defender and in general we lack the athleticism and coaching to play good M2M defense. At the same time, our length makes us an ideal zone team. This seems like a no brainer and I don't understand the reluctance.
I don't know if anyone saw it, but after UTRGV made a basket sometime in the 2nd Half, the camera showed Petro immediately mouth something to 1 of the Ivisics when they were taking the ball out, coming down court.
Clearly it was along the line of a High Ball screen giv'n'go, because that's what immediately happened within 5 seconds of crossing half-court coming down on offense. Petro saw how they were guarding and leaving the middle open for that opportunity, which sadly we didn't see KB or Wagler execute much.
There’s clearly more at play between Underwood and Petrovic than a “hamstring recovery.” If that were truly the issue, he wouldn’t have thrown him in with four minutes left only to yank him after a single turnover. That’s not load management, that’s zero leash. One mistake and he’s gone.
Andrej has been great offensively, but he’s also been a turnover machine (needs to react to the double quicker) and still gets freedom to play through mistakes. Keaton has been terrific overall, but last night he forced bad shots and made poor decisions and he stayed on the floor… Big Z…don’t even get me started, and he’s allowed to play through that learning curve.
Meanwhile Mihailo, who was arguably our best player in just 16 minutes, gets 30 seconds (end of 2nd half) and is immediately pulled after one turnover. His pace, vision, handles, shooting ability to get downhill, and decision-making are exactly what coaches usually beg for in a point guard. But he’s not getting minutes, rhythm, or any real runway to grow into the role he’s clearly capable of.
The treatment doesn’t match the production, and it’s getting harder to explain away
Andrej has been great offensively, but he’s also been a turnover machine (needs to react to the double quicker) and still gets freedom to play through mistakes. Keaton has been terrific overall, but last night he forced bad shots and made poor decisions and he stayed on the floor… Big Z…don’t even get me started, and he’s allowed to play through that learning curve.
Meanwhile Mihailo, who was arguably our best player in just 16 minutes, gets 30 seconds (end of 2nd half) and is immediately pulled after one turnover. His pace, vision, handles, shooting ability to get downhill, and decision-making are exactly what coaches usually beg for in a point guard. But he’s not getting minutes, rhythm, or any real runway to grow into the role he’s clearly capable of.
The treatment doesn’t match the production, and it’s getting harder to explain away
Petro is the real deal as a PG. Kylan “can” play PG but he doesn’t have that innate ability to see things happening like Petro does. I think he will eventually get to 28+ mpg.
I watch entirely too much basketball and the best Texas Tech has looked was against us. They are going to finish ~7th in the Big XII this year.
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