Illinois 75, Tennessee 62 Postgame

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#352      
RIP_Chief_2003
Missed the game and don’t have time to read the game thread. Looking at the box score, Petro only 6 minutes: did he get hurt? Game flow?

Happy for the boys getting this W!
 
#353      
logjam
Fighter of the Nightman said:
It’s really not complicated, man, we were really soft vs. UConn and weren’t tonight … and fans’ rightful frustration is that we should ALWAYS play with toughness no matter how well we’re shooting, because this team has such great potential!
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As it was easy to see a few games back we were ramping up and had nagging injuries and lack cohesion with latest adds...agree with most of your thinking...
 
#354      
NashvILLe05
Sounds like the pro-TENN bias was heavy on ESPN…no surprise there. At the game, the Bridgestone Arena DJ did a good job of making it evenly split doing both Tenn and Illinois fan cheers, playing both schools’ fight songs, and doing fan trivia questions for both. In person, it definitely felt like a neutral site game with even exposure across teams.
 
#356      
OrangeBlue98
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think the point of the question is why do Illini fans at the UC, Braggin’ Rights, Vegas, Nashville, etc. seem so much louder, more energetic and more engaged than our home crowd?? And I very much want to know this, too.

The Champaign crowd needs a buy one get one free deal for beers or something, we need a looser and rowdier feel at SFC!
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A major issue is still the general layout of State Farm Center. It just takes so much effort to get the place loud. Once it hits that tipping point, SFC is LOUD because of the noise bouncing off the concrete roof and back down. But it takes a LOT to get there because of the shallow angles of seating. There's a lot of empty space where noise can go.

No question the crowd needs to be louder. But the arena is working against our home crowd.
 
#360      
doowink
pruman91 said:
No.....I had a stroke on Sat 11-22 and have been in ICU for 6 days and now in rehab therapy for at least 2 more weeks or longer depending on how it goes...

They are treating me wonderfully here.....they really are....
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Sorry to hear about the stroke my Illini friend....praying for your full recovery....this board just isn't the same without Pru man's unique analysis and colorful commentary...it really really isn't...follow doc's orders and let the NL's take care of you
Amazon Yes GIF by NFL On Prime Video
 
#361      
1m4tr
TwinCityBreaker said:
I don't post often (longtime lurker way before I got an account) , but i have greatly enjoyed your posts over the years. I appreciate your good vibes, win or lose. You add a unique seasoning to this community that can't be replicated. Take care, man. And, Go Illini.
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He’s like the nutmeg on top of the crazy egg nog known as Illinois Loyalty.
 
#362      
HailtotheChief
GoodePodzMelendez said:
The difference is that they didn’t settle on the three early in the shot clock. They moved the ball around and found a cutter or open threee that they stepped into. This teams calling is balll movement and motion. Not ISO’s and three jacking. We play more ball movement and motion and we will win games. FT shooting is still an issue as I am glad it didn’t bite us as it did against Bama. Glad Tennessee missed 10 FTs.
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Disagree with you and so does Brad Underwood. BU stated that vs UConn they had 60+ "gold medal shots" the most this season bit just missed them. If they are open threes he is fine with them a ytime. Thus the "7 seconds " sot attempt he talks about at times in the post game he did say the had good ball bovement playing the iso game with Tomi.
 
#364      
skyIdub
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think the point of the question is why do Illini fans at the UC, Braggin’ Rights, Vegas, Nashville, etc. seem so much louder, more energetic and more engaged than our home crowd?? And I very much want to know this, too.

The Champaign crowd needs a buy one get one free deal for beers or something, we need a looser and rowdier feel at SFC!
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Grammar Police “Like” for correct internet usage of “lose, loser, loose, looser” 😉
 
#367      
Hope For The Best!!!
In terms of atmosphere - I agree with this being a game where Illini fans that went really wanted to be there. Thankfully we have a large group of old money season ticket holders that help support the program but they aren’t typically the crowd that takes the roof off the building. From where I was sitting we were loud, proud and just off of an 8 hour stay on Broadway! Easily the most inebriated basketball game I’ve ever seen! ILL - INI lasted long into the after game festivities as well.
 

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#368      
Bucktown
Calvin said:
Ben is more complete for sure. Lucas brought intangibles and depth on the frontcourt that really gave those teams a chip on their shoulder in an era when the game was more physical and teams needed an enforcer type of player who wouldn't back down when the refs let things escalate. He epitomized role player and gave 100% to the team. Different roles and different era in my mind.
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I am a Ben fan, but on this team I would swap for Lucas all day long. Lucas had the uncanny ability to just exasperate the other team and force them into stupid plays.
 
#369      
CleverHandle1
NarrowJ said:
They showed a graphic in the 1st half that we were 3rd in the nation out of 358 or whatever teams in rebound margin, so I tend to think/hope that 1st half was an outlier.
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In the second half, you could tell the effort they were putting in on those rebounds. I hope you're right about it being an outlier--I believe it will because BU will be stressing rebounding until the "cows come home." They're just so better when they get their rebounds--I hope the players realize this. Give Tennessee credit, they're a great rebounding and physical team. The Illini matched that in the second half and even outperformed.
 
#371      
derrick6
21ChampaignSt said:
Couple more observations:

Clearly this was the best defense we've played this year. But this was also our most efficient offensive game against a high major since beating Iowa 106 - 94 in last year's BTT. Probably our best all around game since beating Michigan by 20 last March.

And it wasn't because we shot fewer threes. We actually shot threes at a higher rate than our season average. IMO, it's because we played more inside out and moved the ball well to get good, in rhythm looks.

We also made a little more of an effort to get the twins the ball in the post. They had, I think, 9 total post touches which resulted in 14 points. 1.56 points per possession. Pretty good.

I think Andrej played within the offense and within himself well which is another reason for the efficiency although it didn't amount to a great individual night for him. Hope he's ok with that.
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Agree with all of this but some defenses are designed to limit or disrupt the inside out passes and other passing lanes that hit players in rhythm. We have to figure out how to get better shots in those situations.

Tennessee not long enough to materially impact our passing it seemed.
 
#372      
Big Jack
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think the point of the question is why do Illini fans at the UC, Braggin’ Rights, Vegas, Nashville, etc. seem so much louder, more energetic and more engaged than our home crowd?? And I very much want to know this, too.

The Champaign crowd needs a buy one get one free deal for beers or something, we need a looser and rowdier feel at SFC!
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IMHO the problem at home is the fact the rowdy fans are generally in section 200 row 15. The sleepy old folks who pay the big bucks mostly sit on their butts all ,game and pose for the camera when it is scanning the crowd. If they want to get the place rocking they need to rearrange the seating situation. Sadly when the renovated the place more thought should have gone into getting the big donors off of the floor and into the middle tier. One only needs to look at a Mich St crowd
 
#373      
CleverHandle1
logjam said:
Trying to remember...not you but wasn't many on here calling us soft?
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Yes. I am one of them. It was obvious the Illini were playing soft in certain games--very obvious for anyone to see. Calling them "soft" was appropriate.

They were soft in the 1st half; I witnessed several times players didn't hustle to go after the rebound or just get pushed around by a Tennessee player.

In the 2nd half, they played tougher, and physical to compete with Tennessee. Kudos to them.

Let's hope they continue this trend of not playing soft and getting more physical.
 
#374      
NarrowJ
Bucktown said:
I am a Ben fan, but on this team I would swap for Lucas all day long. Lucas had the uncanny ability to just exasperate the other team and force them into stupid plays.
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Ben has:

- more size (6-8 230 vs 6-9 240)
- better career FG%
- better career 3%
- better career FT%
- equal in rebs / min
- 3x more blk / min
- 60% lower foul rate
- 70% lower turnover rate

But this isn't about Ben vs Lucas Johnson, honestly I forget who brought this up now even (edit: it was BatteredWifeSchwartz)... my post was just an observation about how casual fans now have the ability to go on a message board and give their opinions... less people could do that in 1997... we just get a lot of wild takes and people succumb to group-think and it becomes a big old pile-on sometimes when the team isn't doing as well as we want and have to identify who the scapegoats are
 
#375      
CleverHandle1
Rad said:
Went to the game:

Defense much better and effort/intensity was very good especially 2nd half. Tennessee did not look good at all or shoot well. Hope this was more related to our defense than who they are.

We are physically a very weak team and it really shows up in rebounding. Most of our team gets easily pushed around and cannot hold there space to get rebounds and are off balance making it harder to get loose balls (really miss Morez here).

I am not sure Petrovic will make it to the end of the season. Underwood is not a fan and has a very quick hook plus Petrovic is VERY small. Not a good fit with the physical make up of the team. Too bad because he is crafty and our best player at creating opportunities for himself and others.

Good to see Tomi playing inside and out.
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I agree about the physicality of the team, although, and as you typed, they were better in the second half.

Good points about Petro. I think the ability is there; he shows signs of it. He needs to rebuild his confidence, not get lazy and stick with it. He can improve. And if not, then give the Freshman, Lee, a chance.
 
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