Pregame: Illinois vs UConn, Saturday, April 4th, 5:09pm CT, TBS

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#626      
Curbelo Fanboy
Just out of curiosity for the locals. If the glorious moment were to happen next Monday is the audio in the stadium currently functional & is the place habitable should there be a need for 70,000 to show up next Tuesday. Just wondering if they had to disconnect all the audio while working on the new board.

It'd be the most hilarious "Illinois moment" of all time to have a rally & have no functional audio cause we are in the midst of upgrading the scoreboard. Would be a good problem to have tho.
 
#627      
Illini2010-11
One Man Fast Break said:
They were better, and also coached a lot better with a much better gameplan.
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100% correct.

Good news is that this Illini squad is much better than the squad from two years ago, and the UCONN squad this year is nowhere close to as talented as their 2024 team.

It is going to be much harder for Hurley to gameplan for us this time around. He is, however, one of the best in the game. I expect him to come up with a gameplan that takes us off our game in the first 20 minutes. The second 20 minutes is where the Illini have thrived this postseason (coaching adjustments, etc.). It will be imperative that continues to be the case.

I am very optimistic at this point.
 
#628      
CentralILLini
Something else that’s not being talked about enough is how there has seemingly been a shift in narrative from “we can’t win close/overtime games” to us being a strong second half team in the tourney even when going into halftime down or with a small lead. Adjustments are made, guys remain calm and cool, and there’s this confidence the guys have that things will be OK. It’s really a special thing to see unfold.
 
#629      
pweo
illiniE said:
Did anyone get a notice yet from the Illinois tickets office about receiving tickets. The original request said they would notify by 9 PM on Monday to either confirm request or let them know their request cannot be filled.
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Yes, no tickets for me
 
#630      
March2TheArch
The biggest fear I have is our defense.
- Karaban killed us in 2024
- Reed dropped 26/9/3 at 63% FG on Duke
- They started the Duke game 1/17 from 3. You’d expect some mean reversion.

This isn’t the 2024 Illinois or 2024 Connecticut. We didn’t have this length and offensive prowess.

I think we’ll have answers defensively and offensively in the gaurd matchups. But Tomi vs. Reed and Mirk vs. Karaban will be the decider in my opinion.

Our coaches understand moneyball. Our team has increased its defensive focus and intensity. Sharp, Flemings (late season), and Uzan (his 2025 NCAA run) could have lit us up from 3. We defended well. I have hope same can hold up against Mullins, Demery, Ball, and Malachi.

Let’s assume Reed gets “his.” Just have to avoid giving him and-1’s and racking up fouls. Sean May still haunts me. Just stay tall and force him to shoot/maneuver over/around 8+ foot wingspans. If we can drop his FG% to 50%, that’s potentially 8-10 empty possessions for him. And 16-20 possessions where UConn isn’t shooting the 3ball.

I think you dare Reed to beat us and run them off the 3 point line.

And most importantly… everybody on the floor… BOX OUT AND REBOUND. Every UConn miss and successful DReb puts the ball in the hands of the most efficient and lowest turnover prone offensive in college basketball.

We played a SCHEDULE - Texas Tech, UConn neutral, Tennessee away, Alabama, Missouri and a grueling B1G season stacked with talent and coaching. Our offense is the real deal. Mirk got a double-double vs. Michigan. His physicality held up against Mara and Morez. We gave up unnecessary Cadeau and Morez baskets when Keaton and Big Z simply got out-physical’ed. If we get our defensive intensity right (and we’ve more the shown flashes we can), there is no reason we can’t beat UConn.

I went back and watched Iowa’s big men vs. Florida’s imposing frontline. Iowa more than held up. Haugh went 3 of 11. Chinyelu had 0/1 and 4 fouls. We made Iowa’s frontcourt look like a mid-major. We forced them to live and die by difficult jump shots.

Our team went up against JoJo Tugler and 3 returning starters from a team that could have won a Natty and added two lottery/1st round picks this year. We out physical’ed them. JoJo should have had 2 fouls in the first min, with the second uncalled one being a swipe on Mirk’s face that could have easily hit him in the eye.

I know UConn has an aura of invincibility. They won 2 Nattys in dominating fashion. They were right there with eventual champion Florida in the 2nd round as an 8-seed last year. They fought back from 20 down against an imposing Duke defense. UConn will play every tenth of a second of Saturday’s game. But I think it’s important to simply not let the moment get too big on us.

UConn has shown a ton of vulnerability. They’ll focus on some easy points with Reed to build an early lead. They’ll try to 1-2 combo that with some Karaban and gaurd 3s to press the advantage. Hurley will be working the refs all game. We know what’s coming. Play defense and rebound. Win the first 4min before the TV timeout to settle the nerves.

Keys to the game:
- Protect the ball
- Rebound
- Communication on defense (UConn runs a ton of offball action)

We’ve won games this tourney with our defense. Our offense always finds some way. At various points, the meteoric players make a play ala a Keaton drive or 3, a Mirk post-up & dish or 3, or an Andrej slash and lay-in. But it’s our defense that will determine the outcome.

I-L-L
 
#631      
NarrowJ
One Man Fast Break said:
They were better, and also coached a lot better with a much better gameplan.
Click to expand...

Though, this is exactly the fallacy in thinking that he's speaking of. It is called 'outcome bias'.

Coaching had little to do with poor shooting (17-67 overall and 6-23 from three). You can get your players the open looks, but they have to knock them down. Coaching had little to do with being outrebounded. That's effort and physical advantage. The reverting to 'coaching' whilst ignoring talent disparity, execution and effort of the players who are on the floor playing the game is a lackluster and frankly lazy/ignorant analysis.

Also, if we do get some early fouls called on Clingan-- how different is that game if he is only able to play 14 minutes due to foul trouble? The game plan we went into the game with did not work, and we did not try anything different until after halftime. It is okay to admit that while coaching negatively effected the outcome, that (again) talent disparity, effort and execution also played a part.

That UConn team was incredible and destroyed everyone they faced, you can't deny that. Coaching obviously makes a difference, but its not going to overcome a 25 point deficit by itself.
 
#632      
Curbelo Fanboy
89illini said:
Seating diagram suggests court will be centered at the 50.
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In general I think the NCAA went to that "full building seating" concept sometime in the last 10 years or so. Prior to that the domes were set up with the court at one end.

In order to max the revenue they went to the elevated court setup with the court in the middle of the building.
 
#635      
thechampishere
illiniE said:
Did anyone get a notice yet from the Illinois tickets office about receiving tickets. The original request said they would notify by 9 PM on Monday to either confirm request or let them know their request cannot be filled.
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Yep, came in about 8:30 last night. No luck.
 
#636      
Illini2010-11
thechampishere said:
Yep, came in about 8:30 last night. No luck.
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I also got an email at 8:35 with no luck.

Do we know if we get an "extra block" of seats should we win Saturday night (i.e., taking seats from one of the losing teams), or is the block static for both Saturday and Monday (and the general population pool takes the losing team's blocks)?
 
#637      
Illini1968
Illini2010-11 said:
I also got an email at 8:35 with no luck.

Do we know if we get an "extra block" of seats should we win Saturday night (i.e., taking seats from one of the losing teams), or is the block static for both Saturday and Monday (and the general population pool takes the losing team's blocks)?
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No extra block per my ticket agent. One and done.
 
#638      
Illini1968
Illini1968 said:
No extra block per my ticket agent. One and done.
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Furthermore, my understanding is that the cutoff level was pretty high up at the "Oskee" level. My rank below did not make the cut...

1774978429346.png
 
#639      
aaeismacgychel
NarrowJ said:
Though, this is exactly the fallacy in thinking that he's speaking of. It is called 'outcome bias'.

Coaching had little to do with poor shooting (17-67 overall and 6-23 from three). You can get your players the open looks, but they have to knock them down. Coaching had little to do with being outrebounded. That's effort and physical advantage. The reverting to 'coaching' whilst ignoring talent disparity, execution and effort of the players who are on the floor playing the game is a lackluster and frankly lazy/ignorant analysis.

Also, if we do get some early fouls called on Clingan-- how different is that game if he is only able to play 14 minutes due to foul trouble? The game plan we went into the game with did not work, and we did not try anything different until after halftime. It is okay to admit that while coaching negatively effected the outcome, that (again) talent disparity, effort and execution also played a part.

That UConn team was incredible and destroyed everyone they faced, you can't deny that. Coaching obviously makes a difference, but its not going to overcome a 25 point deficit by itself.
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Yeah, the interesting thing is that the idea of getting Clingan into foul trouble was an extremely good one. It was very clear that he was the most dominant force in that game by a very large margin. Our best chance to win the game was him playing as absolutely little minutes as possible. The problem was, outside of Ty, nobody on our team could seem to get even the smallest advantage on him to get him in a bad position where fouling is more likely. Ty actually had a lot of positional success on him, but he just couldn't finish whatsoever and had a truly awful game.

So what would have happened with a different gameplan? Well, we likely would've been significantly better, however I don't think it would've done all that much to change the outcome. That UCONN team was just one of the best college basketball teams I've seen in my lifetime. And they were doing to us what we did to Louisville in '05. '05 Louisville and '24 us were really good teams. But the gap between them and generational teams like '05 Illinois and '24 UCONN was massive.

Thankfully, we aren't facing that generational '24 UCONN Saturday. Instead we just have to beat a really really good '26 UCONN team.
 
#641      
jamie13197
Key to winning this game? Please someone, anyone tell Coach Brad to use his 4 Timeouts in the 1st half when Uconn goes on runs!!!
 
#642      
Champaign88
aaeismacgychel said:
Yeah, the interesting thing is that the idea of getting Clingan into foul trouble was an extremely good one. It was very clear that he was the most dominant force in that game by a very large margin. Our best chance to win the game was him playing as absolutely little minutes as possible. The problem was, outside of Ty, nobody on our team could seem to get even the smallest advantage on him to get him in a bad position where fouling is more likely. Ty actually had a lot of positional success on him, but he just couldn't finish whatsoever and had a truly awful game.

So what would have happened with a different gameplan? Well, we likely would've been significantly better, however I don't think it would've done all that much to change the outcome. That UCONN team was just one of the best college basketball teams I've seen in my lifetime. And they were doing to us what we did to Louisville in '05. '05 Louisville and '24 us were really good teams. But the gap between them and generational teams like '05 Illinois and '24 UCONN was massive.

Thankfully, we aren't facing that generational '24 UCONN Saturday. Instead we just have to beat a really really good '26 UCONN team.
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The UConn team could have played all the other Elite 8 teams 4 times each and would have lost like once or twice total... they weren't losing.

The problem with the attack Clingan idea was also that he just sat in the paint because they were fine having Ty shoot jumpers, he was never out of position to where we could really attack him. All he had to do was jump straight up at the basket, where he was pretty much parked.
 
#644      
Illini2010-11
Illini1968 said:
Furthermore, my understanding is that the cutoff level was pretty high up at the "Oskee" level. My rank below did not make the cut...

View attachment 49138
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Using some very soft math of the donor profile (shown below from Illini website) and that there was a ticket limit of two, that indicates there were only about 2,000 (maybe even less) tickets available to donors.

1774981219304.png
 
#645      
nmillini
RabidDawgClassic said:
I re-watched the entire Illinois UConn game from earlier this season and it’s shocking how different the team — specifically the lineups and usage — were back then. With the game still in doubt before that crazy four point play where the shot clock mistakenly reset, the five “finishers” Illinois had on the floor were Boswell, Tomi, Jake, Ben and Petrovic, with Lee swapping in and out for Jake on offense/defense. Neither Wagler nor Andrej were in at the end and neither got much playing time in the second half.

The bulk of the offensive execution was Boswell driving and shooting threes and Big Z clanking from the arc. It was totally unrecognizable compared to what we’ve become. And that gives me hope for Saturday

Defense didn’t seem as awful as I recalled, with the exception of Petrovic who was notably frustrated by every screen. Do they not do those in Serbia???
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In your opinion, how much has uconn evolved and improved since that game?
 
#646      
wc_illini
CentralILLini said:
Something else that’s not being talked about enough is how there has seemingly been a shift in narrative from “we can’t win close/overtime games” to us being a strong second half team in the tourney even when going into halftime down or with a small lead. Adjustments are made, guys remain calm and cool, and there’s this confidence the guys have that things will be OK. It’s really a special thing to see unfold.
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Indeed. TeamRankings.com now ranks us #2 for first half performance and #11 in second half performance. We were #2/#17 before the NCAAT, so that gap has closed a lot for just four games.

Interestingly, UConn is #10/#19 now, but were #9/#29 before the NCAAT, so they have also closed that gap a lot. Obviously the Duke game is a major factor, especially since the MSU game went the other way.
 
#647      
Second place is 1st loser
This will be a game, both teams and coaches will be ready. Officiating and free throws made and missed will be deciding factor.
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If we go 3 of 17 again from three, it won't matter. Our ability to make the perimeter jumper will be the difference. We were 6 of 29 the last time we played them. Hurley, correctly, noted it aloud.
 
#648      
NarrowJ
Champaign88 said:
The UConn team could have played all the other Elite 8 teams 4 times each and would have lost like once or twice total... they weren't losing.

The problem with the attack Clingan idea was also that he just sat in the paint because they were fine having Ty shoot jumpers, he was never out of position to where we could really attack him. All he had to do was jump straight up at the basket, where he was pretty much parked.
Click to expand...

Agree with everything here, except Ty shot zero jumpers. He missed 3 layups and 2 floaters (all 5 shots in the paint).
 
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