Game Thread: Illinois at Texas Tech

[80'sIllini]

Eh, this is a good grow up game. Bunch of freshmen vs a bunch of seniors. This is how you learn. That said, very weird that all our upperclassmen have flat out struggled tonight. Andrej and Stefan have been just disasters out there thus far. Tomi has been fine on offense but he has been a traffic cone on defense. And Z is just getting pushed around

Unfortunately, Z getting pushed around and Tomi being a "traffic cone" on defense are not going to be correctable- they've been that way all along. Probably what's going to limit our ceiling unless Mirk can become a defensive rebounding team. Andrej has a loose handle and if his drive to the hoop gets shut down he either forces it anyway for a bad shot or turns it over- also something he's had since I've been watching him as a Illini. Morillo and Zens looked shellshocked out there and Stefan needs to adjust to their level of physicality and lateral quickness on D. Let's see if we can at least cut this to maybe an 8 point loss.

 

[BBIQ]

Well the good news is we can't play worse in the second half.... I hope

 

[Krombopulos_Michael]

If you came to the message boards for measured discourse... bless your heart.

And in a game thread no less

 

[joebcrazy13]

Fight!!!

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

This needs to be a 7 man rotation:

QC, Brown, Stojakovic, Tomi, Z, Vaaks, Lincoln.

The other freshman rotating 3 minute stints is totally killing the rhythm of the team.

Back to the 9th man discussion? Lol

 

[Miles Leonard]

Listen, freshmen playing like freshmen against grown men is one thing. The vets are not picking up the slack. That's the most disappointing thing right now.

 

[Mistakenj]

Everyone relax. We're on the road. Bunch of freshmen. Missing key guys. Give me this environment for the team to gear up for the season. Good to get your !!! kicked to stay humble and locked in for the grind of the season.

This is where I’m at

 

[Fish1960]

We can play fast against athletic teams that can play defense. To add to that, we don’t have as many reliable weapons as we thought. To be down 20 at half is an embarrassment to our Program. Letting DGL pop his sh%t is unacceptable. We look weak. Drop us down to 15 or lower after this loss, team needs to wake the f up

New offensive scheme doesn’t look as good against team who gets hands in passing lanes and restricts freedom of movement.

 

[skyIdub]

Who has "Brad makes mid-season adjustment on offense" on their Loyalty Bingo Card?

 

[sacraig]

Texas Tech has 9 more shots taken than us and 7 more made free throws (5 more taken). That's a big part of the difference, and it's largely due to turnovers.

 

[HensonHall71]

Most surprising is that we seemed completely unprepared to play this game. What offense is this? We’re resorting back to ball screens because we can run our normal offense

Defensively we have no idea what we’re doing, leaving guys wide open and putting Tomi in drop coverage can’t be the plan. We just seemed completely stunned by what they are doing

 

[ChiefGritty]

Honestly this was my biggest fear when this new offense was announced. Play fast, no set plays, etc.

People will say last year’s offense was tailored to KW but at the same time all you hear is about our huge amount of returning production.

The particular talents of Wagler is one aspect, but the bigger thing in terms of roster construction and playing philosophy is going from 2 PG's to none.

Kylan Boswell, seen-it-all pass-first stopper of opposing perimeter players was a big time sin eater for us.

 

[SummerofGeorge]

You very likely aren't going to win, but need to play way harder 2h.

Would be a huge red flag to see us come out the second half with inadequate adjustments and effort.

 

[Krombopulos_Michael]

Having flashbacks of the Matthew Meyer team. 1v1 basketball with no offensive flow and a million turnovers .. what in the world. The guys forgot how to process and left their brains on the plane.

TT won't get as many lucky bounces or shoot that percentage in second. Hopefully Tyler runs a few plays to get some confidence back.

 

[IllinoisGrad0609]

Brad wants to win, but don’t think for a second a butt kicking like this won’t be used to motivate and teach these guys.

Doesn't seem like the Baylor game taught them anything ...

 

[the juiceman cometh]

I agree, but let's face it, SFC is a soft environment for visitors.

I would take a home crowd of opera goers watching the game silently through those binoculars on sticks over seeing us play like we did in that first half.

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

Honestly the most disappointing part is how much better there crowd sounds consistently than our home games these days

You can see it with the officiating as well. Better crowds usually lead to more favorable officiating (not nearly the reason we’re down 20 though).

 

[Ill... INI 27]

S...O...F...T..., thought our young guys might be hungry, thought wrong...

 

[…INI!]

Brad has so many problems to address. Defense should and most likely will be #1.

 

[illinitiger]

I'm not sure if I'm more mad at the lack of effort or the fact that their stadium sounds far more electric than State Farm Center did at any point last year...

Wake up call for our team and our fans?

Friend texted me. "Tough crowd at Texas Tech, refs letting them play bully ball. .."

Definitely letting em play!!

 

[Oracle21]

Having flashbacks of the Matthew Meyer team. 1v1 basketball with no offensive flow and a million turnovers .. what in the world. The guys forgot how to process and left their brains on the plane.

I think the freshmen move the ball. But complete tunnel vision for Stojakovic and Vaaks.

I honestly see an Iowa type team under Fran when I look at our guys physically. Really weak physically. Cant guard. But good size and all the guys can shoot

 

[SuperMetroid]

The kind of game where we really miss the calm steadiness of Wagler the most

 

[Rusty]

Remember when Brad said after the Penn game that it was the maddest he'd been at one of his teams in a long time????? Ahhhh, the good ol' days.

 

[Iamgroot]

Texas Tech has 9 more shots taken than us and 7 more made free throws (5 more taken). That's a big part of the difference, and it's largely due to turnovers.

Yea 5 more taken would be a major difference in a single score game by 20 just looks like were not taking care of business on any side of the ball fr

 

[Altuve27]

I know we are missing guys, but this team needs testicle reattachment surgery. Soft doesn’t even begin to describe it, NO effort. No fight. No nothing. They are just going to bend over and take it without lube.

I turned it off. That says all you need to know.