Texas Tech 84, Illinois 78 Postgame

#202      
NarrowJ
IMG_1356.jpeg


Happened a few times. You can’t pick up a dribble with one arm.
 
#203      
BurtToast
5-out offensively isn’t the most forgiving brand of basketball when you already have a suspect defense!! Fun to watch but when the competition gets tougher, the crowds get louder, and the 3s aren’t falling - we have to be able to adjust our offensive approach. Nothing wrong with running some ball screens, posting up our bigs, or executing a pick and roll from time to time. When the stakes get higher and every possession counts - why not run some set plays and turn up the intensity on defense to win games.

Mirk and Jake were definitely missed tonight!!
 
#204      
skyIdub
The best thing to come out of this game for me was after seeing the wide open ‘let the players run the offense’ NBA system struggling with the freshmen and turnovers, they adjusted and started running ball screens and some set plays that worked well.
Had they slowed down and stuck to 7 man rotation earlier in the first half, this would have been a road kill.
 
#205      
wncillini
FloridaMan said:
As amazing as the analytics guys have been, that this has been allowed to become a reality is one of the greatest mysteries of our time.
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I imagine its because our offense weve been running really needs our 5 to be able to shoot a least 1 of 3 in totality and closer to 2 of 5 when open for 3s.If tomi could stick to corner and directly at top of key 3s he could improve his efficiency. They probably figured z would shoot himself out of slump. At this point z just has the yips and should stick to dunks and put backs.
 
#208      
Fly Illini Fly!
IllinoisGrad0609 said:
The stats do not support that conclusion. 14 points in 30 minutes, fine. But Tomi's on-ball defense was atrocious. And, just 6 rebounds in 30 minutes? Barf. (Z had 4 in 11 minute PLUS 2 blocks.)
Edit: Z had 1 rebound. I evidently can't read a stat sheet. I retract my comment...mostly.
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ImGonnaBeILL said:
In 2026, Z is 12 of 63 from 3 (19%). This is 27 games. Close to a full season. 7 of those 12 makes came in 3 games. He's 7 of 14 in those 3 games. The other 23 games, he is 5 of 49 (10%)

If you're keeping score at home, watching him chuck up another & thinking "when is the last time this FN guy made one of them?", that was March 13, 2026 vs. Wisconsin. 8 games ago. 0 for the postseason. 0 for the season to date. Yet still chucking them up.

He is 3 of his last 37 from 3 in the last 17 games. A remarkable EIGHT percent!! You could probably close your eyes and hit that many.

I personally can't wait for Mirk to come back and pray that all but cuts off Z's minutes. I'm excited for seeing dawgs like Lincoln getting more minutes like he deserves. Z never developed. Neither physically nor his game. Jakstys is an end of bench big....at least you get some inkling of toughness and effort.
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I thought Z was much better defensively than Tomi. Texas Tech’s shot quality seemed a lot worse when he was in the game.

…..

His 3pt shooting has been putrid. He either needs to:

1) keep shooting and try to break out of it
2) stop shooting entirely because he’s been so bad for so long.

Seems like they’ve gone with option #1 and it’s not working.
 
#213      
LvilleILL1
Duke is going to be difficult to beat, but figure out a way to split that and UCONN and you are in a good spot.

Cannot overstate, especially on the glass, how big of an impact we are missing from what Mirkovic is going to bring this year. We are talking about someone who should be a NPOY candidate.
 
#215      
Fly Illini Fly!
AnnoyedWithGarza said:
We were being mugged in the 1st half, that is for sure. It got so bad the announcers were bringing it up.
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The announcer literally muttered “that’s a foul.”

…..

There was some poor officiating, but the bad calls in this game didn’t happen at the end of the game / in crunch time.

Last year, it felt like every single loss featured an awful call in the final 1-2 minutes. Those are the ones that are much harder to recover from.

This loss, I’d place way more on our FT shooting.
 
#217      
Rebounding Dog
Don’t over react ! We have young guy’s learning in a very competitive environment…. adjusting to this level! We were beat on the boards and shot 42% from the line. On to the next one… learn and get better. Very early for this young group…. plenty of time to get things clicking!
 
#219      
Fly Illini Fly!
I think we’ll round out with a 9-man rotation. Before Jake, those minutes will just go to Zens.

Before Jake:

Vaaks
Coleman
Brown
Andrej
Zens
Lincoln
Mirk
Tomi
Z

With Jake back:

Vaaks
Coleman
Brown
Andrej
Jake
Lincoln
Mirk
Tomi
Z

….

Not having Mirk does throw a wrench into things. The roster just feels incomplete.
 
#220      
Fly Illini Fly!
Vaaks’s shooting stats for this game, is the worst I’ve seen from an Illinois player in a long time.

23 min, 3-12 FG, 2-10 3pt, 2-6 FT.

Keaton Wagler went 2-16 FG against MSU last year. It still felt much more effective than watching Vaaks today.
 
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#221      
ImGonnaBeILL
fatboyslim said:
Damn you beat me by 2 minutes lol. Good job.

I hope he doesn't cut off Z's minutes because even though he has been terrible shooting the ball, we still need his defense and rebounding.
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Crazy coincidence :LOL:

With how deep we are and Z already playing minimally (with Mirk out), I've struggled to find myself thinking "Boy, I wish Z was out there more". If Tomi goes down (Mirk still out), obviously we'd see more Z. I'm just over the clanked 3s and weak play from him as a 23 year old man. I think he's just sharply regressed over time and gives lazy weak effort. He's been a complete no show this season.
 
#223      
lstewart53x3
How worried I am after this game?

Richard Pryor Kinda GIF


(Not worried at all)

Why are we ranked #3?

Because 5 of our top 8 players from last year returned.

But 2 of those 5 are currently injured. So we have just 3 of those 8 from last year playing right now.

Coming into the season, we expected to play non-QC freshman 10-15 minutes per game. They played 74 minutes tonight. When you factor in QC, freshman played 102 minutes tonight.

Yeah, that might look messy in your first road game of the season against a top 20 team (and I’m not saying the freshman are even to blame, obviously QC looked like an absolute star. My main point is that this year was built around #TheRetention, but without Jake and Mirk, it’s really a new team that will take some time to gel).

So it might be messy at first, but I’m still confident that:

Mirk will return.
The team will improve.
The coaching staff will find the right buttons to push.
They’ll likely lose another 1-2 in the non-con, but will be right there in the race to win the B1G and get a top seed.
 
#224      
Illinifella
Where does the offense go from here? Are we going to scrap the run and gun stuff because it failed against the first competent team? A few more games (hopefully) with out Mirk. What are we planning on running when he’s back? Are we back to doing more matchup hunting, ball screens?
 
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