Illinois vs Sam Houston, Friday, November 13th, 6:00pm CT, B1G+
Sam Houston hosts Pepperdine tomorrow night at 6:30 PM. Game will air on ESPN+.
Illini in Indiana
- Indiana
This will be a beatdown. but get ready for Duke
As overrated at Duke is, I doubt they keep losing games at Cameron Indoor. Especially to teams nursing all sorts of various injuries to their best players.
Lets fight through this stretch without David and we’ll be better for it on the other side of things when he returns.
Refs will make sure of that.
I hope TT was at minimum a wake up call for Tyler. The NBA ISO offense is cool and all, but we aren’t going to win the talent battle in every single game.
Ball screens are so prevalent in CBB for a reason — they work.
Plus you’ve got some fantastic pick and pop bigs. Just play to your strength.
Ball screens are so prevalent in CBB for a reason — they work.
Plus you’ve got some fantastic pick and pop bigs. Just play to your strength.
This is a great opportunity to feel out the offense and decide what we want to be going forward. Odds are Duke is going to be rough for us, but then we have a pretty long break before the UConn game. That starts with SHSU.
I agree. I would keep the same offense as last season and just plug QC into the Wagler spot and let him initiate off the high ball screen.
I go back to playing a slow half court pace and get Stojakovic in ISO, or QC off high screen, Tomi post ups, and the occasional drive and kick out to our shooters (Brown/Zens). LW can be in the dunker spot hunting offensive rebounds.
I honestly don’t know why he changed the offense when we brought back a lot of either the same or similar players
On defense i liked the trap they showed out of zone, and baiting TT into some mid range 2s. Try playing zone more. We got long tall mostly slow players. They aren’t playing to their strengths by chasing quicker players around or playing a drop coverage
They need to play and get as many reps as possible.... especially Brown. He's going to be a work in progress and needs to be on the floor, especially with how things went during the game last night. The marquee games are a barometer. These games are where the product is built and refined.
What we don't like is that they didn't go in. Wagler took those shots and we loved it.....only when it went it.
Same shots last night. The scout on Vaaks is that he has unlimited range. If that's the case, have to let him shoot. It was one game.
The attitude towards him, by some, is trending in the first year Ben territory....which was idiotic then and it would be idiotic now.
Unfortunately with nil and the huge turnover, you cant rely on developing players and jumps the 2nd year. So either you're getting it done now or you arent. We assume a higher than usual floor for this team so your regular season success is defined by about 6 to 8 top games. So throwing a major stinker for the first one of those games just sticks out. All is not lost with vaaks, but we did expect more instant plug and play results, fair or not.
That's an extremely fair take on it and given the money flying around, early criticism is going to be part of it. Outside of QC, I don't think that any of us came away feeling that anyone had a good, complete game. The first half was abysmal, especially by our vets, Drej in particular.
BU isn't a future teller and couldn't foresee the injuries, but if he could, that game wouldn't be on the schedule, nor would Duke. We're in survival mode for a few weeks and having two road games, in incredibly hostile environments....isn't ideal.
The only games that really matter in a year with big expectations are the ones that make the difference between a 1 and a 3 seed. Vaaks is here specifically for his shooting so that is what he will be judged on. He was 5 of 7 game 1 then 2 of 14 the next 2. Look, its only been 3 games. Hes got time.
However the bigger clue he wasnt who we thought he would be is that hes a sophomore meant to be one of our big guns, our big nil transfer this year, but hes not starting and 6th in minutes despite the fact 2 guys in front of him are out and there are no reports hes injured. Thats the most telling.
blackdog
- Champaign
I know Vaaks is a good shooter and will have better games but quality of shot makes a big difference. Keaton shot deep 3s in rhythm when he was open. Vaaks will throw them up anytime he is feeling in with a man right in face.
Yeah i never buy that coach speak. The best players play and they play the most minutes. No reason to save him especially when hes one of the healthier guys.
Even though we're talking about his O I imagine its his D that getting him fewer minutes. I hope he kicks butt this year. He certainly looks like one of those guys you dont want taking the shot when hes on the other team. Unless his defense improves I think the only way he sees major end of game time in close games is as an offensive sub when we are behind. Dre, Coleman, and Williams seem primed to get those minutes otherwise.
Vaaks told you why himself. I'd trust coach speak over random internet guy's read on the situation anyhow.
The guy leading our team in minutes has played 25 per game. Vaaks is at 20. We've been running everyone and minutes are spread out.
But, we do this every year with some player or another. So why not give it more than 3 games?
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Cause we might accidentally beat duke after vaaks go 7 of 9 from 3 and 6 of 6 from the line. Have to sulk about his play and our loss now.
Last year:
Wagler only took 5.9 threes per game; Vaaks took 8.4.
68.4% of Vaaks’s shots came from 3pt.
48.2% of Wagler’s shots came from 3pt.
…..
Honestly, Plummer would probably be a better comparison than Keaton.