Both Him and Tomi have been disappointments..I thought Tomi added bulk during the offseason and playing without injury compared to last season, I thought he be a major force in the paint. It appears he peaked 2 years ago...And with the athleticism of Z, I was hoping a major leap this year...Lets just hope for more consistent play out of these two as the season goes on..
Texas Tech 84, Illinois 78 Postgame
Both Him and Tomi have been disappointments..I thought Tomi added bulk during the offseason and playing without injury compared to last season, I thought he be a major force in the paint. It appears he peaked 2 years ago...And with the athleticism of Z, I was hoping a major leap this year...Lets just hope for more consistent play out of these two as the season goes on..
for sure. the DIA should be watching a replay of this game to see what a home atmosphere should be. The Hall used to rock like that.
Terrible
It’s QC
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I am anti-"Mirk will fix everything", but yeah, he gets all three of those boards.
We asked a lot of Lincoln Williams last night and he did some really good things, but that's not a sequence he's going to like rewatching.
He's absolutely got the ability to do that, and put a couple of Iversonian crossovers on guys last night, but he is a LOT wilder and more chaotic as a player than Wagler was. Putting the ball in his hands gives the team an extremely different personality. Do we want that? Does that fit?
When we made our big run last night it was much more with QC as a wildcard spark guy than the show-runner.
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Agree. I’m pretty excited by this game. Our best player is out but more importantly the clutch guy for this game was puking before returning to the game and hitting big 3 pointers. We will shoot better from FT line and the freshman will get better. Vaacks and the twins had a bad game. They will be better. Texas tech was getting the bounce on rebounds. It will even out.
lol the extreme differing views of Tomi are wild. Feel like some think he looked awful and others think he looked great. As someone who has been extremely critical of him over the past few years, I think he’s been terrific for us. Been very good defensively in the paint, great passing with a bunch of “hockey assists”, and just has been making big plays. Missed some jumpshots and struggled at the line, but so did the rest of the team… Big Z yea I don’t know. Offensively he’s a black hole and he is such a horrendous rebounder it almost cancels out his shot blocking.
I think this is the fundamental question of the season tbh.
I'm a little conflicted on what I think is going to happen here, and have no idea what we should do. I wonder if it's realistic to pick and choose between these different concepts depending on matchups. If we could do so effectively, that could make us particularly dangerous, and hard to plan for. But then do we face a kind of "jack of all trades, master of none" problem? I think it was encouraging last night that we were able to change our approach to the point we very nearly came back to win from a 20 pt deficit, on the road, against a very good and experienced team. But if we don't pick a lane, and instead play a more "adaptive" style, does that limit our ceiling come March when we're playing against teams who've been playing, and perfecting, the same system all year?
And if we do pick, which approach do we pick? Chucking out the approach the team has trained on all summer after one game does seem like an overreaction. But, the heavy P-n-R and ball screen offense worked so well for us last season, and the 2nd half of last night's game was so much better than the 1st. I honestly don't think we can know what the best approach is yet. I am confident we'll have it figured out by the Tourney. Hopefully we can have it figured out by the conference season.
I admire Underwood's willingness to test the team at every part of the season and I love exciting noncon matchups. That said, I sometimes wonder if it's smarter to play a softball P5 team early on to ease into the tougher matchups. Going straight from cupcakes into a top 16 team in a famously hostile road environment is a huge leap. Granted obviously Underwood couldn't have foreseen injuries or anything when he scheduled this matchup. But it seems like racking up "decent" wins and avoiding losses of any kind is a more reliable path to a 1 seed.
My expectations are greatly tempered.
And I don't think UConn and Duke will temper them any less.
Hope I'm wrong.
I do think a big part of our plan for the halfcourt offense was centered around Mirk.
Having to change that up on the fly was pretty impressive imo. But I do think most of our reps this offseason went to that
I think we need an early season report card thread. I'll save my full list for the thread but:
Dre - A- (Stepping up to fill gaps)
Vaaks - D (Was a C- until FTs are factored in)
Tommy - N (non factor)
QC - B+ (playing up to dawg expectations but still needs to settle down, practice FTs)
Ethan - A- (Was a high A until road shooting reality hit)
...
Dre - A- (Stepping up to fill gaps)
Vaaks - D (Was a C- until FTs are factored in)
Tommy - N (non factor)
QC - B+ (playing up to dawg expectations but still needs to settle down, practice FTs)
Ethan - A- (Was a high A until road shooting reality hit)
...
I just hope we show up for Duke and keep it respectable. They will be hungry for blood after losing to M. State. After seeing both UCLA and M. State play, I have had to step back and readjust some of my expectations for this team. The BIG has some really really good teams. Without some of our best players available, we are going to be somewhat inconsistent because of the major inexperience we have. M. State's BIGS impressed me a lot. They have a really great defense! I think IZZO might have the best team that he has had in a number of years. That being said, I think our ceiling is going to be crazy good and everyone knows that in Madness, it all comes down to matchups.
Retro62
- North Bethesda, Maryland
I agree. When you bring him in, it should be to keep him close to the basket on both ends.
I thought Tomi was pretty good last night. Yeah the turnovers and 2 missed free throws hurt and I wish he could provide more protection but he is who he is. I had a guy tell me Tuesday we wouldn’t miss Jake or Ben. Well they didn’t make turnovers and could have used Ben to grab a few rebounds last night.
Tbh, I thought Tomi was the only one who seemed ready to go last night
Out of curiosity, why would you have greatly tempered your expectations on us without our all American, and not Duke who was at full health last night?
BU took the team to an out of town PH parking lot and they got their a** whipped in the first half. Came back out and got up and fought. Mirk and Davis had to sit there and watch their teammate come off the floor while the TT fans chanted “He’s a P****. You know those words soaked in their bones. Surprised they didn’t run in and suit up. It wouldn’t surprise me if BU cuts that sound bite and play it every practice. This might go in the L column but it also might be the worst thing for the rest of the teams on their schedule. They have some more BIG parking lots coming up so we’ll see how they respond.
I am an eternal optomist, but we played poorly for half of the game and made some FIXABLE mistakes. The talent and vision is there with this group. And then we get to add in Mirk??? Rebounding and creation will go way up. If Z is playing this way, we could slide Mirk to the 5 to give Tomi a blow too.
Or UConn who has Khamenia in a walking boot now
Exactly.
Im not even making a point on Duke being bad or something, or even not awesome.
But not sure why individual logic would say our expectations are greatly pulled back, but you’re still all in on Duke - not very consistent
I think we will struggle against athletic teams - which the elite teams are all athletic.
On offense, TT got up in our grills. We could just go around them at will. Their on-ball pressure forced turnovers. I don't think the young guys have felt that type of defense. It forced our 3's to be a bit deeper and our passing lanes to be tighter.
On defense, their 6-6 to 6-8 guys just out hustled (they just looked quicker) us, which negates some of our height advantage.
Vaaks has been a big disappointment so far. I had huge hopes for him.
On offense, TT got up in our grills. We could just go around them at will. Their on-ball pressure forced turnovers. I don't think the young guys have felt that type of defense. It forced our 3's to be a bit deeper and our passing lanes to be tighter.
On defense, their 6-6 to 6-8 guys just out hustled (they just looked quicker) us, which negates some of our height advantage.
Vaaks has been a big disappointment so far. I had huge hopes for him.
So could we be looking at two separate offenses and rollout either at will depending on match ups, or keep teams guessing on how to guard us? As soon as one is going stale and opponents figure out how to stop, we flip to the other and keep them uncomfortable?
I agree, wonder how much of it is spacing, schemes and Z's preference for play.
This.
The freshmen got a big dose of "welcome to big time college basketball" last night. That game was physical at a level they've likely never experienced before. The lack of their physical maturity was an obvious advantage for TT. The environment was hostile. Get used to it kids...this is the Big Ten every night.
They will get stronger and better as the season progesses. But in spite of the "L" it was the kind of experience they need now...not in January. You can't duplicate that in the practice gym.