Recent content by grantlab

Offensively, Vaaks feels like a shoe-in. Arguably gives us better passing out of PnR sets with our bigs than we had with Wagler. 35% three point shooting on high volume should translate as well — at the very least, defenses can’t go under, giving us a really good array of 2-man actions with Tomi...

It’d be nice to win one of these games. It feels like every outing that’s trended like this has ended in a devastating loss. Putting my cup on for another…

Andrej Stojakovic is a traffic cone out there

Contrary to what I’m seeing in this thread, the frontcourt is not the difference between Illinois and a team like Michigan. Illinois’ bigs shot horrendously tonight, but that’s normally a really hard matchup for any opponent and is a different way of smothering teams. Michigan has 4 backcourt...

Roster-building lesson: you can’t have 2/3 of your backcourt / wing players be non-shooters. It’s a bit perplexing because KB was a good shooter at Arizona, and AS was mediocre at Stanford / California. Both are sub .300 this year. When teams make Keaton’s life difficult, we need more shooting...

I’ve never watched the “Brad in the huddle” and been particularly inspired.

I’m not sure what you saw out of Drej that thought more than 5 would have helped

If we don’t decisively win the rebounding battle, Michigan can run away with this game. 7 Michigan offensive boards in the 1st half.

Right, just like the USC game we just won by 36. Deep breaths everyone.

I just have a feeling the Illinois crowd is going to be really strong tonight… I think this is going to feel like more of a home game

That’s probably the most encouraged I’ve felt after a win all season. Didn’t shoot well, but dominated the margins and brought a ton of energy and connectedness on defense. You’re going to have postseason games where you miss threes. How do you manage to win? Tonight is the reason why Illinois...

Coaching loss. Playing 6 guys against the best backcourt in the Big Ten and asking your 6’10” dudes to guard on the perimeter. How can Brandon Lee not provide 5 spark minutes off the bench to check Boyd?!?

I feel some positive shooting % normalization coming for the Illini in the 2nd half. Too many good looks from three. MSU living on contested jumpers in the half court. Keep them out of transition, and this is ours.

The teams that will continue to frighten me for Illinois’ sake are the Purdue and Alabama’s of the world that have an explosive offense led by a speedy point guard who can shoot. This matchup feels very favorable — I don’t know how Sparty is going to be able to score enough to keep up. The one...

Lol this team is so damn fun