Post game thread sounds more like the typical in-game thread. Which I don't bother following.Boy the clowns are coming out of the woodwork tonight!
Alabama 100, Illinois 87 Postgame
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For many reasons, this is what I expected.
You can't deny the talent. It's there. But it's there the same way it is on a hastily thrown together AAU team. Flashes of greatness but a lot of mistakes. That's the biproduct of throwing so many people together. The final product isn't as good as the sum of its parts. We have a lot of really good basketball players (and Tre White) out there not playing very well together. That's why our defense is so bad. Because it takes teamwork to defend effectively. We can go on spurts of scoring because individual talent can do just that. Riley especially is a walking bucket and can go off. KJ has shown he has amazing ball skills. But for us to defend it isn't as much about individual talent...we have to play together. Can 9 players develop that continuity over one season? I really doubt enough to be a top team in the country. That's why teams with upperclassmen have typically done well over the years. You have a base to build on and to fit people into a puzzle that you have already started. We are trying to skip several steps in the process and I don't know if you can be successful doing that too often. Luckily, todays college basketball world is such a transfer focused mess that it might give us a shot. But I saw a lot of comments in the game thread about waiting to see and how its too early to judge this team. Maybe that's true, but I can't see a team that looked as bad as we did for long stretches of this game being able to somehow put it all together and be a top team in the country. I will be absolutely thrilled if they do, but I think our season will look a lot like this game. Up and down and a little disappointing. Hope I'm wrong though!
They were a top scoring offense in the country last year because they had Terrence Shannon and Domask. Shannon was a freak of nature that could create instant offense without any help.
I'll give credit to Brad for listening to Jay Wright and letting Domask play point last year but I don't think Brad is a great X's and O's guy offensively and I think that's part of the reason he's struggled in March(and why he got thoroughly out coached by Porter Moser when he got a 1 seed).
I question whether this team has the foot speed to play great defense. They're going to need to play smart defense and help each other, because while we're very tall, we're not great athletes. Reality is, Alabama did not shoot well from 3 when you consider how clean their looks were. If they had made even half of their 3s where no defender was within 5 ft of them, they'd have 12-15 more points and this game would have looked ugly.
Our offense was fine, but you can't give up 100, even to Alabama.
Our offense was fine, but you can't give up 100, even to Alabama.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Same problems we had vs Ole Miss. We simply don’t have the athletes on the perimeter or down low (except for Morez who is a stud) to stop anyone. Not strong enough, out-quicked. There’s no solution or scheme for this.
We look like Iowa when they had the Murray twins. Tall, skilled shooting. Plenty of offensive talent, even NBA talent, but missing the team athleticism/strength to be a real legit top 15 team. This is the least amount of athleticism we’ve had at guard and on the wing in a long time.
We look like Iowa when they had the Murray twins. Tall, skilled shooting. Plenty of offensive talent, even NBA talent, but missing the team athleticism/strength to be a real legit top 15 team. This is the least amount of athleticism we’ve had at guard and on the wing in a long time.
Dra was missing at the end...which was surprising given he was a spark to our comeback at beginning of 2d half.
Agree with your comment on KJ.
Riley subbed in for White 3:08 minutes into game with AL leading 12-11. White had 2 points and 2 rebounds when he went out, and finished half with 4 points and team-leading 5 rebounds. Riley had 3 points in first half.
Tre needs to pick it up, but him being in at beginning of game was not the issue. And as I said in previous post Riley played 29 minutes to Tre’s 16.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Expect Coach O to teach him a thing or two this season.
Got to remember that Morez was in foul trouble for most of the game.
Some thoughts. We are not that athletic and it showed tonight. KJ and Riley are legit nba players. Ivisic has a lot of potential but we need Morez on the floor more. Boswell played really well tonight and really brings it on D. Not sure what Tre Whites deal is but he has looked lost both games against real comp. We need him to be good. Wondering why we redshirted Ty, we really need his athleticism and bulldog mentality. I really like DGL's energy but he was overmatched tonight. Booth has been a disaster and is seemingly unplayable. Quick, athletic teams will be our downfall. Solid tourney team and could win a couple games with right draw.
I agree but you're kind of forced into with a big like Ivisic(and Kofi before him).
I feel like last years team had the tools to be really good defensively but was just missing a mobile rim protector and one more quick guard(Jeremiah Williams actually wood have filled that role really well and I love Harmon's attitude and how bought in he seemed but he wasn't really quick enough defensively and forgot how to play offense from February onward).
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Brad Underwood has had 3 top 10 offenses in 8 years as a high major head coach across two separate programs and 3 separate groups of players including the #1 offense in the country at Oklahoma St in 2017,
Even at Steven F Austin, he had the 31st best offense in KenPom. The year before he arrived, they were ranked 276th.
IMO, that makes him one of the top offensive minds in college basketball.
Underwood acknowledged in the postgame that the scouting report called for laying off Nelson behind the arc because he is only a 25% shooter from there. D’oh!
Go watch UConn play. Or Kentucky, Oakland, Princeton, Alabama, or even Nebraska.
They all create a ton of open looks through off ball movement and off ball screens. A lot of them will be running multiple actions at the same time.
I like Brad as a coach and I think he is willing adapt to his teams but I wouldn't say he's an X's and O's savant. The fact they never used Ty as an off ball screener last year to punish teams that were basically not guarding him on the perimeter is an example of that.
Need elite foot speed on defense to shut off the drives into the paint. We don’t have that.
Other solution is to play off of guys and give up 3s. Brad doesn’t want to give up 3s. I thought the only thing we did good on defense tonight was not foul and give up easy FTs. Bama scored 100 but only shot 13 FTs. But we gave up way too many shots right at the rim. Or they’d get into the paint and kick for an open 3.
Only thing you can do with a tall team that lacks foot speed is stick them in a zone. But Underwood it appears will never play zone no matter how bad the d is. I think with this group it’s the best chance we got. We simply lack the quickness to man up 1 on 1.
He stated Ben got going. What game was he watching. Woof. Disconnected from this year and what works. Coach stick to your culture you have built. Don't let others change it to where 100 points is a improvement. Culture stick to it. That's why we love you!
JMO... I didn't feel it. There was that one stretch in the first half but it felt like the ball was getting to the right spots mostly throughout.
Problem was the D.
So maybe suppress their immune system?
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