Alabama 100, Illinois 87 Postgame

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#276      
Retro62
There was one adjustment in the second half that we need to build on: Bama is very physical on D and we were not in the first half, but we did start to body up more in the second half. The pick and roll D is terrible right now, but getting more physical on D is a big step in the right direction.
 
#277      
NarrowJ
Yes33 said:
First off, define a screen. There are Bobby Knight screens where the two offensive players rubs shoulders so the defender can’t get thru and there are the “ole” AAU screens that we see today that you could drive a truck thru the two offensive players.
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In basketball, a screen, also known as a pick, is a blocking move used to free up a teammate to receive the basketball.
 
#278      
Scoregasm
Birdus said:
Bama has enough to win it all. They were dropped in the rankings for a mediocre game at Mackey. One of the toughest places to play. I don't think we see another team like that until February. It was their night last night. That being said, we need to grow up defensively. Still early.
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Defense will determine how far we go in March. It will be interesting see how we develop during the season.
 
#280      
Bucktown
hoopsfan47 said:
After having two guards at 6'6" who were defensive dogs who fought through screens but mostly just switched, Brad has none. It was so easy to screen KJ off a quick quard and get a two on one to the hoop with Tomi trying to guard both. That fact impressed me as the No. 1 weakness in the defense. Brad tried KB and DGL together for a bit, but even then Bama used their screening to get the same result and play downhill.

What was evident is this team has the offensive skills to score with anyone, but the defense cannot keep any good team from scoring, especially one with good guard play. Lots of work to be done on defense, and I don't see enough there to be able to play with the big boys...at least not right now. Plenty of chances to learn and display, but nothing certain at the moment.

From a positive note, these guys kept playing hard, at least at the offensive end, the entire game. They did not shoot the ball well, but Bama forced them to take some tough shots. In addition, our 3 pt. shooter, other than Riley, were not up to snuff.

Not an unexpected outcome in the least. This young team will gain efficiency on the offensive end I would expect, but the lack of speed on defense will be an Achilles that may not be overcome.
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Humrichous was 3-6 from 3.
 
#281      
RML
Boswell is now my favorite player on this team.

I have a long history of saying that I don't give a s**t about "swagger." That what I want to see is determination. My thought process: you never know how swagger will respond to getting kicked in the face. You do know how determination will respond.

In the second half, after a particularly bad run for the Illini, Boswell drove to the hoop and scored. The reaction on his face was exactly what I love: not a remark or gesture to the other team, not a smile: instead, a look that said, I'm pissed off that we've been playing poorly. I'm fixing it. Determination.

I now see the interview where he was asking about what he found in the second half. His response that he was tired of losing? Gold.
 
#282      
drsmitty74
CentralILLini said:
Kj-Boz-Riley-Morez-Tomi

Gimme dat.
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If you look at the minutes played, other than Rez (getting 4 fouls in 9 minutes), you did get dat.

1732212515990.png
 
#284      
phats22
HensonHall71 said:
History shows this team will likely not reach it's potential this year - Kentucky abandoned this model because it wasn't working - I think Brad is a better coach than Cal, but if you expect this team to be a top 15 team by the end of the year, that hasn't been very likely historically
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if winning 77% of games over 15 yrs, tourney bids in 12/14yrs with a natty and multiple F4, E8 and S16 appearances is not working then sign me up

just because a coaching change happens doesnt mean success will follow (ie, Nebraska football since Pellini was fired).
 
#285      
EyeoftheIllini
jjv0004 said:
I completely disagree. Holloway/Philon were in control of the game and having great nights. Why replace them with a guy that couldn't make a shot? And doesn't play great defense? He didn't refuse to go back in the game. He told Oats to keep the other guys in because of how well they were playing. I clearly was not Sears night. That is actually selfless and rare.
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I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember one of the better players on Illinois doing similar thing sometime in a recent season. Think it might have been Shannon, but I could be wrong.
 
#287      
Wittymoniker1
Was able to catch the entire second half and wasn't that impressed at times only to be impressed at times.

The kid from Lithuania just needs to calm down at times with his errant passes--I appreciate the effort, but maybe he's trying too hard? I know I may be in the wrong with this, but is he really a first round pick in April of '25? Whoever is #22 needs to be more of a team player. He may have some potential nice moves, but I wasn't impressed with him. I wouldn't put him in a close game towards the end. Just how I feel right now about him.

As several posters typed: missed some easy shots around the rim, FT shooting was off, transition defense is bad.

This team is not timid at all when it comes to the offense. Offense will keep this team in many games. If the defense improves (it will with BU, I believe), then this team will be very good come March. Alabama is everything as advertised and was a big test for Illinois against a definite Final Four-type team on the road. I feel confident that future games against Arkansas and Tennesse will definitely prepare this team for a nice run in the Big Ten.

Would like to see more post ups for the tall Finnish player. He had two nice baby hooks when backing the defender in. Morez has that potential, too.

Can Will Riley replace Domask in the "backing the defender to the basketball" role? That' be nice.
 
#289      
Curbelo Fanboy
As a general rule, IL does not play well in their "first game against real competition". Kind of always been that way outside the glory years in early 2000's
 
#290      
Illinifan533
Curbelo Fanboy said:
As a general rule, IL does not play well in their "first game against real competition". Kind of always been that way outside the glory years in early 2000's
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Ironically the last time Illinois did win their first real competition game was against UCLA two years ago. That and the Texas win made that team a bit too overconfident.
 
#291      
Illiniguy13
Battle89 said:
I know we are trying to be positive, and the announcers said similar during the game in an effort to build excitement. But we never got closer than 8 points in the second half. We never made this a game. Better than 30-0 UConn - absolutely. But still a big hill to climb. Hope we gel as a team soon.
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Strongly disagree - At the 11/12 minute mark of the 2nd half, it was game on. Alabama was letting us hang around and when we cut that to single digits, we had momentum. I'm sure you've seen enough college ball in your day to know swings can happen and teams can collapse. That didn't happen of course, but the game was there for the taking.
 
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#293      
Fan Since '70
Illini2010-11 said:
Hold Sears to 0 points and still lose by double digits. Alabama is a team with loads of talent and experience.

The second half defense was much better than the first half but still not good enough.

Better ft shooting, and this game is much closer. Illinois can be very good come March. No shame in this loss.
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Illinois also has loads of talent but less experience playing together. Illini elite players have to play elite defense besides looking for their offense. Alabama was out hustling and out racing Illini down the court and to open shooting positions. Alabama interior passing for easy layups and dunks needs to be a focus of Illini defensive adjustments, along with covering transition outside shooters. Illini will become a team to reckon against any competition when they ramp up their defense.
 
#294      
altgeld88
HensonHall71 said:
I am a fan of Brad and think he's built a great program here and I'm excited about the future - but just to play Devil's advocate, has he really earned trust that he'll figure this out?

The last time we had this many new pieces was 2022 and he didn't figure it out - we underperformed all year and got blow out in the NCAA tournament, in fairness his PG quit on the team in the middle of the season and the team had a lot of "me" pieces, but this year's team has some "me" players right now too - several times Riley or White dribbled the ball up court and took the first contested shot they could without even looking to pass (looked a lot like Mayer)

The teams Brad has done really well with have been veteran teams - I haven't actually seen him pull together 11 new freshman, international players and transfers into a cohesive team that buys in and puts team first and executes really well.

So far, we've been what we would expect - a really talented team that shows the talent individually, but a team with freshman leading the way that turns the ball over way to much, doesn't defend particularly well and misses a lot of free throws. The typical way these things improve is when freshman become sophomores. History shows this team will likely not reach it's potential this year - Kentucky abandoned this model because it wasn't working - I think Brad is a better coach than Cal, but if you expect this team to be a top 15 team by the end of the year, that hasn't been very likely historically
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I take your points. My quick response:

1. BU has shown repeatedly that he learns and adapts quickly. Completely changing his offensive scheme early in his tenure, for example. Learning how to handle portal talent is another area.

2. Will Riley is 17 and has played in four D-1 games. Matt Mayer was 23 and had played four full seasons at Baylor when he joined us. Tre White: well, we heard he had issues at L'ville but looking to shoot first in a single game doesn't rise to the systematic toxic behavior of a Mayer or Clark. We'll see, but I don't foresee this turning into 2022-23 (when, by the way, despite the poor chemistry, we finished merely one game out of second place.)

3. I expect this team to reach as much of its potential as possible, and that is because BU is coaching it. He lost all but two players after last season, and it's because he brought in superior talent that caused those guys to look elsewhere. The question as I see it is not whether this team reaches its potential in one season. Instead it's whether we can expect this team to perform better in February and March than a team that retained DGL, Ty, Dain, Sencire, Amani, Luke and Nico, and brought in Morez and Will. (Also, I believe that Will chose us in part because of the portal talent BU drew.) I believe that it's very likely that we can.

BU would not have let those guys go if he didn't have confidence that the incoming group could exceed the status quo on the court. Our expectation of success this season is a conditional probability dependent on his ability to coach and promote team cohesion. On that count I do indeed believe he's earned our trust given his track record.

[EDIT: In addition, I disagree that BU's model resembles Cal's much at all. Cal brought in a ton of McDonald's AA freshman. BU brought in Will and Rez, and some mature guys who will take a couple months to get nasty at playing D-1 ball. Kylan Boswell runs the offense at UK under Cal and they're in the FF.]
 
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#295      
NarrowJ
I also don't get the 'Tre is selfish and a shoot-first player' when he literally had 3 shot attempts in the entire game. His shot attempts per minute is one of the lowest on the team.

There was one possession where he got his own miss and then forced things. One. Possession.

Just seems like he's become the new Loyalty whipping boy to me.
 
#298      
WeWillWhen
Alabama was the preseason #2, has four senior starters, including three returning from a Final Four team, and a transfer who was a two-time all-Big Ten, and they were playing sort of at home.

We've got a nine man rotation none of whom ever played together, led by four freshmen, who were playing their first real road game while still figuring out their roles. They managed to hang around and completely shut-down Alabama's consensus All-American.

Give it some time, people.
 
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#299      
Illini2010-11
WeWillWhen said:
Alabama was the preseason #2, has four senior starters, including three returning from a Final Four team, and a transfer who was a two-time all-Big Ten, and they were playing sort of at home.

We've got a nine man rotation none of whom ever played together, led by four freshmen, who were playing their first real road game while still figuring out their roles. They managed to hang around and completely shut-down Alabama's consensus All-American.

Give it some time, people.
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Many posters after Ole Miss exhibition game and last night's game:

Eff GIF
 
#300      
Battle89
Illiniguy13 said:
Strongly disagree - At the 11/12 minute mark of the 2nd half, it was game on. Alabama was letting us hang around and when we cut that to single digits, we had momentum. I'm sure you've seen enough college ball in your day to know swings can happen and teams can collapse. That didn't happen of course, but the game was there for the taking.
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Respect your (and others here) view, I agree on swings but my point is that we had our swing / run to get from a 15 point to an 8 point deficit. Never in the 2nd half did I feel Alabama would lose that game.

I had your POV much more in the above-mentioned UCLA game, which I attended. We got hot in the second half and never lost it, turning a close game into a relatively easy win.
 
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