Alabama 90, Illinois 86 Postgame

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#153      
steveinspringfield
If Ben keeps getting 26 minutes per game, this team isn't going anywhere. When the Illini are healthy, he won't be getting those kinds of minutes. Unless he has something on Brad.

He's '24 Ben with a few occasional spurts. I don't have anything against the guy, but he's not going to help us win in this conference.
 
#154      
BrownTown
alaskaillini said:
Really. He played great defense with 2 blks, 6 boards, made 3 of 8 from 3. He is not a top player on the team but he is contributing. I just don't understand the hate for this guy.
He is averaging 10.
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One of his better performances as an Illini. Truly

Bar isn't incredibly high, admittedly.
 
#155      
Thaillini22
EmeraldCityIllini said:
Well, i mean "this year" is only 2 games. 1 against Jackson State, and the other fresh off a knee injury against Alabama.

As for last year, I'm not sure you remember how atrocious the conference play was without him.
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I do. He was very important in many games last year. I really love Tomi game, which is why when he makes certain mistakes it drives ya crazy.
 
#159      
EmeraldCityIllini
FloridaMan said:
Philon scored 19 in the second half. I mean, someone stop him for God's sake! Just poor effort defensively I felt. Maybe throw some zone in there because they were beating us all night once they stopped settling for threes. I know we can score, but we will need to learn how to get stops if we want to be really good. Not convinced we have the athleticism as a team to do that, but hope we do.
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We did play zone. And our best perimeter got in foul trouble. But truthfully, Philon is a lottery pick, he's just going to get his sometimes, this is how basketball works.

You need to focus on what you can control - and that's the free throws and turnovers.
 
#162      
BashCtIllini
I think the simplest answer is they sped us up. We're better with a slower game where we can use our size. They got out and ran which led to a lot of wide open 3s. They made enough of those 3s to win the game. Even with all of that, had we just made our damn FTs we probably win the game.
 
#163      
derrick6
If we made our free throws similar to them we’d lose by 1, or possibly tie for overtime. Given their rate is higher, we’d still lose.
 
#165      
stlrunner
alaskaillini said:
Really. He played great defense with 2 blks, 6 boards, made 3 of 8 from 3. He is not a top player on the team but he is contributing. I just don't understand the hate for this guy.
He is averaging 10.8 pts, 5.3 rbs, 0.5 blks, 1.3 assists, and 0.0 TO in 22.8 mins/game. That is pretty much what you want from the 6th man.
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People bought into the hype last pre-season and had unrealistic expectations of him as a shooter, and he really struggled at times defensively last year (mainly because he was a frequent target of matchup hunting for teams with physical power forwards) while being a subpar rebounder. That being said, he’s been solid on the boards this year, and very sound defensively, so I have no issue with his usage. It WOULD be nice if he shot close to 40% from 3, but…no reason to hate him.
 
#166      
Oracle21
FloridaMan said:
Philon scored 19 in the second half. I mean, someone stop him for God's sake! Just poor effort defensively I felt. Maybe throw some zone in there because they were beating us all night once they stopped settling for threes. I know we can score, but we will need to learn how to get stops if we want to be really good. Not convinced we have the athleticism as a team to do that, but hope we do.
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Boswell can only match up with 1 other quick player. We don’t have another guy that can match up with quick guards, so if the opponent has 2-3 of them like Bama had and Illinois only has 1 guy, you’re gonna just give that up unless you play zone and live with the consequences which Brad doesn’t want to do.

Bama isn’t the most athletic team either. Their guards are quick but the rest of their 3-4-5 are average which is how Purdue destroyed them on the boards. Purdue won rebounds 48-23 (17-5 off). Tonight it was (35-33). IL just lacks that, and despite being tall can get outscrapped
 
#167      
Illinisnake
I thought Ben was one of the best players on the floor tonight and that’s probably a big reason why we lost (meaning our other players didn’t perform as well). Our only reliable free throw shooters are Kylan and Keaton, that’s it. Jake Davis went from starting to completely disappearing off this team. He came in and fouled a three point shooter which led to the start of our 9 point lead disappearing. Roles still aren’t defined for this team. The twins looked like they needed a break.
 
#168      
alaskaillini
stlrunner said:
People bought into the hype last pre-season and had unrealistic expectations of him as a shooter, and he really struggled at times defensively last year (mainly because he was a frequent target of matchup hunting for teams with physical power forwards) while being a subpar rebounder. That being said, he’s been solid on the boards this year, and very sound defensively, so I have no issue with his usage. It WOULD be nice if he shot close to 40% from 3, but…no reason to hate him.
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He is 37.5% from 3 so far this year.
 
#170      
HailtotheChief
Those long badly missed 3s by Bama latexwe didn't get really killed us along with FTs. Ben and Wagler misses to.many good looks in the first half. If big Z had made that 3 to put us up.in the second half man that coulda changed things. We will be fine just gotta get reps in practice together and more Mihailo and less Jake for our top 8 guys
 
#171      
jamarvelous31
What about any of those are particularly hot?

Mirks 10 and 7 vs HM as a frosh matching Giorgis 14 and 6?
Ben?
Stoj/Bam not shooting well?
 
#172      
FloridaMan
EmeraldCityIllini said:
We did play zone. And our best perimeter got in foul trouble. But truthfully, Philon is a lottery pick, he's just going to get his sometimes, this is how basketball works.

You need to focus on what you can control - and that's the free throws and turnovers.
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I agree with that. But to win in March you're also going to have to find a way to get some stops or at least rebounds off missed shots late. And we didn't all night. I'm not saying play zone the whole game. When they are getting it to the lane, switch to it for a possession here and there to get a rim protector in the lane instead of having him drug out to the perimeter.

Most importantly for me though, we lacked toughness and wilted and let them go on a run when they got physical. That has been our achilles heel since TJ left. We have to find a way to get at least some of that toughness back.
 
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#174      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Few main game thoughts:

The sequence with Big Z missing a open three... we don't get back and directly leads to a Wrightsell three. Don't have the exact timestamp, but felt like a huge momentum swing play - Andrej had been cooking. Could've had the lead, instead BAMA goes from up 2 to up 5.

Brad subs in Big Z late in the game - around 2 or 3 minute mark - and every possession from there on out BAMA puts him in ball screens and destroys us with Philon. All but put the game away.

Free throw shooting hurt bad. Between this game and last year's BAMA game we have missed 20 total free throws. The ones late hurt the most from Bam and Wagler. Stojakovic ones were huge momentum killers.

Getting outrebounded was unacceptable. BAMA last game got outrebounded 48-23 by Purdue.

BAMA had NUMEROUS travels that went uncalled. Say what you want about the flagrant, but those were called - for the most part - against Texas Tech. I'm not sure BAMA got called for any this game.
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Need Tomi back healthy. Z is good for a backup role - and a good one - just not your full time starting center.

With the travels, we were called for a few against Tech but they were called for a lot more. In this game neither team was called for it (can't remember us having any either), but they had way more travel-worthy plays.
 
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#175      
ImGonnaBeILL
Jake better enjoy these upcoming bye games as think it may be the last time he sees any time this season IMO.

Only played 2 minutes tonight and had a terrible foul on a 3 pointer on a poor shot selection by the Bama shooter
 
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