Arizona 83, Illinois 79 Postgame

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#301      

illinitiger

I
illinitiger
Props to AZ....Tommy Lloyd maybe one of the best coaches already. To be playing like they are with so many new members (chemistry) this early is amazing.

On flip side....couple more free throws to our avg or get back a couple of Kofi misses that he normally hits and this post game thread would have totally difft tone/vibe.

Great game and good challenge to toughen up. Agree with others that we need more tick for bench to get them better/comfortable....maybe against Mizzou when we get up by 20 in first 10 minutes.
 
#302      

Emerson Bigguns

Emerson Bigguns
Emerson Bigguns
21ChampaignSt said:
WRT tempering expectations, we took what you consider a FF caliber team to the wire and could easily have beat them... Without an active PG on the roster. I'm just as optimistic as ever about our chances to win a B1G title. If Belo comes back and shows improvement, we have just as much right to a FF as any other team in the country.
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My only point is, as long as the bold words remain “ifs”, we aren’t what we hoped we would be. Still very good by any measure, but not favored against the teams at the top. There are things certain teams can throw at us that are tough to counter.
We will struggle containing guards with size, and the press will continue to give us problems.
If we have a healthy and confident AC, we will definitely have an easier time with pressure.
Certainly not saying we can’t make a FF run. We pose a lot of problems that most teams will struggle to overcome, but until we get AC back and see how he has developed, we look more like a 4-5 seed to me. JMO
 
#303      

GBIllini

G
GBIllini
Emerson Bigguns said:
Tough game. AZ brought their A game, we were probably a B-B+. Their length, defensive discipline, & multi faceted offensive attack is going to make them tough to beat. Definite final 4 potential. They had us scrambling… often…
Was a 50/50 game with about 3:00 to go. They knocked down some tough shots down the stretch, we didn’t. We don’t have the length to bother big, confident guards. AZ has a couple of those.
I think most of us need to temper our expectations a bit. I think we all expected AC to be an all American type PG. not only has he been out, but he hasn’t shown that level of play when he was playing. Without that, we are top 25 good, but not top 10.
I think we got beat by a better team. We can sit around and point fingers, but that’s a matchup we probably lose 6 times out of ten.
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So Kofi misses some bunnies and free throws, bad hands today. Omar finds a way to blow a lob dunk and we make a silly turnover with 25 seconds to go in a one possession game and let one slip away, but we're not in their league, ok.
 
#304      

illiniguy24

illiniguy24
illiniguy24
Interesting to hear coach publicly calling out his team so much after the game. I can’t imagine a team with so many vets won’t get motivated by this - being called soft and “the softest team I’ve ever had” is no minor call out…
 
#305      

SescIllini

SescIllini
SescIllini
Illinois about to go "NCAA" after BU's comments. Instead of punishing Arizona, Illinois bb going to go full throttle on St. Francis PA
 
#306      

Fanview

Fanview
Fanview
illiniguy24 said:
Interesting to hear coach publicly calling out his team so much after the game. I can’t imagine a team with so many vets won’t get motivated by this - being called soft and “the softest team I’ve ever had” is no minor call out…
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Agreed. He did it before and Kofi and Trent commented in a presser on understanding he doesn't mean it and it's to motivate them. I'm hoping it a lights a fire in the,.
 
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#308      

Qdennis

Q
Qdennis
CoalCity said:
Has to get stronger. With strength comes true confidence. He'll have flashes this season but he needs another offseason of S&C to start really reaching his potential.
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Strength has nothing to do with it. Arizona was not stronger than us, they were more decisive than we were in attacking the lane. We have no one at this time who can break the defense down off the dribble, they had several.
 
#309      

Qdennis

Q
Qdennis
HailtotheChief said:
Coleman can be a good player. He needs to be that, pay attention always, be stronger, tough, be focused, not get lazy. Be more like Jake who played 31 minutes with zero turnovers. Plus Coleman has unreached potential that is true but its not like he is "uber athletic" like some make it out to be. He is good athlete and needs to focus. When he does he will make us very much better. We were -17 with him out there as BU mentioned. When you see those like the one Arizona had today I think its clear to see what a stud uber athlete looks like why he struggled against them.
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You guys are funny as Hell, first you said Coleman just shut down not one but two uber stud athletes, now your saying that he's not athletic enough!!! First let's get one thing straight nobody and I do mean nobody who we played yesterday was more of a beast than that kid from Iowa!!!!
 
#310      

spillini

spillini
spillini
Rap73 said:
Would someone please tell me 10 teams that would have beat the Illini yesterday. This is a good team that will get better.
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All I know is I want nothin' to do with Baylor's defense
 
#311      

Illini in OC

Illini in OC
In. The. Alley.
Illini in OC
This game reminds me so much of last year's Baylor game - we were simply outmatched by a *very* good team. A win would've been great, but this kind of loss won't hurt us. I will not be surprised if this AZ team reaches #1 at some point before March.

Losing to AZ - filled with uber-mature International players - in Dec does not mean we aren't a good team. This will be an excellent learning experience and will serve as a catalyst to get tough(er). Guys will be maturing and competing for minutes; I look forward to a continually-improving team who will be scary in March.
 
#313      

BalloonsTheElephant

B
BalloonsTheElephant
Qdennis said:
You guys are funny as Hell, first you said Coleman just shut down not one but two uber stud athletes, now your saying that he's not athletic enough!!! First let's get one thing straight nobody and I do mean nobody who we played yesterday was more of a beast than that kid from Iowa!!!!
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I'd take Mathurin over anyone on Iowa and anyone on our roster not named Kofi or Andre.
 
#314      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Illini in OC said:
This game reminds me so much of last year's Baylor game - we were simply outmatched by a *very* good team. A win would've been great, but this kind of loss won't hurt us. I will not be surprised if this AZ team reaches #1 at some point before March.

Losing to AZ - filled with uber-mature International players - in Dec does not mean we aren't a good team. This will be an excellent learning experience and will serve as a catalyst to get tough(er). Guys will be maturing and competing for minutes; I look forward to a continually-improving team who will be scary in March.
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The majority of those international players are predominantly sophs. Mathurin, Larsson, Tubelis, Ballo and Krissa are all in their second year.
 
#316      

thechampishere

T
thechampishere
blife said:
Agree completely. It is the biggest non con of the year on national TV broadcast. Electric atmosphere. If you can't get swept up in the energy and be engaged with your team, there is something not clicking. BU in the post presser certainly didn't seem confident he would be back anytime soon.
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Simply not true, he's constantly coaching and engaging on the bench. Go back and watch what happened after RJ was chewed out by BU. I've watched Curbelo help players in person during games as well.
 
#317      

CoalCity

C
St Paul, MN
CoalCity
Qdennis said:
Strength has nothing to do with it. Arizona was not stronger than us, they were more decisive than we were in attacking the lane. We have no one at this time who can break the defense down off the dribble, they had several.
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They were a lot stronger than us. Outrebounded us (at home), knocked our guys off their spots while maintaining their own, pushed our offense way out farther than we wanted to be, knocked several balls loose because we weren't strong with the ball in our hands...but my comment was strictly about Hawkins. He needs to get stronger and if you cant see that I dont know what to tell you.
 
#319      

sunman

sunman
sunman
FromTheLogo said:
I've posted a few times about wanting a stable of 6'6" to 6'8", long, athletic guys. AZ has what I was talking about.
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Well I think the plan was to have Austin for that. It really hurts that we lost him. JMO. :(
 
#320      

LostinNebraska

L
LostinNebraska
Got back from the game tonight, had to collect my thoughts from the cheap seats.
1) told my friends beforehand it was a coin flip game - we ended up on the wrong end of it.
2) the early fouls on Coleman were rough. He needs to find a way to impact on D reliably without picking those up.
3) between Plummer and Trent, I thought SFC was going to go vertical during our big initial run. I cannot wait for the Michigan/Purdue games.
4) the little things in the last minute were those scratching and clawing for inches that land you on the wrong side of those coin flip games. This is where that "softness" remark by BU really lands. This is a team that will coalesce around last night's game.
5) my gosh, Kofi goes for the quietest double double I've ever seen, and I don't mean that as criticism. It's just amazing the impact he has on a relative 'off' night. He's a generational level player for Illinois - love that kid!!!
6) Melendez had a rough moment but he'll learn from it. I wish we'd shortened up our rotation tonight but longer term, those pressure moments are going to pay off dividends. Iron sharpens iron.
7) Arizona is a legit top 5 team. But what I took from this game... We are very capable of being one too.
7a) Trent is a legend.
 
#321      

LostinNebraska

L
LostinNebraska
Rewatching now and wooof.
The 2nd foul on CoHawk makes a huge difference in our rotation and game flow for the next five minutes until Trent goes nuclear (as soon as Kofi and Goode sub in).
A few minutes earlier, after a couple early 3s, Underwood switched CoHawk onto Mathurin and the extra length really quieted him.
Melendez comes in, looks mostly lost on D and a very tentative on O.
Mathurin also promptly hits a big 3.
Then Trent loosens his tie and puts on the cape.
Really fun sequence to watch.
 
#322      

Ga65

G
Ga65
Was impressed with Tubelis at the 4. Wonder how people think he compares to Timms (Gonzaga)? He didn’t shoot any threes but he was an important part of containing Kofi and was a tough matchup for Hawk, Omar, or Ben.
 
#323      

Illini in OC

Illini in OC
In. The. Alley.
Illini in OC
BRucks said:
The majority of those international players are predominantly sophs. Mathurin, Larsson, Tubelis, Ballo and Krissa are all in their second year.
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Fair enough. My understanding is that the better international (Euro) players frequently play against men (or at least older players) from an early age.
 
#324      

Illini in Italy

Illini in Italy
Illini in Italy
AZ has a couple players who have such punchable faces, maybe even better than Mulcahey’s! Tubelis and Kriess being my two new favorites.

On a more serious note, it seemed like everytime Kofi got stripped of the ball, the ball was at his waist (or lower). First half we really struggled feeding the post . . .second half it got better, but possible because they stopped doubling Kofi.

It was a good game, would have been a great one had we won.
 
#325      

GallopingGhost

GallopingGhost
Denver, CO
GallopingGhost
skyIdub said:
I'll have to check the replay, but I remember Trent and Plummer guarding him with a lot of switching. That guy is a nightmare assignment.
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Yeah it wasn’t going to matter who was guarding him. He is that good. The problem was not shutting down Kriisa or Tubelis. We didn’t have enough great defenders
 
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