Keep in mind…we played 12 guys and a lot of ticks to non starters. Baylor pretty much kept their top 7-8 guys in. We used the game to evaluate and learn, they wanted to win !
Baylor 95, Illinois 91 (Exhibition) Postgame
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My notes:
First half was sad. Real sad.
No problem with the loss considering the second half.
Baylor plays hard and is good, maybe top-10 good, but for sure top-25. If they were picked 12th in the Big12, the press got it wrong. They will make the dance, and probably have a good seed.
It's early and we have a lot of newcomers. Team is a work in process. Really hope we're healthy soon to see if that high ceiling we all believe is there can come true.
Loved the alt-cast. MLT has a ton of insight, and the two of them worked well together.
First half was sad. Real sad.
No problem with the loss considering the second half.
Baylor plays hard and is good, maybe top-10 good, but for sure top-25. If they were picked 12th in the Big12, the press got it wrong. They will make the dance, and probably have a good seed.
It's early and we have a lot of newcomers. Team is a work in process. Really hope we're healthy soon to see if that high ceiling we all believe is there can come true.
Loved the alt-cast. MLT has a ton of insight, and the two of them worked well together.
From what I see, I don't think we're a top three team. If our starting lead guard is going to be unable to keep opposing point guards from going to town on us, and we have to somehow make up that issue everywhere else on the court every game, we're going to have a considerably lower ceiling than top 3.
I have always believed Mirks return would be late January, early February. Gives him and team 6 weeks to run into March madness fully healthy. Rushing back does not get us our first ever Natty!
Michigan's Second-Half Comeback Falls Short in Exhibition Loss to Cincinnati - University of Michigan Athletics
Despite outscoring Cincinnati 64-48 in the second half, the University of Michigan men's basketball team was unable to overcome its halftime deficit and fell...
Keep this in mind when analyzing exhibitions.
If he's not back until late January, we have major, major, major problems.
Eerily similarMichigan's Second-Half Comeback Falls Short in Exhibition Loss to Cincinnati - University of Michigan Athletics
Despite outscoring Cincinnati 64-48 in the second half, the University of Michigan men's basketball team was unable to overcome its halftime deficit and fell...mgoblue.com
Keep this in mind when analyzing exhibitions.
What kind of seeding will we have if he doesn't come back until February???
I mean given how limited info we all have I would just stick with the official statements and insider takes (i.e. late Nov / early Dec return).
He seems to have a bit of want to....and that little spark can turn into a sufficient defender with work and good coaching. I expect him to improve slowly during the season and become acceptable.
I'm sure he will, but do expect him to be a guy that gets beat off the dribble fairly easily. He's coming from a system with Kim English that was void of defense. He had a negative defensive efficiency on PC last year, 2nd to last on team. Lot's of habits to break there.
Both teams played nine guys for double digit minutes. They had one guy play more than 30 minutes, as did we. We did have three guys who played single digit minutes vs. zero guys for Baylor. Part of the reason for that is that we had three of our guys go down with injuries.
agree hes a work in progress but dang, disappointment seems harsh
Game 1: 19 pts, 7/13, 2-6 on 3s, 2 assist, 3 boards 3 tos
Game 2 18 pts, 5-11, 4-8 3s, 5 assist, 1 board, 0 tos
So in two games he's averaging 18.5 on 50% FG, 43% from 3, 3.5 assist 1.5 TOs, 2 boards, yeah thats horrible
He, like most of the team need to get in gear on defnese and rebounding, but like another poster said, mad weird that he's being singled out by some over the first two games
It's beyond bizarre.
He's the team's leading scorer through 2 games. He was better defensively in game 2 than Ethan Brown (who I thought was rightfully benched in first half and poor in the game overall).
Vaaks bringing so much more offensively than Brown right now if he continues going to the hoop and just so much bigger and more physical. Neither is a good defender. I have more hope with Vaaks on that end as he's just so much bigger.
I LOVE what I've seen from Vaaks going to the hoop.
If I'm ranking what I've seen from our guys through 2 games it's:
-1- Coleman
-2- Andrej
-3- Vaaks
Um, no. We are totally into speculation.
Why confuse us with the facts?? We love to state unbased opinions and argue with other's unbased opinions, then say "I told you so" when one of our polar-opposite statements turns out to be slightly true.
We just went from number one to the worst defensive team in America, based on two exhibition games against two good teams.
BTW, we lost our two dynamic guards from last year, one who was the fifth pick in the draft, the other a stellar defender. These games are for seeing who can play D.
Coach is LOVING the results....
Yes. Thank you. I said that all season last year. They gotta have him do that and feed him in the post. From what I can recall he had just a couple other games in the regular season last year when he actually was on the block a decent amount during the game and he was effective/efficient.
gave them all out at the Oregon game.... 3missed field goals by the visitors
Just get nuggets on the first one, though.
Three Overreactions to Illinois Basketball's Exhibition Loss to Baylor
The Illini had their fair share of shortcomings on Friday night, some of which may be concerning moving forward
www.si.com
The concern is points in the paint and rebounding.
Cincinnati: 42 points in the paint / 12 OREB
Baylor: 40 points in the paint / 22 OREB
Illinois allowed 40 or more points in the paint just 3 times all of last season.
But the honest truth is we’re nowhere close to the same rebounding team without Mirkovic (exhibition or not).
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Its an exhibition. Brad does not care if we win or lose.
Andrej was Andrej. Great slashing to hoop. Mediocre passer. This game he was not diving into triple team. Missing dunks in games is not good.
Injuries - worrisome but nothing serious like Luke Goode 3 years ago. I am more concerned that Mirk has regressed.
Ivisic twins look the same as does Jake Davis.
Exhibitions don't matter. Even non conference Duke, UConn, Texas Tech, Missouri dont really matter.
They are a great way to integrate new players into offense defense - Coleman is already there, Vaaks needs to start rebounding and playing defense, Brown has been nice surprise. Morillo has loose handles that may stop him from playing much, Williams showed some nice D but no offense, Hard to tell if Landon Davis will be contributor.
Win the B10 and you will get a #1 or #2 seed.
Andrej was Andrej. Great slashing to hoop. Mediocre passer. This game he was not diving into triple team. Missing dunks in games is not good.
Injuries - worrisome but nothing serious like Luke Goode 3 years ago. I am more concerned that Mirk has regressed.
Ivisic twins look the same as does Jake Davis.
Exhibitions don't matter. Even non conference Duke, UConn, Texas Tech, Missouri dont really matter.
They are a great way to integrate new players into offense defense - Coleman is already there, Vaaks needs to start rebounding and playing defense, Brown has been nice surprise. Morillo has loose handles that may stop him from playing much, Williams showed some nice D but no offense, Hard to tell if Landon Davis will be contributor.
Win the B10 and you will get a #1 or #2 seed.
We have more quickness than the team last year who finished 20th in defensive efficiency.
….
The formula is to protect the rim.
Last year’s shot distribution on defense:
- % of shots allowed in the paint: 43.3% (20th; lowest to highest)
- % of shots allowed in the mid range: 13.3% (319th; lowest to highest)
- % of shots allowed from 3: 43.4% (310th; lowest to highest)
It’s the exact recipe this year. The problem is we’re too small at the 4 right now.
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