Illini Basketball 2018-2019

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#401      
I'm trying to figure out why TF is so good. He's fast, but not crazy fast or athletic. He's not going to dunk over anyone. His jump shot often looks more like a heave, with that leg kick and everything. He's pencil thin and not the kind of long athlete everyone is after... his wingspan looks shorter than average for someone his height. He favors one hand and likes to dribble the ball really high. And yet if not for the lottery pick at MSU, he would've been conference freshman of the year. He definitely leads the league in swagger, so maybe there's something with that.

NBA caliber body control, elite ball handling, great pull-up, and is a good enough spot up shooter to allow the better parts of his game to show.

Also, and maybe most importantly is that he competes to win.

Edit: elite ball handling going left. Good enough to be successful going right
 
#402      
Trent Frazier is fearless. And has just enough skill to make that work. He seems to have the knack of making just the right move when he's driving the lane. I loves me some Trent Frazier!

Here's a thought... Supposing Trent Frazier, D Williams, and Ayo tear it up this year?!?!? Add a touch of 'year end' Kipper! Will we even notice we have a not-so-great freshman center??? I think not!
 
#403      
Trent Frazier is fearless. And has just enough skill to make that work. He seems to have the knack of making just the right move when he's driving the lane. I loves me some Trent Frazier!

Here's a thought... Supposing Trent Frazier, D Williams, and Ayo tear it up this year?!?!? Add a touch of 'year end' Kipper! Will we even notice we have a not-so-great freshman center??? I think not!
Probably not so much in the games where they are all clicking, but it'll definitely be noticeable in the games where one or two of them are having off nights or are in foul trouble. Hopefully the former is more frequent than the latter.
 
#406      

ILL in IA

Iowa City
He is awesome, but Malcolm Hill and Kendrick Nunn were pretty darn good, too (maybe not as impressive as TF, but still.)
The benefit now is TF initiates the offense as the pg. BU can dictate so much more with that. MH and KN were still somewhat limited to where and when we were able to get the ball in their hands. If MH was initiating on his own, it was off of a steal or a late in the shot clock "someone gets the ball to Malcolm and hope he bails us out."
 
#408      
Trent Frazier is simply amazing. It is so exciting to see what he does in the next 3 years. He is the closest player to Dee Brown (in Illini uniform) that I have seen.

What about Kiwane Garris? I know he was actually pre-Dee but I seem to remember his game being pretty similar. Fast as all get out up and down the court.
 
#409      
The benefit now is TF initiates the offense as the pg. BU can dictate so much more with that. MH and KN were still somewhat limited to where and when we were able to get the ball in their hands. If MH was initiating on his own, it was off of a steal or a late in the shot clock "someone gets the ball to Malcolm and hope he bails us out."

Man did I hate that portion of Groce ball. It was the same with Rayvonte Rice as well. Unfortunately we still saw some of that last year with TF. Hopefully those days are gone starting this year.
 
#410      

sacraig

The desert
Man did I hate that portion of Groce ball. It was the same with Rayvonte Rice as well. Unfortunately we still saw some of that last year with TF. Hopefully those days are gone starting this year.

At some level, that is unavoidable. Ultimately, there will be some possessions where the other team's defense plays well and you just end up having to shoot late in the shot clock. In those situations, it is always nice to have a go-to player or two who excel of making something out of nothing. One of the marks of a good team and a well-executed offense/offensive system is the ability to minimize those sorts of situations so that you don't have to rely on hero ball. Ultimately, hero ball really just boils down to luck.
 
#411      

ILL in IA

Iowa City
Man did I hate that portion of Groce ball. It was the same with Rayvonte Rice as well. Unfortunately we still saw some of that last year with TF. Hopefully those days are gone starting this year.
I keep telling myself that was the product of a squad not fully able to run the BU system. This year should tell us a lot.
 
#413      
Man did I hate that portion of Groce ball. It was the same with Rayvonte Rice as well. Unfortunately we still saw some of that last year with TF. Hopefully those days are gone starting this year.
There was an interview with Underwood last year where he addressed this. In short he said he didn't like the style of play having Frazier going one on one so much at the end of games, but he gave him the "green light" late in many games because of poor offensive execution and unwillingness by players to take a shot. At some point Underwood was going to have to give the ball to whomever might give them a shot at winning.
 
#414      
I keep telling myself that was the product of a squad not fully able to run the BU system. This year should tell us a lot.
I think we'll definitely see an improvement in this facet of the the game. Last year we had two reliable weapons: Trent and Leron. Defenses knew that and exploited it brutally. This year, the offensive arsenal ought to be improved, and we might actually see some 7-second offense.

Defense will be our problem.
 
#415      
NBA caliber body control, elite ball handling, great pull-up, and is a good enough spot up shooter to allow the better parts of his game to show.

Also, and maybe most importantly is that he competes to win.

Edit: elite ball handling going left. Good enough to be successful going right

Plus he's a ball hawk, 2nd in B1G in steals, keeps his head up and looks to push the ball and is a good passer. He's an all around player and I think he's hungry for improvement, personally and for the team. Love this kid!
 
#416      
I think we'll definitely see an improvement in this facet of the the game. Last year we had two reliable weapons: Trent and Leron. Defenses knew that and exploited it brutally. This year, the offensive arsenal ought to be improved, and we might actually see some 7-second offense.

It seemed like the problem got worse late in the year when opponents had the benefit of extensive scouting info. It's too easy to gameplan against a team that has limited options, which in turn can bog an offense down and kill execution.
 
#417      
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.in...ate-2018-2019-purdue-maryland-ncaa-tournament

Just to give people an idea on how many good guards there are in the conference. If you're familiar with those guys, you'd understand why we would need at least solid bigs for us to have a decent season.

I see it every off-season. At least half the people posting get carried away, and reinforce the view that our team will be sooo good because of [fill in the blank]. But it's a zero sum game, and you have to look at the other teams in the conference.

I think the [fill in the blank] this year is that our freshman are going to play like upper classmen. Not seeing it, but the bar from last year is pretty low, we have some talent, and I'm hopeful that we get buy-in.
 
#418      

illini55

The Villages, FL
I think we'll definitely see an improvement in this facet of the the game. Last year we had two reliable weapons: Trent and Leron. Defenses knew that and exploited it brutally. This year, the offensive arsenal ought to be improved, and we might actually see some 7-second offense.

Defense will be our problem.
We'll just outscore the bums!
 
#420      
Kane with AAU Coach at the airport on 8/22 from Kane's Twitter indicating he was on the way, so I would suppose he's arrived.
1535067705323.png

Nice to see a Guy taller than BU.


Another earlier post questioned Higgs arrival. Piper indicated on Warner show that he arrived early in the week in a "BIG" way. Apparently too many going away parties. Chesapeke Bay Blue Crabs and Beer, it can happen.

Guessing he was assigned a cot in Fletch's house of horrors.
 
#421      
Kane with AAU Coach at the airport on 8/22 from Kane's Twitter indicating he was on the way, so I would suppose he's arrived.
View attachment 3455
Nice to see a Guy taller than BU.


Another earlier post questioned Higgs arrival. Piper indicated on Warner show that he arrived early in the week in a "BIG" way. Apparently too many going away parties. Chesapeke Bay Blue Crabs and Beer, it can happen.

Guessing he was assigned a cot in Fletch's house of horrors.
Sad, but funny too
 
#423      
Another earlier post questioned Higgs arrival. Piper indicated on Warner show that he arrived early in the week in a "BIG" way. Apparently too many going away parties. Chesapeke Bay Blue Crabs and Beer, it can happen.

Guessing he was assigned a cot in Fletch's house of horrors.

You'd rather that than a stringbean. If he can put bad weight on, that means he can put good weight on.
 
#425      
I think we'll definitely see an improvement in this facet of the the game. Last year we had two reliable weapons: Trent and Leron. Defenses knew that and exploited it brutally. This year, the offensive arsenal ought to be improved, and we might actually see some 7-second offense.

Defense will be our problem.

The more of our '7 second offense' we see, the less reliant we will be on our defense......
 
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