With faster offensive possessions you get more defensive possessions. We need more efficiency from our 7 second offense.
Illini Basketball 2018-2019
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With faster offensive possessions you get more defensive possessions. We need more efficiency from our 7 second offense.
I seem to recall a great quote about this back when Loyola-Maramount ran it's high-scoring offense, but had a losing record. The coach was interviewed and the commentator marveled at the "highest scoring offense in the nation". He quipped, nope, that's our opponents.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
That's funny, but a different offensive scheme for sure. And on a funny note about those LM teams, they used to allow the other team to get an easy layup if they tried to slow things down.
I can recall seeing it twice, maybe three times last year.
Oh that's not true at all. We went fast a lot.
Our tempo was much, much faster than any of Underwood's SFA teams and nearly identical to his OSU team.
I know he's articulated it that way, but "seven seconds or less", with the connotation of Mike D'Antoni's philosophy, is a misleading description.
It's more like we're the Showtime Lakers, but if the fast break isn't there, you pull it out and become Tony Bennett's Virginia. Which is a pretty smart way to play in college basketball IMO. It puts multiple kinds of pressure on a defense.
Kenpom has been around since 2002 and last year was the first time ever Illinois was in the Top 100 of tempo. Our highest ever by like 50 spots. Self's last team had the previous record.
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This is definitely what I remember, as well. In fact, I remember my dad remarking to me multiple times last year that he just couldn't figure out what was wrong with us and that we actually looked like an improved and exciting team that just ... well, lost all of the time, LOL.
We have a ton of room for growth when playing in transition. IMO this is a key areas we must (and will) improve on. We were terrible in transition last year and lowered our ceiling by a lot.
Yup. And all indications are that Ayo is one of those guys that just has it as an open floor passer. For all the great things Trent did last year, that was not a strength of his.
Feliz is outstanding in the open court, also. Actually, he is probably the best passer in the half court, too.
I've been saying this and saying this, we have a good shot a surprising a lot of people this year, upsetting a lot of teams. I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
This, but with these caveats: our guards and wings have to gel (lots of inexperience there), our D has to be considerably better and our bigs need to not be feasted on. All 3 are possible, IMO. Improved D should be easy. Decent D? Big unknown. Our bigs really don't need to provide O. Just need to be able to hold their own defensively.
We're super duper young, so while we ought to have more "wow, that's how the offense is supposed to look" moments, we will also probably be very inconsistent.
And if you have any idea how we're going to guard anybody, I'm all ears.
Vandy went 12-20 last year with the #29 offense and the #219 defense. That seems like where we're headed. Vandy are bringing in two RSCI top 15 recruits. That does not seem like where we're headed
We're super duper young, so while we ought to have more "wow, that's how the offense is supposed to look" moments, we will also probably be very inconsistent.
And if you have any idea how we're going to guard anybody, I'm all ears.
Vandy went 12-20 last year with the #29 offense and the #219 defense. That seems like where we're headed. Vandy are bringing in two RSCI top 15 recruits. That does not seem like where we're headed
The team can start 2 seniors (AJ, ADR), 1 Jr. (KN) 2 Sophs. (TF, DaW) and have another Jr. (FA) on the bench. Just don't think youth can be an excuse. Problem with bigs, yes, learning the system yes, youth not IMO.
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Our defense was good last year, great at times, (and terrible when Smith was in there). A healthy DMW, more athletic players coming in, long players coming in, I think our D will be even better than last year too!
sacraig
- The desert
I think this is probably true with the caveat that our post defense is a huge unknown. If we continue to let teams basically man the post unopposed, it will take some truly elite guard play to make up for it on the scoreboard.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
We're super duper young, so while we ought to have more "wow, that's how the offense is supposed to look" moments, we will also probably be very inconsistent.
And if you have any idea how we're going to guard anybody, I'm all ears.
Vandy went 12-20 last year with the #29 offense and the #219 defense. That seems like where we're headed. Vandy are bringing in two RSCI top 15 recruits. That does not seem like where we're headed
Our length and quickness will give us the potential to guard anybody. Whether or not that materializes is a pretty big question mark.
no
Same way we did last season...you can't score if you don't get a shot off. All of the things that we won't be able to do on defense this year are exactly the same as all of the things we weren't able to do last year. Had Finke and Black been able to stop anyone in the post, the team would not have been ranked in the 300s on all of the defensive metrics. And as bad as things were in the post, the team was still like #130 on defensive efficiency.
This will not be a good defensive team, but it really isn't possible that the interior defense can get significantly worse. If it's a little worse, the difference should be absorbed by improved D in the backcourt and a regression to the mean on opponents FT%.
Oh my sweet summer child
sacraig
- The desert
On top of this, it should be noted that despite the abysmal inside defense last year, we lost a lot of games by very small margins. It would not take a whole lot of offensive improvement for us to have exactly the same defense as last year but with a dramatically different result in the W-L columns.
That said, we lost Leron Black. I do think it is uncontroversial to say the guard play will be improved this year and the wing play will be greatly improved. However, these improvements will have to combine to not only replace Black's production, but surpass it in order for the above to be true. That's a pretty tall order for a bunch of young players. I'd say it's in the realm of possibility, but not probability.
Yep. If Luka Garza goes 12-12 from the line against us this year, I'll...eh, I'll just be pretty upset. I like my hat too much to eat it.
Offensively, the loss of Black shouldn't be understated. As a counterpoint, some of the heavy lifting to replace his production will come in the form of replacing 60 minutes a game from Alstork, Lucas, and Smith, all of whom were a drag on the offense. That makes getting a breakout from Nichols and/or Williams a bit less important, though I'm hoping both can take a step.
Defensively, Black was an undersized four who didn't accomplish much in the paint. I'm not worried about the impact his departure will have on the defense at all.
Yeah that would only be an issue if we were replacing him with an even smaller player who was even more of a turnstile...
As of last season, Kipper Nichols was listed as one inch shorter and five pounds lighter than Leron Black, and he wound up blocking more shots in far fewer minutes. (He also blocked more shots than Finke.) Those are not material differences.
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