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Illinois 105, Minnesota 97 Postgame
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<blockquote data-quote="sulli" data-source="post: 2025236" data-attributes="member: 748759"><p>I don't post often, but read here a lot. This is exactly what I was thinking when watching the game. Hawkins (especially) drops way too far. Fundamental defense would have him much higher and (at a minimum) "showing" to the pg to slow him up and give his teammate time to recover. In this pic, Hawkins is guarding nobody.</p><p></p><p>I have some ongoing issues with Underwood's coaching. Not sure the Illini can do better than Underwood so I guess we just have to live with it. Tthe teams have been consistently good, so I cannot complain too much. However, I can't help but think if there was a little more creativity and discipline this team could be a top 5 type of team. Sometimes I wonder what they do at practice. They have fundamental flaws this late in the season on defense, they never play zone or mix it up, their inbound plays both offensively and defensively are uninspired, they constantly make one-handed passes for no reason, make a lot of head-scratching turnovers on cross-court passes, and their offense (while very good due to their high level of talent) includes a lot of 3 guys watching motionless from the weak side while two players take turns (this is the least concerning thing since this year they have like 5 guys that can create their own shot). Their free throw shooting has been good (and Dainja's lack of improvement at the line has cost him minutes) so that is a counterpoint.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: The other thing i've noticed on defense is that often on defense our players somewhat lazily chase their guy to the wing on cuts. They give the other team that pass with hardly any pressure at all. Illinois commits a couple turnovers a game on plays where a guy picks up his dribble and can't find someone open just to get rid of it. Our opponents almost never commit that turnover because we aren't pressuring them at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sulli, post: 2025236, member: 748759"] I don't post often, but read here a lot. This is exactly what I was thinking when watching the game. Hawkins (especially) drops way too far. Fundamental defense would have him much higher and (at a minimum) "showing" to the pg to slow him up and give his teammate time to recover. In this pic, Hawkins is guarding nobody. I have some ongoing issues with Underwood's coaching. Not sure the Illini can do better than Underwood so I guess we just have to live with it. Tthe teams have been consistently good, so I cannot complain too much. However, I can't help but think if there was a little more creativity and discipline this team could be a top 5 type of team. Sometimes I wonder what they do at practice. They have fundamental flaws this late in the season on defense, they never play zone or mix it up, their inbound plays both offensively and defensively are uninspired, they constantly make one-handed passes for no reason, make a lot of head-scratching turnovers on cross-court passes, and their offense (while very good due to their high level of talent) includes a lot of 3 guys watching motionless from the weak side while two players take turns (this is the least concerning thing since this year they have like 5 guys that can create their own shot). Their free throw shooting has been good (and Dainja's lack of improvement at the line has cost him minutes) so that is a counterpoint. EDIT: The other thing i've noticed on defense is that often on defense our players somewhat lazily chase their guy to the wing on cuts. They give the other team that pass with hardly any pressure at all. Illinois commits a couple turnovers a game on plays where a guy picks up his dribble and can't find someone open just to get rid of it. Our opponents almost never commit that turnover because we aren't pressuring them at all. [/QUOTE]
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Illinois 105, Minnesota 97 Postgame
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