Illinois 112, Penn 70 Postgame
Fan Since '70
- OBS, Florida
Fran with an analysis of this year's Illini (also compared current offense to last year's)
Did not like PA stuff last year and did not like last night. Also, when PA guy stops the crowd stops. When cheer squad leads a cheer (suchasILL to one side, INI to the other) it continues into the game. Plus scoreboard can give visual cues
Like waves on a beach. They just dont stop coming at you
Yes too many but I am recalling we had 4-5 turnovers in about 6 possessions starting at under 4 left including 3 in a row leading to layups. The ball kept jumping out of our hands as we struggled dribbling
Yeah, 4 in the last 2:22. Two each with these lineups:
Fagbemi, Jakstys, L.Davis, Morillo, Zens
Fagbemi, Jakstys, L.Davis, Morillo, McCoy
I think it's fair to expect those lineups won't see the court much except garbage time.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Obviously it is better to have fewer turnovers than more, and you want to be smart with the ball.
But turnovers also to a substantial degree have just a mechanical relationship with how aggressive you are on offense. We will be nowhere near last year's numbers in that regard, no offense that plays this fast ever could be, and that's fine.
We are trading the pluses and minuses of Slowball for the pluses and minuses of Fastball, because it suits our new personnel.
The bolded isn’t exactly true.
Arkansas was 13th in tempo, and had the lowest TO rate in the nation.
Alabama was 5th in tempo, and had the 10th lowest TO rate in the nation.
It’s probably rarer, but definitely not impossible.
I have been impressed with JJ so far this year. It was just a couple of small plays (a hesitation, footwork move and dish just under 4" left, and throwing the ball off the opponent while going OOB,) but he is more athletic than I thought. He will never be a star, go-to player, but I am happy to see him get some PT.
Went back and watched it:
2 by Fabgemi, 1 by Jakstys, 1 by Landon Davis.
If we discard those minutes, it was probably something like 15 turnovers in 80 possessions, which is 18.8%. (we ended up at 21.8%; last year’s rate was 13.1%)
Still a few more than we’d like, but not that bad.
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Vaaks had a couple late when they were taking the air out of the ball and not playing super focused that likely wouldnt have happened normally as well.
Just wonder if possible to maintain good three point shooting playing at this pace. Tired legs not positive for shooting. Probably affect opponents more as not as normal so probably still a significant advantage.
You were the one harping on Ethan Brown's "matador defense"Even with the injuries, I'm already in love with this team. I knew our freshman class was really good. All of them, even landon davis, big boy's gonna contribute in the future. On an off night, we still shot 38% from 3. How many shots did we jack up, assist, and rebounds. Insane.Ethan and others will get progressively better on Defense which is vital come Tourney. Free throws, feee throws all you Shooter's.
Indiana, Ucla.with all their Pro's. Big10 is LOADED, will be a street fight and fun to watch.
Top 6 highest tempo games in the Underwood era (using Torvik; might or might not be some variance with Kenpom):
1. 2026-27 vs Penn: 87.0 possessions (1.287 points per possession)
2. 2024-25 vs EIU: 83.3 possessions (1.344 points per possession)
3. 2018-19 vs Evansville: 81.5 possessions (1.214 points per possession)
4. 2024-25 vs Alabama: 81.3 possessions (1.070 points per possession)
5. 2020-21 vs North Carolina A&T: 81.2 possessions (1.503 points per possession)
6. 2020-21 vs Minnesota: 81.1 possessions (1.135 points per possession)
…..
The FDU game set the record for most points per possession in a game under Brad. (1.591)
The Penn game set the record for most possessions in a game under Brad. (87.0)
There are turnovers, and there are turnovers. All of the Illini's turnovers were in the frontcourt, many of them under the basket. I only counted two that led directly to layups (might have missed one). Vaaks had 5, which included falling down a couple of times and dropping a pass that hit him in the hands. A few came in the final few minutes. We're going to have a few with the pace we play at...but I think the positives of the pace more than make up for the turnovers.
Correction: third most.
It says we scored 1.742 against Saint Francis in 2022.
….
It says we scored 1.597 against Minnesota in 2024, which was a whale of a game:
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