Illinois 64, VCU 46 POSTGAME
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
Your post made me hopeful, so I went to BTN.com.
The game has a page, but unlike virtually every page on the site, it doesn't have a PLAY arrow. So, I'm guessing they don't have the game rights.
Your post made me hopeful, so I went to BTN.com.
The game has a page, but unlike virtually every page on the site, it doesn't have a PLAY arrow. So, I'm guessing they don't have the game rights.
I have the a CBS app, saw an early minute or so, but missed the rest of the game. Now trying to view a replay on the app with no luck. Anyone else in the same boat?
Your post made me hopeful, so I went to BTN.com.
The game has a page, but unlike virtually every page on the site, it doesn't have a PLAY arrow. So, I'm guessing they don't have the game rights.
The games on ESPN that BTN then gets the replay rights for aren't usually available until midnight after the game. So there's still hope. Guess I'll have to wait until midnight and check BTN again.
schnaurt
- Phoenix, AZ
You are a very good fan of your team. We played well today and are, hopefully, getting better. I do think your team is good. In your opinion, how good do you think your team is? Honestly
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
Clearly he reads this board! Or maybe he was reacting to his abysmal outside shooting today. Either way, it shows he's smart.
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
VCU 2-19 from deep--gotta like our 3 pt defense.
This is why the zone looks so good. If we go up against a better outside team, or even a team like VCU on a night they are shooting well, the zone isn't as pretty.
I want to give the team plenty of credit for playing good defense, and for winning games when the other teams are sloppy and make mistakes, as both NC State and VCU were, but we'll see better efforts than those virtually every night in conference games.
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
It would be nice, though, if someone fed him the ball when he had his guy sealed off 8 feet from the hoop. There were about 4 different instances when he had inside position at the high post, without any other help defenders nearby, and the guards looked, and looked, and passed around the perimeter instead. He can score. Give him the ball when he's got that position.
UI was down in the 100 range after last week's 0-3. As the other poster said the rankings on his site have to do more with offensive and defensive efficiency so individual results don't matter too much. The absolute beat down by WVU had a pretty big effect on UI's offensive rating and this VCU win had a very positive effect on the defensive rating.
Lots of work left to do. Need to get to the 40-50 range to realistically have any shot at the tourney based on history. Currently still #9 in the B1G which won't cut it. Team needs to finish out the non-con strong and then make a push early in the B1G season where they have a number of challenging games.
I noticed that too. One time TA waited for him to get position, then passed to the top just as he got position.
skamin7
- Wellington, FL
As someone who was in the stadium, here is my two cents:
- The charging calls were horrible. They all happened right in front of me and none should have been called. The fouls to start the second half were seven for us and one for them the first seven minutes. I really thought Groce was going to go on a seven state killing spree if it kept up. that is the real reason why VCU came back to start the half.
- I loved how we handled the press. Other than a travel call on Tracy and Lucas getting a bit nervous taking the ball up the few times he was out there, the team as a whole looked well prepared this time. Not sure why we couldn't have done this against WVU.
- Morgan has to learn to go strong to the hole and dunk. He is going to be eaten alive in when conference play starts. He has to get angry and play that way. He is way too timid and it shows. He couldn't even sniff a rebound all day as the box out pretty much rode him into the stands and he did nothing about it. On the plus side he did have a few nice blocks to help out on D.
- This is the Black we all wanted to see when he first stepped in C-U. Now that he seems to have learned not to foul all the time, he might be the most dangerous player we have. His motor is unmatched. He was a man among boys out there.
- Loved to see JLC finally take it to the hole. His shot was off today and I loved that he compensated by driving. If he does that more often, his bombing ability will open up. He was impressive with his ability to manipulate his body between the trees on the way to the basket. He owned the last five minutes.
- Tate was honestly a one trick pony. He played his heart out but everyone knew he was not going to shoot (very obvious when he would drive the lane and stop and the defenders would get in the passing lanes instead of trying to stop a shot) . He played like a veteran but he is still really limited and that will hurt even more come conference time. He needs more confidence in his shot. His three at the end was a perfect exhibit A on this. He didn't think, he just shot.
- Other than Black, our bigs just haven't gotten the "strong to the hole" mentality yet. Way too many fade aways and hook shots and not enough drives. We were taken off the blocks all day and couldn't really establish position. This showed in the rebound department. If they keep this up, we will have to run a lot of clear-outs for Hill and JLC to compete.
Overall a really good game and a well needed and earned win. The maybe five thousand fans (if they were lucky) did get a good show (side note -- the Miami game had way less as all the Illini fans left after the fist five minutes or so of that game). I loved that the Illini were well represented and was really happy to see Trent Frasier and his entire family at the game. Everyone on the Illini staff and even the AD made there way up to say hello to them and make him part of the team. At the end of the game, the entire team came up into the stands to see him and meet and greet all the Illini fans. My kids really enjoyed it. They are honestly a great bunch of kids. It made this Alumni honestly more proud of that then what I saw on the floor.
- The charging calls were horrible. They all happened right in front of me and none should have been called. The fouls to start the second half were seven for us and one for them the first seven minutes. I really thought Groce was going to go on a seven state killing spree if it kept up. that is the real reason why VCU came back to start the half.
- I loved how we handled the press. Other than a travel call on Tracy and Lucas getting a bit nervous taking the ball up the few times he was out there, the team as a whole looked well prepared this time. Not sure why we couldn't have done this against WVU.
- Morgan has to learn to go strong to the hole and dunk. He is going to be eaten alive in when conference play starts. He has to get angry and play that way. He is way too timid and it shows. He couldn't even sniff a rebound all day as the box out pretty much rode him into the stands and he did nothing about it. On the plus side he did have a few nice blocks to help out on D.
- This is the Black we all wanted to see when he first stepped in C-U. Now that he seems to have learned not to foul all the time, he might be the most dangerous player we have. His motor is unmatched. He was a man among boys out there.
- Loved to see JLC finally take it to the hole. His shot was off today and I loved that he compensated by driving. If he does that more often, his bombing ability will open up. He was impressive with his ability to manipulate his body between the trees on the way to the basket. He owned the last five minutes.
- Tate was honestly a one trick pony. He played his heart out but everyone knew he was not going to shoot (very obvious when he would drive the lane and stop and the defenders would get in the passing lanes instead of trying to stop a shot) . He played like a veteran but he is still really limited and that will hurt even more come conference time. He needs more confidence in his shot. His three at the end was a perfect exhibit A on this. He didn't think, he just shot.
- Other than Black, our bigs just haven't gotten the "strong to the hole" mentality yet. Way too many fade aways and hook shots and not enough drives. We were taken off the blocks all day and couldn't really establish position. This showed in the rebound department. If they keep this up, we will have to run a lot of clear-outs for Hill and JLC to compete.
Overall a really good game and a well needed and earned win. The maybe five thousand fans (if they were lucky) did get a good show (side note -- the Miami game had way less as all the Illini fans left after the fist five minutes or so of that game). I loved that the Illini were well represented and was really happy to see Trent Frasier and his entire family at the game. Everyone on the Illini staff and even the AD made there way up to say hello to them and make him part of the team. At the end of the game, the entire team came up into the stands to see him and meet and greet all the Illini fans. My kids really enjoyed it. They are honestly a great bunch of kids. It made this Alumni honestly more proud of that then what I saw on the floor.
Rowdypkunk
- Richmond, VA
Honestly... I think we have a really good team.... we just haven't played like it. If we play like I know we're capable of... we could very easily be 8-0... and that's saying something considering how good of a team Baylor is.... cause remember we had a lead at Halftime against Baylor, and Baylor didn't get the lead back until there was 8 mins to go in the game. So you can make a case we could've won that game.
And honestly, if we played like we did against Baylor for most of the game.... we could have beaten you guys yesterday.... and we did play well for the first couple mins to start the game when we got up 11-3.... and it seemed like we were clicking on all cylinders & you guys were struggling to find the basket.... but then it just all unraveled.... we couldn't find a basket & you guys couldn't seem to miss.
Who knows how far this team could go.... if we play up to our potential.... we could easily win the A10 title, and make the 2nd weekend of the NCAA Tourney (depending on the matchups). However, if we continue to play like we did last night.... we could be lucky just to make it to the semifinals of our conference tourney.
As I said before the A10 is no slouch of a conference. This ain't the CAA anymore where we could beat most teams even on our worst night. In the A10... we have to bring our A game every night even against the bottom feeders or we could be chalking up an L... just like last night.
79illinois
- Winnetka, IL
Very true. The Illini has 11 TOs (only) versus VCU, and 2 of MH's 3 TOs were the horrible charge calls in the 2d half. I hope that ref looks at the tape and sees how bad those 2 calls were.
WestIllini
- University of Iowa
Anybody know where/if we can find a replay for this game?
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
Not trying to pick a fight or anything but what if Baylor thought they played their worst game of the year against VCU? We as fans tend to rationalize what we want to see - us included. Teams tend to ebb and flow - sometimes rising to the occasion / sometimes matching up well / sometimes catching a good team on an off night.
Very different kind of pressure. WV guards the inbound pass with a man right on the ball and tries to force it to the corner where they then trap it aggressively. VCU didn't have anything near that intensity and kind of trapped at times, but it was on the sidelines, not the corner. They also didn't have anyone near the half court line to prevent throwing over the top, which we did a number of times.
No doubt we could have done better vs WV since it would be hard to do worse. But there's a much different level of intensity between the two.
Rowdypkunk
- Richmond, VA
I know you're not trying to pick a fight.... and sure Baylor could've played their worst game you will see all season... but we also clearly did not play our best for the full 40 minutes. Also, look at how they started against Louisville... they started off really bad.... and battled back to win that game & the title of the tourney.
But lets take that Baylor team & that game against us.... they are clearly the best team we've faced this year so far, with you guys being a close 2nd (no disrespect intended). We played our best against Baylor for about 25-30 minutes of those 40... if we had played all 40 minutes at our best... we could've beaten them.
Yesterday... we played our best against you guys for the first 8 to 10 minutes.... and then it was all you guys for most of the game after that... tho we had a few runs to get it close.... but then we unraveled again.
We held you guys to 4 points the first 8 minutes of the game.... if we played that well all game... you would've had 20 pts the entire game.... you had 27 pts in the last 12 minutes of the first half we had 10.
2 totally different games by us.... one game VCU showed up for most of the game... but came up just short...... the other game we showed up for a few minutes & it wasn't even close at the end.
Again, not taking anything away from you guys, cause y'all kicked our butts yesterday. But we also did not show up to play... you guys did.
I still think, if we played up to our potential all 40 minutes against Baylor, we could've snuck out a win.... and if we had showed up to play against you guys, we could've won. But the fact of the matter is, we didn't do either.... and therefore we are 6-2 now instead of 7-1 or 8-0.
This year's team is quietly going after the '04-'05 team record for most 3's made. That team averaged 8.8 made per game and this year's team is at 8.4. It's coming from a team that has not hit full stride in that area as JCL has had an off season so far, Finke has not had as good of a year as last (he was 8th all time for Freshman last year for 3's made) and KN will add some. 8.4+ per game is a stat to watch. Abrams is on pace to shatter the school record for 3 pt.% for a season, held by Tom Michael @ 49.3% in 1992.
The A10 is respectable but with 9 teams outside of the KenPom 100, it's still a midmajor IMO. I sure hope you guys don't have an L against any of those teams. We might need all of the help we can get so this needs to stay as a good win.
Honestly, I'm not trying to bait you into anything. I am legitimately wondering what you saw that he brought to the table today?
It's not that I don't want him to play because I think he's terrible. I don't want him to play because he acts like HE thinks he's terrible. He doesn't even try to drive or shoot anymore. I don't see how having a player who refuses to be aggressive offensively can help us. For all of TJL's "green-ness", at least he offers a potential upside offensively.
Rowdypkunk
- Richmond, VA
I disagree... a conference that gets 5 bids (2013), 6 bids (2014), 3 Bids (2015), 3 Bids (2016) the last 4 years is hardly a mid major..... A Mid major would be a conference like the CAA where you get 1 bid regularly and are extremely lucky if you get more than 1 bid.
The A10 has been getting as many bids (sometimes more in 2013 & 14) as some of the Power conferences.
We may not be on the level of the Power 5 yet... but we are certainly not a mid major conference.
And I don't believe in all that KenPom / RPI / BPI nonsense.... some teams have their ratings higher... yet they play a bunch of scrubs out of conference.... and then come conference play half the conference is bad..... sounds like Kentucky doesnt it.... plays one or two good teams out of conference and the rest are blowouts
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Fair enough. It would be the worst high major conference or the best mid major but it probably doesn't make much of a difference in how you label it. They've been respectable for the past few years and VCU has been a big reason why. I'd expect 2-3 A10 teams to make the dance this year, and for our sake, hopefully VCU is one of them.
"I still think, if we played up to our potential all 40 minutes against Baylor, we could've snuck out a win.... and if we had showed up to play against you guys, we could've won."
That is a tough point to make when you lose by 18 at a neutral site. Illini have a lot of talent and the coach is trying to figure out how to make the pieces fit. The results speaks for itself.
That is a tough point to make when you lose by 18 at a neutral site. Illini have a lot of talent and the coach is trying to figure out how to make the pieces fit. The results speaks for itself.