Illinois 66, Oakland 54 Postgame

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#28      
A well-coached zone defense is a different animal and we pretty clearly don’t have much experience with it. The game was ugly, and I might not have loved watching it, but I’m glad we got that experience under our belt. It’ll come in handy later in the season.
Should not have been a surprise in any way to the Illini...but good for a young team to experience. However, Oakland let the ball go to the FT line and that is where the first pass needs to go every time....but it did not go there enough tonight.

On a plus side, I am really beginning to like Will Riley's defensive effort as well as his rebounding. Kid seems to be exertive no matter what he is doing, but his defensive effort has been pretty darn good for a skinny frosh who loves to shoot. Would love to see him play two seasons in C-U as this team has the potential to win it all if they stick together another season. But that is not likely if he shows up to play every night.
 
#32      
This is where having that secondary ball handler in Boswell helps a lot. He took control in that 2nd half and calmed things down. It helps to have a veteran ball handler who doesn't play out of control. I really think Boswell will be a major asset with his experience as the schedule starts to get tougher. KJ is going to go through his ups and downs kinda like Curbelo did
 
#35      
The good thing is that they still had control of the game despite some uneasy moments in each half so that is a positive to take away
 
#36      
In the end, a win is a win.

Positive: defense play hard.

To me, it was a sloppy game. Missing easy shots, indecision leading to TOs, soft hands and taking three-point shots when driving to the whole was better play ruled the day!

I felt Morez should've played more. He'd be around that basketball to get offensive rebounds and the loose balls in the paint because there plenty of opportunities.

Way I feel now: take Alabama to cover. But, that's why they play the game.
 
#38      
The people who got on me about Tre White after the last game...well, Tre White had a very average game tonight and turned the ball over 4 times. Not going to get it done. I think he's a bench piece at the moment. I'm fully on the start Will Riley bandwagon now
 
#41      
Attention B1G point guards: Kylan Boswell wants your cabbage…
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#42      
Do we lose that without Ivisic tonight?
Yea, I'm pretty sure we would have. He was a zone buster. Great touch from 10-15 ft out. Didn't like some of the 3's he took but he's got a ton of versatility. He may end up being one of the top 2 or 3 big men in the B10
 
#43      
Thoughts:

1. Learning game, ugly, but I don't think there was any doubt who the better team was. That zone is boring, and frustrating, and slow, and stupid, and nauseating.

2. I'm slowly having a few issues with Tre White. Lazy at times, defense comes and go's. I need to see consistent hustle. It seems like he plays with this "cool" swag all the time. I don't care. Play hard, be a leader and take initiative.

3. We made a ton of "Freshman" errors. This will get better with time. But it's easy to forget how young these guys are. They need time on the floor together.

4. A few guys to mmention. Kylan was obviously alot better, I like him being more aggressive. Tomi is gonna be so valuable. Missed some bunnies but when we gets going he's gonna be great. DGL continues to play great on ball defense.

5. In full honesty, without orange colored glasses, we are prolly not ready for Alabama. But I'm ready to take the test and see what they got. Nothing to loose.
 
#45      
Another way to think about it...in a game where the 3 talented freshmen gave them nothing, Illinois won this game comfortably and were never seriously threatened. (yes, Ivisic is new, but is both 21 and technically a sophomore)

Ivisic-DGL-Boswell-White-Humrichous absolutely shut down Oakland defensively.
 
#46      
Very similar to last year's match up. Oakland did what they do and uglied the game up with their annoyingly unique defense. Good for our young guys who probably never had experience playing against a defense like that to get tested. Will only make us stronger in the long run.
 
#47      
Very similar to last year's match up. Oakland did what they do and uglied the game up with their annoyingly unique defense. Good for our young guys who probably never had experience playing against a defense like that to get tested. Will only make us stronger in the long run.
It emphasizes Brad's comments to the team about how you win when shots aren't falling. You have to find other ways and dig in defensively. We still have work to do, but you can see they understand how important that end of the court is which is hopefully promising they will continue to get better.
 
#50      
A professional announcer that has been around high level basketball for 40 years shouldn't have any problems pronouncing Eastern European names in the first place, but once you've actually heard how Jakucionis is supposed to be pronounced, it is not hard. At all.
 
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