Illinois 68, Michigan 53 Postgame

#251      
Man, I had to rewatch the game on DVR as I missed it live, but I think someone else mentioned that the FS1 broadcast was brutal and felt like a hometown Michigan broadcast. It was inexcusably bad.
Ha. And maybe our best offensive set of the game where Trent drove and kicked it out to Grandi for a wide open 3, a set BU specifically mentioned in his post game presser, Jimmy Jackson called “not pretty.”

Agree some of the worst announcing I’ve heard.
 
#252      

Illinivek23

Gurnee
Man, I had to rewatch the game on DVR as I missed it live, but I think someone else mentioned that the FS1 broadcast was brutal and felt like a hometown Michigan broadcast. It was inexcusably bad.
It honestly was giving me a headache - inaudible mumbling at times. After I turned on BB/Deon, made a world of difference. Too bad, I usually like to hear what the national guys say about us during games
 
#253      

blackdog

Champaign
I think the most disappointing thing about last night was the effort for 30-35 minutes. This opponent hung a banner for a conference title that we should have shared (at least). Their star center wanted to be quoted saying that no one likes Illinois and doubled down on it by trashing our fans at media day. Heck, even their coach referred to our pre-season all American as “Coffee.”

Maybe the team not seeing Dickinson out there let the air out of the balloon some, but it looked like we were sleepwalking at times. That play Hawkins bent over at the waist to try and corral rebound only to get stripped, which lead to a Michigan 3, epitomized most of the effort. I don’t understand how we weren’t up for this game.

That play was a foul for diving into the back of his knee
 
#254      
Five thoughts:
1. I give a lot of credit to the Michigan players- they played hard, I still hate Michigan and Howard, but much respect to Jones and Brooks
2. I don’t blame them for holding HD out - he was going to get dominated by Kofi if he wasn’t in game shape
3. This game showed how much we need Curbelo back- he’s the only one that has the confidence to drive when pressed and get a layup or dish to Kofi- Trent and Plummer finally starting doing that but it took all game , it reminded me of the early games when teams would just pressure our ball handlers and we were nearly trying to get the ball past half court and do a bunch of high ball screens - we need someone to make the defense pay for overextending which is AC all day
4. The defensive rebounding was atrocious - we need to clean that up before PU or we will get blown out
5. We can be a special team this year team- I love how we can take their best punch and respond and win fairly easily in the end, I love the resolve despite our flaws, there was no question how much better we were then them in all facets of the game
 
#255      

blackdog

Champaign
Yeah he can’t keep guys in front of him. uM pg lived in the paint.

And Jones still took 16 shots to score 17 points so its not like he was cake walking into the lane for easy layups. Most of his makes were floaters which most of the time you just kind if shrug your shoulders at.

Teams can try and pick on Plummer but he's generally matched up with someone that BU feels comfortable taking a lot of shots and we WANT teams to iso. This defense is so good at taking away the next pass it doesn't allow the other team to move the ball off penetration. Illinois is currently 20th in assists allowed per game which means they are making the other team play 1 on 1 instead of running their sets.
 
#256      

JSpence

Evansville, IN
Hmm, it might be that this thread is suddenly a few posts lighter. It feels more agile. Happier.

Fichigan has been Mucked. Go Illini!
 
#257      
Lots of talk about Illini under-performing against Mich. But that is simply not true to any great extent. This team can get the job done in many ways. For the better part of two decades, we have had to witness Illini teams losing these types of games. Many simply do not understand that any athletically talented team when motivated and focused, and yet missing a big cog, can turn a game against any opponent into a close and ugly rock fight. Michigan did just that........and the Illini won by 15 pts!! There has never been a team, even the great UCLA teams, that did not have to face this kind of challenge. I love the patience, understanding and skill with which this staff and team handled this challenge.

Now, on to the next challenge...and it will be entirely different. The Illini just might want to remember just how much they struggled against Michigan's intense and patient half court defense and give Purdue some of the same. Win or lose, we will learn some things about this team on Mon. night. My hope is to see a strong-willed, hustling, aggressive team play 40 minutes of competent play. The key, of course, is how Kofi and Payne can handle their two opposites. And can DFW and Trent slow down their perimeter stars? Plummer and CoHawk will be the x factors, and maybe one of the frosh. This will not be a Wake Forest 2005 coming out party....but a hard fought close game that can be won. Will it? I will save comment for postgame.
 
#258      
Hometown hero from the days of old, tv-genic, probably not horrible at X's and O's but not a savant, recruits ok early on, horrible at player development, overpaid, and likely to be a huge public relations disaster for the AD when they are inevitability, painfully, and far too late shown the door.
You left out the part where Howard has already accomplished more at Michigan than Frost has at Nebraska (as coaches).
 
#259      
Hometown hero from the days of old, tv-genic, probably not horrible at X's and O's but not a savant, recruits ok early on, horrible at player development, overpaid, and likely to be a huge public relations disaster for the AD when they are inevitability, painfully, and far too late shown the door.
He's recruited way better than "ok" thus far. On paper, based on rankings, they are a top 5 or so team in the country. But as we all know, the whole doesn't always equal the sum of the parts.

You're probably right on the rest.
 
#260      
Last night during one of the breaks in the game, SFC showed Jabari Parker on the video board and announced that he was in attendance. Anyone have any idea what that was about?
 
#261      
Well, although it will be nice getting Andre back, Kofi is averaging 22 ppg. He's getting plenty of touches and plenty of points. It's true that Andre is our only "pure" point guard and I'd like to get him back soon. But if you watched last night's game you should have seen what excellent point guard play we got from Frazier.
The problem is Trent (probably) can't play 40 mpg. When he is out, we suck. This team literally has one solid ball handler (Trent). Given that, BU has done a tremendous job.
 
Last edited:
#262      
Curbelo's importance was highlighted by our performance when Frazier was on the bench. Not to disparage others on the team, their skill sets are not point guard skills. More than that, we forget how Frazier's offense improved in prior years when he was relieved of point guard responsibilities. Last night every time Frazier brought the ball up he had to work to get to half court because of full court pressure placed on him. There was no real attempt to steal the ball from him, clearly the intent was to make him work and tire him in order to impact the rest of his play. If Curbelo relieves him of that point guard pressure for even 15-20 minutes the rest of Frazier's game will be significantly improved. Don't get me wrong. His play has been spectacular to this point. He will be better when he doesn't have to play point guard 36 minutes a game.
 
#263      
You left out the part where Howard has already accomplished more at Michigan than Frost has at Nebraska (as coaches).
True, although the roster that Howard has been working with up until now was predominately composed of Beilein guys. And to someone else's observation on recruiting - yes, he's picked up the recruiting stars, no doubt. Whether he's capable of finding the right guys, whole different question and not looking that way so far. 🤷‍♂️ Not a perfect comparison and he could certainly prove me wrong.
 
#264      
Has anyone see Coach comment on the flop calls? I don't think they even showed a replay of it, not sure the announcers knew it as it happen or when the T was called on us. I thought both flop calls were bad but would like to get opinion other than my bias influenced one.
 
#265      
Curbelo's importance was highlighted by our performance when Frazier was on the bench. Not to disparage others on the team, their skill sets are not point guard skills. More than that, we forget how Frazier's offense improved in prior years when he was relieved of point guard responsibilities. Last night every time Frazier brought the ball up he had to work to get to half court because of full court pressure placed on him. There was no real attempt to steal the ball from him, clearly the intent was to make him work and tire him in order to impact the rest of his play. If Curbelo relieves him of that point guard pressure for even 15-20 minutes the rest of Frazier's game will be significantly improved. Don't get me wrong. His play has been spectacular to this point. He will be better when he doesn't have to play point guard 36 minutes a game.
Check This Out GIF
 
#266      
We are now on a nice 4-game win streak vs. Michigan, all against Juwan. :cool: In fact, we are on at least a 1-game winning streak vs. 12 of our 13 Big Ten rivals:

W6 vs. Northwestern

W5 vs. Nebraska

W4 vs. Iowa
W4 vs. Michigan
W4 vs. Minnesota

W3 vs. Indiana
W3 vs. Penn State
W3 vs. Purdue
W3 vs. Wisconsin

W2 vs. Ohio State
W2 vs. Rutgers

W1 vs. Maryland

The only losing streak?

L3 vs. Michigan State. And I am hoping to change that very soon! If we can beat Purdue and Michigan, we will be on a winning streak vs. every single Big Ten opponent for the first time since 2005 to 2006.
 
#267      
Has anyone see Coach comment on the flop calls? I don't think they even showed a replay of it, not sure the announcers knew it as it happen or when the T was called on us. I thought both flop calls were bad but would like to get opinion other than my bias influenced one.
No T called. They got a free throw and the ball because we were called for a 2nd flop. Took the refs a little to realize it was our 2nd which caused the delayed whistle
 
#268      

JSpence

Evansville, IN
Now, on to the next challenge...and it will be entirely different. The Illini just might want to remember just how much they struggled against Michigan's intense and patient half court defense and give Purdue some of the same. Win or lose, we will learn some things about this team on Mon. night.
Hey, just in case you didn't realize it, Monday's game is at 11am. :confused:

edit: CompSci got this first. I definitely checked to see if others had clarified, but didn't see his post. I can't figure out how to delete posts on desktop or mobile.
 
Last edited:
#269      

JFGsCoffeeMug

BU:1 Trash cans:0
Chicago
Has anyone see Coach comment on the flop calls? I don't think they even showed a replay of it, not sure the announcers knew it as it happen or when the T was called on us. I thought both flop calls were bad but would like to get opinion other than my bias influenced one.
I think the two warnings were against Plummer and RJ. Both were pushed, but I also agreed they embellished the contact. Glad the game didn't turn on those calls
 
#270      

JSpence

Evansville, IN
He's recruited way better than "ok" thus far. On paper, based on rankings, they are a top 5 or so team in the country. But as we all know, the whole doesn't always equal the sum of the parts.

You're probably right on the rest.

We can get some good insight on how much of a threat he is by how other coaches (Izzo in particular) treat him in the media.
 
Last edited:
#271      
No T called. They got a free throw and the ball because we were called for a 2nd flop. Took the refs a little to realize it was our 2nd which caused the delayed whistle
So, the 2nd flop called was against Melendez, right? I only saw a quick replay with no comments by the commentators to elaborate on it, as I recall. It appeared to me Melendez was back-peddling from the man he was guarding and it was just his momentum that took him to land on the floor, thus it was not an over-exaggeration on his part nor a valid flop, right?
 
#273      
I think the two warnings were against Plummer and RJ. Both were pushed, but I also agreed they embellished the contact. Glad the game didn't turn on those calls
I thought the Plummer one had plenty of legit contact and was a bad flop call. Michigan had a flop warning that was not warranted either. RJ’s was a good call and a perfect example of why that rule was put in place.
 
#274      

JSpence

Evansville, IN
We are now on a nice 4-game win streak vs. Michigan, all against Juwan. :cool: In fact, we are on at least a 1-game winning streak vs. 12 of our 13 Big Ten rivals:

W6 vs. Northwestern

W5 vs. Nebraska

W4 vs. Iowa
W4 vs. Michigan
W4 vs. Minnesota

W3 vs. Indiana
W3 vs. Penn State
W3 vs. Purdue
W3 vs. Wisconsin

W2 vs. Ohio State
W2 vs. Rutgers

W1 vs. Maryland

The only losing streak?

L3 vs. Michigan State. And I am hoping to change that very soon! If we can beat Purdue and Michigan, we will be on a winning streak vs. every single Big Ten opponent for the first time since 2005 to 2006.
This is f'ing incredible. The upcoming games are huge for this meaningless but amazing stat. Thank you for sharing!
 
#275      
Has anyone see Coach comment on the flop calls? I don't think they even showed a replay of it, not sure the announcers knew it as it happen or when the T was called on us. I thought both flop calls were bad but would like to get opinion other than my bias influenced one.
I rewound the game to where RJM was called for a flop and watched it in slo-mo. It looked to me to be a clear charge as RJ was retreating, but had established his position. The MU guy not only mowed him down, but extended his arm while doing so. There was a lot of contact on that play, so a flop call was absurd. I could have seen the ref call RJ for a foul, tho I think it would have been a bad call too.