Illinois 68, Northwestern 61 POSTGAME

#151      

ChiefIllini

C
ChiefIllini
JCL had a very underrated game. Of course you'd like to see better than 1-4 from deep, but he had some fantastic passes, leading to 5 assists. I hope its clicking with him that guys are completely overselling to take away the 3 from him. He's got guys jumping 2 ft in the air whenever he pump fakes. He might not have the best handles or be a great driver, but he used his 3 pt shot to facilitate others tonight. Played above average D and no turnovers. I think this might have been his best overall game of the season.

TJL, Fraizer, and JCL will be a hard threesome to deal with for the next few years. Add in Damonte and hopefully AJ and I think in a couple years our back court will be our best in a decade. WIth Kipper, Finke, Black, and Tilmon, its hard to see see some light at the end of the tunnel.
 
#152      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
Speaking of last night's stats, an interesting line from JCL - 5 pts, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. a triple half double.
 
#153      

SescIllini

SescIllini
SescIllini
Good to see the team not quick and play with defensive intensity from everybody which has been seen consistently. Watching the game yesterday I was reminded of the way Weber's teams played defense.

TJL and Kipper have a fight in them that I'm not sure many of their teammates carry. Both of these freshmen play to the last second regardless what the score is. That will serve us and them well going forward.

Great to see Groce get a break and Whitman showing appreciation for the effort. I think a great part of Groce's legacy here is that he carried himself with class and never felt he promoted himself. I think he is rethinking his loyalty to under performing coaches and players. Was concerned to see Ford run a play during the last time out.
 
#154      

OrangeKrus28

O
OrangeKrus28
SescIllini said:
Good to see the team not quick and play with defensive intensity from everybody which has been seen consistently. Watching the game yesterday I was reminded of the way Weber's teams played defense.

TJL and Kipper have a fight in them that I'm not sure many of their teammates carry. Both of these freshmen play to the last second regardless what the score is. That will serve us and them well going forward.

Great to see Groce get a break and Whitman showing appreciation for the effort. I think a great part of Groce's legacy here is that he carried himself with class and never felt he promoted himself. I think he is rethinking his loyalty to under performing coaches and players. Was concerned to see Ford run a play during the last time out.
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That's b/c Te'Jon and Kipper are freshman looking for PT. When many of the upperclassmen have or are not being pushed for PT, they get complacent. Also, it could be the recent era of Illini basketball where there might be a program issue with accountability.
 
#155      

Illini B-Ball Fan

Illini B-Ball Fan
Illini B-Ball Fan
OrangeKrus28 said:
That's b/c Te'Jon and Kipper are freshman looking for PT. When many of the upperclassmen have or are not being pushed for PT, they get complacent. Also, it could be the recent era of Illini basketball where there might be a program issue with accountability.
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Really? If you were to ask any one of the current seniors about complacency or accountability, I'm sure you would get more than you would want in return.
 
#156      

BananaShampoo

B
Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
BananaShampoo
ChiefIllini said:
JCL had a very underrated game. Of course you'd like to see better than 1-4 from deep, but he had some fantastic passes, leading to 5 assists. I hope its clicking with him that guys are completely overselling to take away the 3 from him. He's got guys jumping 2 ft in the air whenever he pump fakes. He might not have the best handles or be a great driver, but he used his 3 pt shot to facilitate others tonight. Played above average D and no turnovers. I think this might have been his best overall game of the season.
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I agree it was a very good game for him. If he can figure out how to make that overselling on his outside shot to translate into creating opportunities for himself to score in other ways (while still providing good passing and defense) that will make him very dangerous.
 
#160      

UrbanaIsTheShiz

U
UrbanaIsTheShiz
When you are wrong you are wrong.

I thought Groce did a great job this game. Strong substitution patterns. Promoting aggressive play on defense. Getting players to distribute the ball...I saw more inside-out passes this game than in the past 10. Not every open shot has to get took, saw players finding good shots for their teammates. Hill played very well in the second half, displaying more concentration and ball IQ than we've been seeing in his funk. Good to see Lucas keeping his chin up after 2 terrible games and playing quite well. Good to see them finding Finke outside again, they had been going away from it a bit. Its hard to believe what a good offensive player Mav has become, he gets open outside and takes good shots, he makes goofy little post moves and drops the ball in. I think he will make some money overseas.

I dont know if they can play much better than this, but they can play much worse and so this was great to see. Great job coach, great job guys, go Illini, get Penn State!
 
#161      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
UrbanaIsTheShiz said:
Its hard to believe what a good offensive player Mav has become, he gets open outside and takes good shots, he makes goofy little post moves and drops the ball in. I think he will make some money overseas.
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Ya, can hardly believe how far he has come. Major credit to him and the coaching staff. Really nice counterpoint to Egwu, who was a great player in many ways but never really developed offensively under the staff
 
#162      

ChazzReinhold

ChazzReinhold
Mom! The Meatloaf!
ChazzReinhold
haasi said:
Ya, can hardly believe how far he has come. Major credit to him and the coaching staff. Really nice counterpoint to Egwu, who was a great player in many ways but never really developed offensively under the staff
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Not much the staff could do considering Nnanna suffered from butyrum digitorum.
 
#164      

MakesNoSense

M
MakesNoSense
haasi said:
Ya, can hardly believe how far he has come. Major credit to him and the coaching staff. Really nice counterpoint to Egwu, who was a great player in many ways but never really developed offensively under the staff
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And Morgan never developed defensively.
 
#165      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
MakesNoSense said:
And Morgan never developed defensively.
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true. can't win em all?

i used to think that our staff (ford) was incapable of developing big men offensively,now i just think that they're kind of all over the place and generally don't do a great job developing players, with some exceptions.
 
#167      

Illiniaaron

I
Geneseo, IL
Illiniaaron
A very nice win for a team under extreme duress. Each conference win is precious, whether you make the tourney or not or if your coach is on the hot seat. You can really see the light bulb turning on in Lucas' head, which is great to witness. To me it looks like if this team is going to win going forward, then Hill, Lucas, Kipper, Morgan, and Finke need to get the majority of the minutes with a few others chipping in.
 
#168      

EJ33

E
San Francisco
EJ33
WesterveltVictoryCigar said:
He actually played fairly well on that end last night. I think much of his limitations on D are just due to his lack of athleticism.
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Agreed. Not redshirting Morgan was also a terrible decision. Part of the short-term win-now roster management that has really, really hurt Groce.
 
#169      

OrangeKrus28

O
OrangeKrus28
EJ33 said:
Agreed. Not redshirting Morgan was also a terrible decision. Part of the short-term win-now roster management that has really, really hurt Groce.
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There was no backup to Egwu in Morgan's frosh year. I believe it was Egwu/Morgan/Colbert. So, yea, it would've been best to redshirt one of those two guys but you can't blame a coach for not redshirting Morgan b/c there would've been no depth behind Egwu at all.
 
#170      

Ga65

G
Ga65
Believe PG and defensive stopper (at rim) are more important assets than other positions. Much less worried about scoring next year with our best PG in several years in TJL and hoping Frasier is even better. Also know everyone loves LB but seems to be better (to me) with KN playing. Wonder if he takes MH's place at the 3 next year. Don't believe there is a KN affect- not in his personality. We seem to always over estimate the newbies but we have two winners this year.
 
#171      

OrangeKrus28

O
OrangeKrus28
Ga65 said:
Believe PG and defensive stopper (at rim) are more important assets than other positions. Much less worried about scoring next year with our best PG in several years in TJL and hoping Frasier is even better. Also know everyone loves LB but seems to be better (to me) with KN playing. Wonder if he takes MH's place at the 3 next year. Don't believe there is a KN affect- not in his personality. We seem to always over estimate the newbies but we have two winners this year.
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Kipper plays the 3 next year. He is a natural SF. Leron is a prototypical PF, so I believe he will continue to play the 4.
 
#172      

Deleted member 4960

D
Guest
Deleted member 4960
They couldn't really afford to redshirt Morgan, he was the only other big man on the roster besides Egwu.
 
#173      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
OrangeKrus28 said:
Kipper plays the 3 next year. He is a natural SF. Leron is a prototypical PF, so I believe he will continue to play the 4.
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Here's hoping that next year for the first time in a long time we're more than the sum of our parts. I think the last time that happened was probably 04-05, and our parts back then were A/A+ to begin with.

Can pencil in Frazier/Lucas, JCL, Kipper, Black, Tilmon/Finke or whoever in, but unless they know how to play well together, it doesn't mean much.
 
#174      

EJ33

E
San Francisco
EJ33
Chathamillini said:
They couldn't really afford to redshirt Morgan, he was the only other big man on the roster besides Egwu.
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Fair enough, but that was a very expensive 7 minutes per game (and 1 pt / 1 rebound).
 
#175      

haasi

haasi
New York
haasi
remember how bad he was back then? my god. night and day.