ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
He's been through so much in his basketball life and has such a mature, veteran presence, it's insane that he's 20 years old.
Illinois 75, Iowa 69 Postgame
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LouHenson
- Naples Florida
I am sorry I just find this option as total BS. Wagler got trucked on the play. The foul was on Iowa and should have been on Iowa. If that gives Illinois the game, then that is basketball? I think Wagler may have “sort” of grabbed the Iowa player as he was falling But!!!!!!!!!!!! The Iowa player committed a foul first and when you are falling by the force of another player and you commit a completely autonomic response to try to break your fall you get the call WTF? That is just a lousy take by the officials, and any justification is simply window dreasing?
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This team does three things better than last year’s: shooting, defense, and taking care of the ball. Beyond that, it comes down to trust in a big moment. Last year, we leaned on KJ. This year, it’s Keaton. One of those guys inspires way more confidence than the other.
I think one could make the argument that Wagler (although it's not easy to tell) was hanging onto Sage as he was being pushed to the floor to protect himself from possible injury....I mean players are allowed to grab or hang onto the rim to prevent injury after a dunk....not out of reason to allow a player being shoved or pushed to the floor to hang on to prevent injury....just saying.....not sure what officials saw during the review that lead to the T on Wagler...but was a terrible call at a crucial point in the game
Mrs. Hopkins and I had a blast taking the fam to Iowa City to cheer on the Illini. It's such a great place to see a game, especially when the Illini win. We've seen 2 Illini wins there now over the last 3 years. Our little guy even got Keaton's autograph after the game. Let's hope the boys can keep their road mojo rolling up in Evanston!
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
KW has been described as the leader of the team by several folks here, for several weeks.
Battlefield promotions alone would get him to Sgt IMO.
I’d also add the ability to expose mismatches better on offense, defense mechanics, and alpha dog attitude. Additionally, there is less hero ball and vastly improved team play, imo.
After watching it several times: While they are hooked up hooked for a split second, Wagler, right before going down does not make any effort to pull or cling with his right arm,,,the arm is halfway extended out and not pulling in .... the hand is not grabbing either. If you take another look, focus on his right hand! The initial call was the right call and Wagler should have gone to the line.
It's a good point that last year's team started eerily similar to this years team. And both teams depend on two key freshman as the best players. The downfall last year, as others have pointed out was KJ getting injured, Tomi being out so long, illness going through the team and Morez getting hurt at the end of the season.
If we can stay healthy and connected, we should get to see what the potential is of this team - we never truly got to see that last year.
One key difference I will say, is our turnover rate is lower this year. Last year we were 104th in TO/possession, right now we're 40th in the country. So hopefully this success is more sustainable. As we saw in the tournament, turnovers ended up being our downfall, I can't see us going out like that again.
Actually that's not entirely true. As of January 10, they were 4th, yes, with the 5th ranked defense. As of January 12, they were 7th on Torvik after a home loss on Jan 11 to USC. Illinois' performance from Jan 11 to the end of the season was 30th in the country, with the 98th ranked defense. The really rough stretch, though, was between Jan 11 (USC loss) and Feb 22 (Duke blowout loss), which included home double digit losses to Michigan State and Maryland, a 20 point road loss at Wisconsin, and losses to terrible Rutgers and Nebraska teams.
So yes, stay healthy and keep improving, but this current Torvik rating (.9637 as of this morning) is its second highest at any point ever, higher than at any point during the 2021 Ayo/Kofi year.
I think Keaton is a junior officer, like a 2nd Lieutenant.
Did Illinois cater their meals?
Sadly, I missed this game and forgot to set my DVR.
Does anyone know where I might find a recording to watch?
Does anyone know where I might find a recording to watch?
Full replay is also available on the Fox Sports app.
The hell with Iowa. Illinois is 10-1 in the last 11 games against the Hawkeyes.
That is why I qualified it by saying "if Wagler committed the foul." The Iowa player was leaning pretty hard on Keaton, and was in position to get any rebound that came off to that side. Agree that it was probably a foul on the Iowa guy, as was called in real time, but Keaton also hooked his arm (and looked like it could have been before he fell). Keaton seemed to agree that he grabbed the guy in his interview today.
LouHenson
- Naples Florida
Ok, good take and I understand your philosophy, I just think if officials are doing that it is a terrible idea all around. In my opinion, he was fouled and was trying to break his fall. Good take Alaska!
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