Illinois 76, Minnesota 71 (OT) POSTGAME
I hope they have more player meetings...sounds like the one after Indiana game made a difference.
I don't have the real reason, but I'm guessing because neither can score efficiently or defend well.
Lets face it, on any real Illini squad, these guys would be getting garbage time minutes exclusively, neither is ready for league play.
That being said, I'm pumped about any road win at this point. Lets build on this progress, tenuous as it may be, and win 5-6 more.
Not disagreeing with you, but the resons you gave describe another player that got a lot of minutes. If they are not better than him, then they should not be on this team. Don't care about positions. At least jordan and Williams can shoot from a foot and most likely make a free throw.
Malcolm Hill said there was no player meeting after the IU game
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It looks like we had a philosophy change on rebounding last night. I think it paid dividends on both ends of the floor. When was the last time we out rebounded the other team and had 2 players with double digit rebounds?
Two dumb questions:
1. Just how does Finke pronounce his last name. Coach and some of the players seem to vary.
2. Is Minnesota an unnaturally bad rebounding team, or did something really change last night that can make a difference going forward? We've played MM and MF together before. Heck, we've had MT at the 5 for part of the season. Why did we suddenly become so dominant last night? Will we out-board OSU?
1. Just how does Finke pronounce his last name. Coach and some of the players seem to vary.
2. Is Minnesota an unnaturally bad rebounding team, or did something really change last night that can make a difference going forward? We've played MM and MF together before. Heck, we've had MT at the 5 for part of the season. Why did we suddenly become so dominant last night? Will we out-board OSU?
haasi
- New York
1. Fink-ee. Fink is a nickname.
2.
A. Minnesota bad rebounding team, almost as bad as we are (they're 308 in rebounding margin, we're 315 of 347).
B. Jordan Murphy being out with foul trouble was crippling to them.
C. Groce made a nice adjustment with finke and Morgan to capitalize, and it worked.
D. Ohio state a much better rebounding team. Suffice it to say that unless we get black and or Thorne back at reasonably full strength, they will eat us up on the boards. I will be happily shocked if playing Mav and Finke works well against them
2.
A. Minnesota bad rebounding team, almost as bad as we are (they're 308 in rebounding margin, we're 315 of 347).
B. Jordan Murphy being out with foul trouble was crippling to them.
C. Groce made a nice adjustment with finke and Morgan to capitalize, and it worked.
D. Ohio state a much better rebounding team. Suffice it to say that unless we get black and or Thorne back at reasonably full strength, they will eat us up on the boards. I will be happily shocked if playing Mav and Finke works well against them
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Finke rhymes with slinky.
Maybe, but not as many holes was their weak man-to-man. Bottom line is that they just don't defend very well. Decent teams roast them whatever D they run. I just think the zone gave them a lift last night when they needed it.
I'm going to wait and see better we call it a philosophy change. Groce has said that the offensive rebounding wasn't an area of focus due to the personnel, but that is likely to vary depending on the opponent. Our defense was good enough to stop them in transition and forced them to take mostly jumpers, which allowed guys to pursue offensive rebounds. Now will that work against teams that are not inferior to us? Maybe not yet, but this did work without Thorne, so that could give the staff confidence that we could do this against other teams when we have him back.
Excuse my man crush...but Malcolm with another 20+ point performance! Make that 10 on the season, more than any other player in the conference. Puts him 1st in the conference in ppg and has a healthy lead in most points scored by any player through 20 games.
Plenty of areas with this years team to be down on, but Malcolm is our bright spot. It's nice that shon Morris, Dakitch and other analysts are pointing out how underrated he is.
Tell Seth Greenberg, Bilas, Jwill and those boys at ESPN to put him on their first- team all underrated list.
Plenty of areas with this years team to be down on, but Malcolm is our bright spot. It's nice that shon Morris, Dakitch and other analysts are pointing out how underrated he is.
Tell Seth Greenberg, Bilas, Jwill and those boys at ESPN to put him on their first- team all underrated list.
12:00pm The Journey: Big Ten Basketball TV-PG
Meet Illinois junior Malcolm Hill who has been a jack of all trades for Illinois this season. Find out why Northwestern senior Tre Demps has his hands full both on and off the court, and see how Rasheed Sulaimon has gone from being the enemy to a valued member of the Terrapins.
- See more at: http://btn.com/shows/#sthash.wzpPfREb.dpuf
Hope everyone caught the segment on Malcolm Hill. Kid has a good head,a good heart, and has overcome some adversity.
Meet Illinois junior Malcolm Hill who has been a jack of all trades for Illinois this season. Find out why Northwestern senior Tre Demps has his hands full both on and off the court, and see how Rasheed Sulaimon has gone from being the enemy to a valued member of the Terrapins.
- See more at: http://btn.com/shows/#sthash.wzpPfREb.dpuf
Hope everyone caught the segment on Malcolm Hill. Kid has a good head,a good heart, and has overcome some adversity.
I don't have the real reason, but I'm guessing because neither can score efficiently or defend well.
Lets face it, on any real Illini squad, these guys would be getting garbage time minutes exclusively, neither is ready for league play.
That being said, I'm pumped about any road win at this point. Lets build on this progress, tenuous as it may be, and win 5-6 more.
I do disagree with you somewhat. AJ has shown he can be decent defensively on occasion. He is one of the few players who consistently boxes out. He has started several games. Offensively he needs to be more consistent. I couldn't understand why against Indiana on two different occasions he drained three pointers & then was immediately taken out. To me, it was a great opportunity to help him build confidence.
I haven't seem enough of Williams, but in a blow out against Indiana, he definitely should have gotten more than six minutes.
I will agree that, on a good team, they'd probably only get garbage minutes.
Jordan Murphy picked up two quick fouls, so Minnesota did not have any quality inside players and depth. Groce decided to go with Mav in the post and Finke at PF. Worked very well. It freed the perimeter and allowed Finke and Hill to play their natural position, which was effective. Once Groce went with that scheme (at 11:43 of first half), we went from 7 down to 5 up the rest of the half, outscoring Minnesota by +12.
I would not go overboard with this win, however. Minnesota is a bad team, and Murphy's foul troubled were critical. And we still got a huge 3 from Nunn and got lucky with Minnesota missing the front end of 1-n-1 on the ensuing possession, all that just to force OT. Mav went for 35 mins when he averages less than 15. Huge gaps in our C/post depth this year and next.
The real question is what is happening with Thorne. Looks like a repeat of the Black situation.
Problem is if all you have at the 4/5 is Finke and Morgan, it's almost impossible for them to play together a full game. Big guys rarely are able to go hard for 40 min/game. So unless Thorne or Black is available, you're going to need some minutes from Hill (or maybe Williams) at the 4 position.
Don't want to be a buzz kill, but still saw a lot of the same issues on offense and defense. We are settling for the quick shot and one on one. Hill and Nunn are good players but having them constantly make NBA type shots is not going to lead to success.
Only game that I have seen that we ran offense was the Purdue game, it was also Lewis' best game by far. Darnell Valentine's Dad who is a high school coach said " take the head of the snake by taking the PG out of the game" unfortunately we are weak at the PG position.
On defense, we are not denying the ball and giving too much room for 3 pointers. Weber's teams were very good in this department, unfortunately his offense was the opposite.
Only game that I have seen that we ran offense was the Purdue game, it was also Lewis' best game by far. Darnell Valentine's Dad who is a high school coach said " take the head of the snake by taking the PG out of the game" unfortunately we are weak at the PG position.
On defense, we are not denying the ball and giving too much room for 3 pointers. Weber's teams were very good in this department, unfortunately his offense was the opposite.
Of course, that is why I said people should not go overboard with this win. Minnesota is a bad team without quality and depth at C/post and got Murphy in foul trouble on top of that. Again, Mav averages less than 15 mpg, he got 35 last night. Realistically, Mav is about 15-20 mpg player max. Someone will be forced to play the rest of the mins at C/post (Finke is currently the only available) out of position, which will force DJW getting mins at 4, and Hill also being forced out of position at 4 as well. Not a situation that can lead to a very good team. Same problems next year, unless we miraculously add some post player like Thorne.
Black seems out for the season with not much talk about returning (this season). So the real question is what is happening with Thorne.
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ChazzReinhold
Mom! The Meatloaf!
KN and Finke both talked about a players meeting in their interviews.
And I bet, had we not barely forced OT and won, we would have never heard of that players meeting.
Personally, I think these players meetings, coaches' pep talks, etc. are overrated. Limited real impact, we have more serious personnel issues and gaps.
Yep, caught that. The TV crew did too and commented on it. You could tell it was genuine as they were walking back towards the bench. A very nice moment showing how much Groce cares about his kids.
Nice to see us showing some attitude on the glass last night too.
Saw that, but had two other thoughts on it. One, where was the medical guy? There was a guy sauntering out behind Groce; don't know whether that was him. If it was, would've thought he might have moved a lot faster to tend to a kid down like that. Second, MF may have got a bit lucky on that play, as it looked to me that the guy who took him down nearly hit his lower leg from behind as Finke was landing on it.