Illinois 79, Northern Kentucky 64 POSTGAME

As Al Davis would say, "Just win baby."

We are winning the games we should win and don't get any style points if we win by 40.

TCTORNADO said:

Finke was one of them. JCL, too.

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Yep, Finke was the point leader against Minnesota.

All three of these players are back again this year with Malcolm. Thorne had 25 against North Florida and 21 against North Dakota State to start off the regular season last year and he's back too.

This team has the pieces to play much better than they've shown so far this season. Maybe JCL and Thorne aren't fully recovered yet? :noidea:

RichardH said:

I feel like we've said this each of the last 3 seasons and we always end up losing a bunch of games. These aren't conference road games where any win is a good win. These are games against much inferior teams where we are supposed to dominate. To me there are several red flags with this team already that have been made obvious against some poor competition.

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Without getting into whether I agree with you a little or a lot, I just note that Ken Pom has pretty much nailed our scores against these teams and he has us playing near .500 ball and rated #70 in the nation. We do not want to be #70 in the nation. We have to do more than this if we are going to turn this thing around.

RichardH said:

I feel like we've said this each of the last 3 seasons and we always end up losing a bunch of games. These aren't conference road games where any win is a good win. These are games against much inferior teams where we are supposed to dominate. To me there are several red flags with this team already that have been made obvious against some poor competition.

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As Groce has said, this is an older team that hasn't played a lot together and some of those older guys themselves haven't played in 1-2 years period. Thorne will get better. Abrams will get better. JCL isn't going to shoot 26% from 3 like he has through 2 games. Some combo of Kipper, AJ, and DJW will prove to provide reliable bench production. Black will be back and provide more defense/rebounding and the motor Groce desires. After a few months, I think Lucas will be able to carve out a good 5-8 min niche for himself.

We are 2-0 which was the goal for the first two games. Take what I said with a grain of salt, however, as I am an eternal optimist.

whovous said:

I am convinced that Tate has a legit three point shot. He can't make so many of them in practice, or hit 90% of his FTs as a soph and be unable to shoot. He's got something in his head that makes him miss during games. Wish someone could find a cure for it.

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Search EMDR and sports psychology. I've used it clinically for 22 years. Very productive. Worked with some athletes.