Illinois 81, Iowa 61 Postgame

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#151      
Love the 23-34 (67.6%) from two. The only item of concern is still shooting 30% (9-29) from 3 when we are torching them inside.

Much better defensive ideas as well.
 
#152      
Sad Monsters Inc GIF by filmeditor


He’s at least going out on his shield…..
 
#153      
Good win....a much needed win! only negative I will say, is DGL's body language did not look great at all. Hate to think Purdue might be his last home game. Something tells me he is gonna have a lot to prove that night.....towards both teams.
I don't like saying anything "mean" about our guys, but in DGL's case, if he's not bringing energy, intensity and a boost.....he doesn't do much for us. He's bad offensively and they're going at him defensively. He gets bullied a bit and Hummel touched on it last night.
 
#158      
He will not see the floor again unless we make the Elite 8. Wrist fractures (even the smallest) take a good 6 weeks (with therapy). Do the math from the weekend he had his injury - puts him at E8 weekend.

If he were playing football, he’d be back sooner as he can play with a cast/club (assuming he’s not in a skill player position). Basketball, especially his position, he needs strong hands for grabbing rebounds, despite it not being his dominant hand.
 
#162      
He played well

I don't know why we can't say that
The same reason that in game thread when Boswell misses a shot seemingly 5 or more people jump on to point it out and how bad he is. Every fan base with every team each year has its whipping boy(s). Not saying Ben doesn’t deserve much of the criticism, but any mention of a success doesn’t have to be met with things like, “yeah but he can’t hit a 3.”
 
#163      
If Tomi stays he has national player of the year type potential
This comment will be hated by many but Tomi reminds me a bit of Hunter Dickinson. Lefty shot, smart passers and defenders. Tomi isnt as good in the post but he has flashed more post game and just needs to finish like he did agaimst Iowa.
 
#164      
My takeaway
Kylan had an elite defensive performance and was key to holding iowa to 61. Need to keep this up.
Tomi was dominant and looked just about fully healthy
KJ was disappointing but you can still see the flashes that he has. When he finally gets it together, we can still be the team that beat oregon.
Better 3 point shooting but still need to tone it down a bit unless we're on fire from deep.
Riley is an absolute bucket. I was expecting him to be more of a 3 point guy but he finishes around the rim so well. Just impressive... I want him back so bad.
Tre White is BACK!
 
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#165      
Why did the players see the needed adjustments but your d-coordinator didn’t?
Good question, but also you can't take away too much from soundly beating a weak team. Iowa is in the bottom of the conference, and they are without their best player. Being without that best player led directly to some of the ease by which Tomi was able to score.

You take your win and are happy about it. But saying all is well, we've fixed the problems is a stretch.
 
#168      
My takeaway
Kylan had an elite defensive performance and was key to holding iowa to 61. Need to keep this up.
Tomi was dominant and looked just about fully healthy
KJ was disappointing but you can still see the flashes that he has. When he finally gets it together, we can still be the team that beat oregon.
Better 3 point shooting but still need to tone it down a bit unless we're on fire from deep.
Riley is an absolute bucket. I was expecting him to be more of a 3 point guy but he finishes around the rim so well. Just impressive... I want him back so bad.
Tre White is BACK!
Riley’s game has improved because it appears he is learning to take contact. I saw multiple times yesterday where he initiated the contact. This is completely opposite of earlier in the year where he shied away from contact, resulting in his struggles. He appears to be figuring out the NCAA basketball level.
 
#169      
Watched some of the game this morning (still following my practice of not watching games live, even after Duke). Particularly when Morez is back, we HAVE to get some high-low action in the offense. Ivisic is lethal from the high post/elbow.
 
#170      
He played well

I don't know why we can't say that
I think Ben was extremely efficient on offense as a limited possession player. He got two good looks and made them. And in fairness to Ben, I think he's been the best on the team in getting himself quality 3pt looks all season, he just hasn't hit them. Outside of that though, he only actively participated in 6% of the possessions he was on the court for, which again is fine for a limited possession high efficiency role player, but the reason people on that end would think he played well is he made his open shots going 2 for 2. For example, had he missed those shots, I don’t think people would still say he played well offensively. Yes, that's obvious, but when you are a low active possession player, your makes and misses become more obvious. So on offense I personally didn't see all that much difference from him offensively other than making his open shots.

Defense though I wouldn't say he played particularly well, as I think his struggles to keep up with the Iowa players contributed heavily with Iowa's first half run and some of Iowa's best looks. He wasn't as poor defensively as Jake or Dra today, but I also wouldn't categorize his defense as all that good. That said, Ben did come up with 3 big steals today which is huge and much improved from average and he did get a few rebounds as well.

So overall, I'd say Ben played fine today as a sub and better than normal. Ate up minutes while resting the starters and made his open shots. Basically did what he was called on to do and didn't pout about the reduced role, and that part was great to see and shows Ben's leadership, maturity, and willingness to be a team player. And that to me was what most impressed me about his play last night
 
#171      
Watched some of the game this morning (still following my practice of not watching games live, even after Duke). Particularly when Morez is back, we HAVE to get some high-low action in the offense. Ivisic is lethal from the high post/elbow.
I'm not sure about his NBA future due to his limited mobility and general athleticism, but his skill level at that size is really remarkable.
 
#172      
Was good to see some hedging instead of drop coverage every time. Also good to see some pin downs for Will to come off for mid range. Also like the smash action with Boswell and KJ. would to see us run some floppy for Will and Kj to come off those pin downs. I know Will is not as good shooter as Plummer (miss that guy) but wish we would run the pin down high low action that we ran with Kofi and Plummer with Will and Tomi. Obviously that was during Gentry’s time so we ran more sets…
I like the low key shade here that we can’t run sets anymore because Gentry is sitting on a sideline in Spokane and there is no possible way our current coaches know how to practice this exotic art.

I may have read a little into your comment. Apologies.
 
#173      
I mean he churns out top 30 offenses like clockwork including a bunch top 10 ones whenever he has some talent. They tend to always move the ball really well, limit turnovers, and get good looks despite being relatively unathletic.

His problem has always been his defenses and not having enough athleticism at Iowa.

He's about to turn 66 so I'd imagine he might retire or get another head coaching job at a smaller conference. Both Penn and Lehigh have been struggling and he's got ties to both.

It would be interesting though if he was willing to be an offensive assistant to see what he could do if you recruited some athleticism for him. I don't know if his buyout includes offsetting salaries but he will get a nice buyout so if it doesn't offset a decent asst coach salary could push him towards 2 mil a year for the next 3 years.

That Siena team with Hasbrouck was fun to watch.
I am definitely not an Iowa fan. but I have watched them often because the way they play offense.
 
#174      
Well, a day later and I feel very conflicted. On one hand, we avoided true disaster yesterday, we put away an opponent by never taking our foot off of the gas (mostly, lol) and we finally hit some open threes in the second half.

On the other hand ... I will not lie, it was a depressing reality check/reminder to see some college hoops social media posts about how we are "now a lock" for the NCAA Tournament ... on February 26. :( Obviously, that is a depressing spot for our program given the high level it has sustained over the last five years or so, but I suppose you have to reevaluate everything given the immediate context.

Avoiding a loss to Iowa avoided the full meltdown. Beating Michigan would get us back to "playing for seeding," which feels like "the good old days" at this point. :ROFLMAO: Beating Purdue to make it a 3-game winning streak and getting to 20 wins would officially give me hope again, especially if we are getting these wins by truly playing well and consistently. If we somehow win the next two, then I think you are truly *gearing up for March* again, and we can all get excited about the BTT as a fresh start to a new season with a healthy team. For better or for worse, given our current pedigree, we will likely get a Quad 1 opportunity on day one of the BTT.
 
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