Illinois 81, Rutgers 55 Postgame

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#152      
People were saying this about KJ last year. I didn't buy it.

But I'm sold on Keaton. We've had some great freshman but no one that I can think of has ever come in and been this good for a team that is a legitimate Final Four contender.
I didn't buy it either. He's already beyond where Will was at the end of last year. When it's all said and done, he'll be the GOAT of Illini Freshmen 🐐
 
#154      
Some of the so called Illini fans on this site treat Petrovic like they treated Ben last year. He has been a disappointment but he doesn't deserve the treatment he has received.
 
#156      
Yes, all fanbases are insane. That's a universal truth.

Fan bases are insane because we all tie our personal identity to outside events that we can’t control. Each pitch in baseball results in reward or pain. Each play in football. Each shot and save in hockey. And each field goal attempt and free throw in roundball. We live and die hundreds of times within each game and then we get the big payoff (or pain) at the game end. And then we do it all again when the next game comes.

Who would do such a thing!?
 
#157      
One person is approaching this discussion with a coach's mindset while others are approaching it with a fan/analyst's mindset

I'm sure Brad is telling his players today that the 2H effort was unacceptable and we should never have Rutgers outscore us in a half, ever... requires Brad to completely block out reality, but that's just how its done... that's how you coach

If you approach this very same subject as a fan/analyst, the conversation is vastly different and there's no need to block out reality to get a response from a set of individuals or persuade them to perform better... you can see 2H results from equivalent teams and know that this sort of thing happens A LOT

That said, there are plenty who show up on message boards with a "coach's mindset" and we see that in the overall theme of the board over a period of 4 games where we are the #1 team in the entire nation efficiency-wise (Torvik), yet if you read this board you'd think we were a bubble team
And I'm not totally sure that's how it is either. After the PSU game this board was on fire, but the locker room celebrations/energy looked like a totally different mood. Brad actually sounded very encouraged after yesterday's game.

Teachable moments? For sure. Are there things to get corrected? Absolutely. But that's the case for every game which presents its own individual challenge.

I don’t think the team views the past four games with the doom and gloom that certain posts would indicate (nor should they).
 
#158      
Irrelevant? If anything it serves as great practice material. When you’re up 27 at half, and everyone knows the game’s over with 99% certainty…. it’s natural human instinct to not come out with the same intensity as when the score is 0-0. It’s supposed to happen that way.

From there the only thing that matters is to not let them back in the game in any way, shape, or form — which we didn’t.

This is literally the closest Rutgers got the entire second half:

Really no idea how that’s sparking so much outrage from certain posters.

Additionally, we only lost the second half score by a mere one point. By no means did they just run us over. I thought defense was solid throughout.
So you choose not to assess the second half. That's completely valid, but you're taking issue with a comment made on the game thread during the second half, where other people were assessing it.
 
#159      
So you choose not to assess the second half. That's completely valid, but you're taking issue with a comment made on the game thread during the second half, where other people were assessing it.
I took issue with the statement "not happy with this win."

This was a win over a conference opponent where: we held them to 55 for the game, it was over in the first ten minutes, 27 point lead at half, lead was never below 20 points in the second half, we won by 26.

The PSU win was apparently super underwhelming for it was only by 8 points. Then the same team almost beats Michigan. Now this performance is still not good enough when it's by 26 points.

I'm just not sure what else to tell you.
 
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#161      
I couldn't have been the only one that saw Petro alone looking dejected end of bench, not engaged with anyone and then laying back in chair like he was asleep at the end there after he didn't even get the garbage time tick in favor of Redd/Fagbemi (or even Ben who'd already played a bit)
He’s completely checked out at this point. Brad’s methods work for some and do the complete opposite for others (see: Skyy).

He’s been like this for a few games now. Too scared to make a mistake, playing timid, completely lost out there. And totally disengaged on the bench during the game. Not cheering etc.
 
#163      
So you choose not to assess the second half. That's completely valid, but you're taking issue with a comment made on the game thread during the second half, where other people were assessing it.
Dude. That was literally 5 paragraphs, 124 words, including a screenshot that very clearly ties back to his point.

Some of this is just silly lol.
 
#164      
I took issue with the statement "not happy with this win."

This was a win over a conference opponent where: we held them to 55 for the game, it was over in the first ten minutes, 27 point lead at half, lead was never below 20 points in the second half, we won by 26.

The PSU win was apparently super underwhelming for it was only by 8 points. Then the same team almost beats Michigan. Now this performance is still not good enough when it's by 26 points.

I'm just not sure what else to tell you.
Before a game, you know it's going to be one of two scenarios, just depending on the result:

If we lose: "Fire Brad, we'll never make another second weekend, we should be unranked, we're going .500 in big ten, etc."

If we win: "Not a good performance. Uninspiring effort. We won't win again if we continue to play like this."

Of course one is a lot more hostile than the other, and so we all prefer the W.
 
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#165      
What am I missing here?

Going back through the thread, it seems Iike there were only like 2 or 3 posters complaining about the game and then about 486 million posters mocking or chastising the fanbase for complaining even though almost no one was complaining in the first place.
 
#166      
last night was another example of what makes Keaton one of the best freshman in the nation and that we've ever had. He was pushed, banged, shoved, everything but punched in the gut (he might have been, I had a bad angle). And it just made him more determined to go to the bucket and finish. He was really mixing it up with the Rutgers defenders. Not many freshman could have dealt with what he dealt with and then finish like he did.
 
#167      
last night was another example of what makes Keaton one of the best freshman in the nation and that we've ever had. He was pushed, banged, shoved, everything but punched in the gut (he might have been, I had a bad angle). And it just made him more determined to go to the bucket and finish. He was really mixing it up with the Rutgers defenders. Not many freshman could have dealt with what he dealt with and then finish like he did.
What I have appreciated from the last couple of games with Keaton is that he has positional size but really heavy on the fundamentals. Even when players switch to put a taller player on him, Keaton's skills often win out.
 
#168      
What am I missing here?

Going back through the thread, it seems Iike there were only like 2 or 3 posters complaining about the game and then about 486 million posters mocking or chastising the fanbase for complaining even though almost no one was complaining in the first place.

Holy hyperbole and divisiveness...

486 million? There are 153 total messages in this thread. It's a clear, absurd exaggeration that combined with hyperbolically low number of complaints misrepresents the number of people actually involved in any "mocking or chastising" or that "almost no one was complaining".

The thread did start out with a few lightly mocking posts due to the overall negative theme of the actual game thread that just concluded seconds prior, then there were at least 3-5 complaints about Petrovic, a lengthy and quite vicious rant several posts in about how people aren't allowed to say anything negative at all on here, complaint about the offense being (quote) "mediocre" and lazily chucking 3s, complaints about 'coasting' in the 2H, another complaint saying offense in 2H was 'pretty awful', and there were plenty of mocking comments going the other direction calling people 'constant defenders' or saying 'any comment that isn't exceedingly positive is torn down', followed by a couple more Petrovic complaints, and then there was the exchange this morning where the board was informed that no team with a 30 point lead should EVER be outscored in the 2H to which the replies, to me, seemed mostly thoughtful and measured, wrapped up with an accusation that someone who wrote a 5 paragraph assessment of the 2H was accused of 'not assessing the 2H' because the person's opinion didn't align as they'd wished.

So yeah, it seems like you're misrepresenting things just a tad. This post game thread has actually been the most civil one I can remember going back for a month, at least. But go ahead and use your hyperbole to frame the dynamic as a massive, disproportionate mob of "486 million posters" attacking a tiny, innocent minority of "2 or 3 posters" to create a huge Us vs Them narrative (which you claim to dislike).
 
#169      
Holy hyperbole and divisiveness...

486 million? There are 153 total messages in this thread. It's a clear, absurd exaggeration that combined with hyperbolically low number of complaints misrepresents the number of people actually involved in any "mocking or chastising" or that "almost no one was complaining".

The thread did start out with a few lightly mocking posts due to the overall negative theme of the actual game thread that just concluded seconds prior, then there were at least 3-5 complaints about Petrovic, a lengthy and quite vicious rant several posts in about how people aren't allowed to say anything negative at all on here, complaint about the offense being (quote) "mediocre" and lazily chucking 3s, complaints about 'coasting' in the 2H, another complaint saying offense in 2H was 'pretty awful', and there were plenty of mocking comments going the other direction calling people 'constant defenders' or saying 'any comment that isn't exceedingly positive is torn down', followed by a couple more Petrovic complaints, and then there was the exchange this morning where the board was informed that no team with a 30 point lead should EVER be outscored in the 2H to which the replies, to me, seemed mostly thoughtful and measured, wrapped up with an accusation that someone who wrote a 5 paragraph assessment of the 2H was accused of 'not assessing the 2H' because the person's opinion didn't align as they'd wished.

So yeah, it seems like you're misrepresenting things just a tad. This post game thread has actually been the most civil one I can remember going back for a month, at least. But go ahead and use your hyperbole to frame the dynamic as a massive, disproportionate mob of "486 million posters" attacking a tiny, innocent minority of "2 or 3 posters" to create a huge Us vs Them narrative (which you claim to dislike).
To add to this...

Compare the PSU postgame thread to the Rutgers postgame thread. Compare the post counts. Then go look at the out of control hand-wringing in that thread without any later acknowledgement that PSU had a 3 pointer to beat Michigan (and all of their sexy post players).

That doesn't even start to touch on the 2nd half of the Rutgers game thread where a number of eeyores felt the need to post negatively about the team in a game they had a 27 point halftime lead.

It's exhausting when people complain about a top 10-15 team.

I could make more inferences about said posters, but I'll stop there.
 
#170      
486 million? There are 153 total messages in this thread. It's a clear, absurd exaggeration that combined with hyperbolically low number of complaints
Hi,

Yes, that absurdly high number should signal that I'm being a little facetious or tongue in cheek.

I stand by the point that there were a very small number of posters who were complaining and a larger number of posters who complained about the complaining. The vast majority of the fanbase is / was happy with the win.

There were posts from people who said something like, "We got a little sloppy in the second half but that's to be expected in a blowout." Those types of comments don't come off as complaints to me.

I also didn't pay attention to commentary on Petro because that seems like a separate issue.

Just an observation. Sorry you took exception to it.

Editing to point out that I'm only talking about the post game thread. Game threads are wild. I know that.
 
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#171      
If the first 10 minutes had gone the way the first half went I would agree, but our main guys need to know how to finish what they started. UCONN didn’t win back to back national titles taking it easy. Learn how to kill.
My hot take. If you don't want injuries, put in the backups. Telling the starters to take it easy during a game (or looking the other way when it happens) plants the seed of what could become a bad habit. Either have them play with intensity every play, or give somebody else those minutes.

I'm not sure that "getting use to each other" while playing with reduced effort really helps build the habits that are needed to win in March (and April).
 
#172      
To add to this...

Compare the PSU postgame thread to the Rutgers postgame thread. Compare the post counts. Then go look at the out of control hand-wringing in that thread without any later acknowledgement that PSU had a 3 pointer to beat Michigan (and all of their sexy post players).

That doesn't even start to touch on the 2nd half of the Rutgers game thread where a number of eeyores felt the need to post negatively about the team in a game they had a 27 point halftime lead.

It's exhausting when people complain about a top 10-15 team.

I could make more inferences about said posters, but I'll stop there.

The narrative that the most positive people are causing all of the negativity is Truman Show level gaslighting lol
 
#173      
People were saying this about KJ last year. I didn't buy it.

But I'm sold on Keaton. We've had some great freshman but no one that I can think of has ever come in and been this good for a team that is a legitimate Final Four contender.
Deon Thomas says hello . . . 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds per game while leading the team in blocks as a 19 year old freshman in 1990-1991 on an Illinois Team that finished third in the Big Ten at 21-10 behind #3 ranked Indiana and #5 ranked Ohio State in a season where Illinois could not play in the post-season due to being on probation. It only got better after that.
I am amazed at what Keaton has done so far for the ILLINI this season and he may very well end up being the best freshman ever at Illinois as claimed, but recency bias in sports is a real thing.

TotalsShootingPer Game
SeasonAgeCollegeGMPFGFGA3P3PAFTFTAORBTRBASTSTLBLKTOVPFPTSFG%3P%FT%MPPTSTRBAST
1990-9119ILLINOIS30933172298001081682031810545669452.577.64331.115.16.80.6
 
#174      
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Yeah man, nothing negative there at all... in a game where we had a f'n 27 point lead at halftime and never led by less than 20 in the 2nd half. Those are 6 posts IN A ROW being negative.

It's EXHAUSTING. Complain to your wife or your dog, if you feel the need. Don't piss on everyone else's cheerios.

I've got more receipts if you people want them. There are about 100 in the PSU game and postgame threads.

Or you know, you can keep jumping all over the posters who are trying to tell people to ENJOY THE DAMN SEASON. You do you and we'll do us. Cool? I'll enjoy my place on the happy side of this coin.
 
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#175      
Deon Thomas says hello . . . 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds per game while leading the team in blocks as a 19 year old freshman in 1990-1991 on an Illinois Team that finished third in the Big Ten at 21-10 behind #3 ranked Indiana and #5 ranked Ohio State in a season where Illinois could not play in the post-season due to being on probation. It only got better after that.
I am amazed at what Keaton has done so far for the ILLINI this season and he may very well end up being the best freshman ever at Illinois as claimed, but recency bias in sports is a real thing.

TotalsShootingPer Game
SeasonAgeCollegeGMPFGFGA3P3PAFTFTAORBTRBASTSTLBLKTOVPFPTSFG%3P%FT%MPPTSTRBAST
1990-9119ILLINOIS30933172298001081682031810545669452.577.64331.115.16.80.6
Deon was a Red-Shirt Freshmen, had to sit out his first year. He was in my dorm from 89-90, class act as a young man. Not an ounce of conceit/pretense. Was sad to see him sit out and wear his MCAA jersey to play games at IMPE.
 
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