Illinois 82, Kansas 75 (Exhibition) Postgame

#201      

Chad Fleck

Chad Fleck
Eureka, IL
Chad Fleck
(Rankings don't matter, I know)

But they do in some ways.

Considering that it's still preseason rankings and those aren't based on much besides rosters, how could could an exhibition match that was played with such intensity not count in voters minds somewhat?

This has to at least raise the stock of Illinois' prospects to the college basketball community.
 
#202      

rtbritt

rtbritt
rtbritt
Tacomallini said:
He went 8 for 10 today
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Yep and looked good too. But for his career, he's not a good FT shooter. Not terrible, but not good. Also, I just looked up stats, and he has shot progressively less FTs each year he's been in college..weird.
 
#204      

Bigtex

Bigtex
DFW
Bigtex
InDaAZ said:
Listed at:
QG 6’8” 230
GB 6’9” 245

I was surprised at how much Quincy was called on to handle the ball. He and Marcus are our new Swiss Army Knives to go along with CoHawk.
Loop Knife GIF by MULTI AWESOME STUDIO
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Guerrier was good against Kansas - Like that he helped relieve pressure applied against our guards.
 
#207      

Bigtex

Bigtex
DFW
Bigtex
cjw1901 said:
No worries on Dain's time. We absolutely need him, since we are not going to shoot 41% or better on 3s in most of games this year, especially since about half of those games are on the road, where teams virtually always shoot worse than at home.

We shot 31% as a team last season on 3s with mostly the same roster. That means, this was a great 3pt shooting night tonight, and I'm happy for that, but we can't count on 3PT% that high as a regular thing, and it's almost guaranteed that we won't shoot that well (or better) on 3s in our first road game at Rutgers. We shot too many 3s about twice as badly on the road as we did at home last season, which is the same mistake most teams make. Since Underwood knows this, expect Dain to start on road games and expect us to go to the basket and FT line a lot more in these games or else or our chances to win these road games go down even more. Dain is one of our keys to win games like that, as well as poor 3pt shooting games at home, which are far from unheard of for IL either. We had several games last season at around 17%, which is just awful. Yeah, that's how we got to 30.8% from 3 on the season, last season, worst in the BT and very low nationwide for D1. During that whole season Dain was our best 2pt shooter at 63.6%. Yeah, that is a great percentage, better than Edey's.
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If Illinois gets the ball movement and they regularly drive and dish, this team will shoot 35+% from 3 this year.
 
#208      

BWA

B
BWA
That was a very short bench. Interesting considering all the talk about depth.
 
#211      

thefalcon5

T
thefalcon5
BWA said:
That was a very short bench. Interesting considering all the talk about depth.
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How many teams go deeper than 8 or 9 at a consistent basis. We did play 12 yesterday, though I don’t think we played more than 8 in the second.
 
#212      

Birdus

B
Birdus
M. State and Tennessee was a barn burner too. State's guards as everyone already knew are really really good. They will be a tough out come tournament time. Tennessee seems long, deep with good shooters. Athletic. They will tough.
 
#213      

Bigtex

Bigtex
DFW
Bigtex
Love the OLD line up that closed out the game
Harmon
Guerrier
Domask
Shannon
Hawkins

Love the 3 grad transfers but think Harmon will be sneaky good. Domask and Guerrier have already shown they will be significant contributors.
 
#215      

HensonHall71

H
HensonHall71
The game had the intensity of a game in March - which is great to get the guys ready and the fact they won is a huge confidence boost I would think. We also learned a lot about who we are right now.

1. Guerrier was huge down the stretch when the game was tied - I didn't realize how much we needed him this year - he's our best rebounder, can drive the lane and draw fouls and even the three he hit was big - he's almost another version of CoHawk (with some head scratching moments as well).

2. Harmon was in instead of Ty at the end of the game which surprised me as well - good for him, but Ty did some good things this game and still wasn't in at the end. It might have been more of a confidence in FT shooting, having Domask bring the ball up at the end of games because he's such a good FT shooter might be something we see on a regular basis

Harris didn't play much which was also very surprising, ,maybe he's going to be more of a match up play - he might play a lot against some teams where we want to pressure the ball and much less against others, but I expected him to be a bigger part of the regular rotation.
 
#216      

frozenrope9190

frozenrope9190
Aurora, IL
frozenrope9190
ejam21 said:
IF this were true, our record would've been abysmal last year
We shot 35% or better from three 7 times all year, and 3 of those were against monmouth, lindenwood, and minnesota

THe other 4 games were an L against IU, wisconsin (who we beat by the exact same amount when we shot 50+ from 3 as when we played them and shot 30%), Tx, UCLA

I think the shot selection on 3s was WAY better in this game than most of last year. LEss 1 pass full speed transition 3s, stepbacks, random off dribble 3s guarded, etc.
We do need to shore up the paint, but to be fair we were forcing them off the 3 pt line which opens that up down low and we were up against one of the best interior scorers in the league
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When did we lose to Wisconsin?
 
#217      

aaeismacgychel

A
aaeismacgychel
IlliniInSturgisMi said:
With all the discussions re PG I was hoping to see box score info re DGL. Can't find any. Any info you folks can provide? How many minutes? How'd he do?
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While it was very limited minutes, DGL played typical of a freshman. Fairly muted role, took a three that wasn't the best and somewhat disappeared the rest of the time he was out there. He'll get a few more games to prove himself, but as of now, I'd guess he's on the outside looking in for minutes and will have to perform well in limited opportunities to carve out any larger role. I think if he can look at what Guerrier did late when we were in a lull, taking it to Kansas and forcing them to foul and learn from it, slashing to the bucket, kickout, and then putting himself in position for an open catch and shoot three is what will get him more time. And while he doesn't have Guerrier's size, power, or experience obviously, he does have speed that teams will need to respond to if he utilizes it properly.

Amani "popped" more in his minutes, showing aggressiveness and intensity in limited time. Like most freshmen, he rushed his shots and quickly realized how tough it is to body upperclassmen. I liked what I saw from him, he's just going to need a season of strength and conditioning and we'll love what he turns into. My guess is he will regularly be used to soak up time when our bigs get into foul trouble or need a rest. Probably our 1st freshman off the bench.
 
#218      

IlliDan

I
IlliDan
Piotyr said:
Takeaways from the exhibition:

- May have been an exhibition but both teams mostly played like it was for real. Maybe 5 minutes of scrub gametime overall, but the majority of the game was tight and meaningful.
- Illinois may hang around the top 25 all year long. Should be better than #25.
- Foul outs are stupid, and every game should be played without them. Have the best players in the game to close it out, rather than encouraging teams to go at one player in foul trouble. Only sport where playing the game normally results in an ejection from the game.
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Foul outs necessary so BB is played instead of football.
 
#219      

Bigtex

Bigtex
DFW
Bigtex
HensonHall71 said:
The game had the intensity of a game in March - which is great to get the guys ready and the fact they won is a huge confidence boost I would think. We also learned a lot about who we are right now.

1. Guerrier was huge down the stretch when the game was tied - I didn't realize how much we needed him this year - he's our best rebounder, can drive the lane and draw fouls and even the three he hit was big - he's almost another version of CoHawk (with some head scratching moments as well).

2. Harmon was in instead of Ty at the end of the game which surprised me as well - good for him, but Ty did some good things this game and still wasn't in at the end. It might have been more of a confidence in FT shooting, having Domask bring the ball up at the end of games because he's such a good FT shooter might be something we see on a regular basis

Harris didn't play much which was also very surprising, ,maybe he's going to be more of a match up play - he might play a lot against some teams where we want to pressure the ball and much less against others, but I expected him to be a bigger part of the regular rotation.
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Harris isn't a PG and he is not a SG. PT will be based on matchups.
 
#220      

Scoregasm

S
Scoregasm
Homecoming 2019 said:
It seemed strategic today to avoid having whoever Dejuan Harris was guarding bring the ball up. Basically if he's guarding you, you go to the corner, stand, and wait for the ball to be brought up. In this case he was rarely ever on Domask, so he happened to bring the ball up often.
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Yup, neutralizing his best asset by having him (Harris) stand in the corner was a subtle but great move by the Staff.
 
#221      

LvilleILL

LvilleILL
LvilleILL
DGL will be the guy you go to when you need a spark scoring. Sincere will be the same when you need energy. It is a massive luxury to have those things at your disposal.

Also, TJ could have an Ayo-like junior year. The shot is better than last year and he's even more explosive.
 
#222      

aaeismacgychel

A
aaeismacgychel
BWA said:
That was a very short bench. Interesting considering all the talk about depth.
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I think both coaches ran this for the most part like a real game, and Illinois still gave 8 players around 10+ minutes. I would not call that a short bench at all. Sencire was probably the only surprise there in getting only 7minutes but all that means is that Brad has 9 players right now that he's going to rely on as part of a regular rotation. That's a deep rotation. Right now only Amani, Nico, and DGL appear to be the ones on the outside looking in.

Amani will fill a more talented and perhaps expanded Lieb type role for us this years- maybe 2-4mpg when our bigs have foul trouble or need a rest. Nico and DGL will both probably have spot chances this year where they could have their moments, but I think they're deeper bench right now.
 
#223      

phats22

P
phats22
IndyILL said:
What a difference it makes when a squad is led by older experienced players on a team mission to win...
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It's almost like the team trusts each other on offense

and

feels like they don't have to press individually

And

That the ball will come back to them if they pass

and

the team will get better shots if they pass

and

They will get better shots is they pass

And

they enjoy playing with each other

.....hmmm, refreshing