Illinois 83, Duke 68 Postgame

Tacomallini said:

I think we looked better vs. Baylor than Duke looked vs. us.

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Duke is not a top 20 team - rating is based on history and perhaps potential. Glad we played well, but boy, did it just look like K threw the ball out there and let them try to figure out something on offense.

Not discounting our play or capability at all - I think we are around 5 right now. I will also point out I think our Freshmen were better prepared than their freshmen.

I am so happy Duke pressed us last night. We need to be able to handle that and with Ayo, Trent and either AC or AM on the floor at the same time, no one will be able to trap us after this game. But geesh Trent, stay out of the coffin corner. You're a senior for crying out loud.

CurbeloYourEnthusiasm said:

I'd say this game was bigger:

Illinois vs. Gonzaga Box Score (Men), December 8, 2012 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Illinois vs. Gonzaga Box Score (Men), December 8, 2012

www.sports-reference.com

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Wake Forest was ranked as as the number 1 team in the country in the AP and Coaches poll going into the the 2004 game.

I think Duke’s team is a great example of having high ratings but no balance. No PG and no dominate center but great talent. They will improve but not elite team.

Bilas is a pretty intelligent and engaging announcer. He was right when he suggested the Big 10 conference season is going to be brutal. Iowa looked "scary good."

How many loses will the eventual Big Ten championship team have?

jrmarcus said:

Duke murdered the Illini on the offensive boards not just because they missed, but missed really badly.

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Yeah, and it was 12-4 in Offensive boards, but we shot ~60% they shot ~35%. Our DREBS was solid.

Tbh, anyone who watched this game and didnt come away impressed by our athleticism, hustle, shooting, ooping, tenacity, etc. must have some fairly freakin high expectations!

liquidwisdom said:

Frankie was infuriating. Disappear for a half, then own the second half, walking the ball up the court in a close deficit score. Still, he was the All-American closer the way Ayo is...just ask Minnesota.

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Not once in his career in the O&B was I infuriated by Frank Williams. What a stud.

Dan said:

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Once again, I love the post game pressers with coach...He seems like a guy you would love to have a beer with and talk hoops all day long...
When he was asked about the pick and roll D changes, he said " coaching "....I always have a smile on my face after watching his pressers..seems genuine and loved the clip in the locker room " ROADKILL "

ChocolateThunder said:

Bilas is a pretty intelligent and engaging announcer. He was right when he suggested the Big 10 conference season is going to be brutal. Iowa looked "scary good."

How many loses will the eventual Big Ten championship team have?

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Good q. My guess - 3 or 4.

Man that was fun to watch. I would be lying if I didn't despair at times in the second half with careless turnovers mounting and some bad decision making but I just kept sipping on my stout and let the boys roll with a 10 point lead the whole way. That was a comfortable win over Duke. For those claiming Duke's ineptitude pump the brakes. They have a senior guard and literally MickieDs surrounding him. There is a reason we were getting blocked at the rim and stripped of the ball. These dudes are high level stars of which many will be playing at the next level. They have now lost twice early season to us and Mich St. two very good squads that will end up ranked quite high. Nothing to get bent out of shape about. Speaking of getting bent out of shape, how about the smackdown the Big is putting on the ACC, love to see. I watched the second half of the BC v Minny game and the conference was looking an 0-2 start squarely in the face but the Golphers found their groove and now the conference is up 6-1. Feels right.

On to the game, some may not like this but, I love a 7 man rotation with spot minutes for the others, Hawk got 9 so nearly an 8 man rotation. But in my mind with an honest rotation of 7 guys getting 20plus is damn near ideal. These guys have the energy to handle that load. All 7 of the main contributors were vital to this win and all played well. Where to start??? Well, with Ayo I guess. Man he just lets the game play and finds a way to be the ultimate teammate. Unselfish, yet gets his, crashes the boards, sets up plays, guards tremendously hard and handles the ball up the court at times(gets god awful offensive fouls called on him). TOs are down, assists are up, rebounds are up, percentages are all up, scoring is up. Playing damn near every minute. This is player of the year type stuff. Thank God this guy choose Illinois! He has rebirthed the team.

This is the best Giorgi and Kofi have looked on the court together, hell they were dropping dimes to each other. Kofi should've put away a couple of bunnies in this one and I think is slightly suffering for a confidence sway. But he still was a factor and down the stretch did an excellent job protecting the rim on some slashing drives and helped mightily to Illinois out rebounding Duke, a stat that should never be overlooked. What can be said about Giorgi, this kid has kept his chin up and is now carved out a true role on this team. Scoring and rebounding. Energy. 6th man of the year??

Must talk about the point guard tandem(if you can call them that, maybe just the short guys) of Bello and Trent. Yes there were 10 TOs, that is concerning(to be honest I only remember 3 from Trent) and needs to be cleaned up, but these 2 are doing so many things well. Guys, Trent is avearging 4.4 three point attempts a game and is hitting them at a 50% clip. He is incredibly unselfish and very efficient scorer right now, deadly combo for a non-featured player. And Bello!! Those slip and slide moves are dreamy, keep doing your thing! Maybe don't jack up heat checks from long range because you've been slicing to the rim, that is not what a heat check is meant for. Just tone it down 1/2 a notch, not a lot stay unpredictable. Guys is making a run for next man crush.

And I will not forget Ace and DMW, perfect from behind the line for the tandem. Ace has such a sweet stroke from long range and he got this game started on the good foot. His diving save where he hit his funny bone after DMW blocked the lob was my favorite play of the night. Nothing easy, both of these guys had two steals and logged heavy minutes. yeah he was in foul trouble much of the game but Damonte is the ultimate glue guy. Not to mention is literally guarding guys every game that he gives up like 4 inches too and apparently cannot miss from three land.

Great, great team effort. Lets go beat the !!!! out MIzzou.

I loved seeing Miller & Ayo get the better of DJ Seward. Looks like he choose wrong

Wow, what a game! We were in control the whole way through. Statement game for sure. Showed there's a gap between us and a good Duke team. It was tough to tell just how good they were with their star player way off on 3 pointers, but they are definitely no slouch. They will learn and mature and grow, but really like that kid Roach. Tough as nails.

My observations:
- Total team effort. Different people stepped up and Duke couldn't find a stop for anyone in particular. One play it's GB, another it's Ayo, another it's trent...the list goes on and on...Great balance
- Curbelo is going to be a star. His mistakes are all freshman mistakes. The speed and immaturity at times shown are just points of learning and he'll grow. But that ball, those dribbles, that ability to distribute and penetrate to put stress on the defense...OMG...can't wait to see what he looks like later this season!
- Kofi...what's going on? His offensive game seems out of sorts early this season. Hasn't influenced the game on that end like he did at the end of last season. Perhaps he's just getting the engine rev'd up, but missed some bunnies and had a couple shots blocked?!?! that shouldn't happen. However on the defensive end, I think he was solid. Loved how he defended the perimeter and his mobility. Watched Garza in the UNC game and despite all his positives on the offensive end, he is like a lumbering tree running down the court. Kofi is not that, but may need some more time to reach his collegiate potential.
- Ace Wolf is quick, athletic, and has a great shot. I just wish we can get him going more consistently. Defense will keep him on the floor, but I would love to have him become another consistent threat.
- Grandison...he looks the part, but hasn't found his role yet. He just doesn't seem comfortable yet. I expect we'll need him at some point, but I was hoping for bigger things from him. He's not a Kipper...but he's a non-factor right now. 6'6 athlete should be able to do more. I suspect we may have him out of position and away from how he likes to play, but maybe later in the year he'll figure out how he fits in.

I can't wait until the B1G season starts. It'll be iron sharpening iron...but how these teams will grow and how we'll get better with the ups and downs that is the B1G season.

Hats off to Kofi, Giorgi and DaMonte. I was worried about how DaMonte would do against the much taller Johnson after seeing the latter against MSU. There were times Johnson got the better of him, but not many — and he and Giorgi held Johnson to 7 pts (on 3-10 shooting) and 7 rebs after he had 11 and 4 against MSU. Kofi had some problems offensively, but he and Giorgi “held” Hurt to 19 and 7 after he had 21 and 13 against MSU. So they didn’t silence either of them, but they did hold them pretty much in check and allow the Illini’s advantage at guard shine through.

As to Curbelo, when I saw him in high school the talent obviously was easy to see, but I thought his sometimes loose play and penchant for getting into bad spots might be a problem since he’d be playing against better players and better team concepts. And that has certainly happened, but the skill and talent is unmistakable even on the bigger stage. Not ready to hand the keys to the kingdom — especially on this team — but he is going to be special next year and beyond. And he will be a big part of this year’s success. Guess I’ll just have to live with some mistakes this year — and enjoy the “how did he do that moments” because if BU is comfortable enough to play him 21 minutes against Duke, who am I to argue. One area of growth I think is needed and overlooked is knowing his teammates better. He can make some great finds, but the pass recipient is put in a position where he isn’t capable of doing something within his skill/comfort level leading to a bad/tough shot or a turnover by the pass catcher. So while the negative result appears under the recipient’s name in box score, AC has to share some of that responsibility. I have no doubt he’ll get there, just hope he can clean things up during B1G play.

This team in my opinion has the potential to be even better than the 2004 team, (I think the 1989 team was the best Illini team ever) they have a better inside presence, the 2004 team was mainly guard oriented and when they lost to NC in the title game that lack of a inside presence was exposed. This current team can play inside and out. with that said, I used the term potentially because this team turns the ball over way too much, Duke kept hanging around last night and they almost got upset by Ohio because of it; that has to be cleaned up.

Dosunmu was discernably more coy about the win, but not even Illinois' cool junior was immune to recognizing the magnitude of what his team just did.


"It feels OK," he said. "It definitely feels good because they're a top-10 team and it's a road win, our first true road win of the season. It feels good, especially the circumstances coming off a frustrating loss against a Baylor team. Seeing how this team faced adversity early on was very intriguing."
Last week's loss to Baylor was a jumping off point. Illinois corrected itself defensively, particularly in the pick-and-roll and ruminated on that loss for six days after Saturday's game against Tennessee-Martin got canceled because of positive tests in the Skyhawks' program.

“That Baylor game was brutal, the preparation, the way we lost," Dosunmu said. "We’re bad losers. We don’t like to lose, especially with the talent we have."

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I like what Ayo said'We are bad losers".....

Was a joy to watch the Illini dominate....and dominate they did.....

NOW, lets put some misery on misery...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone have any info if Trent and Da'Monte plan on coming back next year? I get they are seniors, but with the NCAA COVID rule, they are eligible to come back. Does anyone think the chance of them returning is playing into our 2021 misses?

This year it's Ayo's team...

Prediction:
Next year it's Curbelo's team. (Moxie & Leadership)

I love that we finally have a guard in Curbelo that will absolutely punish opponents if they try to press or overplay on defense in order to force turnovers. In the past, we’ve tended to break the press only to back the ball out after crossing half court, and aggressive ball pressure has been a way to disrupt our offensive execution. That’s one reason why we’ve had to hang on in the last minute to eek out wins in games that we’ve controlled throughout. How many times have we seen 8 to 12 point leads evaporate because we didn’t get good shots once the other team turned up the heat in the last few minutes? Curbelo will get us layups and wide open 3s when teams press and overplay on defense. I expect that to translate into more finishes like last night and less games where we need Ayo to get us a tough bucket in the last minute.

I keep coming back for Curbelo...

Overall good win, Duke isnt that good yet, they will improve and we won pretty comfortably but maaaan...

I'm over here evil grinning when I watch Curbelo. He is doing things that most players never figure out. His intangibles are outstaing, his vision and anticipation are unbelievable for a Freshman. Little things, cradling the ball through big men traffic, looking defenders off for passes, head fakes, moving defenders with his eyes, quick hands, anticipates the ball in passing lanes, VERY quick crossover, terrific passer in traffic, creative with his dribble and creating space...I just love it.

He UNDOUBTEDLY is going to turn the ball over a ton. But I think what I love the most is his short memory. He is not fazed by a mistake and I love that confidence. He is special, I think next year we have something really big with him.

Timj83 said:

if he can develop a killer floater.

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Exactly what I found myself thinking last night. Once he gets a reliable floater, those drives are going to cause defense collapses that open things up even more.

Looks like the University of Illinois!

FGCUIllini said:

Does anyone have any info if Trent and Da'Monte plan on coming back next year? I get they are seniors, but with the NCAA COVID rule, they are eligible to come back. Does anyone think the chance of them returning is playing into our 2021 misses?

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No idea if Trent or DMW are planning on coming back. Just a wild !!! guess, but I think the likelihood of DMW coming back is higher than Trent’s. And I do not think them potentially coming back has had anything to do with recruits picking other schools.

flyingillini3.0 said:

Great all-around game fellas. My humble assessment of each of the players in order of my perceptions of their contribution to the game:

1. Ayo - Pretty amazing when you can score 18 points, 12 boards, 5 assists and still be considered to have a mediocre game. That's how good this guy is. Seemed a little tentative in the 1st half but great players rise up when needed and his ability stop on a dime and create his own shot makes him so tough to guard.

2. DMW - Only played 20 minutes but he does so many little things that don't show up on the stat sheet that helps a team win and you can tell the team feeds off of him. His confidence in his outside shot is like night and day this year. Love it.

2. Georgi - played within himself for the most part and is solid for us inside. Looks more like the freshman Georgi which is a good thing.

3. Curbelo - I know many were frustrated by his 5 TO's but I think 2 of them were questionable calls and his ability to bring the ball up against the press is a huge asset. I've been pleasantly surprised at his ability to create his own shot. He'll make his share of bonehead plays for sure but his handles allow him to go almost anywhere on the court at will and that will be huge against really tough defenses (e.g. Baylor) or playing away games with questionable officiating (e.g. Duke - that stretch in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half was ridiculous).

4. Trent - brought good energy and hit some tough threes on the move. His 5 turnovers were more concerning to me than Curbelo's (as a senior) but if he can be a consistent scorer and continue to play without fear I can live with that.

5. Kofi - definitely was a presence on defense but with his size and athleticism he should be more dominant in my opinion. Needs to improve his hands, use more pump-fakes and go up strong since it doesn't look like he's developed a reliable hook shot. On defense he seems to try to block every shot which exposes our defense to offensive rebounds, makes bad decisions on fouls regularly and has more trouble with athletic length in the paint guarding him than I expected. Hopefully he stays another year to add more skill to his game.

6. Miller - Great to see his outside shooting out of the gate. Having shooters you have to respect has been probably the biggest difference from last year so far. Hopefully his left arm is ok after that spill.

7. Hawkins - good to see him get some tick. Doesn't do anything great but seems to do a lot of things fairly well and nice to have some length beyond Kofi and Georgi.

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Kofi right now does not look like a guy who would get drafted. Good for the Illini, but also I really want him to just totally dominate. Right now he is very good, mainly because of his size, but he should be better. Hoping he gets better as the season goes on.

BTM33 said:

I keep coming back for Curbelo...

Overall good win, Duke isnt that good yet, they will improve and we won pretty comfortably but maaaan...

I'm over here evil grinning when I watch Curbelo. He is doing things that most players never figure out. His intangibles are outstaing, his vision and anticipation are unbelievable for a Freshman. Little things, cradling the ball through big men traffic, looking defenders off for passes, head fakes, moving defenders with his eyes, quick hands, anticipates the ball in passing lanes, VERY quick crossover, terrific passer in traffic, creative with his dribble and creating space...I just love it.

He UNDOUBTEDLY is going to turn the ball over a ton. But I think what I love the most is his short memory. He is not fazed by a mistake and I love that confidence. He is special, I think next year we have something really big with him.

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Seeing a lot of former Miami PG Shane Larkin in Curbelo....with a lil bit of Angel Rodriguez latin flair sprinkled on top (another GREAT lead guard at The U).

Pretty nice to have a win at Duke under our belts. We seemed to be a better team overall, and I think we can play better offensively than what we showed. Great balanced scoring and I think our defense and rebounding was much better than in the Baylor game. I might have to watch it one more time. Looks like a fun season.

Just want to say thank you to coach Underwood for letting me accompany the team to the game last night....and what a game it was !!!!!



Chris has been such an avid supporter of our program that I wanted to repay him for his feverish actions as an Illini fan....hope to do it again



That locker sequence was so special.....ROADKILL.....WOW......truly a team of focused lads willing to run through a brick wall for the coaching staff



lets kick some misery butt !!!!!!!!!!