Illinois 86, Wisconsin 80 Postgame

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#252      
Roundball Sage
LJ22 said:
Inconsistency is our constant. We will have some very fun games and some head scratchers...
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This is the new canvass of today’s College Ball. With the Portal – plus other guys leaving after the first year – all teams will be reconfigured constantly and will face periods of not playing cohesively as a group or as well-oiled machines during the Season. (The teams that manage a bit more hold-overs each year will play with a little more/or a lot more – consistent flow).

Acquiring floor presence as a group takes time and individual talents that mix well. Some teams will have superior talent but not function as well as other teams that just fit better.

This is where on-the-floor good practice-oriented Coaches and mentors is even more critical in today’s Ball era.

And with so many great players now coming from all over the World – this will also add to the issue of putting the right mix of ballers together to get a great functioning group of guys playing as One.

Inconsistency is the New Normal (much as I hate that phrase) for College Ball.
 
#254      
CoalCity
Guest said:
Heck, I would pay to see that. Better yet, offer this to the big-time donors, charge them appropriately, and put that money in the NIL pot.
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$ 3500 to attend Brad School with practices and clinics in the preseason.
 
#256      
HensonHall71
1m4tr said:
Ben is like Brady Manek when he transferred from Oklahoma to UNC. He was lost until January. Got abused on defense. Didn’t know when to shoot and missed way more than he made. Then something clicked in February and they rode him almost the entire way to the Championship. Let’s have some patience and grace for him.
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I agree that players need time to adjust to a new team snd I’m certainly not giving up on Ben and think he’s a valuable part of the team this year- he just shouldn’t be playing 30+ minutes a game.

Manek avg 6 rebounds, 2 assts and 15 pts a game for UNC, if Ben was doing the other things I could live with a shooting slump, he’s just not contributing in any other way. I also want to be the best team we can be in March, not December. Giving more PT to Morez and Riley will go a long way to making us better in March- Ben is who he is and we should play him that way, he’ll break out of his shooting slump, he just doesn’t do anything else.

I love Brad standing up for his players in the media sessions- that’s what he should do. It doesn’t mean Brad is infallible in his decisions about playing time, he’s admitted himself in the past when he likely didn’t have the right PT distribution and many of us feel he’s wrong on this one
 
#258      
RabidDawgClassic
Illini2010-11 said:
Don't disagree there, but our struggles at Kohl started forming in the early 1990s and was not a Groce phenomenon:

1/25/90 - W 66-63
3/6/91 - L 77-85
2/20/92 - L 78-92
2/28/93 - L 66-74
1/25/94 - L 56-66
2/4/95 - L 60-73
2/12/97 - L 45-62
2/7/98 - W 53-47 (OT)
1/20/99 - L 53-75
1/8/00 - L 59-63
1/5/02 - L 66-72
3/5/03 - L 59-60
1/24/04 - L 56-76
1/25/05 - W 75-65
1/31/06 - W 66-51
1/10/08 - L 60-70
2/5/09 - L 50-63
2/9/10 - W 63-56
1/15/11 - L 66-76
3/4/12 - L 56-70
1/12/13 - L 51-74
1/8/14 - L 70-95
2/15/15 - L 49-68
2/21/16 - L 60-69
1/19/18 - L 50-75
2/18/19 - L 58-64
1/8/20 - W 71-70
2/27/21 - W 74-69
1/28/23 - W 61-51
3/2/24 - W 91-83

Prior to the current 4 game winning streak, the Illini were 5-21 at Kohl going back to 1990. Underwood has the same number of road wins at Wisconsin as his 4 predecessors combined (Kruger -1, Self -0 , Weber -3, and Groce -0). I had to do a double take on the Self statistic.
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The Kohl Center opened in 1998. Prior to that all games were at the Wisconsin Fieldhouse.

In Illinois’ first trip to the Kohl (1998), Kevin Turner hit a running bank shot to end regulation and Illinois won in overtime.
 
#259      
derrick6
ChiefGritty said:
Everyone is so addicted to comparing Domask to Humrichous. Totally different players.

But, one important major difference between them is that Humrichous is a MUCH better shooter.

That jumper is a huge weapon and totally changes how the team is defended, BU is right to let him shoot through it, he will be a difference maker for us, even if it's nothing like the centrality to the offense that Domask had.
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Agree up to the let him shoot through it part. If anything, run some plays to get him better rhythm shots rather than letting him just fire away.

Coach acknowledged he didn’t coach very well, so there is that too.

Hum will be fine. We might have another Northwestern outcome though if coaching doesn’t take these struggles into consideration. That is still causing me a hangover.
 
#261      
Ryllini
derrick6 said:
KB breaks down the difference between playing for Brad (guard friendly) and AZ (big guy friendly) that’s quite insightful.

KB is learning what he’s capable of because it’s all new to him.

Tyler H is a tool. Lol.
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I like the insight there from KB. What is Tyler’s hard-on with Illinois? That dude can kick rocks. Ask a question and contribute.
 
#262      
Snoopy
derrick6 said:
We might have another Northwestern outcome though if coaching doesn’t take these struggles into consideration. That is still causing me a hangover.
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Two games into the season and only 4 B1G teams do not have a conference loss. Only 4 teams don't have a win yet. 10 teams at 1-1. It is shaping up for a wild season and I expect all fan bases will end up having to deal with a few "NW outcomes". The travel and imbalanced schedules, portal rosters coming together or apart as the season progresses, will invalidate any assumptions based on a programs history. I advise Googling hangover remedies.
 
#263      
derrick6
Ryllini said:
I like the insight there from KB. What is Tyler’s hard-on with Illinois? That dude can kick rocks. Ask a question and contribute.
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His only question sounded like “yeah, but what will you do about Tennessee”.

I’m guessing he’s a Mizzou fan at heart.
 
#265      
DeeIL89
I like how the defense continues to be solid. Kylan is one of the best defender in the country right now with that pitbull mentality playing D. The guys weren't shooting the 3s well and the offense was out of sync in the first half but they managed to pull it together and still scored 86. The way the guys crashed the board is how they need to do it for every game. Tre's performance showed what his skill sets to give and he has to display that constantly. Can't be on the court and become a ghost. Hoping Ben can find his stroke quick because he's too good of a shooter not to.
 
#266      
Mobi
He I too soft when people backing him down.
 
#268      
hodgesonfire
Somehow scoring 86 and easily beating a good team on an off shooting night is not good enough here.

If they had hit just 3 more of their open shots the game would have been a 15 point blow out. Would the commentary be the same?

To me the effort was there and there weren’t too many mental errors. These are the controllables. Whether or not a shot goes in is partially luck.

If the shots looked forced or the players weren’t trying or there were a lot of unforced errors yeah complaining about those things makes sense.

Complain about how lucky someone is seems petty to me.
 
#269      
OB positive
Chad Fleck said:
To my eye, Ben H has a similar problem that Goode had last year. The opponent hunts certain guys to get switched so Ben is the defender, then they break him down and cause issues. He's doesn't seem to be fast enough to handle any player resembling a guard. (Like Coleman was)

He also has a tough time squeezing rebounds.

I'm not willing to give up on him yet. But it's tough to watch him struggle at the moment.
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I think our opponents hunt anyone not named Boswell or maybe White.
 
#270      
OB positive
stlrunner said:
I’m not sure RJ Melendez ever got out of his 3 point shooting slump.

I DO believe Ben will, though. He’s a better shooter than RJ…but he popped into my head when I read this.
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While RJ hit threes for a good percentage his freshman year on a small quantity of shots he never actually had very good form. It has leveled out over the rest of his career and not favorably. Ben has great form and shoots the three with such ease and fluidity. It's not a matter of if his shot comes back it's when.
 
#272      
Thanos
Illini2010-11 said:
Don't disagree there, but our struggles at Kohl started forming in the early 1990s and was not a Groce phenomenon:

1/25/90 - W 66-63
3/6/91 - L 77-85
2/20/92 - L 78-92
2/28/93 - L 66-74
1/25/94 - L 56-66
2/4/95 - L 60-73
2/12/97 - L 45-62
2/7/98 - W 53-47 (OT)
1/20/99 - L 53-75
1/8/00 - L 59-63
1/5/02 - L 66-72
3/5/03 - L 59-60
1/24/04 - L 56-76
1/25/05 - W 75-65
1/31/06 - W 66-51
1/10/08 - L 60-70
2/5/09 - L 50-63
2/9/10 - W 63-56
1/15/11 - L 66-76
3/4/12 - L 56-70
1/12/13 - L 51-74
1/8/14 - L 70-95
2/15/15 - L 49-68
2/21/16 - L 60-69
1/19/18 - L 50-75
2/18/19 - L 58-64
1/8/20 - W 71-70
2/27/21 - W 74-69
1/28/23 - W 61-51
3/2/24 - W 91-83

Prior to the current 4 game winning streak, the Illini were 5-21 at Kohl going back to 1990. Underwood has the same number of road wins at Wisconsin as his 4 predecessors combined (Kruger -1, Self -0 , Weber -3, and Groce -0). I had to do a double take on the Self statistic.
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FWIW, I got my PhD from UW… and attended the Kohl Center grand opening in 1998. Your point still stands though.
 
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