I might be in the minority, but I actually think this game right before Selection Sunday was the best advertisement for both us and the B10 you could ask for. Everyone's eyes across the nation were on this game and it was a phenomenal one. My phone was blowing up from friends I've made from other fanbases over the years offering congrats and who were really impressed by the quality of play. My Arizona insider friend was particularly impressed and we both thought the possibility of an absolutely epic Arizona-Illinois Seeet 16 was on the horizon. Gut feel is that the real basketball fans who tuned in early to the selection show came out of this far more impressed today with us than they were yesterday morning. Yes, not getting the ESPN treatment sucks, but let's be real, based on how they've covered us this year and that snippet they wrote about us and TSJ, how much do we really want them covering us this year anyways?
Illinois 93, Wisconsin 87 - Big Ten Tournament Champions
You overestimate it. He isnt a bad ball handler, but he certainly isn’t good. Anyone who has to look at the ball every time they go behind the back is not a good ball handler.
The distinction he is making is bringing the ball up the court and initiating the offense, which MD is not good at. The amount of times I’ve seen MD either get his pocket picked or bounce the ball off his foot or watch the offense stagnate for the first 10-15 seconds of a possession as he brings the ball up is significant.
Almost all of his assists and work comes from receiving a pass on the wing, doing what he does best with body positioning and footwork, and then distributing as the defense collapses. He is AMAZING at that, but it is a much more Point-Forward style of disturbing and playing making.
Anyone know why the team wasn’t out for the national anthem? That and the fact that they switched the benches for the final game and a bunch of people that bought tickets thinking they would behind our bench were screwed..seems like a very poorly run tournament as a whole from a logistics standpoint.
Really like other teams pressing. Will kill them with the passing. Much prefer MD passing than a PG trying to dribble thru pressure. Ty also does a good job bringing the ball up quickly. Seems to have good handles but not used that way except for fast break opportunities. Maybe because MD better ft shooter.
I hope I'm wrong, but I think it will be awhile before we are lucky enough to have someone with that routine. TSJ's will to improve and be great, and his 4:30 a.m. workouts, that's an incredibly high bar to set for anyone, or to expect A.J. Storr or anyone to do the same thing. So happy to see all that work pay off for Shannon and be on display this past weekend in the national spotlight.He just needs to get on TJs workout routine and he’ll be tearing up the B10 next year… hopefully wearing orange.
Fantastic. And he made 38 of 44 free throws. Werner pointed this out on his podcast and I thought that was pretty amazing, scoring 38 points, just free throws. Of course, it was over 3 games but still…
And on another note, all the Big Ten celebration videos from the game and also the airport, can't get enough of those.
That stomp is such a great signature way to celebrate big wins. Absolutely love that.
That stomp is such a great signature way to celebrate big wins. Absolutely love that.
Something that I feel went overlooked entirely (no one commented on at all) is that we annihilated the press at the end of both the Nebraska game & the Wisconsin game.
Against Nebraska, we got 2 dunks at the end and then yesterday all that Wisconsin could accomplish was to give up and foul someone.
BillyBob1
- Champaign
Natty!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I was happy to see we took the free points rather than trying to dribble out, as was the correct call given time and score. We had screwed that up earlier in the year, looks like there's been some coaching done.
Both Nebraska and Wisky allowed the home run pass to throw everybody at the inbounds, and it's not hard to understand why given the struggles we've put on film in that area. We made the right reads and hopefully future late game opponent strategies reflect that.
I find this to be laughable. Go look up the turnover rates of the top PGs in the country, then xref with MD's turnover rate. His usage percentage is on par with all of those guys, so its not a case of them having the ball in their hands more. Those guys get lost in a crowd sometimes, they get their pockets picked sometimes too. They're not infallible, neither is MD, he is just more secure with the basketball. He doesn't get sped up, he is strong, and he is calculated and knows his next move before he makes it.
RE: this: "The distinction he is making is bringing the ball up the court and initiating the offense, which MD is not good at."
He does this regularly (nearly every possession) for the #3 offense in the country. You still think he's not good at it?
You guys are nuts.
Last edited:
Then sit him for stretches when he doesn’t listen to the coaches. You either play BU ball or sit until you do. Hopefully we’re deep enough to survive these stretches, and knowing our staff, we will be.
BillyBob1
- Champaign
Tominaga played two games and his game against illinois was not good. Domask should have been on the team!
Might wanna get that memory checked.
Loved the way this team handled adversity in this tournament. Down big in the 2nd half for all three but made adjustments and clutch plays to seal the wins. Playing like that and keeping our composure will get us far in the tournament. Ver proud of this group!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
For one thing turnover rate isn't a 1:1 relationship with ballhandling ability.
For another, Domask is asked to play a very different sort of role than most of the top PG's. As befits his skills and those of his teammates.
And then for a third, I dunno man, Chucky Hepburn was mentioned, 3.9 AST/1.2 TO, Domask is 3.7 AST/2.3 TO
AJ Hoggard 5.2 AST/1.7 TO, Boo Buie 5.1 AST/2.3 TO, Braden Smith 7.3 AST/2.7 TO
These are unfair comparisons, but that's the point, calling Domask an elite assist/turnover guy is just incorrect. The problem for these other guys is that Domask will destroy them if they get isolated against him down low, but that's a different subject.
2001, I was assuming.
5 of the last 6 Illinois head coaches won a big ten title while at Illinois. Pretty impressive.
Turnover percentage measures the rate/number of turnovers that occurs when a player has the ball in their hands. I'm unsure what else could be used.
I didn't say he was elite assist/turnover guy, I said 'turnover rate' which is different and does not take assists into account (assists measure passing ability, not ballhandling ability so I don't know why you want to include that).
Obviously, MD is a scorer, primarily. But again, he had 8 assists in each of the last 2 games and he's right at 5 assists/gm since B1G play started so he's really putting it together in that area as well... just since you mentioned assists.
To continue with the Chucky vs Marcus thing, Hepburn's usage rating is 15.7% while Marcus is at 23.2% so he has the ball in his hands 50% more than Hepburn does, so some more turnovers is probably to be expected.
Last edited:
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Well but on some level that's literally not true, right?
Tyler Kolek is the nation's assist leader, and the turnovers he commits are almost never when the ball is in his hands, it's when he plays a pass that's a little over-ambitious or not on the same wavelength as a teammate. He takes WAY more chances with the ball than someone like Domask does, because that's his game.
Domask is a great passer, but Tyler Kolek generates massively more offense from his passing than Domask does.
It's not like I'm inventing the concept of AST/TO ratio here. That has been a common basketball stat since before the analytics revolution.
Some of the best ballhandlers who ever lived were NBA leaders in turnovers, Isiah Thomas, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, in all cases the juice was worth the squeeze because of the offense generated by taking those risks with the ball.
At the end of the day saying Domask is an elite ballhandler is like saying Zach Edey is an elite free throw shooter. Both are remarkably good given their limitations and are way better than you would expect, but like, they aren't GOOD good, and it would be weird to pretend otherwise.
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
I’m not sure after having to deal with selfish players last year, Brad wants ANYONE on his team who exhibits this tendency ever again. It goes against everything in both his everyday guy concept and his positive team culture that he so specifically focused on cultivating this year. Just sayin’
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
you do know you share your new avatar with another poster , don't you ???...................Istewart53x3.............strange....................not that there's anything wrong with that.......
He is an elite ballhandler. You're really doing some kind of dance to pretend otherwise.
Talking about assists (has zero to do with ballhandling ability).
Comparing him to Kolek who has a similar usage rate but a much, much higher turnover rate. You then in your next sentence start talking about Domask's passing ability versus Kolek's passing ability. That has zilch to do with the argument.
You call it 'weird' and 'pretending' that Domask is a strong ballhandler even though the numbers that dictate that viewpoint align with it entirely, but then drone on about 'asissts' which have nothing to do with dribbling the basketball... I think that's 'weird' lol
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Haha all good Pru it’s an epic shot
