Illinois 98, Florida Atlantic 89 Postgame

#351      

Illiniguy2442

I
Illiniguy2442
What a great team win. We have a legit TEAM. That’s the biggest difference from this year to last. Guys are embracing their roles.

Our sets were pretty simple the second half. Ball was either in Marcus or Terrance’s hands. I think our offense is going to keep getting better and better as we continue to install variations to our sets.

I thought despite FAU scoring 89 we played pretty good defense. We were especially great with transition defense. Ty and Terrance are such great on ball defenders in the half court, even Luke was pretty solid on the ball defensively.

Btw, our “PG” had 3 assists and one TO tonight and I don’t think FAU was a great match up for him offensively. He’s only going to continue to get better AND so is this team.
 
#354      

IllinistrandedinHouston

I
IllinistrandedinHouston
Indy Illini Fan said:
we suck again GIF
Click to expand...
Right, we should have won by 30!
 
#357      

jimbo72

J
jimbo72
I said it at halftime we were getting stomped on the boards and Coach wanted men getting back to not repeat Marquette. 1 low 4 out. Man oh man. To hold FAU to no fast break points is phenomenal. Great job coaches, adjusting from Rutgers to this game, and great job Illini men!. When all is said and done I believe rebounding ended up close and we got the W!!! Awesome!
FAU eats opponents up in transition scoring. NOT TONIGHT BABY! 😂 😂
 
#358      

Oskee67

Oskee67
Champaign
Oskee67
OrangeNBrood_Redux said:
View attachment 29331

Eh, we all know that Shannon Jr is an All-American. But after this game, it isn’t ridiculous to ask: is Domask an All-American, too?

Marcus Domask aka Mutated Mark Price.

Love, love, love how we took it to a higher gear that FAU just couldn’t match in the second half, led by powerful, poetic plays by our two superheroes. Love, love, love how we made all the plays we needed to, to keep our grip on this win down the stretch.

It’s an absolute privilege to be this mature in our team identity so early in the season. It means we’ve got something very special to look forward to, later in the year.
Click to expand...
Missed opportunity to use the :shield: lol
 
#363      

grue2

G
grue2
Oldskoolkoach said:
Didn't get to watch, sat at a choir concert instead! I assume by all the comments we played ok, shot FT ok, and shot the ball well.

I'm looking for the complaints and didn't see any, can someone highlight a negative, please. I won't be able to sleep tonight until someone says something negative.

- Brad's hair miscombed
- Geoff pant legs too high
- CoHawk surely did something negative after 20 positives
- TSJ had mismatching loop length on his shoestring?

Anything?
Click to expand...

You should have gone to the game instead. 59pts in a college half has to count as a concert too.

The bad:
- In the first half Coleman took a few ill advised 3s - one from pretty far back, one out of rhythm. Both were pretty early in the clock. Both broke momentum. He also tried to force some shots against Goldin. I had bad thoughts about where this game was going.
- A couple of times Dainja caught the ball near the free throw line and decided he was going to take his man1:1 to the hoop. He forgot about the help defenders and the ball.

The good:
- Coleman stepped back from trying to score into a defend and facilitate roll and the offense cooked. I was so happy to see him bypass a relatively open shot to feed a moving (TSJ? Domask?), who took it to the hole. He did take a pair of 3pt attempts in the second half when they dared him to shoot. He made one, so Goldin had to come out and defend him going forward. Coleman also played some pretty damn good defense.
- Dainja really heard it from Brad after each of those bonehead moves and got benched hard after the second one. I have hopes he will learn. (And I've been generally pro Dainja. I like his blocking out on offense. I like his in close power game. If there is no help around, you can take ONE dribble Dainja.)
- Hansberry had 3-4 solid minutes when Coleman needed to sit and Dainja needed to be benched. Only one significant freshman mistake that I caught.

- Oh, and Domask and TSJ each went nuts in what appeared to be a repeatable manners. TSJ showed Ayo level open court moves and broke the press several times by just being faster than his man. I'm going to half court that way, and I got the first 1/2 step on you. You lose.
- Goode was solid all around.
- The others had "okay" games. \s

If you had told me we were going to shoot 90% free throws, I'd have bet a beach house against you. If you told me we would give up 89 and still win, I'd have bet the beach.

Nicely done guys. I think I'm going to have to revise that early 6-9 seed estimate. A 3-4 seed doesn't seem out of the question.

FAU is going to do some damage this season. If any of: Goldin doesn't get 2 early fouls, or they have their missing guard, or we are on the road, I'm not sure we win. They are good. I do not want to be in their bracket come March.
 
Last edited:
#366      

I-L-L

I
I-L-L
I-L-L said:
I second this on Harmon - love his game! Goode always in the right spot too! Dain got benched after he dribbled too much, but he was on his feet late in the game excited for his guys. Rodgers knows he won't be in on the offensive end at the end of games and he came in and played awesome defense and was excited. Hansberry gave us a few good minutes. Hawkins does dumb things, but does really good things too that not many can do. I'm telling you Hawkins is the key to a Final Four run. If he's 100% in and smart, we are one of the best 5-6 teams in the country. The point is last year we didn't have a "team". This year we have a TEAM!!!! So much fun to watch - not just this game or Rutgers, but the way we play!!!
Click to expand...
Almost forgot that Guerrier is a team player and can really rebound. We're deep and experienced.
 
#372      

HensonHall71

H
HensonHall71
I just watched the “highlights” which included Coleman missing 4 threes! Man we can be good if he doesn’t force it and plays his role of defense, rebounding and facilitating
 
#375      

Emerson Bigguns

Emerson Bigguns
Emerson Bigguns
Domask has spent the last 4 years wishing someone would try to check him with a 6’3” guard. You must put your best defensive player on TSJ. Marcus has never had this type of luxury.
It says a lot about the makeup of this team that Domask has been so willing to settle into a role when he is capable of what we witnessed tonight.

If there is a better player in the country than TSJ this year, I haven’t seen him yet. He should be in any POY conversation moving forward. Edey is massive, but Terrence is a basketball player.

The last two games we have simply worn out the opposition. We just keep throwing grown men at you until you buckle. Our bench would have whipped our squad of 6 years ago.

Toughness, baby. We got it.

This program is just hitting its stride. Plenty of room still on the bandwagon for the naysayers. We are position-less…and it’s working.