I think we absolutely stomp them.
Pregame: Illinois at Nebraska, Sunday, February 1st, 3:00pm CT, FS1
- Status
Only thing I want to see is us running them off the 3 point line. Force them to beat us off the dribble. And make open shots
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
A lot on the line for both teams.
For us, NOT eating a Nebraska loss sandwich (thanks @RollChief )
Great position in the 1 seed derby
Great position in the conference race
A big game for Keaton and he'd be at the top of the POTY race
Huge game. Massive.
Just Win.
For us, NOT eating a Nebraska loss sandwich (thanks @RollChief )
Great position in the 1 seed derby
Great position in the conference race
A big game for Keaton and he'd be at the top of the POTY race
Huge game. Massive.
Just Win.
Once again, the possible matchups on defense for the Illini are really interesting.
Buyuktoncel is not much of an outside threat (9-38 from 3). Tomi/Z could sag and protect the rim unless they get caught in a switch.
Hoiberg is 19-50 from 3, but averages 4 assists and surprisingly 5 rebounds at 6-0. Wagler? Some Petrovic? (I could see him getting a few minutes in this matchup)
Lawrence is 6-3 and is 38-100 on 3s. Jake? Ben?
Mast is 6-10 and has hit 35-104 from 3. Mirk? Ben? Tomi/Z??
Sandfort is 6-7 and has hit 73-179 from 3 (40%). Andrej? Ben?
Frager is 6-7 and has hit 31-83 from 3. Ben? Andrej? Mirk?
This is a game where Boswell’s skill set might really be missed.
I think Nebraska will have some matchup issues against the Illini offense because Buyuktoncel has to guard one of our bigs out to the arc unless they play zone, which we might see a lot of.
I’m expecting a high-level, fascinating game.
Buyuktoncel is not much of an outside threat (9-38 from 3). Tomi/Z could sag and protect the rim unless they get caught in a switch.
Hoiberg is 19-50 from 3, but averages 4 assists and surprisingly 5 rebounds at 6-0. Wagler? Some Petrovic? (I could see him getting a few minutes in this matchup)
Lawrence is 6-3 and is 38-100 on 3s. Jake? Ben?
Mast is 6-10 and has hit 35-104 from 3. Mirk? Ben? Tomi/Z??
Sandfort is 6-7 and has hit 73-179 from 3 (40%). Andrej? Ben?
Frager is 6-7 and has hit 31-83 from 3. Ben? Andrej? Mirk?
This is a game where Boswell’s skill set might really be missed.
I think Nebraska will have some matchup issues against the Illini offense because Buyuktoncel has to guard one of our bigs out to the arc unless they play zone, which we might see a lot of.
I’m expecting a high-level, fascinating game.
Does anyone know their health situation in this one? They played Michigan without Mast and Frager...
"Rienk Mast had to go to the emergency room with severe dehydration after getting back from Michigan, Fred Hoiberg said. He'll play Sunday "if he responds well the rest of the day." Ugnius Jarusevicius has the flu. Braden Frager practiced some today. He's questionable." Nebraska site
The bad taste in the mouth from a last second shot doesn't go away quickly. Here comes Hurricane ILLINI. Let's goooooooooo!!!
It is plain and simple. What happened in last game against Nb? Santfort went nuts. He could have shot shots from half court and still would have gone in. Got to hit free throws. The key stop Santfort.
I think we play very well and come out with an upset win, Illinois 78-72.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
@purdont..........can't talk enough about how big of a win on the road that was......
I know our defense has dipped without Kylan. But I just rewatched the highlights and I will say, the difference in shot quality between us and Washington was pretty striking. We were mainly getting wide open 3s off passes, layups off cutting, or Keaton or Andrej just taking their guy to the hole. Washington it was almost all contested mid range 2s, several of which bounced around and rolled in.
We still won comfortably, but I bet if we replay that exact same game 100 times, we win by 15-20 70% of the time when Washington doesn’t hit as many tough floaters or get so many rolls.
We still won comfortably, but I bet if we replay that exact same game 100 times, we win by 15-20 70% of the time when Washington doesn’t hit as many tough floaters or get so many rolls.
I think the the key is gonna be Tomi. With the added defense emphasis that Keaton will see the rest of the year the pick and pop for Tomi will be there just like last night. We need to not let Hoiberg dribble through our defense and find Sandefort open on the 3 point line. I have a feeling Andrej is gonna break out of his mini 2 game slump. I’m predicting good guys 79-78 in a wild one
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
I'm going to give the biggest DUH comment of the day on this. Ben and Jake are absolutely critical. We know that Nebraska is going to avalanche threes on us, just like everyone else. We have to be able to balance that at least somewhat.
Also, even if Drej is struggling on offense, he HAS to cover the wings defensively. Sandfort had a field day....another DUH. I can live with Mast making a few, but if Sandfort goes off like he did at our place, I don't see us winning this game. We have to figure out a way to run them off the three point line. Going zone and going under screens....not gonna work.
The last time Andrej went more than 2 games in a row without scoring double figures was almost two years ago when he was at Stanford.
Nebby shot 46% from deep and 52% overall last time around. Jake, Drej, Mirk and Ben are going to need to be closing out hard and not ball watching.
Going to need to work on fighting through double screens and hard hedges. The five out, pace and space gave us a lot of trouble last time around.
I think their weakness is in their ball handling. They really only have a few guys who can get their own shot off the dribble. If we can hard hedge Hoiberg and Lawrence and have good defensive rotations, we will fare better. Force Pryce Buyuktuncel or Mast to drive the ball and our length will give them problems.
Going to need to work on fighting through double screens and hard hedges. The five out, pace and space gave us a lot of trouble last time around.
I think their weakness is in their ball handling. They really only have a few guys who can get their own shot off the dribble. If we can hard hedge Hoiberg and Lawrence and have good defensive rotations, we will fare better. Force Pryce Buyuktuncel or Mast to drive the ball and our length will give them problems.
blackdog
- Champaign
Good news it seems Illinois has improved tremendously in terms of being assignment sound and communicating. They still have some trouble with getting caught on screens off ball but its gotten a lot better. Hopefully will mean less space for Nebraska.
We might see some zone with the twin towers...
If you zone a team that can really shoot it, it's too easy to shoot over it. You're basically telling them that they have to hit the three to beat you. IMO, not a great way to go.
Forcing them to handle the ball, keeping their guards out of the paint where help isn't required, would go a long way in shutting the water of.
If they go 15 of 30 from inside the paint, I don't care. The issue is if they go 15 of 30 from the perimeter. Can't have that under any circumstances.
I'm not sure how much you can play the towers together because it's absolutely critical to run them off the three point line. Quickness recovering, along with pump fakes, getting our bigs off their feet is a massive problem. This is a major problem for Z in particular. Then you're stuck in rotation and that's where the wide open corner threes come from.
Like us, they have five guys on the floor that can shoot the three. That is incredibly tough to stop.
Now, what I might do is mix in a little pressure making them bring the ball up the floor, which would keep them from setting up their offense. I'm actually surprised, with our lack of depth at the guard position, that more teams don't do it to us.
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Interesting read
https://fivestarbracketology.com/20...7-2025-26-college-basketball-archetype-board/
The one additional point I’d like to highlight is the nature of this thing not being a power ranking but a stylistic analysis of historical results. The key there would be teams like Michigan St and Illinois who from a ranking perspective are higher up than teams positioned better than them on this graph. The reason I keep harping on is vulnerabilities. Michigan St on offense and Illinois on D are both weak, which represents a reliance on one end of the floor. There have been teams able to overcome that and go deep, but with less reliability than the balanced teams like Vandy/Florida/Nebraska. That is what we’re doing here. Pointing out, with historical proof, that teams that rely on one end of the floor have a vulnerability that can crop up and burn them in a single elimination tournament.
https://fivestarbracketology.com/20...7-2025-26-college-basketball-archetype-board/
The one additional point I’d like to highlight is the nature of this thing not being a power ranking but a stylistic analysis of historical results. The key there would be teams like Michigan St and Illinois who from a ranking perspective are higher up than teams positioned better than them on this graph. The reason I keep harping on is vulnerabilities. Michigan St on offense and Illinois on D are both weak, which represents a reliance on one end of the floor. There have been teams able to overcome that and go deep, but with less reliability than the balanced teams like Vandy/Florida/Nebraska. That is what we’re doing here. Pointing out, with historical proof, that teams that rely on one end of the floor have a vulnerability that can crop up and burn them in a single elimination tournament.
I tend to agree with this, actually. Not that we can't win the whole dang thing but teams that do tend to be more balanced. Which makes sense. If you're going to win six games in a row in three different venues against six different teams who could present six completely unique challenges, you need to be able to remove as much variability from your performance as possible. Balance helps with that.
All that to say, before Kylan went down, we were on our way to having a formidable defense. Couple that with a historically good offense, above average year over year continuity, and a generationally talented lead guard, there's a lot to like about our chances come March.
This will be an interesting matchup. All things being equal, I would normally call it a toss-up. Both teams are coming off hard fought and emotional road games. The physical and emotional state for both is questionable. But there is a huge factor in favor of the Huskers...the game will be played in Lincoln, Nebraska. For that reason, I am not at all confident that the recent elevation in defensive intensity by our guys...as well as the offensive efficiency... can be sustained near the level required. I expect the home crowd to energize the home team to a victory.
But my expectations, and those of anyone else on this planet, has nothing to do with what will actually transpire.,,and the outcome I will be hoping to see.
I’m such a sicko. I’ve been rewatching our first game vs Nebraska since late last night and finished it today. The game winner had the clock with .2 seconds left and we just inbound the ball to Wagler for a meaningless heave. I watched it in slow motion and the ball went through the net with at least .4 left. We had 2 timeouts left. I can’t believe we didn’t call one and make the refs check the clock. If would have been enough time for a catch and shoot. Obviously we would’ve needed a miracle to send it to OT but it was possible. Andrej going to be a huge key to this game. Mirk was a no show last time and I don’t expect that to happen this time. Wagler gotta continue the year he’s been on. We will miss Kylan a lot in this game. Of course they might be down 1 or 2 players as well. No stupid tech this game on Z please. Tomi didn’t score until the late 3 that tied the game. I think he could have a big game if they trap Wagler. We took a lot of bad shots early in the shot clock the first half last time and if led to easy transition points for them. I think this team is going to be very hungry for revenge. I think I’d be more nervous if we had won the first game. This team has grit and we’re going to need a lot of it on Sunday to win.
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