Indiana 80, Illinois 65 Postgame

727ill · Jan 20, 2023

jumpingjack said:
I tend to agree. TJD just worked Dain with his drop step on repeat. He's become really nasty when he's allowed that little chicken wing. Interestingly Dain and Edey have the same wingspan.

That was a tough matchup for Dain last night. We have zero depth behind Dain so he can't really be too aggressive on defense either.

Overall I like him 1-1 with TJD in the post but when TJD got Coleman or Rodgers as a matchup it was malpractice not to double.

WyattEarp · Jan 20, 2023

Emerson Bigguns said:
I think the press would have been a bit more stressful for them up by10, than it was up by 20.

I cant come up with a good reason why they didn’t try that sooner. ?
I dunno.?

illini0440 · Jan 20, 2023

WyattEarp said:
I cant come up with a good reason why they didn’t try that sooner. ?
I dunno.?

Depth, already have tired legs.

Bigtex · Jan 20, 2023

727ill said:
I'll say it again and again. This team struggles against teams that deploy a ton of ball pressure. Maybe the guys were tired but this seems to be a yearly thing with Brad Underwood teams.

I can count on one hand the number of possessions last night where we actually ran Spread and got a shot out of it. Seemed like most times IU was blowing up the play with their ball pressure and then we had to improvise.

Of course, TJD scoring almost half their points doesn't help either. But, the stretch in the first half where we got down double digits and couldn't buy a bucket was where the game was lost.

agree 10000% Over all we do not have guys who are all that successful at beating their man off of the dribble. In many aspects that leads to "tough" layups..... Indiana had our offense starting 25+ feet from the basket.

splitter · Jan 20, 2023

EyeoftheIllini said:
Somebody better check on Pruman and make sure he didn’t have a coronary given the night TJD had.

Hope Pru went to the neighbor lady's around the first time out.

SCMART Illini · Jan 20, 2023

WyattEarp said:
I cant come up with a good reason why they didn’t try that sooner. ?
I dunno.?

How long do you have to get the ball to the out of bounds line to start using your 5 seconds to get it in? When Illinois got on a roll, TJD started walking down the floor with the ball after an IL make, then finally got back under the basket, then the refs stop play for them to get ready. That play was 9 seconds. The next Illinois basket, it was a full 10 seconds before they ever started the 5 second count. And on the first one, Harris was literally pushed in the chest with 2 hands to get him off of him. That had to be a foul or Technical.

Obviously not the reason we lost, but it was the only time in the game we started to show life and should have been a couple more turnovers.

727ill · Jan 20, 2023

Bigtex said:
agree 10000% Over all we do not have guys who are all that successful at beating their man off of the dribble. In many aspects that leads to "tough" layups..... Indiana had our offense starting 25+ feet from the basket.

Well, I disagree there. We are more capable w/ this roster at beating guys off the dribble than we have been in the past. It could be that tired legs are part of it and guys just didn't have the juice to beat their man.

I'm more concerned that 1-on-1 basketball is the answer when a team is pressuring the ball like IU does. When a team is putting a lot of pressure on the ball, the answer is to pass less and screen off the ball more.

DJM · Jan 20, 2023

There are many factors in a game which determine the outcome and there are many components which make a good team, one of which is shooting well from the line. I also think it's one of the easier problems to correct and work on not only in practice but on your own (they have a device that can basically funnel the ball back to you on the line).
Here are FT percentages in the Big 10:
PU 76
MSU 76
Rutgers 74
Wisc 67
Iowa 73
MU 68
NU 74
ILL 65
PSU 77
IU 70
MD 71
Neb 65
OSU 74
Minn 60
Our losses have been to: NU 74, PSU 77, MD 71, IU 70.
obviously, there is more that goes in to winning a game but all in conf losses have been to teams shooting at or over 70%. Not sure how they or we shot from the line in those specific games (or in conference play alone) but probably close to the percentages.
we play OSU next: 74%.

Illini8420 · Jan 20, 2023

IllinoisssssssVarsity said:
1. It is a bonafide basketball game plan to let one guy stay one on one and shut down the others. We have employed this plan vs Michigan and Indiana specifically in the past and been successful. There was a point where Geronimo was 6-6 in the game. That is a problem. We did send a double a couple times, and they still scored.

2. For people complaining about hero ball: when the defense pressures you like that, you attack it through straight line drives to the rim (see every team we played against BU’s first year). Who is our best threat to do that? Shannon. So it might look like hero ball, but you have to get downhill and attack.

3. Obviously we need to make our layups and free throws.

4. I agreed with bardo live that we should have pressed earlier than we did.

On your first point LaTulip explained it well in the post game show on why the plan backfired. Many of Geronimo and the other IU players baskets were also inside because of the spacing caused by us playing TJD only 1 on 1. Yeah Geronimo made a couple lucky outside shots too but there's no way IU shoots like a 70% true shooting percentage or whatever they did tonight, had we forced TJD to pass out more. You could leave some of them wide open from 3 and they still wouldn't have torched us like they did tonight. Not doubling TJD was just a bad strategy in this particular case. I skimmed reddit threads and IU fans were baffled as to why we never doubled TJD. All their losses came from him being doubled.

What I wish we could to better is just reading and reacting to the situation and adjusting on the fly. Not doubling TJD and not adjusting was the top example. And then the press, we wait until it's too late to roll that out and it actually made up some ground. I saw comments like "oh well we had scrapped the press completely because it didn't work 4 games ago", that's ridiculous! You keep it in your arsenal just in case. Some teams handle the press better than others some teams handle being doubled better than others. You read and react to the situations and adjust accordingly. There's rarely a one size fits all gameplan that can be employed an entire game. I wish our coaches could do a better job at just reading the game.

bluemountain · Jan 20, 2023

LvilleILL said:
Imo, I am not worried at all. This team is good enough to go deep in March. Just was an off night for both the players and coaches. Will be a different story when we see them next month. Let's string a few in a row together now

especially if Melendez gets on track we can be very dangerous come March. While it was poor last night our offensive flow has been much better the past few games and if we can keep that going we are a good offensive team.

What give me pause is: 1) more often than not we are going to struggle from the FT line. 2) We will run into a team that takes us out of our game offensively like IU did last night and we play a lot of hero ball. 3) We will find ourselves in a position where we have to make an adjustment to our game plan, and that just isn't something BU does well

Bigtex · Jan 20, 2023

727ill said:
Well, I disagree there. We are more capable w/ this roster at beating guys off the dribble than we have been in the past. It could be that tired legs are part of it and guys just didn't have the juice to beat their man.

I'm more concerned that 1-on-1 basketball is the answer when a team is pressuring the ball like IU does. When a team is putting a lot of pressure on the ball, the answer is to pass less and screen off the ball more.

I think it is semantics. If they are able to beat their man off of the dribble then they are able to finish (1x1) or dish if someone picks them up. It happens but not as much as I would expect it to happen when Illinois is pressured on "D"

altgeld88 · Jan 20, 2023

splitter · Jan 20, 2023

LouHenson said:
So sorry Pru, my dad is suffering from terminal liver cancer right now I totally feel for you.

add my thoughts and prayers for you and Pru and Tacoma. went thru this with my mother a few years ago. Hospice care workers are great. One would read to and sing with my mom. hope you find good ones.

kyillinifan · Jan 20, 2023

I am sure it has been talked about with Petrine playing. He also had the free throw yips.

SCMART Illini · Jan 20, 2023

Did I miss this being discussed earlier? Why did Mayer not play at all down the stretch? Tired? Hurt? doghouse?

Yukon · Jan 20, 2023

Illini_1979 said:
Woke up.

Had a cup of Siggi's coconut skyr for breakfast.

Won today's game of Wordle. Answer:

ALTER

Came here and was pleasantly surprised at the mostly calm response to the game. I still think this team can beat anyone on a given night and will be tough come March. Might be a few more bumps along the way but we will get there.

Go Illini.

Yup. And they can lose to any team on a given night too.

Yukon · Jan 20, 2023

illini0440 said:
Depth, already have tired legs.

Exactly! Gotta consider your teams depth and fitness when deciding to go full court. Coach understands that better than any of us.

Emerson Bigguns · Jan 20, 2023

SCMART Illini said:
Did I miss this being discussed earlier? Why did Mayer not play at all down the stretch? Tired? Hurt? doghouse?

Apparently, he was dealing with an illness.

201154JC · Jan 20, 2023

jayd said:
Menu for this loss: Sit our biggest playmaker and shot blocker the last few games on the bench for most of the second half. Shoot under 50% on free throws. Have Shannon forget there are four other players on the court.

Underwood said Meyer was quite sick. Why did he play then?

WyattEarp · Jan 20, 2023

201154JC said:
Underwood said Meyer was quite sick. Why did he play then?

I mean…I dunno but he probably wanted to? Sometimes you play great when you’re sick. It didn’t work that way this time unfortunately.

thehass · Jan 20, 2023

NorthShoreIllini said:
The worst defensive game plan I’ve ever seen. And the offense wasn’t much better. Holy moly.

Agree. they exploited the low post all night and we made no adjustment. Even a zone would have clogged the middle and probably force them to pass back out. This is not the first time our low post has been beaten up. The players should have seen this as well as coach.

HensonHall71 · Jan 20, 2023

I have to say, unlike any other year I can remember we have a way of making the other team look phenomenal - watching the Penn State, Missouri, Northwestern and now Indiana games, you would think they are top 5 teams and will never lose another game - they shoot incredibly well, completely shut us down, it's unreal

It's hard to put a finger on why that is, but when a team has our number - it REALLY has our number and we don't seem to have a way to turn it around in-game

splitter · Jan 20, 2023

quote of the year by Brad in the presser getting asked about changing things up. "We did but you didn't notice" could have been used many times over his tenure, Loyola game or year one when they couldn't even get the ball inbounds.

purcy51 · Jan 20, 2023

skyIdub said:
Some fresh crow for the "TJD is overrated" crowd.

I'll admit, I'm one of those people. Never been overly impressed by TJD but I was last night.

john1952 · Jan 20, 2023

Warren Carter Fanclub said:
Indiana shot 62% from the field. Considering where the shots were from it isn't that impressive.

We were 9-23 FT. Worst ever Illinois FT shooting team I can remember.

Put that one top of the 7 to 10 shots we missed driving to the basket and we had no chance.

Nice to have a Mr. Automatic like TJD.