Iowa 81, Illinois 79 Postgame
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Yeah. Sucks for RJ. Ty is already swoopin in on his minutes as well. Once Ty can slow down a bit and quit passing to thin air he is gonna be great. The drive to the lane today and the tip in were sweet.
Still love TJS! Sometimes he just seems to let his frustrations hurt his play. IMO he will be fine.
They actually didn't. I believe he shot two of them if I remember correctly and both were rebounded and put back, 1 by Dain and the other by Ty. If there was a 3rd it was one where he followed his own rebound and got and made 2 free throws. I think the CoHawk anger in this game is rather ridiculous. Did he have a good offensive game? No, but it didn't kill us. He played outstanding defense on Murray and really the only shots Murray made were high difficulty ones. In fact it was whenever he wasn't guarding Murray that he would break free and get better looks. So really the anger here is about the turnovers he had and missing that open three in the corner in rhythm, right? Or is it just that we lost to Iowa? I'll be honest, the mental aspects of CoHawk's games do frustrate me, but overall today, I thought he played as hard as he could and was a net positive for us. And I can cheer for that. He played with a lot of heart and effort today. In fact I think our whole team played great today. We simply lost because Iowa hit their low quality shots at an unsustainably high rate and were basically handed a ton of free throws that they sank. That's really it.
Blocking out is a basic fundamental when a shot goes up. Failing to focus and block out will lead to second chance points and get you beat! Did he block him out or nit? Nope and then he fouled him and acted surprised! He was out hustled on the play! I do not know how you can watch that and make excuses for Hawk on the play. I’m sure if he watches it he will say that was lazy and lack of basic effort and fundamentals on his part. It was pretty obvious.
In one possession games these not blocking out, careless turnovers, and dumb backcourt fouls that lead to easy points several times will get you beat.
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Exactly everyone’s thoughts wrt Hawk. Well put
While it sucks to lose, especially to Iowa. I am encouraged by several of our players. Mayer has played very well. Epps and Dain have 3 years left and keep getting better. Epps again with 0 turnovers. TSJ well be fine he just needs to have fewer turnovers but given how he attacks some are to be expected. Rodgers and Harris are also getting better. Hawkins is trending in the right direction however still needs to decrease some of the unforced errors and make simple basic plays like blocking out or forcing some passes. Goode can’t get back soon enough because while RJ has been pretty good on D his shots just don’t seem to come close for now. I hope Goode comes back soon! Iowa is a tough place to win and we made too many mistakes and careless fouls but. There are lots of reasons to remain optimistic! I’m fired up about Epps and Dain with 3 years left. The only player I’m a bit pessimistic about is RJ but that could change. Goode could go along way to bringing us something we really need to take off. Teams seem more willing to lean towards leaving RJ and Hawk open for threes than others but with Goode I don’t think they will and it could help open things up. I hope he is back and soon’
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Can’t wait for his breakout game -the guy is talented and can be smart .
We are not hitting on all cylinders yet and when we do run run run
Great post
This is how I felt. With my Illini Fan hat on, disappointing loss; with my general basketball fan hat on, fun and entertaining game to watch. I’m sticking with the latter outlook. As big of an Illini fan as I am, it’s good to remember once in awhile that essentially it’s about entertainment and enjoyment. So, not as enjoyable as I’d like, but an entertaining game.
I agree with vast majority of this post except for Hawkins needing to look to score. If the defense leaves him open for a quality look then sure take it. Other guys need to take most of our shots. If the defense gives him a good look find but but looking to score or taking some of these bombs isn’t his strong suit. If Hawk plays hard, makes smart plays, takes what the defense gives him by taking quality looks that will make us better. If your open don’t pump fake take it but if it’s a bomb or more than a dribble or two then pass. Our top scorers I hope to see taking most of our shots are Mayer, TSJ (draws a ton of fouls), Epps and Dain. Hawk can put up shots when they are good looks as can Goode. I don’t think Hawk needs to be looking to get up shots but just take quality looks. He can shoot the ball at times but isn’t as efficient a scorer as some of other guys. Hawk does several things very well and is a key to our success for sure. If he plays to his strengths and limits careless mistakes we can be much better. He has been trending in that direction and Mayer, Dain, Epps, and TSJ have gotten more shots up. We shot the ball well. The careless mistakes, poor passing, back court and fouls over all is why we lost this game.
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Thank you. I’d say the officiating was inconsistent, but it wasn’t the reason the Illini lost. We had one more foul and they shot I think 7 more free throws. That is what Iowa does — gets to the line and makes them. And I agree with something Bardo said (not totally blaming refs and agreeing with Bardo in same post, crazy I know) during the broadcast. Illini had some really dumb, ain’t no doubt about it, ill-advised and -timed fouls. And it happens every game. It was made worse because we know what Iowa does and we help the cause with dumb fouls.To those who think the refs are the reason that Illini lost the game...
Good teams don't make dumb mistakes. Good teams play with a higher basketball IQ than this team showed at times during this game.
A year or so back I had to remind myself that I watch the beloved for entertainment, and that their success or failure should have nothing to do with my outlook. Once I accepted that, I've enjoyed Illini basketball without the extreme lows and highs, and am in a better place as a fan.
Agreed. I posted something to the same effect in the game thread. By all accounts he is shooting very well in practice and warm ups, so it is now a mental things in games. Not going to beat that by not playing him or him not showing. Just needs to take good shots, and the 3 he took today was a good, wide open look. And he’s playing good D.
Well said Pruman, as usual you are the voice of reason. I enjoy your post. I really really do.
I agree with all this, Coleman has some frustrating moments every game but makes so many outstanding plays we can't afford to not have him on the court. Hope he doing well and back for Minnesota at full steam. I have concluded that roughly 78.64 percent of BIG refs are terrible. I think most try, but are just not up to the job. Just be consistent from end to end and half to half and I will be happy. I am most frustrated by two things: the superstar treatment given to players like Murray (understandable at some level given the money involved in "amateur" athletics), but more than anything calls by out of position officials on phantom fouls. We see a lot of late whistles by the ref with the worst view of the three because they think that must have been a foul and the other refs didn't call it. The other refs didn't call it, because it WASN'T A FOUL YOU MORON.
I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of that foundation for an argument either, but your examples of pilot/crash and chef/bad food aren’t really analogous. Yes, if a plane crashes you know something went wrong. But do you know if it was equipment failure, pilot error, weather conditions, etc? A lot of posters on here (and I’m not immune to it) are quick to jump to “equipment failure” when talking about the game and delve deep into what “equipment” failed and why or why the “pilot’ failed to make halftime adjustments and what they should have been. And while I agree that making comments in and of itself is not worthy of being labeled as vitriolic — it is a fan forum after all — I think there are plenty of posters who get much more negative and personal than it should be IMHO.
If we had Curbelo, Miller, and Jereme Richmond I am sure the outcome would of been different.
Yeah, we would have lost by 30 because Curbelo would have had 8 turnovers and Miller would have shot 2-16 (3pt 2-15).
Did officials forget what a moving screen is? The Iowa screens looked like an offensive lineman protecting their quarterback. Not hard to get open when the screener follows the defensive player around the court. Sorry, just being old school and missing the fundamentals. And yes, the officials really can call it every time down the floor until it changes.
On the other hand, Illinois made several mistakes, but fought hard. They're not going to win every big ten road game. Go home, clean things up and win the next one.
On the other hand, Illinois made several mistakes, but fought hard. They're not going to win every big ten road game. Go home, clean things up and win the next one.
If you're teaching a class, I'll be the first to sign up. I took that L with me into the evening. You are 100% right however. Some of the stuff that was spewed on the game thread by a few...not great.
Hindsight being 20/20, it was impossible to forecast 1)Goode missing the vast majority of the season, 2)RJ struggling to this degree and 3)things not working as projected with Skyy. Those three occurrences have really opened up a glaring weakness with regards to perimeter performance. Who knows though. No guarantee that Podz getting a bigger role(playing a BT schedule vs a WCC schedule) would have bared fruit either.
I've been saying this all season about the moving picks. It's ridiculous what they are allowing now. When was the last you saw a carry called? There is no way these players are changing direction as fast and often as they do without carrying the ball. I know it's all throughout basketball. Times have changed and I'm old school.
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