Loyola Chicago 71, Illinois 58 Postgame

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#576      

Deleted member 747903

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Honestly, there are a lot of good shots we got in this video that we just missed. There are also a lot of plays that they took away our primary play and we just died on the rest of the play, no movement. Loyola played a high risk defense and we couldn't take advantage of it. Look at 10:35. Trent is just sitting in the corner with his hands on his knees even. At 10:37 in that video, his man starts cheating up on Ayo. If Trent just cuts back door, that's a layup all day. Similar story the play right after although our spacing is not ideal for a backdoor. 11:14, Ayo should rip through and drive hard with his left shoulder into the defender's left shoulder and draw a foul, get himself some breathing room and force them to loosen up their coverage.

There are also several plays where Ayo just needs to force the issue and force some contact on those high ball screens, or just stop running them...

Our back cuts were atrocious this year. Felt like we only did it once a game.

If you only do it once a game then teams are going to continue to cheat up on you because the risk-reward is in their favor.
 
#577      
Not sure if posted before, but great video

They did a great job not letting Ayo go to his right. And we just couldn't figure out how to burn them when they doubled the high screen. Ayo basically just stalled with the ball, didn't try a skip pass to the weak side, and didn't hit Kofi rolling to the bucket. You can say Loyola did a good job taking away those things too, but you can't take away everything. Ayo just wasn't very assertive. They also did a good job collapsing on Kofi when he did dribble, probably knowing the ball wasn't going to be passed out at that point.

I'd have ran that high screen with someone other than Kofi, maybe Grandison. Then try to hit Grandison rolling to the FT line and have him make a play going 2 on 1. Krutwig isn't that fast that he can double and still recover.
 
#578      
Not sure if posted before, but great video
Anyone who says that Moser is a bad coach hasn't watched this video. I don't care what he did at Arkansas-Little Rock, ISU, etc. He had his players ready to take down Goliath.
 
#579      
Some silver linings before I rail against the media and their favorite Centenarian...

* What an amazing season!
* We were better than Michigan in every way, didn’t get a vacation from our Governor, and handled a bracket that was way tougher than theirs in the way I expected
* People here are handling this tough loss with humor and that is impressive
* We still aren’t Iowa
* Kofi may return bc he’s got of room for improvement and should be a lottery pick if he leaves, we will have 2 who made it the NBA if he doesn’t from this team; win-win
*Ayo is gone but I think our offense runs better without him (we would have beaten Michigan by 13 with a heathy Ayo)
* The Underwood haters will certainly be back and it was a lot of fun seeing them being proven wrong
* Everything that follows isn’t a complaint, I just like the healing power of humor, admire Sister Jean for her faith, but feel like God will forgive me for my hard feelings

And now for the round of potshots and sarcasm:

* first hats off to Loyola and the way they played (clearing my throat)
* I think we should leave God out of sports...when SMU lost a football game on a last second field goal andtheir opponents kicker gave the glory to Jesus my hero Bobby KnIght said it best: “Does that mean God decided to screw SMU?”
* I can’t bring my self to have hard feelings toward a woman of faith but I can attempt an impression of playing God to her Job so...living to 100 is henceforth not an accomplishment (a woman born today has a 1 in 3 chance of make it); she needs to put the on the sorting hat so she goes full Harry Potter in the poster of Cade Cunningham dunking on her that I have already cleared a space for on my wall; lastly she got to attend the game against common sense and the official ruling because of public outcry...Betty White nailed her hosting gig on SNL for the same reasons but her funniest joke was pointing out the thinly veiled narcissism that big tech and the media nuture each time they bow to pressure; when an unofficial mascot dies whether of Covid or Grief, I hope we see ourselves and throw shade where it belongs; MySpace thought it was all-powerful, too in it’s prime after all.
* this loss is nowhere near as heartbreaking as 2005.,,with 3 minutes left and almost 9 point deficit, I said the following: “Can we recall Dee, Deron, and Luther” unfortunately God was apparently on a hotline with Sister Jean, so my prayer went unanswered
* (and here is the sarcastic cherry on top..,) Way to go NCAA, you managed to tarnish your product with the inevitable unintended consequences from your transfer rule change. It was fun watching the blueboods bleed out...almost as much fun as acknowledging that MSU has an unofficial FastPass to the tourney....the team I root for wins its games through grit and being better than the sum of its parts; it got its behind handed to it from another team that using basketball and not recuiting to ensure victory. I enjoyed the game despite the outcome. The NCAA’s apparent disregard for the sport makes me sadder than this tough loss. Everybody loves money. But I suspect the NCAA is on the same path as MC Hammer.
* Lastly, if you read all that, thank you. Here’s the one gem among the babble: when the 2005 team forgot they were playing for a national championship in the first half of that game, fans at my uncle’s workplace were put on suicide watch. For real. I doubt that happened this time. The Thad Five fizzled, too. It’s hard to win the tourney and now the pressure is off. ;)
 
#583      

Deleted member 186590

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Maybe Moser isn't a good coach...😁
No kidding- it’s amazing what a difference a game makes in the fans view of a coach!

Loyola was favored by like 7.5 points, but you got the feeling OSU was the better team if you didn’t know anything g about either team

it was amazing how OSU used a zone to takeaway Loyola’s offense completely and just spread out Loyola in the other end and went one on one to beat them- Which is the very obvious gameplan against Loyola when you have better athletes
 
#584      
No kidding- it’s amazing what a difference a game makes in the fans view of a coach!

Loyola was favored by like 7.5 points, but you got the feeling OSU was the better team if you didn’t know anything g about either team

it was amazing how OSU used a zone to takeaway Loyola’s offense completely and just spread out Loyola in the other end and went one on one to beat them- Which is the very obvious gameplan against Loyola when you have better athletes
I don't know if Oregon State plays zone as their default defense, but that's the obvious way to defend Loyola. They're not great shooters and their offense is predicated on picking so someone can go to the hoop. Pack the paint and that plan doesn't work well.

On defense they aggressively overplay and force mistakes and have great team help. However if you spread them out, individually they're not very athletic at all. Oregon State had a good gameplan to take advantage of this we just played our same old same old and didn't adjust at all.

Loyola played in a weak mvc and outside of beating drake, which I guess is a good win, we were their only good win of the season. They best us due to equal parts we made no adjustments and they were sky high because of who we are, the instate power school they really wanted to show they could beat.
 
#585      
I don't know if Oregon State plays zone as their default defense, but that's the obvious way to defend Loyola. They're not great shooters and their offense is predicated on picking so someone can go to the hoop. Pack the paint and that plan doesn't work well.

On defense they aggressively overplay and force mistakes and have great team help. However if you spread them out, individually they're not very athletic at all. Oregon State had a good gameplan to take advantage of this we just played our same old same old and didn't adjust at all.

Loyola played in a weak mvc and outside of beating drake, which I guess is a good win, we were their only good win of the season. They best us due to equal parts we made no adjustments and they were sky high because of who we are, the instate power school they really wanted to show they could beat.
Oregon State does play a fair amount of zone. I’d say number one D is man to man, but mix in a lot of zone as needed depending on matchups and how man to man is doing. Also read that Tinkle added some wrinkles to their zone to help combat Krutwig and what Loyola tries to do.
 
#586      
I don't know if Oregon State plays zone as their default defense, but that's the obvious way to defend Loyola. They're not great shooters and their offense is predicated on picking so someone can go to the hoop. Pack the paint and that plan doesn't work well.

On defense they aggressively overplay and force mistakes and have great team help. However if you spread them out, individually they're not very athletic at all. Oregon State had a good gameplan to take advantage of this we just played our same old same old and didn't adjust at all.

Loyola played in a weak mvc and outside of beating drake, which I guess is a good win, we were their only good win of the season. They best us due to equal parts we made no adjustments and they were sky high because of who we are, the instate power school they really wanted to show they could beat.

No kidding- it’s amazing what a difference a game makes in the fans view of a coach!

Loyola was favored by like 7.5 points, but you got the feeling OSU was the better team if you didn’t know anything g about either team

it was amazing how OSU used a zone to takeaway Loyola’s offense completely and just spread out Loyola in the other end and went one on one to beat them- Which is the very obvious gameplan against Loyola when you have better athletes
Not sure why all the hate on Moser, but I will offer my last post on him....he coached an OK game vs OSU, they couldn't make a shot. They had many open looks they missed-(33% from 2 and 21% from 3). That's not on the coach. Coach has his team hold OSU to 65, pretty good, should be good enough to win if you can put the ball in the bucket. The "weak" MVC has the same number of schools playing this weekend as the omnipotent Big 10, and if Loyola hit 4 of those open looks, they may very well be in the Final 4 again. As poorly as they shot, they only lost by 7. As far as Loyola being sky high because of who we are, get real, we haven't been in the tournament since 2013, and won one game. They were in the Final 4 3 yrs ago. We should have played sky high because of who they are. Loyola did win a National Championship btw. Of course we won the NCAA Championship too-in 1943 when most college age kids were in the war! They won it in 1963 against an over powering Kentucky team. Finally, we had some good wins, but we had a LOT of shaky wins, and some bad losses. Face it, we weren't as good as advertised, the Big 10 wasn't as good as advertised, and Loyola flat out beat us. No excuses. And if Moser isn't a good coach, what does that make Underwood, with superior overall talent, with a 1st team All American and a 2nd team All American, from the BIG 10? Dennis Green once said, "you are what your record says you are" (Loyola was 26-5 btw)....Loyola won convincingly and moved on. We lost and went home
 
#587      
Not sure why all the hate on Moser, but I will offer my last post on him....he coached an OK game vs OSU, they couldn't make a shot. They had many open looks they missed-(33% from 2 and 21% from 3). That's not on the coach. Coach has his team hold OSU to 65, pretty good, should be good enough to win if you can put the ball in the bucket. The "weak" MVC has the same number of schools playing this weekend as the omnipotent Big 10, and if Loyola hit 4 of those open looks, they may very well be in the Final 4 again. As poorly as they shot, they only lost by 7. As far as Loyola being sky high because of who we are, get real, we haven't been in the tournament since 2013, and won one game. They were in the Final 4 3 yrs ago. We should have played sky high because of who they are. Loyola did win a National Championship btw. Of course we won the NCAA Championship too-in 1943 when most college age kids were in the war! They won it in 1963 against an over powering Kentucky team. Finally, we had some good wins, but we had a LOT of shaky wins, and some bad losses. Face it, we weren't as good as advertised, the Big 10 wasn't as good as advertised, and Loyola flat out beat us. No excuses. And if Moser isn't a good coach, what does that make Underwood, with superior overall talent, with a 1st team All American and a 2nd team All American, from the BIG 10? Dennis Green once said, "you are what your record says you are" (Loyola was 26-5 btw)....Loyola won convincingly and moved on. We lost and went home
Actually, we didn't win the NCAA championship in '43, we declined playing in the tournament because 3 of the starting whiz kids had to leave the team after the regular season for the army. We were top ranked after the regular season though.
 
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#588      
Not sure why all the hate on Moser, but I will offer my last post on him....he coached an OK game vs OSU, they couldn't make a shot. They had many open looks they missed-(33% from 2 and 21% from 3). That's not on the coach. Coach has his team hold OSU to 65, pretty good, should be good enough to win if you can put the ball in the bucket. The "weak" MVC has the same number of schools playing this weekend as the omnipotent Big 10, and if Loyola hit 4 of those open looks, they may very well be in the Final 4 again. As poorly as they shot, they only lost by 7. As far as Loyola being sky high because of who we are, get real, we haven't been in the tournament since 2013, and won one game. They were in the Final 4 3 yrs ago. We should have played sky high because of who they are. Loyola did win a National Championship btw. Of course we won the NCAA Championship too-in 1943 when most college age kids were in the war! They won it in 1963 against an over powering Kentucky team. Finally, we had some good wins, but we had a LOT of shaky wins, and some bad losses. Face it, we weren't as good as advertised, the Big 10 wasn't as good as advertised, and Loyola flat out beat us. No excuses. And if Moser isn't a good coach, what does that make Underwood, with superior overall talent, with a 1st team All American and a 2nd team All American, from the BIG 10? Dennis Green once said, "you are what your record says you are" (Loyola was 26-5 btw)....Loyola won convincingly and moved on. We lost and went home
We didn’t have any shaky wins post-MSU and won every game subsequent to that loss away from home (including at full strength Michigan (now in the elite 8) without our best player). We won what,14/15 down the stretch?

I think these guys were burnt out after playing a backloaded schedule with a lot of travel and a grueling B10 tourney. Couple that with Underwood et al. having a very bad day and here we are. Plenty of coaches we all hold in high regard and that have won titles (Bennett, Wright, Self) have had inexplicable/awful losses in the tourney, including in the first and second round. I truly believe winning the tourney is as much about having a seat at the table year after year and being “in the game” as it is about coaching acumen (if not more so). I think Underwood is getting us there, which carries much more weight than one game in the grand scheme of things.
 
#589      
As many posters have noted, the game plan (or lack thereof) was inexplicable. I would find it unfathomable that the staff would overlook any opponent and find it much more plausible that Underwood et al. felt their stars could somehow break through if they stuck with their bread and butter. I suppose if I had two of the ten best players in the country I might think similarly.

That said ... any posters remember years ago when Davidson was playing a squad that decided to double or triple team Curry the whole game to dare others to beat them? It reminded me of that, but instead of exploiting LU’s over aggressiveness and risky defense, we couldn’t fathom taking the ball out of Ayo’s hands for a bit.

As an aside, I’m in the camp that thought Ayo looked off from a “floor general”/passing standpoint post-injury. Whether it was the mask or lingering symptoms from the injury or both, I think something was up because he was averaging (excluding the Drexel game) over FIVE turnovers a game from the BTT onward. Bottom line, Izzo sucks.
 
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#590      
mad billy madison GIF
Ok now that I’m done grieving. Kinda. This is how I feel....
 
#591      
Finally listened to illiniboard's "loyola therapy session" podcast last night.

My biggest takeaway: Ayo was not himself because of lingering effects.

To me, starting in the 2nd half of the Iowa game he did not look right.

In the Iowa & big ten final games at least, we saw him take repeated shots to the nose.

If true, wish coach would have changed some things against loyola.

But Ayo/team probably didn't get a chance to be at their best.
 
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