Marquette 67, Illinois 66 Postgame

Hear me out now....

This team is used to standing back and watching their Iso Ayo for two years. They literally don't know how to finish games as a team yet. They need more practice with passing in this offense.
So many open looks were ignored due to not looking up or just fear of making the pass...and we didn't push. Almost no baseline rim runs with lobs over the press. We are supposed to be a "7 second" offense?

A good passing team would have 'fast-breaked' (broken?) that press to death. Time and again we dribbled to half court and stood with the ball. Not just Belo...Trent, CoHawk, DMFW...etc.
They need work to get some flow and rhythm. Maybe an ego check is the best thing that comes out of this for Belo. He is very obviously gifted...now he needs to grow up mentally and physically.

What’s everyone’s solution? Bench Curbelo? Yeah… that will make us better… He’s the most talented kid on the roster. He’s also the most unpredictable. He’s got to find the balance, but that doesn’t come without learning the limits.
Better to have a bad loss in November than in March.
Maybe we are over-rated and maybe we were playing w/o the biggest matchup problem in the country… maybe both, but definitely the second.

Refs may have been bad, but not Tom Rucker bad

Marquette shot 31 free throws to our 11. They shot more FTs (13) in the last 4:37 than we did the entire game.

8 of their last 10 points came from the line.

2 bench points? And it wasn't even the guy (Williams) who played starter minutes? 0 in 31 minutes.

Also, BU needs a Wayne McLain who will say try something else, like Wayne did in the Arizona game.

Glass is half full view … we could be sitting on this loss without a preseason All American waiting in the wings.

Understand Curbelos issues tonight aren’t going to necessarily disappear because of the week he has to “clean” them up.

What’s going to help him tremendously is 7’0 260lbs in the lane opening up a lot of space that wasn’t there tonight.

Let’s remember, this team was 30-40 in most preseason polls. We became a top 10 team when Kofi decided to come back. Based on tonight, 30-40 might have been generous.

PapaKvells said:

I want Chester Frazier to have a good 45 minutes alone with Curbelo.

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I would suggest this meeting take place in a wood shed.

So basically what happened was the NCAA won this game for Marquette. On to the next one.

Couldn't watch this live, so I just finished watching the DVR of it. Brutal.

Belo was the only starter who didn't shoot around 50% or better from the field. So if he had given up just two of his 18 shot attempts to his teammates, or had two fewer than his 7 turnovers, we probably win this game.

I hope Belo watches this film all week. I hope he has to look his teammates in the eyes every day at practice. The next time he takes 18 shot attempts or turns the ball over 7 times, we probably lose again. Belo's job is to distribute the ball and to take care of it. Tonight, he didn't do his job.

CDRUSN said:

I would suggest this meeting take place in a wood shed.

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Personally, I think Andre gives a sh**. He wants to be special. He wants to get to the next level. There is a non- zero chance that this game is the best thing that ever happens to him.

In Belo's defense, it's a big jump to go from bench player to starting PG of a ranked team. I trust he will learn from this game. Early season growing pains could translate to big gains later on in the season.

When you see 450 posts on the Post Game thread it's obvious that we are an incredibly passionate fan base. I took a couple of hours to get through my various stages of grief before I posted. I'm glad I did because I'd like to think it gave me time to consider all of the cumulative aspects that made this a really frustrating and disappointing loss. I looked at the box score and while there is little doubt that Curbelo had a horrific game, there are plenty of other contributing factors to this loss to include:
1. 25-66 shooting for 37.9% (no one had a great night shooting in general)
2. 9-24 shooting from 3 for 37.5% (Trent and Grandison were the only players at >50%)
3. 26 vs 14 turnovers (inexcusable by the whole team)
4. 11 vs 31 free throws (didn't work the ball down low enough to draw them and the refs might have missed a few as well)
5. 2 vs 7 blocks (Belo wasn't the only one getting blocked)
6. Plummer being non-existent (13 minutes, 1-3 shooting and 2 points ... we've been led to expect more from the 5th year Senior)
7. Questionable coaching to include clock management and keeping Belo in as long as he did (I can only hope that was to teach him a lesson and see what we has for a final minute offense ... not sure that's the case though)
8. Kofi is not playing (he would have definitely helped in facilitating the offense, he would have cleared their shot blocker out as well and probably would have drawn a bunch of fouls)
While we are a spirited group, I was a bit disappointed how demonstrative and personal the comments have been about Belo. There is little doubt that he was tough to watch tonight but as emotional as he is on the court, there is no question in my mind that he is beating himself up much more than we could or should ever do. I am confident that he will learn from this and you will see a different demeanor moving forward. Brad mentioned it in his presser that Belo thinks he has more on his shoulders than he does and he needs to trust his teammates when his game is off. I'm sure that message will be delivered repeatedly the next week of practice. It was also really nice to see Trent stick up for him on Instagram. While tonight sucked, lets not lose our heads and lets see how the team responds. This is a really good team that had an uncharacteristically bad night on the road without an integral starter. Go Illini!

I dare the haters to conjure up the same amount of love for the team after our next "W".

ChiefGritty said:

But Curbelo's a Jekyll and Hyde player and if we have no choice but to run our offense through 35 minutes of Hyde, every game Hyde appears against a good team (which we did not play tonight) is a loss.

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Ok, how about we just bench him when there is a full moon.

FloridaMan said:

Worst part is we have to sit on this one for a full week. Hate that.

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For the team, sitting on this for a week might be the best thing.

illiniguy said:

Ok, how about we just bench him when there is a full moon.

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how about we bench him every time he unnecessarily amps the difficulty level up to 11 for no reason. Or every time he pounds the ball into a turnover or horrible shot ignoring his teammates. If that ends up in an entire game benching, then so be it. Presumably after a game or two or that he'll get with the program.

Right now he's like a stallion that hasn't been broke. Capable of amazing feats and also capable of kicking you in the face and putting you out. He needs to be broken, so he can channel that whirling dervish into productivity for us, not our opponent.

KnoxIllini2 said:

For the team, sitting on this for a week might be the best thing.

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I agree. We have back-to-back games next week on Monday and Tuesday. This is a great opportunity to sit with a tough loss and get a lot more work in integrating Kofi (and Hutch?) into this lineup. If we beat Cincy and Arkansas back-to-back, everyone else will quickly forget this Marquette loss.

Not us though. There are fans, and then there are Loyalty fans. We won't forget. We will faithfully carry out our role within this fanbase as the collective memory of every bad thing that has ever happened to the program. It's why we're here.

Last thing I will say about Belo from this game. Ayo averaged 12 shot attempts per game last year. Cousy-winner, First Team AA, current NBA player, best closer in college basketball Ayo. 12. There is literally no situation in which I want Belo taking 18 shot attempts in a game. Zero.

I've said my piece. Onto Cincy. Go Illini!

I'm sure we all watched this game in complete horror, wondering how things could have gone so wrong in general, and specifically in Belo. I'm still in his corner though, and I hope he'll now realize that he doesn't have to carry the team on his shoulders. There's no good reason to crap all over him, but I do wish the ball had been in TF or DMW's hands in the last possession as soon as he got over the halfcourt line, even though TF had just gotten his pocket picked.

Dan said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1460481621933670400

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Why was he still in the game after that, then? Let's ignore performance and whether leaving him in was a teaching moment and all that. If he took a shot to the head after just leaving the concussion protocol, you'd think you would at least pull him out, get him looked at and give him a breather before putting him back in (if he's fit to go back in at all). Or maybe some of that happened and I just missed it? I had two small kids distracting me.

Just got home from the game. Man. That was a long drive to watch bello flounder. Great venue and a great hostile environment but man how ugly. Bello wasn’t running the point; was just waving at everyone for not being in the best position and then jacking up ugly threes. He was awful, painful at times, to watch.

What hurts is Illinois lost to a bad team (probably not as bad as projected though) who didn't even play well. I hate blaming officials but after rewatching and rewinding it is baffling how many fouls got called on Illinois and how many reaches on Marquette or contact trying for steals went uncalled. Both marquette alley oop attempts and monte playing d when announcers said it was a rough call blew my mind. Illini are a finesse team (especially without kofi) and this game reminded me of the mugging we took at MSU last year. Illini need to learn to play when refs are allowing contact like that though. And it was nauseating how many trips to the line Marquette drew without even crossing half court the last 5 minutes. Illini should've won, but lord knows they didn't deserve to.