Marquette 67, Illinois 66 Postgame

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#576      
The reactions to this game are simply insane. “The coaches stink!” “Curbelo stinks!” “We will be lucky to make the tournament!”

No. No. No.

it’s an early season game vs an opponent with a coach who has made a career out of teams creating turnovers. Without our potential POY center. On the road. And our pg tried to do too much and struggled. How is this so shocking?

The only problem I see with Curbelo is he was trying too hard. He wasn’t letting the game come to him, he wanted to make something happened. When he made a mistake he wanted to make up for it, but it just wasn’t working that night. That’s the exact mentality that makes him great…but can also lead to an early season game like this when you factor in those other conditions. He’s good, and we are lucky to have him.

I do think it wouldn’t have been a bad idea for the coaches to get him out for a little bit to get him focused on what he should be doing. I would assume the only reason they didn’t is because they have so much confidence in him. Now if they were calling for stuff that he was ignoring then that’s on them. But Underwood has us in a good spot and this one game doesn’t change that.

If we were a team at full strength filled with all American seniors this loss would be worse. We are a team with young guys and a couple guys out so we are figuring it out still. Any coach will tell you a loss like this early in the season can do way more to help than it hurts in the long run.
 
#577      
No it wasn't the press it was TO throughout the game. Man we missed Kofi. There is no doubt. What Ayo would do is calm the team down. We even lost games with Ayo on the court. You have to give credit to MU in this game. When MU pressed hard full court and the double team comes there has to be an open player. That is why you speed the def up because you will have two guys out of the def assignments. That is when you get guys cutting to the rim. If I am not mistaken you saw it with Coleman getting a dunk. That should have happened several more times. The shooting has to pick up. Sad that people were tweeting stupid things to AC. I thought RJ could have helped with the press by being the outlet. Get well Austin the team needs you.
 
#578      
No it wasn't the press it was TO throughout the game. Man we missed Kofi. There is no doubt. What Ayo would do is calm the team down. We even lost games with Ayo on the court. You have to give credit to MU in this game. When MU pressed hard full court and the double team comes there has to be an open player. That is why you speed the def up because you will have two guys out of the def assignments. That is when you get guys cutting to the rim. If I am not mistaken you saw it with Coleman getting a dunk. That should have happened several more times. The shooting has to pick up. Sad that people were tweeting stupid things to AC. I thought RJ could have helped with the press by being the outlet. Get well Austin the team needs you.
Agree. And I’m guessing the short turnaround time didn’t give us time to properly focus on or install a press break. Since we rarely face it guessing it’s not something we usually spend a lot of time on.

Again, not making excuses as I still think we should have won the game, but that short turnaround time against a pressing team was just one of many things (first true road game with fans, Belo and Trent with limited practice time, no Kofi, etc) working against us.

We will be fine.
 
#579      
Our turnovers had nothing to do with Marquette's press.
Doubt Skepticism GIF by NRK P3
 
#580      
I disagree with Ayo here. There has to be intent.

NBA Rulebook:

Section IV—Strike the Ball

  1. A player shall not kick the ball or strike it with the fist.
  2. Kicking the ball or striking it with any part of the leg is a violation when it is an intentional act. The ball accidentally striking the foot, the leg or fist is not a violation.
Not sure if I've ever seen "fisting the ball" called.
 
#582      
I think people forget that this offense is designed to revolve around Kofi. Take every awkward post catch by Payne and every soft finish by BBV and replace with a rim shaking dunk and I think we all know the outcome is decidedly different.

Should they have won somewhat easily anyway? Yes. (Indeed, they were on track to do so before they imploded.) Am I worried? Ask me after Cincy and (presumably) Arkansas.
How long have we known Kofi wasn’t going to play? Is Kofi going to play 40 mins? Sorry but that is a BS excuse for a totally ineffective offense.
 
#583      
Howdy.

The horse is pretty well beaten here on this thread. So I‘ll say it
quick and get outta Dodge.

I just hope we can clean up some things. A lot of the fundamental stuff
was hard to watch in this one...

1. Putting that first dribble down on the floor in ill-advised places…
often right where the defense can steal it, in and amongst traffic-then not protecting it.
In other words, generally treating it like a speed dribble in the open court.

2. Moving without control of the basketball.

3. Some fairly rudimentary post moves sure would go a long way…Head And Shoulder Fake…getting the defender hung up in the air…Drop-Step, Semi-Hook, Up-And-Under, Sikma-Move etc.

4. It’s okay to make the old man play once in while. Style points sure are noice! But not at the expen$e of actual points. Also, who are you psyching out? Your opponent or your own dudes? Both! I dunno. I’m just asking the question.
I’m more than sure Underwood has run through every emotion possible
coaching AC. I’m sure it’s a daily occurrence.

AC is SO SO talented..
and only begun to tap into what he’s gonna be.
Brad strikes me as: half modern, analytics, players-coach guy AND half Old School Hank Iba. I’m sure it’s a struggle @ times. LOL

I’m sure most/all of these kind of things things are already being addressed.
The developmental piece seems to be one of this staff’s strong suits.

We’ll get there! Go Illini!
 
#584      
Why are we so obsessed about assignment and ownership of blame? Is that part of a post-loss checklist? Why can't Brad say we practiced it so I expected it would happen. Sure he's accountable at the end of the day, but does he have to tell us that every time we lose? Would we feel better if he just started every press conference after a loss with "I own it, and here are the three things I'm going to better next time?" Sometimes stuff just doesn't happen as you want and you move on without overanalyzing.

Some of you sound like my wife :p
He should accept some responsibility for the poor play. His response to the question about no time out call was puzzling. They weren’t executing the things they practiced, so a time out was definitely needed.
 
#585      
How long have we known Kofi wasn’t going to play? Is Kofi going to play 40 mins? Sorry but that is a BS excuse for a totally ineffective offense.
You are wrong and your assertion that it is BS has no merit.

carry on.
 
#586      
He should accept some responsibility for the poor play. His response to the question about no time out call was puzzling. They weren’t executing the things they practiced, so a time out was definitely needed.
No it’s not. Not if the coach that has forgotten more than you know about basketball, decides he wants his players to execute on the fly. A timeout was definitely not needed.
 
#588      
Count me among the people who like the no time out at the end of the game. Knight was the foremost proponent of it and I think most coaches don't do it. They think by calling the timeout they can get control. Of course, the other coach gets the same thing.

This signals to me that Underwood expects his team to be the better prepared team on the court at the end of the game. Last night, we weren't and our team got its lesson.
 
#589      
Opinions:
Don’t like to see players always complaining about calls. Doesn’t make points with refs and leads to a negative rep. Don’t remember that happening with Ayo.

Really missed Kofi and Giorgi screening shot blockers.

Would have liked to see Belo pulled and coached up and then returned to game.

Not sure if we lacked floor leadership or were following coaching instructions in our late offense.

Think Giorgi was under appreciated in last two years by fans.

It was just one game but kind of continued early trend by Belo. Hopefully learning experience because we don’t have anyone close to his skills.

One and done game. Not a season ender, let’s get over it.
 
#590      
Perhaps part of what he has forgotten is when to call a timeout.
More coaches, especially early in the year, will do exactly what BU did. What happens when the exact same situation comes up in an end of the year BIG 10 game or a tournament game and they do not HAVE any timeouts left? They now have experience along with film to go over and think about the numerous ways that could have been done differently.
Zero reason for criticism outside of “BUTTTTT I wanted him to!!!”
 
#591      

MustangWally

Mayfield
More coaches, especially early in the year, will do exactly what BU did. What happens when the exact same situation comes up in an end of the year BIG 10 game or a tournament game and they do not HAVE any timeouts left? They now have experience along with film to go over and think about the numerous ways that could have been done differently.
Zero reason for criticism outside of “BUTTTTT I wanted him to!!!”
Guess I should have put a /s there.
 
#592      
No it’s not. Not if the coach that has forgotten more than you know about basketball, decides he wants his players to execute on the fly. A timeout was definitely not needed.
If that’s true, why didn’t they execute better the last 5 minutes? cant have it both ways.
 
#594      
Yes I can. Basketball is not a zero sum game. They can play absolutely putrid the last 5 mins AND not call a Timeout on the last possession.
They just did, lol. I love our staff, but they blew it this game. If they’re not performing, adjustments should be made. It didn’t happen.
 
#595      
I don't believe we get skunked by a full or even 3/4-court press again. Marquette hit us hard with that and I trust that after seeing the tape and some time on the practice court, they'll know how to handle it.
We didn’t learn from the Loyola game. I think we’ll see it until we show we can handle it.
 
#596      
I was not imPRESSED (boom-chick) with the Marquette press really at all.
Marquette’s media can say what they want...It WAS successful in that it altered
the tempo here and there…so I’ll give ‘em that.

We indeed, broke it quite a bit and made them pay on that back line...infact it actually helped us build our biggest lead.

I suspect that‘s why they took off the press? I dunno.

There‘s nothing too exotic or remarkable about it. A pretty pedestrian 3/4 court or
half court press…it wasn’t like we’re up against a Calhoun or Pitino style 2-2-1 from years ago. Now those were 3/4 presses!

At any rate, Smart’s real calling card was the so-called “Havoc” 1-2-1-1 press...

Full Court Press…with defender over the in-bounder. (essentially a full court match up man) This is the one that got all the buzz @ VCU...(sold a lot of dvds I‘m sure)
It’s quite similar to Al McGuire’s “Mosquito“ defense he used coincidentally AT Marquette back in the 70s...but I digress.

Come to think of it…I‘m not even sure we saw the full court version of Marquette’s press even…did we?? I need to force myself to watch the DVR
But I thought it was pretty weak overall. I was more scared of Shaka’s wild haymakers
and shadow-boxing on the sidelines than I was his press.

Anyways the Havoc press was so ineffective in Longhorn country that Smart gave up on it all together. So there’s that.
 
#597      
I havent read all the posts, of course, so if this has been said a million times, please forgive me. When Illinois got to 65 points there were 8 garbage fouls called on them vs ONE foul called on Marquette for the rest of the game.

It gave Marquette free points without having to beat the defense and then made Illinois score in the half court without any transition points because of missed Marquette shots. Obviously a very poor performance turnover wise for Illinois, but this game was taken over by the refs at the end.
 
#598      

Epsilon

M tipping over
Pdx
I was not imPRESSED (boom-chick) with the Marquette press really at all.
Marquette’s media can say what they want...It WAS successful in that it altered
the tempo here and there…so I’ll give ‘em that.

We indeed, broke it quite a bit and made them pay on that back line...infact it actually helped us build our biggest lead.

I suspect that‘s why they took off the press? I dunno.

There‘s nothing too exotic or remarkable about it. A pretty pedestrian 3/4 court or
half court press…it wasn’t like we’re up against a Calhoun or Pitino style 2-2-1 from years ago. Now those were 3/4 presses!

At any rate, Smart’s real calling card was the so-called “Havoc” 1-2-1-1 press...

Full Court Press…with defender over the in-bounder. (essentially a full court match up man) This is the one that got all the buzz @ VCU...(sold a lot of dvds I‘m sure)
It’s quite similar to Al McGuire’s “Mosquito“ defense he used coincidentally AT Marquette back in the 70s...but I digress.

Come to think of it…I‘m not even sure we saw the full court version of Marquette’s press even…did we?? I need to force myself to watch the DVR
But I thought it was pretty weak overall. I was more scared of Shaka’s wild haymakers
and shadow-boxing on the sidelines than I was his press.

Anyways the Havoc press was so ineffective in Longhorn country that Smart gave up on it all together. So there’s that.
Wish I could discuss the finer points here, but whatever it was, it took us out of our game and got into our heads. Sure, we made some plays and almost won the game. It was only a one point loss. The value for them was that we totally lost our sh&* and defeated ourselves. We had SO many plays with guys open. If we were ready for it and more disciplined we would have won, and quite easily I think too. It’s not a very good defense, but you can beat better teams than you with it if you are lucky.
 
#599      
They just did, lol. I love our staff, but they blew it this game. If they’re not performing, adjustments should be made. It didn’t happen.
But making adjustments, just to make adjustments, is a poor strategy. What if BU did not like the other options? What if BU knows that the 3rd game of the year is a chance to see how his team handles adversity? Especially in the first openly hostile environment a few of them have played at in college. Maybe he felt the experience for the long run was more important or a better option than the short term fix.
So much goes into every decision. He did what he thought was right.
 
#600      
I havent read all the posts, of course, so if this has been said a million times, please forgive me. When Illinois got to 65 points there were 8 garbage fouls called on them vs ONE foul called on Marquette for the rest of the game.

It gave Marquette free points without having to beat the defense and then made Illinois score in the half court without any transition points because of missed Marquette shots. Obviously a very poor performance turnover wise for Illinois, but this game was taken over by the refs at the end.
This is very true. It was a poorly officiated game. Having said that, our players need to SHUT UP AND PLAY!
 
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