Maryland 76, Illinois 67 Postgame

#226      

Second place is 1st loser

S
Second place is 1st loser
IlliniTilDeath said:
Finally. These 6 need to feel the heat and we desperately need the energy.
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Feel the heat? They had a rough night, bit good god....Can you even begin to understand the transformation that's had to occur on the fly? These guys, and I mean all players and coaches, have been beyond good given the circumstances.

Now, what you're seeing is coaches getting four or five games on film. They adjust. Ty is going to struggle with athletic guys with height, as will Domask. "Booty ball" is going to be taken away vs long, athletic teams.
 
#227      

illiniguy24

illiniguy24
illiniguy24
Extremely frustrating game. This is the Illinois team we were afraid of post TSJ. Hopefully we dont lose against another crap team next week. Have to go 2-0
 
#228      

Bootheel Illini

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Bootheel Illini
Maryland outplayed the Illini in the paint. DD sure should have gotten more minutes to contest every shot by Reese. They contested every Illini shot at the rim and the zebras swallowed their whistles. If DD challenged Reese on a layup, maybe he would not have been as effective.
 
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#229      

FloridaMan

F
FloridaMan
JSpence said:
I was fomulating this same reply in my head. He implies that we should be saying "yeah, tough loss to a good team on the road, get 'em next time."

It's "only" a Quad 3 loss because it's at home, but man.. this is team's closest game outside of Quad 1 was an 11-point Q3 win against Oakland. We were consistent. VERY consistent:

Quad 1 : loss or single-digit win
Quad 2-4 : double-digit win

This is an outlier so bad that it forces you to wonder.
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I deleted the comment, but on second thought, I'm glad you responded. This loss will hurt us in seeding. No excuse for losing this game at home if you are a great team, and we will pay for it in the polls and, more importantly, likely in seeding at tournament time. No way to spin this one as an oh well loss.
 
#230      

WyattEarp

WyattEarp
WyattEarp
chief said:
Two dudes punked us all day on our home court. Reese and Jones, both lefties, took our pizza from us in the Pizza Hut parking lot, ate it in front of us and threw the crust at us for leftovers. We bought another pizza and they took that one too, did the same thing and peeled out of the parking lot laughing and honking their horn. How can we get dunked like this at home?
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Breaking Bad Pizza GIF
 
#231      

JSpence

J
Evansville, IN
JSpence
FloridaMan said:
I deleted the comment, but on second thought, I'm glad you responded. This loss will hurt us in seeding. If our fans are ok with that, then I completely disagree with them. No excuse for losing this game at home, and we will pay for it in the polls and, more importantly, likely in seeding at tournament time. No way to spin this one as an oh well loss.
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Yeah. The team hasn't been perfect, but we've been living in a bit of a dream.. seeing 100-point games and talking about the Illini cementing their place as a top-10 team.

I don't care too much in January that the polls will peg us as more of a 15-20 team. I care that we in reality are more of a 15-20 team.
 
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#232      

BalloonsTheElephant

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BalloonsTheElephant
I think the proper reaction is this:

Every team has this kind of loss so far. We couldn't finish at the rim. Bounces always seemed to go the other way. Our guys looked a bit tired. The refs missed a few calls that went the other way. When it comes to it, we had no offensive rhythm the last 25 minutes and couldn't hit the open ones. Shrug it off and go win the next one.

If we lose another like this, I wonder whether the pressure to reinstate TJ grows.
 
#233      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
krushdad said:
You play on Thursday night and basically play 6 guys. You give it all. You have been doing that the last several games. It has been a 6 man rotation. You can not do that in the big ten. We looked like 6 tired guys today. Legs, bodies, everything was moving in sand. We must increase the rotation.
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I agree. Having said that, Young never left the floor and he didn't seem to have a lack of energy. He's logged more minutes per game than any of our guys.
 
#234      

aaeismacgychel

A
aaeismacgychel
IlliniTilDeath said:
Finally. These 6 need to feel the heat and we desperately need the energy.
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Be careful what you wish for. Nico had some positive moments in his play thus far this season prior to his injury (though it needs to be said that foot injuries have a tendency to linger), DGL meanwhile hasn't really done anything to push the players in front of him, and he's shown like most freshman B10 guards, he's going to need a season of strength and conditioning and an offseason to work. It's just how it is.

Really, if we're expecting either Nico or DGL to come in, bring energy, and make a big impact, I think we're reaching hard. Any positive minutes given by them is a bonus not an expectation. The guy we have who can come in and provide a huge spark and push our starters is unfortunately redshirting. But in fairness, we've played so well thus far, that this is the first game this season I've truly missed Sencire. Before the season started I said there would be 2-3 games we'd really miss him this season, and I think this was one of them.
 
#235      

PNWIllini

P
PNW
PNWIllini
We played well at first, riding Goode’s hot hand but getting good ball movement and were up 20-11. Then Hawkins sat with 2 fouls and we immediately started having issues. We kept being exploited by pick and roll, basic inside basketball. Inexplicable.

By second half we looked gassed and out of ideas. Should not happen at home. If this happened because of sickness it makes sense. Team just looked worn out but hopefully thats all it was. Maryland definitely knew what to do - get Hawkins in foul trouble then pound the rock inside. Worked really well.

Onward!
 
#236      

21ChampaignSt

21ChampaignSt
21ChampaignSt
BalloonsTheElephant said:
I think the proper reaction is this:

Every team has this kind of loss so far. We couldn't finish at the rim. Bounces always seemed to go the other way. Our guys looked a bit tired. The refs missed a few calls that went the other way. When it comes to it, we had no offensive rhythm the last 25 minutes and couldn't hit the open ones. Shrug it off and go win the next one.

If we lose another like this, I wonder whether the pressure to reinstate TJ grows.
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Well, not everyone has a loss like this. I think it was TCR that said we're the only Kenpom Top 10 team to lose at home to a sub 75 team. Until today, top 10 teams were 68-0 in those games.
 
#237      

PasadenaIllini

P
PasadenaIllini
IllinistuckinGopherland said:
Bad game. No real issues with coaching on this one. Lazy in the first half, and then a 3 for 24 stretch in the second half (9 for 40 total half). Maybe guys are still sick. Regardless, don’t think we’ll have that poor of a shooting half the rest of the year.
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I could not disagree more. The decision to not give Moretti or DGL an opportunity while the guys ahead of them were mailing it in was Brad's decision. Bench guys deserved a chance to at least show what they can do out there today. The decision not to adjust our defense when the same guys were burning us over and over again was also Brad's.
 
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#239      

zentrails

Z
zentrails
PasadenaIllini said:
I could not disagree more. The decision to not give Moretti or DGL an opportunity while the guys ahead of them were mailing it in was Brad's decision. Bench guys deserved a chance to at least show what they can do out there today. The decision not to adjust our defense when the same guys were burning us over and over again was also Brad's.
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We hit our shots like previous games we win today by 20+ so I don't get your point.
 
#241      

blife

B
blife
We couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. We were a step slow. We had a clunker. This is still good team playing without it's All American who is out due to dubious circumstances. We will be better next game. This is not last year's team. I am sure these guys know they played a bad game and will correct it like the old mature team they are. This one is behind us. On to the next.
 
#242      

FrankNitty30

F
FrankNitty30
abchew2 said:
I hate it but that performance really took a flamethrower to my expectations and therefore excitement for the season. This is a very bad Maryland team and they will continue to be very bad. If we had lost to Michigan State I’d be sad but could rationalize it. This? No way to rationalize. Destroyed my belief that the strength of this team was avoiding these types of losses with the balance they have.
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Wow…. U need to wrap your fandom in bubble wrap.
 
#243      

IllinistuckinGopherland

IllinistuckinGopherland
IllinistuckinGopherland
PasadenaIllini said:
I could not disagree more. The decision to not give Moretti or DGL an opportunity while the guys ahead of them were mailing it in was Brad's decision. Bench guys deserved a chance to at least show what they can do out there today. The decision not to adjust our defense when the same guys were burning us over and over again was also Brad's.
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Not saying it was a masterpiece by BU, but…

If we shoot 50% on LAYUPS, we win

If we start the second half 6-for-24, we win

Maybe minutes for DGL and Moretti create rest and that creates more made shots. But very likely, the defense gets even worse.

I felt like the gameplan was plenty good enough to win, and the players simply didn’t execute and make basic shots.
 
#244      

BalloonsTheElephant

B
BalloonsTheElephant
21ChampaignSt said:
Well, not everyone has a loss like this. I think it was TCR that said we're the only Kenpom Top 10 team to lose at home to a sub 75 team. Until today, top 10 teams were 68-0 in those games.
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Maybe not this bad, but my point is that every team is fallible this year. My biggest concern is that without some bigger wins (Wisconsin/Purdue), losses like this will keep us off the 3 line.

I don't think we are a top 10 team without TJ. We've been figured out and we need a new offense other than booty ball. Time for Underwood to correct.

Also make some layups, that's the difference of the game.
 
#245      

blife

B
blife
we shot 21% in the second half and 7% from 3 in the second half is all you need to know. It was our clunker/bad half. Hopefully our last for the season.
 
#250      

RickBB

R
RickBB
Almost every team lays an egg or two each season.

I don’t think losing to Maryland will be a bad loss by the end of the year.

If we lose to Michigan, then I’ll worry.