Maryland 81, Illinois 55 POSTGAME

#26      

CoalCity

St Paul, MN
Still wondering how things would have turned out if we hit some shots. Too many came up short. Don't know why.

Dead legs is usually the reason for that. Who knows? Malcolm looked a little gimpy again (still?).

Finke is really struggling since his knee injury. Everybody in the building knows he's going to shot fake and they're playing him accordingly. I sure hope he gets his mojo back for the last couple of games.
 
#27      
Dead legs is usually the reason for that. Who knows? Malcolm looked a little gimpy again (still?).

Finke is really struggling since his knee injury. Everybody in the building knows he's going to shot fake and they're playing him accordingly. I sure hope he gets his mojo back for the last couple of games.

It's called heart.
 
#28      
A big problem tonight was our lack of size. In order to counter that we tried to double the post. Maryland did a great job of kicking in back out of the post and the Illini were too slow in their rotations out of the double team. Part of that was Maryland's crisp passing part was slow reaction by the Illini's off ball defenders. Maryland had a considerable talent advantage so Illinois had to pick its poison. Groce and the staff decided to take away the post and gamble on the threes. They lost that bet. The effects were furthered because even our good shooters were struggling tonight.
 
#30      

CoalCity

St Paul, MN
A big problem tonight was our lack of size. In order to counter that we tried to double the post. Maryland did a great job of kicking in back out of the post and the Illini were too slow in their rotations out of the double team. Part of that was Maryland's crisp passing part was slow reaction by the Illini's off ball defenders. Maryland had a considerable talent advantage so Illinois had to pick its poison. Groce and the staff decided to take away the post and gamble on the threes. They lost that bet. The effects were furthered because even our good shooters were struggling tonight.

Pretty good summary.
 
#31      
A big problem tonight was our lack of size. In order to counter that we tried to double the post. Maryland did a great job of kicking in back out of the post and the Illini were too slow in their rotations out of the double team. Part of that was Maryland's crisp passing part was slow reaction by the Illini's off ball defenders. Maryland had a considerable talent advantage so Illinois had to pick its poison. Groce and the staff decided to take away the post and gamble on the threes. They lost that bet. The effects were furthered because even our good shooters were struggling tonight.

Sound's like Groce's analysis... he even used the phrase "pick your poison".
 
#32      

Deleted member 4960

D
Guest
It seems every time we play someone good our best players can't hit the broadside of a barn. I'm sure some of it is defense but it seems like we miss open looks also.
 
#35      

sdfidaho

Boise, Idaho
A big problem tonight was our lack of size. In order to counter that we tried to double the post. Maryland did a great job of kicking in back out of the post and the Illini were too slow in their rotations out of the double team. Part of that was Maryland's crisp passing part was slow reaction by the Illini's off ball defenders. Maryland had a considerable talent advantage so Illinois had to pick its poison. Groce and the staff decided to take away the post and gamble on the threes. They lost that bet. The effects were furthered because even our good shooters were struggling tonight.

Spot-on analysis.
It was the correct gamble to take based on how Maryland had shot recently.
But of course, if it weren't for bad luck......
 
#37      
Sound's like Groce's analysis... he even used the phrase "pick your poison".

Ha, that's funny. I will have to listen to it. Was it on radio or tv? I turned the channel once the game ended. Not surprised he would say that, the problems are fairly obvious.
 
#38      
Spot-on analysis.
It was the correct gamble to take based on how Maryland had shot recently.
But of course, if it weren't for bad luck......

Well you are undermanned you have to give up something. Competing with Maryland would take one of our best efforts. Beating them would require them to have an off day. Unfortunately neither happened today.
 
#39      
It seems every time we play someone good our best players can't hit the broadside of a barn. I'm sure some of it is defense but it seems like we miss open looks also.

I've got a few theories:

1) Good teams have good coaches. Good coaches focus on shutting down Nunn and Hill and making everybody else beat us. That everybody else is not good enough to beat a good team.

2) We've collectively over rated Hill and Nunn because the talent around them is so poor. Similar to how the best guard on PSU would get all conference votes each year because they'd average nearly 20pts a game on terrible teams.

3) point shaving (joking just in case it wasn't obvious)

4) We aren't playing Austin enough (joking just in case it wasn't obvious)

5) They have to work so much harder for those relatively open looks against good teams that they don't have the lift they normally have on their shots.
 
#40      
Sorry, I'm not following this. How do these guys make the bench better? And how do we know how good Lucas and Nichols will be?

If nothing else it increases competition for playing time. You can afford to play the hot hand and bench guys who aren't producing. Don't have as many options when you have a thin bench.
 
#41      

frankfortillini

Frankfort, IL
Wohoo, way to go staff, you just got Damonte to commit, now you're fired.

Seriously :confused:

Staff, not Groce.

Get some experienced coaches on the staff, those used to game planning, winners. Surround yourself with people better than you and you will win. Love Groce, but he needs some help or we need a change.

I'm not that old, but anyone makes excuses for the Illini turning into Rutgers needs to adjust their expectations. Not being able to compete at the B1G level is just not acceptable and it really is not remotely fun to watch. We've fallen off a cliff - injuries or not.

And if my performance at work resembled this, I would have been fired a year ago.
 
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#42      
I have optimism for next season, but deep down I know this team isn't close.
 
#44      
Staff, not Groce.

Get some experienced coaches on the staff, those used to game planning, winners. Surround yourself with people better than you and you will win. Love Groce, but he needs some help or we need a change.

Agreed.

Although I guess I have become such a loyal JG supporter, I'm somewhat holding out hope that next year with his PG in place his offense will really pick up like we saw in his last year at Ohio and his first year in Champaign.
 
#45      
This year is a wash. It's hard when you're actually going through it, but it's been true since Thorne went down.

Yeah, but that's still not an excuse to look this bad and get completely embarrassed as many times as we have. We shouldn't get run off the floor as many times as we have.

If we had everybody, we'd be better. And if Rutgers and Minny weren't all-time-level terrible, we might be 2-15 in the B1G right now.
 
#46      
1. It wasn't close, and frankly I was not surprised. College basketball is a game of match-ups, and we did not match up well with the Terps.

2. We clawed back within sight of them a few times, but it was just a matter of time before they blew the doors off -- those guys can score in a hurry.

3. We need to get some more size inside if Thorne does not return, but all I can say is that Mav has totally surpassed my expectations. Not only did he perform well, but he was going us against a team with great size, and I don't just mean they are big, they are also good.

4. Looking to the future, JCL looks like he is really going to be a keeper. We know he can shoot already, but the rest of this game is starting to show up in flashes. It is going to be fun to watch him reach his potential.

5. Our two big guns just didn't have it tonight, and we aren't going to win very many games, or even be competitive, when those two both have off games.

6. The rest of the guys played hard most of the time, and Tate has some decent numbers other than scoring, but we simply don't have the horses to play with Maryland right now.

7. We actually took care of the ball pretty well, and we didn't foul that much, but the rebounding edge (35 to 24 for the Terps) was really grim when you consider how well they shot.

8. I guess if you can't be the best, at least bring out the best in others. Nobody knows how well they can shoot until they play us. I know we are not a good defensive team, but it still seems that we ignite something special in our opponents.

9. One more to go in Happy Valley. Well, maybe we can end this regular season on a happy note. Hey, one can always hope!

Go Illini!
 
#47      
Agreed.

Although I guess I have become such a loyal JG supporter, I'm somewhat holding out hope that next year with his PG in place his offense will really pick up like we saw in his last year at Ohio and his first year in Champaign.

Yeah if we're lucky we can get back to 128th in scoring and 257th in FG%, can't wait.
 
#48      
I don't understand some of the logic on this board. I want what's best for the University of Illinois basketball team while many here care more about what's best for John Groce. No one person, player or coach, is bigger than the university. I want Groce to succeed but only because he coaches the beloved. With each passing game and each passing season it's becoming more and more clear that Groce may not be able to elevate the program to where it should be and where it's been historically. There is no excuse for any high major team to be this utterly inept. I hope I'm wrong and JG can turn the ship around but I just don't see it.
 
#49      
I really hope that Lucas is good. I am really tired of watching our point guards. College basketball is a point guard's game. The teams that have point guards who can shoot from the outside, penetrate to score and penetrate to dish out get almost as many open looks per game as we have had all season. It seems that every team we face has a guard who passes to wide open shooters in rhythm. I really can't remember when one of our three point shooters had a wide open look due to penetration from our point guard.
 
#50      

Dan

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