Luckily Purdue lost and either MSU or Wisconsin will too. This was an opportunity lost tonight to gain ground on two top teams and not lose ground to another. These last two really sting. Especially when it pertains to putting distance between us and the Boilers
Maryland 81, Illinois 65 Postgame
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DICKnaggie
- Champaign
Agree but he hasn't been bullied so far. His athleticism has stood out, no?
On the season Scott is a 43% shooter. Just because he torched us doesn't make him a stud. He's not a bad player, but he's also normally not the guy he was out there tonight. At least some of how well he played falls on how badly we defended him
I don’t really understand all the zone talk. When was the last time the Illini played a zone? But you expect them to insert one into their repertoire in 24 hours after learning their starting center is out?
No, but you could practice it a couple of times, and then it wouldn't be...just in case you need it
They won't care that we didn't have Kofi. Luckily because it's away I think it's likely to be a Quad 2 loss rather than a Quad 3.
the national
- the Front Range
It is what it is. I don’t think coach was using that as an excuse. From what I understand, he was lighting up the team after the game.
I don’t think we should focus on a big ten title- just be playing as well as possible for the tournament - that should really be our sole focus this year - this these types of loses don’t mean much- need to get Kofi and Curbelo healthy and on the floor at the same time and see what we can be
I think that's why the cry for a zone option
He does have that going for him with a small sample size. We don't see how he fairs everyday in practice. I would imagine that is why he isn't higher on the rotation as of now. Goode has looked the best to me. Stronger, can shoot, doesn't make many mistakes. I will say RJ has done well when called upon and hasn't made mental mistakes.
The guy I want more out if is Coleman. Kofi, Trent, Jacob, and Plummer are pretty consistent. It's tough for DMW to guard others strong 4s. We have seen that for the last 3 years now. Someone else needs to step up, play smarter, physical and tonight is a prime example if that. Not sure any freshman can do that. If BBV can find his stoke again in offense maybe he can. Itl thought he could shoot the three when he came here.
The good news is I think 4 losses wins at least a share of the B1G. So we're not dead in the water.
The bad news is, the more I look at the stats and think about this game, the less I feel it was simply a case of not having Kofi. If you want to contend for a title, you have to bring it every night. And tonight, we did not bring it.
4 sleeps and 2 work days until we get a shot at redemption. *sigh*
The bad news is, the more I look at the stats and think about this game, the less I feel it was simply a case of not having Kofi. If you want to contend for a title, you have to bring it every night. And tonight, we did not bring it.
4 sleeps and 2 work days until we get a shot at redemption. *sigh*
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
What is your source? I was certainly under the impression they take injuries into account.
It wasn't just tonight Nor did I say he was a stud. We just don't have a match up for him. Others may. We don't have anyone that could stop him in either game!. He did it in CU too. I saw it first hand. He is a match up nightmare for us. Other teams may have a guy his size and strong or not 6"3" guarding him Give the guy some credit. He can really handle the ball and really got to the cup against us in both games.
Guys like that have caused us issues for a while . I hoped Coleman or BBV.could help us stop them.
the national
- the Front Range
We have a lot of raw tools. The shooting will always give us a chance but if we rely on it, we’ll be a Hummer stuck in mud. Kofi is important and a big fixture for us but the bench really needs to step up.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Welp, that was disappointing. Have now seen The Beloved play basketball in person only four times in the past 20 years, all of them against Maryland. Am now batting 0.500.
Some observations:
-TL;DR... a bad night for the guys. Put it behind them and move on to MSU. These games happen. However, I'm concerned about our play up front. Omar, BBV and CoHawk have to step up consistently or the season is in trouble.
- Having watched this Maryland team for a long while, I was worried about what would happen if Scott had a big night and either Ayala or their PG Russell did, too. Scott destroyed us and Russell had a great night. 15 pts and 7 boards. That guy is so quick. They really needed a PG in the portal after last season and they got him (at least tonight.)
- Maryland is reallllly long. It's even more striking in person than on TV. That makes them tough for us.
- Someone on the postgame thread wrote that MD is bad. They're not bad; they've simply played badly for long stretches this season. They're quite talented. Turgeon assembled strong teams.
- Putting aside Belo's apparent fever, he shouldn't be shooting from outside the arc until he develops that range. I got to the arena early to watch the shootaround. He has such a sweet midrange jumper but he didn't hit anything from long range. And then in the first half he took at least two shots from that distance, maybe three. His highest value is passing, facilitating movement, and creating opportunity with those crazy drives. He did that quite well at times (poor Omar did indeed have skillets for hands on one lighting-quick Belo pass underneath.) It's still early for him coming back. I imagine that I will take some time for the rest of the guys to get used to playing with him in the rotation.
- Defense was even worse than it probably looked on TV. Failure to fight throughs screens, no one on the boards, sluggishness, sloppiness. DMW, bless him, did some things very well, rebounding and assists in particular. Several times (3, I believe), however, he literally wasn't paying attention to what was going on at the defensive end. It was as if he zoned out momentarily and got burned. BU was not happy. After one incident he sat DMW and paced back and forth in front of him. I could clearly see him saying "One stop! One stop!"
- DMW had twice as many rebounds, and Curbelo the same amount, as BBV, Omar and CoHawk combined. We just had no presence on the boards underneath.
- BBV handled their center Wahab fairly well in the first half but couldn't handle Scott at all in the second. That was the game, right there: Manning sitting Wahab, moving Scott to the 5 and bringing in Reese at the 4. It was ours to take until Scott got going.
- BBV seemed gassed by the end. Everyone did. Shots wouldn't fall and we had no presence on the boards, so the score got out of hand in the final 2-3 mins.
- I thought that Omar did fairly well. CoHawk still seems lost a lot, and BU seems regularly displeased with him. I was impressed with Goode. He really took a shot to the head on that loose ball late in the first half. Hope he's OK.
- It was a treat to see Trent play in person. He's a legend. Plummer is such a gifted shooter. Jake seemed to me to have a solid game. Wonderful to see Curbelo out there. Hope he shakes the fever and is ready on Tuesday. Really wish I'd been able to see Kofi. I hope he recovers soon; those sorts of injuries are terrible.
- Great DC-area Illini turnout tonight. I've never seen that arena so empty (except for a women's game) but Illini fans were out in force. So glad I went and could see the guys in person; so disappointed in the result.
LL -
Some observations:
-TL;DR... a bad night for the guys. Put it behind them and move on to MSU. These games happen. However, I'm concerned about our play up front. Omar, BBV and CoHawk have to step up consistently or the season is in trouble.
- Having watched this Maryland team for a long while, I was worried about what would happen if Scott had a big night and either Ayala or their PG Russell did, too. Scott destroyed us and Russell had a great night. 15 pts and 7 boards. That guy is so quick. They really needed a PG in the portal after last season and they got him (at least tonight.)
- Maryland is reallllly long. It's even more striking in person than on TV. That makes them tough for us.
- Someone on the postgame thread wrote that MD is bad. They're not bad; they've simply played badly for long stretches this season. They're quite talented. Turgeon assembled strong teams.
- Putting aside Belo's apparent fever, he shouldn't be shooting from outside the arc until he develops that range. I got to the arena early to watch the shootaround. He has such a sweet midrange jumper but he didn't hit anything from long range. And then in the first half he took at least two shots from that distance, maybe three. His highest value is passing, facilitating movement, and creating opportunity with those crazy drives. He did that quite well at times (poor Omar did indeed have skillets for hands on one lighting-quick Belo pass underneath.) It's still early for him coming back. I imagine that I will take some time for the rest of the guys to get used to playing with him in the rotation.
- Defense was even worse than it probably looked on TV. Failure to fight throughs screens, no one on the boards, sluggishness, sloppiness. DMW, bless him, did some things very well, rebounding and assists in particular. Several times (3, I believe), however, he literally wasn't paying attention to what was going on at the defensive end. It was as if he zoned out momentarily and got burned. BU was not happy. After one incident he sat DMW and paced back and forth in front of him. I could clearly see him saying "One stop! One stop!"
- DMW had twice as many rebounds, and Curbelo the same amount, as BBV, Omar and CoHawk combined. We just had no presence on the boards underneath.
- BBV handled their center Wahab fairly well in the first half but couldn't handle Scott at all in the second. That was the game, right there: Manning sitting Wahab, moving Scott to the 5 and bringing in Reese at the 4. It was ours to take until Scott got going.
- BBV seemed gassed by the end. Everyone did. Shots wouldn't fall and we had no presence on the boards, so the score got out of hand in the final 2-3 mins.
- I thought that Omar did fairly well. CoHawk still seems lost a lot, and BU seems regularly displeased with him. I was impressed with Goode. He really took a shot to the head on that loose ball late in the first half. Hope he's OK.
- It was a treat to see Trent play in person. He's a legend. Plummer is such a gifted shooter. Jake seemed to me to have a solid game. Wonderful to see Curbelo out there. Hope he shakes the fever and is ready on Tuesday. Really wish I'd been able to see Kofi. I hope he recovers soon; those sorts of injuries are terrible.
- Great DC-area Illini turnout tonight. I've never seen that arena so empty (except for a women's game) but Illini fans were out in force. So glad I went and could see the guys in person; so disappointed in the result.
LL -
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As a Jeep guy, I appreciate the analogy.
They probably do to a small degree. Maybe as a tiebreaker between two teams they'll take that into account, but every team deals with injuries to some extent. I highly doubt they have the time to debate over the impact of individual injuries in every regular season game for every team. So just guessing here but I'd be surprised if the impact was more than moving a team up or down by 1 seed.
This loss sucks..a lot BUT, hear me out
If i were to tell you on Nov 1st that:
-We'd have at least 4 games of no kofi
-2 games of no trent and after he returns he's playing in a shoulder harness and then suffers a bone bruise to play through
-lose hutcherson for the year
-11 games without curbelo and 2 games with out of shape, working back into it curbelo
-We literally dont have a game all season except one at full strength (im considering purdue at full strength since hutcherson was already gone for the season, so this is the team now)
Would you have predicted we are where we are, better, or worse? I wouldve wagered on being middle of pack in b10 at best at this point, with more losses.
I'm still concerned but i think how the team has done overall this year should have us feeling at least decent about the rest of the year, even if we take another lump since kofi probably wont be back (assuming 7 day protocol?) for MSU.
So i'm going glass half full and assuming everyone comes back and we string some games at full strength (or maybe im just being overly hopeful)..rolling with it for now
If i were to tell you on Nov 1st that:
-We'd have at least 4 games of no kofi
-2 games of no trent and after he returns he's playing in a shoulder harness and then suffers a bone bruise to play through
-lose hutcherson for the year
-11 games without curbelo and 2 games with out of shape, working back into it curbelo
-We literally dont have a game all season except one at full strength (im considering purdue at full strength since hutcherson was already gone for the season, so this is the team now)
Would you have predicted we are where we are, better, or worse? I wouldve wagered on being middle of pack in b10 at best at this point, with more losses.
I'm still concerned but i think how the team has done overall this year should have us feeling at least decent about the rest of the year, even if we take another lump since kofi probably wont be back (assuming 7 day protocol?) for MSU.
So i'm going glass half full and assuming everyone comes back and we string some games at full strength (or maybe im just being overly hopeful)..rolling with it for now
Our D on him wasn't bad. You just can't guard a guy inside that is 4 or 5 inches taller and can shoot over you. Plus he was also hitting his outside shots We should have been doubling him.
That is the thing that bothers me... Every team plays poorly at times, and I completely get that and expect it at different points. I don't get the games where the team appears to not give effort. Seems like there have been a high number of those games the past 2 seasons.
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
Disagree. Maryland’s season has been a s***show but they’re more talented than half the conference. Not surprised at all by tonight’s outcome
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yes. Exactly. Neither BBV nor DMW could handle him but I never saw him doubled.
I've watched him play since he was a freshman, and he has impressed me each year. He has not shot well this season to date, but that's partly because they moved him from the 5 to the 4 and started Wahab (G'twn transfer) at center.
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
And it’s not even close. He absolutely deserves more PT.
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