Maryland 88, Illinois 65 Postgame
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Last years defense was even worse than this years. They finished the year with Kenpom rank of 80. We just had an absolute elite offense to make up for it.
20,21,22,23 seasons we never finished below top 35 in the country on defense. I remember it was mentioned during B1G play last year how Hamer was taking the reins of the D.....and the results since speak for themselves.
2X2L
- Metaluna
Congratulations!
Yup. Anyone who's played organized hoops knows that when you're about to play a team you know is soft or bad on D, the role players on your squad start salivating cause they know they'll get a chance to put up numbers due to lazy closeouts, rotations, etc.
Big Jack
- Decatur
Congrats BlackDog
This is the worst defensive team I have seen in 70 years. Stand 4 feet away from a 3 point shooter and let them put it up all night long. Ivisic is very soft defender. He can't go head to head with a physical player. He is weak with the ball too. KJ is the worst ball handler and passer in the league. I hope all these guys leave for a smaller school, they are not BiG caliber players. They should be embarrassed by their lack of hustle, poor shooting and failure to show up game after game. I want to see Brad take a refresher in coaching game situations, recruiting good high school kids not rental millionaires or he will and should join Fran in the unemployment line.
They will probably bounce back in their first tourney game but than we will see another !!! whipping again. I will be glad when it is over!
They will probably bounce back in their first tourney game but than we will see another !!! whipping again. I will be glad when it is over!
Underwood is Lou Henson redux. Great recruiter including through excellent recruiting assistants (aka Jimmy collins). Light on the x and o’s. We knew Maryland was bigger and has a history of kicking our asses but no special game plans or gimmicks going into the game (full court 40 minute press, etc). Just hope things come out different this time. Overall a great coach but I’m going to stop expecting him to be something he’s not. And I will take this compared to what we had before him.
A couple things stand out. Illinois is built to spread the court and shoot 3's; does it at a low percentage. . Maryland is built to score inside and recruited that way; does it in a high percentage. Maryland valued the ball, Illinois doesn't. Maryland looked to be much stronger and athletic, no positional size for Illinois in this game.
I agree, he was much stronger and had much better stamina before the illness and the injury bug bit him. Put 20 lbs. on him in the off season and he will be a much tougher defender against those physical bigs next year. I am shocked he has recovered and is playing as well as he is given what he has gone through. We need one more physically built big to back-up him and Morez next year. (assuming both are back) Too much reliance on players who are new to big time college basketball. They have been frustrating and inspiring depending on the game, but there have been a lot of fun games. I'm hoping for a few more games to top off the season. I'll be renewing my season tickets next week and remain confident Brad will get it done. ILL!
I don't know why anyone would play for the Illini. This fan board praises the players in a win and rips them apart if they have a bad game. The critics here say the players need to get stronger and then the same ones will say they can't shoot because of lifting too many weights. Too many fans show love when they win but totally bad mouth them win they lose.
Derik Queen, now that is a real NBA 1st round pick. I love Tre's game, but that was asking way too much
This might have been talked about last night. Each team that played Thursday on Friday looked sluggish and missed a lot of open shots. My take. Go Illini and get rest and practice defense.
Well, looking at the positives, 5 - 6 days of rest and practice depending on if they receive a Thursday or Friday start. I resided myself the the fact that they weren't winning the B-10 Tourney, so I'm not terribly disappointed. I would have preferred to exact some revenge on Maryland and possibly move from a #7 to #6 seed but it just wasn't in the cards. Now all there's left to do for the fans is sit back and enjoy. If things fall the right way for the Illini, they could make it back to the Sweet 16, and that would be a really good run for this team. This is truly the best time of the year, non-stop, wall to wall basketball.
Hard nosed, tough defense travels well and never has a poor shooting night. Lou Henson knew that, Bob Knight knew that, Tom Izzo knows that, Keven Willard knows that. Even Bruce Pearl knows that.
Add to that, last night we were not ready to play, we don’t match up well with physical teams, we sometimes have low basketball IQ, we lack mental and physical toughness.
What happened to getting and keeping dawgs?
Add to that, last night we were not ready to play, we don’t match up well with physical teams, we sometimes have low basketball IQ, we lack mental and physical toughness.
What happened to getting and keeping dawgs?
Illini in OC
In. The. Alley.
Great post. Agree with all but one thing…we should have had a positional size advantage against MD’s guards but they’re so much more athletic and faster than ours. The chance to exploit here would’ve been via booty ball back downs but we don’t have the personnel to execute it.
Miguel and Rice are 6’4” and Gillespie is 6’1”. I know BU doesn’t like short guards (except Bam at 6’2”) but speed and athleticism matter on both ends of the court. KJ 6’6” and Tre 6’7” are comparatively not nearly as fast and athletic.
Same is true for MSU - Fears, Richardson, Akins, Holloway - all 6’2” to 6’4” and fast, tough, athletic guards. Izzo has built his teams around that style (plus solid bigs) for years and has had a ton of success. We got away from that after 2021-22 and have tried to go more NBA 5-out, 3pt jacking style.
I’d like to see us go back smaller, faster guards though with a big athletic wing and 2-3 big post type players like Morez, Dain, etc.
IlliniRon
Illini Basketball Fan Forever
- Ft Worth, Texas
Our team has been fun to watch this season, lots of rebounding and scoring until we run into a strong team like Maryland or Duke. Watching the BTT games the past 2 nights makes it clear our team has not learned how to play solid defense. The strongest teams in the conference play defense and are more physical than our Illini. The Iowa victory reinforced bad habits of not defending the shooters.
Maryland might be the strongest team in the conference, but I’m not sure any B1G teams will get to San Antonio. We will probably have a chance to win 1 game before we run into a wall in the NCAA tournament.
Given the high turnover of players it’s been a fun team to watch and develop. We could have used Ty Rodgers on defense to shut down the leading scorer of opponents because Kylan Boswell tried that role but doesn’t have the size needed.
Hope we have some key players returning next season.
Maryland might be the strongest team in the conference, but I’m not sure any B1G teams will get to San Antonio. We will probably have a chance to win 1 game before we run into a wall in the NCAA tournament.
Given the high turnover of players it’s been a fun team to watch and develop. We could have used Ty Rodgers on defense to shut down the leading scorer of opponents because Kylan Boswell tried that role but doesn’t have the size needed.
Hope we have some key players returning next season.
Maryland is just a tough matchup for this Illini team. They are so big and athletic inside, have good, tough guards, and hit the 3 at 37+% (31st in the country). Pack it in, they'll scorch you from the arc and if you can't match up one-on-one with Reese and Queen, they'll just pound you inside.
On defense, they are top 50 in most categories except (surprisingly) rebounding (59th). They are 14th in turnovers forced, 16th in turnover margin, 25th in 3-point defense, 45th in blocked shots and 40th in scoring defense. Last night was just a perfect storm of a very good Maryland team and a poor all-around performance by the Illini, who had a deer-in-the-headlights look almost from the start.
I worry more about the individual matchups even more than how high the opponent is seeded. Thankfully, there are just a handful of teams built like Maryland. Their lack of depth may be the one thing that prevents them from a FF run.
On defense, they are top 50 in most categories except (surprisingly) rebounding (59th). They are 14th in turnovers forced, 16th in turnover margin, 25th in 3-point defense, 45th in blocked shots and 40th in scoring defense. Last night was just a perfect storm of a very good Maryland team and a poor all-around performance by the Illini, who had a deer-in-the-headlights look almost from the start.
I worry more about the individual matchups even more than how high the opponent is seeded. Thankfully, there are just a handful of teams built like Maryland. Their lack of depth may be the one thing that prevents them from a FF run.
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