Big Jack
- Decatur
Nah Pru let it go..
Maryland 91, Illinois 70 Postgame
- Status
Big Jack
- Decatur
That game was purely an example of a bunch of really good youngins, getting a reality check. Without Tomi this was gonna be a tough win. Hell I honestly thought with Tomi we were going to have to play flawless ball because of their size and speed. It only took 5 minutes for our guys to realize they were in trouble and then they started pressing, to much me ball and careless handling of the ball. KJ and Kylan need to know better than forcing the ball into the paint. Movement was lacking off the ball and on inbounds plays as always.
I don't give a crap about our seeding for the tournament only that we make into the field, then we see how tough and good we really are. Learn from your mistakes (including you Brad) and beat the Kitty Cats.
Go Illini!!
I don't give a crap about our seeding for the tournament only that we make into the field, then we see how tough and good we really are. Learn from your mistakes (including you Brad) and beat the Kitty Cats.
Go Illini!!
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Perhaps if coaches didn’t turn their rosters over every year this wouldn’t be an issue.
I think it’s pretty clear now you need at least a few to stick around for a while.
Wait...According to Brad, our "To be the best you have to play the best" tough non-conference schedule was supposed to prepare us for Big Ten games. You mean (once again), this theory adopted by so many Illini coaches after a successful season has been proven wrong. It's called hubris.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
We had that at Northwestern and at home against USC.
How many more reality checks is it going to take for the message to sink in?
I'm taking my son to the Ill-Duke game at MSG next month, so I decided to ordered one of the cheap jerseys from DHgate, and it was a no-brainer to get a Trent Frazier jersey. I'm in my mid-30s so I started caring around the Frankie years, and Frazier might be my favorite Illini to put on the jersey.
No Twitter letter from CPT Boswell.
Probably missed the mailbox.
Probably missed the mailbox.
Excellent, Blue.
That, or he threw it away.
Best wishes to CPT Boswell the rest or 2025.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Missed the 2nd half. Did we play zone, pack it in and dare them to beat us outside? Or did we keep playing man and watch the 2 bigs destroy us? Also we've had ball security issues all year and that showed up again last night. Add in we just don't have good enough 3pt shooters to shoot as many as we do. Horribly inconsistent team that can look unbeatable one night and bottom feeder the next.
KIA.....waiting for the Sargeant White messages to start.
Missing arguably our 2nd most important player (especially against a really good Maryland front line) with illness runnin’ wild through the locker room. Not going to get as bent out of shape about this one as most are. Fluids, vitamins, rest, move on.
Another one of those efforts Sunday, and it will be time cancel Fubo TV for this season.
The 23 team was ranked as high as 12th after beating Texas. And was as high as 19th in January before losing at home to Indiana.
To my untrained eye: it seemed that one of reasons that Maryland got to the rim so easily was that our guards were trying to fight through screens and not doing a good job of it. That gave the Maryland gaurds the corner and a free lane to the rim. Once they were going down hill our bigs had to slide over to cover leaving their bigs wide open. Or if their bigs or really anyone who was driving the our bigs were backing up and moving with them. It also seemed like they were going at Ben on a regular basis. He is just not very good on defense.
Ty Rodgers......????
2021: Ayo gets hurt, we win 3 straight without him, we overcome adversity and go on to raise a banner. Returning minutes: 70%
2022: We lose our preseason All American point guard for, essentially the season. We overcome adversity and raise a banner. Returning minutes: 64%
2023: We lose Goode for most of the season. Our pg quits. 8 different players start at least 7 games as we wait for the March jelling that wasn't to be. We do not overcome adversity. Returning minutes: 17%
2024: We lose our NPOY candidate under extremely distracting circumstances and we actually GROW as a team, overcome adversity, and raise a banner. Returning minutes: 52%
2025: We play 3.75 games without one of our two best players. We go 1-3 in those games including two double digit home losses in January. What happens next? Returning minutes: 3%
We're teetering, IMO. 2023 has lurked as a possibility for this team all year. This is why a few of us have been so adamant that we need to keep as much of this team together as we can. 2024 shows you what a difference one year and a little continuity makes.
Definitely not writing this team off yet. As we know our ceiling is limitless. But after 2023, I'm not going to go into February with a team of transfers and freshman believing it'll all magically click in March when the stakes and pressure get higher. We're inching toward "we are what we are territory".
2022: We lose our preseason All American point guard for, essentially the season. We overcome adversity and raise a banner. Returning minutes: 64%
2023: We lose Goode for most of the season. Our pg quits. 8 different players start at least 7 games as we wait for the March jelling that wasn't to be. We do not overcome adversity. Returning minutes: 17%
2024: We lose our NPOY candidate under extremely distracting circumstances and we actually GROW as a team, overcome adversity, and raise a banner. Returning minutes: 52%
2025: We play 3.75 games without one of our two best players. We go 1-3 in those games including two double digit home losses in January. What happens next? Returning minutes: 3%
We're teetering, IMO. 2023 has lurked as a possibility for this team all year. This is why a few of us have been so adamant that we need to keep as much of this team together as we can. 2024 shows you what a difference one year and a little continuity makes.
Definitely not writing this team off yet. As we know our ceiling is limitless. But after 2023, I'm not going to go into February with a team of transfers and freshman believing it'll all magically click in March when the stakes and pressure get higher. We're inching toward "we are what we are territory".
This team is reminding me of the ‘22-‘23 team. Loads of talent just a lack of focus and consistency.
Anyone who knows anything about basketball knew that Illinois was in trouble as soon as Ivisic was ruled out. They pressured the 3 point shooters and the guards because they knew we had no inside game oe even a threat. We have had our whole team on the floor one time during the three losses and against MSU Ivisic sick. We have the best fans when winning but some of the worst otherwise. Let this team get healthy.
I have seen a lot of people saying Ben is worthless because he didn't score last night. I think that ignores the task he was given on the defensive end. I don't think he played bad defensively despite being completely overmatched physically by the Maryland post players. He had some really good defensive possessions...but its just not realistic to expect a SF/PF to defend very good offensive bigs for the stretches he had to. And that much defensive effort reduces his ability to impact the offensive end. Other than him I'm going to chalk some performances up to people being sick.
So what does that leave? Roster construction. Starting off with having only two centers on a team in the big ten shows we haven't learned a lot from having to play Hawkins out of position there all the time. Maybe they thought Booth could be that third guy...but if they did then someone screwed up. This all comes back to Underwood's approach to building a roster. Bringing in a whole new team of talented players means those players have to play well every game because their isn't a "team" to hold things together when they don't. Its an AAU team. Great players, but no real chemistry so when it breaks down it looks awful. The last couple games have shown how dependent our offense is on KJ and Ivicic, and that's pretty scary thinking how late in the process we got those two. I mean, how bad were we going to be if we didn't get them??
What's crazy is this team can definitely still make a Final Four run. They are that talented. Their ceiling is as high as their floor is low though. But whatever happens changes need to be made going forward. We have to maintain a core to build around. I know that's harder in these times, but when you are always trying to recruit over established players then they aren't going to stay. Honestly DGL would be the first guy I looked at locking up for next year going forward. The guy doesn't quit. He works at both ends, and honestly might be one of our most consistent scorers. If that means putting Kylan on the bench to start games do it. Underwood needs to stop telling us the type of player he wants and show us. If we are still using the "Every Day Guy" line we should put the one we have out there for as many minutes as he can handle.
So what does that leave? Roster construction. Starting off with having only two centers on a team in the big ten shows we haven't learned a lot from having to play Hawkins out of position there all the time. Maybe they thought Booth could be that third guy...but if they did then someone screwed up. This all comes back to Underwood's approach to building a roster. Bringing in a whole new team of talented players means those players have to play well every game because their isn't a "team" to hold things together when they don't. Its an AAU team. Great players, but no real chemistry so when it breaks down it looks awful. The last couple games have shown how dependent our offense is on KJ and Ivicic, and that's pretty scary thinking how late in the process we got those two. I mean, how bad were we going to be if we didn't get them??
What's crazy is this team can definitely still make a Final Four run. They are that talented. Their ceiling is as high as their floor is low though. But whatever happens changes need to be made going forward. We have to maintain a core to build around. I know that's harder in these times, but when you are always trying to recruit over established players then they aren't going to stay. Honestly DGL would be the first guy I looked at locking up for next year going forward. The guy doesn't quit. He works at both ends, and honestly might be one of our most consistent scorers. If that means putting Kylan on the bench to start games do it. Underwood needs to stop telling us the type of player he wants and show us. If we are still using the "Every Day Guy" line we should put the one we have out there for as many minutes as he can handle.
Not trying to make excuses, but if Booth is on the floor playing extended minutes against Queen and Reese, it's already over. The team looked physically and then mentally exhausted in the last 10 minutes.
I'm going to chalk it up to the sickness that was called out prior to the game. You had 3 of your top 7 guys out or very limited, a freshman going against two quality bigs, and essentially a stretch 4 backing him up. I'm not sure what everyone expected would be the result.
That wasn't our team that we've seen all year and I doubt we see again unless they are still sick going into the next couple games.
I'm going to chalk it up to the sickness that was called out prior to the game. You had 3 of your top 7 guys out or very limited, a freshman going against two quality bigs, and essentially a stretch 4 backing him up. I'm not sure what everyone expected would be the result.
That wasn't our team that we've seen all year and I doubt we see again unless they are still sick going into the next couple games.
Most of that is very good analysis. Their offense wasn't complicated, but our guards didn't fight through screens (part of that is Queen is ginormous!) and our "bigs" didn't hedge well. It takes both of those things to stop that high pick and roll and we never figured that out.
The part about Ben is misguided. You're asking a guy who is not a center or power forward to guard traditional centers who outweigh him by 30 lbs. That's a recipe for disaster. BH probably will never be a great defender, but the narrative of his defense is overblown. Especially in this case. He was usually in decent position last night, but he just got straight-up bullied all night. The guy that needed to be a lot better was MJ. He was the one that had to really step up and he was bad on D all night.
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
Im just really sad.
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