Maryland 91, Illinois 70 Postgame
- Status
That's all well and good, but when you have multiple games where you come out disinterested and sloppy (Northwestern, Washington, USC, MSU, Maryland) and different excuses for each one, then the distinction between excuses and circumstances doesn't really matter. Every team deals with stuff, and every team gets derailed sometimes. And that is fine. But if you're getting derailed by circumstances on a frequent basis, you have a problem.
I haven’t seen if this has been asked but why is a very dick player or three, sitting in our bench?
I mean I’m not denying the kid tries and has good effort but what did he have last night 5 point, 2 rebounds and 4 fouls ?
DGL getting double the rebounds as Morez in essentially the same amount of minutes is flat out unacceptable …
That’s not good enough …
Have to say last night was one of the most depressing games i can remember. Looking hopeless for most of the game culminating into a complete beat down at the end. All while at home. Probably a lot of us are still quite optimistic about the season after the USC loss. Still somewhat hopeful after this loss but it's increasingly challenging to feel that way.
sacraig
- The desert
Last night was abysmal, but I really can't square some of the doom and gloom on here (including from some insiders) with the ridiculously dominant product we've had on the floor at times this season.
Do we have a perfect team? Of course not. But the absolute simplest answer to what happened last night is that the illness sweeping the team kept one key player on the bench and slowed down others and then the team just caved late (recall, we were only down 3 with like 8 minutes left in the game).
Yes, most on the team looked like they were lollygagging last night.
Yes, our shooting has been terrible from 3 range lately.
Yes, Boswell tries to get too cute too often.
And yet we have still demolished teams (good ones) and looked better than MSU at Breslin for most of that game and were a few FTs and/or PFs away from winning that handily.
I choose to believe, based on the available evidence, that the biggest factor (though not the only one) is that the team is slowed by sickness right now and struggling to overcome that.
Do we have a perfect team? Of course not. But the absolute simplest answer to what happened last night is that the illness sweeping the team kept one key player on the bench and slowed down others and then the team just caved late (recall, we were only down 3 with like 8 minutes left in the game).
Yes, most on the team looked like they were lollygagging last night.
Yes, our shooting has been terrible from 3 range lately.
Yes, Boswell tries to get too cute too often.
And yet we have still demolished teams (good ones) and looked better than MSU at Breslin for most of that game and were a few FTs and/or PFs away from winning that handily.
I choose to believe, based on the available evidence, that the biggest factor (though not the only one) is that the team is slowed by sickness right now and struggling to overcome that.
What are the chances Brad retires at the end of the year? Seems like he has lost his fire a bit and doesn’t seem as passionate as he was a few years ago. Maybe all of this change is catching up and he is getting sick of it?
Lets face it. A freshman, playing in his first game where he was counted on as THE big man and he has a bad game against some quality guys. Queen is actually pretty good. What's he gonna learn from it and how's he going to use it?
And after continuing to see posts about guys planning to transfer... This NIL and annual free agency stuff is crushing me as a fan!!!!
Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
Queen is also a fresh I believe . . . I think head to head he and MJ would be a good game, but throw Reece in there and really only ScUM can match up with them in the Front court.
thanks for the insight. Definitely not acceptable considering size difference between the two.
Agree with this. I'm waiting out the next stretch of 5 games to see how the team responds. We're teetering right now. Go on a run, win the next 5 games and we'll look like a dangerous 3/4/5 seed that has a real chance of making it to the 2nd weekend...Drop one or two in the upcoming schedule and we'll look like a shaky 6/7 seed that will be a trendy pick to get bounced in the round of 32.
Last edited:
There was not time to plan for the eventuality that Tomi would be out for last night's game. Maryland could ignore Morez shooting from the outside on the pr. Their two bigs ended up being much more effective at the rim on defense because of it. The rest of the Maryland defenders could cause more havoc in the lane on defense. On offense Maryland just flexed their advantage underneath. I have no idea who was sick or who was well. The twin tower offense and defense made it impossible to win this game. We were at too large a disadvantage. Tomi in the pr would have given us a threat for an outside shot. It would have made one of Maryland's bigs left to account for Tomi shooting an outside shot. Morez was no threat to shoot outside shots on the pr. He was out of position to help down low on a missed shot on the pr. Maryland's bigs had no problem rebounding on defense and rebounding and shooting on offense. The cost for all the advantages Maryland got last night might be multiple cases of sickness in the coming weeks. We can only hope.
Ok cool. Now let me know the excuses for the other games I mentioned.
C'mon, man. If you thought there were not going to be growing pains with a complete new team playing 4 freshman extended minutes then there is nothing I can say. The only thing any of us can do is sit back and see how things play out. This is the team we have. There is no other team coming thru the door. Try to lighten up and enjoy that which we have.
I think the problem is this looks awfully familiar at this point. The 2022-23 team was 13-6 through 19 games with a 4-4 conference record. We are currently 13-6 with a 5-4 conference record. That team had some impressive wins. UCLA and Texas on neutral court. Dominating road wins against Nebraska and Minnesota. There was reason to be optimistic despite some head scratching losses. We thought they would get it together. They did not.
I don't know if that's going to happen again. Nobody does. It depends on how the coaches and players respond. But it's not like anyone who is concerned is some Chicken Little with no rational basis for worrying.
Juiceman, why worry about these things. Your ability to have any impact on what will happen is non-existent. Sit back and try to enjoy the ride. Winning the National Championship is a long shot. But having a successful season is still in the cards.
I think the real issue about last nights game is the blueprint for beating Illinois was shown:
Offensively:
Bigs attack the paint and be agressive.
Guards attack the paint and take the easy midrange jumpers Illinois gives up.
Defensively.
Crash the defensive glass and let IL take as many 3s as they want
Offensively:
Bigs attack the paint and be agressive.
Guards attack the paint and take the easy midrange jumpers Illinois gives up.
Defensively.
Crash the defensive glass and let IL take as many 3s as they want
Illinimark, why worry about juice?
Seriously it's a sports message board. We discuss our team, good and bad. In my real life conversations I never run across the types of people we have here for whom any critical discussion of the team or coach is considered verboten. We're fans. We care.
He has developed into a good help defender.
To a certain extent you're right of course, but then why do you bother posting on this board at all? You typed an almost 200-word response of excuses for last night's game - why do that? Why even bother reading my post that you were responding to? Why do any of us do any of this?
And the two guys that we brought in to make up a large bulk of what we want banking in 3s (Ben and Will) have slump majority of the season with the 3s.
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
I went well past angry last night and right into sad. I had to remind myself what is really important in this world. My Children, My Dogs, Illini basketball, My wife, Career.
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
That wasn't really a secret. I think if you asked our coaching staff they would say their goal is to force the other team into midrange Js (obviously not the easy buckets in the paint that we were giving up hand over fist last night).
This is going to sound like excuse-making and I swear it's not but that was just the worst possible game for Ivisic to miss - it prevented us from getting anywhere close to what we wanted to do on either end of the floor.
- Status