Let's not give in to selection bias. The same sort of sturm und drang over Illini basketball losses was prevalent in the 70s, 80,s 90s, etc. - except ether wasn't a social media forum to express oneself. It's normal behavior. Back then there were a few radio call-in shows. Heck of a lot easier to vent now. Here's something to consider - Lou Henson had his home phone number and home address in the yellow pages for many years. And then came the loss to Austin Peay in 1987. Lots of crazy pizzas were delivered to his house that night, along with really nasty phone calls, cars honking at all hours, etc. You think Underwood has it tough....
Michigan State 88, Illinois 80 Postgame
Unforced turnovers just wreck your stomach, and I'd like to see more minutes for Rodgers, Harmon and Lawhorn. Big Ten officiating is certainly subpar compared to all the other major conferences, it would be hard to maintain your composure, my hats off to Underwood for that aspect. Illini played a great game until the last minutes, but learn from it, make adjustments and move on. They're getting there, but it's not painless.
BU wanted outside shooting in when they were doubling on Hawkins. That’s the only thing I can think of. If he thinks Harmon and Goode give us a better chance of winning than Ty does then he is dead wrong.
Quincy, Harmon, and the team in general played better while TSJ was out. Since he has returned, defense has tanked and coaching decisions have been questionable. TSJ is very good, but are we trying to force feed him back into something that seemed to gel better in his absence. Great teams beat great players. Jmo
Undoubtedly, BU deserves much praise for building the program to relevancy again. I am truly grateful for that. However, I believe his major downfall is his inability to adjust during a game. Each and every (early) tournament loss highlights his unwillingness to change a game plan (or make substitutions) when his original scheme isn’t working or a starter isn’t playing well. It just seems he’s willing to let the team live or die on whatever hill he had planned. Again, I am grateful for him and glad he’s our coach. I just wish there was more real-time adaptability and willingness to change what isn’t working.
Yeah, people have got to chill. A couple weeks back going into the Indiana game some credible posters said the goal in our final 12 game stretch should be 9-3. This would give us a realistic shot at a 3 seed. We’re still on pace for that at 3-1 with the next 5 games in February being very winnable…say what you will about our struggles vs Maryland but something tells me the boys will be UP for that game. Also, let’s just say a W in Madison looks quite a bit more doable as of lateon the Badger note, when that game rolls around BU will be pursuing history at the Kohl center…he really really will. Stay the course & beat Michigan.
Sure. You know, it's not losing to Michigan State that's concerning. It's not even adding an L on the schedule. It's not even losing a close, winnable game.
It's the way it was done. Giving up multiple 10-pt runs is unlikely to happen against any mediocre team. But going 7+ minutes without sinking a meaningful FG or parading to the charity stripe can doom us against any D1 program in the country.
MSU did not catch fire. They didn't do much special at all. They missed 5 shots and 3 of 12 FTs. But they scored 20 points in 6 minutes while we failed to react. To repeat, for the most important 15% of the game, our opponent outscored us at a per-40 pace of 130-40 while keeping the same team on the floor through dead balls.
Illinois made it easy enough for any team to beat them, and it's not the first time. For this team to do anything memorable, it's critical that everyone learns from this.
If this was the only game that happened then your first point might be the reason but this has been Brad’s pattern in close games going with Goode over Ty only to see Goode miss FT’s get abused on defense and not rebound- I mean, what is Brad looking at???
Ty did not have a good game yesterday- committed a silly foul to put them on the line 20 feet from the basket, made some defensive mistakes and took at least one ill advised shot early in the clock so maybe it was Brad sending a message - but he’s sitting Ty in close games in crunch time and playing Goode and we’re losing those games - it has to stop
Morning-after thoughts:
Literally threw the game away at the end with incomprehensible turnovers.
I hate to acknowledge it because he's such a tool but Hoggard >> Marcus yesterday afternoon
MSU: eFG of 57.3%... owned us in the paint. The fact that it was our game to lose in the final 5 mins is mind-boggling. We can't continue to let teams shoot this well against us and have any prospects of progress in March.
The Spartans just looked tougher and more physical than we did. That's not good.
Crush Michigan on Tuesday.
Michigan State, under Izzo, has always been known to be a very tough, great rebounding team. That is their identity. For a while, earlier in the season, ours was defense, the question is what happened and what is it now?
If I recall, he basically sat Ty the last 13 minutes of NU game - another loss. Please correct this trend, coach.
Kilgore Trout
- Driftless Region
It makes me wonder why when we have Assistant Coaches with much more experience.
I know the Goode vs Ty decision has been beaten to death, but one last point I’d like to make is we really could have used Ty on offense as well. Brad constantly harps that his entire philosophy is predicated on finding a way to win when the ball isn’t going in. The ball wasn’t going in the last 7 minutes, but maybe Ty steals a couple of buckets with offensive rebounds. Maybe he draws fouls. Or maybe he just steals you an extra possession or 2, which both cuts down on MSU’s ability to score and gives them additional opportunities to make mistakes on defense.
Nevermind the defensive problems which were obvious. We needed toughness plays on offense because our shots weren’t going down.
Positive is that’s probably the best we’ve looked since TJ’s been back for about 32 minutes. The bad is the late game execution is starting to become a trend.
Still time to get that bite back defensively and figure out late game execution and rotations offensively. No great teams this year, will all come down to who is playing the best. Still a chance it’s us.
Nevermind the defensive problems which were obvious. We needed toughness plays on offense because our shots weren’t going down.
Positive is that’s probably the best we’ve looked since TJ’s been back for about 32 minutes. The bad is the late game execution is starting to become a trend.
Still time to get that bite back defensively and figure out late game execution and rotations offensively. No great teams this year, will all come down to who is playing the best. Still a chance it’s us.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yep. My thoughts exactly. He instills tough, physical play in them year after year. They play soft in stretches, he gets after them, and they rise to the occasion.
We're hard on the Illini because they're our team and we see their flaws clearly. MSU has plenty but yesterday they took care business in their house. Rebounding was about equal, but we've handily outrebounded opponents consistently this year. I kept thinking to myself the entire second half how clearly superior to them we are. Then we crumbled down the stretch. Our eFG was 52.5%, which is pretty solid for a road team playing in Breslin. But then we let them shoot north of 57%. Still trying to figure out how, with all that, we were firmly in control until around the 5:00 mark.
I absolutely hate losing to them. On the up side, Maryland soiled the bed in Columbus for the second consecutive game and Wisconsin apparently is in the midst of what early '70s rock stars would call an extended lost weekend, but with dramatically less hedonism involved.
Not to mention the two fouls on number 2 leading up to the rebound.
I would say Rebounding AND Defense have been perhaps, the biggest part of our identity this year. Not so much yesterday. This is not one of Michigan State’s best rebounding teams; yet they rose to the occasion.
But yes…I agree…by long standing reputation of the majority of Izzo’s teams that is definitely true.
Also yes…our defense is pretty stinky right now. The lack of transition defense
was particularly infuriating at times.
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"But one thing is really really clear to me .........i want someone other than Marcus directing the offense in the last part of a game....Not demeaning his effort or skills , but dribbling is NOT one of his higher end skills....and the constant dribbling stagnates the offense at a time when we should be attacking the rim with abandon........having Marcus dribbling away 10-15 seconds off the shot clock leads to forced shots and unless we are rebounding like a banshee , it allows transition by our opponents and usually a bucket and even a and 1....."
You nailed it Pru, again! Seems when TSJ was out we had ball movement, (Ty mostly bringing it up with a partner in the backcourt to help) now as you said, Marcus brings it up and dribbles for 10-15 seconds with no ball movement. Why the change and how does staff not see the stagnation. Can't be what staff wants, but they orchestrated it.
The last 3 minutes yesterday was disgusting. Haven't seen such bad play/coaching since... well, last year. Let's hope we never see it again this year..or ever for that matter.
BU needs to make some changes in regards to P&R defense.Drop coverage exposes CH post defense,not a great rim protector while also risking foul problems.Changing coverages within game would be a start,we have become very predictable.Would like to see more hedging ,trapping,guards not able to keep ball from entering the paint currently.Conceding tough 2's regularly seems too easy for most opponents,this must change for team to maximize potential.ILL
Please Indy, use your super Indy powers and tell coach it ain’t working! We need the top 2 point D in the country back asap!!
Punesguy
- Ft. Collins, CO
Thank goodness, the sun still rose this morning. Sometimes my passion for the beloved gets the best of me and yesterday’s loss was no different. There is no question that the defense gave up way to many uncontested layups, we struggle against quick guards, there were a few awful calls, MSU shot much better from 3 than they normally do (5 of 8 - 62.5%), they made more free throws than we took (25 of 34 vs 17 of 20) and while TSJ has made great strides he still went 7 of 18 and 2 of 9 from 3. All of those things combined led to our demise.
My biggest concern going forward is that we do not seem “connected” offensively or defensively and that needs to change if we expect to get to the second weekend in March. I am still confident that can be accomplished but it starts Tuesday with a curb-stomping of Michigan. Go Illini!
My biggest concern going forward is that we do not seem “connected” offensively or defensively and that needs to change if we expect to get to the second weekend in March. I am still confident that can be accomplished but it starts Tuesday with a curb-stomping of Michigan. Go Illini!
In hindsight, playing Dain and Hawkins together could've addressed some of our defensive issues down the stretch. Could've allowed us to put Hawkins on Hall and then Dain could play the same drop coverage Hawkins was while giving us some added rim protection and rebounding.
Oh well. Time to move on.
Oh well. Time to move on.
In the postgame interview, in response to why Ty wasn't in, the first thing BU said was offense. That truly puzzles me, because to my (admittedly untrained) eye, our offense flows much better when Ty is running it. IMHO, other than TSJ, Ty is our best at getting to the basket. As far as the RayJ talk, he is 16th in the nation in TOs. The next player from a ranked team is Kolek, all the way down at 85th. No argument from me that RayJ has less offensive skills than Ty, but I'm not sure we would love a PG that coughs the ball up at such a rate. "Connection" has been the byword for this team, and I think this team just clicks as a team more when Ty is in there. Even just bringing the ball up, Ty has a better chance of blowing by someone than MD.