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Missouri 79, Illinois 63 POSTGAME
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<blockquote data-quote="dbeverly26" data-source="post: 1438513" data-attributes="member: 515868"><p>Sure, who knows. I personally think that this team would have trouble keeping guys out of the lane and stopping them once they're in regardless of how they play it, so you might as well choose a system that relies on denying shots via forced turnovers.</p><p></p><p>So much ink has been spilled about how Underwood turned OSU around by changing up the defense, but nobody mentions who OSU played during the stretches where their defense was merely 'bad' as opposed to 'horrible.' Four of the games in the six-game losing streak that kicked off the B12 schedule for them were against top-20 teams, including a couple of the absolute best offensive teams in the country in ISU and KU. They actually got scorched in their last four games of the season, again facing extremely stiff competition (ISU twice, KU, and Michigan), a stretch that looked quite a bit like their opening six in quality of competition and performance. </p><p></p><p>Also worth noting: that first six games contained what was their worst string of offensive performances as well. Who knows if those two things were related, but they might have been. Over the last year and a half of watching his Illinois teams, it seems like our defensive intensity lapses when we can't get the ball in the basket. I'm not sure there's a cure for that, but it's awfully tough to maintain intensity when you don't see rewards, either with baskets or with wins. This schedule is really looking like a curse. Not sure we had much of a choice there, though -- 20 conference games, the ACC and Big East challenges, and Mizzou were all set. All that could have been done is to not go to Maui, and can you do that? I don't know.</p><p></p><p>That's not to say that changing the system can't help. Maybe it can. But it's really going to be about nibbling at the margins, and I'm not sure that's going to make a whit of difference in the W/L column given who we are and who we'll play from here on out. That's not much to look forward to.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dbeverly26, post: 1438513, member: 515868"] Sure, who knows. I personally think that this team would have trouble keeping guys out of the lane and stopping them once they're in regardless of how they play it, so you might as well choose a system that relies on denying shots via forced turnovers. So much ink has been spilled about how Underwood turned OSU around by changing up the defense, but nobody mentions who OSU played during the stretches where their defense was merely 'bad' as opposed to 'horrible.' Four of the games in the six-game losing streak that kicked off the B12 schedule for them were against top-20 teams, including a couple of the absolute best offensive teams in the country in ISU and KU. They actually got scorched in their last four games of the season, again facing extremely stiff competition (ISU twice, KU, and Michigan), a stretch that looked quite a bit like their opening six in quality of competition and performance. Also worth noting: that first six games contained what was their worst string of offensive performances as well. Who knows if those two things were related, but they might have been. Over the last year and a half of watching his Illinois teams, it seems like our defensive intensity lapses when we can't get the ball in the basket. I'm not sure there's a cure for that, but it's awfully tough to maintain intensity when you don't see rewards, either with baskets or with wins. This schedule is really looking like a curse. Not sure we had much of a choice there, though -- 20 conference games, the ACC and Big East challenges, and Mizzou were all set. All that could have been done is to not go to Maui, and can you do that? I don't know. That's not to say that changing the system can't help. Maybe it can. But it's really going to be about nibbling at the margins, and I'm not sure that's going to make a whit of difference in the W/L column given who we are and who we'll play from here on out. That's not much to look forward to. [/QUOTE]
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Missouri 79, Illinois 63 POSTGAME
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