Nebraska 78, Illinois 67 POSTGAME

HoopCity · Jan 17, 2016

IlliiniLegacy said:
I think I finally lost it when Austin comes into the game, the ball crosses half court and is passed to him at the top of the key & he immediately jacks up a 3. Misses badly btw.

You know I have thought about that play and the play where they threw it in about half court and then to Jordan in the corner he immediately jacks up a 3. . Both of those plays seem to me to have been
set plays, they were suppose to shoot if open. Both unfortunately seemed a lot out of rythm, forced.

HoopCity · Jan 17, 2016

freebird6 said:
I see. I know coaches who never put anyone on the line in favor of having guys back to set the D. Can't imagine 50 years of seeing basketbll and not seeing that. Happens about once a week here in Indiana HS ball for lots of reasons and situations....besides the fact that our local HS shot right at 90% FTs with the starting 5 for a few seasons...coach never worried about there being a rb with that group.

I see that happen in the final seconds of games not to foul, not with 8 min to go, never...

Bomb Squad 217 · Jan 17, 2016

HoopCity said:
You know I have thought about that play and the play where they threw it in about half court and then to Jordan in the corner he immediately jacks up a 3. . Both of those plays seem to me to have been
set plays, they were suppose to shoot if open. Both unfortunately seemed a lot out of rythm, forced.

Yeah, I believe Jordan has a green light. I dont know about AA(I hope not). But its common for players to miss that first one anyway. Takes one or two to get going sometimes. I actually expected AJ to be shooting like JCL has been this year. I thought JCL would be a little more dribble drive oriented and be able to make afew more plays off the bounce. I guess, at least we got shooting out of one of them.

HoopCity · Jan 17, 2016

Bomb Squad 217 said:
Yeah, I believe Jordan has a green light. I dont know about AA(I hope not). But its common for players to miss that first one anyway. Takes one or two to get going sometimes. I actually expected AJ to be shooting like JCL has been this year. I thought JCL would be a little more dribble drive oriented and be able to make afew more plays off the bounce. I guess, at least we got shooting out of one of them.

I believe they all have the green light.

Ryllini · Jan 17, 2016

HoopCity said:
I believe they all have the green light.

As most of our wings should, but you have to make a defense work.

illinitiger · Jan 17, 2016

HoopCity said:
I believe they all have the green light.

JG talked about poor quality shots in first half when they made their primary run....Green light but sounds like JG only gives green light if it's open in rhythm...we missed several of those too.

Bomb Squad 217 · Jan 17, 2016

illinitiger said:
JG talked about poor quality shots in first half when they made their primary run....Green light but sounds like JG only gives green light if it's open in rhythm...we missed several of those too.

We really did miss some good looks and missed a bunch of key ft's that would have given us a shot to win. Thats just the way it falls sometimes.

freebird6 · Jan 17, 2016

HoopCity said:
I see that happen in the final seconds of games not to foul, not with 8 min to go, never...

I think someone explained a few pages ago that it was the first of two FT's. As far as your "never"...Ok.. your reality. I am not one to controvert an axiom that it would never happen. No coach has ever not filled their spots for any reason.

WesterveltVictoryCigar · Jan 18, 2016

illinitiger said:
JG talked about poor quality shots in first half when they made their primary run....Green light but sounds like JG only gives green light if it's open in rhythm...we missed several of those too.

Groce gives them the green light but also expects them to know what a good shot is. Sometimes that trust backfires.

freebird6 said:
I think someone explained a few pages ago that it was the first of two FT's. As far as your "never"...Ok.. your reality. I am not one to controvert an axiom that it would never happen. No coach has ever not filled their spots for any reason.

Actually I checked on BTN2Go, it did happen on both shots. A little unusual, but probably didn't impact the outcome.

ssanti13 · Jan 18, 2016

I've come to the conclusion that I've underestimated how difficult it is apparently to create off the dribble/get in the paint/attack the basket for our guards. I really thought we had enough offensive prowess to not be a jump-shooting team. I realize we lack a point guard who can do this, but I was under the impression guys like JCL, AJ, and DJW could put it on the floor and make something happen...especially JCL and AJ. I really thought these two could put it on the floor and create for themselves or their teammates.

I'm not blaming them or saying they won't be able to do this later on, but it's obvious they have can't do too much other than shoot at this point.

TCTORNADO · Jan 18, 2016

ssanti13 said:
I've come to the conclusion that I've underestimated how difficult it is apparently to create off the dribble/get in the paint/attack the basket for our guards. I really thought we had enough offensive prowess to not be a jump-shooting team. I realize we lack a point guard who can do this, but I was under the impression guys like JCL, AJ, and DJW could put it on the floor and make something happen...especially JCL and AJ. I really thought these two could put it on the floor and create for themselves or their teammates.

I'm not blaming them or saying they won't be able to do this later on, but it's obvious they have can't do too much other than shoot at this point.

DJW can dunk over Burger Boys.

ssanti13 · Jan 18, 2016

TCTORNADO said:
DJW can dunk over Burger Boys.

Darn right. Idk if it's because it would be considered Ill-advised to try and create off the dribble for them in our offense or if they're not offensively refined enough to make that happen. Or both. Idk anymore

OrangeDeeLight · Jan 18, 2016

IlliniGman said:
I really wish someone could provide a link where Morrow and Watson stated they wanted to come to Illinois but we backed off. Because I have been following these boards for 5 years and I have yet to see proof of that. All I read is hearsay. Maybe it was posted before and I had the flu, but I highly doubt that. So can we squash the rumors that we backed off, when in fact nobody really knows what happened. I also really hope that someday, some of these coaching experts gets a chance to coach at the D1 level so we can really see what they know

I believe JG stated we did not recruit Morrow becasue the staff felt Morrow was "redundant" to Black. Wanted better team balance.

And the recruitment of Watson I believe it was more of we were recruiting Evans and Brunson harder. Meanwhile, Watson was not doing all that great (some say struggling with multiple parts of his game) and at the time no other high major programs were coming around with offers for Watson either. Watson committed to Nebraska (I believe one of his best offers) early. Then, after the commitment, Watson put it all together and started tearing it up.

Let's face it, if Groce had taken Watson when he was struggling over Evans and Brunson this board would have crucified him. It's always easy to Monday morning QB.

illinitiger · Jan 18, 2016

OrangeDeeLight said:
I believe JG stated we did not recruit Morrow becasue the staff felt Morrow was "redundant" to Black. Wanted better team balance.

And the recruitment of Watson I believe it was more of we were recruiting Evans and Brunson harder. Meanwhile, Watson was not doing all that great (some say struggling with multiple parts of his game) and at the time no other high major programs were coming around with offers for Watson either. Watson committed to Nebraska (I believe one of his best offers) early. Then, after the commitment, Watson put it all together and started tearing it up.

Let's face it, if Groce had taken Watson when he was struggling over Evans and Brunson this board would have crucified him. It's always easy to Monday morning QB.

Crucify,...on this board?

PerennIaLL · Jan 18, 2016

OrangeDeeLight said:
I believe JG stated we did not recruit Morrow becasue the staff felt Morrow was "redundant" to Black. Wanted better team balance.

And the recruitment of Watson I believe it was more of we were recruiting Evans and Brunson harder. Meanwhile, Watson was not doing all that great (some say struggling with multiple parts of his game) and at the time no other high major programs were coming around with offers for Watson either. Watson committed to Nebraska (I believe one of his best offers) early. Then, after the commitment, Watson put it all together and started tearing it up.

Let's face it, if Groce had taken Watson when he was struggling over Evans and Brunson this board would have crucified him. It's always easy to Monday morning QB.

It is Monday morning quarterbacking, but doesn't make it easy watching an Illinois kid, whose brother played here, at a position of need, while playing for another Big Ten team, come into our arena as a true freshmen and outplay our guys. And we have another three years to watch....

WesterveltVictoryCigar · Jan 18, 2016

OrangeDeeLight said:
I believe JG stated we did not recruit Morrow becasue the staff felt Morrow was "redundant" to Black. Wanted better team balance.

Morrow's mom and dad were both athletes at Nebraska, so it's far from a sure thing we would have landed him regardless.

IlliniJim20 · Jan 18, 2016

HoopCity said:
I believe they all have the green light.

I believe they all have a perpetual green light

TCTORNADO · Jan 18, 2016

WesterveltVictoryCigar said:
Morrow's mom and dad were both athletes at Nebraska, so it's far from a sure thing we would have landed him regardless.

Plus, he lived the first 14 years of his life in Lincoln. Groce was probably told very early on that there was no chance so don't even waste your time. We never offered.

indianapolisillini · Jan 18, 2016

illinitiger said:
Out rebounded 42 to 24 and shot under 30% from 3p.

16 assists and 6 TO was good though.

There is NO commitment to rebound. It appears the coach doesn't value it. We jack up a 3 and all start jogging back on defense, while 5 Nebraska players hit the boards against ZERO ILLINI. We CAN do better than 24 boards, but we have to try.

As for turnovers, I think GROCE teams will always do well in that area. We don't run. And we usually shoot the ball pretty early in the shot clock. Both contribute to less turnovers.

indianapolisillini · Jan 18, 2016

HoopCity said:
In my over 50 years of watching hoops I have never seen this. Would someone please explain. THANKS
http://imgur.com/p3vQ0iA

LOL That's what I mean. If you really start watching, you will see there is nearly ZERO commitment to rebound offensively. Compounding the issue is that we are not a great rebounding team without Black & Thorne. You can't just totally give up though. That's ridiculous.

indianapolisillini · Jan 18, 2016

Illini70math said:
8. We got massively out-rebounded, and not by a monster line-up. It is somewhat ironic that this Nebraska team did more of what we feared from Purdue. The B1G is a tough place to play.

The difference was that we hit our shots against Purdue. A made shot CANNOT be rebounded. We missed a lot more against Nebraska and sense we make no effort to rebound offensively, defensive rebounds were free for Nebraska. Also contributing to the margin is that Nebraska shot it better than us and hit the glass. The results are clear. If we TRY... just TRY... we could make a huge dent in the margins we see.

AEX · Jan 18, 2016

OrangeDeeLight said:
Let's face it, if Groce had taken Watson when he was struggling over Evans and Brunson this board would have crucified him. It's always easy to Monday morning QB.

Sure, but Groce's job ultimately depends on the outcomes of his decisions -- in terms of wins and losses -- not the knee jerk reactions of the fans.

Gunner23 · Jan 18, 2016

PerennIaLL said:
It is Monday morning quarterbacking, but doesn't make it easy watching an Illinois kid, whose brother played here, at a position of need, while playing for another Big Ten team, come into our arena as a true freshmen and outplay our guys. And we have another three years to watch....&#55357;&#56897;

There is a possibility that his brother, DMac, may not have the best memories of UIUC. IIRC, the Coach at the time and many fans/message board posters kicked him around pretty hard during his time at UIUC. Is it possible that DMac steered Watson away??? Who the H@$L knows?

As another poster asked earlier, has DMac ever been back to campus for any basketball events? Dee Brown came back...DWill came back...neither played for Groce... Dmac hasn't been "glorified" in return to campus pictures with the team (or Groce), even prior to his brother's HS recruitment. I know it's just my opinion, but I feel that Watson was never coming here, and it could possibly stem from DMac's tumultuous time at the UofI...??? DMac wasn't treated the best here, so who knows?

illinitiger · Jan 18, 2016

BTW Duke lost tonight to Syracuse shooting 10 for 37 from 3ps. Apparently Duke is a jump shooting team too...

PerennIaLL · Jan 18, 2016

Gunner23 said:
There is a possibility that his brother, DMac, may not have the best memories of UIUC. IIRC, the Coach at the time and many fans/message board posters kicked him around pretty hard during his time at UIUC. Is it possible that DMac steered Watson away??? Who the H@$L knows?

As another poster asked earlier, has DMac ever been back to campus for any basketball events? Dee Brown came back...DWill came back...neither played for Groce... Dmac hasn't been "glorified" in return to campus pictures with the team (or Groce), even prior to his brother's HS recruitment. I know it's just my opinion, but I feel that Watson was never coming here, and it could possibly stem from DMac's tumultuous time at the UofI...??? DMac wasn't treated the best here, so who knows?

This could very well be true. I do not know either. Either way it hurts to see him playing well for a conference opponent.