Northwestern 70, Illinois 66 OT Postgame

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#201      
OrangeBlue98
illiniswish09 said:
I’ll let Brad be stubborn right now. You gotta give guys chances to overcome sh*t. If this was February/March then it’s a completely different story. Maybe even January. We need Ben sitting on the bench to reach our ceiling.
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Fixed that for you.
 
#202      
Flyin' Illini
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Part of me wants to accept that “we are young” and just enjoy the ride … but it’s so depressing having LITERALLY zero idea which of these young guys will stick around. To endure the hiccups with the young guys, you need the optimism (and assurance) that you’ll see them all in a couple years kicking a$$. I HOPE I do, but let’s not pretend it’s as easy to shrug off “growing pains” losses as it used to be pre-NIL and transfer portal. Because it’s not.
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I'm struggling a bit with this as well. I love the young players on the team, but I can't help but think they will ALL be playing elsewhere next year. KJ, Riley, and Ivisic entering the draft and Johnson in the portal. It remains to be seen whether this approach to roster building with inexperienced, likely 1-and-done, players is a viable one for team success.
 
#203      
BretMyBeachHouse
Yea, this is probably one of the worst shooting nights in our history from 3. But he's still got a good shot. But he's clearly not a great defender and if we can find a rotation that gets him in the 15-20 minute range, that would be ideal. Find ways to hide him defensively.
 
#205      
PasadenaIllini
21ChampaignSt said:
Going to come to Ben's aid a little bit here. If he shoots his average we win this game in regulation by multiple possession. He is put in the game for one thing, to shoot threes. If he's in the game, he HAS to shoot them. You never know when a shooter will break loose from his slump.

If it were up to me, once we were up 10 or so midway in the 2nd half, I would have started to lean on Morez and a defensive minded line up a little more.
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He was getting absolutely abused possession after possession after possession on D. Ben plays power forward, which mean's he's going to be matched up against NW's best offensive player...which was the ultimate reason why we lost. We cannot afford to carry someone defensively who is that much of a liability. That should have been obvious after the Bama game. Unfortunately, it wasn't obvious to Brad.
 
#209      
Oracle21
KJ and Tomi have a chemistry. I think Kylan is our defensive stopper. Will doesn’t seem to be in the flow other than to look to get his when he’s in there. Morez is a junkyard dog in the paint.

The rest of the team we just don’t get enough out of. Tre White and Hummer do very little. Jake Davis shouldn’t play. DGL probably should play more to give us some energy but doesn’t for whatever reason.

If we’re just gonna live and die with whether KJ/Tomi can have monster games, I think we’re gonna be rather mediocre in a strong Big 10. We need more from the role players
 
#210      
HailtotheChief
JSpence said:
Huh? Riley saw the floor and was good on both ends of it. The officiating was obviously and WILDLY inconsistent, so you blame his benching on that? Northwestern literally had to change their lineup with him on the floor. Dunno what you or Brad were seeing.
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Yep. Your wiser than Coach Underwood. Maybe the muscles of those men not teen aged kids. That game was physical and if you think Riley was gonna stop those 2 guys your nuts
 
#212      
OrangeKrush1981
PasadenaIllini said:
I think you're overthinking it. There's one reason we lost today. It's in the box score. Ben Humrichous - Minutes: 39.
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I think there is more than one reason we lost. First, very bad shot selection by several guys. It wasn't just Humrichous shooting badly. As a team we took a lot of very poor shots. Second, the team created very few good shots. We were very slow to move the ball, which meant that we didn't punish NW for their defensive overplay on the perimeter. Our guys were reduced, or allowed themselves to be reduced, to relying exclusively on the three down the final stretch of the game. Third, we were physically overpowered at both ends of the floor, which meant that NW got some good shots in the paint while we reduced to long range, off balance threes at the other end. We made some of tough threes, too, but it would have been a lot smarter to run offense that generated better shot attempts.
 
#213      
OrangeBlue98
illiniswish09 said:
Lol ok man
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Apparently you didn't watch the game. It's OK - if you don't want to deal with reality, I can't help that.

Humrichous is not a Big Ten player. There was a reason he was at a mid-level MVC program.
 
#214      
Jmd2020
21ChampaignSt said:
Going to come to Ben's aid a little bit here. If he shoots his average we win this game in regulation by multiple possession. He is put in the game for one thing, to shoot threes. If he's in the game, he HAS to shoot them. You never know when a shooter will break loose from his slump.

If it were up to me, once we were up 10 or so midway in the 2nd half, I would have started to lean on Morez and a defensive minded line up a little more.
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Offensively he was shooting 43% coming into this game, can’t speak to his defensive lapses. Sucks he’s couldn’t have made a few more in this game.
 
#215      
PasadenaIllini
OrangeKrush1981 said:
I think there is more than one reason we lost. First, very bad shot selection by several guys. It wasn't just Humrichous shooting badly. As a team we took a lot of very poor shots. Second, the team created very few good shots. We were very slow to move the ball, which meant that we didn't punish NW for their defensive overplay on the perimeter. Our guys were reduced, or allowed themselves to be reduced, to relying exclusively on the three down the final stretch of the game. Third, we were physically overpowered at both ends of the floor, which meant that NW got some good shots in the paint while we reduced to long range, off balance threes at the other end. We made some of tough threes, too, but it would have been a lot smarter to run offense that generated better shot attempts.
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Yeah, I can buy that. But if we just had someone halfway decent on Martinelli, he doesn't go Ape@#$% down the stretch on us, and we will despite all that.
 
#216      
FloridaMan
I will ask again this year. This guy seems to be wildly unqualified to have as much influence on a top 20 program as he seems to have. Maybe I am over-estimating that? We let a guy like Tim Anderson slip away and still have this guy on staff? What gives? Are there not more qualified X and O guys wanting to be a part of one of the most successful programs of the past 5 years?
 
#218      
OrangeKrush1981
HailtotheChief said:
... That game was physical and if you think Riley was gonna stop those 2 guys your nuts
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I think you're right about the idea that Riley would have had a lot of trouble with the stronger NW guys. As well, Riley had trouble several times finishing near the rim or getting shots off inside the three point line. If he were physically stronger (at his early age), I have to believe he'd have scored more in the second half.
 
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#219      
illiniswish09
OrangeBlue98 said:
Apparently you didn't watch the game. It's OK - if you don't want to deal with reality, I can't help that.

Humrichous is not a Big Ten player. There was a reason he was at a mid-level MVC program.
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Don’t think you’re understanding what I’m trying to get at. If a guy we brought in to start results in getting benched that’s not a good thing for this team
 
#221      
blackdog
PasadenaIllini said:
He was getting absolutely abused possession after possession after possession on D. Ben plays power forward, which mean's he's going to be matched up against NW's best offensive player...which was the ultimate reason why we lost. We cannot afford to carry someone defensively who is that much of a liability. That should have been obvious after the Bama game. Unfortunately, it wasn't obvious to Brad.
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Am I losing my mind or was it not KJ that was getting switched on to Martinelli especially in OT?
 
#222      
DICKnaggie
I feel like you are holding back on your opinion of ZH. If he is such a cancer (no idea) why have the powers that be allowed him to rise and become established at such a young and inexperienced position? That's really problematic.
 
#223      
JSpence
HailtotheChief said:
Yep. Your wiser than Coach Underwood. Maybe the muscles of those men not teen aged kids. That game was physical and if you think Riley was gonna stop those 2 guys your nuts
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Well, damn, is that what happened? I guess Will Riley isn't going to be good enough to play during B10 season, then. Gotta keep him off the floor so *checks notes* Ben Humrichous can play stopper on defense.
 
#224      
OrangeBlue98
illiniswish09 said:
Don’t think you’re understanding what I’m trying to get at. If a guy we brought in to start results in getting benched that’s not a good thing for this team
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He is not a Big Ten level player. Plays no defense and is a streaky shooter at best.

He's a spot-minute zone-buster. Nothing more. Tonight proved that. If he plays more than a few minutes a game in the Big Ten, we lose. Simple as that.
 
#225      
HailtotheChief
Indy Illini Fan said:
Hamer’s got that under control … 🙄
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I almost wish Morez was on the Italian! He was a beast in the second half.

Our "Shooters" go 1 of 18 from 3 its gonna be tough to win many like that. I do wish I saw Riley get a good straight up n down three instead of looking off balance most of the time. He can stroke it and that may help some. His legs and body is all over the place on jumpers half the time it seems trying to get fouled or something
 
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