Northwestern 70, Illinois 66 OT Postgame
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Fun stat- Ben H 39 minutes 1-9 from 3: 5 rebounds, 3 total points. Morez 12 minutes- 3-4 fg's, 5 rebounds, 6 points. Anyones else notice what I notice??
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Have to win enough games before March to get into the tournament. We'll see if Underwood can make the right decisions to let this team win enough games to get to that point. Hope that happens, but I'm now skeptical.
illiniswish09
- Northwest Suburbs
I know I’m in the minority but I’ll give him till January as a starter. If a situation like tonight occurs again then obviously you’d be foolish to keep him out there/continue starting him. First B1G game. I’m giving him a shot to respond next game. Although Wisconsin does start two 7 footers so Morez may be getting a start regardless of what happened tonight.
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The Sprouting Divot
Invisible and Bulletproof
- Miracle Mile
My nine year old has now witnessed an Illinois loss at NW three years in a row.
As we were walking back to the car, he declared that he didn't want to go to the game in Evanston next year, and that we should instead go to the game in Champaign where our home court advantage is better.
As we were walking back to the car, he declared that he didn't want to go to the game in Evanston next year, and that we should instead go to the game in Champaign where our home court advantage is better.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
We are looking at completely different types of recruits. NW builds program off of selling high quality education to recruits that are not the highest level, but certainly still talented. They can then develop them and be fairly competitive but not championship caliber.
They also have much different program expectations, so this model works very well there for Collins (his coaching style is perfect for this model). It simply will not work in Champaign (or other high-level power programs), especially with the way the portal and NIL works now. I suspect that is why Collins has stayed in Evanston. Hopefully once this portal situation stabilizes a bit, we will see a bit more roster stability. It is still the Wild West when we are recruiting the highest level talent, and then players leave for more playing time and NIL elsewhere after season.
With this being the NIL era now I think it’s fair to look at players through the lens of ROI. The numbers I’ve seen floated that we offered Ben shout making a bigger impact than he has so far. I hope he can find his stroke because if it isn’t reliable we are an early exit. He has shot a good percent up till now but I think this was his highest volume game. So hopefully this is more of a one off. He had open looks which he was brough In here to hit.
Hope so. I need to trust the coaching more and the befuddled beaten up contingent of naive, confused players less. Hopefully they can grow from this. Alabama and now Northwestern have both demonstrated if you hit Illinois with physical play, Illinois won’t have a good enough answer. Nobody takes charge even though some players look good. The team is not playing its game and will be a lot easier to beat.
We have to impose our will more. That was a tough game to watch us never launch.
Illini never seem to get some of the looks other teams get out of timeouts, but if one of those contested 3s was the one Riley launched from 2 feet beyond arc, I don’t think that was how it was drawn up. Terrible shot/decision by Will.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
You had me until #7Incredibly depressing Uber-back-to-the-city postgame rant thoughts:
1. Props to NU student section. They’re always surprisingly good and honestly more (physically) active than Orange Krush. Guess it’s that dorky energy, lol.
2. Major props to Chicago Area Illini fans. As I posted in the game thread, non-student crowd had to be no less than 70% Illini fans. The entire upper section was pretty much ours. I’d genuinely hate that if I were an NU player for my home games, but obviously it fired them up.
3. 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.
4. Great place to watch a game! If NU didn’t have a crap history, that would be a much more iconic venue. There really isn’t a bad seat in that place. With that said, it’s not as loud as you’d expect given how closed in it is.
5. NU students that I interacted with were surprisingly - errr - dumb? compared to what I was expecting.For being such a phenomenal school, I was shocked what meatheads many of them sounded like in the crowds exiting the arena. “How far is Champaign?! I bet it’s FAR! You guys gotta drive FAR, hope you’re not intoxicated, HAHA.” Bro, you think 70% of your home arena was filled with solely Illini fans who drove multiple hours? It was a pro-Illini crowd because we have way more fans than you in your backyard.
6. At the end of the day, you can’t excuse away that loss. We folded, we were soft when it counted and we didn’t lose to some home team that was on fire and playing in some hostile environment. We just choked, period. We’ll be fine, but … damn. That was rough.
7. I liked these NU uniforms, and while I used to think their gothic gimmick was kind of lame … it’s won me over.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
If Brad didn’t play Morez he sure as !!!! wouldn’t have played Ty. Pardon my French but I was there and am still really pissed.
Yeah because Domask totally wasn't the 2nd best player on an elite 8 team last year and one of the better Illini in recent memory.
This had the feeling of a game Brad was coaching more for later in the season than to absolutely get the win tonight. Seemed like he wanted to see how these guys handled adversity in a tight game. As much as we want to see the Illini win every game, a perfect season is always very unlikely. I’ll take this loss if it means growth for the team and a successful run in tournament.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Damn Fighter, and I almost asked during the game where you were. Bad on me. I was in 218!
217 is that small corner section. I was the guy in the front row looking like he wanted to jump from the balcony all through overtime.
Bet we weren’t more than 20-30 feet apart.
I think it was under 30 seconds, but there was about a 9-10 second difference in game vs shot clock. So it seemed like we were gonna play it out, but then fouled an 87% FT shooter to go to the line.
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GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
Idk I liked watching Domask do it last year
How so?
We brought in two guys who can only shoot spot up 3s. If Brick house is ice cold, why not let the pony-tailed ginger get some attempts?
Did we seriously lose to a team whose best player jumps when he shoots free throws? And their second best player is a Freddie Mercury look-alike? I should have watched re-runs of Lawrence Welk tonight
Did we seriously lose to a team whose best player jumps when he shoots free throws? And their second best player is a Freddie Mercury look-alike? I should have watched re-runs of Lawrence Welk tonight
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Domask was 1st or 2nd team all MVC every healthy year he played. Humrichous was honorable mention. Remember, he spent most of his career playing on a team that Montverde would destroy.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Why doesn’t our head coach make the decision instead of a guy a few years removed from college? Help me understand.
Maybe not but Marcus Domask was also at a mid-level MVC program(SIU is a long ways from their glory days).
I'm not expecting Hun to be Domask but Domask also had a bit of a slow start and didn't really get going to until January(outside of the FAU game).
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
That allowing the midrange two was top of mind when I made my pregame Pleasantville comment about them not missing anything. My fears came true.
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