So true. He shoots a real bullet right now.
Penn State 74, Illinois 59 Postgame
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illiniswish09
- Northwest Suburbs
THE BEST TEAMS ARE PLAYER LED TEAMS... that’s all from me... Let’s see how we respond from this...
Dainja free throw shooting is definitely a problem. His entire approach looks ragged. Surely someone can teach him a rhythm and soon because he is a liability. He could be quite a benefit because he does draw fouls.
illini80
- Forgottonia
I find it shocking that it wasn’t corrected in the year he had to work on it with no game pressure. Kofi’s form was much improved his second year. Ayo reinvented his shot twice and got better each time. Obviously he has to agree to it, but if he watches a video of himself he has to know how bad it is.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Bruce's guys responded to his pointing the finger at them as a lost season collapsed by heading to Lincoln against a hapless Nebraska team and no-showing their way to a 32 point deficit at one point, the moment we knew it was over. He'd lost the guys.
Underwood is making his comments very intentionally seeking a different sort of reaction. We'll see.
You can sympathize with his frustration when he can't rely on what he's getting game to game, half to half, play to play.
not me, I want us to get a good NCAA seed and those two wins will help a lot with that.
A lot of gloom and doom around here. Yep. We were lousy today. Doesn’t mean we will be lousy all season. Anyone remember the Cincinnati game last year?
We beat one of the best teams in the country a few days ago. Lost to a really experienced team today.
We’ve been able to play poorly, hang around and win. It’s probably given some of these guys a false sense of their ability to overcome sloppy play.
We have a really high ceiling, but I think everyone was surprised by how low the floor can be. Especially the guys on the team.
If we see it again I’ll start to get concerned, but this is a tough lesson a lot of teams learn the hard way.
Kudos to PSU for great execution and gameplan.
They made us pay for every mistake.
We beat one of the best teams in the country a few days ago. Lost to a really experienced team today.
We’ve been able to play poorly, hang around and win. It’s probably given some of these guys a false sense of their ability to overcome sloppy play.
We have a really high ceiling, but I think everyone was surprised by how low the floor can be. Especially the guys on the team.
If we see it again I’ll start to get concerned, but this is a tough lesson a lot of teams learn the hard way.
Kudos to PSU for great execution and gameplan.
They made us pay for every mistake.
A big reason he draws them is because him going to the line equates to a defensive stop.
Well PSU continued to run Pickett to a switch for a miss match and he would then back our smaller guards down and score or if doubled dish for open tthrees. That went on the entire game instead of assigning one or two guys that match up on their best player that is more likely to guard him. Expecting Skyy, Epps, or Harris to stop him one on one all game hurt our chances. Continuing to switch on Pickett giving them a miss match down low or leading to open threes was not addressed. This switching is a new style and sometimes it may not work because all our guys don't always match up vs an experienced focused team they will exploit it.
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Something worrying....Hawkins was on fire from 3 in that first game against EIU, but since then he has only shot 23% from 3.
Not blaming him or anything, I am a big Hawkins fan and he does so much more than what shows up on the stat sheet. But it gets awkward playing a 5 out offense when the 5 can't shoot.
Not blaming him or anything, I am a big Hawkins fan and he does so much more than what shows up on the stat sheet. But it gets awkward playing a 5 out offense when the 5 can't shoot.
He will be fine he needs to take shots in the rhythm of the game. I worry when he forces it
This team needs Luke Goode on the court ASAP!
Not gonna say Mayer has played great, but he has been leading scorer the last two games. And I think BU wants him taking 3s when he has them.
I like Epps, but he has been fairly inconsistent. I mean he had 3 points and 3 turnovers today. Add this game to his struggles with foul trouble and not a great start to his B1G career. He’ll get there, but I don’t see him in the starting lineup any time soon.
There were so many problems today, but one thing I was really disappointed in was offensive rebounding. They basically played 5 guards the entire game and Illini had just 7 Orebs. Gotta make teams pay if they decide to follow PSU’s strategy.
Oh I remember, I had to watch that stinker in person.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Yeah, with our length and athleticism, I'm surprised we aren't a better rebounding team in general. That's got to be an effort issue.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's focus and attention to detail more than anything. We have just horrible missed box outs all the time.
Matthew Mayer has played over 130 college basketball games and has been the same player pretty much the entire time.
I love this team and stuff and am confident we will end up being the best we’ve been under Coach by tournament time.
People need to relax
I don't understand Hawks shot selection. Many times he passes up good catch and shoot opportunities. He always does a pump fake instead of just shooting it. Often he passes up the easy shot for a more difficult one. I saw BU yell shoot it twice when he did exactly that. The pump fake is fine if your covered but I'd love to see him shoot it and not give the D time to recover.
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If you’re gonna have a stinker of a game during the season... now is the time to get it out of the way.
Great win in New York City? CHECK.
Big Stinker of a Home Game? CHECK.
You’ve been to the mountain top. You’ve sunk down into the Valley. Now take what you’re learned from that and become ‘the March’ Team that we all want you to be.
Lots of things were off today and lots of possible reasons for that. Basketball is a reflection of the human condition. You never know how you’re going to feel or how things are going to break out for you during the day. Or how others are going to affect your day. What you do with that is use everything you’ve got to make tomorrow better than it was today.
Whether or not you win a Conference Title is one thing. But when you can keep playing in March is what it’s really all about. Lots of good teams stumble during the season. But when Madness comes, they are always right there doing their thing.
And if the Illini are not currently March-centered-enough in their approach to the game... then we know the first problem that needs to be corrected.
Great win in New York City? CHECK.
Big Stinker of a Home Game? CHECK.
You’ve been to the mountain top. You’ve sunk down into the Valley. Now take what you’re learned from that and become ‘the March’ Team that we all want you to be.
Lots of things were off today and lots of possible reasons for that. Basketball is a reflection of the human condition. You never know how you’re going to feel or how things are going to break out for you during the day. Or how others are going to affect your day. What you do with that is use everything you’ve got to make tomorrow better than it was today.
Whether or not you win a Conference Title is one thing. But when you can keep playing in March is what it’s really all about. Lots of good teams stumble during the season. But when Madness comes, they are always right there doing their thing.
And if the Illini are not currently March-centered-enough in their approach to the game... then we know the first problem that needs to be corrected.
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