I would say we lost a game to an okay team that played very well. While we played.
Penn State 74, Illinois 59 Postgame
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This one had all the hallmarks of the Underwood era. We overplayed the passing lanes on defense and got continually burned on back door cuts and drives. We never adjusted to them spreading the court and letting Pickett back us down. They took advantage of the constant switching to get guys out of position and find lanes to attack and finish or kick out to wide open shooters. All of this stuff could have been remedied with some tweaks, but instead the response was "play harder". And I get that the effort lacked. But schematically guys were put in positions to fail and that is coaching.
On offense, oh boy. We really don't run a half court offense under Brad. Our best teams/games come when we get out in transition. In a slow down game like today, all the warts are on display. No screening (especially off the ball), no cutting, poor spacing, very little player or ball movement. Again, effort wasn't there but it's also GIGO when you don't run anything sound and it's all one on one and forced shots.
I get Brad going nuclear in the postgame, but he needs to own some of that too. Some of it is definitely "play harder" but a lot of it is also play smarter, and that's on coaching.
On offense, oh boy. We really don't run a half court offense under Brad. Our best teams/games come when we get out in transition. In a slow down game like today, all the warts are on display. No screening (especially off the ball), no cutting, poor spacing, very little player or ball movement. Again, effort wasn't there but it's also GIGO when you don't run anything sound and it's all one on one and forced shots.
I get Brad going nuclear in the postgame, but he needs to own some of that too. Some of it is definitely "play harder" but a lot of it is also play smarter, and that's on coaching.
When our 2 leading NBA prospects (Cohawk and TSJ) shoot for a combined 10 points (on 5 for 15 shooting including 0 for 5 from three) and take no free throws against an average B10 team, something is wrong with our offense and losing is likely, especially against a hot shooting team. Our coaching staff will address this and get them more involved going forward. Growing pains are still evident, but the talent is there.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Oh... I'm relaxed. I believe that BU is relaxed. (Well, as relaxed as he gets. He understands the potential of these guys.) He's just frustrated. My working assumption all summer and fall is that November and December would be a bit ugly, and that this team would jell in February just in time to become a March monster. The victories against UCLA and TX and the Virginia game gave me reason to believe that the timeline I assumed might be compressed.
It's disappointing to see the guys play as they did today. I do believe it will all work out well. Gotta learn to defend, to show up every possession, and someone needs to become the alpha.
I really enjoyed watching Penn State play today. Have been a fan of Shrewsbury and his style. They were fairly relentless. When we narrowed it to six points and held them five mins without scoring, they hung in there on D. Then they buried three straight threes and it was over. Painful for my Illini heart but beautiful basketball on their part.
Goillinikobd
- Southeastern US
100%
I think our AD will be in BU’s ear about that post game presser. He needs to tone it down a little on the record.
Agreed. We need to be good in the Big Ten. Winning against UCLA and Texas was great, but you earn your stripes in the Big Ten. I remember the 2011-12 year with a talented team including Brandon Paul, DJ Richardson, Tracy Abrams and Nanna Egwu. We beat Gonzaga in the Kennel (I was there). We were rated #10 after that win. Then we proceeded to go 9-9 in the Big Ten and got a 7 seed in the tourney. The last 3 years, Illinois has competed well in the Big Ten. Let's hope this team can figure out the necessary adjustments in the Big Ten and stay above .500.
Thank you, thank you, thank you...
I have been saying this about the beloved daddy" Brad for years!
AND now there is no true All-American go to guy. Ayo and Kofi spoiled the hell out of us.
Where is a base offense, with back doors, alley-oops, screens and set plays??
Everyone else has them AND we are going to continue to be disappointed as they carve us up.
Someone said to take a deep breath relax, BUT everyone should take a hard look at the schedule and realize there is a double digit loss season coming.
MAYBE this makes us tourney ready??
I don't think it's a coincidence that the 3 slowest games of the season have been our 3 losses.
The dilemma is we play in a conference that likes to play slow. Really it's just us, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan that try to push the tempo. The half court game is going to have to get cleaned up, both offensively and defensively. I'm confident BU will get it straightened out.
The dilemma is we play in a conference that likes to play slow. Really it's just us, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan that try to push the tempo. The half court game is going to have to get cleaned up, both offensively and defensively. I'm confident BU will get it straightened out.
It was an 11:00 am start for Illinois. It was a moon start PSU.Waiting for somebody to claim the early start time is why they lost...
Bigtex
- DFW
Virginia also took advantage of our switching. Ucla did also but they didn’t factor in Harris in the 2nd half
Sometimes stick with your guy and don’t switch. That is the coaching adjustment
We went inside more in the 2nd half but had missed layups and free throws to show for it. The bench played more minutes than in any non blow out win. There's probably even more that we don't know about. Yeah they still kept the switching defense but you can't say the staff never made any adjustments.
Defensive lapses and miscommunicstion speak for themselves, but some of my frustrations come on the offensive end...There's numerous times I think Brad should run more offensive sets to help ease ball pressure especially when you have a stout veteran like picket against our inexperienced guards. With that said, I still believe in this team and think we'll be playing out best ball come the end of the season and into the March. ILL
Our let down due to the start time ...was PSU's motivation to play really well and kick our butts
I think there’s a difference between taking threes when you have the chance and stopping the offense to run a clearout. It’s great when he’s on a heater but there were a couple of times today when he did it, didn’t take the shot, and we were left with eight seconds on the clock and nobody else in a position to score. We need him to get his, it just has to be done within the offense.
I don’t get where folks are coming from when complaining about the system. The guys on the court weren’t all singing from the same hymnal and it doesn’t matter what system you play if you don’t execute like that. Even the beloved pack line, the boneless skinless chicken breast of basketball, doesn’t work if you don’t execute the plan.
I honestly think you can succeed with virtually any system, you just need to actually run it well. We’ve been generally excellent on d up until today, despite having a lot of lapses on the glass and in transition. Whatever it is that we were supposed to do, I’m pretty sure we weren’t doing it.
Every fan should be in the AD’s ear about selling Orange Krush seats out from under them. And the area wasn’t even full. As out of sync as the whole team was today
The system that a coach implements most certainly impacts a game. When we overplayed passing lanes and extended or D when BU first arrived we got torched and gave up tons of lay ups. Some players do fit in certain schemes and not others. Big guys like Dain n Kofi can't switch and nor can little guards on to big guys. Finding and exploring mismatches and oppositions defenses weaknesses is a big part of coaches do.
BU has made changes over the course of a season. Durin games he has too but maybe not as quickly as he should have. I bet we take a different approach with Pickett next time we play. Epps, Harris, and Skyy just don't match up vs him and PSU exploited it.
Others may have struggled some too but could have been more effective. Piper asked BU that more or less in the press conference if he thought PSU exploited the switching with Pickett. He said it didn't matter because they didn't switch last year and he did it too. Well maybe but I disagree because Harris or Epps are easier for Pickett to score on tham someone longer and more athletic like Rodgers or TSJ. I am not buying that answer. We should have tried to do something different. I bet we take a different schr o that again next time we play Pickett because if we don't he will kill us again.
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I think Mayer's last couple of games shooting was a bit of fools gold too, it's not like he's getting rhythm threes off good ball movement, he's hitting really tough contested shots off of one on one plays.
I've said it for a while, but our half court offense under Brad has been spotty at best. Better when we had a monster like Kofi, but playing five out with no action/screening/cutting isn't going to win many games.....unless guys shoot lights out and make tough shots.
I've said it for a while, but our half court offense under Brad has been spotty at best. Better when we had a monster like Kofi, but playing five out with no action/screening/cutting isn't going to win many games.....unless guys shoot lights out and make tough shots.
What do you mean? Was this something specific to this game or are you referencing the overall reseating after the renovation?
At times it was like the weave out front just killing time. Few cutters, just waiting for a gap to open, then jack up a 3 or long 2.
Impressive, if true.
Hoping we didn’t have any recruits at todays game, or in the post game media room, or in the locker room, or listening on the radio, or talking to guys on the team, or reading things online….
Also hoping recruits had weddings to attend, or family reunions, or school commitments, or cable services outages, or internet failures, or loss of electricity….
Also hoping recruits had weddings to attend, or family reunions, or school commitments, or cable services outages, or internet failures, or loss of electricity….
The atmosphere is much better with the krush down low than without. I've been going since the 70s and to act like the environment was better before is ridiculous. If it's cold or an 8 pm start there were empty seats all over before this switch to move the Krush. The only empty seats I saw today were a few reserved ones for Penn States few fans. The seats are more full and involved in the game now with engaged young people and looks much better on tv than ever before. We were all students once now it's thier turn. Plus you can still get good seats if you try. I've sat in the old A section everytime I've gone this year or 2nd row in Vegas.
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One other thing about Coleman that I don't understand is why he constantly gets fooled by shot fakes away from the basket. He's 6'-10" tall with long arms. Even if he's standing flat footed with his arms extended, that's a big obstacle to shoot over from beyond the arc. He literally doesn't have to jump to be an effective defender on the perimeter, it would reduce fouling 3 point shooters, and would help him take away driving lanes. Have someone in practice fake a 3 point shot 100 times a day and force him to stay on his feet to take away the reflex. Blocked perimeter shots are rare anyway.
This is coming from someone who deeply appreciates all the ways he helps us win.
The funny thing is that several of the set plays we ran were executed atrociously. Now that's not to excuse us not having more halfcourt sets where we can just throw up a number or shout the codeword and go to the well, but our awareness was a mess today. I legitimately think our players were trying and hustling out there, but that there was some serious lack of awareness, communication, and understanding of assignments.
I'll pick on two people:
Dainja: On offense he should have had 2 alleyoops this game. Perfect drives from the guards, perfect pass, he just didn't have the awareness to go up and slam the ball down. And on defense, whenever PSU went with their small lineup he was absolutely lost. He seemed constantly caught in between- not sure whether to stay down low or go out to guard and as such whenever he was on the court it looked like PSU was getting whatever shot they wanted.
CoHawk: His decisions on offense today were not good. Ill advised shots, ill advised passes, and even coming out of a timeout deciding to pass up a wide open shot (or pump and drive) from the top of the arc to instead pass it to a heavily guarded TSJ with 3 seconds left was just very poor awareness and decisions. And furthermore, he didn't bring his typical CoHawk energy and disruption on defense today. I don't have an issue with him deciding to be a facilitator- that can be very effective. But he was ballwatching at times today.
Overall, I think that's more what Brad was trying to say today by effort. There was too much ballwatching, and not enough awareness or mental effort being spent today. Today's game featured a bunch of individuals doing their thing on both sides of the ball, it wasn't a team effort or playing in a way for the team to be successful. And as a coach, you can stomp your feet and scream as much as you want during a game, but aside from lineup swaps it's very hard to change that mentality in-game if that's how your players show up. And sometimes you want to lose games like these ugly (obviously you're not coaching to lose) because that sends the best message. If you don't listen to me, if you don't play for the team, if you don't show up with the mentality for how can I best help the team, this is the result.
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