Pregame: Illinois at Indiana, Saturday, January 7th, 4:00pm CT, ESPNU
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Actually switched back and forth last night between Minny v Kittens and Neb V Iowa, then seeing the OSU V PU scores, it appears that the trend is for having close, nip and tuck games, with the result determined at the very end going to the sharper shooting (including free throws) team. These have been what the Miznoz and OSU games looked like. So, need to be stout, bulldog, determined, to keep sticking it out until the very end. Leave your quit at home. I'm not seeing blow outs at this point in the season.
A line and 3???
Pentagon. Definitely. Pentagon.
Not to mention the drubbing at home too...
Sometimes it's challenging on this board, but you're being sarcastic, right?
(Just in case, you're not. Illini +15 with 3 minutes left in the first half against OSU and then -2 with 4 1/2 minutes left in second half, is a -17 point swing and not exactly what one would call *maintaining* a lead.)
Not to mention the Winthrop game... Maintaining large leads has really been an issue with this team since last year. However, they did a good job responding after blowing the lead to OSU.
In High School, we had a guy that kept yelling out to play a 1-3-2 defense. Obviously not a math major.
He has the right idea... Would be a great defense. 6v5 would be to score against.
With the line at +10 for Indiana I think they win 89-73. Hope I'm wrong but it just feels like under Groce we don't win these type of games.
TownieMatt
CU Expat
- Chicago
Road wins against good B1G teams are never easy, but they do seemy especially elusive under Groce. Although I suspect that is more a product of being a lower half B1G team than anything specific to Groce's leadership. And I do recall a good win at MSU a few years ago.
RichBradIllini
- Peoria
This happens with 80-90% of the in-conference games I watch. Team A open up double digit lead, Team B makes a run, last 5 minutes is a dog fight and game goes down to the wire...wash and repeat. I don't care who it is, this is the nature of many conference games.
Deleted member 29907
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Don't have time to read all the other pre games pressers - but the few I recall - Groce seemed to have been on to something when he either says "had a good/great week of practice" or "had a so-so week of practice". Not calling a win, but hoping that translates to competitive away from home.
Pre-season I thought we needed to be able to go bigger from 1-3 positions to compete with top 25 and better BIG Teams. We haven't done this, so we will continue to suffer on the defensive end without creating mismatches on the offensive end. By bigger I felt going with line-ups of JCL-Malcolm-DJW as our PG/SG/SF combos. Instead we will see Tate, Abrams, and Malcolm. Unless both Abrams, Malcolm and Black/Finke get red hot we just aren't as competitive. Some of this is JCL not developing the PG skills the other is the reluctance of the coaches to play Malcolm and DJW at the same time, eventhough it looked pretty effective in the limited time they've played together. I have faith in a line up of Abrams, Hill, DJ, Black, and Finke for parts of the game tomorrow.
Suppose that you have a pool and a neighbor says that he will "maintain" the temperature in it for you while you are gone by making sure that the water doesn't freeze and ruin it.
You leave and the water temperature is 47 degrees and all is well. You come back and what little water that's left in your now ruined pool is at 37 degrees.
Oh yeah but in the meantime, the water temperature dropped to 30 degrees and froze solid ruining your pool. Are you happy about the way the temperature was "maintained" in your pool?
Really happy that the Illini fought back and won that game, but saying that they did a good job "maintaining" a lead, is like saying your neighbor did a good job maintaining your pool for you. That was my only point. (Gee, I guess maybe it wasn't sarcasm.)
Deleted member 16068
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I will go on record to take the +9.5.
Not predicting a win but we play well enough to cover.
Ist 10 minutes of this game will determine outcome.
Not predicting a win but we play well enough to cover.
Ist 10 minutes of this game will determine outcome.
It's a generic statement every coach uses.
+11
And most of those early leads are a result of one team shooting like 80% for a stretch or the other team missing 6 of 7 shots or some combination of the two. If you expect these types of trends to continue, then I could see how it looks like your team is failing to maintain a lead. In reality, the momentum from the starts of games is pretty transient and you usually end up going down to the wire (unless you're Illinois in a B1G road game).
Suppose that you have a pool and a neighbor says that he will "maintain" the temperature in it for you while you are gone by making sure that the water doesn't freeze and ruin it.
You leave and the water temperature is 47 degrees and all is well. You come back and what little water that's left in your now ruined pool is at 37 degrees.
Oh yeah but in the meantime, the water temperature dropped to 30 degrees and froze solid ruining your pool. Are you happy about the way the temperature was "maintained" in your pool?
Really happy that the Illini fought back and won that game, but saying that they did a good job "maintaining" a lead, is like saying your neighbor did a good job maintaining your pool for you. That was my only point. (Gee, I guess maybe it wasn't sarcasm.)
Pond would be good for you.
You've heard of " runs " because the words " run " and " runs " come up all the time in basketball games because " it is a game of runs " not completely unlike billiards or pool even frozen pools
Beat Indiana so they crean Crean!!!
Living just 30 minutes from Bloomington, totally surrounded by Hoosier fans, I want this win in the worst way. Not even remotely expecting it, though. Hoping for a huge win, though. Will they do what I hope for, or what I expect? We're soon to find out! 
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