Pregame: Illinois at Michigan State, Saturday, February 19th, 11:00am CT, ESPN

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#126      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
Champaignheat said:
So you think putting in a freshman that has scored 30 points this year would be a better fit than the person that leads the Big Ten in 3 pointers, especially when we are having a scoring drought? I agree we should ease back on some players minutes and I especially agree that Plummer's defense is not good, but I still think we need Plummer to have more minutes than Podz, (however I do like his future potential). Unfortunately, you just can't sub defense for offense unless you have a foul or timeout break. I also would be fine with seeing more of Melendez and Goode.
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Evidently I was unclear about the Podz for Plummer situation ........I advocate starting R J and CoHawk Saturday for DMW and Jake ......And i think using Luke and Podz earlier in games especially if plummer is off his shot......Nowhere did i mean to insinuate starting Podz for Plummer .....I'm not that crazy (yet) to think that .....But , plummer has little effect on D and if he is cold then let him sit for a 2-3 minute stretch and let Podz get some tick ....Luke brings more size and usually is a threat to score , even though he has been off also.......

We have 5 B1g games and the BTT left to right the Illini ship back to being a top 15 team.......Playing like we have the last couple of games seems to warrant different players getting a chance to see if they can help....

R J starting Saturday is a no brainer for me........................JMHO
 
#127      

21ChampaignSt

21ChampaignSt
21ChampaignSt
Here is my take on Damonte's lack of success driving it. (As if this board needed more DMW takes)

I think he's slow with the basketball. So even if he does get past his man, help side usually has time to slide over and close off the driving lane. And he doesn't have the explosiveness to go over defenders nor the craftiness to Euro step, or spin, or take a lateral hop step around them.

The weird thing is, he does still show some explosiveness when rebounding the ball. Not sure why it doesn't translate more to offense.
 
#128      

TheFameProtector

TheFameProtector
Champaign
TheFameProtector
I think Jake is getting a bit too much of a short shrift for his recent shooting struggles. The guy is still one of the best shooters on our team with a really consistent shot, and plays better defense and has more size than Plummer (along with being a better passer and one of our best post entry passers to Kofi). We've also seen him hit midrange shots consistently and I'd like to see him empowered to do that a bit more. He's not like Plummer in that he can't shake free and create as good of a look when everything else breaks down, but I think he's a really good veteran piece and is probably a better 5th starter than DMW. I like the idea of pairing DMW with Belo off the bench since DMW is best shooting off kick outs and not creating. Rather than overreact and make a big shakeup to the starting lineup, I'd rather see RJ in for DMW on Saturday and then re-assess. I think we keep Plummer in the starting lineup for now but give him a bit less leash (I would like to see him pulled after getting roasted on D the same way RJ or any other freshman is).
 
#129      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
21ChampaignSt said:
Here is my take on Damonte's lack of success driving it. (As if this board needed more DMW takes)

I think he's slow with the basketball. So even if he does get past his man, help side usually has time to slide over and close off the driving lane. And he doesn't have the explosiveness to go over defenders nor the craftiness to Euro step, or spin, or take a lateral hop step around them.

The weird thing is, he does still show some explosiveness when rebounding the ball. Not sure why it doesn't translate more to offense.
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I believe you're spot on here and just posted the same sort of response in the Rutgers postgame thread.

Regarding O v. D explosiveness, elevating to block a shot is different from adjusting your own shot during penetration to avoid being blocked. As a guy who was a 5'10" point guard back in the day, and had a vertical jump roughly the equivalent of Jake's jump shot elevation, I got very good at a young age at using the upper reaches of the backboard, and my body position, to avoid long-winged forwards and centers when I penetrated and shot.

Unless you're in a position where you run the offense in practice every day, however, and drive the lane on guys 8-10 inches taller on a regular basis, it's less likely that you develop that skill. That likely accounts for DMW's good judgment and hesitation near the hole. I contrast what Curbelo does in penetration, and how he uses his body and shot adjustments with DMW's behavior. Two guys used to playing two very different positions as younger kids. Andre would, of course, have mopped the floor with me at the same age but I really relate to him in how he uses penetration to try to create off-ball opportunities for others, and then contorts himself to shoot if the opportunity arises.
 
#131      

alamocityillini

alamocityillini
San Antonio
alamocityillini
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#132      

Brosky

B
Brosky
This is one of those "must win" games for both teams. It will be intense. I'm hoping Plummer goes off, and this time MSU will have to defend Kofi.
 
#133      

Vinegarben

V
Vinegarben
I think Tom Izzo has his team fired up, not sure if Illini can be fired at this point. Unless coach makes a couple of lineup changes and plays the freshman more the Illini will go down again! Illini really need this win in order to stay in contention for title but so does MSU. MSU 72-62
 
#135      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1494696691890638857


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Pizza hut.......wow...............that's as p***ed off as I can remember BU being .....and for good reason ......He "" TELLS IT LIKE IT IS "".....................line up and have some fun at the ole Pizza Hut parking lot ............CLASSIC

His pressers are so entertaining and again , i'm so glad he is our coach ..........
 
#137      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
I think our issues are being overanalyzed, but that is easy for me to say as someone who never played basketball at a high level. To me, it seems as simple as we are not hitting our shots, and the effort to make up for that hasn't been there. It allows us to escape vs. Northwestern, but it gets us buried vs. an energetic Rutgers team that is red hot.

The shots will fall, so it's the energy that scares me. With a few days to chill out a bit, I am pretty confident once again that we will bring a pep in our step into East Lansing. We need this win.
 
#138      

TheFameProtector

TheFameProtector
Champaign
TheFameProtector
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think our issues are being overanalyzed, but that is easy for me to say as someone who never played basketball at a high level. To me, it seems as simple as we are not hitting our shots, and the effort to make up for that hasn't been there. It allows us to escape vs. Northwestern, but it gets us buried vs. an energetic Rutgers team that is red hot.
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I think the one thing that energy or shot-making can't fix, and that is a clear issue, is size (outside of the mammoth in the middle), particularly with our starting group. We were an undersized group last year and are even more undersized this year. We've subbed out Ayo for DMW and AM for Plummer, both of whom are size downgrades. No matter what happens with the lineups, the energy and shot-making need to change or it won't matter, but I do think a switch to get bigger on the wings would be helpful.
 
#139      

KnoxIllini2

KnoxIllini2
KnoxIllini2
pruman91 said:
Pizza hut.......wow...............that's as p***ed off as I can remember BU being .....and for good reason ......He "" TELLS IT LIKE IT IS "".....................line up and have some fun at the ole Pizza Hut parking lot ............CLASSIC

His pressers are so entertaining and again , i'm so glad he is our coach ..........
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I’m guessing Pizza Hut will be the pregame meal tonight then.
 
#140      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
Vinegarben said:
I think Tom Izzo has his team fired up, not sure if Illini can be fired at this point. Unless coach makes a couple of lineup changes and plays the freshman more the Illini will go down again! Illini really need this win in order to stay in contention for title but so does MSU. MSU 72-62
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What on Earth are you even talking about? Have you watched this team at all since Underwood took over? This isn't a Groce or Weber team.
 
#144      

CubsIlliniFan

C
CubsIlliniFan
Champaignheat said:
So you think putting in a freshman that has scored 30 points this year would be a better fit than the person that leads the Big Ten in 3 pointers, especially when we are having a scoring drought? I agree we should ease back on some players minutes and I especially agree that Plummer's defense is not good, but I still think we need Plummer to have more minutes than Podz, (however I do like his future potential). Unfortunately, you just can't sub defense for offense unless you have a foul or timeout break. I also would be fine with seeing more of Melendez and Goode.
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Yes and its not even close. I said at the beginning of the year that I only wanted to see Monte with no more than 10 minutes a game. Do you know why MSU gets where they are in March? Two reasons, they have a solid PG and they play talented freshmen to get them ready for the conferEnce and Dance. They always seem to start slow and roar in March. The last two years are not typical as they have not had a decent PG to get them to elite status built they still play their FR and they will be ready to go in March. Brad really messed this up. There still is time to fix this and the time is now. Start RJ, bring in Podz to back up Belo and let Trent play off the ball. Start Hawk as we need his length. Plummer needs to come off the bench for bench scoring. Luke to share minutes with RJ. But they way we are playing with overloaded minutes to players, we will be dead exhausted by March. We need better options in scoring. There is better spacing with the FR in the game. There it’s better passing thanks to the spacing. That will lead to better looks and options to the rim.
 
#149      

BMoreIllini

BMoreIllini
Baltimore, MD
BMoreIllini
CubsIlliniFan said:
Yes and its not even close. I said at the beginning of the year that I only wanted to see Monte with no more than 10 minutes a game. Do you know why MSU gets where they are in March? Two reasons, they have a solid PG and they play talented freshmen to get them ready for the conferEnce and Dance. They always seem to start slow and roar in March. The last two years are not typical as they have not had a decent PG to get them to elite status built they still play their FR and they will be ready to go in March. Brad really messed this up. There still is time to fix this and the time is now. Start RJ, bring in Podz to back up Belo and let Trent play off the ball. Start Hawk as we need his length. Plummer needs to come off the bench for bench scoring. Luke to share minutes with RJ. But they way we are playing with overloaded minutes to players, we will be dead exhausted by March. We need better options in scoring. There is better spacing with the FR in the game. There it’s better passing thanks to the spacing. That will lead to better looks and options to the rim.
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Jennifer Lawrence Reaction GIF
 
#150      

hoopsfan47

H
hoopsfan47
When I played, home or away was of no significance to me....an attitude I learned early from a coach who took us around the gym measuring all lines, hoops, circles and balls to prove to us that they were identical. In fact, there were several other gyms in which I played as many as 15 games over my career that had rims with nets that seemed to make them look bigger than our home gym.

But the B1G road seems contrary to this mind set...and mostly due to the crowd. It can and does get into the head of EVERY player to some degree and becomes a factor. Yes, occasionally, we see teams come out hot on the road and take all the wind out of the sails of the home team and bury them so deep they cannot come back on inferior teams. But that is rare, and one only has to look at the record of visiting teams agains the spread to discern how much the home court means.

The point is, with this next game in East Lansing, there is no way we can predict what we will see. Will it be an Illini team full of plus shooters who can find the net? Or will it be an Illini team filled recently with doubt who finds a lid over the hoop on both ends? Who the heck knows? Can they match the energy that the Spartans get from the crowd and be physical and dominant on the boards? Or will they be a split second slow and let Sparty be at every right place at the right time?

My overall impression is that on a neutral court, the Illini would win maybe 67% of the time or more against Sparty in a match of this season's teams. But in East Lansing, Sparty likely would win 50% of the time....and that makes this game a tossup.

I do agree, it is time for Melendez to start a game. Also a time to show some zone and full court press. Not as a weapon, but I think it would make Izzo think "oh no!" Being predictable gives good coaches an advantage. Putting RJ and even Goode on the floor gives more size, quickness, and defense with little drop off in shooting. Then, when Curbelo, Grandy, DMW, and Payne or BBV arrive, they can score and defend also....well, three of them can anyway.

What I want to see is to stop trying to do the same thing over and over. It may be easy...but not close to a good thing in college hoops. When you have a talented team of mixed skills...some elite...try mixing them when in a funk. And I fully understand that you can't change starters overnight and expect good chemistry... but chemistry can turn on a dime...and this team has turned on a dime in the wrong direction lately. Time to give them all some love and put some inspiration in them...and energy.
 
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