Pregame: Illinois at Purdue, Saturday, January 24th, 2:00pm CT, FOX

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#251      
skyIdub
mattcoldagelli said:
Guys, we went 93-4 at home from 2000-2006 (which I believe included a 33-game home winning streak?). It's not like a bunch of us are wishcasting for the impossible here. We've done it. And yeah, there were some great teams in those years but not *every* team was E8/F4-caliber worldbeaters. It was, objectively, one of the best home environments in CBB. Now it's not. Can't really explain it.
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#252      
hoopsfan47
If Purdue has 60 possessions tomorrow, I expect to see Smith and TKR/Cluff run a pick and roll off the left side about 59 times. With Loyer hanging at the right side/corner, that leaves 4 possibilities. Smith takes 15 ft. jumper off the screen, Smith drives for a layup, roller gets the ball and attempts to finish, or Smith/roller kicks out to open Loyer. Having seen this play hundreds of times, they are the best team in executing....and likely need no other play to be attempted if they are having any kind of above avg. game.

Now, can the Illini defend it effectively. Well, of course they can...but will they? We don't know, but that will be the focus of the defense and will take a huge effort...both physical and mental, to be effective at slowing them down.

Now, can the Illini score efficiently to the degree to win this game? Simply, that is why you plan to watch and of course are hoping passionately...along with me... that they can.
 
#253      
jamie13197
Sponsorship patches on college jerseys now. Really NCAa, I want Kofi back immediately. Bama can have pro player. I want bigSmiles, back. 😀
 
#254      
WolfpackIllini
hoopsfan47 said:
If Purdue has 60 possessions tomorrow, I expect to see Smith and TKR/Cluff run a pick and roll off the left side about 59 times. With Loyer hanging at the right side/corner, that leaves 4 possibilities. Smith takes 15 ft. jumper off the screen, Smith drives for a layup, roller gets the ball and attempts to finish, or Smith/roller kicks out to open Loyer. Having seen this play hundreds of times, they are the best team in executing....and likely need no other play to be attempted if they are having any kind of above avg. game.

Now, can the Illini defend it effectively. Well, of course they can...but will they? We don't know, but that will be the focus of the defense and will take a huge effort...both physical and mental, to be effective at slowing them down.

Now, can the Illini score efficiently to the degree to win this game? Simply, that is why you plan to watch and of course are hoping passionately...along with me... that they can.
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#255      
BfosterL
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Also, semi-related question here, and I'm honestly just asking - I have never been to Mackey. Is its "built-in" advantages really that material compared to SFC? The roof appears lower, but it's still a dome. The slope appears a little less gradual in the lower bowl but honestly not by that much. I tried to find two pictures from a similar angle:

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I think our fans sort of overrate how much SFC has going against it that we the fans must simply overcome, haha. It's still an old building with a concrete roof, and that place can get loud as hell. I have heard folks say something about the metal bleachers at Mackey helping with noise, and obviously the proportion of their crowd that is students is far superior to ours and helps. However, and again admitting that I have never been there, I just don't see THAT much of a difference between the two building designs that just destines us to have an arena that is always less loud. Seems to me it's more of a fan issue.

P.S. As a total nerd about this stuff, I really wish there was any kind of data/information out there about which stands were the steepest and most gradual. Obviously just using our eyeballs, we can all identify places like the Rose Bowl as really gradual and places like Indiana's Assembly Hall are steep. However, I would love to see a list of Big Ten basketball arenas by rise-over-run ratios or whatever. My perception of the three I have been in are that Carver is by far the steepest (pretty much just one steep angle from the first row to the top), SFC is a mixed bag (A Section seems gradual, B Section seems sort of standard and C Section actually seems pretty steep) and Northwestern is the most gradual (as I think most newer stadiums are due to regulations).
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Just by ceiling materials alone you can see how Mackey can be way louder. Harder surface bouncing sound back compared to a semi soft ceiling absorbing sound at SFC.
 
#256      
BfosterL
pruman91 said:
Love listening to Brian and Deon call games as our Illini announcers.....why anyone ever listen's to those network airheads call games is idiotic...........

hope we are hitting our 3 pt shots and playing aggressive defense..................

another of my worthless predictions is............

Illini 88
purdont 82

LET'S GO ILLINI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Love Doug Altenberger as well when he fills in!
 
#257      
Se Il Illini
pruman91 said:
Love listening to Brian and Deon call games as our Illini announcers.....why anyone ever listen's to those network airheads call games is idiotic...........

hope we are hitting our 3 pt shots and playing aggressive defense..................

another of my worthless predictions is............

Illini 88
purdont 82

LET'S GO ILLINI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I have said this before. I really like the radio guys. I listen when Illinois is on Peacock. I go back to the Jim Turpin days when as a yougster, I would back our chevy out into the driveway to listen to Illinois football in the fall on the car radio. I see someone mentioned Doug Altenberger. He is another broadcater that I like.
 
#258      
illinifan1987
hoopsfan47 said:
If Purdue has 60 possessions tomorrow, I expect to see Smith and TKR/Cluff run a pick and roll off the left side about 59 times. With Loyer hanging at the right side/corner, that leaves 4 possibilities. Smith takes 15 ft. jumper off the screen, Smith drives for a layup, roller gets the ball and attempts to finish, or Smith/roller kicks out to open Loyer. Having seen this play hundreds of times, they are the best team in executing....and likely need no other play to be attempted if they are having any kind of above avg. game.

Now, can the Illini defend it effectively. Well, of course they can...but will they? We don't know, but that will be the focus of the defense and will take a huge effort...both physical and mental, to be effective at slowing them down.

Now, can the Illini score efficiently to the degree to win this game? Simply, that is why you plan to watch and of course are hoping passionately...along with me... that they can.
Click to expand...
Were you born in 1947? If so, you may be the senior resident on this forum. It's not an insult...just a nod of appreciation for all of the BS that you've endured over the decades (y). I've experienced enough heartbreak over 27 years of fandom, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you've been through!
 
#260      
SescIllini
RockfordIllini said:
Agree with you that 2024 Purdue is better than 2026 Purdue, although at least at this point they have startlingly similar efficiency numbers. Obviously the cast of characters has changed a bit but to me it really boils down to this
2026 Braden > 2024 Braden
2024 Edey >>>>> Cluff

As good as Braden is, he isn’t the “holy s*** what does we even do with this guy?” physically dominant player Edey was.


And KenPom says we are a much better than 2024. And in addition to just being flat out better I think we have some favorable matchups. To wit, I’m cautiously optimistic for the following reasons:
1. Thought we had a good game plan last year to hug their shooters and make Braden and TKR play 2 on 2. Even with a pretty efficient TKR performance (1.26 pts/shot attempt) they couldn’t score enough to beat us. That feels very repeatable and in fact we should be better as we are longer and our 2 pt defense is better. Realize they have Cluff too but I think point stands, they will have a hard time outscoring our now even better offense playing 2 on 2 from 2 pt range.
2. Andrejs performance on Diggy. Smith is obviously a better player, but no way is he quicker than Diggy. If Andrej can bother Diggy I think he can bother Braden. Just needs to watch out for those shot fakes and avoid foul trouble.
3. Our size advantage at the guard/wing. Even without Kylan, they don’t have anyone with the size to guard Keaton or Andrej. Even if Cox is up to the task at 6’3 he can’t guard both of them. And I’m not convinced someone 6’3 can slow down Andrej no matter how good a defender they are. We’ve seen it against T Tech, Bama, and Maryland this week. Andrej just feasts on smaller guards. Nevermind Keaton.
4. They play drop coverage and are susceptible to pick and pop 5’s as evidenced by Bilodeau. All of our bigs can pick and pop.
5. Our break glass in case of emergency PG is exactly the type of speedy, penetrating guard they seem to struggle to contain as evidenced by Dent getting whatever he wanted.

Could they go nuclear from 3? Sure. Could we have an 8-38 shooting day. Of course. But if we play to our averages, avoid foul trouble and try and make them beat us from 2, I think we’ve got a good shot.
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Great analysis..concern is Andrej being called for silly fouls on Braden. Also Petro is no Dent and have seen Petro blow enough layups.
 
#261      
Cary67
Maybe we can just borrow Chief Osceola from time to time. Although center court could get messy
 

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#264      
RollChief
I think I’ve convinced myself that this is a very winnable game… Illinois beat this same team sans a few pieces with a worse roster last year that was also down Morez… granted we were at home but our team has seen some tough environments so far already… go Illini
 
#266      
Goillinikobd
Someone is a pretty good long term weather predictor
Game starts at 2, blizzard starts at 7
God call.
 

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#271      
Brosky
illinifan1987 said:
Were you born in 1947? If so, you may be the senior resident on this forum. It's not an insult...just a nod of appreciation for all of the BS that you've endured over the decades (y). I've experienced enough heartbreak over 27 years of fandom, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you've been through!
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I was born in 1942. Got my first taste of Illini hoops in '52 and '53. In old Huff Gym of course. Paul Judson is the first truly great player I can recall. I just wasn't old enough to see Johnny Kerr play much.
 
#274      
Second place is 1st loser
Oracle21 said:
It’s now Purdue -6.5
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This is probably the right answer. It doesn't mean that we can't win, but it does mean that Purdue is starting to get into the prohibitive favorite territory.

How are we going to keep Smith from going completely off?

When Purdue goes on a run(all home teams do), who on our team is going to have the moxey to circle the wagons, get us into our sets and either get us a good shot or getting us to the line? That is the difference between a 6-0 run and a 20-4 run because we've gone on a 6 minute scoring drought.

This is a game where we have to play to pretty near perfection to win, Purdue does not. That's just life on the road in the conference. It's the nature of the beast and it's exactly how Nebraska beat us. They couldn't have played any better and there's not much that can be done when three point shots are being dropped on your head all game long. We need to play at that level.

We shall see.
 
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