Pregame: Illinois at Purdue, Tuesday, February 8th, 8:00pm CT, ESPN

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#151      

HensonHall71

H
HensonHall71
IllinoisssssssVarsity said:
If you end up in a tie with somebody but lost to them both times you had your shot. You blew it.

Remember how we all felt about last year because we were as tied as we could be with Michigan based on opportunities but we beat the dog sh— out of them so we felt like we were the true champions?
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Actually, we weren't tied with Michigan, we were a half game up on them in the standings - likely the only time in history you will see someone be given the conference championship finishing a half game behind first place at the end of the year.

The issue was not awarding Michigan the conference championship given all the AD's agreed they would do it by win % rather than record. The issue in my mind is not making Michigan play their games - literally every other team made up their games (only 1 non-Michigan game wasn't played the whole season) some playing every other day to get them in, but the Big Ten didn't make Michigan play theirs - given Howard didn't want to. If they made up 2 of the 3 games they didn't play it would have been a non-issue they would have finished ahead or behind us in the standings and the win % would have reflected that
 
#152      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
I missed the Illinois Purdue game. Last weekend I saw Hunter Dickinson being dwarfed Zach Edey. He moves very well for 7'4".

This will be real challenge for Kofi but good practice for NBA. Chance to use his footwork and finesse.

I would be tempted to try new line up with BBV/Payne or even Lieb to guard Edey to keep Kofi out of foul trouble. Alternatively we could try some zone defense.
 
#153      

727ill

7
727ill
ptgrd23 said:
I missed the Illinois Purdue game. Last weekend I saw Hunter Dickinson being dwarfed Zach Edey. He moves very well for 7'4".

This will be real challenge for Kofi but good practice for NBA. Chance to use his footwork and finesse.

I would be tempted to try new line up with BBV/Payne or even Lieb to guard Edey to keep Kofi out of foul trouble. Alternatively we could try some zone defense.
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Love the zone idea (not for this game but generally).

My one gripe with Brad is lack of defensive creativity. We really need a zone to change things up and provide teams a different look.
 
#154      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
HensonHall71 said:
Actually, we weren't tied with Michigan, we were a half game up on them in the standings - likely the only time in history you will see someone be given the conference championship finishing a half game behind first place at the end of the year.

The issue was not awarding Michigan the conference championship given all the AD's agreed they would do it by win % rather than record. The issue in my mind is not making Michigan play their games - literally every other team made up their games (only 1 non-Michigan game wasn't played the whole season) some playing every other day to get them in, but the Big Ten didn't make Michigan play theirs - given Howard didn't want to. If they made up 2 of the 3 games they didn't play it would have been a non-issue they would have finished ahead or behind us in the standings and the win % would have reflected that
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True. And they are not making that mistake this year with MI. MI has it's next 3 games with only 1 day rest in between.
 
#157      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Fun fact, we have won 14 of our last 16 Big Ten road games, and we are 3-0 in our last three road games vs. RANKED Big Ten teams (two of these being without Ayo!).

We have put together an amazing season so far, and we have positioned ourselves to be able to earn a high enough seed to have a nice path, hopefully through Chicago! However, I think winning this one catapults us to being able to talk about the big time. I am expecting a close loss, and we can still win the Big Ten even if we lose to the #3 team in the country in what is likely the conference's hardest arena to play in; we will be in first place regardless of what happens tomorrow. However, given the close loss in Champaign and what is on the line ... I am feeling strangely optimistic, as well. I won't lose optimism if it isn't, but I could see this being our "at Michigan" game from last year (NOT talking margin of victory, merely putting the rest of the nation on alert):

#13 Illinois 81
#3 Purdue 80

(Grandison three to go up one followed by an EPIC Trent steal to seal it!)
 
#158      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
Illini Farmer said:
They also hang banners for Big Ten Championships, but you have to have good eyes as they are hard to spot. Oh look, I see their last title banner from 43 years ago!
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That was the year (1979) that propelled college basketball to a new level. Bird against Magic in finals. Iowa had All-American junior point guard Ronnie Lester. 3-way conference co-champions (MSU, Iowa, Purdue). Only reason there was a 3-way tie was the last game of the season with MSU at Wisconsin. Wisconsin's Wes Matthews hit a 3 quarter court TWO point shot at the buzzer to beat MSU by 1 point.
 
#159      

RML

R
RML
Ga65 said:
Maybe lower and he won’t be keeping his hands up.
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For some reason, I thought Ben was taller than 6'8. Lieb, sharpen those elbows and do some stretching to make sure you can get them up near the top of you head. We might need you.
 
#160      

PassingBy

P
PassingBy
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Fun fact, we have won 14 of our last 16 Big Ten road games, and we are 3-0 in our last three road games vs. RANKED Big Ten teams (two of these being without Ayo!).

We have put together an amazing season so far, and we have positioned ourselves to be able to earn a high enough seed to have a nice path, hopefully through Chicago! However, I think winning this one catapults us to being able to talk about the big time. I am expecting a close loss, and we can still win the Big Ten even if we lose to the #3 team in the country in what is likely the conference's hardest arena to play in; we will be in first place regardless of what happens tomorrow. However, given the close loss in Champaign and what is on the line ... I am feeling strangely optimistic, as well. I won't lose optimism if it isn't, but I could see this being our "at Michigan" game from last year (NOT talking margin of victory, merely putting the rest of the nation on alert):

#13 Illinois 81
#3 Purdue 80

(Grandison three to go up one followed by an EPIC Trent steal to seal it!)
Click to expand...

Past performance is not an indicator of ............................................

This game will be the first time that the IL will be closet to being healthy - as healthy as healthy can be. And, minus Hutch, at full complement

IF IL makes her 3s, then I wins in a run away: IL - 80, PU -70 or less

Else it will be much closer, but Il will win
 
#161      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
Mr. Roberts said:
If he beats us that way, so be it. We have to get him off the arc.
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Defense travels. Coach definitely understands this. Stefanovic moves without the ball so well and uses the monster screens. I tried to look up his assists, but the Purdue site only gave his season game high - 8 against North Carolina. That's pretty good. If he finds Hunter for a three after good D, that is really disheartening for a defense.
 
#162      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
Rutgers 70 Purdue 68 @ Rutgers
Wisconsin 74-Purdue 69 @ W Lafayette
Indiana 68- Purdue 65 @ Bloomington
Illinois 88 Purdue 96 double OT @ Champaign with Kofi foul trouble and concussion

Purdue is beatable.

Kofi needs to stay out of foul trouble even if it means giving up some points in the paint to Edey. We easily handled Rutgers Wisconsin and Indiana so no reason we can't beat Purdue at Mackey with a good game.

Hopefully Andre continues to improve and can play 20 minutes.
 
#163      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
Rocky said:
True. And they are not making that mistake this year with MI. MI has it's next 3 games with only 1 day rest in between.
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Michigan is 11-9 (5-5 in B10).

Likely wins - Penn State, Iowa @ home , Rutgers
Likely losses - Purdue, @ Iowa , Ohio State, Wisconsin , Illinois, Michigan State, @ Ohio State

They would finish 14-16 with 8-12 B10 record. Definitely NIT bound.

Even if they win @ Iowa and at home vs Ohio State the would be 16-14 with 10-10 conference record. They might get to be in tournament playin last 4.

Weak coaching and too many 5 star recruits. Nobody to do the dirty work - defense, rebounding, setting picks, passing.
 

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#166      

Rocky

Rocky
Rocky
ptgrd23 said:
Michigan is 11-9 (5-5 in B10).

Likely wins - Penn State, Iowa @ home , Rutgers
Likely losses - Purdue, @ Iowa , Ohio State, Wisconsin , Illinois, Michigan State, @ Ohio State

They would finish 14-16 with 8-12 B10 record. Definitely NIT bound.

Even if they win @ Iowa and at home vs Ohio State the would be 16-14 with 10-10 conference record. They might get to be in tournament playin last 4.

Weak coaching and too many 5 star recruits. Nobody to do the dirty work - defense, rebounding, setting picks, passing.
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We shall see. A lot of games there. Not a MI fan at all, but I do like their guard, DeVante Jones, the transfer from Coastal Carolina. His nonstop effort keeps the prima donnas out of the clouds ... most of the time))
 
#168      

727ill

7
727ill
sacraig said:
He says, about a coach who completely overhauled his defensive system after it didn't work and currently coaches the #2 defense (I believe) in the B1G.
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Brad's defense works just fine in the B10. We need to think bigger.

When you are in the round of 32 and facing a team you know nothing about, you need things in your back pocket that will change things up.

We know how much college teams (even the best ones) struggle with a zone when you deploy it for 2-3 plays sudddenly.
 
#169      

DeonThomas

DeonThomas
South Carolina
DeonThomas
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Fun fact, we have won 14 of our last 16 Big Ten road games, and we are 3-0 in our last three road games vs. RANKED Big Ten teams (two of these being without Ayo!).

We have put together an amazing season so far, and we have positioned ourselves to be able to earn a high enough seed to have a nice path, hopefully through Chicago! However, I think winning this one catapults us to being able to talk about the big time. I am expecting a close loss, and we can still win the Big Ten even if we lose to the #3 team in the country in what is likely the conference's hardest arena to play in; we will be in first place regardless of what happens tomorrow. However, given the close loss in Champaign and what is on the line ... I am feeling strangely optimistic, as well. I won't lose optimism if it isn't, but I could see this being our "at Michigan" game from last year (NOT talking margin of victory, merely putting the rest of the nation on alert):

#13 Illinois 81
#3 Purdue 80

(Grandison three to go up one followed by an EPIC Trent steal to seal it!)
Click to expand...
Now that's dramatic!!! I'm expecting 348 "likes" on this one.

And I feel the exact same way as you on all points listed above..
 
#170      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
727ill said:
Brad's defense works just fine in the B10. We need to think bigger.

When you are in the round of 32 and facing a team you know nothing about, you need things in your back pocket that will change things up.

We know how much college teams (even the best ones) struggle with a zone when you deploy it for 2-3 plays sudddenly.
Click to expand...
Brad's defensive scheme has little to nothing to do with why we collapsed in the second round last year. The team simply folded. Could we have perhaps changed up defenses as a way to shake the team out of their funk? Maybe. But we were better than them at essentially every position and just absolutely laid an egg. We had no one on the team with any tournament experience and it showed.
 
#171      

727ill

7
727ill
sacraig said:
Brad's defensive scheme has little to nothing to do with why we collapsed in the second round last year. The team simply folded. Could we have perhaps changed up defenses as a way to shake the team out of their funk? Maybe. But we were better than them at essentially every position and just absolutely laid an egg. We had no one on the team with any tournament experience and it showed.
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I'm making a general statement that to win the tourney I feel you really need to have defensive versatility or basically have a team like Baylor last year that is matchup proof.

My worry is there are far too many teams outside of the B10 that can break us down in a man-to-man defense because of mismatches at the 4 and 5. I want to win the whole damn tourney, not just to get to the sweet sixteen or elite 8. To do that we have to go through teams like Duke and Auburn and Gonzaga. I really don't have faith that 40 minutes of straight man-to-man defense is going to get it done against those teams.
 
#172      

KnoxIllini2

KnoxIllini2
KnoxIllini2
sacraig said:
Brad's defensive scheme has little to nothing to do with why we collapsed in the second round last year. The team simply folded. Could we have perhaps changed up defenses as a way to shake the team out of their funk? Maybe. But we were better than them at essentially every position and just absolutely laid an egg. We had no one on the team with any tournament experience and it showed.
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Losing the 2020 tournament sucked for a few reasons. But losing the valuable game experience was the biggest.

I picture this season as the leap that we had between the 2003-2004 Sweet 16 to the, well, you know, the Championship game team.
 
#175      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
NCAA champions UNLV, Syracuse, and Michigan State (Magic Johnson year) were almost exclusive zone teams.

Lou Henson loved man to man but was willing to try zone if it helped. Especially if our bigs were in foul trouble.

Weber was too stubborn on both the motion offense and man to man defense. You have to adjust to your personnel and the situation.

DaMonte is a warrior but he is also playing 6'3" power forward. Kofi is too valuable on offense to allow him to get into foul trouble.

Brad should add a match up zone to his repetoire. Just for a change of pace and protect Kofi from foul trouble.
 

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