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

Status
Not open for further replies.
#176      
rtbritt
ptgrd23 said:
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.
Click to expand...
I didn't look up anything, but to the best of my memory, Kofi has had like 3 games in his career where he was in foul trouble.
 
#181      
illinitiger
This is a true battle of game strategy....X and 0s will be key to our success.
Hopefully refs don't tip balance either way.
 
#183      
HensonHall71
Looking forward to Kofi getting some revenge in this one and staying out of foul trouble- if the last couple of games are any indication, he's going to be more aggressive than the last time he played Purdue
 
#184      
Rocky
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.
Click to expand...
Below is the final section from Brad Underwood's Video ($39.99) ))) ,entitled Brad Underwood Open Practice: Defense

Multiple Defenses

Add other defensive strategies to your defensive system, such as the Black 1-2-2 zone defense and varying styles of full court pressure. You'll learn how to implement the zone defense with two different breakdown drills for your front and backline defenders and also see it in action with 5-on-5 scrimmage.

Additionally, you'll see how to build the Double Fist full court man-to-man press with two practice drills to build up the ball pressure. Underwood shows how you can take this run and jump defense and convert it into a half-court trap.


Has he ever used this at U of I ? I don't know.
 
#186      
ChiefIllinois
727ill said:
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.
Click to expand...
Yeah it would be fun to throw zone out there, but since the turn of the calendar we've been a top 15 defense. Hard to complain about that kind of action. It's actually been our offense that has taken a step back, but perhaps that more regression to the mean.
 
#187      
GBIllini
Brad is doing great. Sometimes when coaches take over and have immediate success its not because of them. In fact some bad coaches start out good because of the players they inherited and the programs culture, then they drive them into the ditch. My observation is this. If a coach comes in and takes over a struggling program there should be an uptrend and improvement by the third year with positive outlook for more. Brad has definitely done this. Now we all can armchair coach and think he should have done this or that but in the end he is the only one who has all the info and facts to make those decisions. I for one hope he retires a Fighting Illini many years from now.
 
#188      
Rocky
OskieWowWow said:
I wonder how the matchups will play out this time. Underwood rotates Kofi a lot earlier in the game now, so if Payne starts picking up early fouls, BBV will almost certainly get some minutes based off what he did in the last matchup.

Curbelo is an interesting question. Assuming he's fit to play and comes off the bench, he creates so many opportunities on offense but was getting picked on defensively by either Stefanovic or Ivey. So I think our guard rotations will be predicated whether Stefanovic and Ivey are on the floor at the same time. If they are, then I think Underwood continues with Da'Monte on Ivey and Trent on Stefanovic. If one of them goes out, Curbelo in.
Click to expand...
Hard to throw Podz in a game of this magnitude, but he's like a Da"Monte without the game experience and seasoning. That guy has to get some rest.
 
#190      
Bacon Butkus Swanson
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.
Click to expand...
A zone would be an effective change of pace.... Maybe BU is saving it for the NCAA tourney? Shock and awe kinda thing.
 
#191      
DeonThomas
Guessing this will turn out to be the toughest contest of our 30 regular season games --- vs. #3 at their place with a packed house. I think we're due to finally hit 3's at a 42% clip once again. Kofi will log more minutes than game #1. And I don't think Purdue can beat us 4 times this year (if Katz' prediction comes true).

87 ILL
83 PUR

A win puts us at 10-5 vs Quad 1/2 opponents this year. Very definitely Top 10 quality!! (BTW, no team ranked in the top 25 has yet played more than 15 quad 1/2 games). Hence, we'll finally be back in the mix for a #1 or #2 seed in the tourney. We need to play round 2 in Chicago.
 
#193      
TheFameProtector
grantlab said:
This. We withstood Purdue’s big men. We did NOT cover Stefanovic well on the 3 point line, and he got too many looks. Purdue stinks enough defensively that our O should be fine; we need to need to need to have our best defense for all 40 minutes.
Click to expand...
Hunter also killed us down the stretch with a few timely plays off penetration. We did a good job putting the clamps on Ivey -- do that on Hunter too and Purdue's ballhandling and passing from the guard position (ie, not Williams) is very limited.
 
#194      
Lincster27
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.
Click to expand...
I'm sure Juwan will find some way to say that they have to reschedule one of those because of "conditioning." He seems to be the only coach who can get the B1G to call off games because his team isn't ready to play. IIRC, that's why they couldn't play here last year, since their COVID layoff had caused them to be out of shape, or some such garbage.
 
#195      
EllderIlliniFan
Bacon Butkus Swanson said:
A zone would be an effective change of pace.... Maybe BU is saving it for the NCAA tourney? Shock and awe kinda thing.
Click to expand...
Playing an effective zone is not easy. Each type of zone has subtleties that need to be executed. Without spending lots of time insuring everyone understands exactly what their role in the zone is supposed to be, it can be a disaster. Unless Illinois spends a lot of practice time on a zone, throwing one out there is not a great move IMHO.
 
#196      
BlindLoyalty
The good news is Purdue has a hard time finishing off games and they have lost games they never should lose. The bad news is they are the best offensive team in the country, their roster is the best in the B10 and they have the pieces to stifle Kofi. The Illini need to score points and lots of them to win this game. IMO, the offense or lack of offense from Williams, Grandison and Kofi will determine the outcome. The time for talk about how great this team is or can be is over. If Illinois is an elite team, a big ten title team, a final four caliber team this is a game they win. See you all in West Lafayette.
 
#198      
Illinifanalways
I would like to see Kofi pass out of the paint to an open player. He doesn't have to try to force it over Edey everytime. Would also like to see Kofi get deeper on Edey and get him to foul. Would love to see Kofi get two fouls on Edey early.
 
#200      
jumpingjack
EllderIlliniFan said:
Playing an effective zone is not easy. Each type of zone has subtleties that need to be executed. Without spending lots of time insuring everyone understands exactly what their role in the zone is supposed to be, it can be a disaster. Unless Illinois spends a lot of practice time on a zone, throwing one out there is not a great move IMHO.
Click to expand...
It's also not a substitute for being fundamentally sound individually. It can mask some personnel mismatches or disrupt specific offensive approaches but if you suck at man to man, you're probably going to suck in a different way at zone.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back