Excellent analysis DRS. I like the matchups, especially for DaMonte and Kofi. Their guards do most of their scoring, and have endless range. We need Miller and Trent to step up. We know Ayo will.From a size perspective this is an excellent match-up for us. The dreaded stretch 4 is not a part of this team. If they have a guy go off like Preston against of course we are in trouble, dude was fantastic all night long.
This is a veteran laden team with many upper class guards that have all gotten quality minutes for Baylor. Very good shooting team. But, down low we have a real advantage against their two bigs and our guards can match-up with this squad quite well. Vital will guard Ayo but if he gets 25+minutes or so that takes away one of their shooters for stretches of the game. From a strict match-up standpoint this is a favorable match-up. I'm expecting a tremendous game.
Thanks for sharing your insight! Always appreciate someone who can come in and acknowledge they're from another fandom.Hi all,
Baylor fan here. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game. I have a significant amount of family in Central Illinois (in and around Decatur), many of whom are alums of UI, so the Illini have always been a tertiary rooting interest of mine.
I wanted to clear up a misconception that I observed reading this thread. There were a number of posts mentioning that Baylor plays a zone defense. While many of Drew's best teams have played zone in the past (2010 team played a 2-3 zone, subsequent teams have played a matchup 1-3-1 zone), this year's team will play almost no zone defense, except as a change of pace for a play or two. Two years ago, Drew's team started integrating more man schemes into its defense, often mixing them 50-50 within a game (ex: man after a made basket, zone after a miss), but last year the team was almost exclusively man-to-man. I think I saw a stat that said over 98% of Baylor's looks on defense last season were in man. Expect that to be the case again this year.
A couple of other posters mentioned COVID protocols being a concern. Scott Drew tested positive over a week ago and was asymptomatic. Fortunately, no one else on the team was positive, as the team and coaches have been practicing strict social distancing and wearing masks. The rest of the entire team, coaching staff, and traveling party tested negative five times over a six-day span last week and were cleared to play. This wasn't enough, evidently, for Arizona State, as they refused to play us. This resulted in us dropping out of the Empire Classic, where we would have faced ASU and Villanova, both highly anticipated games. We were able to hastily reschedule and played in Vegas against Louisiana and Washington over the weekend, but the lack of lead time meant the games were broadcast on FloHoops, which means no one watched them.
On the one hand, I get why ASU backed out. Their football program has been devastated by COVID cases and has only played one game this year. Baylor has also had three football games postponed/canceled due to cases, two of which were on Baylor's side. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if ASU didn't want to start out their season with two consecutive losses in a tournament environment. COVID disruptions are a part and parcel of this season. I think we've all accepted that by now. But if you refuse to play a team that has had everyone who is actually in the arena test negative 5 times in the prior week, you're going to have a heck of a time completing anything remotely approaching a regular season.
All of this to say, it appears that Scott Drew was the only person affected. He suspects he got it at home from someone in his immediate family, and has been isolating since his positive test. Tomorrow will be the end of his mandated 10 days in isolation, and the expectation is that he will be on the sidelines coaching, assuming he has banked several negative tests by then.
I'm happy to do a more detailed breakdown of the Baylor team (rotation, strengths/weaknesses, etc.) if you all are interested. Thanks for allowing me on your board and good luck this season!
Welcome to the board! I have to admit, I got a little excited when I read this, but I am saddened to point out that the game will be on Wednesday (not tomorrow). Have to agree though, I've been looking forward to this game since it was first announced. Should be a good one!Baylor fan here. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game.
Wow. As much as I'd like to blame it on quarantine, today was one of the rare days I woke up knowing what day of the week it was. Thanks for the correction!Welcome to the board! I have to admit, I got a little excited when I read this, but I am saddened to point out that the game will be on Wednesday (not tomorrow). Have to agree though, I've been looking forward to this game since it was first announced. Should be a good one!
Welcome and thanks for the insight! Would love any Baylor breakdown you'd be willing to provide. Given you have a bit of Illini knowledge would be very interested to see how you think we both match up against each other. Thanks!Hi all,
Baylor fan here. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game. I have a significant amount of family in Central Illinois (in and around Decatur), many of whom are alums of UI, so the Illini have always been a tertiary rooting interest of mine.
I wanted to clear up a misconception that I observed reading this thread. There were a number of posts mentioning that Baylor plays a zone defense. While many of Drew's best teams have played zone in the past (2010 team played a 2-3 zone, subsequent teams have played a matchup 1-3-1 zone), this year's team will play almost no zone defense, except as a change of pace for a play or two. Two years ago, Drew's team started integrating more man schemes into its defense, often mixing them 50-50 within a game (ex: man after a made basket, zone after a miss), but last year the team was almost exclusively man-to-man. I think I saw a stat that said over 98% of Baylor's looks on defense last season were in man. Expect that to be the case again this year.
A couple of other posters mentioned COVID protocols being a concern. Scott Drew tested positive over a week ago and was asymptomatic. Fortunately, no one else on the team was positive, as the team and coaches have been practicing strict social distancing and wearing masks. The rest of the entire team, coaching staff, and traveling party tested negative five times over a six-day span last week and were cleared to play. This wasn't enough, evidently, for Arizona State, as they refused to play us. This resulted in us dropping out of the Empire Classic, where we would have faced ASU and Villanova, both highly anticipated games. We were able to hastily reschedule and played in Vegas against Louisiana and Washington over the weekend, but the lack of lead time meant the games were broadcast on FloHoops, which means no one watched them.
On the one hand, I get why ASU backed out. Their football program has been devastated by COVID cases and has only played one game this year. Baylor has also had three football games postponed/canceled due to cases, two of which were on Baylor's side. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if ASU didn't want to start out their season with two consecutive losses in a tournament environment. COVID disruptions are a part and parcel of this season. I think we've all accepted that by now. But if you refuse to play a team that has had everyone who is actually in the arena test negative 5 times in the prior week, you're going to have a heck of a time completing anything remotely approaching a regular season.
All of this to say, it appears that Scott Drew was the only person affected. He suspects he got it at home from someone in his immediate family, and has been isolating since his positive test. Tomorrow will be the end of his mandated 10 days in isolation, and the expectation is that he will be on the sidelines coaching, assuming he has banked several negative tests by then.
I'm happy to do a more detailed breakdown of the Baylor team (rotation, strengths/weaknesses, etc.) if you all are interested. Thanks for allowing me on your board and good luck this season!
I'd like to see the breakdown if you have the time.I'm happy to do a more detailed breakdown of the Baylor team (rotation, strengths/weaknesses, etc.) if you all are interested. Thanks for allowing me on your board and good luck this season!
What's with the awful start time? I'm east coast and I'll probably only watch the first half live. I need my sleep
Thank you for all of this post (I'm only quoting the intro.)Hi all,
Baylor fan here. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game. I have a significant amount of family in Central Illinois (in and around Decatur), many of whom are alums of UI, so the Illini have always been a tertiary rooting interest of mine.
In 2005, Wiscy made the elite eight and lost there to National Champ Carolina; MSU went to the final 4 and lost there to National Champ Carolina.I've now watched nearly every Big 10 team play at least one game (thank you BTN!) and I do think it's outside the realm of possibility to go 26-0 and therefore 20-0 in the Big 10. Even if we happen to skate by Baylor and Duke, our conference schedule is going to be brutal!
By comparison, the Big 10 in 2004-05 was extremely weak -- and we did not go undefeated then, either. Only three teams were in the final 2005 rankings:
#1 - ILL
#15 - MSU
#20 - WISC
2001-02: #5 Maryland 76, #2 Illinois 63
That's the most interesting and most basketball related thing I've heard from Walton in 5 years.
Great info - thanks! Top 5 matchups are indeed rare.As many might know, this is the highest we have been ranked (i.e., in the top five) since that magical 2005 season, thought we did come close in 2006 when we briefly reached #6 before taking our first loss at Iowa. However, I thought it would be interesting to see how high profile this matchup is compared to what we have seen in the last several years, and I decided to measure this by looking at times we have been part of an all-top 5 matchup in the last thirty years, excluding NCAA Tournament games:
2004-05: #5 Illinois 91, #1 Wake Forest 73
2001-02: #5 Maryland 76, #2 Illinois 63
1989-90: #5 Illinois 101, #4 Missouri 93 (St. Louis, MO)
1986-87: #4 North Carolina 90, #5 Illinois 77
Four times in thirty years. Classic seasons like 1989 and 2001 with zero appearances. This is a huge deal.
We would all like to see an Illini blowout....but the probability is likely less than 1%. Baylor has too many guards that can shoot and the speed to get open. You don't shut those ilk down. But you can make it tough for them on defense if you have the guts and depth along the offensive wisdom, patience, and skills to score against good defense. We will get some exposure to those aspects of our Illini over the course of the next two games. Though some would like to declare that they have those characteristics, the fact is no one knows at this point.Who remembers in 05 our game with Wake. I believe they were number 1. People thought well we won't beat WF. What happened we ran them off the court. Would love to see the 20 team find that second gear and play like the 05 team did against WF. Just my take. I am on Eastern Time it will be a late night. Go Illini!
I was watching this! Still love me some Bill Walton!That's the most interesting and most basketball related thing I've heard from Walton in 5 years.
LOL...why do I believe that!!!I was watching this! Still love me some Bill Walton!
He's quite frequently very, very kind to us. (I think Bill went to Hawaii even though the Maui tournament was moved to Asheville.....)