Pregame: Illinois vs Drexel, Friday, March 19th, 12:15pm CT, TBS

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#302      

Deleted member 11228

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altgeld88 said:
You're right. I just watched some of that game and hadn't recalled that UVa just didn't seek to penetrate much and had poor perimeter shot selection. Meanwhile, UMBC just carved them up with ball movement, open outside looks, and driving. Raftery offered this gem near the end: "You lose these games two days beforehand. Are you mentally prepared? Do you respect your opponent?" I'll bet more than one coach of a high-seeded team has shown his players that horror film during the runup to their first game.
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It also didn't help that Deandre Hunter broke his wrist in the ACC tournament and missed this game. Virginia was already an offensively challenged with Hunter and it showed up big time in this game.
 
#304      

chudaman

chudaman
chudaman
chiefini said:
Hopefully, not the rest of THIS year! Since they’re a #1, they’ll probably wear their lucky home script Illinois whites for the whole tournament, right?
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If you are right then they would end up wearing blue if they end up against higher #1 seed Gonzaga, right?
 
#305      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
FollowMeDontFollowMe said:
“We would be smart to double Cockburn quickly once he gets the ball. We are going to need Mate and Walton and TJ to really step up on defense. those guys' length could cause Illinois some problems if we can stay with them. If we get caught flat footed we will be scrambling all over the court and it wont end well. Illinois shoots FTs at 68%. We should not be scared of putting them to the line.

On offense we need to keep doing what we did in the CAAT. Produce some open shots and hit them. Getting to the rim should not be too much trouble. Butler should be able to pull Cockburn away from the basket so we can avoid getting blocked.

There are worse matchups for us than this one. It wont be easy, obviously, but I dont think we are completely dead in the water before it starts, either.”
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We basically only have 4 players according to that guy.
 
#307      

IlliniKat91

IlliniKat91
Chicago, IL
IlliniKat91
chudaman said:
If you are right then they would end up wearing blue if they end up against higher #1 seed Gonzaga, right?
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Or orange. We just need to contrast with the other team. It doesn't need to be darker, per se.

We lose more often in the blue unis. I hope they left them all in Champaign.
 
#311      

texillwek

texillwek
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texillwek
JFGsCoffeeMug said:
In case anyone's interested, the main Drexel basketball board appears to be here.

(Try not to be embarrassing)
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Class acts, those guys. I hope we beat them by 50:
So I'll say the same thing about Drexel being a 16 seed. It will make a win against Illinois all that much special. And hey, Illinois just won the BIGX title in front of a lot of people in Indy. Maybe there's a chance that they'll break Covid protocols. Unlikely, but you never know.
Let's all chip in and fly them down to Texas for a few rounds of drinks at a crowded bar!
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#313      

NJJ871

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NJJ871
the juiceman cometh said:
I also enjoyed that he spoke with such authority, as if he was very familiar with this team, and yet no mention of Curbelo, who is easily one of our most distinctive and important players.
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And the key line is "... those guys' length could cause Illinois some problems if we can stay with them." I'll bet on: they can't.
 
#316      

Deleted member 747903

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altgeld88 said:
And, according to Drexel fans: "I don't think we are completely dead in the water before it starts, either" playing 5 on 4. What happens if BU somehow finds a fifth player on his bench?
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I'd challenge a Drexel fan to watch the 24 minute highlight video on Youtube of our B10 tourney run and stick by the statement that they have a chance.
 
#317      

Double ACL

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Double ACL
Illini_Jack said:
Every time I get nervous about Loyola/GTech or OkSt/Tenn/Liberty, I remind myself that we just won 2 Final Four games to win the Big Ten Tournament.
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Right on Jack - Tech is now without their stud unfortunately due to Covid. That changes their team drastically. I agree the 2nd-3rd game are harder but I agree that we have some weak #2 and a weak #3. That is huge as the E8 is where teams like us tend to get beat.

To your point, we have played so many of these top seeded teams already due to our awesome conference and Gonzaga hasn't. Can Gonzaga stick to their guns when Washington Jr does what he did in the B1G champ game? Maybe... but we know we can! Great post IJ.
 
#318      

battle

battle
battle
the general concerns about Midwest and LUC and GTech / Ok Stat and Tenn and those teams peaking very much mirror 89 - the consensus was region was stacked. Ball State was ranked all year, best mid, and way underseeded at 8 (ie got screwed), so were the 2,3,4 - 4 Louisville "should have been" a 2 or 3; 2 Syracuse could have been a 1. 8/4/2 all played great games, we just played better. Just replace the names: LUC = BSU (with Wright would have GTech as >=); Ok St/Tenn = Louisville; WVU /Hou <= Syracuse - (I'm not sold on Houston - I've seen a couple games and like that matchup esp inside with Kofi; also like WVU matchup). I like that we get 5 days prep for Ok St / Tenn - I expect of them to play well but Chin/Gentry will have great gameplans and we will play better.
 
#319      

illiniapolis

I
illiniapolis
altgeld88 said:
And, according to Drexel fans: "I don't think we are completely dead in the water before it starts, either" playing 5 on 4. What happens if BU somehow finds a fifth player on his bench?
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Pretty funny considering we have a player who won 6th man of the year, definitionally giving us one of the best benches in the country.
 
#320      

mikeyo

M
mikeyo
nycillini said:
I'd challenge a Drexel fan to watch the 24 minute highlight video on Youtube of our B10 tourney run and stick by the statement that they have a chance.
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I bet 2018 Villanova would have said the same thing. Just saying
 
#321      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
illiniapolis said:
Pretty funny considering we have a player who won 6th man of the year, definitionally giving us one of the best benches in the country.
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Talk on message boards is of course cheap, and free of consequences.
 
#322      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
In fairness, their initial discussion in their bracketology thread seemed to be around how they got screwed in seeding and even more screwed by drawing us.

It quickly morphed into "I think they're the most beatable #1 seed."

Having said that, Drexel hasn't played a Q1 game all year and is 0-1 in Q2 games.
 
#325      

danbor

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danbor
mikeyo said:
I bet 2018 Villanova would have said the same thing. Just saying
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Drexel highlights:

I know it's bad karma to assume a win but, I find it very hard to believe that team will take down Illinois.
 
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