Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
Interesting nugget, thanks for finding that. Hadn't heard this one anywhere else.
Pregame: Illinois vs Florida Atlantic, Tuesday, December 5th, 5:30pm CT, ESPN
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Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
Interesting ququestion. Someone else mentioned this to me recently. He noticed kids he was coaching to fall down more than he would expect.
I might guess that it's sort of a flopping epidemic in an attempt to get a call.
It stands to reason that a coach/fan might not like the idea of a player falling down if they don't need to, because it leaves you short a man for a bit, as you noted.
I can see it as a safety mechanism against rolled ankles. I still play and will happily go down if I sense a possibility of other feet near where I'm landing.
Is it though? It sounds like you forgot how we did on that RU press in the 1st half (never up more than 14 then). Here's a painful summary:
TR can't get a pass over Simpson on the 1st Illini possession on the game against that press.
Then JH runs away from the TR's dangerous pass, instead of to it. That led to another TO.
Just after that, a terrible attempt at a bounce pass by TR (up the right sideline to MD) for a TO.
With 7 mins left in the half, MD threw a dangerous crosscourt pass to TSJ, which Simpson easily picked off and took in for layup, which TSJ blocked, but Woolfolk followed for a rebound basket.
Now we get to play somebody who has four strong, quick guards and a center in FAU. I hope we've reviewed that press break and how throwing dangerous passes and running away from passes can result in TOs.
100% agree, I've been thinking the same thing for weeks. If Domask steps up and becomes that secondary scorer behind TSJ we could challenge PU for the title.
Hawkins, Dain, Guerrier, Harmon, Goode, and Rodgers are all role players offensively. Domask is the only one other than TSJ that can be more than a role player.
"They go after it and they get at it."
And he creates all sorts of matchup problems with his ability to hit that little turnaround out of the mid post. You can put a bigger defender on him but then who’s guarding TJ? Who’s guarding Ty? Who’s guarding Quincy? Teams just don’t have enough size to match up with everyone.
And I don’t think FAU has anyone that can guard him. If he has another showing like he did against Rutgers or Marquette, could be the difference.
Only thing I can think of is to fall "gracefully" so as not to get hurt. When I start to trip in my old age, I'd rather tuck and roll than roll an ankle or buckle a knee and hurt something real bad. Maybe that's a reason for it?
theNewGuy
- Dallas, TX
I think his most glaring "homerism" was not acknowledging how good TSJ is. TSJ is better than anyone at FAU and is probably a top 5 player in the country.
(But maybe that's my homerism coming through)
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
He was on the bench with Sencire at Rutgers on Saturday.
TSJ at MSG. He's undefeated and it stays that way.
Illini: 72
FAU: 68
Illini: 72
FAU: 68
I think I am going with an Illinois win - 73-66
Good omens from my court for this one. Boarded my flight yesterday to NYC for the game with my Illini hat on and got an “I-L-L” in the line from a family. Ended up sitting in the aisle across from them and finally asked “are you all from Illinois?” It wound up being Luke Goode’s mom and his sister coming up for the game. We talked Illinois and Big Ten hoops for half the plane ride. FWIW, she said this year’s group chemistry-wise is the best Luke has felt about a team since he got to Illinois. Illini by a million today.
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sacraig
- The desert
I think the solution is making the layups.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Agreed. I don’t exactly want to grab a beer with that dude, but he predicted us to go 1-1 this week … I’d take that.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was kind of putt off by Dauster on the IlliniInquirer podcast and how much he seemed to come across as an FAU homer. But for a national college media guy he seemed generally pretty uninformed about our team…
1. Said our starting lineup is “a bunch of 6’6” guys and Dainja” (DD is coming off the bench, minor, but still)
2. Predicted we’d go 1-1 in the stretch but also thought the ILL-TENN game on Saturday would be in Champaign
3. His answer to the question of “how does FAU handle Illinois’ defense?” was something along the lines of “FAU won’t be afraid of the bright lights because they’ve been here before”
I don’t expect him to come on a podcast and be an Illini expert, but it felt like he spent hours reviewing FAU film and kind of took Illinois as an afterthought. More reason to win
I assume he’s an FAU beat writer, calling him a “national” college media guy is a stretch. FAU is a G5/mid major college, expect the same type of talent in their media pool.
Two things: Jeremy brings in these guys to give the other side of the coin perspective, not do research into what Illinois does. Jeremy/Derek and the rest of that crew are some of the most moderate media members you’ll find. I think those two points together probably caused you to feel the way you did.
He’s not an FAU beat writer lol, this has been addressed already in this thread
Didn’t read the entire thread, so my bad. Didn’t realize he’s one of the field of 68 guys. Im already on that hate train. They’re awful as a whole 90% of the time.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Funny........I was at the Clemson v. Notre Dame football game this past fall and an ND guy yells "ILL" as I walk past with my wife. (Yes, I sometimes wear orange Illini gear to Clemson games! It fits in nicely).
I asked if he was from Illinois and he said he worked in Chicago with a close relative of Luke. I told him to pass this message along to the family --- "Please scold Luke for not taking his medical redshirt last season."
It sounds like you forgot we won by 18.
Yeah, his "painful summary" left out all the easy baskets we converted off of it as well as how Rutgers entire team was gassed with 10 mins left to play. We did much better against their press than anyone else has this season. FAU isn't a high-pressure defensive team, they only force 12.4 turnovers per game vs Rutgers 17.1 per game. FAU is going to get back on defense. However, they are really good on offense (top 5-10 rated offense if you're a metrics/analytics person) so the main thing is we have to hope our ELITE* defense can stop their ELITE* offense.
* You thought I would use the word ELITE and not use all caps? WRONG
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
And that after an early period when we turned it over we broke the press fairly easily the rest of the game when they applied it.
Effective pressing is opportunistic for short periods. I don't care how well-conditioned a team is, if they press every possession for a long stretch it shows up in their legs later.
Not many teams are going to press us very long. A good passing team will get a lot of easy opportunities and we keep getting better at passing as team gets to know each other better. Also every player on the starting five can handle the ball. Really prefer Ty style rather than one man dribbling it up the court.
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