And, again, nobody is asking for a miracle here. We don't need to become an elite or even good defensive team. Just asking for average. If we can have simply average defense, we can make a deep run.
Pregame: Illinois vs Iowa, Saturday, February 24th, 1:15pm CT, BTN
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And, again, nobody is asking for a miracle here. We don't need to become an elite or even good defensive team. Just asking for average. If we can have simply average defense, we can make a deep run.
danielb927
Orange Krush Class of 2013
- Rochester, MN
Felt it at 7:29 too
Seriously though—right the ship, beat Iowa, and yesterday will start to sting less. Time has healing powers.
I think the entire starting lineup should be benched for the first 10 minutes on Saturday. Start Hansberry, Dain, Dra, Moretti, and Luke. Coach should be Frazier with Underwood sitting at the end of the bench charting plays for next weeks games.
These guys have already had wakeup calls and they are still sleep walking on defense or lack of.
These guys have already had wakeup calls and they are still sleep walking on defense or lack of.
Agreed 100%. Needs to start against Iowa. We should win these two home games no questions asked
Iowa has that guy and he's already done it to us in the past. Perkins was probably laughing watching our on ball defense last night.
Today is a new day. Hope we learned our lesson and can clear it and move on. Too much talent to let this late game collapse haunt them. I will be there Saturday so really hoping for a 'get right' game and a throttling of Iowa.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
I've shook my head so many times over the last 12 hours that I have a crick in my neck now.............
Gotta do something about the porous defense in the paint or every game will become a shootout .............
the idiots have a good offense and we need to have a maximum effort Saturday on D or we will continue to slide down the BTT seed line , the NCAA seed line and the ranking's in the various polls ......not a scenario that I would look forward to.......
Freeman has impressed me with his hustle and skills.......Harding , not so much...........Perkins will be the key as he always brings his A game against the beloved.......
JMHO , and no , I still haven't slept since the debacle last night.................
Gotta do something about the porous defense in the paint or every game will become a shootout .............
the idiots have a good offense and we need to have a maximum effort Saturday on D or we will continue to slide down the BTT seed line , the NCAA seed line and the ranking's in the various polls ......not a scenario that I would look forward to.......
Freeman has impressed me with his hustle and skills.......Harding , not so much...........Perkins will be the key as he always brings his A game against the beloved.......
JMHO , and no , I still haven't slept since the debacle last night.................
I think this will be the last game to hold out ANY hope for the defense to patch itself together...I still believe even a marginal improvement would mean this team makes a sweet 16. It's probably foolish to hold out any hope at this point, but for the love of God prove me wrong!
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
As long as Perkins doesn't go to the line 16 times again and hit 15 of them, as he did in IC last year...
We don't throttle anyone, Were Illinois, we just hold our breath and "Squeak by".
Big picture I'm at the point where I don't think this team can be a threat if its defense doesn't improve. It doesn't need to be great, but it has to be good enough. I want to see us beat Iowa, but nearly as much, I don't want to simply see a full-on shootout. If we win the game 92-89 or whatever, I won't feel any better about this team's outlook. If we can get some stops against a good Iowa offense, that would be a step in the right direction
danielb927
Orange Krush Class of 2013
- Rochester, MN
Our defense has been bad bad bad. But I'd rather have a top-5 offense and crap defense than vice-versa, for two reasons:
1. The offense has about 2x as much influence over scoring as the defense. In other words, an offense will beat a comparable defense on 2 out of 3 possessions.
2. Offense is harder to improve than defense. My theory here - but defense is more about effort and teamwork, while offense is about the specific skills of putting ball in bucket. We have the latter, and I'm (slightly) more confident we can get the former back than if the tables were turned.
1. The offense has about 2x as much influence over scoring as the defense. In other words, an offense will beat a comparable defense on 2 out of 3 possessions.
2. Offense is harder to improve than defense. My theory here - but defense is more about effort and teamwork, while offense is about the specific skills of putting ball in bucket. We have the latter, and I'm (slightly) more confident we can get the former back than if the tables were turned.
Third reason is it’s more fun to watch good offense than good defense team.
Counter point however: defense is almost always more reliable and sustainable and is one of the most important factors come March.
From your lips. . .
Don't know who it was, but an insider said that the players were ready for PSU before yesterday's game after losing to them 3 times last year. At some point, you just have to accept the team for what they are. Learned the hard way with the football team this past year.
I think skyIdub is right on in how he approaches this team and his assessment.
if this team improves their defence even to be a top 30/40 defence they can go a long way because the offense top 5.
There's also evidence that this team could lay an egg and make a quick exit in March. Losing games is going to happen, but the trend is what's troubling.
Both can be true. I think it's a tossup right now as to what can happen in March. They will have a decent chance to do something big though
Not one for predictions normally, but:
Illinois 87
Iowa 76
They can use this win to spark plug themselves in these final 5 games. Every game left is winnable, and @ Wisconsin looks way more doable than it did two weeks ago. The goal need to be to finish the year 4-1, 23-8 overall
Illinois 87
Iowa 76
They can use this win to spark plug themselves in these final 5 games. Every game left is winnable, and @ Wisconsin looks way more doable than it did two weeks ago. The goal need to be to finish the year 4-1, 23-8 overall
Need this win bad.
Every game is winnable but also not guaranteed. Beating Iowa would be a great first step in this last run of games…
I'm going to sound like an absolute loon, but this has all the makings if one of those oddball scores. You have 2 teams struggling to play defense and elite offensively and seems like both teams should easily hit 80 if not 90. And when things are this obvious and guaranteed, it just seems utter weirdness ensues. This will be the game both teams hunker down, throw body blows, refs call the game no blood no foul, and it ends in like a 54-48 victory. While I don't think the score will actually be that low, I just get the feeling this is going to be some ugly ugly basketball.
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