Pregame: Illinois vs Iowa, Tuesday, February 25th, 8:00pm CT, FS1
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A couple of observations. I admire the heck out of Tomi. He clearly is nowhere near full strength, but he is out there trying. I wish KJ would hunt his own shots more. At least 3 times he beat the blitz, had open lanes to the basket...and threw the ball beyond the arc for another miss. Another time, he was left alone at the arc and chose to pass the ball. Hard to be a playmaker when no one can shoot.
Bottom line for me Tuesday night is not even a W. With Tomi where he's at physically and Morez out, this is a lower-tier B1G team. It's how competitive the Illini are -- especially on the boards -- that will tell me whether the coaching staff has lost the locker room.
Bottom line for me Tuesday night is not even a W. With Tomi where he's at physically and Morez out, this is a lower-tier B1G team. It's how competitive the Illini are -- especially on the boards -- that will tell me whether the coaching staff has lost the locker room.
No. That time was a couple weeks ago.
Better late than never.
Plus our defense is so bad we need to limit possessions in a game now. Get rid of the score in 7 seconds idea at least for now.
This is what I’ve been saying.
It was crazy that we wanted to be in a track meet against MSU with the shirt rotation and lack of depth.
You know what Iowa can do? Score and shoot.
You know what Illinois can't do? Score and shoot.
You know what they also can't do? Defend and rebound.
Not a good combination. Lose this and all is lost.
You know what Illinois can't do? Score and shoot.
You know what they also can't do? Defend and rebound.
Not a good combination. Lose this and all is lost.
Just a couple fun stats.
Illinois is now shooting 30.5% from 3 good for 326th in the country. They are 31st in the country 3pt rate at 47% of their shot attempts and average the 8th most 3pt attempts per game(play at the 15th fastest pace).
Now they are shooting 57.1% from 2 good for 19th in the country and are shooting 75.8% from the free throw line good for 55th overall.
Either the coaches aren't gameplanning to the strengths of the players on the roster or the players aren't expecting the gameplan because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where the focus should be.
Also, the defense has definitely gotten worse but maybe the answer to all the illnesses, conditioning issues, and now lack of depth with Morez might be to start taking some of the air out of the ball and slow the tempo down a bit.
Illinois is now shooting 30.5% from 3 good for 326th in the country. They are 31st in the country 3pt rate at 47% of their shot attempts and average the 8th most 3pt attempts per game(play at the 15th fastest pace).
Now they are shooting 57.1% from 2 good for 19th in the country and are shooting 75.8% from the free throw line good for 55th overall.
Either the coaches aren't gameplanning to the strengths of the players on the roster or the players aren't expecting the gameplan because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where the focus should be.
Also, the defense has definitely gotten worse but maybe the answer to all the illnesses, conditioning issues, and now lack of depth with Morez might be to start taking some of the air out of the ball and slow the tempo down a bit.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Tbh the best thing for this season at this point would be to miss the tourney. It then goes onto Underwood’s ledger as a failed season and shortens his leash a bit. It is clear imo that he is not ever gonna be consistent year to year or max out his given talent. Horrible in game coaching. Last year was most likely his ceiling driven by a generational talent in TSJ
Of course he won’t be fired anytime soon so I hope for some other school to offer him an escape hatch similar to when Alford left Iowa for New Mexico.
As to this game Illini will eke out an ugly one and back into the tourney. It speaks to how badly this tourney does not need to expand that this team with a win over Iowa will be in comfortably and maybe even a 9/10 seed.
Of course he won’t be fired anytime soon so I hope for some other school to offer him an escape hatch similar to when Alford left Iowa for New Mexico.
As to this game Illini will eke out an ugly one and back into the tourney. It speaks to how badly this tourney does not need to expand that this team with a win over Iowa will be in comfortably and maybe even a 9/10 seed.
If we win at all, I would predict a very close game. Iowa can flat out score and have a defense as bad as ours. This will be a shootout and our shootouts have been ending bad lately.
We’re going into a shootout with bunch of stovepiping weapons.
I think we got rid of scoring in 7 seconds a long time ago! We may shoot in 7 seconds, but they sure aren't going in
Defense? Didn't you hear that if we just go 10-26 (38%) from 3 last night we....still lose by 19 points.
lol. Well I said it was an “idea”.
is humrichous still gonna start over the NBA player. what are we waiting for. give riley the key to the car.
To add insult to injury, Indiana just stole our tournament bid. Hope the eternal optimists are happy
Is Sean Harrington free to help us out with the x and o part?
I’m watching number 25 Illinois Women’s basketball take it to number 1 USC on the road with their two best players being out for the year. . Women’s Basketball in 4th place in the Big Ten on their way to the Women’s NCAA tournament . You want to talk about resurrecting a dead program. That was Illinois women’s basketball before Shauna Green. What Shauna has done in three seasons it’s absolutely amazing. She has a top 8 recruiting class coming in next season with 3 5 stars. She’s got a freshman 5 star MCDAA this season in Barry Wallace balling. Why can’t Brad do this? What Shauna has done in Women’s Basketball and Bret in Football is amazing. Two dead programs in far worse shape than Illinois Men’s basketball when Brad took over. Bret and Shauna are real Big Ten coaches with a plan and a vision. Brad on other hand has been at Illinois for 8 years and is mediocre at best. I don’t need to see a 9th ,10th , 11th season out of Brad to know what I’m going to get. Shauna is a better basketball coach than Brad straight up. Shauna has a system she teaches defense and runs sets . Her teams are coached well, smart execute and have great fundamentals. Shauna coaches and develops her players. She doesn’t need the best players on the floor to beat teams.
Plus whatever bench player of theirs Brad’s defense is set to give up a career night to.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Don’t worry. I’m sure Josh Dix will have a career night.
That’s my biggest issue. Even if we shot over 50% from three we lose. Offense is not the biggest problem
The lack of stopping people and live ball turnovers make it almost impossible to win if the other team shots the ball half way decently.
We need to switch things up on D. I know BU likes man to man but there are ways we don’t play a drop coverage every possession
When Tomi needs a break we should just go small and pressure/trap everything. Can’t be worse than what we are currently doing
Let's face it. We are not a basketball school. We are not (yet) a football school. We are a golf school.
https://fightingillini.com/documents/2023/12/12/23-24_M_GOLF_RECORD_BOOK_v3.pdf
https://fightingillini.com/documents/2023/12/12/23-24_M_GOLF_RECORD_BOOK_v3.pdf
Hamer is trying to figure out what leggings to wear to practice tomorrow …
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