JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
True. Kenpom says our ranking is artificially low right now, but it can't account for why.
Pregame: Illinois vs Missouri, Saturday, December 23rd, 7:00pm CT, ESPN2
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True. Kenpom says our ranking is artificially low right now, but it can't account for why.
Coach K went a combined 21-34 in his second and third seasons at Duke after five years as the head man at Army and had people wanting him fired also. So, you're probably actually getting better than Coach K at the same point in their head coaching careers. Thank God we dodged that bullet and didn't hire Coach K back in the day. I'm sure he had a couple bad in bound plays also.
Yeah, I think luck mainly has to do with what your record is in close games. If a game is close theoretically the trans are pretty evenly matched, so on average you would expect to win 50% of those games. Illinois has not fared well in close games do far this season (all of our losses have been close).
So first off I just want to say I am a Missouri fan and have watched almost every game this year. I do like, or at least have liked Illinois basketball in the past but haven't watched them for a long while now. With that being said I have a couple questions for you all if you don't mind answering them.
First, do the Illini play a pretty good pressure defense? Mizzou's biggest problem is they go through stretches of turning the ball over when their opponent puts a lot of pressure on them. Esp. a full court press. They had West Virginia beat easily until their guards put a lot of pressure on them and they couldn't handle it. They ended up with 20 turnovers and most of those were late in the game. Against SFA they had 21 turnovers, they held on and won but probably should have lost that game.
What kind of defense do the Illini mostly play? Are they good at switching off on screens? Mizzou plays Hoibergs offense and it's a lot of screens. It's looks pretty good and has given them a lot of open shots, esp. on 3's. Barnett and Robertson will be the 2 they need to stay up on. Robertson has really came on lately.
Last question, what's your impression of Underwood so far? I've read some of what everyone here thinks but though I'd ask you all. There seems to be a lot of hype with him and by his track record I think he definitely deserves it. I'm not asking so much of your opinion on him as a coach but as a person. I'm sure you guys listen to a lot of his interviews and am just wondering what kind of man he is off the court. If he wasn't your coach would you go play for him or send your kid to play for him?
Regardless of the outcome I hope it's a good game. Two young teams that hopefully are on the rise for years to come. Good luck.
First, do the Illini play a pretty good pressure defense? Mizzou's biggest problem is they go through stretches of turning the ball over when their opponent puts a lot of pressure on them. Esp. a full court press. They had West Virginia beat easily until their guards put a lot of pressure on them and they couldn't handle it. They ended up with 20 turnovers and most of those were late in the game. Against SFA they had 21 turnovers, they held on and won but probably should have lost that game.
What kind of defense do the Illini mostly play? Are they good at switching off on screens? Mizzou plays Hoibergs offense and it's a lot of screens. It's looks pretty good and has given them a lot of open shots, esp. on 3's. Barnett and Robertson will be the 2 they need to stay up on. Robertson has really came on lately.
Last question, what's your impression of Underwood so far? I've read some of what everyone here thinks but though I'd ask you all. There seems to be a lot of hype with him and by his track record I think he definitely deserves it. I'm not asking so much of your opinion on him as a coach but as a person. I'm sure you guys listen to a lot of his interviews and am just wondering what kind of man he is off the court. If he wasn't your coach would you go play for him or send your kid to play for him?
Regardless of the outcome I hope it's a good game. Two young teams that hopefully are on the rise for years to come. Good luck.
Illinois plays almost exclusively full court press. Kind of a Havoc knock-off. They almost never switch off screens...it's strict stick-to-your-man defense. On offense, we slow it down a bit. We never settle for a good look early in the shot clock when there's an opportunity for an even better one later.
I would never send my kid to play for Underwood. He is a big whiner, a blabbermouth, and never seems to take responsibility for bad decisions. Not very professional, either. When asked about the Braggin Rights game the other day, he said Jeremiah Tilmon can "take his Tigers and shove it." He also said that he "was pretty sure Indiana is going to suck" at the beginning of the year when asked about other conference teams.
Hope that helps.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
Welcome Chuck - I'll weigh in. For the most part, you'll see a very similar D as SFA. Lots of pressure on the guards and no doubt we'll double down on Tilmon if they do feed it low. With the pressure we are prone to a talented guard driving to the rim as we do not have a rim protector, but when we're on, we do tend to draw more than a few charges. We are #22 in turnover margin in D1 and #8 in Turnovers forced per game (SFA being #1 forcing 22 against our 19+). The advantage for you is that you've now seen this pressure twice already - so you will be familiar.
BU is good at scheming so you can bet (as former coach) he's studied the SFA game, and is very familiar with WVU methods. Expect to see much of the same as we do go 9 deep with alot of guard pressure. We tend to hedge/assist on high post screens but keep the guard on guard. The guards switch with each other freely as we don't lose very much in D amongst our top 4 guards.
I'd say most really like BU as a person and his approach. We went from "nice guy" coach in Groce to 'push you to your limits' coach BU - that is what I would want for my kid. Our freshman are far and away more prepared early in the season than they were in the past. We feel we should easily have 2 more quality wins under our belt as we had 2 poorly executed inbounds plays in the last few seconds of games (4 seconds, leading, and 33 seconds tied with ability to take the last shot).
Thanks. I don't think you'll see too much of the Tigers feeding it down low to Tilmon. At least they haven't done that consistently so far this year. Don't get me wrong, he'll get the ball but they don't really have plays desinged for him to get it down low and work. It's mostly been getting him the ball off a screen or a drive down and dump it off to him. He has rebounded well offensively and puts it back in considering the minutes he plays though.
The Tiger turnovers is what worries me the most. No one has stepped up and took over at point guard yet. Geist has shown signs but he and Harris have also looked panicky when the pressure has really been put on them. I do think Harris will get a lot better considering he's so young right now.
It will be interesting to see how the Illini handles the screens because Mizzou's offense is constantly doing it with everyone on the court. They create a lot of open shots and mismatches but also wide open looks. So far they've shot well from 3 point range which they need to do because they'll go into a funk from time to time with some sloppy play, esp. if they get a lead.
Anyways thanks for your time and hopefully we see a good game.
But, but, what about zpfled's take?
I read it but not sure if he is serious or not. Either way it's not really a conversation I'd like to have. I'm on you guys forum and I don't think me responding to it would do any good.
He wasn't. At least I hope he wasn't because I believe he's watching something different than I am.
I am hoping the players on this team realize within themselves that they have had enough of these close losses and say to themselves enough is enough. No more close losses already. Only they can do it for themselves. The coaches can tell them, but they have to do it themselves (or did I just repeat myself.).
I'd say our weakness are that we don't have much leadership, and we're thin up front. We make plenty of mistakes, but we're a pretty young team. Mizzou should win this game, but as is often said, you never know with a rivalry game.
If we get in foul trouble early, I suspect we're toast. Martin should know this and get his guys to attack the basket, but I'm not sure he's enough of a coach to execute it.
If we get in foul trouble early, I suspect we're toast. Martin should know this and get his guys to attack the basket, but I'm not sure he's enough of a coach to execute it.
Lol, I was giving a Missouri fan the quality of info he deserves
I don't believe in fraternizing with the enemy.** This only applies to Missouri. Maybe North Carolina as well.
One thing I'll give Martin credit for is when he got to Missouri he talked about how the game has changed. That defense doesn't dominate like it used to. For this reason he brought in Cornell Mann and Chris Hollender and the Tigers now run a pro style offense. Martin still has them playing a strong defense but Mann is the guy who is running the offense now. Hollender isn't very well known but he has always been an offense type coach and his players and teams have always made big improvements.
GortTheRobot
- North Bethesda, Maryland
My teenage daughter has a boyfriend whose parents went to Mizzou. He gave my daughter one of his shirts to wear...a Mizzou t-shirt. I told her to give it back to him.
Then, the other day, she asked if he could come over to watch a movie this Saturday...I said no.
I love my daughter, but she needs to learn right from just plain frickin' wrong.
Then, the other day, she asked if he could come over to watch a movie this Saturday...I said no.
I love my daughter, but she needs to learn right from just plain frickin' wrong.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
For those who have gone, is it usually actually really close to a 50/50 crowd? I know the past two years, there have been significantly more Illini fans than Mizzou fans, and I've seen a lot of games where it looks to be a true event split. Ever been years with more Mizzou fans (like the football game)?
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
Awesome! I've had a couple of my son's friends come over with Iowa shirts on. They either have to borrow one of my son's shirts and take the Iowa shirt to their car, or they have to leave. It usually only happens once.
Usually pretty evenly split. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there are more mizzou fans this year.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/coll...cle_cd88c7e6-40f1-528e-b726-c3b272e00e51.html
Underwood said the quest to establish dependable on-court leadership continues.
Underwood said he has one player who is trying hard to be that leader.
“Te’Jon Lucas is trying like crazy,” he said. “Yet it can’t be selective. When someone blows a ball screen coverage, you have the right to get on them.
“Mark Smith is going to be that guy. But it has to be all the time, not just when you feel right. Trent Frazier has some of that charisma. But they are still freshmen, and they’re still trying to figure out how to write a 15-page paper in finals week and play basketball. It’s the first time they’ve been through it.”
Illini got in because of the old "only two teams from each conference " could make a BCS game" rule.
CFP has recently fixed this rule.
Mizzou already sold out its allotment.
The Kim Anderson era is long gone
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Official hype video:
[YOUTUBE]EtpN-Eu00M0[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]EtpN-Eu00M0[/YOUTUBE]
I seriously cannot stop laughing!! This is going to bring a smile to my face for a long time. Thanks for sharing!
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