Pregame: Illinois vs Morehead State, Thursday, March 21st, 2:10pm CT, truTV
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OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
I'm always of the opinion that the better/stronger/more talented team has to play its way first in games like this. I know you'll have a scouting report and players to focus on for the opponent, but you have to come into a 3-14 game as the 3 and just say, "We have to play our way and make them adjust to our style of play." It's the teams that out-think themselves and look at the opponent too much that start to have issues.
As a Premier League soccer fan, I sometimes think Pep Guardiola does this too much with Manchester City. He tries to "tinker" too much instead of just executing his style of play with his overwhelming talent, and sometimes it bites him. I don't want to see Illinois do that.
Start the game by knowing what you do best and executing it well. If you have to adjust, have those game plans in the hopper. Don't try to overcomplicate it early.
Agnes Moorehead. Noice.
Coleman shuts down Minnix. We win by double digits.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
If Coleman plays Minnix with his traditional bend-but-don't-break foul avoidant post defense, Minnix is going to feast down there.
And yet, I think letting him get his and staying disciplined to shooters around the perimeter is probably the right strategy.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Morehead State has not scored 90 points against a D1 opponent this season.
Illinois is 10-0 when scoring 90+ points in regulation.
Pace, pace, pace. Morehead State can only win this game at their tempo.
Illinois is 10-0 when scoring 90+ points in regulation.
Pace, pace, pace. Morehead State can only win this game at their tempo.
Zorak
- Naperville
He’s not gonna talk to any reporter or anyone similar until after the legal case is resolved
I think the Illini are kind uniquely capable of guarding Minix in a way that nobody they've played this season can.
The Illini play a starting 5 where basically everybody is capable of defending him a bit and can constantly rotate defenders with good size and athleticism on him. I think there is an argument to letting Ty check him, but you also have Coleman and Guerrier plus Shannon and Domask are strong enough and nearly the same size to cover him on switches.
They also play 2 bigs that don't shoot decent minutes that I think Dain could absolutely punish both of them when they're on the floor.
User name does NOT check out.Careful, those words for us in Denver are cursed words.
I like this Gritty!
We lull teams into our trap...
a. our weak first half & early 2nd half defense gives "slow it down" teams confidence to play fast (think Wisconsin)
b. just when they think they have us (approximately 10 minutes left in the game) we go into defensive beast mode.
c. this gives our offense extra juice & suddenly they are chasing us!
Don’t look now but I think we are playing our best ball and some of the best ball in the country. Winners of 9 of the last 11 with only losses being a fluky collapse at PSU and a close loss against a one seed who had to hit 8-10 threes in the second half to beat us with our AA having his worst game of the year.
Anything can happen in a single elimination tourney but we are coming in playing our best. Can’t ask for anything more than that.
Anything can happen in a single elimination tourney but we are coming in playing our best. Can’t ask for anything more than that.
Absolutely not.
How bout we just avoid the weak start and just bury some teams.
Because Kentucky got to play a home/homer game in 84 NCAA's, we didn't block out on a rebound in 89, James A. fouling out and the beating the refs allowed Scott May to inflict in 05....... Need I continue?
That being said, this year feels different. This group is very talented AND experienced.
Go get that NC Illini!!
Yeah, just ask the question dude. There was no need for the hostile tone. He came across like he had been passed around by customer service multiple times and was being transferred to yet another supervisor.
They are a 7 deep team. Minix is a problem down low. He just scores. These guys give us issues. They shoot a lot of threes and they also make a lot of threes, as they convert at a good clip. They move the ball around a lot and have a TRUE point guard to run an offense. However, they can also be a bit turnover happy They LOVE to play a slow pace and they rebound extremely well, which means you either push them out of their comfort zone or you play locked in every possession. This is not the game to be sloppy. While Minix makes his free throws, their other rotational players struggle a bit.
Area of concern is that there is not much separating their offense from our defense. Defending for an entire possession and making it tough for Minix to get his touches and potentially turning him over can be a key. On the offensive side, there is no reason Illinois should not have a massive advantage when they have the ball. Where Morehead will try to make it interesting is limit the total of number of possessions and turn it into a high variance game. Their strength is their two point field goal percentage against defense, in large part due to Minix, but they also don't see Illinois level Terrence Shannon and Marcus Domask players regularly in their schedule.
Teams with Illinois's profile of elite offense/bad defense can sometimes struggle in this lopsided seed matchups precisely because you can beat yourself much easier in the sense of you can always have a bad shooting night/be sloppy on turnovers and even if the opposing team doesn't go "off", your defense sometimes isn't good enough to carry you through a game.
Area of concern is that there is not much separating their offense from our defense. Defending for an entire possession and making it tough for Minix to get his touches and potentially turning him over can be a key. On the offensive side, there is no reason Illinois should not have a massive advantage when they have the ball. Where Morehead will try to make it interesting is limit the total of number of possessions and turn it into a high variance game. Their strength is their two point field goal percentage against defense, in large part due to Minix, but they also don't see Illinois level Terrence Shannon and Marcus Domask players regularly in their schedule.
Teams with Illinois's profile of elite offense/bad defense can sometimes struggle in this lopsided seed matchups precisely because you can beat yourself much easier in the sense of you can always have a bad shooting night/be sloppy on turnovers and even if the opposing team doesn't go "off", your defense sometimes isn't good enough to carry you through a game.
I think it was okay to ask the question but he was kind of a jerk in the way he did it. There’s a much more professional way to ask.
Of course, the answer was obvious, so ultimately it was really a question that didn’t need to be asked. But it was and Brad answered it the right way.
sacraig
- The desert
You might imagine some more NIL money to spend, too.
sacraig
- The desert
Like 6 teams, preferably.
If we win Thursday - any idea of approximate game time on Saturday? Or even if it is likely to be day or evening?
Dan
Admin
We'd have to wait until late Thursday night to find out Saturday game time. Saturday tipoffs are between 11am-8:45pm CT
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