Pregame: Illinois vs Rutgers, Tuesday, January 30th, 6:00pm CT, BTN

Game Notes

BTN: Brandon Gaudin & Seth Davis

http://fightingillini.com/news/2018/1/29/mens-basketball-illini-game-notes-vs-rutgers.aspx

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Underwood: Nice little break since the last time we all met. Couple days off, which I think is always nice in mid-year to be able to kind of refresh mentally as well as physically. Obviously nice to do that after a win. #Illini

Underwood: I liked the infusion of Te'Jon in there with Trent (against Indiana). #Illini

Underwood: Right now (Lucas and Frazier) are two of our better defenders. #Illini

Underwood: One thing I like about Te'Jon is he doesn't make mistakes. Ball pressure on the ball. Off the ball he's in the right place mostly every time. He takes what we do in practice and transitions it to the game. #Illini

Underwood: I think Trent has found a groove where he's really not playing like a freshman except for what he did in the last minute the other night. #Illini

Underwood: It's like I keep telling shooters — keep shooting. I like the shots Mike (Finke) gets. I like when Mike's aggressive. Teams scheme him. There's a lot of areas I feel comfortable with Mike. We've got to find where those are during games. #Illini

Underwood: It's a disadvantage for his teammates when (Te'Jon Lucas) is not on the court. I think he realizes that now more than ever. #Illini

Underwood: Everybody's pretty healthy. Knock on wood, everything's a go. #Illini

Underwood: We all want to win. There's no better feeling than winning and there's no worse feeling than losing. We've been pretty inspired (after Indiana). Let's play on that. #Illini

https://twitter.com/srrichey

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Dan said:

Hi all, quick request to subscribe to Rob's YouTube channel-

https://www.youtube.com/user/IlliniReport


(yt monitization change to channels under 1k subs more info here)

Thanks

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Dan said:

Hi all, quick request to subscribe to Rob's YouTube channel-

https://www.youtube.com/user/IlliniReport


(yt monitization change to channels under 1k subs more info here)

Thanks

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SescIllini said:

Regarding BU offense, we seem to never get points from the two cutters from the wing to the basket. To me that tells BU will recruit that type of player. I think in the future Ayo, Damonte, Smith and Kipper will be able to. But likely going for the Tev Jones types to receive in the key and finish at the rim.

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FiveStar said:

We don’t get those points because we’re afraid to make those passes. Particularly cutter one. We’ve been open way more times than we’ve thrown it, and when we have thrown it, we’ve turned it over about half the time.

I think our current guys are having trouble reading what “open” looks like for the those cutters. A lot of times it’s throwing the ball before you see the guy coming off the screen, but also reading how the HP defender is playing it.

1) does he sag in the middle of the paint? Not open (and cutter 2 probably wouldn’t be either)
2) does he hug his man at the hp? Open
3) does he sag in help position, but a step or 2 on the ball side of the paint? Lob

That’s just cutter one. It’s also easier to hit cutters after ball reversals. I feel like the last two games we’ve finally started going around the horn more. If we do that 2-3 times in one possession I think you will see the cutters hit much more.

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Dan said:

Hi all, quick request to subscribe to Rob's YouTube channel-

https://www.youtube.com/user/IlliniReport


(yt monitization change to channels under 1k subs more info here)

Thanks

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PJD86 said:

657

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illinifaninwi said:

701

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