Pregame: Illinois vs Texas Tech, Tuesday, November 11th, 7:30pm CT, FS1

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#305      
abchew2
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Seriously, though, win or lose ... my enthusiasm for the season (at least so far) will be greatly affected by our energy out of the gate. Last year's team wasn't a Second Round exit and mid-tier Big Ten team because of a lack of talent. If we want to achieve our goals this year, we will need to have greatly improved focus and toughness compared to last year - we need to be a team that wills ourselves to some victories when it's an off night. And these guys should be absolutely chomping at the bit to punch Texas Tech in the mouth on our home floor, so a slow start will dampen my optimism a bit.
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The energy to start has been a big change. Even against cupcakes last year the team often took time to get going. Not the case this year. I know it’s early but the makeup of the players on this team has really got us pushing from top and I love it!
 
#307      
Second place is 1st loser
Both sides can blame refs. If we're THAT concerned, five hours before tip, that Z can get in foul trouble.....that's a Z issue, not a ref issue. Same for Morez last year. You have to be able to play without fouling, regardless of the 3 with the whistles. Different refs see games differently and they have their own style. It's the players job to adjust, not vice versa.
 
#308      
O Ante M
21ChampaignSt said:
Only other suggestions that haven't already been mentioned.

Monicals pizza - Regional chain but my favorite pizza around. Portnoy recently visited and gave it a 7.4.

Legends - If you really want to go deep into the heart of enemy territory and experience a little bit of campus, this is an Illini themed sports bar with decent bar food. Parking can be a problem though.
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Old Orchard (bowling lanes) pizza runs around Monical's, IMO, and you can get a whiff of the bowling lanes as well.
 
#309      
Second place is 1st loser
skyIdub said:
Go straight at Toppin and get him in foul trouble early.

Mirk got this.
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Don't think Mirk has seen a player of this caliber and assigned to him..... probably ever. Just as well throw him into the deep end of the pool and see what happens. We have a lot of unknowns. They don't. It's time for all of the talk about our guys to become reality.
 
#311      
Chuck Nuggets
grue2 said:
I don't think that arguments works. Supposed the Nuggets were suddenly an NCAA team. They would only be ~10 spots ahead of us. Is our talent close?
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And this argument presupposes that Torvik, or any other model, is the flawless standard by which talent is to be judged.

I do not subscribe to that newsletter. Never have, never will.

I can say that the 2025-26 Illinois Fighting Illini Basketball team is the most talented roster in the country -- vastly different than the claim they are the best team in the country -- and there is literally no person or computer model which can definitively prove that claim incorrect.

So, I hereby officially claim that the 2025-26 Illinois Fighting Illini Basketball team is the most talented roster in the country, and the haters can suck on a crab apple, because I am correct.
 
#313      
Curbelo Fanboy
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Seriously, though, win or lose ... my enthusiasm for the season (at least so far) will be greatly affected by our energy out of the gate. Last year's team wasn't a Second Round exit and mid-tier Big Ten team because of a lack of talent. If we want to achieve our goals this year, we will need to have greatly improved focus and toughness compared to last year - we need to be a team that wills ourselves to some victories when it's an off night. And these guys should be absolutely chomping at the bit to punch Texas Tech in the mouth on our home floor, so a slow start will dampen my optimism a bit.
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Yep - we had too many what I called "Underwood Specials" where we just kind of didn't show up. TBH it's been a little bit of a recurring theme his entire tenure. Even the Ayo/Kofi season had a couple of them. Games where the energy doesn't ever show up & the game is kind of over 10 minutes in.
 
#314      
Fighter of the Nightman
abchew2 said:
The energy to start has been a big change. Even against cupcakes last year the team often took time to get going. Not the case this year. I know it’s early but the makeup of the players on this team has really got us pushing from top and I love it!
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I 100% agree! However, it's easy to keep the energy up when things are going well. TTU likely won't just lie down, so I'm hoping we are relentless and jumping on them early!
 
#315      
NarrowJ
Curbelo Fanboy said:
Yep - we had too many what I called "Underwood Specials" where we just kind of didn't show up. TBH it's been a little bit of a recurring theme his entire tenure. Even the Ayo/Kofi season had a couple of them. Games where the energy doesn't ever show up & the game is kind of over 10 minutes in.
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Don't really think it is an "Underwood thing"

From playing and watching all sorts of sports over the course of my life, I've seen it countless times

The football team, for instance, has had some slow starts this year where it looks like they just kind of didn't prepare well enough or didn't have the usual energy, etc.. don't think that's Underwood's doing
 
#316      
lstewart53x3
NarrowJ said:
Don't really think it is an "Underwood thing"

From playing and watching all sorts of sports over the course of my life, I've seen it countless times

The football team, for instance, has had some slow starts this year where it looks like they just kind of didn't prepare well enough or didn't have the usual energy, etc.. don't think that's Underwood's doing
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Yeah, I mean this was the national champion a few months before they won it all:

IMG_0258.jpeg


In a 30+ game season with 18-21 year old kids, you’re gonna have a few bad games.
 
#319      
Weatherspoon1
RollChief said:
It feels like we (and most other top-25 teams) are simply 2+ players deeper than TTU. If we get into foul trouble, we can adjust and still put a high-level lineup on the floor. If they get into foul trouble, they’re basically out of playable options. The margin for them is really thin. It seems like our best option is to attack the post and try to get them into foul trouble early.
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We are only an 8-man rotation currently and that includes Petro’s limited minutes tonight hmmm.....
 
#321      
Curbelo Fanboy
NarrowJ said:
Don't really think it is an "Underwood thing"

From playing and watching all sorts of sports over the course of my life, I've seen it countless times

The football team, for instance, has had some slow starts this year where it looks like they just kind of didn't prepare well enough or didn't have the usual energy, etc.. don't think that's Underwood's doing
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Oh I know off games happen. It's more the occasional just no show efforts. Games like Penn State in 2022 where they just smoked us at our place. Blasted us early & we never seemed to recover to put up a fight. Duke last year & Loyola in the tourney go in that column as well IMO.

Not that we lost but that we never really seemed to make a push after the first few minutes of the game.

So far this year I've been really pleased with effort out of the box. No dicking around against an inferior opponent.
 
#322      
DeeIL89
Really want this win to give us that signature early season nonconference home win especially given that lost to Tennessee at home last year that we should have won. Texas Tech is a really good rebounding team so our guys got to battle on the glass.
 
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