Pregame: Illinois vs Washington, Thursday, January 29th, 8:00pm CT, FS1
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Purdue only had 19 rebounds the entire game. We had 13 offensive rebounds and Purdue had 16 defensive rebounds. That is ridiculous. Players other the KW were better than "OK" against Purdue. On good teams each player stands out in different ways, not just scoring.
While I have no doubt we win this Thursday, Washington is not a bad team. We will get their best shot. They've only been beat by more than 10 once since November, at MSU. In their losses they played great 2nd halves, so we have to take care of business with a solid start. Definitely lines up as a trap game, but I trust our guys and the home crowd to pull it off. Could be uglier than we wish. A big win margin would be fantastic if it happens. This team seems different to me and so I'm really not worried. Let's go!
I think that his point is that there were a lot of areas that stick out like a sore thumb and we'll get beat 95 times out of 100 if they occur again.
1)Being outscored 44-14 in the paint, 26-4 in the first half. That's not ok. That's being dominated.
2)They shot 56% from the field.
3)Only forcing 3 turnovers to our 10.....leading to 20 points off turnovers to 2.
4)They had 19 assists to our 10
5)We only had 10 assists on 27 made baskets
If Wagler didn't go off, we would have considered our offense stagnant, which is really was. There were a lot of late shot clock, deep threes that went down.
We got 12 offense boards off of long rebounds and dropped 18 threes on their head. That is how we won.
Nebraska did that to us and we called them lucky and said they couldn't do anything like that again.
46 points, by one player, on 13/17 shooting, 9/11 from three is unlikely to be replicated.
I could be wrong with what he was trying to say, but that would be my guess.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
We
Well when they got switched onto Wagler there wasn't anything to rebound for the most part.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
The bolded numbers literally don’t matter at all.
Why does it matter if we don’t score as many points in the paint as the other team when we were 18-38 from 3 (47.4%)?
Why does it matter how many assists we have when that isn’t our goal on offense? Hunting mismatches is and it worked to perfection, netting us a 1.4 points per possession.
We were the #1 offense in the country coming into the game and our offensive efficiency improved after playing the #4 team in the country on the road.
The defense could’ve been better. But that is the second best defense in the country and they played one of their best games of the season. It happens.
the only argument I will make is that we should try and develop our bigs to be able to score in the paint more especially when they have mismatches against smaller guards/defenders. we shot so well from 3pt this game it wasn't the move but we need to have it back pocket in case we aren't shooting so well from 3.
tomi, z, and mirk are all capable but it's not their default.
Wow what obersvations!
1) Being outscored in the paint - That's what Purdue was defending - and that is why we had 13 offensive rebounds and why we only had 18 two - point shot attempts. They gave us the 38 three point attempts - we won because of the offensive rebounds. Even Painter said that.
2) Only forcing 3 turnovers and having 10 TOs - Purdue leads the league (assists/to) so that comes as no surprise, but its doesn't mean we played poorly.
3) Your "critcisms" contradict each other. We had 12 offensive rebounds on missed 3 pointers and only 10 assists. That's the most likely outcome when you shoot 38 three point shots. Our offense is one of the most efficient in college basketball because of our offensive rebounding and follow up 3 point shots.
4) Again go back and listen to Matt Painter's comments after the game. Purdue's game plan was to let Wagler try and beat them. He talked about what happened when they doubled Wagler at the end of the game and had to go into a MTM rotation - Davis, Tomi and Mirk all hit wide open 3s. Again I fail to see how that equates to playing poorly.
5) Yes we had trouble with Braden Smith. We didn't have Kylan Boswell and we couldn't fight through the staggered screens with the dribbler. Again I fail to see how that equates to playing poorly. Purdue had 3 (count them) offensive rebounds because we didn't double Smith for most of the game. That was our game plan. That equates to using the players you have to win a game.
All of your points are well taken by me. I get what you're saying. That said, I hear what the other guy is saying too and neither are wrong.
You're saying we played well, while at the same time, if Wagler didn't have the game he did, we're probably down 15 at halftime. Heck, he scored our first 14(??) points and was 52% of our offense.
The rest of our team was 14 of 39. That's 35.8%.
The rest of our team was 9 of 27 from 3. That's 33.3%. You point out the four threes in a row with under 3 to go and we're 5 of 23 prior. That's 21.7%.
The rest of our team was 5 of 9 from the foul line. That's 55.5%.
Your commentary about the Purdue game plan was spot on. I agree with that. However, you can't completely ignore his point either.
Without Wagler, it's unreasonable to say that we would have won that game. We would have been down double digits at halftime, easily. It aas a miracle that it was 4. At one point, it was Purdue 17 and Wagler 14.
Again, I don't disagree with your breakdown of Purdue's game plan and their game plan worked. There's only one person that wasn't accounted for.
sacraig
- The desert
And if my grandma had wheels, she'd be a wagon.
Keaton went off in large part because of what the rest of the team did.
If my Aunt has b@lls, they'd be my uncle. I get it.
However, nothing that the rest of the roster did assisted in Wagler's explosion. He wasn't set up and his shots were not a byproduct of well run offense. The ball stuck, which is has a habit of doing with our crew sometimes, but for this one game, it would end up in his hands and he was flame throwing.
There were step back threes, threes coming as the shot clock was running down, threes from 25+ feet.....give the man his due. He carried his team to a win in an extremely hostile environment.
That said, his teammates stepped up HUGE late, which is what got them to the finish line. Without Keaton, those last three minutes would have consisted of Purdue running clock.
Nah man... he scored the first 14 points of the game. At one point the team had 24, he had 19. The team had 39 at half he had 24.
I agree the end was a masterclass by all involved. The start was ALL Keaton.
I doubt this is even remotely a close game WITHOUT him.
I'm not sure anyone should disagree with that. But I'm also not sure why we should be bummed in regards to it. It's a heroic performance that led to a heroic win in a very difficult place to play - that's what makes it as epic, legendary, and flat out insurmountable.
I agree with you 100%. People are taking it as a negative, which it shouldn't be. It shows the truly Herculean performance by Keaton.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Who cares, though? I’ve always found the idea of removing a superlative from a team’s performance as somehow more indicative of like normal reality as bizarre. We recruited Keaton because he was a stud, and when we realized just how much of a stud, we arranged more of our offense around him!
He’s that good, he was gonna have a crazy game like this, IMO. Are we fortunate it was on such a huge stage?? Of course. But we shouldn’t talk about it like it was fluky luck … he rose up.
Jeff Levering and Steve Smith set to call the game.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
He still wouldn’t get player of the week outright! smh50 points
25 assists
10 rebounds (hey… I’m reasonable)
Did you read my next post:
There’s absolutely no reason to act like it was fluky luck. He made those plays. Will it happen again? Probably not. But it was to his ability to put together a game like that.
My response was to a comment claiming what he did was “because of what the rest of the team did.” IMO he put the team on his back, as opposed to his performance being dependent on someone else (at least in the first half).
Games are won in three areas - (1) Rebounding, (2) Rebounding and (3) Defense.
Teams win games, not individuals. We wouldn't win alot of games without Wagler and I am hoping we don't lose too many without Bam. Yes Wagler's shooting was an outsized comparison for one game for anyone in college basketball. Where was Purdue's defense? Why didn't they shut him down. What was interesting for me was listening to both coaches after the game. Purdue decided not to double Wagler from the start they also decided to defend the lane and Matt Painter explained that in great detail.
Braden Smith is an all American and they run staggered sets for him so he can curl off the dribble. You have be very talented to do that. But he can. Same deal. Brad was clear, Illinois decided not to double him. Which is strange, because the few times they did double Smith it worked. Nonetheless - notwithstanding KWs outsized game we don't win if we aren't as dominant on the glass as we were. Both coaches made that point in their after game pressers.
Wagler didn't have any rebounds.
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skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Why in the name of holy f'ing plastic pool toys would anyone feel the need to argue or debate about our performance after one of the top 5 wins in this programs history, that included the single greatest individual game performance in this programs history by a f'ing freshman no less ,WHICHOHBYTHEWAYWASOURNINTHSTRAIGHTWIN?
Save it up for a performance that deserves complaining. Ffs.
Save it up for a performance that deserves complaining. Ffs.
It's impossible to say what would've happened if Wagler didn't play well because it would've been an entirely different game plan. We put Wagler in top of the key PnRs all night because that's what was working. If it wasn't working, we would've ran some other stuff. Maybe Stoj would've picked up the slack, or we throw it inside to Tomi or Mirk, or let Mirk be a playmaker on the perimeter, or figure out how to get Wagler downhill of good 3pt shot wasn't falling.
No rebounds because he was making 3’s all night! Others were grabbing boards. Interesting that the total number of rebounds was pretty low combined for both teams…. because both teams shot high percentages. We did end up with a large margine tho!
I never have and never will understand this thought process of "without *insert player* they would have lost." Okay, without Jordan the Bulls still have 0 championships. Without Lebron, Cleveland doesn't come back from down 1-3. Why does it matter? The Bulls DID have Jordan, Cleveland DID have James, and against Purdue we DID have Wagler.
As for the rest of the roster doing nothing, lol. Multiple of his 3s came from offensive rebounds made by his teammates, he had none. As for the ball sticking, when Purdue's entire gameplan was to switch slow 6'11 and 6'10 guys onto our 6'6' athletic combo guard, yeah I want the ball in his hands every single time taking that 1 on 1. That is smart basketball and good offense.
"Give him his due" Give me a break, this is being heralded as one of, if not the greatest Illini performance of all time. He won every single award possible this week. No one is taking anything away from him, but you are taking away from his teammates who out rebounded and out hustled Purdue the entire game.
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