Pregame: Illinois vs Wisconsin, Tuesday, December 10th, 8:00pm CT, Peacock

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#51      
Ramrod2010
21ChampaignSt said:
I agree that 1-3 in those 4 games you highlighted is a very real possibility. And not to beat a dead horse, but I think we just need to be patient and see what we look like in late Januray or early Feb. That's when I expect that we'll either turn the corner and look like a legit threat to make a deep run in March or...we won't.

I'm expecting an arc similar to 2020. We were 9-5 on January 2 and finished the season ranked ap #21. Of course the 2023 arc still looms as a possibility, too.
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Going through the thought process of those games and I ended up in the same place as you I think.

This isn't like last year where we had some known commodities and were able to better project where the team could go, not including the TSJ case nonsense.

There's still a lot of unknown pieces with this group (promising and full of potential, but still raw). They aren't going to click yet so they may win/lose a game they shouldn't, but hopefully by early February everything comes together and the team ends up as a four/five seed and makes a some noise in the tournament.
 
#54      
IMPE Legend
FromTheLogo said:
Random thought as I think of this game:

Are we overmatched physically? Outside of Morez, I'm trying to think of how many 'and-1' attempts we have had. Granted, taking lots of threes hinders these chances (tho early on Riley kicked his legs out on threes to draw them).

We are young. Underwood can want grit, but when you are physically out matched, grit only gets you so far. Seems NW was just too tough and banged their way to victory. Thiero for Arkansas was dominant physically. We are just more finesse.
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Definitely. Take away Morez and Boswell and we are not a physically tough team. Riley is a lanky freshman, White seems to not have that mentality(not sure what mentality he does have...), Ben and Davis are shooters first, and Europeans typically play a different style that isn't about banging inside. Its funny to me that Underwood is complaining about our offensive rebounding when our center plays outside the 3 point line a good chuck of the time(and rightfully so). So who does he see as our rebounders? Boswell is not big enough and the rest are limited for one reason or another. One last chance to mention missing Ty??
 
#55      
ptgrd23
What we need to fix Tuesday
- Missed layups by Kylan. We were spoiled by Ayo, TSJ and Marcus who were unreal. Some people (Sencire) can get to hoop but do not have control to make the layup go in. Kylan needs to practice these at full speed.
- KJ walking/jogging the ball up the floor. Last year with TSJ we pushed it at every opportunity. Everybody on team should be hustling on fast break and back on defense. We are a deep team. If people are gassed then get subs like DGL, Davis, Morez and Riley into game.
- last year Ty, Quincy, Justin, Dain and even Luke were crashing the offensive boards. its a one man Morez show. Ben and Tomas make the effort but they are typically coming from far away - everybody else is standing around. If Trey wants to play he needs to be high energy.
 
#56      
Se Il Illini
FloridaMan said:
Have to learn to handle physical play. And develop other options to score than constantly firing threes if they aren't falling. Really big game now, I would probably call it a must win given the NW meltdown.
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I agree. The physicality of Northwestern is no different than many other topnotch teams in the country. If this Illinois team has to depend on quick whistles by the officials to withstand this, I would expect a quick exit from the NCAA tournament.
 
#59      
Kenny67
I have BTN. Now I need Peacock? What BS? Anyone else really annoyed?
 
#60      
Oracle21
Didn’t realize how good a year John Blackwell.

The 2nd year Illini legacy is averaging 15 ppg. Last year he had 8ppg. Big upgrade over Chucky Hepburn
 
#62      
Kenny67
Ben H went 1-9 in 3s and Riley played liike a freshman vs NU. The Illini as a team against a lesser NU talented team. A The Illini had no real answer to NUs in your face defence in the second half on the 3pt line. Johnson needs to be in the ga me more for.offensive rebounding and kand shot blocking
 
#66      
hiberto
as was already mentioned, Brad said Ben was the highest defensive rated player in the NW game. exactly what metrics are they using for this?
 
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#68      
Big Jack
IMPE Legend said:
Definitely. Take away Morez and Boswell and we are not a physically tough team. Riley is a lanky freshman, White seems to not have that mentality(not sure what mentality he does have...), Ben and Davis are shooters first, and Europeans typically play a different style that isn't about banging inside. Its funny to me that Underwood is complaining about our offensive rebounding when our center plays outside the 3 point line a good chunk of the time (and rightfully so). So who does he see as our rebounders? Boswell is not big enough and the rest are limited for one reason or another. One last chance to mention missing Ty??
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Well I will just add one thought that I have come to expect with Brads teams.. They don't have an understanding of the old saying follow your shot. If you are going to shot 3s which is fine then you know when you release the ball if your shot is on target and should know to follow you shot as a miss will make the ball come back in your direction. Way to many time our guys shoot and then pose instead of trying to get their missed shot. Yes I understand the need for some one to get back on defense but that should not be the shooters responsibility.
 
#70      
NarrowJ
Idk you guys, NW shot extremely poorly so the low defensive ratings are probably not incorrect. I know we had a lot of issues, but keeping them from scoring didn't seem to be one of them. The defensive ratings statistic that I see primarily being used on these sites everywhere on the internet surely isn't something Brad Underwood cooked up himself, and Ben's numbers on those metrics are actually pretty fantastic this season (like 10 points better than anyone on last season's team). I don't really care to get into calculation of the metrics and this and that, but I know its a very contemporary/mainstream rating system for defense.

He is long and can jump and contest shots (2nd to Morez in blocks). Martinelli and Barnhizer barely shot over 40% for the game. They made some key shots, especially in overtime (while being guarded by KJ, mind you), but those two guys did not abuse us on defense. Far from it. I think people are frustrated with Ben's 1-9 shooting and just tend to want to pile on.

Also keep in mind the volume of Barnhizer/Martinelli as those two players are taking 70% of NW's shots, Ben is guarding them, so he's going to be around the ball when it is scored. But to say it was a poor defensive performance while NW shot 38% and those two players didn't fare much better is just kinda weird to me, is all.
 
#75      
Fighter of the Nightman
I felt like I was trying to fake confidence into reality before the Northwestern game, haha. I definitely thought we would probably win right until it went to OT, but there was always this sinking dread that it was the type of game a young Illini team would lose after beating Arkansas. However, I genuinely think this game tonight just FEELS like a game that an Underwood team wins. Hopefully the crowd is bringing it, because we will need them! Unfortunately (since this is not the type of team you want to be!!), I think it will depend on our shooting. If we shoot well, I think we look great and pull out a double digit win. If we are cold shooting, we might win, but it will take a bit of luck and definitely sweating it out.

I'm going to guess we shoot well:

Illinois 76
#20 Wisconsin 65
 
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