Purdue 84, Illinois 68 Postgame

#303      

alaskaillini

A
alaskaillini
Roundball Sage said:
The Illini have a lot of nice “pieces”. Good-to-great players in their roles. And many days and nights, that is enough to get the job done.

But there’s a problem. Players who are one or two dimensional players. No Alpha to step in when the game is getting out of control like with Purdue or the other close losses.

Every ‘Elite’ team has that one multi-dimensional player that can take over a game in a multitude of ways. This is what the Illini need for the future.

And yes — that’s not exactly breaking news. But it still is a floor fact.

When thinking about each of the Illini... one aspect of their game quickly comes to mind. Inside presence. Shooter. Penetrator. Scrapper.

But what is the second good aspect of their game? Or a third?

Coaching staff no doubt knows this. They are moving the good pieces around in the best ways to succeed in the moment.

Look, we love these guys. They are busting their rears and making Illini Nation proud. And they are giving all of what they have.

Let’s enjoy the rest of the season and get at least to the Sweet Sixteen. And maybe beyond.

All you can ask of someone is to give it the best of what they have. And with this group... They have that kind of heart. Sometimes, heart is enough. Sometimes not.

When these guys are on a roll it is pure bliss. But then there are those four-to-five minute stretches when they can’t buy a basket.

But the more dimensions to your game... the road does get much easier.
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NO!. Purdue is not anymore elite than Illinois.

A elite team is one that plays well together and one where the players make each other better. An elite team is not one where there is one multi-dimensional player that can take over. The problem with that kind of team is that if that player has a bad game (say only scores 9 points and turns it over 6 times like Ayo vs. Loyola), the team doesn't compensate. That team just keeps riding that player because that is their identity. Purdue has players that can get it done other than Ivey, but if he doesn't play particularly well (see the first half of the game), they can be beat.

Had the first game at Illinois been reffed the same, Illinois would have won it fairly easily in regulation. In game 2 the Illinois bigs held their own against Lurch and Williams - they combined for 23 and 11 vs. 19 and 13 for Coburn, BVD and Payne. In game 1, the Illinois bigs managed only 14 and 10 versus 34 and 15 for Edey and Williams because of the refs taking Kofi out of the game. We also didn't dominate them from 3 in the first game - we shot 36% to their 44% from 3. We just played a better game than they did on our home court, while being handicapped by the refs.

In fact, I would argue that Purdue has a worse resume in the B1G than we do. We lost twice to the co-leader (once in 2OT), which could/should easily have been a split, and once to Maryland on the road without Kofi and with Curbelo sick. They have lost 3 games with full rosters - Wisc @ home, who we beat @ home, Indiana on road, who we have beat on the road, and Rutgers on the road, who we destroyed @ home. I would argue that we are the better team, at least since the start of conference season, regardless of what happened at Mackey.

I understand the negative view some of the fans have after getting drubbed in the 2nd half when we couldn't hit the broad side of the barn on open 3s. But that occasionally is going to happen on the road. But Purdue isn't any more elite of a team than Illinois at this point.
 
#304      

Tacomallini

T
Washington State
Tacomallini
Might've been posted, but it looked like Stefanovic went to the bench to check on Trent when he went out. Classy move, if that was the case.
Also, while googling to figure out how to spell his name, I found out 1) he was born in the US and 2) his dad played for Illinois State in the early 80s and was drafted by the SuperSonics.
 
#305      

EllderIlliniFan

EllderIlliniFan
EllderIlliniFan
Have not seen any mention of the schedule change for this game. This was originally set for tonight. Illinois played Indiana on the road on Saturday and then Purdue on the road on Tuesday. Would an extra two days to prepare have helped the Illini? Especially with Belo's limited practice time. An extra 2 days might have helped with conditioning and working with the rest of the team.
 
#306      

FlotownIllini

FlotownIllini
FlotownIllini
alaskaillini said:
NO!. Purdue is not anymore elite than Illinois.

A elite team is one that plays well together and one where the players make each other better. An elite team is not one where there is one multi-dimensional player that can take over. The problem with that kind of team is that if that player has a bad game (say only scores 9 points and turns it over 6 times like Ayo vs. Loyola), the team doesn't compensate. That team just keeps riding that player because that is their identity. Purdue has players that can get it done other than Ivey, but if he doesn't play particularly well (see the first half of the game), they can be beat.

Had the first game at Illinois been reffed the same, Illinois would have won it fairly easily in regulation. In game 2 the Illinois bigs held their own against Lurch and Williams - they combined for 23 and 11 vs. 19 and 13 for Coburn, BVD and Payne. In game 1, the Illinois bigs managed only 14 and 10 versus 34 and 15 for Edey and Williams because of the refs taking Kofi out of the game. We also didn't dominate them from 3 in the first game - we shot 36% to their 44% from 3. We just played a better game than they did on our home court, while being handicapped by the refs.

In fact, I would argue that Purdue has a worse resume in the B1G than we do. We lost twice to the co-leader (once in 2OT), which could/should easily have been a split, and once to Maryland on the road without Kofi and with Curbelo sick. They have lost 3 games with full rosters - Wisc @ home, who we beat @ home, Indiana on road, who we have beat on the road, and Rutgers on the road, who we destroyed @ home. I would argue that we are the better team, at least since the start of conference season, regardless of what happened at Mackey.

I understand the negative view some of the fans have after getting drubbed in the 2nd half when we couldn't hit the broad side of the barn on open 3s. But that occasionally is going to happen on the road. But Purdue isn't any more elite of a team than Illinois at this point.
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Mark Titus of "Titus & Tate" says the Illini still have a better chance at a national title than Purdue, despite the results of Tuesday night. I realize talking heads will often say things to generate buzz, but I don't think they will step too far out on a ledge. There's a case to be made for this argument, as you've done a good job of here.

We need to see the forest for the trees and realize that there's a lot of basketball still to be played. I have faith in BU and our team to stay the course and wouldn't be surprised at all to see us still make a nice run, and maybe more. Onward and upward!
 
#308      

greyghost70

G
greyghost70
Bleedorangeandblue44 said:
I had to go back and watch that a second time. I love Kofi, and he battled last night and as others have said here it's encouraging that he had a better 2nd game vs. Purdue than his first, but that play was hard to watch. Seemed like Kofi almost just gave up. Just call a timeout at that point. You aren't the first player to be trapped and have no way out of it. Purdue's second half yesterday was a thing of beauty....unless, of course, you are like all of us here as diehard Illini fans.

Only other thing from the postgame I still was looking to hear was if there was a final answer to what Underwood and Painter were discussing. ESPN cut away from that pretty quick. I think in the past that BU has been pretty complimentary of Painter, though I'm sure both coaches can perhaps sense this is going to be quite a fight in the years going forward at the top of the Big Ten and can get under each other's skin, especially with the nonsense going on with the shot clock.
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Actually all of our other players were on the opposite side of the court from Kofi. We needed someone to come over on his side into the corner to give him an outlet.
 
#309      

TGNAG

T
TGNAG
Tacomallini said:
Might've been posted, but it looked like Stefanovic went to the bench to check on Trent when he went out. Classy move, if that was the case.
Also, while googling to figure out how to spell his name, I found out 1) he was born in the US and 2) his dad played for Illinois State in the early 80s and was drafted by the SuperSonics.
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His dad was named Lou Stefanovic if it is the same player?