If I go back and watch some tape (well nothings on tape anymore but you get the idea) when a shot goes up you see three of our players turn to the basket, stand, and watch the ball. Now I don't know about you guys, but when we played ball you'd get your !!! in your man's gut and you kept him there. He can't get a board if you're blocking out and annoying the crap out of him. When the ball bounces every man races to the ball. That's crashing the board. I just see us standing and watching. The other thing, and I'm a Damonte fan and appreciate his defensive effort, he CAN NOT drive to the basket and stop in the lane four feet short of the rim. Why does DW not continue the drive and finish with a reverse OR go up strong with a strong hand stab shot and draw the foul? How does stopping in the land of the trees and waiting for the defense to swarm him help anything? That's so frustrating to watch. And the other thing was sloppy !!! telegraphed passes. I mean we shot like crap, we didn't make free throws, but those are also rans. I saw a LOT of laziness. Them RJ comes in with like three minutes left and shows the team what a basketball player looks like. Some starters need to spend some time on the bench. IMHO of course.
Rutgers 70, Illinois 59 Postgame
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I’m firmly in the camp of those who preach that CH and RJ should see more minutes — significantly more minutes. And tell them to be aggressive and look to score every time they touch the ball (including putting the ball on the floor and making moves on a defender). And not to worry about the consequences. We had an alpha on the perimeter last year. We need to start grooming more of them.
Otherwise, I fear another early exit in any tournament we play in.
Otherwise, I fear another early exit in any tournament we play in.
Anybody other than Kofi would be out for the year right now with all the hacks and lack of fouls called he has dealt with. They would have lost it 2 or 3 times and got ejected by now. Kofi has handled the abuse admirably.
We have dealt with the most injuries than any other team in the big 10 and its not even close. Mixing and matching different line ups from one game to the next is brutal for continuity. Every team we have and will play, for the most part, has had the entire season to work into the comfort of consistent rotations and we have not. You can pin it on BU being stubborn if you think that's true. I choose to believe that more time for player rotations to gel moving forward will be the key to a deep run in the tourney.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
Just finished watching since I dvr'd it, but overall seemed like just one of those nights when we couldn't throw it in the ocean and they were clicking all game.
Beyond that I feel like on O we can't play as limited as we looked where it's either Kofi inside or pull a three. Really liked most of the times we drove the ball with purpose and got lay ups, but we didn't keep with it. Why we passed up good looks in rhythm that were inside 10-12 feet to pass out for a worse look I don't understand. CoHawk/Grandison/Monte stuck out to me on that. Also seems like our ball movement is very predictable (not just tonight) which leads to TOs or tough movement around the perimeter, but still have to give them credit for their D.
Haven't watched the post game presser yet to see what Brad said, guessing there's something about getting out toughed and the rebounding differential among other things.
Beyond that I feel like on O we can't play as limited as we looked where it's either Kofi inside or pull a three. Really liked most of the times we drove the ball with purpose and got lay ups, but we didn't keep with it. Why we passed up good looks in rhythm that were inside 10-12 feet to pass out for a worse look I don't understand. CoHawk/Grandison/Monte stuck out to me on that. Also seems like our ball movement is very predictable (not just tonight) which leads to TOs or tough movement around the perimeter, but still have to give them credit for their D.
Haven't watched the post game presser yet to see what Brad said, guessing there's something about getting out toughed and the rebounding differential among other things.
I've seen this loss coming for weeks now, having watched a good bit of Rutgers play lately. They're really coming into their own at the right time. Just another example of how crazy the course of a season can be in college basketball. Remembering reading their fans' reactions on their forum after we demolished them earlier in the season, absolutely none of them were predicting this sort of turnaround. Gotta tip your cap to them and Coach Pikiell.
The Illini, on the other hand, are trending downward in a couple of key areas, as we can all see. I think we're witnessing the diminished returns of a team that has had to fight through a lot of adversity and had to expend a lot of energy to do so. In other words, the guys did a hell of a job succeeding as much as they have, in spite of the injuries and such, but it's caught up to us. I'm not writing off the team or the season, by any means, but they somehow have to find another gear. I've seen other teams do this, and it can seem to come out of nowhere. Here's hoping we can.
The Illini, on the other hand, are trending downward in a couple of key areas, as we can all see. I think we're witnessing the diminished returns of a team that has had to fight through a lot of adversity and had to expend a lot of energy to do so. In other words, the guys did a hell of a job succeeding as much as they have, in spite of the injuries and such, but it's caught up to us. I'm not writing off the team or the season, by any means, but they somehow have to find another gear. I've seen other teams do this, and it can seem to come out of nowhere. Here's hoping we can.
Not entirely surprised at tonight's result in Piscataway. Coming in against a hot team that's beaten 3 straight ranked opponents and is tough to beat in their gym playing in arguably the biggest game the Rutgers program has had under Pikell. Shooting cold from behind the arc leading to the halftime deficit didn't help either.
I just have this sinking feeling that at the end of this year, after a great 3 yr run of lots of W's, the only thing we are gking to have to show for it is 1 BigTen Tourny Banner and that is sad. I hope to Hell that is just panic but Man, it seems to be crumbling down. I want a BigTen Reg season Banner, we as a fan base deserve 1, the Team deserves 1 after being robbed of it last yr, but unless we string together 6 straight wins now, I don't see it happening.
calm down, we are still in control of at least a share of a title. Also, this program is just getting started. Tons of young talent for the future is on the team now along with coming in next year.
2 problems my novice eyes see:
1) Length/height/size of 1-4. We struggle against larger teams. We are being out rebounded this year despite the fact we have a once-in-a-generation big man. Why? Not him, but length of 1-4. Some of our guys have talents that disguise their lack of size, namely shooting. But some have weaknesses that are being exposed and now exploited by other teams.
2) Teams are 'over-pursuing' us on the perimeter. Think: similar to the attacking style we played the first year of Brad's tenure. Aggressive athletic teams (with length) are smothering actions, intercepting passes, running us off the line, and preventing post-feeds. Purdue and Rutgers are prime examples.
1) Length/height/size of 1-4. We struggle against larger teams. We are being out rebounded this year despite the fact we have a once-in-a-generation big man. Why? Not him, but length of 1-4. Some of our guys have talents that disguise their lack of size, namely shooting. But some have weaknesses that are being exposed and now exploited by other teams.
2) Teams are 'over-pursuing' us on the perimeter. Think: similar to the attacking style we played the first year of Brad's tenure. Aggressive athletic teams (with length) are smothering actions, intercepting passes, running us off the line, and preventing post-feeds. Purdue and Rutgers are prime examples.
sacraig
- The desert
RIP Mark Smith
sacraig
- The desert
The good news is that we've already started addressing this with recruiting. Most of our incoming players this past year and next year are giants compared to our current guards.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
According to Torvik, Belo, Plummer, and DMW each had either their worst or second-worst game of the season offensively. Not going to win a lot of games like that. Kofi and Grandison performed okay offensively, but still had below-average games by their own season standards. Certainly not enough to overcome poor offensive showings by two other starters and our 6th man. Trent played pretty well by the numbers.
Add in poor rebounding, 3-pt shooting, and FT-shooting, and that's just too much to overcome on the road. Win at least 4 of the last 5 and we'll be in good shape to hang a conference banner.
Add in poor rebounding, 3-pt shooting, and FT-shooting, and that's just too much to overcome on the road. Win at least 4 of the last 5 and we'll be in good shape to hang a conference banner.
Yes great point and to BU point we got punched in the mouth. You can take that as guys not shooting well, getting out played, not having energy, being tentative. At the end of the day it’s one game, it sucked but as a fan base we move on and beat MSU.
I think people forget where we’ve been for a while as a program. This is fun. March is coming up and strap in.
Let’s gooo! I L L
Curbelo played plenty of minutes tonight and was not very effective.
I agree with your comments. And to me it really isn’t about who is starting. It’s about who is playing productive minutes. What was frustrating tonight was that it was abundantly clear that Demonte, Grandison and Plummer were not there tonight and yet RJ didn’t didn’t get any significant play time until the game was in essence already over. Would have liked to have seen Goode and Pods more tonight as well.
He also blocks shots, gets to the rim, draws contact and makes his free throws
Ayo…… oh wait he’s in Chicago now!
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Cold-shooting Illini fall at Rutgers
Center Kofi Cockburn was the only consistent threat for Illinois, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers isn’t just beating ranked teams, they are dominating them with a relentless hard-nosed style of play.
No. 12 Illinois became the fourth straight ranked team to fall to the Scarlet Knights, getting beat 70-59 on Wednesday night. Rutgers’ run has Steve Pikiell’s team probably headed for a berth in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.
Pikiell wasn’t ready to claim anything after the game, saying he will wait under March 13 for the official NCAA Tournament announcement.
“I think we can play anybody,” Pikiell said. “We can play anybody, any place and win games in any tournament.”
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The rest of the article is just a hodge-podge of the game , much like our play ................worst effort by the illini since the Cincy game early in the season......
Please , please , BU needs to give RJ a chance to start and play 30 minutes + against msu .......give cohawk more minutes and Luke and Podz need to get 10-15 minutes ....let them fail as much as DMW and Jake are failing ....can't hurt.........
JMHO
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