Rutgers 91, Illinois 88 Postgame

#53      

DRS

D
DRS
OOOF, carbon copy of the Mizzou game. Did not expect the defense to get taking advantage of so frequently. Several times this game, and the Mizzou game, we are losing the hustle plays on the defensive side. We are allowing players to penetrate and get their shoulders turned on us. Bigs come to help and then offensive rebounds start to pile up. We certainly can fill it up but until this team puts together 40minutes of tough defense I see the confidence against tough opponents to be shook. Frazier and Ayo need to clean up the offense. They are the engine and it needs to run smoother. Ayo got his and still had an imprint but a few plays of sloppy handles, a key missed layup. Trent early on had a couple of careless turnovers(and a couple dimes). His shot looks much better then last year but he needs to drop the turnovers. Knew this game was gonna be tough. but did not expect to get out worked for about 20minutes of the game. Very end of the second half all the way to about 2:30 left. Seriously out of sorts. Rutgers is a top 20 team and this was only a 3 point loss but not loving the way that one looked. or the Mizzou game for that matter. Other team seems over the whole of the game to want it more. Not a good look.\
 
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#54      

Deleted member 11228

D
Guest
Deleted member 11228
altgeld88 said:
So: we just lost to a (1) Top 20 team on (2) their court (3) by a single trey (4) in December (5) having not played consistently well for the final 20 mins if not more.

This is cause for extended hand-wringing? No. No, it's not, Eeyores.
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Exactly. I mean we aren't Iowa where we played every game at home to start the season against mostly a bunch of nobodies so we can juice up our record and then our first real test away from home we get blasted.
 
#55      

Cook

Cook
Richmond, VA
Cook
Orange Wave said:
Getting tired of posting about a L that we can learn from...guess we haven’t learned(from the other 2) that you have to play harder than the other team. Way too many bad fouls, shots, sloppy TO’s in our 3 losses...doesn’t seem like we can make an adjustment when we need one
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This ALL DAY! So annoying :mad:
 
#56      

DRS

D
DRS
and good lord people. Some of the comments on here are beyond the pale. pull it together folks. This team is really good, that has not changed.

The loss of Dre, and lets face it, Griffin is hurting us in terms of toughness. The freshman will figure it out and this will gel.
 
#58      

SuperMetroid

SuperMetroid
Evanston
SuperMetroid
Pop'sBlackDog said:
Hard to win in Big without any athletic forwards. Need perfect game planning and execution. Miller's learning curve and Mulcahey's maturity a big difference. .Decent game just no answer for the time Williams had to sit after the flagrant drawn by Mulcahey.
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I think this is showing up big time in how many offensive rebounds we're giving up. It's been a huge issue in all 3 losses. Kofi and Georgi are just getting beat to the ball by quicker, more athletic guys and our best rebounding guard (Feliz) has moved on. We've had some bad luck with long rebounds on missed threes leading to scrambles and wide open shots, too.
 
#59      

Retro62

Retro62
North Bethesda, Maryland
Retro62
bootsy said:
Exactly. I mean we aren't Iowa where we played every game at home to start the season against mostly a bunch of nobodies and then our first real test away from home we get blasted.
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Well, Iowa lost by 11 to no. 1, and we lost by 13 to no. 2... no one felt like we got blasted. I appreciate trying to stay away from the proverbial edge, but we need to be realistic about where we are vs. where we thought we would be.

Also, not doubting we can turn it around.
 
#60      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
Before season started when so many were saying we were a Final Four team, I said I thought this team was a top 25 team and had to prove they were more than that. That’s where I’m still at with this team. To beat another top 25 team they need an almost perfect performance from Ayo, and they didn’t get that today (and that’s not a knock on Ayo). Just not enough consistency from the rest of the team and not enough depth to overcome poor games from other players.

I still like this team a lot, and they can develop into something special. But they ain’t there yet. Like a lot of teams, the truncated nonconference schedule has hurt the Illini. Don’t think it is a coincidence that their 3 losses have come against teams that have a lot of returning players. Just have to hope things start to click for Miller, Hawkins and Grandison can add more for depth, and Curbelo becomes more consistent.
 
#61      

Orange Wave

O
Orange Wave
Clemillini21 said:
Some of you are awful first reaction fans... we lost by 3, to a ranked team in the big ten, and they shot 20(!!!) more free throws than us. Look at the team stat sheet and they out-blocked and Offensive rebounded us. This was made exponentially worse by the foul calls making our guys scared to play defense and get on the boards.

when you play a ranked team on the road in the big ten and only lose by 3 after they shoot 20 more free throws. That’s a good result to ask for. Now if most of you would’ve been complaining even if we won, I would respect these first reactions because we did not play anywhere near our best, but for all these fans acting like we played like garbage. Please be realistic that with even just moving it down to a 10 free throw advantage, we would’ve won the game.
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Yeah we always overreact after losses(glad we have expectations again) but but it’s the trend that worrisome. 3 losses now in similar fashion. Was hoping for more than a 1st weekend team. We’ll see if they learn eventually
 
#63      

illinitiger

I
illinitiger
Offensively we were solid.....Defensively we were flat....they had 20 offensive boards, 8 blocks, 8 steals. They were very scrappy...we were not.

36 freethrows for rutgers and 15 for us seems a little out of balance.
 
#64      

Fanview

Fanview
Fanview
Tough game to lose. Not ready to push the panic button, but I'm willing to acknowledge our issues. I think our Freshmen, specifically Miller needs to find a way to impact the game outside of 3 point shooting. When it doesn't go in, he's quiet.

Good news? We have a favorable stretch of games now and can use that to clean things up
 
#65      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
It’s just not clicking. I think we believed our good pre/early season press. I’m always a believer it’s better to have to earn it that respect and a chip on your shoulder is never a bad thing. I thought this team would have the maturity for that to not matter, but it did and it does. It’s certainly not a “bad” loss by any means, but this team should be ready for a war every time out and clearly we are not. We are not 4-4, but we certainly have had half of our games we weren’t as tough as we need to be. Long ways to go. BU has his work cut out for him.
 
#66      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
Retro62 said:
I agree that it’s not doom and gloom, but we also have to acknowledge that if anyone said we would be 5-3 in our first 8 games, it would be cause for concern based on our hopes after the return of Ayo and Kofi.
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I take your point but given the departures of Dre and Alan and the fact that Curbelo and Miller are freshmen, albeit great talents,, I took for granted that they need some time to learn to play together and that Curbelo and Miller are going to flail in the deep end of the pool occasionally for a while. It's not unusual early in the season. If we're seeing this in mid-to-late January then I will become concerned. And if I see consistently erratic play against Indiana or Purdue in Champaign I'll begin to scratch my head a bit. But not v. Top 20 Rutgers on the road in the RAC, fans or no.

Look at KenPom. We were #11 at 5-2 before the game. Rutgers was #18. MSU was #20. No. Not worried.
 
#67      

JAbada

JAbada
JAbada
Miles Leonard said:
I do believe we have the talent. We just aren't there mentally. After the awful flagrant call, the game got away from us until our desperation comeback at the end.

You simply can't continue to get beat on the boards like that. We had our two biggest guys right there to grab a board and let Rutgers take it from us. Utterly inexcusable, and it points to effort IMO.

Not a bad loss. This Rutgers group is dang good and well coached. Happy to see them succeed, just not against us. I am starting to really dislike that Mulcahy kid though.
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I miss Brian Johnson and his hustle. Scrapping for every loose ball. Like Matt H. 😭😭😭
 
#68      

the juiceman cometh

T
the juiceman cometh
Losing this game is not necessarily a problem, but how we lost is. At this point, we've had 3 games where a really good team has challenged us, and we've lost all three. And honestly the score in the Mizzou game and today's game doesn't do justice to our opponents. They straight up beat us both times.

This is a good team, but so far I don't think this year's team is better than last year's team. This was supposed to be the year we built on last year's success, and I'm not seeing it yet. Maybe we get there but we're 8 games into a 25 game season so time to prove it already.
 
#69      

Illini1974Ever

I
Illini1974Ever
DRS said:
and good lord people. Some of the comments on here are beyond the pale. pull it together folks. This team is really good, that has not changed.

The loss of Dre, and lets face it, Griffin is hurting us in terms of toughness. The freshman will figure it out and this will gel.
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Miller lol please figure it out buddy!!
Feel that's kinda where it STARTED too turn..
 
#70      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
Cook said:
This ALL DAY! So annoying :mad:
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Welcome to the wonderful world of second-guessing the split-second decisions of 18-21 year-olds on a regular basis. Someone needs a dose of the Stoics.
 
#72      

RickBB

R
RickBB
Curbello needs to play all the time. He does things no one else does, yes even Ayo.

we either seal out and don’t jump and get called for undercutting, or we don’t seal out. I don’t know how many times we just turned to the basket and Rutgers ran around us to go get the ball.
 
#73      

the national

the national
the Front Range
the national
I’m frustrated that this team keeps making the same mistakes over and over. We play real soft at times. Whether it be Kofi not going straight up for a dunk or silly turnovers or picking up cheap fouls. We need to get tougher, smarter on defense. The profession just isn’t there yet. I think we are top 25 but this team needs to prove they deserve to be in the conversation. We just aren’t there yet.
 
#75      

Lexis20

L
Lexis20
Anybody know the status of BBV? Put a 6'8" rebounder with a 3 point shot in this lineup and thee dynamic is much different.