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Tennessee 86, Illinois 79 Postgame
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
Guerrier’s wrist seems better!
It's that the guys the Illini are having to rely on to bring up the ball often look sluggish and not comfortable doing so. We've all seen good ballhandlers where they just glide across the floor and the ball moves effortlessly in their hands and defenders look silly trying to reach and poke at the ball.
And when the Illini get into close games this season and the opposition begins to press at the end... that will be real trouble.
The Illini have some great players with good to great skill sets. But for the bulk of the roster... ballhandling is simply not a strong point.
By the time they get to this point in their careers their individual skills are usually already settled. But guys can work hard at building up parts of their game (like Ayo working on Three Ball in his career). It sure would help if the Illini seriously worked on developing this key part of the game.
Just like in hockey... the guys with great speed just play at whole different level from other guys. Same with roundball ballhandlers.
LaTulip pointed out that our defense today was actually not too bad, at least according to one key measurement, points per possession. Today that number was 0.96 according to Mike, which he said was pretty good. That number was actually an improvement over the FAU game. I think the problems today were shot selection (too many 3's) and rebounding (43-34 UT).
A game to learn from - as several have said, we'll be ok..
The guy we miss was Boswell. With him we are undefeated.
Now that made me laugh.
Loyalillini10
- Urbana, IL
A loss is always tough, but there are a lot of positives to take away from this game.
We did a really good job of getting to FT line and took advantage of it.
I want to shine a light on Ty and how much more comfortable he looked at the FT line.
Coleman's (good) 3-point looks were falling.
Guerrier's hand seems to be feeling better.
The team really didn't seem to be bothered by the crowd. That shows experience.
However, our halfcourt offense was a little sluggish and we settle for too many outside shots. Dain was out of sorts and, again, we missed too many layups.
Still, I feel really good about this team after today. On to the next!
We did a really good job of getting to FT line and took advantage of it.
I want to shine a light on Ty and how much more comfortable he looked at the FT line.
Coleman's (good) 3-point looks were falling.
Guerrier's hand seems to be feeling better.
The team really didn't seem to be bothered by the crowd. That shows experience.
However, our halfcourt offense was a little sluggish and we settle for too many outside shots. Dain was out of sorts and, again, we missed too many layups.
Still, I feel really good about this team after today. On to the next!
Loyalillini10
- Urbana, IL
Yes, because we can 100% know this is a fact. 100%. There is absolutely no reasonable argument to say otherwise.
Yup...far from playing our best...but Tenn. deserves most of the credit for that. Hope our players and staff are obsessed with gleaning every bit of information from this game and how to counter....as they have everything needed to do just that if they want to bad enough. More so, I hope the coaches can understand and learn some things, not that they did not have the team ready but their plan did not seem to be as complete and detailed.
Would love to see a neutral rematch.
And kudos to Ty and whoever has been working with him on his FT routine/mechanics/fundamentals. I saw four solid repetitions where his eyes became static before beginning his lift and only moved vertically. So important.
Those numbers were flattered by the fact that Tennessee isn't a great shooting team overall. If you watch the game, you see defenders switching off, losing track of cutters, and allowing Tennessee many good looks, a number of which they missed. It would be a mistake for our coaches to look at those numbers and write off our defending as something not in need of improvement.
We just looked a half step slow for a good ten minute stretch of the second half, resulting in second opportunities for the Vols that bit us in the !!!... And yet I thought we played close to even by and large.
Not going to be a bad loss at the end of the year. On a neutral court, I have no fear.
Not going to be a bad loss at the end of the year. On a neutral court, I have no fear.
Fun first 24 minutes or so of game time. Very frustrating from there to the end.
Most of my thoughts have already been said by others I think but I'll still throw them out there...
The refs were refs. I wouldn't say we got screwed by them because the FTs were about equal, but that was two different twenty minute games. Real quick, smooth 1st half and just a slog of a 2nd half. It is so tough to play when you have the change in the way a game is called.
Brad referenced that Tennessee was letting us shoot so that's why we shot so many threes. But I thought I saw a lot of three guys standing on the perimeter and then a little two man game up top. I'm not one for "Demitri, moooooove!!!!!" but it felt stagnant at times and I'm surprised we got to 79.
I mentioned the lack of a PG in the game thread and it's not so much that we need assists in order to score, but it would help so much in setting up our offense. I think the idea was to try and have Domask bring up the ball to initiate the offense. But then you had Ziegler clown him a couple of times and Domask was so shook he didn't want anything to do with touching the ball in the backcourt.
This is going to be the hot take of the post... Today's game reminds me of the past two years in such a way and all I can see going forward is a first round exit because we plop ourselves on the three point line, shots don't fall and we never adjust to get to the basket (or we do way too late).
All of that said, it was great to see the team in person for the first time in...a decade? It was awesome to cheer them off the court with the lead at halftime. And, despite all the above pearl clutching, I am excited about the rest of this year because the potential is there.
Most of my thoughts have already been said by others I think but I'll still throw them out there...
The refs were refs. I wouldn't say we got screwed by them because the FTs were about equal, but that was two different twenty minute games. Real quick, smooth 1st half and just a slog of a 2nd half. It is so tough to play when you have the change in the way a game is called.
Brad referenced that Tennessee was letting us shoot so that's why we shot so many threes. But I thought I saw a lot of three guys standing on the perimeter and then a little two man game up top. I'm not one for "Demitri, moooooove!!!!!" but it felt stagnant at times and I'm surprised we got to 79.
I mentioned the lack of a PG in the game thread and it's not so much that we need assists in order to score, but it would help so much in setting up our offense. I think the idea was to try and have Domask bring up the ball to initiate the offense. But then you had Ziegler clown him a couple of times and Domask was so shook he didn't want anything to do with touching the ball in the backcourt.
This is going to be the hot take of the post... Today's game reminds me of the past two years in such a way and all I can see going forward is a first round exit because we plop ourselves on the three point line, shots don't fall and we never adjust to get to the basket (or we do way too late).
All of that said, it was great to see the team in person for the first time in...a decade? It was awesome to cheer them off the court with the lead at halftime. And, despite all the above pearl clutching, I am excited about the rest of this year because the potential is there.
It looked like Tennessee realized that Domask was going to be our primary ball handler so they put Zeigler on him and It gave him a lot of trouble. I thought we made a good adjustment late in the game by having Guerrier help bring the ball up, just maybe should have done it earlier. With us having multiple guys that can decently handle the ball we should be able to find a favorable match up for these types of issues in the future.
Wild! Some of that was certainly dictated by the way they were defended. But they certainly settled for some shots instead of attacking.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
While I think they played well overall, the late shot clock contested 3s were very reminiscent of last year. Not saying their defense didn't have a little something to do with that, but today was a game we could have won.
Little disappointed but this team is going to be pretty darn tough to beat come March.
ILL
Little disappointed but this team is going to be pretty darn tough to beat come March.
ILL
That and being down late, but that still seemed like an incredible number.
sacraig
- The desert
At least, for now, the floor is also high.
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
Just finished watching. Was on Dad Duty during the game
-Terrible shot selection
-Off shooting games from TSJ and Domask
-Phantom hook and hold changed momentum as always
-Got bothered by TN’s pressure
-Overall officiating very questionable
Will be one of the toughest games of the year, and overall we faired well. The best I have felt about a team since Ayo.
-Terrible shot selection
-Off shooting games from TSJ and Domask
-Phantom hook and hold changed momentum as always
-Got bothered by TN’s pressure
-Overall officiating very questionable
Will be one of the toughest games of the year, and overall we faired well. The best I have felt about a team since Ayo.
With 3 tough games away from home there was a chance to "not show up" to some of these. The players and coaches were well prepared and had great effort. Big difference this year is they can switch defense effortless and smartly, last year they couldn't. A disaster would have been 0-3, most of us are glad to leave with 2-1 record with lots of growth amongst our players. Domask and Quincy both look like they took huge strides forward. Harmon also played his best ball.
Agree on the hook and hold. Felt more like Ty was hook and held if anything. Couple other no calls or calls in Tennessee favor that changed the momentum. Shot selection was mainly due to Tennessee's pressure in halfcourt, but there were some (Domask, CoHawk) long distance attempts.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This. I believe in this squad.
I think we're pretty solid also, which is not inconsistent with a Round of 32 finish. Our problems have been talked about ad nauseam and I agree with the general consensus. I'm not a gloom and doomer by any means. I think we'll be in the top 25 most of the year. But I wouldn't predict a Sweet 16 or better. I hope I'm wrong and of course anything can happen.I think our team is pretty solid this year. By no means perfect, but I’m curious as to what all of our problems are that are not solvable as of December 9.
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