Texas Tech 84, Illinois 78 Postgame

#301      
Nohops 73
BoiseBaller said:
I am perplexed by Big Z. He actually looks more frail this year. Gets pushed around way too easy. I figured Fletch would have helped him develop physically but he seems to be going the wrong way with that.
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My understanding is that he arrived at 220 lbs. and is now over 250. Assuming the added weight is Fletch muscle, it hasn't helped him from getting pushed around or holding his position for rebounds.
This Z's being his second year in the system, I had high hopes on him taking the typical leap. So far it looks more like a nap. Hope he wakes up, because he should be a critical piece to reaching our ceiling.
 
#304      
March2TheArch
If not for Lawhorn getting hurt, we get blown out.We were able to sic Lincoln on David to limit him in the 2nd half.

I like QC and Andrej. But let's not act like they're going to be able to help us when we play Boozer / Foster / Sarr or Demery / Mullins or Fears / Scott / Jervis.

This team is going to constantly have momentum broken by a shifty guard scoring, dishing, or drawing a foul.

It's astounding to me that we lost so many 1-2 possession games last year MSU, Wisconsin (twice), and UCLA that cost us a seed line in the NCAAs due to this weakness and we simply chose not to address it.

We needed:
- Faster / more athletic guards (addressed with QC and Williams)
- 3 and D players to replace Ben H (MISS)
- A backup PF who actually has low post skills and/or rebounding (ala Stillwell) (MISS)

Brown should not be in the starting lineup. He's not a point guard (multiple times looked uneasy on the ball beyond the 3 point line). He's not athletic enough to contain top 25 backcourts. Brown can be a part of the core rotation but makes little sense to start him. When he penetrates there is zero threat he'll shoot a middy or get to the cup. Defenses will very quickly play drop on him and cheat to counter the kick out.

Even after Mirk returns, we need to simply slide Williams to the 2spot (and Dre to his appropriate 3spot). Without his defense, we're going to get destroyed by every top 25 backcourt.

Assuming Jake is out/limited for the season, we should start:
- QC
- Williams
- Dre
- Mirk
- Tomi

Core rotational bench:
- Z (sadly we have to live and die by this play because Tomi can not be playing 30min a game without wearing down or getting hurt)
- Vaaks (similar to Dre last year for some quick fire offense on fresh legs)
- Brown
Breather minutes in lower leverage moments: Zens, Morillo

DNPs (except vs. cupcakes/in blowouts): Landon, Jakstys
 
#307      
EmeraldCityIllini
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I don’t think “only one” applies because Coleman had a monster game.
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I just meant from the get-go.

I actually think lots of guys had decent games overall. Coleman most definitely one of them.

I didn’t hate the Vaaks minutes as much as some, obviously he needs to make shots, but I still like the way he’s growing overall. I think Lincoln is a dude. I don’t think Ethan played all the great, but still plays as such, that still is productive. Andrej was EXCELLENT in the second half.

I didn’t love the Zens minutes as much as some. He’s obviously gonna be a stud, and I get he doesn’t screw up. But him playing 20 minutes in that game not making shots tells you where we’re at with injuries right now IMO
 
#308      
PepeSilvia
ImGonnaBeILL said:
I listened to Inquirer post game pod after this post and Werner/Tausk put it great "Z is unplayable right now".And sadly we're having to play him.

Im not gonna sit here and pretend to be the leader of the Jakstys fan club as he is what he is at this level....an end of bench big. But if I'm gonna have to play a backup big 10-12 minutes a game. id prefer the guy showing some toughness and will battle down on the block.

Tomi has got his fair share of deserved criticism over the course of time but.he gave 30 minutes last night. Probably can't expect much more than that at his size and their pace but those 10 minutes he wasn't on the floor as their big were ugly
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Z didn't play a good game but I think saying he's unplayable is an overreaction.

Even yesterday he still had a ton of flashes on the defensive end. He basically created like 2 or 3 stops by himself in the first 2-3 minutes he was on the court.
 
#310      
EmeraldCityIllini
March2TheArch said:
If not for Lawhorn getting hurt, we get blown out.We were able to sic Lincoln on David to limit him in the 2nd half.

I like QC and Andrej. But let's not act like they're going to be able to help us when we play Boozer / Foster / Sarr or Demery / Mullins or Fears / Scott / Jervis.

This team is going to constantly have momentum broken by a shifty guard scoring, dishing, or drawing a foul.

It's astounding to me that we lost so many 1-2 possession games last year MSU, Wisconsin (twice), and UCLA that cost us a seed line in the NCAAs due to this weakness and we simply chose not to address it.

We needed:
- Faster / more athletic guards (addressed with QC and Williams)
- 3 and D players to replace Ben H (MISS)
- A backup PF who actually has low post skills and/or rebounding (ala Stillwell) (MISS)

Brown should not be in the starting lineup. He's not a point guard (multiple times looked uneasy on the ball beyond the 3 point line). He's not athletic enough to contain top 25 backcourts. Brown can be a part of the core rotation but makes little sense to start him. When he penetrates there is zero threat he'll shoot a middy or get to the cup. Defenses will very quickly play drop on him and cheat to counter the kick out.

Even after Mirk returns, we need to simply slide Williams to the 2spot (and Dre to his appropriate 3spot). Without his defense, we're going to get destroyed by every top 25 backcourt.

Assuming Jake is out/limited for the season, we should start:
- QC
- Williams
- Dre
- Mirk
- Tomi

Core rotational bench:
- Z (sadly we have to live and die by this play because Tomi can not be playing 30min a game without wearing down or getting hurt)
- Vaaks (similar to Dre last year for some quick fire offense on fresh legs)
- Brown
Breather minutes in lower leverage moments: Zens, Morillo

DNPs (except vs. cupcakes/in blowouts): Landon, Jakstys
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We play high level D1 P4 basketball, in all our big games we’re gonna have momentum broken at points, probably multiple times.

What a lot of us fail to do on this shifty guard argument - which is true, they caused us issues defensively, is the tradeoff. I think the staff will live with a shifty guard breaking momentum sometimes, if it means we just pound the living hell out of them on the glass.

As was pointed out last year, and against last night. The correlation for our wins/losses is not what fast small guard goes nuclear, it very simply is if we rebound or not.
 
#312      
JKR
BackThatPassUp said:
Our freshmen had some growing pains in the first half. Too many turnovers and they had to adjust to the physicality but the second half was much better. Our shooting sorely missed jake davis because we missed way too many wide open threes throughout the game. No need to talk about FTs. We all saw that. I'm just glad they made a game out of it.

Quentin Coleman gave us the toughness and scrappiness I'd expect from Tomi at this point. The defensive rebounding was abysmal.
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Those alley oop breakups were incredible.
 
#313      
FloridaMan
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Andrej was the lone guy who was making free throws.

Andrej: 5-6

Rest of the team: 3-13 (ON FREE THROWS)
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4 of the 10 misses from the rest of team were Vaaks. He needs to pick it up, especially from the line. 33% out of 12 attempts (AS leads with 15) so far is not cutting it.
 
#314      
JKR
IlliniHardwood said:
We're going to be a different team when Mirkovic is back. Mirkovic > Toppin.
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Perhaps, but that wasn't the case when they faced off last year. Toppin had a double-double (35-11) vs. (11-4) for Mirck
 
#316      
Oracle21
jimbo72 said:
So proud of DGL, he's come so far! Coleman is a Balling Dog. What effort and desire!
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If DGL plays a 5th year which I expect since he’s not an NBA player, I’d welcome him back to Champaign. He would absolutely help the current team with his ball handling and athleticism. I think missing on Blackwell is gonna be the real issue with the ceiling on this year’s team. Only having one real confident primary ball handler just isn’t going to work long term.
 
#318      
JKR
Brosky said:
Especially if the 6-8 guy is strong, tenacious, and has high court IQ. Remember Ken Norman and Robert Bennett? The latter was only about 6-5. He'd go to the boards with anybody. I forgot Sergio, who was only about 6-3 but extremely strong and focused. Some thought that inch for inch, he was the best rebounder in the county,
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See Nick Weatherspoon.
 
#319      
wncillini
Illiniguy13 said:
Yeah, I've defended Z quite a bit lately, but I'm officially stepping down from that podium. I just don't think he has the intangibles or feel for the game to be consistently effective, despite having all the physical tools in the world. Hard to believe he shot 38% from three during his first two years at Kentucky and Arkansas
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I think hes a guy you cant really coach and mold into a system, especially 2 new offenses in 2 years. I think he's trying but he cant handle the new inputs to what hes supposed to be doing in real time so hes kind of shuts down, almost like what happens with freshman.

I think he would benefit most for 12 to 15sh minutes a game letting him loose. Youre going to get some technicals, going to get some bone headed shots, and some dunks, and blocks, and energy. I think he cant be one to think much when hes out there. Let him loose and have fun and ride the energy he can bring.
 
#320      
Second place is 1st loser
jimbo72 said:
Walk into half half time, with 3 time outs. WTF
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We were perfectly fine for the first 8 minutes. We struggled, bounced back, struggled, bounced back.....but then the rash of turnovers started. When the TO was needed, the TV time out(8 minute mark) put a pause to it. It was very similar at the 4 minute mark.

Our players got in panic mode in the first half. I'm sure Brad expected it because I sure as heck did. This wasn't an x's and o's situation. This was kids that knew(and were told) it would be wild, but until you experience it, you just don't know. They could have used 12 timeouts....wouldn't have mattered. They needed to get through it and play through it. Brad's job, in game 3, is to observe what's going on and where the capabilities lie. QC was phenomenal. Murillo and Zens didn't look like they belonged.

This is not the game to make value judgements on anything, nor were the games vs FDU and Penn. Let it play out.
 
#321      
NarrowJ
Second place is 1st loser said:
We were perfectly fine for the first 8 minutes. We struggled, bounced back, struggled, bounced back.....but then the rash of turnovers started. When the TO was needed, the TV time out(8 minute mark) put a pause to it. It was very similar at the 4 minute mark.

Our players got in panic mode in the first half. I'm sure Brad expected it because I sure as heck did. This wasn't an x's and o's situation. This was kids that knew(and were told) it would be wild, but until you experience it, you just don't know. They could have used 12 timeouts....wouldn't have mattered. They needed to get through it and play through it. Brad's job, in game 3, is to observe what's going on and where the capabilities lie. QC was phenomenal. Murillo and Zens didn't look like they belonged.

This is not the game to make value judgements on anything, nor were the games vs FDU and Penn. Let it play out.
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100% and it’s just differences in coaching philosophy. Nate Oats ranted last year that if the adjustment is to play harder, players need to figure that out on the fly. You don’t call timeouts to scream about effort, you can do that from the sideline without stopping the game and giving your opponent a chance to add to their game plan while you complain to your team about something they should already know.

“Call a timeout and tell them to play harder? You call a timeout and make adjustments. I’m not gonna call a timeout and tell them to play harder.”

-Nate Oats
 
#322      
Theponyred
The good - Tomi, Drej, Coleman, and the in game adjustments by BU.
The Bad - Brown, and Vaaks
The Ugly - Free throws and boards
 
#323      
Calvin
I get the reactions after the loss, but I'm probably in a glass half full mode.
* TTU has a phenomenal atmosphere - crowd really brought it
* The late add from the restraining order was a big boost for them
* Our Guys were hyped all offseason, and I think that can get in their heads a bit. Not saying we needed a loss, but I think a reality check can be useful
* We're a young team without Jake and Mirk. I think we had 4 freshman on the court at times. Think about that - first real road game for a lot of guys. The number of things that can be cleaned up is high. Turnovers alone were huge. Or FT shooting. Or rebounding. We weren't a finished product last year at the start, and I think that's typical of Brad's teams.
* Despite being a young team, you can take something from that second half. Honestly I'm surprised by the talent level for as banged up as the team is.

Duke is looking like a tall tall order, but I'm ok with these Quad 1 games. Definitely disappointed with the first half like everyone else was. They get one more tune-up at least. Could drop pretty far in the rankings with 2 early losses and no real wins unfortunately.
 
#324      
zentrails
ChiefGritty said:
I mean we totally changed what we were doing at both ends at halftime. Ball screens on offense and switching and drop coverage on defense. Plus shortening the bench and slowing the game down a bit. Tech, who were extremely well prepared for what we attacked them with in the first half, had no idea what hit them for the first 10-12 minutes of the second.

That leaves us with a bit of a mystery in the aftermath. Who are we?
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A team with a HC & staff who are great at half time adjustments?
 
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