UConn 77, Illinois 52 Postgame

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#376      

WyattEarp

WyattEarp
WyattEarp
Manual3for4peat said:
People gotta chill.

Bill Murray is proud of his son. He’s not a sellout. He’s a supportive dad.

The refs didn’t screw us. We ran into a team that’s gonna sweep the tournament by double digits again.

Danny Hurley was very complimentary of our team and Brad. He wanted to get his subs in. He wasn’t Bruce Pearl.

We lost. It sucks. But, the sun will come up again tomorrow. And the portal will entertain us.

Also I’m hoping UConn wins the whole thing.
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You’re right…we gotta switch to decaf and just reflect on what a great year this was. It’s a truly excellent spot that the program is in…It’s been quite a ride.

I gotta say, that the way I feel about this team compared to the year before is night and day difference. So proud of this team!

As to Hurley…I agree with your assessment. I must admit he’s a helluva coach.

lol. I honestly thought over half the people making Murray comments were just goofin’ ?I still think most were. (I was.) But what do I know? I thought my witch-gif would be read as an obvious joke. (Not so much I guess.)

I have to part company with you on your hopes for who wins this thing. Other than that…great post.
 
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#377      

Seppuku

Seppuku
Seppuku
Not sure if this was brought up, but I’m very disappointed in BU’s coaching this game, particularly on defensive side. In the first half, Clingan was something like +9 when Dain was not playing but -7 when he was in. Dain was the only player who is tall enough and physically strong enough to stand his ground. Dain was on the bench though most (all?) of the 30-0 run. Why? Did anyone ask BU about that?
 
#380      

OrangeKrush1981

OrangeKrush1981
OrangeKrush1981
I feel the same way. This team exceeded my expectations, though I knew they were good. I hoped for a bit more, but then I know that is being greedy. This year's squad has been a joy.
 
#381      

OrangeKrush1981

OrangeKrush1981
OrangeKrush1981
Coleman working on his NBA game, lol. Lawyering on every dead ball.

OK, that sounds critical. It actually isn't. I know Coleman is right, the refs doing what they do (screw up, all the time, without a care in the world as to who wins nor what the CONSEQUENCES are of their eye-rollingly-bad calls are). Still, the game has become literally impossible to officiate.

To the extent that is a problem, it would behoove a coach or three, or a few sober ADs, to look at the rules in a non-clownlike fashion. This has been going south for decades. Ain't no surprise.
 
#383      

DICKnaggie

DICKnaggie
Champaign
DICKnaggie
TheodoreRex said:
which is tough to swallow because man is Hurley an arrogant dude.
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He is arrogant and also plays the victim card all the time, often suggesting the world is out to get him or his team. He is smart. That is a very politically savvy play and he knows it. I am completely respectful of his coaching because he is fantastic, but he is an awfully insufferable person in his media engagements for the most part. Yes, I know he was complementary to us and Brad. I'm referring to a trend.
 
#385      

aaeismacgychel

A
aaeismacgychel
phats22 said:
They were consistent but definitely called a physical game that was not in our favor. I give props to SVG (I think) who flat out called the refs out for missing the calls early.

Was funny when he had to pivot to stating college game is more physical than NBA as his only rationale for the way the game was called
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I need both of you to explain the "refs were consistent" part, because that was quite frankly my biggest gripe with them as I just did not see it. For the first about 30 minutes of the game I had a very difficult time understanding what was and was not a foul by this crew other than the general bodying someone was ok. Hitting the shooting arm was not called consistently, using hands to push the shooter was not called consistently, hand checks and reach ins were not called consistently, and there were at least 3 anticipation fouls called prior to contact, 1 of which was laughably egregious (a full step off).

I thought after UCONN went up by 25+ the refs called a very consistent game. But before then, I did not see any consistently whatsoever. I thought the refs were brutal. Far from the reason we lost, but absolutely brutal nonetheless until the game was over. And all you have to do is watch the fouls called the final 10 minutes of the game and compare them to the first 30. That said, I'll listen. Maybe you saw something I certainly didn't.
 
#386      

fatboyslim

F
fatboyslim
ChiefGritty said:
Assuming they don't blow it this is the best team since Anthony Davis' Kentucky at the very least.
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Best since Villanova in 18. They lost 4 games with it's worst loss by 8 points. Beat every team by double digits in that tourney including 4 top 15 teams.
 
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#387      

OrangeBlue98

OrangeBlue98
Des Moines, IA
OrangeBlue98
DICKnaggie said:
He is arrogant and also plays the victim card all the time, often suggesting the world is out to get him or his team. He is smart. That is a very politically savvy play and he knows it. I am completely respectful of his coaching because he is fantastic, but he is an awfully insufferable person in his media engagements for the most part. Yes, I know he was complementary to us and Brad. I'm referring to a trend.
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I’m just saying that if a player going after a loose ball happened to wipe out Danny into the scorer’s table at the Final Four, I’d probably have this reaction.

Episode 2 Whatever GIF
 
#389      

spotter

S
spotter
DICKnaggie said:
He is arrogant and also plays the victim card all the time, often suggesting the world is out to get him or his team. He is smart. That is a very politically savvy play and he knows it. I am completely respectful of his coaching because he is fantastic, but he is an awfully insufferable person in his media engagements for the most part. Yes, I know he was complementary to us and Brad. I'm referring to a trend.
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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1774249417685475799
 
#390      

Bucktown

B
Bucktown
DICKnaggie said:
He is arrogant and also plays the victim card all the time, often suggesting the world is out to get him or his team. He is smart. That is a very politically savvy play and he knows it. I am completely respectful of his coaching because he is fantastic, but he is an awfully insufferable person in his media engagements for the most part. Yes, I know he was complementary to us and Brad. I'm referring to a trend.
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I have no respect for anyone playing the victim card especially when they are not one. I found him insufferable, and he may now be my least favorite coach. They were up by 30 and he’s in the middle of the court trying to get the crowd riled up.
 
#391      

HensonHall71

H
HensonHall71
Great ride this year and a fun team to watch

Disappointing to go out this way and the frustrating part is that it’s now been 4 straight years we go out in the tournament where we’re not even competitive in the game. I know the storylines have been “bad matchup” but I thought this team was different and wouldn’t let a team totally punk is like that. The strategy of continuing to challenge Clingan when it was clear they weren’t going to call a foul was perplexing to say the least
 
#392      

DICKnaggie

DICKnaggie
Champaign
DICKnaggie
Bucktown said:
I have no respect for anyone playing the victim card especially when they are not one. I found him insufferable, and he may now be my least favorite coach. They were up by 30 and he’s in the middle of the court trying to get the crowd riled up.
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Yep. Again,I respect multiple aspects of his coaching, development, roster creation, etc, but he is a strange dude.
 
#394      

Illiniam1984

I
Illiniam1984
There is no shame is losing to that UCONN team. They are on a different plant right now. No one is going to beat them especially Purdue. Purdue is probably the best matchup against them but they don’t have as good of guards as UCONN has.
 
#395      

SoCal Illini

S
SoCal Illini
Champaign88 said:
Reflecting on this game some more, just have to acknowledge that UConn is just that much better than everyone else right now.

The way UConn is completely connected both offensively and defensively reminds me of the 04-05 team. They play a different offense, but the way they whip the ball around and get you out of position, and then either take an open shot or drive to the hoop, their system is just that good. And then they can just dump it to Clingan in the low post, and have a high pick and roll that is basically the college version of lob city with Clingan and Johnson. On top of that they’re a big team across the board and have a 7’2” elite rim protector as the anchor and their bench is just as gifted as the starters it seems.

I love Auggie as much as everyone else, but imagine just having Clingan to guard Sean May for that one game…
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If I recall correctly (I think I mentioned this somewhere else too), but Augustine got into questionable foul trouble early, and between him having to sit for a significant portion and play more tentatively had a big impact. Had that not been the case perhaps the end result could have been different.

But yes, one can imagine. I imagine may would’ve had major issues, he was only about 6’9”. Or you could even imagine Kofi vs clingan.

UConn is the real deal.
 
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#396      

fatboyslim

F
fatboyslim
Bucktown said:
I have no respect for anyone playing the victim card especially when they are not one. I found him insufferable, and he may now be my least favorite coach. They were up by 30 and he’s in the middle of the court trying to get the crowd riled up.
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How bout when he was on the court during the first few minutes of the game. That was crazy.
 
#397      

CT-55

C
CT-55
JAbada said:
I'm very sad for this team because they are so much better than this. I love this team. They ran into a bulldozer and they did not have a good shooting night. Connecticut just shut them down everywhere. Now I don't know whether to root for Purdue or not.. lol
I will always be die hard Illini till I die. Love you all!!!!
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I always root for our conference after our team has fallen. Wonderful team and memorable season. One game doesn’t define our Illini.
 
#398      

Illiniguy13

Illiniguy13
Illiniguy13
Illiniam1984 said:
There is no shame is losing to that UCONN team. They are on a different plant right now. No one is going to beat them especially Purdue. Purdue is probably the best matchup against them but they don’t have as good of guards as UCONN has.
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For pure basketball entertainment purposes, I want to see this generational team go up against a generational mismatch. Zach Edey would put Donavan Clingan in hell & present UConn a unique conundrum they haven’t faced before 🍿
 
#399      

Wade

W
Wade
I have 2 major gripes with our coaching decisions:

1 - dain should have been in the game against clingan. It was clear from the first bucket that coleman had zero chance. Dain could at least provide a little resistance. He should have started the 2nd half.

2 - the strategy of driving into clingan was ignorant. Refs weren't calling fouls on him. We had no chance. We needed to drive and spray out to shooters. I hated Brad's in game interview saying we needed to keep going at him.

We still may not have won the game, but maybe we would have had a chance.
 
#400      

fatboyslim

F
fatboyslim
This is what I can't stand about some of you at home coaches. Putting Dain in the game to defend Clingan doesn't help us on the offensive end. He was ineffective on the offensive end. It also doesn't guarantee that he stops Clingan. They are still going to go into him no matter who is on him because we don't have anyone tall enough to defend him. Talented teams like UConn are not a good matchup for Dain.

The 3 point shot is not our main offense and we weren't making any of those shots either. Also some of the shots were there and our players passed up on it to drive. We started taking more jump shots and 3 pointers in the second half and still missed. None of that is Brad's fault.
 
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