Virginia 70, Illinois 61 Postgame

#129      
Interesting take. IMHO, CoHawk and RJ are our two most complete players, neither of whom force offense but can be deadly. They do all the little things....all the time. But both are involved in a ton of plays and are highly visible. Their blunders are magnified because they are there and involved. Lucky to have them both.
Epps had the ball in his hands a ton and only had one TO in two games. While Hawk does do some things well however he must take better care of the ball.Playing a lot isnt a good excuse for having 8 turnovers the past two days with 5 yesterday. He was fortunate a few other times with the ball today being careless knocked away and only went out of bounds or he could've had easily had 5 today. RJ had 5 over two games while our freshman Epps and Mayer only had 1 in two games. RJ and Coleman need to a much better job taking care of the ball while doing some of positives you mentioned.
 
Last edited:
#130      
I was in the second row. The refs didn't cost us the game. The three pointer that Skyy fouled on was questionable and a game changer with us up two and had the board but they attacked the rim more than the Illini..
Virginia has a team drove and attacked the basket much more than our team as a whole so they got to the line more often and made them. Epps and Shannon attacked the rim but not like they did.. We had good looks from three especailly in the first half just did hit like vs UCLA.
Game definitely turned on the Sky 3 foul. We had plenty of opportunities to win but had some terrible turnovers that you can't give up to a team like UVA. Overall can't have anything but optimism we aren't close to a finished product and were 3:30 mins from having two top 15 wins. The freshman belong very very impressed we'll be ok with Sky n Epps handling the offense which was my biggest concern for beginning of the season. The offense will only get better as they get more experience.
 
#133      
Epps had the ball in his hands a ton and only had one TO in two games. While Hawk does do some things well however he must take better care of the ball.Playing a lot isnt a good excuse for having 8 turnovers the past two days with 5 yesterday. He was fortunate a few other times with the ball today being careless knocked away and only went out of bounds or he could've had easily had 5 today. RJ had 5 over two games while our freshman Epps and Mayer only had 1 in two games. RJ and Coleman need to a much better job taking care of the ball while doing some of positives you mentioned.
I agree we need to clean up the turnovers. We get the ball slapped away from us to easily with turnovers and rebounding. Epps had the ball today a lot and had zero assists need to get better at moving the ball and seeing Dain.
 
#134      
UVA fan here just popping in to say gg. It was a hard fought game that could've gone either way. The difference was our experience and maturity prevailed at the end. That definitely felt like an away game for us. The ILL crowd defining showed up and showed out. You guys have some talented Freshman and I'd hate to be facing this team once they gain some more experience as the season progresses. Highly doubt there are 18 teams that are better than you guys right now. Wishing you all many wins and good health the rest of the way!
Welcome, appreciate the kind words you are welcome back anytime! It was a great game your experience won out in the end we are still putting all the new parts together, gave you some awful to's and you made us pay every time. If there was any team that I didn't mind losing to it would be you guys after such an awful tragedy hearts go out to all UVA nation. Massive respect for how you performed this weekend. You should be very proud of your boys(I'm sure you are). Best of luck for the rest of the season you will be a load and will be rooting for you to win the ACC.
 
Last edited:
#136      
Can't disagree with most thoughts here. Great weekend for our young team. A little bit of bad to learn from and a whole lot of good experience, plus a top 10 win. I thought Virginia's experience was the difference. I am surprised we did not press some, but I get it in that experienced, disciplined teams are difficult to press and can get some very easy looks if they break it well. The free throw disparity was a killer, but it's partly due to our settling for bad shots possession after possession and not trying to get Dainja more touches down low. I would take a game called like this every night in the B10, despite the non review on the hook and hold and the 5 minute timeout for Virginia for a shot clock review. The more experienced, better team (right now) won. I believe we will be the much better team come March.
 
#137      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
I don’t, Brad always loses to defense minded teams

WATCH THIS!!! I'M GONNA GO IN AND POST SOMETHING REALLY OBNOXIOUSLY NEGATIVE JUST TO GET A REACTION!

golf-fail.gif
 
#138      
Y’all are acting like it’s just easy to make Virginia not play their game when they’ve been playing that game for a decade+.
True. They’ve got it down to a science.
The way their Pack-line “D” perfectly compliments their Blocker-Mover motion stuff…it’s brilliant…

It’s usually SO glacially slow though. The basketball nerd in me loves it. But the casual fan in me hates it.

You sure can’t deny the results.
It’s uncanny the way they milk the shot-clock for those late, late scores that just break your back…and they do it over and over again….they also, seldom commit turn-overs; so the smallest lead
feels twice as big against them for all those reasons.
 
#142      
I agree we need to clean up the turnovers. We get the ball slapped away from us to easily with turnovers and rebounding. Epps had the ball today a lot and had zero assists need to get better at moving the ball and seeing Dain.
Still, Epps is a freshman and played well and not scared. He is only going to get better and be a beast. I am more excited about him thus far than any freshman. I think Skyy has the highest ceiling. I just wish he would look to score because I know he has it in him and could really lead to opening things up for others.
 
#143      
#145      
This reminded me of a couple of games when Ayo was just awful down the stretch (Missou comes to mind) like TSJ was tonight - really hard to win when your best player has a stretch at the end like that- but we definitely can play with these guys - we couldn’t rebound unless Danjia was in the game, which needs to be addressed and the offensive execution was pretty bad throughout- yet we were leading with 5 min to go

We can be really good this year when we put it together
 
#147      
Gotta remember we played 4 freshmen huge minutes… VA only played one underclassman. (McKneely)

This is why this was a great game. The young guys played in a big-time tournament-style atmosphere on the road and held their own. And the Illini are not a cohesive unit on the floor yet as they will be in March. Playing together... learning how best to fit together... learning to play well under pressure... knowing you belong on the floor with the best... all this sets up a great Madness Time.

These holiday tournament games are great fun. And it's the right approach to seek out and play great teams in them. But this is all prep for when the warmer winds begin to blow and the green grass begins to peak out and chase away winter’s cold. And THAT will warm the hearts of Illini Nation most of all.

Expect a HOT March this new year.
 
#148      
Two very good teams, two teams that are pretty evenly matched played a good game today....they rebounded the ball better and shot a large number of FT's compared to the Illini....thus the difference.....rebound better and get to the line more = Illini win
 
#150      
I love this team and I think we beat them if we get a rematch come March. The last 3 minutes we lost our composure on offense and were forcing things. That is a great example of were you miss an old gnarled veteran on the floor to calm things down and take control... like a Trent. We have so so much talent but no one real leader with that voice. It will come. It is all about these new pieces jelling and trusting one another. Love another shot at these guys in March. We will be a much better team by then. Lost to a really really good team that was old, knew they could win it at the line, and went looking for contact to get there all game long.