Week of 2/5 Games Thread

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#426      

HailtotheChief

H
HailtotheChief
LvilleILL said:
I am very confident we beat Purdue in March. We will be up for that game as will the crowd
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I will not be surprised if we are able to win that game. As for "very confident" , I can't say that given how we played at home vs Maryland, MSU and Nebraska. To beat a team like Purdue we need to play better at home than we have in those games. TSJ is going to need to play better than he has since he came back and not settle for double digit 3 point attempts.
 
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#427      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
ChiefGritty said:
All told I find the expectations on this board to be pretty sharply overoptimistic here on February 9th. Which gives this season something in common with every Illini Basketball team since Dan registered the domain name.
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I'm sorry, but I literally had to make an account after lurking for the last couple years to simply point out....weren't you the poster who got banned from the board after that offseason meltdown when we missed out RayJ and you deemed that this team would completely, absolutely fail without a true PG?

To me it seems like youre the one who is letting their priors affect how they see the plain reality of the team which is that we have a top 10 offense in the country, a top 35 defense (was much better earlier in the year but hope that TSJ can get back to his defensive mojo). Top 10 in AP poll, Kenpom etc. and we've only lost 3 out of our last 13 games (only one bad loss to Maryland and losing to arguably the top team in the country on the road by 5 and another tourney team in NU in OT).

I understand being pessimistic/negative on 75% of Illini-related stuff is kind of your schtick....but to imply that most of this board is stupidly optimistic about thinking a top ten team will get a 3 seed or above is ridiculous.

Ciao
 
#430      

FreshlySqueezed

FreshlySqueezed
FreshlySqueezed
NarrowJ said:
And yet it was a one-possession game at the very end. Definition of 'playing them down to the wire'.
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We never had the ball with a chance to even tie the game. The game was never in doubt.

There is no actual definition of "playing them down to the wire" but never even having a chance to tie the game sure ain't it for me.
 
#431      

NarrowJ

NarrowJ
NarrowJ
FreshlySqueezed said:
We never had the ball with a chance to even tie the game. The game was never in doubt.

There is no actual definition of "playing them down to the wire" but never even having a chance to tie the game sure ain't it for me.
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Agree to disagree, game was one-possession at the very end. That's my definition of it.

How someone can say a one possession game wasn't close is beyond me, but I'm not here to tell anyone how to think either.
 
#433      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
LvilleILL said:
This fanbase is getting really spoiled, lol
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If we won the natty this year.....absolutely *guarantee* there would be certain posters on this board who in the post game thread would be crying and worrying how our program is going to fall off because Brad or our other coaches are going to be poached.
 
#434      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
AirNeazy said:
I'm sorry, but I literally had to make an account after lurking for the last couple years to simply point out....weren't you the poster who got banned from the board after that offseason meltdown when we missed out RayJ and you deemed that this team would completely, absolutely fail without a true PG?
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For once I left under my own power.

But yes, this team is definitely better than I thought it was going to be, almost entirely because I badly underestimated Marcus Domask's ability to orchestrate the offense, which wasn't really something the chatter here was considering either in my defense.

But is this the 9th-10th best team in the country? If it is we will comfortably cast aside MSU tomorrow. Let's see it.
 
#435      

Chillinini

C
Chillinini
AirNeazy said:
I'm sorry, but I literally had to make an account after lurking for the last couple years to simply point out....weren't you the poster who got banned from the board after that offseason meltdown when we missed out RayJ and you deemed that this team would completely, absolutely fail without a true PG?

To me it seems like youre the one who is letting their priors affect how they see the plain reality of the team which is that we have a top 10 offense in the country, a top 35 defense (was much better earlier in the year but hope that TSJ can get back to his defensive mojo). Top 10 in AP poll, Kenpom etc. and we've only lost 3 out of our last 13 games (only one bad loss to Maryland and losing to arguably the top team in the country on the road by 5 and another tourney team in NU in OT).

I understand being pessimistic/negative on 75% of Illini-related stuff is kind of your schtick....but to imply that most of this board is stupidly optimistic about thinking a top ten team will get a 3 seed or above is ridiculous.

Ciao
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Ignore function does wonders. I use it wisely.
 
#439      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
ChiefGritty said:
For once I left under my own power.

But yes, this team is definitely better than I thought it was going to be, almost entirely because I badly underestimated Marcus Domask's ability to orchestrate the offense, which wasn't really something the chatter here was considering either in my defense.

But is this the 9th-10th best team in the country? If it is we will comfortably cast aside MSU tomorrow. Let's see it.
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AP Media poll has us #10. Coaches poll has us #12.

Analytics:
Kenpom: #9
Torvik: #13
NET: #13

I'd like to see your reasoning why you're so skeptical that we are a top ten team when almost every metric has us in that range, and why they must be inaccurate.
 
#440      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
NarrowJ said:
In a normal college basketball season, I'd probably agree. But have you watched top 10 teams play basketball this year?
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Agreed. This year there is the top 2 of UCONN and Purdue and then a jumble of teams 3 through 20, with which any could easily move up or down based on one simple outcome. It has been that strange of a season. Oddly, there are solid arguments to be made that this is a clear top 10 team and others to say this team is only top 20. There just is not that much differentiation among the tier 2 pack.
 
#441      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
AirNeazy said:
I'd like to see your reasoning why you're so skeptical that we are a top ten team when almost every metric has us in that range, and why they must be inaccurate.
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Seeding versus how good we actually are are two different questions, but "we haven't beaten anybody" features prominently in both.
 
#443      

NarrowJ

NarrowJ
NarrowJ
ChiefGritty said:
Seeding versus how good we actually are are two different questions, but "we haven't beaten anybody" features prominently in both.
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But, tell that to the AP voters, coaches and computers who are all actually unbiased.

Houston hasn't beaten a top 20 team all season, yet have been ranked top 3-5 every week (and just got clubbed at KU).
 
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#444      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
ChiefGritty said:
Seeding versus how good we actually are are two different questions, but "we haven't beaten anybody" features prominently in both.
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FAU, NU, MSU are all currently at large tourney teams according to Bracket Matrix currently. To imply we've been feasting on beating nobodies isn't accurate.

Again, please share your rationale as to why the media, coaches, and analytics all have us as a top team in the country and are wrong.
 
#445      

illini011923

illini011923
illini011923
AirNeazy said:
FAU, NU, MSU are all currently at large tourney teams according to Bracket Matrix currently. To imply we've been feasting on beating nobodies isn't accurate.

Again, please share your rationale as to why the media, coaches, and analytics all have us as a top team in the country and are wrong.
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To add to your point, the only bad loss we have as a team is the Maryland loss (TSJ did not play) and every loss we have is within 10 points. You compare that to other teams in the country ranked around us have taken worse losses.

You can only play who is on your schedule and if you take care of business (especially as a power 5 team) the seeding will follow

Yes not every win is as pretty as we might like but in the CBB landscape winning the game matters more than how you do it imo
 
#446      

SkyysNotFalling

S
SkyysNotFalling
LvilleILL said:
I also think we have been getting better almost every game since TSJ has been back. We had a really bad last three minutes against Nebraska, but Tominaga also had the game of his life and Mast hit some really tough threes and we still won. Need to keep improving, and tomorrow is a great chance to have a statement win
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Agreed. Think we played well last Sunday
 
#447      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
AirNeazy said:
FAU, NU, MSU are all currently at large tourney teams according to Bracket Matrix currently. To imply we've been feasting on beating nobodies isn't accurate.
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I mean, okay?

AirNeazy said:
Again, please share your rationale as to why the media, coaches, and analytics all have us as a top team in the country and are wrong.
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The why is that a then-marquee-looking FAU win pushed us up into the higher echelons of the polls and our lack of losses in a weak Big Ten has held us there, and the analytics love our superficially "close" losses to better teams.

I hope they're right. An 8-1 finish WOULD be realistic if they are.

I just think we ought to be really encouraged and impressed with a Big Ten finish more like 14-6 and excited to see what our old, mature and deep team can make happen in the crapshoot of this wide-open tournament.

NarrowJ said:
Houston hasn't beaten a top 20 team all season, yet have been ranked top 3-5 every week (and just got clubbed at KU).
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Do you think we're better than Houston?
 
#448      

HailtotheChief

H
HailtotheChief
SkyysNotFalling said:
Agreed. Think we played well last Sunday
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Disagree, Nebraska has not won a single road game in B10 play. We attempted 34 three point shots and hit only 9 for 26 percent. TSJ took 10 threes settling for bombs far too often instead of driving the rock, hitting only 3. John Beilein stated our shot selection was very poor at times settling for 3s. The game should never have went to overtime if we played smarter. He knows what he is talking about. Goode and Harmon combined for 0 of 11 from the field. We played no were near good, just good enough. Nebraska is a poor road team.
 
#449      

NarrowJ

NarrowJ
NarrowJ
ChiefGritty said:
Do you think we're better than Houston?
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It doesn't really matter what I think (and that's the point I'm making). But, no, I don't. I would guess they're probably a little better than we are based on where coaches have ranked us and what the computers are saying.
 
#450      

Illiniguy13

Illiniguy13
Illiniguy13
ChiefGritty said:
For once I left under my own power.

But yes, this team is definitely better than I thought it was going to be, almost entirely because I badly underestimated Marcus Domask's ability to orchestrate the offense, which wasn't really something the chatter here was considering either in my defense.

But is this the 9th-10th best team in the country? If it is we will comfortably cast aside MSU tomorrow. Let's see it.
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How many teams, irregardless of their ranking, comfortably cast aside Tom Izzo in the Breslin Center?
 
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