Winthrop 84, Illinois 80 OT POSTGAME
Good for you, sir. i am gong to be watching that game with a WVU alumnus, and sharing some great cigars doing so. Winners all!
For all those in the "it's only one game" crowd, this was very predictable. When you can't hold multiple teams in the 300 ranking range to under 60 points, you can fully expect to get torched by better teams. Just wait until a couple weeks from now. You have time to get your excuses lined up.
My bad, I was counting his son's bball team record.
Heard he's in hot water from the boosters over there as well. Too many off-the-court issues.
Coaching has certainly not been very good, but the players who you mention are not what I call difference makers, nor the players who can create their own offense. JCL is a good shooter, good form, but when guarded closely is not the player who will "create." Mav has improved immensely, but he is not a difference maker or the player who will create late in the game against tough competition. Finke has some talent IMO, certainly a stretch 4, definitely not a post player, but not a difference maker at the B1G level (at least not yet). You need players who can take over games, create their own offense, get the ball and lead. So far, it is just Hill IMO.
Its not about Tate weaknesses because know them but this current group of seniors cannot carry him so its gonna be up to Groce down the line to play TJL especially AT HOME to try for a spark and when Malcolm,Morgan,Throne are not playing well he should play DJ and go small.
IMO Groce gave the seniors major leeway and they basically blew it but they are seniors so I understand why he stayed with them but in the future he just has to change it up .
The guy was getting his points anyway I would've ran out thereat some point
Leron,Finke,DJ,JCL,TA and spread them out and Johnson would've had to guard either JCL or TA down the stretch when he was cramping up.
I understand why he stayed with his seniors but this current group cannot carry Tate at all offensively when Malcolm is off because we are barely doing it when hes on .
Complaining is fair game. Everybody is frustrated. But I think there are an awful lot of fans who don't have any idea how far Weber drove us into the ground during his last 2 years... mix in a handful of pretty unfortunate circumstances that threw progress off track - i.e. end of the Miami game, last year's injuries, etc, and no one should be surprised we're still at this point. I actually saw a good deal of progress in this game compared to where we would have been the past two seasons... I realize that most of us don't want to acknowledge that we had that far to go, would prefer to pretend that we were in much better shape when Groce was hired, but that just isn't reality.
I'm not saying that this wasn't a frustrating loss, and I recognize all of the unbelievably pathetic aspects of the last 15 min of play; I'm also not saying that Groce shouldn't be fired... I'm just suggesting that maybe we wait until mid-January to see how things progress and play out before we all lose our minds.
Deleted member 11241
D
Guest
If Morgan or Thorne make one of their missed free throws or Malcom doesn't commit one of his turnovers that lead to points on the other end, this game never makes it to OT and we are sitting at 5-0. Groce did not lose this game. This one is on the seniors.
Lets stop with the "Tate did a good job defending tonight." Please stop. Did he play hard, yes. Was it good enough? Absolutey not. He gave it all his well, his all was well short. His man went off for 40. Sure, shots fell, crazy out of this world shots, but they fell. Although Tate had the height advantage, he was outsized in the paint and Jaylon played smaller. Good effort but lets stop with he did a good job. It wasnt good. But i will say he played hard on the defensive end of the court.
It could be because no player in NCAA history has ever returned from injury to 100% of his/her previous self, in the time announced by the school, and/or expected by the fans....
Oh my God this is Groce's 5th year. Weber was bad at the end but this is on Groce now.
Tate had a bad play in OT, the one that the Winthrop player just easily stole the ball from him and dunked. But I do agree with you that Tate is not the one to blame in this game.
This thread shows my point about society and Illinois basketball fans as a whole: we are addicted to the negative. You lose and there are double digit pages. If you win, we might get up to 5 pages.
Keon Johnson had the game of his life, hit NBA 3's, bank shot 3's, and runners with multiple guys on him. I don't foresee too many games where the opposing PG goes 15/21. Did we have opportunities to win? Sure, but the blame can go around. 22 turnovers as a team and some of those we literally threw it to no one and it goes out of bounds. 9/16 from the free throw line. Morgan and Thorne combine for 6pts and 4 rebounds. Malcolm suddenly goes cold in the second half and finishes 4/17.
We all said this would be tough. Game number 5 is not the time to panic or jump to conclusions.
Keon Johnson had the game of his life, hit NBA 3's, bank shot 3's, and runners with multiple guys on him. I don't foresee too many games where the opposing PG goes 15/21. Did we have opportunities to win? Sure, but the blame can go around. 22 turnovers as a team and some of those we literally threw it to no one and it goes out of bounds. 9/16 from the free throw line. Morgan and Thorne combine for 6pts and 4 rebounds. Malcolm suddenly goes cold in the second half and finishes 4/17.
We all said this would be tough. Game number 5 is not the time to panic or jump to conclusions.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
Yeah, people are acting like this loss is entirely Tate's fault. It takes a true team effort to blow a game like that.
Rewatch the final 2 minutes of regulation and see if you still feel the same way. Look at the offensive possesions and look who had the ball to start the offensice sets. Look at what he did, thats not a senior point guard at all. It was embarassing to watch. I dont believe one man loses a game but I will say I believe Tate had a big factor in it.
There might be 6-7 of those guys in the conference and we have one of them.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
There it is!
Lot's of blame to go around with this loss.
That is why it is called a basketball TEAM.
The entire team melted down against a decent mid-major at home.
The problem is that we've seen this before ... again and again. This is not the exception any more. This is what we've come to expect from Illinois under Weber and now Groce.
That is why it is called a basketball TEAM.
The entire team melted down against a decent mid-major at home.
The problem is that we've seen this before ... again and again. This is not the exception any more. This is what we've come to expect from Illinois under Weber and now Groce.
Crew Chief
- ILL
Can't see the forest for the trees
I just don't get the extreme negativity. Yes it's a disappointing loss...but throwing out words like "dumpster fire" and "Groce is done"? After one game against a solid opponent? Everyone said before hand that this is a tough team to play against.
Fans need to let the last 2 years go and think of this as a new season because guess what? It is.
There are plenty of things you can question Groce about in this game. But can we at least give him a chance to make adjustments or prove that happened tonight was just a fluke? He had us playing our best basketball at the end of year 1 & 2. And the past 2 years he hasn't really had the horses to make adjustments. This year he has more options than ever. Let's see if he can put the puzzle pieces together...and if he can't then by all means bring the pitch forks out.
Fans need to let the last 2 years go and think of this as a new season because guess what? It is.
There are plenty of things you can question Groce about in this game. But can we at least give him a chance to make adjustments or prove that happened tonight was just a fluke? He had us playing our best basketball at the end of year 1 & 2. And the past 2 years he hasn't really had the horses to make adjustments. This year he has more options than ever. Let's see if he can put the puzzle pieces together...and if he can't then by all means bring the pitch forks out.
He does have weaknesses for sure offensively but the teams main weakness right now is defense. Sadly Tate seems to be our strongest at this point. TJL not sure he would of been ready shape wise to chase him around. Tonight idk if we put Everton this board out there at same time if he was being stopped. If anything I might of had TJL out there instead of JCL because of the fact he only has a 3pt shot and nothing else. Not a big defender either. My biggest take away was our bigs are not going to be much help this year. Way to many points off the board and they weren't difficult shots. Pretty close to layups and not one of the defenders should of been able to stop them
There are a lot more, Indiana alone has 3, Wisconsin has 3, and Michigan State may have 3-4 much more talented than we have. We simply do not have that level of talent.