College Basketball 2023-2024

[gflore34]

Just curious Iowa State drew a number of fouls while trying to set screens. To anyone familar with the Cyclones is this common?  Through my Illini colored glasses it appeared to me that Iowa State was moving on those screens, sticking their hips trying to hinder the defensive player' as he tried to get around them.  Still to Iowa State' credit I thought they played pretty good positional defense, far less grab and hold than Houston.

Edited March 29, 2024 by gflore34

[mul21]

2 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Just curious Iowa State drew a number of fouls while trying to set screens. To anyone familar with the Cyclones is this common?  Through my Illini colored glasses it appeared to me that Iowa State was moving on those screens, sticking their hips trying to hinder the defensive player' as he tried to get around them.  Still to Iowa State' credit I thought they played pretty good positional defense, far less grab and hold than Houston.

100% agree on the screens.  There were a lot of them where they were bumping a shoulder out and they never got called for it.  There were a few at the top of the key that were especially egregious.

I don't ever recall watching a B1G team play in a tournament game and having the thought that I wish they'd call this game a little tighter.  ISU was incredibly physical all night but to your point, they were in very good defensive position and most of it was legal.  I thought Illinois should have used some slip screens and back cuts to alleviate some of that on ball pressure and my god, the free throw shooting.

[Tim]

1 hour ago, BigbadB said:

I was already a fan since they aired all of the Illini games in Peoria. But, I moved to Champaign on February 14th, 1989. The roadsides were 3-4 feet tall with tree branches from the ice storm that came through the day before. The mood was Illinois was going to win it all. I never got to a game that year unfortunately. 

I was a senior at UofI at the time. 😃

[gflore34]

I wish the Illini were facing Houston, Alabama or Clemson, fairly confident they could beat any of those teams,  instead of this monumental task of facing UConn.  Oh well, as been said, it's house money from here on out, Underwood finally got the monkey off his back.  Seems like once a coach overcomes the getting out of first weekend hurdle tournament success continues.

[Tryptamine]

If, and it's a huge if, Illinois managed to pull off the UConn upset, I'd think their odds are as good as anyone to win the tournament.

[gflore34]

1 hour ago, Tryptamine said:

If, and it's a huge if, Illinois managed to pull off the UConn upset, I'd think their odds are as good as anyone to win the tournament.

Some are saying the winner of Illinois-UConn goes on to win the tournament.

[soccer10k]

Duke gets a 13, a 12, a 1 who loses their best player in the first half and an 11 seed on their FF run. At least when they make the FF they'll get a 1 or 2.

[I owned a Suzuki]

18 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Some are saying the winner of Illinois-UConn goes on to win the tournament.

Seems to me there is actual evidence that there is at least one other team left in the tourney who Illinois would not be favored against.

[BigbadB]

20 hours ago, Tim said:

I was a senior at UofI at the time. 😃

So you should remember that storm debris. I'd never seen anything like it and still haven't. 

Short and funny story at U of I. A buddy of mine from Peoria came to Champaign for a concert at Mabel's. To get there, we drive down Green through campustown. My buddy has a jeep with no doors and he has me drive since I know where I'm going. Lots of gorgeous girls walking around, but one is walking away from us, and we see one of the nicest butts on a girl we have ever seen. As we pass, we both do the slow head turn so we can get a front view, and it's actually my ex wife. While doing the head turn, I guess my arms did the turn at the same time, because the Jeep veered to the right started to climb the curb. I quickly corrected myself, but my ex knows that Jeep and I think we got her attention enough to make that a bit embarrassing. Oh well. 

Damn near crashed a car to get a better look at something I was once married to. Classic.

[Old Style]

8 hours ago, soccer10k said:

Duke gets a 13, a 12, a 1 who loses their best player in the first half and an 11 seed on their FF run. At least when they make the FF they'll get a 1 or 2.

If Shead had to get hurt why couldn’t it have been last Sunday????????

[gflore34]

3 hours ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

Seems to me there is actual evidence that there is at least one other team left in the tourney who Illinois would not be favored against.

Of course, here's to them meeting a third time.

[stitchface]

4 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Of course, here's to them meeting a third time.

Illinois crushed Michigan twice in 1989 . . .

[stitchface]

On 3/29/2024 at 8:03 AM, Tim said:

I was a senior at UofI at the time. 😃

I was a senior at GW - we had a couple nasty ice storms when I was at Illinois too.

 

That '89 team when Kendall Gill played was amazing . . . 

[mul21]

Not an ideal start for Illinois but I can't say I'm terribly surprised.  I would have taken UConn and laid the points if I could bet on Illinois at all.

[mul21]

Feels like Underwood is getting outcoached, the refs are afraid to blow the whistle, and Guerrier needs to pull his head out of his ass.

[champaignchris]

NCAA:  We have the best two offenses in the county playing each other in a high profile game.  Great! We won’t call any fouls and turn it into a rock fight. 

[soccer10k]

Not a great second half for Illinois so far.

[Derwood]

This is quite the collapse

[mul21]

They were never going to win this game but the plan Underwood had was absolute garbage.  It's the same dumb horsefeathers they did against Purdue the first time that got them down by 20.  He's done a lot of things right and I hope he learns from this one but he got his ass beat tonight by Hurley.

[stitchface]

1 hour ago, mul21 said:

They were never going to win this game but the plan Underwood had was absolute garbage.  It's the same dumb horsefeathers they did against Purdue the first time that got them down by 20.  He's done a lot of things right and I hope he learns from this one but he got his ass beat tonight by Hurley.

men against boys. terrible coaching though. one team came out of halftime with a plan.

[Irrelevant Dude]

14 minutes ago, stitchface said:

men against boys.

I disagree.  Illinois has players that are every bit as talented as the guys UConn put on the floor.  The (big) difference was the one guy in the middle.  For whatever reason, Illinois had no answer for him and it impacted the entire game on both ends of the floor.  UConn is the better team, but despite what the score looks like, that was a winnable game.  

[UMFan83]

28 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I disagree.  Illinois has players that are every bit as talented as the guys UConn put on the floor.  The (big) difference was the one guy in the middle.  For whatever reason, Illinois had no answer for him and it impacted the entire game on both ends of the floor.  UConn is the better team, but despite what the score looks like, that was a winnable game.  

Yeah I'd mostly agree with that.  Clingan had a massive effect on that game.  He probably helped his draft stock quite a bit tonight.

[Rex Buckingham]

Good grief, I didn't know a game in the E8 could make me so angry. Down only 5 at the half, but the next time they scored the game was already effectively over. Missed so many open looks during that run too. What an awful time to play their worst game of the year. And now into the offseason where they will seemingly have to completely remake the roster after such a great year. 

[stitchface]

1 hour ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I disagree.  Illinois has players that are every bit as talented as the guys UConn put on the floor.  The (big) difference was the one guy in the middle.  For whatever reason, Illinois had no answer for him and it impacted the entire game on both ends of the floor.  UConn is the better team, but despite what the score looks like, that was a winnable game.  

not today.

[BigbadB]

They actually interviewed the coach at the half or during a time out and he said they weren't going to change anything. Gonna keep challenging the big guy. Great plan!