IlliniHQ 2
General Category => Fighting Illini Basketball Forum => Topic started by: OskeeWowWoe on January 29, 2023, 02:12:39 PM
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Nice 10 point win yesterday, and I started thinking... hmm, has this team had any close games? Went back and looked thru the schedule - Jekyyl and Hyde
Maryland won by 5
Beat Texas by 7
Every other game - win or loss - had a margin of at least 9. I wonder if any other 15-6 team has had a similar run of results.
The embarrassing gut punch losses have made it hard for me to watch their games, cause you don't know when the next inexplicable egg will be laid.
Loss Margins:
Maryland - 5
Virginia - 9
Northwestern - 13
Penn State - 15
Indiana - 15
Missouri - 22
Oof
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I’ve had the same thoughts. We’ve absolutely trucked some mediocre teams that have given other quality teams good games or even beaten them. We've beaten some legitimate top 10-15 teams. We’ve also looked like complete dogshit at times.
I don’t think this is anything unexpected given the massive productivity turnover and bringing in a ton of new faces which required a complete retooling of the scheme we’d been running for the three years leading up to this season.
It’s pretty clear that Hawkins, TSJ, Mayer, and maybe Skyy Clark all came in here thinking they were going to be the Big Swingin’ Dick of this iteration of our Fighting Illini. But none of these guys are the caliber of Ayo or Kofi, and are all prone to having nights they just get taken out of the game. Problem is that each game they all seem to think they are Kobe Bryant.
What we do have is a bunch of length and a solid defense that bothers most teams not named Missouri or Penn State or Indiana. And defense travels. We have a lot of options to attack different levels of the defense, which we haven’t consistently done enough of to this point.
If I were Brad I’d tell this team not to take a single three pointer at home against Nebraska. Attack the basket, feed the post, run some high-low.