It is very tough to win on the road. When the other team spots you 18 points, you cannot squander such a gift.
Game thread for Northwestern vs. Illinois
- Thread starter lou v
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Audige and Barnihzer would be my second two. We led almost the whole game. I forgot how pathetic this game thread can get. Thanks for the reminder.
The squad coughed up an 18 point lead and a 16 point lead with 11 minutes left. From that point in they were outscored 30-10. People are allowed to be very critical and annoyed at that.
Tough loss, especially the way we lost, but it’s really tough to win on the road. We weren’t going to win ‘em all. Moving on.
This is exactly the problem. Boo was so hot that we gave up trying to get anyone else involved… until it was too late.
I’m disappointed too. But re-read the thread. It’s a little much. Per Andy Katz, “Calm down. It’s hard to win on the road in the big ten this year.”
We should have put together better offense in the last few possessions.
Yeah it’s tough to win on the road but not when you’re up 18 at the half.
This, combined with the squandering of the lead ~at home~ against IU and barely holding on, mean some soul-searching is in order.
What offense? It was all Buie in the first 30 minutes. Illinois played great defense and Berry and especially Audige had awful offensive performances. Beran was nonexistent and Barnhizer was ok. Hard to run an offense when nobody can beat their man off the dribble and Barnhizer is the only guy with any post game on the team. Give Shannon credit. He was the best player on the floor in the 2nd half. And he hit all of his 3’s, which is bad luck.
And if we hold them under 40 in the 2nd half, we still win. Offensive rebounds and fouling the 3-point shooter killed us. They got the rebound off the missed free throw and hit a 3. Shouldn’t happen. And the steal on Audige was a killer.
Harris was awesome in the second half, and Hawkins was just locked in on that last possession.
I didn’t really see that. Illinois was extremely aggressive and very successfully so at NU’a high screen game which kept other options from really getting good situations. Audige wasn’t able to get basically anything but a fadeaway off his own dribble. Probably not enough movement off of Boo’s drives though. On the occasion Berry got himself a shot he was just clanking everything tonight.
But when Buie scores at the end of games, it’s good offense, right? He had a good shot to tie the game and he had a good switch on Hawkins on the last possession. He had blown by him earlier in the game. All Illinois did was give it to Shannon. That’s how the end of games work.
Boo blew by everybody in the tie game with 1:30 left too… he just missed the layup. I have no complaints about that. Letting it get to that point now…
The end of this game had shades of the previous three years, when we couldn't finish down the stretch. Buie made some heroic shots all season but he ran out of steam at the end of this game. And obviously we need other scoring options if we are to win some tournament games, both BTT and The Dance.
Have to have a second scorer. Boo did his part; Brooks did his. Audige and Berry missed too many tonight. Wish we had the Beran and Chase bunnies back from early in the second half. This one stings, but now we’ve got to gather ourselves and prepare for a big one at Maryland Sunday.
It’s basketball. We are not that talented. We are not going to blow IU and Illinois out. They are going to make runs. We had stupid fouls and Shannon was on fire. And Audige had a really, really bad offensive game. He missed everything. Some good shots and some bad shots.
He hit his three 45 seconds into the game and then… (chirp chirp, chirp chirp)
Oh well.
In other news, if Coleman-Hawkins was on the team I rooted for, he’d drive me nuts. Talk about a guy with so much physical ability that just seems to constantly make bad and questionable decisions on the floor.
It just amazes me that people like you keep disparaging the talent on this team. We’re not that talented? They’re freaking 20-8. There’s plenty of talent. There has to be to have the record they do in this conference.
No. We cost us a chance to hang a Big Ten Champions banner.
No, we should not be "proud of this team" today.
Martinelli looked overmatched in this game. I really hope Roper can come back next week. We need his toughness and experience out there.
Easily. Given what I’ve seen of you guys this year, I’ll count it as an honor to split. 🤝🏻 I know it sucks to lose like this, but good game.
Give Illinois credit. They played great defense in the last 15 minutes or so. We were having trouble just handing the ball off. Hopefully, Audige will get his shot back soon. And Berry has to shoot better if we are going to win big games. It’s really hard to run a good offense if nobody can beat his guy off the dribble, nobody can hit an outside shot, nobody is getting putbacks and you have no post game.
But, having said all of that, we lost because Shannon had a great 2nd half. We gave up 40 plus points in the 2nd half.
Today was a case of Berry getting lots of minutes (36 — more than Buie) that often go to Beran. Beran only got 18, equaling his season low against Purdue. So there’s not much lower Beran can go.
Barnhizer got 32, his second-highest total, mostly at the 4.
Illinois basically played a different lineup in the second half, and maybe CCC thought Beran didn’t have the quicks to match up. I don’t know.
Audige played 38 of his worst minutes of the season tonight. (Even defensively, Shannon is just so think and owned him.) He could have used a breather.
Grumpy grumpy grumpy
I’m so angry
This team has only won 5 of 6 AND THEY WERE LUCKY TO GET THOSE WINS
Fire Boo!
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Martinelli played 3:15 today and we got outscored 8-0. There was a reason he didn't play after that. Today we could've really used Roper.
My question is broader than the 3:15 that Martinelli played tonight. In a game that consisted entirely of opposing runs, I’m not sure that you can read too much into 3:15.
Are you kidding me? Try to understand my point before you talk about people like me. Basketball is a game of runs. Good teams are going to respond and, when they are playing well, Indiana and Illinois are two of the top teams in the country that can beat anybody. We have two good guards (one of whom was not good today) and a bunch of guys who know their roles. They play great together and I love watching them but nobody is going to play in the NBA on this team. We are going to lose some close games. That's basketball. You don't hit all your shots at the end of games. Even Jordan didn't.
You are not on the team so you can probably skip the we. But I am very proud of you. You are a great fan and deserved this victory.
So the only reason we killed both of those teams in the first half is because they played poorly. But the reason they came back in the 2nd half is because they played well. Got it.
We’re 3-1 against those 2 teams and if they’re really 2 of the best teams in the country, like you claim, then winning 3 out of 4 against them is not possible if we’re “not that talented”.
Doesn’t matter that we don’t have NBA talent. Many teams don’t. There is plenty of talent on this team to be successful.
They actually blew two leads. Illinois got it down to 4. NU pushed it back to 16? And then they lost
It was interesting because it was not like Berry was lighting it up. And Barnhizer is small at the 4. I think he gave up the offensive rebound on the missed free throw that they converted into a 3. That was a huge swing. But Collins definitely likes his offense. Like I said, he's the only guy with any post game on the team and he can create a little bit off the dribble. He got lucky on a couple of shots today (banked one and scored after getting his shot blocked) but I really hope he keeps improving. We need another consistent threat on offense and I feel like he's a better shooter than he's shown so far.
I didn't say that. Again, you are just totaling missing my point. I will try again.
Basketball is a game of runs. We are good. Illinois and Indiana are good. So we should not be surprised when they come back in games. Just like they should not be surprised if we jump out to big leads on them. I am really disappointed that we lost the game. But I am not angry at the team or questioning their ability to win close games. We have won a bunch of tight games this year. I simply stated that we are not so talented that we can expect to dominate good teams or win every close game. And of course there is enough talent on the team to be successful. We are 11 and 6 in the conference. You were really stepping out on a limb on that one.
But when Audige does not play well, we are offensively challenged. Beran and Berry have not shot the ball well this year and frequently put up less than 6 points a game. Nicholson has been great filling his role but he has no post game yet and is a poor free throw shooter. Barnhizer is getting better but he's not making anybody's honorable mention All-B1G this year (hopefully he will in the future). That's pretty much the team. So folks should not be surprised if we have some periods where we can't score the ball.
And as disruptive as our defense can be (and it's been amazing), great offense will beat great defense more times than not. Shannon was great today. TJD was great the other day. Not a whole lot you can do when really good players get hot.