Game Thread: Illinois vs. Northwestern
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
With students I would say 60/40 NU so far. Of course first three rows of 108 are almos all Illinois.
Of course the guy with tix next to me sold out
I dumped water on some Illinois fan.
I swear it was accidental.
But I enjoyed it.
I swear it was accidental.
But I enjoyed it.
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If you sweating is equivalent to dumping water on someone, you might want to get that looked at.
West is starting over Reid!
Reid’s attitude about not starting seems good. He was active and positive in the pregame huddle with the reserves.
Guess most everyone has given up here (this board). Can’t dispute the game outcome is a matter of time but this is sad.
I hate exhibiting fair weather fan qualities when it comes to Cats hoops, but I'm always gonna watch a ton of football and some baseball, so the ask of making appointment viewing out of 30 basketball games all winter just becomes a big time ask away from the family when they aren't good. It's tough.
90% of the second deck is Illinois. Crowd at least 60% Illinois. Students did much better than STH’sWith students I would say 60/40 NU so far. Of course first three rows of 108 are almos all Illinois.
Of course the guy with tix next to me sold out
Page does awesome stuff sometimes, including passing the rock, on the offensive side. If he puts it together...
Who can blame Collins for being utterly incensed by the utterly stupid defensive lapses we have.
Amazing how much worse green is shooting in the Big Ten that he did at his old League.
Just because he has a few steals does not make him a good defender. You know it’s more complicated than that.
What the heck is Page thinking on those pick and pops? They're picking on him! They know he can't or won't move. Brutal.
The difference between this year and other years is that our transfers playing a lot of minutes have some strengths and some glaring weaknesses that other teams can exploit. They're giving as much or more than they're getting. There's Page getting beat on defense, again.
He’s moving, he’s hedging to help stop the drive. Not the right move in that situation and he’s getting burned.
Right. He's moving the wrong direction on one play. When you hedge you have to be able to get back to cover your man if he's an outside shooter. And on the next play they switch to a more dynamic athlete, and he's too slow to match up with that player.
Finally made some 3s, low turnovers per usual and even rebounded right with them. But, consistently give up right around 80 points a game. Defense still bad.
Still NU’s best job rebounding so far imo. Guards got bullied inside by Boswell. West needs time in the weight room and Reid didn’t have the size. Clayton did Clayton things.
Much of this size difference can be mitigated by boxing out and understanding how to switch on D. Some of it is just better size and athleticism, for sure. Boswell just bullied us, to your point.
It’s his mechanics. He’s got an insanely slow shot. It’s fine against worse opponents but trying to take that long to release against good athletes just doesn’t work, which is why is shooting percentage has cratered. He’s got to speed that up this offseason or transfer back down.
I did appreciate the efforts to get the "Green Bay sucks!" chant going in the SW stairwell after the game.
The intial drives are so frequently unimpeded that he has to hedge.
A few statistical notes from last night:
The good
The good
- Illinois averages using 14% of their possessions in transition - last night we limited them to just 3 possessions in transition and only 3 points.
- We limited them to just 2-7 made 3s off the dribble
- We made them very inefficient in the pick and roll and post-up parts of the game
- Our offensive rebounding was excellent, with 8 opportunities leading to 14 points
- Jayden Reid, as part of his incredible night, did an excellent job penetrating the Illinois defense and finding an open teammate. Normally it's only 13% of our offense, but last night it was 18% and much more efficient than usual. 12 possessions that resulted in 15 points.
- They killed us on pick and pop plays, i.e. the Ivisic dagger 3s. Normally that's 9.5% of their possessions, which is already top-end for D1, but last night they doubled that amount, running it 13 times in 59 possessions scoring 15 points
- They obliterated us on second chance opportunities. Normally that's 10% of their possessions at 1.37 points per possession, but last night it was 15% (11 plays), for 1.66 points/possession and 18 points
- Our transition offense, normally a strength, was...bad. Just 0.83 points/possession compared to 1.25 on the season
- Illinois took away our inside game with their size. We weren't able to post up or find a cutter successfully, and when we did go inside, they forced us to pass it back out, usually unsuccessfully.
- They went 15-22 at the rim, we went 8-17. They went 3-6 from midrange, we went 5-12.