Second-half thread for Illinois vs. NU

[HawkCat]

Where did I say it was on talent alone?

I did say we were in trouble before the tip, that wasn’t predicated on the Coaching match up.

Here’s a newsflash, the team with the most talent generally wins in basketball. There is a reason you see the Big three star arrangements in the NBA. Stars win, teams with good talent and no real stars does not consistently win.

Of course, we shouldn’t lose by 40 in a half to the 96 Bulls, but when do people actually start holding players accountable too? All I see if the same predictable BS of The high and lows of a season.

How often have you seen one B1G team lose to another by 40 points in one half? We all know that Illinois has more talent than NU. But we also know that perhaps no NU team has had more top-to-bottom decent talent than this one. (Even Carmody teams had equal top-end talent; Collins has significantly improved depth.) How does a second half like this one even happen?

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

How often have you seen one B1G team lose to another by 40 points in one half? We all know that Illinois has more talent than NU. But we also know that perhaps no NU team has had more top-to-bottom decent talent than this one. (Even Carmody teams had equal top-end talent; Collins has significantly improved depth.) How does a second half like this one even happen?

I don’t know, but I do know it is more than one deficiency.

 

[GatoLouco]

This is all true. I certainly can’t fault anyone for criticism of CCC that he didn’t try to do more. Honestly, you could tell 3 minutes into that half that NU was in big trouble. I am just not convinced that ANYTHING he could have done would have stopped that Tsunami.

My personal prediction before the season was 5-6 big ten wins. That is we’re the talent is this year. Maybe next year is 10 wins. That is where our talent is. If we exceed 6 wins, IMO that exceeds our comparative talent level. If we win 3 we underperformed our talent level.

I don’t know if it could have been stopped either. Very likely it couldn’t. But I remember a game last year, against Maryland I believe, where we went up big, before Maryland switched to zone before the half and closed the gap. Zone worked. And yet the coach announced during the half time interview they were going to drop the zone.

Tonight Collins continued to roll the dice. He did not need the zone in the 1st half. He was fine defensively. Yet it marginally improved defense. He knows there is an intermission going on and they are tuning how to attack it. And he rolls the dice. And he continues to roll it until he’s down by 5.

Had we won I’d be quietly thinking we won playing blackjack hitting every single 16. But we didn’t.

My number of reasonable minimum expectation was 7 wins. Still is.

 

[SimpsonElmwood]

When Illannoys was down double digits, Underwood was not letting them accept it. Collins meanwhile stands by and watches the meltdown, arms crossed.

If Underwood coached at NU like he does at Illinois we would have Kevin O’Neill. We’ve seen how that played out.

 

[NUCat320]

I really don’t get why we have players who don’t play under control.

Do you want “swagger” or do you want “under control”? It’s like the quarterback/gunslinger thing.

Confidence is great when the shots are falling. Swagger was 1 for 13 yesterday. But that’s who they are, and we loved them for winning the MSU and Indiana games.

 

[NUCat320]

Time to kick all of these so-called players out of school.

You’re terrible.

 

[GatoLouco]

If Underwood coached at NU like he does at Illinois we would have Kevin O’Neill. We’ve seen how that played out.

If you are an a-hole, yes. If you are not, the players understand that if you up in their grill, it's for a purpose. It's a fine line, sure. But a coach adapts posture to circumstances and just like anything in life, sometimes tough and uncomfortable conversations need to take place.

The key is to leave it all in the game of practice. The moment it ends you flip the switch into a normal human being. Izzo goes nuts and by most accounts his players love him. Going nuts does not need to be going all Bobby Knight on people.

 

[Zootcat]

Do you want “swagger” or do you want “under control”? It’s like the quarterback/gunslinger thing.

Confidence is great when the shots are falling. Swagger was 1 for 13 yesterday. But that’s who they are, and we loved them for winning the MSU and Indiana games.

It’s a fair question, but I don‘t think they’re mutually exclusive. I’m referring mostly to Buie (who I absolutely love) and Audige rushing contested shots. In general, the team seems to get tight and instead of waiting for an open shot rushes to get a shot off even though it’s contested.

 

[TheC]

Maybe.

Yeah.... I don't agree. Kopp seems way to easy to shut down. You take a strong defender and just stick him on Kopp and you pretty much remove him. He is not quick enough to get open without the ball. He can't really handle well enough to make you pay for getting in his face. He just seems to disappear for huge stretches of the game. Now, if we had a really talented big that forced teams to play zone against us, I could see Kopp doing more damage. But still, I imagine he would draw a lot of attention even in a defense like that.