Reflecting on last nights game and am certainly happy to be 2 games clear of everybody. But I come away feeling that this is why Illinois is so scary. I’ve been saying that they are less than the sum of their parts and I still feel that to be true after last night. They have so much talent and they just can’t seem to get everybody pulling in the right direction. Giorgi is basically a mess, Kofi disappears for long stretches, they make the curious decision to lean on Curbello in crunch time. I feel like Frazier, Williams, Grandison have settled into really good complementary pieces. I know Dylan has said all along they are the most talented team and I tend to agree. If they could get it all figured out they could go on a run.
Iowa’s defensive resurgance I think we will find was a mirage of playing the lower offenses in the league. Illinois had a bunch of wiiiiiide open shots and didn’t make all of them or else it would have been a blowout. Frederick is a huge loss for them if he is out for any extended time. MSU should be a nice bounce back for them but that sets up a sneaky home date against OSU 2 days later that should be an interesting game.
Pretty comfortable saying Illinois is the second-best team in the Big Ten. They just don’t have the second-best resume in the Big Ten. They still have two tough games before U-M is supposed to host them on the 11th. Should set up an interesting one.
Can someone explain when the 2 week pause officially ends? How much practice time will Michigan have before the game against the Fighting Illini on the 11th?
From what I understand, if this is limited to 14 days then February 7th is the first day they can resume normal activities. That would mean potentially four days of practice.
Illinois is a very talented team, but I think we match up fairly well with them. They don’t force a ton of turnovers (we can struggle a bit with teams that can aggressively pressure the ball) and they are also rather small other than Cockburn. Their 2nd tallest player on the court is going to be smaller than either of our forwards in essentially any lineup we play. It’s basically Cockburn or Bezhaslkdfkdkdkdkdkd (or however you spell it) surrounded by 4 guards.
Use Eli and Franz to try to keep Ayo out of the lane and then Dickinson and Davis can bang with their bigs down low.
I disagree with this. I saw an Iowa team who was down a starter play basically even with them on the road. I also see an Iowa team that is still pretty solidly higher on Kenpom and Torvik. I think in a fully healthy best out of 7 Iowa wins the series. I feel like this is classic UMHoops Iowa disrespect.
I really don’t think it had a huge impact. Nunge/Murray played well in combo. It did force Iowa to play some weird combos but Illinois never really ran away from them with Garza out.
I don’t think Illinois went after him. I’ve always felt that Garza got a very favorable whistle for how physical he is, so I feel this was a long time coming. I only recall one of them (his 4th one perhaps) being a bit unfair.
So without seeing a bracket and where seeds are you would do that?? What is impressive about the Illinois resume so far??
A last second win against Ohio??
Double digit loss to Baylor??
Home losses to Maryland/Ohio St??
Loss to Missouri??
If you’re saying the best win for Illinois this year is Iowa then you should think quite highly of Iowa because if you don’t that Illinois team doesn’t seem as shiny as people thought.
I go back to what I said above. Illinois has a ton of talent to be successful and go on a run. I like the idea of them putting it together than Iowa scorching the nets for 4 straight games against high level competition. Because we know Iowa isn’t stopping anybody.
I actually agree that Illinois is a more talented team than Iowa but I do think concluding that Illinois is clearly better after they won a coin flip of a game at home against Iowa without their third best player feels weird.
I will be picking Illinois further in the NCAA tournament than anyone in the Big Ten but Michigan. But I think a better takeaway for now is that Iowa and Illinois are very similar quality teams, and the only true threats to win the conference besides Michigan.