Was Illinois defense that bad or was PSU just making shots?
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I think Penn State has more talent than theyâre given credit for
Guys with multiple years of solid power conference play are really valuable even if they arenât as flashy as young nba prospects
Like I think most of us would trade backcourts with them just for this season right
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They shot their threes at a high clip, obviously but Iâd say the biggest issue is that Pickett is much better offensively than anyone trying to guard him is at defense
Illinois wasnât bad offensively in the first half but I find their offense really stilted. They canât always get the ball to the possession finishers the way theyâd like to, Iâm not sure Skyy Clark has any clue what heâs doing yet.
I agree here but the current situation is we are reviewing fingernails, toenails and tenths of a second for hardly any reason but we canât review a literal game deciding play.
So we either need no reviews and accept the calls or create a different/better system where something like this doesnât happen.
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Illinois was shutting PSU down to start the half and then psu hits 3 straight 3s to completely silence the crowd
Illinois runs a lot of actions through Hawkins and I just donât love that. Heâs a solid passer but heâs basically their PG at times today and I donât think heâs THAT good
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I wonder whether die hard Illini fans think of Coleman Hawkins like many of us thought of Johns. BJJ never had the highs we see from Hawkins, but the variability in his play and some of the total bone headed things he does are maddening. One of those players who is less than the sum of his parts but flashes enough of that to see what might be possible.
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Havenât watched the whole game but I donât really see any similarities? Is Hawkinsâ game particularly variable? I guess just because of the turnovers? His numbers are down in this game because he got two early fouls, right?
Think Hawkins is in an interesting spot as a playmaking big in his first year starting. Going to always be a learning curve there. Big responsibility for a unique player. Johns was basically never anything like that, just a catch and finish second big really.
Also, apparently Andrew Funk is the best shooter in the conference 
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Penn state didnât score for 5 mins and Illinois got it down to 5. Now a 14-0 run by PSU. Illinois about to be 0-2 in conference
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You canât fake the Funk.
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Except Johns was the worst finisher around
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11-16 from deep for Funk-Dread on the road
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Made threes cure all ills
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Pickett is really good, but itâs their shooters, like Funk, that won them this game. If youâve got a guy that can do ok for Pickett straight up, Iâd make them play ISO ball with Pickett and take the others away
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If youâve watched this game, itâs not flukey
Funk and Dread are 11/16 because theyâre shooting shoot-around jumpers, and theyâre both good shooters
Pickett is the best player on the floor.
I think Hawkins is not the problem for Illinois at all - the problem is not that he does too much on ball, I think itâs that they NEED him to do so much on ball.
As a supplementary option his passing and ball handling is great, but heâs not getting used supplementarily
Does anyone want to try to explain to me why RJ Melendez gets more tick than Dane Dainja?
Hunter dropped a new pod and brought up how he received new info about the Terrence Shannon situation. He said Mark Adams and Brad Underwood are âboysâ and so Mark Adams wanted TSJ to play for Underwood and not Juwan so Mark Adams wouldnât let TSJ take credits at TTU for Michigan but just Illinois
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Elite graphic
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I donât think Shannon has graduated yet, so I donât think Hunter is correct (at least UIâs site suggests he is still pursuing his bachelors)
I have watched a fair amount of Illinois since my eldest son is in the band there. Hawkins is waaay better than Johns so thatâs not my argument. My point was that he does a handful of really dumb things per game that result in turnovers, fouls, or hero ball misses that make you want to pull your hair out when you see how talented he is most of the time.
I do think ILL is still figuring out how to fit their pieces together and you cal tell by how much screaming Underwood does at his players. Their freshmen are up and down each game, Shannon is very good but as a secondary playmaker rather than the alpha, etc.
Penn State is a dangerous team this year. They have a quality PG (maybe best in the B1G this year?) and a bunch of good shooters. If the shots are falling, they can keep up with just about anyone. Need to run them off the line when they get hot.
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