Recruiting Cockburn was a huge coup for Underwood.
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Iām always blown away by that narrative but itās time-tested and true. Man, donāt you want to be up for them all?
3 point numbers.
Livers: 2/3
Brooks: 0/1
DDJ: 0/1
Teske: 1/4
Simpson: 0/2
Wagner: 0/4
Johns: 0/2
Nunez: 0/1
Not that surprising we went 3/18 given that shot distribution imo. Need to get our good shooters more looks.
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Heās the best player Iāve seen this year. Heās seriously Shaq-like.
It will be a different game at Crisler when Illini come calling. Franz should have his shot by then.
Especially since pronouncing his name correctly doesnāt put you on a watch list
Yeah. Even despite that, guys other than Zay/Eli generally shoot better given their looks.
The last few minutes were a crapshoot. If DDJ made his jab step 3 and if X made his open corner 3 instead of Illinois making a touch foul and-1, weād likely win the game. In that sense it is frustrating.
With that said, still a lot of season to go. I think weāll be okay.
For the record I did not mind the late DDJ three. Thatās his kinda shot.
If Wagner canāt get on track from 3 in the next few games or so, Iām gonna start wondering about that wrist. I hope heās ok.
Final thot from me personally is that if thatās what Illinois is, this isnāt going to be a terrible loss. Looks like a tournament team to me. Would have been a Kenpom A win, I read on twitter.
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Franz will get there. Fifth game for him, I believe. Took Johns about six to thrive, w/o injury.
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They really pounded us in the paint and on the glass. Our best chance to overcome that was to hit 3ās which obviously didnāt happen. They had a good game plan and Cockburn is a beast for sure.
I think we got a little stagnant at times on offense and Zavier was forced to pound the ball or drive right into the shot blocker.
Rough game for Franz. Need a lot better from him to win a tough road game. Have to find a way to get Livers more than 6 shots. Livers also needs to rebound a lot better. He had 1 tonight. Johns had 4 in 7 minutes. Livers rebounds at the worst rate on the team considering his size and minutes played.
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Certainly this is a night that makes you hope Johns explodes and forces his way into the starting lineup.
Respectfully, Iāll tip my cap if they make the big dance. Polar on effort and consistency. Not often a good rwcipe.
Yeah. Could be they are rounding into form. Dunno. We got the good version of that team if so though. Thatās the Illinois I think people who liked them were expecting.
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Bottom line, this team needs him to bring it, every night.
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DDJ was poor defensively in the first half, but I am trying to wrap my head around why NuƱez was brought in. I asuuming to nail 3s, but his game doesnāt translate to contributing at this level.
Castleton will have to grow tougher against B1G big men. Doesnāt get any easier with Wesson, Watkins, Tillman, etc.
We took a lot of tough 2s. If anything, we were probably lucky on our 2 point % and unlucky on our 3s. Shot quality was really poor most of the night.
Either way, it was a bad night. We are behind the 8 ball now when it comes to the Big Ten regular season title. Realistically, you probably canāt lose more than 4 on the road and we still have OSU, Maryland, MSU, Purdue and Iowa on the road.
We dropped quite a bit on KenPom too. Down to 17 now. Weāve really underperformed in both road games.
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You certainly want to be up for them all, but realistically you canāt. Letdown games happen and you have to find a way to survive anyway.
Canāt do this every road game.
Welcome to the Big Ten.
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So much transition, and not in the gameplay sense. Their early success assumes a continuous level of high achievement. Thatās not prudent, IMO. Blue will equalize into a top 20 team that will get a better-than 6 seed in the dance. Kudos to the new staff. Along the way, this team will inexplicably suck, like tonight, then, for example, um, sweep MSU. (shrug)
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