Game 10: Michigan at Illinois Preview

Is it just luck, do you think, or is there something in the way he’s playing that’s making for the change?

I think he’s been less disciplined and has committed a handful of fouls that he didn’t commit last year.

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What about his steals being down? Would you say it’s just a small sample size so far?

I think X is doing great offensively outside of two games with a lot of turnovers, but defensively I haven’t been “wowed” like in previous years. Perhaps we’ve just gotten used to it more

I’ve come to really like these cheat sheets that Seth from mgoblog puts together:

Here’s the one for our team:

Just wanted to share in case anyone hasn’t seen them. Thanks for all the great work as usual, Dylan!

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Great shot of Underwood. It’s too bad there’s not enough real estate available to have one of him whipping his jacket into the crowd.

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Need to see Brooks, DeJulius and Wagner perform well in hostile environment before I think M will win a game like this. Louisville didn’t answer the question affirmatively, hopefully tonight is different and the team leaves Champaign-Urbana with a win

Yep. That’s exactly why.

I guess my question is whether he’s defending differently because he feels the absence of Charles Matthews. That is, does he think he needs to make more game-changing plays than he did last year because this year his teammates are more solid than spectacular?

Z has always believed he had to make a play every time he played defense. They are intentionally trying to play faster, which encourages getting the ball back.

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That’s what I was fishing for! :nerd_face:

Not sure I buy that, to be honest. I don’t think it is so much “trying to play faster”, I would attribute that to his turnover spike more than fouling.

The more obvious reason for more fouls per 40 is that Michigan is averaging more possessions per 40. More possessions per 40 means that you have more opportunity to foul.

Honestly though, I think he’s just committed some frustration fouls in spots where he should know better. Something that I think when I watch Cassius Winston play quite a bit too.

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B1G teams are 8-0 at home to start conference play. Pure chalk, I believe, depending on the IU@UW line.

Indiana/Wisconsin was the lone departure from Vegas (Hoosiers were 2-point favorites).

Hopefully we aren’t wearing blue jerseys tonight, those things r cursed

The reason the blue jerseys are cursed is because we play all our road games in them, lmao. Pretty certain that we never wear Maize jerseys in true road games.

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Blues jerseys on the road cursed?? At Illinois?? Nawww

https://stuarte.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nik-Stauskas-smirks-stares-at-Illinois-fans-after-hitting-buzzer-three.jpg

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Oh, my goodness! For a minute I thought Stauskas was in the building and coming back for a swan song! :wink: