Illinois

BearcatTalk

Help Support BearcatTalk:

Q

Queens_NYC

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
1,655
Monday, November 22nd, 2021
6:30 PM
T-Mobile Center
ESPNews

On paper, the Fighting Illini (KP #5) are the best team on our schedule and will present a tremendous challenge on both ends of the court.

The 2021 Big 10 regular season/tournament champions were upset in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament by Loyola-Chicago, but return a number of major pieces from last season's team: 6'1 G Andre Curbelo (B10 Sixth Man of the Year/All-Freshman Team), 6'2 G Trent Frazier (B10 Honorable Mention/All-Defensive Team) and 6'10 C Kofi Cockburn (B10 First Team All Conference/2nd Team All-American) who will be making his season debut against UC.

Despite suffering a 67-66 upset loss at Marquette (KP #77) last week, Illinois still ranks #1 in AdjD on KenPom and have established themselves as one of the top rebounding teams in the nation through 3 games - even without the presence of Kofi Cockburn.

Their greatest weakness so far appears to be turnovers where they average over 19/game. They committed 23 against Marquette and also committed a season-high 24 fouls in that game.

The Bearcats are 10.5-point underdogs in Kansas City and will face either Kansas State or Arkansas tomorrow evening.
 
Queens_NYC said:
Monday, November 22nd, 2021
6:30 PM
T-Mobile Center
ESPNews

On paper, the Fighting Illini (KP #5) are the best team on our schedule and will present a tremendous challenge on both ends of the court.

The 2021 Big 10 regular season/tournament champions were upset in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament by Loyola-Chicago, but return a number of major pieces from last season's team: 6'1 G Andre Curbelo (B10 Sixth Man of the Year/All-Freshman Team), 6'2 G Trent Frazier (B10 Honorable Mention/All-Defensive Team) and 6'10 C Kofi Cockburn (B10 First Team All Conference/2nd Team All-American) who will be making his season debut against UC.

Despite suffering a 67-66 upset loss at Marquette (KP #77) last week, Illinois still ranks #1 in AdjD on KenPom and have established themselves as one of the top rebounding teams in the nation through 3 games - even without the presence of Kofi Cockburn.

Their greatest weakness so far appears to be turnovers where they average over 19/game. They committed 23 against Marquette and also committed a season-high 24 fouls in that game.

The Bearcats are 10.5-point underdogs in Kansas City and will face either Kansas State or Arkansas tomorrow evening.
Click to expand...

If they keep turning the ball over at a high rate that will give us a puncher's chance. I would guess that is going to be a major focus for them after last game.

Just hoping to come out of this series 1-1. I would be happy with that. 2-0 ecstatic! 0-2 depends on how we played and how close we were.

It's going to be hard to complain about much unless we get blown out twice. There is just too much good news for UC as a whole right now to be over reacting to individual games of BB. FB is a historic season so far. Two great coaches. Move to P5. etc
 
I wanna go full houston on cockburn, we have the depth. foul that man every time he touches the ball. he shot 55% from the ft line last year
 
waterhead said:
If they keep turning the ball over at a high rate that will give us a puncher's chance. I would guess that is going to be a major focus for them after last game.

Just hoping to come out of this series 1-1. I would be happy with that. 2-0 ecstatic! 0-2 depends on how we played and how close we were.

It's going to be hard to complain about much unless we get blown out twice. There is just too much good news for UC as a whole right now to be over reacting to individual games of BB. FB is a historic season so far. Two great coaches. Move to P5. etc
Click to expand...

Right.

A loss tonight, regardless of the margin, won't take anything away from what we've accomplished so far and the positive trajectory of the program.

It'll be good to get a measuring stick for how we perform against a top team - not to mention a top team away from home.

What's most important to me is that we limit the self-inflicted wounds on both ends of the court (bad shots, turnovers, needless fouls, etc) and give ourselves a genuine chance to compete.
 
We are going to get a real test of our big men tonight. The game will be won or lost on the interior, controlling their big men and keeping the rebounding margin close to equal. Cockburn is the obvious one, but they've got plenty of others and plenty of depth. Their PF Hawkins is 6'10" 200lb and averages 12.4 rebounds/40 minutes (and 19.5 points). JD needs to be able to guard him and take advantage of the mismatch on the other end.

If he can't then suddenly our big man depth becomes a lot less. It's quite possible that the rotation tonight will be Ado/Koval at C and Lakhin/Ody at PF, with JD shifted to mostly playing the 3.

It seems likely that our hopes will rest on Ado. Cockburn has 50 lbs on every other player on our team. I can't imagine Ody being able to guard him, Koval maybe but it will be a tough matchup for him. If Ado can play like he did in the 2nd half of last game, we've got a chance. If he plays like he did in the first 3 games, we are in trouble.

If we can keep their bigs under control, I like our chances. If we can turn them over and avoid turning the ball over ourselves we can keep ourselves in the game and score on the fast break.
 
Queens_NYC said:
Right.

A loss tonight, regardless of the margin, won't take anything away from what we've accomplished so far and the positive trajectory of the program.

It'll be good to get a measuring stick for how we perform against a top team - not to mention a top team away from home.

What's most important to me is that we limit the self-inflicted wounds on both ends of the court (bad shots, turnovers, needless fouls, etc) and give ourselves a genuine chance to compete.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping we are competitive and maybe even find a way to pull out a win. But even getting blown out won't be the end of the world and it would be interesting to see how react in that case.

If we get blown out, I'll be happy if we see guys who are still out there competing, fighting for every loose ball and running the system on offense/defense.

I don't want to see the self-destruction that was so common the last couple of years when things went south, with guys playing for themselves and teamwork falling apart.
 
cincrulz11 said:
I wanna go full houston on cockburn, we have the depth. foul that man every time he touches the ball. he shot 55% from the ft line last year
Click to expand...

Yah I was thinking about the Hack-a-Kofi strategy as well. We have fouls to give but they also have other bigs. But then again we have more fouls to give so I am okay with this. If we employ the hack theory we might see a bit more of Lakhin in the game anyway. That would be a convenient way to get 30 minutes out of him without worrying about playing time issues.
 
skyblade said:
We are going to get a real test of our big men tonight. The game will be won or lost on the interior, controlling their big men and keeping the rebounding margin close to equal. Cockburn is the obvious one, but they've got plenty of others and plenty of depth. Their PF Hawkins is 6'10" 200lb and averages 12.4 rebounds/40 minutes (and 19.5 points). JD needs to be able to guard him and take advantage of the mismatch on the other end.

If he can't then suddenly our big man depth becomes a lot less. It's quite possible that the rotation tonight will be Ado/Koval at C and Lakhin/Ody at PF, with JD shifted to mostly playing the 3.

It seems likely that our hopes will rest on Ado. Cockburn has 50 lbs on every other player on our team. I can't imagine Ody being able to guard him, Koval maybe but it will be a tough matchup for him. If Ado can play like he did in the 2nd half of last game, we've got a chance. If he plays like he did in the first 3 games, we are in trouble.

If we can keep their bigs under control, I like our chances. If we can turn them over and avoid turning the ball over ourselves we can keep ourselves in the game and score on the fast break.
Click to expand...

It's a good thing Ado showed up in 2nd half of last game. No doubt we are going to need that player tonight. Ody is under sized and Koval would probably give more ground. Lakhin might just do pretty well because of his footwork and instincts. If Ado can't do the job I expect to see a lot of Vik.
 
It's safe to say we're shell shocked. How quickly we settle down will determine whether we make a game of this or not.
 
Getting beat on D, throwing the ball away, racking up the fouls... This may get ugly quick.
 
Might as well let Ado get his 5 fouls in while we're within 20 points. Cockburn probably won't play much of the 2nd half anyways.
 
We can't guard Cockburn. Ado and Ody both already have 2 fouls, Lakhin has one.

That was a nice play by Lakhin though, takes it in from half court for the layup.
 
Changing my expectations, I was hoping we'd at least have a shot at a win. Now I'm just hoping we keep it within 25 and show some fighting spirit.
 
Davenport is a disaster on offense so far, MAW not much better. Mikey is looking good though.
 

Similar threads

Q
UCF
Replies
6
Views
27K
Queens_NYC
Q
Q
Stetson
Replies
13
Views
40K
sirthought
S
U
Was Mick Cronin REALLY an Underachiever in March?
6 7 8
Replies
140
Views
31K
HongKongPhooey
H
J
Very Early AAC Preview
2 3
Replies
44
Views
17K
jacobkdoyle
J
bearcat jeff
Good Article on Yancy Gates/UC
Replies
0
Views
2K
bearcat jeff
bearcat jeff
Back
Top