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2020/2021 NCAA Basketball Thread


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28 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

This should be a 2nd weekend game, not a 1st weekend game.

Agreed. Loyola got no respect from the committee. Among my friends, no one gave them a chance in this game except me. I’ve seen them play 5 or 6 times this year. They play incredible team defense, keeps them in every game. Moser is the truth. Gets more out of his players than any coach in college. I also happen to be a bit biased because I’m an alum of an MVC school ha

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15 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

Agreed. Loyola got no respect from the committee. Among my friends, no one gave them a chance in this game except me. I’ve seen them play 5 or 6 times this year. They play incredible team defense, keeps them in every game. Moser is the truth. Gets more out of his players than any coach in college. I also happen to be a bit biased because I’m an alum of an MVC school ha

I’ve said when brackets were released this was going to be a tough game for Illinois.

Loyola is extremely well coached and they came ready to play. You could tell Illinois were not ready in the first half to play a team of Loyola’s caliber in the second round after a cakewalk in the first round.

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1 minute ago, chw42 said:

Absolutely embarrassing performance from Ayo in the last 10 minutes. Got the ball stolen from him by a center twice.

He's a really good player, but it looked like the Illini got better when he missed time to be honest. He gets beat on defense a lot, stops the ball, and turns the ball over too much against physical defense.

He did a great job helping turn the program around, but he was overrated IMO. 

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Illinois continues to choke continually in NCAA tournament year after year. Most wins of any team not to win Championship. Underwood made no adjustments all game, amateur hour today.

Edited by Soxfest
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8 minutes ago, Soxfest said:

Illinois continues to choke continually in NCAA tournament year after year. Most wins of any team not to win Championship. Underwood made no adjustments all game, amateur hour today.

I've always thought Underwood isn't a good in-game coach. We won as many games as we did this year because we out-talented just about everyone in the big 10.

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Almost have to predict Michigan and Iowa going down tmrw.

Weird thing is MD and Wisconsin outperforming.


Losing twice to Indiana...and Illinois, not really a Top 4-8 team in the country.   Not with that defense.  Only really impressive win of the year was in Columbus.  (Attempts strategy of low expectations.  But even Lunardi is picking Oregon.  And then you have the Pac 12 at 6-0 so far.  That said, no way I’d bet against them, either.)

 

 

 

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49 minutes ago, Boogua said:

He's a really good player, but it looked like the Illini got better when he missed time to be honest. He gets beat on defense a lot, stops the ball, and turns the ball over too much against physical defense.

He did a great job helping turn the program around, but he was overrated IMO. 

Curbelo is the better pro prospect IMO, and it’s not even close

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Wisconsin’s not going to have a prayer at this 75-80 point pace.

 

You’d have to think Minnesota or Indiana would be idiots to not consider Moser.  Or Northwestern, when/if Collins follows the Coach K coaching tree out the door along with Brey at ND.

Marquette is too obvious as another regional Catholic school, but with considerable resources for recruiting.


PS:  Sister Jean must be the most famous 100+ year old US woman in decades, haha.  More screen time than AJ McCarron’s gf at the time.

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35 minutes ago, chw42 said:

I've always thought Underwood isn't a good in-game coach. We won as many games as we did this year because we out-talented just about everyone in the big 10.

He was awful today but you don’t go 31-9 in the Big 19 over the last two years being a bad in game coach.  This Illinois team had two stars and one who will be a star in Curbelo and basically role players around them.  They played lights out D against Michigan and Wisconsin without Ayo but guys like Frazier, Damonte and Grandison are incredibly limited.  Not a team well positioned to survive one of its two all Americans being the worst player on the floor.  

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2 minutes ago, fathom said:

Curbelo is the better pro prospect IMO, and it’s not even close

Agreed.  If Curbelo develops a jump shot he is completely unguardable with how well he handles the ball, how creative is and his court vision.  
 

As good as Ayo is it is crazy how unable he was to handle a hedge on a screen today.  Either just retreated and let the D recover or turned it over.  Never made a quick pass or looked to Dump it to Kofi being guarded by tiny guards. If a team tried that against Curbelo a year from now he’d absolutely torch them.  

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3 minutes ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

Agreed.  If Curbelo develops a jump shot he is completely unguardable with how well he handles the ball, how creative is and his court vision.  

Not sure I’ve ever seen someone with his ball handling skills have as many unforced turnovers as him. He just loses the handle once or twice every game.

I agree, though, if he can develop any sort of shot, he’s going to be great.

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The Illini lacked energy. I think they thought this wasn't going to be much of a game. I know I figured they would blow them out.

Loyola plays too good of defense.  Even if you are  making your shots you aren't scoring much. GA Tech had 49 points with 6 or 7 minutes left and they were shooting 57%.

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10 minutes ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

Agreed.  If Curbelo develops a jump shot he is completely unguardable with how well he handles the ball, how creative is and his court vision.  
 

As good as Ayo is it is crazy how unable he was to handle a hedge on a screen today.  Either just retreated and let the D recover or turned it over.  Never made a quick pass or looked to Dump it to Kofi being guarded by tiny guards. If a team tried that against Curbelo a year from now he’d absolutely torch them.  

Ayo had a great season but it always felt he was out to get “his”.  I don’t think he’ll be a good pro.

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11 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

The Illini lacked energy. I think they thought this wasn't going to be much of a game. I know I figured they would blow them out.

Loyola plays too good of defense.  Even if you are  making your shots you aren't scoring much. GA Tech had 49 points with 6 or 7 minutes left and they were shooting 57%.

I think it’s as simple as Loyola executed exceptionally  well on offense and Illinois didn’t make good adjustments today (on the coaching staff) and the blueprint against this Illinois team defensively is that if you get really physical with them and are disciplined you can get them out of their stuff since only Curbelo is truly a plus ball handler.  Most games they still were able to make enough plays or their D carried them but the D wasn’t there today.  Very similar game to Missouri and MSU on offense where the other team was extremely physical, not much was called early and then mentally they just don’t seem to recover well.  

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17 minutes ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

I think it’s as simple as Loyola executed exceptionally  well on offense and Illinois didn’t make good adjustments today (on the coaching staff) and the blueprint against this Illinois team defensively is that if you get really physical with them and are disciplined you can get them out of their stuff since only Curbelo is truly a plus ball handler.  Most games they still were able to make enough plays or their D carried them but the D wasn’t there today.  Very similar game to Missouri and MSU on offense where the other team was extremely physical, not much was called early and then mentally they just don’t seem to recover well.  

Loyola did execute well, but IMO, the Illini made it fairly easy for them. They backed off on defense, and didn’t execute on offense. I think they took Loyola lightly. You can blame the coach, but I don’t think there is a coach alive that has coached a really good team that hasn’t come out flat once or twice vs. an opponent. Their intensity level was nowhere near where it was once they really got cooking this season.

Once you get down to Loyola by double figures, you’re in trouble. The CBS experts thought they would snap out of it at halftime. No dice. 

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They simply got out-coached today, plain and simple, it wasn’t a matter of talent or if the guys on this team were talented enough to win. They tried forcing the ball into Cockburn who got doubled or triple teamed at time and others were just standing around ball watching. Loyola also brought pressure on the ball on the perimeter and Ayo and Curbelo tried to force their way into making something happen. I think they needed to focus on the fundamentals - set better screens to get guys open, move the ball around, and get guys move around off ball and get to the basket. I was hoping they wake up and make adjustments after halftime but that didn’t happen.

Defensively they didn’t bring the same intensity as they did in the big games this year, especially against Michigan. They let Loyola get too comfortable, their were too few doubles and traps when they had the ball deep the in the post and they feasted. It’s like their confidence was shook not being able get anything going on offense and they gave up trying on defense.

Had they taken this game seriously, went in preparing for a fight, get more tapes on Loyola’s defense and also had the week to prepare for this game (meaning facing them in the second weekend), I could see them escaping with a W.

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3 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Loyola did execute well, but IMO, the Illini made it fairly easy for them. They backed off on defense, and didn’t execute on offense. I think they took Loyola lightly. You can blame the coach, but I don’t think there is a coach alive that has coached a really good team that hasn’t come out flat once or twice vs. an opponent. Their intensity level was nowhere near where it was once they really got cooking this season.

Once you get down to Loyola by double figures, you’re in trouble. The CBS experts thought they would snap out of it at halftime. No dice. 

I agree with what you said except the bold. Against a well coached team with a suffocating defense in the tournament they needed a game plan. They didn’t have a good game plan and get shook when they couldn’t get the normal offense going.

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1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

Loyola did execute well, but IMO, the Illini made it fairly easy for them. They backed off on defense, and didn’t execute on offense. I think they took Loyola lightly. You can blame the coach, but I don’t think there is a coach alive that has coached a really good team that hasn’t come out flat once or twice vs. an opponent. Their intensity level was nowhere near where it was once they really got cooking this season.

Once you get down to Loyola by double figures, you’re in trouble. The CBS experts thought they would snap out of it at halftime. No dice. 

It had nothing to do with a lack of intensity. Did they lack intensity against a bad Drexel team? Great defensive teams (like Loyola) tend to make good offensive teams look lethargic. No different than what a great pitcher does to a great lineup in baseball.

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2 hours ago, fathom said:

Curbelo is the better pro prospect IMO, and it’s not even close

Curbelo is impressive but the guard that’s impressed me the most this tournament is the kid from Ohio U, Preston. Holy smokes, that kid can handle the rock. I didn’t see the game when they played Illinois earlier this season but apparently he was the best player on the court in that game too.

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