OMG. Reality hits. At least we are 13-2 and beat Auburn.

This could end up being a historically bad rebounding team. Seven combined rebounds tonight for Egwu, McLovin and Griffey. Seriously?!?!

Griffey needs replaced in the starting lineup by Joe Bert

we missed too many easy shots tonight, but the game was within reach until Byrd gets an illegal TO with 20 seconds to go off the free throw (not to mention – watch him chicken win McLovin and pull him to the floor like he’s Dwayne Bowers or somethin – he had the McLovin box out scouting report….but that’s a foul 99 of 100 times, but not this once)

BP3 disappeared again – JUST like he did against Missou – he decides to show back up the last 3 minutes, but too little too late – can’t take 30 minutes of the middle of the ballgame off.

Tylers defense isn’t worth is offense – he should be the Matt Heldman/Sean Harrington type bench player to come in and hit a few 3′s off the bench…he has no business starting though

my 2 cents – i’m upset – and if we don’t figure out rebounding soon – we’ll be 0-4 to start the Big Ten

bright side – that was our lowest point total of the year… 10 times last year we didn’t even get to 61 points – another 3 times we didn’t exceed it – just a positive spin on a crappy night

8:44 seconds with 4 total points from 45 to 49 – that’s not gonna cut it.

Good column Robert. Witty, clever, self deprecating, and not even any hints of “but maybe things arent so bad”.. Just reality, yet told in a clever way.

Come to the dark side Robert.
.Being pigeonholed into the glass half full guy cant be fun at all and has to be a writing obstacle.

As for Illini basketball – this is the same team as last year. Pretend those 3s vs Gardner Weber and Hawaii didnt fall, and you’d be in the same boat as me.

it is very frustrating watching this team get outrebounded and pushed around on the inside. we are fundamentally poor rebounders. we rarely get a body on someone and the thing that drives me crazy is we run to the rim on missed shots. the only thing you are rebounding when you run to the rim is a made shot. so of course the ball bounces over our head and goes right to an opposing player who has no one boxing him out. we can caterwaul all we want about our lack of inside size, but our technique is the bigger problem.
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i’m still all in on the John Groce bandwagon. We are going to hit some bumps in the road and we sure hit one last night. our inability to stroke it from 3 lately is a really bad sign for this coming season.
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Now for some bright side, Tracy Abrams has really stepped up. I didn’t get to see him last year at all since I was in AFG, but he has improved as the season has gone on. He still has his moments where he is too casual with the ball (flip pass behind the head on the PU sideline right to DJ Byrd for example) but overall he has really impressed me, especially his ability to get to the rim. we desperately need that.

I just keep reminding myself we were picked 9th(?) in the preseason conference polls. It seems all the announcers on tv know this as well, as I wish I had a penny for every time we’ve been referred to as the surprise team of the year so far in the conference, if not the country. But I digress.
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You know things are back to normal when phrases like “career high” , “out of his slump” and “up until today he’d only….” are being used in regard to opposing players. This is the way of the world.
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There is nothing that we saw last night that should surprise an Illini fan. Winning on the road against anyone in the conference will be tough. Our identity has not changed since the first preseason game. We shoot jump shots and will certainly have to make more than 35.6% of them to win. The rebounding situation probably won’t change. It’s not in our dna either physically or mentally. Missed free throws by our opponents have been a “hold your breath” moment all year, not just in the last 21 seconds last night.
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Listened to Groce on the post game show. Really liked what I heard. He was mad (almost swore a few times), but in the right way. Was very complimentary of Purdue, etc. We all have to realize he wasn’t exactly dealt a full house in his first year. I’m just confident he’ll make the best of what he has.

Very tough to win on the road in the Big Ten because all the calls go to the home team. The guards are the only ones who can get rebounds.
Brandon Paul hasn’t played the same since he got hit in the Mizzou game……..

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To Bryce’s point, there was one thing about Bruce Weber I did like – his scoring system of Big Ten games since it is so tough to win on the road (hence, “easy” at home”). Zero points for losing on the road, zero points for winning at home. +1 for a road win, -1 for a home loss.
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We are net zero right now. We are neither quite as good as our record nor is Purdue quite as bad as theirs. It’s a road loss to a proven Big Ten program that was off to a slow start. We’ll be about .500 in the Big Ten as many of the people on here have guessed. PU holds their opponents to low shooting percentage, especially from 3. That held true and they won. Not a shocking loss.
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Puts a small dent in what’s been a fun year. We’re not playing all that great lately. Soon, we’ll heat up. That’s basketball.

I’m used to some of the calls going the other way in B1G road games, but this ref crew should be ashamed.

Now don’t get me wrong, we went really cold for about 7 minutes in the second half, and that’s what decided the game. Abrams needs to learn how to shoot a pull-up jumper, instead of driving all the way into the opponents bigs and throwing up a prayer. Oh, and Griffey doesn’t belong on the floor if he’s not going to play defense with some energy!!!! I’m with you UIUCfan. JoBert needs to be starting in his place. Abrams, Richardson, Paul, JoBert (or McLovin), Egwu.

But that game was very very poorly officiated. The game should never be decided by the refs. Not only did Byrd get an illegal timeout, but he actually travelled. You can’t slide across the floor when in possession of the basketball! And there were numerous off-the-ball fouls on Paul throughout the game, from hand-checking to outright grabbing him. Ugh..

My hope is that this game lights a little fire in this team’s belly.

Oh, and JoeJohn, what boat are you in?

The one that’s leaking like a pasta strainer and constantly needs bailing out? I think I’ll stay out of that boat myself, thank you very much.

Anyone who picked this team to finish 9th was being stupid. This team has severe weaknesses on defense that will be exposed all year long, and those weaknesses are eerily similar to what Groce’s Ohio teams also suffered from.
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He sounds great in a press conference, but that’s pretty low on the list of qualities you want in a head coach. I like what he’s done with the offense, and the shooting in particular, but the defense is just an absolute mess.

Yeah gusher… here’s what I believe he’s doing.

He likes to hedge or even outright switch a LOT on ball screens. While that’s great for keeping pressure on the ball handler and defending the 3-pointer, what you give up is rebounding position for our bigs (which are challenged even when they have good position). Our bigs are stuck on the perimeter, above the other team’s bigs. The opponent gets inside position for offensive rebounds as a result.

When Groce came in, he said his priority on defense was to defend the 3. The team does a good job of that. They really do. But when you get a guard that can penetrate a little, a-la Missouri’s point, his missed floaters basically become assists because their bigs are just standing under the rim, wide-open ready to rebound the miss and stick it back.

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BTW, while it may not be a streak, I do know a number of Michigan State fans who dread coming to Champaign. They honestly feel like they can never win there.

SouthernIllini – just to clarify, it actually is legal to slide with the ball and the timeout was also legally granted. You can’t call a timeout while in the air and jumping out of bounds, but Byrd was clearly in bounds when he called it. It stinks, but please don’t use such definitive statements when you’re not sure of the rule.

Hopefully we bounce back tomorrow. Big, big game.

I actually think Illinois has a better chance to beat Minnesota than than Ohio State. Minnesota will turn the ball over alot and they dont have any shooters. Illinois can probably beat them by making a bunch of 3s vs Minnesota getting garbage baskets.

But with Ohio State..i dont think this one is close.
Buckeyes win comfortably.
They are going to be motivated after BP embarrassed them last year.

So we’ll beat Minn by 50? Doubt it.