Illinois #16 in 12/19 AP Poll

#6      
Deep
I have no idea how this team will play against MIZZOU. There seems to be some issues surfacing that are either going to derail this team or connect this team because they were able to work through those issues. I am hoping for the latter.............
 
#10      
Fighter of the Nightman
Champaignheat said:
I know that Missouri has played a horrifically bad schedule thus far, but I find it surprising that even at 11-1 they didn't even receive ONE vote in the AP Top 25.
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I think it’s heavily due to the fact that the only time ANYBODY saw them play on TV or remotely cared about their opponent, they got run out of their own (packed and hostile) gym by Kansas!
 
#11      
ChiefGritty
Champaignheat said:
I know that Missouri has played a horrifically bad schedule thus far, but I find it surprising that even at 11-1 they didn't even receive ONE vote in the AP Top 25.
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I also don't get why undefeated New Mexico and Utah State are getting so little love.

The way the selection committee looks at seeding, the way the AP poll looks at ranking, and the way KenPom looks at analytics are all increasingly converging into one quasi-predictive blob. It was more fun and better for the sport when they were different.
 
#14      
Calvin
Deep said:
4040, you have some insight bro.................Are the issues things that can be fixed or are these issues becoming a problem?
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I don't know if he was referring to chemistry, but the team has faced a pretty wide variety of talent and different styles of play. It's going to take some patience. I think the only "bad" game IMHO is the Penn State game.

That said, need to get some conference wins. Gonna be hard to chase down Purdue in the standings.
 
#15      
ChiefGritty
Calvin said:
I think the only "bad" game IMHO is the Penn State game.
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I don't think you can properly wrap your head around the tension between our staff and our players without internalizing that our neutral site win over the #2 team in the country was also a really lackluster performance in which we didn't execute on the principles BU wants to play with at all and made an endless list of mistakes.

It is the nature of sports-narrative trained, orange-bespectacled fans to look at the situation and see an inconsistent team on a path to coming together. But inconsistency isn't really the thing, and the jigsaw pieces are no closer together than where they started.

This team has luxurious problems, but it has a lot of them.
 
#16      
zentrails
ChiefGritty said:
I don't think you can properly wrap your head around the tension between our staff and our players without internalizing that our neutral site win over the #2 team in the country was also a really lackluster performance in which we didn't execute on the principles BU wants to play with at all and made an endless list of mistakes.
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So you're saying we can and did beat the #2 team at a neutral site even though.....
 
#18      
RockfordIllini
I’m not looking past Mizzou because I think that’s a really tough game, but I’m definitely concerned about our next 2 BIG games, @NW and vs. Wisky. We seem to have trouble bringing it on a consistent basis, and although we are much more talented than NW, they seem to really muck it up on defense this year which could give us problems, particularly on the road. And Wisky runs what they always run but are looking really crisp, and I’m guessing any sort of miscommunications or other issues in our defense will be exposed. Unfortunate timing because I think if
we play these 2 games in mid February we blow past both teams easily.

Good news is we’ve got 2 weeks to get things cleaned up, but if we don’t clean up our execution and effort, very real chance we start 0-4. But, gotta beat Mizzou first.
 
#19      
ChiefGritty
zentrails said:
So you're saying we can and did beat the #2 team at a neutral site even though.....
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On any given day our gaggle of really good players is capable of beating just about anybody, a lot of that due to the physicality and griminess that is pretty good at getting even very good teams to beat themselves. We are a mental challenge to play against even on a bad day.

The trouble is when we get figured out by teams that are really well prepared for what we do. That's been a little rare because even WE don't know what we're going to do on a game to game basis (UCLA had no film to tell them what Sincere Harris would do, and Texas didn't see a Mayer slump breakout coming) but we all know how well-scouted Big Ten chess matches are. BU knows these guys aren't ready for that, that's why he's acting the way he is.
 
#20      
Calvin
ChiefGritty said:
I don't think you can properly wrap your head around the tension between our staff and our players without internalizing that our neutral site win over the #2 team in the country was also a really lackluster performance in which we didn't execute on the principles BU wants to play with at all and made an endless list of mistakes.

It is the nature of sports-narrative trained, orange-bespectacled fans to look at the situation and see an inconsistent team on a path to coming together. But inconsistency isn't really the thing, and the jigsaw pieces are no closer together than where they started.

This team has luxurious problems, but it has a lot of them.
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I'll take your word for it --I'm not an insider on the practices or schemes by any means. It seems to me that getting experienced players out of the portal comes with this risk though, especially guys who did well and developed in different systems. Maybe if you have one or two guys, the system overwhelms the player, but in this case, you have a whole lotta new faces. The clock is ticking though --already 2 games into the conference season.
 
#21      
Emerson Bigguns
MDchicago said:
Yep, A lot of talent, a lot of issues, and a ticking clock... Hope the post-Mizzou practice time is put to good use...

Even if the staff gets things figured out and the team seem to be humming along, will always be fans ready to help optimize things, as Matt Painter was reminded this week. lol

https://twitter.com/x/status/1603096411809226755
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I'm sure Matt was taking notes, not mentally checking out while scrolling Twitter on his phone... The "class M tailgaters" have it all figured out.
 
#23      
Birdus
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think it’s heavily due to the fact that the only time ANYBODY saw them play on TV or remotely cared about their opponent, they got run out of their own (packed and hostile) gym by Kansas!
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Than run a lot of people out. They ran Indiana out. Missouri is going to play us tight! I just hope we show up with our A game.
 
#25      
zentrails
ChiefGritty said:
On any given day our gaggle of really good players is capable of beating just about anybody, a lot of that due to the physicality and griminess that is pretty good at getting even very good teams to beat themselves. We are a mental challenge to play against even on a bad day.
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Can't say you don't both sides it! LOL
Our team is hard to figure out, but it sure is fun trying to.
 
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