Continuing their reign of underwhelmtion*

I didn't watch the first half of the Illini game last night, except for a couple minutes here and there. I was really hoping they would come on at 6 and then I could watch the entire game. Anyways, I'm not sure how the first half went, so I'll just have to assume I know how it went. Shittily. So I'm going to base my opinion of the game purely on the second half that I watched.

First, another poor, poor output on offense. We would have scored in the 60's if we could have made some fucking free throws, but in general I was very underwhelmed. I get really sick of watching the players just stand around while Chester dribbles the ball, only passing it around the backcourt while players are getting great position down low. Then with ten seconds left Chester creates and throws up a shot that's pretty ugly, but last night it was going in. That's not offense. That shouldn't be considered a reasonable option. It's not.

And why can't we make any fucking free throws? Do we not practice it? This is the second year in a row where we've been terrible from the free throw line. And we're LAST in the Big Ten this year in it. We should never be last in anything in the Big Ten, unless they keep a statistic called sucking. We can be last in that. And has anyone else noticed Shaun Pruitt's practice stroke he takes while he's at the line? I sure have. He never uses his legs when he does his practice stroke, but then he's obviously using his legs when he shoots actual free throws. Seriously, should I just coach the team?

I think the players on this team in general just have a terrible basketball IQ. I think that might be part of the reason why the Illini can never close out games. I would like to reiterate that I don't see the point of fighting through a screen along the baseline, because by going under it, you can basically pin your man in the corner and get in the passing lane. Yet the Illini continue to do it, and they continue to get burnt on it. But I just think in general that as the game goes on, the other team is able to make adjustments to what the Illini do, and that is how they go on runs. Meanwhile, the Illini don't seem to make the adjustments and they make the same mistakes late in the games that they make early in games. I mean, we just saw it two times in a row last night where Neitzel was coming off of screens and got a three. Part of that is on the coaching staff to help these guys realize the adjustments they need to make, but I think a huge part of it is just that the basketball IQ isn't there.

I can't really speak about a whole lot of good things about the game last night because I didn't see much. I was glad to see Chester scoring and shooting with more confidence, but I'm pretty sure it was just because it was a home game. Maybe I'm wrong and he has a great ability to forget about the previous game, but I don't thinks so.

Also, it's not like this was a great win for us. This was a win we needed, but we didn't beat their brains out, even though we probably should have after only giving up 17 points in the first half. MSU was coming off a huge high after nearly beating OSU at OSU, and this was their second road game in a row. They were pretty much set up for a let-down game.

I pretty much think the Illini backed into this win, kind of the same way that we backed into the Indiana win. This win doesn't leave me feeling confident about anything other than the fact that we'll probably play the rest of the home games this way: build a big lead, then give it up down the stretch, then we may or may not hold on to win.

We might as well be Purdue since we're only about 50/50 to win anymore games on the road.

So now the question is, even if we get that 10-6 or 9-7 record in the Big Ten, do we have a chance to get into the NCAA tournament hanging our hat on a win at a neutral site during the non-conference, and then winning at Minnesota, but defending (mostly) at home? And then even if we do make the NCAA tournament, is there any chance that we make it out of the first round?

I don't mean to sound all pessimistic, but this is what was running through my head at the end of the game last night. I'm just too used to watching this team blow games down the stretch to think that anything good can come from it, regardless of what (if any) tournament we play in at the end of the year.

I sure hope this team can prove me wrong with a vengeance.

*It's a word, look it up.

I think I'm going to the dark side

Well, what a game the Illini had on Saturday afternoon. I didn't know if they would be able to maintain their high level of play after beating the Hoosiers at home, but they sure proved me wrong. Yep. No let down whatsoever.

I don't know what the deal is with the Illini any more. I'm sick of trying to figure it out. First, granted, they played on the road against a Purdue team that is apparently unconscious playing at home. That same Purdue team lost to Minnesota on the road. So it's hard to say whether or not the team just plays lights out at home, or if they're an actually better team than the Illini. But here's what I saw from the game.

How does Illinois come out so terribly on offense? While I can argue all I want that they weren't getting any calls for the first 10 minutes of the first half, that doesn't mean anything. They managed to get Landry into foul trouble early. Then the calls were called either evenly or actually in the Illini's favor for the rest of the game. Purdue just had the intensity and no one on the Illini did. How we come out and lack the ability to match intensity with a team who should be inferior is beyond me.

What is Chester's problem? He's never been afraid to shoot from the outside in past games, but recently his shot has stopped falling. But how immasculating must it be to not even be guarded unless you're within about 15 feet of the basket? And not only that, he didn't even make Purdue play at all. He would just stand behind the three-point line, trying to decide if he should shoot or not, then pass the ball. He wasn't being guarded, he could have been slashing to the basket during ball reversal or something. And while his intensity on the defensive end was useful at times, at other times it worked against him. I seriously don't know what the deal is with him, but he needs to pick it up. Big time.

Also, why could no one defend Teague? He's got a quick, pretty accurate shot, yes. But look at where you are on the floor before you try to fight through a screen. There were a number of times when Teague was curling around a pick only to have the Illini defender follow him through it. But the majority of the time, the pick was occurring below the free throw line, which would have meant that the only place he could have gone to get his shot, if the defender went under the pick, was to the corner. And that's an extremely difficult pass to make for anyone. Plus, they would have had to lob it over the defender/screener anyways, allowing time for recovery. Where was the defensive adjustment to recognize that though? Probably about 60-75% of the time Teague was defended pretty well, but he made his shots when he needed to.

The one lone spot in the entire game, at least in my opinion, was Rich McBride' s aggressiveness. It's about fucking time we saw the player we all expected to be seeing at the beginning of the year. It was like he realized that no one else was doing anything on offense, and he managed to get to the rim a couple of times. Well, maybe not the rim, but he attacked the basket and made a couple shots inside the three-point line. In addition to that, he got to the free throw line a couple times as well.

However, that was the one lone spot. I know I've been an avid supporter of Bruce Weber for a long time. Right when we first hired him, I was tentative, then we were 3-3 in Big Ten play his first season, I thought it was a mistake. But since then I've not had a problem with him. I even thought his recruiting was sufficient. However, I may be starting to change my tune. It's not to say I think Bruce is a bad coach, because I don't think he is. And I'm not sure he's a bad recruiter. But with all of the young, up-and-coming coaches in Division I these days, think of all the good recruits we could be getting in addition to the solid coaching. Could we make a mistake and bring in a shitty coach who rode one good team to success? A Lon Kruger of the 2000's if you will? Absolutely. And that would suck. But this team should be in a much different state than it is currently in.

Before I was thinking that Illinois would have a cake-walk through the rest of the Big Ten season, but now I don't think so. If teams defend their home floor the way Purdue did, then we're screwed. However, if they defend their home floor the way MSU or Michigan did (both games we should have won), we may have a chance to finish fourth and make the NCAA.

After Saturday, and with Arizona getting the shit beat out of them by UNC, I'm not sure it matters where we end up playing at the end of the year. It's not going to be good enough.