Illini Zip

Besides Barre, I’m hoping to see Oggie take a big step forward on the defensive end this year. His size and athleticism could have been a help to us if he was more experienced.

It will be interesting to look back on this game at the end of the year.

I liked this tournament as well. I wonder how you get invited back, etc.

One Tavari bucket that almost went down too.

I know it’s just not the same because we lost, but Hardman was put in at the end and boy did he hit an incredible deep three with a hand in his face.

Yale shot 14 of 19 (73.7%) from the line against Green Bay and 11 of 18 (61.1%) against Charleston. They’re good, but we caught them on the wrong night. And there is a little bush league in that ivy. The fact that the refs let them get away with that hook and hold crap was driving me crazy. We do need better defense. There is still a lot of season left for everyone to improve, including hopefully Barre.

Scott had 25 points too.

I thought Tavari took too long to make that drive.

I really thought Amani had that three. Damn!!

Our guys are fighting like hell. I just can’t believe this Yale team. They can’t be perfect all of the time. Geeez.

Kudos to Tavari for keeping us in this.

How do you go to the monitor and still get it wrong? I think we figured some things out. 🤞

They both held each other.

Ugh!! Yale is pretty damn efficient. We need to somehow tire them out.

Sorry guys, going into this game without a single “Like” to my name. 😔

I said the same thing about Freeman. This is only Halligan’s sophomore year and we lose five of that 10 man rotation after this year. So there could be a role for him going forward. We do need to maintain cohesion. Not making a prediction, but his size and skills say a physical guard is possible to me anyway.

Unacceptable!! I guess we will just have to win big enough tonight to get it back.

Rewatched the Evansville game and here’s a random observation. Barre, for a guy his size has a nice touch at the free throw line.

I thought the same, but Groce has hinted at a larger role for him during radio interviews. And he played during the course of the game yesterday. Not just at the very end.

Correct.

This was a really good question and it stuck with me because I didn’t have the obvious answer. I once suggested he might be the next Hardman, but I hope we use one of the open scholarships to bring in another sharp shooter. My best guess is Halligan is still a work in progress, but could fill the role of strong, big-bodied guard. Think Mikal Dawson or Isaiah Gray.

MVC might not like it for this reason, but it would improve our strength of schedule as a league. I’m in, even if it was just select match ups.

I see Cody Head stepping into Shammah Scott’s role for the next 2 years and then Jashawn Ladd after him. And let me say we often talk about Freeman being the poster boy for skill development at Akron (and rightfully so) but Shammah Scott is a man on a mission out there. I’m so proud of how much he has improved and the way he plays.

I’ll just add that I wouldn’t be surprised if JMU has a season similar to us last year where the OOC schedule is brutal, but they figure out in conference play and come storming back. So they might sneak onto this list too by the end of the season.

I do support a MAC vs MVC challenge like we are doing with the Sun Belt. A major difference between the 2 conferences is in the MAC when a coach has success he leaves for greener pastures. In the MVC that successful coach takes his school to greener pastures. Believe it or not, Kansas, Louisville, Missouri, Nebraska, Wichita State, Creighton and more were all members of the MVC at one time ages ago. So for ISU to leave would be par for the course. I just don’t want it.