Illini Zip

Ahh, he turned the ball over at the 10:02 mark. Who needs him? 😀

I think we just need to become our best selves. Nothing more. I liked seeing Nate steal the ball and finish on the other end with an emphatic 2-handed dunk. Sure it might not be as cool as a tomahawk dunk, but it’s better than him missing altogether. That’s progress. Keep making those adjustments and improvements throughout the season. Collectively and individually. Rebounding, too much dribbling around, traveling, bad passes, missed free-throws, missed layups, dumb fouls, moving screens, broken defensive assignments. I think we are our own worst enemy at times. Sure, I would like to see Marvin get more opportunities going forward and Young become the primary ball-handler. But other than that nobody is standing out as an obvious starter right now. Maybe Nate, but he can be inconsistent as well. I would let the match-up dictate playing time. Certain players might distinguish themselves by March, but right now the whole active roster is engaged and I don’t expect that to change. And I don’t foresee a schematic change either.

Yep, that’s right. I guess my point is you don’t have to be the tallest, fastest or jump out of the gym to be an effective rebounder. Wilson can be an immovable object and if he boxes out properly should be able to Hoover-up anything that falls his way.

BG’s big guy, Marcus Johnson ended the night with 14 points. Which is good, but I thought our combination of big bodies (okonkwo, Lyles and Wilson) did a decent job of keeping him contained. Also, I wish Seth Wilson could have seen Lucas Smith play. Smith was a little taller, but Wilson is stronger and heavier. For someone fresh out of the rec. gym Smith could sure rebound. I think Wilson could do the same if he worked at it.

I am interested in learning more about Harris. I imagine he will be undergoing surgery since they ruled him out for the season. Let’s hope for a full recovery. Now would that mean he has 2 years of eligibility left? And if so, how do we get him to stay for those years. The guy already has multiple degrees. Maybe he could get into an internship program with a local business for credit hours or something.

I believe Harris was averaging 5 rebounds per game. That would have helped for sure.

I will really be rooting for Marvin’s continued/accelerated development now. He has an huge opportunity in front of him. Project MK-Ultra. Ha!!

Damn. Losing Harris hurts. We can still accomplish a lot, but I think our ceiling just dropped.

I do think Mahaffey will redshirt, but it sounds like he had a good offseason.

During the pre-game interview Groce responded to that question saying that both Harris and Eric Mahaffey’s return are indefinite. I was hoping for something more encouraging myself.

We need to ice the game from the line. We had two shots. But I’ll take the win.

Never in doubt. 😬

Game of runs so far.

I don’t believe we have a “go-to” either. I thought it could be Harris, but who knows when we will see him again and how long it will take for him to get re-acclimated. In the future I can see Young being the guy.

Not how I thought the season would go to this point, but they are improving. Individually and collectively. Learning how to finish games is next on their “to do” list.

Great, another 8 days between games.

I agree only to a point. Regardless of what the Princeton’s announcers might think, they got a lot of home cooking in those final minutes.

Get the ball to Hardman.

I keep mistaking Wilson for Lyles.

I like Tavari’s active hands and jumping the passing lanes.

I don’t like that Princeton is taking the ball right out of hands at times.

Baker leaving sure surprised me. It’s getting harder to be excited about recruits until we see them perform in an Akron jersey. Because we just don’t know if they will pan out. And I am someone who really enjoys following the recruiting process

a.k.a. The Unicorn.

We were hearing great things about Mahaffey in the off-season before he got hurt. Has anyone seen enough of Brisco to have an opinion? And I’m waiting to hear if Okonkwo was rewarded an additional season.

Due to the transfer portal, I think there is probably a lot of teams around the country learning just how difficult it is to add a bunch of players to your roster at one time. Although, I think our situation is a bit of an extreme with 5 transfers and 3 true freshman. And of the 5 returning players only Scott, Nate and Tavari had really seen the court before this year. Amani not so much and Marvin redshirted last year. There will be some turnover again next year, but hopefully we will have established a much stronger core and it will be far less disruptive.