milehiiu Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 A quick turn around demands a quick pre-game thread. IU has taken the last four in a row from UI. Can IU keep the Illini perfect, in the B1G ? Share your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmax Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 If this team has any shot at making the dance, which admittedly is very slim, this has to be a must win. Brutal 3 game stretch coming following this game. B1G wins on the road are never easy, but this is not a good Illini team at all. Barring any more problems with Morgan's ankle, I think we win by 12 with a final score of 76-64. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FKIM01 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Illinois came out fired up against MSU and stayed with them for awhile. They are literally starving for a win and that always makes me nervous with a team that often struggles on offense. I hope they burned a lot of fuel playing MSU and come out flat against IU, but the Hoosiers seem to bring out he best in many teams and this team has shown themselves capable of the inexplicable loss. Should be a win but the road is always tough. IU 74-69 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmhoosier Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 I think we have a much better chance against Purdue. The Orange Crush will be all over us in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5fouls Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Lose this one and we're staring at 12-12 after the next 4 games. Win this one and maybe build some momentum and use it to take one of the following 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leathernecks Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 This is definitely a game we should win. Illinois is not a good team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking6 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 No idea what to think on this one. Illinois is a desperate team and somewhat deserving of a win. Just pray it's not at our expense. Or maybe they are 0-8 for a reason? No clue. I don't take any road games lightly and nor should our team. Morgan could have 40 if we feed him. Illinois interior sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 It is a must win game for us to have any shot/dream of making the NCAAT. I hope the boys know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slojoe Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Agree we need this one to keep up any slim hopes for the NCAAT. In the second 9 games we play Purdue, MSU, and OSU 4 times though 3 are at home. Hopefully we can play well enough to make the NIT field at the very least. Any post season will be good for this team especially for those who will be returning next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosierhoopster Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 I don't look at the game in terms of whether we can make the NCAA tourney. That's a serious uphill climb, it's at best unlikely regardless. We do not have a tourney resume. To me, it's the adage one game at a time. The Illini are bad, but 1) they are desperate, and will play with desperation, 2) it's a conference road game, 3) it's a short turnaround, and 4) our guys are still developing as a team, and particularly on the road. I'll be happy if we can get a W. Don't think it's a gimmee game in any sense, regardless of how the Illini have played coming in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IU Scott Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 11 hours ago, milehiiu said: A quick turn around demands a quick pre-game thread. IU has taken the last four in a row from UI. Can IU keep the Illini perfect, in the B1G ? Share your thoughts. I see this game as being a very ugly because UI puts a lot of on the ball pressure on their opponents. I see us turning the ball over a lot and losing this game 64-57 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indy1987 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 3 hours ago, Hoosierhoopster said: I don't look at the game in terms of whether we can make the NCAA tourney. That's a serious uphill climb, it's at best unlikely regardless. We do not have a tourney resume. To me, it's the adage one game at a time. The Illini are bad, but 1) they are desperate, and will play with desperation, 2) it's a conference road game, 3) it's a short turnaround, and 4) our guys are still developing as a team, and particularly on the road. I'll be happy if we can get a W. Don't think it's a gimmee game in any sense, regardless of how the Illini have played coming in. The Illini had about an hour less of a turnaround than us. So when we beat them they'll have that excuse. Go Hoosiers!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Really big game. Illinois is 0-8 but probably not as bad as that makes them sound. It will not be easy on the road. NCAA tourney is not realistic anymore but we are still playing for a top half of the league finish. If we get this one, then steal one of the next three, we'd be in great shape sitting at 7-5 with a reasonable schedule from there on out. But we could easily lose the next four, which would create a much different feel around this team. Hope we come out ready to play from the opening tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IowaHoosierFan Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Illinois always play is tough. There is a little hatred of us from them. We have always said they had little brother syndrome. They even have the same name for their arena. I think this could go either way. We could just lay an egg on the road and drop it. Or we can man up and take a road game we really need. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cohete15 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Probably aren’t going to get this one. Short turn around off an emotional game. Illini due for a W. Road game. Might sound silly, but I like our chances better on Sunday than tomorrow night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CauseThatsMyDJ Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Think some on the board are expecting this to be one we should go out and win by double digits with relative ease. I don't see that being the case. Yes they are winless in the B1G, but they've had several close calls. Maryland 92-91 in OT at home...similar to our game against the Terps Michigan 79-69 in Ann Arbor...similar to us Nebraska 64-63 at home...Nebraska is a quality opponent KenPom likes Illinois to win 73-70, with a 41% chance of IU victory ESPN gives us a 40% chance of victory Vegas has not released a line yet, but I expect Illinois to be a very slight favorite. We need this game because it's a team we can beat and we have three very tough games that follow. But is not going to be an easy game to win. They have three guys averaging double figures, and Leron Black shoots it 44% from deep. Aaron Jordan, averaging 9 points a game, shoots 51% from three. This one could end up very similar to the Maryland game. But we don't have the homecourt advantage this time. Outside of Michael Finke, they do not have a lot of height, which should help us out in this matchup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier82 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 If we can keep the turnovers to 12 or less we have a really good shot at a win. Hard to tell if Illinois will come off their loss to MSU deflated for not finally getting over the hump or energized with their performance against what is probably the best team in the conference. Newkirk will have to have a good game running the point and RoJo and Morgan need to be RoJo and Morgan...if Justin Smith can be the X Factor and give us 14+ points and some rim protecting defense down low this should be a Hoosier victory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CauseThatsMyDJ Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 8 minutes ago, Hoosier82 said: If we can keep the turnovers to 12 or less we have a really good shot at a win. Hard to tell if Illinois will come off their loss to MSU deflated for not finally getting over the hump or energized with their performance against what is probably the best team in the conference. Newkirk will have to have a good game running the point and RoJo and Morgan need to be RoJo and Morgan...if Davis can be the X Factor and give us 14+ points and some rim protecting defense down low this should be a Hoosier victory. Did you mean Smith? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier82 Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 32 minutes ago, CauseThatsMyDJ said: Did you mean Smith? Yep, my bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CauseThatsMyDJ Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 I'm just going to put this out there now, before it potentially escalates: can we please not turn this thread into a debate about the appropriateness of Native Americans as mascots? Let's keep it to basketball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btownqb Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Thought about this today.. why have we won 4 of 5? Juwan Morgan for one. His ability to get to the rim, relentlessly has been awesome and consistent. His quality of shot this season has been awesome and has shown in his shooting percentage Second.. half court defense has gotten better and better recently. Along with (outside of Maryland game) our defensive rebounding. Third less of a TO problem.. still could improve in this area, but it's still been better. Fourth Robert Johnson's consistency has been there. He hasn't shot out of his mind recently.. But he has taken the shots and drove the basketball when we have needed him to. Now... these 4 areas are things that should "travel" well. They have been there mostly the entire game the last 4 of 5. If this 4 things are there tomorrow evening I think we come away with a victory. I bring this up because in years past when we have been great 3pt shooting teams we have struggled 4-5 games a year when we have had to rely on our outside shot to keep it close. We no longer have to do that. It's been nice to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CauseThatsMyDJ Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 Vegas installs Illinois as a 1.5 point favorite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud2BAHoosier Posted January 23, 2018 Report Share Posted January 23, 2018 10 hours ago, Leathernecks said: This is definitely a game we should win. Illinois is not a good team. Yet 3 of their losses was in OT.... This game makes me nervous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTrojan88 Posted January 24, 2018 Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 Illannoy is right there with Purdue and Kentucky in terms of teams I dislike the most. We never shoot well over there and no matter how bad the Illini are, we always seem to bring out their best. With that said, this team has begun to value the ball a bit more and defend. Those are two necessities needed to win on the road. I’ll take the good guys in a close one that isn’t necessarily reflected in the final score: Hoosiers 76 - Fighting Lou Hensons 63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoB2011 Posted January 24, 2018 Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 I don't know if it's a game we should win, but it is a game we need to win. Not even just thinking about the tournament, but if we lose we could easily be sitting at 12-12 having lost 5 out of 6. That's a great way for a team like this to fall apart, which could have long-term implications. That said, Illinois is not a good shooting team which helps us and our best player should win his one on one matchup with their best player. I'm also not sure who they can put on Johnson on the perimeter to match him, so long as he stays consistent like he has been. That means Illinois needs to turn us over a bunch, which could honestly happen or they could get called for a bunch of fouls and we shoot free throws poorly. Baring one of those two things, I think we will win a tough road game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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