Greenville SC on Thursday
At least I will be able to watch! No more Shabbat madness!
Illini have some very talented Serbian players plus a freshman guard who is very impressive.
However, this team is not trending in the right direction, they’ve been losing more games of late, coach coming under some fire. Earlier this season they were in the running for a #1 seed.
Peja Stojakovic’s son Andrej (who played one year at Stanford and one year at Cal before transferring to Illinois) is among the Balkan players on that squad. The other thing to be cognizant of is their size. This is going to be a tough matchup for us.
Everything at this level was going to be a tough matchup. But Illinois has lost 5 of their last 9 so at least they are not a hot team
If I get confirmation ahead of time that power goes for 44/15 I am betting Penn on the moneyline
Good luck!
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LOL! Will you get confirmation that the Illinois coach will not foul if Penn is down 3 with 6 seconds to go?
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I watched some of Maryland -Illinois a week ago. UI big men are dominant, but Maryland kept the game close until the end and they were not a good team.
Yes. As I said, this is as good a matchup as an 18-11 third place Ivy team could hope for. It’s still a small chance, but it is a chance.
There have been better Penn teams than this that have received worse seeds.
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2006—Texas.
Penn vs. Illinois will tip sometime between 9:15 pm and 9:30 pm on Thursday night, on TNT. Game time is stated as 9:25 pm EDT “approximate tip time”. Previous game starts at 6:50 pm EDT.
Interesting thing to me is that their coach moved to Illinois after great success at Stephen F. Austin where he had used a high-pressure defensive style to force a jillion turnovers. They knocked off WVU as a 14 seed in 2016 and got jobbed a bit against Notre Dame (if memory serves) in the second round.
But his Illinois teams, including this year’s, have lacked defensive intensity and he’s publicly complained about it, including players making “scouting report errors” and failing to shut down opponents’ leading scorers. Could be ripe for a Powers eruption.
Well, Cam Crocker is their new defensive coordinator!!
I always thought that Brodeur 16 seed team was terribly underseeded.
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It’s not a great matchup since this is more like a 15 seed v a 2 seed. Illinois is #2 in the country in offense while not shooting the 3 particularly well (#28 in defense). Seems like we should pack the lane and make em shoot right? Problem is they are #2 in offense because they don’t really turn it over (top 10) and they are elite offensive rebounders (#3). Their bigs are gonna be a very tough matchup for us inside. Athletic and physical. They have a very high eFG %. I think we gotta score efficiently and hope we don’t get into too much foul trouble.
We need to hit a LOT of 3s. We’re going to be beaten inside. That’s our best stat (3 point shooting percentage) but we don’t really take that many 3s, especially given our terrible 2 point shooting percentage. That has to change Thursday night.
Brad Underwood has said in interviews he coaches his players to shoot threes, specifically at the end of the shot clock, because there is a 44% chance they will get it back. He teaches 4 guys to crash on three pt attempts and 1 guy to get back. His philosophy is to crash the boards after threes as that helps offset a lower shooting %.
Feels like a Penn shouldn’t be here type spot. Could get ugly
Illinois has the talent to reach the Final Four, it’s quite impressive. But they have underachieved down the stretch. If by some miracle Penn can stay within striking distance, Penn probably has the edge in mental toughness.
Interesting stat that makes me think Penn has a legit chance: Illinois is dead last (365th) in the nation in forcing TOs. Crazy stat.
Penn won’t have a problem getting their shots off and they shoot an elite % from 3. Make their open 3s and things will get very scary for Illinois. Unlike most low/midmajors, Penn won’t have to worry about being blitzed by athletic defenders for runout dunks.
Penn is also a tough team for outsiders to scout. Is Roberts playing? If so, the Illini see he’s the lead scorer and focus too much on him, giving Power room. If Roberts isn’t playing, then the Illini think only Power can hurt them and leave Zanoni, Levine and Thrower open, not knowing they can score too.