Bryant Post game thread

[JustbrewitMan]

My eyes glaze over looking at this. I am going to speculate instead, based on the old eye test. Our half court offense isn't clicking right now. It looks out of sorts and isn't getting the open looks we want. Given that, we really have two guys who generate steals and transition baskets, Ross and Smith. Stewart has been pretty good at that too, surprisingly. I am curious to see if these stats remain when Reed and Mullins are back and our rim protection and half court offense improves (assuming it does). It is still super valuable that we can shift to more of a transition team with those two on the court. It allows us to give teams a different look.

It can be a lot of data to look at. I think the abbreviations are pretty intuitive, but let me know if there's anything specific you can't figure out.

The color-coding is the specific metric indexed to D1 team averages. The darker green, the better the stat is relative to D1 average. The darker pink/red, the more it deviates in the wrong direction from D1 average. The more shades of green (and darker green), the better the team performance in that metric.

So, for Ross "on", we are better than D1 average (and in many cases, much better than D1 average) in the main team offensive measure (Adj Pts/100) as well as a lot of offensive metrics such as eFG%, We also are much better than D1 average on a ton of defensive metrics. The only one that is "not good" is FT rate (where opponents FT are higher than average. But, we are high across the board no matter who is playing (see "Baseline Defense"), and in fact, the FTR is higher when Ross is out vs. when he is in.

For those who don't know it, KenPom rating is basically based on the difference between Adj Pts/100 for Offense vs. Defense. Plus, some special KenPom sauce to adjust for strength of schedule, pace, and in early season, some metrics from the previous season.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Ross is active and we really need his athleticism. The next improvement we need to see from him is when he attacks the rim and is airborne he needs to finish. I don't know if he's getting fouled on those plays but he seems to end up on the ground and the ball goes out of bounds. He's so athletic those should either be fouls drawn or and 1's.

I think at least a couple, he probably got fouled. A couple, he anticipated contact, maybe didn't get as much, and it threw his shot off.

I think the more he attacks, the more he'll make some better decisions.

He had one play last night in the 2nd half where he got the ball in the left corner. He pump faked, went by the defender, and got to a 8-10ft. midrange zone that I really wish he would have just pulled up for a bankshot jumper. He hesitated for a brief fraction of a second, and ended up kicking it out to the top of the key.

 

[mauconnfan]

How often do we need low block defenders, unless on a switch, when AK plays almost the entire game at the 4? We need perimeter defenders.

There’s always switched I constantly see Stew defending down low not sure what you watch. And he’s improved on the perimeter too it’s not like Ross is a lock down guy that everyone is waiting for, he’s not. He’s better as well but there is very little separation in these 2 at all. No one has put a foot forward to say they figured it out.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Here's Stewart's On/Off. Defense is similar, Offense a bit less efficient when he's On.:

And Solo. Defense a bit less efficient (but not egregiously worse), Offense a bit less efficient when he's On. Note the 2p% Midrange On/Off though...that's definitely influenced by his improved game inside the 3pt line:

 

[alphasigko]

They scored only 8 points in the first 5:30 with very disjointed play and many missed 3s and layups. Slow starts like this will not be successful going forward.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Here's Reibe On/Off. This is the whole season. Curious to do some 3-4 game samples as the season progresses. Team defense has some work to do when he's in:

Guess who this is:

 

[Excalibur]

Alex has been in one for a year and half.

What is his shooting percentage from 3 so far this year?

I'll wait . . .

 

[HooperScooper]

Alex has been in one for a year and half.

You must have missed the first 5 games of the season where he was shooting over 60% from three. He was bound to come back to earth.

What's with all the negative hot takes from people?

 

[HuskyHawk]

You must have missed the first 5 games of the season where he was shooting over 60% from three. He was bound to come back to earth.

What's with all the negative hot takes from people?

Yeah, I'm not worried about his shooting percentage. I'm worried about him getting his shot off. He's a smart player and he won't take 3s when guarded. So he steps even further outside sometimes, or passes or drives.

 

[yungdowork]

Hasheem Thabeet 1/31/09 vs. Providence 15p, 11r, 10b

Thabeet wasn't the most skilled big but he had some truly ridiculous games. 10 blocks and 7 offensive boards in this game. Looked like guys on that Providence team were ready to quit the sport of basketball after

 

[AllHusky]

Exhausting work Boneyarding is. Thank God there is not much time between games!

 

[cp176]

I’m an eye test kind of guy. I see improvement in Ross and maybe some in Stewart as well. I see both of them as excellent role players with once again the opportunity to improve. Athleticism is not in question with Ross at all but he still has a ways to go to be a primary contributor both on offense and defense. Somebody said that Reibe has slow feet. I don’t see that at all. For a 7 footer, I think that as a freshman he is showing that he can contribute. Clingan came in to his own as a sophomore, I think that this kid is ahead of him. Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to defense, I don’t think he is ever going to be where Clingan was and is. I don’t think that he has the length for it but on offense I just see this kid getting better and better with minutes played. It will be fun watching this group come along when they are healthy.

 

[alphasigko]

I’m an eye test kind of guy. I see improvement in Ross and maybe some in Stewart as well. I see both of them as excellent role players with once again the opportunity to improve. Athleticism is not in question with Ross at all but he still has a ways to go to be a primary contributor both on offense and defense. Somebody said that Reibe has slow feet. I don’t see that at all. For a 7 footer, I think that as a freshman he is showing that he can contribute. Clingan came in to his own as a sophomore, I think that this kid is ahead of him. Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to defense, I don’t think he is ever going to be where Clingan was and is. I don’t think that he has the length for it but on offense I just see this kid getting better and better with minutes played. It will be fun watching this group come along when they are healthy.

Riebe needs to DUNK the ball rather than trying to lay it up onto the backboard and miss. Donavan had this problem when he 1st started too. Perhaps he has been instructed not to dunk it?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Riebe needs to DUNK the ball rather than trying to lay it up onto the backboard and miss. Donavan had this problem when he 1st started too. Perhaps he has been instructed not to dunk it?

Silas’s 10th assist ended with a Reibe dunk.

 

[Excalibur]

Reibe is at 65% from the field. Has he missed some easy ones? Yes. But it’s not the glaring issue some seem to think it is.

 

[gsmooth]

actually think the Illini faithful will show out pretty well at MSG and it won’t be as massive as we hope.

The Illini faithful showed up well in Boston during the Sweet 16 in 2024 and they were loud and raucous in the concourse after their Sweet 16 win against Iowa State and yelling "we want UConn". I remember being concerned that they would almost create a 50-50 split in the Elite 8, but it was basically between 90-10 or 95-5 split in the Elite 8. Hopefully that occurs again this Friday in MSG.

 

[KingAG]

The AK and and Solo “have been bad” narrative is over stated. They haven’t been

 

[Palatine]

You must have missed the first 5 games of the season where he was shooting over 60% from three. He was bound to come back to earth.

What's with all the negative hot takes from people?

I'm not negative on Alex at all. But I was surprised by his choice of shots. He was taking NBA three pointers than let then let the game come to him.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I’d like to see Reibe be more physical in his finishing, but he’s shooting 65% so far, hard to ask for 70+ from someone who doesn’t dunk all their shot attempts.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Reibe is at 65% from the field. Has he missed some easy ones? Yes. But it’s not the glaring issue some seem to think it is.

He can both have performed admirably and still be a big drop-off from Tarris. The biggest issue IMO is that Tarris draws help a lot more and that opens things up for the rest of the offense. Combine that with the decrease in rebounding and the fact that Koroma is now playing backup minutes instead of Reibe and it is definitely a major drop-off for the team. But agreed, Reibe has played great in the opportunities he’s had.