Illinois Defensive Matchups

[cohenzone]

They have little to no rim protection and Iowa State got to the bucket at will. Their guards were just small and struggled to finish.

Similarly, they're lazy at defense. They make aggressive attempts to jump the passing lane, but forcing them into a deliberate defense is exactly the sort of thing that will lead to defensive breakdowns and wear them down on offense.

Nothing against Underwood, but he ain't Pitino.

I’m not saying we won’t score. We will. All i did was pose one scenario that I think would be risky. Not saying it will happen or that we would lose a shoot out. Just risky and they are much better at putting up points than St.Johns even though I agree that that game seems like an outlier.

 

[Husky68]

Their metrics are very similar to Bama. Lots of O, not much D. Interesting matchup - but again - play our game our way and it should play out in our favor.

At this stage I think this is much more about how Hurley (and staff) have our team prepared and making sure our heads are in the game than who the opponent is. And I've seen no reason to believe that the preparation and focus will be anything short of on point.

We now have the 3rd highest KenPom rating in history with 3 more games left to play. That's how historically good we are.

Think that must also include less stellar defensive stats before Clingan came back fully.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I haven't seen a single poster mention it, but it seems like Stewart might also be someone who can play some tough defense for a few minutes on Shannon in case Diarra is getting burned because of height differential.

 

[navery12]

Creighton had like 84 against us in our loss

That is correct, was looking at the right side of the games and forgot there was a loss in there. Point remains though, those games are an abberation

 

[dogpause]

I think we'll try to take away the 3-point shot as much as possible. Make them score 2 points at a time.
Put different players on Shannon in the first half and force him to work to get the ball. Force him to stay in motion.
Illinois will want to run, believing that is the way to beat us. I disagree--it will just help weaken their defense and lead to runs.
The Illini are a really good team, and Shannon is terrific, but he's got a skill set that we can game plan for. I look for a close game until we go on a run. Their fans think the pressure is all on us, but it's on the team playing us, knowing that at any moment we might break it open.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Just like playing Clingan off Ledee was an idea on here, I really doubt this happens. It will be interesting to see what we do. This matchup could be big one for Samson. At the end of the day, Hawkins isn't going to beat you... If we shut down Shannon, we win. So we keep Clingan in the post.

IMO they have one player who can beat us. We have 5 who could beat them. Illinois is a damn good team, so this probably won't be easy, but we have more margin for error.

Hawkins isn’t a threat like Ledee though. He’ll keep Clingan on the perimeter and make it difficult to help on drives. That’s the only reason I’d consider it.

 

[Deleted at users request]

No snark, just asking a question I don't know the answer to:

How did Illinois do against Purdue/Edey?

Two close losses. Looks like they got Edey in foul trouble for the first game but Shannon didn’t play. Then he had 28 and 8 in the second where Shannon struggled big time.

Purdue 83-78 Illinois (Jan 5, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Purdue Boilermakers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini NCAAM game from January 5, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.

www.espn.com

Purdue 77-71 Illinois (Mar 5, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Purdue Boilermakers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini NCAAM game from March 5, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.

www.espn.com

 

[J187Money]

Think that must also include less stellar defensive stats before Clingan came back fully.

It does. And all of the games that Castle didn't play or wasn't fully ramped up.

 

[cwh20]

And Illinois is a worse defensive team than St John's - we will have open shots against their defense.

I agree. St John’s knows UConn, Illinois doesn’t. I agree with what Mark Few said in the Cowherd show. Having to get ready for UConn, especially on the second day of the weekend games is really tough. UConn doesn’t run the same offense as 90% of college teams. That’s a very quick turnaround to try and prepare for all they do.

 

[Hi-Low]

I hope we send Shannon to the showers in disgrace after a horrible game...so he can prepare for his pending trial.

 

[6xChamps]

Yeah they are an interesting team.

6'6 Rodgers - inside rebounder/defender - Newton?
6'8 Guerrier - Finally putting together a good shooting year at his third college, bad defender from what I have seen - Karaban
6'10 Hawkins - do it all player who is either outstanding or completely moronic - Clingan
6'6 Domask - Scorer but not really a great shooter, though he is streaky as hell. poor defender - Cam
6'6 Shannon - Best scorer in the NCAAT probably. Plays passing lanes and gambles on defense. - Castle

6'9 Danja - thick body, good rebounder, nice touch near the rim.
6'7 Goode - Shooter

First team in awhile that has the same height on the perimeter as UConn.

This is how I see it too. One key will be Cam on Domask. Domask is really good and does the booty ball thing like Villanova does which could be a difficult guard. Other big one is Hawkins v Clingan. Two totally different bigs, Clingan needs to dominate downlow to dictate that matchup.

Shannon will get his but Castle is the best defender he's seen in a while.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

The question that should be asked before every game is, how do they guard us?

Our matchup against them is as straightforward as it can be. Put Castle on Shannon. When Shannon is not in the game Illinois is a completely different team, just look at last night vs ISU. If Castle is successful at removing Shannon from the game, like he did Boo Buie, we cruise.

 

[tzznandrew]

Creighton had like 84 against us in our loss

A thing to note for those trying to draw conclusions about that game: Creighton also played great defense. Because they have a Top 10 offense and a Top 20 defense, along with Kalkbrenner, who offers rim protection and defense in the paint.

 

[tzznandrew]

I’m not saying we won’t score. We will. All i did was pose one scenario that I think would be risky. Not saying it will happen or that we would lose a shoot out. Just risky and they are much better at putting up points than St.Johns even though I agree that that game seems like an outlier.

They're much better at putting up points, but they're also much worse at stopping other teams from putting up points.

 

[cohenzone]

They're much better at putting up points, but they're also much worse at stopping other teams from putting up points.

Okay, so a shoot out isn’t risky against that team. Got it.

 

[Vuce]

They have little to no rim protection and Iowa State got to the bucket at will. Their guards were just small and struggled to finish.

Similarly, they're lazy at defense. They make aggressive attempts to jump the passing lane, but forcing them into a deliberate defense is exactly the sort of thing that will lead to defensive breakdowns and wear them down on offense.

Nothing against Underwood, but he ain't Pitino.

Iowa St was 11-25 on layups and dunks........and lost by 3 points. If we run our offense the way we have all season, we will have tons of open/easy looks.

 

[drayenob]

I guess we have never seen a team as physical as the Illini. LOL

 

[Tenspro2002]

They have little to no rim protection and Iowa State got to the bucket at will. Their guards were just small and struggled to finish.

Similarly, they're lazy at defense. They make aggressive attempts to jump the passing lane, but forcing them into a deliberate defense is exactly the sort of thing that will lead to defensive breakdowns and wear them down on offense.

Nothing against Underwood, but he ain't Pitino.

It also sounds like they're not great at defending off-ball screens and backdoor cuts, which, well...

 

[runner11]

I like the idea of putting Clingan on Rodgers so he can float towards the ball handler off ball. If Hawkins is capable of posting up Karaban consistently, move Clingan back over.

Dauster said this is the matchup he expects to start with. I believe they mentioned that Rodger’s hasn’t even attempted a 3. Apparently this is how Purdue utilized Edey.

 

[SubbaBub]

They are going to try to outgun us. Just need to slow them down a little and not have a terrible shooting night. If we can defend to our ranking, they shouldn't be a problem but this is the best offensive team we've played other than Creighton.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It also sounds like they're not great at defending off-ball screens and backdoor cuts, which, well...

Fixed it for you.

 

[MrSec238]

Reminds me of Marquette. Hawkins and Oso have some similarities in being able to pull Clingan out. But Alex can also defend him on the perimeter.

 

[Palatine]

They were 115th Kenpom defense. They are down to 91. But they would have to play at a higher level to bring it down,

So, benefit of the doubt they having been playing recently like the #75 defense.

Northwestern was 50 and SDS was 11.

 

[jibsey]

Defense and rebounding wins this game, hold down Shannon. Our offense flows from that. Hurleys task is defensive intensity and I expect to see it, but if they make a lot of crazy stuff anything is possible.

 

[Samoo]

We oddly gave up a lot of ORB in that game. St. John’s had a great shooting night from 3. And they took 17 more shots then us in a pretty up and down game.

Weren't the Johnies an pretty good rebounding team? How does Marquette stack up?

 

[Hi-Low]

Seems like key is to make shots at normal clip to keep them out of transition. If shoot season avg of 49.6% and stay out of foul trouble will be tough for good guys to lose.

 

[Samoo]

Weren't the Johnies an pretty good rebounding team? How does Marquette stack up?

Not sure why I wrote Marquette, meant Illinois obviously.

 

[IndyLives]

Who is Illinois best win? They can compete well in their conference, but they are not next level and beat top teams. UConn should rout them by 15+.

 

[freshler40]

Defense and rebounding wins this game, hold down Shannon. Our offense flows from that. Hurleys task is defensive intensity and I expect to see it, but if they make a lot of crazy stuff anything is possible.

We have guards, that love to offensive rebound, and were especially effective last game of doing that. We also have seven or eight pieces that our coaches are comfortable playing as necessary for effective matchups.

Another plus factor is the rest that our players have gotten on the short turn around at home (Garden) games. That will work in our favor in a fast tempo game.

 

[KingAG]

My only concern (as usual) is foul trouble. If Clingan gets two quick ones we could struggle a bit to guard them. That being said I think we do a good job limiting Shannon with Castle and Diarra. Offensively we should have no trouble putting up points.

I think Samson may actually be better suited for this matchup defensively