Illinois Post Game Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Illinois Post Game Thread

Are there any Malachi non-believers left?

Great game we are going to really start blowing these games open when we start to finish more. Including the Demary missing the dump off to Eric, we probably left 10 points on the table there.

Braylon in for Jstew is basically a sure thing. Ross was effective. The Malachi to Karaban connection was beautiful. There is a pretty offensive unit within this group, they just have to commit to it more.
 
  • Watching Reibe figure things out is a lot of fun
  • hate to see our "shooters" bricking uncontested looks
  • Smith probably man of the match
  • Mullins is gonna be a load; glad he wasn't reinjured...
 
Uconn Huskies Wow GIF by NCAA March Madness
 
Smith/Reibe/AK were the players of the game, AK had a couple of poor finishing attempts in the 2nd half but overall just a very good performance on both sides. There were posters early in the season worried about the backup C position but Reibe has hopefully put that to rest, he looks better each game.

On another note, one of these days I need one of these reporters to ask what is Hurley's coaching philosophy when UConn gets a big lead, just keep playing basketball and leave the St Benedicts Prep nonsense in Jersey.
 
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husky429 said:
I am so shocked we got that miracle Smith shot back. What was the rationale?
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They looked at the full possession and determined that the initial reset of the clock at the start of the possession was wrong so the hail mary ended up being in time
 
Game ball goes to Malachi Smith. What an absolute dog, having two starting caliber PGs is REALLY important for us this year. Anyone ever seen a 28 foot circus shot 4 point play before?

Solo was red hot, and then ice cold. But for any blowout-turned-a-little-interesting, any buffer is huge. He was lighting it up early

Outside of Malachi, Reibe and Ross had REALLY good games in the second half. We needed them as Reed clearly isn’t 100% and Stewart was fading

Braylon had minimal impact but I love the kid already. Hustles, plays hard, and that shot will start falling soon. Welcome back

Shoutout Kylan Boswell. Nobody could do anything against him. He carved us up all day

Unfortunately for Illinois, they only had 1 guy and they needed a lot more. This UConn team is LEGIT. Let’s go Huskies!
 
thekollieman said:
Right? What does the rulebook say for when the clock people mess up so badly…

Edit: announcers explained the clock people messed up PRIOR to the mess up we saw on replay a million times. Hence, the basket counts. What a mess. Go dogs.
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it's strange that they explained it yet the studio crew postgame is saying they still botched the call.
 
scary thing is,
Reed is obviously not fully back yet
Mullins will be huge once he settles in
Demary still has a ton more he can impact games once he’s fully acclimated

This team has a ton of room left to improve while already clearly being one of the best teams in the country
 
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husky429 said:
I am so shocked we got that miracle Smith shot back. What was the rationale?
Expand ...

The shot clock would not have run out even if it wasn’t reset. It was simple math counting back from the original offensive board.
 
People were stressing the Illinois comeback a bit too much in the game chat. Whistle became a bit one sided and we went ice cold. I agree we should have put Smith back in sooner, but I understand why coach had Solo and Silas in the game.

There was SO much to like from our performance today. Reibe continues to impress, looks more and more comfortable every game. Malachi was amazing today, we have an above average starting caliber guard as our backup. Reed was still clearly banged up, Mullins clearly a bit rusty, and we still built another 20+ point lead against a top 15 team in the country.

I don't think a lot of people understand how good this team will be once our starting 5 with Mullins and Reed really start to play some minutes together. We are the best damn team in the country.
 
Great win! Some observations.

First the bad:

These 2nd half offensive lulls are going to come back to bite them at some point.

They still can’t stay in front of quick guards. Boswell killed them but luckily nobody else did. I figured Demary would be that player to guard a guy like Bosswell but the foul trouble killed him.

When Ball hit that first three I was thinking O.K. this is the game he breaks out from three. Nope. 1-8 the rest of the game. Good thing he has that midrange and driving to the basket game going.

The good:

The depth was huge. Hurley said it this week, that's the team's great strength.

Great to see them win a game with basically nothing from Reed.

The interior defense was fantastic. So much for all that Illini height.

Perfect game from Karaban. Doesn’t have to carry them but 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks and a steal. And excellent defense. Just perfect.

The offense ran much better with Smith running point rather than Demary. Smith was huge today.
 
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Nameless said:
People were stressing the Illinois comeback a bit too much in the game chat. Whistle became a bit one sided and we went ice cold. I agree we should have put Smith back in sooner, but I understand why coach had Solo and Silas in the game.

There was SO much to like from our performance today. Reibe continues to impress, looks more and more comfortable every game. Malachi was amazing today, we have an above average starting caliber guard as our backup. Reed was still clearly banged up, Mullins clearly a bit rusty, and we still built another 20+ point lead against a top 15 team in the country.

I don't think a lot of people understand how good this team will be once our starting 5 with Mullins and Reed really start to play some minutes together. We are the best damn team in the country.
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Nah we have to figure that snit out. Can’t keep giving up leads.
 
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The Fox postgame was odd...all of them basically trashing the good guys saying how ugly a win it was, and then declaring it was completely out of character for Illini to play how they did. If I didn't catch the end of the game and saw it, I'd think they won
 
Gutter King said:
Are there any Malachi non-believers left?
Expand ...
IMO, he played a smart and in control game. In previous games he made a number of poor decisions, whether it was a bad pass, dribbling too much, driving into a certain disaster, or just not seeing everything a great PG should see.

Didn't see any of that today. He really played a great game, so all credit to him.
 
husky429 said:
I am so shocked we got that miracle Smith shot back. What was the rationale?
Expand ...
I just went back and rewatched that possession from the beginning. The ultimate explanation from the announcers was not true. In the original shot clock, Smith missed a layup off the rim and they reset the clock properly. Then Karaban’s shot didn’t hit the rim, but they improperly reset the clock.

In my opinion, they handled it incorrectly: it should have been UConn possession on the baseline with about 3 second on the shot clock. The basket should not have counted because it was released after the shot clock would have expired. However, it should not have been a turnover to Illinois because the reality on the floor was a reset shot clock, and the players responded to the live ruling. So, in my opinion, they made the wrong determination to count the basket and also offered a factually untrue explanation for that decision.
 
Solo carried us offensively early and then went ice cold. AK only had 12 points and still put the ball down and drove which is always a disaster but he played a great game. Malachi was the player of the game. Big Eric was awesome, we had no reason to believe he would be this good this early.

Tarris wasn't even close to healthy, he didn't move well at all and couldn't jump. If he was healthy we would've totally blasted them. This game should've been a blowout but Hurley took Malachi out of the game and he did the stall ball thing again.

It looked like we should've blown them out with Tarris at like 20% (2 pts, 5 rebs) Silas in foul trouble all game, and Braylon not integrated at all yet. It shows just how good we are. We are deep especially at the right places, this is a great team.

The crowd was all UConn.
 
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That was just a huge win.

Someone said in the chat that Ball is a much better player this year could not agree more.

Reibe what can you say about how quickly he is developing. He already looks like a different player than early in the year. Once Reed is healthy wow what a two headed monster at center.

Also you can see Mullins is strong enough to play good defense. Once he gets a little more court time he will make us harder to defend.

Malachi became the player we played against in HI last year. He was critical at the point guard. It was needed because Silas needs to learn to play defense without fouling.

Ross and Stewart played their roles could use a little more out of them but it was enough to win today. Stewart can rebound

Alex is a better defender at the rim than I think most of us give him credit for.

In all this team seems to be one where the sum of the parts is the secret ingredient.

Also Hurley we are so much better coached than Illinois.

The better team won this game. They did not play their best but neither did we. I don’t care if we win ugly as long as we win.
 
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Gutter King said:
Eric, with his back to the basket, spun to his right along the baseline and laid in with his left hand. He's going to be quite the player for us.
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Reibe played like a star today - a full A+ game. Was a dog on the glass, converted elegantly, had presence in the paint.

AK did the little things today, a lot.

Malachi was the best defender and catalyst on the floor, in lieu of a really rough game from Silas. Love having insurance policies.
 
huskiesNhoos said:
The Fox postgame was odd...all of them basically trashing the good guys saying how ugly a win it was, and then declaring it was completely out of character for Illini to play how they did. If I didn't catch the end of the game and saw it, I'd think they won
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Meh. UConn did play a pretty poor 2nd half, which is what the announcers focused on. They said our first half was solid. And Illinois didn't shoot well, especially from 3 in 2nd half. So it's not like they were wrong.
 
husky429 said:
I am so shocked we got that miracle Smith shot back. What was the rationale?
Expand ...
There were 2 offensive rebounds during the possession. After the first The clock should have reset to 20 seconds because the ball touched the rim but the clock did not reset. After The second rebound the clock did reset but it should not have because the ball didn’t touch the rim. The refs correctly ruled that Smiths 3 and foul should be upheld because it happened within 20 Seconds of the first offensive rebound.
 
Excalibur said:
Let’s be 100% clear. The shot clock call was 100% correct. Karaban rebounded the ball as the clock went from 2:30 to 2:29. On the whistle, there was 2:10 left. He got it off in time.
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The FOX studio guys on the postgame all criticized the call..... said it should have been a shot clock violation. Someone needs to whisper in their ears they are completely wrong.
 
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