UConn vs Illinois (Final Four)

[BFieldHusky]

Not worried about the crowd advantage. I feel like we dodged death last night. We have a new lease on life. If our biggest concern in this game is the crowd factor, I'm really not worried.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Did not mention UConn. Just said how disappointed he was for his guys blah, blah, blah.

The only thing I’ll say in his defense, is UConn had the possession arrow on a held ball, but you gotta take that risk and hold the ball there. As much as people are killing Boozer, this is obviously what Scheyer drew up and it was a horrible coaching decision.

 

[jibsey]

Karaban post game when asked about the big lead on us said that they weren’t playing defense aggressively enough and turned it up second half . To win in the FF they can’t do that again.

 

[Leebo]

We beat Illinois by 13 at a "neutral" site earlier this season. How are they a 1.5 pt. favorite? I guess the bookmakers expect it to be an Illinois home game.

All of the predictive metrics have Illinois above us based on the total performance throughout the year.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm going to need some time to digest that last one before I can think about Illinois. But I can tell you that this going to be as close to a literal home game for Illinois as you can get.

Nah, the final four tickets are allocated to the four teams plus all the bigwigs and celebs and such. I doubt there's much advantage at all.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

All of the predictive metrics have Illinois above us based on the total performance throughout the year.

Duke was a heavy favorite too

 

[RuffRuff]

Nah, the final four tickets are allocated to the four teams plus all the bigwigs and celebs and such. I doubt there's much advantage at all.

Were you in Zona with Purdue?

I think what made that win special last night is after the first half and seeing how dominant Boozer looked, it felt like there was zero answers for him. And I mean zero. Anytime they ran anything through him, he'd either get a bucket or find a very open man, as we were triple teaming him at times.

I don't know what happened in the second half, maybe he tired out or the black eye phased him a bit, but they totally moved away from how they looked to find him with intention. Tarris playing out of his mind was also hard to predict. You could expect good, but he was other worldly great.

 

[Leebo]

Duke was a heavy favorite too

You think they shouldn't have been?

 

[UConnTrumbull]

You think they shouldn't have been?

My point is predictive metrics are a crapshoot

 

[jibsey]

The home game angle will have zero effect on us. The “experts” have their heads up their ….as usual. Keep picking against us I’m begging, but I think we will get picked by those experts in this game and if it happens not the next.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The home game angle will have zero effect on us. The “experts” have their heads up their ….as usual. Keep picking against us I’m begging, but I think we will get picked by those experts in this game and if it happens not the next.

Agree. The only thing I worry about is shooting in a football stadium can be really difficult. But this will be Alex's, 3rd time doing it and Solo's ,Jalen and Jayden's second time. That could be an advantage.

 

[IndyLives]

I get bored, so I just kept it going for years. Watching Duke take a knife to the heart was priceless. That was the perfect payback for Duke ending Tate George’s tourney run. Now there is balance in the universe.

Tate George can now finally sleep peacefully at night..it's been too long.

 

[cullaville]

We beat Illinois by 13 at a "neutral" site earlier this season. How are they a 1.5 pt. favorite? I guess the bookmakers expect it to be an Illinois home game.

who cares - the only thing that matters is what happens on the court

 

[Waquoit]

Warde Manuel is on a bit of a roll. Two teams in the Final Four, maybe another today. He learned how to win at UConn.

 

[king conn]

Not worried about the crowd advantage. I feel like we dodged death last night. We have a new lease on life. If our biggest concern in this game is the crowd factor, I'm really not worried.

Yes, all it will mean is we will have alot of cheap seats to pick from on Monday night.

 

[Marat]

Agree. The only thing I worry about is shooting in a football stadium can be really difficult. But this will be Alex's, 3rd time doing it and Solo's ,Jalen and Jayden's second time. That could be an advantage.

Maybe this is what the doctor ordered - they have been so off for the most part that the change to this venue will work better. Keeping fingers crossed !

 

[HuskyHawk]

We beat Illinois by 13 at a "neutral" site earlier this season. How are they a 1.5 pt. favorite? I guess the bookmakers expect it to be an Illinois home game.

But what I see is that UConn +2.5 is also a -125 odds bet. Which tells me all the money went on UConn.

 

[Durks07]

How it started:



How it's going:

 

[Gurleyman]

The only thing I’ll say in his defense, is UConn had the possession arrow on a held ball, but you gotta take that risk and hold the ball there. As much as people are killing Boozer, this is obviously what Scheyer drew up and it was a horrible coaching decision.

The thing about killing a few seconds is that you basically ensure that UConn doesn’t get two more possessions. If we fouled Cam Boozer right away (as we probably should have), we’d have had an outside chance even if he made both. We had a timeout - so we could score try to quickly and foul again with 4 or 5 seconds left. Then get the ball a second time, with a timeout in hand for a missed FT. But by Duke moving the ball, we would have fouled little Boozer with about 6 seconds left and it would have basically ended if he made both. And we ended up leaving two guys wide open, so if that hit ahead pass connects, it’s over, and they avoid shooting pressure foul shots.

The big mistake was they had Sarr (a terrible FT shooter) inbound and be the relief pass after the initial trap, while Evans (85 percent) released into the frontcourt and never touched it. Ross tried to foul Sarr but didn’t get there in time. And Sarr avoided the foul and found Cayden alone in the middle of the floor with a zero risk pass (no defender near the passing lane). At that point, it honestly looked like we screwed up clock management by letting too much time melt on offense (17 seconds before Demary was fouled) and defense (4-5 before fouling Cayden).

But we got the deflection and made a 40 footer.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The thing about killing a few seconds is that you basically ensure that UConn doesn’t get two more possessions. If we fouled Cam Boozer right away (as we probably should have), we’d have had an outside chance even if he made both. We had a timeout - so we could score try to quickly and foul again with 4 or 5 seconds left. Then get the ball a second time, with a timeout in hand for a missed FT. But by Duke moving the ball, we would have fouled little Boozer with about 6 seconds left and it would have basically ended if he made both. And we ended up leaving two guys wide open, so if that hit ahead pass connects, it’s over, and they avoid shooting pressure foul shots.

The big mistake was they had Sarr (a terrible FT shooter) inbound and be the relief pass after the initial trap, while Evans (85 percent) released into the frontcourt and never touched it. Ross tried to foul Sarr but didn’t get there in time. And Sarr avoided the foul and found Cayden alone in the middle of the floor with a zero risk pass (no defender near the passing lane). At that point, it honestly looked like we screwed up clock management by letting too much time melt on offense (17 seconds before Demary was fouled) and defense (4-5 before fouling Cayden).

But we got the deflection and made a 40 footer.

Exactly. Hindsight is clouding things. I was pissed that we failed to foul either of the first two guys and Duke was effectively killing the time we'd need to score after the free throws. It was excellent execution by Duke until it wasn't.

 

[superjohn]

These large alumni sports crazy fan bases have a way of dominating the scene. Detroit was flooded with Michigan State fans and there was a heavy disparity. I'd expect the same for this one.

Michigan State is a 1 hour drive to Detroit. University of Illinois is a 2 hour drive to Indy, Chicago is a 3 hour drive to Indy and University of Michigan is a 4 hour drive to Indy. The New York airport flights to Indy are like $4,000 to $5,000.

 

[tzznandrew]

Not sure which team is better for us - Zona has seen us once, but I do think is the better matchup. We don't have much of an answer for Yaxel. He could easily guard Mullins, whereas not sure the reverse would go well. UM might be flummoxed seeing our offense for the first time and forced into a half court game. I also think Tarris could push Mara around better than he could Krivas.

I also think Mays is a better coach than Scheyer. That's the one matchup I'd like least.

Step one is get past a very good Illinois team, though.

 

[Palatine]

We faced him, he just didn't play great. However, Mullins only played 10 minutes as he was coming back from injury, and Reed was still hobbled.....Illinois is certainly better, but now way can you discount Hurley, this team, and this staff!

He bloomed after our game. The kid is very good.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I love that we are underdogs. I love that we beat Duke with absolutely no shooting and I love that we are a defensive oriented team now. Defense travels.

 

[caw]

UConn has played way too many close games this year in the BE for the predictives to be good for UConn. That said, I also think the BE and UConn are a bit at odds in how UConn plays and how the BE is called - or the predictives are not a great metric to measure this UConn team. There are now three teams UConn has beaten above UConn in predictives like Kenpom (and MSU is right behind UConn).

They are not as good as 2023, or 2024 but they are still damn good.

I like UConn's chances against any team that doesn't press like MU/SJU and can't mug UConn for 40 minutes.

 

[HW611]

At this point I’ve placed my bet on us to win it all.

Let’s have fun this weekend no matter what on what has been a very successful season!!!

Let’s get 7!!!!

 

[BFieldHusky]

UConn has played way too many close games this year in the BE for the predictives to be good for UConn. That said, I also think the BE and UConn are a bit at odds in how UConn plays and how the BE is called - or the predictives are not a great metric to measure this UConn team. There are now three teams UConn has beaten above UConn in predictives like Kenpom (and MSU is right behind UConn).

They are not as good as 2023, or 2024 but they are still damn good.

I like UConn's chances against any team that doesn't press like MU/SJU and can't mug UConn for 40 minutes.

I said yesterday I really like our chances in this game. Illinois can beat us, but I think we matchup really well with them. The advantage I give them is they have seen us this year, but both teams are so much different now than when we played the day after Thanksgiving.

Illinois deserves to be here, but if you take a look behind the curtain as they say, they beat a 14, 11, 2, and a 9 seed to get here. You have to beat the teams in front of you, but their best win was against a Houston team that can go through more offensive lulles than us. I think like Michigan St, they are going to struggle to guard Alex, and Tarris.

 

[Marat]

I said yesterday I really like our chances in this game. Illinois can beat us, but I think we matchup really well with them. The advantage I give them is they have seen us this year, but both teams are so much different now than when we played the day after Thanksgiving.

Illinois deserves to be here, but if you take a look behind the curtain as they say, they beat a 14, 11, 2, and a 9 seed to get here. You have to beat the teams in front of you, but their best win was against a Houston team that can go through more offensive lulles than us. I think like Michigan St, they are going to struggle to guard Alex, and Tarris.

And in that game Tarris was coming off the injury and extremely limited playing 15 minutes, scoring only 2 points. Mullins also was a non factor off injury with 10 min and 2 pts. So, ...... we are doomed .

 

[jibsey]

There’s no staff better to prepare us for this game. First order of business is to get their heads out of the clouds.

 

[RuffRuff]

I said yesterday I really like our chances in this game. Illinois can beat us, but I think we matchup really well with them. The advantage I give them is they have seen us this year, but both teams are so much different now than when we played the day after Thanksgiving.

Illinois deserves to be here, but if you take a look behind the curtain as they say, they beat a 14, 11, 2, and a 9 seed to get here. You have to beat the teams in front of you, but their best win was against a Houston team that can go through more offensive lulles than us. I think like Michigan St, they are going to struggle to guard Alex, and Tarris.

I think that by the weekend, we'll be either even or favored. I'm with you - that Houston team was really underwhelming the more you looked under the hood. They lacked chemistry and defensive tenacity.

I like our chances, don't love that Indy is only two hours away from their campus.