Who would've suspected that the Illini might choke out of the first round?

_________________

Who?

_________________
2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

My bad...Morgan St

Trevor Bauer. He loves choking during Round One.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Not good so far but that off the knee play was something!

_________________
"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

"Danger Dainja!"

_________________
"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Confine these things to threads I am not a part of. Please.

_________________

I got to see most of the game. After spotting them 9 they went off and looked pretty good. A lot to be excited about. Even Goode looked decent out there.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

You done great, Dainja. You my man. You rock.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Go die in a fire. As well as your MANY mults.

CFMB still bringing the 4am fire.

_________________
You know me like that.

Indeed. That escalated quickly.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Is Duquesne a threat? It's hard to tell.

they're on a hot streak and played a tough schedule that made them look worse than they are but the Illini should spank them

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I feel like they have been slowly ramping Dainja up specifically to unleash in the post-season and he is truly becoming a legitimate force to be reckoned with, especially with Domask's ability to back people down and find the open man when they try to double him. Illinois is going to be tough to defend for any team. I feel that potential showdown with Iowa State could be quite a battle. It's OK for me to look ahead, I just hope the Illini aren't looking beyond Duquesne.

I hope so, but I won't be surprised if Dainja only plays about 12 minutes against Duquesne.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It feels like you have to score 85-90 to beat Illinois. If they keep the turnovers down that's a tough thing to do. Which make Illinois a tough out. It also feels like Domask is the engine. He's strong, patient, crafty. Kind of a DeMar college comp.

That's what makes Illinois so dangerous, because depending on the opponent it could be a Shannon game, or a Domask game, or Hawkins, or Dainja or any combination of them depending on what the opponent is selling out to stop. The pattern to me seems to be them doing a little of everything in the first half, mixing and matching, seeing what works and then coming out in the second half ready to exploit whatever the defense is giving them with whomever it suits. Ty Rodgers has been playing well as of late but yesterday he wasn't part of the plan at all in the second half. Same could be true of Dainja tomorrow.

Domask is definitely the leader of this team. In crunch time its Domask the offense runs through, not Shannon or anyone else. When he starts backing people down he really forces the defense to make decisions and he is pretty awesome at exploiting missed coverages.

I haven't seen the Illini play much this season. Domask doesn't look like a great ballhandler to me. Can't he be pressured into bad plays/turnovers?

_________________

That's their real weakness. They don't really have a point guard. But it seems like in today's game you don't really need one. It's very difficult to get called for traveling or double dribbling.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I mean, he isn't a point guard, but I'm pretty comfortable when he has the ball in his hands. he DOES get forced into poor passes occasionally when he is backing people down. He can occasionally get baited into bad passes when he gets double-teamed. But when he is ball-handling down low to get a shot, he's tough to stop off the dribble.

I think their style of play hides whatever weakness not having a true point guard would expose. I still think it could be an Achilles heel when they start facing teams with quality defenses.

I hope this maintains. Underwood, before this year, was awful at making adjustments--especially against non-Big Ten teams. Dainja helps him solve a lot of problems.

_________________

I just watched the highlights from the Duquesne-BYU game. Illinois looks to have a huge size advantage all over the court. Duquesne's bigs dont look very physical. they seem to have a couple shifty quick guards that could present a problem, but defensively I don't know that Duquesne has the size and strength to match up with Illinois. But its March Madness, you never know.

My family was laughing at me yesterday during the game. I kept yelling "Dainja!! The Dancing Bear!!"

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

It was an appropriate call.

_________________

Can't wait to see the Clones spit-roast the Oskinono rapist. The number zero is good for that loser.

Nice first half vs Duquesne. Hope they can keep it up and pull some of the starters.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Yep take care of the Pittsburgh pretenders.

_________________
Elections have consequences.