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First half of Illinois vs Bama is some of the best basketball this year so far

I am going to hate playing Illinois this year

With you there.

Marquette doesn't even get a shot off coming out of a timeout with plenty of time. Yeesh. Regardless of the outcome of this game, they are not good. Not right now anyway. FWIW Dayton is 73 on KenPom, so not a slouch.

Illinois / Bama should be a great one Dayton winning at Marquette by 7 with 7 mins and change left

Missed opportunities down the stretch for UConn. Tough loss to Arizona at home without their leading scorer and rebounder (Reed) and Mullins. They will be a very tough out come March.

Huskies take the lead with 2:03 to go. Great game. Koa Peat is the real deal.

UConn ties it up 3:30 to go

UConn is without Tarris Reed and Mullins and getting out-physical-ed at home vs Arizona. Having a shooting night like we did against Incarnate Word. Trailing 53-47 with 9:57 left

Ole Miss brought in Trinidad Chambliss from Ferris State and he's played well enough to stay ahead of Simmons, who was the starter to begin the year. The staff will add quality depth and make a decision on who starts. All things being equal, Alberto may be Chambliss or Simmons in this scenario... but I'm nowhere near as quick to overlook Alberto or write him off as many of our fans apparently are. No guarantee who we bring in will be better than Alberto. That's a good problem to have.

No idea if it's accurate and Rupp Rafters is definitely not a reliable source, especially given how emotional it has been in the last 24 hours (lol). They're quick to "correct" posters there who call it a 20M roster and say it's actually $22M... everyone would need to be making between $1-3M. Seems wild. There's also a lot of speculation over there that the players have been fighting/arguing about NIL. They really, really seem to think Oweh is a locker room problem. And that Pope can't get them on the same page because he's "too Mormon" for them ... haha. Looking forward to playing them.

Super interesting. One thread is talking about an 8-6 or 7-7 start where they might not even be favored heading into our game. Many posters there complaining about roster construction (lol), bad chemistry and the apparent lack of respect for Pope's authority... really makes DDV's focus on character-first roster construction/cultural fit a lot more palpable/meaningful.

Rupp Rafters is a VERY enjoyable read right now.

Great leadership Coach Pope! 3-2 $20M college basketball team... lol

On the one hand, have to assume Cig will definitely want to add quality depth across the board and have guys compete. On the other hand, Alberto has been through a lot with Cig and will be going into his third year in the system. Committed at JMU, followed to IU, got his older brother to come here over Georgia and others... they've been through a lot together and I don't think that can be totally discounted. In the end I expect we take a quality QB transfer but I don't think it'll be a given that they beat out Alberto for the starting spot.

With all the turnover in the coaching carousel and IU being in a stable and high performing position, hopefully we can land a monster portal haul. Excited to follow football recruiting after our second consecutive CFP appearance.

Hope we rest any guys who are dinged up and hang 100 on them.

Nate Oats threatened to deport him? Lol

SIUE losing by 7 at half to Wisconsin

Feels good seeing IU stick out for the right reasons

Yup there were 48 fouls called in 40 minutes

Malik Reneau put up 22/11 in a loss to UF

Us 88 them 60

A quick and dirty transcription of this Q&A: Q: What explained the slow offensive start early? A: Can’t say for sure what caused the offensive slow start. Them starting in zone got us out of our normal rhythm and we got stagnant. When they went man, thought we did decent at times but ball just didn’t move the way we like it to tonight. Ball stuck in guys hands, a lot more 1 on 1 tonight. Not what we are designed to do on offense, at our best when we cut and move side to side. Have to watch the film. Thought we had some good 3s and missed but looks may not have been as clean as we’re used to because the ball wasn’t moving the way we wanted it to to get high quality shots. Q: Asked if you flush it and move on or really study this… A: It’s both. 30 some game season, we have good shooters. We’re built to make 3s, on nights you don’t shoot it well you have to find a way to win so I’m glad we did that. But there’s plenty to look at as to why it happened. The reality is you’re going to have off shooting nights and tonight was one of them. That’s where you have to rely on defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball. In first half, reason our lead built up even though we weren’t shooting well is our defense was good. 1st half they shot 20% from field, second half 18 point lead evaporates because they shot 54%. That’s the learning opportunity - it’s a 40 minute game. Something we’ll take advantage of. I like learning after wins much better. We’ll take it for what it is, learn from it and move on. Q: What was the difference on defense in the second half? A: They got into the paint to start, a few mid-ranges. Those are shots that came off cleaner than we’d like. Then they made a few 3s. Give up a few baseline drives and now you're in rotations and they’re spraying it on the back side. So it always starts on the ball and then the connectivity behind it is where it’s at. But you have to be good on the ball first then build it out from there. Q: Sam Alexis led you in scoring tonight, how important is he? A: He’s playing great. Brought good energy and physicality. Handful of possessions in second half where he switched onto a guard and did as well as anybody. Q: Did IC throw new wrinkles at you? A: The 1-3-1 we saw a little of on tape but not a ton. We worked it and talked about it but spent more time on 2-3 and man. We certainly knew it was in their package and thought guys did for the most part fine against it, just slowed us down a little bit. Q: At one point in the second half, looked like you wanted more energy, did you have the juice you wanted? A: Even with veteran teams, sometimes when you’re not making shots your energy is not where you want it to be. That’s fighting human nature and that’s what we can’t be. So that’s where the learning comes in. Hey, as an offense shots aren’t going in - you got to continue fighting. And the first half we guarded well, so that’s something we’ll take and build on. But that energy is something we HAVE to play with. Have to be a spirited, physical, tough minded group every night for 40 minutes. That’s how we’re going to win.

At one point Enright had the ball at the three point line and his defender was "guarding" him below the foul line extended. Conerway and Enright not being legitimate 3 point threats concerns me if IC could identify that in the scout and what that means come B10 season. Maybe I am overreacting. But I hope we can figure something out.