The "where the heck is reaper" IU Postgame Thread!

[UEACES80]

The ML issue is interesting as I see some think he makes stupid fouls. Last night that was not really the case as in my eyes four of the calls against him were questionable. I love his passion and you can see he has a fire. I bet he dislikes IU as much as the rest of us and I can't say that for the majority of the team. ML is an Illini fan who is just fortunate enough to get to play for the team he loves. ML will be a good former Illini and will care the program long after he leaves.

Maybe if an opponent needs roughed up BW needs to briefly insert Ibby to send the message and save ML from reaching a frustration level. As Musson always says we need a 4 but not just to help in our play but also to help ML not get so frustrated and feeling like he is playing against 2 or 3 bigs.

Zeller is a very polished Freshman but ML outplayed him while he was allowed to play and I feel has a higher ceiling than Zeller.

Last thought is that I sure am glad the Orange Krush has better manners than the fanatical IU fans.

[Firehawk]

Last thought is that I sure am glad the Orange Krush has better manners than the fanatical IU fans.

main reason I didn't watch...they are a bunch of ass hats with an entitled attitude...

[chief321]

Agree on the IU fans...they're idiots...
And on ML...I think it's obvious he's got a little more fire than the other guys...while it gets him in a little trouble, it's an edge I wish more of our guys had...TA has it as well..those two get in there and fight.  Myke Henry has some fight in him too.  I'd like to know if Shaw does as it seemed he did in the little time I saw him on the floor...Egwu at times seems to have a little swagger but I'd like to see him get after hit more.  I don't see much fight in most of the other guys. 

[UEACES80]

Last thought is that I sure am glad the Orange Krush has better manners than the fanatical IU fans.

they are a bunch of ass hats with an entitled attitude...

Firehawk nails the IU fans with this comment.

[illiniman94]

Last thought is that I sure am glad the Orange Krush has better manners than the fanatical IU fans.

they are a bunch of ass hats with an entitled attitude...

Firehawk nails the IU fans with this comment.

What is funny is that I post on another board and there is an IU kid (good kid) who is a soph at IU and he talks all the time about how great crean is, how great IU basketball is, how they are elite and I have to remind him the last title they won was almost 10 years before his self entitled little behind was born.

amen on the entitled attitude.....fits them to a T....oh, and did I mention they think we are asshats.

[chief321]

Guys you have to see that IU has bypassed us though.  I can't stand them so it makes it even worse, but IU has their program headed in a very different direction than what ours is.  Our team is going to be basically the same next year if ML is back and we should win a few more games with the added experience.  We have one recruit that is on no radar anywhere when it comes to recruiting services.  They have what has been rated the best class in the country at one time. 
Irritates me to no end that Crean walks into a nightmare of a situation there and they are in a better situation now than we are...and look what BW walked into when he got here!  It's so aggravating.   

[Drama]

I just watched the dvr'd game and haven't read any of this thread. i will say this...

This is not the same old crap. that was a war for about 35.5 minutes in bloomington. i was so excited after watching the first half. bruce made some changes, myke gets some confidence going, and myers was beasting on zeller. to me, coach made more efficient subs, ran better (more?) set plays, and we looked much better after clock stoppages! that play going into halftime, where has that been all season?! myke finally hit some shots and made some plays. he strung together solid possessions on offense and defense and was rewarded with more time. myers was looked like an nba player against zeller...everything was working for him on offense, and he finally stayed in the post on d. i saw multiple times when the center he was guarding drifted out to the arc but he stayed down low. as long as the specific center isn't a three point threat, i'm cool with that. he needs to affect every shot in the lane. i almost jumped up when myers swatted hulls on his attempt at a drive! once he can play to his potential consistently, he'll be unstoppable. but, even if he doesn't get that consistency this year, his potential alone will probably get him drafted...

the second half was very close through the first 10-12 minutes. both teams went on runs... the last 5 minutes was hard to watch. it looked like we had a couple stops/ chances to come back but we couldn't make a shot, and they hit free throws down the stretch. what happened with the free throws, btw? i remember the stat in the second half that said they had taken around 22 fts and we only attempted 5. i'm not sure what the final stat was, but that could have been the game right there...

after the northwestern game i decided to take an emotional break from the team. i really just watched this game as a casual big ten basketball fan. we are now  3-2 against ranked teams, 5-6 in a tough big ten. when the conference games started, i thought our ceiling was around 11 wins. of the remaining 7 games, i would put us as the favorites in 4. at michigan and at wisconsin will obviously be tough, but i know we can hang with any team in the big ten so i can't count us out of those games. maybe somehow we win one of these two "underdog" games and take all 4 that should very winnable, that would put us at 5-2 (we won't beat osu ) over our last 7 and 10-8 overall in the tough b10.

my advice to everybody would be to take an emotional step back from this team and enjoy the ride! maybe we can go on a little late run, win a couple games in the btt and still grab a decent seed in the tourney. maybe not... but if nothing else, this game gave me a little hope for the future. many positives to take from this, and hopefully the players/ coaches realize this

Great Post! 

Enjoy the Ride!

[Drama]

Last thought is that I sure am glad the Orange Krush has better manners than the fanatical IU fans.

main reason I didn't watch...they are a bunch of ass hats with an entitled attitude...

I bet Bruce was flaming inside when they were chanting "Keep Bruce Weber" clap clap clap clap clap.

I hate everything about IU with a passion!  Little things like that make me want to see Bruce do well.

[lwchicago]

Well i waited to cool down before i posted anything.....I took a few new thoughts from this game and saw somethings that i liked and a lot i didn't.....Now i saw that our players did foul more than iu and they played smarter in crunch time...I'm not a fan who cries about fouls...i think every home team gets a few calls that might turn the game....i just want the game called the same...i saw at least 10 fouls that weren't called for the ILLINI...8 of those fouls  would have been called by most refs...

But all in all...the Illini fought.....I did see that Cream.. isn't a better coach than Weber also....he has a better staff--i feel...several times i saw others coaches running the time out huddle then Cream came in at the end and did the motivating........ This team has the parts to be very good.....the question is...Will Weber get the coaching staff to help him..move the program forward....Unlike the football coach Weber can at least coach...but Ron did at least surround himself with other coaches who knew how to coach..The only difference i see in Cream  and Weber besides coaching ability is...Cream lets his system fit his players....


Tracy will learn and get better...Brandon is full of himself and has the Dmac old habits..I think the reason that Bertrand has cooled off is Brandon is running the offense for himself....if you notice--Tracy brings the ball up past half court and Brandon is either running the plays or doing what he wants....he and Bertrand for the most part are the only guys who can get their own shot on a regular basis...


I really didn't like what Weber did by keep calling time outs...sure get bench players in the game but stop playing games and coach is what he needs to do...poor game plan...you go with 4 guards and a center...but the start 6'11-6'9-6'9-6'5-6'0...the lineup wasn't going to work in the first place...if you go with 4 guards you  better run and do it often..

[illiniproph]

Well, we did play hard.  We seem to play at the tempo of our opponent.  This hardly ever works in our favor.  Anytime the other team shoots that many more foul shots, there is some bad timelyofficiating.  They set a tone with Paul as he got hammered early on with no call, yet they just allowed Indiana to get bailed out all the time by throwing their hip into our player.  R we moving-yes, but not into him.  The craziest one was Leonard backing up, getting an elbow in the chin and drawing a foul- Wow.  Zeller was weaker and was pushing alot inside, but Meyers wasnt going to get any breaks after that stunt early in the game.  I got to give it to Indiana- they made the foul shots.

Abrams played well, DJ did too.  Leonard is much better than Zeller, but Indiana drives and passes much better than we do.  Brandon and Joe were off.  Henry gave a lift, but his defensive positioning isnt very good.  Sam, man he had to be better than this last year.  Egwu is horrible because he is a fouling machine.  He's had 1 good game this year and a couple average ones.  For the life of me- I know not why he plays the 4 ahead of Griffey.... who got 3 pts, a board, and played some good defense in the 2 1/2 minutes he played.  He was a good matchup for this game, yet again, Weber wont play him.  We were winning alot more games when Griffey was playing.  Personally from what I see on the court, he is one of the top 6 players on this team.  Weber said he cant guard, but he also said that Djimde was the best defender on the team at any position.  Thats why his opponent doesnt make shots... only free throws.

I hope Weber can humble himself and turn this ship around.  Another thing he said was that we were really close to being a very good team.  Since then, we are like 1-3, scoring 42 pts in our only win.