[Oskee] Illini hand over game

[Chris Goldenstein]

Yeah, this is going to sound like sour grapes, but I thought the refs were brutal from about 10 secs left in regulation into the OT.

Chet looked to be fouled on the strip with a few sec left in regulation
The player that stole the ball called time out about 3 times to the ref, the ref just looked at him, should have been granted a TO then a Techinical (likley game over)

In the OT

Pruitt battles underneath, finally puts the ball in, but is called for a foul on the ground, (shoots two, misses both), looked like they shoulda gave him the basket.
Brock swoops in for a layup, gets hammered, no call
Randle goes in for a layup which he makes, gets fouled first by Hill (who had 4 fouls) and then makes contact with buddinger and gets called for an offensive foul (this was a borderline call)

On the other end, every tick tack foul was called on the illini
notable, was McClellan goes in for a short shot from the side, loses the ball while going up and brock really doesn't make contact, foul on brock

that being said, I don't expect Pruitt or Brock to make FT's, they flat out suck on the line and are total headcases, but when our PG who shoots 70%+ is on the line late in the game, he needs to bury them.  If Trent makes both FT's and stretches it to a 3 pt lead, chances are we win that game.

Ouch, that effing hurt!


----- Original Message ----
From: Robert Mingee <mingee at swbell.net>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 8:26:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Illini hand over game


> The Illini shoot Ft's like crap in making less than half of them 
> including crucial ones in the second half.

This is becoming a trend under Bruce, and it is REALLY pissing me off.  Missing FTs has long been one of my biggest pet peeves, because there is simply no excuse for it.  There is NO WAY kids ought to be missing this many FTs at this level of competition, and it's not even the freshman -- it is upperclassmen with a lot of minutes under their belt who can't use the pressure excuse.  It's all on the coaching staff, and is a strong indicator of a lack of discipline.  I still believe Bruce is one of the best X&O guys in the business, and is great at shaping team chemistry, but it is unfathomable to me that he cannot fix this basic problem.  It does indeed look like we have a point guard issue, as others have pointed out, but fixing that will not matter if the FT problem is not fixed.  If you cannot shoot FTs consistently, you lose close games, period.  And we're not good enough to blow out good teams such that it doesn't become an issue.  My expectations for
 this season have gone way down at this point -- I'll be happy with whatever we can manage to accomplish, and will only be truly disappointed if we fail even to make the NIT.  That would be a big waste of a lot of athleticism (which sadly is not quite the same as true talent...)
 
-- robert


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