[Oskee] No comments?

[Arbuckle, Jeanne]

I think this is a very young team and they haven't played together that
long. They lack energy and emotion in some games. Hopefully, that will
come with more experience. I'm more concerned about not really having a
good leader. 

 

Georgia was a tough matchup for us. Their big guys are much stronger and
more aggressive than ours, and we did not seem to know how to handle
that. That's coaching, too.

 

All I want from Santa is a victory tonight. It should be possible if we
play well. Vanderbilt beat Missouri, but that game was at Vanderbilt.

 

From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf
Of Todd Sweet
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 9:53 AM
To: 'Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List'
Subject: Re: [Oskee] No comments?

 

Robert,

 

This loss is just as bad if not worse than the others (although Bradley
is looking worse and worse).  Georgia was picked to finish last in their
division of the SEC.  We just played with no heart at all. That's the
bottom line.  Our guys (and I include the upper classmen in this) don't
get it yet.  They just show up and think they will win because they're
"supposed to win".  We got owned on the boards, out hustled and Georgia
just plain wanted to win this more than we did.  Heck, we can't even
call it a road game because we had more fans than they did.  It was a
horrid effort and really puts us in a bind down the road come tourney
time.  I thought they woke up in the Clemson game, but apparently they
went back to sleep.  Until they figure out that you have to play 40
minutes, we're going to have more bad losses this year.   Maybe Santa
will put a 6'9", 270 pound banger in Coach Weber's stocking. J

 

At any rate, this makes the Mizzou and Gonzaga games must wins.

 

Todd S.

 

 

 

________________________________

From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf
Of Robert Mingee
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 9:31 AM
To: oskee at heins.net
Subject: [Oskee] No comments?

 

I just got around to watching the Georgia game last night because I had
recorded it while we were out of town.  I knew there was a reason to be
hesitant that they had really made a major step forward until seeing
them play well in a road game.  It certainly wasn't the worst game I've
seen them play, and in fairness, Georgia made some real circus shots
down low.  But by far the biggest thing that stood out was that we
simply don't know how to rebound.  Every friggin time a shot went up,
the Georgia players immediately reacted and attempted to establish
position.  We, on the other hand, stood around and watched.  There was
one time when we had 3 guys under there and Georgia had one, and the
Georgia player was the only one that even JUMPED, for heaven's sake!
That's coaching, plain and simple.  Bruce has got to find a way to make
that second nature with these guys.  If he's already trying, he's got to
try harder.  I am stunned that the rebound margin was only 9, it felt a
lot bigger than that.  And we really caught up late on offensive boards,
because we had very few at some point in the second half.

Aside from that, the defensive intensity was reasonable, though
certainly better in the second half.  We're willing to go for the steals
and go after the loose balls, so I really can't see rebounding being an
effort issue as much as coaching.  Tisdale really was trying hard to
take it strong to the hole, but he's just not big enough.  He ends up
trying to go around instead of through to potentially draw the charge,
and his shot is just too awkward.  He's honestly better taking a
short-range jumper, especially as polished as his hook is.  Heck, Davis
got stuffed on one shot by a kid a full 6 inches shorter than him,
unless the announcers misquoted the stats on the other player, so we
really don't have anyone capable of taking it strong to the hole against
a big man.  That could hurt in the Big Ten, but I think we can succeed
if we just play to our strengths and stick to the short-range jumpers.
The obvious downside is we won't draw many/any fouls on the opposing
bigs, and won't take a lot of free throws.

I feel better after this loss than the Vegas flame-out, because I feel
like if we can fix the rebounding, we'll be in much better shape.
Georgia gave an amazing effort, and like I said, made some unbelievable
shots down low, and we still only lost by 3 points.  Had that game been
played in Champaign, I'm fairly confident we'd have won.  I know they
said we had a lot of fans there, but it was still really close to their
school, and a bit of a trip for us.  We've got all season to figure out
how to play on the road.  But Bruce needs to treat this rebounding thing
as top priority.

Anyone else?  Everyone already off for the holidays and away from email?
I'm off all this week and next, which will be a much-needed break.  A
very happy holidays to all the oskee gang!

-- robert

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.perusion.com/pipermail/oskee/attachments/20091223/a9a67cd8/attachment.html