[Oskee] Illini let game slip away

[Todd Sweet]

I'm not so sure it's a mental toughness issue as it was a physical toughness
issue yesterday.  MSU's players were simply stronger to the point of
overpowering younger, less physically developed players.  We were a bit
outmatched athletically, also.  Give Tisdale and Davis 2 more years of
weight lifting and you'll see them overpower people too.  The Breslin Center
is an extremely tough place to play, let alone win.  I'd rank it as one of
the tougher home venues in the country.  The good news is that a loss at MSU
doesn't do anything to hurt our tourney resume.  A win would have been
icing.

As for Legion, I think he took a couple steps forward, and  at least one
backward.  This seems to be his growth pattern.  He does some good things,
some great things, and some things that are so out of the flow they are hard
to fathom.  Overall, I think he's making progress toward fitting into the
lineup and he certainly turned out to be a big boost on a day when the rest
of our guards couldn't buy a basket.  Legion just needs to temper his shot
selection just a little bit and he will be fine.

I think the bigger concern is McCamey Jekyl and Hyde act.  We just can't
have him disappearing like this (and making some boneheaded passes to boot).

A few interesting stats that I heard after the game yesterday:

- MSU had 33 missed shots yesterday, and got 18 offensive rebounds off of
them, better than 50% of their misses.

- MSU had no made baskets in the last 14 minutes of the game that were not
layups.

- Illinois again had an extremely high assist to basket ration (I think 21
assists on 23 made baskets) and I believe we lead the country in that stat.


Overall, this team is far, far ahead of our expectations for this year (and
I'm a pretty optomistic person).  If we can just hold home court we'll have
21 wins minimum.  I know we were all waiting for the hot recruits to come
and save our program, but adding those recruits to these much improved
veterans will be an even better mix.  I'll enjoy this year for the pleasant
surprise that it is, and look forward to being national power again in a
couple years.

Todd S


  -----Original Message-----
  From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net]On Behalf Of
gtillini95 at aol.com
  Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 8:50 AM
  To: oskee at heins.net
  Subject: Re: [Oskee] Illini let game slip away


  I'm not sure it was MSU's speed that completely did us in, but they ran us
out of the gym during some very important stretches.  It's fairly obvious
that they're stronger more mentally tough at this point in their careers.
Unfortunately, I personally think the toughness part is something you show
up with as a freshman and not an attribute that comes with experience.

  Don't get me wrong, the Illini can take a punch.  But yesterday may be the
difference between Final Four tough and second round tough.  We'll know the
real story after Sparty's return trip to Champaign.  Do we get a return
trip?

  Did Legion take a step?

  OWW!

  Geoff


  -----Original Message-----
  From: Kevin Kemna <kemna at hughes.net>
  To: oskee at heins.net
  Sent: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 6:25 pm
  Subject: [Oskee] Illini let game slip away


  FLAVOR00-NONE-0000-0000-000000000000 0.000000 ; Well the Illini lead by 7
at the half and 9 points in the second half but
        Let the Spartans regain the lead around the 4 minute mark.
        Tough point in the game when Chester was fouled and came down on his
back hip area.  Trent missed the one and one for Chester
        and that was the first time the Illini hadn't repulsed a Spartan
run.

        We got to take the next two home games.


        Go ILLINi

        Kevin



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