Wednesday, January 03, 2007

This was a bad loss...

Frustrating, perplexing, and ugly. Three words I would use to describe Illinois' loss to Michigan tonight. This game was important as we detailed earlier today and it got away.

Very disappointing performances from most of the starters. Jamar was pretty solid overall and about the only halfway consistent offense Illinois had. The team has got to find a way to generate better and more consistent offense. Right now, they are too stagnant, neglecting the post at times, shooting too many jump shots, missing layups, missing free throws, and forcing bad shots.

The defense was very good early during the first ten minutes of the game and was decent at other times but it was not where it had to be throughout the game in order to win a Big Ten game on the road against a decent opponent.

Randle just doesn't look right to me and I am sure that is because he is still healing from surgery and trying to play his way back into form. As a whole, the various injuries suffered by multiple players this year have prevented the team from having the practice time together that it needs. Unfortunately, we are at a time in the season when there are not long breaks to get that practice time in. The team is going to have to maximize what time they do have between games and learn on the fly in the games themselves.

I still believe this team is much better than it has shown so far this season. However, they need to start proving it. If not, then maybe I was wrong with the expectations I had going in. It is gut-check time. Ohio State is up next on Saturday. Illinois will have to play better than it has all season if it wants a chance at knocking off the Buckeyes and avoiding its first three game losing streak under Coach Weber.

# posted by Good Hope Orange : 11:15 PM


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