Comments on: The Minute After: Illinois

By: Matt_J

Matt_J — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:44:10 +0000

Didn't Damon Bailey hit a three from the midcourt line at the halftime buzzer of the game at Ohio State in…92…93…that tied the game and helped rally the team for the second half?

By: plane1972

plane1972 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:24:11 +0000

I'm hearing alot on this site about Ratliffe, but when you look at his profiles on other sites, IU is nowhere in the discussion. Not sure, but this may all be wishful thinking. UK and Louisville are already starting to show him some attention.

By: jeffreyelliott

jeffreyelliott — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:40:26 +0000

I wish I were influential enough to give my words of encouragement to the team. They should have won, but, the larger point is that their improvement is fantastic. Hoosiers are coming back.

By: Hardwood83

Hardwood83 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:40:56 +0000

I will do a brief 'Good, Bad & Ugly' Good: IU hung tough against as solid team on the road and found ways to score. Good #2 FT % was over 50%- bonus! Bad: Interior Defense- awful. Really terrible. Ugly: Officiating- I don't think it was completely against IU as they benefited a couple of times too- but it was poor overall. Ugly #2 Rivers shot….

By: plane1972

plane1972 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:21:38 +0000

I think Watford's mouth got him the T, not physical play.

By: aceman07

aceman07 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:24:17 +0000

Very, very possible!

By: John

John — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:16:00 +0000

“…’the Illini and their screechy coach”?

very professional.

By: iurons

iurons — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:20:35 +0000

Many good things came out in this game. More bigs allowed for better match ups with Illinois. Better execution with less turnovers Better rebounding effort. More disruption on the defensive end. It appears that players are beginning to trust each other on the offensive end.

They still need a true go to guy. By that I mean someone who cannot be handled without a constant double team from the opponent . They need to improve their team defense. If you take away some of the layups and dunks by Illinois , this game isn't that close at the end of the game. Our current players are not five star player and most are not even four star so that tells you that they are not necessarily strong in all facets of the game. This doesn't mean that they won't develop, its just that it may take longer than someone with more natural ability coming out of high school. Youth can win as Purdue showed two years ago when their junior class were freshman and I will bet Ohio State will be competitive for the upper part of the big ten next year with their 6 man freshman class. Iowa started the same youth as Indiana last week and outplayed them to get their win. We have a great nucleus and a great coach, some good bigs who will develop so there is a lot to look forward to, lets just hope one of our current players or a recruit from our next recruiting class turns into something special.

By: MillaRed

MillaRed — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:20:17 +0000

Sallad I hope what you say is the truth. I wasn't sure what actually went down, but when was the last time you saw a Hoosier player stand up for the team? Verdell seems to be the leader this team needs.

Would anyone have been dissappointed if Crean got a technical in this game? Players have bad games, coaches have bad games, and unfortunately refs do too. I would argue they have more control over the game than the coaches.

I'm not crying in my beer. My point is, every team needs the one kid that will open his mouth if things are not going favorable. It looks like VIII is the guy. How could you not like this kid? Imagine what IU will be like if/when he and Mo Creek are both on their games. Wow…….

By: Sallad

Sallad — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:09:25 +0000

I think it was related to one of the refs trying to break up the IU huddle at the end of a timeout. It looked like whatever the ref said to break up the huddle annoyed Verdell, looked like VJ turned to the ref saying something along the lines of “Come on, man” because the IU huddle was about to break up, they just were all putting their hands in the middle. Then VJ says something else to another ref about what the first ref said, and then the first ref hustles up to Verdell and gets in his face. It was weird.

By: Ben_M

Ben_M — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:19:16 +0000

Can we get some info on Ricardo Ratliffe? This guy seems to be the missing piece to our puzzle. A starting line up with Ratliffe, Elston, Watford, Creek or Jones, and Hulls or Rivers….scream NCAA tournament. This guy is the answer. I really hope we get him. Plus being a juco leaves us with scholly opening at just the right time.

By: HoosierSmitty

HoosierSmitty — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:29:04 +0000

Heartbreaking but encouraging…that's all I got…

By: cooper

cooper — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:06:26 +0000

I only got to watch the second half, and have little desire to go back and watch the full game. Overall, I thought this was a perfect game for the team to see how the "process" works. they played well and didn't seem afraid to lose like the team often does in the 2nd half.

Rivers should have been guarding McCamey for the final play but whatever it happens. Still not enough production from the front line on offense. At least Elston pulled down 5 boards. Pritchard has get more than 1 rebound or he shouldn't play. You can complain about Jones on D but without him IU isn't in the game especially with Watford not scoring.

Rivers got screwed on the rebounding call, I watched with a Illinois fan and he even said the call sucked. Interesting to see if hitting those 2 big free throws will give him more confidence for the rest of the season

By: Deon Mitchell

Deon Mitchell — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:30:34 +0000

I hope we finish .500

By: iurons

iurons — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:20:35 +0000

By: IUMIKE1

IUMIKE1 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:54:41 +0000

Nahhh……..We both view stevealford to much alike for me to do that and just admitting that my internet skills leave something to be desired.

By: aceman07

aceman07 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:45:51 +0000

Watching that video clip it's obvious that Watford reacted late. He should have stepped over sooner because there wasn't enough for a pass then shot but that's just a freshman reaction. Reaction time will get better and better as he gets older and older. It's too bad though but most of us would probably have reacted just as slowly.

By: GFDave

GFDave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:44:03 +0000

My post about IUMIKEs was supposed to be totally satirical. I hope you didn't take anything to heart.

By: aceman07

aceman07 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:43:24 +0000

Yes, much better! I thought as I'm sure many of you did that the game was over when Dumes traveled and the Tisdale hit the two free throws to put them up by 2. I thought we would fade at that point but these guys are getting better and apparently getting used to the grind of a 2-period 40 minute game instead of 4 eight minute quarters. They're getting tougher and conditioned, or at least it seems that they are.

By: aceman07

aceman07 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:40:16 +0000

If you were watching the previous trip down the floor, the refs through VJ3 the ball on the free throw line then blew the whistle and made him wait. Then the very next trip they did the exact thing to Dumes. They let Illinois call a timeout after they had thrown the ball to Dumes. I think Jones was just complaining about that and the referee probably got lippy because they all seem to be egotistical blowholes anymore and it ticked VJ3 off. That was my take but it's just a guess.