#2 Texas vs #17 Illinois 6pm on ESPN - Game Day!

[Slacks 6,819]

First game I was able to watch a lot of... 

I didn't see much ball movement.  Is this how we normally play?

I saw a lot of dribbling in half court sets.

I saw a lot of soft shots near the goal.

Is 30 good? He seemed pretty unathletic to play as much as he did. He didn't seem to be a factor on defense.

I'm not overly concerned about game 7, but I saw spots where we should have called a TO and gotten back to basketball.

 

[Braff Zacklin 13,552]

Damn. Felt like our 'Horns kind of gave it away in regulation but credit Illinois for playing great D and taking better shots. A little too much hero ball from some of our players tonight, and not careful enough with the ball late and in overtime.

Lack of size inside doesn't worry me so much as the free throw shooting.

Anyway, hats off to the Illini. Good team, good game.

Lots of hoops to play yet, so this is just great experience. Hopefully, the team will learn from this.

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

8 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

We did not guard the arc well in this one.    They shot 44% from 3 which isn’t going to get it done.   

Yup, a couple of Meyer's 3s in the 1H were semi contested. But overall, their looks were clean.

[dieucla98 2,942]

Illinois won the game with individual plays. Not much team basketball. I'll take that every night and accept you get coolered some nights. Tonight we got coolered.

I'll also take Hunter at the line with the game on the line every night.

We're going to be just fine.

[SL Xpress 7,513]

1 minute ago, EuroHorn said:

I’ve watched too much Texas  basketball over the years to say they’re great at this point. We’ll see how they do in the regular season and in the tourney. 

I don't know what is meant by great, or why people would get worked up about this team not being great without understanding what is meant by it.

They were talented enough to win this game. I feel like this was a choke job. I don't know another way to put it. I'm okay with that, because it's not that important to me in the grand scheme of things, but they had the tools and strategy to win this game, and the execution was terrific up to the 9:30 minute mark. After that not nearly as good, but good enough to win. Then there was the shitting of the bed in the last minute, including 2 missed front ends of one and ones and another 2 misses at the free throw line. Also Carr playing hero ball instead of looking for teammates, which he's done a decent job of previously.

I don't see this team being a top 5 team. Maybe later in the season? But I don't really see that either. I want them to be a top 15 team and top 3 in the conference, and that all seems very doable. This team with a top 4 seed can make it to the Sweet Sixteen, all of which means a very successful season to me. More than that, really, because the style they're playing with is what you need to have to recruit at the highest level, and I had absolutely no belief Beard would change enough to do that. Send a couple of guys to the NBA, plus the NIL, and now you're cooking with gas. 

But holy heck, what are we doing with our post defense? Is Brock Cunningham really going to be our primary post defender? Really? I love Brock Cunningham and all, but c'mon. 

[Hookem2147 21,188]

Mitchell was getting his lunch eaten defensively. Illinois was picking on him and we couldn’t leave him out there. Then we had to try to guard Shannon with Cunningham, and yeah.

As with any team, we will match better against certain teams and tonight made me nervous knowing the strength of the Illinois team was in the front-court.

We’ll be alright. Got a handful of cupcakes before we kick off conference play.

[NTVTXN 1,432]

Dammit.

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

Mitchell has a lot to learn defensively. Takes time. He'll be fine. 

[Pancho 44,688]

8 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

I’ve watched too much Texas  basketball over the years to say they’re great at this point. We’ll see how they do in the regular season and in the tourney. 

Go fuck yourself with some McVitie’s digestives.

[Brian Fantana 6,677]

3 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Damn. Felt like our 'Horns kind of gave it away in regulation but credit Illinois for playing great D and taking better shots. A little too much hero ball from some of our players tonight, and not careful enough with the ball late and in overtime.

Lack of size inside doesn't worry me so much as the free throw shooting.

Anyway, hats off to the Illini. Good team, good game.

Lots of hoops to play yet, so this is just great experience. Hopefully, the team will learn from this.

It was a really entertaining game other than the OT period I guess, lots for a team to learn from and work on

I'm just mad that now I have to listen to this Jimmy V speech for the 1 millionth time before I get to watch more basketball

[EuroHorn 3,252]

Just now, Pancho said:

Go fuck yourself with some McVitie’s digestives.

We’re back!

[MotownHorn 1,759]

Not a good L only because we blew a 10 point 2nd half lead.

Otherwise it was a loss to a good team in December. No biggie in the grand scheme of things. 

Beards gotta figure out exactly how all the guys fit together. I thought not having Bishop or Disu on the floor much the last 5 minutes plus OT was an odd move. Morris and Carr looked like chickens with their heads cut off at the end of the game. Especially Morris (which makes sense given his youth).

Hopefully everyone learns for it. Coaches and players alike.

[MirrOlure 14,757]

I'm just mad that now I have to listen to this Jimmy V speech for the 1 millionth time before I get to watch more basketball

Must suck to not be human

[chemHORN 1,239]

7 minutes ago, dieucla98 said:

Illinois won the game with individual plays. Not much team basketball. I'll take that every night and accept you get coolered some nights. Tonight we got coolered.

I'll also take Hunter at the line with the game on the line every night.

We're going to be just fine.

I'd like to see more team basketball out of us in that last five minutes.  We aren't gonna win them all but we can't let Carr keep running the ball into 3 guys and getting either blocked or turning it over.  

[Brian Fantana 6,677]

1 minute ago, MirrOlure said:

Must suck to not be human

It was moving the first 100 times I saw it

[Loop 1604 227]

6 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

It was a really entertaining game other than the OT period I guess, lots for a team to learn from and work on

I'm just mad that now I have to listen to this Jimmy V speech for the 1 millionth time before I get to watch more basketball

[MrX 727]

6 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Morris is still pretty raw. I understand not trusting him late. 

Mitchell is a great off the ball player on both ends of the court and a very good on-ball defender. I understand wanting him to watch from the bench and earn his time but I feel like he'd learn more by playing. 

Then again Chris Beard knows more about basketball than me and everyone else here does. 

Both those dudes are going to play key minutes in March is this team is going to make a deep run. Frustrating to not see them out there tonight for extended crunch time. 

[Brian Fantana 6,677]

1 minute ago, Loop 1604 said:

Go cry to the mods again, pussy

[LonghornSean 3,989]

10 minutes ago, Slacks said:

First game I was able to watch a lot of... 

I didn't see much ball movement.  Is this how we normally play?

I saw a lot of dribbling in half court sets.

I saw a lot of soft shots near the goal.

Is 30 good? He seemed pretty unathletic to play as much as he did. He didn't seem to be a factor on defense.

I'm not overly concerned about game 7, but I saw spots where we should have called a TO and gotten back to basketball.

 

Must be your first game to watch in quite a while if you don’t know 30’s name.

[MirrOlure 14,757]

It was moving the first 100 times I saw it

It was moving when I saw it broadcast live, and was moving this evening. Sorry for you that it isn’t

[SL Xpress 7,513]

3 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Must be your first game to watch in quite a while if you don’t know 30’s name.

As in, Constantinople was still under siege.

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

Not overly shocked we lost the game. I think it closed at -2.5.

I am shocked that I didn't hear Bilas say "baller" the entire game. My bingo card suffered.

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

14 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

It was a really entertaining game other than the OT period I guess, lots for a team to learn from and work on

I'm just mad that now I have to listen to this Jimmy V speech for the 1 millionth time before I get to watch more basketball

Or you could have simply turned it off for 5 or 10 minutes. 

[Brian Fantana 6,677]

1 minute ago, Wally Pryor said:

Or you could have simply turned it off for 5 or 10 minutes. 

[MirrOlure 14,757]

As in, Constantinople was still under siege.

We have a player named Istanbul?

[Slacks 6,819]

8 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Must be your first game to watch in quite a while if you don’t know 30’s name.

Pretty much. I'm a busy old.

Am I supposed to know his name? I saw him hit a 3 and not defend worth a damn.

[Js1 85,264]

1 minute ago, MirrOlure said:

We have a player named Istanbul?

Balbay is long gone 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,052]

As an Illini fan, I just have to say that that was a weird fucking game. 

I'm not surprised that it went to OT. 

Your defense had us completely out of sorts there for a while in the second half, and frankly, I'm not quite sure how we turned things around. We had a similar comeback against UCLA where all hope seemed lost and yet we won, and similar hopelessness during our two close losses to Virginia and Maryland. I have seen a few posters saying that Texas choked it away, and I guess I can see the basis for saying so, but I bring this up because unexpected comebacks seem to be a part of our identity right now. 

Your defense is absolutely suffocating, and I think this game is going to make both teams better, regardless of the outcome. 

For whatever it's worth, Illini fans are also upset about the officiating, so if everyone on both sides thinks it sucked, then it guess that's all we can hope for. 

Hope we cross paths again in Houston! 

[Brian Fantana 6,677]

Just now, Prepuce of Doom said:

As an Illini fan, I just have to say that that was a weird fucking game. 

I'm not surprised that it went to OT. 

Your defense had us completely out of sorts there for a while in the second half, and frankly, I'm not quite sure how we turned things around. We had a similar comeback against UCLA where all hope seemed lost and yet we won, and similar hopelessness during our two close losses to Virginia and Maryland. I have seen a few posters saying that Texas choked it away, and I guess I can see the basis for saying so, but I bring this up because unexpected comebacks seem to be a part of our identity right now. 

Your defense is absolutely suffocating, and I think this game is going to make both teams better, regardless of the outcome. 

For whatever it's worth, Illini fans are also upset about the officiating, so if everyone on both sides thinks it sucked, then it guess that's all we can hope for. 

Hope we cross paths again in Houston! 

Expect this kind of game out of Shannon multiple times this year. I think he gets in his own head a lot and tries to do too much, and you get the bull in a china shop shit he was doing for most of regulation. He does have a beautiful game when he puts it together, though.

[ATXbronco 4,062]

That was an unfortunate loss but it was our first road game this year.

And against a ranked opponent as well.

Should have won but an OT loss on the road against a ranked opponent doesn't totally suck.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,052]

1 minute ago, Brian Fantana said:

Expect this kind of game out of Shannon multiple times this year. I think he gets in his own head a lot and tries to do too much, and you get the bull in a china shop shit he was doing for most of regulation. He does have a beautiful game when he puts it together, though.

There's some speculation that he was concussed when he got his forehead busted open during the Maryland game on Friday night. He didn't come out of the game for long, but all his subsequent shots were WAAAAYYY low and outside, and he seemed off at the start of this game, too. I'm sure part of that was Beard's familiarity with him, and just your generally outstanding defense, but it's something people are talking about. 

[SL Xpress 7,513]

1 minute ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

As an Illini fan, I just have to say that that was a weird fucking game. 

I'm not surprised that it went to OT. 

Your defense had us completely out of sorts there for a while in the second half, and frankly, I'm not quite sure how we turned things around. We had a similar comeback against UCLA where all hope seemed lost and yet we won, and similar hopelessness during our two close losses to Virginia and Maryland. I have seen a few posters saying that Texas choked it away, and I guess I can see the basis for saying so, but I bring this up because unexpected comebacks seem to be a part of our identity right now. 

Your defense is absolutely suffocating, and I think this game is going to make both teams better, regardless of the outcome. 

For whatever it's worth, Illini fans are also upset about the officiating, so if everyone on both sides thinks it sucked, then it guess that's all we can hope for. 

Hope we cross paths again in Houston! 

Fan bases crying about officiating is as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning.

If I'm an Illini fan I'm excited about the win and how the team fought through adversity to come up clutch to tie the game then dominated in overtime. The team can play better so there's lots of upside. Good to see Mayer come alive finally. Dainja played great. Coleman is a terrific player. Melendez came up strong with the defensive block at the end. Shannon showed up just in time to carry the team to victory. Having so many new players and jelling this well this quickly is fantastic.

But I'm not an Illini fan, so this game sucks. I do believe they'll get better for it, but I wish they hadn't choked it away in regulation. 

[ATXbronco 4,062]

5 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

As an Illini fan, I just have to say that that was a weird fucking game. 

I'm not surprised that it went to OT. 

Your defense had us completely out of sorts there for a while in the second half, and frankly, I'm not quite sure how we turned things around. We had a similar comeback against UCLA where all hope seemed lost and yet we won, and similar hopelessness during our two close losses to Virginia and Maryland. I have seen a few posters saying that Texas choked it away, and I guess I can see the basis for saying so, but I bring this up because unexpected comebacks seem to be a part of our identity right now. 

Your defense is absolutely suffocating, and I think this game is going to make both teams better, regardless of the outcome. 

For whatever it's worth, Illini fans are also upset about the officiating, so if everyone on both sides thinks it sucked, then it guess that's all we can hope for. 

Hope we cross paths again in Houston! 

Loose balls and fouls and other such just went Illini way the last few minutes of the game.
But you guys didn't back down  when things weren't going your way earlier and that's awesome for you.

[Braff Zacklin 13,552]

17 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

As in, Constantinople* was still under siege.

* Been a long time gone ...

[perfectchaos007 6,621]

Just now, ATXbronco said:

That was an unfortunate loss but it was our first road game this year.

And against a ranked opponent as well.

Should have won but an OT loss on the road against a ranked opponent doesn't totally suck.

It was a neutral site game, just like when we played NAU in Edinburgh last month. Our first road game of the season isn't until the end of the month @ OU 

[ATXbronco 4,062]

Just now, perfectchaos007 said:

It was a neutral site game, just like when we played NAU in Edinburgh last month. Our first road game of the season isn't until the end of the month @ OU 

I was wondering why the crowd was so loud for Texas at times.  Thanks for the heads up.

[SL Xpress 7,513]

1 minute ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

There's some speculation that he was concussed when he got his forehead busted open during the Maryland game on Friday night. He didn't come out of the game for long, but all his subsequent shots were WAAAAYYY low and outside, and he seemed off at the start of this game, too. I'm sure part of that was Beard's familiarity with him, and just your generally outstanding defense, but it's something people are talking about. 

This guy is not a Texas fan. He's a really good participant on this board, but his favorite team is Texas Tech, so he's even more familiar with TJ Shannon than the rest of us are. Frankly, more familiar with Beard in a lot of ways, too. 

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

Just now, Prepuce of Doom said:

There's some speculation that he was concussed when he got his forehead busted open during the Maryland game on Friday night. He didn't come out of the game for long, but all his subsequent shots were WAAAAYYY low and outside, and he seemed off at the start of this game, too. I'm sure part of that was Beard's familiarity with him, and just your generally outstanding defense, but it's something people are talking about. 

Interesting. Yeah, he had one (completely) open 3 in the 1H that was two feet short of the rim.

[ATXbronco 4,062]

The announcers said it was our first road game so I just assumed.

 

Technically our first road game was when we played down south I think.  
Or was it East.  
That other place in Texas.

Which was a neutral also.

Edited December 7, 2022 by ATXbronco

[Carl Spackler 3,479]

Any loss sucks, but to blow it like that at the end of reg was a kick to the nutsack.

[MotownHorn 1,759]

23 minutes ago, Slacks said:

Pretty much. I'm a busy old.

Am I supposed to know his name? I saw him hit a 3 and not defend worth a damn.

Wait. You saw #30 not defend worth a damn?!?!?!

[OB3 3,608]

I would like to see us change how we defend screens more frequently. Feel like we don’t switch our defense consistently enough

[Knighthawk 284]

Pretty simple. Illinois was allowed to play defense with their hands pretty much the entire second half without being called for fouls while Texas was not afforded the same luxury from the refs.   The difference was stark.   Go watch some tape.  

[Pancho 44,688]

9 minutes ago, Knighthawk said:

Pretty simple. Illinois was allowed to play defense with their hands pretty much the entire second half without being called for fouls while Texas was not afforded the same luxury from the refs.   The difference was stark.   Go watch some tape.  

'

[Grande Mart 510]

56 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Balbay is long gone 

That's nobody's business but the Turks

Edited December 7, 2022 by Grande Mart

[Js1 85,264]

2 minutes ago, Pancho said:

'

I love when Pancho the sassy basketball ref comes out 

[Hermanator 7,032]

1 hour ago, dieucla98 said:

you get coolered some nights. Tonight we got coolered.

[chemHORN 1,239]

52 minutes ago, Carl Spackler said:

Any loss sucks, but to blow it like that at the end of reg was a kick to the nutsack.

Maybe, but par for the course at Texas right now I'm afraid.  We have to learn how to close out games in multiple sports.  I feel better about basketball figuring out a way through the season to do that though.  

[WJC88 97]

2 hours ago, Revolution512 said:

Morris has outplayed Carr, Mitchell is our mismatch. I think Beard is making a critical error

 

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Mitchell needs to play more. For starters. 

 

1 hour ago, MrX said:

Pretty puzzling lineup calls down the stretch. I’d rather have trial by fire for Mitchell and Morris than whatever we were rolling with under 5:00. 

 

1 hour ago, MrX said:

Both those dudes are going to play key minutes in March is this team is going to make a deep run. Frustrating to not see them out there tonight for extended crunch time. 

Agreed

[troph 24,781]

Second half until 3 mins to go was impressive across the board. Looked like they watched too many “third and Texas” clips down the stretch. Love Cunningham’s energy but he’s not a last three minutes of the game player - and I think beard might agree but cramps getting after everyone and agree about morris needing more minutes. Not worried. This team can D and can ball, make shots, run an offense.  They’ve already beaten two top ten teams. Probably thinking they’re invincible a bit up 10. Oops. focus got away from them and truth is 18-22 year olds often only learn the hard way. Loss in a neutral arena to a solid team, it happens. Probably even a good thing. It’s December.