Sunday, December 20, 2009

Illini Lose to Georgia: Not time to Panic Yet

With a third bad non-conference loss under Illinois' belt, many may be getting ready to hit the panic button for this season. As understandable as this reaction is, let’s take pause and look at a few positives before we tackle the obvious negatives

Positives:
All three of our losses have come by small margins and were winnable games. Though this is extremely frustrating, at least it shows that were not getting run out of the gym.

We’ve got opportunities to make up this loss with wins over Mizzou and Zaga. Though 3 non-conference losses were not what we were hoping, we would still be looking OK with wins over Vandy, Clemson, Mizzou and Zaga.

Bill Cole continues to improve and impress and could be our best sixth man

Our freshman should only get better

D.J. is still lighting it up from outside, we just need to get him that shot more.

The Big Ten is fairly good this year. Since this team seems to play to its competition it should mean that we’ll get some unexpected wins (over Purdue, MSU or Ohio State) and have some unexpected losses (Michigan, Penn State, Indiana). I do believe the Big Ten will get 6 or 7 teams in, so it looks like a 7-12 seed for us.

Negatives:
Though Bruce has expanded his bench and starting using a little zone, he failed to utilize either effectively during the Georgia game. Unless Richard was injured there is no way he shouldn’t have seen the floor

D-Mac does not know how to consistently close out a game. I’m not saying that he’s not playing better than last year; I’m just saying I never feel comfortable with the ball in his hands with 15 seconds left.

The teams we’ve lost to thus far will most likely not do well in their respective conferences, which makes selection Sunday all the more nerve-racking

Alex Legion may never make a basket again

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