Degaz-RU said:

1. Welcome back, Dylan Harper. What a stat line. 28 points, 7-15 FG overall (3-5 on threes), 11-12 FTs, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block. He put the team on his back and willed this team to a big top 25 win.

2. Rutgers is now 4-1 when Ace and Dylan are healthy, and the one loss (OSU) was before Ace settled in as a college player.

3. Timely contributions from the supporting cast. Big threes in the second half by Grant, Hayes, and Martini. 13 points (including 7-8 FTs) from JWill. 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists from JMike.

4. Rutgers really battled tonight. We went up 17 points in the first half, and we all knew Illinois was going to make it a game, and they did just that by crashing the boards in the 2nd half and finally hitting shots, taking advantage of their paint dominance and taking a 55-52 lead. But Rutgers fought back in the final 10 minutes, outscoring Illinois 30-18 to close out the game.

5. Rebounding was a struggle after the first quarter of the game. But it ended up 41-40 overall. Illinois did get 18 offensive rebounds, but guess what, we got 16. Ace with an 18-11 double double.

6. Great job at the line tonight, 28-34 for 82.4%. Won the game at the line, full stop.

7. Interesting rotation from Pike tonight. He basically didn’t play Acuff or Derkack, presumably thinking that they would not be able to keep up with the athleticism of Illinois. So mainly rotated three guards with Dylan, JWill, and JMike, with Acuff, Derkack, and Hayes getting spot minutes.

8. As I said after the NW game, this win doesn’t change our retooled goal (make the BTT and hope to finish 9th to get a single bye). We’re out of the at-large NCAA conversation (unless we win out), but this win keeps us on schedule for the BTT.

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G- RUnit said:

3. Love Pike but you have to get Ace more shots in the 2nd half. Please!!!!

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RuSnp said:

I like this and we are all fans. Let's be positive. But the reality is if we win the next FIVE in a row we are 11-11 quad 1/2/3. And then it's at Mich, at Purdue and hosting an improving Minn.

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RU848789 said:

Huge win. Remember what I said about wanting to see how good we could be with a healthy Harper and Bailey and the "new" guy Grant playing? Think we just saw it in a convincing win against a talented top 25 team and we're now 4-1 with a healthy Harper in the B1G and 3-0 with a healthy Harper and Grant playing. Was great to see Harper back to early season form with 28/6/5/4 including 11-12 FTs and 7-15/3-5 and Ace playing a quietly good game with 18/11/2 and 3 blocks - and those rebounds were huge late in the game when they were pounding us on the boards. We didn't have a 3rd scorer until late when JW hit a bunch of FTs to finish with 13, but almost everyone contributed, including nice treys for Hayes and Martini, some good boards by LS, good D by JMike (and 4/4/2/1 in limited minutes), 5/7 for Grant (although that 2-10 was tough to watch) and some nice D by Dortch. Derkack and Acuff didn't do much, but that's ok.

And while we've lost Ogbole, we are now playing Dortch some, too, and he's contributing, especially on D. Still baffled on why Pike didn't start playing Grant and Dortch from the beginning of the season, especially since they're more athletic than most of the other supporting guys (at least vs. Hayes, Martini and Acuff; JMike, JW and Derkack are fairly athletic) and Pike is a D guy. I always thought we needed better defenders playing with Harper/Bailey as they're capable of carrying most of the offense - and we're certainly seeing much better D, IMO, the past few games (especially Michigan and tonight).

Anyway, now let's go on a serious run. We're not out of it until we're out of it. Thinking we finish at least 5-3 to get to 17-14/10-10, which isn't enough for the tourney, but is certainly enough to play in the B1G tourney (I assume we'd need to finish 7-1 to get to 19-12/12-8 to make the tourney) and maybe we'll see a miracle.

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Loyal_2RU said:

"Blowing a 17 point lead" is nonsense. They didn't blow anything. They won the game and assumed control at winning time. That lead helped them and overcoming that lead sapped Illinois.

The name of the game is to win

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RC66 said:

I'm looking sincerely for some essays from former players and knowledgeable fans. What does he do to make that happen?

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billgumpper said:

The fact that we lost the lead and came back to win shows grit. If we can beat MD Sunday I think we can go on a run because the team is playing better D. Also in order to go on a run we will also need to win the bench battle. If Martini is going to play the 5 then we we are on O he is going to need to shoot the 3 better so that the other teams big man has to come out to the 3 point line to guard him, when that happens he needs to take him to the basket or other players have to cut to the rim. Martini is going to have to show up big because Lathan is in foul trouble every game.

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G- RUnit said:

1. Officiating story of the game. If Pike doesn’t go crazy one game he’s not a good coach. Only reason we didn’t win this game by double digits is officiating.

2. Ace and Dylan are amazing. Some will argue/question but Pike has a decent argument what if Dylan and Ace are 100% healthy all year.

3. Love Pike but you have to get Ace more shots in the 2nd half. Please!!!!

4. Back to back threes by Martini and Hayes key moments of game.

5. JWill played some of the dumbest hoops I’ve ever seen by anybody in an RU uniform.
Yet steal and foul shooting and defense helped us win the game.

6. Grant was awful most of the game but start of second half was aa important stretch as any this year.

7. Despite truly awful officating we won the game at the line.

8. We can beat anybody. Pike, Ace and Dylan have to be way more selfish.

9. JMike and Sommerville had moments and getting much better but have to defer more.

Get to B1G tourney and in the words of Bob Wenzel, Dream Big Dreams!

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bac2therac said:

You will have to wait til tomorrow..ouch

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G- RUnit said:

6. Grant was awful most of the game but start of second half was aa important stretch as any this year.

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Degaz-RU said:

1. Welcome back, Dylan Harper. What a stat line. 28 points, 7-15 FG overall (3-5 on threes), 11-12 FTs, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block. He put the team on his back and willed this team to a big top 25 win.

2. Rutgers is now 4-1 when Ace and Dylan are healthy, and the one loss was before Ace settled in as a college player.

3. Timely contributions from the supporting cast. Big threes in the second half by Grant, Hayes, and Martini. 13 points (including 7-8 FTs) from JWill. 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists from JMike.

4. Rutgers really battled tonight. We went up 16 points in the first half, and we all knew Illinois was going to make it a game, and they did just that by crashing the boards in the 2nd half and finally hitting shots, taking advantage of their paint dominance and taking a 55-52 lead. But Rutgers fought back in the final 10 minutes, outscoring Illinois 30-18 to close out the game.

5. Rebounding was a struggle after the first quarter of the game. But it ended up 41-40 overall. Illinois did get 18 offensive rebounds, but guess what, we got 16. Ace with an 18-11 double double.

6. Great job at the line tonight, 28-34 for 82.4%. Won the game at the line, full stop.

7. Interesting rotation from Pike tonight. He basically didn’t play Acuff or Derkack, presumably thinking that they would not be able to keep up with the athleticism of Illinois. So mainly rotated three guards with Dylan, JWill, and JMike, with Acuff, Derkack, and Hayes getting spot minutes.

8. As I said after the NW game, this win doesn’t change our retooled goal (make the BTT and hope to finish 9th to get a single bye). We’re out of the at-large NCAA conversation (unless we win out), but this win keeps us on schedule for the BTT.

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