WBB: Gophers v Illinois-B1G Game 9 (1/26)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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At The B1G Halfway Point:

Following Illinois’ (1-7) loss to Penn State last Saturday, Matt Bollant expressed disappointment with his guards ignoring Chatrice White. I assume White will be reintroduced to the offense on Tuesday night. (White did secure a career high 18 rebounds). The Illini failed to close out their last two games (PSU and Indiana) after building second half leads of 10 and 11 points. In Minnesota’s first match-up with Illinois, the Gophers never gave the Illini a taste of the lead or the game (a 106-75 Gopher victory).


B1G Win: Wisconsin (71-65)

B1G Losses: Maryland (79-63), @Purdue (69-65), Minnesota (106-75), @ Nebraska 73-57), @ Rutgers (67-54), @ Indiana (68-66), Penn State (65-56)


Notes: Cierra Rice remains sidelined (knee). The Illini added volleyball player Alexis Viliunas to their roster.


Probable Starters (B1G Stats):

C Chatrice White (15.0 points and 10.0 rebounds)
F Alex Willinger (10.1 and 5.6)
G Kyley Simmons (10.6)
G Kennedy Cattenhead (9.9)
G Sarah Hartwell (5.6)
 


Illinois
Day: Tuesday
Date: Jan. 26, 2016
Location: Williams Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT

Coverage

TV: BTN
Radio: 1500 ESPN
 


They really didn't play well the first quarter, but only down 2.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 




Horrible defense on that Illinois center who looks like an android. Actually the girls as a team are playing horrible defense along with no rebounding
 

Ladies are a shooting team. They weren't going down. On a 10-0 run.

Back in the game.
 






Nice comeback win for the ladies. Remember to show up to start the next game.

Fabulous second half by Rachel.
 



Picked up the rebounding in the second half. Banham lights out. Michigan Sunday on BTN
 

STANDINGS CONFERENCE OVERALL
Big Ten W-L GB PCT W-L PCT STRK
#7 Ohio State 7-1 -- .875 15-4 .789 W3
#5 Maryland 6-1 .5 .857 17-2 .895 W5
Purdue 6-2 1 .750 15-4 .789 W1
#18 Michigan State 5-2 1.5 .714 14-4 .778 W2
Minnesota 6-3 1.5 .667 14-6 .700 W4
Nebraska 5-3 2 .625 14-5 .737 W5
Indiana 4-4 3 .500 12-8 .600 W2
Iowa 3-5 4 .375 13-7 .650 L3
Rutgers 3-5 4 .375 12-8 .600 L3
Michigan 3-5 4 .375 11-8 .579 L2
Penn State 3-5 4 .375 8-11 .421 W2
Northwestern 2-6 5 .250 13-7 .650 L3
Wisconsin 2-6 5 .250 6-12 .333 L4
Illinois 1-8 6.5 .111 8-12 .400 L3

Standings courtesy of ESPN. Big Ten is usually a day or two behind.....Pathetic.
 

As expected, Illinois was forcing the ball inside come hell or the return of Chief Illiniwek. And Alex Wittinger, channeling the role of Jackie Grant and the scoring of Jenna Smith, made the Gophers pay-almost.

Minnesota finally sorted out the Illini defense so that Rachel and Carlie weren’t always working past a guard and then running into a big. When Illinois took a timeout with about 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter (no, I don’t know why) the Minnesota huddle, featuring a rather to the point Stollings, was NOT an X and O session. I assumed that discussion continued in the half-time locker room. The message was delivered.

Rachel led comebacks with everyone pitching in are damn fun. Yes, the Illini continue giving up big leads late (sort of a feature of this year’s B1G play actually). And yes it was a mystery why after a timeout with .39 seconds remaining and the Gophers leading by three, Kyley Simmons bear hugged Rachel for Simmon’s fifth foul. A big thanks to Karley Barnes for a huge stop on Chatrice White’s last shot. I’ll say it again, hardworking team comebacks are fun.
 



That's terrible.

People should be showing up just to see Banham. Players like her don't come around very often and it is her last year.
 

The inside battle: Illini posts: 46 points and 24 rebounds; Gopher posts: 22 points and 12 rebounds. Final score: 82-77 Minnesota.

Starters (a change: Edwards in for Lamke)

Edwards
Banham
Bailey
Starr
Wagner


Minutes Played:

36 Banham: 27 points (6-11 from three)-25 points in the second half
36 Wagner: 16 points
28 Edwards: 11 points (It’s been a while since Edwards played this much)
28 Mullaney: 11 points (another game in double figures!)
23 Bailey
23 Hedstrom: 11 points (another game in double figures!)
13 Starr: 7 rebounds
6 Barnes
2 Lamke (in strangest play of the night-Lamke was called for a foul after a made Illini free throw. The ball went back to Illinois with the score 59-55 late in the third. Fortunately the Illini didn’t take advantage and then Wagner hit a three to close out the third quarter)

Note: Kynadi Johnson warmed up with the team. However, with about 5 minutes remaining before tip-off Johnson limped to the locker room. She returned to bench for the game.
 

STRIB: Gophers women's basketball nabs big comeback win vs. Illinois

The senior has led many a comeback during her time with the Gophers, but rarely has she carried the load as completely as she did in an 82-77 victory at Williams Arena. Banham scored 18 of the Gophers’ 24 points in the fourth quarter — including 10 in a row — to will her team to its biggest rally of the season.
Click to expand...

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-women-s-basketball-nabs-big-comeback-win-vs-illinois/366646091/
 

Banham had a great 4th, she scored 18 of the team's 24 points. Mullaney had 2 (2 FT with .4 seconds) and Edwards had 4.

Illinois scored their 77th point with 3:06 left. The Gophers outscored them 9-0 the rest of the way.

The big difference was free throws, the Gophers were 15-18 while the Illini shot just 4 free throws.
 

Another oddity from last night: Of Minnesota's ten turnovers, Rachel had five. Two of them were on that double dribble/walk which Rachel has committed several times this season.

I was surprised how much time and space Banham was given in the corner for the game winning three. It's the same corner from which Bailey started the four game win streak with her game winning three against Indiana.

In watching the replay, I still couldn't figure out why Simmons committed her fifth foul unless she actually heard Vera Jones say someone has to "be in Banham's jersey". Bollant looked equally perplexed.

I think we can say that when assistant Mike Divilbiss resigned from Illinois he took the "buzz" defense with him.
 

I also don't understand why Simmons was in the game, especially when the Illini had a timeout left. If the Gophers took a shot & missed, the Illini could have used their last TO to get her back in the game. They should have been saving her for the offensive end.
 

Wish the big Swede had stayed. She was junkyard dog tough. I remember last year against Nebraska. The big Husker center was really being physical and Zahul put her on her ass on a rebound foul. Zahui
just glared at her.
 

Really relieved to see them pull this one out. With how tough the schedule gets to finish the season the Gophs can't afford to lose to teams like Illinois. You have to give credit to Illinois though. They really played well.

Ignatius brings up an interesting point about Banham. If there's one part of her game that needs serious improvement it's the carless turnovers she commits. She has had her pocket picked a surprising amount of times. In addition there are some times when she really forces some passes that end as turnovers. Feels crazy to nitpick such an amazing player. :)

We did indeed catch a break last night when she ended up so open. It was a hectic play and Illinois got focused on Mullaney with the ball and one other player out at the 3 pt line. Mullaney did a great job finding Banham before Illinois could recover.
 

This team would be amazing with AZB.

Did Stollings try to recruit Wittinger?
 

http://www.startribune.com/delano-shot-blocker-wittinger-eager-for-illinois-basketball/289225941/

It doesn't really answer Station 19's question, but this StarTrib article from last January addresses her decisions to go with basketball instead of volleyball and why she ended up at Illinois.



Q Talk about your college selection.

A At first I thought I was going to Marquette, but then they fired their coaches and that left a lot of uncertainty. So the recruiting process started over for me. Places like DePaul and Creighton and a lot of Big East schools were contacting me. Later I heard from Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa State.


Q Why Illinois?

A I had four criteria for a college. One, it had to have an affiliated church. I belong to the International Church of Christ and they have a church with a strong campus ministry. Two, it had to have a good engineering program and Illinois is phenomenal in that. The best in the nation, which is a little bit scary. Third, it had to have a good basketball program and a good conference. Fourth was a close distance to home. I wanted to be a little closer, because Illinois is about eight hours away, but I felt I could fudge that a little.


Q What about the team itself?

A I love the coaches they have now. They came from [Wisconsin] Green Bay and they turned that into a phenomenal program
 

One additional item: Wittinger committed to Illinois in early May 2014-so Stollings would have barely been here a month.
One other item: Wittinger's mother played volleyball at Minnesota.
 


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