Disagree about Miguel. He needs to make some progress in practice in order to earn playing time. He struggled vs. NC A&T yesterday. He has potential, just needs to make the jump from JUCO to Div I. Boals says Foster has made significant progress on his game. And he's coming off a leg injury. Foster could really surprise some people when he's 100%.

Yeah, the one thing that showed on the team's faces after the game was disappointment. No "moral victory" here; these guys expected to win. If they play with this much intensity every night, this could be a special season.

And kudos to the guys on the bench. They really made it sound like Ohio had fans in the stands cheering them on. Almost expected them to do "winning team, losing team" if we had won.

We came so close to having a two-fer today, with the women knocking off #22 ND.

ESPN studio analyst Seth Greenberg lavished praise on JP this evening, saying he has a PhD in ball screens and is an NBA pt guard.

LaPhonso Ellis, a favorite of mine dating back to his days playing at Notre Dame, however erred on the same broadcast. He excused the Illini "poor showing" due to playing 3 games in 3 days, as if Ohio wasn't in the same situation.

+1

This bench arrrangement where the players on the bench can actually get into the game is a positive byproduct of Covid.

First complete athletic contest I've watched since things got shut down in March. This reminded me so much of sitting in the arena in STL back in 2012. Watching this game today one thing really stuck out - TEAM. When you get outrebounded by 25 and shoot 15 fewer free throws and only lose by 2, something had to go right. It was a TEAM effort.

Sad that we'll have to hope to watch some of these games on TV this year because this could very well be a very fun year. And, it's great to see a true big man on the floor. And finally, that Jason Preston story was intriguing and as the announcers said, one worth repeating.

[/QUOTE]Excellent observations, Alan. I thought the same thing about the rebounding and free throw advantage in the Illinois game, as well as the team effort. Our guys just kept playing and gave themselves a chance to earn a win against an excellent opponent. It does compare to the NCAA tournament game in 2012 that you reference and what happened late in that 2011-12 season.

There's a lot of season left and much can happen on and off the court -- some of it out of the control of those in the program. But, this team feels like one that has a high ceiling and the hunger to see where they can take it. This is fun.

Hat tap to the comment above about yesterdays game feeling a little like deja vu (sweet 16 game).

I was there, also, and the Cinderella feeling late in the game was familiar...

The big lesson I learned from the Illinois game is to pay no attention to the BA pundits who were practically to a man (and maybe woman) saying that it would be a moral victory if we could keep the inevitable loss to less than a 20 point margin. Pshaw!

The guys on B10 Net were a little puzzled on that one as well.

There was also a TO where one of our guys ran out of bounds then came back in and was the first to touch the ball. Anyway, that was the explanation on B10 Net. I've never seen that called in basketball before.

I could be wrong, but at the time I thought the ref signaled that JP had carried (“palmed”) the ball.

It's a call that's almost never made. It's sort of like the gunner on punts in football. The ref has to have determined that Roderick ran out of bounds of his own volition to gain an advantage. The only other time I have seen it called was in one of my son's high school games. Not something I have ever paid attention to to see how often it happens and is not called.

This and I dont really understand the call by Boals to use the last TO after Ohio went up on the Preston floater. Illinois was out of TOs and would have had to scramble to get a shot off. The TO gave them time to organize. Kind of backfired there and didn't give Ohio a chance to draw something up after Illinois made it.

Great game, looking forward to watching how these guys progress.

It was the correct call. Good, experienced refs (see NBA) make that call.

If the cats won this game it would have been a nice Peice of ammo to help bust the NCAA bubble and get them in even without winning the mac tourney. Seeing as how they got mauled on the glass and had way fewer free throws we better pray we don't have to play someone like duke, Kansas or Michigan state in the NCAA tourney.