Illinois Basketball Preview vs. Northwestern: Predictions & Key Matchups
π Published on: 2024-12-06 04:56:45
β± Duration: 00:11:44 (704 seconds)
π Views: 29 | π Likes: 1
π Video Description:
JR and Sunny break down the highly anticipated matchup between Illinois basketball and Northwestern, highlighting key strategies and players to watch. They discuss Brad Underwood’s Illini squad, their strengths, and how they match up against Chris Collins’ Northwestern team. With in-depth analysis, they provide their score predictions and explain how Illinois can capitalize on its advantages. Don’t miss this comprehensive preview, packed with insights on what to expect from this Big Ten rivalry clash!
The Big Ten Huddle is a podcast dedicated to providing honest, humorous, and insightful analysis of Big Ten football and basketball. With a focus on challenging the national bias, especially against the SEC, hosts JR and Zack offer clean discussions that engage fans of all Big Ten teams. Though critical at times, they always aim to defend the conference and give credit where itβs due, bringing humor and deep analysis together for a unique listening experience.
Rooted in values of integrity, passion, humor, and community, The Big Ten Huddle strives to become the go-to voice for Big Ten sports fans. Their goals include expanding their audience, increasing engagement, offering balanced coverage of both football and basketball, and producing episodes that challenge misconceptions about the Big Ten. Through consistency and strong connections with their listeners, they aim to grow the podcastβs reach while fostering a dedicated fan base.
Catch The Big Ten Huddle at least 4 times a week, covering football or basketball. Here is our schedule:
SATURDAY LIVE immediately following the final Big Ten game
SUNDAY LIVE @ 9:00 pm
TUESDAY LIVE @ 9:00 pm
WED. or THUR. LIVE @ 9:00 pm – Basketball
*All times are Eastern time
AUDIO ONLY PLATFORMS
The College Huddle is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
LISTEN: https://rss.com/podcasts/thebigtenhuddle
LEAVE a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-college-huddle-podcast/id1703305789
STREAM on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4tMaraKvafFzjUrXGq2c4w
Find all of our contributors and more here: https://thecollegehuddle.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TheCollegeHuddlePodcast?si=Sd-H2th0-NDpEhNV
Twitter: https://twitter.com/collegehuddle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegehuddle/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@collegehuddle
WHAT IS THE COLLEGE HUDDLE?
The College Huddle covers the most prominent college football and basketball headlines every day by conference. We rotate in all the podcast hosts in our network to touch on viewpoints from teams across the nation.
With The College Huddle, you can here in depth analysis and insights from the people who know their schools and conferences best.
There is no show out there like The Big Ten Huddle!
π Channel: The Big Ten Huddle – Basketball
π Channel Country: United States
π Tags:
illinois basketball preview,college basketball,illinois fighting illini,illinois basketball,illinois,brad underwood,big ten basketball,will riley,fighting illini basketball,kylan boswell,big ten,morez johnson,kasparas jakucionis,college basketball preview,big ten basketball preview,illinois preview,tomislav ivisic,northwestern basketball preview,northwestern wildcats,northwestern,northwestern wildcats basketball,northwestern basketball,big ten preview
π΅οΈββοΈ Transcript:
Illinois travels to Northwestern Northwestern had some bad luck lately the game against Butler people are saying they should have won the game right the game against Iowa uh Josh dicks hits the game-winning shot there at the end but I would say make your free throws you don’t have to worry about it uh Ty Barry there missed a a big free throw that would have made this a tide game instead but they missed their free throws and so at the end of the day like Northwestern they’re they’re probably a little hungry they want to get the win they’re at home in this one but Illinois is looking like one of the best teams in the country in my mind what are your what are some of your thoughts and uh key things to look for in this game well it’s interesting CU Illinois is coming off an 8 day H break and Northwestern has what like a two-day turnaround so you know you’re giv Brad Underwood eight days uh for this game um I disagree with Dave David French where he says it’s a trap game for Illinois uh Northwestern and Illinois they just don’t like each other and Illinois we lost at Northwestern last year it’s a tough place to play literally every Northwestern fan goes to that game uh it’s sold out already uh you know it’s going to be a tough environment I do think that the key for Northwestern and the key for every Big 10 uh Team basically who plays Illinois and those of you who watched me on lock down Ali you know what I’m about to say is can you get to 80 points because I think Illinois can Sleepwalk to 80 now Northwestern is actually one of the teams that I can see getting to 80 you know they got barnheiser Martinelli two 20 point uh scores how many teams in the country can say that they have two 20 point scores on their team I’m very curious on our I heard that the other day I I think they’re the only team in the country I tried to look it up I’m pretty sure they’re the only team in the country which is wild yeah I mean you’re talking about you know again offensively I’m not worried for the Ali but I’m very curious defensively who we match up with who we have kylin who we usually uh use as our lock down guy against the opposing point point guard do we let him play a bigger barnheiser and try to minimize him do we go uh against leech then do we set Trey White against the other guy you know it’s one of those where Northwestern has three really good scores two fantastic scores and you know leech himself is a threat as well if you shut one of them down one of the three I don’t know if the rest of the team can make up uh the difference to get to 80 which again I think Illinois sleepwalks too yeah I think in this game you’re going to see Illinois pound the paint more than you have this season I just don’t think Nicholson is right this season for whatever reason now he had a really tough guard last game and uh Owen Freeman uh Owen Freeman’s pretty athletic and and he’s able to play off the perimeter and then go inside and that that was a real detriment for Nicholson but at the end of the day like he just doesn’t look like the same player that he’s been uh the past few years on the offens offensive end he’s not doing as well I I I think you know not having boo there is definitely an adjustment for this team but it’s still a little bit more difficult for him I could see Illinois just trying to get to the basket way more in this game Illinois is averaging over 30 points per game in points per paint and points in the paint which is good but they’re averaging uh uh 36% of their points in the paint which is really low uh in college basketball because they can hit shots from from so many different spots they can score all around the court they don’t have to go down in the paint but in this one if I’m Brad Underwood like I’m I’m using this game as opportunity to get into the paint assert our dominance early and really try to beat down this Northwestern team and not let him come back because you don’t want to get the crowd into this one yeah no you’re exactly right but you know this is one of the things where we just got finished talking about Jake debler like Brad Underwood fortunately has built a very flexible roster you know I agree with I agree with you in the sense where you can start early in the game throwing it down to visich and hey go to work you know now Northwestern actually has one of the few players in the country who matches up uh size wise but if things don’t work out down low Brad Underwood can simply he doesn’t have to make a substitution a vich can hit three pointer he hit six for knocking uh you know against Arkansas so it’s one of those or yeah so it’s one of those um the pressure is all on Northwestern in my opinion they already have two losses uh well one to Iowa but two losses on the season Illinois for me and Jr you know about this for me privately when I when it comes to the Ali I think think the team is super young obviously still getting acclimated to each other I think they’re going to lose games that they should win early in the year but once the meat of the Big 10 season uh comes about in January and February I think that they very well you know having gone through all these battles uh you know they’ve got one of the toughest outof conference schedules in the country I think that’s by Design and Brad Underwood’s going to have this team playing um hopefully uh you know top- Notch once it really matters in March yeah I I’m very confident in Brad Underwood not only uh later in the season but I mean last season really showed me something with him with his in-game adjust adjustments uh just how well he knew his team and I was kind of concerned about that a little bit going into the year like you know would he know this team super well to make the adjustments he needed to make I think you saw some weaknesses against Alabama that he wasn’t really able to uh you know coach against in the game but the adjustments they made for that Arkansas game were huge and so for Illinois it’s just all about building off that Arkansas game you’ve not really played a bunch of tough games yet so far the season so you’ve kind of just looked impressive against subpar opponents but for me this Northwestern game even though Northwestern is not like they’re not Alabama they’re not Arkansas but they’re an opponent that you’re going into their building they don’t like you you don’t like them and uh they’re really going to have to uh try and find a way to uh you know win win in any way that Northwestern allows them to because there’s going to be opportunities there and they’re just going to have to take those opportunities and whether it’s going down in the pain or whatever it is they’re going to have to do that so um give give me some thoughts on on KJ in this game right he’s going on the road uh true freshman had had some issues with turnovers but it’s also just kind of because of how much he is as the primary ball handle of this team like you’re just going to have turnovers at a certain point you worried about him going into a hostile environment in this one what are your thoughts you know he’s someone I don’t really worry about hostile environments just because he’s played in Europe for the last couple years years and there’s nothing more hostile than watching a game out there he’s someone who started off playing well uh but he wasn’t exactly as aggressive as a lot of us thought he was going to be I think he had like four shots in his first game uh three in his second and four again in his third uh third game and all of a sudden you know us AI fans were kind of re-evaluating like hey is he just a playmaker or is he going to understand that hey he’s supposed to be the guy at the end of the game and you saw that against Arkansas anytime Arkansas got it within double digits 10 nine points casparis was basically like I got it don’t worry about it he would make a play he finished with his best game uh as a Collegiate player I think you know I’m not too worried about him I don’t know who northwestern’s gonna honestly put up against KJ I think KJ might be able to get double digit free throws which is a trait that’s you know very underrated it’s something that was so integral to the team last year because Terence Shannon Jr was so good at it and the fact that we’re kind of able to duplicate that again this year with with kasparis um you know again it’s just cheap easy efficient points and I’m not too worried about kasparis the guy I have my eye on and again uh the locked on listeners know this is Will Riley I think what we’re missing we’ve seen how good will Riley can be but if we get you know that first game Eastern Illinois will Riley then I’m spining here even more more confident that Illinois can win this Big 10 conference because that’s eventually what I’m counting on right now he has up and down uh games I think last game he was two for n which is crazy if you think about you know will Riley arguably your best scorer went two for n and you still put up 90 against Arkansas you know which is kind of echoing what I’ve been saying all show long will Riley I think to me um early in the schedules I’m just looking for him to take not make the shots that he’s taking tougher than they need to be because he’s a fantastic scorer I think he’s still the leading score on our team if last time I checked coming off the bench not playing you as many minutes as some of the other guys if he gets into a flow if he slows down and gets comfortable with the speed of college basketball then I think he’s another guy that uh you know along with kaspers along with aich that you’re just going to be seeing uh you know highlights on on a nightly basis I think I think those are great keys and I think those are great players to look for I I was thinking the same thing with Will Riley he needs to come out in this game he needs to assert his dominance he’s one of the best young players in the country uh unfortunately he’s not starting for Illinois which is fine I’m not saying like unfortunately like he needs to I’m just saying like you know he’s a really good player so um you know he he doesn’t always get that time but there’s a lot of really good players out there so I mean that’s the product of being on Illinois team if you don’t if you don’t want to be around good players go play for uh you know I was going to say a team but I don’t want to disparage him they’re in the Big T so I won’t I won’t um my key for this one and then we’ll get to score predictions my key for this one is Illinois holding on to the ball now Illinois has done a very good job of not turning the ball over this season like I said KJ struggled with it a little bit but I think there’s also some thought process there of like how much he is the ball handler and and stuff like that so I’m not too worried about it but Justin mil Mullins in this game has 17 Steals on the year his steal percentage rate is 5.5% like that’s huge in college basketball so uh really big rate for him and Brooks barnheiser KJ wiam and Ty Barry they’ve also been picking guys pockets getting in passing Lanes do a really good job with that so we’ll see uh what that looks like I could also see a situation here where Illinois like Northwestern gets a little too greedy and they just start burning guys and and they go on a you know 17 to2 run or something like that and the game’s over because Northwestern just got too too greedy trying to get too many uh Steals and stuff and uh so we’ll see I think it could either be the thing that keeps Northwestern in the game or it could be the thing that is their detriment and the game’s over by halftime so uh Sunny what what’s your score prediction and who do you think wins I mean I I do think Illinois wins this game but I’m you know being very upfront that I would not be shocked or surprised uh if Northwestern pulls it off they’re just I think hungrier right now Northwestern especially with that last minute loss to Iowa I think they’re a very angry basketball team and I’ll never admit this to Kent’s face but Chris Collins is a very good basketball coach and so I know he’s going to have uh the team ready but I do think Illinois prevails I’ll go with the final score of 84 to 75 I that’s good I think that’s good I’m I’m going to have a hard time seeing Illinois keep Northwestern Under 70 and I I don’t think it’s because Illinois has bad defense I actually like their defense in some ways this year I think it’s uh you know they’re not exactly the same as they were last year but they’re doing some some interesting things but I do think that Illinois gets over 80 in this one so I’m looking at something similar to yours but a little bit higher of a win margin probably somewhere around 86 to 73 or something like that low 70s to mid to high 80s for Illinois so uh I do like Illinois in this game we’ll see what happens but um yeah that’s uh really really interesting to think about
π Related Hashtags: #Illinois #Basketball #Preview #Northwestern #Predictions #Key #Matchups
Disclaimer: This video is embedded directly from YouTube. All rights to the video and content belong to the original creator, The Big Ten Huddle – Basketball. For more details, please visit the original source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P2iA9_ls_A.
