To vent again. You're going into the game against the #1 team in the country, so there are going to be some early nerves. But at some point you have to play fearless. Your dealing with a 7 foot giant, so driving directly straight at him, without a second option, is going to be a losing battle. Then you do this again and again and again. At some point you as the coach have to take a timeout and huddle and tell your team this. Barkley said they missed 4 layups, and Kenny Smith said Illinois should have been up by 8 at the half. You as a coach have to look at them and say "if he block it he blocks it" because you can't miss open layups due to phantom intimidation. Illini never played with any real control really except the one point guard. It felt like they never could get out of their shell shock. I knew it was over when the coach said, 'Well we're gonna keep doing what we're doing.' Like, WTF is that?!?! The announcer even said they had to change directions, that the one guy isn't even looking to shoot etc. I'd have pulled him out. I thought it was a terrible piece of coaching.
