*****Illinois vs Iowa BTT Game Thread*****

whynot?

Senior
Aug 31, 2025
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Bush League by Illini coach. Ride those starters the whole game and only lose by 6. No need to give your deep bench players any rewarding PT in a game that was lost a long time ago.
Exactly and Jan mentioned that on postgame interview. You can bet that was filed away for future reference. Not a fan of coaches bad sportsmanship.
 

Gonzo_Bloor

All-Conference
Jun 30, 2025
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Bush League by Illini coach. Ride those starters the whole game and only lose by 6. No need to give your deep bench players any rewarding PT in a game that was lost a long time ago.
Mostly agree but she was trying to win the game. If there'd been another :90 seconds they may very well have with the way our backups were getting smoked. I think JJ maybe pulled the starters a little early.
 

Kceasthawk@77

All-Conference
Feb 2, 2005
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Mostly agree but she was trying to win the game. If there'd been another :90 seconds they may very well have with the way our backups were getting smoked. I think JJ maybe pulled the starters a little early.
3 and a half minutes is too early to clear the whole bench, and for some reason Ava was in jail over there for a good part of the game....
 

LetsGoHawks83

All-American
Mar 20, 2015
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Stremlow must have grown up an IA fan given her comments about Sam Logic, watching IA players, and her dad an IA native. I didn’t realize all that.

I never followed IA WBB until the Gustafson and Doyle years but great reference to Sam Logic. I’ve heard of her and now it’s nice to understand the type of game she played.

Being from Wisconsin.... Is she going to watch the Women's Badger dumpster fire? 😂
 
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Hawk48

All-Conference
Jun 10, 2005
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Stremlow must have grown up an IA fan given her comments about Sam Logic, watching IA players, and her dad an IA native. I didn’t realize all that.

I never followed IA WBB until the Gustafson and Doyle years but great reference to Sam Logic. I’ve heard of her and now it’s nice to understand the type of game she played.
Logic was tougher than nails
 

LetsGoHawks83

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Mostly agree but she was trying to win the game. If there'd been another :90 seconds they may very well have with the way our backups were getting smoked. I think JJ maybe pulled the starters a little early.

If there were 90 seconds left.... Then Jan would have waited 90 seconds longer to pull the starters and we are right back in the same place.

Was it the under 4 that the starters were pulled? Up 23 and Illinois shooting bad on tired legs? No issue with subbing then
 

Herkylian

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Dec 27, 2022
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That was crazy bad substitution and roster management. Almost biblically awful. Our bench is not ready for primetime in any way. Just pray our starters can stay out of foul trouble and Journey remains 6th one in. Shorten the bench here in one and done time.
 

Kceasthawk@77

All-Conference
Feb 2, 2005
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That's nonsense. Jan subbed way too early and Illinois took advantage and why shouldn't they. With a little more time they might have pulled it out.
Agree, if Jan actually said that, its a bad look for her. You play till the games over......A few years ago, (the same weekend CC22 hit that shot to beat Indiana), the men came back from down like 18 in under 2 minutes and won in OT against MSU I believe.
 

Kceasthawk@77

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Feb 2, 2005
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That was crazy bad substitution and roster management. Almost biblically awful. Our bench is not ready for primetime in any way. Just pray our starters can stay out of foul trouble and Journey remains 6th one in. Shorten the bench here in one and done time.
That was crazy bad substitution and roster management. Almost biblically awful. Our bench is not ready for primetime in any way. Just pray our starters can stay out of foul trouble and Journey remains 6th one in. Shorten the bench here in one and done time.
Its not that the bench can't contribute, but you can't put them ALL in at once against the starters from a good team.
 

Skydog0784a!

All-Conference
Sep 11, 2013
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Even in this blowout, one thing is clear...in a competitive game, there's only six players JJ can trust.
This is going to be Iowa’s ultimate demise unfortunately. McCabe injury really hurt.

We’ll get in foul trouble or run out of gas ⛽️ against the wrong team and our lack of depth will burn us.

Elite Eight is a realistic ceiling, Sweet 16 the floor IMO. A great, fun season, no doubt!
 

Gonzo_Bloor

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Jun 30, 2025
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If there were 90 seconds left.... Then Jan would have waited 90 seconds longer to pull the starters and we are right back in the same place.

Was it the under 4 that the starters were pulled? Up 23 and Illinois shooting bad on tired legs? No issue with subbing then
I'm a big fan of JJ and think she's doing an amazing job as our HC. That said, she's not immune to mistakes. Maybe she figured the Illinois coach would follow suit and empty her bench and she just didn't. Curious to know what Jan said in her post game interview. But the end of that game was a few bad ref calls away from positioning Illinois to tie it up, when we were up 21 just a few minutes earlier. Bad decision.
 

Randon

All-Conference
Feb 5, 2003
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That was crazy bad substitution and roster management. Almost biblically awful. Our bench is not ready for primetime in any way. Just pray our starters can stay out of foul trouble and Journey remains 6th one in. Shorten the bench here in one and done time.
They outscored us by 16 points in the 4th quarter - totally unacceptable and that's on Jan.
 

Old_wrestling_fan2

All-Conference
Mar 2, 2009
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Just so everyone knows...if Jan would have left all, or most, of the starters in late in the game with a 20+ point lead there would multiple people here crying that was risking injury, tiring out the front liners, etc.

Carry on.

Nice, very solid win with many positives to focus on.
 

WDSMHawk

All-Conference
Jun 30, 2019
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Totally NOT true. Ava was NEVER in any real foul trouble in the game. NEVER, And she played her sparingly in the first half as well, or did Jan "call the dogs off" in the first half?


Ava picked up her first foul 2 minutes into the game and sat for a few minutes in the first quarter. She picked up her second foul with 3 minutes to go in the half and then sat the rest of the quarter. And most importantly she picked her fourth foul up with 7 minutes to go.