For those of you who haven't heard, the Illini's late-season swoon clinched a BTT tournament game vs. us. What say you?
We get a third game vs. the Illini!
- Thread starter mikewebb68
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Their last couple of games notwithstanding, the Illini have been more competitive over the second half of the season than they were earlier. Vic won't be at 100%. No question we can take this game, but I don't have as confident a feeling as I'd like. Would someone please take a moment to talk me off the ledge? 
Their last couple of games notwithstanding, the Illini have been more competitive over the second half of the season than they were earlier. Vic won't be at 100%. No question we can take this game, but I don't have as confident a feeling as I'd like. Would someone please take a moment to talk me off the ledge?
Hate to say it, but I am not confident even with a healthy Vic. Sure hope I am wrong, but NU plays far to many poor games.
It seems that shooting -- especially with these Cats -- is contagious. Unfortunately it has been poor shooting all season long. But AJ Turner showed some signs of heating up in the second half of the Purdue game. If we start knocking down some shots against LOLinois we have a decent chance to win.
If Vic is healthy, I think we win this one. Illinois has the look of a team that just wants the season to be over...
EDIT: we also get an extra day+ of rest, since the Illini have a fairly long trip back from PSU today. Important after a 20-game BIG grind...
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Any news on Law? I saw a tweet from Ryan Baker that it didn't seem to be a serious injury, but that was right after the game.
Another interesting component to this game. After being shredded by us in the second half and then having Indiana basically play a game-long layup line vs. them, they played a 3-2 zone vs. Penn State. Coach Underwood had not even started a game in zone in his entire coaching career, so it was an interesting change! He also scheduled a 5 a.m. practice the day of the game, allegedly to ckmbat the time change and the 11 a.m. Central start.
Of course, none of that worked; the Illini looked gassed, and Penn St. scored at will. But it does give them another look on tape that I we have to prep for. Coach Underwood said in the postgame that the zone was solely due to the matchup, so perhaps we won't see it at all, but who knows? It was bizarre to see a team that played overplay man-to-man all season sit back in a zone, that's for certain!
Of course, none of that worked; the Illini looked gassed, and Penn St. scored at will. But it does give them another look on tape that I we have to prep for. Coach Underwood said in the postgame that the zone was solely due to the matchup, so perhaps we won't see it at all, but who knows? It was bizarre to see a team that played overplay man-to-man all season sit back in a zone, that's for certain!
Mike, I have said before that your undying passion for NU (and even your deranged hatred for my Illini) actually kind of impress me ... but you scored seven more points than us in the second half, LOL.
To be fair, I think he was just referring to the fact that we scored 49 points in 37 possessions against your D, not that we dominated the 2nd half overall.
Was that led off or pushed off??Their last couple of games notwithstanding, the Illini have been more competitive over the second half of the season than they were earlier. Vic won't be at 100%. No question we can take this game, but I don't have as confident a feeling as I'd like. Would someone please take a moment to talk me off the ledge?
True. And Illinois deserved the win...but keep in mind that the Illini shot 23-25 (92%) from the free throw line in the second half against NU to preserve the win. This was an anomaly as Illinois is shooting 70% from the line on the season.
It should be a pretty good game, and the winner should have a decent shot against a struggling Iowa team.
Let's hope ... too big and talent-rich of a state to have this little success on the hardwood. And I'm not sure if you have every peaked at the Iowa board, but ... there would be some MIGHTY fine humor if they lost to either one of us, haha.
And you were marching to the FT line pretty frequently. 38 FTs of which you hit about 33 on a lot of questionable foul calls. And the majority were in the second half. So without that, it would have been a lot more than 7 pts.
Don't forget that Feliz shot 16/17 FTs when he averages less than 3 FT attempts per game
Lets give them their 21st loss...never seen the Illini fan base so excited that their team has 20+ losses. Train wreck I blame Bruce Weber!
You unironically should ... once he had to coach players he recruited, he took this...
4 Big Ten championships in 5 years
2 BTT championships in 3 years
4 Sweet Sixteens in 5 years
2 Elite Eights in 5 years
1 Final Four in 5 years
and made it into this...
0 Big Ten championships
0 BTT championships
0 Sweet Sixteens
0 Elite Eights
0 Final Fours
He did manage to make 3 more NCAA Tournament appearances ... in 7 years, LOL.
Just because what came after managed to be even worse doesn't mean that Brucey Boy didn't take the keys to the Ferrari and toss 'em in the lake.
P.S. Wow, 21 losses ... unreal.
Will be there to help cheer the Cats on to victory. Team will have to find a happy medium between playing tenacious defense and guarding against the long rebound. Blocking out has to be part of the equation which is easier said then done especially after playing aggressive D. But the team should be in the best shape of the year. On offense hopefully our shooting percentage is above 40%!
I believe cats can win this one, but it will take hard work, effort, and more of those made basket things.
You unironically should ... once he had to coach players he recruited, he took this...
4 Big Ten championships in 5 years
2 BTT championships in 3 years
4 Sweet Sixteens in 5 years
2 Elite Eights in 5 years
1 Final Four in 5 years
and made it into this...
0 Big Ten championships
0 BTT championships
0 Sweet Sixteens
0 Elite Eights
0 Final Fours
He did manage to make 3 more NCAA Tournament appearances ... in 7 years, LOL.
Just because what came after managed to be even worse doesn't mean that Brucey Boy didn't take the keys to the Ferrari and toss 'em in the lake.
P.S. Wow, 21 losses ... unreal.
I get it Bruce's time was up but Illini fans were unrelenting, they have not been as critical of Groce or Underwood as they were on Bruce. And those guys have done just awful both recruiting and coaching compared to Bruce for what its worth
And Bruce just won a share of the Big 12 conference, beating out Kansas for the first time in 15 years. Good for him. Bet he's glad to be out of C-U......
Weber was a very good coach when he had talent to work with but not a great recruiter able to bring in that talent..
Well, Bruce was handed a roster with Deron Williams, Dee Brown and 6 other top 100 recruits plus Luther Head. He did very well with that group but then pretty much ran the program into the ground when he had to assemble his own team. He left Groce a couple of good players, but nothing close to what he had inherited.
And it's also the way he went out, in a post game press conference after a tough loss to Purdue, he went on about how great Purdue's players were and he wished he had them on his team. He was really brutal in throwing Demetri McCamey under the bus on numerous occasions. Just not very good about taking any responsibility for his shortcomings. It was always. "well, I guess it was my fault", etc. When he got to KSU he talked up how he was responsible to the "greatest 9 years in Illinois history", but of course it wasn't entirely his doing.
Well also do not forget Self inherited quite a roster from Lon Krugar who left him 2 McDonalds All-Americans and 3 Illinois Mr. Basketballs. Self only had 2 recruiting classes at Illinois as well which always amazes me that people forget that. In fact 2 top 8 on that Weber Final 4 team actually committed to Illinois while Krugar was the coach (Powel and Smith). Weber did melt down on that Purdue game becaus ehe knew he screwed up chasing top name players when he should have recruited players for his system like Wisconsin and Purdue did but he felt the pressure to chase the wrong kids becauseof the Bruce cant recruit notion. Have heard him admit it himself.