This is classic Illini. Start the comeback too late. I just don't get it. I love this team. Probably too much. It was a tightly called game. But that bad choice foul out by Bill Cole and the poorly chosen foul out by D-Mac (though Mike Davis tried to take credit for it) was what did it in for the Illini. Is this an MJ curse? Jeff, I love your dad. But you need to take the ball down the court with some urgency. DJ should not have to heave the last shot towards the basket with nothing but a prayer. We should have had an easy pull up or an easier layup with maybe a plus one (God forbid we get the ball in the paint). That being said, I still think Illinois will have no problem making the tournament. We have two regular season games left. Ohio St. away and Wisconsin at home. I think we could possibly take either one of these. Though I think if we take Wisconsin in the reg. season we will have a difficult time taking them in the tournament.

 

As a sort of disclaimer I guess: I am in the basketball band and I am going to attend the Men's Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis and I am set up to go to rounds 1 and 2 in the NCAA tournament (which we are projected to go to Buffalo). So don't fuck this up for me (This is to you Illinois and to you the rest of the Big Ten and the rest of the bubble teams. Fuck you bubble teams...).

Sorry folks, no clever headline nor theme tonight. Joe's out being scholarly and whatnot, so you're stuck with Mr. Wazowski instead.

Anywho, here's to an Illini win. To DMac dominating again. To Davis finding his stroke. To playing solid defense. And most importantly, to Bill Cole exuding immense amounts of EFFORT. Cheers friends.

Cue party music:

Led Zeppelin- Rock and Roll (via projectblackclassics)

 

Oh, I almost forgot. THIS IS YOUR OPEN THREAD!!!

Hi

Continue reading this post »

So ESPN College Gameday will be in Champaign Feb. 6 for the game against Michigan State. Here's some general info and the FAQ.

A few notes:

They will be taping from Assembly Hall from 10-11am and 7-8 pm. No ticket is required for the morning show, and it's free to get in. Apparently they're trying to set a record for attendance (which is now 4700), and for every person that shows up, they'll donate $1 to the Orange Krush Foundation. So get your friends together and head out there and show some Illini spirit!

Hey all, I'm a high school student who's interested in Illinois as a place to spend my college days.

Growing up downstate, the Illini have always been a presence in my heavily sports-influenced life, so I figured that asking you Illini sports fanatics about the school would be the best way to go. Birds of a feather, I say.

Any comments or opinions for me? 

And for good measure,

I-L-L

 
What more is there to say about the Illini basketball season?  The NW game definitely summed up the season.  Pretty well.  Looks like the 3-pt defense was still hung over from the Missouri game, giving up open three's and leading to an early deficit.  Also prevalent again, is our penchant to start the game slow.  This season has definitely been a tale of two teams

.

However, it looks like like Bruce made all the adjustments he needed to tonight.    Let's go over the key points I took from this game:

Yanking Brandon Paul for Bill Cole (nice shooting game, sir) after giving up a few open three's led to the defensive turnovers on 2 of the next 3 possessions.  I love BP but he needs to get his sh*t together defensively.

Great game, Bill Cole.

Ed Hightower sucks.

Mike Tisdale's career game.  Scoring the Illini's first 2809 points and not missing a shot for as long as I can remember.  It's good to see him heed Weber's word to be more aggressive.

Mike Davis got his usual double-double in convincing, and early fashion.  He was huge for us in overtime.

I have a feeling every team is going to play the trap against us for the rest of the year.  McCamey needs to be more aggressive in breaking the half court trap.  When he finally did, it lead to Cole's open 3 and an easy lay-up too.  The lolly-gagging and lob/bounce passes have given up at least 3 breakaway layups for the other team this year.

Ed Hightower sure looks funny when he makes calls.

Continue reading this post »

 

Ron Zook, The Man.
 I have known Ron Zook for almost 30 years. I met him when I was a student and he was an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati. To say he has made a difference in my life is an understatement! I started a small organization that helps needy children and teens acquire athletic equipment. Whey don't those who have the time to butcher a great man, contact me and help children who truly need a friend. My email address is anarv22@aol.com. Merry Christmas and God Bless you all! John Vrana

Continue reading this post »

News is coming in over Twitter, that Bradley Beal has officially committed to Florida, not the Illini or Kansas like I figured it would be.

From everything I have read, alot of would be commitments were waiting for Beal to choose, and alot of recruiting dominoes in the midwest will probably move in the next few weeks as a result.  He is the same class as Chasson Randle, who I think should still be the #1 target for the Illini in this class. Anyway I'll  try and stay up to date on these recruiting moves.

If you saw these stats, who would you guess won the game?

1st Downs	24	17
3rd down efficiency	5-17	5-11
4th down efficiency	3-3	1-2
Total Yards	476	420
Passing	307	399
Comp-Att	22-35	32-46
Yards per pass	8.8	8.7
Rushing	169	21
Rushing Attempts	45	15
Yards per rush	3.8	1.4
Penalties	8-69	5-35
Turnovers	0	1
Fumbles lost	0	1
Interceptions thrown	0	0
Possession	36:19	23:41

Well, our stats are the first column and Cincinnati's are the second.  I actually finally got to watch the game and found that while the secondary did have its problems--poor coverage, bad angles to the ball and receivers--it was more our inability to get any pressure on the quarterback that killed us.  We actually should have won this game, damn.  Double damn, we lost in Vegas too.

I am not entirely sure if this will stay free all day or not, but according to the tweets I have been reading from IllinoisLoyalty, the HoopTV feed will be free until further notice, because they have been having trouble with the feed quality and such. So for the time being you can view the feed that I understand is a legal one and not just a justinTV cheat. If it  is not I will have to take this down.

Feed after the jump

Continue reading this post »