Hail to the Orange: FanPosts

I want this so bad

2010-02-28T05:34:51Z

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...).

Illini at Michigan Openthread!!!

2010-02-23T23:44:32Z

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!!!

Hello

2010-02-06T21:17:43Z

I'm new to this site and I'm a fan of the Maryland Terrapins, but lately the Illini have grown on me and I can see them as a better oppurtunity to talk about and a better college choice then Maryland. I like the basketball and football teams and also the academic program. So I'm just hear to tell you guys that you have kind've turned me into and Illinois fan and I will check back frequently. Thanks

ESPN College Gameday in Champaign Feb. 6

2010-02-01T18:08:49Z

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!

What to Know About the U:

2010-01-08T07:20:35Z

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

Illini beat Northwestern, regain fans... for now...

2009-12-31T16:55:33Z

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.

This team is still dependent on the play of freshmen and defense. Early in the game, BP struggled with his defense, and his man hit the open 3. Him and DJ never found their groove offensively. Come second half and something just clicked. I don't know if their defense improved or not, but NW's 3's stopped going in. BP and DJ hit their 3's and all of a sudden we had the lead back.

One area of concern though is our last minute play execution. DJ lolly-gagging for 7 seconds was enough to give Weber a heart attack on the sidelines and call a time out. So two-time outs and 14 seconds later what happens? A turnover and a near-miraculous half-court shot by NW. What a way to lose.

This team needs an emotional leader. BAD. I thought Keller could be the guy. We just looked flat near the end of the game. Didn't have that refuse-to-lose attitude we had last year in Chet. Luckily we found that desire in overtime.

NO MORE NEUTRAL SITE GAMES. Oh wait.. Dammit.

Ron Zook, The Man!

2009-12-19T01:38:35Z

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

Bradley Beal to Florida, recruiting will move fast now

2009-11-30T16:19:48Z

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.

Guess who won

2009-11-28T16:10:19Z

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.

Watch the Las Vegas Invitation games here. Perhaps

2009-11-27T21:53:20Z

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

Watch live streaming video from hooptv at livestream.com

A note for this evening's basketball game

2009-11-27T18:27:32Z

Since I am pretty much a cheap skate and don't want to pay the 30 bones to watch the Illini on the internet, I have enlisted the help Hailtotheorange.com's first remote correspondant to cover the game directly for me. So join me for the radio informed openthread and then watch for an on location recap from Kelby Lanning.

I feel just like a real old fashioned Newspaper tycoon. Enjoy.

Potential Zook successor: Mike Leach?

2009-10-29T23:08:22Z

First off, this is from Tom Lemming so take it FWIW. To me, this seems to me like an extremely good idea.

Leach brings an exciting, innovative offense to college football. He is quirky but intelligent and seems to be one step ahead of everyone else offensively. He has proven to be a good recruiter but hasn't been able to beat Texas head-to-head, although he has begun to land blue-chippers because of the high-profile games he has won.

Here is a man who has a reputation as a players' coach, a good recruiter and a good evaluator of talent but, most of all, a good teacher of the offense he has invented.

Leach is definitely a lightning rod of a personality. People either really love the guy or can't stand him. Mostly it's the former. Here's an example of his latest tirade to the media:

He coaches in Lubbock, TX which is the equivalent to something like Ames, IA. You know, in the middle of nowhere. And that's not an understatement, I've been there. It's surprising how much talent he has been able to attract to a school like Texas Tech. A place like Champaign-Urbana will fit him like a glove.

Playing in the Big 12 South, you're almost always going to be second fiddle to Texas and Oklahoma so he may be looking to get out of there. Especially with the dispute that he had with the AD earlier in this year.

My favorite quote has to be the second from last paragraph:

Look around you, Big 10 fans. There is no prolific offense in the conference. Ohio State and Terrelle Pryor aren't what they were supposed to be, not yet. Zook arrived at Illinois with much fanfare and struck gold in one Rose Bowl appearance--but he has faded quickly and badly. Kirk Ferentz seems to have regained some magic at Iowa. But how long will it last? Will Rich Rodriguez turn Michigan around?

It'll be kind of what Joe Tiller brought to the Big 10 on steroids. He really doesn't even need that much talent to get his offense to work. The QB's he's had run his infamous Airraid Offense haven't exactly gone on to be NFL superstars. But I think the combination of whatever table scraps the "Big 2" teams leave in the Lone Star state + the Illinois talent pool will put him over the top in the Big 10.

What do you guys think?

Happy Anniversary! 3 years later...

2009-10-14T01:17:57Z

October 13, 2006. Three years ago today, was possibly the darkest moment in recent Illini basketball history. The decommitment of Eric Gordon from us to Indiana after months of denying rumors that he was headed to IU. He finally announced it just weeks before signing day and on the week of our Midnight Madness (if I remember correctly). At that point the Weber haters came out in full force. We lost Gordon. Derrick Rose just left us out of his top 5. Weber had still not landed the top in-state recruit to silence his critics. Many people were ready to jump ship and fire Weber. It was hard to see any light in the situation.

But I'm glad all that happened. I can't say I wasn't thrilled when we had EJ committed and DRose had us listed as a favorite. But seeing what those two have brought to their respective programs, I'm glad Weber took the high road. What's happened to IU since then? A season of disappointment with EJ only to have him choke in the final stretch, a fired coach, disgraced reputation, and a team that's so bad they promoted an equipment manager to the team. Weber has addressed his recruiting issues, we are nabbing top in-state talent, and this program is definitely on its way back to where Bill Self had it. Optimism hasn't been this high since the 2005 season for the Illini program. Not only do we have top talent coming in, but our core players are only juniors this upcoming season. Whatever the starting 5 is this year, expect them to be back for next year.

So three years later, I'd just like to say: "Eric Gordon: thank you for f*cking us. It was exactly what we needed."

Illinois recap posted - Big 10 Tour

2009-10-09T02:34:44Z

Hi everyone,

Our visit to Champaign has been posted: http://www.thebig10tour.com/illinois.html

That was our 5th stop of the Big 10 tour (www.THEbig10tour.com)

I want to give Illinois another shot and visit on 12/5 against Fresno

don't know what it was, but it wasn't our best experience to date. Could have been the weather or the fact that we couldn't get many Illini fans to join us.

thanks to all that helped

drew

Big 10 Tour/Illinois

2009-10-02T03:19:52Z

Illini fans,

I'm visiting Champaign for the first time EVER this weekend as the 5th stop on my BIG TEN football tour.

I work for the Bergner's department store Mon-Fri, but every weekend I travel to a different Big 10 School to tailgate, see college football, meet the fans, and see the local sights. I'm trying to do this over 11 straight weekends

www.THEbig10tour.com

I'll probably be in one of the "average joe" gameday lots this weekend, but if you'd like to join me, I'll have Illini bean bags, Illini ladder toss, an Illini pong table as well as beer and Red Bull on hand.

I'd love to meet some Illinois fans in hopes of finding the "best fan" and "best tshirt" (as well as a bunch of other "bests") of the weekend

Please contact me if you'd like to suggest anything to see or do in champaign or if you'd like to join our tailgate. I think we'll be in a lot near Kirby st?

Thanks everyone

Drew

THE Big 10 Tour

www.THEbig10tour.com

Squeeze Juice

2009-07-31T04:34:25Z

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/big12/0-11-62/Weatherspoon-aiming-for-Illinois-QB-Williams-in-today-s-tweet.html

I'm suprized no one on here has been talking about LB Sean Weatherspoon's recent tweet saying,

"Just finished a stellar workout, hit 475 on the bench easy, almost hit 500, gotta get it soon! 50 days until I squeeze the pulp out of Juice."

I know this happened a week or so ago and really isn't a big deal, but I thought it was an interesting topic. Juice seemed to be fine with the comment.

That's all good and fine, and I know Weatherspoon had a huge game in last year's game, but in my mind, he'll be eating his words this year. Missou returns four starters on a defense that should have been tourched for 60 by Illinois in 2008 as Will Judson ran behind DB's like he was Usain Bolt. This year Illinois is even stronger on offense, while Mizzouri's defense looks to have some work to do. Not to mention the other side of the ball backing up Weatherspoon no longer has Daniel, Maclin, or Coffman. I'm not saying that Illinois will kill them but this has to be the year Illinois leaves St. Louis with a win like our basketball team has been doing year after year.

Not that Juice will need any extra motivation, but this should just be fuel to the fire. Can't wait to see Juice go for 400 yards and bring home a victory, while Weatherspoon and the whole Missouri team regrets opening their mouth.

Editor's addition

Why don't we do this with NIU?

2009-07-30T15:25:47Z

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/07/29/w-kentucky-to-begin-four-game-series-with-kentucky-in-2010/

Play every year, home and home, with NIU's home games at Solider Field. And make it a true home game for NIU, so that they can keep the gate (which should sell out) and ESPN can pick it up, since they have the rights to MAC home games (shopping neutral site games can get tricky.) Hell, play the thing on a Thursday (MAC loves it, and has the Big 10 ever done it?) so Zook can keep raising the scheduling bar (I love FSU and Cinncy after Big 10 play ends, genius). AND, we play one more I-A game (all of our games should be I-A) so no one can mock us during the offseason for scheduling a bunch of cupcakes. The only drawbacks as I see it are: 1)NIU might not want to give up a home game very other year and 2) we might be afraid that we'll lose. Anyone else think of a reason not to do this?

Advice for a visitng Michigan fan.

2009-07-27T19:48:35Z

Hello all. I'm considering making the trip from Chicago to catch Michigan at Illinois and was looking for some gameday advice. (Other than "get bent.")

If you can find it in your heart, I'm curious to know:

- What section do the visiting fans primarily sit in?

- Any must-sees on game-day in Chambana?

- Interesting stories or other worthwhile advice also apreciated.

- Insults are expected. Comments along the lines of "3-9 dur, dur." have all been heard before.

Miami recruits do something ours simply can't

2009-07-26T18:54:36Z

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/TheRecruitnik/entry/view/28827/sn100_dt_tells_side_of_being_kicked_out_of_floridas_camp

Get kicked out of a rival school's summer camp for flashing the team they have committed to's hand sign. Which got me thinking: why don't we have a hand sign that could get a recruit kicked out of a camp? Or myself kicked out of a bar? The Gator Chomp and Hook 'em Horns have annoyed people for years, and UF and UT fans couldn't be any happier. Any ideas on what we could do to join in the fun?

Illinois Forest Face (????) Your frightening Illini merch of the day.

2009-06-30T23:23:56Z

It is some what a theme here at HTTO to spotlight the more stupid, pointless and hilarious examples of my great University's on going effort to put their name on everything they think we dumb alumni will buy.

This is the first time I have been genuinely frightened by a product with the name Illinois on it. It is the Illinois Forest Face.

I cannot for the life of me, imagine what the intended use of this product is, other than perhaps to give children Illini themed nightmares. I know alot of people who will buy just about anything that has been emblazoned with the Orange and Blue, but no one who would want to anthropomorphize a tree and make him an Illini fan. To the inventor of this product, who ever you are, I hope you seek psychiatric help, and soon.

via ep.yimg.com