Illini coming up on ATH shortly...

[The Sprouting Divot]

It was the teaser before the pre- Buy or Sell commercial break. I suspect the topic will be something to do with if or when we will lose, as Reali was wondering if we'd eeeeeever loooose????

[Dan]

Ath.?

[The Sprouting Divot]

Around The Horn.

The topic was buy or sell whether Illinois would go undefeated for the regular season.

Woody Paige said we were going to lose 3 or 4, and the first one would be January 21st at Wisconsin.

Michael Smith said no way, and that no team had done that since UNLV in the early 90s.

Bill Plaschke (sp?) also sold, but spent most of his allotted time razzing Woody because he got the Wisconsin game date wrong.

Jay Mariotti clarified that we were talking about the regular season, tried to rub something about UNLV in Smith's face, and then said that he thought we'd go undefeated in the B10, because MSU is the only B10 team in the top 25, overlooking Iowa (he did say that they play no defense, but didn't acknowledge that they're also ranked), and went on to denigrate Michigan, Indiana, and Minnesota. Mariotti managed not to say anything about the smell of the South Farms or make any Moo U comments.

Tony Reali's hair is getting out of control.

I'm pretty sure that they replay ATH later on ESPNN at 5:00 CST, according to my digital guide. I wouldn't say that the segment was worth making a herculean effort to watch, but if you're just sitting in front of the TV anyway, you might as well check it out...

[HouseofPaign]

Not surprised, Bilas gave us the nod as the only team that has the ABILITY to do it, but then said we probably won't. Then they had a brief discussion about UNC, if Felton was there for Santa Clara, would they be considred??


Auggie made the rounds on the Chicago radio today as well. Heard him on the score, then during their commercial break he was on espn1000. Basically the same interview. James is a good kid, and kinda soft spoken. The interview was pretty much all we have heard before, no we don't think about going undefeated, taking one game at a time, our bench has really stepped up (gave some love for Jack), we are just having fun...etc...etc...It was good to him get SOME spotlight. He is usually overshadowed by the guards.

[BromleyHall94]

It was the teaser before the pre- Buy or Sell commercial break. I suspect the topic will be something to do with if or when we will lose, as Reali was wondering if we'd eeeeeever loooose????

wait, so you're telling me ATH had something on about college sports??!!! i'll assume that was their only mention in the whole show. that show and PTI would rather talk about pedro's little friend or NHL or anything besides college sports. i used to like them but now i am ready to boycott. not to mention wilbon is an Illini hater.

[The Sprouting Divot]

It was on in the background, so I can't say for certain what else they discussed. I'm not too interested in listening to BCS-related arguments, or to whether this coach will take that job, which seems to be the bulk of their focus on college athletics, so I kind of filter it all out and turn around to watch the parts that occasionally address college basketball. There are times when I am exposed to the entire episode, but couldn't tell you a thing anyone said.

Kornheiser and Wilbon are just too curmudgeonly for large doses. It's amusing, and it certainly has it's place, but the act is getting old. Wilbon was puffing his chest over NW's thrashing of IU last night in the 'will Mike Davis be fired at season's end' piece. Hard to take.

[orange100]

Thanks for the recaps. I noticed most of the internet sports opinion journalists are now beginning to change their questions concerning illinois- now they are questioning MAYBE, is it POSSIBLE, that illinois could go undefeated? Vitale, decourcy and a SunTimes guy all wondering the same thing. Just a slight shift from the december columns where it was immediately written off but was maybe a "nice idea." Illinois going undefeated is not so farfetched an idea now as it was 5 weeks ago.

Everyone assumes either MSU or Wisconsin will end out streak- both valid possibilities. But this Illinois team has a killer instinct this year. They put teams away now, where they did not last season. How many close first halfs have we had, that ended with 20 pt victories? i can think of 4 (Georgetown, Ohio State, Northwestern, Arkansas) and several others where it looked like we were in danger (Missouri, Purdue). Point being, this team doesn't quit, they constantly pressure and attack. And yes, they do have off-nights, but they are so scary good that it doesn't matter because they simply adjust and attack from a new angle. Multiple offensive weapons, everyone defensively committed, incredible speed, maturity, unselfishness, depth, experience and brilliant x' and o's coaching. All of which make victories in East Lansing and Madison possiblities. After that? Who will get in the way then?

good times to be an Illini fan. :cool:

[The Sprouting Divot]

I agree with your points about the possibility of running the table. To be perfectly honest, I'm more concerned about stubbing our toes during an away game that should be an easy victory, like at Penn State. I don't think that tOSU is likely to be considered a patsy by anyone, but that one frightens me as well.

[The Sprouting Divot]

We'll be on again today, the teaser on the intro showed us coming out of the tunnel, with Reali saying "From underdog to underrated!"

Should be juicy.

We're topic #2, after discussing T.O., so hurry up.

[The Sprouting Divot]

The overarching question was whether we'd go undefeated, although it wasn't really specified whether that meant only regular season or post-season as well, which caused predictable dickering over semantics.

Mariotti: Apparently yesterday predicted us to lose last night, which was thrown in his face, particularly since earlier saying that he thought we could go undefeated. His reply was that even Nostradamus got some things wrong. Predicted losses at MSU and Iowa. Unhealthy to go undefeated, learn from loss, take pressure off, etc., regurgitated last night's SC Did You Know, which was that since the 75-76 Hoosiers, 13 other teams have started 20-0, and none of those other teams won the NC.

Plaschke: We'll go undefeated. 7-0 against ranked teams. 2:1 ATO. 75% FT. B10 down. Mariotti is stupid for following the "a loss can sometimes be good, look at Stanford and St. Joe's last year" line of thought. We learned from close games that we ended up winning, which is always better than losing.

Blackistone: Self-proclaimed B10 expert (I don't know where he's from, but that's the first I've heard of that...). No undefeated. We needed OT to beat Iowa AT HOME. We'll lose at MSU and could even lose at home on Saturday against Minnesota. Undefeated is just too hard these days.

Paige: We'll go undefeated. B10 down. Ingram's daggers last night shows we're deeper than anybody realizes. 17/20 FTs last night in hostile environment. Chastized anyone for doubting Illinois, said it's wrong to question us at this point.

[Dan]

Thanks for the update.