Pregame: Illinois at Minnesota, Sunday, February 10th, 5:00pm CT, BTN

[BrooksTaylorFan]

Originally Posted by Railsplitter

Egwu goes 20 for 20 , gets 34 boards 17 assists, 11 steals, all while recording his debut album. Illini 97 ....Minnysoder 42

And he might have had more but he fouled out with 5:13 left in the game. :laugh:

[WizardBill]

Originally Posted by mattcoldagelli

We beat Minnesota 20 times in a row once. Just throwing that out there because I like to say it.

I like hearing it!

[bleedsorangenblue]

Originally Posted by gibb52

Knits every one a sweater during the TV timeouts

Love it :laugh:

[finalfour2011]

Originally Posted by zoggle101

If you take the three away from Coleman he kills you with his drives. We should let him try to make long shots instead of overplaying him, letting him drive which he is a lot better at ( he'll make four or five threes now). Once Coleman gets his shoulders past you he's gone because his strength allows him to keep the defender on his back instead of hip when he drives plus the strength allows him to draw contact for the foul while giving him a good chance for the N 1. If we cheat too much on the help D he dishes it off to one of their many bigs for the easy two.

Coleman has a season scoring average of 10, he torched us with a career high of 29. He shoots less than one 3 per game so Hell Yah...keep him outa the lane, he is not known as a threat from the arc. He's not a scoring machine...at least against other teams.........

[solbur2]

Last year we played one of our better Big ten games at the barn just made a bonehead play and a tough call at the end to cost us, and the year b4 we won there so these guys have good experiences at Minny. If we play smart and shoot the ball well we can win this game. Minnesota has been struggling as of late. I like a 5 point Illini w

[smallrock98]

Originally Posted by Railsplitter

Egwu goes 20 for 20 , gets 34 boards 17 assists, 11 steals, all while recording his debut album. Illini 97 ....Minnysoder 42

But no blocks? wow, that sux! :laugh:

[chief78]

Originally Posted by finalfour2011

Coleman has a season scoring average of 10, he torched us with a career high of 29. He shoots less than one 3 per game so Hell Yah...keep him outa the lane, he is not known as a threat from the arc. He's not a scoring machine...at least against other teams.........

Originally Posted by solbur2

Last year we played one of our better Big ten games at the barn just made a bonehead play and a tough call at the end to cost us, and the year b4 we won there so these guys have good experiences at Minny. If we play smart and shoot the ball well we can win this game. Minnesota has been struggling as of late. I like a 5 point Illini w

Good points in my opinion. Illini win today!

[SummerofGeorge]

Originally Posted by -josh-

I think Griffey should start this game. Lets see if his confidence carries over cause he could be a huge asset to starting the game on a run if he can shoot again.

He should be rewarded for his performance.

I don't care who starts. JG will start who he thinks deserves it. What I do care about is TG playing well. For whatever reason this team's confidence feeds off of him performing well. Maybe it takes the pressure off of BP and DJ to make every shot. When TG shoots it well the whole team seems looser. No prediction but if TG gets 12-14 pts. then I like our chances. If he scores 2-4 pts. we will struggle.

[Dan]

The win was great, but Illini need to refocus

"You only get a chance to do this for four or five, or maybe two years, however long you're at Illinois. You want to soak it all in.

"But when we woke up Friday morning, guys came in, we took a look at things we wanted to correct on the defensive end and some things on offense. And from that point we moved on."

Tupper

Revisiting The Path

Time to drag The Path back out of the closet. I thought it was done for good, but then DJ Beastmode + Griffey’s lay-in forced it back out. The Path To Nine Wins.

The best thing about The Path To Nine Wins? After we beat Ohio State, it was fairly apparent that we only needed 8 wins. After we beat Indiana, I'd say it's a better than 60% chance that 7-11 gets us in. Andy Katz, Jeff Goodman, and other national talking heads are all repeating the same thing: 20-13 (7-11) with wins over Gonzaga, Butler, Ohio State, and Indiana probably gets us in the tournament. And that's assuming a first round BTT loss. Win #21 or #22 before loss #13 and we're probably in for sure. With only seven conference wins.

http://alioneye.com/2013/02/09/revisiting-the-path/

HQ forecast: Minnesota 70, UI men 66

The Illini players and coaches have said it repeatedly this season: The Big Ten schedule is a grind. After knocking off the No. 1 team in the country Thursday, Illinois had two days to prepare for a tough road contest against a Minnesota team that ran the Illini out of the gym a month ago in Champaign. How the Illini bounce back from that short turnaround in a hostile environment will speak to their maturity. "We had a pretty good practice (Friday). We got our minds and bodies right; a lot of guys played heavy minutes," Richardson said. "This one is going to be a big one for us as well."

Marcus Jackson

[Railsplitter]

Originally Posted by smallrock98

But no blocks? wow, that sux! :laugh:

No, but he does sing the national anthem in 6 languages simultaniously. After bungee jumping from the rafters .

[KansasIllini]

I'm not going to get into any predictions, but Minny is most definitely beatable with how they've been playing as of late. I'm just thrilled to have had the refresher on what this team can still do when they play up to their abilities. Of course none of that matters if there's a hangover effect in place from Thursday. After watching the film, I just hope they truly took it to heart that they can be very successful from inside the 3-point line as well. Let's go up there and bring us home another W!! I-L-L!!

[trevdv]

Sorry to be a party-pooper here, but I just don't see us winning.

If Thursday's game against Indiana were 36 minutes long instead of 40, we would have lost by twelve or more points. If DJ Richardson didn't hit two three's and an amazing stepback jumper, we would have lost by ten or more points. Obviously we did make an amazing comeback and we won, but that doesn't change my overall opinion of this team. We trailed for 38 minutes of that game before finally playing well in the last two. In other words, we could've easily lost that game to Indiana. And if we had lost to the Hoosiers, I doubt as many people would be predicting an Illini win tonight. So I just don't think we'll win; remember, this is a hungry Minnesota team that is coming out of their slump and beat us by 17 points at OUR place.

Minnesota - 79
- 71

[GetAWin]

Can't wait for this game to start! In the meantime I found a hilarious video on btn2g0 - Badgers celebrate to Ke$ha’s ‘Die Young’ in locker room

Here's the link http://btn.com/2013/02/09/bo-ryan-i-...one-like-this/

They look like a bunch of jr high girls! kind of uncomfortable to watch...

[AHSIllini32]

Originally Posted by trevdv

Sorry to be a party-pooper here, but I just don't see us winning.

If Thursday's game against Indiana were 36 minutes long instead of 40, we would have lost by twelve or more points. If DJ Richardson didn't hit two three's and an amazing stepback jumper, we would have lost by ten or more points. Obviously we did make an amazing comeback and we won, but that doesn't change my overall opinion of this team. We trailed for 38 minutes of that game before finally playing well in the last two. In other words, we could've easily lost that game to Indiana. And if we had lost to the Hoosiers, I doubt as many people would be predicting an Illini win tonight. So I just don't think we'll win; remember, this is a hungry Minnesota team that is coming out of their slump and beat us by 17 points at OUR place.

Minnesota - 79
- 71

I understand what you're saying but I HATE arguments like this. We were within 6 a couple of different times in the 2nd half so it's not IU was just comfortably ahead for the whole game. The fact remains that we put ourselves in positions to win the game by continually making runs to keep ourselves close and by locking down on defense when we needed to.

This team can play good defense and we have shown that many times this year. It's just a matter of the guys understand they need to bring it consistently. The IU win could show them that. Or it could just be another blip like the OSU win.

If we had beaten Mizzou or Purdue and NW, people would be predicting different things as well.

I'm by no means saying I expect us to win. This game scares the crap outta me but to say you think we are going to lose by saying "if this" and "if that happened" in the IU game just doesn't make sense to me.

[trevdv]

Originally Posted by AHSIllini32

To say you think we are going to lose by saying "if this" and "if that happened" in the IU game just doesn't make sense to me.

I guess what I meant was that we easily could have lost that game to IU, so for the people that are predicting us to win tonight because we beat #1, I say to them: my opinion of the outcome of tonight's game does not change simply because we upset the #1 team in the nation.

My prediction for tonight's game isn't altered because of what happened Thursday.

[AHSIllini32]

Originally Posted by trevdv

I guess what I meant was that we easily could have lost that game to IU, so for the people that are predicting us to win tonight because we beat #1, I say to them: my opinion of the outcome of tonight's game does not change simply because we upset the #1 team in the nation.

My prediction for tonight's game isn't altered because of what happened Thursday.

True but we also played well enough throughout the game to give ourselves a chance to win the game.

I would hope that people predicting a win aren't doing so solely based on the game Thursday but more on the fact that this team rides emotions (both good and bad) combined with Minny not exactly playing their best and that they beat us last time shooting out of their damn minds.

[zoggle101]

I agree with everyone saying its not easy to win at the barn. We've heard it before about how we're going to win up there against good Gophers teams that were down because of injuries, transfers, suspensions who weren't as good as this years team because our Illini were considered better, and filled with more upside like this years team only to get our butts handed to us. Im pretty certain this years Gophers team is considered better than us, and it's a home game for them which is always huge.

It's going to be a fight.

I-L-L

[trevdv]

Originally Posted by AHSIllini32

I would hope that people predicting a win aren't doing so solely based on the game Thursday.

Me too, but...

Originally Posted by Calvin

Predict a Minney win after beating Indiana!

Originally Posted by finalfour05

This game is just as important as the Indiana game. We're gonna come out with fire.

Originally Posted by TheBossIllini

I think Griffey has another big game and goes for 39 pts, and Illinois wins by 27

Originally Posted by Psycho 86

After Thursday's big win, Groce will have them focused!!

[trevdv]

Originally Posted by AHSIllini32

True but we also played well enough throughout the game to give ourselves a chance to win the game.

The front page of Loyalty says the following: "The first 37 minutes of Thursday night's game? Anyone remember what happened? Most Illini fans will only remember the last nine-tenths of a second." :rolleyes:

[Wokker]

I see the spread being about right. I'll say:

Minny: 75
Illinois: 65

The seniors haven't clicked consistently since before conference play. I don't see all four of them playing clutch like they did Thursday again tonight.

On the bright side, look for bounce back performances by Egwu and Abrams, possibly Henry too.

[ILLINISTU]

Hate to over-simplify, but Good Senior play = ILLINI victory. Got to have DJ BP TG and SM to set the tone, lead by example, and play defense. Let TA JB NE MH fill in as role players. Seems like alot of pressure but that should be our advantage with four year players on this team, they know what it takes to win down the stretch in the B1G. Hey that makes us a decent 8 deep squad...or it should. Interested to see how we come out after huge win. Each game seems like a different team, I've given up on trying to figure this group out, so I'll just root like hell again tonight, seemed to work Thurs.

[lstewart53x3]

Originally Posted by trevdv

The front page of Loyalty says the following: "The first 37 minutes of Thursday night's game? Anyone remember what happened? Most Illini fans will only remember the last nine-tenths of a second." :rolleyes:

Saying we only won the last 3 minutes of the game is a dumb argument.

AHS makes a good point. Our guys were making plays to stay in the game the entire second half.

We were down by 12 at halftime (so we were down 12 with 20 minutes to go).

We were down by 8 with 3:30 to play.

That's means that in the 16 minutes and 30 seconds following halftime, we won the game by 4 points. We then won the last 3 minutes and 30 seconds by 10 points, but we still won the entire second half.

Had the game started over at half time, Illinois would have won the second game by 14.

The played extremely well the entire second half of that game.

If we play like that against Minny, we'll win, but I doubt we'll play like that again.

[trevdv]

Originally Posted by lstewart53x3

Saying we only won the last 3 minutes of the game is a dumb argument.

If we play like that against Minny, we'll win, but I doubt we'll play like that again.

1) It wasn't my argument, you can go after Rob McColley for that one.

2) My thoughts exactly. That was my point. Too many fans are referencing the IU game and then applying that to tonight's game and saying, "oh well we beat #1, we can beat #18." That just isn't so IMO.

[krushalot]

Originally Posted by GetAWin

Can't wait for this game to start! In the meantime I found a hilarious video on btn2g0 - Badgers celebrate to Ke$ha’s ‘Die Young’ in locker room

Here's the link http://btn.com/2013/02/09/bo-ryan-i-...one-like-this/

They look like a bunch of jr high girls! kind of uncomfortable to watch...

I watched that video too. And the funny thing is, during the shootaround before Wisc @ Illinois, Die Young came on the speakers and they were all clapping to it and dancing. During their shootaround. I don't get that team's fixation on Ke$ha

[IlliniFan1988]

Originally Posted by krushalot

I watched that video too. And the funny thing is, during the shootaround before Wisc @ Illinois, Die Young came on the speakers and they were all clapping to it and dancing. During their shootaround. I don't get that team's fixation on Ke$ha

Terrible basketball AND terrible taste in "music" lol.