Pregame: Illinois vs Minnesota, Wednesday, January 9th, 8:00pm CT, BTN

[Dan]

https://www.facebook.com/IlliniBasketball

Game 17: Illinois (14-2, 1-1) vs Minnesota (14-1, 2-0)

Wednesday, January 9th

The Assembly Hall

Time: 8:00pm CT

TV: BTN

[Dan]

Minnesota hosts Northwestern tomorrow (Sunday), 6:00pm CT, BTN.

1,200 tickets left for the Illini-Minnesota game.

Great win by the #Illini over #8 Ohio St. today! #9 Minnesota is up next. Less than 1200 tickets remaining. Lets Pack the Hall again.

http://twitter.com/J_Hegg

[Shenanigans]

I have a feeling those tickets will get sold. Weather outlook is good for traveling on Wednesday.

[mdonsbach]

Just hope Groce keeps pounding those rebounding drills!

[chiefcub69]

I will be there and making my second Illinois but my first one at the hall this year. Still scared of Mbakwe and williams but should be a good game.

[Illini34]

Minnesota looks pretty tough, should point out that out of the 13 wins they got they have only played 5 road games this year and this will be their 1st road game in the big ten. Hope the crowd at the Hall is loud

Illini 73
Minn 68

[drumanimal]

Scored some good tickets for Wednesday! Should be a great game, can't wait! I'm hoping the Hall will be packed and loud!!

[KasIllini]

First of 4 B1G Illini games for me Wednesday ... hopefully we can keep the Gophers off the glass

[finalfour2011]

Originally Posted by Illini34

Minnesota looks pretty tough, should point out that out of the 13 wins they got they have only played 5 road games this year and this will be their 1st road game in the big ten. Hope the crowd at the Hall is loud

Illini 73
Minn 68

I agree with this thinking. Of the 5 road games, 3 were on a neutral court in Bahama tournament. They are much improved but they have also been feasting on home cooking. My best guestimate is that we split with Minny this year, both teams winning at home. Minny also plays Indiana and Michigan after us, tough early schedule.

[-josh-]

Well the matchups for this are scary, but then again i thought they would be for the tOSU game as well.


Abrams vs Austin Hollins- At the beginning of the year i would have thought that this would be a bad matchup for us but Abrams has been playing well and continuing to improve. The kid is a better scorer so we'll see if Abrams is guarding him or one of our other guards

Paul vs Andre Hollins- Most of the time this season you can put Paul on top of any 2/3 guard in the BIG and he's the best player in that matchup, no different in this one.

Richardson vs Coleman- He could also guard one of the Hollins if need be, coach Groce still maintains that DJ is a great defender so if he gets put on this kid expect DJ to get some or cause some steals cause the dude is averaging 2.3 turnovers a game and we'll be one of the better defensive teams that Minny has seen so far.

Griffey vs Rodney Williams- It almost seems like everyone on this team from top to bottom can score points and this kid is an excellent rebounder, we just need Griffey to focus on rebounding here and dont allow them any second chance points in the paint. Bad matchup for us here.

Egwu vs Mbakwe- The true test for Egwu happens right here, edge goes to Mbakwe but Nnanna has the chance to make a statement and have a coming out party against the best center in the conference IMO.

Bench in this game goes to Minny they have a lot of guys coming and going in their rotation, and they can bring in a little bit of everything. If they need defense/rebounding look for Ellenson and Walker to be used. Our best bench guy Bertrand is better than anyone they can bring in but they are SO deep.


I gave the edge to tOSU last game and they proved me wrong, i hope they can do it again cause i just dont see us beating this Minnesota squad, close game i think though.

Minn- 76
Ill- 75

[Indicchief]

Extrapolation PU performance:

IL: 70
MN: 76

Extrapolating OSU performance:

IL: 86
MN: 60

The average of the two:

IL: 78
MN: 68

There you have it

[IlliniSteve]

Minnesota is extremely tough. They rebound well. Mbakwe is a beast. Rodney Williams is a hell of a player. They just have a very good team, top to bottom. Only weakness I've seen is that they don't shoot very well from behind the arc. So hopefully we don't allow penetration and clean up the misses.

All that said, I think we're about even in terms of talent. With us being at home, there's our edge. It's pretty clear that we must protect our home court this year as life on the road will be a great challenge. The guys seemed to come out hungry today against the Buckeyes, and they fed off of the great crowd throughout. Need more of the same Wednesday.

- 77
minny - 72

[cali illini]

This game makes me more nervous than Ohio st, i hope we can keep the momentum going!

[Larken24]

Seems as if Tubby has brought his "kentucky" side to minnesota this year, and this is one minnesota team that is hungry for more. But I think Illinois will give them a dose of reality.
Illini - 80
Minny - 68

[troydove]

I say we win by 10 again, worked for us last game.

[illini ri0t]

This will be a tough match up for illinois, minny has great guard play and spread out scoring. Egwu draws a tough matchup. This game can literally go either way, i expect a close close game.

[Botb9]

I noticed there was a lot of packing it in against OSU today and that made the inside scoring much tougher for the Buckeyes. I expect more of the same against Minny.

[Illini2016]

Awesome that the Hall is alive again. Expect a great crowd and a great (but maybe not AS great as today) Illini team.

Chief Illiniwek 73
Fighting Rats 69

[IlliniFan1988]

Looking for this one to be a nail-biter. I predict another energetic, emotional effort from this team, and they take the W.

74
Yard Pests 68

[HeartofaChampion]

UI 70
MN 67

Our perimeter is better than theirs, and NE does just enough inside to compensate for their bigs. I think TG will step up and hit some big outside shots, too. Gonna be a battle.

[AlmostFamous79]

I feel like this game will be a big scoring game for some reason.
If Illinois can play that pack line defense to perfection AND REBOUND
then I see it this way:
Illinois - 88
Minnesota - 78

[jlf26]

Originally Posted by IlliniFan1988

Looking for this one to be a nail-biter. I predict another energetic, emotional effort from this team, and they take the W.

74
Yard Pests 68

You never know what Illini offensive or defensive team will show up. If we shoot great from the 3 other deficiencies such as rebounding could even out. Minnesota plays hard and physical. They are athletic with some big strong players. Home court and crowd will be to our advantage. One of the biggest things that may determine the outcome is how the referees call the game. If Egwu gets in early foul trouble it will hurt. Hopefully he won't hedge and pickup any silly fouls 30 feet from the basket. If the referees allow the Minnesota bigs to shove and push our bigs going for rebounds it could get ugly IMO. Illinois needs to play a very solid game for 40 minutes.

[Illini B-Ball Fan]

Big test for our guys again, but with a home court advantage we come away with our 2nd B1G win: 75-69.

Go Illini!

[Redbirds33333]

ILL - 70
Minny - 64

Toughness continues.

[stevo99]

We match up poorly with these guys. Will likely have to mix defenses more than we did against tO$U.

73
Minny 70