Pregame: Illinois vs Missouri, Saturday, December 22nd, 7:00pm CT, BTN

[pruman91]

FWIW - interesting trend on Tigerboard - it seems we've 'owned' the Tigers over the last x years because the game means so much more to us than it does to Miznoz. Rationalization is a wonderful thing.

You'd think at some point the little " step " brother would get mad enough to want to beat up the bigger brother - but oh well.

FIFY....never attach Misery as Illini blood relative ....NEVER !!!!!!!!!

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Bored on a Monday, so it's time to recap our dominance vs. Misery. 14-4 vs. Mizzou since 2000 ... we Illini fans have to find ways to cheer ourselves up now a days, right?

2000-01: #5 Illinois 86, Missouri 81 ... 22,089
2001-02: #9 Illinois 72, #9 Missouri 61 ... 22,153
2002-03: #12 Illinois 85, #11 Missouri 70 ... 22,153
2003-04: #21 Illinois 71, #11 Missouri 70 ... 22,153
2004-05: #1 Illinois 70, Missouri 64 ... 22,153
2005-06: #6 Illinois 82, Missouri 50 ... 22,153 (Popcorn Game™ )
2006-07: Illinois 73, Missouri 70 ... 22,153
2007-08: Illinois 59, Missouri 58 ... 21,941
2008-09: Illinois 75, #25 Missouri 59 ... 19,856
2009-10: Missouri 81, Illinois 68 ... 20,497
2010-11: #9 Missouri 75, #21 Illinois 64 ... 21,906
2011-12: #9 Missouri 78, #25 Illinois 74 ... 22,087
2012-13: #12 Missouri 82, #10 Illinois 73 ... 22,139
2013-14: Illinois 65, #23 Missouri 64 ... 21,987
2014-15: Illinois 62, Missouri 59 ... 20,079
2015-16: Illinois 68, Missouri 63 ... 14,456
2016-17: Illinois 75, Missouri 66 ... 12,409 (to be fair ... we filled our side!)
2017-18: Illinois 70, Missouri 64 ... 21,289

The streaky nature of this rivalry really is interesting. The last time either team only won one game in a row was the first two St. Louis matchups (1980 and 1981). Since then, the streaks have gone like this:

1983-1990: Illinois 8 wins in a row
1991-1994: Missouri 4 wins in a row
1995-1996: Illinois 2 wins in a row
1997-1999: Missouri 3 wins in a row
2000-2008: Illinois 9 wins in a row
2009-2012: Missouri 4 wins in a row
2013-2017: Illinois 5 wins in a row

Let's make it six, boys.

 

[ChiefIllini]

Tomorrow night, Xavier at Mizzou. Common opponent, without neutral court however. Good primer for braggin rights.

 

[sully]

Lets beat Misery and make Mark Smith & Zo cry ! GO ILLINI!

 

[PtownIllini8]

Evansville - East Tennessee - UNLV - Mississippi Valley State. That's it. Those are our 4 wins this year. All were at home.

Tiggers 84
ILLINI 75

Mark Smith leads all scorers with 26. On the positive front, I still hold out hope that we pass Rutgers for 13th place in the Big 10.

I'll take the bet on Mark Smith not even getting 15. Illini continue their domination of Mizzou. Illini had a 3 rim out that would've beaten ND in South Bend and a 3 in the air to take the lead late v the Zags. Mizzou beat Kennesaw St. by 4 at home.

 

[Calvin]

Not sure I get that when you compare schedules... I'd say Illini -5

I'm guessing it will be close to a toss-up, or Mizzou -0.5

As far as Smith improving at Mizzou, I think there's several differences helping his stats.

1, he's a year older and has the sophomore leap
2. he doesn't have to play good defense to get tick.
3. Less structured offense where's he allowed to play to his strengths. For whatever reason, he's shooting really well from 3
4. So far they've played a weak schedule (although we're not exactly a strong team)

Will be interesting to see how he plays against us. He's a solid 2 guard that gives them size and rebounding. If he's made to handle the ball though, I think the juries out on whether his game holds up as well, and defensively he matches up poorly with guards that can move fast like Trent and Feliz.

 

[SescIllini]

I feel like we have a lead at the guard spot with Trent/Ayo vs Geist/MSmith. The bench of Feliz/Damonte is much better than their bench guards as well.
Their size isn't going to be the problem it was last year. Samba, Georgi, and Adonis will match-up better than Black did vs. Tillmon and their injured big.

MSmith didn't like the style of defense/offense, guess what will he be able to deal with this Saturday.

 

[BananaShampoo]

FIFY....never attach Misery as Illini blood relative ....NEVER !!!!!!!!!

If they ever reproduced I suspect the offspring would resemble the creepy cat creature of your avatar pic. Yuck!

 

[220Illini]

2016-17: Illinois 75, Missouri 66 ... 12,409 (to be fair ... we filled our side!)

Missouri basketball should still be embarrassed at their showing for this game. They had almost no fans there. I had 100x more fun at the game last year with 21k + in attendance.

As for the game, I think we'll get to Smith. There is a LOT of pressure on him for this game. Every time he makes a mistake he will be boo'd into oblivion. I watched Mizzou vs. Iowa State and their guards were turning it over like crazy. As we saw last year Trent is a guy who lives for these types of games. He has 20, Kipper with 15 and we win by 7

 

[ChiefIllini]

I have always had the most respectful disdain for the Whosiers.
But it appears there is very strong animosity for Missouri. on the board.
Is there good reason to elevate my disdain and animosity for the Tigers???

The fact that our two teams have been eerily similar for a very long time (in terms of current level of play, i.e. Indiana has been a step above us for the better part of the last decade). Braggin Rights is one of the most closely played game almost every year. Plenty of good memories, and the players get a trophy afterwards.

This iteration of Mizzou has three players who either played at UI or signed NLI. Thats a lot of crossover.

 

[SampsonRelpenk]

2005-06: #6 Illinois 82, Missouri 50 ... 22,153 (Popcorn Game™ )

To this day haven't experienced schadenfreude better than this game.

 

[TheGMan]

I have always had the most respectful disdain for the Whosiers.
But it appears there is very strong animosity for Missouri. on the board.
Is there good reason to elevate my disdain and animosity for the Tigers???

Talk to a Mizzou fan for about 5 mins and you will understand.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

FWIW - interesting trend on Tigerboard - it seems we've 'owned' the Tigers over the last x years because the game means so much more to us than it does to Miznoz. Rationalization is a wonderful thing.

You'd think at some point the little brother would get mad enough to want to beat up the bigger brother - but oh well.

Missouri fans are literally the worst type of species on the planet, LOL. I can respect Hoosiers fans, regardless of how big of jerks they can be. Mizzou fans are, quite simply, the worst. Arrogant (for literally no reason ... they don't even have a good history they can desperately cling to like us) beyond belief, ridiculously rude (this is literally talked about on national message boards ... not just an Illini thing) and they hilariously HATE Illinois yet some act like they're, like, "above us" or something and this game is more meaningful to us? Haha.

Truly small people.

EDIT: To those "reading" Tigerboard, please explain to me HOW, haha. I would expect nothing better than that absolute mess for a Missouri message board.

 

[1970 John]

Because they stink.

If you live downstate in Illinois, especially in the "metro east" area (which is something new they came up with after I left the area), you'll know the disdain that West County people have towards the more blue collar residents of Illinois. I don't know if that reasoning goes upstate, but Mizzou has nothing to brag about, considering bloody collar St Louis, the most dangerous city in America, and its frayed collar Ozarks.

 

[Nathan]

To those "reading" Tigerboard, please explain to me HOW, haha. I would expect nothing better than that absolute mess for a Missouri message board.

Every year I go to tigerboard and wonder how they read that. I assume I am missing something. clicking every post to read? What is that?

 

[ChiefIllini]

Every year I go to tigerboard and wonder how they read that. I assume I am missing something. clicking every post to read? What is that?

Never been on it, never saw a need, your post intrigued me.

By no means is loyalty a perfect forum, but whatever tigerboard is running on, needed to die about 15 years ago, and that might be generous. Honestly, props to anyone putting up with that.

 

[Truffaut]

Never been on it, never saw a need, your post intrigued me.

By no means is loyalty a perfect forum, but whatever tigerboard is running on, needed to die about 15 years ago, and that might be generous. Honestly, props to anyone putting up with that.

Could we call that true fan devotion on their part, or am I in the wrong thread for that?

 

[pruman91]

Never been on it, never saw a need, your post intrigued me.

By no means is loyalty a perfect forum, but whatever tigerboard is running on, needed to die about 15 years ago, and that might be generous. Honestly, props to anyone putting up with that.

their board reminds me of brumby's first scissor board generations ago....

 

[RSBCC13]

I'm an Illini fan, my sister's family are all Missouri fans. We're getting together to watch the game. I'm out-numbered by a substantial amount. I like my chances :rock:

Sister’s family? Aren’t you a part of it?

 

[I Bomb]

their board reminds me of brumby's first scissor board generations ago....

Looks close to me - old cgi bbs circa about 2001. But, it did lead me to put said old board URL in the wayback machine which was pretty fun...

 

[Deleted member 500209]

I do not recall, why was Mark Smith was granted immediate eligibility to play at Missouri?

Temple 19 pts 6 rebounds
Kansas St 11 pts 4 rebounds
Iowa St 15 pts 7 rebound

Interesting how a player like Smith can be a non-factor at one school, and a solid contributor at another.

L - 5 of 12 shooting, L - 3 of 7, L - 7 of 10. Contributing to what? I see 3 losses, 2 poor shooting games and 1 good shooting game that they still lost.

 

[JJE]

This is my favorite game all year in football or basketball. Being from St. Louis this either ruins (maybe not that far but you know what I mean) your Christmas or makes it. I wasn’t planning on going especially considering how mediocre both teams are, but then I thought about how those empty seats wouldn’t be booing Mark Smith. So I bought 1 and then 4 more for my friends so we can all boo Missery.
Also saw that the Missouri side still has a lot of seats left. Illinois has only a few options left.

 

[SeattleSlim]

So, ... do Mizzou fans have to subscribe to BTN to see this game? If so ... ha ha.

 

[bobbob]

L - 5 of 12 shooting, L - 3 of 7, L - 7 of 10. Contributing to what? I see 3 losses, 2 poor shooting games and 1 good shooting game that they still lost.

Oh please. He has an effective FG% of .634 on the year. Only Kane (on very limited minutes) has a better one on Illinois.
Smith's Offensive rating is 128, which is again higher than anyone on Illinois; AJ's is 118.

He is having a better offensive year than anyone we have and is being average-ish at defense. He is having a very good year. If Illinois takes your approach and ignore the best offensive player in the game, Missouri will run them out of the gym.

 

[Spoon House]

Being carried by Mark Smith? Give me a break.