Pregame: Illinois at Iowa, Sunday, January 20th, 12:00pm CT, BTN

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#26      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
For those making the trek in to Iowa City, it's supposed to snow a lot tonight (winter storm warning), be in the clear on Saturday and then have light snow Sunday morning. I want as much orange in the arena as possible, but be safe. :p

EDIT: For fun, I decided to recap my viewing career at Carver-Hawkeye:

1/15/2003: Iowa 68, #8 Illinois 61 (at the age of 11, this was my first ever Illini game ... made it impossible for me to EVER defect and become a Hawkeyes fan, no matter where I ended up going to undergrad :p)
2/25/2004: #23 Illinois 78, Iowa 59 (Krush appearance)
2/19/2005: #1 Illinois 75, Iowa 65 (5,000+ Illini fans plus the Krush ... one of the best sporting events I've ever been to)
1/7/2006: Iowa 63, #6 Illinois 48 (officially when I came back down to Earth from the '05 team ... this game STUNG)
-- missed 2007 for a soccer tournament, and boy am I glad --
3/1/2008: Illinois 58, Iowa 47
2/3/2010: Illinois 57, Iowa 49
12/29/2010: #23 Illinois 87, Iowa 77 (about 2,000 Illini fans made it over for this one, very fun time)
-- skipped 2012, and it was an awesome win! --
3/5/2013: Iowa 63, Illinois 55
2/25/2015: Iowa 68, Illinois 60 (I feel like Sparks really helped blow this one? Can't remember)
2/18/2017: Illinois 70, Iowa 66 (start of a four-game winning streak that I honestly thought was going to get us into the Tournament ... then that Rutgers game happened to end the season :()

So, I'm 6-4. Almost went to the Ekey game-winning shot game, but I elected at the last minute to watch it with all my friends downtown. I did not reject that decision. :) 7-4 would be oh so sweet!
 
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#28      

Walter E. Kurtz

Walter E. Kurtz
Walter E. Kurtz
I'm curious are you from Iowa City or did you just end up there after college? Illini fans in Iowa City are as rare as snowflakes in July.
 
#29      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
Walter E. Kurtz said:
I'm curious are you from Iowa City or did you just end up there after college? Illini fans in Iowa City are as rare as snowflakes in July.
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From one movie guy to another, welcome aboard, Col. Kurtz!
 
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#30      

the national

the national
the Front Range
the national
Fighter of the Nightman said:
For those making the trek in to Iowa City, it's supposed to snow a lot tonight (winter storm warning), be in the clear on Saturday and then have light snow Sunday morning. I want as much orange in the arena as possible, but be safe. :p

EDIT: For fun, I decided to recap my viewing career at Carver-Hawkeye:

1/15/2003: Iowa 68, #8 Illinois 61 (at the age of 11, this was my first ever Illini game ... made it impossible for me to EVER defect and become a Hawkeyes fan, no matter where I ended up going to undergrad :p)
2/25/2004: #23 Illinois 78, Iowa 59 (Krush appearance)
2/19/2005: #1 Illinois 75, Iowa 65 (5,000+ Illini fans plus the Krush ... one of the best sporting events I've ever been to)
1/7/2006: Iowa 63, #6 Illinois 48 (officially when I came back down to Earth from the '05 team ... this game STUNG)
-- missed 2007 for a soccer tournament, and boy am I glad --
3/1/2008: Illinois 58, Iowa 47
2/3/2010: Illinois 57, Iowa 49
12/29/2010: #23 Illinois 87, Iowa 77 (about 2,000 Illini fans made it over for this one, very fun time)
-- skipped 2012, and it was an awesome win! --
3/5/2013: Iowa 63, Illinois 55
2/25/2015: Iowa 68, Illinois 60 (I feel like Sparks really helped blow this one? Can't remember)
2/18/2017: Illinois 70, Iowa 66 (start of a four-game winning streak that I honestly thought was going to get us into the Tournament ... then that Rutgers game happened to end the season :()

So, I'm 6-4. Almost went to the Ekey game-winning shot game, but I elected at the last minute to watch it with all my friends downtown. I did not reject that decision. :) 7-4 would be oh so sweet!
Click to expand...

I was there on 2010. It was rockin' with orange! I had a bunch of seriously old farmer types behind me to kept telling me to 'sit down and shut up'. lol, all i did was clap and stood up when McCamey hit a big three.
 
#31      

ILL in IA

ILL in IA
Iowa City
ILL in IA
the national said:
I was there on 2010. It was rockin' with orange! I had a bunch of seriously old farmer types behind me to kept telling me to 'sit down and shut up'. lol, all i did was clap and stood up when McCamey hit a big three.
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I couldn't remember if it was 2010 or 2011, but I remember McCamey took a nasty elbow to the jaw as Iowa got a rebound and went down on offense. Refs stopped the game to make sure he was OK as Iowa had a 5 on 4 advantage in a 1 or 2 possession game at the time. The place went crazy. I was on my feet clapping. Closest I have come to getting in a fight at one of these games.
 
#32      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Since the actual season (i.e., possibility of postseason play) is pretty much lost, I am rooting for us to 1) most importantly, keep improving and lay a foundation for a legitimately competitive team next year and 2) get some padding in some of our all-time series leads. :p After the Minny win, this is how we stand:
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Our record is pretty dismal, but given our strength of schedule, I honestly don't think postseason is out of the question. I'd argue there is still a chance at the NIT assuming that our game against Minnesota represented a turning point. If that is just a one-off event, though, then of course we are done. There isn't a lot of margin for error here.

Of course, we could always just win the BTT...

Hey, a man can dream.
 
#33      

EllderIlliniFan

EllderIlliniFan
EllderIlliniFan
sacraig said:
Our record is pretty dismal, but given our strength of schedule, I honestly don't think postseason is out of the question. I'd argue there is still a chance at the NIT assuming that our game against Minnesota represented a turning point. If that is just a one-off event, though, then of course we are done. There isn't a lot of margin for error here.
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I believe that you have to have a 500 record to play in the NIT. With 14 regular season games and 3 BTT games left we would have to finish with a 12-5 run. That would include a loss in the final BTT game. So 10-4 for the rest of the BIG10 season. If we can do that we should sweep the NIT, :)
 
#34      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
EllderIlliniFan said:
I believe that you have to have a 500 record to play in the NIT. With 14 regular season games and 3 BTT games left we would have to finish with a 12-5 run. That would include a loss in the final BTT game. So 10-4 for the rest of the BIG10 season. If we can do that we should sweep the NIT, :)
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I don't think that .500 rule applies anymore. I could be wrong, of course. Shoot, given the strength of the conference, we could go .500 in the rest of conference play and our KenPom rating would probably be pretty respectable despite our record.

I just hope it's fun to watch, whatever the outcome.
 
#35      

TheGMan

TheGMan
TheGMan
I'm not sure where this avatar came from, because I definitely didn't upload it....but I don't hate it. Oh, and yeah, beat Iowa!
 
#36      

Ransom Stoddard

Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
Bloomington, IL
Ransom Stoddard
I've been doing some KenPom browsing and number crunching this afternoon. One of the things KP provides is scoring by "quarter" and after looking at that for each of our games it's clear that our issue isn't so much with closing games out, it's with coming out strong in the 2nd half. I'm trying to past in an Excel sheet for this to express what I'm talking about, hope that works.

I'm not a statistician, so forgive me for the presentation. Using this data, we can see that the vast majority of the losses we were outscored in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half (by a lot), and in 5 games that was literally the difference of the game--those opponents are shaded in red. The shading in the spreadsheet shows red for the "quarter" with the greatest negative scoring discrepancy, and green for the greatest positive discrepancy.

I haven't watched the games closely enough to pin down what is or isn't happening in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but it should be a point of focus. We had halftime leads in 4 of the losses, and all 3 of the two point losses are in that category, so we could be 8-9 (or better) if that period of the game went our way more often.

It's also of note that even for the 5 wins, we're not a great 2nd half team. Some of those were blowouts, so I get that, but UNLV came perilously close to slipping away.

1547850927264.png
 
#37      

logjam

logjam
logjam
TheGMan said:
I'm not sure where this avatar came from, because I definitely didn't upload it....but I don't hate it. Oh, and yeah, beat Iowa!
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I feel the same, didn't upload mine either, it's ok for now, but so 1900's.
 
#41      

Halloweenie

H
Halloweenie
I know everyone is excited but I fear Iowa pounds us inside with Garza and Cook, if he is available. Need to keep improving and not worry about tournaments in 2019.
 
#42      

logjam

logjam
logjam
Halloweenie said:
I know everyone is excited but I fear Iowa pounds us inside with Garza and Cook, if he is available. Need to keep improving and not worry about tournaments in 2019.
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We have had almost a week to work on Iowa, the big part is we have a few more players feeling that they are a part of a team that has an upward trajectory. They haven't quit and are starting to figure it out. I'm pumped for the next game, but is a tough win. Let's see a few more games and see what we think. Lastly Minnesota usually wins on the boards and paint and you know how that went, lightning twice?
 
#44      

DeeForThr33

DeeForThr33
DeeForThr33
Not sure which thread to throw this info in, but figured this might be the best. theres a really good website where I found what Illinois is predicted to do the rest of the year based on NET rankings, and a bunch of advanced stats, even after the Minnesota game

8-22 (4-16), RPI 214, SOS 31 (currently 10th)

Vs Group 1 0-11, Group 2 1-4, Group 3 2-6, Group 4 5-1

@ Iowa L 73-85
Wisconsin L 68-73
@Maryland L 67-80
@Minnesota L 71-77
Nebraska L 67-77
MSU L 71-83
Rutgers W 72-66
@OSU 65-77
@Wisconsin L 64-77
Penn State W 72-68
@Purdue L 69-82
Northwestern W 71-70
Indiana L 70-75

Advanced stats say that we are underdogs in 11 of our final 14 games.

I think we go 8-6.
 
#45      

Ga65

G
Ga65
Like to see more than one in a row. If DaMonte can do another Frank, Tevian can hit the three and the reverse, Samba can hit the 12' fall away jumper, and Georgi gets six offensive rebounds, I all in.
 
#46      

bombayIllini

B
bombayIllini
If this team W, then it will be by large margins: 10-20 points. However, if they L it will be a few points.
 
#50      

Deleted member 29907

D
Guest
Deleted member 29907
How is it that Iowa has only played 4 away games out of 18 this season?
 
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