Pregame: Illinois at Ohio State, Thursday, February 14th, 6:00pm CT, ESPN2

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#27      

Chukwuwumba

Chukwuwumba
Chukwuwumba
Hopefully home crowd is light as the game is on Valentine’s Day. Would work in our favor. Good return game for a light crowd at united center.
 
#29      

illinihawk16

illinihawk16
Chicago
illinihawk16
Truffaut said:
This is a must win for the post-season fantasists among us. Of course, every game between now and including Friday in the B1G Tournament is a must win for the Big Dance fantasy. I don't think we can win that many, but I'd hate to see the bubble burst as early as next Thursday.
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In my mind our bubble burst on December 29th against FAU...at the latest. I'm just hoping a win on Thursday plus the other 3 that we'd be favored in would be enough to get us some NIT consideration.
 
#30      

TxChief

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TxChief
Bubble is probably a word that is not appropriately used here because of its tournament selection connotation.

But I will note the Final "bubble" is the B10 tourney, . . . ya just never know. We made the finals in 1999, 2008 as 11 and 10 seeds. Michigan won as 8 seed in 2017. We actually are sitting as 9 seed right now.

Call me a practically Pollyannaish, I'm betting everyone else's beach houses, not mine.

Would seem to parallel Giorgi's story, huh?
 
#31      

Calvin

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Calvin
TxChief said:
But I will note the Final "bubble" is the B10 tourney
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And the way we're playing, we might actually have a shot at it. Win some games, avoid the double-buy, and hope we can survive and advance. Even if we don't, it suddenly feels like the BIG TEN tournament has some importance to us. As far as at-large, I think we're too far into the season to recover, even if we start winning on the road. But winning on the road improves our seed for the BIG tourney. Just for kicks, I looked up our various rankings that are supposed to be used on the team sheets by the committee

93 NET ranking (newest version of the NCAA metric to replace RPI)
71 Kenpom
87 BPI (ESPN)
122 SOR (ESPN)
67 / 71 / 76 / 33 Sagarin Overall / Predictor / ELO / Recent

It seems unlikely that we could get into the at-large discussion, although I could see us being in the NIT discussion if we continue winning. Lotta winnable games left. @Wiscy and @Purdue look like losses given we haven't won on the road yet, but everything else should be doable.
 
#32      

Deleted member 4333

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Guest
Deleted member 4333
CBS Sports RPI has us at 155 . . . last in the Big Ten. :noidea:
 
#34      

IlliniGuy87

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IlliniGuy87
87E8B900-9CE3-4260-81F5-4B76540222BE.jpeg
 
#37      

Ga65

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Ga65
Lost by ten at a semi neutral court with Ayo and Giorgi scoring 5 pts each. After watching them against IU, we should kill them.
Illini 77. OSU 76
 
#39      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
Illini 79
osu 71

GB torches Wesson oil and slides him down to the bench...
trent and Ayo pressure the guards to 20 + TO's
we win and keep climbing up the conf. standing solidifying a first round bye
 
#40      

TxChief

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TxChief
Ga65 said:
Lost by ten at a semi neutral court with Ayo and Giorgi scoring 5 pts each. After watching them against IU, we should kill them.
Illini 77. OSU 76
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I agree and am hopeful about your assessment, but I am a little concerned about the relationship between the narrative description and the projected score.

Here's a question: I think my calculations are correct: OhioSt has averaged 12.35 turnovers per game this season. Do we get them to +/- 20 (hint: Got 19 in 1st game, btw Kipper was the leading scorer with 18) How many turnover represent a win.
 
#42      

Deleted member 11241

D
Guest
Deleted member 11241
haasi said:
OSU at home. They’ll wear white, right?
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They could wear their gray unis too. Either way, we should still be able to wear orange. On that note, we really need to just stick with the Fighting Illini jerseys and wear orange and white and use blue as the alternate color
 
#43      

Ga65

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Ga65
TxChief said:
I agree and am hopeful about your assessment, but I am a little concerned about the relationship between the narrative description and the projected score.

Here's a question: I think my calculations are correct: OhioSt has averaged 12.35 turnovers per game this season. Do we get them to +/- 20 (hint: Got 19 in 1st game, btw Kipper was the leading scorer with 18) How many turnover represent a win.
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20 to's are sufficient because Trent and Giorgi won't foul out and Adonis will do a job on Wesson after Giorgi softens him up. Still waiting for Alan to get his 20 pt game. Played well against Rutgers, maybe this is it. If it wasn't a blow out the score would be 60-61. :cool:
 
#44      

bombayIllini

B
bombayIllini
TxChief said:
I agree and am hopeful about your assessment, but I am a little concerned about the relationship between the narrative description and the projected score.

Here's a question: I think my calculations are correct: OhioSt has averaged 12.35 turnovers per game this season. Do we get them to +/- 20 (hint: Got 19 in 1st game, btw Kipper was the leading scorer with 18) How many turnover represent a win.
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It is not just TOs (it prevents them from scoring, which is great)

It is how many points we score.

We are great st TOs, but not as great at converting them into meaningful points.

:noidea:
 
#46      

TxChief

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TxChief
Me too, but I may have to renew my Nitro prescription before Thursday.
 
#47      

logjam

logjam
logjam
Ga65 said:
Lost by ten at a semi neutral court with Ayo and Giorgi scoring 5 pts each. After watching them against IU, we should kill them.
Illini 77. OSU 76
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That looks like barely surviving. ;
 
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