Pregame: Illinois vs Iowa, Thursday, January 11th, 7:00pm CT, FS1
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Welp, all logic points to this finally being another win. 
We need a therapeutic win. This would be perfect for that.
Deleted member 631370
D
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Thus far I've been 15-2 in predicting our games. Only two misses were NMSU and Mizzou.
Illinois wins this one by 9.
Illinois wins this one by 9.
Welp, all logic points to this finally having better audio & video on FS1 instead of BTN.
Fixed.
Maybe it is my cable provider(mediacom), but audio on BTN is always at half the level of any other station. Per IL winning? Know this is my first post & am an IL fan. But going with cautiously optimistic. Had been thinking IL should win given home court advantage & records. However, IA fans will also make the trip here instead of MD or Rutgers with their 3 straight road games. When they return home they host Purdue. They are likely to focus on IL as the most winnable game of their next 4 pending how things go for them tonight at MD.
Don't get me wrong, am hoping IL wins by a large margin to get confidence rolling, among other things. But IL will have to play hard & not let off the entire 40 minutes to get this win.
Illini_1979
- Oregon
Fixed.
You need to turn it up to 11.
[YOUTUBE]4xgx4k83zzc[/YOUTUBE]
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
Can you swap records with the team?
At least give em a chance. We knew going into the season that the beginninng of the B1G schedule was rough. Many expected us to be 0-4 or 1-3. We've been competitive in every game and that's all you can ask for at this point. By the end of the season you want that competitiveness to turn into wins.
Illinidreamin
- Paris, IL.
^^^^ This!!
Agreed, I thought 1-3 was realistic but a bad pass turned that to 0-4. Get this win and get some confidence into the next two road games which are both winnable.
Anyone see the garbage that ESPN is spewing because Michigan St lost to Ohio St? http://www.espn.com/blog/collegebas...s-highlights-the-big-ten-is-a-mess-and-boring
Not sure it is unfair.
Captain Bubbles
- Fairfield, IL
Totally agree. I like the competiveness that the team has showed. I watch the games with a different set of eyes, in terms of how the players are improving. The rise of Frazier and Spicy G has been a delight to see. Would like to see Mark be more consistent in his drives to the hoop, but like Smith, the other freshman and Alstork, they're getting their first taste of Big Ten play. Something they have never experienced until December and now.
Captain Bubbles
- Fairfield, IL
Scoring leaders for Iowa (top 5):
Tyler Cook - 14.7 ppg
Isaiah Moss - 12.1 ppg
Jordan Bohannon 12.1 ppg
Luka Garza - 10.2 ppg
Jack Nunge - 7.2 ppg
Other notes:
Bohannon is shooting 43% from deep (47-107). Moss is 31-80 from deep which is 38%.
Nunge will remind you of Finke's game. 6'11" guy that can help spread the floor and shoot it from deep. He was like that in high school over there in Evansville.
Cook, Nicholas Baer and Garza are averaging about 6 rpg. I watched Garza earlier this season and he plays solid for a freshman.
Iowa can still cause problems and fits. I wouldn't overlook them by any means. Hoping for an Illinois win!
Tyler Cook - 14.7 ppg
Isaiah Moss - 12.1 ppg
Jordan Bohannon 12.1 ppg
Luka Garza - 10.2 ppg
Jack Nunge - 7.2 ppg
Other notes:
Bohannon is shooting 43% from deep (47-107). Moss is 31-80 from deep which is 38%.
Nunge will remind you of Finke's game. 6'11" guy that can help spread the floor and shoot it from deep. He was like that in high school over there in Evansville.
Cook, Nicholas Baer and Garza are averaging about 6 rpg. I watched Garza earlier this season and he plays solid for a freshman.
Iowa can still cause problems and fits. I wouldn't overlook them by any means. Hoping for an Illinois win!
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
Oh I definitely give them a big chance to win this one. If they lose the season could really go into the dumpster. And as far as being competitive, losing games by double figure margins like the last two is not that competitive.
Uh did you even watch the last two games? Cut it to 5 with around 4 minutes to go at Minnesota and had a 3 point halftime lead at Michigan. Saying this team hasn’t been competitive even in the last two games is pretty absurd quite frankly.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
They only played one decent half of basketball in both of those games.
GortTheRobot
- North Bethesda, Maryland
College ball is a completely different animal than HS ball, and our freshmen will take time to adjust. It takes more energy for a longer period of time, against better competition: In a lot of circumstances, it really is men vs. boys.
Trent and Damonte are better than expected IMHO against college level. Especially Damonte coming off a significant injury and missing bball for 9 months. Mark Smith is what you expect from a top 100 freshmen, his PPG are in the neighborhood of McCamey and Deron during their first year.
And also had a legitimate shot to win both games in the second half. What exactly did you expect? There is not one proven high major D1 player on this roster and yet we’ve been in every single game. As much as I hate to bring him up again, the last two games are both 30 point L’s with Groce as the coach. If you’re really trying to say that we haven’t been competitive because we lost two road games to two top 5 B1G teams even though we had a real chance at winning both, then you’re not seeing the whole picture. This is a young, relatively inexperienced team that got absolutely shafted this year when it comes to our B1G schedule playing 4/5 to start off on the road. You can say that they haven’t played as well as they’re capable of sure, but to say they haven’t been competitive is just flat out wrong.
Iowa is probably the worst team in the B1G honestly. Their offense sucks, their defense sucks. If their shots aren’t falling they’re honestly no better than your average Summit League team. I think our pressure is going to give them fits. If Cook gets into foul trouble early and they’re unable to hit shots, this could be a 20 point Illini W. Not that we should overlook Iowa because we are in no position to overlook any team right now, but this should be one of the easier wins on the B1G schedule. I’m predicting a double digit victory for the orange and blue.
This simply must be the first win in conference play. At home against a very bad Iowa team....gotta have it.
The part that hurts is that he doesn't mention Illinois at all.
An article about a "down B1G" and they don't even mention us. This is the level that national media thinks we belong at right now.
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