Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (Week of April 19th, 2021)

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#454      

Deleted member 747660

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Deleted member 747660
hoopsfan47 said:
The first game played at SFC, when it was opened as Assembly Hall, was Mar. 2, 1963. The Illini had won the Big Ten Title that year with the described team members above, but played all their games at Huff. The first game played in SFC was the opening game of the Illinois State High School tournament. That event ended as one of the most historic ever played as #1 Centralia, leading by a point over Carver, had the ball stolen in the last 20 seconds by Carver's Anthony Smedley, a seldom used bench player, from the Orphans Consensus All-Stater Herb Williams, on an inbound pass after a time out at the Carver end. The ball went to Williams because he was an elite leaper at 6'3". But Smedley made a back door steal, knocking the ball away to the Carver baseline where he picked it up and nailed a 10 ft. jumper, IIRC, to give Carver a one point lead. Centralia had the ball with about 8 seconds left but did not score.

An epic game that ended an epic event. Being there for all the games, it will always be vividly remembered in my feeble mind. The place was packed to the rafters with every seat filled and there had to be over 17000 present. The atmosphere was electric and nothing disappointed.

So you are correct, your Dad got Dave Downey's autograph in '64 after he graduated and all the other's came back from that B1G championship team to play in the Assembly Hall. In fact, I was in Bloomington, Indiana on the day the Illini won that 63 title. A teammate of mine had signed with the Hoosiers and he invited me to the season's final game...OSU and Gary Bradds taking on a legendary Hoosier team of the Van Arsdale twins, Tom Bolyard, Jon McGlocklin, and Jimmy Rayl. All the Hoosiers were 6'5" except for the 6'2" Rayl....and they would all shoot it from anywhere at anytime, especially Rayl. The Hoosiers ecked out an 87-85 OT victory which was necessary to give the Illini, who squeaked out a win that day over Iowa 73-69, the title.

Sadly, that Illini season ended with the all too familiar loss to the Loyola Ramblers in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Interestingly enough, the Hoosiers and the Illini, per usual, had two great battles that year as the Illini squeaked by IU in Champaign on a cold Feb. 4th evening by a 104-101 score while the Hoosiers managed to return the favor 12 days later with a Sat. afternoon victory...103-100. Not enough basketballs to go around and defense certainly was a different cat back then.

Another interesting fact is the the Illini were ranked #8 in the AP pre-season poll.....and that is exactly where they finished. Oddly, they won their first 7 games before losing to un-ranked Notre Dame on New Year's Eve. While on their 7 game opening streak, they dropped to #10 in the Dec. 10th poll before rising as high as #3 in 3 Jan. polls.

Regardless, the SFC (always the University of Illinois Assembly Hall to me) is still studied for its unique architecture and is an even today one of the most storied and exciting venues for college basketball....and I hope will prove its worth once again as the home of the IHSA state championship basketball tournament.
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Was the State Tournament held at Huff prior to the Assembly Hall?
 
#456      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
The State high school tournament in Champaign was one of the highlights of every year. Used to be the final 8 teams (one class for everyone in the Old School Days) got to play on The Beloved’s floor. Two games on Friday afternoon, two games on Friday night (gets you to the Final Four), then two games on Saturday afternoon... and the finals on Saturday night. A good warm-up game for Third Place with the teams playing loose and having fun, and then the Big Finish. All those players for generations claimed great memories and created an eternal bond with the energized Fighting Illini arena.

Might also have been easier in those days to sell to young talent of the State the idea of staying home and making that special floor your home base. Either way, will always love the IHSA tournament wherever it is played.
 
#459      

Jhilger

J
Jhilger
Joel Goodson said:
I was there too. As good as Aguirre was, Thomas was eye popping. Couldn't believe I was seeing a 17 yo. Don't get me started on later on though, lol.
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My dad used to talk about that game all the time. He and a friend drove up from collinsville. He couldn’t believe how good Thomas was. He played point and center. Could do it all!
 
#461      

illiniguy

illiniguy
illiniguy
Joel Goodson said:
I was there too. As good as Aguirre was, Thomas was eye popping. Couldn't believe I was seeing a 17 yo. Don't get me started on later on though, lol.
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Thomas played for Gene Pingatore at St. Joseph...Pingatore coached 50 years there, his players included Demitri McCamey and Evan Turner.
 
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#462      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
Jhilger said:
My dad used to talk about that game all the time. He and a friend drove up from collinsville. He couldn’t believe how good Thomas was. He played point and center. Could do it all!
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Center? Nah. St. Joe's had another guard, a senior, IIRC, who was really good too. But, yeah, Thomas was OMG, breathtaking.
 
#464      

nichi

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nichi
zentrails said:
I got to watch a semi-final HS game there that pitted Mark Aguirre's against Isaiah Thomas' teams.
That was a great game. I forget who won but it was entertaining. LOL
I think those were the two famous players I watched, memory is starting to go.
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#467      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
illiniguy said:
Yeah, we should stick to a more athletic Larry Bird as the highest praise.
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Jack Nicholson Reaction GIF
 
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