IU fans totally despise him, but here again they are a little butt hurt over his tenure at Purdue.
Pregame: Illinois at Maryland, Friday, January 21st, 6:00pm CT, FS1
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I hate to say it’s a must win, but we must win.
IU fans also totally loved Bobby. They have questionable taste.
Maryland does have a game before they host the Illini on Friday. They are at Michigan tomorrow night. Tip-off is set for 6:00 PM and the game will air on ESPN2.
Not to mention Samscum
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
I mean...it's really hard not to like Weber....until you are forced to watch his basketball without Dee, Deron, and Luther.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yeah. The IU sense of entitlement to, at the very least, Indiana supremacy is strong. Am pleased that Purdue has subordinated them in recent years.
Painter has been really good at both finding and developing players. Take this year's team for example . Their starters and top 2 guys off the bench: Ivey was ranked 89th in his class, Hunter #150, Trevion Williams #154, Thompson #211, Gillis #220, Stefanovic #374, Edey #440. Impressive.
I’m also feeling a bit of pressure going into this one.
We lost a hard fought game to Purdue and have a matchup with Sparty on the horizon. We just beat these guys with Kofi going +56 in like 7 minutes of playing time. Should be a cake walk.
And we will take repeated turtle shells to the dome if we come out as if it is a cake walk.
We must win to keep pace in the title chase.
A thread should be started for the Feb. 10th game at this point, but I really like Gillis. He plays hard and does a lot of glue guy things.
It's absolutely a must win. Can't have one tough loss turn into two.
Plus MSU and Wisconsin play Friday night
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Having lived an 18-yr stint in Bloomington, IN, I can confirm this.
When I first moved there, I couldn’t figure out why the local news sources never had a shred of pre-game info about their opponents. I came to learn that the fans just don’t care about anything besides their silly candy-stripe-clad home team. They think they invented basketball over there. That’s why they’re so surprised and whiny when they lose a game.
Outside of this obvious character flaw in the residents, it’s a lovely place to live, though.
Dancing Weber GIF or it never happened.
I’m calling IU in the upset. At home, in-state rivalry, with PU coming off this game.
You gotta get over that fear man. They are not good. I'm not saying we blow them out by 30 but I'm not worried about this one especially after the way we lost today.
I still can't get over the fact that IU hasn't beaten them in almost 7 years.
But for some reason some on here say we absolutely need top 30 players if we are going to compete.
Who stops Edey/Williams from IU? That’d be by biggest hesitation in predicting an upset.
I know we’re good and we’re different with belo. But I will stay worried about Maryland because their consistent stockpile of long athletic wings is a good matchup for us, even if they will struggle vs kofi.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
SMH. Sounds a lot like Columbus (OH) and its football team. Bloomington and that stretch to the east through the forest over to Columbus, IN is a really pretty part of the state. I've got to hand it to them. Between Branch McCracken and Knight they enjoyed quite the long run of HOF coaching with only a brief interruption. Without McCracken we'd likely have at least a couple NC banners hinging in the Hall. My impression is that his teams seemed regularly to be just a bit more successful than the Illini in the days when only one team from the conference went to the tourney.Having lived an 18-yr stint in Bloomington, IN, I can confirm this.
When I first moved there, I couldn’t figure out why the local news sources never had a shred of pre-game info about their opponents. I came to learn that the fans just don’t care about anything besides their silly candy-stripe-clad home team. They think they invented basketball over there. That’s why they’re so surprised and whiny when they lose a game.
Outside of this obvious character flaw in the residents, it’s a lovely place to live, though.
I hope to see more from Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, aka BBV, aka The Beast from Brussels, aka The Belgian Bad Boy, aka Bossman ForDunk in spelling Kofi going forward. If he can fight Purdue's two big men to a standstill, he can hold his own defensively with any frontcourt players in the Big Ten. Purdue was his coming out party, welcome to a more meaningful role as the Illini move forward.
BBV played his heart out yesterday, but to think he held his own is a stretch. The Illini didn't give up, but without Kofi, the middle was wide open for the Purdue guards to attack the paint. We were missing our shot blocker and inside presence. When they weren't doing attacking with their guards, they were running the offense through the middle. That said, yesterday proved to the doubters is the Illini are an elite team. We have Friday to figure out a rotation with Belo and (hopefully) a full game of Kofi. This team is scary good. (I'm not saying BBV isn't solid. But to think he should play more takes minutes from Kofi, which is laughable.)
Painter is the exception, not the rule. And keep in mind he's been very successful at Purdue, but in 16 seasons has yet to make the Final Four.
Also, you have to play to your strengths. Painter's strength is finding and developing talented but undervalued players, particularly bigs. BU is good at that, but not on Painter's level. He is a better recruiter than Painter though (to be fair, can't be easy to recruit to West Lafayette).
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