OurMottoisOskeeWowWow
- Illinois
Need to be focused for this game. I think Underwood will make sure this team isn't thinking about Iowa.
Pregame: Illinois vs Penn State, Thursday, March 3rd, 6:00pm CT, FS1
- Status
Yeah, as BU addressed in his pre-game comments, our focus is the ncaa tournament. He has emphasized to his players the need for the best seed possible. So these players may be disappointed, but their drive is only intensified. BU mentioned, for the first time that I have seen, about him talking with the team about the Final Four.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
A reminder of how far we’ve come: Weber
Groce Underwood 
"I told the other coaches the other day I wasn't sure how well we would play," Weber said. "But I could have never anticipated this."
"Naismith probably rolled over several times," DeChellis said after Penn State's 38-33 victory over Illinois.
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I remember that game unfortunately. That had to be the biggest Brick Fest I've ever witnessed between two teams. At some point, it's not good defense, just really bad offenses.
That game...A reminder of how far we’ve come: Weber
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"I told the other coaches the other day I wasn't sure how well we would play," Weber said. "But I could have never anticipated this."
"Naismith probably rolled over several times," DeChellis said after Penn State's 38-33 victory over Illinois.
Current projections for the BTT considering kenpom win percentage. Seeds 4 thru 8 are still very complicated to compute statistically as there is an inordinate amount of tiebreakers to consider due to 5 teams within 1 loss of each other with 1.5games to go. So far Northwestern is the only team to clinch their seed.
To summarize:
1: Wisconsin or Illinois
2: Wisc, ILL, or Pur
3: Pur, ILL, Iowa, or OSU
4-8: ILL, Iowa, OSU, Rut, Mich, MSU
9-11: Ind/PSU/MD
12: Northwestern
13-14: Minn/Neb
And our Illini are most likely a 2-3 seed, with a small chance at the 1 seed, and an outside chance to fall to a 4 or 6 if, well, I don't care to say what would need to take place for that to happen. It'd be ugly on these boards. Interestingly enough there is no possibility of us winding up a 5 seed due to how the Illinois-Iowa-OSU tiebreakers work. Over the next few days things will get much clearer.
To summarize:
1: Wisconsin or Illinois
2: Wisc, ILL, or Pur
3: Pur, ILL, Iowa, or OSU
4-8: ILL, Iowa, OSU, Rut, Mich, MSU
9-11: Ind/PSU/MD
12: Northwestern
13-14: Minn/Neb
And our Illini are most likely a 2-3 seed, with a small chance at the 1 seed, and an outside chance to fall to a 4 or 6 if, well, I don't care to say what would need to take place for that to happen. It'd be ugly on these boards. Interestingly enough there is no possibility of us winding up a 5 seed due to how the Illinois-Iowa-OSU tiebreakers work. Over the next few days things will get much clearer.
the national
- the Front Range
Wisconsin beat them 51 to 49 I believe early in Feb. If we can break, that will help.
As Plummer went off on Mich in the first half I would hope we just pound it in to Kofi like we did to Wisc. They have no one to go up against Kofi. Get Harrah in foul trouble and the second half just play ILL basketball. As others have said, Psu will try to make this a low scoring game tonight. The way Psu played against Neb was a team that looked like they just packed it in. Go ILLINI. I hope that we just don't start jacking up 3's. Kofi has to be a big part of this game tonight.
Not so fast. This could get real interesting after tonight. Maryland could move into the 10 spot with our win against PSU tonight. Indiana is pretty much locked in the 9 seed as they will not beat a mad Purdue team. The battle to see who we might play will fall with the jumbled mess of Iowa, OSU, Rutgers, Mich and MSU. MSU has OSU and Maryland left. Mich has Iowa and OSU left. Rutgers has PSU left so that would give them a step up to get to the 12 win number and a small chance at the 4 seed. Iowa has Mich and us left. PSU has us and Rutgers left. PSU could easily fall into the 11 spot. Maryland can still get the 10 seed if they lose to MSU and PSU loses out as they have the tie breaker. Right now its a battle for 7th between MSU and Mich. We take care of business, we should play the winner of MSU/Mich vs Maryland unless some upsets happen.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
OSU was without Young and Key. Two very big parts of that program.
The advantage is that it could get us a day or even a two day extra rest. I think the B1G tourney wore us down last year mentally. Losing to PU a third time would lock us into the 4 seed. If we catch a break and play Friday, those two days will help. It affected OSU as they lost to Oral Roberts. I will say this, last year from the Semi's on to the final, those three games were hard fought brutal games.
I remember that horrorfest, we up 4 or 5 points in the second at one time and it felt like an insurmountable lead. Almost as bad as the 0 - 0 tie with Northwestern.Please don't ever mention that again. I'm going to have nightmares tonight.
Purdue is mad but Indiana is desperate after losing to Rutgers at home.
Dan
Admin
FS1 (Joe Davis & Casey Jacobsen)
fightingillini.com
Game Preview | #20 Illini Host Penn State Thursday - University of Illinois Athletics
No. 20 Illinois ends the regular season with a pair of home games, starting Thursday vs. Penn State (6 p.m. CT, FS1).
If you look at our losses we were without Kofi and Andre. Come on Neb beat Wisc.
Penn State is scrappy and generally plays us pretty tough and as sad as it is, I could certainly see us sleepwalking a little in this one especially considering what happened in the Wisconsin-Purdue game, us coming off a 90+ pt performance against Michigan, and with the Iowa game on tap. At this point, I'll be happy with any win in this one, even a tear your hair out one. In all I'm rather surprised by the line as PSU has kept most B10 games under a 10pt margin, so I'd take PSU against the line in this one. That said, whenever Vegas sets a surprising line, it seems inevitable for it to happen, so I'd be cool with seeing a big Illini victory today
I agree... the B10 tournament, being the last one played was a disadvantage to our teams last year, in the NCAA tournament. We need to figure out how to get the teams at least some rest time before start of NCAA tournament play. This is the best, and most intense league in the country, night in and night out. These teams beat up on each other all season long. I hope our depth helps us out this year!
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
I want to believe we can cruise to an easy victory, but recent history has shown that’s not the case. I think it will be close at some point (hopefully more towards the beginning of the game than the end) but I believe we win this game somewhere in the range of 7-10 points.
Biggest problem with this team is they are very evenly spread. They don’t have a go-to like Kofi or Plummer who can score every time. They are somewhat just kind of all the same- Pickett, Sessoms, Lundy and Harrar all average 10-13 points a game. This means they don’t have any one GREAT player, but 4 or so pretty good ones.
I fear they may use this to attack the Matchup on whoever Plummer is guarding, and this might even change throughout the game. I don’t worry about who Trent, Damonte and Kofi have to guard. It may be another game of “how long can Brad keep Plummer in based on how well he’s scoring”. If he’s hitting 5-6 threes in the first half, by all means- keep the man in.
It would be really nice to have BBV and Melendez back for some extra insurance, anyone know status? I saw RJ tweet “Back Soon
” but soon could mean anythingBut Indiana is not very good. Best quote ever. Bob Knight once was caught on tape saying: "I'm f*ckin tired of losing to Purdue!" They might want to cue that up in the locker room at halftime. The Hoosiers are currently losing to Purdue by seven, with 34.1 second left in the first half.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
I realize that, but the OP was saying OSU had a letdown as the reason for the loss. Just commenting that it was more of two key components (yes, just like our two) being out vs. a letdown.
That's all.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
For your listening pleasure. I truly miss his rants. As Pru would say.....I really really do.
I'd bet the transfer portal would be exploding with Indiana players if that A-hole was still there.
- Status