I hate playing Penn State in basketball.
I've been a diehard illini fan since 2005 (I was in second grade, first team I ever got invest into. Mom went to school there, is from Peoria, sports family. Deron's shot is my first real sports memory that was amazing, as well as Roger Powell's put back dunk against Louisville in the F4, Dee poking Felton(?) in the eye in the national title and getting a flagrant etc.). And ya know what? I don't have fond memories in my fanhood of Penn State.
I remember watching Rich McBride just miss edging out a win against Penn State in 2006.
Talor Battle beating us with free throws in 08 after McCamey hit a 3 to take the lead just seconds prior.
Talor Battle hitting free throws in the worst game I've ever seen the following year to beat us 38-33. (I still tell my buddies about this occasionally and they never believe me until they look it up themselves)
Talor Battle hitting a driving layup to beat us right before time expired at home that same season that really ended the year on a sour note. That was my first "Yep I'm an Illinois fan" moment. We then split the BTT and got upset by Western Kentucky in the first round. I'll tell ya what, I bawled my eyes out during that game. That was the first time as an Illinois fan in my short memory where everything just kinda wasn't right. So for you new fans, long time fans, whatever, in my young mind thats when it happened. How could we lose to Western Kentucky? We're Illinois!
Anyways, to give a little more info, no one on this team would probably ever be able to recall that game, or that Illinois was about to fall into an all-time program abyss.
I remember watching Talor Battle put 26 on us in 2011 and upset us when we were ranked. (I'm going to be honest, I LOVED Talor Battle even though he killed us. When I was younger I'd shoot hoops by myself imagining I was him. Loved his game)
Then there was Tim Frazier. Great player. He beat us in 2012. Our team started Sam Maniscalco that season. No further comments on that. Oh, and remember what I said about the beginning of the abyss? We were ranked coming off of BP43, and we dropped this one next time out. We proceeded to win 2 more games the rest of the season to end 17-16 overall and Bruce was out.
Then fast forward to 2016 and they beat us at their place. Who cares right? We stunk that year. But Malcolm Hill dropped a career high 39, and we lost. They ruined one of my all-time favorite illini's greatest scoring nights. Ugh. (And i believe he hit a driving layup to send it to OT?)
we then lost 6 straight games against Penn State. Through 2016-2019 we were winless.
Our loss to them earlier in the year was the post game fart noise press conference game. The big game that we look back on this year where nothing was truly the same. Just a few weeks later Skyy is gone, and we turn things around shortly after having now won 8 of 10.
Let's beat em on Tuesday just like we did in 2021 when Ayo dropped 30 and we won by 20. Or I'd be fine with beating them the year prior where Ayo's heroics really propelled our season back into the stratosphere. Either way, this is a big game. Can't afford to lose it. Win this one we are 5-5 in Quad 1, another road win, and we can get some revenge on the team that punked us just a few weeks ago.
Boys...
Let's go lion huntin'.
I've been a diehard illini fan since 2005 (I was in second grade, first team I ever got invest into. Mom went to school there, is from Peoria, sports family. Deron's shot is my first real sports memory that was amazing, as well as Roger Powell's put back dunk against Louisville in the F4, Dee poking Felton(?) in the eye in the national title and getting a flagrant etc.). And ya know what? I don't have fond memories in my fanhood of Penn State.
I remember watching Rich McBride just miss edging out a win against Penn State in 2006.
Talor Battle beating us with free throws in 08 after McCamey hit a 3 to take the lead just seconds prior.
Talor Battle hitting free throws in the worst game I've ever seen the following year to beat us 38-33. (I still tell my buddies about this occasionally and they never believe me until they look it up themselves)
Talor Battle hitting a driving layup to beat us right before time expired at home that same season that really ended the year on a sour note. That was my first "Yep I'm an Illinois fan" moment. We then split the BTT and got upset by Western Kentucky in the first round. I'll tell ya what, I bawled my eyes out during that game. That was the first time as an Illinois fan in my short memory where everything just kinda wasn't right. So for you new fans, long time fans, whatever, in my young mind thats when it happened. How could we lose to Western Kentucky? We're Illinois!
Anyways, to give a little more info, no one on this team would probably ever be able to recall that game, or that Illinois was about to fall into an all-time program abyss.
I remember watching Talor Battle put 26 on us in 2011 and upset us when we were ranked. (I'm going to be honest, I LOVED Talor Battle even though he killed us. When I was younger I'd shoot hoops by myself imagining I was him. Loved his game)
Then there was Tim Frazier. Great player. He beat us in 2012. Our team started Sam Maniscalco that season. No further comments on that. Oh, and remember what I said about the beginning of the abyss? We were ranked coming off of BP43, and we dropped this one next time out. We proceeded to win 2 more games the rest of the season to end 17-16 overall and Bruce was out.
Then fast forward to 2016 and they beat us at their place. Who cares right? We stunk that year. But Malcolm Hill dropped a career high 39, and we lost. They ruined one of my all-time favorite illini's greatest scoring nights. Ugh. (And i believe he hit a driving layup to send it to OT?)
we then lost 6 straight games against Penn State. Through 2016-2019 we were winless.
Our loss to them earlier in the year was the post game fart noise press conference game. The big game that we look back on this year where nothing was truly the same. Just a few weeks later Skyy is gone, and we turn things around shortly after having now won 8 of 10.
Let's beat em on Tuesday just like we did in 2021 when Ayo dropped 30 and we won by 20. Or I'd be fine with beating them the year prior where Ayo's heroics really propelled our season back into the stratosphere. Either way, this is a big game. Can't afford to lose it. Win this one we are 5-5 in Quad 1, another road win, and we can get some revenge on the team that punked us just a few weeks ago.
Boys...
Let's go lion huntin'.