uofi7477
- Silver & Gold Vandals
I bet that you don't have a beach house.
Pregame: Illinois vs USC, Saturday, January 11th, 11:00am CT, BTN
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blackdog
- Champaign
I was watching that thinking how much more fun it would have been if BU had that group. They could have really done some damage.
Paul, Richardson, and Egwu were fun to watch. Abrams, too, when he could play. That was fun, except for seeing Groce on the sideline...now knowing what he did to the program.
You worked a little too hard for that one.
theNewGuy
- Dallas, TX
That 2012-2013 team was when I actually started following Illini Basketball. Loved that team!
(I wish I was older than 8 years old to enjoy 05)
I wish I was 8 years old in '05.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Meh.........
In the big scheme of things and in the stand-out history of ILLINI basketball, this was not a really talented team. Weber and Groce mostly recruited 3-star talent. It was painful, and more like watching Rutgers or Northwestern basketball. We may have gotten attached to the players and the personalities, but we were not going to win any Big 10 titles with that bunch.
On the other hand, the teams recruited and coached by Henson, Kruger, Self and Underwood have all been head/shoulders above that really lean stretch of eight years in the early 2010's. Just not up to our standards. Sorta like the entire decade of the 1970's!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I don't really, either, but I like to look at the official Instagram page for whatever team we are about to play, both out of curiosity to see how they market their programs compared to ours and to see the general perspective of their fans. After looking at USC's, their fans (who admittedly seem VERY much of the casual/less informed type, lol) seem pretty annoyed with the program, and there is a definite perception that USC starts games out alright and fades in the second half. Hopefully we keep up the pressure, because even if the Trojans are playing well early and hitting shots, hopefully we should be able to wear them down with our physicality and great defense.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Agreed, but I do think this group suffered from some pretty meh coaching, haha ... as I am sure we would all agree, and I liked Groce a lot at the time! He still seems like a great guy, and I wish him success. But one thing strikes me when I watch highlights from that era, and I have ZERO stats to back this up, FWIW - those teams seemed to have so many players that could SHOOT! And yet we were bad, because it seems like our offensive and defensive schemes were just SO inferior to what came before them or what we have now. For example, I have so many memories of Fake Comebacks™ from that era where we would be down 6-8 with like 1:30 left and just start raining threes to come back and make it close, only to lose. It was honestly impressive that I had a decent amount of confidence that 4 out of 5 players on the floor could knock down a three, but the fact is we were down 6-8 late for a reason, lol.
In general, though, I of course agree. I loved those players, but they (A) were not as talented as the guys we have had here lately and (B) really suffered from a lack of supporting pieces - the latter being night and day worse than our current situation. One time someone made a comment about those teams with some rose-tinted glasses on, and another poster responded with a link to our 2015 NIT loss at Alabama, haha. I'll spare anyone the pain of posting that, but let's just say we lost 79-58 in front of a pathetic Alabama crowd of 2K fans and we wore our hideous gray uniforms ... and our play was as ugly as the uniforms.
So thankful for where we are!
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
That '12-13 team absolutely had the talent to compete against almost anyone in the country. Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson were both seniors and were Top 50 recruits out of high school. Bertrand, Abrams, Myke Henry, and Egwu (and I think Griffey in some services) were also Top 100, 4-star guys and we had two excellent transfers in Rayvonte Rice (future All Big Ten but couldn't play yet in that season) and Sam "F It, I'm Going to Illinois" McLaurin. We won Maui with those guys, and destroyed Gonzaga in Spokane starting off 13-1 before it became apparent Groce didn't quite have the coaching chops to hang with B1G coaches in Xs and Os. With someone like Brad on the sidelines I have no doubt we could have done some serious damage with that team.
Any updates on KJ?
Heard he had eggs, plant based sausages and fruit for breakfast. No word on lunch plans just yet.
Even future lottery picks are still 18-year-olds who get the occasional "forearm injury."
We also shouldn't forget that Ace Baldwin did get his back blown out in this one.
A little flop 'll do you.
They are coached by Musselman(Coached Arky when they beat us in the tourney 2 years ago)who kinda reminds me of Brad a bit in that he loves recruiting size and athletes. Muss has been a great recruiter, but his teams have tended to play kinda frenetic and sloppy at time.
This USC team isn't particularly great but they do have some size and athleticism. They don't really have a great interior but they're simply big across the board.
They beat Washington by 24 on the road, while they have lost to each of Oregon, Michigan, and Indiana by 10ish pts. They played a fairly weak non con and got destroyed by St Marys.
The Illini should take care of business at home but USC is talented enough to hang around and steal one of the Illini and play poorly. They are a team made basically entirely of transfers so it's possible their best basketball is ahead and a lot of the guys did have success at the mid major level. 6 guys basically all score double digits and while think Cohen is too soft to really do damage on Ivisic or Morez but the other 5 are all capable of scoring if the Illini have their patented let some guy have a career night.
Illinois is averaging 95 points a game over the last 5 games. If you take out the Chicago State game, it's still 90 points a game. USC is the 84th most efficient team defensively. This should be a demolishing.
try 63!
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Assuming KJ is healthy and playing, I see this game going one of two ways.
1) USC comes out motivated after what happened last night and keeps it close for a half and maybe a few minutes in the second half. Illinois then wears them down and ends up winning by 12-15 or so.
2) We see something similar to last night, but maybe not a 40-point blowout. Maybe something closer to a 25-point win after letting off the gas a little bit.
I watched a good portion of the USC game against Michigan. They really struggled against UM's size. I don't see how they can keep up with Illinois' size and depth for 40 minutes.
1) USC comes out motivated after what happened last night and keeps it close for a half and maybe a few minutes in the second half. Illinois then wears them down and ends up winning by 12-15 or so.
2) We see something similar to last night, but maybe not a 40-point blowout. Maybe something closer to a 25-point win after letting off the gas a little bit.
I watched a good portion of the USC game against Michigan. They really struggled against UM's size. I don't see how they can keep up with Illinois' size and depth for 40 minutes.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
I would let KJ rest another game. We can handle USC without him, and we'll need him for the two road games next week (and to be healthy late in the season).
try 56 in reverse!!
uofi7477
- Silver & Gold Vandals
User-name checks out!
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