Pregame: Illinois vs Xavier, Friday, March 21st, 8:45pm CT, CBS
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Zorak
- Naperville
This is the kind of silly comment that makes people think anyone who doesn't go all-in on analytics is a philistine.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Other than rolling my eyes at one of the most common grammatical errors (seriously, how do people not realize it’s “COULDN’T care less,” lol?!), I don’t think he meant it as a diss at all. I think he was saying he was just going to enjoy this moment and worry about the Illini tomorrow.
Thoughts on the illini? - " I could care less" - Sean
Time to make him eat those words!
Opening line is Illinois - 2.5
illinifan31
Former Krush Cow
- South Bend, IN
You can always count on them. Despise ESPN
Zorak
- Naperville
It's not a conspiracy. Those are all Q1A's from the NET team sheet.
WOW, not biased at all hahaha
He's been waiting on this for two years for this. He'll the moist towel out!
It'll be interesting.
It'll be interesting.
Xavier is an opportunist three point shooting team. They shoot the three well but they don't shoot a lot of them unless you give it to them. They pass the ball well. They love to foul bait and get to the line a lot. They are a bad rebounding team, they rarely ever get offensive rebounds, those lack of second chance points make it a bit tough. and they don't have a lot of presence inside defensively. Their defense overall is solid but unspectacular. Resume wise they won 7 straight to end the regular season, although the only win in that stretch you'd call against a good opponent was home versus Creighton. They went 13-7 to tie for fourth (out of 11) in the fourth best conference and lost to Marquette in the Conference Tournament semifinals in an important game given their bubble status, with 7 of their conference wins against sub-100 NET teams. Out of Conference they got blown out by Michigan on a neutral floor. Overall they were 1-7 in Quad 1 games, 8-2 in Quad 2 games, 5-0 and 7-0 in Quads 3/4. Came into tonight 41st in KenPom, broken down as 52nd in aOffense and 43rd in aDefense. Their two best players (Freemantle and Conwell) were 2nd and 3rd team all Big East.
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Waiting for crowd to thin out a bit before leaving UD Arena. I’m glad that Xavier won (and not just because here with some Xavier fans). Both teams are good, but neither great. Xavier is solid-good, while I’d call Texas explosive-good. If you asked me which team are Illini more likely to win or lose by 20, the answer is Texas. But more likely to win or lose by 10 would be Xavier. Both teams have some good players, but Xavier doesn’t have that one guy of whom you’re scared. Tre Johnson on Texas is really good, and there was plenty of talent around him.
Should be a good game Friday. Like our chances. Play a B+ game with effort and we’ll win. Any worse though and could be a disappointing Friday night.
Go Illini!
Should be a good game Friday. Like our chances. Play a B+ game with effort and we’ll win. Any worse though and could be a disappointing Friday night.
Go Illini!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
To be fair, this is UNC's preview. I was expecting a list of Q2 wins lol
I guess that covers all the bases, doesn't it. Rock solid prediction.
I was hoping like hell for Texas because the sh*t talking train was starting at my house, leaving every 5 minutes on time, and never stopping.
With the Terry news… will the winner of this game be our coach next year?
They listed 4 of Auburns 5 losses for me. The filter is a top tier hater
illinifan31
Former Krush Cow
- South Bend, IN
Ah. I was confused why Arkansas, Oregon, and Wisconsin wins were missing. I feel like ESPN used to highlight key wins and loses as well, not just straight highest NET games in a row. We have the worst one I saw of any team's.
Edit: I checked and only us, Oklahoma, Marquette, Alabama State and Baylor have only 1 win. UNC has 0. Kind of seems like a useless stat to just show the top NET games only but oh well. I'm sure it's just a continued decline of ESPN and an increase of phoning it in.
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Orangetool
Give me back my Afta, heh heh
We did not want to face Texas, big, athletic, a good Maryland compare.
It played out pretty well, Xavier having to have the big comeback.
I only wish they could have won it in a double OT game, with big emotion. Then the letdown that the Illini take advantage of.
It played out pretty well, Xavier having to have the big comeback.
I only wish they could have won it in a double OT game, with big emotion. Then the letdown that the Illini take advantage of.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
I think Xavier benefited from essentially having a home crowd tonight, especially during the late run to win it. Texas definitely got flustered for a few minutes. Should hopefully be the exact opposite on Friday.
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