Pregame: Illinois vs Kentucky, Sunday, March 23rd, 4:15pm CT, CBS

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#201      
SummerofGeorge
IlliniDave1987 said:
In 1984 one of the best and one of my favorite ever Illini MBB team (though with many close seconds) played Kentucky in the elite 8 game. Our team was loaded - Winters, Douglas, Altenberger, Montgomery, (and a young Ken Norman?). Game was at Kentucky! Our guys ended up losing by 3. The game ended on a missed tie up / Kentucky traveling call. The announcers saw it but the refs were afraid to make the call. That elite 8 game was played on Kentucky’s home court! Another interesting aspect was that it was Illinois’ second shot at the cats that season - the first one was Christmas Eve in Champaign when 3 HS refs had to be pulled from their seats in the stands cause weather prevented the ncaa crew from getting there. The Illini lost on a last shot make. Those Illini HS refs were way better than the crew that would look the other way in the spring. Not that I’m bitter…
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Also interesting that we beat Maryland to get to that game.
 
#202      
IlliniDave1987
Peteronthespot said:
People may not know that Illinois played Kentucky twice in that 83-84 season. The Illini lost by 2 in Champaign before the elite 8 loss in Lexington. Also, Efrem Winters sadly passed away just this January. Maybe he’s looking out for the team up there. We haven’t played Kentucky since he graced our team.
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Did not know Efrem passed. RIP 😢one of the all time greats…
 
#204      
HensonHall71
I’m interested in the matchups in this one I imagine we’ll do:
KJ on Butler
Kylan on Oweh
Tomi on Williams
Riley on Carr
Tre on Brea?

They might flip Carr and Brea guarding us. Carr will likely try to post whoever is guarding him but he can’t guard either Will or Tre on the other end outside so that will be one key- which team takes advantage of that matchup more
 
#205      
New Creation
Second place is 1st loser said:
Taking the O & B glasses off extremely momentarily, the NCAA did us a solid for putting us in Milwaukee. Not sure what we did to deserve it and what Wisconsin did to also be a #3 seed and get shipped out?

We got a protected seed, even though we're a 6. Not sure why, but I'll be there in my O & B, loud and proud.
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If I were to guess.. our SOS out of conference. we hit that 6 line it was a perfect set up for us. But if I were Kentucky, I would be worried as well. that place is going to be 75/25 Illini.. Mainly because this game is on a Sunday. If this game was on a Saturday Big Blue Nation would have shown up in force. making it more 50/50
 
#209      
From the cheap seats
We are a much different, more complete team than we were even when we were at our highest ratings.
1) Kylan is playing his best as an Illini
2) Will has blossomed. He is a matchup nightmare. He let last night’s game come to him…and then he went off. His defense is worlds better than 2 months ago.
3) Tomi is healthy again.
4) Morez looks like he is getting back to close to 100%
5) KJ looked closer to his old self against a tough Xavier team than any time in the past few weeks.
6) Tre is again a solid contributor in all phases.
7) Ben has been better in most of the past few games. He just might hit a few threes at any time.
8) Yes, it’s Kool-Aid time for me!😀
 
#210      
PopChampaign
OA built different 😤 wearing the TSJ shirt

Some players are shaped by tough environments, where survival and resilience were key (ayo, tsj etc) heart and grit come from how they were raised, the challenges they faced growing up, etc. if it was up to me we always need a player like that on the squad, this year, Morez comes to mind first and hopefully next year he’ll stay and shine bright amongst the best forwards in the nation
 
#213      
illinifan1987
We beat Maryland in the S16 that year?
Approve South Park GIF
 
#215      
fishbed
IlliniDave1987 said:
In 1984 one of the best and one of my favorite ever Illini MBB team (though with many close seconds) played Kentucky in the elite 8 game. Our team was loaded - Winters, Douglas, Altenberger, Montgomery, (and a young Ken Norman?). Game was at Kentucky! Our guys ended up losing by 3. The game ended on a missed tie up / Kentucky traveling call. The announcers saw it but the refs were afraid to make the call. That elite 8 game was played on Kentucky’s home court! Another interesting aspect was that it was Illinois’ second shot at the cats that season - the first one was Christmas Eve in Champaign when 3 HS refs had to be pulled from their seats in the stands cause weather prevented the ncaa crew from getting there. The Illini lost on a last shot make. Those Illini HS refs were way better than the crew that would look the other way in the spring. Not that I’m bitter…
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the geniuses at NCAA headquarters decide after that ——— that teams in the tourney would no longer get to play on their home court ?
 
#219      
Birdus
There are only two teams out of conference that I dislike more than Kentucky. One of them is Duke. The other is, you guessed it. UNC.
 
#223      
OrangeBlue98
I was listening to the last two Illini Inquirer podcasts (last night and today) on the drive home from a family event in the Quad Cities. If I heard this correctly, Illinois has made the second weekend in back to back seasons just three times in our history.

If Illinois does win tomorrow, given everything that has happened this season and that statistical nugget I would consider this season a pretty big success.
 
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