Assuming that the 2 quad 1 wins were Texas & UCLA.. little did we know that Texas win would be our final Quad 1 win on the season.. which was played I think beginning of December? Yuck.
Pregame: Illinois at Penn State, Saturday, January 3rd, 6:00pm CT, BTN
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Yes, those were the only two that year.
Surprisingly, even though the 23-24 team had a good Q1 record, they beat just one team that finished ranked in the AP poll all season (Iowa St in the E8).
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I had tickets to see the inaugural version of Bruce Weber's Illini v. John Cheney's Temple Owls in the Palestra on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend 2003. Bought them in Sept. that fall and was so looking forward to seeing the team there. Something came up during Thanksgiving in the Midwest and I couldn't get back to DC in time, so missed a resounding Illini win.
I've been waiting 22 years for this coming Saturday evening.
In the "old" days (mid-1970s), I played at the Palestra (vs. Penn). An interesting older gymnasium for sure. It was a difficult gym in which to play. At that time, there was a HUGE bank of lights on one side (only, it seemed) of the court; that made it difficult to shoot from the corner when facing that direction.
Iowa is good this year. Offense has good sets and motion. We'll coached. Big team also, dont know if they can rebound with us. Hopefully they dont hit 15-3's!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Haven't watched them a ton this year, but they strike me as an inverse of what we got used to in the Fran years ... they don't seem to rely as much on raining threes, and their defense is good! It will be a battle, and it would be a massive feather in our cap as far as our resume goes!!
(@Dan, feel free to delete or move!)
Also, assuming Iowa and our Illini stay ranked, this would be the first top 25 matchup in this rivalry since we won the 74-72 thriller to clinch the Big Ten championship in 2022. Would be just the ninth time since 2000 where we have both been ranked, with the vast majority being during this recent 5-year stretch.
2026 - #20 Illinois at #25 Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
2022 - #20 Illinois 74, #24 Iowa 72 (Champaign, IL)
2021 - #3 Illinois 82, #5 Iowa 71 (BTT Semifinals in Indianapolis, IN)
2021 - #19 Illinois 80, #7 Iowa 75 (Champaign, IL)
2020 - #23 Illinois 78, #18 Iowa 76 (Champaign, IL)
2020 - #18 Iowa 72, #19 Illinois 65 (Iowa City, IA)
2006 - #8 Illinois 71, #20 Iowa 59 (Champaign, IL)
2005 - #1 Illinois 73, #23 Iowa 68 in OT (Champaign, IL)
2002 - #11 Illinois 77, #17 Iowa 66 (Champaign, IL)
Gotta take care of PSU first, of course! Bad or not, this gym will be an intimidating atmosphere if their fans show up. On that note ... any Illini fans going to this one?? With PSU being down bad, hopefully their Philly alumni don't come out in full force, and we can get a good showing of orange in that place!
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
JMO - this team has high floor and should beat a mediocre PSU team. 9-4 with losses at home vs Providence, Pitt and MSU on road at IU. No top 50 wins.
1. Wagler is a rock. Only poor games were UCONN (only played 14 min) and Bama (shot 2-9). In retrospect Brad should have played him more vs UCONN.
2. Tomas / Big Z combo give Brad tremendous flexibility. If one is having bad game put in the other.
3. Mirkovic just rebounds rebounds and rebounds.
4. Humrichous brings hustle, rebounding defense and occasional 3.
X-factor fo ceiling
1. Boswell keeps getting injured. Cannot decide if he wants to be a scorer or not. Prefer he not launch stepback 3's.
2. Stojakovic needs to get more aggressive. Stop launching 3's not a good 3 point shooter. Go practice 1000 3's per day like TSJ this summer if you want to shoot them. Catch the ball and drive to the hoop. pass if you get double teamed - somebody is open.
3. If Davis can stay at 40% on 3's he should launch at every opportunity.
1. Wagler is a rock. Only poor games were UCONN (only played 14 min) and Bama (shot 2-9). In retrospect Brad should have played him more vs UCONN.
2. Tomas / Big Z combo give Brad tremendous flexibility. If one is having bad game put in the other.
3. Mirkovic just rebounds rebounds and rebounds.
4. Humrichous brings hustle, rebounding defense and occasional 3.
X-factor fo ceiling
1. Boswell keeps getting injured. Cannot decide if he wants to be a scorer or not. Prefer he not launch stepback 3's.
2. Stojakovic needs to get more aggressive. Stop launching 3's not a good 3 point shooter. Go practice 1000 3's per day like TSJ this summer if you want to shoot them. Catch the ball and drive to the hoop. pass if you get double teamed - somebody is open.
3. If Davis can stay at 40% on 3's he should launch at every opportunity.
Look at Iowa's schedule. Best win is Maryland at home. If Illini lose there they will have no chance to compete for big ten title.
They could’ve easily beaten Iowa State on the road if it weren’t for a horrible call. It’s a road game against a ranked B10 team, they’re never easy.
I think one of the reasons certain people here tend to have such epic meltdowns after losses… is that they label games against very good teams as “unlosable” or “should not lose” way too habitually. Iowa on the road is a losable game for anybody in the B10 (other than perhaps Michigan).
Yup, would not surprise me if they finish the year top 5 in conference standings.
any road game in the big ten is dangerous... but if this team wants to take that next step and compete for the big ten then this is a must win. we already gave away the Nebraska game.
yes Iowa could have won against Iowa State but they didn't and we know rivalry games can be odd. that being said their best wins are against Grand canyon and 8-5 Ole Miss. take care of business, get this win because it's a great opportunity for Q1 win
Kinda odd looking back at the schedule - we beat at the time #14 Wisconsin, didn’t age to quad 1. #21 NW win wasn’t quad 1 (hard to believe, that NW squad was good). Then we went to the two Indiana schools, and gave them fits right up to the buzzer.
Point being, AP rankings don’t matter lol
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Man, I’ll tell you what, this is only a one season sample size, so I can look more into this tomorrow, but looking at the 23 season seeding compared to last year, it seems like analytics are used a whole lot more.
For example, in 23, KenPom had 5 teams in the top 25 receive 8 or 9 seeds (underseeded basically). Last year, just one. If you look through KenPom, you can even see how much more closely seedlings follow KP rankings.
Did photoshop exist when that episode was made?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Rivalry games can indeed be odd … and that’s exactly what Iowa/Illinois will be, in a hostile environment for us. It’ll be tough.
If we have the Nebraska overreactions/negativity all over again for losing @top 25 Iowa... then I really think people need to realize it isn't that deep. IMO - if we have 5 losses at the end of January (last year we had 7, some to pretty bad teams), that'd be a fine first part of the season.
You'd still have remaining road opportunities against MSU, Nebby, and the West Coast swing. I personally would be very surprised if we don't win any of Iowa, Purdue, MSU, Nebraska. But I also don't see it realistic to say we'll go 4-0 or even 3-1.
Big Ten is very good this year, especially at the top and middle. Road wins especially won't come easy. Going 14-6 - on top of our non-con gauntlet - should be enough for a 3 seed.
For me this is all about consistency in all phases....continuing to improve and eliminating blunders.....striving for a level of competency that has staying power against the best teams on any night. That is the goal and winning is the by-product of maintaining an elite level of play. Move the ball and defend. Keep turnovers to single digits, and hit open shots. Rinse and repeat.
Illini fan in Tennessee
- Eastern Tennessee
Go Fighting Illini. Beat the brakes off the Shittany Lions.
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