They are picking the jerseys not the teams. UCONN has a recent history of winning championships while our recent history is competing in the tournament. I wouldn’t read too much into this.
Pregame: Illinois vs UConn, Saturday, April 4th, 5:09pm CT, TBS
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Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
How is mirk and Z going to play defense against their guys running all over the place? If you talking zone D, then sure, otherwise Im not sure how Mirk is going to guard Karaban. Im sure that is why Ben had so many minutes in the first game. Its a legit problem.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Where was everyone's moment where it felt like things might turn around for Illinois as a program? I was thinking either Ayo commitment or the "this wont end well for Illinois" call against Michigan State his freshmen year. Or maybe beating Michigan in early 2019 (covid season).
Geared up down here in Austin for Saturday watch party.
Maybe this is just my orange tinted glasses... But I feel like we can take better advantage of this week of prep than they can. Why? Our offense is pretty simple so there isn't much for UConn to prepare for. We spread you out and hunt the mismatch.
Two Illinois shirts, you mean.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
I sat in the upper section on the baseline for our Final Four game against Louisville at the Jones Dome. It was fine. Roger Powell's famous putback dunk off his own shot was on our end, and the memory of that is etched into my brain.
Keep in mind they only use one end of the stadium (at least that's what they did at the Jones Dome), so it's not like you're trying to see the 50 yard line from the corner of the upper deck.
I will say it's certainly not as good as the seats at USC where they let drunk ladies wander onto the floor in the middle of the game.
Seating diagram suggests court will be centered at the 50.
ESPN knows as much about RECRUITING as they know about spelling.
That's how it was in 2015.
The upper deck is very very far, especially so if you're in the corner.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yep, forget what the ~spread~ is, I hope the guys use it as motivation that we are BY FAR the "sentimental underdog" of this Final Four to most people. The narrative is that Arizona / Michigan is effectively the National Championship Game, and if any team were to disrupt that reality, well it's SURELY UConn with its voodoo magic in the NCAA Tournament. Even if we get past UConn, many will treat it as a forgone conclusion that we're toast in the next game.
Hopefully that gives us a chip on our shoulder, and we come out on fire!
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Groundhog Day.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
Well that will be interesting then
I believe everything you wrote is 100% accurate.
Four areas of significant difference (between Houston and UCONN) in addition to your observations (sorry this is so long):
(1) UCONN is one of the best passing teams in college basketball (9th in the country in assists) - That certainly showed up in Sunday's game against Duke. It presents a different paradigm in the matchups we commit to defensively. Leaving cover to double down is going to be a problem against them. I have written about read and recognition of mismatch, UCONN does it as well as we do. And that should be the case - that is clearly what Brad and Co learned 2 years ago when they hammared us in the elite 8.
(2) UCONN is in a different league from Houston as it relates to 3pt defense (they rank 15th in the country) and overall FGA% (19th in the country).
(3) UCONN's press is one of the best in the country and Duke had no answer for it on Sunday. No lead is safe against them.
(4) We can write all the obsrvations about Dan Hurley's bench histrionics. But the guy is a superior floor coach. His teams have gone 17-1 in the past 4 NCAA tournaments. They have won 30 games in three of the past 4 years. That does not happen if your team isn't better coached than the opposition. And that certainly was the case against Duke. You don't win National Championships without top level coaching.
One last comment on item 4. The team that the Illini staff built this year is based on the education we received from UCONN 2 years ago. Size, strength, all 8 players can score but most of all, we can rebound and play defense. Kudos go to everyone at Illinois for the self realization of what it takes to be successful in the NCAA and building the physical and mental toughness required to compete. I have read alot of complaining about the revolving door of 4* players coming and going from Champaign. But if you look at the 8 players that will take the floor against UCONN, they are in Illini (Orange or White) because they fit the above description.
Really looking forward to Saturday. It will be our toughest test this season. I am hoping our "silent swagger" bests the froneticism (starting with their coach) that UCONN brings.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I'll just cheer when the other Illini fans seem to be cheering, as if I am reacting to a speech from some general in ancient times but I'm about 3 hills away and can't hear anything he's saying.
FWIW, this is the current Ticketmaster map for Saturday.
I would assume the later game teams would get the seats behind each bench, just like in the Sweet Sixteen setup? If so, I am guessing Illinois is in that 136-139 and up part, given those tickets are all but gone. Looking back at some older pictures of the 2005 Final Four (shoutout, LaPayne Photography in Champaign ... really wish they still put out work!!), I am guessing the crowd split will be similar to this photo, where Illinois and Louisville filled both levels of their sections, MSU and UNC did not and the "unassigned" areas were a solid majority orange. Keep us as Illinois, swap Michigan for Louisville, Arizona for UNC and UConn for MSU, but probably with fewer fans than they had. The bigger photo is here, but this is a slimmed down version:
P.S. Your eye sort of plays a trick on you and makes it seem like there aren't that many more Illini fans than any other fan base, especially with how impressively Louisville traveled and that they are closer in the panorama. However, when you (A) consider that not every single Illini fan there was in orange and (B) start to scan the upper deck closely, you realize just what a crowd advantage we had. It was even more pronounced for the title game, when Illini fans scooped up 90%+ of the tickets held by Louisville and MSU fans:
(Link)
Same optical illusion here, as your eye trains on the couple sections that are solid orange and then sees the Carolina blue sort of "sparkle" throughout the rest of the stadium, but when you look at any one area, you realize that cumulatively we had like 75%+ of the crowd! Excited to paint Indy orange!!
You could tell by his reactions then versus now where his heart truly lies. He was happy and thrilled by the UCONN win, but that's not his true love... Time to win Bill Murray back
2020. 17 point win at Mackey.
I'll be honest, up to that point, I was not BU's biggest fan. We had just came off two of our worst seasons ever. I came into that 2020 season with tournament expectations having junior Trent and Damonte, sophomore Ayo and Giorgi, and freshman Kofi on the roster.
We started the season with losses to Arizona by a million, Miami, Maryland, Missouri, and Michigan St.
Great, here comes another 20 loss season.
We go on a little four game winning streak and a little ember of hope ignites inside me. Then we play Purdue at Mackey. Even though Purdue was down that year, I'm thinking ok if we can win this one, we might really have something.
We cruised to a 17 point win.
What I failed to realized is that Brad had spent the first semester installing a new defense. This, of course, would become his calling card. Problem solving. Adapting. Especially during semester break.
We signed Adam Miller and Andre Curbello that summer. I told my grandpa, huge Illini fan who was probably about 70 at the time, "You're about to see the greatest era of Illini basketball of YOUR lifetime."
He called me after the game on Saturday and we talked about that.
FO68 — dumb
Hopefully "his buddy" isn't working on Saturday
Sometimes I genuinely can’t tell if they’re being clever and saying this on purpose to drive engagement, or if they’re just guessing
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Best way to do that is hire his son. Maybe down the road he will be a great head coach to pursue.
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