Pregame: Illinois vs UConn, Saturday, April 4th, 5:09pm CT, TBS

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#478      
ChiefGritty
Homecoming 2019 said:
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).
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That Michigan win was especially big because it came off the heels of us choking away a big lead late at #3 Maryland in what could have and should have been a breakthrough moment.

Four days later we come back home and beat #5 Michigan.

Kind of the Underwood era in miniature. Able to stop problems from happening? Absolutely not, but he's always been able to have an answer when they do.

But another underrated one was when Andy Katz, unbiased national CBB expert with no particular skin in the game, put us in his preseason top 25 that year, off the back of two years at the bottom of the Big Ten and having not made the tournament in six years. A vote of confidence like that from outside the program definitely raised my eyebrow.
 
#481      
blue84
Homecoming 2019 said:
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).
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I think when I started to feel it was a program turnaround and not a short-term high, was when Ayo committed to coming back after his freshman year. Many moments have helped get us back to where we are now.
 
#488      
RIP_Chief_2003
AnnaMay said:
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.
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Yes we’ve been able to play a 2-3 quite a few minutes this year. Z is quick enough to get to the baseline man…
 
#489      
Altuve27
Connecticut will be seeing a COMPLETELY different team. As others have mentioned Petrovic played 18 minutes and Brandon Lee played 11.

Wagler played 14 minutes and had 3 points. Glancing back at the box score from the first game was surreal.
 
#490      
altgeld88
Homecoming 2019 said:
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).
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For me it was 10 days before "this won't end well for Illinois..." in Madison Square Garden (January 2019) when the boys took down #13 Maryland. Tevian Jones' coming-out party (18 pts). Ayo had 20. Adonis De La Rosa got in Bruno Fernandez' head. I believe that was our first substantial win since BU took the reins.
 
#493      
RollChief
AirTran said:
(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.
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This is an intimidating stat at first glance, but if you dig in a bit, on KenPom they're 1-1 in that stretch when they're the underdog.

I fully agree that a big part of going 17-1 comes from superior coaching, but it also comes from the team being an absolute wagon over that time period. I think it's fair to note that this year's UConn team is not 2023 or 2024. They got embarrassed 2 weeks ago by a St. John's team that was good but streaky, and embarrassed even worse by a sub-par Marquette team the week before that. I think it's also fair to say that this year's Illini is not 2024 Illinois, we're much more well-rounded. I don't think UConn has played a team as complete this year as us right now (including November 2025 Illini); as many posters have noted, Duke is a great team but was vulnerable, and UConn's first true upset in their historic run that started in 2023 (someone quote me if I'm wrong).

I also think it's fair to note that the last few times we've played UConn, they've been within a few hours of their campus at MSG and TD Garden in Boston. Now we're pulling them into our territory in Indianapolis.
 
#494      
ptgrd23
wondering about exactly the same thing…except i would be flying out of NYC for it.

as it currently stands, i am leaning towards sitting this one out. The two weekends I spent in Greenville and then in Houston are easily the best moments I have ever had as an Illini fan without a doubt. My streak is still prefect - Illinois has not lost when I see them in person!!! I will take all the credit i can get🤣…but convincing my wife to let me go again this weekend (she did come with me on the Greenville trip fwiw) and managing PTO/remote work for next Monday and Tuesday are gonna be a challenge…
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Just paid $4.5k per seat for equivalent of Assembly hall low C. We are in section 213. It is for both sessions. If we lose I will resale the finals tickets and guessing get 50% back if somehow we lose. I remember 1989 when Bill Freider quite Michigan for AZ state and Steve Fisher got his chance.
 
#495      
Homecoming 2019
ChiefGritty said:
That Michigan win was especially big because it came off the heels of us choking away a big lead late at #3 Maryland in what could have and should have been a breakthrough moment.

Four days later we come back home and beat #5 Michigan.

Kind of the Underwood era in miniature. Able to stop problems from happening? Absolutely not, but he's always been able to have an answer when they do.

But another underrated one was when Andy Katz, unbiased national CBB expert with no particular skin in the game, put us in his preseason top 25 that year, off the back of two years at the bottom of the Big Ten and having not made the tournament in six years. A vote of confidence like that from outside the program definitely raised my eyebrow.
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Forgot about that Maryland choke, wow that one hurt. Their PG went nuclear and drilled a 30ft 3 to win it if im remembering correctly. Of course that could be any of the last decade of games vs Maryland.
 
#496      
JKR
CHK71185 said:
Ncaa Basketball GIF by Fighting Illini Athletics
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1774905637525.png
 
#499      
Chase321
JKR said:
Early foul trouble.
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I don’t think this is true. He finished with 3 fouls. While he may have picked up a couple of fouls early (I don’t know) he wouldn’t have sat for 26 minutes because of that alone. He hadn’t yet been handed the role he has now.
 
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