Gonzaga with a nice March Madness tuneup game against Chicago State.
2/28 Weekday Games
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Likely I am one of a handful here who actually was at that game and still can't believe that not only did Herb Williams allow Smedley to steal the ball with around 10 seconds or so left in the game...but also that Smedley, who played very little for Carver that year, grabbed the ball at the baseline and buried a 10 ft. jumper to win Carver the game. Hard to believe Carver, with Cazzie Russell leading the team, was beaten the previous year when Dave Golden led Pekin to the title over the legendary Cobden Appleknockers. Cudos to anyone who knows what an appleknocker is.
In 58 years of following B1G hoops, this is by far the most competitive the league has ever been that I can remember. It has been so enjoyable to watch so many meaningful dog fights through every week of play. I have had more interest in games not involving the Illini than ever before. Twelve 13 teams have fought hard every game and provided their fans with some very competent play. The three pt. arc has made the game so much more competitive. Wish they had it when I played.
Tacomallini
- Washington State
In a normal year, I'm checking the B1G standings a couple times a week. This year, I'm checking a couple times a day.
Reminds of SEC football teams playing FCS teams in mid November every year.Gonzaga with a nice March Madness tuneup game against Chicago State.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Goillinikobd
- Southeastern US
Rolling into the SEX tournament led by Calipari, Antigua, and Chin? Sounds like quite a Friday night. Good luck!
Are you referring to Anthony Smedley from Chicago Carver in 62 or 63?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Compare that to the standings in a season like 2005 (NCAAT teams italicized):
#1 Illinois: 15-1 (Final Four - NC Game as #1 seed)
#15 Michigan State: 13-3 (Final Four as #5 seed)
#20 Wisconsin: 11-5 (Elite Eight as #6 seed)
Indiana: 10-6
Minnesota: 10-6 (First Round as #8 seed)
Ohio State: 8-8
Iowa: 7-9 (First Round as #10 seed)
Northwestern: 6-10
Michigan: 4-12
Purdue: 3-13
Penn State: 1-15
Crazy how much more separation there was and a clearly established "upper tier" of the conference. However, it's worth nothing that 5 teams out of 11 (as seen above) is pretty much the same as 7-8 out of 14 (what we'll see this year), and the media called the Big Ten weak ALL year in 2005; it turned out they were quite wrong, as we were pretty damn close to having 3 of the 4 Final Four teams. Maybe we'll do better in March flying under the radar again!
Our team went to the super sectional and saw them beat Benny Louis(sp) (played at Illinois) from Collinsville I believe. Cobden had 4 starters 6' 5" and over. They beat Stephen Decatur in the semi-final before losing to Pekin. I believe there were less than 100 students in that deep Southern Illinois school.
I remember the Smedley shot very well. Centralia had three all state players in in Herb Williams, Donnie Duncan, and Ron Johnson. They also had Cliff Berger on the bench. He played at Kentucky later on.
I hear it hasn’t been the same in recent years without Bo Ryan and Rick Pitino.
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Rutgers blows a 14 point 2nd half lead and loses at Minnesota tonight.
The end of that game was absolutely nuts. The game winner and then another unnecessary 10 minutes to review it was ridiculous.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
ASU giving UCLA a game so far, but wow does Bobby Hurley look older than 51.
And he yells!!!!
And he yells!!!!
Ignatius Shang
5th year PhD, school of Information Sciences
- Champaign, IL
It was such a pity that Antoine Davis ended up 4 points short of breaking Pete Maravich's record...
Whisky making Purdue work for it . . .
Some records are not meant to be broken. Especially when the player trying to break a record set over 3 years starts every game for 5 years.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Go Bucky!
If we would’ve beaten Iowa, Penn State atleast once, Ohio State in Columbus, and Indiana once we probably would’ve won the B1G regular season championship. You got to beat the teams you should beat and some of the teams we normally beat just had our number this year. Good season though. On to West Lafayette and the tourney’s. You just never know in the tourney what can happen. This year seems to be wide open.
You can say that about every team in the Big 10 except for Purdue. It is what it is. Can't change what has happened. Can only do something about the future.
chrisRunner7
- Spokane, WA
Well, that was a disappointing final 4.4 seconds, ugh
Big picture, the scUM team can take solace in the fact that the scUM womans' team won, representing the concept of "Michigan Man" 
AyoDos11
- Southern Illinois
If we beat Virginia, Maryland, Penn State x2, Mizzou, Northwestern, Indiana x2, Iowa, and Ohio State, we would be 30-0 and the unanimous #1 team in the country.
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