3/30-3/31 Games Thread

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#27      

IlliniKat91

IlliniKat91
Chicago, IL
IlliniKat91
NickOfTime said:
I’ve been holding on to this Illini story for a while now, wondering when the right time to share it would be. With the biggest and quite possibly final game of the season today, it feels right to tell it today.

I’m a college student at Illinois. Last fall, me and my brother were playing 7 on 7 intramural flag football. Our team was warming up right before the game started (games are played at the ARC fields, corner of First and Stadium) and sizing up the other team. A bunch of their guys arrive right before the ref blows his whistle to get the game started. I hear two of my teammates whispering to each other. Our defense walked out onto the field, choosing assignments, and all of a sudden, lining up across from my brother in a wide receiver stance, is a 6-6, 225 lb grown man with tattoos and two strands of multicolored hair across his face. My jaw drops. As you might have guessed by now, it’s Terrence Shannon Jr.

Keep in mind that this is an intramural flag football team. We have 1 guy who got D-2 football offers, and the rest of us played high school sports. We don’t have anyone on TSJ’s level, which is so far above ours we can’t even see it.

The game starts, and it’s insane how good Shannon is. He had a target on the sideline on a ball three feet over his head, and he jumped up and caught it like it was nothing. Second drive, he used one hand to snag a ball in the back of the endzone with a guy damn near blanketing him. Third drive, his team had the ball on their own 20 (field is 60 yards long). We can’t give up anything deep and we’ll go into the half down a score, which would be a win for us. They have enough time for two plays. The first one is a wide receiver screen to Shannon on my side of the field.

When you watch him on TV, he’s fast. When you watch him in person, he’s faster. When you are trying to tackle him, good luck. I was a yard behind him when he caught the ball. He took two strides and blew past half our team. A juke move and the entire defense except my brother Jack was chasing after him. Shannon angled to the sideline and my brother planted there. Either Terrence would have to cut back inside to all the other defenders or he could head out of bounds. He chose option 3: go through the defender. He ran full speed into Jack and bowled him over.

I am only slightly ashamed to admit that my first thought was not of my own sibling, but of TSJ’s health. If he got hurt, I thought, our basketball team is going to suck. Terrence didn’t even go down. He stumbled out of bounds, turned to the ref and started asking if Jack could get in his way like that. My brother came up holding his wrist (day-after photo below) but said he could play through it.
The other team ended up scoring the next play, and after halftime Terrence only played a couple of snaps on defense. I managed to pull his flag on an interception he was returning, and after the game (we lost by more than a few) he was out of there before most of the team had walked off of the field.

This Illini season has been amazing in so many ways, but for me the biggest moments have been watching “Transition Terrence” turn into a freight train with the ball in his hands. All I can do is watch and grin as he takes off down the court, just like that screen pass, and has the same level of success against D-1 basketball players as he did against our team of college guys that night. Best of luck to him and all of the Illini!
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Your brother is braver than most dudes playing D1 basketball.

Cool story. Thanks for sharing. Here's hoping we get to watch him truck a few more guys next weekend, too.
 
#28      

POWURR

POWURR
From Downtown
POWURR
I was praying hard that the earth swallowed both teams.

It didn’t happen. Pity.
 
#29      

RockfordIllini

R
RockfordIllini
Second place is 1st loser said:
If we didn't cough up a lead @Penn State, @ MSU or blow chunks at home versus Maryland...... we'd be taking that walk that you speak of. A game here and a game there is the difference between us being in Indianapolis and Dallas instead of Marquette.

We shrug our shoulders at this time, but when we look back.....all of those games created our path.
Click to expand...

And if we lost against Ohio State on Friday, we are probably in Dukes shoes and vice versa. Tournament is always a crapshoot. You play the best you can and win the most games you can but in the end it’s still very much luck of the draw.

Put another way, outside of Purdue (who they obviously can’t play in E8), is there another team left that #1 overall seed UConn would least like to
face than us?

Let’s shock the world tonight!
 
#30      

So ILL

S
So ILL
Battle89 said:
For the life of me I cannot understand this line of thinking from the other thread saying to root for Purdue so the conference looks better. We want Purdue to lose, period. The sooner the better.

We want the easiest path to the championship should we get past UConn. And for all that is holy I do not want those Frankenmakers getting a championship before we do. And please don’t bring up 70 years ago, I’m talking the modern tournament.
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Agreed. I have NEVER understood rooting for a rival that likely waxed your team when they played and their fans treated you like garbage. I live in Nashville, TN and all these fans from loser programs walk around chanting SEC, SEC when Alabama wins another National Championship; like they are winning vicariously. To bring it back to the court, I dont care if they are playing the #1 team in the nation or an NAIA program, I want Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio State to lose every time they step on the court. Big Ten be damned.
 
#32      

OrangeBlue98

OrangeBlue98
Des Moines, IA
OrangeBlue98
Second place is 1st loser said:
If we didn't cough up a lead @Penn State, @ MSU or blow chunks at home versus Maryland...... we'd be taking that walk that you speak of. A game here and a game there is the difference between us being in Indianapolis and Dallas instead of Marquette.

We shrug our shoulders at this time, but when we look back.....all of those games created our path.
Click to expand...
To be fair, my point is a lot more about how the bracket just parted like the Red Sea for Duke. We've earned our way to the Elite 8. Duke drew a winning lottery ticket.
 
#33      

blackdog

blackdog
Champaign
blackdog
OrangeBlue98 said:
I have no idea what deals Duke keeps making with the devil (pun not intended, but also not avoided).

They play a short handed 1 seed who loses a top player to an in-game injury. Then they get an 11 seed conference foe in the Elite 8.

It’s sickening. If we are in that bracket, we would have walked to the Final Four.
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You mean the 11th seed conference foe who just beat them a couple weeks ago in the conference tournament?
 
#34      

OrangeBlue98

OrangeBlue98
Des Moines, IA
OrangeBlue98
blackdog said:
You mean the 11th seed conference foe who just beat them a couple weeks ago in the conference tournament?
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Let's all be honest - that's not happening again. NC State isn't catching lightning in a bottle twice in two weeks.
 
#37      

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost
Washington, DC
The Galloping Ghost
I gotta be honest, I really want to see DJ Burns Jr. vs Edey.
1ba0fb77-107e-4fdf-86dd-3e0373b9d021_text.gif
 
#40      

InDaAZ

InDaAZ
Eugene, Oregon
InDaAZ
NickOfTime said:
I’ve been holding on to this Illini story for a while now, wondering when the right time to share it would be. With the biggest and quite possibly final game of the season today, it feels right to tell it today.

I’m a college student at Illinois. Last fall, me and my brother were playing 7 on 7 intramural flag football. Our team was warming up right before the game started (games are played at the ARC fields, corner of First and Stadium) and sizing up the other team. A bunch of their guys arrive right before the ref blows his whistle to get the game started. I hear two of my teammates whispering to each other. Our defense walked out onto the field, choosing assignments, and all of a sudden, lining up across from my brother in a wide receiver stance, is a 6-6, 225 lb grown man with tattoos and two strands of multicolored hair across his face. My jaw drops. As you might have guessed by now, it’s Terrence Shannon Jr.

Keep in mind that this is an intramural flag football team. We have 1 guy who got D-2 football offers, and the rest of us played high school sports. We don’t have anyone on TSJ’s level, which is so far above ours we can’t even see it.

The game starts, and it’s insane how good Shannon is. He had a target on the sideline on a ball three feet over his head, and he jumped up and caught it like it was nothing. Second drive, he used one hand to snag a ball in the back of the endzone with a guy damn near blanketing him. Third drive, his team had the ball on their own 20 (field is 60 yards long). We can’t give up anything deep and we’ll go into the half down a score, which would be a win for us. They have enough time for two plays. The first one is a wide receiver screen to Shannon on my side of the field.

When you watch him on TV, he’s fast. When you watch him in person, he’s faster. When you are trying to tackle him, good luck. I was a yard behind him when he caught the ball. He took two strides and blew past half our team. A juke move and the entire defense except my brother Jack was chasing after him. Shannon angled to the sideline and my brother planted there. Either Terrence would have to cut back inside to all the other defenders or he could head out of bounds. He chose option 3: go through the defender. He ran full speed into Jack and bowled him over.

I am only slightly ashamed to admit that my first thought was not of my own sibling, but of TSJ’s health. If he got hurt, I thought, our basketball team is going to suck. Terrence didn’t even go down. He stumbled out of bounds, turned to the ref and started asking if Jack could get in his way like that. My brother came up holding his wrist (day-after photo below) but said he could play through it.
The other team ended up scoring the next play, and after halftime Terrence only played a couple of snaps on defense. I managed to pull his flag on an interception he was returning, and after the game (we lost by more than a few) he was out of there before most of the team had walked off of the field.

This Illini season has been amazing in so many ways, but for me the biggest moments have been watching “Transition Terrence” turn into a freight train with the ball in his hands. All I can do is watch and grin as he takes off down the court, just like that screen pass, and has the same level of success against D-1 basketball players as he did against our team of college guys that night. Best of luck to him and all of the Illini!
Click to expand...
IMG_1022.jpeg
 
#41      

OrangeBlue98

OrangeBlue98
Des Moines, IA
OrangeBlue98
A run that will eventually end - especially when they play a team that will be looking for revenge, is better per the metrics, and will make the right adjustments.

Look, I'm just being realistic. I get most of us here hate Duke, and I'd love to see NC State shock the world once again. But at some point, this has to end. Things regress to the mean. It just happens that Duke gets the luck of the draw once again, and I hate it.
 
#43      

IllinoisIntegrity

IllinoisIntegrity
IllinoisIntegrity
Chad Fleck said:
That's wild that a scholarshiped and NIL benefited athlete is playing intramural football.
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Very true. I work in the entertainment industry and even low level performers have extensive contracts that do not allow certain activities like motorcycles, outside sports, sky diving, jet skis, roller blading!, trampolines, etc. I’m surprised similar risk-averse restrictions aren’t in place for scholarship athletes.
 
#44      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
NickOfTime said:
The game starts, and it’s insane how good Shannon is. He had a target on the sideline on a ball three feet over his head, and he jumped up and caught it like it was nothing. Second drive, he used one hand to snag a ball in the back of the endzone with a guy damn near blanketing him.
Click to expand...
i-dont-believe-you-lies.gif

NickOfTime said:
. He ran full speed into Jack and bowled him over.
Click to expand...

This sounds like our "flag football" games as teens. :LOL:

Great story!
 
#46      

illini55

illini55
The Villages, FL
illini55
OrangeBlue98 said:
Let's all be honest - that's not happening again. NC State isn't catching lightning in a bottle twice in two weeks.
Click to expand...
I've watched every game NC State has played in the ACC tourney and the NCAA tourney. There is absolutely nothing "flukey" about them. They came together at the exact right time, and though I don't think they'll win it all, they are good enough to do so.
 
#47      

Navy_illini

N
Navy_illini
So ILL said:
Wasnt the Big 12 the “best” conference this year?
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They were a very good conference
UH lost their star and in the sixteen game
KU had two injured starters
ISU played us tough
Baylor was good

You can’t look at the NCAA to say how good a conference is because the ACC is getting way too much credit. Single elimination tournament is not enough data

UNC lost to Bama. UNC was the best team in that conference
Duke got fortunate with how their bracket unfolded
NCST and Clemson caught fire at the right time I think they are on par with other power 5
 
#48      

hoopsfan47

H
hoopsfan47
Interestingly enough, our intramural flag football team (I did not play) had a Parade AA at QB and a back-up QB who was All-State in Iowa. Neither played football in college. We also had an All-State receiver and another one who was faster than anyone. Needless to say, we won the title every year, but not without some strong competition.

Our basketball team had two All-State players, one an honorable mention AA, neither of whom played in college. A third played a year of Div.1 ball before transferring. I played a bit. We only won a couple of titles but played in the title game every year....again there was strong competition.

No one even thought of risking injury or a career back in those days. We were kids having fun. One of the basketball players was a two time NCAA runner-up in golf.
 
#49      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
Navy_illini said:
They were a very good conference
UH lost their star and in the sixteen game
KU had two injured starters
ISU played us tough
Baylor was good

You can’t look at the NCAA to say how good a conference is because the ACC is getting way too much credit. Single elimination tournament is not enough data

UNC lost to Bama. UNC was the best team in that conference
Duke got fortunate with how their bracket unfolded
NCST and Clemson caught fire at the right time I think they are on par with other power 5
Click to expand...
yup

and for the last 20 years , the Big12 has had much more success in the tournament than the B1G .

take that for what it’s worth
 
#50      

IllinoisIntegrity

IllinoisIntegrity
IllinoisIntegrity
Navy_illini said:
They were a very good conference
UH lost their star and in the sixteen game
KU had two injured starters
ISU played us tough
Baylor was good

You can’t look at the NCAA to say how good a conference is because the ACC is getting way too much credit. Single elimination tournament is not enough data

UNC lost to Bama. UNC was the best team in that conference
Duke got fortunate with how their bracket unfolded
NCST and Clemson caught fire at the right time I think they are on par with other power 5
Click to expand...
There will always be a couple good big 12 teams, but overall they know how to game the net ratings & continually manipulate numbers to get more teams in the tournament by playing soft, non-con schedules. From the Ft Worth, Texas newspaper: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...t-the-big-12-was-always-overrated/ar-BB1kMA8k
 
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