Illini Basketball 2020-2021

Here are our 9 remaining games, ranked easiest to most difficult (note: we may not play the two make-up games):

1. NEB
2. NW
3. @NEB (make-up)
4. @MSU (make-up)
5. WISC
6. @MIN
7. @WIS
8. @OSU
9. @MICH

Tough remaining schedule!

6-3 would be very good if we happen to play all 9 games.....leaving us at 14-6 (18-8). I heard on Sports Center tonight that teams with guaranteed invitations to the NCAA tourney may elect to "opt out" of their conference tournaments, rather than risking a positive Covid result and thus getting locked out of March Madness.

altenberger22 said:

Here are our 9 remaining games, ranked easiest to most difficult (note: we may not play the two make-up games):

1. NEB
2. NW
3. @NEB (make-up)
4. @MSU (make-up)
5. WISC
6. @MIN
7. @WIS
8. @OSU
9. @MICH

Tough remaining schedule!

6-3 would be very good if we happen to play all 9 games.....leaving us at 14-6 (18-8). I heard on Sports Center tonight that teams with guaranteed invitations to the NCAA tourney may elect to "opt out" of their conference tournaments, rather than risking a positive Covid result and thus getting locked out of March Madness.

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Meh, not a fan of that. Play the season how it was meant to be played. Don't compromise the integrity of the conference tournament. Those championships mean something. If Gonzaga wants to opt out, fine, whatever. They're going to win that conference for the next 20 years anyway. The Big Ten Tournament will be one of the best ever given how deep it is.

That said, for the locks for teams who will be top 2 seeds....I can see why you wouldn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

altenberger22 said:

Here are our 9 remaining games, ranked easiest to most difficult (note: we may not play the two make-up games):

1. NEB
2. NW
3. @NEB (make-up)
4. @MSU (make-up)
5. WISC
6. @MIN
7. @WIS
8. @OSU
9. @MICH

Tough remaining schedule!

6-3 would be very good if we happen to play all 9 games.....leaving us at 14-6 (18-8). I heard on Sports Center tonight that teams with guaranteed invitations to the NCAA tourney may elect to "opt out" of their conference tournaments, rather than risking a positive Covid result and thus getting locked out of March Madness.

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Aside from winning your conference tourney or being the Ivy League champ, what exactly is a “guaranteed” invitation?

I agree it would be a shame to miss out on probably the best conference tourney ever, but I’ll be surprised if they don’t cancel it.

With 10 B10 teams likely making the tourney this year there is little benefit to trying to bump that to 11. Also, every B10 team will have 10-20 Q1 games played so there is no need to get the extra signature wins in. Too much at stake.

SeattleSlim said:

Aside from winning your conference tourney or being the Ivy League champ, what exactly is a “guaranteed” invitation?

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Top 35 Net or RPI.

Historically, it’s like 99.9% chance of getting invite while ranked in top 35 of either ranking.

Hopingfor500 said:

Meh, not a fan of that. Play the season how it was meant to be played. Don't compromise the integrity of the conference tournament. Those championships mean something. If Gonzaga wants to opt out, fine, whatever. They're going to win that conference for the next 20 years anyway. The Big Ten Tournament will be one of the best ever given how deep it is.

That said, for the locks for teams who will be top 2 seeds....I can see why you wouldn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

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Not sure where I stand on this. Can't screw up march madness, too much money involved. Can you imagine if Ayo got sick in the conference tournament after coming back.

Not all teams will end up playing the same number of conference games this year. I'm guessing the official standings will be based on winning percentage, not "games back." So if one team beats another in their sole head-to-head match up. and ends up 1/2 game ahead of them, but percentage points behind in winning percentage (because the other team played three fewer games), the other team will still be ahead in the official standings?

Asking for a friend.

FollowMeDontFollowMe said:

I agree it would be a shame to miss out on probably the best conference tourney ever, but I’ll be surprised if they don’t cancel it.

With 10 B10 teams likely making the tourney this year there is little benefit to trying to bump that to 11. Also, every B10 team will have 10-20 Q1 games played so there is no need to get the extra signature wins in. Too much at stake.

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Too much money at stake to not have B1G conference tourney.....don't know what the TV revenue would be for all the conference schools....but I'm guessing it would be pretty significant....playing conference tourney against conference teams that you've played since late December is no more of a risk than playing the last 6-8 weeks of the regular season.....plus teams will remain in Indy after conference tourney to continue play in ncaa tourney....so I don't see how they won't play the Conference tourney unless something unforeseen happens in next few weeks

The idea of teams being able to opt out of conference tournaments doesn't make sense to me. They can opt out because they think they are a lock for the NCAA tourney??

But if tops teams opt out, now that opens the door for lower rated teams to win the conference tourney and steal an extra automatic bid.

If Gonzaga opts out, then another team from their conference will get that automatic bid, which in turn potentially takes away an at-large bid from a deserving team.

I don't get the point of trying to mitigate risk by not playing in your conference tourney. It's not like we can see Covid and its staring us in the face for conference tourneys.

What's stopping Gonzaga from contracting it in their opening matchup vs some mid major that probably has had crappy testing protocols up to that point? Let's just play the games and hope that we don't get interrupted.

nycillini said:

I don't get the point of trying to mitigate risk by not playing in your conference tourney. It's not like we can see Covid and its staring us in the face for conference tourneys.

What's stopping Gonzaga from contracting it in their opening matchup vs some mid major that probably has had crappy testing protocols up to that point? Let's just play the games and hope that we don't get interrupted.

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The biggest issue, in my uneducated opinion, is the fact that you can test negative early in your infection while still being contagious. So you could have a player that tested negative, but it contagious, practicing, playing, and sharing spaces with others. Even testing every day isn't going to promise you don't have someone there that is, indeed infected and contagious as it can take up to 7 days before a positive result will show on a test. Then you have multiple teams playing on just a few (or one?) courts, playing multiple days in a row. You could have a player who infects other players on Thursday or Friday and the infection isn't caught until Sunday or later. At that point all B1G teams that played that player or even shared spaces with that player are likely going to have to quarantine, which could impact nearly team, depending on the logistics of the tournament.

Personally, I'd like to see them cancel the tournament and make up as many PPD games as possible and declare a B1G champion based on the regular season results.

BMoreIllini said:

The biggest issue, in my uneducated opinion, is the fact that you can test negative early in your infection while still being contagious. So you could have a player practicing, playing, and sharing spaces with others that tested negative, but is contagious. Even testing every day isn't going to promise you don't have someone there that is, indeed infected and contagious as it can take up to 7 days before a positive result will show on a test. Then you have multiple teams playing on just a few (or one?) courts, playing multiple days in a row. You could have a player who infects other players on Thursday or Friday and the infection isn't caught until Sunday or later. At that point all B1G teams that played that player or even shared spaces with that player are likely going to have to quarantine, which could impact nearly team, depending on the logistics of the tournament.

Personally, I'd like to see them cancel the tournament and make up as many PPD games as possible and declare a B1G champion based on the regular season results.

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I get that but its true for the real tourney as well. Frankly, it's true for any games that are being played right now. I guess I'm not seeing why not playing in a conference tourney keeps you safer for the real tourney. These are teams that you have played all year and that have the same protocols as you.

I would actually be more confident in coming out of a B10 tourney unscathed than the NCAA.

nycillini said:

I don't get the point of trying to mitigate risk by not playing in your conference tourney. It's not like we can see Covid and its staring us in the face for conference tourneys.

What's stopping Gonzaga from contracting it in their opening matchup vs some mid major that probably has had crappy testing protocols up to that point? Let's just play the games and hope that we don't get interrupted.

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In order to play in the NCAA, teams will have to show 7 straight days of negative tests prior. So, at that point, the conference/program testing protocols will be mostly irrelevant. And I assume the penalties for any breaches of the NCAA Tournament bubble protocols will be hellacious and swift. I don't really care what Gonzaga does before then, but I do care whether our program can mitigate its own risk before the NCAA Tournament starts. We've either been good and/or lucky to this point. I would rather see the conference use that time to finish the regular season as best it can, rather than jamming in lots of conference games into a short time period in order to do it all over again so one team gets a chance at an automatic bid.
Every other conference can do whatever they want and I could not care less.

nycillini said:

I get that but its true for the real tourney as well. Frankly, it's true for any games that are being played right now. I guess I'm not seeing why not playing in a conference tourney keeps you safer for the real tourney. These are teams that you have played all year and that have the same protocols as you.

I would actually be more confident in coming out of a B10 tourney unscathed than the NCAA.

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I would say it's because of the timing of the conference tournament being right before the NCAA tournament. Also having all the players/coaches/media in one place where 1 infection could impact multiple programs. If a team gets infected now, they have time to get things under control before the NCAA tournament.

BMoreIllini said:

I would say it's because of the timing of the conference tournament being right before the NCAA tournament. Also having all the players/coaches/media in one place where 1 infection could impact multiple programs. If a team gets infected now, they have time to get things under control before the NCAA tournament.

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Obviously ethical issues with it but on balance it seems smart to vaccinate all these athletes and coaches now to curb the spread.

LostinNebraska said:

In order to play in the NCAA, teams will have to show 7 straight days of negative tests prior. So, at that point, the conference/program testing protocols will be mostly irrelevant. And I assume the penalties for any breaches of the NCAA Tournament bubble protocols will be hellacious and swift. I don't really care what Gonzaga does before then, but I do care whether our program can mitigate its own risk before the NCAA Tournament starts. We've either been good and/or lucky to this point. I would rather see the conference use that time to finish the regular season as best it can, rather than jamming in lots of conference games into a short time period in order to do it all over again so one team gets a chance at an automatic bid.
Every other conference can do whatever they want and I could not care less.

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Think this will apply to the blue bloods?

Is anyone else kind of relieved that we have only "tough games" left? I think this team can play with anyone in the conference, including Michigan, and my heart can't take many more games like last night - win and you move on, lose and you severely damage your seeding prospects. Give me the Wisconsins and OSUs of the world! With that said, We have put together a MIGHTY fine resume so far, boys! I think people were really overreacting at having 5 losses early on, as they were all to good teams:

Record: 12-5 (8-3)
NET Ranking: #5
SOS Ranking: #2
Q1 Wins: vs. #7 Iowa, vs. #28 Purdue, at #35 Penn State, at #48 Indiana, at #66 Duke
Q2 Wins: vs. #35 Penn State, vs. #47 Minnesota, vs. #48 Indiana, at #88 Northwestern
Q3 Losses: None
Q4 Losses: None
Road Record: 4-2

That is impressive, and I don't even think our own fans appreciate it quite enough, as the five losses have been especially painful. Here is what we have coming up and what we can potentially add (leaving Michigan off for now, to be conservative)!

vs. #16 Wisconsin (Q1 Win)
vs. #88 Northwestern (Q3 Loss)
at #47 Minnesota (Q1 Win)
vs. #166 Nebraska (Q4 Loss)
at #16 Wisconsin (Q1 Win)
at #12 Ohio State (Q1 Win)

Bottom line is there is nothing average left. There are two games we ABSOLUTELY cannot lose (vs. NU and vs. UNL), and the rest would ALL be Quad 1 wins. Not expecting us to run the table or anything, but if these guys have really turned a corner effort-/preparation-wise (as I think they have!), a realistic finish might be only losses at Wisconsin and OSU ... with both winnable. That would lead us to this final resume:

Record: 16-7 (12-5)
NET Ranking: ~ #5 (or higher!)
SOS Ranking: ~ #2
Q1 Wins: vs. #7 Iowa, vs. #16 Wisconsin, vs. #28 Purdue, at #35 Penn State, at #47 Minnesota, at #48 Indiana, at #66 Duke
Q2 Wins: vs. #35 Penn State, vs. #47 Minnesota, vs. #48 Indiana, at #88 Northwestern
Q3 Losses: None
Q4 Losses: None
Road Record: 5-4

Given the strength of the Big Ten this year, I think that is EASILY fighting for a 2- or 3-seed. If we were able to nab one at Wisconsin or OSU in addition, we would be on the border of the 1-seed line. Obviously a long way to go, but this illustrates how huge the Iowa win really was for our resume and how important it is to rough out games like last night. I can't wait for the final stretch!

doowink said:

Too much money at stake to not have B1G conference tourney.....don't know what the TV revenue would be for all the conference schools....but I'm guessing it would be pretty significant....playing conference tourney against conference teams that you've played since late December is no more of a risk than playing the last 6-8 weeks of the regular season.....plus teams will remain in Indy after conference tourney to continue play in ncaa tourney....so I don't see how they won't play the Conference tourney unless something unforeseen happens in next few weeks

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Good point regarding both conference and NCAA being in Indy. That changes my mind a bit as long as they can manage the ‘bubble’ and testing heading into the conference tourney.

Edit: what if they cancel the last game of the season and instead have all teams quarantine and test in Indy for a week, then play the conference tourney. Is that too much to ask of the players?

Ayo #19 in latest mock draft on 24/7, no Kofi, and Wagner was in the 1st 5 picks of the 2nd round.

BWA said:

Ayo is gone. There’s a very real chance Kofi comes back

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If Kofi's intent is to play in the NBA, he should come back. If his intent is to play professionally and get paid somewhere, he'll be gone.

Kofi, it really depends on what he and his family want. It's nice to have choices. He can go overseas and play, he can get into the G-League and play or he can come back to school and be an All American.

The NBA needs to see 2nd half from last night Kofi, where he jams anything within three feet of the basket....for the rest of the season. It would have been nice to see him hit the game winner because that's the shot he needs to excel at the next level.

It may be nice if we would actually give Kofi the ball here and there.....wide open several times in last 6-8 mins and never touched it unless he pulled a rebound!!

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but why isn't Coleman Hawkins playing?

3 point girl said:

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but why isn't Coleman Hawkins playing?

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From what I saw and heard in a practice that was posted that he is not practicing well. I am wondering if he has confidence issues or he is not putting an effort since he is not playing. I hope he gets straightened out because he is a talent we will need

B10 Tournament will be played in Indy:

JFGsCoffeeMug said:

B10 Tournament will be played in Indy:

Yes, more basketball is coming our way. Big Ten to move men's tournament to Indianapolis.

Next month's Big Ten men’s basketball tournament will move from Chicago to Indianapolis, with games played at Lucas Oil Stadium, according to FOX59.

www.indystar.com

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Intriguing to see how the two court set-up will work from a television broadcast perspective, getting sounds from both games potentially.