Illini Basketball 2021-2022

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#26      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
WhiteHorseWings said:
Tough to draw a lot to play Bradley or UIC no matter the venue.
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Agreed in principle, and yet we drew the following crowds vs. those opponents:


1998-99: 11,084 vs. Bradley
2006-07: 16,424 vs. UIC
2010-11: 13,117 vs. UIC
2013-14: 13,017 vs. UIC

And none of these were good Illini teams, with some being worse than others. The fans dipped out for good during Groce’s last year, and a lot of fans didn’t buy back in until last year, pretty understandably. I think we’d draw between 13-15k this year vs. literally anybody, and I think an opponent with a semi-decent name gets a huge crowd.
 
#27      

Konnie

K
Western Suburbs
Konnie
BRucks said:
What about the Champaignland fans? If you had dropped $90k/year for a suite (or even $17k for a premium seat), how would you feel about noncon home games with Tennessee Martin and Lindenwood while Whitman moves a rare quality noncon home game to Chicago? Local hotels and restaurants (those that survived the pandemic) also miss out on a nice payday.
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I continue to hear this argument about returning to Chicago so when will this argument not be true.? The longer Illinois waits to return to Chicago the harder it will be. I have season basketball tickets and live in the Chicago suburbs. I do not come to the low-quality games(I give the tickets away if I can find an Illini fan) and do not stay overnight because of the hotel rates. In general, I strongly believe that the DIA ignores the Chicago alums and I am not sure why.
 
#28      

Illwinsagain

Illwinsagain
Cary, IL
Illwinsagain
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Exactly. I really hope the DIA folks didn’t get spooked away from the UC game because we had terrible teams draw comparably terrible crowds. There is a wealth of historical evidence that a decent Illini team will regularly draw at least SFC’s capacity (15,500) at the United Center, regardless of opponent. A good Illini team has regularly drawn 17,000+, and a good Illini team vs. a decent opponent has drawn over 20,000 on multiple occasions. It’s a nice gesture to our Chicagoland fans, a statement that we are Chicago’s team, it helps for NCAAT preparation/resume building to play multiple neutral site games and it’s a cool little recruiting pitch to instate recruits.
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If we can back to a pseudo home vs pseudo home again, against a quality opponent, great. That has to be planned ahead, not just thrown in. AZ would have been the right call this year, if we hadn't played 2 years ago in Tucson.
 
#29      

illiniguy

illiniguy
illiniguy
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Agreed in principle, and yet we drew the following crowds vs. those opponents:

1998-99: 11,084 vs. Bradley
2006-07: 16,424 vs. UIC
2010-11: 13,117 vs. UIC
2013-14: 13,017 vs. UIC
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You had to bring up the 2010-11 game against UIC?
Wes Craven Scream GIF by Karla Delakidd
 
#30      

altenberger22

altenberger22
South Carolina
altenberger22
Even though DaMonte may actually start each game before Christmas, I'm going with the 5 guys above to get the majority of our minutes early in the season. We'll likely play a legit 10-11 in the rotation throughout the non-conference schedule, but I predict these 5 will be will ultimately surface as "the five". (I base this upon BB's comments about Coleman Hawkins arriving over the summer as most-improved, and Jon Rothstein's insights re. Hutcherson.) I also think we're plenty deep enough to dance around Covid, or even survive an injury or two, unless that injury is to Curbelo or Kofi.

Lots o' talent on that roster!!
 
#31      

Loyalillini10

L
Urbana, IL
Loyalillini10
Konnie said:
I continue to hear this argument about returning to Chicago so when will this argument not be true.? The longer Illinois waits to return to Chicago the harder it will be. I have season basketball tickets and live in the Chicago suburbs. I do not come to the low-quality games(I give the tickets away if I can find an Illini fan) and do not stay overnight because of the hotel rates. In general, I strongly believe that the DIA ignores the Chicago alums and I am not sure why.
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I think you may be looking at this through Chicago-tinted glasses. Over the last several years when we had a game at the UC, turnout was terrible. It doesn’t matter if the team was good or not, you still go support your team.
 
#32      

Konnie

K
Western Suburbs
Konnie
Loyalillini10 said:
I think you may be looking at this through Chicago-tinted glasses. Over the last several years when we had a game at the UC, turnout was terrible. It doesn’t matter if the team was good or not, you still go support your team.
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I agree with your statement but if I remember correctly the actual attendance at SFC games that I attended during Groce's tenure wasn't very good.
 
#33      

Loyalillini10

L
Urbana, IL
Loyalillini10
Konnie said:
I agree with your statement but if I remember correctly the actual attendance at SFC games that I attended during Groce's tenure wasn't very good.
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Difference is that is where the university is located, so it is not a special game and fans didn’t come out (I wish they did, anyway.)
Also, I am glad you try to give your tickets away when you aren’t going. I love seeing filled seats and it was such a bad look when staff talked about our rabid fan base and yet when the cameras panned over the crowd, there was nobody there. It is/was not a good look.
 
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#34      

Homecoming 2019

Homecoming 2019
Chicago
Homecoming 2019
Loyalillini10 said:
I think you may be looking at this through Chicago-tinted glasses. Over the last several years when we had a game at the UC, turnout was terrible. It doesn’t matter if the team was good or not, you still go support your team.
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No one was turning out in Champaign either, we were at rock bottom attendance wise at the end of Groce era and early Underwood. So it's not exactly fair to knock Chicago for not turning out either. The UC would be packed this year regardless of the opponent.
 
#36      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
altenberger22 said:
Even though DaMonte may actually start each game before Christmas, I'm going with the 5 guys above to get the majority of our minutes early in the season. We'll likely play a legit 10-11 in the rotation throughout the non-conference schedule, but I predict these 5 will be will ultimately surface as "the five". (I base this upon BB's comments about Coleman Hawkins arriving over the summer as most-improved, and Jon Rothstein's insights re. Hutcherson.) I also think we're plenty deep enough to dance around Covid, or even survive an injury or two, unless that injury is to Curbelo or Kofi.

Lots o' talent on that roster!!
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I'm in no way an authority on the Illini football program...but BB might want to focus his attention there....and leave the CoHawk speculation to the experts here at Loyalty.
 
#37      

Loyalillini10

L
Urbana, IL
Loyalillini10
Homecoming 2019 said:
No one was turning out in Champaign either, we were at rock bottom attendance wise at the end of Groce era and early Underwood. So it's not exactly fair to knock Chicago for not turning out either. The UC would be packed this year regardless of the opponent.
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You, literally, have no way of knowing that.
 
#39      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
Loyalillini10 said:
I think you may be looking at this through Chicago-tinted glasses. Over the last several years when we had a game at the UC, turnout was terrible. It doesn’t matter if the team was good or not, you still go support your team.
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Disagree. Weber and Groce drove the program into the ground. Very few fans want to see a mediocre team (at best), particularly versus a team we should wipe out (e.g., UIC). Personally, I'd rather go to the dentist.
 
#41      

LostinNebraska

L
LostinNebraska
#42      

PlayDeeBrownNote

PlayDeeBrownNote
PlayDeeBrownNote
Homecoming 2019 said:
No one was turning out in Champaign either, we were at rock bottom attendance wise at the end of Groce era and early Underwood. So it's not exactly fair to knock Chicago for not turning out either. The UC would be packed this year regardless of the opponent.
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My dad was a season ticket holder for over 20 years and this was when he gave them up. It got to the point where no one wanted to go, so he didn’t see the point in keeping them anymore. Dark days. Thankfully we’ve dug ourselves out of that hole. Thanks JW and BU!
 
#43      

KnoxIllini2

KnoxIllini2
KnoxIllini2
LostinNebraska said:
This is...Hilarious.
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Report: Alando Tucker attempted to push Greg Gard out as coach at Wisconsin - 96.7FM 1670AM The Zone | WOZN - Madison, WI

Former interim Wisconsin assistant coach Alando Tucker reportedly tried to take Greg Gard's job as head coach with the Badgers. In a wild story published at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, unnamed sources told the outlet when the Badgers were struggling in January of 2020 that Tucker, the...
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Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
 
#44      

Konnie

K
Western Suburbs
Konnie
There is one saving grace for Chicago Illini fans and that is the Northwestern vs Illini game in Evanston. Northwestern and its season ticket holders will gladly sell their seats to Illini fans at a sizable premium.
 
#46      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Konnie said:
There is one saving grace for Chicago Illini fans and that is the Northwestern vs Illini game in Evanston. Northwestern and its season ticket holders will gladly sell their seats to Illini fans at a sizable premium.
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Truth. I had seen many Illini games in Evanston on TV and even one in person that had huge Illini turnouts. There is never less than 30% of the crowd clad in orange (a massively high percent for a B1G road game when you actually think about it), and some years - like the comeback in 2008-09 - it seemed we had between 50-60%!

However, I had never seen anything quite like our win there in 2019-20, just before COVID, when Griffin was raining 3s. I will try not to exaggerate, but I was there and the crowd was no joke 70-75% Illini fans plus the Krush. My fiancé honestly remarked that she felt really bad for the loyal NU fans who still showed up, lol.
 
#47      

Konnie

K
Western Suburbs
Konnie
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Truth. I had seen many Illini games in Evanston on TV and even one in person that had huge Illini turnouts. There is never less than 30% of the crowd clad in orange (a massively high percent for a B1G road game when you actually think about it), and some years - like the comeback in 2008-09 - it seemed we had between 50-60%!

However, I had never seen anything quite like our win there in 2019-20, just before COVID, when Griffin was raining 3s. I will try not to exaggerate, but I was there and the crowd was no joke 70-75% Illini fans plus the Krush. My fiancé honestly remarked that she felt really bad for the loyal NU fans who still showed up, lol.
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Maybe we can speculate on the Illini fan's attendance at this year's game in Evanston. Over 50%
 
#48      

Loyalillini10

L
Urbana, IL
Loyalillini10
Konnie said:
It would be nice to prove or disprove the UC attendance speculation. What is safe to say is the Chicago & Central Illinois fan base are not different -- a very good team will have high game attendance, a mediocre team will have low game attendance
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IU is jam-packed every season (it pains me to even say this), regardless of how bad their teams were. We talk about having that, but we don’t. Our team has to be good to fill SFC (also pains me to say that).
 
#49      

Illini_Jack

Illini_Jack
Illini_Jack
LostinNebraska said:
This is...Hilarious.
www.madcitysportszone.com

Report: Alando Tucker attempted to push Greg Gard out as coach at Wisconsin - 96.7FM 1670AM The Zone | WOZN - Madison, WI

Former interim Wisconsin assistant coach Alando Tucker reportedly tried to take Greg Gard's job as head coach with the Badgers. In a wild story published at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, unnamed sources told the outlet when the Badgers were struggling in January of 2020 that Tucker, the...
www.madcitysportszone.com
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At least we're not Wisconsin 😂
 
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