Illini Basketball 2021-2022

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#51      
Presence of fans is PART of the home field advantage. Travel is another part. Playing in the most populous city in the home state of a rival university to me confers an advantage. Maybe I’m just jaded after seeing Illinois get screwed in the past. How about playing the sugar bowl against LSU in New Orleans or the Rose Bowl against USC in Pasadena?
Fans are the largest part by far.

I can't believe you're even mentioning those football venues. Do you realize we had nowhere close to 40% of the crowd in any of the major bowl games we've played in.
 
#52      
After watching these interviews I come away very impressed with our assistant coaches.
I believe we got very lucky with each position.

I am really getting jacked for this coming season.
Chester and Alexander are very serious. Especially Chester.
 
#53      
I have been to over 25 Braggin' Rights games. From year to year, the crowds have been as high as 60% Mizzou some years, 60% Illini other years (at least, one game I remember the Illini Orange was everywhere.) Just depends on who is hot - I would be surprised to not see Illini have at least 50% of the crowd this year. Almost always an incredible game!
 
#56      

DeonThomas

South Carolina
Great insight into the team. Sometimes I forget they are just fun loving kids.
I have to admit ---- I really get a kick out of Rob's team interviews at the start of each season! He's a pretty weird dude overall, but I like his tone/style in conducting those discussions. And I agree that all three Assistant Coaches come off very well too.

Buying my airline tickets to Kansas City tomorrow. Two games in two days!
 
#57      

IlliniwekKDR

Colorado Springs, CO
You are an argumentative fellow aren’t you? Well, you kind of made my point already, so there really isn’t much to say. St Louis is closer to Columbia, it’s in the home state of the University of MISSOURI, and the crowd leans Missouri. All of those seem to support my point that it is not actually an away game, but “effectively” an away game.
Every time I've been it's basically even at worst if not a little lean toward Illinois in the crowd.
 
#58      
Not really. St. Louis is slightly closer to Columbia than C-U and the fan base there probably leans slightly towards Miznoz but probably like 55-45. There always seems to be a ton of orange in the crowd and I feel the the actual distribution probably changes depending on who's good.
I live downtown STL. I'm one of the riggers who hangs the banners at enterprise center. Other illini fans live in my building, and our doggy day care on south Broadway is owned by Illinois alumni.
We are represented well in the city. The county, that is a different story.
 
#59      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
I’ve been to bears cowboys game in the new cowboys stadium that were like home games for the bears. If your fans travel well enough to flip the atmosphere it can really give that home feel.

I'm not sure what you mean? More Bears fans....or louder because they were winning? While Chicago teams travel very well in Dallas...(see Stars v. Blackhawks, Rangers/Sox).....if you're talking about fans in the stands, this is a complete exaggeration. I'm almost certain there has never been a Cowboys home game where the visiting team was more represented than the Cowboys.
 
#60      
Mizzou is supposed to be weak, but we should have beaten last year. Pickett will likely channel his inner Dwayne Wade. But they can't match us in any meaningful way. We should beat them by 12 minimum.
If....if and butts were candy and nuts.....I agree we should win....but I wouldn't bet on this game as a W
 
#61      
If....if and butts were candy and nuts.....I agree we should win....but I wouldn't bet on this game as a W
These kinds of rivalry games come with extra hype and emotion, so you can never quite tell what's going to happen. In a game like this, the unique circumstances can cause either team to play out of their minds or to have an off-night. Last year is a case in point: Mizzou played their best basketball against us and we played our worst against them. That can happen in any game, but if it's a 1/10 chance against the typical mismatched opponent, I think it's like a 3/10 chance against a mismatched rivalry opponent.
 
#64      
Presence of fans is PART of the home field advantage. Travel is another part. Playing in the most populous city in the home state of a rival university to me confers an advantage. Maybe I’m just jaded after seeing Illinois get screwed in the past. How about playing the sugar bowl against LSU in New Orleans or the Rose Bowl against USC in Pasadena?
All good points but, I seem to remember the ticket distribution, at one point, being 50/50 for the Mizzou game.
 
#65      
Miznoz will be absolutely atrocious this year and Marquette shouldn't be much better. Personally I feel like Arizona is slept on this year, they'll be a good team with Ben Mathurin. Cincy won't be anything good, quite like Marquette and Miznoz, but they're a step up from the two. I originally thought Notre Dame wasn't going to be any good this year but after more digging they should be much improved this year. They're incredibly experienced and I can see them potentially sneaking into the Top 25 at a couple points this year. Arkansas will be good once again this year, the Muss Bus is absolutely rolling. They lost a good bit of production from the Elite 8 team last year that gave Baylor their biggest challenge but stocked up in the transfer market with big time scorers. They'll be top 15 for the majority of the year and should contend for the SEC title. Interesting Non Conference for sure. The potential is there to go undefeated headed into the meat of the conference schedule but I wouldn't count on it considering we always start slow under BU for whatever reason.
 
#66      
Just one last point on whether Mizzou has any kind of home field advantage. Groce was 4-1 in these games despite being notoriously bad on thr road (14-31 in Big 10 play). Sorry to add another log to this fire, but couldn't resist anothet reminder of how bad Groce was, now that we're in a better place.
 
#67      
Yes. We can agree that Illini football got screwed by having to play those “neutral” venues for bowl games. Glad that has been established. Fans are a big part, but travel is too. Have you ever had to travel for work? It is exhausting. Officiating makes a difference too - conference bias has been well documented in college sports. The home court advantage is more than just shirt colors in the stands.
LOL. We didn't get "screwed". It's called reality.

I really don't know what your point is. Braggin rights is a neutral site with each fan base having roughly equal access to tickets and each team having roughly similar circumstances with the venue. You might be the only person on the planet conflating Illinois v. Missouri in STL to UCLA v Illinois in LA.
 
#68      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
Yes. We can agree that Illini football got screwed by having to play those “neutral” venues for bowl games. Glad that has been established. Fans are a big part, but travel is too. Have you ever had to travel for work? It is exhausting. Officiating makes a difference too - conference bias has been well documented in college sports. The home court advantage is more than just shirt colors in the stands.

I hate to even try to insert myself into this mess of an argument...but you have tried to build at least 3 strawman arguments on top of your original point.

You realize that Miznoz has to travel from Columbia to St. Louis right? It is not a "home court" for them. You also realize that the officiating is mixed?

And to completely flip your argument on it's arse.....if Miznoz travels to Kansas City......almost as big as St. Louis AND... in Missouri......to play the Jayhawks at a neutral site....and Kansas travels to.....wait for it....Kansas...City.......who's got the "home court" advantage there? Would it be the "home" state Miznoz...or the kids from....Kansas City?

I'll hang up and listen.
 
#69      
I hate to even try to insert myself into this mess of an argument...but you have tried to build at least 3 strawman arguments on top of your original point.

You realize that Miznoz has to travel from Columbia to St. Louis right? It is not a "home court" for them. You also realize that the officiating is mixed?

And to completely flip your argument on it's arse.....if Miznoz travels to Kansas City......almost as big as St. Louis AND... in Missouri......to play the Jayhawks at a neutral site....and Kansas travels to.....wait for it....Kansas...City.......who's got the "home court" advantage there? Would it be the "home" state Miznoz...or the kids from....Kansas City?

I'll hang up and listen.
Well that’s obvious. The city has Kansas in the name. Clearly Kansas is the “home” team. 😂
 
#71      

Dan

Admin

Brad Underwood tells me that Utah transfer Alfonso Plummer is the best shooter that he's ever coached. Will play a big role for the Illini. Deep range.

Illinois should be a vastly improved passing and shooting team compared to last season. Illini will hard to guard as long as they share it. Tremendous offensive spacing.

Woke up today thinking that Illinois had two of the Top 15 players in the country in Kofi Cockburn and Andre Curbelo. It may have two of the Top 10 --- Curbelo is that good. Going to explode like a volcano.

Illinois' underrated reserve: Florida transfer Omar Payne.

Illinois' underrated long-term piece: Luke Goode.

Illinois' coaching staff kept referring to Da'Monte Williams during practice as "P.J. Tucker". A fitting description. Glue Guy. Rarely misses open 3s.

Early prediction on Illinois' 21-22 starting five:

Andre Curbelo, Trent Frazier, Da'Monte Williams, Jacob Grandison, Kofi Cockburn

The Big Ten will always be an extremely competitive league, but three teams currently stand out at the top: Purdue, Michigan, and Illinois.
 
#72      
The video of the team was so fun and exciting to watch! I learned that we have some Dawgs in the new comers and some great effort too! Plummer sounds deadly with the shot, and I truly believe we are better this year! Omar sounds like he's a great addition by the way the team describes him battling and doing well against Kofi in practice. Trent comment decibel made me feel he's gonna work well with Kofi and keep us proud after Kofi leaves! Hutch sounds ready to show his abilities too! I just can't wait to see it against another team in the exhibitions and hopefully we can gel and develop that chemistry early on and win a ton of games this year too go get the championships we deserve!
 
#74      
Plummer sounds deadly with the shot

Fearless, great form, and range. Always welcome to have a player like that. I think he'll bring toughness and options when BU wants to go small. That said, when you have a Kofi, ball is going to go inside a lot. Hopefully Kofi is a bit more discriminating with double teams, and shows he can recognize when a shooter is going to be open. The NBA thinks he needs those skills, so better to start now.
 
#75      
I'm not sure what you mean? More Bears fans....or louder because they were winning? While Chicago teams travel very well in Dallas...(see Stars v. Blackhawks, Rangers/Sox).....if you're talking about fans in the stands, this is a complete exaggeration. I'm almost certain there has never been a Cowboys home game where the visiting team was more represented than the Cowboys.
It was 60:40 bears fans easily one of the games I went to. It was routinely commented on when I watched the broadcast the next day, and it was mentioned by players in post game interviews. Cowboys fans there were confused and kinda angry at their fan base.

But the general sentiment was about if your fans travel well, you can flip buildings even in neutral/away games. Us at NW, us at bragging rights at times, us at the UC etc.
 
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