My brother and I joined the concert choir in order to meet women
The choir director once said "You must like hell, because you surely get enough of it.
Just what one gets used to.
Illini Basketball
- Status
The choir director once said "You must like hell, because you surely get enough of it.
Just what one gets used to.
SameI just wanna know where I can get some of those weight plates.
For the right person/hobbit this could actually be a decent little set up
Dan
Admin
Here is the listing of Illinois' opponents for the 2024 Big Ten schedule:
Home Only – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away Only – Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Home & Away – Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
fightingillini.com
Home Only – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away Only – Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Home & Away – Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
Big Ten Announces 2023-24 Conference Opponents - University of Illinois Athletics
The Big Ten has revealed a breakdown of all 14 schools' conference opponents for the 2023-24 men's basketball season.
fightingillini.com
Illinisteve25
- Champaign
Tough schedule..... Lot of good home games though....Here is the listing of Illinois' opponents for the 2024 Big Ten schedule:
Home Only – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away Only – Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Home & Away – Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
Big Ten Announces 2023-24 Conference Opponents - University of Illinois Athletics
The Big Ten has revealed a breakdown of all 14 schools' conference opponents for the 2023-24 men's basketball season.
Getting MD, PU, MSU, and Rutgers twice and Minny/Neb/PSU once is brutal.
That being said, something something if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.
That being said, something something if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Not the best draw for us. Our away onlys are tough places to play. We have been winning in Madison, and we should win at Penn State. Ohio State will be a tough matchup next year. All three will be tough games.Here is the listing of Illinois' opponents for the 2024 Big Ten schedule:
Home Only – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away Only – Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Home & Away – Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
Big Ten Announces 2023-24 Conference Opponents - University of Illinois Athletics
The Big Ten has revealed a breakdown of all 14 schools' conference opponents for the 2023-24 men's basketball season.
For home only, Indiana is perfect. But Minnesota and Nebraska are two usually two road games that should be easy wins for us. Would have been nice to have those in our road tally.
The two-matchups opponents are all pretty solid opponents.
Thanks Tony Pettiti!
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
After last year, I'll take PSU once. Getting Maryland and Purdue not on the road ONLY is favorable too. The only better draw would be those two at home only, but I'll take it.
I’m curious to see who our two December B1G games will be against. We have struggled in those so maybe get those struggles out of the way with an east coast swing to PSU (sleepy arena) and Rutgers (Trapezoid of Doom).
I'll take the tougher schedule next year. We have lots of experience coming back and with the easy schedule we just had, we didn't have that many chances for good big ten wins.
Bigtex
- DFW
We had our chances but didn't win many close or tough games
Beat UCLA
Lost to Virginia
Lost @ Maryland
Lost to Penn State at home
beat Texas
Lost at Miznoz
Lost at NW
Beat MSU at home
Lost to Indiana at home
Lost @ Iowa
Lost @ Penn State
Lost @ Indiana
Beat NW at home
Lost @ OSU (Only non NCAA team)
Lost @ Purdue
Lost to Penn State (BTT)
Lost to Arkansas (NCAA first round)
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redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
4-
that 4-13 record in good games needs to be one of the last times that happens…. Yucky.
You're right and I should have articulated my point better. We only had 8 quad 1 conference games last year compared with 10 and 11 in the two years prior. I want to reverse that downward trend.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Honestly, look at the projections for the Big Ten last year ... and then look at how the standings turned out. In this current era of roster turnovers and seemingly more "upsets" than ever, I don't think the schedule matters quite as much as I used to. I honestly care more about "less tangible" things, like the following:
Good
- Two games against Iowa. This should be a protected rivalry, period, and I have lots of friends who are Hawkeyes fans, having lived a huge portion of my life in Iowa City. Therefore, this means potentially two reunion road trips for me (please have them both on Saturdays!!!).
- Away game at Rutgers could mean a long weekend in New York City if the game falls on the right date. The wife and I went with her parents last year, and I have to say I was REALLY pleasantly surprised ... would love to return.
- Avoid a trip to Bloomington ... sick of losing to them, it's a hard place to play and I have zero interest in some commentator telling me how historic that dump is.
- Away games at two arenas I would love to visit for the first time - Michigan State and Purdue.
Bad
- Wasting away games on Penn State and Ohio State - two arenas I have little interest in crossing off my Big Ten bucket list.
- No home game against Wisconsin. I have a good Badgers friend, and that would be an easy trip down from Chicago for both of us.
EDIT: Also, did I see they were doing a full Gavitt Tipoff slate this year with the Big Ten/ACC Challenge cancelled? If so, I would (A) hope for a cool opponent in Champaign, but (B) that road game at DePaul's shiny new arena in the South Loop filled with Illini fans sounds like a great time.
Good
- Two games against Iowa. This should be a protected rivalry, period, and I have lots of friends who are Hawkeyes fans, having lived a huge portion of my life in Iowa City. Therefore, this means potentially two reunion road trips for me (please have them both on Saturdays!!!).
- Away game at Rutgers could mean a long weekend in New York City if the game falls on the right date. The wife and I went with her parents last year, and I have to say I was REALLY pleasantly surprised ... would love to return.
- Avoid a trip to Bloomington ... sick of losing to them, it's a hard place to play and I have zero interest in some commentator telling me how historic that dump is.
- Away games at two arenas I would love to visit for the first time - Michigan State and Purdue.
Bad
- Wasting away games on Penn State and Ohio State - two arenas I have little interest in crossing off my Big Ten bucket list.
- No home game against Wisconsin. I have a good Badgers friend, and that would be an easy trip down from Chicago for both of us.
EDIT: Also, did I see they were doing a full Gavitt Tipoff slate this year with the Big Ten/ACC Challenge cancelled? If so, I would (A) hope for a cool opponent in Champaign, but (B) that road game at DePaul's shiny new arena in the South Loop filled with Illini fans sounds like a great time.
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Bigtex
- DFW
with B12 taking so many top 30 spots - meant some of our games fell to quad 2. Look forward to the day our home court is looked at and considered a win regardless of who we are playing. For the most part 22/23 Illinois beat the teams they should have beat and lost to the better teams.
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Home Only – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away Only – Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Home & Away – Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
Well, I think we will have quite a few with that schedule. It is too difficult to try to guess the Quad 1 home games (opponent has to be #30 or above), but the following will all be good candidates for Quad 1 road games:
Almost Certainly Quad 1
at Ohio State
at Iowa
at Maryland
at Michigan State
at Purdue
at Northwestern
at Rutgers (I have seen them as high as #25 on some preseason lists...)
Possibly Quad 1
at Wisconsin
at Michigan
Then we have a very decent chance of at least Maryland and MSU being Quad 1 home games, right? That would be 11 total if all of those fell the correct way in the rankings.
I've been to both. If you have to pick one, pick Purdue. An amazing atmosphere (the band is part of the student section) and crazy loud. Other than that, its a dump - narrow bleacher seats, no leg room, lousy concessions, no nearby parking, only vertical aisles ... but cramming so many people in such a small place makes it a great college basketball environment. It's worth a trip. For me, Breslin Center is the Izzone and ... meh.
Both my humble opinion.
Now there’s a band name. Lol
(Probably an Indie Band.)
Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
I'm old enough to remember when we all thought last years B1G schedule was very favorable.
I have no idea how to analyze the ever changing rosters of the Illini, let alone any other team.
I have no idea how to analyze the ever changing rosters of the Illini, let alone any other team.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Purdue is a great example of how the PROGRAM (and corresponding fan support) largely make a home court advantage more so than the building itself. In 2023, people treat "Mackey Arena" and "intimidating" as practically synonyms, but nobody thought of it that way when I was first following the Illini from 2001 to 2006 (great time to come of age, huh?!). Conversely, everyone talked about the Kohl Center as one of the most intimidating arenas in the country, and it is now largely considered a "meh" atmosphere. The Paint Crew and Purdue's fan base turned what was a "meh" arena into a nationally renowned hornet's nest over the last ten years.
I must admit I am still a bit perplexed and disappointed that State Farm Center has not regained its national reputation of being one of the best atmospheres in the country. While I do not think we have approached the levels we had circa 2006 and 2007 just after the glory years, it has been extremely loud and intimidating for quite a few games the last two seasons.
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
I don’t know if I’m considered regular enough, but if someone is doing this, count me in!
Was thinking they’d be math rock instead.
well, "no one" isn't accurate, because I, and everyone who's ever been to Mackey, know how intimidating it has always been. This long predated the Paint Crew.
SFC just physically can't approach Mackey at its peak.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Eh, agree to disagree circa 2005 ... absolutely nobody considered it on par with (Illinois') Assembly Hall or the Breslin Center simply because the crowds weren't nearly as rowdy during that era due to bad teams. Our full 2005 game there is on YouTube, and compare that environment (which included literally thousands of Illini fans because there were so many tickets available, FWIW...) with our 2005 home games in Champaign on YouTube. Mackey was not even close.
I am not saying Mackey wasn't an amazing atmosphere before that, in the 1990s or 1980s, for example, and I am not saying that it is not inherently set up to be a better homecourt advantage than SFC due to its construction, either. My point is rather just that we cannot truly judge a homecourt advantage while a program is down, and these things ebb and flow, and there have been times when we were up and they were down and nobody considered Mackey better than Assembly Hall/SFC. Programs like Purdue or Illinois that have been good historically tend to maintain at least a pretty good atmosphere even when we are down (we had several sellouts during the Groce years, for example), but both are still WAY better when we are good, as are all programs.
There is an alternate universe where Illinois football has averaged 9 wins per season over the last three decades, and teams are absolutely horrified to travel to Memorial Stadium with its iconic architecture, swirling wind tunnels and rowdy crowds.
For a hoops comparison, if Minnesota had our history in hoops and had our record over the last four seasons, we'd all be talking about how The Barn is possibly the coolest atmosphere in the conference.- Status