Illinois 80, Wisconsin 67 Postgame

sacraig said:

"Illinois (16-5, 9-2 Big Ten) isn't just leading the Big Ten standings; the Illini profile as one of the nation's scariest teams as they've so seldom played at full strength this season. Of Illinois' five losses, three have come with either Cockburn or Andre Curbelo — the team's two preseason All-America picks — out of commission. The other two came in either player's first game back from an extended absence—Cincinnati was Cockburn's first game back after suspension; Purdue marked Curbelo's first game after injury."

Illinois vs. Wisconsin score: Illini move to first in Big Ten; Badgers slip to a No. 2 seed in Bracketology

Illinois All-American center Kofi Cockburn had 37 points and 12 rebounds as he dominated the interior for the Illini

www.cbssports.com

Yet their own Palm has us as a 6 seed.

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His mind is made up; don't confuse him with data

Me drinking me coffee this morning sifting through social media and sports platforms

the national said:

View attachment 14976

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I’d buy this on a shirt!

bootsy1974 said:

It really is. He is an elite defensive player.

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Frazier or Damonte?

Qwiksilvur said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1489093787947347969

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Still wouldn't have been enough.

DMFW stat line: 35mins / 8 boards (all D rebs) / 5 assists / 7 pts / only 2 fouls tho' he spent the evening draped over his man (who, BTW, is a fairly decent, consistent threat)

oldman said:

With no evidence whatsoever, I’m speculating some supervisor of officials from the B1G went over the Purdue game video with these refs. There is no other explanation for the change.

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Negative. Edey plowed at least 3 elbows through Minnesota players last night. If they had, that would start getting called

Oldskoolkoach said:

Negative. Edey plowed at least 3 elbows through Minnesota players last night. If they had, that would start getting called

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I saw that also....................

Brosky said:

I saw that attendance figure too. Is that for real? If so, it's amazing and a tribute to this program that BU keeps developing.

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Radio repeated that that was the number they were given. They suspect it was off, but said it was possible. They were confident that it was at least 10-11,000 throughout the game.

PIT_ILL said:

Frazier or Damonte?

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Yes

Illinois improves to 2-2 on the season when Curbelo and Cockburn both play.

Dan said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1489091594854846465

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It really looked (and sounded) like more than 6500 on TV. Props to every single person that showed up, and also to the BTN crew for highlighting the effect of the crowd.

JSpence said:

Radio repeated that that was the number they were given. They suspect it was off, but said it was possible. They were confident that it was at least 10-11,000 throughout the game.

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I was at the game and would have estimated around 12 thousand give or take a bit. There were a lot of trips to buy beer and hit the bathroom by the youngsters last night so it may have looked like less since they weren't in their seats much lol. I did my game prep at home.

pruman91 said:

Big props to the crowd braving the weather and cheering loud and proud.......

Feed Kofi
Feed Kofi
Feed Kofi

Box out on D
Box out on D
Box out on D

That was my halftime speech if I was BU...............What a great win ....1st in the B1G...

DMFW was a beast
Trent was lockdown D
Jake was back in the saddle
Payne with a slam
Belo had a top ten assist to Kofi for the slam ......

Glad the refs let them play and that was the best reffed game for us this year in the B1G.......

BU on the radio interview now ...............................

can't say thank you enough to the crowd and students
job DMFW did on Davis was great....Trent was great on nut puncher and Jake did a job on Wahl
Kofi best on the court tonight
Plummer was a gravity player ....took players away from Kofi
21 assists on 32 baskets
nice to see Jake get going again
not gonna rush Belo back
Belo lives in the paint
Deon said BU should be talked up as B1G COTY
BU said focus is now the Loosiers Saturday @ 11 am

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Yes to all the above....beat the Hoosiers on Saturday and we should move ahead of Advertisement in the polls

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Kofi Cockburn had 37 points and 12 rebounds and No. 18 Illinois beat No. 11 Wisconsin 80-67 on Wednesday night.
Cockburn had 20 first-half points on 10-of-12 shooting, including two rim-rattling dunks. He finished 16 of 19, making his last five shots for the Illini (16-5, 9-2 Big Ten).
Wisconsin matched up a pair of 7-footers, Steven Crowl and Chris Vogt, with Cockburn, but they were unable to limit his impact.
“My coaches emphasized how physical I should be in the game, so certain games you’ve got to take advantage of it,” Cockburn said. “I’m just prepared and ready for that. I don’t really think I was licking my chops. I think I can score on most of the bigs in the Big Ten, if not everyone.”


Johnny Davis led Wisconsin (17-4, 8-3) with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

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I slept good last night for the first time in a week or so.........I love the fact that our slow starts to the second half are almost non existent now as compared to the last few seasons..........We played with poise and maturity when challenged with wisky cutting the lead down to 6 points or less a couple times late in the second half....I just woke up and can't remember if they ever got closer than 6 points late....

I was seriously worried at the performance at the FT line until Plummer stepped up and drained his 3 FT's ..............We saw where our strength was in the paint with Kofi being unstoppable and left the wisky bigs just shaking their heads.........

Best game as far as officiating in the B1G this season for the Illini.........Miracles do happen.......

it's cold outside here in Paducah this morning with snow on the ground and sleet or freezing rain still coming down , but I don't care .....The Illini got a tremendous win last night and I have plenty of food , booze , 420 and a wonderful woman by my side , as I am warm and cozy .......Hope everyone is feeling as great this morning as I am ........

On to the next conquest for the beast of the B1G................The first place Fighting Illini @ 9-2....................................

azillini1 said:

The only 2 remaining games that worry me are at Purdue and at Michigan State.

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All of them worry me.....some more worrisome than others....but u know anyone can beat anyone in the B10....I'll start with Indiana on Saturday....should have a big advantage inside much like we did against Wisky, but Hossers have some kids that if they shoot well can be a problem....Go ILL

Bigtex said:

Didn’t get to watch the game. Minor nitpick
Coach call timeout and get your starters off the floor and allow the crowd to cheer their performance.

Otherwise 10 out of 10 Performance

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It was a good performance, but most definitely not a 10 out of 10, which is a good thing for us. We can be better.

Note the free throw shooting. That can't happen. That will lose games.

Wisconsin really hurt us on the offensive glass in the first half.

Frazier and Plummer, offensively, need to find their game.

Kofi carried us. They had no answers.

They were abysmal from three, which we can partly attribute to our defense, partly to do to just having a bad night.

Kofi 10 out of 10
Rest of team 8 out of 10

doowink said:

All of them worry me.....some more worrisome than others....but u know anyone can beat anyone in the B10....I'll start with Indiana on Saturday....should have a big advantage inside much like we did against Wisky, but Hossers have some kids that if they shoot well can be a problem....Go ILL

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I guarantee BU is concerned about EVERY game remaining on the schedule ......He has such a down home personality and i wouldn't ever classify him as worried as much as concerned .....he has stated that every day guy philosophy of next game up as he said last night the staff will start preparing for the loosiers game Saturday now.........

We've got a winning culture now that convince's me that the sky's the limit for the illini when we get all the players up to game conditioning and working Belo back into the mix..................

Damonte had his most complete game of the year.
No stupid lazy passes that turn into points on turnover.
Huge rebounding when we were getting shut out on the boards
Typical defense effort.
Gave us some offensive contributions.
Most complete game for him this year

So refreshing to see pretty good (by BIG standards) officiating.

Piotyr said:

Illinois improves to 2-2 on the season when Curbelo and Cockburn both play.

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.500 is pretty mediocre. Clearly we're better if both Kofi and Belo sit.

Hopingfor500 said:

It was a good performance, but most definitely not a 10 out of 10, which is a good thing for us. We can be better.

Note the free throw shooting. That can't happen. That will lose games.

Wisconsin really hurt us on the offensive glass in the first half.

Frazier and Plummer, offensively, need to find their game.

Kofi carried us. They had no answers.

They were abysmal from three, which we can partly attribute to our defense, partly to do to just having a bad night.

Kofi 10 out of 10
Rest of team 8 out of 10

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Totally agree regarding Trent and Plum, but good to see better contribution from Grandison last night. As I've indicated before, we need elevated individual player contributions, offensively, as we head toward tournament play.

So nice to wake up this morning and check out all of the postgame videos after that great win. I noticed BU making odd facial expressions during the presser. Looked like he may have eaten an apple after the game and got some skin stuck between his teeth . I found myself instinctively making the same mouth movements as I watched