Uconn fan here , I have a few friends who are big Illinois fans and we've been talking all morning about tomorrow's game. Over on the Boneyard message board there is a ton of more detailed conversations about particular matchups. There's also a ton of respect given to your boys , they deserve it. I think Illinois is on the brink of making history if they pull this out . UConn is the number one overall seed , looking for back to back championships , has a record 9 straight tournament victories by over 13 points , have 2 lottery picks , an all American , Big East freshman of the year who's a heck of a defender and the Big East sixth man award winner. Here's why I think Illinois wins. You have the size to match Uconn at every position , great 1 2 punch at center position ( which Uconn had last year) , shooters, Shannon is playing other worldly and I can't see anyone stopping him. Underwood is a phenomenal coach and your fan base was by far the loudest last night. Fan bases get that way when they're hungry. What's even scarier is last night you guys had probably the worst free throw shooting performance I've ever seen in basketball, you weren't great from three and Domask had a pretty rough game and yet you guys still beat the number six or seven team in the country on a neutral court. If you guys make free throws and a few threes that's a 20 point game. It is true that UConn does not play very many close games and over on the boneyard that's a big topic of discussion that Hurley can't win close games or this team or last year's team couldn't win close games and Hurley's response to that is well. That's why we blow people out. Now I do love his confidence but that trend cannot continue forever and I think this Illinois game is going to show what this Connecticut team is made of. Now why I think UConn will win - Well, they have all the weapons. Basically everyone on the team is a double digit scorer. Everyone can rebound ,all American guard who led them to a championship last year. Cam Spencer who arguably is the best transfer get in all college basketball, a tenacious 6th man defender who's offensive game is just starting to round out pretty nicely and a coach who knows how to keep these kids motivated. UConn truly is a well-oiled machine but sometimes well-oiled machines have technical difficulties and when that happens , a newer better model steps up and becomes the well-oiled machine. We'll see you tomorrow night !
