NCAA Tournament Simulation

#102      
game 2005 team turned the ball over way to much, if you would have asked me to pick a player of the game before it started Augie would not have been in my top 5 20 plus pts and close to 20 boards, thanks for doing that now i need to figure out the next 23 hrs haha
 
#103      
game 2005 team turned the ball over way to much, if you would have asked me to pick a player of the game before it started Augie would not have been in my top 5 20 plus pts and close to 20 boards, thanks for doing that now i need to figure out the next 23 hrs haha

I agree. Not sure why they played so sloppy. James was a beast. Glad you enjoyed it! Haha.
 
#104      
Next do a replay of the 2005 championship, except this time let's see what happens if Augustine gets to actually play in the game.
 
#106      

JFGsCoffeeMug

BU:1 Trash cans:0
Chicago
Simulated NCAA tournament continuing with the Second Round on Mar 26-29. Four games a day.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBas...statement_from_tournament_hq_postfirst_round/

The time between rounds will be spent refining the rosters and making sure the teams look mostly accurate (in all likelihood, Higgs will no longer be suiting up for us moving forward). I hope Ayo will see a bump in his individual rating as well.
  • Second Round: March 26th-29th Times are 5:00 PM ET, 6:30 PM ET, 8:00 PM ET and 9:30 PM ET
  • Sweet Sixteen: April 3rd-4th Times TBD
  • Elite Eight: April 6th Times TBD
  • Final Four: April 10th Times TBD
  • National Title Game: April 12th Times TBD
Second Round matchups will be released here tomorrow morning around 11:00 AM ET, so stay tuned.

Updated bracket here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LwvjaNhxv5X1sb3bSUuWmxdHI_9nHuMPxcUOy9r4Ywo/edit?usp=sharing
 
#107      
Simulated NCAA tournament continuing with the Second Round on Mar 26-29. Four games a day.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBas...statement_from_tournament_hq_postfirst_round/

The time between rounds will be spent refining the rosters and making sure the teams look mostly accurate (in all likelihood, Higgs will no longer be suiting up for us moving forward). I hope Ayo will see a bump in his individual rating as well.
  • Second Round: March 26th-29th Times are 5:00 PM ET, 6:30 PM ET, 8:00 PM ET and 9:30 PM ET
  • Sweet Sixteen: April 3rd-4th Times TBD
  • Elite Eight: April 6th Times TBD
  • Final Four: April 10th Times TBD
  • National Title Game: April 12th Times TBD
Second Round matchups will be released here tomorrow morning around 11:00 AM ET, so stay tuned.

Updated bracket here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LwvjaNhxv5X1sb3bSUuWmxdHI_9nHuMPxcUOy9r4Ywo/edit?usp=sharing
This is truly fun. I hope they do it every year in the down time between rounds.
 
#109      
Ga65: I watch that game every time it's on. And the '89 team beat IU at IU without Kendall Gill. Flying Illini seemed like men among boys to me most of the time that season. The loss to Michigan still hurts.

If I had a choice, I'd love to see '89 versus '05 simulated.

Was watching with a friend from Michigan here in AK. Kept waiting for the Illinois run that never came. Was especially hard to take as our local D2 team had also beaten Michigan that year.
 
#110      
Was watching with a friend from Michigan here in AK. Kept waiting for the Illinois run that never came. Was especially hard to take as our local D2 team had also beaten Michigan that year.

Yeah, Alaska-Anchorage.

Michigan was a very good team, ranked high, before Final Four meeting, but the Illini manhandled them in the two previous games. As a poster said, it's hard to beat a quality team 3x in a row. Came so close.

I still have a virtually pristine bumper sticker - Illinois-Final Four-Seattle. Will not sell, don't ask. Ha!
 
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#111      
You may remember that Illinois owned Michigan and Bill Frieder that fateful season. Then Frieder announced he was leaving after the season for ASU, but that he would coach the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament. Bo differed loudly, saying "A Michigan man will coach Michigan in the tournament". Exit Frieder, enter Fisher, and they ran the table. It was a terrific, talented team--Rumeal Robinson, Glen Rice, Loy Vaught, Terry Mills, and Sean Higgins. Illini were even better, and should have won, but Kenny Battle was hobbled and, IIRC, Lowell Hamilton got injured during the game and played heroically, but less effectively than usual. They couldn't go full throttle, but still almost pulled it out. Had they beaten UM, I think they would have cruised against Seton Hall (my story and nobody can prove otherwise). Illinois injuries and UM's resurgence under Fisher made the Wolverines the team of destiny that season.

I still consider that 88-89 squad, man for man, the greatest and most exiting in Illinois basketball history (although I love the 2004-05 group). I attended both the '89 and '05 Final Fours, BTW, and left each one proud but disappointed. One these years, hopefully in my lifetime . . .
 
#112      
Speaking of '80s Illini teams, I got a question that maybe a few of our older posters on here can answer. WAND in Decatur is doing an all-time five with some of the local high schools (since they have so much extra time to kill right now) and they brought up Springfield Lanphier over the weekend and it got me to thinking. As talented as those Lions teams were in the '80s, is there any particular reason we weren't able to get Kevin Gamble and/or Ed Horton? I know they were both part of the same big recruiting class at Iowa in 1985 but I figured being so close to Champaign, that Henson and the staff back then may have been able to try and get at least one of them.
 
#113      

BillyBob1

Champaign
Speaking of '80s Illini teams, I got a question that maybe a few of our older posters on here can answer. WAND in Decatur is doing an all-time five with some of the local high schools (since they have so much extra time to kill right now) and they brought up Springfield Lanphier over the weekend and it got me to thinking. As talented as those Lions teams were in the '80s, is there any particular reason we weren't able to get Kevin Gamble and/or Ed Horton? I know they were both part of the same big recruiting class at Iowa in 1985 but I figured being so close to Champaign, that Henson and the staff back then may have been able to try and get at least one of them.
They asked Horton to redshirt, he refused. Gamble was a JC transfer, not sure why they didn’t go after him.
 
#116      
IIRC, Lowell Hamilton got injured during the game and played heroically, but less effectively than usual.

Hmmmm. I thought Hamilton was injured before that game (game before)? Ankle I think? But it was really bad and he was only about 50 %. But I could be wrong.
 
#117      
I went to school with Horton and Gamble, I always wondered why we did not get them, maybe they wanted to play together,maybe they was not recruited to UofI. IDK.
 
#118      
Lanphier was not ranked when they won state in 83, maybe Horton and Gamble were not highly ranked as players.
 
#119      

MDchicago

Lake Norman NC
Lanphier was not ranked when they won state in 83, maybe Horton and Gamble were not highly ranked as players.

Ed Horton certainly was a highly ranked recruit, winning Illinois Mr. Basketball (Lowell Hamilton finished second), but Illinois only had two available scholarships and Lou was targeting Lowell and Ben Wilson. An abundance of talent in the state that year and a good indication of the trajectory Lou and Jimmy had the program on at that time...

Excerpt from the Tribune regarding Horton's recruitment:

"Horton decided on Iowa in November after a bizarre series of events. Illinois coaches told him they wanted to redshirt him. Horton told Purdue coach Gene Keady he was leaning toward the Boilermakers.

For two years, Horton had been a "loyal-to-you-Illinois" player, but the school, with only two scholarships to give, was also pursuing Hamilton and Ben Wilson of Simeon. Hamilton signed with the Illini in November, a week before Wilson was shot to death a block from his high school.

"When I heard they wanted to redshirt me, I thought, 'Man, get me back to Springfield right now. Let me out of here,'" Horton says.

Less than 24 hours before Horton signed with Iowa, Keady thought he had him all but signed. But when Raveling signed Horton's former high school teammate, Gamble, Horton opted for the Hawkeyes. Gamble played for Lincoln (Ill.) Junior College this season.

"I wanted to get college off my mind," Horton says. "I wanted to make sure I could have a good senior year. In the back of my mind, I thought that if I had a good year, I could be Mr. Basketball. I was thinking about it a lot of times, of what I had to do to win it.
"

https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-prep-bkb-mr-basketball-1985-lanphier-ed-horton-story.html
 
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#123