Pregame: Illinois at Michigan State, Thursday, January 7th, 8:00pm CT, ESPN

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#77      

UrbanaIsTheShiz

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UrbanaIsTheShiz
KrushCow31 said:
I get that we played well against Ohio State, but I don't really see how that correlates to us playing a competitive game against msu. They are #5 and OSU doesn't even have votes. Am I missing something here, or is this just kool-aid?
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my only observation is that MSU's offense looked pretty pedestrian against Minnesota without Valentine. Their main weapons were pushing on the fast break, which they are pretty good at, and drawing fouls, which the #5 at home is going to get...lots of long rebounds off of missed threes would give them transition opportunities, and they are going to get theirs from the line, so we would have to have a special night from behind the arc, but I dont think its impossible.
 
#78      

UrbanaIsTheShiz

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UrbanaIsTheShiz
491illinois said:
Michigan State's Deyonta Davis, a McDonald’s All-American, is a 6-10 freshman with a 7-2 wingspan who already has 32 blocked shots. Illinois’ leading shot-blocker, Malcolm Hill, has 12. When was the last time we had an intimidating defensive presence in the middle???????
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last year. Egwu = lots of D and blocks.
 
#79      

UrbanaIsTheShiz

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UrbanaIsTheShiz
midastouch11 said:
If he only had better eye-hand coordination I think he could actually stick in the league. It's tough to have a 6-11 player that can't rebound/catch on the floor. But, he does add enough apart from those facts to play basketball for a while longer. I guess we'll see how critical he was to the last two East Lansing wins tonight.
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Gee, Nanna is starting in the NBDL, getting tick (32 mpg), and averaging nearly 10 (9.8 ppg) and 7, plus 1.5 blocks per game, . Thats pretty solid
 
#80      

ssanti13

ssanti13
ssanti13
UrbanaIsTheShiz said:
Gee, Nanna is starting in the NBDL, getting tick (32 mpg), and averaging nearly 10 (9.8 ppg) and 7, plus 1.5 blocks per game, . Thats pretty solid
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I always believed that if Nnanna could learn to do anything offensively in the post and became a better rebounder, he could be a very serviceable backup center in the NBA.
 
#81      

CAHALL15

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Central Illinois
CAHALL15
ssanti13 said:
I always believed that if Nnanna could learn to do anything offensively in the post and became a better rebounder, he could be a very serviceable backup center in the NBA.
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Agreed and to be honest, it's more about the rebounds. If he could average, in a backup role, 6-7 boards per game, he'd see some time. Reggie Evans has no offensive game and to be honest, neither does DeAndre Jordan. Jordan is obviously in another world when it comes to defense, but Evans has built a career on rebounding.
 
#82      

Bomb Squad 217

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Bomb Squad 217
CAHALL15 said:
Agreed and to be honest, it's more about the rebounds. If he could average, in a backup role, 6-7 boards per game, he'd see some time. Reggie Evans has no offensive game and to be honest, neither does DeAndre Jordan. Jordan is obviously in another world when it comes to defense, but Evans has built a career on rebounding.
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IF Egwu could jump like DeAndre and catch a pass he would be an NBA starting center.
 
#83      

Deleted member 8632

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Deleted member 8632
ChazzReinhold said:
tOSU was good enough on a given night to beat Kentucky. Could MSU beat Kentucky without Valentine?
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Yes. Kentucky lost by 18 to a 9-5 LSU team. They are not nearly as strong as past years.
 
#85      

GetAWin

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GetAWin
I know this is OT but curious to know where Darius Paul landed? Is he playing basketball? Is he still enrolled at Illinois? Never heard anything more about him after summer incident...hope he is doing well.
 
#86      

Illinijose

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Illinijose
Obelix said:
Speaking of Egwu, I saw him live in action in an NBDL game recently and he looked visibly stronger than in college.
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I have wondered why this happens, that players get much stronger and in some cases much better as soon as they go pro. It seems like they are training pretty hard in college. Possibly that year he changed the type of training. On a related note, how is Illinois bb strength coach. Some of the players have gotten stronger, at the same time many have gotten injured.
The injuries for the most part don't seem to be related to strength training.
 
#87      

dsal23

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dsal23
Illini win this game tonight by 10+ cuz Illini sports. Then will get clobbered by Purdue. Book it.
 
#89      

Chase3

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Chase3
Pretty obvious, but we definitely have a chance in tonight's game because of the absence of Valentine. I think it'll be incredibly tough to win given it is MSU at home, but we played well against Ohio St. With Valentine in, Illinois has no choice . Fortunately, we caught the right end of the injury stick for the first time in forever.

MSU-71 ILL-63
 
#92      

ssanti13

ssanti13
ssanti13
Got a good gut feeling we come out and shoot well tonight. It'll be a dog-fight, but I think we pull off the upset.
 
#93      

Deleted member 346957

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Deleted member 346957
No Kendrick Nunn tonight due to the birth of his 1st child.
 
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