Yikes. Don't like that.
Pregame: Illinois at Northwestern, Thursday, January 7th, 8:00pm CT, BTN
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Illini in Indiana
- Indiana
We are half way through the easy half of our B10 season. I would love to see us win 4 of the next 5 (maybe 5), because the second half of the season looks brutal.
8-2 1st half - 6-4 2nd half = 14-6 may win it.
8-2 1st half - 6-4 2nd half = 14-6 may win it.
altenberger22
- South Carolina
Just noticed that Michigan is favored at home by 9 pts over NW. So perhaps ILL by 4-5 on the road next Thursday?
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
Watching Northwestern, I feel they have a VERY good starting 5, maybe the most solid in the conference top to bottom. They also have 1-2 very good bench players but after that I think it falls off pretty steep. Get some starters in foul trouble, attack the basket. Frustrate Nance and Buie on defense and we can win this handily. Oh, and shoot at least 75% from FT...
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
We better come ready, that's all I have to say! I am really hoping NU beats Michigan today, not only so they aren't feeling more desperate and not only because I want their ranking to be as high as possible when we play them ... but I want that conference title, baby! 
Also, since I am bored (grad school classes don't resume until tomorrow) and truly reaching my mental breaking point with COVID lockdown stuff, let's relive our last meeting against NU. Was anyone else in Evanston last year? There have long been hyperbolic statements about Illini fans outnumbering NU fans in Welsh-Ryan, when in reality it was probably 40/60 or even 50/50 ... after all, it's pretty damn hard to actually outnumber the home team's fans once you consider student tickets and season ticketholders. But last year ... I am not joking whatsoever, it was at least 70/30 orange in that arena. It was awesome. When Griffin started raining threes and we started to pull away, it was so fun to be a part of that Illini crowd, especially as a Chicago area Illini fan. I can't wait for that type of comradery at sporting events again!
P.S. We are on a four-game winning streak vs. NU, so let's keep it up! Last year really brought us out of a dark age of sorts, and we are currently on a winning streak vs. 9 out of 14 Big Ten teams, with the only losing streaks (UMD, MSU, OSU and RU) being two games or less! For a stat/history nerd like me, our turnaround has been truly, truly enjoyable.
P.P.S. Oh yeah ... my prediction, along with the rankings we will both, assuming NU narrowly falls to Michigan today:
#11 Illinois 71
#22 Northwestern 66
Also, since I am bored (grad school classes don't resume until tomorrow) and truly reaching my mental breaking point with COVID lockdown stuff, let's relive our last meeting against NU. Was anyone else in Evanston last year? There have long been hyperbolic statements about Illini fans outnumbering NU fans in Welsh-Ryan, when in reality it was probably 40/60 or even 50/50 ... after all, it's pretty damn hard to actually outnumber the home team's fans once you consider student tickets and season ticketholders. But last year ... I am not joking whatsoever, it was at least 70/30 orange in that arena. It was awesome. When Griffin started raining threes and we started to pull away, it was so fun to be a part of that Illini crowd, especially as a Chicago area Illini fan. I can't wait for that type of comradery at sporting events again!
P.S. We are on a four-game winning streak vs. NU, so let's keep it up! Last year really brought us out of a dark age of sorts, and we are currently on a winning streak vs. 9 out of 14 Big Ten teams, with the only losing streaks (UMD, MSU, OSU and RU) being two games or less! For a stat/history nerd like me, our turnaround has been truly, truly enjoyable.
P.P.S. Oh yeah ... my prediction, along with the rankings we will both, assuming NU narrowly falls to Michigan today:
#11 Illinois 71
#22 Northwestern 66
ILFaninFL
- Nature Coast in Florida
We win the next six and we are in the driver's seat when we play Iowa.
On a side note ... in what universe is it acceptable that we only play Iowa once?
If I’m the only one, I surely won’t be the last by the time the NCAA tourney roles around. And there’s plenty of gimmes in this league for true Final 4 teams.
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
You realize that from now forward, nothing you say here will be taken seriously?
How many B10 fans are saying this about Illinois?
I wonder why he didn't go off on Purdue. Was he trying to let the other guys find their places? He can pretty much always get his but might be smart to let the other guys figure out their places before we get to the tourney.
At this point, 60% FT would help me keep my hair.
No you would still have a valid complaint of them not shooting 70%.
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
Probably a good few
I totally agree.
Since the mizzou game, that's really my only knock on the team. They play hard and they care. That's good enough for me at this point in the season. It's fun to watch them learn and grow each game. I hope they're hitting on all cylinders in March. And I think that is a realistic expectation looking at last year's results.
I'm just enjoying the ride.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yeah. A blowout. I was hoping it would be a tight game. They'll be itching for us on Thursday at home.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
This afternoon I was feeling a little better that (1) Michigan had played no one of stature yet; (2) Maryland and NW were 45 & 54 in Pomeroy's rankings going into this evening. Then again Michigan is #10 and cranking on NW the way they are tonight (up nearly 30 with six mins left) reinforces that ranking to me. They have an even more brutal Feb than we do, but you may end up being correct. Always hard to guess where a team like them will be in mid-Feb compared with early Jan.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
If Boo Buie doesn't snap out of his scoring slump, they're going to lose a lot more games, by a lot of points.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
I was getting this really good feeling . . . and then . . .
Just posted a similar thought on the Purdue game thread. Ayo scored 12 in the first half, but then passed the ball a least a couple of times when he had a good look or an opportunity to get to the rim during the second half. Think he is trying to get this team ready for a run come March.
I think there must have been other factors during the 19 -0 Purdue run (first 4 min of 2d half). DW 3p shots got us out of that funk. I think their D took Ayo out of his normal cycle and Ayo was more selective on shots
Missouri also has a relatively low Kenpom score. Kenpom is heavily based on the margin of victory. I'm pretty sure that a team that wins all their games by 1pt, will be ranked significantly lower than a team that wins 1/2 their games by 10pts, and loses the other 1/2 of their games by 1pt. (Sagarin is similar.) Our high ratings are because when we win, we tend to win big.
Both Kenpom and Sagarin rate Missouri as ~3pts better than NW.
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