Pregame: Illinois at Penn State, Saturday, January 3rd, 6:00pm CT, BTN

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#128      
MikeTisdale
OrangeBlue98 said:
Let me throw a few hypotheticals out there and see what people think in terms of whether a game is neutral site. I’ll add my opinions.

Illinois vs Alabama at Birmingham (yes)
Illinois vs Oklahoma State at Paycor Arena in OKC (yes)
Illinois vs Oklahoma at Paycor Arena (I’d say no-Norman is a suburb of OKC about 20 minutes away)
Illinois vs Stanford or Cal at Chase Center (no)
Illinois vs Stanford or Cal in San Jose (yes)
Illinois vs Iowa State in Des Moines (yes, but barely-the Cyclones would never do this).

For me, I think there’s a 25 or 30 mile radius from campus that shouldn’t be considered as a neutral game. Anything outside of that is a neutral game.

For the record, I strongly believe our games at the UC and the game Saturday are both neutral site games.
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What about a few years ago when the SFC was under construction and we played the first X games over in Springfield - were those home games for Illinois or "neutral site" games, despite being Illinois' de-facto home court due to construction?
 
#129      
altgeld88
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Can we please resurrect the orange Flyin' Illini uniforms from their undeserved graves for this one?? I'm sure the smart money is on navy Flyin' Illini or orange Script (or God forbit the regular orange 1LL1NO1S rags...), but I think it would be a good time to bring those back and shake off some of the bad juju from last year's Duke loss.
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Fighter, man, I, too, miss the orange block FIs so far this year. However, I'll get to see the boys play twice more this year: tomorrow evening and at Maryland in March. I pined publicly for those orange script throwbacks for so long I want to see them in person at least once this season.

Also, @OrangeBlue98: PSU fans infest every corner of the Mid-Atlantic like you can't believe. (And like vermin.) I've looked at photos of the past several games in Philly at the Palestra and, while it won't be the Rec Hall 2024 nightmare, it will be a home game for them if the pattern holds.
 
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#130      
PrideOfJersey
Educated guessing, this crowd should be a good showing for the O&B. Great team, easy trip if yer in the northeast corridor - whereas NYC/MSG is a mass transit event at some point, Philly is driveable, park and go.
The crowd should not be a factor. Team is bad... PSU fans are not running out to see this team, even if they happen to be walking around UPenn/Drexel campuses (campi?). I'm thinking PennState basketball die-hards (hah!), the students still back in philly on break, and middle-aged alums with grade school aged kids in tow.

I should be going, still on the fence. I didn't even realize it was at Palestra until Mizzoo game. The Palestra is a trip. I went to the '03/'04 game against temple, and glad I did. Old school field house - can hear the sneaker squeaks and 'and 1!' callouts. A lot of basketball history through there. It sits on campus, between Penn and Drexel, west of center city, just over the Schuylkill (schoo-kul). The five Div 1 schools in Philly, well 'nova is a main line suburb, but details/facts whatever - used to play a true round robin schedule over the season to crown a city champ..... all games played at the palestra. Things got changed since early 90's - Massamino wanted to schedule higher profile OOC games and games went bigger home arenas or Spectrum. I still think it's a regional basketball point of pride, and if you knew about it, then you knew college basketball. Fun fact - Drexel was not part of the 5 schools to compete, even though all games were played at their doorstep. they were added as 6th member more recently. I'd be one pissed off Drexel Dragon if i were so affiliated.
 
#131      
Deep
Michigan is a machine

Machine parts wear out the longer they run...

🤞
 
#132      
PepeSilvia
Fighter of the Nightman said:
The in between games are tricky. Should we be given credit for playing Alabama at a "neutral site" at the UC? I would say 110% yes. As you said, it is a proper NBA-sized arena, and it's not our fault that Alabama didn't show up as far as fans. Basically, I don't think the makeup of the crowd should have any bearing on the designation, and I think distance from campus should only matter so much (e.g., who cares if Michigan is close to Detroit, that is clearly a neutral site). I think the key is the type of arena ... but again, then you get into some pretty subjective cutoffs.
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Ann Arbor is a Detroit Suburbs and only 45 minutes from the Palace(now little Caesars). That is absolutely not a neutral game.

Just like I'd argue Illinois playing against Alabama is not a neutral game. It Illinois was playing Wisconsin or Michigan at the UC then yeah it could be neutral.

To me, neutral should be the crowd/location doesn't favor one team.

Like Nashville for Tennessee is a pseudo home game and same thing with playing Alabama in Birmingham.
 
#133      
IlliniFan42
MikeTisdale said:
What about a few years ago when the SFC was under construction and we played the first X games over in Springfield - were those home games for Illinois or "neutral site" games, despite being Illinois' de-facto home court due to construction?
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I don't know if there's an official source because the consensus is mixed. Some call those home games and others call them neutral. And then Sports Reference in its infinite wisdom calls half of them home and half of them neutral.
 
#137      
OrangeBlue98
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Penn State is 209th in defensive efficiency, which is absolutely atrocious for a power conference team.

For context, Mizzou is 125th.
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I’m maybe not as with it on some of these analytics things, but I think 209 vs 3 is what one may call “a bad matchup” for the team with the 209……….
 
#138      
mulepie
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Haven't watched them a ton this year, but they strike me as an inverse of what we got used to in the Fran years ... they don't seem to rely as much on raining threes, and their defense is good! It will be a battle, and it would be a massive feather in our cap as far as our resume goes!!

(@Dan, feel free to delete or move!)

Also, assuming Iowa and our Illini stay ranked, this would be the first top 25 matchup in this rivalry since we won the 74-72 thriller to clinch the Big Ten championship in 2022. Would be just the ninth time since 2000 where we have both been ranked, with the vast majority being during this recent 5-year stretch.

2026 - #20 Illinois at #25 Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
2022 - #20 Illinois 74, #24 Iowa 72 (Champaign, IL)
2021 - #3 Illinois 82, #5 Iowa 71 (BTT Semifinals in Indianapolis, IN)
2021 - #19 Illinois 80, #7 Iowa 75 (Champaign, IL)
2020 - #23 Illinois 78, #18 Iowa 76 (Champaign, IL)
2020 - #18 Iowa 72, #19 Illinois 65 (Iowa City, IA)
2006 - #8 Illinois 71, #20 Iowa 59 (Champaign, IL)
2005 - #1 Illinois 73, #23 Iowa 68 in OT (Champaign, IL)
2002 - #11 Illinois 77, #17 Iowa 66 (Champaign, IL)

Gotta take care of PSU first, of course! Bad or not, this gym will be an intimidating atmosphere if their fans show up. On that note ... any Illini fans going to this one?? With PSU being down bad, hopefully their Philly alumni don't come out in full force, and we can get a good showing of orange in that place!
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I'll be there, wearing Orange. First time at the Palestra!
 
#143      
OskieWowWow
Brosky said:
I have a good friend who lives in Bethlehem PA. He goes to occasional games at the Palestra. He tells me the place is a dump.
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That's what they call it when they're too cheap to fix the place. Ask me how I know? Just look at old Soldier Field
 
#145      
LouHenson
Yea but one of the greatest dumps ever was the old checkerdome they played the border war at before Savist center was built. You could get these seats that were sort of in like a “basket” hanging out from the roof line over the court. It was a crazy loud and fun place to watch a game.
 
#147      
OrangeBlue98
I said this earlier, and I’ll say it again. Limit live ball turnovers, and Illinois wins this game comfortably. Monday was the first time I watched PSU, and the only time they did anything was as when they got live ball turnovers. Take those away, and they were inept.
 
#148      
altgeld88
Brosky said:
I have a good friend who lives in Bethlehem PA. He goes to occasional games at the Palestra. He tells me the place is a dump.
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I'll say this in the kindest terms I can muster: your friend's perception in this matter is somewhat less than keen. I've been in a lot of classic gyms. This one is at the top of the heap.

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