Pregame: Illinois at Rutgers, Wednesday, February 5th, 7:30pm CT, BTN

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#52      
Fighter of the Nightman
After a couple of disappointing results this season, these are our current streaks vs. Big Ten teams ... Rutgers and Minnesota are two of the longer ones, and I for one would like to keep those going this week!!

W9 vs. Wisconsin
W8 vs. Michigan
W7 vs. Minnesota
W3 vs. Ohio State
W3 vs. Rutgers
W2 vs. Indiana
W2 vs. Iowa
W1 vs. Northwestern
W1 vs. Oregon
W1 vs. Penn State
W1 vs. UCLA
W1 vs. Washington
L1 vs. Maryland
L1 vs. Nebraska
L1 vs. USC
L2 vs. Michigan State
L5 vs. Purdue

We still have remaining matchups vs. MSU and Purdue at home ... would be nice to only have an active losing streak vs. three conference teams after this regular season!
 
#53      
PepeSilvia
OrangeBlue98 said:
This is absolutely a "Jordan Rules" game regarding Bailey. You get the ball out of his hands by any means necessary and dare someone else to beat you. I get it - the "Duany Duany" rule always seems to apply to the Illini. But on paper, no one else who will be on the floor for Rutgers is good enough to beat Illinois. I don't really like making statements like that, but it's true. Double Bailey, make him give the ball up, figure out who the "weakest link" is, and dare that person to have a career game. I don't think it will happen.
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The rest of the roster is small and doesn't really have anyone that should be able to beat you so you're absolutely right.

Double Bailey on everything and run Acuff off the 3pt line and I don't see how they score enough to beat you.

Though I guess there is the Jeremiah Williams revenge game narrative.
 
#54      
IMPE Legend
I can't see Harper playing unless he's 100%. He has seen KJ's spot in mock drafts near him too and I can't imagine he'd want to give scouts a direct comparison game if he's not at the top of his game.
 
#55      
PepeSilvia
IMPE Legend said:
I can't see Harper playing unless he's 100%. He has seen KJ's spot in mock drafts near him too and I can't imagine he'd want to give scouts a direct comparison game if he's not at the top of his game.
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I feel like if you were a competitor you would want to bury KJ.

But if it's a high ankle sprain I would bet on him just shutting it down. Rutgers is basically already eliminated from the tournament so there is only a month ish left for their season and he's probably locked in as a top 5 pick.

No real reason for him to return and risk reinjuring it or injuring something else because he's compensating for this injury.
 
#56      
Fighter of the Nightman
Was just looking up some of Rutgers' results, and my initial hunch was confirmed ... they're simply not a great offensive team of late, and if we keep them in check, we should win. These are their Big Ten results organized by how many points the Scarlet Knights scored...

W 85-82 at Nebraska
W 80-76 vs. Penn State
W 79-72 at Northwestern
W 75-68 vs. UCLA
L 74-81 vs. Michigan State (at MSG)
L 74-84 at Indiana
L 72-80 at Penn State
L 66-80 at Ohio State
L 63-66 vs. Michigan
L 63-75 vs. Wisconsin
L 50-68 vs. Purdue

So yeah ... don't give up 75+ points to them, lol.
 
#58      
RabidDawgClassic
I feel like this photo of Dra could live on for years as a memorable marketing pic, much like this photo of Efrem Winters was used in artistic form for several years. You knew instinctively that silhouette was Efrem.

IMG_0142.jpeg


IMG_0145.jpeg
 
#59      
JKR
zentrails said:
Actually it was Jamar admitting in public to a cop that he was violating his probation by drinking beer that put the final nail in his Illini career.
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But, not his basketball career. He went on to play at a directional school and then in various international leagues.
 
#60      
Fighter of the Nightman
BillyBob1 said:
I’ll go one step further and say sweep the next week against UCLA and MSU. Hopefully the team will continue to get healthier.
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I would say we need to sweep this week for the OSU win to really carry any meaning. If we simply avoided a disaster scenario vs. OSU but then go 1-1 for a fifth week in a row, we haven't really taken any steps forward. Going 2-0 on the road this week (with one of them currently being a Quad 1 opportunity) would show serious maturity and mental toughness that would really have us feeling "back on track" a bit, sitting at 17-7 (9-5) and likely back in the top 20 before two huge home games.

But winning the next four?? THAT would truly get us back to the point where we can start to hype up this group's "high ceiling" once again and worry about whether we'd get a good seed or a great seed if we keep it up. And I'm desperate for that to be maintained as the standard for Illini basketball, so that's where I'd agree. If we win the next four, we'd be sitting at 19-7 (11-5), having won 5 in a row and having piled up 4 Quad 1 wins in the same stretch ... we'd TRULY be back in business to the point that the disappointing losses are effectively completely cancelled out again.

So yeah ... we have to win these next four if we are "for real," so to speak.
 
#61      
PepeSilvia
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I would say we need to sweep this week for the OSU win to really carry any meaning. If we simply avoided a disaster scenario vs. OSU but then go 1-1 for a fifth week in a row, we haven't really taken any steps forward. Going 2-0 on the road this week (with one of them currently being a Quad 1 opportunity) would show serious maturity and mental toughness that would really have us feeling "back on track" a bit, sitting at 17-7 (9-5) and likely back in the top 20 before two huge home games.

But winning the next four?? THAT would truly get us back to the point where we can start to hype up this group's "high ceiling" once again and worry about whether we'd get a good seed or a great seed if we keep it up. And I'm desperate for that to be maintained as the standard for Illini basketball, so that's where I'd agree. If we win the next four, we'd be sitting at 19-7 (11-5), having won 5 in a row and having piled up 4 Quad 1 wins in the same stretch ... we'd TRULY be back in business to the point that the disappointing losses are effectively completely cancelled out again.

So yeah ... we have to win these next four if we are "for real," so to speak.
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One game at a time but I think winning the next 5 would get me excited again and would also build national hype heading into the Duke game which could then be a statement win if you managed to knock them off at MSG(6 straight you're flirting with a 1 seed).
 
#63      
Fighter of the Nightman
RML said:
We MUST fix this.
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Yep. I cannot confirm this at the moment, but I believe the current losing streak vs. Purdue and the inexplicable losing streak to PSU we had going for a while are the only losing streaks of 3 or more games we have had wince Underwood turned us around in 2019-20. There was an absolutely glorious stretch in 2022 I think where we had a 5-game winning streak vs. Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin all at the same time, and I think we had won 3 straight vs. Purdue until the current losing streak started in 2022 with the double OT loss. Absolutely nuts that the streak vs. Wisconsin is still going at 9 games ... makes me REALLY want that one at Kohl Center!
 
#65      
Second place is 1st loser
I wouldn't only be stunned if Harper played in Wednesday, I'd be stunned if he didn't shut it down and prep for the draft. Rutgers season is done. His dad is a pretty smart guy, as is his agent. High ankle sprains can take 4-6 weeks, if not more. They won't roll him out there unless he's 100%, which I don't believe is feasible until March.
 
#66      
Second place is 1st loser
PepeSilvia said:
One game at a time but I think winning the next 5 would get me excited again and would also build national hype heading into the Duke game which could then be a statement win if you managed to knock them off at MSG(6 straight you're flirting with a 1 seed).
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Completely unhinged, but in a positive way! It's amazing what one win can do for the soul.
 
#70      
PepeSilvia
Second place is 1st loser said:
Completely unhinged, but in a positive way! It's amazing what one win can do for the soul.
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Lol I'm not saying I think it's going to happen. I just am saying that if they rattle off 5 straight then I'll be fully bought in again.

And that realistically if they could manage to rattle off 6 straight with wins at Wisconsin, and over MSU and UCLA at home plus a win over Duke paired with their current metric/Kenpom ranking they would probably end up somewhere between 4-8 after a primetime win over the #1/#2 team in the country.
 
#74      
illiniguy24
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I would say we need to sweep this week for the OSU win to really carry any meaning. If we simply avoided a disaster scenario vs. OSU but then go 1-1 for a fifth week in a row, we haven't really taken any steps forward. Going 2-0 on the road this week (with one of them currently being a Quad 1 opportunity) would show serious maturity and mental toughness that would really have us feeling "back on track" a bit, sitting at 17-7 (9-5) and likely back in the top 20 before two huge home games.

But winning the next four?? THAT would truly get us back to the point where we can start to hype up this group's "high ceiling" once again and worry about whether we'd get a good seed or a great seed if we keep it up. And I'm desperate for that to be maintained as the standard for Illini basketball, so that's where I'd agree. If we win the next four, we'd be sitting at 19-7 (11-5), having won 5 in a row and having piled up 4 Quad 1 wins in the same stretch ... we'd TRULY be back in business to the point that the disappointing losses are effectively completely cancelled out again.

So yeah ... we have to win these next four if we are "for real," so to speak.
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It would feel really, really good to win 4 of our next 5 (or better obv) going into the Duke game. Would love to be back in the top 15 to really hype that game up nationally.
 
#75      
1970 John
1970 John said:
So we are 80 miles from Piscataway, 800 miles from Champaign. So which games are we going to? Let’s pack up the car because we’re heading to Illinois.
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Two men’s games, two women’s, and one hockey. Does anyone know if the rink is heated now? It wasn’t in 1969.
 
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