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

Status
Not open for further replies.
#101      
aaeismacgychel
zentrails said:
Piper said a high ankle sprain.
Same injury that helped to end Jamar Smith's Illini career.
Click to expand...
I can say with certainty, that was not what caused the end of Jamar Smith's career at Illinois. If only he didn't struggle with alcoholism and take actions that ruined multiple lives because of it. Maybe my biggest what if as an Illini fan. Right up there with What if the Bruce Pearl affair never happened and what if James Augustine was actually allowed to play in the National Championship game. Sigh...

Man... Freshman year sober Jamar Smith... Can you imagine him on this team? A volume 48% shooter from 3? In our current system, he might average over 5 made threes a game.
 
#102      
1m4tr
aaeismacgychel said:
I can say with certainty, that was not what caused the end of Jamar Smith's career at Illinois. If only he didn't struggle with alcoholism and take actions that ruined multiple lives because of it. Maybe my biggest what if as an Illini fan. Right up there with What if the Bruce Pearl affair never happened and what if James Augustine was actually allowed to play in the National Championship game. Sigh...

Man... Freshman year sober Jamar Smith... Can you imagine him on this team? A volume 48% shooter from 3? In our current system, he might average over 5 made threes a game.
Click to expand...
Well said. We never got to see how good he would have been. It’s a shame. One of the best pure shooters we’ve ever seen. Damn.
 
#103      
GrayGhost77
aaeismacgychel said:
I can say with certainty, that was not what caused the end of Jamar Smith's career at Illinois. If only he didn't struggle with alcoholism and take actions that ruined multiple lives because of it. Maybe my biggest what if as an Illini fan. Right up there with What if the Bruce Pearl affair never happened and what if James Augustine was actually allowed to play in the National Championship game. Sigh...

Man... Freshman year sober Jamar Smith... Can you imagine him on this team? A volume 48% shooter from 3? In our current system, he might average over 5 made threes a game.
Click to expand...
Yeah. That was basically the beginning of the end of the Weber regime. Such a shame.
 
#104      
21ChampaignSt
aaeismacgychel said:
I can say with certainty, that was not what caused the end of Jamar Smith's career at Illinois. If only he didn't struggle with alcoholism and take actions that ruined multiple lives because of it. Maybe my biggest what if as an Illini fan. Right up there with What if the Bruce Pearl affair never happened and what if James Augustine was actually allowed to play in the National Championship game. Sigh...

Man... Freshman year sober Jamar Smith... Can you imagine him on this team? A volume 48% shooter from 3? In our current system, he might average over 5 made threes a game.
Click to expand...
Him, Nunn, and Richmond - three great talents whose Illini careers flamed out too soon due to off court stuff. And all three happened within 10 years. (Richmond didn't have a specific incident at Illinois, but clearly he was troubled).
 
#106      
Orangetool
Boskydell said:
This won't be the first match up between MJ and LS. Thought that Sommerville got the better of him last.year in highschool. Will be watching it closely.
Click to expand...

I was at that game and I must disagree.

Neither player had a fantastic game, but Morez looked to be the better athlete with greater skills.
Sommerville just looked big and a bit plodding. I am curious to see his current skills as Pikiell is a good coach.
 
#107      
Birdus
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.
Click to expand...
High ankle sprains if reinjured may be a serious thing. I don't think he or the team doctors would chance it. He is going to be top 5 anyway.
 
#108      
altgeld88
aaeismacgychel said:
I can say with certainty, that was not what caused the end of Jamar Smith's career at Illinois. If only he didn't struggle with alcoholism and take actions that ruined multiple lives because of it. Maybe my biggest what if as an Illini fan. Right up there with What if the Bruce Pearl affair never happened and what if James Augustine was actually allowed to play in the National Championship game. Sigh...

Man... Freshman year sober Jamar Smith... Can you imagine him on this team? A volume 48% shooter from 3? In our current system, he might average over 5 made threes a game.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Heartbreaking. I was living in Eastern Canada in '07 when the Illini came through on their tour in August. They played the National Champion Carleton University Ravens in Ottawa, just across the street from where I lived at the time. Loved seeing them play and win (in OT, which concerned me about the coming season because they should have won comfortably in regulation.)

After the game I was talking to a donor who was travelling with the team. I asked him about Jamar, who had been practicing with the team over the summer in the wake of the DUI incident the preceding winter. He told me that he had been following the team closely for many years, and had been an insider for a long while (he was probably around 60 at the time.) Said he'd never seeing someone stroking Js like Jamar was that summer and that he was really optimistic about our prospects when Jamar was scheduled to return in 2008.

So sad. And thank goodness that Brian Carlwell was not killed.

[EDIT: In case my final sentence seems over the top, this is a photo of the passenger side of the car where Carlwell was sitting. From UIUC alum Will Leitch of Deadspin at the time:}

1738777535455.png
 
Last edited:
#110      
Greensboro
pruman91 said:
fair enough....didn't know his buyout was that much ........I still think he is above his pay grade in the B$G regardless of who RU has had in the past...................

Your right about Woodson ....he is a dead man walking.................my bad on forgetting about him......
Click to expand...
In fairness you said first fired at end of the season, fair chance Woodson is gone before season ends.
 
#114      
STATS GUY
Goillinikobd said:
I also want to see more of Tomi and Morez on the floor at the same time. They could ne unstoppable once BU figures out how to use them and they get comfortable playing together
Click to expand...
Switch to Tomi playing the 4 so he can slip ball screens You need one less shooter in the corner adn this opens up the elbow penetration. If they go drop coverage defender on corner shooter will have to decide to when to help. Look at what happened when Riley was able to get downhill. MJ will be able to be more involved in the offense.
 
#121      
OB positive
STATS GUY said:
Switch to Tomi playing the 4 so he can slip ball screens You need one less shooter in the corner adn this opens up the elbow penetration. If they go drop coverage defender on corner shooter will have to decide to when to help. Look at what happened when Riley was able to get downhill. MJ will be able to be more involved in the offense.
Click to expand...
As long as we continue to use Tomi in the high screen pnr. In the second half against Ohio state it changed the game when Tomi started looking for back door cutters instead of handing it off all the time. We got some easy baskets and completely disrupted how Ohio state was defending it while opening up more options for us on that action. With his height he can see and pass over the trap/hedge on the pnr and easily pass to any open cutters. I hope to see more of this the rest of the season.
 
#122      
Fighter of the Nightman
We haven't won two games in a row for a month ... that has to end tonight. Beating OSU and then losing even one game this week is not any type of improvement, period. We have our whole team back, and we need to bring energy early to stifle Rutgers and not let the crowd get into it at all.

I also think (and definitely hope!) we are due for a regression to more consistent shooting from the field around our average of 42-44% vs. power conference competition. While "blinding" the opponents, it's telling to look at our overall FG shooting since January 1st. If there is no comment, it means we had our full team:

COLOR KEY
>50%
45%-50%
40-44%
<40%

GAMES SINCE JAN. 1 (Chronological Order)
57.5%
47.0%
44.2% (without KJ)
37.1% (without KJ)
40.0%
42.4%
37.7% (no Ivisic)
44.6% (no Ivisic)
35.6% (no Ivisic)
51.7%

Pretty easy to see a pattern and hopefully what is the beginning of a recovery. We have not shot over 45% once WITHOUT our full lineup, and we have shot better than that in 3 out of 5 games WITH our full lineup, including twice over 50% and once over 55%. OSU was a "save the season" game ... I'm looking forward to tonight (and at Minnesota) being "back on track" games.
 
#123      
mikeyillini
Orangetool said:
I was at that game and I must disagree.

Neither player had a fantastic game, but Morez looked to be the better athlete with greater skills.
Sommerville just looked big and a bit plodding. I am curious to see his current skills as Pikiell is a good coach.
Click to expand...
Sommerville scored 32points w/ 11rebounds 3 blocks & 9/11 from the line vs Thornton
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back