Pregame: Illinois at UCLA, Saturday, February 21st, 7:00pm CT, FOX
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I have said this before. These guys have to realize Z is waiting. Stop panicking and reaching or holding on drives! It makes me crazy. Z is in great position to either block or alter and someone fouls!!
Hummer couldn’t guard coach Izzo’s mom last season.
I thought it was his grandma.
aiwpfan
- Springfield, Il
I thought it was his grandma.
I thought it was his grandma.
“Underwood joked that last season, "I'm not sure Ben could guard a dead man," adding that he "probably would give up 20 to Izzo’s mom".
Ben wasn't as bad on defense as a lot of people claim he was. He wasn't always up to the task but he always gave all he had and sometimes it was enough. He has worked hard and shown a lot of improvement in his defense this year and is very seldom a liability on that end of the floor.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Ben's defense started out bad last year but by the time we played Purdue late in the season he did a better job on TKR than Tomi did. Just don't think he was prepared for how fast and physical the B1G was. This year, his foot speed has really improved and he can guard 2s. Fletch thinned him down and sped him up last offseason. His rebounding and shot blocking this year has been a big bonus. Glad he is having a good year, and that people are starting to appreciate him and his effort.
There is no doubt in my feeble mind that there will be zero letdown in effort and focus on Sat. night. But what does concern me is UCLA raining 3s while ours hit the heel of the rim and bounce 10 ft. away on 80% of the shots. Or we get fouled on 40%i of our layyups and get calls 15% of the time. We see such games every year, usually in our road games. Why the B1G hierarchy has not made an effort to eliminate road bias in officiating is a mystery to me. The USC game was maybe the most consistently called B1G game I have seen since the 70s. Hard to explain away with any credibility why a top team in the NCAA in fewest fouls/game goes to East Lansing and for much of the game is called for 70% more fouls than a team that fouls big time in most of their games. It really did not happen, but the refs made it happen and it was in inexplicable anomaly. Regardless, those kind of things, one unpredictable and the other quite so in the B1G, that can leave elite and talented teams getting beat by opponents that are quite outmanned. So....we shall have to wait and see.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
In Ben’s defense, Mama Izzo’s got major hops!
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Coffee hasn’t kicked in, and I read this as “Hamer”. But it still was correct…….
dang Ben got tea bagged by Izzo’s mom
illini55
- The Villages, FL
Unlike MANY past years, the Illini don't seem to be affected at all by being on the road. It could be argued they've actually been better on the road, see Purdue, USC, Nebraska, OSU, Iowa. Go Illini!!
I believe the term you're looking for is "Clam slammed"
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
UCLA fans barely attend games when they’re good. They’re in a major free fall now. I expect the same type of crowd at Pauley as we saw at the Galen Center.
Billadeu is a really good player for them.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think it’s the worst idea to put Kylan on him. If we just play drop, and give him those wide open pick and pops…. we’re in for a long night.
UCLA is annoyingly FAR more effective at home. They shoot 40% from 3 at Pauley. They have the best home record in the conference and could easily be undefeated at home if not for some strange officiating at the end of their one loss. Gotta stay the course because they are going to hit shots. One thing we have going for us is that I'm not expecting much 
from the refs, at least not to the extent of what we all knew was coming at Breslin (which somehow exceeded my expectations).
from the refs, at least not to the extent of what we all knew was coming at Breslin (which somehow exceeded my expectations).A little bit of useless history here. During the 30's and 40's the UofI's Marine Geology Lab had a summer field camp at the Scripps Institute.
Some people believe the better player should always start (see Ben Humrichouse discourse), but I'm not so sure. I like starting the game with Jake, but when we play Michigan I think we're going to need the size, so I'm not opposed to just starting whichever player makes sense purely from a matchup perspective.
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