Pregame: Illinois vs Alabama, Wednesday, November 19th, 8:00pm CT, FS1

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#4      
Thought he was supposed to play tonight.
 
#8      
Excited Fired Up GIF by Fighting Illini Athletics

This will be my first in-person game since the 2019-20 season 😎
 
#17      
Right now, we are #7 and 'Bama at #24 on Kenpom. I quit paying much attention to AP polling quite a while ago. I remember more than one interview with Loren Tate (when he was one of the AP pollsters) saying flat out that he was just guessing, as he hadn't seen the vast majority of the teams in the mix play.
 
#18      
Reminder… Mihailo was the MVP in the league in which Mirkovic played… I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas after I already got everything I wanted.
To clarify, he wasn’t MVP of the ABA, they were just calling him an “MVP candidate”, you may be thinking of him winning “round 28 MVP during the year” which is essentially player of the week

Still, it will be great when he’s ready to play- nights like last night where we needed a spark, he could have made a difference
 
#19      
#20      
We will get Bamas A game. Purdue just killed them on the boards, but previously they were even with St John’s (actually outrebounded them by 1). And both Philon and Wrightsell had bad games and I’m sure we will bounce back.

We are a better rebounding team than Purdue but as I’ve said think we get a much more active Bama. Still fully expect to win the rebounding margin though,

I’ve really liked what I’ve seen defensively from Kylan, Keaton, and Drej, and I think we can bother their guards with our length and physicality.

But the biggest key to me to this one is our health. If we’ve got Z protecting the rim for 25+ minutes I think we can stay home on their shooters when their very good, quick guards inevitably get penetration. I think they will struggle to finish over Z and will have a hard time getting clean 3s off over our length.

But if Z is limited (and Tomi out), we will have to outscore them.
 
#21      
The guys Alabama had out last game were Collins Onyejiaka and Keitenn Bristow, who don't seem to be rotation players anyhow (Onyejiaka averages 1 ppg & Bristow is a soph xfer from Tarleton St). Everyone else played.

I won't worry too much unless Z is still gimpy, then yeah it could be a slight disadvantage. Mirk & Ben & some Jakstys playing center. It's a good thing Alabama doesn't have anyone down there (Bol Bowen, Sherrell, Allen) who really scares anyone.
 
#22      
I say let's be hospitable to the Bama team. Show them around the Big City while they gape slack jawed at the sights, stuff them with deep dish pizza, hot dogs, and Italian beef sandwiches, take them to the Under Wood Shed in the house that Jordan built, and send them back to Tuscalooserville with a second B10 loss in a week, after running them over with the Illinois Team Bus.

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#23      
Break out the Beet Juice and Bacta Tank...!
We will get Bamas A game. Purdue just killed them on the boards, but previously they were even with St John’s (actually outrebounded them by 1). And both Philon and Wrightsell had bad games and I’m sure we will bounce back.

We are a better rebounding team than Purdue but as I’ve said think we get a much more active Bama. Still fully expect to win the rebounding margin though,

I’ve really liked what I’ve seen defensively from Kylan, Keaton, and Drej, and I think we can bother their guards with our length and physicality.

But the biggest key to me to this one is our health. If we’ve got Z protecting the rim for 25+ minutes I think we can stay home on their shooters when their very good, quick guards inevitably get penetration. I think they will struggle to finish over Z and will have a hard time getting clean 3s off over our length.

But if Z is limited (and Tomi out), we will have to outscore them.
Time for clone #3 Nikola Ivisic
 
#24      
I couldn't agree more. We want to see our players PLAYING! I'm surprised we beat TT, without Petro or Tomi available to play. It's a good sign in a way, I suppose, relative to our depth.
 
#25      
Will Illinois use the East or West bench at the UC? It looks like historically they used the west (visiting) bench but the last few regular season games used the East bench. I don’t want to get my tickets in the Bama pocket behind the wrong bench.
 
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