Pregame: Illinois vs Arkansas, Thursday, March 16th, 3:30pm CT, TBS

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#628      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
I honestly never pay attention to jerseys, do we normally wear orange against teams with red in their color scheme?
We certainly have against OSU and Wisconsin over the years. Perhaps v. Nebraska, too.

Frankly, I doubt that even the extreme specialization of modern athletic departments has progressed to the point at which we have a "uniform palette harmony" consultant on staff or retainer.
 
#629      
Lou was a good coach, but no chance he goes ahead of Self and Kruger.
Lou produced much more on the court for Illinois than Lon did. It's not close, and I loved Lon as a coach and wish he had stayed longer.
 
#630      
Nothing personal but I really don’t like this take, Lou built a program from the ground up through hard work and preaching fundamentals. Kruger and Selfish used what Lou built as a stepping stone to “better” jobs. Lou>Self>Kruger is my take.
Yeah, that’s one of the best things about Lou…loyalty. That’s almost unheard of now days.

(It’s kinda like Painter telling Purdue to go pee up a rope…by not taking the call. Guys like that are rare.)

Kruger didn’t exactly get the keys to a Porsche when he took over for Henson. It was more like a fast, somewhat dependable slightly rusty Mustang. In other words, we still had the clout of being Illinois and somewhat recent past glories….but after the Deon Thomas-nonsense…we had fallen off from where were for sure. He was still winning CLOSE to 20 a season but it wasn’t as formidable as it was. He had one season where he only won 13 games and had a losing season. (Can you imagine that happening to anyone NOT as beloved by the fandom as Lou? Or nowadays? I think that coach would likely be sent packing.) People’s memories are kinda fuzzy about that sometimes.

What Self inherited from Lon was
arguably/probably better than what Lon
was handed from Lou.
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#631      
Positivity time!

- We are 5-0 all-time against Arkansas, including 4-0 at neutral sites in the Twenty-First Century. :cool:
- We are 1-0 all-time as a #9 seed, and that one time had Kansas as the #1 seed in our region! Good omen.
- We are 6-2 this year vs. teams that shoot the 3-pointer worse than 33%, with the only losses being our worst performance ever at Northwestern and a close loss at Purdue. Arkansas shoots it at 31.7%!
- The Illini have not lost a First Round game with a full/healthy roster since at least 2007 and since 1994 if you count Jamar Smith's departure as losing a key starter. (I'll not count Skyy as such ... lol, gotta keep up the good juju!)
- Brad Underwood is 1-0 all-time vs. Arkansas, defeating the Razorbacks 99-71 while at Oklahoma State in 2017!

Let's go get this one!
 
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#633      
So we're gonna wear blue jerseys today right?

Jkjkjk
Fully endorsed if it's the shocking reveal of the blue Flyin' Illini throwbacks!
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Would also be ecstatic with this shocking reveal!
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Or if we REALLY want some good juju for a run to the Final Four...
90


For real, though - as our resident jersey "complainer" (covering my bases in case this annoys someone again! :ROFLMAO:), I'll be happy with either one of these the rest of the Tournament, too:
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90


Just not the regulars on the big stage, if you ask me! :ROFLMAO:🤞;):hailtotheorange:
 
#634      

Stevegarbs

Mokena, IL
I love Henson, but my dad always talks about how people never really appreciated him until he was gone. There was AT LEAST as much of a "he can't win the big games" narrative about him as some have about Underwood all throughout the 1980s ... let's remember 1989 came near the end of our heyday. And who knows what Self does if he stays at Illinois or what Underwood does if he's at Kansas all this time? It's just hard to say.
Good observation. His style was probably the exact opposite of Underwood with respect to sideline demeanor. I knew one of the managers during that period of time who claimed he never heard Coach Henson utter a single curse word in practice or during a game. May be an apocryphal story, but the parallels on "great recruiter but can't win the big one" are spot on.
 
#638      
I love Henson, but my dad always talks about how people never really appreciated him until he was gone. There was AT LEAST as much of a "he can't win the big games" narrative about him as some have about Underwood all throughout the 1980s ... let's remember 1989 came near the end of our heyday. And who knows what Self does if he stays at Illinois or what Underwood does if he's at Kansas all this time? It's just hard to say.
Lou was 1-7 against IU during my years on campus. meh
 
#642      
Good observation. His style was probably the exact opposite of Underwood with respect to sideline demeanor. I knew one of the managers during that period of time who claimed he never heard Coach Henson utter a single curse word in practice or during a game. May be an apocryphal story, but the parallels on "great recruiter but can't win the big one" are spot on.
The language was different but their sideline demeanor was very similar, imo.
 
#644      
Where’s the Illini bar gathering before the game in Des Moines? Can’t find the post on twitter.
 
#647      
I have a bad feeling that 1 or both of their lottery picks will go off in the last few minutes of the game and turn it into a comfortable win for them. Root for me to be wrong please.
 
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