Pregame: Illinois vs BYU (United Center), Saturday, December 17th, 8:30pm CT, BTN
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Dang, have to wait a whole week...
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Please, let's have a respectable crowd at the UC and restore order to the Universe.
Win would be great, too!
Win would be great, too!
IllinoisFan733
- Chicago
Please, let's have a respectable crowd at the UC and restore order to the Universe.
Win would be great, too!
Going with my 2 brothers. We will be loud!!!
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Is it just me, or do we hardly ever shoot well at the UC?
We're ready for some Kipper! It's going to be a long week without Illini basketball. Hold BYU's Mika below 20 in scoring at Michael's house and we win this game. Go Illini!
I had a dream that I was at a game and Kipper was basically a Bash Bros complement to Leron - same energy and physicality, similar athleticism. They were subbing in for each other and playing stretches together at the 3/4 and 4/5. In my dream I said to someone next to me, "Kipper makes this a Sweet Sixteen team." Did I see the future?!
I'm going to guess 8 minutes.
It's really a shame Kendrick didn't finish with this team. We'd be a fringe top 25 team.
Illini1221
Peru,IL
I honestly don't see him getting more than 5-7 minutes Saturday, but I expect that to change throughout the course of the season. It also depends on whether or not we are in foul trouble. All that being said, I've never seen him play so I'm really just taking a wild guess. I think he's been practicing pretty well.
Illini1221
Peru,IL
I'd say better than that. Maybe top 20. With Kendrick, we beat Winthrop and probably FSU.
Overall I see BYU as a big team who will work the ball down low and pound the glass.
I think Kipper's minutes will be more than you'd typically want for a first game. Mika is a man playing with boys. I would not be surprised if both Thorne and Morgan foul out forcing Kipper to play extra minutes. I could see us running lots of zone this game.
Offensively I see Black having a huge game because I don't think they have anyone quick enough to guard him. Good ball movement tends to break down BYUs defense. I don't think we will do well if we play isolate and drive type basketball because BYU appears to protect the rim decently.
I think Kipper's minutes will be more than you'd typically want for a first game. Mika is a man playing with boys. I would not be surprised if both Thorne and Morgan foul out forcing Kipper to play extra minutes. I could see us running lots of zone this game.
Offensively I see Black having a huge game because I don't think they have anyone quick enough to guard him. Good ball movement tends to break down BYUs defense. I don't think we will do well if we play isolate and drive type basketball because BYU appears to protect the rim decently.
Colorado is playing at BYU on one of the Espns at 9pm central if anybody wants to do some scouting. Colorado is a 5pt underdog. Current KenPom has CU 52, BYU 60,Illini 70.
Going to be a really competitive game, both teams capable of putting big points on the board. We have the depth but they have 4 really good scorers. May be first to 80 wins.
We're going to the next two games, hoping that Illinois pulls out victories in both. We have gone to almost every December U of I game in the past 30 years at the United Center. Illini's recent history in games at the UC have been less than stellar. They're 3-3 in the last six--beating UIC twice, (last year barely), and the last meaningful victory was against Auburn 81-79 in 2012. Losing to UIC 57-54 in 2010 was a low point, and losing to UNLV 64-48 in 2011 and Oregon 77-70 in 2014 were no fun either. Really would like to see Illinois take advantage of their "home court advantage" in the UC and dominate this BYU team like they used to as described in this old article of Twenty Most Memorable Illini Games at the UC.
http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-s.../12/illinois-basketball-at-united-center-723/
-L-L
I remember seeing a ton of comments on here about how Oregon was a bad team and how was it was a shame that we got beat by an inferior team. I believe it was due to their kenpom ranking at the time. That Oregon team ending up 2nd in the PAC 12 and winning a game in the tournament. Winning that game may have been enough to make the dance, despite losing to Nebraska and getting destroyed by Michigan.
That leads to my point:
We have no idea how good these teams will actually be the end of the season but they can make a tremendous impact. In the 2014-15 season, we had 4 top 50 wins and one sub 100 loss and we were still pretty close to making the dance. Right now, we already two wins against teams that might end up in the top 50. A win here might make it 3. Even if VCU and NC State end up being mediocre, it would look really good to have wins against them and BYU in non conference play when we could have easily just scheduled sub 200 teams. It's great when Mizzou is one of the worst teams that we'll play this season.
This should be a fun game. The Buffalo's don't have a lot of depth, but their top 5 players are quality that gave experience together. King, Gordan, Collier, Fortune(Friars X-fee), Johnson are ball players. King is a craft lefty on O. If they had Josh Scott this year, they'd be a top 35 type team. Will the depth of the Cougars be a factor to them winning this game despite all the new pieces still gelling?
It doesn't appear that BYU has played any P5 opponents before tonight's game against Colorado besides USC. They are 6-3 with the 3 losses being USC, Utah Valley State and Valpo. They gave up 114 points to Utah Valley State. Ouch. Maybe we can out-shoot them. Although, I doubt that at the UC. We don't seem to shoot all that well there IIRC.
BYU has some talented scorers. We should put up 80+ on them though. Will be another good test for the boys.
85-76 good guys.
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85-76 good guys.
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I watched part of a BYU game early in the season. They shot a lot of deep 3's during that game.
BYU is not a great 3 point shooting team, so I'd guess we'll see some zone against them.
Everyone seems to make a lot of 3's against us, with the exception of VCU. LOL !
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Gotta get the W. Unleash the beast (Kipper).
I've posted about this before, but BYU has some serious talent on paper. Five top-100 recruits (according to 247 composite), plus last year's #114 player (Yoeli Childs). Their best players are Erik Mika (#39 in 2013; averaging 21 ppg and 8 reb), TJ Haws (#55 in 2014), Nick Emery (#64 in 2013), and LJ Rose (#87 in 2012). Due to the various Mormon missions and other sit out situations, they're probably one of the only teams in the country as old as we are. They've had a rough start, but this is a team with plenty of horses.
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