I always enjoyed the old adage, "I like playing teams like us because we beat ourselves all the time."I’ve said before that I like playing teams that are similarly structured to us. Hot around the perimeter, maybe leaning on one guy for a lot of points. Depend on a big man down low to get a lot of shots. I will take Kofi and Trent guarding those two any day. Our other guys and bench need to bring some fire to this one to make a bigger difference.
A minor aside, and This may have already been said, but I like that we are playing at night on Friday. I think we play our best when the sun goes down. A couple of our notable losses (MLK Purdue game and the BTT loss) were morning games.
Plus if we do lay an egg Friday or Sunday, I get my maximum enjoyment out of the first tourney weekend
Pregame: Illinois vs Chattanooga, Friday, March 18th, 5:50pm CT, TNT
- Status
Not gonna lie… I barely remember him.
Eric Gordon and just being a slimy individual in general. I believe he keeps multiple burner phones on him in case of the NCAA and FBI start investigating him
Was the head coach of Indiana at the time if IRC. Interfered with Eric Gordon who had verbally committed to Illinois. We were also a big chance to get Derrick Rose at that time and have Gordon/Rose backcourt. Gordon then attended Indianas midnight madness after verbal to us but told Illinois people “everything’s fine, goodnight.” Next I remember, he signed with Indiana. Deron Williams was asked about him backing out shortly after and his response was “Who? …Who?…I don’t know who that is.” That is when Gordon became known on this board as IDKWTI for the remainder of time. That’s at least one reason why we don’t like Sampson.
sacraig
- The desert
Yeah lets compare a team that played 20 games against B1G opponents to a team that played 18 games against AAC opponents. Of those 10 AAC opponents that they played, 3 of them have records over .500. Let that sink in. Now Im not saying Houston is bad. Im saying they are right where they deserve to be and we should beat them. There is no "we got screwed with this possible match up like last year. Houston are where they should be.
Houston is #4 in KenPom rankings and #3 in the NET rankings. They should be a 1 seed, not a 5.
If Alabama can beat them...we can too.
I like that in the first weekend we aren't (I don't believe) looking at the kinds of annoying, methodical teams with "a thing" we can't figure out how to stop.
Losing to Loyola was so frustrating bc of how they just took us out of rhythm -- every time Krutwig got the ball at the top of the key area, it reminded me of ASU's TE running that drag route about 100 times in 2012. We just couldn't deal with it!
I'm pleased as punch we're not playing Vermont (tons of motion), SD State (crazy three-point shooting), or Princeton (as was projected last week), and are apparently looking at two teams who we can just ball with and not have to spend 28 minutes getting comfortable against (at least that's my hope!).
The 4-13 might be the new 5-12 for upsets, unfortunately.
Wish you were right but absolutely confident it won’t happen.
1 game?That might require a suspension....
Just got done watch Todd Fuhrman's Illinois/Chatanooga prediction on the CBS app. No surprise he picks Chatanooga, while saying we're a worse team when Curbelo is on the floor. Clearly he hasn't watched much Illini basketball, or even Big Ten Basketball, as he also says that most of the BIG10 teams in the tournament are overseeded..
That baby got me through Compsci back in spring semester 1984. Ours was 5he first year that didn’t have to use punch cards, and had Video Display Terminals (VDT’s). I had my C64, a cassette tape drive for storage, and a 300 baud modem, and convinced my TA to let me dial in from Rantoul, where we lived while my wife was stationed at Chanute AFB. Thought I had died and gone to heaven not having to drive into campus to signup for a VDT time slot . . . .
Battered fan syndrome.
Haven't read past this yet, so apologies if this was addressed...
I think the bolded is exactly what people are afraid of. This team (with Ayo) last year got bounced in the first weekend. This conference had four of the top eight seeds (nine overall, hey like this year) but only got one to the 2nd weekend. I get the hesitancy amongst the fan base when looking at the first two games.
I think Illinois got screwed on location. They are co-Big champs and beat Wisconsin head to head. We split our last 2 games and Wisconsin lost both. That being said someone said if we play our game. Problem is the free throw shooting has been abysmal, 3's haven't been falling, Williams can't score, Plummer is a 2nd half no-show and the bench hasn't been good. The Illini have not played well when they have 4-5 days rest. I think Illini go down!
Last year we had a really nice path to the final. We were in our back yard. That did not work out to well. I think we are going to be alright. Our players are hungry to make the next step. Chattanooga will be a challenge but one that we will overcome. I look forward to cutting at least one more net down in this tourney.
We’re a #4 seed (second highest seed since 2005) and some posters be like . . .
2004-05 #1 Lost in NC game
2005-06 #4 Lost to #5 Washington
2006-07 #12 Lost to #5 Virginia Tech
2007-08 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2008-09 #5 Lost to #12 Western Kentucky (Last game I saw them play - flew down from AK to Portland, OR)
2009-10 NIT Lost to Dayton
2010-11 #12, Lost to #1 Kansas
2011-12 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2012-13 #7, Lost to #2 Miami
2013-14 NIT, Lost to Clamson
2014-15 NIT, Lost to Alabama
2015-16 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2016-17 NIT Lost to Central Florida
2017-18 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2018-19 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2019-20 No Tournaments
2020-21 #1, Lost to Loyola. Chicago
2021-22 #4 To be written . . .
I’m happy that we are not playing in the NIT or the slightly worse “Nothing/zip/nada/niente Tournament”. We’re playing Chattanooga for f’s sake, and more importantly, they are playing us! Strap on, it’s gonna be a wild ride, but regardless, the sun will come up the next day, and we’ll still be O&B to the core.
2004-05 #1 Lost in NC game
2005-06 #4 Lost to #5 Washington
2006-07 #12 Lost to #5 Virginia Tech
2007-08 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2008-09 #5 Lost to #12 Western Kentucky (Last game I saw them play - flew down from AK to Portland, OR)
2009-10 NIT Lost to Dayton
2010-11 #12, Lost to #1 Kansas
2011-12 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2012-13 #7, Lost to #2 Miami
2013-14 NIT, Lost to Clamson
2014-15 NIT, Lost to Alabama
2015-16 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2016-17 NIT Lost to Central Florida
2017-18 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2018-19 Nothing/zip/nada/niente
2019-20 No Tournaments
2020-21 #1, Lost to Loyola. Chicago
2021-22 #4 To be written . . .
I’m happy that we are not playing in the NIT or the slightly worse “Nothing/zip/nada/niente Tournament”. We’re playing Chattanooga for f’s sake, and more importantly, they are playing us! Strap on, it’s gonna be a wild ride, but regardless, the sun will come up the next day, and we’ll still be O&B to the core.
Chattanooga get 35 points a game from a 6'1" chucker and a 6'4" guard that isn't overly athletic. Their big man is 6'9" won't pull Kofi away from the hoop because he doesn't have much range, and he fouls a lot.
You put Trent on Smith and harass him. You hound Jean Baptiste and make him shoot over people. You pound Kofi at them and see if you can get De Sousa in foul trouble. If any one of those 3 things happen, Chattanooga is in trouble. If we can get good Hawkins, 7'0" and 6'10" in our lineup will pose some trouble for them as well.
Anything can happen in 1 game, anyone can get red hot, but if we're even concerned about this game, we're not a very good team. I believe they've only played 1 team that made the tournament in Murray State and they lost. Their best win of the year is either VCU or Middle Tennessee State. If we don't win this game by 10+, we deserve to go home.
Chattanooga looks decent, but I like this matchup a lot for us. As far as the future games, if last year taught us anything it should be not to worry about them till they are set. I bet a lot of Tennessee and OK state fans were unhappy about the prospect of playing us in the sweet 16 last year...
Hmm. Let’s make it to weekend number 2 and try to change that horrible stat.
- Status