Pregame: Illinois vs Eastern Illinois, Monday, November 7th, 8:00pm CT, ESPNU

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#1      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
Illinois vs Eastern Illinois
Monday, November 7th
8:00pm CT
ESPNU
 
#3      

foby

foby
Bonnaroo Land
foby
College Basketball Sport GIF by Fighting Illini Athletics
 
#6      

Don In Husky Land

D
Don In Husky Land
I am 71 years old and an Illini Bball and football fan since I was around 9 and hardly ever miss a game on TV. But as a an EIU grad, I BleedEIUBlue, so want to see the Panthers give a good show. I have known EIU Head Coach Marty Simmons since he was born (I played ball in with his uncles at my, and his dad’s, little hometown just south of Lawrenceville), Associate Head Coach Doug Novsek’s bro was married to my cousin and another cousin (who played for U of Toledo) was starting guard on the Lawrenceville teams with Marty and Doug that set the Illinois High School winning streak of 68 in a row. I was back from Seattle for EIU HoCo two weeks ago, went to an Eastern practice with our EIU 6th Man Club and spent time over a few days with Marty and Doug. After finishing their first season with only 7 healthy players for several games, they have a full complement of young, but high quality/high character, players. Three of those have NBA pedigrees, Haffner, Thomas and Carlesimo (also from Seattle, dad PJ coached our Sonics). After practice, every player came up into the stands, looked us in the eyes, introduced themselves and shook our hands. Marty is instilling a disciplined culture. I said to Marty that if we are playing the Illini, I am glad to see the game on Nov 7, not Dec 7 or Jan 7, because with all the new players they have to jell just as the Panthers do. While the result this time will, by all odds, not be the same as the last, I hope we will see glimpses of what Marty is building. BTW, Hamlin was looking pretty good and has buckled down in school (he was ineligible the last half of the last season), so will be interesting to see how he plays against his former team.
 
#7      

Monticello

M
Monticello
Don In Husky Land said:
I am 71 years old and an Illini Bball and football fan since I was around 9 and hardly ever miss a game on TV. But as a an EIU grad, I BleedEIUBlue, so want to see the Panthers give a good show. I have known EIU Head Coach Marty Simmons since he was born (I played ball in with his uncles at my, and his dad’s, little hometown just south of Lawrenceville), Associate Head Coach Doug Novsek’s bro was married to my cousin and another cousin (who played for U of Toledo) was starting guard on the Lawrenceville teams with Marty and Doug that set the Illinois High School winning streak of 68 in a row. I was back from Seattle for EIU HoCo two weeks ago, went to an Eastern practice with our EIU 6th Man Club and spent time over a few days with Marty and Doug. After finishing their first season with only 7 healthy players for several games, they have a full complement of young, but high quality/high character, players. Three of those have NBA pedigrees, Haffner, Thomas and Carlesimo (also from Seattle, dad PJ coached our Sonics). After practice, every player came up into the stands, looked us in the eyes, introduced themselves and shook our hands. Marty is instilling a disciplined culture. I said to Marty that if we are playing the Illini, I am glad to see the game on Nov 7, not Dec 7 or Jan 7, because with all the new players they have to jell just as the Panthers do. While the result this time will, by all odds, not be the same as the last, I hope we will see glimpses of what Marty is building. BTW, Hamlin was looking pretty good and has buckled down in school (he was ineligible the last half of the last season), so will be interesting to see how he plays against his former team.
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Thank you for sharing this. It's always neat to see how the coaches are connected to different teams, but I always enjoy hearing a fan's perspective as well. Sounds like you'll really enjoy this one!
 
#8      

doowink

D
doowink
Don In Husky Land said:
I am 71 years old and an Illini Bball and football fan since I was around 9 and hardly ever miss a game on TV. But as a an EIU grad, I BleedEIUBlue, so want to see the Panthers give a good show. I have known EIU Head Coach Marty Simmons since he was born (I played ball in with his uncles at my, and his dad’s, little hometown just south of Lawrenceville), Associate Head Coach Doug Novsek’s bro was married to my cousin and another cousin (who played for U of Toledo) was starting guard on the Lawrenceville teams with Marty and Doug that set the Illinois High School winning streak of 68 in a row. I was back from Seattle for EIU HoCo two weeks ago, went to an Eastern practice with our EIU 6th Man Club and spent time over a few days with Marty and Doug. After finishing their first season with only 7 healthy players for several games, they have a full complement of young, but high quality/high character, players. Three of those have NBA pedigrees, Haffner, Thomas and Carlesimo (also from Seattle, dad PJ coached our Sonics). After practice, every player came up into the stands, looked us in the eyes, introduced themselves and shook our hands. Marty is instilling a disciplined culture. I said to Marty that if we are playing the Illini, I am glad to see the game on Nov 7, not Dec 7 or Jan 7, because with all the new players they have to jell just as the Panthers do. While the result this time will, by all odds, not be the same as the last, I hope we will see glimpses of what Marty is building. BTW, Hamlin was looking pretty good and has buckled down in school (he was ineligible the last half of the last season), so will be interesting to see how he plays against his former team.
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Thanks for the post Don....I read with interest because I grew up in southeastern Illinois and witnessed the Marty Simmons led teams as well as other great basketball teams (programs) in that area....Jay Shidler's Lawrenceville teams that never could quite win it all...the great T-Town teams with coach Crawford go against rival Effingham St. Anthony...anyone that attended a T-town vs St. Anthony game back in the day witnessed something unique...Effingham High School with Mitch Arnold and Uwve Blop (sp)....Ron Herrin's (Olney) teams in the late 70's-early 80's.....Tom Welch and the Flora Wolves in the mid 80's....are just a few of the memories I have of southeastern Illinois basketball....there are many others but your post spurred some past memories for me
 
#15      

Don In Husky Land

D
Don In Husky Land
doowink said:
Thanks for the post Don....I read with interest because I grew up in southeastern Illinois and witnessed the Marty Simmons led teams as well as other great basketball teams (programs) in that area....Jay Shidler's Lawrenceville teams that never could quite win it all...the great T-Town teams with coach Crawford go against rival Effingham St. Anthony...anyone that attended a T-town vs St. Anthony game back in the day witnessed something unique...Effingham High School with Mitch Arnold and Uwve Blop (sp)....Ron Herrin's (Olney) teams in the late 70's-early 80's.....Tom Welch and the Flora Wolves in the mid 80's....are just a few of the memories I have of southeastern Illinois basketball....there are many others but your post spurred some past memories for me
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My little Allendale High School (town population of 500) is now consolidated into Mt. Carmel. My wife graduated from Dieterich but they moved to T-Town and her Hartke siblings all graduated from there. While I didn’t know Uwe, I knew the man who was responsible for getting the German player pipeline to the States, Chuck Keller. In Chuck’s obituary, Uwe was listed as his son (he did adopt some kids, don’t know if he actually did Uwe). I do know Uwe’s one time NBA teammate Detlef Schrempf as he works for the Wealth Management firm I co-founded here in Bellevue WA, which manages over $7 billion. You mention St. A and T-Town, both Tom Grunloh from St. A’s 1977-78 4th place State team and T-Town’s Leon Gobczynski (2nd leading scorer in the country his Senior year at Millikin) are in our EIU 6th Man Club and were at the same practice I attended. Tom’s Grunloh Construction company was very involved with the UofI State Farm Center renovation and my friend former Illini great and now EIU AD Tommy Michael was overseeing it from the Illini Athletic Department. BTW when I was in Marty’s office, he had a copy of Jay’s recently published book Blonde Bomber, A Ride With Shide on his desk.
 
#16      

Don In Husky Land

D
Don In Husky Land
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Really cool story about EIU teaming up with the Beautiful Lives Project to give people with disabilities the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the game: https://www.wcia.com/news/local-news/beautiful-lives-project-plays-basketball-with-eiu/
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I listened to the EIU game that Marty Simmons had Bryce Weiler, a blind radio announcer, do a few months back. Bryce is pretty phenomenal

www.foxnews.com

Blind sports commentator to announce Illinois college basketball game for radio

Bryce Weiler of Illinois, who is completely blind, has an inspiring tale of overcoming hardship, achieving goals — and showing the way for others.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
 
#17      

jason88cubs

J
jason88cubs
#18      

alaskaillini

A
alaskaillini
Don In Husky Land said:
My little Allendale High School (town population of 500) is now consolidated into Mt. Carmel. My wife graduated from Dieterich but they moved to T-Town and her Hartke siblings all graduated from there. While I didn’t know Uwe, I knew the man who was responsible for getting the German player pipeline to the States, Chuck Keller. In Chuck’s obituary, Uwe was listed as his son (he did adopt some kids, don’t know if he actually did Uwe). I do know Uwe’s one time NBA teammate Detlef Schrempf as he works for the Wealth Management firm I co-founded here in Bellevue WA, which manages over $7 billion. You mention St. A and T-Town, both Tom Grunloh from St. A’s 1977-78 4th place State team and T-Town’s Leon Gobczynski (2nd leading scorer in the country his Senior year at Millikin) are in our EIU 6th Man Club and were at the same practice I attended. Tom’s Grunloh Construction company was very involved with the UofI State Farm Center renovation and my friend former Illini great and now EIU AD Tommy Michael was overseeing it from the Illini Athletic Department. BTW when I was in Marty’s office, he had a copy of Jay’s recently published book Blonde Bomber, A Ride With Shide on his desk.
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Saw Gobczynski play several times at Milliken including a night he scored 60 IIRC. He could catch and shoot the ball so quickly his shot was almost indefensable. In the game at Milliken against Illinois Wesleyan with Sikma was the only time I saw him effectively defended, and it seemed that they were going up for the block before he even caught the ball.
 
#22      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
Don In Husky Land said:
My little Allendale High School (town population of 500) is now consolidated into Mt. Carmel. My wife graduated from Dieterich but they moved to T-Town and her Hartke siblings all graduated from there. While I didn’t know Uwe, I knew the man who was responsible for getting the German player pipeline to the States, Chuck Keller. In Chuck’s obituary, Uwe was listed as his son (he did adopt some kids, don’t know if he actually did Uwe). I do know Uwe’s one time NBA teammate Detlef Schrempf as he works for the Wealth Management firm I co-founded here in Bellevue WA, which manages over $7 billion. You mention St. A and T-Town, both Tom Grunloh from St. A’s 1977-78 4th place State team and T-Town’s Leon Gobczynski (2nd leading scorer in the country his Senior year at Millikin) are in our EIU 6th Man Club and were at the same practice I attended. Tom’s Grunloh Construction company was very involved with the UofI State Farm Center renovation and my friend former Illini great and now EIU AD Tommy Michael was overseeing it from the Illini Athletic Department. BTW when I was in Marty’s office, he had a copy of Jay’s recently published book Blonde Bomber, A Ride With Shide on his desk.
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Don - you sound like just the man to fund our $10M NIL basketball program :ah:
 
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