Pregame: Illinois vs Minnesota, Saturday, January 17th, 11:00am CT, BTN

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#51      
lstewart53x3
lstewart53x3 said:
Good data. I will note, they only played one road game during that stretch. Granted, it was a win @Northwestern. Their previous road game before that was a 28 point loss @Purdue. Minnesota is 1-5 outside of the Barn this season. 9-2 at home.
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More on Minnesota, they are:

#84 in NET (Q3 home game)

7-0 in Q4 games
0-1 in Q3 games
2-3 in Q2 games
1-3 in Q1 games

On the flip side, we are:

#9 in NET (Q1A road game)

7-0 in Q4 games
0-0 in Q3 games
3-0 in Q2 games
4-3 in Q1 games
 
#53      
Illini2010-11
Piotyr said:
Minnesota has 3 decent wins over Iowa, Indiana, and @NW. They also lost to Missouri by 23.
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Somehow Mizzou is still ranked at 63 NET. It isn't inconceivable that they improve to 50, which would make our win a Quad 1. A 43 point Quad 1 win is eye popping. That box score has me smiling ear to ear every time I see it.

Of course, it is Mizzou, so I will be perfectly content if it ends up a Quad 3 win.
 
#56      
Guest
Going off topic a bit, I think San Francisco basketball is a decent team this year. At 12-8, they aren’t exactly burning down the house (or whatever the saying is), but they aren’t bad either. KenPom rating of 103. I remember when the Dons trotted out some good teams back in the 60s and 70s. Some fun facts: Back in the 50s, led by Bill Russell. USF was the only school to offer him a scholarship. Their coach, Phil Woolpert, was unaffected by issues of skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African American players: Russell, K.C. Jones and Hal Perry. During his tenure at USF, Woolpert posted a 153–78 record, including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball (surpassed later by John Wooden's 88 straight wins at UCLA). USF held the number one spot in the polls on numerous occasions and six consecutive conference titles from 1977 to 1982, and all but two WCC regular-season titles from 1972 to 1982. In 1977, led by All-American center Bill Cartwright, the Dons started 29–0 and were regarded as the #1 team in the nation in both major polls. I noticed that they seem to be regaining some of that earlier prestige.
 
#58      
Brosky
Guest said:
Going off topic a bit, I think San Francisco basketball is a decent team this year. At 12-8, they aren’t exactly burning down the house (or whatever the saying is), but they aren’t bad either. KenPom rating of 103. I remember when the Dons trotted out some good teams back in the 60s and 70s. Some fun facts: Back in the 50s, led by Bill Russell. USF was the only school to offer him a scholarship. Their coach, Phil Woolpert, was unaffected by issues of skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African American players: Russell, K.C. Jones and Hal Perry. During his tenure at USF, Woolpert posted a 153–78 record, including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball (surpassed later by John Wooden's 88 straight wins at UCLA). USF held the number one spot in the polls on numerous occasions and six consecutive conference titles from 1977 to 1982, and all but two WCC regular-season titles from 1972 to 1982. In 1977, led by All-American center Bill Cartwright, the Dons started 29–0 and were regarded as the #1 team in the nation in both major polls. I noticed that they seem to be regaining some of that earlier prestige.
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Russell was. so dominant in the paint, they widened the lane from 6 feet to 12. I think, don't know for sure, that he also activated the no-dunk rule. That was a truly great team, and after that, Jones and Russell were major players for the Celtics. That too was a dominant team, with several NBA titles.
 
#60      
PNWIllini
Guest said:
Going off topic a bit, I think San Francisco basketball is a decent team this year. At 12-8, they aren’t exactly burning down the house (or whatever the saying is), but they aren’t bad either. KenPom rating of 103. I remember when the Dons trotted out some good teams back in the 60s and 70s. Some fun facts: Back in the 50s, led by Bill Russell. USF was the only school to offer him a scholarship. Their coach, Phil Woolpert, was unaffected by issues of skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African American players: Russell, K.C. Jones and Hal Perry. During his tenure at USF, Woolpert posted a 153–78 record, including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball (surpassed later by John Wooden's 88 straight wins at UCLA). USF held the number one spot in the polls on numerous occasions and six consecutive conference titles from 1977 to 1982, and all but two WCC regular-season titles from 1972 to 1982. In 1977, led by All-American center Bill Cartwright, the Dons started 29–0 and were regarded as the #1 team in the nation in both major polls. I noticed that they seem to be regaining some of that earlier prestige.
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With Gonzaga leaving the WCC after this season and WSU and Oregon State similarly short-timing it, it’s going to be interesting if old school names like USF and Seattle U can become the standard bearers of the new WCC.

Some history: When Seattle de-emphasized D1 in 1980, it was a little known school in Spokane that got tagged in to replace them: Gonzaga.

20 years ago in the ~2000 -2003 window SU realized it had more to gain than lose and decided to bring D1 back. It petitioned for re-entry into the WCC, and Gonzaga refused.

Not unlike Notre Dame ducking Illinois because of what it could do to Chicago’s market share, Gonzaga was worried that a return of SU to the WCC could jeopardize Gonzaga as “Seattle’s home team.”

Note they market over UW the same.

And it’s true - in men’s basketball the Zags are far more popular on the street and in the bars in Seattle than UW. Seattle U does not even rate much awareness yet locally outside their campus. They need to start making NCAA’s for that. Winning a CBI doesn’t do it.

The Zags are so certain of themselves now in 2026 that they’re going to try the new rebooted Pac-12 with the Beavs and Cougs.

- written by a Seattle U alum, grew up in CU and bleed orange and blue, but attending UIUC wasn’t in the cards for me and right now I’m pretty excited to root for both The Beloved as well as for the up and coming Seattle Redhawks. (I graduated as a Chieftain, so don’t get me started).

Dan - sorry about this post if it’s misfiled please move / delete lol
 
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#62      
derrick6
Just found out my son was admitted to the University of Minnesota!

Let’s crush them to welcome him and to give him one reason to choose Illinois (still waiting on admission decision).

Hehe.

Actually proud of him and Illinois is his first choice coming from Seattle. 🤔


I-L-L!
 
#63      
ChiefGritty
derrick6 said:
Just found out my son was admitted to the University of Minnesota!

Let’s crush them to welcome him and to give him one reason to choose Illinois (still waiting on admission decision).

Hehe.

Actually proud of him and Illinois is his first choice coming from Seattle. 🤔


I-L-L!
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I faced the same decision once upon a time!

I recommend scheduling a visit to campus at Minny in the worst possible weather, that pushed me in the direction of the right choice :hailtotheorange:
 
#64      
illiniwil
do we know if the "flu" running thru the team is almost done, isolated to just a few...?
 
#66      
From the cheap seats
The defensive matchups in this game are intriguing to me given the height advantage the Illini enjoy at most of the positions. The outlier is if BAM, at 6-2, is assigned their leading scorer Tyson, who is 6-7. But BAM has had those assignments before and done well, including at NW when he was guarding Martinelli and doing so pretty effectively until he had to switch to Reid. Tyson shoots 39% from 3 at a high volume and the Illini need to take that away.
Crocker-Johnson, at 6-8, is their second-leading scorer, top rebounder and hits 34% from 3 at a pretty high volume. I could see a combination of Mirk and then Ben on him. Reynolds is a 6-4 player who rarely shoots 3's. I could see Tomi/Z guarding him and being able to sag and clog the lane. Asuma, at 6-3, is their top playmaker (73 assists) and shoots 31% from 3 at a pretty high volume. Could see Wagler/Lee on him. Durkin is 6-7 and shoots 33% from 3 at a pretty high volume. Could see Andrej/Davis matching up with him.
Those are probably wrong because the Illini have a lot of different matchup options in this game and I'm just a fan watching from the outside. It will be interesting to watch the strategy unfold.
 
#70      
DeeIL89
Minnesota will play hard. Take care of business and keep the train rolling.
 
#72      
RollChief
They have an "interesting" team on paper (having not watched any of their games). Find notable states below:

- #1 in the nation in assists per FGM (cohesive)
- #35 in the nation in D1 experience (old)
- #355 in bench minutes - they essentially only have 7 guys on their roster after 2 key injuries

Over/under on 2 minutes into the broadcast when they mention that Minnesota and Illinois were Keaton Wagler's only 2 offers.
 
#73      
Illwinsagain
RollChief said:
They have an "interesting" team on paper (having not watched any of their games). Find notable states below:

- #1 in the nation in assists per FGM (cohesive)
- #35 in the nation in D1 experience (old)
- #355 in bench minutes - they essentially only have 7 guys on their roster after 2 key injuries

Over/under on 2 minutes into the broadcast when they mention that Minnesota and Illinois were Keaton Wagler's only 2 offers.
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Under
 
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