My father used to tell me at one point in time, there was the "Big Ten Game of the Week" where in Central Illinois one had access to one Big10 game a week. Am i remembering correctly? When did WGN start broadcasting Illini basketball?
Pregame: Illinois vs Minnesota, Wednesday, February 28th, 8:00pm CT, BTN
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Captain 14
- The Last Best Place
I wonder what the joke was here....maybe "You know Mr. Roberts, you could be replaced by a woman"
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Exactly. If it’s another nail biter, it’s because (A) our defensive intensity isn’t up to its potential and (B) because of this someone on Minnesota is having a career night.
Show up ready/focused, play defense and we win without sweating it in the final minutes.
It was Paul Davis’ last day. Davis said there had been a long standing rumor that he was Mr. Roberts’ son-in-law. Mr Roberts debunked that rumor before adding that, if it had been true, “I would’ve cut my throat a long while ago.”
Mr Roberts and Paul Davis
I loved that the others on the broadcast team called him "Mr." He also had the most accurate weather prediction ever. I swear, one February or March, he predicted (with a smile, iirc) "a gradual warming trend over the next few months." Gold!Ok Illini nation, if you know who Mr. Rogers is, you might just impress me. And no, it’s not this guy…
When you’re in the kenpom 50ish spot an 18 spot range isn’t all the big. We were 10 pt kenpom faves against Iowa, 11 against Minny.
I’d expect a similar Vegas line as well. They are different teams in play style but the fact remains efficiency wise, they are in a similar bucket overall.
I expect BU to play Dain a lot. Let Dain guard Payne and Hawkins guard Garcia.
Yes. Easy to forget since Coleman has been in the rover spot most of the year, but he’s a terrific on ball defender who has slowed down many elite wings, including Harper Jr and the Murray bros over the years. I thought he did a really good job on Patrick McCaffrey as well.
I think you could start out the game cross matching Hawkins on Garcia and Quincy on Payne, and then if Quincy isn’t up to the challenge can pivot to either Dain or Amani to see who is most effective.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Back in the day when I was a youngster in the '70s the BT played games only on Saturdays and on Monday evenings. As I recall that began to change in the late '70s. Before Raycom I recall seeing Ohio State games on local TV ( a Columbus station provided the play-by-play and the color analyst was Bill Hoskett, an all-Big Ten player of theirs from the late '60s.) On Saturday afternoons in the '70s I recall a regional Big Ten Game of the Week on NBC. Can't remember how that changed in the early '80s when I was in jr. high and high school.
I do know that in the mid-'80s when I was home from UIUC for Xmas break I was still watching OSU games on the local station, but don't know if that was Raycom or another broadcaster. (For some reason I recall watching OSU @ NW with friends on a Saturday evening in early January 1986. How's that for Rain Man recall? I can only imagine what a mesmerizing contest that would have been. Ah... looked it up. Sat. Jan 11, 1986. Actually an exciting game: 79-77 Bucks. OSU won the NIT that year. Huh.)
It would be great to find a history of this somewhere online.
I remember Saturday afternoon broadcasts of Big Ten basketball in the 60s with Bill Flemming calling the games. Such names as Jimmy Rayl, Tom and Dick Van Arsdale, Terry Dischinger, Bill Burwell, and DaveDowney stand out. I remember watching a televised weeknight game between Don Nelson's Iowa Hawkeyes and Ohio State's Jerry Lucas being played in Iowa City in the early 60s.
This terrifies me.
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
Fortunately, the one thing we seem to do pretty well on defense is close out on 3pt shooters and make them uncomfortable.
With our team, A leads to B. It's not a coincidence that multiple players have career nights against us.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yep, I chose "AND" instead of "OR" there for a reason! Let's look at our last three games and how many points those teams scored in THEIR last three games before/after Illinois:
MARYLAND
53 vs. Rutgers
61 vs. Ohio State (in regulation)
78 vs. Iowa
80 vs. #14 Illinois
70 at Wisconsin
63 at Rutgers
--> Scored 23% more points vs. Illinois than vs. the others
PENN STATE
68 at Northwestern
72 vs. Michigan State
49 at Nebraska
90 vs. #12 Illinois
83 vs. Indiana
--> Scored 22% more points vs. Illinois than vs. the others
IOWA
66 at Maryland
78 vs. #20 Wisconsin (in regulation)
78 at Michigan State
85 at #12 Illinois
--> Scored 15% more points vs. Illinois than vs. the others
With the exception of obliterating a BAD Michigan team at home that was without one of their key players, we are giving up more points to these teams than they have any right to score against us if our defense frankly just shows up!
I love this team, and I really mean that ... so I do not enjoy being harsh on them. But MAN, will it be depressing to look back at this squad if they lose in the Second Round and wonder what could have been if the defense didn't regress. We are too talented, our team chemistry is too good and our roster is too well-constructed to not make the most of this season.
it was at indiana that Downey scored his 53pts. (still the Illini all time record (1963). We lost the game 104-101 (I think.) Thanks to huge games from Rayl and Bollyard and the Van Arsdales. Back then, we got to watch Illini home games on WCIA. The picture was somewhat snowy but that didn't slow me down from watching. Play by play guy was Tom Schoendienst and sponsor was Chesty potato chips ("the food it's fun to eat!")
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This is a GREAT breakdown! I knew it was bad, but wow....
You are remembering correctly. There was exactly 1 game a week This was in the 1960's and may have been in the late 1950's. In Southeastern Illinois, the Big 10 games were telecast on the ABC station in Evansville, Indiana. Sometime in the 1960's, the SEC began a network which was picked up by the NBC station in Evansville, Indiana. The legendary Joe Dean was on the call. Again it was 1 game a week. We saw a lot of Kentucky basketball along with a heavy dosage of LSU with Pete Maravich. In addition Evansville College -now university - was a D2 power. There was a period of time in the 1960's when almost all of their away games were broadcast live, and the home games were broadcast tape delayed at 10:30 pm.
I believe you and I are of a similar vintage and it's not hyperbole to say this might be the worst Illinois defense of our basketball viewing lifetimes. It's certainly in the conversation and if you look at the two or three Illinois teams in the last 25ish years with a statistically worse defense, they had nowhere near the talent we have.
I think if I were an Iowa fan, it would be a lot easier to stomach. But as an Illini fan, I'm not used to this level of defensive ineptitude and I just don't know how to handle it lol
Did anybody ever listen to the radio broadcast of Loyola basketball with Red Rush on the call? They were sponsored by Ganela bread. It's Ganela. It's swella, fella.
Let's pump the breaks. Recency bias is getting the best of you right now
It's really not. Statistically, the performance we've seen from the defense since Jan 1 ranks as either the 3rd or 4th worst since at least 2002.
It hasn't been good I will 100% agree with that. I do think there were some signs of life in the Iowa game, need to see more going forward
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