Pregame: Illinois vs Ohio State, Tuesday, January 24th, 6:00pm CT, ESPN
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Appears that home cooking for OSU against Iowa may have put them back on track. The Illini are hard to figure out. They can be great as shown in wins against UCLA and Texas or horrible as shown in home losses to Penn State and Indiana. There are no excuses for their not showing up against Northwestern, Penn State or Indiana. They just sucked. They had no energy, low effort, no hustle, no fight. It appeared they had righted the ship with a 4 game win streak but got their a-----s handed to them by the Hoosiers. Bad thing about these beat downs at home is they must make a road trip to these same teams. If they play with the same lack of energy, same deer in the headlights look on Tuesday I hope coach benches the entire starting lineup and looks to next year. I hope we win on Tuesday but my gut says OSU 76-Illini 65
I went to the Indiana game and am also going to this one. If we mess this one up, I probably shouldn't go to games
This Season, it's not just the Illini but almost the entire Big Ten (or even, all of College ball). In the Big Ten you've got Purdue at 7-1 and Minnesota at 1-6 with some clear differential for those two. But everyone else you can just throw into the Big-middle-muddle-Ten.
You've got nine teams within one game of .500. That's just about all of the rest of the Conference.
Some might say this means this Season looks mediocre. But actually, that makes this Season very exciting. For just about the whole league you don't know which team of either side is going to show up on any given day or night. Even within the games themselves, teams can change personality from one half to the other.
This makes it all very exciting. Wide open. Unexpected. Puzzling. And this sets up a terrific month of Madness with so many good teams and few if any that are prohibitive favorites.
The teams that can find some consistency to their level of play and build some momentum in the next couple weeks are the ones that will thrive. The squads that keep playing like elevators are going to find themselves quickly out of it. And stuck on the ground floor.
illinihawk16
- Chicago
I imagine we'd hear something about him practicing first.
To be clear, you’re suggesting starting LG in his first game in a year will bring a 14 point turn in the final score?
Not to stick up for his insane logic, but he said play not start. So he will make up 14 off the bench which makes it even harder.
I understand absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I hope Goode has a great impact and shoots it well, but it feels like much of this board is putting way too much of their hopes on a sophomore who averaged two points on 32.7% field-goal shooting last year and was a fairly one-dimensional player.
Yes, and it will be an uphill battle for him to get in game shape at this point. The rest of the team has had a half a season to get conditioned. (AND for that matter I would not have guessed him the most fleet of foot prior to his injury.)
On the upshot he is a heady player that might be a nice stabilizing force out there.
This is a no bull!!!!, no streak, straight up Tuesday night, pizza hut parking lot, grab em by the collar and kick em in the potatoes matchup. Hope everyone took advantage of the relatively quiet weekend to rest up. I think LG will hopefully get a few minutes out there but not counting on him to shoot us into or out of the game. It may be the emotional lift we need though, Tuesday night and for a week or two. 
Starting the day after the New Year's Day holiday, we had the following schedule through the Indiana game (1/2-1/19):
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Starting the day after the Indiana game, we have the following schedule through the end of the regular season (1/20-3/5):
Day off, day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, day off, game
Day off, day off, game
I realize they aren't precisely "days off" as the team has practices, I just mean there was no game.
If you include Maryland and PSU, then 12 of our 20 B1G games are after only two days off. (We have three days off before @IU, btw.)
Does this calendar shake out worse than other years in terms of days between games? (Genuinely asking, and thx for all the knowledge you drop in here.)
Goode Final 2021-2022 averages 2.0 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 0.5 Ast
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
tomorrow night
Good question, I'm not sure about years past....but I looked up our opponents schedule for the remainder of the sesaon. Every gameday for the rest of the season, we have equal or 1 days extra rest over our opponent. Thought that was interesting, and a nice little bonus. So whatever anybody says about scheduling, just remember we have it better than many.
No ... Another doctor's visit is coming end of next week ... I know he got some workouts in over the weekend ... But he has not been full go in practice yet ...
danielb927
Orange Krush Class of 2013
- Rochester, MN
It certainly feels that way. As I remember it, when I was a kid there were games Tues-Weds-Thurs and Sat-Sun; never on Monday or Friday.
Here's our conference schedule from 2013. I see 7 games with only 2 days off - remember that's out of 18 total, but still a lower percentage (39% instead of 60%). And the bigger thing is that they're spread out. Only once did we even go back-to-back on those "short windows" (Feb 7-10-13).
this is Coleman's thing. apparently no intermediate game. at least he's never put in that position. mostly standing around the 3 pt. line waiting for scraps/for someone else to do something.
that's too many threes at 30% (half his shots), too many turn overs and not enough rebounds.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Need a bounceback. Need to win this game.
Regarding the schedule, I have to say I hate what has become the format or lack thereof of a formula for scheduling. I also noticed when trying to see if there was a weekend game I could come down for this season, these are the days of our home games following the Wisconsin game:
Friday
Thursday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Saturday
Thursday
Thursday
Meanwhile, for our road games the rest of the year:
Saturday
Saturday
Tuesday
Saturday
Sunday
Sunday.
You could make an argument that maybe weeknight games have a better atmosphere than 11 AM on the weekend, but this type of discrepancy just seems wrong, especially when you consider that a large portion of our fan base comes down from the Chicago area for the games.
I can't help but look at that schedule and think we are definitely getting screwed.
Regarding the schedule, I have to say I hate what has become the format or lack thereof of a formula for scheduling. I also noticed when trying to see if there was a weekend game I could come down for this season, these are the days of our home games following the Wisconsin game:
Friday
Thursday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Saturday
Thursday
Thursday
Meanwhile, for our road games the rest of the year:
Saturday
Saturday
Tuesday
Saturday
Sunday
Sunday.
You could make an argument that maybe weeknight games have a better atmosphere than 11 AM on the weekend, but this type of discrepancy just seems wrong, especially when you consider that a large portion of our fan base comes down from the Chicago area for the games.
I can't help but look at that schedule and think we are definitely getting screwed.
danielb927
Orange Krush Class of 2013
- Rochester, MN
Had the same thought this year - really tough to make it back home for a game. Glad we at least got to see the guys up here in MN. Hopefully it evens out with some more weekend home games next year.
Bigtex
- DFW
I believe others have commented that 21-22 schedule also had few weekend conference home games.
Yep, I pointed this out when the schedule was released. I think we only have one weekend conference home game all year in front of our full student section - Rutgers. Meanwhile, we're on the road every weekend playing good teams in front of their full student sections.
I partly wonder if that was done on purpose to balance out our "soft" schedule.
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