I'm expecting the best Illini performance of the season on Saturday. A week of normalcy, time to work on issues, rejuvenated energy and enthusiasm. We will be a load for Purdue. Last year around this time we beat them by a lot. Expecting the same on Saturday.
Pregame: Illinois vs Purdue, Saturday, January 2nd, 5:00pm CT, BTN
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Think you are right. PU is pretty good, they beat OSU at home and Notre Dame on a neutral court. However , they lost their only 2 games on the road to Iowa and Miami. Should win if we play hard.
No easy games in Big Ten this year. Bring it or get beat.
cuillini
- San Bernardino, Ca.
Saw him play last week. I think his vertical jump is almost 2".
C’mon it had to be at least 2 3/8. Get his head tangled in the net if he went anymore.
He's not a bad halfcourt player actually but not very fleet of foot nor does he possess great endurance. Kofi should be able to beat him downcourt for some easy looks if we can grab some defensive rebounds.
It seems to me that every time BEZHANISHVILI gets into the game early, he has the energy and scoring that starts their engine.
What is our longest home winning streak??????
May be because he comes in with Belo.
100% agree with this... and that's why we need to come out fast and loose. We can't spot teams 10 points before getting started ourselves and expect to win a lot of B1G games. Everybody is too good this year to start games sluggish and sloppy.
That's spot on, what do we do? Do we start Curbelo because our offense scores when he is in, not saying who instead of, but not starting behind is good, or keep on with him, Giorgi, and subs coming in which usually advances us? Ayo doesn't seem to look for his early, maybe that and feed Kofi, should be good till Curbelo time.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Belo makes life easy on everyone, but credit where it's due Giorgi has been exactly what we need him to be this year. He knows his role better than anyone. Every time he gets the ball in good position in the post, I just know he's going to make the right play.
GallopingGhost
- Denver, CO
He only needs 2” to reach the rim or block people. If I was that tall I wouldn’t be leaping around either
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Here's your obligatory disclaimer that there are literally no gimme games in the Big Ten this year (with the possible exception of Nebraska?), but...
... we HAVE to win this one. Eight of our last ten games in conference play are against teams ranked in the top 25 right now, with six of those eight being in the top 20. We have a nice path ahead of us to possibly create some distance between the other top teams and us in the conference standings:
vs. Purdue
at #19 Northwestern
vs. Maryland
at Nebraska
vs. #25 Ohio State
vs. Penn State
I mean, it sounds hyperbolic and I totally think we will win our fair share of those final ten, but I want 6-0 in that stretch. Yes, NU appears to be legitimately good, but I will be extremely disappointed if our guys don't come out fired up for that one, because obviously NU will; we are still the better team on paper. The other ranked game is vs. OSU, and it is at home - the exact type of matchup we need to win to remain a top team.
Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin all have some very losable games coming up, and we need to take advantage of our comparably less difficult schedule. Use this stretch to gain some momentum, increase team confidence further and truly start to get in a groove as we head into the heart of conference play ... let it start with Purdue!
... we HAVE to win this one. Eight of our last ten games in conference play are against teams ranked in the top 25 right now, with six of those eight being in the top 20. We have a nice path ahead of us to possibly create some distance between the other top teams and us in the conference standings:
vs. Purdue
at #19 Northwestern
vs. Maryland
at Nebraska
vs. #25 Ohio State
vs. Penn State
I mean, it sounds hyperbolic and I totally think we will win our fair share of those final ten, but I want 6-0 in that stretch. Yes, NU appears to be legitimately good, but I will be extremely disappointed if our guys don't come out fired up for that one, because obviously NU will; we are still the better team on paper. The other ranked game is vs. OSU, and it is at home - the exact type of matchup we need to win to remain a top team.
Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin all have some very losable games coming up, and we need to take advantage of our comparably less difficult schedule. Use this stretch to gain some momentum, increase team confidence further and truly start to get in a groove as we head into the heart of conference play ... let it start with Purdue!
Interesting. I am sure some of it has to do with how games are officiated on the road vs at home but it mostly has to do with early season scheduling skewed towards playing weaker teams at home.
Fun fact - 18 of the current top 25 (AP) will be playing on Saturday.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Broken by one of the most surprising and sickening Illini games I have ever seen ... McBride's waived off three.
For the record, we are currently on an 8-game home winning streak, and if we play to our potential ... that should get up to 10 or 12 (depending on what you consider the home game vs. OSU) before we host Iowa. Not quite the 33-game streak of the glory days, but it would get us back into the neighborhood of what we usually had going in the early and mid-2000s! If we win the rest of our home games - a tall task in this league but certainly not impossible - we'd be sitting at 16 straight in Champaign, going into a normal non-conference next year with an appropriate number of cupcakes! Could really get those numbers up.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
What would the differential between our record and Purdue's have to be to catch them all time and change the footer on your posts?
We go above them at .640, I guess. What does that require?
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