Pregame: Illinois vs Rutgers, Thursday, January 8th, 7:30pm CT, BTN

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#101      
EmpoweredIllini
Yeah depends on how you define meltdown lol

Penn St post game had same amount of pages as Alabama and UConn games, which we lost. This was a road win vs a B1G team that just went toe to toe with Michigan without their best player.

The Nebby post game thread had nearly double the # of pages. A game we lost by 3. On a buzzer beater. To an undefeated top 10 team.
 
#102      
Fly Illini Fly!
Fly Illini Fly! said:
We didn't lose. Was quite alot for a BIG road win by 8 points because we "should've" won by 20+.

IMO post nebraska was absolutely a meltdown.
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As a sidenote: we won by 8, but it absolutely should've been 10. We were dribbling the ball out, both teams had called game, and then Andrej for whatever reason chooses to drive and misses.

They come down and score to make it 73-65.
 
#104      
Dan
Underwood on Ty Rodgers: Just coming off the flu, why he didn't travel to Philly. Doing some participation in practice, not full-on stuff in practice yet. Made some positive gains..continuing to gain strength , take it day-by-day
 
#105      
RML
I would love to see our guys display the mindset of Indiana football. Ignore the name on the opponent's jersey, and play with determination to score on every possession, and to stop the other guys from scoring on every one of their possessions.
We're not going to play with that mindset, but man, we would be unstoppable (against anyone) if we would.
 
#106      
Fighter of the Nightman
SkyysNotFalling said:
Ya and Michigan opened as a 25.5 point favorite last night & we have had a meltdown on this board since Saturday on what “should” have been a 25+ win. For our own sake- let’s just show up tomorrow night foot on the gas and roll into Iowa City with the same energy, aye?
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I definitely agree overall, but my minor nitpick is that as a fan I would like to get back to feeling like our chances of a victory really are significantly higher when we play at the House of 'Paign. I know the odds shake out to be that way over a large enough sample size, but for a few years now I really haven't felt that much more confident playing a given opponent in their gym vs. ours ... we've thankfully had some great road wins, and we have had some unfortunate clunker home losses. And this naturally made me want to look this up, lol.

I'll admit this is pretty subjective, but these are the Big Ten games since 2019-2020 where I think you could reasonably say we lost in an upset. Since the cutoff had to be somewhere, the following results qualified:
1) Any game we lost to an unranked opponent while WE were ranked.
2) Any game where we lost at HOME to an opponent ranked at least 5 spots below us at the time (e.g., #15 Illinois dropping a home game to a team ranked #20).
3) Any game where we lost on the ROAD to an opponent ranked at least 15 spots below us at the time (e.g., #5 Illinois losing on the road to a team ranked #20).

Illini "Upset Losses" Since 2019-2020
2020 - L 69-70 vs. Michigan State (ILL #22)
2020 - L 57-72 at Rutgers (ILL #22)
2021 - L 63-66 vs. Maryland (ILL #12)
2021 - L 81-87 vs. #21 Ohio State (ILL #14)
2021 - L 72-81 at Michigan State (ILL #5)
2022 - L 65-81 at Maryland (ILL #17)
2022 - L 59-70 at Rutgers (ILL #12)
2022 - L 83-86 vs. #22 Ohio State (ILL #15)
2023 - L 59-74 vs. Penn State (ILL #17)
2024 - L 67-76 vs. Maryland (ILL #10)
2024 - L 91-96 in OT at Northwestern (ILL #10)
2024 - L 80-88 at Michigan State (ILL #10)
2024 - L 89-90 at Penn State (ILL #12)
2025 - L 66-70 in OT at Northwestern (ILL #19)
2025 - L 72-82 vs. USC (ILL #13)
2025 - L 71-90 vs. Maryland (ILL #17)
2025 - L 74-80 in OT at Nebraska (ILL #18)
2025 - L 73-82 at Rutgers (ILL #23)
2026 - L 80-83 vs. #23 Nebraska (ILL #13)

Upsets happen and the overall accomplishments of the season are what end up mattering, of course ... but man, it bothers me that of the 19 losses listed above, 9 are at home. There is pretty much zero difference in our likelihood to "lose a game we shouldn't" based on if it is at home or on the road, haha. I want the House of 'Paign to be a place where teams come in expecting to lose again. So, while I think it would be unproductive to overreact to a 12-point victory vs. Rutgers tomorrow where the game was never truly in doubt, we really SHOULD blow teams like this out in our own gym more often. We should feel more comfortable and more confident playing in Champaign, and our opponents should feel intimidated and thrown off their games.

Just to end on a positive note, though, I do think it is great that we have a relatively great record on the road and at neutral sites over the last 5+ seasons. We have SIXTEEN wins vs. top 25 opponents away from Champaign, including NINE road/neutral wins vs. top 10 teams. That's damn impressive.

Illini "Upset Wins" Since 2019-2020
2020 - W 62-56 at #9 Penn State (ILL NR)
2021 - W 83-68 at #10 Duke (ILL #6)
2021 - W 74-69 at #23 Wisconsin (ILL #5)
2021 - W 76-53 at #2 Michigan (ILL #4)
2021 - W 73-68 at #7 Ohio State (ILL #4)
2021 - W 82-71 vs. #5 Iowa (ILL #3) [BTT Semifinals in Indianapolis, IN]
2021 - W 91-88 in OT vs. #9 Ohio State (ILL #3) [BTT Championship in Indianapolis, IN]
2022 - W 79-74 at #19 Michigan State (ILL #12)
2023 - W 79-70 vs. #8 UCLA (ILL #19) [Las Vegas, NV]
2023 - W 85-78 in OT vs. #2 Texas (ILL #17) [New York, NY]
2024 - W 98-89 vs. #11 FAU (ILL #20) [New York, NY]
2024 - W 72-69 vs. #4 Iowa State (ILL #10) [NCAAT Sweet Sixteen in Boston, MA]
2025 - W 90-77 vs. #19 Arkansas (ILL NR) [Kansas City, MO]
2025 - W 109-77 at #9 Oregon (ILL #22)
2025 - W 93-73 at #15 Michigan (ILL NR)
2026 - W 75-62 vs. #13 Tennessee (ILL #14) [Nashville, TN]

Okay, back to Rutgers talk. :ROFLMAO:
 
#108      
OlafB
Definitely E-14...30 minutes is good with students still out. Make it 45 minutes when they return....1/20???
 
#109      
Barfolomew
Dan said:
Underwood on Ty Rodgers: Just coming off the flu, why he didn't travel to Philly. Doing some participation in practice, not full-on stuff in practice yet. Made some positive gains..continuing to gain strength , take it day-by-day
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Woof, it's nasty this year.
Let's hope they can keep it away from the rest of the team.

barf GIF
 
#113      
ptgrd23
During peak Henson, Self and early Weber days Illini were almost unbeatable at home.

It doesn't feel that way with Brad

2025 Home losses: TN, USC, MD, MSU,
2024 Home losses: Marq, MD, Pur
2023: Homes losses: PSU, Indiana
2022: Homes losses AZ, Pur, OSU

More damaging were the losses to non NCAA teams on road
 
#114      
NarrowJ
BatteredWifeSchwartz said:
At 9:25 of Brads presser, who on the team is nicknamed Pops that he’s referring to?
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I think it just was weird the way he said it but he was just talking about teams defending pick n pops for Tomi and Mirk

Edit: Actually, I asked AI and it said this:

  • Jake Davis's Father: In 2024, when his son Jake transferred to Illinois, his father exclaimed, "Moms was crying. Pops was super proud," referring to himself in pride for his son joining the Illini.
So maybe Jake is “pops”?
 
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#117      
pruman91
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2008947319966777513


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great presser................there is one thing that BU and I will always disagree on and that's Piekell........I think Piekell is far and away the worst coach in the B$G and also in the power conferences around the nation.....he has consistently done less with more talent than I can remember in all my years of watching college basketball......he is an " elite " cheerleader , I will give him that........but with teams like Ron Harper , Geno etc and then with Dylan H. and Bailey and not make the Dance would be career ending at most power 5 teams...........

great to hear Ty getting closer to game tick....he would add some positive vibes especially on rebounds and defense...........

JMHO...........
 
#118      
Poe's Law
pruman91 said:
great presser................there is one thing that BU and I will always disagree on and that's Piekell........I think Piekell is far and away the worst coach in the B$G and also in the power conferences around the nation.....he has consistently done less with more talent than I can remember in all my years of watching college basketball......he is an " elite " cheerleader , I will give him that........but with teams like Ron Harper , Geno etc and then with Dylan H. and Bailey and not make the Dance would be career ending at most power 5 teams...........

great to hear Ty getting closer to game tick....he would add some positive vibes especially on rebounds and defense...........

JMHO...........
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He’s probably bottom half of the conference but I he had good seasons with Geo and Ron Harper Jr. and those are great season grading on a Rutgers curve. He took them to 2 NCAA tourneys and they hadn’t been since 1991. It was their first back to back tourneys since 75-76.

He has a .400 win percentage in conference and Rutgers was .208 in conference the previous 10 years (across Big Ten, AAC, and Big East).

I think last years team would have been better without Bailey, but I think Piekell era is near an end.
 
#122      
Fighter of the Nightman
Every game is its own beast, but I thought I would post some perspective using the KenPom Rankings. Illinois is currently #9, and Rutgers comes in at #154. We have played a ton of opponents that are all in the top 50 (including 5 top 25 opponents), but here are our results vs. teams outside of the top 50...

W 91-48 vs. #60 Missouri (St. Louis, MO)
W 73-65 at #112 Penn State (Philadelphia, PA)
--- vs. #154 Rutgers ---
W 113-70 vs. #169 FGCU
W 84-65 vs. #182 Colgate
W 98-58 vs. #184 LIU
W 87-73 vs. #195 UTRGV
W 90-55 vs. #257 Southern
W 113-55 #344 Jackson State

So while we can't just show up and waltz to victory like we are playing Jackson State ... Rutgers is a much worse basketball team than PSU or Missouri, being more comparable to FGCU on our home floor. A win is a win (especially in-conference!), but we really should handle them ... and posters would have every right to be a bit apprehensive about this team's ability to put forth a consistently satisfactory effort from game to game if this one is actually close at any point in the final ten minutes.
 
#124      
NarrowJ
We're reaching about the time where the line could open

I'll guess -18.5
 
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