I feel like this is Syracuse’s first non conference game on the road since the 1800s
Syracuse game (Nov. 29th)
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So Boeheim's second one?
LOL....but true 1818 in fact. Sat Dec. 5, two days after Illinois was admitted to the Union. Boeheim was an asst. there, 25 yrs. old. They traveled to play Schenectady Girls College. I looked it up, it must be true. Second road game in 2004 years.
Sadly, there are maybe 20 million + folks in this country that will repeat the above as fact because they read it on the interweb.
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They've played one each of the last 11 seasons.
Looking forward to Tuesday against Cuse. Jim Boeheim said the Big Ten was inferior to the ACC as demonstrated in the NCAA tourney last year. This is bulletin board stuff for Brad and the gang. I would like to see the Illini put a beatdown on Cuse and never pull the starters to send a strong message to BRING IT ON!!
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
He's right, but his POV is skewed. The B1G beats the crap out of each other all season long, and it's a very physical league. The NCAA tournament is called closer to how the ACC is called during the regular season, so that B1G physicality becomes a liability rather than an advantage.
But beyond that, I'll dismiss any criticism from a coach that has lost to Colgate the past 2 seasons, and I'll dismiss any media talking heads that give Boeheim's comments credence without bringing any additional context to the discussion.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Applaud your post Ran and the dignity you used in your prose...........
Me ??.......................boeheim can kiss my O & B arse..........yep , he really really can ..............I hope we show him that we didn't appreciate his words in a way that he never utter's anything negative about the B$G ever again...................I do wonder about the so-called fraternity of coaches and why he came out with such a direct description , whether true or not..........
I also wonder how long the cuse has been in the acc ???.....................I'm still to pissed off from the scUM game to do any investigating of these types of things......
I should harbor my anger for the B$G officials and not spread my anger too thin .......And I have always thought of boeheim as a doofus looking turd anyway.....
I really really have ...............................................
Agree. This is why it is incumbent on the league to adjust the way they call games. Have said that for years. 20+ years is not an anomaly, it is a trend worth looking into the cause of, and making corrections; that is, if league competition were managed in a competent manner.
Too many tickets left for Stripe State Farm.....the game starts at 6. Let's sell this out its on ESPN
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I find it really disheartening that our OWN fans are eating up this national narrative. We sucked for ONE SEASON - 2020-21. Period. Last year, we had zero 1- or 2-seeds and accordingly did not place any teams in the Final Four or Elite Eight. You can say we should have done better than we did, but that won't be an objective statement, it will be a subjective opinion. In 2021, by contrast, we objectively underachieved.
As for the cranky Boeheim, I will say what I want about the Big Ten, and that is this. Each season is a blank slate with nothing to do with the previous year ... if the ACC looks like trash, I will say it's a bad conference. If the Big Ten looks good, I will say it's a better conference this year. If Michigan looks like an NIT team, I will not give them some inherent respect that they'll somehow sneak into another Sweet Sixteen, and if Illinois is in the top 10, I will not have this weird belief that we are destined to lose in the Second Round. Each season is its own little universe, as far as I am concerned, and this is the dynamic this season as far as Boeheim should be concerned:
1) Illinois, the next team with a pulse on his schedule and hailing from a conference he just publicly trashed for no reason at all, looks quite good.
2) Syracuse, his own team, looks like absolute garbage.
We better win this game quite easily, or it will show a lack of mental focus not getting up for a "big time" opponent like UCLA or Virginia. And I certainly hope we pound them into the ground and watch that goofy looking crybaby sulk back onto the bus with his tail between his legs!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Okay, two notes!
1) If anyone in the DIA is seeing this, there is a really glaring error on the website. If you just google Illini basketball tickets and go to one of the most prominent "Single-Game Tickets" links that come up, you get this. That is a problem that needs fixed right now, people willing to pay good money to watch this team should not have to jump through any confusing hoops!
2) After doing a bit of searching, I was able to find the correct spot to look, and it looks like this game will be a sellout or damn close. "C Section" (if we still call it that) has very few seats left, and the rest of the stadium is always full. I am quite confident SFC will be full and rowdy for the Challenge!
By the way, if we can beat Syracuse, it will only be the second time we have won three straight (or more) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. We won four in a row from 2009-10 to 2012-13. Fun trip down memory lane:
2021-22: Illinois 82, Notre Dame 72 (Champaign, IL)
2020-21: #6 Illinois 83, #10 Duke 68 (Durham, NC)
2019-20: Miami (FL) 81, Illinois 79 (Champaign, IL)
2018-19: Notre Dame 76, Illinois 74 (South Bend, IN)
2017-18: Wake Forest 80, Illinois 73 (Winston-Salem, NC)
2016-17: Illinois 88, NC State 74 (Champaign, IL)
2015-16: Notre Dame 84, Illinois 79 (Champaign, IL)
2014-15: #15 Miami (FL) 70, #24 Illinois 61 (Coral Gables, FL)
2013-14: Georgia Tech 67, Illinois 64 (Atlanta, GA)
2012-13: #22 Illinois 75, Georgia Tech 62 (Champaign, IL)
2011-12: Illinois 71, Maryland 62 (College Park, MD)
2010-11: #20 Illinois 79, North Carolina 67 (Champaign, IL)
2009-10: Illinois 76, #18 Clemson 74 (Clemson, SC)
2008-09: Clemson 76, Illinois 74 (Champaign, IL)
2007-08: Maryland 69, Illinois 61 (College Park, MD)
2006-07: #23 Maryland 72, Illinois 66 (Champaign, IL)
2005-06: #12 Illinois 68, North Carolina 64 (Chapel Hill, NC)
2004-05: #5 Illinois 91, #1 Wake Forest 73 (Champaign, IL)
2003-04: #10 North Carolina 88, #11 Illinois 81 (Greensboro, NC)
2002-03: #25 Illinois 92, #14 North Carolina 65 (Champaign, IL)
2001-02: #5 Maryland 76, #2 Illinois 63 (College Park, MD)
2000-01: #1 Duke 78, #9 Illinois 77 (Greensboro, NC)
1999-00: #17 Duke 72, #16 Illinois (Chicago, IL)
Lots of memories here, but a few I remember quite well:
Good
- The beatdown of Duke in Cameron in 2020-21, even if there were not fans. Hearing Bilas and Coach K all of a sudden whine that we should not have a season was literally hysterical, haha.
- The 2010-11 beatdown of North Carolina in Champaign ... started to (foolishly, I guess) believe that team was legit.
- The crazy comeback at Clemson in 2009-10.
- The win at UNC in 2005-06 to get a tiny slice of revenge.
- Obviously, above all else, the massacre of #1 Wake Forest in 2004-05 ... I think we all knew right then that the 2005 squad was beyond special!
- One of my first Big Ten/ACC Challenge memories was absolutely destroying UNC in Champaign in 2002-03. That was fun!
Bad
- The Fake Comeback™ vs. Miami (FL) a few years ago.
- Trent's absolutely heartbreaking and practically physically impossible miss at the buzzer at Notre Dame in Ayo's freshman year ... talk about "in and out."
- For some reason, the 2006-07 home loss to Maryland really hit me hard ... it was a seemingly jarring reminder that the Dee Brown Era at Illinois was officially over, and it made our dropoff in talent and personnel really apparent. It was the beginning of the "late Weber years" for me.
Boewhine's comments definitely add some bulletin board material for this game - I'm sure it's coming from a place of jealousy
His Big East could no longer survive as a power conference, so they jumped ship to the ACC and now the ACC is no longer the dominant conference in the land so he's lashing out at the big ten which has been clearly superior recently. Tournament records are always skewed if you get a lot of teams in which the Big Ten has - Illinois needs to be better in the tourny, no doubt, but for him to rip a whole conference like that just shows he's mad that he hasn't been in the best basketball conference in a very long time
His Big East could no longer survive as a power conference, so they jumped ship to the ACC and now the ACC is no longer the dominant conference in the land so he's lashing out at the big ten which has been clearly superior recently. Tournament records are always skewed if you get a lot of teams in which the Big Ten has - Illinois needs to be better in the tourny, no doubt, but for him to rip a whole conference like that just shows he's mad that he hasn't been in the best basketball conference in a very long time
IlliniTarHeel
- Topsail, NC
Syracuse does well in the tourney because they face teams that are not used to that zone. The ACC coaches are used to facing it every year so they don’t have as much trouble with it. if Syracuse makes it to the tourney they are better suited to win because of that stupid zone that no one else plays.
First, Boeheim is a cranky old man who is struggling to come to terms with his place in modern college basketball - that place being as a 2nd or 3rd rate coach and program.
Second, I'm actually fine with using tournament success to measure a program and/or conference on a national scale. There is some randomness but it's not as random as many suggest. Otherwise we'd see a lot more 16 seeds and a lot fewer 1 seeds in the Final Four. The best teams tend to rise to the top over the course of a 6 round tournament.
Third, and with that said, the ACC hasn't even been that much better than the B1G in the tournament.
Final Four appearances over the last 20 years:
*I counted these quickly and based them on the conference a team was in at that point in time. So, with all the conference realignment, forgive me if these numbers aren't 100% accurate.
ACC: 13
B10: 12
B12: 11
SEC: 10
Sure, the B1G doesn't have any champions in that time period but that's simply because our conference isn't blessed with any blue bloods.
Furthermore, a good argument could still be made that a conference's success should be measured by how many teams it sends to the tournament, not how far its best team advances in the tournament. Otherwise, the WCC would be one of the stronger conferences of the last decade. And even Boeheim wouldn't make that argument.
Long story short: beat the oranges.
Second, I'm actually fine with using tournament success to measure a program and/or conference on a national scale. There is some randomness but it's not as random as many suggest. Otherwise we'd see a lot more 16 seeds and a lot fewer 1 seeds in the Final Four. The best teams tend to rise to the top over the course of a 6 round tournament.
Third, and with that said, the ACC hasn't even been that much better than the B1G in the tournament.
Final Four appearances over the last 20 years:
*I counted these quickly and based them on the conference a team was in at that point in time. So, with all the conference realignment, forgive me if these numbers aren't 100% accurate.
ACC: 13
B10: 12
B12: 11
SEC: 10
Sure, the B1G doesn't have any champions in that time period but that's simply because our conference isn't blessed with any blue bloods.
Furthermore, a good argument could still be made that a conference's success should be measured by how many teams it sends to the tournament, not how far its best team advances in the tournament. Otherwise, the WCC would be one of the stronger conferences of the last decade. And even Boeheim wouldn't make that argument.
Long story short: beat the oranges.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Worth noting that Syracuse itself has had TWO Final Fours vacated during that time, too.
I think all the uproar caused by Boeheim’s comments is pretty funny. And I’d guess if he’s paying attention, he’s laughing.
Worth noting that Syracuse itself has had TWO Final Fours vacated during that time, too.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I wouldn't be so sure ... even his laughs look forced and like he's actually grumpy, so I am not convinced he's ever laughed while alone.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
Boeheim is becoming Rick from Rick & Morty.I wouldn't be so sure ... even his laughs look forced and like he's actually grumpy, so I am not convinced he's ever laughed while alone.
We will just have to prove him wrong, starting by beating them.
I really liked this post. You did your homework and backed up your points/ argument(s) rather well.
But I got a say…Jim Boeheim a 2nd or 3rd
rate coach? Nope. Look, I get it..the dude’s a smug, crotchety, cantankerous,
ego-maniac, (probably a misanthrope…(probably a narcissist)…(definitely a bent moral compass)…but the dude has forgot
more basketball than anybody on this board. It’s just the truth.
Having said that I hope we beat them 50 points and the BIGTeN destroys every
ACC and BigEast school in the tourney…now & till the end of time.
Well, I think to his point, we would need to beat him in the NCAA tournament. His team would have to get there first though.
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