Illinois beats Indiana & will face Michigan tomorrow

Anybody remember the film Rookie of the Year? Crean reminds me of the guy who plays the mom's creepy, manipulative boyfriend who tries to use the kid as his cash cow. I'll bet he could play the role well. 

"No, listen, really, I *do* think you have a shot at being in the NIT."

 

Obviously, the world is full of "be careful what you wish for," and the Illini will be spoiling for the fight, but still - any time you avoid playing Indiana in Indianapolis, let the chips fall how they fall, it's the better deal. 

Illini don't take this ass whoopin personal.

Coaching circle. The way he acts and what he says makes perfect sense in that douche bag context.

Kenpom's computer gives Michigan a 75% chance of beating Illinois tomorrow, predicting a 65-59 victory over 59 possessions.

You'd think he could afford better pants.

We're going to crean house!!!

       Rob

I wanted Indiana to get some hope of a magical BTT run leading to a tourney bid...and then we crush their dreams. I guess tomo can be LeVert's revenge.

Interesting how the same teams seem to match up in this tournament all the time.  It seems like we're always playing Illinois and/or OSU in this thing.  Meanwhile, MSU and Iowa are on the verge of meeting for the fourth straight year.  OTOH, we've never, in 16 years, played MSU in the BTT.

Thanks, Illinois.

Indiana boggled me this year - against UM they always seem to play like a sweet 16 team; against everyone else they are very Crean like (i.e. sucky).   Illinois does not have enough offense to battle UM - they live off turnovers and defense.  We are very good at protecting the basketball so that is why their only loss in the past month has been to us.  That said Groce has done a nice job turning that team around but their offense is so limited you feel good about it, esp since Indiana has us as their Super Bowl apparently. 

You can beat Izzo spends HOURS telling Crean how to play us - maybe he should concentrate on getting MSU to figure out how to play us.

They have been 8/9 most everywhere I have seen, but the numbers posted above seem to prove that they are just not very good right now.  I would rather play them than either Minnesota or Nebraska, by a long stretch, and I think both of those teams are more deserving if you just look at the last ten games.  I know it's how you played over the entire course of a season, but it would seem hard to overlook how hard Iowa has embraced true suckdom the past month or so.