What is the deal with Illinois basketball?
I haven't paid any attention to their team all year because 1. they weren't very good 2. they hadn't beaten anybody good until Minnesota on 2/12 and 3. they weren't on our schedule until late. They seem to have a lot of low-scoring games. If they were good at scoring I would have expected them to do more of it. So are they actually good at defense or do they just slow down the game? They have held their last four opponents under 50. They had a track meet (by Illinois standards) against Iowa where they lost 81-74, but besides that they haven't scored more than 63 in a game since January 4.
The Iowa game would be the one to scout. Iowa is similar to Michigan but not quite as good at offense and significantly better at defense.
And what's the deal with airline food?
Only if you are willing to give them your first born child
I just flew first class to Costa Rica and back on Delta, and I would say the food was good for an airline. The more amazing things was after confiscating a cigar cutter, we were given our drinks in REAL glassware and then given METAL knife and fork. Had I possessed a sharpening stone on me I am sure that I could have made a workable prison shiv, if I were so inclined. Ahh, government.
I go with the odds. Odds of someone having a bomb on the plane are 1:100,000,000. And the odds of 2 people having a bomb on the plane are 1:5,000,000,000, I always carry my own bomb.
Never comfortable seeing one gentleman bending over in front of another gentleman.
You must really, really hate watching football then...
I wish I had more upvotes to give.
Is that a crab dribble he's putting on display?
I never get tired of "Stand Up and Win!" references.
Just ask the master.
and consider how bad of a death spiral sparty is in right now, don't read a WHOLE lot into it. That game was in EL, so that is a bit of a head scratcher.
But as long as we can take care of business tomorrow night, I'm fine sitting back and letting them (Illinois) play spoiler. We're secured at least a share at this point, so I hope that allows the team to play loose tomorrow in Champaign.
I heard him just fine.
The Illini are finally getting used to playing defense to create offense. They have good athletes that are streaky shooters. Egwu changes shots and runs good for a big man.
and Groce is finally letting them have more playing time over disappointing upperclassmen.
They have played good defence lately and their opponents can't seem to throw itin the ocean.
Not too worried about UM's prospects - hopefully they will drive to the basket early to avoid another slow start though.
Is that a question or a statement?
Make no mistake, this will be a tough game for us to win on the road . . . the kind of game we have not been winning against teams we are supposed to beat. It says a lot about the championship caliber of our team if we do win it.
If we want an outright championship, we will have to win an outright championship and not just show up for a trophy presentation.
I have a feeling that we pull it off tomorrow night in Chambana. Go Blue!!
...who are all these teams who are like IL that UM was supposed to beat but didn't? I see IN and Charlotte and that's it. Sure they were favored vs. WI at home, but WI and IL aren't comparable. Neither is @IA. I agree the game will be tough, but winning these tough games vs. mid to bottom tier teams has been a strength this year.
Losses to Indiana and iowa. Very near-losses to Minny (won by 3), Nebraska (won by 1), and Purdue (won by 1 in OT). We have struggled mightily in five of our eight road games, all against lesser opponents. Strangely enough, it was against the tougher opponents on the road that we looked the best.
It's hard not to see Illinois as a struggle on the road for us. Hopefully it's one of those near-loss struggles and not an actual loss struggle.
Just looking at the box scores of their last few games they seem to be forcing a lot of turn overs (11stls per game the last 3 games) and scoring easy points off of those.
Over the last year of Michigan basketball I've come to not worry much about defenses predicated on forcing turnovers against Michigan. Beilein handled VCU, put up a ton of points on Louisville, and hasn't struggled handling the press when teams deploy it against them. With 3 players on the floor who can handle the ball I'm optimistic about Michigan being able to break Illinois' 4 game streak of not giving up 50 points and I don't know if Illinois has the offense to keep up without easy points off turnovers.
Yeah, you know, I always see that, that they consider us a rival, and I say, "Wait, what?" and then I say, "Oh yeah, I remember that," and then I'm like, "Wait, what?" again. Just weird.
Michigan has won five straight against Illinois, including two victories at Assembly Hall State Farm Center.
Not to mention the fact that Illinois suddenly has an outside shot at an NCAA berth: Win two more plus the first round game in the conference tourney and they're up to 20 wins, on a hell of a hot streak, and sporting wins over MSU and Mizzou. It's a long shot, but hope is a dangerous thing...
against Sparty. Though it was a classic sparty no, Illinois hit their shots and kept forcing turnovers. Breslin didn't seem a very intimidating environment, and Illinois didn't seem like they cared one way or the other. Prettty good focus.
Obvious to everyone, but can't start with a big deficit. I think they're being very aggressive in their attempts to generate turnovers and apply pressure on the ballhandlers, and my guess is Beilein will have a counter for that, leading to some easy baskets. But what the hell do I know.
Here's how Illinois stacks up versus the rest of Division I on, well, a lot of metric. This is courtesy of TeamRankings, which typically does a nice job compiling this information:
| Overall Statistics | |||
|
ILL Offense
|
Value (rank) | ILL Defense | Value (rank) |
| Points/Game | 65.1 (#290) | Opp Points/Game | 62.0 (#20) |
| Avg Score Margin | +3.0 (#111) | Opp Avg Score Margin | -3.0 (#111) |
| Assists/Game | 10.2 (#324) | Opp Assists/Game | 10.3 (#27) |
| Total Rebounds/Gm | 34.4 (#187) | Opp Total Rebounds/Gm | 33.9 (#145) |
| Assists/FGM | 0.444 (#317) | Opp Assists/FGM | 0.470 (#62) |
| Assists/Turnover | 0.964 (#208) | Opp Assists/Turnover | 0.859 (#58) |
| Effective FG % | 46.2% (#310) | Opp Effective FG % | 47.0% (#76) |
| FTA/FGA | 0.321 (#337) | Opp FTA/FGA | 0.332 (#38) |
| Free Throw % | 72.5% (#85) | Opp Free Throw % | 70.0% (#181) |
| Three Point % | 32.3% (#267) | Opp Three Point % | 32.8% (#81) |
| Two Point % | 45.1% (#307) | Opp Two Point % | 45.9% (#81) |
| Shooting % | 40.7% (#317) | Opp Shooting % | 41.4% (#72) |
| Shooting Efficiency | 1.011 (#296) | Opp Shooting Efficiency | 1.005 (#51) |
| FGM/Game | 22.9 (#272) | Opp FGM/Game | 21.9 (#48) |
| FGA/Game | 56.2 (#121) | Opp FGA/Game | 52.9 (#76) |
| 3PM/Game | 6.2 (#170) | Opp 3PM/Game | 5.9 (#119) |
| 3PA/Game | 19.1 (#128) | Opp 3PA/Game | 17.9 (#162) |
| FTM/Game | 13.1 (#309) | Opp FTM/Game | 12.3 (#21) |
| FTA/Game | 18.1 (#327) | Opp FTA/Game | 17.6 (#20) |
| 1st Half Pts/Gm | 30.7 (#253) | Opp 1st Half Pts/Gm | 29.9 (#59) |
| 2nd Half Pts/Gm | 34.0 (#306) | Opp 2nd Half Pts/Gm | 31.8 (#15) |
| OT Pts/Gm | 0.4 (#248) | Opp OT Pts/Gm | 0.3 (#81) |
| Off Rebounds/Gm | 9.8 (#120) | Opp Off Rebounds/Gm | 8.7 (#102) |
| Def Rebounds/Gm | 22.0 (#186) | Opp Def Rebounds/Gm | 22.3 (#188) |
| Off Rebound % | 30.5% (#136) | Opp Off Rebound % | 28.2% (#125) |
| Def Rebound % | 71.8% (#125) | Opp Def Rebound % | 69.5% (#136) |
| Blocks/Game | 3.9 (#143) | Opp Blocks/Game | 3.5 (#160) |
| Block % | 7.3% (#124) | Opp Block % | 6.3% (#146) |
| Steals/Game | 6.2 (#156) | Opp Steals/Game | 5.1 (#37) |
| Steals/Play | 8.4% (#104) | Opp Steals/Play | 6.8% (#54) |
| Turnovers/Game | 10.6 (#35) | Opp Turnovers/Game | 12.0 (#204) |
| Turnovers/Play | 14.1% (#53) | Opp Turnovers/Play | 16.3% (#143) |
including a home loss to Purdue and a road loss to NW, they'd be having a decent season.
It is weird. You would think being a major university in one of the best basketball conferences, who happens to be right next to one of the single largest hotbeds of basketball talent on the face of the planet would make them a consistent force to deal with, but no.
Illinois basketball has a lot of soul searching to do.They have so many inherent advantages that they are squandering. Smaller schools in the general area seem to be able to pull in more Chicago products than Illinois, and all of the big talents always seem to leave the state.
I mean, damn. Derrick Rose and Anthony Davis were right in their back yard. Not to mention Evan Turner, Iman Schumpert and Jabari Parker. They whiffed, or weren't even in the running, for all of those guys. That can't happen.
weber was clean. calipari not so much.
it's true illinois should get some chicago players but champaign is about 140 miles from chicago. madison is almost as close. northwestern is closer. south bend much closer. marquette is closer. purdue is closer.
peoria is in illini backyard, hence the long-time pipline from there.
The Illinois game will be similar to the road game against Indiana. Top 25 Kenpom defense. 4 guys who can go for 20 on a good night and on the road....
To our advantage, we don't turn the ball over and Nik has finally learned he can shoot over small guards (most of Illinois guards range from 6'1'' to 6'3'') and Caris' length should bother their hot hand.. Egwu is a rim protector but not an offensive presence. GR3 should dominate Hill/Ekey as they are too small physically.
There's still suffering from Weberitis.
Bruce Weber was a great recruiter, but his players never developed and attrition was high. That takes time to recover from.
In other news, Illinois fans think Kendrick Nunn, Malcolm Hill and Rayvonte Rice are all better than LeVert lol
What is up with BOTH their major programs. I always think Illinois is a massive underachiever in both football and basketball. They seem like they should be having the success Wisconsin has, year in and year out, the past 20 years, with their geographic location and relative proximity to Chicago. Or at least Iowa level success. There have been some great Illinois bball teams (Kendall Gill!) here and there the past few decades but they seem to lose so much talent to other states. Football I am just boggled at.
When they have coaching stability with coaches that have an actual clue, they do quite well. But it never lasts.