College Basketball 2010-11

[illiniguy]

Illinois gets UNC in Champaign for the Challenge

 

You have bigs you can throw it down to? They'll be thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin down low.

5 Star Myers Leonard. And the two returners.

[SouthSideRyan]

Illinois gets UNC in Champaign for the Challenge

 

You have bigs you can throw it down to? They'll be thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin down low.

 

Especially when you figure Zeller should be out for the year by that game.

[Magnetic Curses]

Mychael Henry is an illini.

 

this guy is going to be huge

[gflore34]

Mychael Henry is an illini.

 

this guy is going to be huge

 

Yet more talent for the Illini, I know many have been down on Weber but, it's my belief the guy' a good coach. Finally, with some big time talent, we'll see Weber taking the Illini on deep tourney runs.

[Magnetic Curses]

henry and egwu are acc athletic and long. i was wrong about egwu, he isn't going to be a project, he's going to contribute from game 1. the guy is a monster in the middle on defense, which is just what bruce likes.

 

now, i don't care if we get thompson. fill this thing out with shaw, who is very good friends with henry, and would anthony davis be too much to hope for?

 

abrams

henry

egwu

shaw

davis

 

that's a fab 5 right there.

[cbbryan]

Just in case you missed it, we had a video up of Henry on 312:

 

http://www.312sports.com/college-sports/university-of-illinois/171-basketball/1077-video-illini-commit-mycheal-henry-interview-and-highlights

[illiniguy]

henry and egwu are acc athletic and long. i was wrong about egwu, he isn't going to be a project, he's going to contribute from game 1. the guy is a monster in the middle on defense, which is just what bruce likes.

 

now, i don't care if we get thompson. fill this thing out with shaw, who is very good friends with henry, and would anthony davis be too much to hope for?

 

abrams

henry

egwu

shaw

davis

 

that's a fab 5 right there.

I'm worried a bit about balance then though. That would leave us with a ton of bigs and really only Tracy as a true point. Although we could have some guys leave early.

[SouthSideRyan]

I'm thinking one of DJ or Bertrand will emerge as a capable point this season, but I agree with your overall point. I'd still like to get Randle. I prefer having 2 PGs on the court when possible.

[Guest]

Jeff Goodman's Preseason Top 25

 

Of note to NSBB:

 

1. Duke

2. Purdue

5. K-State

9. Mizzou

11. Kansas

14. Illinois

18. Kentucky

[SouthSideRyan]

Rankings 6 months before the season start always have some great head-scratchers.

 

OSU at 4, their recruiting class is sick, but come on you're losing the best player in the country who happened to be your point.

 

KU at 11 (I laughed in Hosak's face about Tennessee having a better shot than KU at a title, but come on, they lose probably their 3 best players. Selby's not that great.

 

Oooh look Gonzaga is horribly overrated. That's new.

 

I don't even think Temple makes the tourney.

 

Butler at 25th seems underrated, even without Hayward.

[snoodmonger]

Rankings 6 months before the season start always have some great head-scratchers.

 

OSU at 4, their recruiting class is sick, but come on you're losing the best player in the country who happened to be your point.

 

KU at 11 (I laughed in Hosak's face about Tennessee having a better shot than KU at a title, but come on, they lose probably their 3 best players. Selby's not that great.

 

Oooh look Gonzaga is horribly overrated. That's new.

 

I don't even think Temple makes the tourney.

 

Butler at 25th seems underrated, even without Hayward.

 

Keep in mind, Selby might be the only impact recruit we're adding, but we have a 5* center, a 5*PF, a 5* PG, and a 4* wing that we can add into the mix. And these are all guys who've played/practiced at the NCAA level, not high school kids who won't be used to college hoops.

 

I think we'll be pretty good. We'll be more athletic on the perimeter which will hopefully translate to better perimeter D. We'll be better slashers but worse shooters. We'll also be much faster and athletic in the post. Our post D will suffer greatly though w/o Aldrich.

 

Top 10-15 doesn't seem like a stretch to me. I think we'll be one of the more dangerous teams come tourney time. Especially if Releford can hit the three.

[Andy]

Notre Dame is finalizing a home and home with Gonzaga and will host the Bulldogs on Dec. 11th. They're going to play Kentucky on Dec. 8th in Freedom Hall for the Big East/SEC Invite. Between that and the Old Spice Classic, we should have three good non-conference games, which will be up from squadoosh this last season.

[mul21]

I'm thinking one of DJ or Bertrand will emerge as a capable point this season, but I agree with your overall point. I'd still like to get Randle. I prefer having 2 PGs on the court when possible.

 

I think Bertrand will be the guy to pick up PG minutes. They could really just run 2 separate units out there to have guys playing together all the time:

 

DMac

DJ

Richardson

Davis

Tisdale

 

and the 2nd unit:

 

Bertrand

Paul

Cole

Griffey

Leonard

[SouthSideRyan]

Full B10/ACC schedule released.

 

Monday, Nov. 29

 

Virginia at Minnesota

 

Tuesday, Nov.30

 

North Carolina at Illinois

Ohio State at Florida State

Michigan at Clemson

Georgia Tech at Northwestern

Iowa at Wake Forest

 

Wednesday, Dec. 1

 

Michigan State at Duke

Purdue at Virginia Tech

North Carolina State at Wisconsin

Indiana at Boston College

Maryland at Penn State

 

 

I think the schedule's stacked in our favor. Sends 3 of our 4 bad teams on the road. I admit, I don't know that much about ACC schools, but it seems like they're burning up a couple decent teams to beat our bad teams by 30.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Iowa has assembled quite the staff: Andrew Francis, Kirk Speraw, Ryan Bowen as video coordinator, and now announced Sherm Dillard as an assistant. There are still some rumblings that Jeff Horner is getting consideration as graduate assistant. Looks good to me.

[MSG T]

Iowa has assembled quite the staff: Andrew Francis, Kirk Speraw, Ryan Bowen as video coordinator, and now announced Sherm Dillard as an assistant. There are still some rumblings that Jeff Horner is getting consideration as graduate assistant. Looks good to me.

 

It will be interesting to see how Dillard's AAU connections translate to recruiting those kids.

[hawkeyecub]

It's a great staff for Iowa. Much better than we've seen here in 20 years. When you combine the experience and connections they have with an uptempo style of play and a $40M practice facility, I'm hopeful that we can actually get back to beating other Big Ten schools for out of state recruits again. Fran has done everything right thus far, now they have to find some players.

[NeifiIsMyHomeBoy]

Full B10/ACC schedule released.

 

Monday, Nov. 29

 

Virginia at Minnesota

 

Tuesday, Nov.30

 

North Carolina at Illinois

Ohio State at Florida State

Michigan at Clemson

Georgia Tech at Northwestern

Iowa at Wake Forest

 

Wednesday, Dec. 1

 

Michigan State at Duke

Purdue at Virginia Tech

North Carolina State at Wisconsin

Indiana at Boston College

Maryland at Penn State

 

 

Looks pretty meh to me. MSU and Duke appears to be the only marquee matchup. This is kind of disappointing.

[illiniguy]

Iowa has assembled quite the staff: Andrew Francis, Kirk Speraw, Ryan Bowen as video coordinator, and now announced Sherm Dillard as an assistant. There are still some rumblings that Jeff Horner is getting consideration as graduate assistant. Looks good to me.

Ryan Bowen is all kinds of awesome. But I just wonder why he wants to do the video coordinator thing, when I imagine he could have gotten on as an NBA assistant?

[illiniguy]

Full B10/ACC schedule released.

 

Monday, Nov. 29

 

Virginia at Minnesota

 

Tuesday, Nov.30

 

North Carolina at Illinois

Ohio State at Florida State

Michigan at Clemson

Georgia Tech at Northwestern

Iowa at Wake Forest

 

Wednesday, Dec. 1

 

Michigan State at Duke

Purdue at Virginia Tech

North Carolina State at Wisconsin

Indiana at Boston College

Maryland at Penn State

 

 

Looks pretty meh to me. MSU and Duke appears to be the only marquee matchup. This is kind of disappointing.

Illinois-UNC should be a good game as well.

[hawkeyecub]

Iowa has assembled quite the staff: Andrew Francis, Kirk Speraw, Ryan Bowen as video coordinator, and now announced Sherm Dillard as an assistant. There are still some rumblings that Jeff Horner is getting consideration as graduate assistant. Looks good to me.

Ryan Bowen is all kinds of awesome. But I just wonder why he wants to do the video coordinator thing, when I imagine he could have gotten on as an NBA assistant?

 

I think he wanted to be at Iowa and wants to work in the college game. Plus it wouldn't be surprising to see Speraw get a head job somewhere in the next couple years. Bowen doesn't need the money and is willing to work his way up. Spend a couple of years as the video coordinator, learn the ins and outs and he'll probably have a spot as a full-time assistant within a few years.

 

You're right though. With his reputation in the league he probably could have gotten an NBA assistant gig sometime soon.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Iowa has assembled quite the staff: Andrew Francis, Kirk Speraw, Ryan Bowen as video coordinator, and now announced Sherm Dillard as an assistant. There are still some rumblings that Jeff Horner is getting consideration as graduate assistant. Looks good to me.

Ryan Bowen is all kinds of awesome. But I just wonder why he wants to do the video coordinator thing, when I imagine he could have gotten on as an NBA assistant?

 

I think he wanted to be at Iowa and wants to work in the college game. Plus it wouldn't be surprising to see Speraw get a head job somewhere in the next couple years. Bowen doesn't need the money and is willing to work his way up. Spend a couple of years as the video coordinator, learn the ins and outs and he'll probably have a spot as a full-time assistant within a few years.

 

You're right though. With his reputation in the league he probably could have gotten an NBA assistant gig sometime soon.

I think a lot of it also has to do with how Alford and Lickliter both shunned former players and completely ignored the history of the program. It was music to a lot of ears when Fran said how he wanted to get them involved again, and I'm ecstatic that he's following through. There are a lot of former players that could have been helping this program a whole lot more if they were asked or allowed. I have a feeling if Speraw or Bowen move along in the next few years that they'll probably be replaced with other former Hawkeyes. Side note: it'll be cool to see the names Marble, Stokes, and Payne in the programs next year even if Cully is no relation to Michael.

[illiniguy]

As a sometimes insomniac, I have some time to read a lot of boards on the internet when my wife and daughter are asleep. While doing so tonight I came across the Iowa Scout board. Did you know according to them all of Illinois recruits from '09-'11 are no good. They attacked every single one of them except for Richmond, who I don't think they knew we had. One guy said Weber has screwed up by offering so many talented guards becuase only two can play at once. Awesome stuff. I hope we keep recruiting too many awesome players even though you can only play a few at a time and they keep doing what they've been doing.

[hawkeyecub]

As a sometimes insomniac, I have some time to read a lot of boards on the internet when my wife and daughter are asleep. While doing so tonight I came across the Iowa Scout board. Did you know according to them all of Illinois recruits from '09-'11 are no good. They attacked every single one of them except for Richmond, who I don't think they knew we had. One guy said Weber has screwed up by offering so many talented guards becuase only two can play at once. Awesome stuff. I hope we keep recruiting too many awesome players even though you can only play a few at a time and they keep doing what they've been doing.

 

The free board on that site is awful. Plus the last place I'm going to look for anything rational about Iowa or any other school is on another conference team's message board.

 

I still can't believe they offered Uthoff though. According to his AAU coach Illinois has two spots for '11 left, a big and a guard. Meaning if Uthoff decides tomorrow that he wants it, they won't have a spot left for Shaw or any of their other inside '11 targets.

[illiniguy]

As a sometimes insomniac, I have some time to read a lot of boards on the internet when my wife and daughter are asleep. While doing so tonight I came across the Iowa Scout board. Did you know according to them all of Illinois recruits from '09-'11 are no good. They attacked every single one of them except for Richmond, who I don't think they knew we had. One guy said Weber has screwed up by offering so many talented guards becuase only two can play at once. Awesome stuff. I hope we keep recruiting too many awesome players even though you can only play a few at a time and they keep doing what they've been doing.

 

The free board on that site is awful. Plus the last place I'm going to look for anything rational about Iowa or any other school is on another conference team's message board.

 

I still can't believe they offered Uthoff though. According to his AAU coach Illinois has two spots for '11 left, a big and a guard. Meaning if Uthoff decides tomorrow that he wants it, they won't have a spot left for Shaw or any of their other inside '11 targets.

That isn't the case on Uthoff, he was offered before Henry committed. I am betting he does not have an unconditional offer now. Bruce has been doing first come first srve. Seems Henry took that scholly. From what I've heard the four that we have unconditional offers out to now are Mike Shaw, Chasson Randle, Anthony Davis, and Quincy Miller. Now we might end up with Uthoff, but I would imagine it is only if we miss on those others.