illiniguy

As another big ten fan it is fun this year during bball, the big 12 is horrible. But yeah during football it was rough and when Texas was as good as they were this year there isn't much you can say but agree.

Oh so true. Why don't they try and get Wayne McClain? They would get every peoria player they wanted.

Oh so true. Why don't they try and get Wayne McClain? They would get every peoria player they wanted.

Michigan is a good team, if they were better coached they wouldn't sweat some of these other lesser teams. That said they will probably make the tourny this year. Horton is a player. Pettway is an athlete. Sims is an enigma, he has the most complete post game imo in the big ten, yet doesn't dominate like he should.

and don't forget that Iowa nearly lost to Penn St. on Saturday. I am real confused on most of these teams in the Big 10. One game, some teams look like the class of the conference, the next they look like they could be in the cellar. The conference is pretty even this year and the winner of the Big 10 (probably Wisconsin) is going to have to be the best at protecting their home court. Penn State beat Purdont by 20 tonight, WTF?!?!? Penn State shouldn't beat anyone by 20, except perhaps a local girls' elementary school for the blind. ...giving them a 2-2 record in the Big Ten, tied with the mighty Illini Yeah they have played the same level of teams. :roll: Overall, no, they clearly haven't. But I would say that overall PSU has played a lot of mediocre to good teams while the Illini have played either very good teams or complete jokes. PSU is 10-5, with wins over Cornell, Nicholls St., LIU Brooklyn, UMKC, St. Francis, IPFW, New Hampshire, Mt.St. Mary's, Northwestern and Purdue, and losses to Texas A&M, Clemson, Pitt, Ohio St. and Iowa (by 4 points). Overall, better than you would expect, with the losses to teams you'd expect and wins over who you might guess (with NU being an upset probably). Illini is 16-2, with wins over So. Dakota St., Texas Pan-Am, Texas Southern, Wichita St., Rutgers, N. Carolina, Xavier, Arkansas LR, Georgetown, Oregon, Coppin St., Missouri, SE Missouri St., Tenn. Martin, Michigan St. and Michigan, and losses to Iowa and Indiana. They have beat some big conference teams for sure, but some of those other teams are truly pitiful. In no way am I implying that Penn St. is even close to being on par with Illini talent-wise, and I fully expect Illionois to spank the Nittany Lions when they go head to head. But I just wouldn't gloat over some of those wins (especially when you only beat Wichita St. by 1 point. If I thought it was worth arguing, I would figure out the opponents' records overall, but as I said, it's not an argument I can make I meant our big ten schedules. You know since you said they were even with us in the Big Ten. We have played the four best teams and PSU has beaten up on the other crap that lives at the bottom of the Big Ten.

I, like Vance, have a buttload of autographs. My favorite would have to be my team signed ball, sans Nick Smith, of last years Runner up Illinois team. I also love my Luther Head jersey. Balls Scott Kazmir Felix Hernandez Miguel Cabrera Carlos Zambrano Mark Prior x2 Jose Canseco Ernie Banks Barry Zito, Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, Dan Haren, Dan Johnson, and Rixh Harden(Oakland in person rocks) Kevin Millwood Ryan Harvey and Epatt CPatt Cole Hamels Javy Lopez Dontrelle Willis David Wright Alphonso Soriano Some in person a couple sase. The sase method is great on young guys in the minors. I think I have about 15 of each of Prior, Z, and Felix cards getting them before they hit it big. Then I have a billion or so cards.

and don't forget that Iowa nearly lost to Penn St. on Saturday. I am real confused on most of these teams in the Big 10. One game, some teams look like the class of the conference, the next they look like they could be in the cellar. The conference is pretty even this year and the winner of the Big 10 (probably Wisconsin) is going to have to be the best at protecting their home court. Penn State beat Purdont by 20 tonight, WTF?!?!? Penn State shouldn't beat anyone by 20, except perhaps a local girls' elementary school for the blind. ...giving them a 2-2 record in the Big Ten, tied with the mighty Illini Yeah they have played the same level of teams. :roll:

Yes we lost to a very good IU team at home. Gosh I hope we just call the rest of the season off :roll: That and Rose hasn't even decided where he is playing his college ball at yet. Besides that a great post.

Should be a great game, I think you guys will hold serve as I don't think we can stop Killer. Your guys should shoot well at home. I think we return the favor later in the year though.

Brian Randle held him to 6 points on two broken play threes I wouldn't call him a stud by anymeans.

Nowhere yet. He's only an HS junior right now. oh I see, who leads for him?

where did claussen end up?

i was saying this last year, too. though i'm sure lovie will draft offense--he views his defense as being set. tillman is a pretty good CB, much better than he played on sunday. it's just that super-quick receivers like smith are very bad matchups for him. he does better when he's matched up against a bigger, less quick receiver with good downfield speed. i'm not sure that there's any CB that matches up with smith very well anyway. i thought it was vicious what lovie did to tillman against the panthers, almost shamefully stupid. but, like i've said before, this is not a great coaching staff. they rely on the intelligence and reaction speed of their players, not necessarily throwing a lot of schemes out there to confuse the offense. nor do they make adjustments during the game. if anyone could have made an adjustment, it would have been urlacher, but he seemed content chasing people around the field. man, i wish the bears could just once get a player like smith. We did have Walter Payton who was better than Steve Smith will ever dream of being.

Yeah I read that after the game, but apparently all the fans were too into it to notice. Good thing it didnt come back to hurt us. When it happened my mom was even yelling about it towards the tv. Oh yeah, Quin is the coolest coach in the buisness. As he was being interviewed at the half he just blew off the sideline reporter not looking at her at all, kinda like how the big man on campus would a nerdy girl. I bet he is different when it is Erin Andrews though. Man I am starting to really like the Quinner. People just love to hate on Quin. He's the man. I hope he stays. Yeah he has had one year where he lost his team, the year two years ago when you guys were pretty loaded and lost in the first round of the NIT. But really he coached pretty well against us last year as you guys played us pretty close, he alwyas beats KU at least once a year, and he looks like a young Ray Liota. How can people not like this guy? I wanna hang out with him.

Yeah I read that after the game, but apparently all the fans were too into it to notice. Good thing it didnt come back to hurt us. When it happened my mom was even yelling about it towards the tv. Oh yeah, Quin is the coolest coach in the buisness. As he was being interviewed at the half he just blew off the sideline reporter not looking at her at all, kinda like how the big man on campus would a nerdy girl. I bet he is different when it is Erin Andrews though. Man I am starting to really like the Quinner.

Awesome game but noticed a couple of things. First after Gardner tied it with 5.6 to go KU inbounds it and dribbles twice before the clock started again. Nice job home clock operator. Second referees are told to never make a call on a last second play to determine the game. Especially on a clean block. For a minute I thought that game was being played at the PHOG.

It's a good thing Peyton didn't throw short for the first on 3 and 2, or hell even run. You had 2 time outs left. But then again, I guess without saving them you can't make them snap the ball three times at the end instead of 1. Until Peyton starts to really trust his RB he is never going to win it all.

Why waste a challenge on something that won't be overturned? Use the Timeout for an additional forty seconds. guess it was a good thing they challenged.

Interesting you would say that after he made two huge free throws and Marcus Arnold was again out played by him.

My thoughts EXACTLY. Why is it that you tell your players to foul down 4 with 1:20 left, but when you're down 3 with 50 seconds left, you play for the defensive stop? It makes no sense whatsoever!! That game unfolded like all the ND/Cuse games at the Joyce have the last four years: Irish make a bunch of stupid mistakes, but threes keep them in it till the end when Gerry Mac proves too much. I am NOT going to miss him. My two college basketball teams' record since December 30th: 0-7. :( ND recruited Mac hard and he would have gone there in a second if it was within driving distance of Scranton. I'm curious on what ND is going to do about Brey if the Irish miss the NCAA's again. Mike Brey, yet another Coach K prodigee who can't coach.

Damian Miller was excluded because he crossed the picket line during the strike. ah but you are letting facts get in the way of a good argument. lets hope Kerry finally gets a break, he seems like a good guy and it is about time he gets to pitch through a whole season healthy. if he and Prior both can do that, I don't care what lineup we run out there. We should be able to contend.

yeah living in kansas city I hope to get to see billy a little this year either in witchita or kc. But, I guess the doug meinkeiwitz signing has blocked that for the time being. I'm pretty sure he'll start the season in AA Wichita. If he continues to post good numbers, a promotion to Omaha is likely, and maybe a late season September call-up. But 2007 is the year he'll likely hit the bigs. What do you think Gordon's path would look like? I hope to get both he and Butler's autos this year on one of my mini helmets, but hope I can do so in one trip. You think odds are they both end up in Wichita?

Goodbye Corey, I don't care about what kind of year you had last year. I will still miss you and will always place a lot of blame on the Cubs for how they rushed you to the big leagues and then yo-yoed you around. I do agree it was time for you to go, but I will always hate most cubs fans for how they treated one of our own. Good luck in Baltimore. Heres hoping you go 30-30 next year.

yeah living in kansas city I hope to get to see billy a little this year either in witchita or kc. But, I guess the doug meinkeiwitz signing has blocked that for the time being.

You guys shot very poorly from the outside but then seemed to get really tentative in the second half. We were playing very good defense (as we have all year) but just got lucky with you guys missing some open looks in the first half. In the second half I thought our defense was better, but when Dee and others got looks they passed them up and had to scramble late in the shot clock to throw something up. Jamar Smith was the one guy who took the shot every time he got an open look and I was surprised at the ones he missed in the first half. I don't know if I've seen that guy miss this year when I've seen an Illinois game. Taking Augustine out of the game was huge, he never really got involved. After he had that big dunk mid-way through the 2nd half I thought he was going to go on a tear but never did. Same thing with Dee when he knocked down that 3 early in the second half. I think everyone in the building thought he was going to get hot and take over after that shot but it never happened. You guys looked a lot more one-dimensional offensively than last year but I also think you play much better defense than last year's team. Guys are just a lot quicker on switch outs, get up on you much closer and really gave us no open looks in the first half. It looks to me like Bruce has put a much bigger emphasis on defense this year. Yeah Bruce has to concentrate more on defense this year because we don't have the same talent on offense. iowa would have probably beaten us anyway, but fwiw, the officiating in that game was the worst i've ever seen in any game this year, so far. every call favored iowa, every call. wait until we go to madison, everyone is paying us back for last year. Even the referees. Really can't complain about the Officiating, in my 25+ years of following the Illini and Big Ten BB, it's always been 8 on 5 when comes to road games. You've got to expect that going into to a road game and adjust, it's never going to change. IMO no other conference comes close in giving preferential treatment to the home team. agreed just venting. What a terrible break for Indiana today.