illiniguy
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Everything posted by illiniguy
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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.
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Should have been Villanova vs Illinois for the championship last year, they got robbed.
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Big Ten referees might be the worst thing ever, but it makes us better for the tournament. Think about it, if you can overcome 8 on 5 winning at a nuetral site is cake.
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get ready to be 0-2 Bucky never seems to lose at home.
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Top Ten Hitting Prospects in Baseball
illiniguy replied to don_kessinger_was_good's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
Almost the same: 1. Delmon Young 2. Jeremy Hermida 3. Stephen Drew 4. Brandon Wood 5. Casey Kotchman 6. Lastings Milledge 7. Connor Jackson 8. Ian Stewart 9. Andy LaRoche 10. Daric Barton dkwg, BJ Upton already has fulfilled his ROY eligibility. How is Kotchman eligible for ROY? he is on the jess settles plan. :P WHat about Alex Gordon and Billy Butler? No one very high on them? -
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.
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If the Iowa fans didn't storm the court, they'd be disrespecting the Illini program. ;) Right, you know Illinois has lost like 1 home game the last decade, yet we weren't even mentioned the entire day when they talked about hardest places to play at. :roll: But, that's ok just keep acting like our program doesn;t exist and get all fired up when we lose espn. plus doug "credit card" gottlieb tried to compare ther 4 guard system at villanove to our 4 guard system. saying theres were better. First off we only had 3 guards last year, secondly name me one of there guys who will be the third pick in the draft.
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damn that was terrible performance. to answer an earlier question, Rich McBride is the worst player on the team. Nice game from one of our shooters. Seems like we always play poorly against Iowa, I don't understand how they can play us so well, yet struggle with much lesser teams.
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damn that was terrible performance. to answer an earlier question, Rich McBride is the worst player on the team. Nice game from one of our shooters. Seems like we always play poorly against Iowa, I don't understand how they can play us so well, yet struggle with much lesser teams.
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I agree with you there. :D How? I could understand if they've been a thorn in the side of teams (other than Penn State and Purdue lately), but they have consistently sucked in the Big Ten for years. How can you hate them for that? I hate every Big Ten team because they keep kicking our asses in b-ball every season. Sure, we occasionally pull off an upset or 2 in the tournament, but we never do a damn thing throughout the regular season. OK, I'll bite. I lived 15 minutes outside of Iowa City for most of my life, am going to attend Iowa in the fall, and I can honestly say there is no entity in sports I despise more than Hawkeye basketball. It hasn't always been that way. Heck, when I was kid I didn't mind the Hawks at all. I don't like to generalize, but Hawk fans are the worst excuse makers and whiners I have ever had to deal with. Most of them can't accept that their team sucks, but whine and blame injuries and officiating all season long. At least when the Illini were bad, I could accept it. And when the Illini suck again, I will accept that. But if's, and's and but's are the mantra of most Hawk bball fans. When they win, it's because they are great, but when they lose it is always because of some outside influence. If I sound bitter, that's because I am. Whenever the Illini (or other teams) would beat the Hawks, it would be because: "(Insert Hawk name here) was injured." or "The refs were out to get us." or "You guys were lucky." Hell, even the local news media were that way. I know that basic homerism is to be expected, especially in the heart of a team's territory, but I have lived in a lot of places in my life and nowhere I have I seen it as blatant and unfailing as in Eastern Iowa. But it's not all bad. I made a killing in bets with Hawk fans. :P Amen to that post. Last year when we Illiniois was playing there, this fan behind me said the only reason we won was because Ed Hightower was officiated the game and we were undefeated when he did our games. I told him A. we had 10 team fouls at the time they had 1, B. we were 29-0 so it wasn't just when Ed did our games.
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As a UK grad and rabid fan, I should point out that if ANYONE thinks Sparks is a star, they're fools. Really. he couldn't guard a man if you sewed his face to the player's jersey. he's a good shooter, a poor defender, and he's slow. That's from a Rabid fan. He's also about to lose his starting job to sophomore Ramel Bradley. I would trade Sparks for Hansbrough RIGHT NOW and never think twice about it (and I hate UNC). And for the record, he hasn't been around UK forever. This is only his second season with the Wildcats. (he tansferred as a junior). Yeah Hansborough is a star. There is no doubt about it.
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Illinois lost the national championship game in the first half... I think they only shot like 27% in the first half. Their second half shooting improved as well as their defense in the second. To me, they were a streaky shooting team all last year. I will always blame your school for giving NC another Championship. The refs put them there and I wanted you guys to rip it out of their grubby little blue hands. Yeah we should have beaten them, but they were damn good too. Didn't Deron also shoot one on line that rimmed out? If we could have just gotten the lead I think we would have won. They were panicked.
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IU looked very good at times, then very shaky at times. That said like a good team they found a way to win. You guys are very good this year. Especially once White gets all the way back. Sims should be ashamed of himself, Graham Brown was their dominate post player, ridiculous. Tommy Amaker could you please at least stand up and say something to your players once in a while. You are getting paid.
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Shelden Williams is such a product of the hype machine. I cannot believe a fan of IU would think he is better than James Augustine. Who is the better shooter up to 15 feet? Who is the better rebounder? Who runs the floor better? Williams is supposed to be a defensive wizard, yet Killingsworth gets what 30 and 15 on him. Killingsworth is a damn good player, but the ndpoty should be able to hold him under 30. Redick better than Brown, that is laughable. Hell last year Dee even shot a better percent than JJ. Dee is playing out of position and still leading his team to an undefeated record thus far. Throw JJ at point and see how Duke does. JJ is just like the other great shooters who have played at Duke. He fits a role, he can shoot. He cannot create without clearly pushing off and yet get a foul called for him in the process. ANyone who doesn;t think he is a product of the hype machine is kidding themselves. If Dee Brown had to play 1-1 with JJ, I doubt JJ could get a shot off on him, even with 4 inches. To be the big ten player of the year and defensive player of the year, yet not be labled on the same plane as some shooter who runs off of screens and plays ole defense is a joke. oh and for the big east hing, that conference is going to be a death march. I would hate to be a fan of one of the smaller rutgers type schools. There are just no easy Ws.
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i would argue that not picking them #1 until they prove that they aren't is a knock on them. one can't some out and say "illinois isn't good". that would be lunacy. what they say is "illinois is going to finsih third and they're going to have to like it." as i've said, illinois has turned over their team a couple of times without finishing lower than second. So, should UNC be #1 this year? By that logic it would seem they would be. They lost players as did U of I. It's not the same team that won it last year, that's why they aren't picked to win. no not now, we beat them. :P
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i would argue that not picking them #1 until they prove that they aren't is a knock on them. one can't some out and say "illinois isn't good". that would be lunacy. what they say is "illinois is going to finsih third and they're going to have to like it." as i've said, illinois has turned over their team a couple of times without finishing lower than second. So, should UNC be #1 this year? By that logic it would seem they would be. They lost players as did U of I. It's not the same team that won it last year, that's why they aren't picked to win. So why was Duke selected as preseason number one? They return a guard who has less talent than Dee Brown, and a center who has more than James Augustine. Demarcus Nelson is pretty much Brian Randle, a talent that really hasn't done much yet at all. Paulus and McRoberts were highly touted, but so was Shavlik Randolph, I think we all know how that turned out. Before the year how did they know what these guys would be? Thank god in college basketball the rankings don't mean a thinkg as we have a true champion.
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no, welcome to the club. i think the gist of what this thread has become is: illinois is underrated, perrenially. I think all that needs to mentioned is in the last 5 years we have won the second most games in all of basketball. Not UNC, KU, Kentucky, MSU, Louisville, Syracuse, WF, Maryland, Gonzaga, etc. Yet we almost get treated as an also ran at every corner. I love how Duke's young players are talented, yet ours are unproven. Mostly because of a ranking some guy, who wasn't good enough at evaluating talent to be a coach somewhere, said so. The lack or respect is a joke, hell even last year when we were having a dream season everyone was trying to say it was because of the big ten being down, or that even though we were undefeated UNC should be the number 1. Even though UNC did end up winning the lack of respect was ridiculous. If Duke or one of the other "elite" 5 would have been doing that last year we would have had them being compared to the all time great teams. But, hey whatever, I think Bruce and our guys use the us against the world as motivation and it seems to be working.
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I disagree on a national level games in January don't mean crap, This game could though in all likelyhood decide how Illinois does in the Big Ten. One would have to think that if MSU comes in to AH and wins they would then hold the upperhand. That being said we are 52 for our last 54 so I think you gotta like our chances. As for the Indiana Isu game, I was trying to point out, and perhaps badly so, that everyone is playing patsies in the nonconference schedule. It just so happens that we took care of ours. Good teams do that. We are a good team, are wwe a great team.. I don't think we are yet. But, we could be by the end of the year. As for Duke, yeah they are really good, but again they haven't played a real road game again this year in their preseason schedule. I do appluad them for playing Texas though as it is very un K like to do so. Seriously though watching that game they get the benefit of the doubt on every single call. Shedlen Williams on one play traveled then made the layup, the refereee then called a defender three feet from him for a foul. Even the announcer, Len Elmore, was like um.... Well that should have been a travel. This doesn't just happen once in a while either, You will see replays of Duke defenders ripping guys heads off for no calls. The early '90's Duke teams were fun to watch as they didn't need every break in order to do well. It is amazing they don't always go undefeated.
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Some good points are raised here. Even last year when we destroyed Wake Forrest in the middle of the game Raftery was saying how we were good, but not as good as Kansas, UNC, or even WF they were just having a bad night. Bilas had to say hey Bill they are beating the number one team in the nation by 35 points. As for who has Illinois played, let me ask you, who has Duke played? Memphis and.... Don't feed me the Indiana game either, Indiana lost to Indiana State. No matter what IU is shooting for three they still lost to Indiana State. I for one like the that fact the media doesn't always give Illinois a lot of respect, it allows our players to feed off of it. I read an article last year that said Deron Williams would look for negative things written about himself or his team and then would let them know about it and they would get angry and rally to prove the naysayers wrong. As for the conference, yeah MSU could very easily win it all, but I still like our chances.
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not against us, that game is sold out. it sucks too. the first year that you had Recker and Evans you were entertaining to watch as well.
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Hey now, you guys aren't that bad this year and Alford did get you a Big Ten Tournament Championship. I am sure you were pretty stoked during that run and the one the next year where they almost repeated. The big problem I have had with Iowa is the fact that they were so childish about not selling tickets to the Illinois game this year until about two weeks ago, that is so lame.
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We do? Even Vedran has had about four bad games in a row. Carmody said he was going to try to focus on the inside game since they can't hit a three to save their lives, but that didn't work out all that well last game, either. And considering that there's no inside/rebounding presence, unless something changes, 9th is optimistic. I am thinking along the lines of Vucusic, who is leading the big ten in scoring. I still think you guys are too good to lose to either Purdue or Penn St. As much as I love him, he looks tired out there the past few weeks and in the practice I saw. As expected, he's wasting too much energy in the low post. When he should spend more time outside of the lane. But now that Mohamed Hachad is out 2-3 weeks after an emergency appendectomy, I'd imagine we'll drop the Big Ten opener against Purdue at home. Then probably lose to Penn State a week later. Well if that happens you guys are cooked as those are two games you have to have in order to avoid the basement.
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Actually, top to bottom this group could be his most talented/athletic, they are just extremely young. I believe there are 9 Freshman and Sophmores on the roster and Bo can go 10 deep. The question is who will step up when Alando Tucker and Kam Taylor have an off night. A couple of freshman to watch progress are Marcus Landry (brother is at Purdue), Dearon Williams, and Joe Krabbenhoft. These three are getting some significant minutes and should get better as the season goes along. I agree and don't think Butch will get exposed in the big ten. I think he is a solid player who will only get better as he gets older. Tucker is a very good player. Chris Rock is a pretty good shooter and developing into a lead guard. That and they don't lose at home, unless they run into a jugernaut like last years illini :koolaid:
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better idea: draft shelden williams or aldridge depending on where NY's pick falls--use our pick to take rodney carney. nice, but I think you shoulod take aldridge so we can have some offense from the post. carney is a great sleeper though.
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I think it is kind of telling that all of the Duke assistant coaches have struggled mightly at their jobs. I think a lot of what makes K successful is his great recruiting, I think his guys try to emulate his approach and have both at one time or another hand violations and the NCAA breathing down their necks. I find it interesting as to where they got this from. It seems many of the young hot shot coaches weren't prepared as guys like Weber, Ryan, and Matta who have paid their dues and learned at every step of the way.
