Illinois matchup
- Thread starter PizzaTheHutt
- Start date
Not really. Duquense put their eggs into one basket and took advantage of a bad shooting day by BYU.
I’m going with Jay Wright’s contention that if you have a tourney game with a bad, slow start—you put it behind you and it propels a team to really play well the rest of the way.
TJ will have them ready for the Illini.
Yeah, we all knew that byu was a live by the 3 die by the 3 team. If they are hitting, they can beat anyone. If they are off, they will try to shoot their way out of it and probably lose.
My freshman year at illinois was bruce webers first year. He did a great job with his first three teams but did not stack the cupboard at all.
The amount of angst in the program a lot of it brought by him, was extraordinary. There was a lot of atrophy, leading up to Bruce getting canned and Groce never doing anything. We're extraordinarily lucky that we have a guy who knows how to play the game and build a roster with high turnover in 2024. A lot of calm over the future that is further helped by finally getting this Sweet 16 curse over
My first game in Hilton was vs K State in Webers last year. Man I did not miss his sideline demeanor
Groce was a joke, along with Tim Beckman. Thank god Mike Williams? the Ad got canned.
They're very, very good, and we need to bring our "A" game, no doubt, but let's be honest here.
Every single f*cking team we play "scares the bejeebers" out of you.
And whether you're serious about it or just being a troll I have never seen anyone pick against us as much as you do.
Hey now, I'm not picking against us, but we got our work cut out for us. Agree, we need to bring our "A" game we had against Houston.
They're a lot like Baylor. In the analytics Baylor and Illinois mirror each other both in offensive and defensive efficiency. Both teams are elite in scoring. Illinois' D is awful while Baylor's is just pretty bad.
But I can guarantee all the talk this week will be how ISU hasn't faced an offense like Illinois', blah, blah, blah. And guarantee no one picks us to win as well.
Illinois' lack of a true PG could be really problematic for them in this one. With our pressure, guards have to be able to handle and pass the ball really well.
I think we'll force a ton of turnovers in this one and get our usual points off TO's too. I like our chances.
I’m not saying Illinois is not good. I just don’t by into this three degree transitive property stuff. Basketball is about match ups. Anyone can lose in the dance.
If you want to apply this transitive principle then UConn lost to Seton Hall who lost to Iowa then Iowa would beat UConn. It just doesn’t work this way.
Chip will be firmly on our shoulder.
It's been surprising to me how little respect we've gotten in the post season. I mean during Big XII play, the announcers for our games were always very complimentary, and rightfully so.
Then we go from that to a screw job seeding/region and stuff like Candace Parker not even pronouncing TJ's last name right.
It's all good. We'll just keep proving the doubters wrong.
If you mean AP Top 25, I think their one win there was against FAU back on January. Badgers weren't ranked when Illinois beat them. Their only Big 10 games against ranked teams were both against Purdue.
IDK, I just googled "Illinois basketball schedule" and that's what it said. Would they show that as a team's current ranking?
Edit: That's exactly what they do.
Illinois played five games this year against opponents who were ranked in the AP Top 25 on the day of the game:
- Nov. 14: #4 Marquette, home, lost 71-64
- Dec. 5: #11 Florida Atlantic, neutral, won 98-89
- Dec. 9: #17 Tennessee, road, lost 86-79
- Jan. 5: #1 Purdue, road, lost 83-78
- Mar. 5: #3 Purdue, home, lost 77-71
I noticed that too. But it seemed like she knew it was wrong because she kept asking if she was saying it right, and she only said it after the other guy called im oatselburger first
