Austin Illini Club
Austin Illini Club
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Non-Conference Illini Orange-Crush Wake Forest!! Illini on the March; Beat Chi State, Georgetown and Oregon Illini beat Valpo; face easy road to Missouri Las Vegas Classic Preview; Illini Victims (Missouri and Gonzaga) Doing Well Illini Beat Cincinnati; Non-conference summary; Big Ten Preview
Big Ten Season Illini Put Away PSU; More Flat-Line Defense; 17-0!!. Illini Win Close Game at Home Against Iowa; 19-0 Preview of Wisconsin & MSU Games; Toughest Week of Season 100 Years of Basketball celebrated with consensus #1 ranking! Unbelievable!! Illinois crushes Michigan State in East Lansing Illini take advantage of depleted Indiana: Improve to 23-0 Illinois' bandwagon is getting more and more crowded Illini escape Michigan "trap" game Illini take care of Wisconsin at home; 25-0 Illini Blow Penn State Out; "Magic Number" at 2 Illini Escape Cold Water at Iowa Illini Clinch Big Ten Title Against Northwestern, 84-48; 28-0 Illini blast Purdue; Celebrate Second Straight Outright Big Ten Title; 29-0 Setback: Illini lose perfection... but not much else; 29-1
Click Here for the Recaps of the 2005 Postseason: Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments
The following recaps were written and sent contemporaneously to the Austin Illini as the 2004-2005 Season to Remember unfolded.
2004-2005 Basketball Preview
Thankfully, time rolls on and the calendar does not stop in October 2004. Days continue to tick off, and the end of 2004 Illini football and beginning of 2004-2005 Illini basketball is finally upon us. Illinois basketball is being picked as one of the top contenders for the NCAA National Title by virtually everyone; just yesterday, the Statesman's college basketball special section featured the Illini as one of eight likely contenders along with Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Syracuse, and one other. The up-tempo, energetic backcourt of Dee Brown and Deron Williams are highlighted everywhere.
Interestingly enough, all three teams affected by Roy Williams’ move to North Carolina are in the thick of it: Carolina, Kansas (lost Roy Williams and got Bill Self), and Illinois (lost Bill Self). To add to the irony, each team is highly touted due to the strengths of the recruiting class of its former coach. Bruce Webber benefits from Bill Self recruits who are now juniors; Self benefits from the players Roy Williams left behind; and Williams benefits from the players Matt Dougherty (and North Carolina mystique) left behind.
Illinois opens the season this Friday against powerhouse Delaware State. That’s 3,500-student Delaware STATE, mind you, not the mighty Fightin’ Blue Hens of the University of Delaware. The Illini have two more “warm up” games until they face Gonzaga on ESPN on November 27, the first game we will be able to watch.
It's Basketball Season!!!November 25, 2004
For a single night, that's the best team I've ever seen. They pass the ball so well. They're so unselfish. Their guard play is so good, defensively they get after you. I don't see a weakness." -Oakland coach Dave Kampehe, after playing the Illini.
IT’S BASKETBALL SEASON!!!!
Illinois basketball is 3-0 so far, easily avoiding the early season rash of top-ten tune-up losses, with North Carolina losing its first game to Santa Clara, Arizona losing to Virginia, and Kansas almost losing to Vermont in Kansas. Illinois moved up from 5th to 4th in the coaches poll, but now faces its two toughest non-conference games of the season, and faces them back-to-back: this Saturday at 12:00 (noon) against #24 Gonzaga in Indianapolis; and then next Wednesday at 6:00 against #1 Wake Forest in Champaign.
In its first three tune-up games, Illinois crushed its opponents: Delaware State, Florida A&M, and Oakland. Like last year, there is not one star, but several different players who can step up in any given game. Against Florida A&M, Dee Brown scored all of his game-high 20 points in the first half, alone. Days later, Brown scored only 6 as he let Luther Head explode for 19 in the first half and a game-high and career-high 22 points altogether. The main weakness to look for is our interior game. We can lose two guards and still run with the best teams. But if James Augustine fouls out, we only have Ingram and good-ole twig-boy, Nick Smith, to rely on.
In the meantime, the rest of the Big Ten is doing well against the major conferences so far, which is ultimately good news. Unranked Iowa beat #11 Louisville and #13 Texas before it lost to North Carolina in a 106-92 shootout. Unranked Michigan trounced Colorado and pushed preseason #11 Arizona to the edge, losing only in a close overtime. Although the strength of overlooked Big Ten teams might bode poorly for the Illini when the Big Ten season, it ultimately works well for the Big Ten’s power ranking, which affects the conference’s seedings into the NCAA tournament. The Big Ten got shafted last year with its seedings mostly because of its poor record against major conference teams outside the Big Ten.
Illini Rout Gonzaga!November 27, 2004 "We were thoroughly dominated today, in every phase of the game. There were times it didn't appear we belonged out there on the court. * * * * That's a really, really good basketball team. Everybody is back. They're hungry. I don't think they have any weaknesses at all." -Gonzaga coach Mark Few, after playing the Illini. Illinois blew the Gonzaga Bulldogs out in the first 5 minutes, led virtually the entire game, and trounced Gonzaga Saturday, 89-72. So much for the mid-major Cinderelli Giant. Now comes the hard part. Wake Forest. #1 in the country. Wednesday night. 6:00. At home in Champaign. The biggest non-conference game of the season; perhaps the biggest game until March. We will watch it at Texadelphia (15th and San Antonio). Please join us. The more the merrier. The good news is that Wake Forest looked vulnerable against Arizona Friday. Arizona led at half and took it to the wire before Wake Forest pulled out the pre-season NIT championship. The even better news is that Wake comes to Champaign without having been snake-bitten by Arizona. But they know this is their biggest non-conference game, as well, so they will not entirely fall asleep on us. Illini Orange-Crush Wake ForestDecember 2, 2004
"They played infinitely better than we did. I don't know how much more clearly I can say it. They made shots that were open, they made shots that were contested. Their offense was exponentially better than our defense, hence the score of the game." -Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser after losing to the Illini.
“The Illini were so dominant in stretches, they looked like the Globetrotters.” -ESPN.com
“This is the best Innili team I’vfe ever spleen!” -Austin Illini President Lawrence Page, after watching the Illini clobber Wake Forest and partying with the UT basketball team at Texadelphia.
Illinois routed Wake Forest, 91-73, and it wasn’t even that close. Illinois led by 32 at some points, and it wasn’t even that close. ESPN.com even noted that Illinois turned #1 Wake Forest into “a non-conference patsy with a 91-73 rout that wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated.”
Illinois made the top-ranked team in the country look no better than the community college known as Oakland.
Now, granted, in my ideal world, Illinois would not be #1 or even in the top ten so early in the year. They would instead move slowly up in the rankings and earn #1 by the end of the year, take a #1 seed into the tourney, and win the National Championship. I recall when the the Flyin’ Illini suffered from hubris when it knocked off Georgia Tech for its brief stint as #1 in 1989, and it never fully recovered its humility. Illinois also now has a target on its back. Everybody will watch Illinois to see not only how to beat them, but what they are doing right that everybody else is doing wrong so as to learn from them. As well they they should, because Illinois’ basketball team is that good this year. But so early in the season... so early... too early....
But who am I kidding? This is phenomenal!! At the risk of sounding like Brent Musberger (who exaggerates the importance of every game as if it was the best game ever) or some dumbass, big-mouth sports radio talk show host, Illinois put on about as impressive a performance as possible against the most highly-touted Wake Forest team ever: better than when Tim Duncan played for Wake. Illinois shot 60% from the field, while holding Wake to just 39%. Indeed, Illinois dominated every aspect of the game: rebounding, shooting, defending, fast-breaks, halfcourt sets, team speed, blocked shots, assists, steals, tempo control, and, most importantly, team chemistry.
And that is what I love about this team so much: the team chemistry. It is not a team built around a superstar or even a team of superstars, no matter how much sportswriters want to tout Dee Brown or Deron Williams. It is a team that plays so well together that the whole is wholly and completely better than its parts, perhaps even exponentially so. There is a different top-scorer every night, and a different team leader every night.
Comparing them man-for-man against the top teams, they fall short. Dee Brown is a midget with one gear (fast). James Augustine is an average at best big man who looks confused 90% of the time. Nick Smith is a twig-boy with asthma so bad that he can’t play more than five minutes at a time. Roger Powell is undersized and streaky. Deron Williams has no flash. Bruce Weber looks like a doofus with no charisma, whatsoever.
But somehow, this groups plays so well together as a team under Weber that they are unstoppable. They play like an amoeba: you can’t grab them or shut them down by shutting one or two pieces down. The rest of the team will swell around you and defeat you if you focus too much on one player. Indeed, they pulled away from Wake Forest in the first half with the Big Ten pre-season player of the year ON THE BENCH with two fouls. Basketball is a team game, and it is great to see a great TEAM win so convincingly.
They are unselfish. They enjoy each other. They know each other’s strengths and feed off them instead of complaining about each others’ weaknesses. They move about the court as a group, as a well-oiled machine The way they played Wednesday night, they could beat any team in the country as badly as they beat the (heretofore) best team in the country.
And then, after the game, as we were basking in the glory of Illinois’ resounding victory, the University of Texas basketball team showed up at Texadelphia and watched the Indiana-North Carolina game with us! O.K., it wasn’t the WHOLE team: just Brad Buckman, P.J. Tucker, Kevin Taylor, and a tall skinny white guy who looked like a freshman. But they posed for a picture with us on the good-natured condition that we flash longhorns with our hands.
Texadelphia worked out phenomenally well, even though it was a 6:00 game on a weekday. Please help support a fellow Austin Illini (who owns it) and join us there for future games. We will meet there again this Saturday for Arkansas... at least those of us who don’t hop the border to Arkansas to catch the game live.
Illini Beat Arkansas: Likely to Earn # 1 RankingDecember 5, 2004
Illinois played somewhat sloppy, but still cruised to a 72-60 win over Arkansas. Perhaps the most important point was that they extended the lead to 12 at the end from the 5-9 point cushion they maintained throughout most of the game. Most pollsters will only notice that they won by 12 and will not notice that Illinois looked relatively sloppy.
Their shots didn’t fall like they did against Wake Forest and they had more turnovers against Arkansas than they had altogether committed in the entire season so far. Part of the difference was that this was their first true road game, but it was actually good to see them pull out a victory in a game in which not everything went their way. We can’t expect them to play their best and be “on” all season, and it is good for them to win despite not playing well than to glide through the early season only to stumble and lose the first time they face some adversity.
Roger Powell is rising to the challenge and fulfilling the high expectations he created by testing the NBA draft waters last summer before returning for his senior year like most expected him to do. In addition to continuing his excellent, tough, and even inspirational interior play from last year, he has become a viable threat from three-point range, has somewhat improved his ball-handling skills, and has vastly improved his motion offense timing and teamwork. Instead of being out of place and putting back rebounds he got from struggling from a lucky but out-of-position spot, he is more a part of the offense. He times his cuts and post-moves appropriately so that he is in the right place at precisely the right time to, say, take a feeder-pass and turn it around for a basket. As such, Weber will likely stick with him more often at the end of games, unlike last year.
Luther Head also kept persisting throughout the Arkansas game and became a factor defensively and in helping run the offense even though his scoring fell far short of the first few games. The fact that he kept playing with his “head” in the game, so to speak, even though he struggled was a sign that he perhaps has matured into the player we all hoped he would become.
Nick Smith, on the other hand, is really starting to disappoint. As much as I secretly want him to succeed despite his blatant dorkishness, his role on a top-caliber team is more questionable than ever. Although rumors had claimed that he had bulked up in the off season, he still looks and plays far too weak to be the dominant inside player that he should be at 7-2, especially given the nice shooting and ball handling skills he has for such a big man. Moreover, notwithstanding his physical strength limits, his psychological inclination to pout if he makes a mistake and to even blame others is his greatest weakness so far. Granted, it is wonderful to have a 7-foot player come off the bench and spread the offense by hitting three-pointers, but not at the expense of losing the finely-tuned team that overcomes adversity by “staying in the moment” instead of staying in the past. He is so close to being a great player (nice touch in both passing and shooting; good shot blocking), and yet so far from the complete package he could be.
Illinois plays Chicago State in Chicago on Monday at 7:00 and plays Georgetown in D.C. on Thursday at 6:30. Both games are only available through ESPN Plus, which Texadelphia has purchased. Please join us there for at least one of the games.
In football news, rumor from several sources (including Florida papers) has it that former Florida head coach Ron Zook will be announced as Illinois’ new head football coach on Monday. Although it would have been nice to see Illinois pursue, say, Ty Willingham more aggressively, there are a LOT of teams shopping for new head coaches this year, so it would be good to see Illinois not left with the short end of the stick in terms of major college coaching experience. Zook is perhaps the third most coveted, available coach out there after Urban Meyer (Utah) and Willingham (fired from Notre Dame last week). Hopefully Zook can also learn from his mistakes at Florida and bring Illinois football to the National-prominence level that the basketball team has achieved. Zook also wasn’t terrible at Florida; he just inherited an very difficult situation in succeeding the incredibly popular Steve Spurrier when Spurrier went to the NFL. Truth be told, Zook will perhaps inherit an even more difficult situation at Illinois because Illinois has lost its recruiting edge because it has been so bad, which was not the case at Florida when Zook took over. But there is not much else to do than improve from this point.
Illini are #1December 6, 2004
Today is a great day for the Illini.
ESPN reports that Ron Zook has accepted the Illinois football coaching job. The more I read about him, the more I like him and think that Florida’s “FireRonZook.com” mistake will ultimately be Illinois’ blessing: great recruiter; incredibly hard, round-the-clock worker; passionate about the game; able to win the big game; etc. He likely will also be very conscious and careful to rectify any prior mistakes and prove that Florida made a big mistake in firing him after just over two full years. We will benefit from the lessons he learned from both winning and losing at Florida. He will be our genius windfall for the next year… or at least until he loses his first game. (Just kidding).
In Basketball, both the AP and Coaches polls came out today with Illinois ranked #1. Categorical #1. No “in this poll” qualification. No debates. No complaints. No doubts.
The coaches poll is not so surprising as the AP poll, where Illinois jumped from #5 to #1 over Syracuse, Georgia Tech, and Kansas despite the east coast media bias favoring Georgia Tech or Syracuse. This year is apparently only the third time Illinois basketball has ever been ranked #1. And some analysts are saying that Illinois has the strength and the schedule to remain #1 for quite a long time.
If I believed in jinx’es, I might not admit that I actually have enjoyed fondly optimistic visions of the Illini running the table and going undefeated. I must admit, I don't like most big-shot, Jim-Rome-type sports geeks who boldy speak only in superlatives, where everything is completely awful or unbelievably fantastic. I usually prefer an educated but moderated comment over a hollow boast. But just as Illinois football really was "that bad" this year, Illinois basketball is even moreso... really... "this good."
Being ranked so highly so early in the season is a mixed blessing. Granted, it is better to be ranked #1 at any time than never be ranked #1, at all. However, the ranking at the end of the season is the most important, whether it occurs just before the tournament to determine seeding or after the tournament to indicate that you are the National Champion.
Moreover, being ranked #1 places a target on your back, not only for your regular season opponents, but also for all potential tournament opponents because everyone and their brother will now study Illinois’ play if only to see what Illinois is doing better than anyone else. By studying Illinois’ game, they get to know it, which explains how, say, some of the seemingly-indestructible Duke teams of recent memory did not make it past the elite eight.
Even casual fans will start using the term “Motion Offense” thinking that it refers to something newfangled complex like Phil Jackson’s well-hyped “Triangle Offense,” when it really is perhaps the most fundamental and well-known type of offense out there since the 1950s. To clarify just how fundamental it is, my “six-foot-and-under,” Urbana city-league basketball team ran a "motion offense" back in 1992. We went something like 5-7 on the season. Hot stuff.
Nonetheless, although we should perhaps temper ourselves and realistically expect Illinois to inevitably lose at least ONCE and drop from #1 at some time in the season, I can't get over the fact that this team really is good enough to run the table. They like each other and play well together. They are deep enough to withstand injuries. If they don’t suffer injuries, they will only get stronger. They are lightening-fast on the break, but they can also use that speed to create opportunities in a half-court set. They distribute the ball well. They play both selfless and fearless: undeterred to share the ball, but also unafraid to take the open shot when it is there. They are not reckless, but they also are not predictable. With Carter and Ingram developing off the bench and Roger Powell improving his already inspirational play to become less of a free agent and more of a part of the team play, they are also strengthening their biggest weakness: interior play. Despite the media’s attempts to declare certain superstars, there is no single superstar or elite group of superstars on this team, which sums up a lot of why I love this team. It is a team in every sense of the word, from its healthy distribution of scoring leaders to its depth at any position.
Illinois also came out and took care of business against a dreadful, 0-5 Chicago State team Monday night. Nothing much more need be said about the win because nothing much can be inferred from the #1 team in the country (that's us!) soundly beating an 0-5 community college team, whether it be by sloppy play or not. The only important thing is that they did not choke and can look forward to two “trap” games against Georgetown and Oregon, both of whom the Illini should dispatch easily, but both of whom could snake-bite the Illini if they are not careful. Illini on the March; Beat Chi State, Georgetown and OregonDecember 11, 2004
“If you have any type of slippage whatsoever, they really make you pay. Every ranking they've gotten, they deserve. They've got a chance to have a special year." Oregon coach Ernie Kent, after the Illini crushed Oregon 83-66
Yes, we do. A VERY special year.
This year’s Illinois team is something to remember. Don't take it for granted. These are perhaps the best days EVER in the full century of Illini basketball. And they could get even better.
This year is all of the "next years" combined together. The Haley's comet year.
Better than Frank Williams' 2001 team. Better than (dare I say it) the Flyin Illini.
My first year at U of I was the year of the 1989 Flyin’ Illini. It was amazing: watching games in a fully-packed Gully's (later "The Library") or at R&R eating dime-dogs and drinking $1.75 32-ounce Coors Lights. I also vividly remember the celebrations on Green Street when they beat Georgia Tech and captured the #1 spot, and as they progressed through the tournament to the Final Four with several thrilling, last-second victories.
It led me to believe that Illinois basketball routinely competes for the National Championship and routinely wins over 30 games. Not quite.
This year’s team was just getting out of diapers back in 1989. Hopefully, they will establish a tradition that does not result in Chevy Blazers, surreptitious telephone recordings with dumbass high school recruits claiming that Illinois offered an under-the-table payment package to get him to come to U of I, and bogus NCAA sanctions. Hopefully, they will create a winning tradition that will bring Illinois into the annual fun with Michigan State, Duke, and Kansas..
But we can appreciate that when and if it happens. Until that happens, we should all take a moment to realize how amazingly this year is developing.
Illinois basketball is 100 years old this year. Last year, this team won Illinois' first outright Big Ten title since the 1950s. Twice a century.
This year’s team is now the first Illinois basketball team EVER to be ranked #1 for two consecutive weeks. EVER. Every other team in 100 years of Illinois basketball that was ranked #1 ended up losing its very next game after becoming #1 to instantly drop out of the top spot. Not even the 1989 Flyin Illini with future NBA stars Kendall Gill and Nick Anderson and future NBA reserve players Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty, and Steve Bardo could do it. No other team in the past century. None.
This year's team did it, and did it convincingly. Illinois whipped ChicagoState, clobbered Georgetown despite stumbling a bit early, and absolutely dominated an Oregon team that actually contemplated forfeiting in protest of the Chief. (More on that later.) With those victories, Illinois solidified its hold on the #1 ranking: receiving virtually all of the #1 votes in the coaches poll and 10 more # 1 votes in the AP poll to extend its lead over Kansas.
Illinois is taking this week off until this Sunday, the 19th, when it plays Valparaiso. So far, the game is not scheduled to be televised, but that might change. Nonetheless, Valpo should not pose a problem for Illinois. Two-weeks at #1 will likely extend to three.
Granted, championships are not won by holding the #1 ranking in December, nor even in early March. What matters is the ranking at the end of the season when they cut down the nets because... they don't need them anymore. But the significance is what this ranking shows about the strength of this team. If it was a fluke, then we might sigh and say it is nice. But it is not a fluke. This team is that good. They are that fun to watch. They play all facets of the game well. They are not superstars. They are really good players who play phenomenally well together: the sum being so much more than the parts. A well-tuned machine with solid parts. This team will probably lose a game or two, but--the way it is playing so far--this team is good enough to run the table. Scary good. Too many scorers. Too many quick defenders. Too many point guards. Even too many inside options.
After Valpo, Illinois plays Missouri on Wednesday, December 22. Missouri is struggling this year, but the border-clash in St. Louis almost always ends up being tough. For those who are in town, please join us at Texadelphia.
As for Texadelphia, the near-unanimous response about Texadelphia supports officially designating it as our "official" venue for watching basketball for the year. Many have been surprised that it is not just a small sandwich shop with little space, missing my commentary that the 15th and San Antonio location we chose has a large room with a big-screen television and four other 27 inch televisions at the corners. Others noted that is it good to have a central location. And one parent noted how good it was to be able to bring his kids to watch the games, which he couldn't do at a bar. Mark Turner, the Illini-grad owner, has also brought his kids a few times, as well.
Texadelphia is located at 15th and San Antonio in the strip mall next to the Starbucks. One block West of Guadalupe, near the main Wells Fargo building with the flags on top of it. Enfield become 15th, so take Enfield East from MoPac; or take 15th West from I-35.
Illini beat Valpo; face easy road to MissouriDecember 19, 2004 We wanted to give a better game than what we did but when you look at five people in double figures and Illinois had only five turnovers -- they're just fun," -Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, after losing to Illinois 93-56. Yes, they are fun. After taking last week off for finals, Illinois killed Valpo yesterday to put an end to yet another mid-major-seeking-an-upset. Although Valpo was a cinderella in the NCAA tournament a few years ago, it is struggling this year with a 2-6 record, so the victory against Valpo in Champaign is akin to... well... ALL of Kansas' wins this year so far. But it is another win, bringing the Illini to a perfect 10-0 record. In other news, Wake Forest beat Texas (by one) and Gonzaga beat Gerogia Tech. Because Illinois killed both Wake and Gonzaga, their post-Illini good fortune bodes well for Illinois, so we want them to keep winning. Gonzaga's beating previously-ranked #3 Georgia Tech is especially great news, because it solidifies the Illini above two of the top ACC teams. Illinois plays Missouri on Wednesday evening. Although Missouri is in a definite down-year, they always play Illinois tough, so it should be the second-toughest test for the Illini so far, after the Wake Forest game. In a sense, the game also means more to Missouri. Missouri really has something to prove, whereas Illinois gains little by beating Missouri this year. Please join us at Texadelphia at 7:00 p.m. As for the Oregon-protest story that some have requested and not allowed me to drop, the fringe student body at the University of Oregon protested mightily against Oregon playing Illinois because of the Chief. There were serious indications that Oregon officials would actually refuse to let their team play the Illini. The forfeit did not materialize, of course, and Illinois went ahead and beat the pants off Oregon. Oregon officials ultimately placated the fringe by claiming that they were assured when they scheduled the game that the Chief would have been gone by now and they promised to not schedule any future games with teams with Indian mascots. This tactic reflects the latest strategy of the fringe: attack the opponents of schools with supposedly-racist mascots. Apparently, both Iowa and Wisconsin already have "policies" against scheduling games against schools with racially-insensitive mascots, with a convenient exception for traditional rivals and conference opponents (for Illinois, mostly). This latest tactic also is among the most counter-productive measures from the fringe. First, if the student protest had succeeded, Oregon would have forfeitted the game, giving Illinois a default win, and thereby rewarding Illinois for having an allegedly "offensive" mascot. Second, its not as if not being able to play Oregon matters. The game meant more for Oregon than it did for Illinois. Third, IT'S A MASCOT, and the protestors making fools of themselves by claiming that there is some deep meaning at stake here will only embolden the opposition and inflate the "tradition-ladenness" of the Chief by giving Alumni a reason to care about The Chief. Indeed, the more this pygmy-of-a-protest proceeds, the more staunch I become in favor of the Chief. I have many times sworn that, if Illinois dumps the Chief, I will renounce my allegiance (for whatever that is worth?) unless they replace it with a mascot from my own heritage: THE MACABEE. And then only on the two additional conditions: 1) that Judah Macabee as the mascot gets to do the Hora or some other traditional Jewish dance at halftime, and 2) that there NOT be some stupid, stuffed-animal mascot on the sidelines (like the Gopher, Buckeye, or Badger) to scare the crap out of little kids. Both conditions emulating the best about the Chief. All joking aside, I would be proud to have U of I adopt a symbol of Jewish pride, fighting spirit and faith as Illinois treats the Chief. Damn proud. But of course, many of the modern-day Indian descendants who protest the Chief are apparently descendents of the very people who exterminated the Illini, in the first place, for befriending the French pioneers who settled the midwest. The Algonquins and other midwest Indian tribes committed racial genocide on the Illini, not the white man. But appraently the fact that history does not support the racist stereotypes perpetuated by the leftist fringe radicals does not matter. Irony at its best. Sorry, some people get offended by Indian mascots. I get offended at hypocricy and stupidity. I'm getting more like Red Foreman every day.
Illini Win Close Game Against MissouriDecember 22, 2004
"I'd love to win every game by 20, but that's hard. We needed to win a game like this.” -Fellow Tex-Illini Deron Williams after Illinois beat Missouri 70-64
Illinois received its closest call so far from Missouri, the closet thing to an in-state rival that they have. But they pulled through, led from end-to-end, remained unbeaten, and remained the best team in the country.
Illinois will not win every game by 20. Chances are they will lose a few, and might lose one to an unranked team playing beyond its ability. And doing so would not diminish what might amount to the best Illini basketball season ever.
But even in the closest game so far this year, Illinois never lost the lead. Even when Illinois did not look as crisp and well-tuned as it has, it pulled out a win.
One of Illinois’ two primary weaknesses were exposed: interior defense. (The other being free throw shooting). Lithuanian Linas Kleiza tore through the defense at times with his solid, physical play.
Illinois next plays two tough, tough opponents. First they face the Lancers of Longwood (I kid you not) from basketball-mecca Farmville, Virginia. To put their power in perspective, their current record is worse than Illinois’ football team’s 2004 record.
Next, they play the mighty Purple Storm of Northwestern State, from Louisiana, whose impressive resume includes a recent loss to Valparaiso, whom the Illini crushed on Sunday. Good thing we play both teams at home; we will need the home crowd support. Unfortunately, we are not invited because the games will not be televised.
The "Lancers" and the "Purple Storm" also provide us with a preview of the awe-inspiring team names that would be in our future if the Chief is de-mascoted, although I suspect some British descendents of English royalty would launch into a powerful protest if we go with "Lancers." "Do not denegrate our knightly heritage by mocking us and reminding us of the death and destruction forced upon us by marauding barbarians, requireing us to engage in ritualistic lancing at jousts throughout England!" Such protests would likely require them to take time off from protesting this whole "round earth" conspiracy, but I suspect they will prioritize appropriately. (Some people will believe anything.)
Illinois will likely benefit from these tune-ups to work out the kinks from the Missouri game before meeting Cincinnati on New Year’s Eve.
Illini Beat Northwestern State and Play CIncinati TonightIllini's Vanquished Opponents Doing Well, Too.December 31, 2004
"I think we learned that if we can play with them, we can play with just about anybody in the country. Although we did lose that game, it was a big confidence booster for us." -Missouri player Jason Conley, after defeating Gonzaga, about the inspirational effect that losing to Illinois had on Missouri.
... and better, and better, and better.
Missouri beat Gonzaga last night in a thriller. Although Gonzaga’s recent good fortune’s bode well for the Illini, Missouri knocking them off their high-horse is even better. Missouri was the only team to give Illinois some trouble so far this year, and their beating Gonzaga shows that it was not because Illinois is weak. Gonzaga, on the other hand, did not need to gain credibility because it had already defeated two #3 teams (Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State) and another top-25 team (Washington). It was the perfect scenario for Illinois.
Illinois is the best team in the country; and that fact becomes even more apparent each week as the two top teams Illinois crushed rip through their remaining non-conference schedule. By defeating two previously #3 teams (Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State), Gonzaga, especially, has shown that it is not at all as bad as Illinois made it look: quite the contrary. Wake Forest has also played well after the Illini orange-crushed them. Illinois' wins over them thus become even more impressive.
The toughest remaining non-conference game is against Cincinnati tomorrow (Friday) night at 7:00. In some respects, it is the most dangerous game in the non-conference schedule: on New Yeas Eve (with all the distractions of Las Vegas) against a team holding a grudge because we knocked them out of the tournament last year. Perhaps most significantly, it is the first truly tough game played on a court outside of the Midwest, where Illinois will not enjoy home-court advantage like it effectively did against Gonzaga in Indianapolis and Missouri in St. Louis, and that Illinois did enjoy against Wake Forest in Champaign. This should be a tough game.
Illinois took care of Northwestern State to remain undefeated. Cincinnati is tonight, which will be much tougher.
Bad news, though. The game tonight is on Fox Sports, which is not showing it in Austin. It also is not available on pay-per-view. Thus, despite its best efforts, Texadelphia cannot show the game tonight.
I hope everyone has a great New Year.
Illini Beat Cincinnati; Non-conference summary; Big Ten Preview"You don't have a chance to play a lot of top teams, so this was important for us for the RPI. People said last year that we didn't set high enough goals. But when I said we would go 14-0 to start the season, (our assistant) coaches rolled their eyes." -Bruce Weber, after Illinois whipped Cincinnati 67-45 Illinois did it again. 14-0. The best start since the 1988-89 Flyin' Illini went 17-0. Illinois closed its rather tough non-conference schedule with a blowout win over upset-minded Cincinnati. In part due to Oklahoma State's losing (to Gonzaga, whom Illinois crushed), Illinois also further solidified its hold on the #1 ranking: up from 25 to 27 of the 31 possible #1 votes in the coaches poll, and from 55 to 62 of the 72 possible #1 votes in the AP poll. Illinois went virtually unchallenged throughout the non-conference season. The Illini have only trailed for 21 minutes, 32 seconds of 560 minutes so far this season. The last time Illinois trailed was in the first half against Georgetown on December 9. They have not trailed yet in the second half. Not once. Put another way, Illinois held the lead for 96% of the entire non-conference season, and for 100% of the time that matters most: anywhere remotely close to the end of the game. Illinois has benefited from a rather favorable home schedule so far. Most of its tough games outside of Champaign were essentially in front of home crowds: in Indianapolis, St. Louis, or Chicago. The only tough game outside the Midwest was in a high school gym in Vegas against Cincinnati: further from Cincinnati than from Champaign, albeit perhaps closer to the gamblin' hearts of Cincinnati fans. Even the Arkansas game was in Little Rock, not in University of Arkansas' campus at Fayetteville. Thus, it remains to be seen how this team will react to the intimidation of visiting a good team's home court, swarming with unfriendly fans, like Wake Forest experienced in Champaign. Nonetheless, this team is fantastically dominant and fun to watch. Our top scorer is rarely the same from game to game, with Luther Head, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Roger Powell spreading the love and exchanging the honors so far. All four have averaged double-figures, with James Augustine just under double-figures with 9.2 per game. They play well together within a simple but solid system that many great teams know and still cannot stop. They cannot be stopped merely by keying on one or two players. They are also not only in good enough shape to avoid injury, but also deep enough to withstand any one of their studs going down to injury (knock on wood). If anything, the favorable home schedule allowed Illinois to gain some amazing momentum and play like champions. Assessing the Big Ten based on non-conference play, things look good for Illinois. Aside from Illinois, the Big Ten did not do as well as one might have hoped, although it did not lay an egg, either. Illinois played the toughest non-conference schedule of all Big Ten teams by far, and was the only one to come out unscathed. Iowa looks like the surprising top contender going into the Big Ten season, with impressive close wins over Texas and Louisville, and a big win over Texas Tech. Iowa lost only to North Carolina, which is now ranked #4 in today's poll. Michigan State and Wisconsin, the two teams that fought with Illinois for the Big Ten title last season, look like the other main contenders again this year. Both bring back lots of talent, like the Illini, but have shown inconsistency in the non-conference season: MSU by losing to George Washington and almost losing to George Mason; Wisconsin by losing to Pepperdine and Marquette. Ohio State comes into conference play with a solid record at 11-2, but they have not played any ranked teams and lost to Clemson and Creighton, their only somewhat tough teams. All other games might as well have been against their practice squad. Michigan played a tough schedule and looked like a potential spoiler team, but it has lost two starters, including its top scorer; and Michigan is not deep enough to handle losing two studs. The Big Ten conference season opens for Illinois on Wednesday, January 5, against Ohio State. The game is only on ESPN Plus, so please join us at Texadelphia. Illinois' Big Ten schedule is also attached below. I highlighted the five key games as of now, although that could change as the season unfolds. The first key game is at Purdue next Saturday.
Illini beat OSU; "Flat-Line" DefenseIllini 16-0; play PSU Wed & Northwestern Saturday January 5, 2005
Illinois beat Ohio State and Purdue to remain unbeaten at 16-0 and move within one win of Illinois’ best start ever. A more detailed synopsis is below. Illinois next plays Penn State on Wednesday at 8:00 and at Northwestern on Saturday at 3:30. Both games are only on ESPN Plus. Northwestern beat us last year in Evanston as a part of our 1-2 start to the Big Ten season, so it is not as much of a gimme game as we might otherwise suspect.
For the first time this year, Illinois invaded a rival team’s home court and pulled out a victory in a hostile environment at Purdue. Purdue was additionally touchy for Illinois because Bruce Weber learned to coach (although thankfully not how to coif or behave) from Gene Keady. However, Purdue’s home-court advantage has been weaker the past few years, and Purdue has lost to some really bad teams at home so far this year: Baylor and Miami (Ohio), in particular. Thus, it is still not the true away-game test that they need.
Illinois’ scoreboard domination (leading for 96% of the entire non-conference season) hit a noticeable road bump against Purdue. Purdue led for most of the first half and led at the half. Freddie Prince, Jr. made an appearance for Purdue and seemingly scored at will in the opening minutes. (He played under the pseudonym of Matt Kiefer to avoid detection, but it was quite apparent to this not-so-teen-movie buff.)
Then, without much fanfare, without much discussion, the Illini just pulled away. Before we knew it, Illinois was up by 10 and never lost that cushion. Purdue even gave up with more than a minute left despite only a ten-point advantage because even they sensed the inevitability.
Illinois' unnoticeably pulling away prompted me to profoundly arrive at what I ultimately must admit is a somewhat righteous observation of the obvious. When a team silently pulls away and builds a quiet lead—without a series of three-pointers or a series of dunks, steals, and dunks or some other, obvious offensive surge—the silent pull-away more often than not stems from defensive clampdowns that we often overlook as offensive-minded fans. (The guy who took umbrage at my defense of the Chief might remove the “minded” from that term, but we digress...)
The difference is not that a team’s offense starts clicking; the difference is that its defense clamps down while they keep scoring points (and not scoring) at the same rate. Because the normal hits and misses continue, the surge is less noticeable, leaving us with the question, “How did they suddenly get ahead?” The (shockingly obvious) answer: because the other team stopped scoring.
And that theory was confirmed by the game’s scoring graphic. Except for one short, brief surge, Illinois held Purdue’s scoring completely flat for almost the entire first ten minutes of the second half while Illinois' scoring continued rising up to a ten-point lead. Flat as in a flat-line on a graph. Flat-Line Defense. Illinois just shut them down at will.
Despite remaining undefeated, Illinois lost a few #1 votes in the rankings today with Kansas beating Kentucky at Kentucky and with North Carolina demolishing Maryland over the weekend. But Illinois has held the #1 ranking firmly for six weeks, now, and it does not matter if they lose it. In fact, they probably will at some point.
Call me a pessimist, but it might be better if they lose now in order to suffer the inevitable gut-check that comes from a loss. Losing at the start of last year’s Big Ten season is what launched last year’s Big Ten title run, and arguably set up Illinois’ domination so far this year.
The only pitfall to that argument is that losing last year forced Illinois players to address and resolve their own selfishness and their mistrust in Bruce Weber. It thereby helped compel them to come together as a team. They do not suffer from those problems this year. Indeed, losing this year could disrupt the amazing chemistry that this team has built into a dominating powerhouse. But not likely. It would take a losing streak for that to happen, which is not likely in the Big Ten this year.
But we must remember that they will likely lose a game or two, nonetheless, and not panic as fans when they do. Illinois must travel to Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Iowa, and winning all three of those games is not likely. It is not impossible, though, and as I noted early on this year, if any Illinois team could ever run the table, it is this one.
Illini Put Away PSU; More Flat-Line Defense; 17-0!!January 12, 2005 "We're honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as the Flyin' Illini. To be up there with them is great because that's probably the greatest team we've had in the history of Illinois basketball." -Deron Williams on tying the Flyin' Illini's school record for consecutive wins at 17-0. Illinois hit a school-record 15 three-pointers on its way to blowing Penn State out and tying the Flying Illini’s school record for wins at 17-0. Although setting the three-pointer record and tying the school record for wins were the story, the "story behind the story" again was the defense. Penn State kept up with Illinois until 12-12 with 12:55 left in the first half. Then Penn State stopped scoring. Flat. Again. Illinois' defense shut them down. Illinois' scoring did not suddenly surge; it continued at the same clip while Penn State dried up. The scoring chart on ESPN’s re-cap page shows it all. Every big win this year and most other wins started when Illinois' "flat-line defense" kicked into gear. Illinois rarely pulls away by slowly but surely outscoring the other team; they pull away by completely shutting the other team down during extended stretches that show up as flat-lines on the scoring chart. Illinois next travels to Northwestern this Saturday, where they lost last year in a shocking upset. That loss prompted the Illini to stop struggling with Coach Bruce Weber, accept the transition from Bill Self, buy into Weber's new system, and unify as a team. They streaked shortly thereafter to win Illinois' first outright Big Ten title since the 1950s, which arguably set the Illini up for this year's amazing dominance so far. The Northwestern game will only be available on ESPN Plus at 3:30, so please join us at Texadelphia. Illini Avenge Last Year's NU Upset; School Record 18-0 startJanuary 15, 2005 This year's Illini reached one more benchmark as the best Illini basketball team in Illinois' 100 years of basketball: 18-0. No other team has done it. And this team has not been seriously challenged, yet. Gonzaga has knocked off two top-five teams, and #14 Washington. Illinois routed them. When Gonzaga seemed invincible with the way they rebounded from the Illini loss, Missouri brought them down to earth. Illinois took care of Missouri, as well. Earlier on Saturday, Wake Forest soundly beat the current-media-darling North Carolina Tar Heels. And Illinois orange-crushed them on a paint-the-hall-orange night. Cincinnati has played like a top-ten team, as well. Except against Illinois, who completely dominated them. The closest call so far came against Missouri when (gulp!) Illinois actually needed to make some free throws near the end to close out the win. Nobody else has been close. No game has come down to the wire. The most we have had to worry about is when Illinois no longer dominates EVERY game from wire-to-wire. No previous Illinois team has been ranked #1 for more than a week. Not the Frank Williams' teams, not the pro-laden Flyin Illini. With Wake Forest putting North Carolina's fire out, this year's Illinois team will enter its seventh week at the top of the polls this week. And the way the team talks about it, they know they are not done yet. Every celebration and every post-game interview is peppered with reminders that there is still a lot left to do. They talk like they play: well-balanced, unselfish, but still with a seasoned appreciation of how good they are. No stars. No single top-scorer. All of their starters averaging double-figures in scoring and every starter has been the top scorer for at least one game. They play well together, don't get down on each other, and go out a take care of business each night without whining about bad calls, without pouting about mistakes, without feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of being #1, and with a great deal of fun. They still have not faced a truly tough team on the road. They still need to go to Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Iowa: the three other viable contenders for the Big Ten Title. The thing is... if the stars continue to align this season, and if the Illini continue the way they are playing, they might not need to know how to beat a tough team on the road. The final four is in St. Louis this year. With the top Midwest seed in the NCAA tournament, Illinois would play all of their NCAA tournament games within a few short hours drive of Champaign: in Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Meet me in St. Louis, my friends. And be sure to enjoy the ride along the way. This is a special year.
Illini Win Close Game at Home Against Iowa; 19-0No, Chicken Little, the Sky is not Falling January 20, 2005
I guess I set myself up for the grief I got this morning. Every sports-fan I see this morning reminds me—with a devilishly-pleased grin on their faces—that Illinois hiccupped and barely won last night. I hate to see what happens when we do lose.
To me, the key is that they actually did win. They advanced to an ever better, still-perfect 19-0. Moreover, Illinois had glided through the season so far in getting to that perfect 19-0 record. 16 of their 19 wins were by double-figures. Before Iowa, all of their wins over ranked teams were complete and total blowouts. \
The closeness of this game makes sense for many reasons. The spring semester started last week, and our players actually go to class and actually study so there is not question that they remain eligible to play. Augustine was sick. As Weber put it, Illinois’ advantage from having veteran players who have played together for two years is now diminishing as the season progresses and other teams get a chance to gel. Conference play also provides for tougher rivalry games; and Iowa has more “personal” reasons for wanting to beat us than non-conference teams did. Finally, Illinois has a target on its back—growing larger each week—and thus is going to play against every team’s absolute best performance.
And, to give everyone fodder for the local Longhorns who give us grief, just remind them that—at our worst—we struggled against the team that beat Texas, and we still won. To those who claim that Illinois will look better because the Big Ten is a sub-par conference, the Big Ten has four ranked teams (Illinois, MSU, Wisconsin, and Iowa), as many as any other conference, including the Big 12 and the ACC.
That said, Illinois did play lethargically, as if they were getting over colds or something. It was not representative of their ability. They similarly played lethargically last year at the start of the Big Ten season, as well. As with last year, games like this one might prove to be just what they needed as a wake-up call before they kick it back into gear toward the end of the season. As one of the announcers noted (I think it was Lavin--definitely not Mussberger), Bruce Weber will have a lot to talk about after this game, unlike most other games.
We also arguably NEEDED to learn how to pull a close one out. We're not at all as vulnerable as the Jayhawks, who seem to barely win EVERY game they have win.
Nonetheless, I expect us to lose a game or two, and not necessarily to the best competitor in the conference. It's unreasonable to not expect it. We have a target on our backs. We're riding a dream season so far. We can't expect perfection to last, although we can certainly enjoy it if it does.
Preview of Wisconsin & MSU Games; Toughest Week of SeasonJanuary 23, 2005 Good news. Tuesday's game against Wisconsin was moved from 6:00 to 8:00 by ESPN so as to feature the game in prime time. It will thus be easier to watch. Illinois also received all of the # 1 votes in the coaches poll, and all but one of the #1 votes in the AP poll. Duke received the lone remaining #1 vote. All doubt eliminated. However, Tuesday begins Illinois' toughest week of the Big Ten season, if not the entire regular season. On Tuesday, Illinois goes to Wisconsin, where Mike Wilkinson scored at will against them last year and where Michigan State lost its only Big Ten game so far this year. After playing Minnesota on Saturday, Illinois then goes to Michigan State the following Tuesday to play its only game against the Spartans this year. Don't blink, now. There is a legitimate chance that Illinois will go 1-2 during this stretch and fall hard from its pedestal. In the meantime, the ranks of the undefeated dwindled this weekend when Villanova handed Kansas its first loss. Check that... when Villanova blew Kansas out. As with Illinois' close call with Iowa, Kansas' loss at Villanova does not end their season. It merely reflects the fact that many great teams are struggling as the Spring semester starts and upset-minded teams take advantage of their best chance to catch the top teams off guard. However, Kansas losing to an unranked, non-conference team could help Illinois. Our ultimate goal is nothing short of getting the #1 seed in the Midwest region so we can play all our NCAA tournament games within a few hours drive from Champaign. The Midwest #1 seed could come down to Illinois or Kansas because Kansas is the closest top-five team to the Midwest region. Illinois won all its non-conference games rather convincingly, giving it a leg-up on Kansas. It could make the few potential Illini conference losses forgiveable, especially when Kansas inevitably loses its share of conference games, as well.
Badger Roadkill! 20-0January 25, 2005 What an amazing game. Wisconsin put up one of its best performances and played extremely well, starting the second half with a 12-0 spurt to lead by 8 and—true to form in Madison—looking to blow it open and extend its home win streak to 39 games in a row. They were aggressive, matched the Illini at an up-tempo pace at times, and played great team basketball with lots of passing and movement leading to open looks. They looked quick and sharp and poised to put an end to Illinois’ perfect season. But then Illinois’ flat-line defense kicked in. Twice. With 10:27 left in the second half, Illinois tightened its defense and held Wisconsin scoreless for almost three minutes as Illinois caught back up and tied it. Then with 4:37 left in the game, they put the lid on the game. Wisconsin scored only 1 more point the rest of the game as Illinois pulled away to a ten-point victory, 75-65, to extend its perfect record to 20-0. Wisconsin did not fall apart by any means. The worst that can be said it that they missed one free throw down the stretch. Everything else was tough and contested. During these flat-line moments, Illinois was quicker to the ball, more aggressive in cutting off passing lanes, and showed more energy in preventing open looks, thereby forcing Wisconsin into taking bad shots. These flat-line moments are no coincidence. They are a trademark of this year’s Illini. Every key win this year has been sparked not by simply out-scoring the other team, but by continuing to score at a normal pace while they put the defensive clamps on the other team’s scoring. Every key win shows very noticeable flat-lines on the opposing team’s scoring chart. As I recall, the 1989 Flyin’ Illini were a different breed. They went on scoring spurts, hit flurries of three-pointers or offensive-rebound put-backs, and won through their offensive prowess while exhibiting a consistent defense. Their offensive surges pushed them past their opponents more than their defensive prowess. While this year’s team has its offensive surges and shows great team-oriented offense that overcomes the lack of a clear go-to superstar, their greatness moreso stems from their ability to defensively smother the other team for crucial periods of time where they pull ahead. Granted, defense is not enough, and this year’s Illini also have their offensive strengths. Illinois’ team-oriented offense has helped develop some previously unheralded players into solid performers. Fellow-Tex-Illini Jack Ingram (from San Antonio) stepped up from the bench against Wisconsin to hit some key three-pointers and free throws down the stretch to allow Illinois to pull ahead. Luther Head again showed some great moves in leading the team with 18 points. Deron Williams drove and spotted up for several solid, mid-range jump-shots. Indeed, from the start of the game, it was clear that all three guards clearly came to play, unlike the game against Iowa. Except for a few over-anxious stretches, they looked more confident, less tentative, and more energetic than they did against Iowa. They drove through open lanes more often, spotted up for open shots more often, and passed the ball with more aggressiveness. As they have all season, they saved their best performances for their toughest games. Finally, just as Illinois showed the nature of a true champion by finding a way to win on an off-night against Iowa, Illinois hit upon another aspect of playing like a true champion against Wisconsin: not allowing poor officiating to throw you off your game. Both on offense and defense, Illinois overcame some extremely poor officiating in the second half. Dee Brown was clearly fouled and knocked over on a fast-break: no call. James Augustine was mauled over-the-back by Wilkinson on a put-back: called a held ball. Wilkinson left his feet to defend a lay-up on another drive and knocked Augustine down: no call either way. Wisconsin’s Tucker took two steps after catching the ball on the perimeter, paused, and then clearly pivoted on the wrong foot, taking a third step: no call. The refs also called ticky-tacky fouls on the Illini throughout the game, getting Powell and Augustine in foul trouble and causing Augustine to only play four minutes in the first half. Fortunately, Nick Smith was not a part of any of these bad calls. The Illini did not pout, but instead shook it off and focused on staying in the moment on the next play and the rest of the game. That poise manifests a large part of Illinois' winning attitude, as well as, incidentally, why Nick Smith is spending more time on the bench, recently. This victory is in many ways more important than the Wake Forest victory. Against Wake Forest, we somewhat blind-sided an overconfident team that had just defeated a tough Arizona team. Wake Forest was swallowed and out of the game fairly early. Wisconsin was waiting for us, just as we were hunting for them. Wisconsin withstood the early knock-out and tested us down to the wire. This victory served as Illinois' first true test on the road, facing a tough team on its home court: indeed, one of the toughest home courts in the country. Perhaps this Wisconsin victory will sway the lone AP vote preventing the Illini from being consensus #1 in both poll. But it is no matter if it does not. Holding or losing the #1 ranking in mid-season means little compared to holding it or losing it when it matters most: the end of the NCAA tournament. Although Illinois' perfect regular season will help ensure an easier road in the tournament by, in a sense, giving them home court advantage throughout the playoffs (like Syracuse enjoyed two years ago en route to its championship), a loss here or there is otherwise immaterial. What matters is how the Illini learn to face all different kinds of adversity in a game and overcome it. So far, they have done so brilliantly. Everything is unfolding perfectly so far in this dream season. Illinois continues its toughest week of the season with a relative breather against Minnesota on Saturday before heading to Michigan State next Tuesday for possibly an even tougher game. After that, the season gets measurably easier. However, unlike what Marc Stein and Dick Vitale have said, Illinois will not be able to cruise to a perfect record, but will still need to, in particular, beat Iowa at Iowa, face a revenge-minded Wisconsin in Champaign, and win the Big Ten tournament. Moreover, the target on their backs only grew larger last night. All remaining opponents will try to get some National attention, especially "bubble" teams who need the credential being the team that ended Illinois' perfect season in order to get into the NCAA tournament. But we can still enjoy it while we can. 100 Years of Basketball celebrated with consensus #1 ranking!January 29, 2005 The University held its official celebration of the 100th year of Illini basketball on Saturday, with over 350 former players and coaches in attendance, including coach Lou Henson, several members of the Flyin' Illini (Kenny Battle, Kendall Gill, ad Steve Bardo), and CHicago Bulls' announcer Johnny "Red" Kerr. This year's team added to the celebration by clobbering Minnesota and likely cementing their consensus #1 ranking in the nation in both major polls. Illinois received all the #1 votes in the coaches poll and all but one #1 vote in the AP poll last week before defeating Wisconsin at Wisconsin and blowing out Minnesota at home. The team that received the other #1 vote lost at home to unranked Maryland. Most of the other top-five teams have suffered recent losses, as well, so it looks like the Illini will be the first consensus #1 team since Duke a few years ago. Again, the #1 ranking is not the prize, and it means little compared to the National Championship. The mid-season domination is crucial toward obtaining the #1 Midwest Regional seed. Due to the coincidental location of the Midwest regional games in Indianapolis the first round, Chicago the second round, and the Final Four in St. Louis, Illinois would essentially enjoy home court advantage throughout the tournament with the Midwest Regional #1 seed. As for the Minnesota game, it was a complete blowout. In its first few Big Ten conference games, Illinois had somewhat lost its complete dominance from wire to wire that it had enjoyed during the non-conference play. Perhaps inspired by the 100 years of basketball celebration, Illinois regained that dominant form against Minnesota. They led wire-to-wire, building a 20-point cushion in the first half that never was seriously threatened. Roger Powell led all scorers with 21. Deron WIlliams added 18. Dee Brown was the only starter who didn't score in double-figures, although I doubt he really cares. Season-long, all five starters are averaging double figures. The bench scoring throughout the season has not been that strong, but with all five starters averaging double figures, there is little opportunity for the bench to contribute much scoring. The toughest game of the year is now upon us: Michigan State in East Lansing. Both teams have had this game circled all year. Both teams are good enough to win. It will all come down to who performs better on Tuesday night at 6:00. Unbelievable!! Illinois crushes Michigan State in East Lansing!February 1, 2005
Illinois put up another phenomenal performance against Michigan State. Perhaps I am overconfident, but there are five minutes left in the game, and I'm already writing the epitaph. (The worst that can happen is I press a "delete" button before posting it... but that won't happen!) Illinois again saved one of its best games for one of its toughest opponents. They ran off to a 17 point lead in the second half and resisted a surge by Michigan State to close out the game and win convincingly, 81-68. Although Michigan State played well, although they never gave up and although the crowd was incredibly supportive even though the Spartans trailed for most of the game, Illinois simply was the better team. Deron Williams showed how impossible it is to pressure him bringing the ball up the court. Luther Head continued to improve and become a candidate for actually being a "superstar." Augustine showed amazing interior defense and some deft, graceful moves when it was needed most. And Dee Brown was absolutely on fire. Although Luther Head again led the team with 22 points, Dee Brown's 18 points, most of them coming in the first half, sparked the team, offensively. His NBA three-pointers and amazing fast breaks allowed Illinois to pull out to its comfortable win. This game featured Dee Brown at his best. Illinois went through a 12 minute stretch without missing a field goal. Illinois' flat-line team defense also threw Michigan State off their game. After Michigan State came out of the half with a seven point spurt to come within five, they scored only 2 points in the next five minutes as Illinois pulled away to a fifteen point lead. The Spartans did pull within 7, but came no closer as the Illini cruised to an 81-68 victory. Illinois led from 4:22 in the first half to the end of the game. Now everyone is on our bandwagon, and it is difficult to argue. Illinois won its toughest game of the year, is 22-0, has clobbered several top-ranked teams, ended the Nation's longest home winning streak, and has barely stumbled along the way. I pity Bruce Weber. What is there to work on in practice? How can they continue to improve? It really boggles the mind. There are two things to remember: 1) the target on our backs just grew five sizes; 2) the #1 Midwest Regional Seed is only the start of what really matters. Every remaining team will want the notoriety of being the team to knock us off. Iowa is the obvious and most likely candidate, having taken us to the edge in Champaign with our closest game this year so far. Although the Illini were probably caught off guard looking forward to the Wisconsin game in Madison, we still need to travel to Iowa to play them. Wisconsin also comes to Champaign to try to avenge the loss in Madison. Second, the regular season is just that "seasoning." It is not the meat, it is not the prize. ESPN finally picked up on the fact that Illinois could get home court advantage throughout the tournament due to the fortunate location of the first round, regionals, and final four. As Fred pointed out, the graphic showing how close Illinois would be to all three rounds was perhaps the first time ever that the city of "Champaign" was displayed in bold on a US map... on National Television. But enjoy it. This is a magical season. This is all the "next years" combined. Even if they lose, even if perfection eludes them, this years' team is something special. They have the talent and the maturity to run the table. They now just need to do it.
Illini take advantage of depleted Indiana: Improve to 23-0February 6, 2005 Indiana has struggled all year, spurring rumors that this will be Mike Davis' last year in Bloomington. Indiana also just lost its best player, Bracey Wright, to an ankle injury. Thus, it was not surprising that Illinois took advantage of Indiana's weakness. Illinois jumped to a dominant 20-3 start against Indiana, and it wasn't that close. They Illinois relaxed a bit as Indiana adjusted its defense and brought it to 26-20 at the half. But Illinois came out strong in the second half and cruised to an easy 60-47 win. Illinois has answered every challenge so far, and the whole country is now on the bandwagon. Many pollsters have indicated that they would still vote Illinois #1 even if it lost to an unranked team. With its remaining favorable schedule, Illinois will likely run the table in the regular season and will enjoy the #1 Midwest Regional Seed and home-court advantage in the NCAA tournament. North Carolina is the other team most have focused upon as a favorite to win it all. North Carolina is a night-and-day different team than Illinois. North Carolina features a bunch of superstars who play spectacular, highlight-infested basketball. It's like watching one of the best pick-up, street-ball games ever. They react instinctively with amazing, improvisational quickness, creating spectacular plays that rival the Globetrotters. However, that street-ball, focus-on-the-ball sensationalism makes them susceptible to being overwhelmed by a team-oriented defensive system that shuts down individual performances and by and offensive system that distributes the ball effectively. Illinois could be just that sort of team whose off-the-ball movement on offense and defense dismantles North Carolina's individual advantages. Although Illinois' best player is probably not as good, individually, as Carolina's worst starter, Illinois plays amazing team-oriented basketball and takes advantage of the fact that it rarely plays underneath its capabilities. Illinois and North Carolina likely will not meet until the Final Four, if at all, but if they do, it will reflect a clash between two schools of thought: individual street ball versus team-oriented basketball, both playing at an amazingly fast pace. Illinois travels to struggling Michigan this Tuesday before hosting Wisconsin next Saturday. Illinois "magic number" is down to 4 to capture the Big Ten Championship: a combination of four Illini wins or MSU losses would clinch the Big Ten. They would need to go 4-2 in their remaining games while Michigan State wins out (or go 3-3 while Wisconsin wins out) in order to not win the Big Ten. Amazing.
Illinois' Bandwagon Just Got More Crowded.February 7, 2005 After a season where much of the hype has focused upon the ACC, Big East, and Conference USA, the college basketball world is slowly dividing into two camps: Illini doubters and Illini bandwagoneers. And most of them are now the latter. After questioning the Illini's dominance just last week, Pat Forde of ESPN today became the most recent Illini bandwagon-jumper. Reflecting many of the things I have pointed out for weeks, he provided a more in-depth, game-by-game analysis of why Illinois will likely cruise not only to an undefeated regular season, and not only through the Big Ten tournament, but all the way to the elite eight due to its dominance and seeding.
Illini will be 33-0 on Selection Sunday By Pat Forde That might not be a good thing, but it is a sure thing. Mike Davis has a better chance of receiving a supportive phone call from Bob Knight than the Big Ten has of beating its runaway leader. Those with memories stretching all the way back to (cough) early last week might recall that I said Illinois was still less than a 50-50 proposition to run the table. But that was before the Illini shockingly shot Michigan State out of its own gym, before Iowa sent Pierre Pierce packing, and before Wisconsin swooned at Minnesota. After those developments, the path is remarkably clear to the first unbeaten regular season in the Big Ten since the fabled Indiana 1976 national champions. For the record, this Illinois team (23-0, 9-0 in the Big Ten) cannot compare to those Hoosiers -- certainly not yet, probably not ever. Indiana rampaged through two straight 18-game Big Ten seasons unbeaten, and in '76 defeated eventual national runner-up Michigan three times. With a 16-game league schedule, Illinois isn't even contesting a full conference round-robin.But what the Illini have done is special. And even though they're just past halfway in league play, it should be all downhill from here until mid-March. Maybe even late March. Illinois' final seven regular-season games are against teams with a combined league record of 22-33. The toughest competition (Wisconsin) has to come to Champaign. The toughest road game looked like it would be at Iowa City, but then star Hawkeyes guard Pierce was dismissed from the team. Now it could come down to a coronation game in Columbus against Ohio State to close the regular season -- or a possible upset bid in the Big Ten tournament final. What would it take for a member of the Trampled Ten to beat the Illini? "It's going to take a perfect game," said Davis,
whose Hoosiers got the most recent look at Illinois in a 13-point loss Sunday.
"They have so many weapons. Everybody talks about their guards, but their
big guys are really good. They're really overlooked because of their guard play.
It's going to take a game where all five guys are off, and it's hard to find
that." Michigan State coach Tom Izzo got to see Illinois on a night when all five guys were on. After watching the Illini make a spectacular 12 straight shots against his Spartans during the second half in the Breslin Center last Tuesday, the coach of the 2000 national champions was duly impressed. "If they shoot like they shot against us, I don't think anybody can beat them," Izzo said. "I'm not sure any team in the country can beat them. ... They played as well as a team can play against us. It was a big game, for them and for us, and they rose to the occasion. "They've got to stay away from injuries. ... My worry for Bruce (Weber) and that team, I don't think they have much depth at the guard spot. When you're playing Thursday-Saturday (in the NCAA Tournament), how many minutes can they play? But Deron (Williams) and Dee Brown are tough physically and mentally. I think they can take that." Weber does ride his guards hard. Williams is logging 34.4 minutes a game in Big Ten play. Brown is a tick below 33 per game. The third (and highest-scoring) member of America's best backcourt, Luther Head, gets 33 a night as well. But with a group this good, you'd never want to take them out, either. All three of them can shoot with range, and all three can guard. But what that backcourt does better than any in America is handle and pass the ball. Nobody in the nation's six biggest conferences can touch Illinois' 1.7-to-1 team assist-to-turnover ratio. It's amazing that a team that passes the ball with as much daring and creativity as the Illini averages just 10.4 turnovers per game. Since Illinois takes care of the ball and sports a decent rebounding margin (plus-4.3), it gets more shots than its opponents. And makes more shots. The Illini are connecting on 50 percent of their field goals in league play and 40 percent of their 3-pointers, both best in the Big Ten. That's where Illinois is winning in conference play. It's not the defensive end, where the team surprisingly ranks last in opponents' 3-point shooting percentage and ninth in field-goal percentage defense.
So it's possible that someone can shoot the lights out on the Illini down the stretch. But that team has also got to keep the Illini from shooting the lights out, too -- much easier said than done. Here's a game-by-game look at the remainder of Illinois' regular season:Feb. 8, at Michigan (12-11 overall, 3-6 in the Big Ten, No. 135 RPI): The Wolverines suspended point guard Daniel Horton for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, and went into a free-fall. They've now lost six straight. The last three have been particularly embarrassing: a 29-point loss at last-place Purdue, a 17-point home loss to Minnesota and a 26-point rout at Ohio State. Does this sound like a group that can upset Illinois? The tight turnaround from the game Sunday against Indiana might test the Illini, but the Wolverines won't. Feb. 12, Wisconsin (15-5, 6-3, No. 18 RPI): The Badgers gave Illinois a major test in Madison before being out-executed and overrun in the final four minutes. This is the best opponent left on the schedule, but the game will be in Champaign. Wisconsin has been an ordinary team on the road (losses to Minnesota, Indiana, Marquette and Pepperdine). And Illinois gets one more day than the Badgers to rest and prepare. Feb. 16, at Penn State (7-14, 1-7, No. 202 RPI): If the Illini are favored by double digits in the above two games, this one could be a 20-point spread -- yes, even on the road. You don't find many teams talking about how tough it is to go into the Bryce Jordan Center. Feb. 19, at Iowa (15-6, 3-5, No. 45 RPI): The Hawkeyes came closer than anyone to date to beating the Illini, taking them into overtime in Champaign. But Pierce was close to a one-man offense in that game, and without him slumping Iowa will be seriously up against it. This looked like the opportunity to break the streak, but not any longer. Feb. 23, Northwestern (10-11, 3-6, No. 155 RPI): Bill Carmody plays the kind of annoyingly deliberate style that can gum up a rip-and-run strategy, but the Wildcats shouldn't be in the game long enough for frustration to set in on the Illini. March 3, Purdue (5-15, 1-8, No. 206 RPI): Gene Keady's farewell tour of the Big Ten has been one rotten ride, bottoming out last week when he didn't go to Ohio State after being stricken with the flu. Keady said he felt so bad, he neither watched nor listened to the game. "I hurt so bad, my hair hurt," Keady said. "I didn't want to eat, didn't want to do nothing. I just wanted to lay there and hope I would die." The feeling might be similar when his Boilermakers are served up as the sacrificial opponent on Senior Day at Assembly Hall. March 5, at Ohio State (16-7, 5-4, No. 50 RPI): This could be tricky. The Buckeyes have won four straight under first-year coach Thad Matta and will undoubtedly have their best home crowd of the year. But that four-game winning streak was as much schedule-driven as anything (home games against Penn State, Purdue and Michigan and a game at Northwestern). If Minnesota could win in Columbus, it's hard to see Illinois failing to close a perfect regular season there. But that's only the beginning. Illinois then gets to play the Big Ten tournament in Chicago, where it should corner the ticket market and get the easiest draw. It shouldn't expect a challenge until the tourney final, when it could face Michigan State or Wisconsin again. And after that? A No. 1 seed should result in a short trip to Indianapolis for the first two rounds, followed by a trip back to cozy Chicago for the regional semifinals and final. Depending on seeding and bracket developments, it's possible that Illinois might not face an opponent capable of looking it squarely in the eye until the elite eight, some 6½ weeks from now. In the meantime, Illinois is a lock to beat every Big Ten opponent remaining in its path. Remember where you read it first. And forget what you read here last week.
Illini escape Michigan "trap" gameFebruary 8, 2005 Illinois spent the night before in the airport and needed to travel to Ann Arbor the day of the game. Coming off only one day rest after a surprisingly close Indiana game, Illinois was obviously tired: uncharacteristically missing open shots and being a step behind on defense. At the same time, Boston College--the only other major undefeated team in college basketball--was struggling at Notre Dame. Upset fever was in the air. After Illinois jumped out to an early 10-point lead, Michigan came back to lead by 7 at the half. Although Illinois had surged at the start of the second half in other tough games, Michigan held its cushion deep into the second half. Brent Musberger spoke in grand terms that the Illini were finally going to fall. But, like a true champion, Illinois still somehow found a way to win. Dee Brown keyed a comeback midway through the second half with three steals within a minute leading to three fast break lay-ups, the third being capped with a foul to take the lead. Luther Head then put the team on his shoulders once again and carried the team to a 57-51 victory. Brent Musberger proclaimed them invinceable, declaring that it was never in doubt. Meanwhile, just a minute earlier, Boston College lost its first game. Illinois is the last undefeated team in the country. Again and again, going undefeated is neat, but it is just icing: sweet, but not what you live on. It is not the goal, and it is not the prize. But going undefeated serves one function of the ultimate goal: getting the #1 Midwest Regional Seed. By now, every game features a graphic of how close Illinois would play its games from Champaign if they get that #1 Midwest seed. Doing so would make the road to a National Championship much, much easier. The Michigan win showed two great facets of this Illini team that makes me enjoy cheering for them even more and gives me confidence that they can, indeed, run the table all the way to the Championship. As attorneys cannot cohesively think without numbering their thoughts, I will proceed to number these features of the Michigan game. First, they again simply found a way to win on an obvious off-night where the opposition and its fans were keyed up to pull off the upset. No champions stroll to championships; they all struggle at one point or another on the way to winning a championship. The true measure is not how they do when they are on fire, but instead 1) how consistently they are on fire and 2) how they respond when they are not on fire. (Again, those numbers show up). Illinois has excelled at both so far. Second, the Illini know that they are beatable, which is part of what makes them unbeatable. The Illini do not have individual superstars to overwhelm their opponents with sheer talent. Instead, they consistently play above their ability. That diligence stems from not feeling overconfident and not taking anything for granted. Illinois lacks the overconfident swagger and hubris of North Carolina, Cincinnati, or other street-ball teams featuring individual superstars. Thus, so long as they appreciate that they are not unbeatable, they remain unbeatable. The best part is that they seem to know it, profoundly appreciate it, and continue to keep their heads on straight. Luther Head is perhaps the most amazing development in this regard. He came to Illinois expecting to be Mr. High-flyin superstar. It didn't happen. Instead, he developed a reputation for unreliability, selfishness, and for trouble. Last year, after being suspended from the team for his association with a burglary early in the year and after being arrested for driving with a suspended license, he humbly offered to quit the team due to the distractions he was causing. His reputation as a problem child had caught up to him. Bruce Weber stuck with him, and he has come down to Earth. He no longer swaggers and slashes his throat after making a big play like Carolina's McCants. He is a mature, focused player who has truly blossomed at Illinois. And that is something to be proud of as an Illini regardless of who wins or loses. This team never gets down on each other. They enjoy playing with each other. They play like we are all taught to play in kindergarden. They are good sports. They quietly and humbly continue to win. Granted, in the end, we do cheer for wins almost unconditionally. North Carolina fans forgive McCants; Philadelphia fans forgive Terrell Owens; and I even forgave Dennis Rodman (and somewhat pitied him) when he played for the Bulls. But it is so much more enjoyable when the team for whom we cheer not only happen to be "the good guys," but when they win due to the very qualities that make them... the good guys.
Illini Crush Badgers at Home; 25-0Illini defeat last remaining tough team on its schedule February 12, 2005 Illinois improved to 25-0 and virtually cemented its prospect of going undefeated in the regular season by vanquishing the only team left on its schedule with the firepower to beat them. Playing Iowa at Iowa looked to be the big hurdle a few weeks ago after Illinois needed overtime to beat them in Champaign, but Iowa has lost its premier player and has fallen apart, recently, making it less of an obstacle. Illinois flat-lined Wisconsin's scoring during two key points of the game to pull ahead: once near the beginning of the game and again near the start of the second half. For the rest of the game, Illinois simply matched Wisconsin's scoring, both in spurts and in lulls. Most importantly, in the second half, Illinois shut down the versatile big man Mike WIlkinson, who virtually scored at will against Illinois last year and earlier this year. He scored only two points in the second half last Saturday. Interior defense will become a more significant factor when matching up with teams that feature dominant big men like North Carolina. As Bruce Weber has noted, everyone keeps saying that Illinois should lose at least once, if only to get the jinx out before the NCAA tournament begins. No undefeated team since Indiana in the 1970s has won the National Championship. Many don't even reach the final four, as with St. Joe's last year and Duke in the mid-90s. I still remember the seemingly-unbeatable 1991 UNLV team--that had the talent to beat most NBA teams--losing to Duke in the final four, even though both teams had essentially the same roster as the year before, when UNLV had completely blown Duke out. But that is the problem with sports commentary from stat-geeks who never played sports. They don't understand what goes into the statistics and why statistics merely reflect the results of the past, not necessarily an indicator of the future. Statistics, alone, can often explain completely contradictory results. The Illini's undefeated record so far could predict a championship or a jinx. It could manifest the team's day-to-day dominance that leads to a championship, or contribute to a developing hybris that leads to an early NCAA exit. To demonstrate the ridiculousness of stat geeks who claim the Illini will fall in the tournament BECAUSE they are undefeated, consider the following: to whom should the Illini intentionally lose so as to avoid the jinx? Should they try to lose to Penn State this Wednesday? How about in-state rival Northwestern when it comes to town in a couple of weeks? Or should Illinois have tanked the game against Michigan State when Illinois had the chance to lose to a "legitimate" opponent? Or should Illinois miss out on an opportunity to test itself in the Big Ten tournament and purposefully lose so as to get the loss out of the way? No, the Illini should continue to win. Indeed, the reason the Illini are undefeated so far is that they do NOT play in order to preserve their undefeated status. Instead, they focus on the game at hand and simply outperform each opponent, one-by-one. It is not a cliché, it's just very often used as a cliché: play one game at a time. I've been saying all season that the Illini can run the table, but we shouldn't expect it or abandon hope if the ultimate loss comes. They know that, too. I've also noted that an undefeated record only provides a means to creating an easier road to the championship by giving us the #1 Midwest regional seed, thereby giving us home court advantage throughout the playoffs. And the Illini know it, too. They don't play with a swagger, they play with confidence. They don't thump their chests after slams and speak with ridiculous hybris; they instead take easy lay-ups and speak with humility. They also don't act or play with the selfishness that can bring a team down or make its teammates fight each other. Instead, they are always positive, encouraging, and remain focused on how to win, not what went wrong when they did not. Jinxs are for those who don't understand. If the Illini's undefeated record led them to believe they are unbeatable, then that is a problem that might signal an early exit: not the record, itself, but the impact of the record on the team's mindset and the team's play. That's what happened to UNLV in 1991: they let it go to their heads. If, on the other hand, the Illini continue to play each game at their best, continue to support each other, and refuse to get distracted, then they are the odds-on favorite to win the Championship.
Illini Blow Penn State Out; "Magic Number" at 2February 16, 2005
"They're so unselfish. That's how basketball should look." - James Augustine dropped open under the basket for a two-handed dunk to score the first two points of the game, and I whimsically turned the television off at our gamewatching party at Texadelphia to symbolize that it was over. (Psych!) The Illini stopped Penn State on the next possession, and quickly dispatched the ball downcourt, where Roger Powell opened up for another dunk. And I turned the television off. (For effect). Game over. The game was about that close the whole way. Illinois was up by 30 points in the second half, and it was not that close. To phrase it at its worst, I got the feeling that I could even play for Penn State--bad knee, 20 or so pounds of surplus weight, and all--and the result would be no worse. Illinois absolutely cruised to a 83-63 victory over Penn State, playing almost the final five minutes with no starters on the court. The best part of this game was getting Roger Powell involved, once again. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured a great article on Powell on Monday that emphasized a recurring theme with Powell: he is not in sync with the team. (Click here for the article.) Several times in recent games, the team has called plays designed for Powell, and he was out of position and did not convert. On plays designed for him. This "free agent" play from Powell explained why he was on the bench during crucial moments of games during the final stretch of the season, even though he was one of the top scorers. Bruce Weber could not rely on him to be a cog in the machine, so he sat out despite his phenomenal ability. Early in the season, I praised Powell for growing out of his free agency and becoming more involved in the team concept that makes this year's Illini so fantastic. His team play helped contribute to sensational wins against Wake Forest, Gonzaga, and Cincinnati. Against Wisconsin last Saturday, however, Powell did not get one point from the field. The Illini are becoming well known for their turnover-to-assist ratio. Andy Katz suggested that the Illini pass the ball so well that, if they kept track of such as stat, Illinois would be the leader in "assists that lead to assists." Powell, however, has not registered an assist since December. So it was a great thing to see Powell again lead all scorers with 21 points and go 10-10 from the field, even though he did not register that magical first assist of 2005. Even better: the team knew he needed a good game, and fed him all night long. At one point, Dee Brown even gave up an absolutely wide-open three point shot--the nearest defender was perhaps in Indiana--to feed the ball to Powell for an easy lay-up. And, fitting into the team concept, Powell noted after the game, "It was good to make some baskets, but the guards set me up." Powell is a crucial component of Illinois' under-rated inside game. He is the Kenny Battle of this year's team: playing with energy and enthusiasm while providing amazing inside rebounding and scoring despite being undersized for a forward. The strength of Illinois' guards is unquestioned. The only question is the strength of Illinois' inside game and whether the guards will need to overcome the weakness inside. With Powell playing within the system and being a part of the team-oriented play, the Illini solidify their only real weakness. Illinois has four games left. The next two games are on ESPN Plus, only (available at Texadelphia): at Iowa this Saturday at 11:15 and in Champaign against Northwestern next Wednesday at 7:00. Michigan State has two losses so far, and Illinois owns the tiebreaker against them due to the win in East Lansing. Thus, Illinois' magic number with four games left is only two to clinch the #1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. And with a combination of three Illini wins or Michigan State losses, Illinois will win its second outright Big Ten title in a row. Amazing.
Illini Escape Cold Water at IowaFebruary 19, 2005
Upset fever was in the air. The Top Ten went only 12-7 this week, including two losses for Kansas. The Illini also traveled to Iowa, the only team to take them to overtime, and to do it in Champaign. Iowa loves its visiting teams: so much so that they painted the visiting locker rooms an uplifting, bright pink in both the football and basketball venues. Iowa's odd blend of hospitality manifested itself again when the Illini's hotel suspiciously ran out of hot water the morning of the game. Then during the game, Illinois played uncharacteristically sloppy. Roger Powell played only 11 minutes because he was completely out of sync after a great game at Penn State. Illinois' top scorer, Luther Head, scored only one field goal in his 38
minutes. Illinois was out-rebounded by 15. Iowa's Adam Haluska, who burned the Illini in Champaign, led all scorers with 20 points. Although they normally rely on their outside shooting, Illinois shot only 5 of 15 from three-point range. All starters of Illinois' uncharacteristically got into foul trouble. Even the normally unflappable Dee Brown was visibly shaken by the refs calling his third foul, forcing him to the bench after a scolding from Weber to calm down. Iowa cut a 12 point deficit near the start of the second half to just two
points with four and a half minutes left. It did not look good. Illinois has had too many close calls for comfort recently against depleted opponents: particularly Iowa and Michigan, both of which (rightfully) kicked their best scorers off their teams recently due to their proclivities to beat up their ex-girlfriends. (What is this, Conference USA?!?) However, both games featured stories about pre-game shenanigans to disrupt the Illini, such as flight delays keeping the Illini up all night at the airport before the Michigan game, and no hot water at the hotel the morning before the Iowa game. (Kansas also had a similarly-convenient, 3:00-5:00 a.m. fire drill at their hotel the night before their loss to Oklahoma.) Also, as expected, the Illini have a target on their backs, and every team wants to be known as the one who ended Illinois' perfect season. And through it all, Illinois has found a way to win, nonetheless. No excuses necessary. 27-0. But it would be nice to see them return to their absolute dominant form and pull out a few more crushing victories like they did at Penn State: if only to quell suspicions that they are getting lazy and just clocking in for unduly close victories against sub-par teams.
Illini Clinch Big Ten Title Against Northwestern, 84-48; 28-0February 23, 2005
"They're No. 1 and they're going to be for a while. But they're beatable." -Unfortunately-chosen words from Northwestern star Vedran Vukusic on 1/15/05 Illinois might very well be beatable, but certainly not by Northwestern. The Illini made sure to make Vucusic eat his words from his post-game comments after Illinois beat Northwestern in Evanston in January. Just when I was wondering if Illinois still had the killer instinct that drenched Wake Forest, Gonzaga, and Cincinnati in the non-conference season or whether Illinois was instead becoming too charitable on its lesser Big Ten cousins, Illinois pulled out it most dominating performance of the season. With over seven minutes left in the game, Luther Head hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to 75-34. A 41 point deficit. Northwestern then put together a mad rush to close the gap to a nifty-looking 84-48. As the old cliché goes, "...and it wasn't that close," well... actually, it was pretty much as close as that. (Can't get much worse.) Nick Smith hit a three down the stretch during scrub time for the second game in a row: only this time it was for shit and grins. Then Warren Carter hit a three. Everybody played phenomenally well. Roger Powell re-joined the offensive flow and was rewarded with the Sportscenter highlight-reel dunk feed from Dee Brown... twice. Dee Brown hit threes from somewhere in South Carolina. All five starters scored in double figures. Illinois out-rebounded the Wildcats by 16, and most of Northwestern's rebounds came during scrub time. Illinois shot close to 60% from the field, while holding Northwestern to 1-18 from three-point range. In doing so, Illinois clinched at least a share of the Big Ten title, its fourth out of the past five years. With another victory or a Michigan State loss, Illinois will clinch its second straight outright Big Ten title. Consider it done. Meanwhile, the other top ten teams keep losing and showing their vulnerability. #3 Oklahoma State lost to Nebraska. #7 Kansas lost its third straight to Oklahoma and must go to snake-bitten Oklahoma State this weekend. And it gets better. Illinois has played more games than almost any other team, and as a result they now enjoy an 8-day rest to prepare for the stretch run to close the season and make a run for the Big Ten Tournament title, and then the NCAA Championship. More and more, Illinois looks like the odds-on favorite to sweep the table and win it all. Every card is turning over in their favor: the favorable home schedule, the lack of injuries, and the fortunate coincidence of all their Tournament games essentially being home games. It is beginning to look like the only ones who can beat them is themselves: if they let up and don't play at their best every game, every night, from here on out. Many have noted that their best shot at losing is in the Big Ten Tournament because they will have wrapped up the #1 Midwest seed by then and will have have "nothing to play for." Wrong. They have something to play for, and it is not the glory of an undefeated season. Now that the Tournament is on the horizon, there is not room to let up. The Tournament requires perfection to win it all. One loss in the tournament, and it's all over. Done. The stakes are the same for them as they are for the 65th team into tournament: you lose once, you go home. They don't get a bye and they don't get credit for going undefeated. They need to win the same number of games as anyone else in order to win the Championship; and they suffer the same consequences as anyone else if they don't win. And if they think they had a target on their backs and got their best game from conference rivals in a relatively-weak Big Ten, the target will grow even bigger come tournament time. And that is why they need to play each remaining game as if they are conscious of the consequences of losing just one game: play the Big Ten Tournament as if it is the NCAA Tournament. That's why the Big Ten adopted the tournament: to give its best teams tournament experience like the other major conferences were getting. If they don't play like they need to win, they will lose their edge and lose the opportunity to test themselves under tournament conditions. That said, this week off comes at a rather fortunate time. Playing under the pressure of not losing can cause fatigue. Just as the pressure really starts building, they now have a week to train, relax, study, and not worry about those consequences. They instead get to hit the stretch run while running, refueled and refreshed. They then have two tune-up games against fairly weak opponents to get the edge back before the Big Ten Tournament. Again, the cards turn in their favor. This is a year to savor and enjoy. All the "wait 'til next years" combined. Enjoy.
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11/19 |
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11/21 |
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11/24 |
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11/27 |
No. 25 Gonzaga |
ESPN |
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12/1 |
No. 1 Wake Forest |
ESPN |
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12/4 |
at Arkansas |
ESPN |
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12/6 |
W |
ESPN Plus |
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12/9 |
at Georgetown |
W |
ESPN Plus |
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12/11 |
W |
ESPN |
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12/19 |
W |
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12/22 |
at Missouri |
W |
ESPN 2 |
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12/27 |
W |
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12/30 |
W |
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12/31 |
No. 22 Cincinnati |
W |
Fox Sports Chicago |
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01/5 |
W 15-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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01/8 |
at Purdue |
W 16-0 |
CBS |
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01/12 |
W 17-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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01/15 |
at Northwestern |
W 18-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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01/20 |
W 19-0 |
ESPN |
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01/25 |
at Wisconsin |
W 20-0 |
ESPN |
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01/29 |
W 21-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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02/1 |
W 22-0 |
ESPN |
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02/6 |
W 23-0 |
CBS |
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02/8 |
at Michigan |
W 24-0 |
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02/12 |
W 25-0 |
CBS |
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02/16 |
at Penn State |
W 26-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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02/19 |
at Iowa |
W 27-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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02/23 |
W 28-0 |
ESPN Plus |
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03/1 |
W 29-0 |
ESPN2 |
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03/6 |
at Ohio State |
L 29-1 |
CBS |
www.Law-Page.com
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Copyright © 2004, 2007 Austin Illini
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On
senior night, the last game at Assembly Hall for Luther Head, Roger Powell, Nick
Smith, and Jack Ingram (and possibly for Dee Brown and Deron Williams, as well),
Illinois played perfect basketball.
If
you were to tell me that Illinois lead for all but 5 seconds in its final
game of a heretofore undefeated season, I would probably smile, would figure
they ran the table, but then might hesitate and ask, just to make sure...
"Which five seconds?"
Ohio State led for only five seconds in the game. Unfortunately, it was
the five that mattered most.