Austin Illini Club
Austin Illini Club
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Recaps of the 2005-2006 Illini Basketball Season: 2005-2006 Schedule Released: Preview; South Padre Invitational Tournament Illini Defeat #1 Team in Country, again!! (Basketball Roster Preview) Season Opener: South Dakota State. 1-0 South Padre First Two Rounds in Champaign 3-0 South Padre Tournament Champions! 5-0 Victory at Chapel Hill 6-0 Tough win against Xavier in Chicago 7-0 Easy win over Arkansas-Little Rock--Motion Offense 101 8-0 Georgetown Meets a Blizzard in Champaign--Princeton Offense--Believe in this team 9-0 Quack! P.C. Name does not help Ducks; Illini win by 30 10-0 Illini Embarrass Missouri by 30 points, 12-0 Illini Cruise Past Final Non-Conference Opponents--Big Ten Preview 14-0 Close Loss at Indiana Shows Improvement 16-2 Three Easy Wins; First In Big Ten 19-2 Badger Roadkill; Illini Again the First in NCAA to 20 Wins 20-2 You Gotta Be Lion! Penn State Snaps Illinois' home winning streak. 20-3 Only Game Against Ohio State in Columbus Two Years in a Row?!?! 20-4 Back on track at home, again; Northwestern & Indiana 22-4 Juniors show up Big on Senior Night. 23-5 Izzowned!! Illinois wins fourth straight over Michigan State. 25-5 Big Ten Tourney Flame Out Leads to # 4 Seed in UConn's bracket 25-6 Disappointing Second Round Exit (and officiating) Brings Augie's and Dee's careers to a close
The Austin Illini gathered to watch basketball games broadcast in regular definition at Texadelphia, owned by Austin-Illini member, Mark (not Ron) Turner. The location at the Southwest corner of San Antonio and 15th streets is fairly spacious with a nice, big screen television surrounded by four 27-inch televisions for keeping track of other games, if necessary. We gathered at Ringers to watch games in high definition.
Illinois' 2005-2006 Men's Basketball Results were the following:
2005-2006 Schedule Released: Preview; South Padre Invitational TournamentAugust 21, 2005 Illinois' 2005-2006 basketball schedule was released and is below. The reason for this otherwise-premature notice is that, on November 25 & 26 the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, Illinois will play in the South Padre Invitational. Although they play scrub teams in that tournament, they will play here in Texas in our home state, and (apart from San Antonio) we are the closest city with a substantial Illini presence. I might be traveling for Thanksgiving, myself, but we should all keep these dates in mind for a possible Austin Illini road trip to support our team in our backyard! The venue probably is small, so it would be great to dominate it with orange... the REAL color of orange!! The tickets are $99 ($90 plus $9 service charge) each, info on tickets and hotel offers can be found here: http://www.sopadre.com/invitation-packages.asp The games will be played in the convention center, which holds about 1860. The guy selling the tickets (it's a small operation) told us they had about 300 left. All tickets are general admission, and are to be picked up at the box office inside the convention center. To get tickets, call 1-800-767-2373 (1-800-SO-PADRE) ask to be connected to the convention center, then ask to speak to the guy selling the South Padre Invitational tickets. Since I already started talking Illinois basketball.... The non-conference schedule is not nearly as tough as last year's schedule. We arguably play only one top-25 team in the pre-season when we travel to North Carolina, and even Carolina is a shadow of last year due to graduation/early-NBA draftees: far worse decimation than we experienced. The easier schedule will provide relief for some of our developing players, but the downside is that it will not give us as much National credibility come Tournament Time: the double-edged sword of having a tough vs. weak schedule. MSU is definitely the odds-on favorite to for the Big Ten Title with its top scorers returning from last year's Final Four team. The Big Ten season opens tough with MSU at home, which will challenge our relatively "green" team, especially when the game will occur squarely in the middle of winter break (without the students), thereby minimizing our home court advantage. Nonetheless, we play MSU at home early and then in Breslin at the end of the season, which arguably favors us. We will have the best chance of beating MSU at MSU after we gel as a team into the new incarnation of the Illini, which will be significantly different from last year's team. As for a summary of the summertime rumor mill, as noted above, this year's Illini will be very different than last year, even with James Augustine and Dee Brown returning. The Illini should be much more interior oriented this year, not only because we do not have as much guard talent we enjoyed last year, but also because we have far more interior talent than last year. Brian Randle was the high scorer and rumored to have caused the biggest sensation at Midnight Madness last year (even over Deron, Luther, and Dee) before he injured himself and redshirted the year. Marcus Arnold also joins the Illini after transferring from Illinois State and sitting out last year per NCAA rules. Arnold is listed at 6-8 and 250 pounds, and he scored at will against the Illini when IllinoisState came to Champaign in the 2003-04 season. Shaun Pruitt and Warren Carter also are reported to have developed quite a bit over the summer, and will be strong contributors next year. As for guards, Rich McBride has recovered from nagging, persistent injuries that held him back and hurt his shooting reliability last year, and he has worked with specialty coaches and doctors on his set-up and shot to avoid those injuries from recurring. He was a top-30 recruit out of high school, and will almost certainly contribute more than his spotty play last year. Calvin Brock redshirted last year, as well, and is rumored to have some amazing speed, energy and elevation. Chester Frazier is perhaps the most highly-regarding freshman on our team this year, whom Lou Henson claimed has the ability to start this year after watching him in summer workouts. With the exception of Frazier, all of the above players practiced with last year's team and were able to learn from the sidelines what it was like to make a Championship run; and that experience will definitely help them. Altogether, this year's Illini are reported to have the energy to rival if not exceed the "hops" of the 1989 Flyin Illini. Although this year's team will be somewhat green in terms of experience, and although this year's team is less of a proven quantity than last year's team was in the pre-season, it is not inconceivable that, with the leadership of Brown and Augustine, we could again make another run at the Final Four. Finally, the recruiting rumor mill has recently buzzed about Brandon Rush, brother of Mizzou-grad and current NBA player, Kareem Rush. He declared for the NBA draft this year, but withdrew to improve his NBA stock in college for a year or two. Questions exist about his eligibility due to whether one of his high schools qualify under NCAA rules. He was supposed to announce a decision between Illinois, Kansas, Indiana, and possibly even USC or Oklahoma a few weeks ago, then last week, then today, and now tomorrow: who knows when? But he could help solidify this year’s team, as well. O.K., take this keyboard away from me before I bore everyone to death, I need to... .faa;k ........ hey, wait.......s1479.;skdjf....... I was kiddin.....;lkj;s ssaaaaaasas08yhubn 4efxcz
Illini Defeat #1 Team in Country, again!! (Exhibition Season & Roster Preview)November 3, 2005
Last year, Illinois announced its presence by walloping Wake Forest in Champaign, the number one team in the country at the time. This year, Illinois did it again, this time kicking off its schedule by soundly beating the number-one team in the country...
...in Division III.
Illinois Wesleyan—located in Bloomington just down the street from Illinois State in Normal—played us tight Thursday night and even tied the game mid-way in the second half. But Illinois took off thereafter to an easy 10-point lead which it did not relinquish. The final score was 82-60. Conditioning and lack of dominant strength finally caught up to a gutsy effort by IWU.
Illinois still has exhibition games for the next two weeks and opens the regular season on November 18 against South Dakota State. After playing in South Padre over Thanksgiving, the first big game (circle your calendars) is on Tuesday, November 29 against North Carolina.
Team Preview
As noted before, Illinois lost 5 of its top 7 players from a team where the top 7 players handled over 90% of the minutes last year. Even with Dee Brown returning, this year’s team will be much more interior-oriented than last year’s team. The three-guard rotation will be rare.
Moreover, although Illinois lacks any clear, proven stars beyond Augustine and Brown, the talent level is fairly strong and consistent all the way down the bench. Whereas last year’s team rode on the strength of our starting five players, this year’s team will likely ride on the strength and depth of our bench, similar to Illinois’ 2000-2001 teams. The problem is, although depth helps a team through the regular season, the NCAA tournament favors teams with a strong starting five over a strong bench because television timeouts give starters more time to rest.
The good news is that, in addition to our bench players from last year, we have three strong, talented players who sat out last year due to injuries or transfer rules, giving them time to practice with last year’s team and learn Weber’s style and system. As such, this year’s team is not at all limited to last year’s bench players merely graduating to starting spots through attrition.
A brief bit about each roster player is below. (An “R” for “redshirt” before the player’s year indicates that the player’s year reflects his NCAA eligibility, even though he is actually a year older. A “redshirt freshman” is actually a sophomore playing his freshman year of eligibility.)
Roster Preview
Dee Brown. (6-0 Sr.) Little is known about this quiet, unassuming player. Little known off-season trivia fact regarding Brown: the NCAA has actually declared "jersey-popping" a technical foul this year.
James Augustine. (6-10 Sr.) Many insiders have said that Augustine has the most NBA potential of any player on last year’s team. Despite an amazing postseason prior to the Elite 8 game, the final three games of last year in which Augustine disappeared on court and fouled out twice gives Augustine something to prove. You might be surprised to find out that, in interviews, he is a fast-talking, smart, level-headed, fun-loving guy.
Brian Randle. (6-8 R-So.) Randle injured himself in practice last yer by punching a backboard out of frustration. Before the injury, he promised to be one of the most exciting players on the team, having made several Sportscenter “Top Ten Plays” with monster dunks in 2003. He probably would have challenged or replaced Roger Powell in the starting lineup, especially given how much trouble Powell sometimes had following the system. He has freakishly long arms, and a year of practice and study could make this a shocking breakout year. Beyond his dunks and sheer athleticism, he remains an unproven player, but he has the most potential to be a breakout superstar who carries the Illini farther than expected.
Rich McBride. (6-8 Jr.) McBride was the fourth guard after the triumvirate of guards we enjoyed last year. He served a role mostly in just giving the stars a rest. However, except for Dee Brown, McBride was more highly-touted in his class of recruits than anyone on last year’s team was in their recruiting years. When healthy, he is a deadly shooter. However, foot injuries have hampered his development and significantly affected his shot. Weber has even brought in a slew of foot doctors to treat him and develop orthodics for him, as well as trainers to analyze video of his on-court movement in slow motion to identify potential problems in the way in which he plants and cuts or shoots. Playing off the bench, McBride also gained a lot of weight toward the end of the year, which added to his foot problems. He has lost 20 pounds from his Final Four weight, and could break out into a solid spot-up shooter. Although everyone must step-up to fill the void from last year, McBride and Randle are the two most important players who must particularly step up.
Warren Carter. (6-9 Jr.) Tall and lanky, there are rumors that even though he might be the fourth best player on the Illini, he might be relegated to the bench because his finesse inside skills are somewhat duplicative of Augustine’s skills. (Weber might opt for a stronger power forward to augment instead of duplicate Augustine: like Pruitt or Arnold). He played nervously and below his potential last year off the bench, but he showed the most promise of the returning big men who played last year off the bench. Great things are coming out of the rumor mill about his development in practice.
Shaun Pruitt. (6-10 So.) Pruitt played some time last year, but never really hit his stride and always seemed to look befuddled when he was in the game. Thus, most of the big-men substitution time went to Ingram, Carter, and Nick Smith (the tallest Illini player ever). However, like McBride, Pruitt garnered tremendous expectations as a recruit. Rumor has it that Weber really is impressed with his off-season improvement more than anyone else, meaning that he might develop into the fifth starter.
Marcus Arnold. (6-8 R-Jr.) Last year, Illinois clearly lacked a true, strong, dominant power forward, with 6-6 Roger Powell clearly lacking the height against dominant big men. No such problem this year. If Pruitt fails to develop into the true power forward that Illinois lacked last year, Marcus Arnold is not a bad option. A transfer from Illinois State who sat out last year, most Illini fans over-rate him because his best game ever came two years ago against the Illini when he seemed to be able to score at will. He was solid but not as stellar in Illinois State’s remaining games. However, he has enjoyed a year to learn Weber’s system in practice, so he could also prove to develop into a valuable player who seemingly comes from nowhere to have a significant impact on Illinois’ season.
The Freshman
Jamar Smith (Fr.) Although just a freshman, he is rumored to be the best pure shooter on the team, and perhaps the smoothest, most natural shooter Illinois has had in 15 years. He lit it up from 3-point range against Illinois Wesleyan, and the Wesleyan broadcasters could not stop raving about him, the fluidity of his shot, and how his shots looked like they would fall without question as they left his hand. He is the latest in the line of Peoria recruits. If he plays like he did against Illinois Wesleyan, McBride might have some serious competition for a starting spot.
Chester Frazier. (Fr.) Athletic and fast. He played for Weber on a European touring team last summer. Perhaps because he has corn rows and can run, he is described as a mini-Dee Brown.
Calvin Brock. (R-Fr.) Brock sat out last year due to a broken hand. He was the albino-looking bench warmer with a wrist cast who was the first to jump onto the court at timeouts. The rumor mill is filled with praise for his leaping ability, with one well-spread shot showing him dunking with his shoulders even to the rim, arm towering two feet above the rim, and about four feet of empty space under his feet. Young, enthusiastic, and extremely athletic.
CJ Jackson (6-8 Fr.) At 265 pounds, he was recruited by LSU, Auburn, Florida State, and Georgia as an offensive lineman before he committed to Illinois for basketball. A big boy. He might redshirt this year with three or four solid big men ahead of him in the depth chart.
Trent Meacham (6-2 So.) Meacham transferred from Dayton after being a star for Dayton. He will sit out this year per NCAA transfer regulations, but is a hometown favorite, having graduated from Champaign Centennial. Season Opener: South Dakota State. 1-0November 18, 2005 After my (somewhat prematurely) announcing “IT’S BASKETBALL SEASON!!” it really and truly is basketball season once again. And after another pathetic Illini football season, it couldn’t come soon enough! Weber announced his starting lineup last week as Dee Brown, James Augustine, Brian Randle, Shaun Pruitt, and Rich McBride. Warren Carter, Marcus Arnold, Jamar Smith, and Chester Frazier will be in the rotation off the bench, leaving Calvin Brock and C.J. Jackson with sparse playing time. Brock redshirted last year, and Weber and Jackson will likely discuss in the coming weeks whether he should redshirt this year As for the game, the Illini of course cruised to an easy 90-65 win. The more important aspect is how each player looked after an off-season of high expectations and rampant rumors from Ubben. All the key new players looked solidly improved, especially Pruitt. He really has developed his confidence and finesse. He should be a very solid starter. Jamar Smith (freshman) also looks amazing: a really smooth, clean, quick shot: a better pure shooter than any of last year's trio. Carter had a long, one-handed, alley-oop dunk that was a nice surprise. He's a bit tentative, but that's to be expected given that he just broke his nose in practice, so it will be a while before we can see how he does. Brian Randle, on the other hand, looked weaker than expected. He has not bulked up at all, and still seems tentative with the exception of a few plays here and there. Rumor has it that he is a fairly intellectual student-athlete, and he might be inclined to over-think his contribution and role, Dee Brown looked slightly awkward at the point. He's definitely adjusting and making a conscious effort to think about involving everyone and running the system instead of popping a shot or driving whenever he can. He also had an amazingly deft reverse lay-up in traffic that showed some major improvement in his shooting touch. He looks not nearly as one-dimensional and ahead of himself.
The South Padre Island Tournament is next weekend, and Illinois will be there against some less-than-stellar competition. But it is a chance to see our beloved Illini in a small venue here in our (rather extended) backyard. The U of I will also be hosting events for alumni. Details to follow Tickets are general admission, are only $90 for all games plus a $9 service
charge ($99 total). There are some
local alumni below who have contacted me letting me know that they have extra
tickets, and the convention center has informed me that plenty of tickets are
still available. The venue
apparently seats only 1200 people, so it will almost be like watching the team
play at Ubben. Tough win against Xavier in Chicago 7-0December 3, 2005
Illinois overcame a 12-0 deficit to beat Xavier Saturday in the United Center after not scoring a field goal for the first 23% (9:35) of the game. Illinois opened the game looking brutal. Augustine missed a layup; Dee missed a three; Pruitt missed a layup; McBride missed a shot; Randle missed a three; Pruitt mised a basket. Augustine finally hit one free throw over five minutes into the game, and then missed the second. Then they went for another four minutes without scoring, everyone looking out of rhythm and scared to shoot. Finally, Jamar Smith hit a three, but they went on another four-minute drought missing four more bad, ugly shots. Halfway through the first half, Illinois had scored only 4 points. Xavier's lead was only 15 points, so Illinois was not out of the game, yet; but it looked much worse when that surmountable 15-point lead was 19-4. At that pace, Illinois was on target to score only 12 points the entire game. 12 points. Total. That is... if they could keep it up. They looked that bad. Fortunately, the drought happened at the very start, which gave Illinois the rest of the game to catch up. They cut the lead to 10 by halftime, 26-36. Dee Brown scored the first six points out of halftime and cut the lead to just 4: 32-36. Wayne Larivee, bless his soul, even stretched the notion of announcer-embellishment by calling it a "6-0 run." After exchanging baskets and some free throws, Dee's next three pointer tied it at 38 with 13:28 left in the game. The Illini then plateaued, as if relaxing now that the deficit had been eliminated. For the next five minutes, Augustine helped the Illini just keep pace with Xavier by scoring the next 8 points. Rich McBride then hit a three with 7:23 left to take the lead at 51-50. The lead changed hands over the next few minutes before Illinois took the lead for good with about 5 minutes left when Marcus Arnold scored five points in a row for the Illini. Augustine was the player of the game, again, and led all scorers with 23 points and all rebounders with 7 boards. Dee Brown followed him with 20 points, mostly from the free throw line or behind the three-point arch, and Arnold had the second most rebounds with 7. Apart from Augustine's slow emergence as a dominant power forward, it was great to see Marcus Arnold emerge with a solid performance. 7 points and 6 rebounds is not all-American material, but it reflected a solid effort off the bench, which is exactly what we need from him. Pruitt and Carter were awful, although Pruitt at least contributed 4 boards. Meanwhile, North Carolina beat #10 Kentucky at Kentucky on Saturday, making our win at North Carolina earlier this week look all that more impressive. As a result of these turn of events this past week, Illinois will move up to #11, at least, if not jump into the top 10 this week. Illinois next plays Arkansas Little-Rock in the Assembly Hall on Monday Night, followed by Georgetown on Thursday Night. We will watch Monday's game at Texadelphia, and Thursday's game at Ringers in Hi-Def. Two nights ago, Arkansas-Little Rock traveled to Michigan State, out-rebounded the Spartans (a team whose coach emphasizes rebounding), and lost by only 5 points. On their way back to Arkansas, they stopped by our house for an old-fashioned butt-whooping.
Easy win over Arkansas-Little Rock--Motion Offense 101 8-0December 5, 2005 It wasn't all easy, and the Trojans kept sticking around several times when we all thought Illinois was about to pull away. But with 12:54 left in the second half, Illinois flat-lined them: the flat-line defense from last year where the defense completely shuts the other team down while the offense slowly keeps chugging away without much fanfare. For the next 6:25, Little Rock didn't score a point as Illinois extended the lead from 2 points to 21 points. Jamar Smith led all scorers with 23 points, supplemented by some deft ball handling, aggressive defense, and an ability to step inside the perimeter to spot up for a safer, mid-range jumper. He was definitely the player of the game.
The Illini have recently been criticized because, in the past few games (and at times tonight), they looked confused and out of sync on offense, often standing around or moving randomly until the shot clock winds down. Even I have found myself yelling at the television for them to just drive and create something on offense instead of aimlessly passing the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock forces them to haphazardly throw a bad shot at the basket. These criticisms stem from undue expectations and misunderstanding (or forgetting) the fundamental principles behind the Motion Offense. For those inquiring minds who care to know, pull up a chair for some Motion Offense 101. "Motion offense" is more of a general theory of play than a finite set or scheme of plays. It is not inherently complex or difficult; indeed, it is often the first, most-fundamental offensive scheme that players learn in high school. The theory is that a team can create open shots through moving and screening off the ball through defined patterns of motion that work well to create open shots given the dimensions and lay-out of the halfcourt, as well as the opportunities that arise in a man-to-man, zone, or ball-pressure defense. The idea is to produce shots through moving without the ball through these patterns instead of dribbling to an open spot, as is the tendency when playing pick-up games with friends. The "motion" can be as big as from one side of the court to another, or it could be as small as from one side of the paint to the other: or it could be from the baseline to the perimeter or from the baseline to just inside the free throw line. It could also simply involve the two post players cris-crossing and setting screens for each other for a quick post-up shot, as well. The only thing in common between the many versions of motion offense out there is that off-the-ball motion creates an opportunity to pass the ball to an open player. Thus, driving with the ball is not an intrinsic part of a pure motion offense: passing and moving without the ball is. One common motion offense play that the Illini have run is the "Jack-in-the-Box," diagramed below. Dee Brown (Player 3 in Fig 1 below) usually sets the play up while holding the ball on the perimeter off to one side. He passes to the post player in the corner in front of him (5) to draw attention to the ball. He then runs toward the ball to again divert attention to the ball. As he sweeps around the corner and turns along the baseline, the post player (5) moves out as players 1 and 2 shift toward the ball to focus attention to the right side. In Fig 3, player 5 then re-directs the ball back to the top of the key, completing the illusion that Dee is out of the play. As Dee runs across the baseline (Fig 2), Augustine (4) sets a screen to pick off Dee's defender. In the meantime, the other perimeter players (1 & 2) pass the ball around the arc of the perimeter to the other side, where Dee pops out of Augustine's screen like... a Jack-in-the-Box for an open three point shot. It is a simple play, but they have actually run it successfully several times this year so far. Note that the only dribbling (if any) is incidental when the post player moves out away from Dee's baseline sweep. The shot opportunity results from four passes and off-the-ball movement.
The motion offense is counter-intuitive for “street ball” or pick-up players, who often focus on driving and setting picks for the player with the ball, not on producing open shots for players without the ball. Moreover, not all motion patterns are as simple as the above "Jack-in-the-Box play." The more complex the motion, the more difficult it becomes to execute, especially when the defenders do not react like scripted X's and O's on a white-board. Finally, an ideal, complex motion offense involves five people coordinating their movement and passing together, not just two people throwing the ball to each other in and out of the post. Due to these complexities, when a
team is learning a motion offense scheme (like the Illini are right now), they
often are instructed to never drive so as force them to focus on learning
the offense and learning how to move together to create open looks through
coordinated motion, not through
dribble-driving. That’s why many teams (like the Illini or our home-town
Longhorns) look sloppy and confused on offense early in the season; they are still
learning how to break "street ball" habits and how to coordinate their
motion and run the scheme
in game situations. That said, a pure-passing motion offense (that does not include drives to the basket) often becomes one-dimensional and too predictable, and often needs someone to be able to drive from time to time. The ability to drive is the quickest way to produce a shot when the motion offense is not flowing, or when the team is not running the same play and there is not enough time to reset the offense. In addition, if the defense starts focusing on defending passing lanes too much, they will tend to leave driving lanes open, which should be taken, not ignored. In the above "Jack-in-the-Box" play, player 4's and player 2's defenders might see the play coming and not fall for the deception to the right. Instead, they hold back and play off to the left to cut off the passing lane from player 2 to player 3 in the corner. (See Fig 4) In that case, player 2 will often have an open path to the basket and should drive to take advantage of it. Dee Brown similarly took advantage of a few of these opportunities against North Carolina, where he was able to drive from the perimeter to the basket unimpeded because North Carolina over-defended the passing lanes on the perimeter. However, the goal in the non-conference season is to prepare the team for conference play and for the tournament, not to develop street ball driving abilities. Thus, the reason why we do not see our players dribble-drive early in the non-conference season is likely because they have been instructed to get away from street-ball habits they developed at Ubben, and to focus on passing and learning an offensive scheme that will produce better results in the long run. A motion offense also improves with experience. With experience, players develop an instinctive awareness of where your teammates will be even before they decide to move there. Which leads to the second, more obvious explanation for why this year's team looks lost to our spoiled eyes. Last year, we had the same team for the 2nd straight year, so this instinct and experience was there - and it was beautiful. They often knew intuitively where to move and where the others would move. This year, we lost 5 of our top 7 players. To expect these players to pick up the complicated patterns of Weber's brand of motion offense at this point in the season is a bit impatient. It could look better at this point, but it will improve. Georgetown Meets a Blizzard in Champaign--Believe in this team 9-0Princeton Offense No Problem for Weber and Illini December 8, 2005
- Georgetown coach John Thompson III "The first half was as good a 20 minutes of defense as I've seen in a long time. We had maybe three slip-ups." -Bruce Weber During the first true blizzard of the year in Champaign, Illinois dominated Georgetown at Assembly Hall for a 58-48 victory. The final score did not reflect what a significant win this was. This game was special. For the first time this year, Illinois looked absolutely amazing--almost flawless--in the first half: by amazing, I mean shades-of-last-year amazing, with an added interior strength element we did not have last year. And against a team known for its dominant big men. Last year's team beat Georgetown's interior strength by simply shooting over them. This year, we simply outplayed them in almost every facet of the game. Everyone played with purpose and amazing focus. Instead of standing around waiting for someone else to initiate motion or for Dee Brown to start the play, everyone looked like they could read each other's minds. Like last year, the Illini often started making passes before they even looked where they were passing, as if knowing who would be there. Often, before the defense could even adjust to one of our players having the ball, he had already passed it to the next guy. Lightening fast motion and passing, with precision and purpose, leading to quick shots and great rebounding opportunities. In the first half, Georgetown didn't know what hit them. Even up 25-9, the score did not reflect how absolutely fantastic Illinois looked on both offense and defense. Georgetown only scored 13 points in the first half. 13 points. Georgetown is known for running "the Princeton Offense," a scheme designed by Princeton's former coach, Pete Carrill, which emphasizes passing and back-door cuts to create open shots. Part of the Princeton Offense's legacy stems from its ability to slow the game down into strategic half-court sets, thereby allowing a weaker team overcome a disparity in talent through tightly executing a cohesive team strategy.* Due to the slower pace, 13 points in a half is not unheard of for a team that runs the Princeton offense. But not when the other team scores 28 in that half and more than doubles those 13 points. In that case, the strategy is not working. It is turning against you. And turn against them it did. Illinois had prepared for this offense last year not only for Georgetown, but also for Northwestern, which also plays a version of the Princeton offense. And, frankly, Northwestern should really reconsider their options when they play Illinois because Illinois could write the textbook on how to defend this offense. "It was a slowdown game," said Dee Brown, who led the Illini with 16 points. "Nothing you can do about that. You guard 'em; you stop 'em. We can play slow or fast. They key for us is to continue to defend and rebound." Illinois' precision of offense, itself, also threw Georgetown off balance, especially in the first half. Due to Illinois' quick, purposeful execution of the motion offense, Georgetown often looked like it was looking for a rebound when the ball had actually been passed twice to the opposite side of the court; or Georgetown was looking for a pass when a shot was already rebounding off the rim above them. As a result, Illinois had exactly twice as many offensive rebounds as Georgetown did (18-9), translating to lots of second-chance points down low. Moreover, as opposed to last year when we relied almost exclusively on Roger Powell for our aggressive, offensive rebound put-backs, we had five different players contributing down low, including the much-maligned Warren Carter who played with a tremendous amount of confidence that we have never seen in a game before. Illinois shot very poorly in the second half, which prevented the game from being a complete blowout and allowed Georgetown to even come to within 8 points at 52-44. So it was not a perfect game. But we already know that this team has great shooters and will overcome that lapse. Dee Brown, Jamar Smith, and Rich McBride are all phenomenal shooters, with Augie, Carter, & Randle all showing solid mid-range finesse. What this team has lacked is offensive and defensive precision, aggression, and cohesiveness that give these shooters an opportunity to shine. And we had plenty of each in this game. So much so that shooting 9-for-25 in the second half to lower our overall field goal percentage to 32% did not matter at all in the end. But the best part about this game and watching the Illini play with the dominance and precision of last year's team is what this performance says about Bruce Weber. He really can coach. With last year's success, Weber has drawn his share of blind-faith sycophants: so many so that his nick-name among Illini fans is "B.A.M.:" Bruce All-Mighty (after the Jim Carey movie). Even without two (and arguably three) of Bill Self's premier recruits (Shawn Livingston, Charlie Villanueva, and Julian Wright), Weber coached mostly the backups of Self's recruiting class--including only one, undersized McDonald's All-American--to a level of success that has never been heard or seen at Illinois or virtually anywhere outside of Los Angeles or North Carolina. But for every success, there remained some critical doubt and enough reason to at least withhold judgment. He fell short on the ultimate stage against a Carolina team that was soundly beaten by a team Illinois had completely dominated earlier that season (Wake Forest). He was playing with someone else's recruits and didn't seem to be able to recruit stellar players, himself. Perhaps this was just a lucky run, like Mike Davis' early run at Indiana or Steve Fisher's early runs at Michigan, or (closer to home) Ron Turner's brief run at the Sugar Bowl before allowing the Illinois football program to fall into the crapper two short years later. (The enthusiasm of a new coach often wears off after two or three years). Perhaps last year's team's survival through the turmoil of two coaching changes in three years is what tempered them and brought them together to gel as such a unit. Indeed, their run didn't really start until the January 2004 player's-only meeting where Dee Brown convinced the team they needed to stop fighting Weber and work together with him. That unity arguably stemmed as much from the special relationship between the players as it did from Weber. At the very least, it was premature to make any long-term assessments until more long-term results came in. Those results are starting to come in. This year's team has even less widely-recognized talent than last year's team in term of high school scouting reports. But they are gelling just as much. They went through a few months of confusion and growing pains, but the way they played tonight, they could beat anyone in the country. I don't say that often. In fact, I rarely say that about ANY team of mine for fear of getting my hopes up too much. But I said it last year after the and I will repeat it again now: the way they played tonight, this year's team could beat any team in the country. Anyone. Not that they will. And definitely not that they are as good as or better than last year's team: they have a LONG way to go to get there. But (shockingly enough) they could be better than last year's team. They will not repeat the regular-season domination, in large part because they simply don't have as tough a non-conference schedule to go through. They might not even win the Big Ten Title this year. But suffice to say that they could win the one thing that last year's team could not. I frankly didn't think that would be possible watching this team so far this year. I do now. We saw a glimpse of what this team could be tonight, and the future looks VERY bright. ___________________ *-Basketball 101 footnote: "The Princeton Offense" is a scheme designed by Princeton's former coach, Pete Carrill, which emphasizes passing and back-door cuts to create open shots. Part of the Princeton Offense's legacy stems from its ability to slow the game down into strategic half-court sets, thereby allowing a weaker team overcome a disparity in talent through tightly executing a cohesive team strategy. Despite slowing the pace of the game down, the strategy of the Princeton Offense depends upon four players executing decisive, quick movement through pre-determined patterns of movement, somewhat like Bruce Weber's motion offense. Often, the motion does not produce a shot until a lot of time has expired and several strategic patterns have been run. However, contrary to a pure "motion offense," the ball movement in the Princeton Offense often flows through the post player (usually the center), whereas the motion offense more evenly (and less predictably) distributes the ball. In a sense, the Princeton Offense often uses the center as a sort of pivot point, using his height to see the floor and spot open opportunities before they develop. The Princeton Offense does not require a dominant scoring center, but does rely on the center's ability to pass and make good quick judgments on where to pass. It thus also relies on the center's intelligence to know the scheme so well that he can be able to know where the open opportunities will develop before they develop. That's why it works so well at Princeton: it required smart, heady players to be able to use their intelligence to overcome their lack of pure physical talent.. The upshot is that the Princeton Offense purposefully slows the pace of the game down into halfcourt sets so that more high-powered, fast-break offenses have fewer opportunities to run the score up. The slower pace also often throws faster teams off their rhythm.
Quack!: P.C. School Name Does Not Help Ducks Avoid 30-point loss to Illini"If they keep playing the way they did tonight and Dee continues to play the way he did against us, they can be as good as they were last year." - This game had trap written all over it. Illinois had played 10 games in 23 days, with no more than two days rest between any two games. Illinois took an overnight bus to Chicago after the Georgetown game to travel to Oregon after playing one of their most impressive games all year. Illinois had survived scares against Wichita State and Xavier, and had gone into Chapel Hill to defeat the Tarheels on their home floor. Riding an undefeated high at 9-0, Illinois was on the cusp of breaking into the top-10 despite losing five of its top-7 players from last year. A normal young team would perhaps get over-confident at this point. In the meantime, Oregon had been snake bitten by Georgetown and upset by Vanderbilt, arguably because they were looking ahead to the rematch against us. The rumor mill and media coverage in Eugene and throughout Oregon looked forward to this game. And they were playing in Portland on the Trailblazer's home court, similar to the United Center in dimensions and layout where this team struggled against Xavier. However, Illinois came out on fire and simply never stopped. As opposed to last year where Illinois usually pulled ahead during stretches of flat-line defense, Illinois simply continued a slow progression of outscoring Oregon at all points in the game and showed no signs of weakness. They were up by 21 at half, and won by 30, 89-59. "We've seen all their tapes, and that's the best we've seen them," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "Dee took his game to another level. He controlled the tempo. He's a fabulous player. They just took us apart," Offensively, Illinois got better as the game progressed, sinking 56.3 percent in the second half after connecting on 45.7 in the first half. The constant was the play of Brown.
To explain the byline, some might remember that, last year, Oregon's predominantly white, middle-class fringe students protested on the Oregon campus because Oregon's administration was insensitive and culturally unaware enough to schedule a home-and-home series with a school that still had an Indian name and symbol. Illinois responded with a 17-point victory at the United Center in Chicago during its school-record second week as the consensus #1 team in the country. This year, the NCAA joined the protest and enacted a questionable ban on several school's hosting NCAA postseason tournaments due to their Indian-based team names, as well as banned the display of "hostile and abusive" school symbols or team names. An appeals panel upheld the ban on the Chief, while graciously allowing Illinois to retain its name. Illinois responded this year with a 30-point win... in Oregon. One word: relevancy.
Illini Cruise Past Final Non-Conference Opponents--Big Ten Preview 14-0December 30, 2005 After opening the Big Ten season with a huge home win over #7 Michigan State, Illinois lost its first game at Iowa that very next weekend. Iowa took advantage of Illinois' most obvious Achilles Heel: an off-night by Dee Brown. Not only can Dee not be expected to play perfectly every night, but the critical nature of Dee's performance to this team's success sends a clear message to future opponents: clamp down on Dee Brown and Illinois' offense falls apart. Not only is Dee's scoring too critical to Illinois' offense, but his ability to work the ball, draw the defense, and thereby create shot opportunities is vital to Illinois' success. And that lynch-pin will make us vulnerable. Hopefully, the rest of the team will pick it up in the second half of the season, or we might not continue this level of success. Fortunately, almost everyone else in the top-ten lost on that same weekend, as well, and Illinois held its ground at #6 in the coaches poll. Gonzaga somehow leapfrogged Illinois to #6 in the AP poll, even though their most impressive win was a triple-overtime win over the same Michigan State team that Illinois soundly defeated by ten; and Gonzaga even benefited from Michigan State suffering from dehydration and cramps in that win. (Don't tell me that mid-majors don't get enough respect; they get TOO MUCH respect!!) Now Gonzaga gets to cruise through an easy conference schedule while Illinois faces arguably the toughest conference in basketball. Illinois then escaped a close game at home against Michigan to improve to 16-1 on the season. Before the season started, nobody ever expected this team, which lost five of its best seven players from last year including two first-round NBA draft picks, to ever play this well en route to a 16-1 record. I fully expected The Big Ten is deep this year: really deep. Although the Big Ten lost the Big Ten-ACC challenge, the Big Ten for the first time ever has the strongest RPI rating of all the conferences, and has posted the best non-conference record. As opposed to last year when it was a three-team race between Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan State all season long, seven of the eleven Big Ten teams have a legitimate shot at winning the conference this year: Illinois, Michigan State, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan. All these teams should earn NCAA bids. Road wins will be rare this year, and home losses will be devastating to any team's chances. Roster Mid-Season Report Card
Dee Brown. (6-0 Sr.) Little is known about this quiet, unassuming player. Little known off-season trivia fact regarding Brown: the NCAA has actually declared "jersey-popping" a technical foul this year.
James Augustine. (6-10 Sr.) Many insiders have said that Augustine has the most NBA potential of any player on last year’s team. Despite an amazing postseason prior to the Elite 8 game, the final three games of last year in which Augustine disappeared on court and fouled out twice gives Augustine something to prove. You might be surprised to find out that, in interviews, he is a fast-talking, smart, level-headed, fun-loving guy.
Brian Randle. (6-8 R-So.) Randle injured himself in practice last year by punching a backboard out of frustration. Before the injury, he promised to be one of the most exciting players on the team, having made several Sportscenter “Top Ten Plays” with monster dunks in 2003. He probably would have challenged or replaced Roger Powell in the starting lineup, especially given how much trouble Powell sometimes had following the system. He has freakishly long arms, and a year of practice and study could make this a shocking breakout year. Beyond his dunks and sheer athleticism, he remains an unproven player, but he has the most potential to be a breakout superstar who carries the Illini farther than expected.
Rich McBride. (6-8 Jr.) McBride was the fourth guard after the triumvirate of guards we enjoyed last year. He served a role mostly in just giving the stars a rest. However, except for Dee Brown, McBride was more highly-touted in his class of recruits than anyone on last year’s team was in their recruiting years. When healthy, he is a deadly shooter. However, foot injuries have hampered his development and significantly affected his shot. Weber has even brought in a slew of foot doctors to treat him and develop orthodics for him, as well as trainers to analyze video of his on-court movement in slow motion to identify potential problems in the way in which he plants and cuts or shoots. Playing off the bench, McBride also gained a lot of weight toward the end of the year, which added to his foot problems. He has lost 20 pounds from his Final Four weight, and could break out into a solid spot-up shooter. Although everyone must step-up to fill the void from last year, McBride and Randle are the two most important players who must particularly step up.
Warren Carter. (6-9 Jr.) Tall and lanky, there are rumors that even though he might be the fourth best player on the Illini, he might be relegated to the bench because his finesse inside skills are somewhat duplicative of Augustine’s skills. (Weber might opt for a stronger power forward to augment instead of duplicate Augustine: like Pruitt or Arnold). He played nervously and below his potential last year off the bench, but he showed the most promise of the returning big men who played last year off the bench. Great things are coming out of the rumor mill about his development in practice.
Although Carter has improved over last year, reports of his development into a potential star over the summer were greatly exaggerated. Although he has shown flashes of absolute brilliance, he still struggles to find that balance between feeling comfortable as a role player on a team while exploiting his natural individual abilities. C+
Shaun Pruitt. (6-10 So.) Pruitt played some time last year, but never really hit his stride and always seemed to look befuddled when he was in the game. Thus, most of the big-men substitution time went to Ingram, Carter, and Nick Smith (the tallest Illini player ever). However, like McBride, Pruitt garnered tremendous expectations as a recruit. Rumor has it that Weber really is impressed with his off-season improvement more than anyone else, meaning that he might develop into the fifth starter.
Pruitt has emerged as the clear fifth starter, showing some amazing interior post moves when the ball actually makes it to him in the post. He is perhaps the most underutilized weapon the Illini have right now, as shown by his 17-point career game against Indiana. However, he still can show some improvement in aggressiveness and poise. B+
Marcus Arnold. (6-8 R-Jr.) Last year, Illinois clearly lacked a true, strong, dominant power forward, with 6-6 Roger Powell clearly lacking the height against dominant big men. No such problem this year. If Pruitt fails to develop into the true power forward that Illinois lacked last year, Marcus Arnold is not a bad option. A transfer from Illinois State who sat out last year, most Illini fans over-rate him because his best game ever came two years ago against the Illini when he seemed to be able to score at will. He was solid but not as stellar in Illinois State’s remaining games. However, he has enjoyed a year to learn Weber’s system in practice, so he could also prove to develop into a valuable player who seemingly comes from nowhere to have a significant impact on Illinois’ season.
Arnold has shown everyone that he was, indeed, the second star on a Missouri-Valley Conference team, and not the interior messiah that many reports had claimed him to be. Although he has some amazing ability, he lacks the poise to finish plays that everyone knows he has the ability to finish. C
The Freshman
Jamar Smith (Fr.) Although just a freshman, he is rumored to be the best pure shooter on the team, and perhaps the smoothest, most natural shooter Illinois has had in 15 years. He lit it up from 3-point range against Illinois Wesleyan, and the Wesleyan broadcasters could not stop raving about him, the fluidity of his shot, and how his shots looked like they would fall without question as they left his hand. He is the latest in the line of Peoria recruits. If he plays like he did against Illinois Wesleyan, McBride might have some serious competition for a starting spot.
Smith has been the most pleasant surprise this year. "The Microwave" has shown some brilliance from three-point range, shooting over 50% from behind the arc so far, making some people ridiculously wish he would take McBride's starting spot even though he lacks the body size to contribute defensively like McBride does and even though he still plays somewhat scared: just like... the freshman that he is. He also has shown some strong ball-handling skills. A
Chester Frazier. (Fr.) Athletic and fast. He played for Weber on a European touring team last summer. Perhaps because he has corn rows and can run, he is described as a mini-Dee Brown.
Frazier's speed, ball handling, and defense are as good if not better than Dee Brown's. Thus, he has emerged as the #2 point guard. However, his scoring is atrocious, which tremendously limits his effectiveness. A true point guard needs at least a credible ability to score to at least draw some attention to himself so as to open up scoring opportunities for others. Right now, however, he is averaging less points than scrub Calvin Brock, despite playing not only five times the minutes, but far more significant minutes than Brock does. The Illini clearly reduce their scoring options by one player when he is on the floor, which allows the defense to key on everyone but him. His scoring might develop with experience and confidence, but right now it is his primary liability. B
Calvin Brock. (R-Fr.) Brock sat out last year due to a broken hand. He was the albino-looking bench warmer with a wrist cast who was the first to jump onto the court at timeouts. The rumor mill is filled with praise for his leaping ability, with one well-spread shot showing him dunking with his shoulders even to the rim, arm towering two feet above the rim, and about four feet of empty space under his feet. Young, enthusiastic, and extremely athletic.
I like Brock for his enthusiasm on the bench. He has also shown some amazing leaping ability, as rumors had reported. However, he is clueless out on the floor and his shot is atrocious, making the rumors of his being the second coming rather exaggerated. D
CJ Jackson (6-8 Fr.) At 265 pounds, he was recruited by LSU, Auburn, Florida State, and Georgia as an offensive lineman before he committed to Illinois for basketball. A big boy. He might redshirt this year with three or four solid big men ahead of him in the depth chart.
Jackson showed some promise in exhibition games, but has opted to redshirt this year, in part because his work ethic in practice led Weber to leave him as the last man in the rotation. The only chance we will see him play is if Augie or Pruitt go down to injury. Fortunately, a year of practice will make him more effective when he does get into the rotation next year. Chris Hicks (6-2 Fr.) A walk-on from Whitney Young who was not listed before the season began, the "hottie with the body" (as the teenage girls are wont to call him) has shown a great attitude and some surprising ability for a walk-on limited to the practice squad and scrub minutes. He has shown more potential and poise than Brock, leading some to speculate that he should perhaps take Brock's scholarship for next year unless Brock develops some serious poise and intelligence. B+
Close Loss at Indiana Shows Improvement 16-2January 17, 2006 Illinois lost a close game at Indiana, 62-60. As even Dick Vitale noted, wins on the road in the Big Ten will be rare this year, so this game meant more to Indiana's chances of winning the Big Ten than it did to Illinois' chances. Even though Dee Brown had another off-night on the road, Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle stepped up to make it a close game at the end, as opposed to the Iowa game where they were invisible and Iowa routed us. Pruitt led Illinois in scoring with a career-high 17 points, showing some nice touch and aggressiveness inside. Randle added another 15 points. Despite scoring only 5 points, Dee Brown also kept his head in the game and never lost his poise, which helped inspire his teammates to rally around him. Progress.... all we need is progress.... The refs were awful, and allowed a lot of fouls to go unnoticed, but we cannot keep relying on complaints about the refs and allowing the other team's big man to roll over us. It looks more and more like the college game has sped up in recent years far beyond the refs' ability to call the game accurately; so it will never be perfect and the benefit will be random, if not favorable to the home team. Great teams, however, learn to play above poor refereeing. As much as I love him, Augie, especially, is developing an ineffective, Nick-Smith tendency to pout when he receives the short end of poor officiating. He gets into a pouty mode where all he does is stand up straight on defense, acting as if that's all he can do, which is not true because there are alternatives besides what he gets called for and just standing there. His doing so makes him less effective as a defender. Moreover, his style and method of arguing to the refs is about as effective as a public defender's: not so much. In contrast, Dee smiled last night when he fell victim to multiple bad calls and simply moved on to the next play. Put it this way: we already won a National Championship last year if you take out the impact of bad refs. But that "Championship" was a phantom because bad refs are a part of the game. We need to win a Championship where we DON'T allow the refs to make that kind of difference. Accordingly, Augie needs to stop moping and pouting. Hopefully, he will focus on how to improve and adapt his play to the officiating instead of stand in stupefied amazement of it. It's perhaps the only real, significant flaw to one of my favorite players, which is why it's so frustrating to see. As feared, Marco Killinsgworth of Indiana led all scorers with 23 points that he made look easy. Although Killingsworth is a thug, he has the poise and focus to give his interior shots the touch they need to fall in. They aren't garbage/luck when they fall so consistently as they did. Illinois' Marcus Arnold, for example, is the contrary: he has close to Killingsworth's body and physical ability, but nowhere near the poise and concentration to get those contested lay-ups into the basket.
Three Easy Wins; First In Big Ten 19-2January 28, 2006 Illinois took care of business during its easiest three-game stretch of the Big Ten season in which it played three of the four worst Big Ten teams, two of them at home. Illinois defeated Northwestern 58-47 in Evanston, and defeated Minnesota 77-53 and Purdue 76-58 in Champaign. The Northwestern game featured the Big Ten's version of the "Princeton Offense" that slows the pace of the game down so as to make each possession count more toward the final score. Doing so allows a weaker team to use its passing skills to overcome a disparity in talent. Unfortunately, making each possession count more ended up hurting Northwestern due to Illinois' incredible defense. The Minnesota and Purdue games both started out shaky if not poorly. Both teams should not have been in the game by halftime, but the game remained within reach until Illinois' defense completely stifled their offense for key stretches in the second half during which Illinois continued scoring at its normal pace, pulling away to safe wins. In the meantime, Wisconsin lost its second Big Ten game of the season when Michigan beat them in Ann Arbor today, 85-76. That game pulled Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois into a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten, with the tiebreakers giving Illinois first place (due to Illinois perfect non-conference record). However, now the Illini travel to Wisconsin in what could be one of the key games determining the Big Ten champion. Wisconsin generally is virtually unbeatable at home, but they just lost a fluke game there to North Dakota State last weekend. Thus, I'm calling an official "Paint the Pub Orange" night!! We will gather at Ringers WEARING ORANGE at 6:00 on Tuesday to watch the Wisconsin game in Hi-Def. This is a joint-gamewatch party with the Wisconsin alumni club, so the importance of everyone coming out (and wearing orange) is even greater. Wisconsin has a strong and active Austin contingent, so we all need to show up, even though the game is available on regular ESPN. The LAST thing I want to hear is our "I-L-L... I-N-I" cheers drowned out by their funky "W-I-S-C-O... N-S-I-N" cheer!! To liven things up a bit, let me note again that Wisconsin lost last weekend at home to the not-so-mighty "Bison" of North Dakota State. Thus, I suspect that it would not at all be appreciated by Wisconsin fans if we brought any stuffed buffaloes, pictures of buffaloes, even Colorado Buffaloes gear, or anything like that which could... remind them of that game. (FYI, a "Bison" is the North American version of the buffalo (as opposed to, say, water buffaloes of Africa)). I will personally buy dinner and drinks all night long for anyone who finds and brings a 12-inch or taller Orange-colored statue... of a Bison. Finally, we are going after our 20th win of the season in Madison, just like last year when we broke the then-longest home winning streak in the Nation. Let's hope the similarity to last year holds up, and we stop Wisconsin's current home winning streak at... 1 (against Penn State last week after they lost to North Dakota State). Badger Roadkill; Illini Again the First in NCAA to 20 Wins 20-2January 31, 2006
Illinois rose to the occasion and soundly defeated Wisconsin in Madison, 66-51. The Austin Illini also had another good showing, out-drawing the Austin Badgers in our joint gamewatch party by something like 3-to-1. We are also getting more regular attendance for our game-watches than even last year, which is amazing. Keep it up; the more the merrier!
Illinois next plays Penn State this Saturday night at 8:00, available only through ESPN Full Court. We will gather at Texadelphia to watch the Penn State game Saturday night at 8:00. After Saturday's game, Illinois then has over a week off before it plays Ohio State the following Sunday.
The significance of the win over Wisconsin at Wisconsin cannot be understated for this season, so it deserves some elaboration via e-mail, not just the Austin Illini website.
No other Big Ten team has won at Wisconsin in five years under Bo Ryan, except Illinois. Michigan State was blown out in Madison the second game of the Big Ten season 82-63, and Iowa lost by ten, as well. (Penn State lost by 30 there, too).
Until Illinois came to town last year, Wisconsin had the longest home winning streak in the country. Illinois has now won there twice in a row.
With the win, Illinois is the first team in college basketball to win 20 games... also for the second year in a row: and that 20th win both years came... at Wisconsin.
With the win, Illinois took over sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.
Illinois also does not play Wisconsin in Champaign this year, so the tiebreaker between the two now goes to Illinois. Despite slumping recently, Wisconsin has the easiest Big Ten schedule by far, so they will definitely be in the mix at the end of the season. Getting that tiebreaker over them gets us one huge step closer to a fourth straight Big Ten Championship.
However, perhaps the most important aspect of the win are the things you won't read on ESPN.com regarding what it reflected of this year's team's development.
First, although Dee Brown again led the Illini with 16 points, Rich McBride joined him with 16 of his own, and Brian Randle and Jamar Smith both contributed 12 each of their own. Hampered by foul trouble, Augie only added 7 points. As Bruce Weber noted in his post game comments, we all know that Dee and Augie are of course phenomenal players, but we won this game as a team without fully and completely relying on these seniors. Rich McBride is finally settling into his role as a starter and feeling comfortable sharing the scoring burden. Normally, Augie leads all rebounders, but with Augie in foul trouble, Brian Randle stepped up (or jumped up) up to snag a game-high 13 rebounds, 7 of them offensive rebounds leading to tip-in put-backs.
Second, one of the best efforts Illinois has put forth this year came on the road in one of the most difficult venues to win. In a clutch game, the team rose to the occasion and play phenomenally well.
Third, before the Wisconsin game, this year's team had struggled on the road so far in Big Ten play, going 1-2. They were dominated at Iowa early in the season, almost survived falling into a big first-half hole to almost beat Indiana at Indiana, and then completed the progression of improvement by beating one of the toughest home Big Ten teams on their home court. (There was that win at Northwestern in the mix, but... yeah, well, anyway....)
On a related note, the fact that this team came back from a huge deficit on the road after opening the game horribly shows some amazing grit, as well as some effective coaching adjustments. After falling down by 15 at 26-11, Illinois scored the next 19 points unanswered and finished the first half on a 21-4 run to take a 2 point lead into halftime that they barely gave up for less than a minute in the third half. Instead of falling apart when down by 15 on the road, they responded by flat-lining Wisconsin's offense for almost 9 full minutes in the first half.
Back home to Champaign to play Penn State this Saturday night.
S-A... T-U-R... D-A-Y ... NIGHT!
(And I don't even have the excuse that I'm writing this at 1:45 a.m.!!)
You Gotta Be Lion! Penn State Snaps Illinois' home winning streak. 20-3 February
4, 2006 Illinois lost to Penn State at home when Rich McBride's last-second, game-winning 3-point shot was waived off. There, I finally wrote it. The lowly ninth-place Nittany Lions snapped Illinois' 33-game home winning streak, preventing Illinois from entering into a tie for first with Iowa. That's like Illinois defeating Penn State this past year in football: unthinkable. How did it happen? Four factors, peppered by a few hindsight misjudgments. First, Penn State played the game of its life and never quit despite being controlled for 3/4 of the game. Second, Illinois was lackadaisical on defense in the second half, which allowed a feisty Penn State team to climb back in a steal the win. Third, just as Illinois' defense slipped, Penn State's defense tightened up. Instead of Illinois flat-lining their opponents, Penn State flat-lined Illinois for a crucial 5-minute stretch in the second half, and for the final three minutes of the game. You don't win too many close games when you don't score a single point in the final three minutes. Fourth, the primary hindsight misjudgment was when Bruce Weber took Rich McBride out of the game for long stretches despite his having a hot hand from the very start. Weber had a chance to make it a blowout early from which there was no coming back, but Weber instead understandably chose to use it to give Frazier, Smith, Arnold, and Carter more playing time. However, you never take the hot hand out of the game until the game is completely out of hand. And this game was never out of touch. Moreover, it would have been good to see McBride stay in so he, too, could build on his recent confidence. He's still has a lot of room for improvement, and has shown an ability recently to be ABLE to grow into his potential. Better to build on that for this year AND next year than to build only for next year. That's another reason why I wanted Dee to sit down instead of McBride. Of course, that is hindsight. The loose defense and presumptuous second-half attitude was the primary reason. Their inside men were intimidated and thwarted in the beginning of the game, but saw several easy lay-ups toward the end of the game. And the perimeter defense focused too much on who had the ball, not who would get the ball next for an open shot (to either guard that shot or cut off the passing lane, in the first place). Ordinarily, Weber's "removing the hot hand" should not have been a problem. With the dust now settled, the sky is not falling. First, it is one loss. It is only a game, one game, and not a key game at that. Second, the worst that can be said about the loss is that it erases the impressive win at Wisconsin. Illinois is in the same position they would have been without that win. Third, unlike a certain ultimately-deflating defeat last year in April, the season did not end with that loss. We all knew they would lose a game or two they should have won, even though we might not have imagined it being against Penn State at home. Moreover, the Illini can seize the opportunity of having the week off: the equivalent of a bye week in football. The loss should serve as a real wake-up call to inspire them to work their butts off this week in practice instead of coast. Nonetheless, as a result of the loss, Illinois will probably need to win three of its four remaining road games (and win its remaining home games) to remain in contention for the Big Ten Title. That means winning two of the road games at Michigan (possible), Ohio State (probable--they will come out on fire due to last year), and Michigan State (least likely). The remaining game against Minnesota will be much easier than the other three, although nothing can be taken for granted, now. And that is what ultimately makes it even more exciting to stay in tune. Illini fans have been spoiled by our record the past two years. Just as it promised to be an arguably more interesting season this year to see what the Illini could do after losing five of their top seven players and two first round draft picks, it remains exciting to see what will happen. Unlike the beginning of the season, this team has proven so far that it is capable of going as far or father than last year's team in the Tournament, even though nobody expected them to match last year's regular season. This loss could ultimately help this team if they take it as inspiration instead of deflation. Oh, and, those who paid attention might recall that I mentioned a fourth factor that contributed to the loss. Immediately before the in-bounds play during which Rich McBride got off his potential game-winning shot, Penn State fouled the Illini to stop the clock. Replays showed that the clock kept running after the whistle blew and the Illini lost perhaps a second. All they needed was one tenth of a second more, and McBride's shot would have counted.
Illini lose to OSU in Columbus Again 20-4Only Game Against Ohio State in Columbus Two Years in a Row?!?! February 12, 2006 For the second year in a row, Illinois played its only game against Ohio State on the road at Ohio State. Something is wrong with this picture. Ohio State shot the lights out, played exceptionally well, and deserved to win, 59-63, even though it did help to receive some rather favorable home-court officiating. As Weber said after the game, they were shooting threes better than we could shoot free throws. Remember, though, the problem with this two-game losing skid is NOT the second loss, as is tempting to think; it was and always will be the first loss, leaving us exactly where we were last week. Ohio State is very good this year, and, like Wisconsin, Ohio State benefits from a favorable schedule by only playing Illinois in Columbus. Such is life. Without the Penn State loss, however, Illinois would still be tied for first in the Big Ten in the loss column. Now we will probably need some help from others to win a share of the Big Ten Title. The Austin Illini road trip to Houston for the Jazz v Rockets game was a great success. We met with Deron and Luther after the game along with many Houston Illini, and both Luther and Deron seemed genuinely humbled that so many Illini showed up for them. They said that the biggest group so far had been five or six Illini in Charlotte. I also prepared some framed plaques, which we presented to them. We will definitely do it again, perhaps next year when Dee's new team comes to Houston to face off against Luther and the Rockets. Some pictures are on the Austin Illini website here; more will follow when I get a chance to edit them.
Back on track at home, again; Northwestern & Indiana 22-4February 19, 2006 Illinois got back on the winning track, defeating a pesky Northwestern team at home earlier in the week. Illinois then put its two-game losing "streak" firmly in the background last week, extending its current streak to two wins by solidly putting away Indiana at home, 70-58. The Northwestern win did not look all good. After Illinois jumped to a 15-3 lead, Illinois got lazy and allowed Northwestern to stick around. Northwestern tied the game in the second half and came back from down 15 to within three points with eight minutes left, all with Northwestern's best player sidelined for the game with back spasms. While Illinois played loose on defense, it also fell back into its "non-motion" offense where the team mostly stands around watching Dee, who in turn watches them to see if they do anything. Not a good offense-defense combination. The Indiana win, however, showed some sparks of brilliance in three key aspects that should not be overlooked. First, and perhaps best, the team didn't rely on Dee Brown's scoring. Illinois won despite a fairly poor scoring performance by Dee Brown, who scored 10 points, most of them in the second half after Illinois already had control of the game. Second, Illinois' defense returned and clamped down hard on Indiana. Indiana did not lose because they were generally a struggling team under a struggling coach who just announced he would not return next year; Indiana came to play and played well in an effort to vindicate Mike Davis after his recent tussles with Indiana's fan base. Illinois just played better and made them struggle. It thus was just a bad game for Indiana to seek vindication. With the way Illinois played, Indiana's strong effort ultimately only prevented it from being a blowout. Third, the "motion" finally returned to the motion offense. Instead of standing around watching and waiting for Dee Brown, who in turn stood around watching the team waiting for someone to move, the entire team flowed and moved like the well-oiled machine we have come to expect. That motion translated not only into more open shot opportunities and highlight-reel dunks, but to many contested shots also falling because the motion kept the shooters in the rhythm and flow of the game better. Apparently, the pollsters recognized that Illinois had regained its top-ten form and did not just cruise over a crippled team, because Illinois jumped from #14 in the AP and #13 in the ESPN poll last week, to #8 in both polls this week. In doing so, Illinois ironically leapfrogged back over Ohio State, which soundly beat Illinois just two weeks ago but stayed put this week at #12 in the ESPN poll and #13 in the AP due to a close loss at Wisconsin. The downside from the Indiana game is that the motion offense often flowed better in part because Mike Davis inexplicably set his team in odd 1-3-1 zone formations (1 man up under the basket, three men in a row in the middle, and one floater on the top of the key) instead of the standard 2-3 zone formation that has troubled Illinois all season (with three men guarding the baseline and two guards guarding either side of the free-throw line). When Indiana returned to a 2-3 zone, Illinois again struggled, albeit not as badly as it did against Ohio State, Penn State, and even Northwestern. If anything, Davis' odd strategy of switching zone formations only highlighted for our remaining opponents that the simple 2-3 zone is still the best strategy against us, as it has been all year long. With four games left, Illinois is currently tied with three other teams teams-Iowa, Ohio State, and Wisconsin-each with four losses apiece atop the Big Ten standings, with Michigan State prominently lurking in the shadows with only 5 losses and with all its tough remaining games at home. Losses are more significant in the standings than wins because some teams have more wins (Iowa) simply because they have played more games. The number of losses provides a more reliable indicator of where the top teams will settle in the standings after all games are played because wins are easier (and more presumable) for top-teams than losses; you also can't "regain" a loss in your remaining games. Unfortunately, Ohio State has the inside edge over Illinois due to Ohio State's winning the lone tie-breaker game between the two, meaning that Illinois will need not only to win its remaining games, but also get some help from others in order to win the Big Ten over Ohio State. The good news is that Illinois holds a similar lone-tiebreaker edge over one of the other first-place teams because we defeated Wisconsin at Wisconsin. Three of Illinois four remaining games are crucial to the Big Ten race: against Michigan, Iowa, and Michigan State. Tougher still, the Michigan and Michigan State games are both on the road. It will be a tough end of the season for the Illini. The Big Ten tournament also promises to be rather interesting with so many solid, evenly-matched teams in the Big Ten this year. Even the basement teams we had dismissed early in the season are capable of pulling off upsets. With Iowa's loss at Minnesota over the weekend, every one of the Big Ten contenders has now lost an upset to one of the Big Ten pretenders. Thus, don't be surprised if one or two of the six top teams fall in the early rounds of the tournament to these cellar-dweller teams. Tough loss at Michigan 22-5February 21, 2006 Illinois lost a heartbreaker at Michigan Tuesday night, 72-64. The final score did not reflect how close this game was all along. Illinois led most of the game, but Michigan surged ahead in the second half behind Daniel Horton's career-high 39 points, 25 of which he scored in the second half. Even then, Augie pulled Illinois withn two points with 45 seconds left. However, Horton clinched the game after that by hitting six free throws for the final margin. The loss likely eliminated Illinois from the Big Ten Regular season title unless a miracle happens. To add to the disappointment, unlike the Ohio State game where Ohio State shot the lights out, this game was certainly within our grasp all along. We had moments of solid defense, but the lapses hurt us badly. In particular, Horton scored most of his points on wide-open shots, which Illinois should have realized and simply stopped after it became apparent that he was Michigan's only real threat. Even Horton commented that he did not feel particularly "on" that night; he just got a bunch of incredibly open looks, making it easier than it looked or should be to score 39 points. Offensively, the Illini were also out of sync in the second half, once again befuddled by the simplest defensive scheme in basketball: the 2-3 zone. Dee Brown tried to shake things up by trying to move with the ball more often to draw defenders instead of just pass the ball aimlessly around the perimeter shell of the defense, but he was not able to capitalize on any of those extra opportunities. That said, with both these defensive and offensive lapses, Illinois still remained in the game all along on the road in a very hostile arena. Shawn Pruitt also showed flashes of brilliance and spunk, showing his potential to grow into a more dominant interior player. Nonetheless, it would be good to finally see the team do more than show potential and actually capitalize on that potential. The only two games in which this year's team truly clicked on all cylinders (Georgetown and Oregon) now seem like distant memories. If they return to that form, they could still do some damage in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, but they need to do it, not talk about it or wonder about it or just "try to work on it."
Dee Brown and James Augustine play their final game at Assembly Hall this Saturday night when Iowa comes to Champaign. We will gather at Texadelphia at 5:00 Saturday Night to watch the Iowa game and (hopefully) some of the Senior Night festivities. Also on Saturday, ESPN College Gameday will be in Austin to showcase the Texas-Kansas game later that evening (after the Illini game). As you might know, the Gameday crew does their preview with local fans in the background providing atmosphere. Fellow Austin Illini Alvil Singh has asked to organize a strong Austin Illini appearance to make sure we represent the Illini on Senior Night and show everyone what REAL ORANGE looks like here in Texas. College Gameday airs live from the Erwin Center at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. this Saturday. Thus, we will gather at the Erwin Center at 10:00 a.m. and after the Illini game at 7:00 to show our Illini colors on national television. More details will follow, but keep it in mind. It should be good fun. For those Austin Illini who also have Longhorn ties, this is NOT an effort to disrespectfully one-up the Longhorns on their own turf. (Well, the "real orange" thing is, but you understand that one.) Fans from other schools routinely show support on Gameday without incident. Indeed, last Fall when ESPN Gameday came to Austin for a football game, a Florida State fan brought one of those giant-sized Seminole flags (10 by 20 feet) without incident. Most people laughed and appreciated the enthusiasm. But to be clear, we aim to keep it respectful by emphasizing our support and enthusiasm for Illinois, not any disrespect for Texas.
Juniors show up Big on Senior Night. 23-5February 25, 2006 On "Senior night," everyone expected Dee Brown and James Augustine to shine in their final game at Assembly Hall. Nobody would have expected the Juniors and Sophomores to take over. But Junior Rich McBride led all scorers with 15 points and Junior Marcus Arnold came off the bench with 9 points and 6 rebounds, while Sophomores Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt also added 13 and 8 points, respectively. The combined underclassmen effort helped propel the Illini to a 71-59 victory over Iowa, knocking Iowa down to a three-way tie for second place in the Big Ten with Illinois and Wisconsin. Despite playing on the game's biggest stage last year and in several marquee games over their four years at Illinois, Augie and Brown admitted to nerves getting the best of them in their final home game, especially during the first half. Weber even commented that Brown wasn't his normal "class-clown" self during pre-game meetings, and mostly kept quiet to himself. Augie missed his first two free throws at the start of the game--airballing the second one--and quickly got his second foul within the first four minutes, requiring Weber to bench him for most of the remainder of the first half. He returned to score 10 of his total 12 points in the second half. Meanwhile, Brown went scoreless in the first half and only hit two three-pointers in the second half for a total of 6 points in his final game. However, Brown also dished a season-high 9 assists to help the team effort. Despite playing on the game's biggest stage last year and in several marquee games over their four years at Illinois, Augie and Brown admitted to nerves getting the best of them in their final home game, especially during the first half. Weber even commented that Brown wasn't his normal "class-clown" self during pre-game meetings, and mostly kept quiet to himself. Augie missed his first two free throws at the start of the game--airballing the second one--and quickly got his second foul within the first four minutes, requiring Weber to bench him for most of the remainder of the first half. He returned to score 10 of his total 12 points in the second half. Meanwhile, Brown went scoreless in the first half and only hit two three-pointers in the second half for a total of 6 points in his final game. However, Brown also dished a season-high 9 assists to help the team effort. To place Illinois' success the past four years in context, Dee and Augie became the winningest Illini players ever with the win over Iowa, breaking Nick Smith's one-year-old career win record at Illinois at 111. In 101 years of Illini basketball, Illinois has never seen such a productive four-year stretch, due in large part to both Dee and Augie's contributions. To state and righteously observe the obvious, it will be sad to see them go. Ohio State nonetheless remains in the driver's seat for the Big Ten title after its impressive win over Michigan State at Michigan State last week. Ohio State is a game ahead of everyone else in the loss column, and plays its two remaining games against the two worst teams in the Big Ten: Northwestern and Purdue. On the other hand, after traveling to Minnesota (always a tough away game due to the oddly-elevated court), Illinois travels to Michigan State to close out the season. Wisconsin has the toughest remaining schedule, traveling to both Michigan State and Iowa this week to close the season. Even though Illinois mathematically could still possibly win the Big Ten Title outright, the best we can realistically hope for is a tie with Ohio State if Ohio State drops one of its two cupcake games, and Illinois wins its two remaining games. Although Ohio State would get the #1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament due to its winning the only game it played against Illinois, the official title would be shared. Iowa would also share the Big Ten title, as well, if Ohio State loses a game and Iowa wins its final remaining games against Penn State and Wisconsin. After winning its final home game of the season, Illinois travels to the oddest Big Ten venue Tuesday to play Minnesota: home of the only court that is actually elevated three-feet above the benches. (Not much diving for loose balls out of bounds). The Austin Illini will gather at 8:00 on Tuesday at Texadelphia to watch the Minnesota game. We had another fantastic showing last Saturday night to watch Dee and Augie's final home game. Let's keep it up to close the season!! Gopher Roadkill 24-5February 28, 2006 Illinois played a solid road game Tuesday, stopping a feisty Minnesota team determined to send its own seniors out with an upset on their Senior Night. Although Minnesota shot incredibly well (54%, including 50% from three-point range) and stayed in the game until the end, Illinois rose to the task to propel Illinois to a 71-65 win over Minnesota, pushing their overall record to an unexpected 24-5 this season. James Augustine led the Illini in points (16), rebounds (10), and assists (7), coming within three assists of a triple-double. The prospect of a triple-double for Augie led most of us watching at Texadelphia to recklessly shout "Shoot! Shoot!" at anyone who received a pass from Augie, until we realized that we were even shouting at Shaun Pruitt to throw up long range threes... with his back turned to the basket. Fortunately, we were safely located 2000 miles away from the game, and Pruitt didn't listen to us. Dee Brown added 14 points and 4 assists of his own in another good but not spectacular game. Rich McBride also finally showed up strong in a road game, scoring 12 points and playing some solid defense not reflected in the team totals. As the third best player and role model on the team, McBride has been infamous this season for having great games at home, only to become noticeably invisible in our road losses: indeed, his disappearance on the road has been perhaps the primary difference-maker in those road losses. However, McBride's hit several key baskets at Minnesota to either contribute to an Illini run or cut short a Minnesota run. His attentiveness on defense in particular also cut off several Minnesota plays, preventing them from capitalizing on a hot shooting night for them. Despite one rather noticeable turnover late in the game, he had a great game. Marcus Arnold continued his emergence from the depths of the bench to become more of the solid player we expected from his 20-point performance against the Illini two years ago when he played for Illinois State. Instead of just marking time and taking up space, Arnold scored 6 points and, more importantly, contributed several intangibles by actually flowing with the offense and contributing some energy and enthusiasm to the team effort. The win allowed Illinois to remain in the hunt for the Big Ten Title, although those chances significantly diminished the following next night when our suburban Illinois school up North managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Ohio State. Northwestern played well for most of the game, exchanging leads and never falling too far behind. With three minutes left in the game, Northwestern led by 1 and held Ohio State scoreless for the next 2:50 . Normally, that would be enough to secure a victory at home, but this is Northwestern. They only win when you don't expect it. Even though Ohio State could barely score, Northwestern couldn't score, at all, in those final three minutes. Still, with 30 seconds left, Northwestern led by 1 as a desperation OSU shot clanged harmlessly off the rim, which should have given Northwestern the ball and the advantage to seal the victory. However, Terrance Dials grabbed the offensive rebound for Ohio State to give Ohio State the ball back. Twenty seconds later, Northwestern allowed Ron Lewis to drive untouched to the basket for a lay-up to take the lead with ten seconds left. On the ensuing play, Lewis stole the ball and was fouled. But he missed the front end of the 1-1 free throw, giving Northwestern another chance with 2 seconds left. After calling another timeout to set up a play, Northwestern's inbound pass unexplainably flew straight into the Northwestern bench. Perhaps the goal was to not take any time off the clock-which worked-but the problem with that strategy was that it gave the ball back to Ohio State , who inbounded the ball and was fouled instantly. Jerkel Foster then sealed the win for Ohi... no, actually, he sealed the loss for Northwestern with two free throws. Ohio State secured a tie for the Big Ten Title with that win, and next plays at home against lowly Purdue on Sunday. Thus, Illinois must win at Michigan State this Saturday to retain its chances of sharing the Big Ten Title should Ohio State subsequently lose to Purdue. Stranger things have happened... like P.J Tucker killing the shot clock by dribbling at the top of the key instead of running the play Barnes had designed.
Izzowned!! Illinois wins fourth straight over Michigan State. 25-5March 4, 2006 Led by Dee Brown's 20 points on Saturday, Illinois went into East Lansing and beat Michigan State on their home court for the second straight year, finishing the regular season at 25-5. For the second consecutive road game, Rich McBride also played phenomenally well and added 12 points of his own, which answers his biggest call to arms after he disappeared in all of Illinois' losses away from home. But the biggest difference (from a scoring perspective) was perhaps Jamar Smith's 10 points, Warren Carter's 6 points and even Chester Frazier's 3 points off the bench. MSU had two starters with 20 or more points, and one (Ager) with 15. Dee was Illinois' only 20-point scorer, and the next best (McBride and Pruitt) only scored 12. However, MSU's bench only scored 5 points total, all by Goran Suton (he of the missed lay-up infamy that would have won MSU's triple-overtime game against Gonzaga). That 14 point deficit in bench scoring more than explains the final 7-point deficit. Unfortunately, Illinois ended one game short of winning the Big Ten regular season title when Ohio State beat Purdue on Sunday. Ohio State clearly benefited from a favorable regular season schedule in capturing this year's regular season title. In an ideal conference schedule, all teams would play each other twice: once at one school and the second time at the other school. However, because of the 11 team rotation, the Big Ten "randomly" schedules a four single-series games where each school plays four other schools only once, and plays the other six schools twice, both home and away. Wisconsin and Ohio State fared the best in this year's rotation, playing three of the four worst teams twice while playing several of the better teams only once. Playing more games against worse teams allows a team to accumulate easier wins while avoiding tough losses. Moreover, Ohio State and Wisconsin benefited from having their toughest single-game match-ups played at home (both against Illinois). Wisconsin played one game against Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Purdue, whereas Ohio State played one game against Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota only once. The flip side for Illinois is that Illinois had its toughest single-game match-ups away from home. Moreover, Illinois two of Illinois' single-game match-ups were against the cellar teams. All other things being equal, Illinois did amazingly well to end up only one game out of first place. Michigan State also fared poorly in the single-game rotation. Although it didn't have any tough single-game match-ups away from home like the Illini did, MSU played each of the four worst teams only once, which deprived them of the opportunity of racking up wins against those teams like Wisconsin and Ohio State did. However, the schedule does not explain fully why Michigan State fell from pre-season favorites to win the Big Ten after returning the core of its Final Four team to sixth place in the Big Ten. That said, the conference championship was arguably determined by the fact that Ohio State was the only contender to not lose a game to one of those four cellar teams: they won all the games they were "supposed to" win, and then added some they weren't supposed to win. Illinois won two games they weren't "supposed to" win (at Wisconsin and at Michigan State), but fell one game behind Ohio State in the standings by losing to Penn State at home. All other contenders except Ohio State similarly were upset by the cellar teams. The scheduling problem was then exaggerated for Illinois due to the tiebreaker system the Big Ten uses for seeds into the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois and Iowa tied for second place with an 11-5 record. To determine who gets the second seed, the first tiebreaker is head to head record, which Illinois and Iowa split, 1-1. The second tiebreaker is the record against the first place, then second place, then third place Big Ten teams, until the tie is broken. The third tiebreaker is non-conference records, which Illinois would have easily won. However, both Illinois and Iowa played Ohio State (the first place team) only once: Iowa at home and Illinois away. Not surprisingly, Iowa beat Ohio State at home, whereas Illinois lost at Columbus. Thus, Iowa receives the #2 seed, mostly by virtue of its easier schedule. The seeding is important because Illinois will likely face Michigan State in its first game in the Big Ten Tournament, assuming MSU wins its first-round game against Purdue. Even though Michigan State fell to sixth in the Big Ten, they still have that nucleus that drove the to the Final Four last year, and are better than their record might indicate. Iowa, on the other hand, will face the winner of Michigan vs. Minnesota. Nonetheless, the Big Ten Tournament will be a good test of mettle for the NCAA Tournament.
After securing a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois next plays in the second round, Friday night, against the winner of the Michigan State and Minnesota game. As of now, the game will be broadcast on ESPN-Plus in regular definition, so we will gather at Texadelphia Friday night at 8:00 to watch Illinois play the winner of the Michigan State-Minnesota game. If Illinois wins that game, the games on Saturday and Sunday will be in Hi-Def, so we will likely gather at Ringers on Saturday and Sunday if Illinois advances, assuming no conflicts arise.
Big Ten Tourney Flame Out Leads to # 4 Seed in UConn's bracket 25-6March 12, 2006 The more I pay attention, the more convinced I am that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses a Lotto ping-pong ball dispenser to seed the NCAA tournament. That is perhaps the only way to escape plunging into the psychotic depths of an irrational J.F.K./Oliver Stone conspiracy theory that the whole thing is rigged. Illinois played (and beat) four non-conference teams that made it the the NCAA Tournament (North Carolina, Georgetown, Xavier, and Wichita State), and played five other Tournament teams from in conference. Georgetown and North Carolina were two of the only three teams that beat the overall #1 seed Duke all season; Illinois beat them both, and did so away from home. Illinois spent most of the season in the Top Ten, and the rest of the season just outside the Top Ten. But Illinois not only drops to a #4 seed, but a #4 seed in UConn's bracket to play UConn in the third round. Moreover, despite the NCAA's professed goal to keep teams close to home in the first two rounds, Illinois must travel to San Diego to play two West-Coast teams in the first two rounds (Air Force and Washington). It seems that if Illinois does not get a #1 seed, it automatically falls to a #4 seed. But the irrational conspiracy doesn't stop with just Illinois. George Washington finished the season virtually undefeated (26-2), ranked 6th in the country in BOTH polls, and yet fell to a # 8 seed!!! Granted, George Washington was overrated at #6, but to drop to somewhere between 32-35 in the country?!?! And it gets worse: they are destined to to meet overall-#1-seed Duke in the second round. "Good job, guys, losing only two games all year. Thank you, and enjoy the ride home." UCLA jumped from # 12 and #13 in the two polls to the highest #2 seed. From #13 to #5! Tennessee jumped from #15 and #14 in the two polls to a top-8 team with a #2 seed! Gonzaga fell from being the media-darling, #1-seed-contender to the lowest #3 seed: from overrated at #4 to insulted at #15! O.K., so strength of conference hurt Gonzaga. But then how did Memphis get a #1 seed in just as bad a conference?!?! Sure, Memphis played Duke, Texas, Gonzaga and UCLA in the non-conference, but it went 2-2 in those games and didn't face any meaningful competition through its entire conference season. And, unlike Gonzaga which went undefeated in its pansy conference, Memphis lost to UAB!! Memphis (the last #1 seed) arguably plays the weakest 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 seeds (UCLA, Gonzaga, Kansas, Indiana, Marquette, Arkansas! Pittsburgh (#4 Big East team who destroyed both West Virginia and Villanova in the Big East Tournament) must be salivating as the #5 seed in that bracket!!! (I would definitely trade Illinois' #4 seed for Pittsburgh's #6 seed. I would trade Illinois' #4 seed for Bucknell's #9 seed or even Alabama's #10 seed!!!) How does Syracuse go from being a bubble-team with a losing record in Big East conference play to a #5 seed? And how does Georgetown--which finished four places ahead of Syracuse in the Big East and beat Syracuse in their regular season match-up--end up a #7 seed? How does Nevada get a #5 seed ahead of three Big Ten teams, as well as West Virginia (3rd in the Big East), Georgetown (defeated Duke, 4th in Big East)? Indiana finished the season 5th in the Big Ten with an overall 18-11 record, whereas Wisconsin finished #4 with a 19-11 record. But Indiana gets a #6 seed in the easiest bracket, whereas Wisconsin drops to a #9 seed to face Arizona and then Villanova in its first two games?!?! Michigan State finished even lower than both Indiana and Wisconsin in the Big Ten, and yet pulled the same #6 seed as Indiana?!?! How does Florida State, which is the only other team to beat Duke this season (besides the two teams Illinois beat), not receive an at large bid, when Air Force, Bradley, The highest seed in the Missouri Valley conference was a #7 seed. However, the Missouri Valley conference somehow managed three more at-large bids to total as many bids as the ACC, Big 12, SEC, and Pac Ten. I went to Illinois State and love the Missouri Valley's love, but I'm still baffled. How does even the SEC get four teams in?
That said (and it felt good), now is not the time for the team or us as fans to whine and complain as if we were some mambie-pambie bunch of wimps. Now is the time to step up and show some focus and determination and shock the world. Can't be done??? Villanova in 85. North Carolina State in 83. Duke in 91. Syracuse in 2003. Illini in 06. Believe, baby!! Disappointing Second Round Exit (and officiating)Augie's and Dee's careers Come to a CloseMarch 18, 2006 Illinois shot 40% from the field, and held Washington to 37.8%. Both teams hit 5 three-point field goals. In addition to holding Washington to under 40% in field goal percentage, Illinois held Washington to only 17 field goals, the second lowest total that the Big Ten's best defense allowed all season. Illinois out-rebounded Washington: 34-32. And Illinois won the offensive rebound battle by even more: 15-8, which widens the disparity in field goal shooting opportunities. Steals and turnovers were pretty much even. Overcoming its free-throw shooting woes all season, Illinois shot 82% from the free throw line, whereas Washington shot only 71.7%. With those stats, you might expect that Illinois cruised to another easy victory. However, those stats omit the most crucial stat in this game: the virtual 4:1 ratio in fouls called. Although Washington shot 10% worse than Illinois from the line, they had 39 attempts compared to Illinois' 11. Illinois only took 2 free throw attempts during the entire second half. In contrast, Washington scored 28 points--42% of its point total--while standing still. Not only did Washington get spotted 28 points, but the foul trouble shut Illinois' defense down during the crucial stretch during which Washington rallied back from an 11-point deficit. Because Randle, Augie, and Pruitt all had four fouls during the final eight minutes, they couldn't afford to foul out and thereby had to let Washington glide to the basket. Indeed, Washington's 37.8% field goal percentage was likely inflated by this stretch of defenselessness imposed upon the Illini. It also made Washington look better than they were: like Stephen Segal in the movies, where he looks incredibly impressive beating all those guys up (impressive comeback, swift & nifty moves...), until you look at the guys he's beating--how they wait for their turn, and stand there and let him punch them--and you ultimately realize that perhaps, just maybe, he's beating them simply because they aren't allowed to give him their best effort. Randle also had two all-ball blocks negated by fouls. No body contact, just a foul because he blocked the shot while it was still in the Washington player's hands. On the other end, Washington mauled our players inside, leading to a surprising 5-0 disparity in blocked shots. And even with those advantages, Washington still could only pull out a three point victory. Now, granted, complaints about the officiating raise questions of our simply being sore losers. And my own contrarian instinct leads me to search for other answers. Indeed, our strategic adjustments to the foul trouble backfired once again. Weber strategically slowed the game down and ran the clock during several possessions in the final ten minutes to shorten the game. But doing so not only drove us out of our rhythm and momentum that took us from down-13 late in the first half to up-11 mid-way through the second half; it also allowed Washington to completely seize the momentum from us. One of the principal tenets of team sports is that a "prevent" style of play only "prevents" you from winning. When a team is comfortably ahead, it should continue to play the game the way that got you the lead, not change that winning strategy into one designed to merely protect that lead and "prevent" them from scoring on big plays. Changing from a winning strategy unnecessarily runs the risk that the change will only help the other team, especially when that change reduces your team’s aggressiveness and focus. Successful programs continue to play the way that got them the lead until it is a blowout, then let the bench players continue that level of play until the game ends. However, I still can't ignore the elephant in the room. In four of the past six years, Illinois has been eliminated from the Tournament through foul trouble and a shocking disparities in free throw attempts: Arizona in 2001; Duke in 2004; Carolina in 2005; and this year against Washington. The Arizona 2001 loss remains the worst display of disparate officiating, but this year's loss comes close. The flip side of noting that trend is the admission that we were fairly defeated in the Tournament recently in 2000, 2002 and 2003. I understand and can accept losing to a good team that plays better (Florida in 2000; Kansas in 2002), or even a worse team that simply out-plays us (Notre Dame in 2003). But losing to the officials is tough to swallow. Although our five other losses this year might have included the inevitable questionable calls, each of those losses stemmed primarily either from our falling apart (Penn State, MSU in Big Ten Tourney) or from the other team shooting the lights out or otherwise out-playing us (Iowa at Iowa, Michigan at Michigan and Ohio State at OSU). So the bad officiating complaint is not a knee-jerk response. Moreover, as I wrote last year, removing the bad officiating does not make it a foregone conclusion that we would have won those games. Last year, Carolina was a great team that would have adjusted and likely kept the game close and perhaps even won even if Shaun May couldn't get away with blatant offensive fouls driving to the basket and even if James Augustine had played more than 9 minutes in the game before fouling out with ticky-tacky fouls. The problem is that we will never know; we were all deprived of a great game and an opportunity for the Championship. The final problem about complaining about the officiating after the game ends is that it is useless. When all the wind settles, Illinois is still eliminated. Dee Brown and James Augustine will never play for Illinois again. There is no appeal; there is not remedy. The fact remains, though, that bad officiating is becoming more and more a part of the game as the speed of the game increases and officials simply cannot keep up. Because it is a constant factor, we probably need to adjust instead of expecting the world to adjust to us. Illinois was not the only Big Ten team that struggled due to excessive fouls. Big Ten (and to a lesser extent, Big 12) play is typically more physicial, and the contact that Big Ten refs allow as incidental gets called by mid-major refs in the Tournament accustomed to daity-girl basketball. It also possibly leads to a presumption with certain officials that if a Big Ten player LOOKS like he made contact, then he must have, whereas a Pac Ten player gets more of the benefit of the doubt. Like other Big Ten teams, we can continue to whine and get knocked out prematurely, or we can adjust our game so that our performance reflects our abilities. That said, every year, 64 of 65 NCAA Tournament teams end their season with a loss. Including conference tournaments, most of the remainder do so, as well. It's the nature of the Beast. Thus, most of the successful senior players end their careers with disappointment. Life goes on. Also, to place the loss in perspective, none of last year's Final Four teams made it past the second round this year. Louisville did not even make it into the Tournament, whereas both North Carolina and Michigan State lost to George Mason during its surprising run to the Sweet 16. Indeed, Illinois came closest to advancing and fell victim to less of an upset. (George Mason is a #11 seed; Washington a #5 seed). Nonetheless, for the fourth straight year, none of the previous year’s Final Four participants will return to the Final Four. In contrast, last year, Texas was a #8 seed that fell in the first round. This year, they are a dominant #2 seed. Villanova was a #5 seed that didn't see the second weekend, compared to a #1 seed this year. Memphis didn't make the Tournament last year, and shot to a #1 seed this year. Ohio State also didn't even make the Tournament last year, but won the Big Ten and earned a #2 seed this year. Kentucky was a #2 seed, which fell to a #8 seed this year. The face of the landscape drastically year-to-year. (Unless, that is, you are at Kansas, in which case no matter how many big-time recruits you snatch from Illinois, you still get knocked out in the first round). We return the top three scorers from our first-round victory over Air Force, and we have two goliath big men coming in next year (6-8 redshirt freshman Charles Jackson and 6-11 Chicagoan Brian Carlwell), as well as a highly-talented small forward, Richard Semrau, from Ohio. As much as I love Dee and Augie as players, their graduation will give our young stars a chance to emerge from their shadows. It is tempting to say that we are sunk now that the final starters from our Final Four team have left, especially because we relied on them so much this year. But Dee and Augie sheltered many of the underclassmen from the responsibility. The necessity of responsibility can often bring out performance that rises to the task. Indeed, that is exactly how our Final Four team from last year emerged: they rose to their responsibility only after they could no longer rely on Brian Cook's leadership. The other thing is that both Dee Brown and James Augustine are headed to the NBA: Dee because of his speed and energy, and Augie because of his interior rebounding and touch. With their success should come even more recruits to continue our building success. |
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