Austin Illini Club
Austin Illini Club
|
|
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 t |
