Austin Illini Club
Austin Illini Club
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2006-2007 Austin Illini Game recaps: Tough Home Loss to Maryland, 7-1 Loss to Xavier: Don't Give Up Yet Losses to Michigan and Ohio State; Still Hope Easy Win against Minn; just what we needed Close, but not enough against Wisconsin; Grudge Match with IU next Illini begin Sampscum rivalry 1-0; Eric Gordon Saga Revisited Back on Track; big win against MSU Winning Streak!! Illini put Gophers away Win streak to 3 with win over Wild-Kittens Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell injured in severe car crash Board of Trustees Retires Chief Illiniwek Illini win Chief's final two games Offensive collapse at Iowa; Big Ten Tournament Preview; 2 Football Starters dismissed from Team Illini advance to Big Ten Tournament Final Four!! Loss to Wisconsin in Big Ten Semis; NCAA Tournament preview and analysis Disappointing First-Round NCAA Loss to Virginia Tech
Illinois 2006 Schedule and Results are the following for the next month:
All Times Central. Home games in Orange; Away games in Blue.
Illinois won its two exhibition games against Lewis (83-58) and SIU-Edwardsville (76-57). Illinois opens its 2006-07 season this Monday, November 13, against Austin Peay, famous for its chant, "Let's go Peay" that we enjoyed a few years ago when Illinois played Peay in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, neither that game nor the November 15 game against Jackson State will be televised. The first televised basketball game will be next Friday, November 17, at 7:00 against Georgia Southern. As of now, we plan to gather at Texadelphia in mid-Austin. A map to Texadelphia is on the basketball page of the Austin Illini website. In a bittersweet sense, this season also marks the first without any of the starters from the 2005 Final Four team. But time must move on, and this team has some talent of its own. Nonetheless, with Dee and Augie gone, Illinois fell out of the rankings for the first time in years, which I frankly don't mind too much. It is always better to give a young team some incentive to prove itself instead of allow it to rest on the laurels of past success. Illinois schedule is also incredibly favorable this season. We play only two tough non-conference games against Arizona and Xavier. (Some have picked Xavier as a dark horse candidate for the National Championship, somewhat as this year's Florida). We also play Maryland in the ACC-Big Ten challenge, but they are not as strong as previous years. As for the Big Ten season, we play the two toughest teams--Wisconsin and Ohio State--only once, both in Champaign. We thus have perhaps the easiest Big Ten schedule in the conference. With that home court advantage, Illinois has a very realistic shot at contending for the Big Ten Title again this year, even without Dee or Augie. _____________________________________________________________________________________- In basketball, Illinois is 2-0 so far, but has three starters out: Brian Randle (groin) and Jamar Smith (ankle) are both injured and Rich McBride is serving a 4-game suspension for a recent DUI. However, the bench has picked up the slack rather aptly so far. The first televised basketball game is tonight against Georgia Southern, available only on ESPN's Fullcourt premium package. Texadelphia does not have the Game Plan package right now, so we will gather at Legends tonight at 7:00 to watch the Georgia Southern v Illini game. (I will be there late). If you missed it, Michigan State beat Texas last night in a close game. (Go Big Ten!) Everyone and their sister had predicted that Michigan State will be awful this year, but their new talent seems incredibly well coached. MSU will be tougher than expected, and if they continue to play as well as they did last night, they will be up there contending for the Big Ten Title with Ohio State, Wisconsin, and us. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Illinois won a close game against high-scoring Bradley, and advanced to 7-0 on the year. Illinois next faces its first significant challenge of the year when it plays #19 Maryland in Champaign on Tuesday at 6:00 in the Big Ten-ACC challenge. We will gather at Ringers Tuesday night at 6:00 to watch the Illini-Maryland game in High-Definition.
Tough Home Loss to Maryland, 7-1November 28, 2006
Illinois plays Arizona today in Phoenix at 4:00. The game will be broadcast in high definition on ESPN. Unfortunately, Ringers is booked solid with college football league championships and could not give us the sound for the game. But in our never-ending (albeit slightly belated) quest to find another centralized, high definition venue for loyal Illini who want to watch the game together, we finally found one. We will gather at 3:50 today at BBGs (off Northbound I-35 just past 2222/290) to watch the Arizona game. BBGs has several high definition plasma screens and wi-fi, is locally-owned (no more "Fox and Hound" fiascos), and has good food and drink like Ringers; but it also has convenient parking, is "family friendly" (all ages), and... has a section of leather couches in front of two 50-inch plasma screens that they have reserved for us for today's game. The address is 6901 N I-35. From the North, take the St. John's exit, go past St. John's to 2222/290, take the turnaround into the Northbound frontage road. After a few several hotels, BBG's will be on the right about 1/2 mile after 2222/290. From the South, also take the St. John's exit, but BBGs will be on the right shortly after the exit ramp, before you reach St. John's. Please join us to watch the Illini bounce back from their tough loss to Maryland at home last Tuesday.
As for that loss... alas, our worst fears of watching the entire team stand around in cruch time last year waiting for Dee Brown to do something came back to haunt us. Illinois had come back from an awful start (down 14 in the first half) to regain control of the game in the second half. With about eight minutes left in the second half, Illinois led by 5 and looked as if it had gained solid control of the game and would pull away to another solid home win, especially considering its home court poise. However, Maryland hardly missed a shot down the stretch, shooting 72% in the second half. Greivis Vasquez scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half. Nonetheless, after exchanging leads down the stretch, and with about 2 minutes left and Maryland up only 3, Illinois made a great defensive stop and everyone turned downcourt for Illinois to play the final note on a solid comeback win. However, Rich McBride failed to see a reversing Maryland player (Greivis Vasquez) and casually threw the ball away to him deep in the backcourt on a lazy pass to Meachum. Not only did the player score a quick lay-up, but the play completely deflated the Illini and the home crowd, especially after such a great defensive stop and momentum going the other way. The entire vibe on the team, the stadium, and even down here at Ringers went from confidence to fear. And this young team struggling to find a go-to guy only made us all feel even more worried. Stiil, the game was not over. Down only 5 with under a minute left, we made another solid defensive stop and still could snatch the game back. But then Chester Frazier dribbled the ball casually upcourt instead of pressing, and then aimlessly ran around the perimeter with the ball trying to find an opening that didn't exist and that he couldn't create on his own. Instead, he ran down at least 25 seconds and threw a desperate brick up to essentially seal the win for Maryland. (Apparently he couldn't hear us all screaming from down here for him to hurry up and pass the ball, but it wasn't for lack of effort or volume, I promise you.) Now, I have been criticized as a partisan Illini fan who thinks the Illini only win games, whereas bad refs cause all our losses. And they have a good point based on four recent NCAA tournament losses where we did, indeed, receive the short end of some awful officiating: Arizona in 2001; Duke in 2004; North Carolina in the Championship of 2005; and Washington last year. But games like this one provide the clear counter-example. Maryland not only stole the game with clutch play down the stretch, we made it easy for them to do so. We lost this game when we had several opportunities to win it. As Bruce Weber aptly noted after the game, "We shouldn't lose at home, I don't care who's here. We gave up 72 percent shooting in the second half. I understand the competition's good, but that shouldn't happen at home." The "that" is not just the loss, but the execution breakdown in crunch time. Nonetheless, the Illini did have solid moments in coming back from down 14 and in keeping the game close even with Maryland shooting 72% in the second half. Weber is bringing this team around to his up-tempo, team-oriented system that does at all rely on a single hero or two. As we all know from the past several years, Weber creates heroes, he doesn't recruit them. And it will be interesting to watch for the creation of the next Deron Williams, who is developing into an all-star guard in Utah. Moreover, griping over the end of our NCAA-best 58 non-conference home winning streak really makes us sound like unappreciative Duke fans who overlook the rather impressive fact that we were SPOILED by such a fantastic home win streak. Although it is nothing to smile about, Illinois basketball has not become a failure simply because we are no longer winning every... single... game. We all knew this would be a transition year, and we need to enjoy how this transition unfolds. Just remember what we all thought when Bill Self bolted for Kansas and Brian Cook (the last star of the 2001 #1 NCAA seed team) graduated. Where do we go from here? We develop and support a new Championship-caliber team.
Loss to Xavier: Don't Give Up YetDecember 29, 2006
Illinois opens the Big Ten season against Michigan tonight in Ann Arbor. The game is only available on the ESPN FullCourt premium package, so we will gather at Champions Sports Bar tonight (Wednesday) at 7:15 to watch the Michigan game. Champions is located downtown inside the Marriott Hotel at the corner of 4th and Trinity. All-ages are welcome. Bagpipes worked well for us, but there is a potential conflict with the Kansas State club for sound there throughout the season, so the Executive Committee decided to give Champions a try tonight.
As for the Xavier game, Illinois dropped a disappointing 65-59 loss to Xavier in Cincinnati to close the non-conference schedule 12-3. The game started horribly as Xavier sprinted out to a 16-point lead in the first five minutes. Illinois clamped down on defense and came back to take the lead at halftime, 26-25, but that pathetically-low score foreshadowed Illinois' offensive problems in the second half as Illinois could not respond to Xavier's defensive adjustments that, frankly, most decent high-school teams could have handled. Now, this loss might return some of the fair-weather, bandwagon fans back into hibernation (if they have not already fallen asleep) because Illinois is clearly struggling to find its offense. Defensively, this team has adapted and does quite well when it turns the intensity up; but the team that the NCAA has labeled "hostile and offensive" for its school symbol simply has lost its offensiveness. In particular, Xavier threw an odd 1-2-2 zone at Illinois (1 man at the top of the key, and the other four arranged in a box along the free throw lane) for a crucial stretch of the second half, which succeeded in disrupting Illinois' perimeter passing at the top of the key. Illinois simply looked befuddled and couldn't recognize that this zone defense was stretched out by playing so high up at the top of the key. The answer then would have been to use the motion offense to move players down along the baseline (play three players on the baseline, while keeping one guy at the top of the key to keep the defense stretched) so that one of those three players (presumably the middle guy) would have been open. The 1-2-2 zone also opens up the middle quite a bit, and could have allowed us to simply dump the ball inside for either an open basket or a quick dump to the outside; the point being that using the extra floater at the top of the key usually leaves too much space open close to the basket for the zone to work effectively. That's why most zones run in a 2-3 formation, with a big man under the basket to clog up the lane and prevent inside shots. However, with the cross-court perimeter passing upon which Illinois relies so much cut off, our offense completely stagnated and didn't respond. Now, this loss might return some of the fair-weather, bandwagon fans into hibernation because Illinois is clearly struggling to find its offense. Defensively, this team has adapted and does quite well when it turns the intensity up. The "flat-line defense" that made the 2005 team so great remains strong at Illinois. However, nobody has stepped up to replace Deron, Dee, and Luther as our primary scoring options from 2005: players that not only can score under pressure, but who can draw attention from the defense and create scoring opportunities for the rest of the team. Dee Brown tried to do it last year, but was undersized and simply not good enough to do it all himself. Most have looked to Brian Randle to step up this year, but he lacks the killer instinct and leadership to take the reigns. In Bulls parlance, he is more like Scottie Pippen who would thrive with a guy like Michael Jordan on his team, but struggles without another leader to take the bulk of the pressure. Rich McBride has also disappointed so far, and has struggled to recover from his early-season suspension and petty legal troubles stemming from an offseason DUI arrest. Jamar Smith--last year's freshman sensation--also has been spotty as he tries to fully regain his shot and recover from an early-season high ankle sprain. So we have come to the precipice we all feared, and we all should just stop watching games and give up on this team. We all know that Weber is not nearly as smart as I am and couldn't possibly recognize what this team needs to do to improve: at least not with the clarity and perspicacity that I (and other poser-critics like myself) uniquely possess. Of course, we might be wrong and miss how Weber turns this team around, just like he did in 2004 after the Augie-Dee-Deron-Luther-Powell team opened the Big Ten season 1-2 (losing back-to-back to Northwestern and Purdue at home). You remember... the team that opened the season a lowly 11-4 (they wished it was 12-3) before going undefeated for the rest of the Big Ten Season; the same team that lost its only tough non-conference games that year to North Carolina and Providence... kinda like we lost our only tough non-conference games this year? "What?" you might ask, "Our favorite 2005 Final Four team--perhaps the best college team of all time--went through a tough spot in 2004 before they went on a tear in the latter half of the Big Ten season to win the Big Ten? I didn't remember that...." Neither did Gary. But this team doesn't have the talent of the 2003-2005 Illini... at least in hindsight. "Hindsight?" Yes, remember... in 2003-04, we had just lost Brian Cook to the NBA, and we all thought we would be lost without him, kinda like we feel without Dee Brown this year. That's why we went 1-2 to open the Big Ten season: no go-to guy. In 2003-04, we also had a bunch of untouted, low-talent guys that few other major schools had really recruited. No Eric Gordons or John Scheyers; we had to settle for the tiniest, scrawniest McDonald's All-American we could find to go up against Duke or North Carolina, with their full starting roster (and benches) laden with All-American recruits. We had nothing even in comparison to Frank Williams, Sergio, Marcus, and Brian Cook. Instead, we were led by this overweight dough-boy, Deron Williams, who could hardly shoot (at the time) and was recovering from a broken jaw he sustained in non-conference play... kinda like Jamar Smith and Brian Randle are recovering from non-conference injuries this year (albeit, leg injuries that affect their play and ability to move, set, and shoot more than a jaw injury would). In 2003-04, Luther Head was still rather distracted by his own off-season legal troubles, just like Rich McBride this year: however, Luther faced felony burglary charges and driving with a suspended license after his own DUI, not just a no-injury DUI. Luther was not nearly as highly-recruited as McBride was; and he played like an undisciplined, loose-cannon, "superstar-gangsta-wannabe" his first two years. Maybe McBride needs to go out there and do some REAL crimes and make some REAL stupid mistakes on the floor so we can get back on track. Or maybe we were wrong back then, and might just be wrong now, too. In 2003-04, we had no go-to guy on offense, so we created three. Might as well show up to see. The worst you can get is a good time teasing me for having too much time on my hands for writing this stuff and for being an uppity windbag/loudmouth.
Losses to Michigan and Ohio State; Still HopeJanuary 6, 2007
Illinois plays Iowa tonight at Assembly Hall at 7:00. The game is only available on ESPN FullCourt (ESPN+). We will gather at Champions Sports Bar downtown at 4th and Trinity to watch the game. (I have a softball game and will be late, but don't let that encourage yo... I mean DIScourage you). Parking is tight, but there is a valet at the front entrance to the Mariott on 4th, and everything else has worked out fine there. It is a nice, classy venue.
Now to the ongoing effort to recruit you to come join us, despite Illinois marking its first three-game losing streak under Bruce Weber. Granted, Illinois lost to Michigan in Ann Arbor 71-61 and then lost horribly to Ohio State at Assembly Hall, 62-44. And neither game was that close. Our offense is shoddy, unconfident, hesitant, and desperate against decent competition. Although Illinois' defense kept the #1 NBA draft pick this year (Greg Oden) to only 7 points and held Ohio State to only 26 second-half points, you still can't win if you don't score more points than the other team. Illinois lacks any sort of confidence or leadership on offense. On offense, we stink. Offensively, we offend. However, to summarize my rambling e-mail last week, the 2005 Final Four team faced the same Seldon-crisis in 2004, opening the Big Ten season 1-2 and losing, not to Michigan away and Ohio State at home, but to lowly Northwestern in Evanston and Purdue at home. That's right: Purdue beat the 2005 Final Four team at home the season before going to the Final Four. In 2004, we also had just lost the final key leader from the 2001 Elite 8 team to the NBA (Cook), just like we lost Dee & Augie to the NBA this year. Thereafter, the 2004 team ran the table. They didn't have a go-to guy, so they developed three. Although it seems pre-ordained in hindsight, nobody would have believed it back then. Do I believe it this year? Well, honestly, probably not. I gotta admit, it is improbable now, just as it was improbable then, perhaps even more: the 2004 team doing it does not mean lightening will strike twice at the same point in the season this year. But wouldn't it be great if it did... and you saw it all happen? Plus, that's a part of the thrill of sports, Florida fans: no matter what anyone says, you still gotta play the games. Also, the food, drink, and company ain't that bad. So come join us at Champions tonight.
Loss in East Lansing to Michigan StateJanuary 14, 2007 After beating Iowa at home last week, Illinois looked great in the first half at Michigan State last Sunday, completely stifling MSU's offense and pulling to a solid 11-point halftime lead after leading by as much as 14. But the Illini came out of halftime flat, and MSU opened the second half on a 25-3 run Even a late push to cut the lead to 3 with a minute left fell short. The Big Ten refs also really stunk, allowing Travis Walton at one point to literally push Jamar Smith back on his butt on a hand-check and then calling Smith for traveling. Until the Big Ten realizes that the rest of the world actually calls fouls, Big Ten teams are going to continue to struggle in the Tournament because they can't adjust so quickly to normal basketball rules. Despite Chester Frazier's enthusiastic play and his 5-point spurt in three seconds in the final minutes against MSU, we really need to see more of Trent Meacham running the point because his leadership is what gave the Illini their first-half lead. He made several drive-and-dishes for layups, and generally calms the offense down into a better rhythm. Also, instead of frantically dribbling the ball around the perimeter, he either drives or gets rid of the ball to allow the motion offense to work. We'll see tonight if Weber has as much basketball sense as I do and plays Meacham more.
Now, for the Minnesota game, I know what you're thinking: we can't go out and watch basketball in all this DAN-GER-OUS weather. But we are Illini from the North, and this puny paltry pygmy of an ice storm is NOTHING compared to the great Champaign ice storm I remember in 1990, which left 3/4 of an inch of ice in parts and left some friends of mine without power for two or three weeks because of all the tree limbs that fell. Plus, this storm is over, and the roads are mostly clear. So come out and join us tonight. The Executive Committee voted 3-2 to watch the game at Champions despite the ice, so we will gather at Champions at 5:45 tonight (Wednesday) to watch the Illini play at Minnesota. Champions is located in the Mariott Residence Inn downtown at 4th and Trinity. Parking should be easier with downtown being a ghost town.
Easy Win against Minn; just what we neededJanuary 17, 2007
Despite a second half slumber where Minnesota briefly cut the lead to within 10, Illinois essentially dominated an undermatched Minnesota at the Barn in Minneapolis/St. Paul last Wednesday to get a much-needed Big Ten win before the big match-up with #3 Wisconsin tomorrow in Champaign.
The Wisconsin game is in hi-def and Bagpipes and Champions do not have hi-def. Ringers does not allow 21-under folks, and we have a few alums with kids that we want to accomodate. So, in our never-ending effort to please everyone (while doing a season-long pub-crawl to all the sports bars in Austin), we will gather at Pluckers to watch the Wisconsin game in Hi-def at 12:45 on Saturday. Pluckers is located at the Southwest corner of Burnett and 183, in the same parking lot as Bagpipes and Chilis. They have a full menu and a full bar, hi-def, and hi-def projection screens. And, yes, they have Wings. Despite Illinois' poor 1-3 start (now 2-3) the to Big Ten season, most of our toughest games (Ohio State, at MSU, at Michigan) are behind us. Saturday's game is clearly the toughest game left on our schedule, and it is at home in Champaign. With a win this weekend, Illinois would jump right back into the hunt for the Big Ten Championship, so this game is a big one for us. The remainder of our schedule has primarily easier games--similar to the Minnesota game--where we should rack up some wins and regain some momentum going into the post-season. A loss, however, could send us back into a tailspin where the NIT would be fortunate. So don't miss it; come out and join us at Pluckers. Trent Meacham started again for an ailing Chester Frazier, and again did a great job against Minnesota: controlling the offense and helping us jump out to a quick 10-point lead that rarely was threatened. Frazier is a great guy who hustles a lot, but hopefully Meacham will get more playing time and allow our offense to breathe a bit. Although he does not make the sensational plays we are accustomed to seeing out of our point guards this century (Frank, Deron, Dee), our offense actually works better when Meacham is running it, ironically in part because he actually passes the ball off and moves without the ball when he doesn't have an opening.
In Chief news, some people have expressed concern about the following articles, which report that the Sioux tribe that gave the University the Chief's regalia has officially asked for it back. (Does anyone else notice the shocking irony of how this resolution breathes new life into the antiquated, racist term, "Indian givers?") Nonetheless, the actual regalia the Sioux gave the University in 1982 has long since been replaced, and University Officials don't even know where the original currently is: whether with a former band director or former Chief Illiniwek. Because this recall does not involve the current regalia the Chief wears, rest assured that the Chief will not be dancing naked midcourt in Assembly Hall this weekend. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2736134 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-070118illiniwek,1,2427479.story?coll=chi-news-hed Close, but not enough against Wisconsin; Grudge Match with IU nextJanuary 20, 2007
Illinois took the #2 team in the country to task Saturday, and led by 3 with 4:30 left in the game, but Wisconsin benefitted from two awful calls down the stretch to pull out the rare win at Assembly Hall. One call was actually a "no-call " where the refs failed to call an over-the-back foul (and tackle) on a defensive rebound while the Illini were still winning with about 4 minutes left; instead of a defensive stop that could have extended our lead, Wisconsin immediately recovered the loose ball and hit a basket to pull ahead for good. The second was a charge call with about a minute and a half left where they correctly called the charge on Wisconsin, but counted the concurrent Wisconsin basket to give Wisconsin a 5-point lead that allowed them to shoot free throws down the stretch and coast to a win. Nonetheless, although both calls were clearly bad and probably altered the outcome, Illinois still could have and should have pulled out the victory and had plenty of chances to do so. Instead, as Bruce Weber noted after the game, our guys spent too much emotion prematurely celebrating certain good/lucky plays down the stretch and thereby lost focus and did not execute well on the next few plays. Frazier hit too many lucky shots earlier in the second half, and thus held onto the ball dribbling at the top of the key until he had to launch two or three awful shots that didn't have a prayer in crunch time. Weber either did not read or did not pay attention to my crib notes that Meacham needs to be in the game in crunch time.
Illinois next plays Indiana in Champaign Tuesday night at 6:00 Central. The Executive Committee decided to extend our pub-crawl, so we will gather at Ringers at 5:45 on Tuesday night to watch the Indiana game in Hi-Definition. (The Wisconsin game was originally supposed to be in hi-def, but was removed from the hi-def schedule; the Indiana game is still on the ESPNHD schedule). Ringers is located in downtown Austin on Colorado between 4th and 5th Streets. A map to Ringers is near the bottom of the basketball page on the www.AustinIllini.com website, or you can find directions from Ringers own website at http://www.ringerssportslounge.com. Despite Illinois losing its best chance for a qualtiy-win this season, Tuesday night's game is still significant. It will mark the first time Illini fans get to show their "appreciation" for Indiana's new head coach, Kelvin Sampson, since Sampson stole the #1-rated high-school recruit in the nation, Eric Gordon, from his verbal commitment to Illinois. For those who have lived under a recruiting rock, Eric Gordon out of Indianapolis verbally committed to Illinois rather early last year in order to end the distractions/hype and to encourage other top recruits to go to Illinois with him. Although the top target recruit, Derrick Rose, did not choose Illinois, many good second-tier players committed to Illinois in the interim (and still are coming in the next two years). Gordon's commitment also stopped the sole remaining criticism of Bruce Weber--that he couldn't recruit. And he kept getting better and better through his Junior year, rising from a "mere" top-20 recruit to the #1 recruit in the nation. However, Indiana then hired Kelvin Sampson as its head coach, who left Oklahoma last year in a recruiting scandal that, among other things, involved Oklahoma self-reporting over 450 illegal recruiting calls by Sampson. Despite Sampson being under NCAA sanctions prohibiting him from recruiting this year, and despite Gordon's repeatedly re-affirming his commitment throughout last summer ("I thought about Indiana for a minute, but I'm still committed to Illinois"), Gordon suddenly reneged on his verbal commitment a week before signing day last Fall. Just as suddenly, Gordon's father and friends got new jobs with Indiana or Addidas (an Indiana sponsor). Gordon won't play until next year, but Sampson will be there this year. He has replaced Bruce Pearl as public enemy #1 to Illini basketball. And he comes to Champaign for the first time tomorrow night. Indiana also broke into the top-25 this week, so a win against Indiana could keep Illinois alive for the NCAA tournament. We still need a quality win for our resume, and beating Indiana at home is simply crucial to salvage anything this season.
Illini begin Sampscum rivalry 1-0; Eric Gordon Saga RevisitedJanuary 23, 2007 Illinois pulled out a great, solid win against Indiana Tuesday night, mostly due to great defense. Illinois thereby kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, and started the Kelvin Sampscum rivalry 1-0. Illinois next plays Purdue at Purdue tomorrow in West Lafayette at 1:32. (Not a typ-o). Purdue has made a big turnaround rather quickly under Matt Painter, and winning at Purdue has always been tough. The game is broadcast only on the ESPN FullCourt premium package. We will gather tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:15 at Champions to watch the Purdue game. Champions is located at the corner of 4th and Trinity downtown in the Marriott Residence Inn. Parking can be a bit tight, but should be better on the weekend. If all else fails, the Marriott has valet parking.
As for the lingering Eric Gordon story, many are starting to revolt and whine about our whining, including Jay Bilas of ESPN, who generally is one of the best commentators on college basketball. He noted that one recruit does not make or break a program, and it is time to move on. Granted, one recruit does not make or break a program, and we are whining and holding a grudge, but understandably so. However, I can also understand how Bilas just doesn't appreciate how understandable it is. First, I doubt he appreciates just how desperate we were for a big recruit (after losing out in the Livingston, Scheyer, Collins, Rush, Wright, etc. recruiting efforts), and thus how important the Gordon recruitment was to us. This saga was not just about losing an ordinary stellar recruit where the next one is right around the corner, as it is for Duke. It played into our deepest fears. We should get over it, but it is a lot easier to say from a Duke fan (where the next All-American recruit is just around the corner) than it is to do for us. Second, I suspect Bilas (and others like him) also is giving the benefit of the doubt where it doesn't belong. Sampson made over 500 illegal recruitment calls at Oklahoma, and (if I remember correctly) was under sanctions to not contact recruits this year. How could Indiana possibly have convinced Gordon to renege without Sampson having extensive contact with Gordon? Third, the sequence of events and Gordon's constant "I thought about Indiana for a minute, but I'm going to Illinois all the way" through the summer just placed a horrid spin that bolsters the implication that something rather dirty went down. But of course Bilas doesn't completely appreciate how we feel because he obviously didn't live through the "I'm sticking with Illinois; ignore the rumors," denials with us. Fourth, as a Duke alum, he's calling the kettle black about irrational obsessions. That anger we feel is nothing compared to the ongoing, deeply irrational hatred between Duke and Carolina fans. It certainly is nothing new in College sports, no less in sports in general. We still can't get over Bruce Pearl and what he did with his fat, hulking, fairy-Orange painted body and what he did when he was a lowly assistant at Iowa to start the Deon Thomas rigmarole. (Interesting... I just realized how "lowly" and "Iowa" look rather similar in Arial font....) The real shame of the whole Eric Gordon story is that the it generally undermines the integrity of college basketball, not just the Illini fan base. It makes the movie, "Blues Chips," seem not only plausible, but commonplace. One of my best friends was an avid college basketball fan and knew more about remote teams than I ever pretended to know. He now has lost most all interest in college basketball, in general as a result of the Gordon saga, which was shockingly rational. Nonetheless, the best revenge is living well, and starting off with a much-needed win against a resurgent (and ranked) Indiana was the best way to deal with it. Come join us to watch the Purdue game tomorrow at 1:15. Blown out by Purdue at PurdueJanuary 27, 2007
Well, we really stunk one up last Saturday at Purdue. When you go down 27-4 to start the game, you probably are not going to win, and the probabilities proved to be correct on Saturday. It didn't help that our best defender/rebounder, and arguably our best (or at least most talented) player, Brian Randle, was out again with an injury that might sideline him for the rest of the season. In fact, it was downright amazing that we had defeated Indiana without Randle the game before. Illinois plays Michigan State tonight at 8:00. With the way we held Michigan State during the first half in East Lansing, combined with the frustration from this weekend, I do suspect we will win this game. The game will be in Hi-Def, so we will gather at Ringers at 7:45 to watch the Michigan State game tonight. I will not be there because I have a softball double-header, but I will join you in spirit, albeit time-delayed through the magic of electronic wizardry. (Note: I apologize for the late notice, but Ringers was slow in getting back with me about the confirmation, and I didn't want to send a notice out without confirmation.)
As for the status of the team, Illinois is not as bad as they look, nor as their record would indicate. Although this team probably would not run away with anything even if healthy, the injuries and suspensions have truly disrupted this teams continuity and development, making an already difficult task somewhat impossible. Remember, part of the magic of the 2004-05 season was that we had the same five players start every single night for not only that year, but for most of the previous year, as well (after Deron Williams returned from his broken jaw before the Big Ten season opened). The injury odds are just evening out on us this year. Moreover, the toughest part of the Big Ten season is behind us: we don't play Wisconsin or Ohio State again, and we play Northwestern twice, Minnesota at home, and Penn State away. We do have two tough away games ahead of us at Indiana and Iowa, but they are both winnable and only two of the remaining eight games. Nonetheless, tonight's game is another must-win to regain form going into the second half of the Big Ten season. We need to hold our own court against Michigan State. Come out and see if we are able to do so.
Back on Track; big win against MSUJanuary 30, 2007
Illinois bounced back from its disaster at Purdue, and pulled off a key home win against Michigan State, 57-50. Michigan State made it interesting by cutting the 11-point halftime deficit to 3 with just a few minutes left, and that pressure was amplified by the fact that, in their last game, State had almost pulled off a 20-point comeback in the second half to almost upset Ohio State (one of the two runaway frontrunners in the Big Ten) in Columbus. But Illinois closed the game out solidly and came out with the win. Indiana, which Illinois just beat, also blew out Wisconsin at Indiana this week. So Indiana will move up in the rankings, increasing the value of our quality win over Indiana last week. Illinois has now gone win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win in their past 7 games. They have a great shot at breaking that pattern and actually putting together a winning streak against Minnesota this Saturday night in Champaign. Illinois crushed Minnesota in Minneapolis last month. The game will be on ESPN FullCourt premium package, so to avoid the Saturday night crowds and parking problems downtown, we will gather at Legends at 6:45 Saturday night to watch the Minnesota game. (All other venues have conflicts, and we might as well include Legend's on our season-long pub crawl). Legends is located at the Southwest corner of Mo-Pac and Route 183 inside the Holiday Inn. A map to Legends is on the Austin Illini website on the FOOTBALL page. (We watched football games there).
Oh, yeah, BTW, the Bears are in the Super Bowl on Sunday. :-) They are such irrational underdogs (with all the sentimental favoritism for the American Express spokesman) that I figure they are bound to win.
Winning Streak!! Illini put Gophers awayFebruary 3, 2007
We have a Big Ten winning streak!!! After defeating Michigan State at home earlier this week, Illinois pulled off its first back-to-back wins in Big Ten play this year by easily putting away Minnesota Saturday, 59-49. Illinois led by as much as 20-points through the second half, and Meacham's three pointer with just over a minute left put away Minnesota's final surge that briefly cut the lead to just under ten points. Nonetheless, the game never was much in doubt. Meacham again started for the injured Chester Frazier, who didn't play at all. Rich McBride and Jamar Smith led the team with 13 points each, mostly on three-pointers; Pruitt added 12 and Carter scored 10 points. It was especially good to see Jamar Smith return to something close to last year's form, where he led the Big Ten in three-point shot percentage and promised to be an amazingly unsung find for Weber. However, this year, he suffered a severe high-ankle sprain, which affects his ability to set and shoot and might not have fully recovered. But Weber claims he makes close to 70% of his threes in practice, so perhaps he just has not regained his gametime confidence, yet. Something also must be happening behind the scenes between Meacham and Weber that I don't notice because Illinois seems to play so much better with him at the point. I don't understand why Weber doesn't play him more often. Although his defense is not top-notch, our problem has not been defense this season. Its our offense that needs work, which has little to no flow or coherence with Frazier at the point. Nonetheless, Weber does not seem to trust Meacham fully, yet, which is why he played McBride and Smith during much of the Minnesota game, and why Frazier came off the bench to play most of the Michigan State game despite his injury. But Frazier's foot injury might bench him for a few more games, in which we shall see whether Meacham gets the playing time he seems to deserve. After facing most of the top teams in the start of the Big Ten season, Illinois continues its much-needed tour through the basement of the Big Ten when it travels to Evanston to play Northwestern. The game will be broadcast in Hi-Def through ESPN2HD, which is only available here through DirectTV. To get the hi-def feed, we will gather at Ringers at 5:45 Wednesday evening to watch the Northwestern game.
Win streak to 3 with win over Wild-KittensFebruary 7, 2007
Illinois pulled off another easy win against Northwestern Wednesday night. Trent Meacham started, led them to a 17-3 start. Bruce benched Trent, Frazier came in, and Northwestern pulled to within 26-23. Then Trent came in for the final minute of the half, and they finished the half on a small 5-0 run. Trent started the second half, and they jumped to a safe cushion they never gave up, even though Trent sat for most of the rest of the game. I don't know what it is, but Weber must have something against Trent, even though the offense clearly runs much better with Trent in the game (or, more particularly, without Frazier in the game to dribble around endlessly and pointlessly).
Illinois next plays Indiana tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. Big game. The good news is that CBS will broadcast the game in High Definition. The bad news is that CBS will not broadcast the Illini-IU game in our region: KEYE (Austin CBS) will instead show the UCLA-West Virginia game at noon. The worse news is that our game conflicts with the Texas game: our game starts at 12:00, and the Texas game starts at 12:30. It gets even worse: the Texas game is only available on ESPN+ (no public broadcast), so all the sports bars in town are anticipating huge crowds for the Texas game. I have been frantically calling around to try to get a guaranteed spot that will get the CBS non-regional feed, with Hi Def, and with sound; many can't get the CBS non-regional feed, others understandably expect several hundred Texas customers. Nonetheless, we will meet at Ringers Saturday at 11:55 for the Illini-Indiana game, which as far as I know is only available through Direct TV's alternate CBS channel # 617, or through the pay-per-view CSTV.com Internet feed. Ringers is located on Colorado between 4th and 5th Streets; a map is on the Basketball page of www.AustinIllini.com . As noted below, the game conflicts with the Texas basketball game at 12:30. Thus, we need to show up in large numbers early to convince management to keep our game on the big screen in back with the sound despite the deluge of Texas fans. Alternatively, we will be competing with the Wisconsin Roadkill club for the third sound zone in the very back of Ringers. Either way, numbers wins. (Wisconsin plays Iowa at 1:00). There is one caveat, which I include because I am a goddamn attorney and cannot stop the habit of excessive due diligence and full disclosure 1) to the point where everybody is confused besides me and 2) to which nobody pays attention, anyway, until everything goes awry, in which case it's never my fault because I can smugly point to the fine print disclosure that nobody bothered to read... that is, unless I put it in boldface. The game might be blacked out on the CBS alternate channel that will carry the non-regional CBS feed (channel 617, for those who have Direct TV). CBS blacks out some of these non-regional games, and shows others. Many Direct TV reps have said that Direct TV is not supposed to show it due to contractual restrictions, but several Direct TV subscribers (including the Ringers manager) report that many of these games just show up randomly on the alternate CBS channels, whether by accident or not. (See http://mb31.scout.com/fillinoisinsiderfrm1.showMessage?topicID=87834.topic for an even more confusing discussion of the issue). However, if the game is blacked out, the game will still be available on CSTV (CSTV.com) for a $10 one-game fee, or a $15 subscription. Bring your laptops. So Hi-Def... or the blotchy Internet feed. Feast or famine. Road Loss to IUFebruary 10, 2007
Illinois lost a tight game Saturday at Indiana, 61-65. Lots of good things happened to keep the game close (see below), but they blatantly choked at the end. Illinois has the week off and does not play again until this Sunday against Northwestern. The week off will do us some good to recover and develop on the improvements we showed against Indiana going into the final stretch of the season. It is tough to decide between feeling good about sticking with a top-25, rival team on the road and not getting blown out in a rivalry-revenge game, on the one hand, and feeling awful about how we completely collapsed at the end and didn't finish the game well, on the other hand. The trick is not to let the latter sentiment completely overwhelm the former. Several good things happened on Saturday: 1) Ringers managed to get the non-regional feed for the game so we could watch it, albeit not in hi-def. It was especially relieving because we had a pretty strong showing at Ringers. (After all the worries of Texas fans overwhelming Ringers, we ended up with two to three times the number of Texas fans.) 2) Indiana jumped to a 13-5 lead, and it looked like another blowout was in the works. But Illinois didn't lose its composure, and scrapped back to lead at the half by 2. 3) We generally played well: led by 2 at the half on the road; didn't crumble in the second half (as we did when we led at the half against Arizona and Michigan State); we exchanged leads with Indiana through the second half; and we led by 2 with under a minute left. The flow of the game clearly had us in the driver's seat to win at the end, on the road against a top-25 team that had something to prove against us. 3) Marcus Arnold really stepped up when Randle, Pruitt and Carter got in early (and ridiculous) foul trouble. It looked like someone else playing in his uniform. He played solid defense, rebounded well, didn't miss a shot from the field or the free throw line, and (perhaps most importantly) he also didn't take stupid shots thinking he was hotter than he was. He finished 6-6 from the line and 3-3 from the field for a Illinois career-high 12 points. 4) Despite a slew of awful, horrible, pathetically bad calls by the refs, nobody lost their cool or their focus (except Weber, which he is supposed to do to take the heat away from the players). Our team played through the bad refereeing with amazing poise, and didn't blatantly follow-up bad calls with the seemingly-inevitable mental mistakes to which we have become accustomed. Even the 2005 team showed less poise playing through awful reffing, particularly in the championship game. That poise and maturity, more than anything, kept us in the game until the end. 5) Chester Frazier sometimes let go of the ball on offense, which allowed the motion to work better. But alas, even the optimist must realize how badly we choked at the end. We didn't score a field goal in the last five minutes. Indeed, we only shot the ball twice in the last five minutes, both of them awful, desperation, three-point attempts by McBride. Our offense didn't produce a decent shot in the last five minutes of the game. Four of our last five possessions ended in stupid turnovers, including stupid, errant passes and a critical five-second delay call with about 15 seconds left when Pruitt held the ball at the top of the key in a panic when Indiana apparently covered and shut down the play Illinois had called. The officiating also was absolutely awful. Admittedly, we received the benefit of a series of bad calls (and no-calls) in our favor down the stretch that somewhat evened out the impact, albeit only by emphasizing that the bad calls were not just the product of our biased perception. But Randle and Arnold both fouled out due to several awful, phantom, and non-impact calls. For instance, Randle's third or fourth foul for grabbing the jersey on a long rebound, if anything, helped the Indiana player secure the rebound and not over-play the rebound, and certainly didn't provide Randle with an advantage. Indiana also often got away with far more blatant fouls that had more impact. The most significant bad call came with under a minute to play, when Indiana (Bassett) drove to the basket along the baseline out of control with the shot clock winding down, and bowled over Brock, who had set up outside the free throw line. We thought the angle might have been deceptive, but the floor-angle replay clearly showed Brock setting, a pause while he stood still with his arms straight up, then Bassett ran into him. Instead of a charge that would have negated the basket--whereupon Illinois would have retained the lead with about 30 seconds left--the ref called a foul on Brock, putting Bassett on the free throw line for a chance at a three-point play. That bad call subsequently required us to foul Indiana to stop the clock instead of Indiana to foul us in the closing thirty seconds of the game. It also forced us to fight back from behind and force the offense into a bad shot, instead of protect a lead and wait for Indiana to put us on the line. Granted, we still had a chance to win, and turning the ball over without even attempting a shot on four of our last five possessions shifts the primary blame for losing the game on us. But the awful officiating has become far too commonplace for a major conference. Nonetheless, the team showed clear improvement for one of the first times all season. Instead of repeating (and amplifying) routine, simple mistakes, the team showed poise and rhythm, which kept them in the game in one of the most hostile road venues in the country. Talent-wise, we shouldn't have beaten Indiana in Champaign, and certainly shouldn't have stayed with them the entire game in Bloomington. With a week to rest and develop on that poise, it is more and more possible that Illinois will win out the rest of the season and go into the Tournaments on an upswing.
Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell injured in severe car crashFebruary 13, 2007 As many of you might know, a blizzard has been swarming through the midwest, including Champaign/Urbana. As even more probably know, one casualty of the blizzard involved two Illini basketball players. Brian Carlwell spent Monday night in intensive care in critical condition due to a severe concussion suffered in a single-car collision with a tree. The car was driven by Jamar Smith, who was treated for a mild concussion, released, and ticketed for improper lane usage. They were driving in the 2000 block of South 1st Street near Assembly Hall. Carlwell has improved to serious but stable condition, which is good news. The Pantagraph from Bloomington has reported that his brother told them that he will be fine and out of the hospital in a few days. Not to sound self-righteous, but of course we all hope that Brian and Jamar both recover completely and quickly. ESPn.com has the AP story, but the following provide some more illuminating links: The following is the Pantagraph story on his brother, who plays for Illinois State, and who reported that, after a sleepless night of anxiety, Brian will be fine. http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/02/13/sports/doc45d25554c2396063176805.txt The following NY Times link provides information on concussions: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/health/13brod.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin The following link provides photos of the vehicle, which was "tacoed" on the passenger side rather severely. (Scroll down the page) The second picture really shows how severe the crash was. http://www.collegesportsfanforums.com/big10/Illini-Nation/index.php?topic=2199.15
Board of Trustees Retires Chief Illiniwek
The Board of Trustees finally succumbed to the will of the minority. This morning, the Board officially announced the retirement of the Chief's halftime dance. Wednesday's final home game of this season will be the final official performance, at least for now. The "Fighting Illini" namesake remains unchanged and unaffected. Although the resolution only pertained to the dance, itself, and not the logo (the one on our shirts and the website), The Daily Illini today quoted a student official who said that the Chief logo would be turned over to non-profits for fundraising, implying that the University would no longer use the logo, itself. The Board timed the announcement so fans could enjoy a farewell performance. More significantly, the decision also comes as Illinois' basketball team rides the bubble on qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Although the team will still probably make the NCAA tournament, this year is the first year since the NCAA postseason tournament ban was imposed where it has been plausible that a revenue-generating Illinois team might miss out on an opportunity to host a postseason tournament. If Illinois basketball fails to make the NCAA tournament this year, it would lose the right to host games in the NIT tournament (which recently came under NCAA control). Losing hosting rights to several NIT games would deal a serious opportunity cost not only to the team, but also to the athletic department's revenue. The announcement coincided with a confirmation from the University that Illinois immediately becomes eligible to host post-season tournament play, including this year's NIT if necessary. So far, only the men's tennis team has suffered from the postseason ban, and tennis is not a revenue sport. Moreover, more fans turned out in support of the tennis team on the road (in protest of the Chief ban) than probably would have showed up if Illinois had hosted the postseason tennis match last year, so the ban had not truly impacted the University so far. With the first potential financial hit looming on the horizon, the Board finally succumbed. There is a chance that the decision was either intended as a ruse to make Illinois eligible for NIT play or to measure what alumni reaction would be with sufficient time to reinstate the Chief if necessary. Another implication of the timing is that the Chief was not scheduled for another major sports halftime dance until next fall. A lot could happen in the interim. Nonetheless, it does not look good. The NCAA reinstatement for postseason play is predicated on a commitment to not reinstate the Chief, although there does not appear to be any penalty to reinstating the Chief other than re-imposing the ban. As some of you know, and perhaps anticipating the Board's decision with some inside information that key Board members had changed their votes, the two current Chiefs (the regular and the alternate) filed a lawsuit yesterday asking a Champaign County Court to enjoin the University from abandoning the Chief and to enjoin the NCAA from enforcing its ban on post-season play at U of I. The North Dakota Attorney General had obtained a similar injunction against the NCAA regarding North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" logo and mascot and the impact on North Dakota's postseason NCAA hockey tournament play. The Chief lawsuit also followed a formal request by the same students group about a week or two ago to turn over the Chief copyright and performance to a non-profit student-run group so that the University would not remain susceptible to official criticism. The temporary restraining order hearing in the Chief lawsuit also happened this morning, and Champaign County Judge Mike Jones denied the request. I knew Mike Jones, personally, in Urbana long before he became a judge, and he is a good man and loyal Illini whom I suspect supports the Chief, in general. Although I don't like the result, it was the correct decision. As Jones noted from the bench when ruling, because the first affected game would be next fall, there was no emergency that would warrant the unusual and last-resort remedy of imposing a temporary restraining order. Jones thus did not have the legal authority to issue the injunction.
In other news, Jamar Smith went back to Peoria to be with his family and reportedly is very shaken up over the Tuesday morning crash that left his friend and teammate Brian Carlwell in intensive care. Today, Weber released the following statement that Smith will not return to the team this season:
In better news, Brian Carlwell was released from Carle hospital today and will be at the Northwestern game. Dee Brown reportedly will also be at the Northwestern game during the NBA All-Star Break.
What a week! Illinois had the week off, which the team really needed to recharge, get back on track in their studies, and fine tune for the late-season surge the team needs in order to get into the NCAA tournament. Then Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell were injured in a very serious car crash that left Carlwell in intensive care (he will be fine). Then Warren Carter (one of our starters and key players) injures his ankle in practice on Wednesday and will probably not play against Northwestern. Then the Board of Trustees retires the Chief, making the next two games on Sunday and Wednesday his final official performances. But the season plugs on. We will gather at Champions Sunday at 1:45 for the Northwestern game, which is available only on ESPN FullCourt. In light of the sudden retirement of the Chief, the next two gamewatch parties (Sunday and Wednesday--both home games) will be official Austin Illini Chief Appreciation Gamewatch Parties. Champions is located in the Mariott Courtyard downtown at 4th and Trinity, right next to the Hilton and Austin Convention Center. They have assured us that the technical problems from the last game will not reoccur.
Illini win Chief's final two gamesFebruary 21, 2007
After taking care of Northwestern last Saturday, Illinois won its final home game of the regular season against Michigan Wednesday, 54-42. Although Tommy Amaker's Michigan teams typically collapse down the stretch, Michigan had just beaten Indiana, and Michigan played us close in the first half, so it was good to see the team pull out the victory in the second half, especially considering all the distractions. The Chief also made his final dance Wednesday night, and ESPNU broke from its policy and showed the entire halftime performance. Suffice it to say that watching the Chief dance, again--and seeing how much loyal support and heartfelt appreciation the fans showed--only highlighted how unfortunately misguided the protests are: confusing honor for offense. It made me wonder whether Chief protesters ever actually watched a Chief performance and tried to do what they repeatedly asked us to do (and which I have done): see and appreciate the issue from our perspective instead of blindly presuming offense when all statistical studies show that the vast majority (80-90%) of actual American Indians do not consider Indian nicknames or school symbols offensive. The Chief's performance brought our fans together in spirit in exactly the way American Indian dance was supposed to do. But the season marches on. Illinois plays Penn State today at 1:00. The game is on ESPN. Because the game is widely available and we did not call a gamewatch yesterday in time for people to receive it, we will not be gathering at a local pub to watch the Penn State game. Our next gamewatch party will be the final game of the regular season, next Saturday at noon against Iowa. The Iowa game will only be available on ESPN FullCourt, so please plan to join us. BTW, even Joe Lunardi has now projected we will make the NCAA tournament. But we still need to beat Penn State to stay in.
Blowout win at Penn StateFebruary 24, 2007
Last weekend, Illinois put up one of its best showings of the year on the road (admittedly, against one of the worst Big Ten teams) by crushing Penn State at Penn State, 68-50. Illinois led from the start, and Penn State never got within 10 points after 10 minutes into the game. Although Penn State is in last place in the Big Ten, they came back twice against Ohio State this season, with the game in Columbus coming down to the final minute. It was thus great to see Illinois control the game throughout and not let them into the game like Ohio State had done. Illinois finishes the regular season against Iowa tomorrow, Saturday, at noon. The game is only available on ESPN+ (FullCourt), and it conflicts with the Texas-Kansas game, also at noon, in Kansas. We will gather at Legends at 11:45 on Saturday morning to watch to Iowa game. Legends is located inside the Holiday Inn at the Southwest corner of MoPac and 183. A map is on the football page of the Austin Illini website. Illinois has clinched a share of fourth place in the Big Ten and could take third place with a win over Iowa. With a third or fourth place finish, Illinois will probably make the NCAA tournament with 21 to 23 wins, no bad losses, victories over Missouri, Indiana, and Michigan State, and very close, competitive losses to Arizona, Maryland, Xavier, and Wisconsin. Qualifying for the NCAA tournament depends very much on the number of at-large bids available. If all the top teams win all the conference tournaments, there will be more at-large bids available; if the favorites lose the championships to teams like Iowa or Purdue who otherwise would not get in, there will be fewer at-large bids available. Moreover, as other bubble teams lose, their at-large spots will open up; as other bubble teams win more games, they will secure those final at-large spots. Everything remains in flux until next weekend. Nonetheless, with a win Saturday, Illinois will almost certainly qualify and will mostly be looking to merely improve its seed through the Big Ten tournament.
In other news, the Sun Times published a refreshingly-positive article about Jamar Smith, giving some mitigating insight from Jamar's grandfather into what happened that tragic night last month. Contrary to some pessimistic speculation, Jamar is far from the remoresless punk "trying to get away with it" or a stupid kid who is naively unaware of the wrong he did. Quite the contrary, he was incredibly distraught and even suicidal that night and in the week thereafter, and is still seeking counseling to deal with it. Jamar's grandfather credits Wayne McClain, Bruce Weber, and Brian Carlwell from saving Jamar from suicide over the incident. The article also clarifies that Jamar was not going to attend the final home game against Michigan until the team voted to have him there. Even then, he wasn't going to go until Carlwell called Jamar to insist he come to the game; then, at the game, Carlwell insisted Jamar move from the row behind the bench to the seat next to him on the bench. Wayne McClain, Bruce Weber, and Brian Carlwell all come out as real saints given how they have handled the situation. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/280053,CST-SPT-jamar02.article
Offensive collapse at Iowa; Big Ten Tournament Preview;2 Football Starters dismissed from TeamMarch 3, 2007
Illinois lost at Iowa Sunday, 60-53, in its final game of the regular season. Illinois led at the half by 1, and held the lead for most of the second half. But Illinois' offensive woes and poor free throw shooting down the stretch allowed Iowa to pull away with the win. Illinois next plays Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament this Thursday at approximately 4:05, depending on when the earlier games finish that day. I know 4:00 on a workday is an inconvenient game time, but I don't set the schedules, and it does give you a completely-justifiable excuse to leave work early! The game will be carried on ESPN2. In a desperate effort to garner some mojo from the venue where we watched the 2004-2005 team, we will gather at the midtown Texadelphia to watch the Penn State game at 4:00 on Thursday.
As for why we are playing on Thursday instead of getting a bye, Illinois finished the regular season tied for 4th place in the Big Ten with Iowa and Purdue. Due to the odd Big Ten Tournament tiebreakers, Illinois lost all tiebreakers and received the sixth seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which requires them to play on Thursday instead of getting a bye like the 1-5 seeds do. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head records, which we lost to Purdue because we only played them once in West Lafayette, and they blew us out. Using head-to-head records is understandable, but it is unfair as a first tiebreaker because we didn't get to play Purdue in Champaign to tip the balance back to us. The second tiebreaker is the odder and more-complicated one. Instead of looking to non-conference records or point-differential in head-to-head match ups like most would do, the Big Ten looks for the best record against the Big Ten champion, then against the #2 Big Ten team, and so on down the ranking until the tie is broken. Both of us lost to Ohio State, but Iowa split with Wisconsin (the #2 team), whereas we lost our only game against Wisconsin, so Iowa won that tiebreaker. However, getting the #6 seed and losing the Thursday bye could be a blessing in disguise. If you recall, the sixth seed served Michigan State well last year because they came into the game against the third seed (us) well-tuned instead of cold. Despite the fact that we had soundly beat them twice in the regular season, Michigan State pulled off the upset. Moreover, getting the #6 seed keeps us out of Ohio State's end of the bracket (the 1-4 end) until the Championship game, and keeps us in the 2-3 end of the bracket. We played very close against Wisconsin and Indiana and could beat either of those teams in Chicago, whereas Ohio State dominated us and would be a tougher match-up. Thus, with the #6 seed instead of the #4 or #5 seed, we have a better chance of going deeper into the Big Ten Tournament. The other good news is that our recent game against Penn State (at Penn State) last week was one of our best games of the Big Ten season. Our offense clicked, and our defense was solid (as usual). Instead of letting up and playing "down" to the competition, we didn't let them come close. Thus, if all goes to plan, the Penn State game will serve as the perfect tune-up for the match-up Friday against Indiana, the #3 seed this year.
Now for some bad news, buried at the end for the three or four people who actually read this far because we really don't need any more bad news this year. Two of our better football players--starting wide receivers Ellis and McPhearson--were arrested last Friday in Champaign when they were found with dozens of stolen laptops, I-Pods, and other goods that they stole from student apartments on the "Unofficial" St. Patrick's Day celebration that U of I celebrates to keep the festivities out of the weekdays. Their m.o. was to enter an apartment as if looking for a party, and if someone was there, naively say that they had the wrong apartment, and if no one was there, they would take what they could snatch. (The somewhat-inappropriate joke is that they are both Illinois wide receivers, and many were thus surprised that they were actually able to hold onto and carry the stolen goods.) Ron Zook summarily suspended them immediately upon receiving the news, and later that same day kicked them off the team for good: very swift, stiff, and appropriate punishment. Many people on the bulletin boards and elsewhere are making inappropriate comparisons to the comparatively lenient treatment of Jamar Smith so far (no suspension or summary dismissal), but there is a huge difference between a single unintentional-but-stupid act with horrible, unintended consequences, and multiple intentional robberies by two large football players with completely intended consequences. Moreover (and to end on a more positive note), the Jamar Smith story becomes far more sympathetic given recent reports of what really happened, which place Jamar in a far more sympathetic, albeit still culpable, position. (See http://www.pjstar.com/stories/030607/ILL_BCIJJN0E.072.php, and http://www.pjstar.com/stories/030607/BIL_BCIICL9O.083.php, and http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/280053,CST-SPT-jamar02.article, the last of which made me feel proud of Weber and made me feel ashamed of being somewhat pre-judgmental about Jamar before learning the other side of the story). Jamar has been practicing with the team (but not traveling) and now is likely to return to the team next year with a stiff suspension.
Illini Beat Indiana to Advance to Big Ten Tournament Final Four!!Win Should Cement NCAA Seed March 9, 2007
Illinois beat both Penn State on Thursday and Indiana Friday night to advance to the Final Four... of the Big Ten Tournament. The win over Penn State wasn't as easy as we might have hoped, and Penn State actually cut the lead to 2 points near the end as Walker hit some absolutely garbage shots from long distance, making the final two minutes far more tense than they should have been. But Illinois still pulled off the win, 66-60. Chester Frazier, of all people, led the Illini with a career high 20 points.
Friday night against Indiana and the reviled Sampscum, it was ugly, but Illinois finally pulled out a close game against a decent opponent to advance even further. The win not only advances us to the semi-finals of the Big Ten Tournament, it also probably secured an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament even if we don't get the Big Ten's automatic bid. Better yet, tomorrow's 3:00 game against Wisconsin will be on CBS in Hi-Definition, and the local CBS affiliate will carry the game. So great. Now they had to go and make MY life more difficult to schedule our gamewatch! Why? Texas plays tomorrow, starting only 1/2 hour after we start, and all the local sports bars are claiming that they will be packed with Texas fans and can't accomodate us or will pack us in the back near the cat litter. Nonetheless, Ringers graciously assured us that they will fit us and the Wisconsin alumni club in the very back corner with a speaker for sound. So we will gather at Ringers at 2:30 on Saturday (today) for the semi-final game against Wisconsin. I have no idea whether the Texas fans will come out in throngs or if will be yet another bluff where we will be the dominant group. (You honestly can't tell with Texas basketball fans. In a dismayed huff, I almost invited everyone to my humble condo to watch the game with Mangia pizza delivered, but Gary fortunately invervened and told me what an idiot I was being.) Nonetheless, please come early to ensure we have enough people to stake our claim and to ensure that you don't get squeezed out of Ringers because they are filled beyond capacity. The game starts at approximately 3:00, but plan to be there by 2:30.
As for the win over Indiana, we had a great crowd at Legends (too bad they don't have hi-Def for today's game) to wrythe and moan and cheer as Illinois pulled out the close win. As I wrote, it was ugly. Illinois scored only one field goal in the last 9:35 of regulation. Brian Randle fouled out with only 2 points, and senior Rich McBride scored only 1 point on an overtime free throw (and only after miising the first free throw). Oddly enough, Illinois' free throw shooting down the stretch actually kept us in the game, with 8 of our last 11 points scored on free throws. We scored only one field goal in the final 9:35 of regulation (hit 1 out of 6 shots, or 16%), and one more field goal in overtime (1 out of 7 shots--14% from the field in overtime). Everything else down the stretch (8 of our final 11 points in regulation, 6 of our 8 points in overtime) were free throws. Down by 4 with 1:43 left, Warren Carter and then Trent Meacham hit both free throws to tie the game, and Illinois' defense stopped Indiana to send the game to overtime. In overtime, Illinois' defense then continued to stiphle Indiana, which couldn't score a single overtime point until 0:10 seconds were left. In the meantime, Illinois scored 6 of its 8 overtime points on free throws. Surprisingly, the game was the first overtime game in the entire Big Ten this year. It was also the first real gut-check win for this year's team, which has shown an uncanny ability to collapse down the stretch in all our key losses so far this year: at Arizona, Maryland, at Xavier, at Michigan State, Wisconsin, and at Indiana. In all of those games, we were winning (impressively at that) either at the half or deep in the second half, but collapsed in the end. So this win not only helps us secure an NCAA at-large bid, not only wins the rubber-match over Sampscum and the #3 seeded Indiana, and not only advances us in the Big Ten Tournament, but it also more importantly marked a crucial maturing point for this year's injury-ridden, scandal-plagued team. Instead of collapsing, they managed to pull out the win, ugly as it was, and that more than anything is what they needed most going into the NCAA Tournament.
Loss to Wisconsin in Big Ten Semis; NCAA Tournament preview and analysisMarch 11, 2007
Illinois lost horribly to Wisconsin on Saturday in the Big Ten Semi-Finals, scoring only 41 points the entire game. Although Illinois jumped to an 8-2 lead to start the game, they were very obviously exhausted from their overtime win over Indiana and playing their third game in 40 hours. Illinois did cut it to 2 points mid-way through the second half, but never came close down the stretch. The poor offensive showing--combined with several mid-major Tournament upsets that looked to reduce the number of at-large bids available for bubble teams--led most of the so-called Bracketologists (including Joe Lunardi on ESPN who more or less invented the term) to predict that Illinois would be out. So much for Bracketology, perhaps the easiest job in the world because anyone can predict 90% of the Tournament; the trick is predicting the final four or five to make it, and Lunardi has never done it to my recollection. Illinois completely deserved the bid and even deserved a nominally higher seed, although I wouldn't complain too quickly because, as pointed out below, our #12 seed ironically gives us the easiest path to the Sweet 16 of any of the 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 seeds. As for the bid, itself, everyone has focused upon and emphasized the exclusion of teams like Drexel, Syracuse, and Florida State, all of whom did have far more impressive wins than Illinois' best win. Granted. But all the other bubble teams (even bubble teams who ultimately received a higher seed than we did) also lost to not just one, but several bad teams. Drexel (everyone's sob story) did beat St. Joe's, Syracuse, Villanova, Temple, and Creighton, all on the road, and all of which were better wins than Illinois' best non-conference wins over Bradley or Missouri. But Drexel also lost to Penn, Rider, Delaware, William & Mary, and even lost at home to Hofstra and Virginia Commonwealth. (Who?!?) They also lost both home and away games to the Old Dominion, who barely got in, themselves. Instead of purely focusing on how strong a team's wins are, you need to also account for how weak a team's losses were. Drexel played impressively in December, but its November, January, and February were average at best for a mid-major, no less a major conference team, and the rest of the season certainly played them out of the Tournament. If season began and ended in December, Drexel would have easily been in. But it didn't, so they aren't. Syracuse lost to a much worse Wichita State team than last year and to Drexel in non-conference, and lost to St. John's and UConn in the Big East, both of whom were far below Syracuse in the final standings, none of whom made the Tournament. (The equivalent of our losing to Minnesota or Northwestern). Syracuse also lost its first Big East Tourney game. In contrast, Illinois lost non-conference games only to Tournament-caliber teams, and did not lose to any team below them in the Big Ten, splitting with all the teams in their caliber in the final standings. Despite no marquees wins, Illinois didn't have any non-marquee losses. They won all the games they "should have won." So the Committee rewarded their consistency with a bid. As for Florida State, despite impressive wins over Florida, Maryland, and at Duke, Florida State went only 7-9 in the ACC and lost 5 of its last 7 games to end the season. Florida State only beat slumping Clemson in the ACC Tourney, and lost in its second round. In contrast, Illinois went 9-7 in the Big Ten, and won 8 of their last 11 games, including wins over NCAA #7-seed Indiana and NCAA #9-seed Michigan State. Illinois also won two Big Ten Tourney games, not just one. Thus, Illinois gets in, and Florida State does not. The season does not end with a marquee win or two.
So Illinois definitely deserved its bid. Now for why our seed is deceiving and even benevolent.
Illinois did receive a facially-disrespectful 12 seed, especially when compared to #9 seed Purdue, (who at best has a similar resume, except for a non-marquee loss to Minnesota), #9 seed Michigan State (who finished below Illinois in the Big Ten), and #7 seed Indiana (whom Illinois beat head-to head 2 of 3 times this year... and it really should have been 3 or 3 times). However, and take this to the water cooler, Illinois' #12 seed ends up being better than Purdue's or Michigan State's #9 seeds or Indiana's #7 see, because of whom we are projected to play in the first two rounds. First, the 5-12 matchups always seem to produce not only upsets, but first round upsets where the 12-seed goes further in the Tournament. The reason is that, if the #12 seed pulls the 5-12 upset, the #12 seed only plays a #4 seed in the second round, whereas the 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 seeds all face either a 1, 2, or 3 seed in the second round if they get there. So the odds generally stack up against the #12 seed in the first round, but for the #12 seed if they get to the second round. Second, the match-ups are great for us. Illinois first plays a slumping, #5-seed Virginia Tech team that lost 6 of its last 11 games (under .500), including 3 losses (home, away, and the ACC Tourney) to lowly North Carolina State and a home loss to Clemson, neither of whom made the Tournament. (Indeed, NC State finished 5-11 in the ACC, tied for 10th place, and Virginia Tech still lost to them three times.) Virginia Tech also lost to Florida State earlier in the year, which also did not make the Tournament. Although Virginia Tech can be explosive, they have not faced a defense like Illinois' defense, and they are a rather inconsistent team. Thus, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale both have said that Illinois has a great shot at being the 4-12 upset this year and advancing to the Sweet 16. If Illinois gets past Virginia Tech, it will face the winner of the #4 v #13 game between Southern Illinois and Holy Cross: most likely Southern Illinois. Although Southern Illinois has been highly-ranked this season and even came just shy of cracking the top-ten (#11 in both polls in week 17), they play a VERY similar defense-oriented, motion-offense game to Illinois. Bruce Weber also recruited and coached the Juniors and Seniors on SIU, so he will know them rather well. And, just like Weber had added motivation to make sure we beat Indiana twice this season, Weber will have the added incentive to not let his new major-conference team fall to his old, minor-conference team team. So, if Illinois plays up to its potential, we should see the Sweet-16, which for this team would be amazing! Put simply, there is no easier route to the Sweet 16 for anyone with lower than a 7-seed. And in the Sweet 16, we would probably be matched-up against... Bell Self's Kansas Jayhawks.
Disappointing First-Round NCAA Loss to Virginia Tech
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