Austin Illini Club     

 Basketball

The Austin Illini gather to watch games together at Third Base Sports Bar, located at the end of 6th Street West of downtown just before 6th street hits MoPac.  Third Base is the newest High-Definition Sports Bar in Town that is family friendly and has lots of parking.  A map to Third Base is on its website: http://www.thirdbaseaustin.com/map

Austin Illini 2008-2009 Basketball Season Recaps:

1. Recruiting Summary: Help Is On The Way

2. 2008-2009 Basketball Preview

3. Illini Drop Close Loss to Clemson; Play Georgia Next

4. Win Over Georgia Caps Impressive 7-1 Start to Season; play Hawaii next

5. Season Summary; Illini Crush Detroit to Improve to 9-1; Face Missouri next

6. Illini Crush Detroit in Legion's debut; Play Missouri Next

7. Illini Destroy Missouri; Escape Eastern Michigan

8. Non-conference Summary & a Note on Non-Rankings ("Others Receiving Votes")

9. Illini Win Big Ten Opener at Purdue; Play at Michigan Next

10. Illini Lose Close Game at Michigan; Host Indiana Next

11. Illinois Crushes Indiana, 76-45; Play Rematch Against Michigan Next

12. Illini Beat Michigan 66-51; Play at Michigan State Next; 15-2

13. Illini Lose to Michigan State in Final Minutes; Host Ohio State Next; 15-3

14. Illini Dominate Ohio State 67-49; Host Wisconsin Next; 16-3

15. Illini Beat Wisconsin, 64-57; Play at Minnesota Next

16. Illini Lose Horribly at Minnesota, 59-36; 17-4 on Season

17. Illini Struggle Past Iowa, 62-54; Play at Wisconsin Next; 18-4

18. Illini Lose at Wisconsin 63-50 But Then Shut Down Purdue, 66-48

19. Illini Win Thriller Comeback at Northwestern on Last-Second Shot, 60-59; 20-5

20. Illinois beats Indiana on the Road; Hosts Penn State Next 21-5

21. Illinois Tanks Against Penn State, Then Wins Thriller at Ohio State 22-6

22. Illini Suppress Minnesota Rally; Play MSU Next 23-6

23. Illini lose to Michigan State; Finish Regular Season at Penn State; Big Ten Tournament Bracketology 23-7

24. Illini Lose on Last Second Shot at Penn State, But Back Into Second Place Seed in Big Ten Tournament 23-8

Please Click the Following Links for Austin Illini Recaps of the Following Seasons:

2004-2005 The Season to Remember (Regular Season, including the Wake Forest Crushing)

    2005 The Season to Remember - Postseason (including the Arizona Elite 8 game)

2005-2006  Dee & Augie's Senior Season

2006-2007 A Season to Forget, On and Off the Court

2007-2008 A Season That Wasn't Even Worth Forgetting

Austin Illini Recaps for the 2008-2009 Season

The following Recaps are written by Lawrence Page presented in "blog-style" reverse chronological order, with the most recent listed first.  

Use the links above to read the recaps in chronological order.

Illini Lose on Last-Second Shot at Penn State, But Back Into Second Place Seed in Big Ten Tournament

March 10, 2009

Illinois lost its final two games against Michigan State (74-66) and on a last-second shot against Penn State (64-63). However, the final scenario detailed in my last e-mail came true as both Penn State and Purdue lost their final games, too, giving Illinois second place in the Big Ten and the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois thus plays tomorrow (Friday) in the Big Ten Tournament against Michigan , who beat Iowa earlier today in the first round. We will gather at Third Base at 5:30 to watch the game against Michigan on the Big Ten Network. If we win, we will play on Saturday at 3:00 against the winner of the Purdue-Penn State game.

The Penn State loss was rather frustrating because Illinois had the game under control until the final five minutes and really should have won. Illinois also had a chance to secure second place in the Big Ten without worrying about what anyone else did. Finally, Illinois also had not lost two games in a row all season, and finishing the season with the first two-game losing streak of the year is not the way to enter post-season play.

Illinois led by ten with five minutes to play, but then fell apart. In my humble opinion, the culprit is Weber’s “stall offense” strategy where his players stand around until five seconds or so left on the shot clock before trying to set up a shot. We had dominated the game until that point, and should have cruised to a victory.

The “stall” strategy slows down the offensive possession to run the clock down, thereby reducing the number of possessions toward the end of the game as well as reducing the opportunities for the trailing team to come back. Statistically, it is a sound theory. But this game is not played on a board or on a stat sheet.

Like the “prevent defense” in football, the problem is that the stall offense completely takes the team out of the psychology and “flow” that gave them the lead, in the first place. Instead of running the offense as usual, the team falters into a stall, which ultimately has allowed several teams to come back against us over the years. Just as importantly, the strategy also allows the trailing team to set up its defense, rest, and focus its own team, as well as giving the other team a sense of urgency to make the most out of each possession on offense and defense.

And that is exactly what happened. While our team fell out of sync, Penn State became more focused and effective. In short, the stall offense works only in the final minute of the game, not with five minutes left in the game as Weber has used it. But that’s just my humble opinion.

The other problem is that free throw shooting finally lost us a game this year. Down the stretch, we missed 5 out of 6 free throw attempts, including two front ends of a 1-and-1 situation that could have resulted in two more points. If we just made half of those free throws, we still would have won the game despite the flawed “stall offense” strategy. If Mike Davis had made his two free throws, Penn State also would not have caught us off-balance in transition so as to be able to make that final shot.

Although we should have won the game, the loss merely amounts to a road loss to a team that almost took second place in the Big Ten, which is not too awful. Only Michigan State and Wisconsin won at Penn State this year, and Penn State got revenge against Michigan State in East Lansing . Penn State was not the bottom-feeder it has been in past years.

More globally, many have aptly referred to Illinois as having “backed into” second place after losing its last two games, including a game they should have won against Penn State to clinch second place outright. However, make no mistake: we did still earn the privilege. We had one of the toughest Big Ten schedules, and we essentially earned second place before those final games were played. First, we opened against Purdue and Michigan on the road, and could have easily fallen into a 1-3 hole to start the Big Ten season. Michigan had defeated Duke and UCLA in the non-conference season, and Purdue was coming off a second-place finish last year behind a core of freshmen (now sophomores). We not only avoided that hole, we ended up second in the conference.

Additionally, because of the addition of Penn State as the eleventh team in the conference, every Big Ten team plays two teams only once during the regular season, and which teams you play only once can make the schedule much easier or much more difficult. Whereas Michigan State played two of the better teams ( Ohio State and Wisconsin ) only once each (and did not need to go to Madison to play Wisconsin ), our one-game teams were Northwestern and Iowa : both bottom-half teams. As a result, we lost a chance to rack up easy wins and had to face all the contending teams twice. As a result, we had a more difficult Big Ten schedule than almost anyone else, and we still ended up with the second best record in the Big Ten. With critical road wins at Ohio State , Purdue, and Northwestern, we earned the right before we struggled at the end of the season.

Illinois has also had an absolutely magical rebound off of last year’s 13-18 (5-13 in the Big Ten) debacle¸ and in surprising fashion. At the end of last year, most of us looked forward to the return of sharpshooter Jamar Smith and the second-semester arrival of Alex Legion to provide a much-needed influx of talent on this team. But then Smith got kicked off the team last summer, and Alex Legion has not at all turned out to be the instant superstar everyone hoped he would be.

Instead, this year’s turnaround stemmed from two factors: first, the unfortunate “addition by subtraction” of Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle; and, second, several returning players greatly improving their game. “Nuff said” about the first factor; the second factor was the more pleasant surprise.

First, Chester Frazier remained an infrequent scorer, but because absolutely crucial to our success not only on offense and defense, but also in practice. Instead of the oft-repeated frustration of watching him dribble the ball on offense until the end of the shot clock only to heave a desperation shot with little to no chance, Chester developed more faith in quickly and frequently distributing the ball around this year. His already solid defense also stepped up a notch. He led the entire Big Ten team in assists (over 5 per game) and was second in his assist-to-turnover ratio. He also led the team in steals. As much as I reviled him last year, I loved watching him play this year.

Second, Mike Davis emerged as a potential NBA-caliber player, with a soft short-range shooting touch and solid rebounding, especially for such a lanky forward. Davis led the team in scoring for part of the non-conference season, and had more rebounds than anyone else in the Big Ten.

Mike Tisdale also developed as a legitimate scoring threat, especially with a soft hook shot that (if he sets up right) is virtually undefendable. Tisdale and Davis also were fourth and fifth in the Big Ten, respectively, in fiel goal percentage: the measure of shooting accuracy from the field.

Demetri McCamey also emerged as the team’s leading scorer. Although prone to cold spells, McCamey has an ability to catch fire and take over a game.

But the most important turnaround in this team’s development has been its ability to work as a team. The off-the-ball movement is much more aggressive and purposeful. There are few “black holes” on offense into which the ball disappears never to return until the other team gets the ball back. The offense worked extremely well to find open men, particularly Davis and Tisdale for short baseline jumpers and Meacham and McCamey for 3-pointers from the crux of the arc (45-degrees from the basket).

This team is a legitimate Sweet-16 team, and don’t be too surprised if we make a run to the Final Four.

Finally, as for the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois fell into a brilliantly fortunate seed. First, Michigan State is the only team to control us, and they are on the other side of the bracket. Second, Ohio State and Wisconsin are also both on the other side of the bracket. Those two teams are the enigmas of the Big Ten, and are more dangerous match-ups for us. Ohio State , in particular, has something to prove against us after we embarrassed them in Champaign and then stole the game in Columbus from them.

On our side of the bracket, although Penn State is the only other team to sweep us in the season series, we beat our own selves in both those games, and I can’t see them beating us a third time this year. The same (or the converse) can’t be said about Purdue. Although they are a solid team and they were missing one of their star players both games, we seem to match-up well against Purdue, if only because of Bruce Weber’s familiarity with Matt Painter’s strategies. We also played Michigan fairly decently, and they have fallen apart in the Big Ten season. So we do have some favorable match-ups in the Big Ten Tournament, which could help our seeding in the NCAA Tournament.

And that brings up a final point. The past two years, we have either been a weak bubble team or a complete non-entity in the NCAA Tournament discussion. Let’s all take a moment to appreciate how nice it is to only need to worry about our seeding in the NCAA Tournament, not whether or not we will make it there, at all. Even if we tank against Michigan , we will still dance next week. All we can do is strengthen our resume.

I hope to see everyone Friday evening for the game against Michigan .

Illini lose to Michigan State; Finish Regular Season at Penn State

Big Ten Tournament Bracketology

March 2, 2009

Illinois lost a close game to Michigan State last Sunday, 74-66. Illinois next plays its final regular season game tonight at Penn State . We will gather at Third Base tonight (Thursday) to watch the game against Penn State at 8:00 on ESPN.

The Michigan State loss might very well be the first game this year where the Illini lost due to bad officiating. The Big Ten officiating was horrible, which has unfortunately become more and more common. Even though the bad calls went both ways, critical bad calls on us prevented us from being able to come back in the final minutes, most especially an intentional foul called on Trent Meacham after he swatted at the ball on a fast break and then wrapped up the MSU player in his arms mostly to prevent the player from falling down.

Nonetheless, even with the poor officiating, Illinois made enough of its own critical mistakes down the stretch to not fully blame the loss on the refs. Michigan State jumped out to a 7-0 lead and actually led the entire game until Jeff Jordan tied the game at 58 with seven minutes left. But then for a six-minute stretch in the last 7 minutes of the game, Illinois scored only one point and no field goals. Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey both got a case of the “ Jordans ,” thinking they could dribble drive to the basket like Michael Jordan could, only to realize at the last second that they were not like Mike and then throw the ball away under the basket.

However, we would not have been in the game, to begin with, without either player, so much of the Internet blaming of McCamey and Davis reflects just so much sour grapes. They both tried hard and had good and bad moments. The bad moments just came at the worst, most memorable time of the game.

Michigan State out-rebounded us 34-27, and had more than twice as many offensive rebounds as us (10-4), giving them more second-chance opportunities and points. Michigan State also had more steals (11) than us (3) and more assists (17) than us (13). Illinois also committed more turnovers (17) than Michigan State (only 11). The deficit in offensive rebounds, steals, and turnovers, alone, gave Michigan State 18 extra possessions, which you cannot do against a team like Michigan State . Statistically, this game should have been a blowout.

However, Illinois stayed in the game by making their free throws (16-19 for 84%) and shooting slightly better than Michigan State (46% to 45%). Although Michigan State ended up with a 10 point lead that Bill Cole cut to 8 on a last second garbage shot, 6 of those MSU points were on free throws down the stretch, and two more on a dunk following a broken full-court-press when Illinois was forcing things at the end. Somehow, the game was closer than the final score indicated.

Mike Tisdale led the Illini with 15 points, and Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey added 13 and 10 of their own.

Big Ten Tournament Bracketology

With the win over us, Michigan State clinched at least a share of the regular season Big Ten Title. Michigan State then clinched the title outright by beating Wisconsin last night. In the meantime, however, Purdue lost to Northwestern last night, dropping them back to a second-place tie with us. Although Illinois clinched at least fourth place and a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, where Illinois will end up in the Big Ten seeding remains undecided.

Three teams remain in contention for the second-place: Illinois , Purdue, and Penn State . Of these teams, Illinois controls its own destiny more than anyone else. There are five possible scenarios for us.

Scenario One: If we win tonight, we get second place no matter what happens this weekend. Even if Purdue beats Michigan State to remain tied with us for second, we would win the tiebreaker by virtue of beating Purdue twice head-to-head.

Scenario Two: If we lose, then Purdue can clinch the second seed by beating Michigan State . Assuming Penn State also beats Iowa , Penn State would then be third, and we would fall to fourth by virtue of losing the third-place head-to-head tiebreaker to Penn State . This scenario is the only one in which we would fall to the fourth-place seed.

Scenario Three: If Purdue wins and Penn State loses to Iowa , then we would get third place and Penn State would fall into a mess with Ohio State , Wisconsin , or Minnesota for fourth place.

Scenario Four: If we lose and Purdue loses, but Penn State also loses to Iowa , then we would win the tiebreaker against Purdue for second, Purdue takes third, and Penn State would (again) fall into a mess with three other teams for fourth. This scenario is the only one in which we get second place despite losing tonight: everyone else needs to lose out.

Scenario Five: Now for the messy scenario. If we and Purdue both lose and Penn State wins at Iowa , then there will be a three-way tie for second. In that scenario, the three-way tiebreaker is overall head-to-head records among the three teams. Purdue has two losses against us and one loss against Penn State for three head-to-head losses; Illinois would have two head-to-head losses to Penn State ; and Penn State would only have one head-to-head loss to Purdue. Thus, Penn State would get the #2 seed, we would get the #3 seed, and Purdue would get the #4 seed.

Here is the upshot. The difference between second and third place seeds is not too significant, because they are bracketed to play each other in the semi-finals. Michigan State is clearly the team to beat in the Big Ten and the only team we really want to avoid until the end of the Big Ten Tournament. We want the second or third seed so as to avoid a match-up against Michigan State until the Big Ten finals. The worst case scenario would be to fall to fourth, where would could play Michigan State in the semifinals.

Additionally, although Michigan State has had our number this season, they have lost to Northwestern and Penn State at home. So Penn State falling to fourth not only keeps us away from Michigan State, it makes it more likely that Penn State will be bracketed to play Michigan State, possibly knocking Michigan State out (or at least giving them a tough game) before the Championship game.

After tonight, Illinois will get a bit over a week off before its first game in the Big Ten Tournament next Friday. The time and opponent will depend tonight’s result. With a win, Illinois will clinch the second-place seed and will play Friday night at 5:30 . If we drop to third, Illinois would play at 8:00 next Friday night. If we drop to fourth, we play Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Illini Suppress Minnesota Rally; Play MSU Next

February 27, 2009

Illinois squashed a furious rally by Minnesota to win, 52-41, and advance to 23-6 on the season, 11-5 in the Big Ten. Illinois' final two regular season games are against Michigan State tomorrow (Sunday) and then at Penn State on Thursday. We will gather at Third Base on Sunday at 3:00 to watch the Michigan State game on CBS, and on Thursday at 8:00 to watch the game at Penn State.

Tomorrow is Senior Day, the last time Chester Frazier, Trent Meacham, and Calvin Brock will play at Assembly Hall. Tomorrow's game also could determine the Big Ten Championship, and definitely will affect first and second place in the Big Ten. With a win, Illinois would pull within a half game of Big-Ten leader Michigan State and could win the Big Ten Championship: quite a turnaround from last year's 9th place finish. However, with a loss, Illinois could fall down as far as fourth in the Big Ten. So if you come out to watch one regular season game, you should come out for this one.

The Minnesota game was ugly and at times too reminiscent of Illinois' offensive struggles at home against Penn State and earlier this year at Minnesota. Nonetheless, although we were not an offensive powerhouse, we did hit key shots throughout the game to pull out the win, especially down the stretch.

The horrible officiating was also a huge factor, letting both teams play very physically. The game resembled some of the more violent and brutal street games I have watched. The bad calls went both ways. Indeed, there were some moments when our players absolutely mauled a Minnesota shooter and we at Third Base all looked at each other in mildly-amused amazement, wondering what game the refs were watching.

Nonetheless, the increased physical and chaotic style of play ultimately gave Minnesota an advantage. As one of the commentators noted, Minnesota scored most if not all its first half points off chaotic "plays," not out of an offensive scheme. Illinois' offense favors a crisp, clean style of play, and although our defense is solid, it is not at all violent, thuggish, or overly physical.

Nonetheless, despite the awful officiating, Illinois managed to pull away in the final minutes with the win. As I have noted before, previous Illinois teams (more talented than this one) have crumbled under the pressure of awful officiating. This year's team has not yet allowed poor officiating lose us a game.

Although he only scored five points, Chester Frazier was clearly the player of the game. In the first half, Minnesota jumped out to a 9-2 lead. But then Frazier clamped down, stealing the ball twice and blocking it once (under the basket, at that) on three of the next four possessions. They were not lazy plays, either: they were aggressive, come-out-of-nowhere plays where he took the ball from someone else's man. And instead of blocking or knocking the ball out of bounds, he gained control of the ball after each defensive play. His leadership on the floor also helped Illinois keep its composure and regain control of the game. He also ended up leading all players with 6 assists, which is impressive on a low-scoring night. (You do not get an assist unless someone scores: fewer points mean fewer assists).

Although Illinois' offense worked better and was critical to the win, defense again was the more important aspect to this victory. After allowing Minnesota to score 59 points en route to a 23-point win in Minneapolis, Illinois held Minnesota to only 41 points in Champaign. The key was two stretches of "flat-line" defense: the first during a seven-minute stretch that overlapped halftime, and the second during the final ten minutes of the game. At the end of the first flat-line at two minutes into the second half, Minnesota trailed by seven points. Minnesota managed to come back and lead by one at 39-38 with ten minutes left in the game. But then the defense clamped down again for the more critical final stretch. Illinois only allowed one basket in the final ten minutes of the game, allowing them to slowly pull away for the 11-point victory.

Thus, although the ESPN headline might mislead you to believe that a late offense flurry lead to the victory, it actually was the defensive flat-line in the final ten minutes that won the game.

Mike Davis led the Illinois with 15 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth "double-double" of the season. Trent Meacham and Demetri McCamey also added 13 and 10, respectively. With the game in doubt at 42-41, Meacham and McCamey also hit dagger-like three-point shots down the stretch to extend the lead to 48-41, essentially sealing the final outcome.

Illinois Tanks Against Penn State, Then Wins Thriller at Ohio State

February 25, 2009

Illinois lost a horrible game to Penn State, 38-33, then rebounded improbably with an impressive road win at Ohio State, 70-68. Illinois next hosts Minnesota Thursday and then Michigan State on Sunday. We will gather at Third Base tonight at 6:00 to watch the Penn State game on the Big Ten Network, and on Sunday at 3:00 to watch the game against Michigan State on CBS.

As frustratingly consistent as last year's team was in losing, this year's team has been frustratingly inconsistent, albeit with much better results. In some games--the Missouri game, both games against Purdue, both games against Ohio State, hosting Wisconsin--we are virtually unbeatable. In others--at Minnesota, hosting Iowa, and now hosting Penn State--we could barely beat a high school team.

(Of course, the joke is that we DID beat a high school-caliber team in one of our worst games this year, against Iowa.)

The upshot is that the two most recent games somewhat offset each other: we "shoulda" won the Penn State game at home, and Ohio State has been strong at home this year, so we "shoulda" lost that game. The polls also did not penalize us too badly for our miserable 33-point Penn State debacle, and we ended up #20 in both polls.

The plot thickens now. Our three remaining games are all re-matches of losses earlier in the season. First, Illinois hosts Minnesota, who has stumbled tremendously after soundly beating Illinois in Minneapolis. Then, on our final home game of the season (Senior Day this Sunday), Illinois hosts Big-Ten leader Michigan State, whom Illinois would have beaten if we had continued to play hard down the stretch instead of slow down the pace to try to run out the clock. Finally, Illinois ends the regular season with a quick rematch against Penn State on the road.

Even though we face teams that have beat us, all three are beatable. We played the toughest of the three, Michigan State, the closest

The Penn State home game was one of the three worst games we have played all year. We scored only 33 points: less than half our season average and the lowest points scored EVER in Assembly Hall. The frustrating part was that we held Penn State to only 38 points, which usually means a blowout win.

It gets worse. Our defense caused havoc in Penn State's scoring, whereas Penn State did not have much to do with our offensive woes. Our offense actually worked to create many open shots. They just did not fall. All of our players looked shaken, and there seemed to be a moment's pause before each shot where they worried whether this shot would make it.

When that happens, teams typically need to get out of their halfcourt set and start scoring in fast breaks or other transition plays. Don't wait to stop and think about it, just run and gun. And coming out of halftime, Illinois did just that. Scoring everything on the run and nothing from a halfcourt set-up, Illinois went from down by 2 at the half (a miserable 17-15) to a 9-point lead halfway through the second half at 29-20, which seemed insurmountable in a low-scoring game like that.

But then Illinois went cold again, and Penn State finished the game on an 18-4 run. Illinois settled into its halfcourt set, and the shooting woes continued. Penn State also amped up its defense down the stretch, causing several turnovers and actually contesting shots.

The refs were also awful. Illinois did not take a single free throw--the first time that has ever happened at Assembly Hall--and not because there was no contact. Many of those steals down the stretch would have been fouls in other leagues.

We thought the Minnesota road loss was our low point, when we scored only 36 points. 36 points would have won us this game because Penn State would not have had the extra free throws down the stretch. Not since 1947 has Illinois scored so few points.

By contrast, Ohio State had been surging at home, recently, with three-straight home wins over Minnesota, Purdue and Michigan. Despite Ohio State suffering two tough road losses before the game against us, not too many gave us a chance at Ohio State given our performance against Penn State. Indeed, most expected Ohio State to use the game to right its own ship.

Instead, Illinois came out on fire, never trailed, and with the exception of a 2-2 tie at the start, led wire-to-wire. And we deserved to win.

Although we never trailed, Ohio State did manage to stick around within ten points the entire game. Illinois stretched to its largest lead at 10 points on a Chester Frazier three-pointer with just over 6 minutes left. With the momentum, it looked like Illinois would cruise away with the road win. However, just like four years ago, Ohio State surged back as Illinois stifled its offensive flow with its "prevent," run-the-clock-out offense. And just like four years ago, Ohio State hit a three pointer with just two seconds left in the game.

However, this time, Illinois had a 5-point lead when Ohio State made that three pointer. After OSU quickly fouled Trent Meacham, he missed the first and then intentionally missed the second so Ohio State could not set up for a last-second shot.

As a result, the score ended up looking closer than the game actually was. Even though Illinois never took advantage of opportunities to run away with this game, Illinois played solidly on both sides of the court for another quality road win.

With the win, this year's team also managed to do what our 2005 Final Four team could not: stave off a last-minute surge by Ohio State at Ohio State.

Mike Davis led all scorers with 22 points. Trent Meacham added 17 and Demetri McCamey added 15 of his own.

Illinois beats Indiana on the Road; Hosts Penn State Next

February 17, 2009

Illinois staved off a furious comeback attempt by both Indiana and the refs to win, 65-52, and advance to 21-5 on the season, and 9-4 in the Big Ten. Illinois next plays Penn State tonight and then at Ohio State on Sunday. We will gather at Third Base tonight (Wednesday) at 6:00 to watch the game against Penn State, and on Sunday at noon to watch the game at Ohio State.

The Indiana win had bad news and good news. The bad news first. Illinois should have run away with this game and did not. Illinois absolutely demolished Indiana in Champaign; at Indiana, we jumped out to a 21-point first half lead at 34-13 and a 17-point first half lead, and that after Bruce Weber actually emptied the benches in the first half, not the second half. Indiana also has won only one Big Ten game: at home against fellow-cellar-dweller Iowa. With a roster dominated by freshman walk-ons after last year's purging of the system, Indiana is not good this year. We should have run away with it.

However, Indiana fought back furiously to cut the lead from over 20 to only 6 with 6:27 left in the game. They clearly had momentum and believed they would continue surging to win the game. The Indiana crowd was also amazing: despite Indiana's 1-10 start to the Big Ten season behind a roster of walk-on freshmen, they continued to sell out Assembly Hall East; and they remained enthusiastic all game even though Indiana fell far behind from the start.

Hate to admit it, but Tom Crean also has done a decent job with the limited talent he has this year; despite their record, he clearly is not just biding his time until his new recruits come to campus. They have played closely in many games, and he insists (publicly) that they are very close to being competitive. I also respected his support for his players. At one point during the comeback, Indiana's annoying, walk-on point guard (the guy who dribbles at his shoulder) made a bonehead play and came into a timeout sulking as if he had just lost them the game. Crean grabbed him, hugged him, and encouraged him to forget it and stay in the game. After some of the hostile, bad-sport antics in the Big Ten East the past decades, it really was inspiring to watch a coach encourage his team, not just berate them. He had them truly believing they could win, which is a feat in and of itself.

Finally, as great as Crean and the Indiana fans were, the refs were horrible. They greatly helped Indiana in their comeback. At one point, they called a technical on Calvin Brock merely for an emphatic slam dunk and (truly) incidentally grazing an Indiana player on his way down court; the Indiana player even looked at the ref incredulously, wondering what he was thinking. With everything going Indiana's way, Indiana managed to make it interesting.

But there the bad news ends and it turns into very, very good news.

First, in short, Illinois held off the comeback in a very hostile environment and won the game solidly. Even though Indiana swiped the momentum, even though the crowd was amazing, even though the refs did everything they could to keep Indiana in the game, Indiana really never seriously threatened to steal the game. They THOUGHT they threatened, but in the end, the only anxiety we really felt was that Indiana might actually make it a close game, not that they really did so. That whittled-down 6-point lead was very short lived, and we clearly regained our composure and put the game away after that point.

Second, we have fallen prey to poor officiating before and will fall prey to it again, and I am frankly quite bored of complaining about it. Even our 2005 final four team let the refs get inside our heads during crucial moments of that season: most notably the Championship game. Great teams find a way to play through bad officiating. By stifling Indiana's comeback and pulling out a decisive victory, we showed that we are capable of doing so.

Third, even if the game never should have been in doubt, Indiana made it look like it was, and therefore made it interesting. We could have had a blowout where we feel bored and learn nothing. Instead, our team learned how to keep its composure and pull off another road victory in a very hostile environment. We will not face the home-style NCAA Tournament schedule of our 2005 run, so it is good to get that sort of experience under our belt.

Finally, the other great news is that this game was the second road game in a row where the opposing team and fans clearly came out hungry for a win. They circled the Illinois game on their calendars, which shows perhaps more than anything that we are back. When the opposition routinely puts a target on your back, and you become the team to beat, you know you are good. Although we might still feel some paranoia after enduring last year's debacle, the rest of the Big Ten seems to consider it an anomaly. Therapists have a word for that: validation.

Illini Win Thriller Comeback at Northwestern on Last-Second Shot, 60-59; 20-5

February 13, 2009

Illinois rallied to win a thrilling comeback game on a last second shot, 60-59, to advance to 20-5 on the season, 7-4 in the Big Ten.  Illinois next plays at Indiana on Sunday and then hosts Penn State on Wednesday.  We will gather at Third Base to watch the game against Indiana at noon on Sunday on CBS, and the game against Penn State at 7:00 on Wednesday on the Big Ten Network.

Illinois played poorly for most of the Northwestern game, while Northwestern played its heart out.  From the Northwestern fans to the energy on the court, it really looked like Northwestern had circled this game on its schedule and wanted desperately to break its 9-game losing streak to the Illini going back to the 2003-2004 season.  At 4-6 in the Big Ten, Northwestern also needed this win desperately to solidify its hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.  And for most of the game, it looked like they would succeed.

With the exception of a brief tie at 20-20 midway through the first half, Northwestern led from the start until the final seconds of the game.  They led by 6 at the half, and suppressed an Illini surge out of halftime.  Illinois cut the lead to only 2 at 37-39, but Northwestern then shut us down and rallied off 12 straight unanswered points en route to a 16-4 run to build a 41-55 lead with only six minutes left in the game.

Northwestern's defense had befuddled us, and their offense kept producing open shots even deep into the second half.  We did not play as poorly as we had played recently against Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, but we did not show the energy or desire that Northwestern showed.  Our offense did not create open shots nearly as well as Northwestern's offense did.  They were winning, and they were making it look easier.

Worse yet, a familiar old culprit reared its ugly head again.  In the first 35 minutes of the game, Illinois shot 0-10 from the free throw line.  If they just made their season average percentage of free throws, the entire complexion of the game would have changed.  Instead, they fell into a huge, seemingly-insurmountable hole.

Northwestern led 57-43 with just over 5 minutes left: at 14 points, the largest lead in the game, and the lead seemed to be growing.  Given how we had played recently, it really did not seem possible that we could pull this game out.  I even texted Gary that we were going to lose, and I'm supposed to be the optimistic one.

However, Illinois then came to life.  Or, to put it more succinctly, Trent Meacham did.

To put the comeback even more in context, Meacham has struggled mightily in Big Ten play the past three years despite showing flashes of brilliance in the nonconference and a few individual Big Ten games.  This year seemed the worst fade of all.  In 8 of our 13 nonconference games, Meacham scored not only in double figures, he was our overall leading scorer: dropping a season-high 23 points against Missouri.  But in the Big Ten season, he had only scored in double figures 3 of our 11 games: including 0 points in 20 minutes against Ohio State, 3 points in 25 minutes at Michigan State and 4 points in 33 minutes against Iowa.  In our last seven games, he had scored in single-digits.  Although still key to our offense and as a team leader, his scoring had dropped significantly, and he fell to our fourth-leading scorer.  

Until 5-minutes remaining in the Northwestern game, Meacham had also scored only a single three-pointer, mid-way in the first half.  

Then Illinois called a timeout with five minutes remaining, and something clicked.  

Out of the timeout, Meacham drove and made a quick lay-up.  57-47.  After McCamey added a free throw and Illinois' defense held, Trent drove and pulled up for a two-point jumper. 57-50.  After Northwestern responded with a basket of its own, Trent drove of a ball fake and again created his own lay-up while being fouled.  He then made the free throw to cut the lead to only 6: 59-53.

Illinois started pressing, and Northwestern started panicking.  Out of its own timeout, Northwestern lost the ball, and Trent quickly hit a three from the corner.  59-56.  Illinois pressed again and forced another turnover.  And Trent dribble-drove again for a quick lay-up.  59-57, with 45 seconds left.  Illinois would probably get the last shot, but Northwestern had the ball.

Northwestern slowed the pace and worked the clock down.  After calling a timeout, Northwestern lured our interior defenders to the left while Michael Thompson (who had been killing us) drove down the right side for a lay-up.  But Trent stripped the ball under the basket, and it knocked off Thompson's knee out of bounds.  Illini ball, with 16 seconds remaining.

Out of a timeout, Trent then got the ball to the right of the top of the key.  Knowing he was hot, he dribbled left to draw all defenders left while Mike Tisdale set a pick for McCamey who cut right.  Trent fed McCamey perfectly, who banked in an open ten-foot jumper with only 2 seconds left.  

We all jumped up in unison at Third Base, as if we had just comeback against Arizona, again.  The Illini fans at Northwestern (about a third of the crowd, mostly in the back rows) cheered an enthusiastic, defiant "I-L-L, I-N-I" with a cadence that also reminded me of the Arizona comeback.

Without a timeout, Northwestern inbounded and took a futile half-court shot to end the game, 60-59.

Meacham scored 12 of his 15 points in the final five minutes, and scored 12 of our 14 points in the final five minutes to seal the comeback and the win.  He also did it (even more impressively) by creating his own shot, which he rarely has been able to do.

Now, although it brought back fond memories, make no mistake: this comeback was nowhere on the level of the Arizona comeback.  There was more at stake on so many different levels, and Arizona was a better team than Northwestern: so that comeback was more amazing and significant.  But this comeback was thrilling.  This team is not as talented, but they faced a seemingly-insurmountable lead that seemed to be growing, and the whole team played in a way that made the seemingly-impossible possible.

Losing this game would not have been a tragedy, because it was a road game and Northwestern is much better this year than in recent memory.  Northwestern had beaten Michigan State in East Lansing and had beaten Minnesota and Wisconsin, both of which have beaten us.  But to come back like that showed some heart that this team had not shown yet this year.  

When we got down by double-digits late in our games at Minnesota, at Wisconsin, and at Michigan State, we essentially crumbled and gave up.  Two of those games were still in doubt when we gave up, but even then it would have been good to see them at least use the game as practice.  Pretend the gap is five points and run some drills to cut a five point gap.  Then when you do that, pretend the deficit was ten points and runs drills to cut that gap.  Or at least make the loss respectable.  Instead, they just gave up.

Not this time.  Trent wouldn't let them. 

This game also gives us some renewed momentum and confidence for the home stretch of the Big Ten schedule.  We remain tied with Purdue and Ohio State in second place behind Michigan State.  But Michigan State plays Purdue twice and us in Champaign, so the Big Ten title is not outside of our reach.  

Illini Lose at Wisconsin 63-50 But Then Shut Down Purdue, 66-48

Illinois lost at Wisconsin, 63-50, but came back strong to beat Purdue at home, 66-48.  At 7-4 in the Big Ten and 19-5 overall, Illinois is in a three-way tie for second in the Big Ten with Ohio State and Purdue.  We next play Northwestern in Evanston tonight and then at Indiana on Sunday morning.  We will gather at Third Base to watch the game against Northwestern tonight at 7:45 on ESPN2-HD, and then on Sunday for the game against Indiana at noon on CBS.


Not much time to write a recap because I have a grumpy, demanding client who wants her contract drafted ;-), but suffice to say that although Illinois has struggled and not played its best recently, we still remain in great shape, especially considering from whence we came last year.

Our offense has struggled partly because it looks like the Big Ten defenses have begun to figure out this year's adaptation of our motion offense.  However, it also comes down to our not hitting shots, which probably is happening simply due to fatigue and lack of focus. 

Nonetheless, our defense has remained strong and has kept us alive.  We struggled in the first half against Purdue, but they struggled even more, for a halftime score of only 32-28.  Then, during a 10-minute stretch of the second half, Illinois held Purdue to only 6 points as they surged ahead with 23 points of their own to put the game away.

Mike Davis has struggled, but the news coming out of Champaign was that he has suffered from tonsillitis and a bout of Bell's Palsy, a disorienting facial nerve condition.  Given that, it was actually impressive that he had played as well as he had the past few games, and even better to see that he has recovered and that he regained his form and his shooting touch against Purdue on Sunday.

Hope to see you tonight.

Illini Struggle Past Iowa, 62-54; Play at Wisconsin Next; 18-4

Illinois beat Iowa, 62-54, to advance to 18-4 on the season, 6-3 in the Big Ten. Illinois next plays at Wisconsin on Thursday and then hosts Purdue on Sunday. We will gather at Third Base at 7:45 to watch the game against Wisconsin Sunday on ESPN, and at 12:00 on Sunday to watch the game against Purdue on CBS.

After our horrible performance at Minnesota, Illinois needed to make a statement against Iowa, which has been one of the weaker teams in the Big Ten this year. We didn’t. We just barely did enough to get by with a win.

Iowa came to play. They stuck with us point for point for the first portion of the first half, and then completely stifled our offense to build a small but surprising 25-22 halftime lead. In the second half, Illinois hit nine of their first 10 shots to turn that halftime deficit into an eight-point lead at 46-38 with 11:39 left. Then the game just froze. Illinois and Iowa each scored only two points over a six minute stretch near the end of the game: from 45-52 to 47-54 in six minutes of slop. Iowa then scored another basket to close the gap to 54-49 with under a minute left. However, Illinois hit eight straight free throws to close the game out. Again, free throws save us. How ironic.

Mike Tisdale led Illinois with 18 points, and Dominique Keller added 12 of his own. However, the scoring was not well balanced, and Trent Meacham in particular continues to struggle.

The rumors get worse. Bruce apparently threw the entire team out of practice before the Iowa game, frustrated with their lack of effort and failure to take the Minnesota loss seriously.

Nonetheless, at 6-3 in the Big Ten, Illinois remains in a three-way tie for second with Purdue and Penn State. Minnesota lost to Michigan State Wednesday night to drop to fifth at 6-4, after Michigan State had dropped two in a row at home to Northwestern and Penn State. Purdue also lost to Ohio State to fall into that three-way tie. The Big Ten is wide open this year.

At the start of the Big Ten Season, most agreed that our schedule was very front loaded, starting with road games at Purdue and Michigan and then a quick rematch against Michigan and then traveling to Michigan State, all in the first five games. We also faced Wisconsin twice in the first half of the Big Ten schedule, with the rematch coming this Thursday.

But Wisconsin has fallen from grace, losing 6 in a row and counting. After beating two top-5 teams in the non-conference, Michigan has similarly fallen from grace and dropped to 4-6. Meanwhile, Penn State, Northwestern, and Minnesota have all come out of the basement to the upper-half of the Big Ten standings.

Now that the chips have fallen somewhat differently than we expected, some have diminished the first half of the schedule and figure that the second half must be the tougher part, where we play Penn State twice, Northwestern, and then Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan State at home.

However, that analysis unjustifiably assumes we have had nothing to do with the teams we beat being below us in the standings. It also diminishes the significance of teams we have not played at home yet (Minnesota, MSU, Purdue) or have not played at all yet (Northwestern, Penn State) benefiting in the standings from not having yet played us at home or at all.

If you compare records at this point, you also need to account (or discount) for the fact of who we have played and who we have not played. We are near the top of the Big Ten, so it is almost axiomatic that the teams below us in the standings are there in part because we beat them. When you look at the schedules, the “surprise” teams in the upper half of the Big Ten (Penn State, Minnesota, Northwestern) are there, in part, because one of the better teams in the Big Ten (Illinois) has not played them, yet, or has not played them at home. Likewise, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio State are struggling in the standings in relevant part because we played them in Champaign and won. The standings might not align with our preseason impressions, but they will balance out.

Second, that analysis focuses too superficially on results and not what led to those results. In terms of predicting how we will do the rest of the season, it is not whether we won or lost, it is how well we played the game.

The single biggest factor that determines whether we will beat Wisconsin this week is NOT that Wisconsin has lost five or six in a row, or that Wisconsin is near the bottom of the standings. That can turn either way--either they stink and don't know how to win any game or they will now be REALLY hungry for a win. Instead, the single biggest factor is whether we can rise out of our funk and play like we did against Purdue, Michigan (at home), MSU (until the last five minutes), and Ohio State, or we instead play like we did against Minnesota or Iowa. THAT is the analysis, not our record vs. their record.

Illini Lose Horribly at Minnesota, 59-36; 17-4 on Season

Illinois lost an awful, awful game at Minnesota 59-36, to drop to only 17-4 on the season. Illinois gets a breather before the Super Bowl by hosting Iowa before traveling to Wisconsin on Thursday. We will gather at Third Base at 12:45 to watch the game against Iowa.

Remember, it is Super Bowl Sunday, and although our game should finish several hours before the Super Bowl starts, we should get to Third Base on time so they do not run into any seating conflicts. You can stay or make it to your Super Bowl Parties with plenty of time to go shopping in between.

The Minnesota loss was absolutely atrocious. There is no other way to describe it. This description is not a bombastic overreaction given a newfound expectation that we should win every game now that we have an impressive 81% winning percentage, even after this game. It just was awful, with no redeeming qualities, whatsoever, except perhaps in serving our team what might have been a much-needed slice of humble pie.

Perhaps we just got full of ourselves with the #20 ranking. Illinois had also won 20 in a row against Minnesota going back a decade, so perhaps we took the game somewhat for granted. Perhaps we also had some payback coming to us. But it didn't even have a savory, bitter feeling of retribution. It was just awful.

Illinois played horribly from the start and never got on track. With a balanced scoring attack this year, someone has always been able to step up each game even if others on the team had an off-night. Not this time. The offense looked jumbled and confused from the get-go, and even when they did get open shots, nobody could seem to manage to get their shots to fall. Minnesota did a great job cutting off passing lanes and frustrating our motion offense, so it wasn't all just our incompetence; but we still could not adapt and make adjustments to overcome their aggressive defense.

Despite our horrible start and only 16 first-half points, Minnesota actually kept pace with our horrible performance and only scored 22 of its own in the first half. If you had not seen our score, you would think we were doing great holding Minnesota to only 22 points in the first half.

Although you might think the low-scoring game simply went at a slow pace, it didn't. It was frenetic and chaotic. Both teams shot horribly, especially in the first half. Not until about mid-way in the second half did Minnesota pull away to make it the blowout it should have been from the start.

Now, the personal irony for me is that, in my last recap just before this game, I had just touted how good this team really is. And they still are that good. They just had an awful game. A really awful game.

How awful? This game was worse than ANYTHING we saw last year. Indeed, last year's miserable team would have blown us out with the way we played (although last year's team probably would have dumbed it down and kept it close until the end, just to make us sweat). It was clearly the worst Illini game I have seen; worse than when Lon Kruger inherited a bunch of scrubs that finished last in the Big Ten over a decade ago.

Illinois scored the fewest points in 24 years... and I'm not even sure if they had a shot clock back then. O.K., I do know... 24 years ago (1984-85) was the last year WITHOUT a shot clock. (The 45 second clock started in 1985-86 and the 35 second shot clock started in 1993-94). That's how bad this loss was: the worst Illini loss since the shot clock was instituted in college basketball.

So it was awful, but this team still sits comfortably at 17-4 on the season. And it was a road game, so we still have a chance to make it back up. Wipe it off. Blame it on karma because it happened on the day Blago was impeached. As fans, we need to forget and just let this game slide.

But I hope our team does not. I hope they remember that they not only can still lose, but get embarrassed. And I hope they learn how to fight through an "off day" better than that. This loss can be our Alamo.

Illini Beat Wisconsin, 64-57; Play at Minnesota Next

Illinois defeated Wisconsin in a game that ended closer than it should have, 64-57. Illinois next plays Minnesota in Minneapolis on Thursday and then hosts Iowa on Sunday at 1:00, several hours before the Super Bowl. We will gather at Third Base at 7:45 Thursday night to watch the game against Minnesota on the Big Ten Network.

Time for a pep talk because I don't think all of the Austin Illini understand what is going on this year in basketball.

There has been a running joke the past decade that we just can't seem to get our football and basketball programs to succeed in the same year. When football is down, basketball is up; and when basketball is down (like last year), football was up. But when the football team tanked this year, the joke became that we finally achieved symmetry, but in the wrong direction. Nobody expected the basketball team to redeem itself until the first of three stellar recruiting classes arrive next year.

Well, we haven't achieved symmetry, unless it is of the same ying-yang, counterbalancing kind we have had the past decade. The basketball team is making up for the woe of Illini football this year.

For those who have not paid attention, our basketball team is as good as its 17-3 record. We have climbed back into the rankings at #19 (AP) and #20 (ESPN), and we are better than our rankings indicate. (Just don't tell that to the team quite yet.)

Illinois pretty much controlled the Wisconsin game until the last minute, when Wisconsin made a sputter of a run and brought back memories of over a dozen last-minute collapses last year. Frankly, the tension was heightened because it seemed like Wisconsin went through all of its five timeouts in that final minute to drag the suspense out. But this team held on, made its free throws down the stretch, and pulled out the solid victory over Wisconsin.

ESPN highlighted the fact that Wisconsin had won five in a row against us, but that only amounts to all the games in just the past two years, which was not too difficult.

Just as I highlighted the balanced scoring attack in my last recap, Illinois had to rely on Demetri McCamey's 23 points to pull off this win. The only other Illini in double figures was mike Davis with only ten points.

Illinois shot 82% from the line, compared to 69% for Wisconsin. Although free throws are boring, they win games, and this team's improved free throw shooting is one of the clear reasons why they are winning these games instead of blowing them.

Defense is also an unsung key for this team, with 60 points being a somewhat magic number. In just 4 of our 17 wins, our opponents scored over 60 points, and two of those were in overtime. The other two came early in the season. As the season progresses, our defense has solidified in holding some very decent teams in check.

Looking forward to Thursday's game, Minnesota is not the same old patsy it has been the past several years. As expected, Tubby Smith has boosted the recruiting, and Minnesota is now a competitive team in the Big Ten. They came into the Big Ten season undefeated after an impressive win over then-9th-ranked (and currently-7th ranked) Louisville, and they boast the same 17-3 overall record as we do so far this year. They also beat Wisconsin at Wisconsin, which has been rather difficult under Bo Ryan.

However, despite the Louisville nonconference and the Wisconsin road victories, Minnesota has not played as tough a schedule so far: their ACC-Big Ten challenge victory was against Virginia (now at the bottom of the ACC), and the rest of their nonconference victories were over very weak minor-conference teams. Moreover, Purdue and Michigan State have both won at Minnesota so far this year, so we need a win to keep pace with the other Big Ten leaders.

It will be interesting to see how this young team handles its newfound success and elevation into the top-20 teams in the country.

Illini Dominate Ohio State 67-49; Host Wisconsin Next; 16-3

January 22, 2009

Illinois thoroughly dominated Ohio State last Tuesday, 67-49, to advance to 16-3, and 4-2 in the Big Ten. Illinois next plays Wisconsin in Champaign. We will gather at Third Base at 2:45 Saturday afternoon to watch the game against Wisconsin on ESPN-HD. (They recently changed the gametime from 8:00, but I actually caught it this time before sending out the email.)

The Ohio State win was another sign that this team has really turned itself around from last year's debacle. Ohio State had won the last five games against us. The most remarkable thing about the Ohio State game besides the thorough domination of a team that has caused us problems for the past several years is that our team rebounded from its loss at Michigan State rather soundly and did not let that loss affect the next game. For all the hub-ub about Chester Frazier's "calling out" his teammates (accurately) for quitting at the end of the Michigan State game, it does appear that his comments were taken as a positive, unifying call to action and not a divisive step toward crumbling the team unity that has made this team so much more successful than we ever hoped. As Steve Lavin aptly noted during the game, Illinois managed to recover strongly and not let that disappointing loss turn into two losses.

With the win, Illinois matched its season-total 16 wins last year, and still has 12 games remaining in just the regular season, alone. At this pace, Illinois will certainly get a bid into the NCAA Tournament, and could even contend for the Big Ten Title. Part of the reason Illinois could win the Big Ten Title came from Michigan State collapsing against Northwestern, losing to Northwestern at home earlier this week. That loss could prove decisive at the end of the season.

The keys to the Ohio State victory boiled down to tight defense from the start and balanced scoring on offense. For a key nine-minute stretch early in the first half, Illinois held Ohio State to only three points as Illinois surged ahead to build a double-digit lead they never really relinquished. Illinois also went on a slight run in the second half to push the lead to close to 20, and never really looked back.

As for the balanced scoring, the unpredictable nature of just who will develop the hot hand at any given moment is turning into a strong strategic weapon for us, making it difficult for our opponents to focus on any one scorer. Mike Tisdale struggled in the first half, so Weber subbed in Dominique Keller, who scored 12 points off the bench. Then Tisdale regained his composure and scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the second half. McCamey added 13, Frazier scored 10, and Mike Davis scored 8 points to round out the balanced scoring effort. We also managed to absolutely dominate Ohio State without any points from Trent Meacham, who led the team in scoring in the non-conference season.

So Illinois now turns its sites on Wisconsin. Wisconsin has been a perennial contender in the Big Ten since Bo Ryan arrived in 2001, but has struggled recently this year. Wisconsin has lost its last three games, including one at home to Minnesota and two on the road to Iowa and Purdue. However, Wisconsin’s last two losses were in overtime, and Wisconsin is still a threat to steal a game on the road.

Lawrence Page

Austin Illini

Illini Lose to Michigan State in Final Minutes; Host Ohio State Next; 15-3

January 18, 2009

Illinois lost a tight game to Michigan State, 63-57, to fall to just 15-3 on the season, and 3-2 in the Big Ten. Illinois next plays Ohio State and then Wisconsin in Champaign. We will gather at Third Base to watch the game against Ohio State at 6:00 Tuesday on ESPN.

Illinois has fluttered on the cusp of the top-25 for weeks, but kept getting denied. Every time we had a quality win, it would not quite be enough (Missouri), or we would lose another quality game that week (Purdue win followed by a loss to Michigan) or we would not play anyone tough enough to merit breaking into the Top 25 (beating only Indiana with no other games that week). Last week, despite a convincing quality win over a decent Michigan team, many of us feared that the loss to Michigan State would keep us out of the top 25 for another week.

Well, the pollsters actually paid attention to more than just the score, because Illinois finally cracked into the top-25 at #25 in the AP poll and #24 in the coaches’ poll. Perfect. The ranking provides a needed and deserved confidence boost after the Michigan State loss, but not so much to make us feel too full of ourselves quite yet. Now we need to maintain it and continue to improve.

The Michigan State loss was disappointing because we really let another one slip away. We controlled most of the game until the final minutes, when we simply collapsed.

Although Michigan State thoroughly dominated the boards, we more than made up for it by causing a flurry of turnovers in the first half, most of which led to fast break points. Despite struggling on offense, we still led by 7 at the half and held the lead until the final five minutes in the game. Even the refs added to the momentum, giving us the upside of several potentially-questionable but certainly momentum-changing calls. Alex Legion led all scorers with 15 points, including 3 of 5 from three-point range.

But two of our top scorers came up flat. Demetri McCamey missed all of his field goal attempts, and Trent Meacham only went 1-7, all from outside. Mike Davis was the only starter in double figures, and even he struggled with only 10 points.

Davis and Tisdale looked intimidated and out-muscled inside. Even our guards out-rebounded them. Michigan State out-rebounded us 39-26, effectively giving them 13 extra possessions or shot opportunities. Our free throw shooting woes also returned: only 8-13 at 61%.

Ultimately, we also got sloppy with the ball late in the second half, committing several turnovers to tighten the margin in turnovers and kill our one clear advantage in the game. Chester Frazier went out with an injury with the score 52-51, and the Illini soon lost the lead. As State turned up the intensity in the final five minutes, Illinois responded by becoming more lethargic and even defeatist. For the first time this season, we looked like we didn't think we could win, even though the game remained within reach until the very end.

The Chicago Tribune and others have made much of post-game comments by Chester Frazier that purportedly "called out" his teammates for throwing in the towel in the final five minutes. "As soon as we got down, we just quit, laid down and gave them the game," said Frazier. "We were arguing, down on each other again." However, Frazier's remarks (although perhaps ill-advised to the media) more focused on his dismay that this was the first reminder of what it felt like last year, when the team almost knew it would blow a close game each and every time, thereby helping make it a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Although it remains to be seen what impact (if any) Frazier's remarks have on this team or how this team will respond, it sounded like he intended the remarks more as a call to arms than an inappropriate public airing of grievances. All the players on this team except Legion and Keller know what last year felt like, and I assume the best that NONE of our players want anything remotely resembling last year.

Moreover, Frazier was absolutely correct, and it was refreshing to see that a senior leader on the team recognized not just the similar outcome, but the similar reasons. On our final offensive sets, the renewed, aggressive, off-the-ball motion that has characterized this team was completely absent. Players literally stood around lethargically in place, waiting for someone else to establish motion, drive to the basket, or shoot from far outside--just like last year--to the point where I wondered whether they had spent all their energy and simply could not muster up any more energy.

Here's the upshot, though. Competing at Michigan State is still a decent moral victory. Michigan State merely (and barely) held home court against a team that finished ninth in the Big Ten last year. They are always tough at home.

But just over halfway through the season, we have 15 wins: already two more than the entire regular season last year, and only one short of the total number of wins including the shocking run in the Big Ten Tournament. We still have 13 games remaining.

Illinois also had a decidedly front-loaded Big Ten schedule this year, with road games at Purdue, Michigan, and Michigan State (three of the top contenders) in the first five games. Nobody had a tougher initial schedule in the Big Ten. We stole one of those road games and have not lost a home game, whereas Purdue, Michigan, and Minnesota have all lost home games already.

Although we shouldn't be talking too much of a Big Ten title after only five Big Ten games and a 13-18 (5-13 Big Ten) regular season and ninth-place Big Ten finish last year, we are in the catbird seat for first or second in the Big Ten provided we do not fall apart.

More significantly, we are still playing well: much better than last year. The disturbing part about watching our collapse in the Michigan State game is that it was really the only time we have seen a prolonged resemblance to last year. Even the final botched possession against Clemson was just one or two offensive sets, not an entire collapse over the course of five minutes. The motion offense is clearly clicking far smoother this year, our defense has remained tight, and several key players have significantly improved their game.

So there is much to see when you join us on Tuesday night against Ohio State or this Saturday night against Wisconsin.

Lawrence Page

THE Austin Illini Club

Illini Beat Michigan 66-51; Play at Michigan State Next; 15-2

January 16, 2009

Illinois rallied to defeat Michigan 66-51 and avenge one of its mere-two losses this season. Illinois next travels to Michigan State, who has emerged as the front-runner of the Big Ten so far this year. We will gather at Third Base at 2:45 on Saturday to watch the game against Michigan State on ESPN-HD.

The scoring graph on ESPN.com's recap pretty much tells the "story behind the story" of the win over Michigan. The game was tight for the first two-thirds of the game. Illinois trailed at halftime for the first time this year, 30-31, and we looked like we were in for a tough game. But then Illinois' defense flat-lined Michigan's offense for three extended stretches in the second half: from 18:00 to 14:20, from 13:00 to 8:00, and then from 6:30 to 3:50 in the second half. For a crucial ten-minute stretch of the second half, Illinois held Michigan to only 4 points while Illinois kept chugging along at the same pace and cruised to its 16-point margin of victory.

Offense is more exciting, but defense wins championships.

Even our 2005 Final-Four team won games typically from shutting the opponent down for extended stretches as they continued to score at the same pace, not from out-accelerating the other team on offense. Although I don't want to make too many comparisons to the 2005 team quite yet, the scoring graph for this win over Michigan did look remarkably similar to many of the scoring graphs from 2005.

The improved defensive effort also accounted for a 25-point swing compared to the loss in An Arbor. Michigan won its game by ten, whereas Illinois won its game by 15. Illinois scored just abut the same number of points in both games (64 and 66), whereas Michigan went from scoring 74 to only scoring 51 points.

Mike Tisdale proved his mettle against Michigan, again.  Michigan's DeShawn Sims held Tisdale to only 7 points and scored 14 himself when they played in Ann Arbor.  In Champaign, Tisdale more than turned the tables by scoring 24 points and holding Sims to only 7 points.  Tisdale also had several key blocked shots.  We knew Tisdale could score, but his defensive effort combined with his second-half scoring run made this his best game so far.

Both Tisdale and Mike Davis also played better help defense inside, cutting off the easy driving lay-ups Michigan had scored in Ann Arbor. Meanwhile, Michigan's long-range shooting from beyond the arc similarly dropped from 41% in Ann Arbor to 27% in Champaign. A part of that difference came from desperation shots near the end trying to get back into the game, but it also reflected better defense along the perimeter.

Demetri McCamey also added 17 of his own, and scored 15 of Illinois' 30 first-half points. Then Tisdale took the hot hand in the second half.

Illinois next travels to Michigan State for perhaps its toughest game of the Big Ten season. Michigan State looks very solid and balanced, with wins over Texas, Kansas, and Minnesota so far this year. Michigan State has only lost to North Carolina and Maryland so far this year, although they almost lost to Penn State at Penn State earlier this week. Weber also always prepares his team well against Tom Izzo, so it will be interesting to see how this game plays out.

Lawrence Page

The (original, authentic, and “funner” (or at least funnier)) Austin Illini Club

Illinois Crushes Indiana, 76-45; Play Rematch Against Michigan Next

January 13, 2009

Illinois absolutely crushed Indiana, 76-45, to advance to 14-2 on the season, and 2-1 in the Big Ten. Illinois next plays Michigan in a rematch of its recent loss in Ann Arbor. We will gather at Third Base at 7:15 on Wednesday night to watch the game against Michigan on the Big Ten Network.

FYI, the Big Ten Network tonight at 6:00 and again at 10:00 will replay the 2005 Elite Eight win over Arizona: one of the greatest games I have ever seen, and definitely the most thrilling comeback victory. No gamewatch, just an FYI.

The Indiana game was an exhibition from the start. Illinois jumped to a 21-2 lead and never looked back. Indiana was on pace to score less than ten points in the first half, but then exploded to make it to 20 points at halftime. The problem for Indiana was that Illinois still had matched Indiana's points more than 2-for-1, which left Indiana down 45-20 at the half.

Trent Meacham led the team with 21 points, all on three-pointers. Dominique Keller added a season-high 15 points. Mike Tisdale did not score much, but he did have 4 blocked shots in only 18 minutes. The bench cleared by the end of the game, with Jeff Jordan, Bubba Chisholm, Bill Cole, and C.J. Jackson finishing the game.

Some interesting statistics. Illinois had more steals (11) than Indiana had assists (9). Illinois had the same number of blocked shots (9) as Indiana had assists, and Illinois is not a shot-blocking team. Interestingly enough, Indiana and Illinois had the same number of shots: 51. But Indiana shot only 39% from the field and made only 20 shots, which was actually impressive considering that they also managed to give up 19 turnovers: always good to end up with more made shots than turnovers. In contrast, Illinois shot 51% from the field (26-51), 52% from three-point range (13-25), and 85% from the line (11-13).

The game was such a mismatch that, in the second half, we at the gamewatch started keeping track of the score by doubling Indiana's score to see if we could keep the 2-for-1 pace going. It was fun for a while, but... I tell ya, it gets much more difficult to keep pace late in the game even when the other team scores only 40 points, especially when your team has no idea what you are doing down in Austin to keep the game interesting.

Nonetheless, we bought into the moment so deeply that, when Indiana eventually pulled away by 10 points under this new scoring system, some Austin Illini actually showed visible signs of distress. So, being the benevolent leader that I am, I promptly fixed the situation by sighing, "Oh, well, I guess that means we are only up by 31 points." Our self-inflicted illusion to make the game more interesting was messing with our heads a bit too much.

Illinois somehow managed to tighten its defense and hold that 31 point margin of victory to the end.

We all expected Indiana to be bad, but then Indiana forced Michigan (which just beat us) into overtime; and Michigan needed to come back from 17-point halftime and 20-point second-half deficits to force overtime at the buzzer. Gary fearfully suggested that we might have trouble with Indiana.

Not quite. Indiana looked as bad as the score and statistics above. Indeed, I have never seen a Big Ten team (outside of Evanston) with so many glaring fundamental weaknesses. (Strike that--it was even worse than anything I have seen in Evanston). Just to give you an idea, their point guard regularly dribbled the ball at his shoulder, which wasn't too high because he looked all of 5 foot 8, but still was sloppy, easy to steal, and not too inducive to cutting and creating shots. Their inside "big man" constantly fumbled the ball and looked more awkward under the basket than I did after reconstructive knee surgery, a head cold, and a bee sting on my upper left cheek.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Eastern Michigan, Hawaii, and Eastern Washington all played us closer than Indiana. The mighty University of Detroit lost to us by the same margin, and only Chicago State lost worse to us than Indiana: by 39 points, 89-50.

With only the Indiana game last week, Illinois remained on the cusp of the rankings. A win over Michigan might allow us to break into the top-25, although it could work the same way our win over Missouri affected the rankings: by dragging Missouri down instead of propelling us up.

So now after that exhibition game, the focus turns to Michigan, which beat us in Ann Arbor last week. Illinois played Michigan closely the entire game, leading at halftime and for most of the game. Down by two with less than 4 minutes left, Illinois got the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead. However, Illinois did not score another point in the final 3:39 of the game: missing six shots down the stretch. In the meantime, Michigan scored two baskets and made its free throws down the stretch for the final ten-point margin of victory.

Several points temper the Michigan loss.

First, we played one of our worst games, whereas Michigan played to its potential, which does not bode well for a road game in the Big Ten. Although Michigan only shot 40% from three point range, the timing of their made three pointers was significant. They made some incredible long-range shots just before the shot clock expired.

Second, it was a road loss, which is common in Big Ten play. All other things being equal, the tables should be turned on Wednesday night. The recent familiarity should actually benefit Illinois.

As for what we need to improve, on offense we simply had a bad shooting night: shooting 45% from the field, only 31% from 3-point range, and only shooting two of three free throws; all below our season averages. Indeed, the game was tied at 5:00 left and we had the ball only down by two with 3:00 left, but Illinois failed to make any baskets down the stretch. We are a better shooting team, and will likely shoot better at home, especially down the stretch.

On defense, both long-range ("the outer shell") and short range (under the basket) defense needs to improve. Of course, that might seem as obvious as "play better all around," but it actually focuses on the opposite edges of the defensive set. As mentioned above, Michigan only shot 40% from three-point range, but they made some clutch shots at key moments that should have and could have been more contested. It looked as if Illinois defenders backed off and almost dared them to shoot from two feet outside the arc, and they did so. Illinois needs to extend the outer perimeter because Michigan can shoot long-range. (That's how Michigan beat Duke and UCLA earlier this year: outside shooting.)

Second, on the inside, Tisdale and Davis (our two starting big men) combined for only one foul between the two of them, and not for want of opportunity. Michigan repeatedly caught our interior defenders with their backs to the ball on several drives to the basket, leading to easy lay-ups. Although most young players need to focus more on off-the-ball movement (due to the natural tendency to watch the ball too much), our interior defenders actually need to pay a bit more attention to the ball to help cut off those easy drives to the basket.

See you at Third Base tomorrow night.

Illini Lose Close Game at Michigan; Host Indiana Next

January 5, 2009

Illinois lost a close game to Michigan 74-64 to fall to just 12-2 on the season, 1-1 in Big Ten play.  Illinois next plays Indiana in Champaign.  We will gather at Third Base to watch the Indiana game at 1:45 Saturday on the Big Ten Network.

No time for a recap, but the loss to Michigan was not a bad one and should be expected on the road in the Big Ten.  Illinois played well; Michigan just made some clutch shots and held home court.  We opened our Big Ten schedule with two very tough road games, and managed to win one of them.  Because that win was the first game, we understandably felt disappointed losing the second, but splitting those games is still a very good thing.  (More commentary immediately above in the Michigan rematch preview).

One brief comment about the Indiana game.  Indiana is awful this year.  To some, it is poetic justice; to others, it is just a sad shame for the entire Big Ten.  I tend to fall in the latter category.  Although "coach" Kelvin Sampson and his program deserved to be punished, most of the people involved in last year's scandal are gone.  All but one of Indiana's players from last year are gone, and the lone remaining player was a scrub on last year's team.  With the purging of Indiana's basketball program at the end of last season, new head coach Tom Crean is playing mostly freshmen and walk-ons, all of whom had nothing to do with Sampson and his gang.  It would be better to get retribution against Sampson and Gordon, themselves, but even better to get rid of them, altogether, let the whole thing go, and be done with it.

In the meantime, although Indiana did force Michigan to rally back and win a game in Bloomington in overtime earlier this week, we should win this game handily and have fun doing so.  So if you want to see our team win a game (and get some added but wholly-insufficient retribution over Indiana for the whole Sampson-Gordon fiasco), come out and join us on Saturday afternoon.

Illini Win Big Ten Opener at Purdue; Play at Michigan Next

December 31, 2008

Illinois defeated Purdue at Purdue in overtime, 71-67, in an impressive start to the Big Ten season. Illinois next plays at Michigan this Sunday. We will gather at Third Base on Sunday at 7:15 to watch the Michigan game on the Big Ten Network.

The win at Purdue was simply amazing. First, to win on the road in the Big Ten is always tough. Second, to win against Purdue--the 9th ranked team in the country--was even more amazing given how bad we were just last year. Third, to play through some awful officiating and horrible calls and non-calls, and still win the game was better yet. Finally, to win because we honestly outplayed the #9 team in the country, hit our free throws down the stretch, and truly deserved to win was even more amazing.

Illinois is actually back on top of the Big Ten for the first time since early in Dee and Augie's senior season three years ago. After last year, that seems like forever ago. Moreover, with Illinois starting the Big Ten season at Purdue and at Michigan (which is much improved this year with non-conference wins over two top-5 teams, UCLA and Duke), we had very real concerns of starting out 0-2 in the Big Ten. So to snatch even one of these two opening road games is a huge boost. Now we have a shot at snatching both games and perhaps even... dare I say it... contending for the Big Ten Title again.

Yes, even though it might seem an overreaction to a great game, this team is good enough to contend for the Big Ten Title, in large part to Weber's coaching, the off-season improvements by Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis, and the additions of Alex Legion and Dominique Keller. And free throws. Blessed made free throws.

Illinois did a great job distributing the ball on offense. Although they still have room to improve, the off-the-ball movement is working much better this year, leading to less pointless dribbling around by guards who are not a threat to drive, and leading to many more wide-open mid-range jump shots. Five Illini players scored in double-figures, including Alex Legion (12 points) who finally appears to be gaining confidence and working well within the system.

Indeed, the better part of Legion's contribution came on the defensive end, where he made a crucial steal, four defensive rebounds, and several other great plays on defense down the stretch. Bruce Weber often determines playing time based on defensive effort (or lack thereof), and Legion's effort on defense--combined with his off-the-ball movement and quick-shots on offense--shows that he has bought into Weber's leadership and system. Not only is that great in terms of his production as a player, but it also answers and diminishes the most significant concerns about Legion as an alleged selfish "shoot first and let others play defense" type of player. He should earn more playing time as the season progresses.

Of Purdue's three super-sophomores, E'Twaun Moore scored 17 points and JaJuan Johnson had 16 points and 15 rebounds for Purdue (11-3). However, Illinois held Purdue team leader Robbie Hummel to only seven points on only seven shots, due in large part to Chester Frazier's aggressive defense.

In a continuing shocking reversal of box-scores, Illinois shot 71% from the free throw line, whereas Purdue shot only 55%, which more than accounted for the point differential in regulation. Indeed, Purdue's JuJuan Johnson missed a game-winning free throw with 1.8 seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime.

Purdue then scored the first two baskets in overtime quickly. Mike Tisdale, Illinois' leading scorer, had also fouled out just before overtime. With visions of late-game collapses from last year fresh in our heads, it looked like Purdue had slammed down the hammer and would run away with it in overtime.

However, Illinois scored the next nine points and did not give the lead back up. Demetri McCamey missed three consecutive free throws to allow Purdue to claw within three points, but he then hit four free throws in a row and Trent Meacham added two in a row down the stretch to seal the game.

If you have paid any attention to Illinois basketball under Bruce Weber the past five years, free throw shooting has been our most obvious Achilles heel. Even the 2005 Final Four team consistently struggled with free throws. Last year, our poor free throw shooting definitely cost us several games, and arguably lost us so many games that it cost us a bid to the NCAA tournament. We were the worst free-throw shooting team in the Big Ten by far last year, and one of the absolute worst free-throw shooting teams in all of college basketball.

Thus, to see this team hit free throws down the stretch and shoot over 70% from the line as a team is true delight.

Bruce Weber also did a brilliant job coaching. First, he put Chester Frazier and Brock on Hummel and shut him down. Second, he maintained a consistent rotation that kept all of our key contributors fresh and active on both ends of the court. Third, every play called from out of a timeout (especially down the stretch) worked perfectly to give us the open shot we needed. Finally, this team seems to have bought into Weber's leadership more than certain team leaders did the past two years, and the effect is obvious. This win will give Weber even more credibility with the team, especially due to the contrast with the past two years in big games.

With this momentum, I hope to see everyone out at Third Base on Sunday to watch Illinois play Michigan and hopefully start the Big Ten season 2-0.

Lawrence Page

Austin Illini

Non-conference Summary; Big Ten Preview; & A Note On Non-Rankings

December 29, 2008

At 12-1, Illinois ended the non-conference season with the second best record in the Big Ten behind Minnesota at 12-0. The Big Ten has won over 80% of its non-conference games, the best of any other conference this year. The Big Ten also has more victories over top-ten teams than any other conference this year. Nonetheless, Minnesota is ranked only 21st, and Purdue remains the highest ranked Big Ten team at #9 in the AP and #11 in the coach’s poll. Talk about no respect.

Purdue is considered the favorite in the Big Ten despite its two non-conference losses due to its second place finish last year, sparked by the emergence of three super freshmen recruits: Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson, and E'Twaun Moore. Now sophomores, these three are leading Purdue again in every statistical category. Purdue's two losses so far this year came to ranked teams: to Oklahoma and Duke, which are currently ranked #4 and #5 respectively in both polls. Michigan also looks vastly improved, with signature wins against then-#4 UCLA (on the road) and over current #5 Duke.

Illinois has a fairly tough start of the Big Ten, going on the road for games at Purdue tonight and at Michigan on Sunday. However, front loading those game is a blessing in disguise because we need to play them some time, and it is best to play them during the winter break before the students return, thereby undermining their home court advantage. The flip side is that Illinois will have more games at home when the students are present, thereby maximizing our home court advantage.

Despite a dominating victory over Missouri, Illinois nonetheless failed to crack into the top-25 this week. The problem is that Illinois only played one team currently ranked in the top 25 (Clemson), and lost that game. Granted, it was a close loss (by 2), but it was at home and many voters do not pay close attention to the margin of victory for lower-ranked teams. As a result, even our wins over Vanderbilt (on the road), Missouri, Georgia, and some decent mid-major conference teams who usually win their conferences (like Jackson State, Kent State, and Tulsa), Illinois does not have any signature wins against currently-ranked teams that overcome the negative impression left over from last year.

A note about statistics and polls, because I want to make sure that no Austin Illini ever makes this mistake in conversation. Some have claimed that Illinois is "ranked" 28th in the AP poll and 35th in the coaches poll because they count from 25 where we stand in the "others receiving votes" list below the rankings. Some Illini fans also even got huffy this week because the coach’s poll appears to "rank" Missouri above us at #34. However, counting where we stand in the "others receiving votes" does NOT give us a specific ranking. The ballots only go to 25, so it is statistically invalid to infer rankings beyond #25.

Now, I know that most of us went to Illinois (not Iowa or Missouri) and can at least grasp the concepts of basic statistics to know what I mean, but let me illustrate what "statistical invalidity" means to those who (like Gary) skated by statistics on good looks and irresistible charm and therefore insist to keep counting after #25. (Call it part of our "post-graduate education maintenance.")

If 90 out of 100 coaches believe that we are the 26th-30th best team, we would still get no votes and no points from those coaches. Zero. Those same 90 coaches might also think that Missouri is the 35th-40th best team in country (clearly worse than us), but that ranking would similarly result in no votes and no poll points. Zero. Then of the remaining 10 coaches, a few more rank Missouri barely in the top 25 than they do Illinois, resulting in Missouri getting a few more points than Illinois. Alternatively, one idiot coach might rank Missouri #15, and no others include Missouri at all, but Missouri would end up appearing to be "ranked" ahead of us because a single #15 ranking gives a team more points in the poll than, say, five #25 votes.

If the ballots went to 40, that anomaly would be weeded out by the votes of 90% of the voters (the vast majority), who know that Illinois is better, albeit perhaps not yet top-25 material. But because the ballots only go to 25, the anomalies do not get weeded out and the resulting rankings do not reflect where we really stand relative to Missouri or anyone else below #25. The only reason Illinois or Missouri got ANY votes is because SOME coaches put either team in their top 25, not because they the consensus is that Missouri is a better team.

Granted, if the ballots only go to 25, then even the 25th ranking has some statistical invalidity to it.  Nonetheless, the point is that the statistical/mathematical validity goes down the lower you go below #25, and goes up the further you rise above #25. Down at "number 35," you just don't have a reliable read on where we stand in the minds of the voters. Up at the 20th ranking or so, the statistical anomalies are likely all worked out.

Now, of course, you also have the problem of whether the voters intentionally try to manipulate the polls. Apparently, something like five or eight former Bob Stoops' assistants who now vote in the coach’s football poll intentionally manipulated the final two football poll results by ranking Texas 12th on their ballots. (Mike Leach (Texas Tech's head coach) was one of them.) That is how Oklahoma leapfrogged Texas in the coach’s poll, which in turn kept Texas out of the National Championship game and artificially elevated Oklahoma into the National Championship game. You can legitimately argue who is #1-5, but ranking Texas #12 on your ballot just smacks of manipulation and undermines the reliability of the entire enterprise. But that is another thing, altogether.

December 27, 2008

The Missouri game was as encouraging as the Eastern Michigan game was disappointing, even though both resulted in wins. 

Missouri came into the game looking strong with wins over then-#20 USC and Cal, and with a lone loss to top-10 Xavier. However, USC has since not only dropped out of the polls, but also off the list of "others receiving votes" (meaning that it is possible (but unlikely) that every single voter might consider USC the #26 team in the country). Xavier also has lost three games (most recently to unranked Butler) and dropped to #22. Thus, our win over Missouri ended up dropped Missouri down out of the top-25 more than it propelled us up.

Nonetheless, Illinois looked solid and deep against Missouri. Trent Meacham led the Illini with 23 points, and Demetri McCamey added 20 of his own. Illinois also looked good, passing the ball easily and quickly so as to find the open man instead of dribbling aimlessly around.

Missouri had averaged over 80 points per game, but Illinois held them to 59. One major part of that difference came in holding DeMarre Carroll to only 6 points, after he had averaged 17 per game so far this year.

Mike Davis, the team scoring leader before the Missouri game and the most pleasant surprise of the early nonconference schedule, has disappeared in the past two games. After scoring 13 in the blowout against Missouri, Davis scored only 1 point against Eastern Michigan: and he looked worse than that. The good news is that Mike Tisdale picked up his slack against Eastern, scoring a game-high 25 points.

Eastern Michigan came into the game against Illinois only 2-9 on the season, which probably lulled Illinois into a false sense of confidence. (How soon we forget last year's losses to Miami of Ohio and Tennessee State). Eastern came out with much more energy and although they never led after they lost a 4-3 lead two minutes into the game, they lingered within ten points for most of the game. They even clawed back to within 1 point midway through the first half and within 6 points in the second half.

Our defense remained solid, but our offense sputtered. The motion offense ran less smoothly, and even when it produced open shots, we missed them. We missed a LOT of open shots. If we shoot that way against Purdue or Michigan this week, we will get crushed.

Nonetheless, a win is a win, and were it not for the recent memory of last year's collapses, you can easily dismiss the lackluster performance against Eastern as the team taking the game lightly whereas Eastern considered it their biggest game of the season. The first really big test of the season will come against Purdue tonight. See you at Third Base.

In other news, Dee Brown signed with the Phoenix Suns as a backup point guard this week due to a roster spot opening up after the Suns made a lop-sided trade. 

Lawrence Page

Austin Illini

Illini Crush Detroit in Legion's debut; Play Missouri Next

December 22, 2008

Illinois soundly beat the University of Detroit Mercy Saturday night, 82-51, to improve to 10-1.  Illinois next plays Missouri in the Busch Bragging Rights game in St. Louis.  We will gather at Third Base Tuesday night at 6:30 to watch the Missouri game on ESPN2-HD.

The Detroit victory was somewhat routine save for the debut of Alex Legion, a highly-touted shooting guard who transferred from Kentucky and became eligible to play for us after the end of the fall semester.  Legion came into the game mid-way through the first quarter.  He looked a bit nervous but focused, and simply tried to fit into the flow of the offense and defense instead of trying to force himself to make an immediate impact and announce his arrival.  

Nonetheless a few minutes later, Legion hit his first shot: a confident, baseline three-pointer.  Legion then hit another three pointer before going a bit cold.  He finished shooting 2-6 with 6 points.  Overall, it was a good start to his Illini career, and put to rest some of the "premadonna" impressions that some pessimists felt was a risk with Legion.  He also had bulked up in the past year compared to his photos from Kentucky, and looked a legitimate 6'5" (not an exaggerated 6'0"), giving us a legitimate swingman guard.  He looks as good as billed and looks like he will fit in well.

Illinois allowed Detroit to linger in the first half, keeping within 8 points at the half.  However, Illinois came out of halftime with a smothering defense, holding Detroit scoreless for the first 5 1/2 minutes of the second half.  Illinois built a 30-point lead halfway through the second half, and as a result, we Austin Illini pretty much spent the second half catching up with each other about Ike's (Lynn's son) deer hunting adventures and George's love for woodworking with mesquite.  It was an EXCITING game!

Tuesday night will not be as easy.  Missouri has recovered from the scandal-laden end of the Quinn Snyder era and cracked into the top-25 in the AP poll this week at #25 with wins over then-#20 USC and California.  At 9-1, Missouri has only lost to #14 Xavier so far this year, and Xavier was a top-ten team prior to its blowout loss to Duke last week.  Andy Katz identified both Illinois and Missouri as two teams likely to make a positive "turnaround" this year.  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/preview2008/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3699908

I hope to see you at Third Base on the fifth night of Channukah (Tuesday).  

Mid-Nonconference Recap; 

Illini Crush Detroit to Improve to 9-1; Face Missouri next

December 19, 2008

Illinois has opened the season with a great 9-1 record so far. Illinois next plays the University of Detroit on Saturday night. We will gather at Third Base at 7:00 on Saturday evening to watch the Detroit game. Saturday's game also marks the Illini debut of highly-touted transfer Alex Legion, so come out and join us.

Although we have not yet played any teams that were ranked at the time, our only loss so far (and a close one at that) came to Clemson, which broke into the top-25 of both polls this week. Meanwhile, we have had quality wins over Vanderbilt (26-8 last year), Kent State (28-7 last year), and Tulsa (25-14 last year). We also beat Jackson State, which many have predicted will go to the NCAA Tournament this year as its conference champion, and Georgia from the SEC.

Vanderbilt, in particular, was a media darling last year, emerging as a contender in the SEC by winning all its nonconference games and beating Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida in SEC play on their way to being ranked 16th in the country. We also won AT Vanderbilt, which is a tough place to win recently. We also won the South Padre Tournament again, with wins over Kent State and Tulsa (which beat Texas A&M in the semifinals). So although we have not defeated any ranked teams, we have not just feasted only on weak bottom-feeder programs, either.

The Clemson loss was rather disappointing given that it was a game we definitely had under control and simply let slip away in the second half. However, this year's team has shown few other signs of a hangover from last year's debacle. The addition by subtraction seems to have worked, and the team looks much improved this year so far.

First and foremost, the team is shooting 71% from the free throw line, which has accounted for the point differential in their three best wins so far this year: Vanderbilt, Kent State, and Tulsa. Indeed, we would have a higher free throw percentage were it not for Calvin Brock (.533) and Richard Semrau (.429), who are the weak spots dragging the team average down to just 71%. Every other player in our regular rotation is shooting above 70%: even Chester Frazier. Three of our players are shooting close to 90%: Trent Meacham, Demetri McCamey, and Mike Tisdale. Last year, our team was one of the worst free throw shooting teams in all of college basketball and shot barely 60% from the free throw line, which was one of the key reasons for our disappointing season last year.

Second, we are winning close games instead of losing them. This point is somewhat redundant to the improved free throw shooting (which helps put us over the hump in close games), but it also comes from the team not choking down the stretch of close games: with the exception of the Clemson game. Illinois is 3-1 in close games so far this year and, just as importantly, has not let a sub-par team play them closely.

Last year, Illinois finished 4-16 in games decided within 10 points. Moreover, two of those close wins last year came over Northeastern and Hawaii, who shouldn't have been that close to begin with and thus reflect "bad wins" more than clutch play down the stretch. Last year during the nonconference, Illinois lost close games to Arizona, Maryland, Duke, and (hide ourselves in embarrassment) Miami (Ohio) and Middle Tennessee State. So far this year, we only let the Clemson game slip away from us.

Third, several players have stepped their game up. Mike Davis has emerged as our most improved if not our overall best player. He leads our team in scoring and rebounds, with just under 14 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He also has played amazingly well in our toughest games, scoring a career-high 28 points in our close loss to Clemson. He has a really deft touch and a great, quick, soft, ten foot jumper from the baseline that seems almost automatic.

Chester Frazier also has actually emerged as a much improved point guard, likely motivated by Demitri McCamey's emergence toward the end of last season. Chester looks like a different player this year, and not just because he shaved off his "Dee Brown tribute" dreadlocks. He passes the ball more quickly, leads the team offense, and rarely dribbles around aimlessly until the shot clock forces him to throw up a contested, desperation, three-point shot. Instead, the increased ball movement has allowed him to actually hit open three point shots, himself, something he is not known to do.

Dominique Keller has also fulfilled expectations for an incoming ju-co transfer. He looks impressive, knows his role, and leads the team in field goal percentage (.560) and free throw percentage (.889, tied with Meacham). He also has range to shoot three-point shots, making 4 of 8 so far this year.

Our scoring also seems well-distributed among an 8-man rotation. Although not all our players are scoring evenly, there is an even sloping decline in points per game among our 8 primary rotation players. Davis, Frazier, McCamey, Trent Meacham, and Mike Tisdale regularly start, with Keller, Calvin Brock, and Richard Semrau coming off the bench.

Jeff Jordan has also seen a surprising amount of playing time, but that likely will subside now that Alex Legion finally joins the team after the end of the Fall Semester. Alex Legion was a four-star recruit out of high school and had worked his way into Kentucky's starting lineup as a freshman last year. However, conflicts with Billy Gillespie and the team led him to leave Kentucky before the end of the fall semester. Kentucky has fallen from grace since then, so perhaps he was onto something.

As a result, Legion's one-year transfer period where he was ineligible to play ended with the conclusion of the fall semester, and he is finally eligbile to play tomorrow night. Because he only used one semester of eligibility last year, he is effectively the equivalent of a redshirt freshman: an academic sophomore with freshman athletic eligibility. Legion also has been practicing with the team since last spring, so it will not be a long break-in period.

The following are two links to recent articles about this year's team ad about Alex Legion's debut tomorrow night.

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=879870

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/1339361,CST-SPT-ill19.article

Hope to see you there.

Lawrence Page

Austin Illini

Win Over Georgia Caps Impressive 7-1 Start to Season; play Hawaii next

December 8, 2008

Illinois demolished Georgia, 76-42, and it was about that close.  Illinois jumped to leads of 19-6 and 21-8 from the gate.  Georgia managed to close the gap to five at 23-18 and seven at halftime at 30-23.  However, Illinois' defense clamped down in the second half, going on a 12-2 run for a four minute stretch and holding Georgia completely scoreless for the final seven and a half minutes of the game to cap a 20-0 run.

After a strong 7-1 start to this basketball season, Illinois plays Hawaii tonight. We will gather at Third Base to watch the Hawaii game at 7:00 tonight.

I apologize for being lax in calling gamewatches and writing recaps for basketball so far this season, but in addition to the Thanksgiving holiday I have had some family health issues to deal with recently. I will not be there tonight, but Sandy and George will and, again, they are nicer than me, anyway. Nonetheless, this year's basketball team looks much improved and I look forward to seeing everyone at future gamewatches.

Basketball "Preview"

November 18, 2008 

Basketball is back, and that means I can provide you with some much-needed bathroom reading material to preview this season!

Illinois is undefeated so far at 2-0. The first two games were only available via the web, but the first nationally-televised game of the season is Thursday night at 7:00 against Vanderbilt in Nashville. Unfortunately, the Vanderbilt game is on non-regional coverage on Fox Sports, which most people do not have at home unless they have purchased a premium sports package. It is somewhat last minute, but we will gather at Third Base at 7:00 tonight to watch the Vanderbilt game.  The following provides a somewhat belated "preview" of the season even though Illinois has already played two games.

Next Year First

Before we preview this year's team, great news happened last week on signing day that deserves top billing. All four of our highly-touted, verbally-committed 2009 recruits sent in their letters of intent on the first day possible: Joseph Bertrand (Sterling), DJ Richardson (Peoria Central), Brandon Paul (Warren), and Tyler Griffey (Lafayette, Missouri). Because of the whole Gordon fiasco (breaking his verbal commitment to Illinois just a few days before signing day), many Illini fans treated next year's amazing class of recruits with a truckload of salt. Now we can breathe easy and throw the salt on the road.

When they verbally committed, the trio of Illinois high school guards were just three of the ten best high school players in Illinois (numbers 1, 2 & 7). Even without much national notoriety, Illinois fans celebrated their verbal commitment (all on the same weekend as a unified trio) because Weber had let prime recruits from Illinois high schools slip away to other schools the past several years: John Scheyer to Duke, Shaun Livingston to Duke, Sherron Collins to Kansas, Brandon Rush to Kansas, and Derrick Rose to Memphis.

Since they verbally committed, their stock has only risen. With the addition of forward Tyler Griffey, Illinois' recruiting class next year is rated as the 8th best in the country. It doesn't stop there. The recruiting class the following year is supposed to be even better, including the best forward in the country, Jeremy Richmond, and Luther Head's brother, Crandall Head, who is supposed to be much better and more versatile than Luther was at his age and perhaps even better than Richmond. Our 2010 class is currently rated as the second best recruiting class in the country. We have a LOT of top-notch talent coming to Illinois in the next two years. Illinois arguably has never had such an amazing single recruiting class as either of these two years, and certainly has never had two years in a row of top-ten recruiting classes.

This Year Next

But those recruits will not begin to arrive until next year, so the key question for this year is, will we be as bad this year as last year? Do we need to just not pay attention this year?

The answer: definitely probably not.

Despite suffering our first losing record (13-18) of this millennium, last year's team actually performed better than most people gave them credit. We only lost 4 of our 18 losses by more than 10 points: to Duke, Ohio State, and twice to Wisconsin. The remaining 14 losses were ten points or less: and only two of them were ten points exactly. That redundantly close margin of error made for a redundantly frustrating season where the Illini seemed to perform well enough to merely get our hopes up before they would let us down again, but it also signaled how agonizingly close Illinois was to being a decent team.

As even Pat Forde (the blockhead of ESPN.com commentators) aptly noted last year, with an NBA lottery pick on our team as we had planned (Eric Gordon) not to mention a rather decent shooting guard (Jamar Smith), most of those close losses would have been wins. Our biggest weakness last year came from poor exterior shooting and poor free throw shooting, and Gordon and Smith would not just have contributed, but would have helped us exactly where we needed help the most. It just so happened that the Eric Gordon defection hurt us just as badly as we feared it would. (That's just the first of three key factors for last's year's poor record: the recruiting plan fell apart).

But last year is over, Gordon is in the NBA, Kelvin Sampson was fired in disgrace from Indiana, and Indiana's basketball program is in shambles.

Meanwhile, the Illini freshmen who started showing promise for us toward the end of last year are a year older and much more developed. Take these rumors with a grain of salt, but the word on the street is that this group enjoys playing with each other far more than last year's team. Not to bad-mouth our former players, but the team chemistry has reportedly experienced a tremendous addition through subtraction.

Another shocking development so far this season: Illinois has shot 70% from the free-throw line so far this year, including shooting 81% in their last game. It is only two games, but... OH MY GOD!!! Last year, Illinois was the worst in the Big Ten by far in free throw shooting (among the worst in the country), which often accounted for more than the margin of defeat in most of our losses. (That's the second main factor).

Player Summaries

Demetri McCamey will almost certainly now start at point guard, which hopefully will limit if not eliminate Chester Frazier's rampant dribbling at the top of the key until the shot clock expires, thereby ruining the whole theory behind Bruce Weber's motion offense. (That's the third and final key to our formula for losing close games last year). Frazier instead will be able to do what he is best at doing: provide tight defense, great rebounding for a guard, and hustle. McCamey does a great job controlling the ball, running the offense, and creating his own shot if necessary.

Sophomore Mike Davis has developed into a force at forward so far in the exhibition and two regulation games. He scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds in the win over Texas A&M Corpus-Christi last week. He might end up our first and best scoring option this year.

Sophomore Mike Tisdale at center lacks the strength and interior moves of Shaun Pruitt, but he uses his 7-foot lankiness with finesse and has a great outside shot: reminding some of Nick Smith without the bad, sulky attitude that made Nick little more than a bench player. Indeed, Tisdale's attitude appears to be exactly the opposite: he is at the "center" (so to speak) of the revitalized team chemistry this year: always cheerful, always willing to stick around longer and work hard in practice.

Sophomore Bill Cole comes off the bench at forward, providing us with a trio (Davis, Tisdale, and Cole) of long, lanky forwards/centers.

Redshirt Sophomore Richard Semrau has finally recovered from his life-threatening illness and injury problems to contribute solid minutes at center and power forward so far. He has not scored much, yet, but he adds a much-needed big body to our inside game.

Rodney Alexander left the team at the end of last season as part of a mutual agreement with Weber that they fundamentally disagreed about his role on this year's team. In his place, Weber has recruited perhaps the best Ju-Co player available: Dominique Keller from lovely Port Arthur, Texas. Keller is a big, strong, power forward who should provide another big body inside. However, Ju-Co players usually played junior college ball for a reason, so don't burden him with too high expectations quite yet.

Stan Simpson is the lone freshman recruit on this year's team: a tall, strong big man who was perhaps the most highly-regarded player last year in the Chicago Public League. As I noted last year, his arrival from Simeon re-opens the recruiting pipeline from the Chicago Public Leagues that brought us Nick Anderson, Marcus Liberty, Deon Thomas and several other great former Illini players.

Chester Frazier, Calvin Brock, Trent Meacham, also return and will compete for starting minutes. Jeff Jordan (Michael's son) also returns as a walk-on from last year's team with his great attitude and solid contributions off the bench.

The other big addition this year will be Alex Legion, a sophomore transfer from Kentucky. Because he played for Kentucky last year, he must sit out a full calendar year before playing for us. However, Legion left Kentucky before the end of the first semester, so that year began during winter break last year, making Legion eligible to play for us as soon as grades are posted for the Fall Semester (the end of fall semester). He will only miss about a month of the season.  Because he did not play a full year last year, he will finish his freshman year of eligibility at Illinois.

Legion is not an NBA lottery-pick caliber of player, and he does come with some risk: he reportedly developed a bad attitude at Kentucky, which prompted him to transfer, and prompted Billy Gillespie to not care about his defection too much.  However, he was one of the most highly-recruited shooting guards last year, and had made his way into Kentucky's starting lineup as a freshman before he left Kentucky.  He also has reportedly really enjoyed playing and fitting in well in Bruce Weber's system.  We also desperately need outside shooting, so he will be a welcome addition and a worthwhile, manageable risk.

Finally, C.J. Jackson returns to the basketball team after spending last year on the football team. Rumors have speculated that he clashed with Pruitt and returned after Pruitt graduated, but he was a highly-recruited football player out of high school, so it was not just a frolic. CJ provides another much-needed big body inside, but he remains an unproven basketball asset, so it remains to be seen whether he can earn significant minutes this year.

For those who missed the news last summer, the biggest loss to this year's team came over the summer when Jamar Smith foolishly admitted to a policeman on the streets of Champaign that he had drank about three beers that night. The policeman knew who he was, and eventually was forced to report the admission to the State's Attorneys office. One of Jamar's conditions of his probation was that he not drink alcohol at all, so they filed an enforcement petition because he violated his probation. Bruce Weber also summarily kicked him off the team, and he has since transferred schools. It is a shame, but perhaps a change of scenery will help him straighten his life out.

Lawrence Page

Austin Illini

Recruiting Summary: Help is on the Way!

Many have maligned Bruce Weber for his recruiting woes the past four years, especially in light of Ron Zook's jaw-droppingly amazing and unbelievable recruiting in football.  However, with the 2007-2008 season finally over, we do have lots of reasons for optimism for the near future.

Weber's recruiting woes stemmed mostly from losing the best talent in Illinois the past five years to out-of-state schools, most especially to schools like Duke, Kansas, Memphis, and Kentucky. They climaxed two years ago year when perhaps the best recruit in the country, Eric Gordon, reneged on his verbal commitment to Illinois just a few days before signing day by showing up at Indiana's midnight madness last year and announcing he would play for Indiana, instead. After all of Weber's recruiting failures, Eric Gordon was supposed to be the messiah. Instead, he turned out to be Judas.

Weber's recruiting woes provide half of the equation behind this past year's snafu of a season. With a NBA lottery pick like Eric Gordon on last  year’s team (or even Duke star John Scheyer or Kansas stars Brandon Rush or Sherron Collins), Illinois would have been competitive and would have won most of those excruciatingly-close games. Weber also lost incoming freshman recruit Quentin Watkins last year due to academic ineligibility. Quentin Watkins was supposed to be as good if not better than current freshman sensation Demitri McCamey, who scored 31 against Indiana last year. Weber also lost Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell due to the infamous DUI car crash two seasons ago. Thus, the talent on last year’s team was much weaker than Weber had reasonably expected it would be.  Despite the frustration of losing so many close games, we all knew last year would be tough; the surprising part of last year was not our final record so much as the fact that we remained competitive in virtually every game last season.

The other half of last season’s decline stems from the remaining upperclassmen talent not coming close to meeting their own expectations. Brian Randle showed flashes of brilliance, but his off-the-ball movement and passing effectiveness was virtually non-existent. Chester Frazier showed amazing heart on defense, but he tended to dribble the ball into corner traps instead of setting up the offense and allowing it to work. Shaun Pruitt developed some amazing inside post moves and was an incredible rebounder, but his free-throw shooting and limited range, as well as his poor contribution to team chemistry, also hindered his evolution into a professional-caliber player.

However, help is on its way in the next three years. The following summarizes the additions to Illinois’ basketball roster in the next three years, which should provide the foundation for another run through the Final Four in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

2008-2009 Additions

New Additions:

-Alex Legion 6'4" SG (Sophomore transfer from Kentucky; Freshman eligibility.)

-Dominique Keller. Rivals: #18 Ranked Junior College Player, 6'7" Forward (Junior, Recruit from Lee College).

-Stan Simpson. (Freshman) Scout: 3 stars. 6'10" Center from the Chicago Public School League.

-C.J. Jackson. (Former Basketball Recruit, played football his sophomore year, returned to basketball for junior year)

 

Graduated: Shaun Pruitt, Brian Randle. 

Transferred: Brian Carlwell (2-3 years remaining on vacated scholarship); Rodney Alexander (personal reasons).

Dismissed from Team: Jamar Smith

Alex Legion is a 6’4” highly-recruited, top-50, 4-star freshman shooting guard.  He was the 10th best shooting guard prospect in the nation last year with NBA potential according to Rivals.  However, he did not mix well with Billy Gillespie’s new system at Kentucky and left the program after his first semester, opting to transfer to Illinois over many other suitors. He is no doubt the best available transfer out there, and gives the Illini a real boost in talent where they need it most: at shooting guard. He played an average of 17.5 minutes per game and averaged only 6.7 point per game, but he had worked his way into the starting line-up in that short time and would have produced more if he had not decided to part ways with Gillespie.  

Because he did not start his spring semester at Kentucky, he will be eligible to play for Illinois after fall semester grades are posted next year.  Because he did not play his second semester, he will be a freshman in terms of eligibility, finishing his freshman year of NCAA eligibility at Illinois.  Ironically enough, Legion was born in November 1988, near the start of the 1988-89 Flyin Illini Final Four season.

Dominique Keller somewhat replaces forward Rodney Alexander, who played one year as a junior college transfer and transferred from Illinois at the end of this year by mutual decision with coach Bruce Weber.  With Shaun Pruitt graduating, Keller adds a much-needed solid, big body to Illinois' line-up, and most reports out of his junior college career are rather positive, not only in terms of his ability but also his team-oriented attitude.  However, junior college transfers are notoriously over-hyped despite the fact that there probably was a reason they played junior college ball out of high school, in the first place.  So we will see whether Keller can contribute this year.

Although also not a superstar who can single-handedly carry a team on his shoulders, Stan Simpson’s recruitment was very significant because he is the first highly-recruited Chicago Public League player to commit to Illinois since Lou Henson left and Jimmy Collins was passed up for the head coaching job in favor of Lon Kruger. Jimmy Collins had a tight relationship with CPL coaches, who thereafter held a grudge and (ahem) “advised” their students to stay away from Illinois. The CPL had given us the likes of Nick Anderson, Deon Thomas, and other significant players throughout our program, so re-opening this recruiting pipeline is tremendous. Simpson also had initially favored other schools, making his commitment to Illinois that much more pleasantly surprising.  At 6'10', Simpson could see a lot of minutes as a freshman big man this year with Brian Carlwell transferring and Shaun Pruitt graduating.  However, Weber tends to prefer to redshirt his freshmen, so he also might redshirt the year so as to improve his development.

C.J. Jackson came to Illinois as a basketball recruit two years ago despite receiving full-scholarship offers from several major SEC and ACC football teams as a tight end.  After redshirting his freshman year on the basketball practice squad, he was rumored to have developed a reputation for slacking off in practice and not fitting into Weber's overall scheme.  He thus transferred to the football team as a tight end for 2007-2008 but saw limited action.  He then transferred back to the basketball team at the end of last year.  As a former football player, he can provide a much-needed big presence under the basket, but he still faces an uphill battle for playing time.

At the end of last year, everyone looked forward to the return of Jamar Smith, who took last year off in a mutually-agreed one-year "informal suspension" after a horrible DUI crash that left his teammate in intensive care for weeks and resulted in Smith's spending a week in jail that summer.  Smith reportedly was doing well in practice and in his personal life last year.  http://www.pjstar.com/stories/021108/ILL_BFOHTLJ0.076.php  Unfortunately, over the summer, Smith violated his probation and was summarily and permanently kicked off the team.  He has since transferred from Illinois.  The probation violation did not involve any driving or criminal incident; it amounted to nothing more than admitting to a police officer (while walking around) that he had drank three beers, and he had already turned 21 at the time.  However, the police officer recognized him because of his celebrity status in Champaign, and was forced to file a report when he told other officers about it, ultimately leading the State's Attorney to file a probation revocation petition. 

Contrary to when he received his DUI conviction, Jamar was not driving, and not drinking while underage. He also will likely not end up with significant prison time, but will probably spend some time in county jail and receive a longer, tougher probation. But one of the terms of his probation (and strict conditions of remaining on the team) was to not drink any alcohol, and this incident was enough to end his tenure on our basketball team.

Jamar Smith was supposed to re-inject life into our backcourt shooting, which was one of our key weaknesses last year. Our basketball team also has lost its top-two rebounders and interior scorers (Pruitt and Randle). We have two of the best recruiting classes EVER in Illinois basketball coming in 2009 and 2010, and our current underclassmen (particularly McCamey and Mike Davs) showed promise toward the end of last year, but this might still prove to be a rather long year.  Smith's dismissal places more pressure on McCamey and Legion to step up this year. 

In a joint decision with the athletic department's support, Brian Carlwell announced this season that he plans to leave Illinois to transfer to another school so he can obtain more playing time.  He apparently had too much difficulty putting in the extra effort necessary to recover from his injuries sustained in the DUI tragic car crash in the spring of 2007.  He only played one year of his scholarship, and his vacancy will open up a three-year scholarship slot:  possibly for Trent Meacham in his senior season (currently a walk-on), and then a ju-co transfer in 2009.

Forward Rodney Alexander also left the team at the end of last year.  Alexander provided some amazing moments of brilliance and some of the few highlight-film dunks during last year's dismal season.  However, he also developed a reputation for slacking on defense and not contributing to the team work ethic, as well as for not following Weber's motion-offense strategies.  After last season, he met with Bruce Weber and the two disagreed about his proper role on the team in 2008.  As a result, he decided to pursue his senior year of eligibility elsewhere.

2009 Recruits

New Arrivals:

- Joseph Bertrand. (Sterling) Scout: 4 stars. Rivals: #59. In-state 6'4" SG.

- D.J. Richardson. (Peoria Central) Scout: 3 stars. Rivals: #53. In-state 6'4" SG.

- Brandon Paul. (Warren) Scout: 3 stars. Rivals: Unranked. In-state 6'3" SG.

- Tyler Griffey (LaFayette, Missouri) Scout: 4 star, #51, Rivals: #74 6’8” St. Louis-area PF.

(Graduated: Chester Frazier, Trent Meacham, Calvin Brock.)

The trio of guards in this class (Betrand, Richardson, and Paul) sparked all of the buzz about the revival of Illinois recruiting under Bruce Weber because Weber finally got the best high school talent in the state to stay in Illinois. Instead of allowing Illinois’ best talent to go to Duke, Memphis, Indiana, Kansas, or elsewhere like other top-Illinois recruits the past five years, Weber landed three of the top-ten players in Illinois. Although not yet on the National radar, Richardson and Paul are tied at the top of the Sun Times’ most recent rating of Illinois high school juniors as the two best high school juniors in Illinois; Bertrand is rated #7 in the State.  Last November, Richardson verbally committed first, causing the other two to verbally commit within the ensuing three days, all in hopes of becoming the next great three-guard rotation under Weber.

Although they will play behind the trio of McCamey, Alex Legion, and Jamar Smith, they are two or three years behind this elder trio of guards, and thus should not provide chemistry problems on the team.  Instead, they should provide Illinois with a succession of talent at guard for the next six years.

Late last season, Tyler Griffey verbally committed to Illinois last month and rounds out the 2009 class. He is supposed to be a bulkier version of current freshman forward Mike Cole: a solid top-100 forward.

On Wednesday, November 12, 2008, the first official signing day for 2009 basketball recruits, Illinois fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when all four 2009 verbally committed recruits sent their letters of intent into the University.  The Eric Gordon saga (superstar recruit verbally commits, repeatedly misleads Illinois he will attend, and then shocks everyone by signing with Indiana on signing day) did not have an echo and is behind us.

2010 Recruits

- Jereme Richmond. 6'6" SF (Waukegan) Scout: 5 stars. Rivals: #4 in the Nation. In-State Small Forward

- Crandall Head. 6'3" SG (Rich South) Scout: 4 stars. Rivals: unranked. In-state SG.

Not only are Jereme Richmond and Crandall Head the #1 and #2 top prospects (respectively) in the State of Illinois for their class, Jereme Richmond is rated as the #4 player in the Nation by Rivals: one of the best high school recruits out there in the 2010 class. He is higher rated than Eric Gordon was as a Junior in high school.

Many consider Crandell  Head (Luther Head's younger brother) to be even better. One high school basketball reporter blogged the following about Head:

“It [is] like a coronation. Illini Nation can start celebrating.

“How good is Head? The 6-4 guard/forward is better than 6-6 Jereme Richmond of Waukegan, who already is committed to Illinois and has been rated as the No. 1 sophomore in the nation according to some recruiting services. So where does that put Head in the mix? It's a giddy thought.

With arguably two of the top five sophomores in the nation to go with three outstanding juniors--Warren's Brandon Paul, Sterling's Joseph Bertrand and Peoria Central's D.J. Richardson--who almost certainly will rank among the top 50 in their class nationally, Illini coach Bruce Weber has recruited two top 10 classes back-to-back and he's already working on more.

All of the Illini recruits were showcased at the recent Shootout in Champaign and Head was most impressive of all, scoring 34 points in a 62-60 victory over Champaign Centennial. He shot 14-of-21 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range. He is better and more athletic at his age than his older brother Luther, one of the stars of Illinois' 2005 NCAA runnerup.

With this talent coming in the next three years, and this year's freshmen developing into stars of their own right, this season's aberration should be just that: an aberration.

Lawrence Page

THE Austin Illini Club

Thanks to the 2004-2005 Fighting Illini basketball team for a great year!  

What a fantastic start to the Bruce Weber era, where we will likely be able to look forward to more of the same!!

Illinois' 2004-2005 Basketball schedule results were as follows:

Austin is also home to the University of Texas.  After the Illini crushed #1 Wake Forest on December 1, 2004, several stars of the University of Texas basketball team (Brad Buckman, PJ Tucker, and Kenny Taylor) came in and hung out with us as we watched the Indiana-North Carolina game.  They were very friendly, and agreed to take a picture with us so long as we agreed to flash the "hook 'em horns" sign with our hands.  Who were we to decline?

www.Law-Page.com

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