Official College Basketball Thread

[Jordan4life_2007]

How good was the Illini D tonight? MSU came into tonight averaging 82.8 ppg on offense. That's good for 6th in the country.

 

Here's the scoring and shooting stats for their top 3 players coming into tonight's game.

 

Maurice Ager: 22 ppg, 48 fg%.

 

Paul Davis: 19.9 ppg, 61.2 fg%.

 

Shannon Brown: 17.6 ppg, 48.2 fg%

 

 

Here's what they did tonight against Illinois.

 

Maurice Ager: 9 points on 3 of 8 shooting.

 

Paul Davis: 12 points on 3 of 9 shooting.

 

Shannon Brown: 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting. And atleast 5 of those points came at the end with the game already decided.

 

If the Illini keep playing d like this, a return trip to the Final Four is definitely a reality.

[nitetrain8601]

How good was the Illini D tonight?  MSU came into tonight averaging 82.8 ppg on offense.  That's good for 6th in the country. 

 

Here's the scoring and shooting stats for their top 3 players coming into tonight's game.

 

Maurice Ager: 22 ppg,  48 fg%.

 

Paul Davis: 19.9 ppg,  61.2 fg%.

 

Shannon Brown: 17.6 ppg,  48.2 fg%

Here's what they did tonight against Illinois.

 

Maurice Ager: 9 points on 3 of 8 shooting.

 

Paul Davis: 12 points on 3 of 9 shooting.

 

Shannon Brown: 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting.  And atleast 5 of those points came at the end with the game already decided.

 

If the Illini keep playing d like this,  a return trip to the Final Four is definitely a reality.

 

I don't think so. I'm thinking the Illini will get the hard bracket as usual and I don't see them being able to be a Villanova or UConn(yes I watched the loss the other night) or a Duke or Texas.

[IlliniKrush]

Dee Brown. What a night.

 

Our defense shut down Ager all night and Davis but all for about 10 minutes. Only Shannon's shooting kept them in that game in the second half.

 

Someone else has to score, and we need to take shots before 5 seconds are left on the shot clock, or we aren't going to win a lot of big ten games. Thank God he bailed us out tonight though. It was just Dee's game.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Dee Brown. What a night.

 

Our defense shut down Ager all night and Davis but all for about 10 minutes. Only Shannon's shooting kept them in that game in the second half.

 

Someone else has to score, and we need to take shots before 5 seconds are left on the shot clock, or we aren't going to win a lot of big ten games.  Thank God he bailed us out tonight though. It was just Dee's game.

 

Augustine has to be more consistent. We need 15 points from him a night to be successful.

[maggsmaggs]

Dee just doesn't know how to lose. He is the face of Illini Sports and I am not sure anybody can take that away from him for the next 10 years.

[Chisoxfn]

Iowa with two baskets so far in the second half, 5:30 left in the game.

What a shocker...Iowa takes a s*** in the big 10 opener. No surprise there.

[Heads22]

What a shocker...Iowa takes a s*** in the big 10 opener.  No surprise there.

 

 

They were winnning for the majority of the first half....then they forgot how to shoot in the second stanza.

[Chisoxfn]

They were winnning for the majority of the first half....then they forgot how to shoot in the second stanza.

Ya, I was able to see part of the game at the restaurant we ate dinner at. Than I also got to see them take a total s*** and my dad and I were all huffed about it. Made our meal taste that much worse, haha.

[Heads22]

Ya, I was able to see part of the game at the restaurant we ate dinner at.  Than I also got to see them take a total s*** and my dad and I were all huffed about it.  Made our meal taste that much worse, haha.

 

 

Worst part for you, is, well, it just gets worse with the next game.

[Chisoxfn]

Worst part for you, is, well, it just gets worse with the next game.

Is that the Illini one or who do we got next? I know we play the Illini pretty soon and I said we are going to give them there first lost and I'm not backing down from that stance. I just remember looking at the big 10 schedule and we have a hell of a start to it, which is probably a good thing cause than we can at least take our big 10 season start dump against good competition.

 

Steve and Brian know its coming

[Heads22]

Yes, next game for the Hawks is semi-home vs. the Illini.

[IlliniKrush]

Is that the Illini one or who do we got next?  I know we play the Illini pretty soon and I said we are going to give them there first lost and I'm not backing down from that stance.  I just remember looking at the big 10 schedule and we have a hell of a start to it, which is probably a good thing cause than we can at least take our big 10 season start dump against good competition. 

 

Steve and Brian know its coming

 

Sig bet

[WHarris1]

Is that the Illini one or who do we got next?

Yes, Saturday.

Edited January 6, 2006 by WHarris1

[whitesoxfan101]

Great win for the Illini. Other than Dee, nobody showed up on offense, but the defense as usual was AWESOME. I was worried about this game, a lot of new guys who haven't played much (if at all) in their Big 10 debut against a top 10 stud team. It's HUGE to get a win out of this.

 

Hopefully some of the newer guys realize what it takes in the Big 10, and that it was just an off night for Augie. Every game is a battle, but 30 in a row at home, 15-0 overall, good times. The semi-road game against Iowa will be tough, but hopefully we take care of business... our size and athletic ability SHOULD be too much.

[YASNY]

I'm not an Illini fan. But, I'll tell you, for Illinois to hold that MSU team to 50 points is pretty damn impressive and bodes well for another solid season in Champaign.

[whitesoxfan101]

I'm not an Illini fan.  But, I'll tell you, for Illinois to hold that MSU team to 50 points is pretty damn impressive and bodes well for another solid season in Champaign.

 

Yeah, I agree. Everybody will talk about how the Illini would have gotten b**** slapped if Dee hadn't gone off, but hey it's a double digit conference win over a top 10 team anyways. Also, I'm beginning to learn with this team 2 things, first they play AWESOME defense, and 2nd they go with the flow of the game and do whatever it takes to win. Although I guess that's the advantage when you have a great coach and 2 senior leaders used to winning all the time.

Edited January 6, 2006 by whitesoxfan101

[Chisoxrd5]

I'm heading out to Iowa City (Champaign West) tonight. Time to put the smack down on Alford yet again

[ZoomSlowik]

Good win for the Illini, although it was pretty ugly. Michigan State was brutal offensively. Some of that can be attributed to Illinois' defense, but MSU was still throwing the ball away with consistency, mishandling a lot of passes on the catch, and Ager missed a few open shots that he normally doesn't. Before anyone jumps on me, I did say that Illinois would be tough to beat if they hit their 3's, and that if any of MSU's big 3 had a major off-night they were in trouble, and both did happen. But Illinois still needs some work on offense.

 

You can't expect to get this kind of offensive ineptitude to happen on a regular basis, even if the Illini do play good defense and have such a massive homecourt advantage. Dee had a career game where he was consistently pulling shots out of his ass with a man in his face and they were still going down. That doesn't happen every game. Every other player had a brutal game on the offensive, but they managed to get by. Despite pretty much everything going right for Illinois in this game, they still didn't exactly crush an MSU team that was obviously off their game in a hostile environment. Illinois came up with a good game, but I'm still not sold on them being a high seed in March.

[thedoctor]

Good win for the Illini, although it was pretty ugly. Michigan State was brutal offensively. Some of that can be attributed to Illinois' defense, but MSU was still throwing the ball away with consistency, mishandling a lot of passes on the catch, and Ager missed a few open shots that he normally doesn't. Before anyone jumps on me, I did say that Illinois would be tough to beat if they hit their 3's, and that if any of MSU's big 3 had a major off-night they were in trouble, and both did happen. But Illinois still needs some work on offense.

 

You can't expect to get this kind of offensive ineptitude to happen on a regular basis, even if the Illini do play good defense and have such a massive homecourt advantage. Dee had a career game where he was consistently pulling shots out of his ass with a man in his face and they were still going down. That doesn't happen every game. Every other player had a brutal game on the offensive, but they managed to get by. Despite pretty much everything going right for Illinois in this game, they still didn't exactly crush an MSU team that was obviously off their game in a hostile environment. Illinois came up with a good game, but I'm still not sold on them being a high seed in March.

 

you make some good points but there are a few things in there i don't understand.

 

you say illinois still needs work on offense. agreed. you also say outside of dee everyone else had a brutal game on offense. also agreed. if those two factors are true, though, then i think it is innacurate to say pretty much everything went right for them in this game.

 

regardless, they just beat the team just about everyone selected as the preseason league champ by 10 points on a night when only one player showed up offensively. not bad in my book.

[ZoomSlowik]

you make some good points but there are a few things in there i don't understand.

 

you say illinois still needs work on offense. agreed. you also say outside of dee everyone else had a brutal game on offense. also agreed. if those two factors are true, though, then i think it is innacurate to say pretty much everything went right for them in this game.

 

regardless, they just beat the team just about everyone selected as the preseason league champ by 10 points on a night when only one player showed up offensively. not bad in my book.

 

Maybe I exaggerated when I said everything, but certainly more than enough did. I'd say most of the players outside of Augustine, and Smith (not a lot of playing time) gave about their average contributions. It's hard to say things went terribly wrong for everyone else when they don't typically offer much in terms of offensive production. Personally I don't expect much from anyone other Brown or Augustine, and even the latter doesn't get much credit from me when he goes up against a legit post player.

 

One major key for them in every game is going to be how well they hit from outside since they rely on it so heavily and usually don't seem to get a lot of easy baskets inside. They had a huge advantage in that area and it played a huge role in who won the game. We'll see what happens from here on out, but I really don't expect Dee to go nuts every game, or the Illini to hold teams well under 60 on a regular basis. They certainly deserve some credit for right now after getting their first major win, but let's not pencil them into a 2 seed and an Elite 8 appearance just yet.

Edited January 6, 2006 by ZoomSlowik

[thedoctor]

Maybe I exaggerated when I said everything, but certainly more than enough did. I'd say most of the players outside of Augustine, and Smith (not a lot of playing time) gave about their average contributions. It's hard to say things went terribly wrong for everyone else when they don't typically offer much in terms of offensive production. Personally I don't expect much from anyone other Brown or Augustine, and even the latter doesn't get much credit from me when he goes up against a legit post player.

 

One major key for them in every game is going to be how well they hit from outside since they rely on it so heavily and usually don't seem to get a lot of easy baskets inside. They had a huge advantage in that area and it played a huge role in who won the game. We'll see what happens from here on out, but I really don't expect Dee to go nuts every game, or the Illini to hold teams well under 60 on a regular basis. They certainly deserve some credit for right now after getting their first major win, but let's not pencil them into a 2 seed and an Elite 8 appearance just yet.

i agree most of that. i don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to expect them to hold the opposition to less than 60 points most nights. through 15 games they're giving up 55.6 per game and they just held one of the nation's highest-scoring teams to 50. it's not like that's an aberration. through 15 games it can't be counted as such.

 

but the rest of your stuff i agree with. i am an illinois grad and a big fan, no doubt, but i also try to look at the team objectively. i'm not into making grandiose claims about them. they are not as good as last year's group and they are not going to be unbeaten this year. but they are 15-0. they are pretty damn good.

[Gene Honda Civic]

I'm heading out to Iowa City (Champaign West) tonight. Time to put the smack down on Alford yet again

Throw something heavy at him for me.

[thedoctor]

Throw something heavy at him for me.

 

it would just deflect harmlessly off his hair helmet.

[Heads22]

It's truly amazing how many Iowa fans dislike Steve Alford, and how many fans of other schools never want to see him leave Iowa City.

 

He's the fourth best coach in the state of Iowa, and, hell, we've had a good JC history.

 

Iowa State has Wayne Morgan who can recruit the best out of any coach in the state and utilizes what he learned under Boeheim. Northern Iowa has Greg McDermott. McDermott may be a prick, but he's turned UNI into a tourney team. Drake has old Iowa coach Tom Davis and might be looking at an NIT bid if things fall right at a school that hasn't had much go right since their win over ISU the year that the Clones went 32-5 (/tear). Alford's got the white guys from the state of Iowa, but short of Tony Freeman, there's not a ton to get excited about in Iowa City.

[Gene Honda Civic]

It's truly amazing how many Iowa fans dislike Steve Alford, and how many fans of other schools never want to see him leave Iowa City.

 

He's the fourth best coach in the state of Iowa, and, hell, we've had a good JC history.

 

Iowa State has Wayne Morgan who can recruit the best out of any coach in the state and utilizes what he learned under Boeheim. Northern Iowa has Greg McDermott. McDermott may be a prick, but he's turned UNI into a tourney team. Drake has old Iowa coach Tom Davis and might be looking at an NIT bid if things fall right at a school that hasn't had much go right since their win over ISU the year that the Clones went 32-5 (/tear). Alford's got the white guys from the state of Iowa, but short of Tony Freeman, there's not a ton to get excited about in Iowa City.

Here's a nice corollary for you

 

Alford:Hawkeyes Basketball::McCarney:Cyclones Football