Holy Shit!!
What a hell of a game by the Illini, and also by Purdue. First off, I wanna say, that I really hate Robbie Hummel, and also Chris Kramer. Every year some team in the Big Ten has to have a couple of white guys that I hate. It started with Tom Coverdale's ginger ass at Indiana. Then I hated the Crispin kids from Penn State, followed by Tim Doyle (who I now love because he somehow has a Brooklyn accent) and Adam Haluska from Iowa. I just don't get the love affair everyone has with certain white guys. Robbie Hummel looked like shit tonight, and Kramer has done nothing for 2 years, yet people still love the shit out of these two. How about what Jajuan Johnson did tonight with 16 points and 15 boards, not to mention eating Tisdale's lunch in the paint in the first half?
Now to the game.
Coming into the game I really thought that the Illini would have a great chance to steal a victory. I thought that they would have an even better chance of covering the spread as 7.5 point dogs, so of course I bet that. Early on, it looked like the Illini were running their offense well, and Purdue was just cold. Based on everything that happened last year with Purdue, and their ranking this year, as soon as they went on a 9-0 run to go up 10-6 with 14:00 minutes left I thought to myself that Purdue basically had a better player at every position than us. (except for PG where they started a freshman) On offense Tisdale was over-matched in the post by Johnson, Demitiri hit one jumper and then proceeded to launch terrible decision after terrible decision at the hoop. (Once Tisdale gets a little more size, he will be a force, because has a great shot from 15 feet.) Chester and Trent were not looking to shoot, and Mike Davis and Keller were missing open looks. I almost broke my T.V. when Dominique missed his lay-in. All of this time, I was worried about where our offense was going to come from as Purdue is a great defensive team, and their ball pressure is amazing. While I was worrying, I totally missed the fact that we were playing great defense, and Purdue only scored 2 points in almost 9 minutes.
If you look at it honestly we are not as talented as Purdue. Last year even though we had a shitty record, we were in almost every game until the end. How is this possible? We always play hard and play great defense. Purdue was up 10-6 with 14:16 left in the first half, and then they only had 12 points with 6 minutes left in the half. That is either really shitty Offense, or somebody is playing great Defense.
2 things I was worried about coming into this game was dribble penetration, and rebounding. Lewis Jackson is a terrifically quick little PG, Moore and Grant love to penetrate and get to the hoop, and they either finish, get fouled, or kick out for three's. Clemson absolutely killed us with their penetration, and then dishing to their bigs, but Purdue didn't seem to do this as much. Thank god they settled for outside jumpers that for the most part were contested. As far as rebounding, I was worried about second chance kick-outs for three's, or just getting out hustled for position and giving up putbacks. Neither of these really seemed to happen. Everyone did an exceptional job of keeping people in front of them, and our guards especially fought hard for rebounds. Chester and Calvin Brock led the team in rebounds with 7 a piece. Normally people would be bitching when you have 2 guards leading the team in rebounds, but we just beat the #9 team in the country, so who gives a shit.
By the way, never ever follow or believe what ESPN says as far as rankings. Their recruiting class rankings are absolute garbage, and the TOP 25 this week actually had Mizzou ahead of us even though we curb stomped them Ed Norton style. They are honestly clueless when it comes to anything that is not the Yankees, Red Sox, Patriots, Tom Brady, Duke, Brett Favre, Lebron, Kobe, UNC, USC, Serena and Venus fucking Williams, and Tiger Woods. If it wasn't for Erin Andrews, they would be pretty much worthless, and even she is getting over exposed.
I really thought that this was going to be another huge game for Demitri. He basically single handedly won the game against them last year in the BTT, scoring 26 and going 6-6 from 3, but he played terrible. At one point in the second half we had a four guard line-up of Chester, Trent Meacham, Brock and Legion to go along with Davis at center. This was when Calvin had our only turnover of the second half on a shitty pass to Legion. I was impressed with Bruce's decision to not go with Demitri at the end of regulation. I was even more impressed with McCamey coming back in overtime, getting a steal, taking a charge, missing 3 free-throws, and stepping up and drilling 4 in a row like a cold blooded bastard!! I think that this is much better for him in the long run than if he scored 20 and shot well. He helped us win with his defense for the first time in his career, and that is huge.
Alex Legion is going to be a hand full as far as a scorer. I'm just a little worried that when he is on the floor that the offense is going to be focused on getting him open jumpers instead of moving and finding easy buckets inside for Davis and Tisdale. I think what has made us great this year is the fact that we don't have a focal point on offense. Opposing coaches can't look at us and say "We need to stop player A and B and force the rest of the team to beat us." Each and every game someone different has stepped up based on the type of defensive players we have faced. I'm a little worried that we are going to get a little too enamoured with getting Legion the ball, kinda like we did in 2006 with Dee. Legion does have a crazy quick shot, we just don't need him to shoot everytime he touches it. If you think that we need Legion to shoot 15 times a game, and score a ton, then obviously you haven't watched a game this year, because Illinois was 2 points away from being 10-0 without him.
What can you say about Chester Frazier? He is an absolute warrior and has made himself one of the best point guards in the Big Ten. Him and Brock shut down Robbie Hummel. If you watch the game again, look to see how hard Chester worked in the post against Hummel. He was giving up 6 inches to him, and still fought him like a dog inside. If you don't like Chester Frazier than you don't know shit about basketball, and are probably one of those d-bags that people make fun of at sports bars. He had another 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 turnover and played 41 out of 45 minutes.
I love Calvin Brock. Everyone who knows me, knows I love him. I was wearing my Calvin Brock T-shirt jersey today during the game. That being said, I wanted to kill him a few times in the first half, and then also when he took the turn around 18 footer with 51 seconds left and missed. I got more text messages right after that shot than I did on my birthday! But god bless him, as soon as I got down on him, he redeemed himself with an 18 foot jumper when Purdue looked to be getting the momentum in overtime, and then the great finish on the alley-oop, and of course the sweet ass block at the end of the game. I am sorry Calvin, I will never doubt you again, and you truly are Chi-Town's Finest!!!
I don't love Trent Meacham, everyone who knows me knows that I don't love him. As I wrote in a previous post, I said I wanted him to make a big shot in a big game during crunch time. Well, he did it today, and I think that this game was won basically by him. It looked like a typical game against a good opponent for Trent. He wasn't looking for his shot, he had walk-on "Ollie" from the movie Hoosiers guarding him for a lot of the first half, yet didn't take advantage of it. Then with less than 3 minutes left when we were down by one, he took 2 terrible shots. The 3 he missed looked like he closed his eyes. I was about to text Pac-Man so we could both vent (I don't love Trent, Pac-Man can't stand him), but I waited. Thank god I did because his floater in the lane with a minute and a half left put us back within one, and then he ran the pick and roll to perfection with Mike Davis to give us the lead. Thank you Trent!
What a hell of a game by the Illini, and also by Purdue. First off, I wanna say, that I really hate Robbie Hummel, and also Chris Kramer. Every year some team in the Big Ten has to have a couple of white guys that I hate. It started with Tom Coverdale's ginger ass at Indiana. Then I hated the Crispin kids from Penn State, followed by Tim Doyle (who I now love because he somehow has a Brooklyn accent) and Adam Haluska from Iowa. I just don't get the love affair everyone has with certain white guys. Robbie Hummel looked like shit tonight, and Kramer has done nothing for 2 years, yet people still love the shit out of these two. How about what Jajuan Johnson did tonight with 16 points and 15 boards, not to mention eating Tisdale's lunch in the paint in the first half?
Now to the game.
Coming into the game I really thought that the Illini would have a great chance to steal a victory. I thought that they would have an even better chance of covering the spread as 7.5 point dogs, so of course I bet that. Early on, it looked like the Illini were running their offense well, and Purdue was just cold. Based on everything that happened last year with Purdue, and their ranking this year, as soon as they went on a 9-0 run to go up 10-6 with 14:00 minutes left I thought to myself that Purdue basically had a better player at every position than us. (except for PG where they started a freshman) On offense Tisdale was over-matched in the post by Johnson, Demitiri hit one jumper and then proceeded to launch terrible decision after terrible decision at the hoop. (Once Tisdale gets a little more size, he will be a force, because has a great shot from 15 feet.) Chester and Trent were not looking to shoot, and Mike Davis and Keller were missing open looks. I almost broke my T.V. when Dominique missed his lay-in. All of this time, I was worried about where our offense was going to come from as Purdue is a great defensive team, and their ball pressure is amazing. While I was worrying, I totally missed the fact that we were playing great defense, and Purdue only scored 2 points in almost 9 minutes.
If you look at it honestly we are not as talented as Purdue. Last year even though we had a shitty record, we were in almost every game until the end. How is this possible? We always play hard and play great defense. Purdue was up 10-6 with 14:16 left in the first half, and then they only had 12 points with 6 minutes left in the half. That is either really shitty Offense, or somebody is playing great Defense.
2 things I was worried about coming into this game was dribble penetration, and rebounding. Lewis Jackson is a terrifically quick little PG, Moore and Grant love to penetrate and get to the hoop, and they either finish, get fouled, or kick out for three's. Clemson absolutely killed us with their penetration, and then dishing to their bigs, but Purdue didn't seem to do this as much. Thank god they settled for outside jumpers that for the most part were contested. As far as rebounding, I was worried about second chance kick-outs for three's, or just getting out hustled for position and giving up putbacks. Neither of these really seemed to happen. Everyone did an exceptional job of keeping people in front of them, and our guards especially fought hard for rebounds. Chester and Calvin Brock led the team in rebounds with 7 a piece. Normally people would be bitching when you have 2 guards leading the team in rebounds, but we just beat the #9 team in the country, so who gives a shit.
By the way, never ever follow or believe what ESPN says as far as rankings. Their recruiting class rankings are absolute garbage, and the TOP 25 this week actually had Mizzou ahead of us even though we curb stomped them Ed Norton style. They are honestly clueless when it comes to anything that is not the Yankees, Red Sox, Patriots, Tom Brady, Duke, Brett Favre, Lebron, Kobe, UNC, USC, Serena and Venus fucking Williams, and Tiger Woods. If it wasn't for Erin Andrews, they would be pretty much worthless, and even she is getting over exposed.
I really thought that this was going to be another huge game for Demitri. He basically single handedly won the game against them last year in the BTT, scoring 26 and going 6-6 from 3, but he played terrible. At one point in the second half we had a four guard line-up of Chester, Trent Meacham, Brock and Legion to go along with Davis at center. This was when Calvin had our only turnover of the second half on a shitty pass to Legion. I was impressed with Bruce's decision to not go with Demitri at the end of regulation. I was even more impressed with McCamey coming back in overtime, getting a steal, taking a charge, missing 3 free-throws, and stepping up and drilling 4 in a row like a cold blooded bastard!! I think that this is much better for him in the long run than if he scored 20 and shot well. He helped us win with his defense for the first time in his career, and that is huge.
Alex Legion is going to be a hand full as far as a scorer. I'm just a little worried that when he is on the floor that the offense is going to be focused on getting him open jumpers instead of moving and finding easy buckets inside for Davis and Tisdale. I think what has made us great this year is the fact that we don't have a focal point on offense. Opposing coaches can't look at us and say "We need to stop player A and B and force the rest of the team to beat us." Each and every game someone different has stepped up based on the type of defensive players we have faced. I'm a little worried that we are going to get a little too enamoured with getting Legion the ball, kinda like we did in 2006 with Dee. Legion does have a crazy quick shot, we just don't need him to shoot everytime he touches it. If you think that we need Legion to shoot 15 times a game, and score a ton, then obviously you haven't watched a game this year, because Illinois was 2 points away from being 10-0 without him.
What can you say about Chester Frazier? He is an absolute warrior and has made himself one of the best point guards in the Big Ten. Him and Brock shut down Robbie Hummel. If you watch the game again, look to see how hard Chester worked in the post against Hummel. He was giving up 6 inches to him, and still fought him like a dog inside. If you don't like Chester Frazier than you don't know shit about basketball, and are probably one of those d-bags that people make fun of at sports bars. He had another 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 turnover and played 41 out of 45 minutes.
I love Calvin Brock. Everyone who knows me, knows I love him. I was wearing my Calvin Brock T-shirt jersey today during the game. That being said, I wanted to kill him a few times in the first half, and then also when he took the turn around 18 footer with 51 seconds left and missed. I got more text messages right after that shot than I did on my birthday! But god bless him, as soon as I got down on him, he redeemed himself with an 18 foot jumper when Purdue looked to be getting the momentum in overtime, and then the great finish on the alley-oop, and of course the sweet ass block at the end of the game. I am sorry Calvin, I will never doubt you again, and you truly are Chi-Town's Finest!!!
I don't love Trent Meacham, everyone who knows me knows that I don't love him. As I wrote in a previous post, I said I wanted him to make a big shot in a big game during crunch time. Well, he did it today, and I think that this game was won basically by him. It looked like a typical game against a good opponent for Trent. He wasn't looking for his shot, he had walk-on "Ollie" from the movie Hoosiers guarding him for a lot of the first half, yet didn't take advantage of it. Then with less than 3 minutes left when we were down by one, he took 2 terrible shots. The 3 he missed looked like he closed his eyes. I was about to text Pac-Man so we could both vent (I don't love Trent, Pac-Man can't stand him), but I waited. Thank god I did because his floater in the lane with a minute and a half left put us back within one, and then he ran the pick and roll to perfection with Mike Davis to give us the lead. Thank you Trent!
Did anyone else think that Mike Davis missed that lay-in at the end to go up by one when the ball left his hands? Shit that was close, and for future reference Mike, when JaJuan Johnson is taking a 17 foot turn around jumper/buzzer beater to win a game, you can go ahead and just get a hand in his face, you don't need to block the shot!!
Finally Bruce Weber. How much credit does this man deserve? First it was he only won because it was Self's recruits, then he could coach, but he couldn't recruit. Then he got the recruits, but his team went to shit. Well now we are playing the best basketball we have played in over 2 1/2 years, and we are doing it without one superstar. I have never seen an Illinois team score so many easy buckets on inbounds plays. I have never seen an Illinois team execute so well after a timeout and a shot clock that is under 10 seconds. And the pick and roll at the end of regulation was genius. We haven't ran a pick and roll with the pick man diving to the basket all year. Everyone was expecting Trent to shoot the ball, 3 defenders were keyed on him. Using a four guard offense at the end and having faith in Chester and Calvin to rebound was also gutsy and huge. Kramer was hurt, so you know Purdue doesn't have their best defender out there,(I think he is a good defender like Brian Randle was a good defender) Johnson is forced to defend Mike Davis outside of the paint(which he couldn't do when he was guarding Tisdale). Most importantly it allowed for a lot more movement, and didn't allow anyone to help on Trent's penetration because everyone had to stay with shooters.
I will leave you with a few stats that will hopefully get you as excited about this team as we at Durty Butter are. These stats sum up this team, and the job that Bruce Weber has done this year:
-We only had 6 turnovers in a game that went to overtime.
-It was only the 3rd time Purdue gave up over 65 points. The other 2 were to #4 Oklahoma, and #5 Duke
- 5 Players scored in double figures
- This year we won our 13th game in the FIRST Big Ten game of the season. Last year we won our 13th game in the LAST Big Ten game of the year. Minnesota at home March 8th 2008.
Here is the link to the highlights of lastnights game.
Finally Bruce Weber. How much credit does this man deserve? First it was he only won because it was Self's recruits, then he could coach, but he couldn't recruit. Then he got the recruits, but his team went to shit. Well now we are playing the best basketball we have played in over 2 1/2 years, and we are doing it without one superstar. I have never seen an Illinois team score so many easy buckets on inbounds plays. I have never seen an Illinois team execute so well after a timeout and a shot clock that is under 10 seconds. And the pick and roll at the end of regulation was genius. We haven't ran a pick and roll with the pick man diving to the basket all year. Everyone was expecting Trent to shoot the ball, 3 defenders were keyed on him. Using a four guard offense at the end and having faith in Chester and Calvin to rebound was also gutsy and huge. Kramer was hurt, so you know Purdue doesn't have their best defender out there,(I think he is a good defender like Brian Randle was a good defender) Johnson is forced to defend Mike Davis outside of the paint(which he couldn't do when he was guarding Tisdale). Most importantly it allowed for a lot more movement, and didn't allow anyone to help on Trent's penetration because everyone had to stay with shooters.
I will leave you with a few stats that will hopefully get you as excited about this team as we at Durty Butter are. These stats sum up this team, and the job that Bruce Weber has done this year:
-We only had 6 turnovers in a game that went to overtime.
-It was only the 3rd time Purdue gave up over 65 points. The other 2 were to #4 Oklahoma, and #5 Duke
- 5 Players scored in double figures
- This year we won our 13th game in the FIRST Big Ten game of the season. Last year we won our 13th game in the LAST Big Ten game of the year. Minnesota at home March 8th 2008.
Here is the link to the highlights of lastnights game.
Durty
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