Illini Crush OSU

With the Illini win tonight against Ohio State, they have now matched their win total from last year. Illinois now has the same amount of wins (16) and have 16 less losses than last year. It is very easy to get caught up in the moment and not realize exactly what Illinois has accomplished so far. Before the season began, most fans thought that winning 20 games would be damn near impossible. Everyone was hoping that we would be competitive and just build a solid group before help came in the form of recruiting for the next two years. Now the Illini are ranked for the first time since Dee Brown and James Augustine left school, and are tied for 2nd in the Big Ten now. Illinois is back to playing amazing defense and move the ball in the motion offense better than any of the last 3 teams we have had. Illinois also has an attitude at home again, which is something that the home crowd has lost.

First thing is that the support for this team in Champaign as far as attendance is embarrassing!! If you can afford to shell out the 10,000 dollars it takes to donate to actually get seats within 10 rows of the court, then you can probably either afford to go late to work on Wednesday, or afford to give up your tickets to someone who is willing to go to Assembly Hall. I look for Barack Obama to remedy this after he takes care of the BCS.

Now to the game tonight

First even though we won by almost 20, the team looked lethargic at times to me. They played very hard, but I don't think they had their legs for this game. Calvin Brock had a break-away after a steal and looked like he was going to pass out before he got to half court, he consequently blew the lay-in after he forgot to jump before he went for the bunny. Also, I would not be doing my job that pays me nothing if I didn't mention Keller rim checking himself like he was in an old school Grant Hill Sprite commercial. The good thing is that we looked slow on offense, but everyone played great defense.

Mike Davis for having great hands on offense, cannot seem to grab a defensive rebound clean with 2 hands. Everyone knew coming into this season that Illinois would have problems rebounding, but teams are eating us alive on the offensive boards. I am not looking forward to playing Penn State, because Cornley attacks the offensive glass like Bush attacked the Middle East! I don't know if Obama can pass legislation fast enough to prevent this before we play PSU at home.

2 things that opposing teams are not able to do well against us is press, and play zone. Tonight Ohio State had a full court man and also a zone press that did not cause us any problems. This team was also made to play against zones. Against OSU's 1-2-2 or 3-2, Illinois did a great job of flashing to the high post for either a jump shot, or a high-low with the posts. Our bigs also did a good job of reversing the ball from the high post if they didn't have anything. Against the 1-3-1, we fins the same open shots, but they are off of pick and roll to a post on the baseline, or just reversing the ball to the post in the short corner. Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale, and now Dominique Keller are great on the baseline, or the top of the key. Even Calvin Brock has gotten open shots there when Illinois goes small with him playing the 4.

Did anyone else love McCamey's technical? In the first 10 games this year, everyone said the he goes through the motions, and doesn't show enough heart and emotion on the floor. Now he is cheering on the floor, trying to get the crowd into the game. He is even slapping the floor on defense. By the way his defense in this game and also against the guards at MSU was great. He is stripping the ball, not getting beat off the dribble, and is trying to do things on both ends of the floor. This was the fourth game out of five that McCamey started the scoring by hitting a 3. If his effort continues like this for the rest of the year, then the Frank Williams comparisons need to stop.

Calvin Brock is not getting enough credit for his play the last 5 games. We are consistently going with small line-ups with him playing at the four, which means that on defense he is guarding a post player who has him in weight and height. He guarded Raymar Morgan really well at MSU and also matched up against Marquise Gray and Goran Suton. He had 5 steals today, and 4 of his 6 points came off of offensive rebounds and put backs.

Brent Musbuger will always mention Vegas, drinking at a local bar or fraternity, and Chester Frazier's lack of dread locks this year. I am still waiting for ESPN to realize that the greatest broadcasting team ever would be Gus Johnson doing the play-by-play, Steve Lavin doing the analysis and Brent just talking about people in Vegas sweating out the spread and which campus bar had the best drink special the night before. Lavin actually got a shout to the GM of Houlihans during the telecast. His name is Larry Wingate, just tell him that "Lav sent you!" No one else in sports even talks about betting lines or drinking with Coeds during a game. I'm pretty sure Musburger not only talks about these things, but is actually partaking in betting and drinking during the game. Although he must bet on games with an off shore sportsbook now, Obama will have this rectified before March Madness.

Trent Meacham has officially reverted back to his Sophomore year skill level during the Big Ten season. I had mentioned in an earlier post that he has not shown up in a big game this year, well now he has not shown up in a Big Ten this game this year. Indiana does not count as an actually Big Ten game since they are more like an exhibition team this year. So far in the Big Ten Meacham's 3 point shooting has been:

@ Purdue (0-1)
@ Michigan (1-7)
Indiana (7-9)
Michigan (1-5)
@ Michigan State (1-7)
Ohio State (0-5)

Do you see the pattern? Earlier in the year Trent was doing a good job of not only shooting outside, but also penetrating in the lane and getting easier shots because people were running at him. Now that he can't hit a 3, he doesn't have people flying at him like they did before, so he isn't getting in the lane. He will still get more playing time than Legion because he plays better defense and Legion proved against Michigan State that he can't dribble yet.

I now hate BJ Mullins more than anyone in the Big Ten. What kind of moron shushes a crowd when you are down by 11? Who the shit does this guy think he is? Blow Job, no one is talking about you or cares about you other than saying that you are an underachiever. You were the No. 1 recruit in the country and people thought that you would be one and done and a lottery pick. Now you aren't even starting on a team that might make its second straight trip to the NIT Finals. You shot 6-8 from within 5 feet of the hoop, had 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers, and shot 2-9 from the free throw line. You know who had lines like that all the time? Shaun Pruitt. Get ready to join Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr, Daequan Cook, and Kosta Koufas as busts in the NBA.
Which one of these is not like the other? Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, OJ Mayo, LeMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant, BJ Mullins. Exactly!

So we are 16-3 and looking forward to Wisco coming in to town on Saturday. Look for a Big Ten Update soon, because I need to continue to blow up Michigan after they shit the bed tonight against Penn State.