Illinois get beatdown by the Fighting Tubbys

Illinois played 2 games this last week, but they only showed up for 1 out of 4 halves. Generally I watch every illini game at least 3-4 times, because I am neurotic and over analyze things. That being said I haven't watched the Minnesota game again until now. I am doing this just for our 3 loyal readers out there.

First a little background:

Illinois had not lost to Minnesota since Bill Clinton was having inappropriate relations in the Oval Office.

Mike Davis is basically playing with his tonsils on life support. So that can somewhat explain his lack of energy since the Big Ten season started.

Tubby scheduled a very easy non-conference line-up for his team, so they have been playing really well at home.

Trent Meacham can't shoot anymore, all Alex Legion can do is shoot, but it remains to be seen if he will make any of them.

The Game:

I was really excited for Gus Johnson as the play by play guy for this game. Even Gus Johnson couldn't make this game exciting, good night both of these teams sucked on offense.

I didn't even think that it was a debate as to who has the worst looking cheerleaders in the Big Ten. That was until I saw a really good looking young lady at Northwestern, so congratulations Minnesota, you now have the title.

There can never be any doubt that Ralph Sampson III is the legitimate child of Ralph Sampson. They look exactly alike, and that does not bode well for III's chances with the ladies. Speaking of being not good looking, Colton Iverson has overtaken Kevin Coble as the ugliest Big Ten Player. So I think it is safe to say that Minnesota has overtaken Northwestern as the Fugliest school in the Big Ten.

Now really on to the game:

Demitri misses a tough shot to open the game. If you could bet who would shoot the first shot for Illinois, Vegas would take it off the board because it is to safe a bet that Demitri is shooting it. 3 Things you can depend on are Death, Taxes, and Demitri McCamey shooting the first shot for Illinois.

Trent misses his first shot, and good god was it wide open!! Everyone is complaining now that Alex Legion should take Trent's minutes. The reason that Trent is playing is not because he is a better defender, it is because when Alex Legion was taught how to play basketball, no one explained to him how to dribble.

Tisdale and Davis' jumpshots are coming further and further away from the hoop. They used to be 15 footers, now they are closer to 19, and that makes a huge difference.

Keller is becoming a black hole inside. It isn't making a big difference right now, because he only plays 15 minutes and doesn't get the ball in the post that much, but it can lead to problems. Davis has a severe case of tonsillitis, Keller has a minor case of Pruittitis.

The 12:00 mark of the first half is where the game changed for the worse for Illinois. Minnesota was up 7-6 and inbounding.

-Illinois plays good defense on the inbound, Minny player just throws the ball to an open spot, nobody for Illinois reacts and Minny gets the ball. (1 missed turnover)
- Minny does turn the ball over, but Legion shots a pull-up 20 foot jumper that bricks of the front. This was after 2 passes. The line-up right now is Jordan, Legion, Trent, Tisdale and Davis.
- Minny blows a dunk, Meacham brings the ball up on a semi break and misses a wide open Mike Davis under the basket, and by wide open, I mean that Davis beat everyone down the floor, all of the Minnesota defenders stopped at the 3 point line, Meacham saw him for about 5 dribbles, but decides to set up the offense. The offense that we set up is Tisdale passing out of a double team to JJ who dribbles the ball off of his foot and out of bounds.
- Chester and McCamey come back in and Minny runs the shot clock to one, Demitri loses his man and Minny gets a last second lay-in when they the ball handler was trapped in the corner with no where to go.
-Tisdale gets fouled, McCamey turns over the ball, and on the ensuing break Minnesota gets fouled on the lay-in. He hits the first, misses the second, but Minny buries a 3 because we now decide that we don't want to rebound. Score is now 13-6.

Why do I think that this is where the game turned? First the only time that Alex Legion and Jeff Jordan should be on the floor at the same time is when we are beating the shit out of Indiana by 30. Jeff should never be on the floor without either Chester or Demitri. During that 2 minute stretch Minnesota was playing terrible, but instead of taking the lead and putting pressure on a team that shoots like crap. We turn the ball over(unforced stupid mistakes), take terrible shots, and miss open men for lay-ups, and give Minnesota 6 straight points. This is not what we did in the first 20 games. This was the first sign that it was going to be a rough night.

The rest of the first half actually wasn't terrible for Illinois. We got some good looks for Tisdale and Legion had a good look. We just couldn't hit a damn thing. We only had 4 turnovers at half, but shot 25%.

The second half started with Minnesota hitting their shots and Illinois not. Then they started to turn the ball over, forgot to box out, and finally fouling as much as possible. To be honest 25 minutes of this game is all I can take.

The positive that can be taken from this game is that Illinois wasn't over matched. Minnesota is a decent team that plays good defense, but they aren't any better than anyone we have played. So Illinois basically crapped the bed in this game, you wish that they wouldn't have given up in the end, but at least their shooting can be fixed.