Big Ten Season is Over

Now that the Big Ten season is over, we can look forward to the Big Ten Tournament and make some predictions. Also we can recap who the Coaches and Media types selected with Big Ten honors, but before that we must recap the Illini loss to Penn State.

- From the start of the game, Trent Meacham was not in it. He had a stupid turnover when Penn State pressed after a made basket, and that led to a 0-7 shooting night. He is now 2-15 in his last 2 games. Everyone needs to pray to whatever supreme being that they believe in that this is not a token "Trent Meacham Slump", because Alex Legion will not be there to bail us out.

- McCamey took people off the dribble all night. It was shocking how easily he got to the basket in this game. This means one thing: Penn State plays horrible on the ball defense. They rely too much on help from their big men. Hence the reason they can beat Illinois twice, and Michigan State, but also lose to Rhode Island, Temple and Iowa. If they can get consistant help, then they are okay, but if they give up too many lay-ins, they are screwed. Lunardi still has them in the NCAA tournament, but beating Indiana in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament isn't going to help them. They will have to beat Purdue to get in. They did beat them early in the season, but that was without Robbie Hummel.

- McCamey also looked up the floor a lot, and Dominique got some easy baskets from it. This is something that Illinois hopefully looks to do more of. Between Mike Davis, Dominique Keller and Calvin Brock, you have 3 players who can beat people down the floor. When you have a team that can go cold so quickly, and don't shot free throws because they are a jump shooting team, you need to find easy baskets.

- Do you think that Chester Frazier was pissed about losing on Senior Night? He drilled 2 threes in the first 10 minutes and played his typical smothering defense all game on Talor Battle. Battle got his token 15 points, but it took him 17 shots to do it. Nobody should want this season to end, because who is going to bring intensity on a consistent basis next season? McCamey, Davis, Tisdale and Keller's attitude during the game is contingent on how well they are playing offensively. At least with Frazier and Brock, you know that you are going to get as much effort as possible out of them every minute they are in the game. How ridiculous was his shot from behind the backboard with the shot clock running down?

- Mike Tisdale is making a better effort to rebound. Not only that, but he is becoming a little more intimidating inside. He has had some huge blocks in the last few games, and he is doing it without using his body and getting fouls. However, Big Ten officials are pretty much on autopilot when it comes to officiating games, so they call fouls on scenarios instead of actual plays. Just watch the foul on Mike Davis at the end of the half. Davis was jumping for a rebound, he was being backed into, but since Conrley is bigger than Davis, it is a foul. Look for them to get crap calls in the tournament just like they were at the beginning of the season. Remember, Ed Hightower, Ted Hillary and Jim Burr are considered the A team when it comes to officiating, so if Illinois makes it to the Championship game, be prepared to throw shit at your t.v.

- And now for the meltdown! Illinois is up by 10 with 5:00 minutes left, and then McCamey fouls Morrisey on a 3 point attempt. He makes all 3 and it is 60-53 Illinois.

- Now the Big Ten officials decide that it is time for them to over this game by calling 4 fouls in 25 seconds. A hand check on McCamey's drive, Tisdale over the back, Tisdale on the drive and the previously mentioned call on McCamey for 3 free throws. Gotta love having the game called one way for 35 minutes and then changing it up for the last 5.

- Fifth foul on Mike Davis on a crazy Talor Battle drive. For the record, McCamey and Meacham had 3 drives earlier in this game that got no calls. Battle even had about 3 drive like this before and there was no call. 63-57 Illinois, 3:25 left.

- Two plays that I think could have sealed the deal. First Trent Meacham misses a wide open 3, and then the next time down after a terrible call by the refs give Illinois the ball back, Tisdale misses a shot. With Tisdale's shot I can't understand why he went right! He was posted on the right block, he had hit 3 straight hook shots from the exact same spot going baseline, yet for some reason, on this shot he turned into the lane. Huge plays. Still 63-57 Illinois 2:15 left.

- I wonder if the fact that it was Stanley Pringle's birthday was in the scouting report, because it should have been. He was amazing in this game. After 2 free throws for Penn State because we can't box out. 63-62 Illinois with 58 seconds left.

- Meacham gets a good look in the lane with 20 seconds left, but it doesn't go in. Talor Battle turns the ball over and Illinois gets it back with 9.5 seconds. Mike Davis gets fouled with 8.4 seconds left, and actually the play was drawn up for him, because Meacham and McCamey were nowhere near the inbound. In my opinion this was a good call. Mike Davis is a 70% free throw shooter, it is much easier to inbound the ball to him as opposed to a guard, and he has hit big free throws at the end of games before. He just short armed the shit out of it. What I am more upset about is that Davis pretty much set a pick on Chester Frazier when he was guarding the drive of Battle.

- This game reminded me of every game we lost last year. We had momentum, had a lead a half, had a decent lead in the second half, and then fell apart. Add to this the fact that we shot 2-7 from the free throw line. I thought I was in a time warp, I was just waiting to have somebody ask me why Brian Randle fouls so much.

- So Illinois loses, but thanks to Penn State shitting the bed against Iowa and MSU taking care of business against Purdue, Illinois has a 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Now for the matchups in the Tournament on Thursday and my predictions.

#8 Minnesota vs. #9 Northwestern

Minnesota beat the hell out of Northwestern at home 72-45 to avenge it's earlier lose to NW in Evanston 74-65. This will be a tough game for Minnesota because they play great pressure defense on the ball, which Northwestern loves. If Minnesota switches up their defense a lot, then they will have a shot, but they don't take care of the ball at all. Also take into consideration that Minnesota is a terrible team away from home, so I actually think that Northwestern will win this game, but it will be close.

#7 Michigan vs. #10 Iowa

Both of these teams love to shoot the 3, so which ever team gets hot will win. Add to this the fact that Cyrus Tate is finally back for Iowa, and they are a much better team than they were before. Michigan should have won both games in this series, but they absolutely choked at the end of the last meeting, and then lost in overtime because John Beilein decided that he should bench First Team All Big Ten player Manny Harris for the duration of it. I think Michigan will pull this out.

#6 Penn State vs. #11 Indiana

I would love to see Indiana win this game and basically bounce Penn State, but I don't see it happening. Penn State played themselves back on the bubble by losing to Iowa after they beat Illinois, so they will be playing pretty hard. Indiana does not have the talent to beat anyone, and the only close games they have played have been at home. They will have a pretty good crowd since the games are played in Indianapolis, but how many people are going to shell out 250 dollars to watch a #11 seed lose their first game? Penn State should win by double digits.

Here is the Big Ten Networks breakdown of the selections to All Big Ten teams.



Then besides these, you have Tom Izzo and Ed Dechellis as coach of the year. Travis Walton as defensive player of the year. William Buford was Freshman of the Year, and BJ Mullins won First Douche Bag of the Bench of the Year. Chester Frazier did make the All Big Ten defensive team, along with Chris Kramer, JaJuan Johnson, Damien Johnson and Travis Walton.

Mike Davis was second team with the coaches, and third team with the media. Demitri McCamey was third team with both. Mike Tisdale was honorable mention in both, and Chester Frazier was honorable mention with the media.