bball

[Valandil]

Good night last night. The Illini (26-0) and the Bulls (26-23) both got their 26th win!!

[Insidious Rex]

Still in the house Valandil? Now that Lizras gone this thread is like a tomb.... *echoes*

Anyway if you still come here I was gonna say 1 more win to an undefeated regular season. And they just seem to be getting better. Could this be the first perfect season since what 76? 77? I know you dont want to hear that now. Neither would I. Its a LONG road to the championship. And you still have the Buckeyes to deal with before you even get into the Big Ten Tourny. So be on your P's and Q's...

[Valandil]

Yeah - I'm still coming around. Saw this sooner, but didn't post right away. Good thing. I'd thought the Ohio State game was a 'gimme'. Tough thing to fall one point short of an undefeated regular season I guess... but that's what happens when you stop scoring (then leave a man open for the three).

Well... if they had anything to "learn from a loss" I'm hoping they've learned it. Now it's on to the Big Ten Tourney and then the NCAA's. And yeah - in those tournaments especially, there's no sure thing (as Illinois WELL knows - historically). Any team can win any game - which means any team can lose any game - and you have six chances to do the latter in the NCAA's. It's tough because every team will have some off-days (Illinois had several where they managed to win anyway) - but in the nature of the tourney, you tend to face a better opponent each time - so if you have three great games to start, then have a bad game your fourth time out - it couldn't come at a worse time!

I expect Illinois will lose that #1 ranking. It's kinda funny, since they'll be 29-1 and everyone else has at least 3 or 4 losses.

[Insidious Rex]

oh geez the last freaking game!! that must have stung like hell. I guess I jinxed them when i brought up the whole undefeated season thing. Im a walking jinx machine I find...

Yeah In my opinon they should have lost one back about a month ago so that now they could have it behind them and be on another roll. Lets see if they come right back from this or if they let it set them on their heals and a hungrier team can come in for the kill in the Big Ten tourney or NCAA Tourney. Lord knows they have put themselves in a situation where anything less then the title will be considered a disapointment.

No way should they not be listed number one. Its a farce if this drops them out of the number one slot. But most likely it will because of the way the system works. But they are certainly still the best team in the country.

Speaking of good teams though, watch Connecticut (again!). They have been unstopable of late. Just playing brilliant ball. Dismantling pretty good teams with ease. How does Calhoun do it? Suddenly they have one of the best point guards in the country in Marcus Williams (where did he come from!) AND this kid Rudy Gay has NBA star written all over him. When hes on hes a high flying scoring machine that can shoot AND defend. And with two big guys that can run the floor and some sharp shooters on the wings who needs Okafur.

[Insidious Rex]

ITS TOURNEY TIME BABY!!! AND Its Saint Patty's day to boot!! Thats a huge double whammy! Suffice it to say its barely 9 am and Ive already had 4 guinesses...

Im watchin hoop all day. Any last minute final four predictions? I still stand by my preseason ones I made here a while ago although since Ok. State and Illinois are both in the same region I guess Im going with Louisville as the fourth alonge with Illinois, Kansas and Syracuse. With Illinois beating the Orangemen for the title. So allow me to apologize ahead of time Valandil for jinxing your team.

Went to the Georgetown - Boston U. NIT game last night. Its pretty cool to be able to just walk up to an arena the night of a post season tournament game and get awsome seats to watch your team play. Granted its the NIT... but hey what can you do. And they simply destroyed Boston U. so I was happy. So theyll still be playing next week when so many other NCAA Tourney teams will be done. But Id still much rather see them get into the NCAAs though...

next year...

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

... So allow me to apologize ahead of time Valandil for jinxing your team. ...

Too MANY people are doing that! Not to worry though. Just with the nature of basketball, I figure Illinois has maybe a 1 in 8 or a 1 in 10 chance of winning the tournament - but that may be better than any other team's chances. It's just that basketball is a game where the outcome can vary so widely - and there are so many teams... and these days more than before, so many who are good enough to pull off an 'upset'

I was worried at halftime last night... when Illinois had pulled ahead by 10, but then Fairleigh Dickinson stormed back to only one point down after that buzzer-beating three (and that was a LONG three... reminded me of the one where Nick Anderson beat Indiana back in '89!). Thoughts went through my head of other early-round collapses by other Illinois teams: most famously to Austin Peay in the first round in '87 - but also the 2nd-round loss to Villanova in '88 (Illinois up by 10 with only a minute to go - 'Nova kept fouling, Illinois missed most of the free throws and 'Nova went wild on the treys to win it!) - and Dayton in '90 (I think also 1st round). No games are safe - no wins are guaranteed. (and they show that graphic about how #1 seed teams are something like 81-0 vs #16 seeds - and I'm thinking how I DON'T want that to jinx them either, or for them to make it 81-1! )

Fortunately, the guys came out to play right from the start of the second half. And... gotta hand it to F-D. Teams like that don't get a lot of respect, by and large, but they played well and had some good players (and BIG too - for a small school - their frontline guys were a couple inches taller than Illinois'). We should never be surprised at 'upsets' any more.

[Insidious Rex]

True but I sure wouldnt want to be that first number one seed to lose to that 16 seed. God just the thought of it..... the horror.... Theyd be replaying highlights from it for decades and decades. Its like when they play the stupid 85 national championship game because it was a "classic". I STILL cant watch it. Still hurts like hell.

Illinois seems to be one of those teams that plays down to the level of their competition. When they play a good team they play a little better then them and generally beat them. When they play second tier team they play a little better them then and beat them. I dont get the feel of domination from watching them play despite their record. We'll see how that translates as the move along in the tournament.

[Valandil]

I was glad Bucknell pulled out that win over Kansas last night - and not because of any 'anti-Kansas' reasons. I just thought it was totally bogus that the one ref called a flagrant foul late in the game with Bucknell up by 3. That's almost NEVER called - so to call it within the last minute of a game, in the NCAA tourney - and on a play where I thought the guy was making an attempt (albeit from behind, while running the floor) to reach around and get at the ball - that was nuts! It just seemed like the ref was doing all he could to give Kansas a chance to win the game. If Kansas had beaten them by 1 after that, I would have really felt Bucknell had been cheated.

Several big upsets on Day 2 though - and at least as many 'near-misses'. Teams are tough top-to-bottom. I just hope Illinois returns to its pre-March6th form.

[Valandil]

Meanwhile, on the high school front, my hometown team, Carbondale, is playing in the semi-finals at state right now. This is the division for larger schools, but Carbondale is on the smaller end of that (they just showed their enrollment as 1200 some - and Downers Grove South, their suburban opponent, has 3200 some - populations were 25,000 and 49,000 respectively). Carbondale is slightly ahead at the quarter - so I'm hoping they make the finals. I never hear any coverage on them up here, so I was surprised last week to see that they were playing another team to get to go to state (the top 8 in each division are at state here). They won that game by four, but won VERY handily last night over a Chicago public league team. I heard an announcer say they only have two losses on the year, and one was to a team from Tennessee - so only one loss to an Illinois team (yet never mentioned in Chicago papers ).

GO TERRIERS!!! (unique nickname, eh! )

Meanwhile - the college in the same town, Southern Illinois, also won to advance in the NCAA's yesterday. This could be a time of great excitement for me ... or great heartbreak! I have these three teams to follow - plus the Bulls, who we're still hoping will finally make their first post-Jordan playoff appearance.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by Valandil

I was glad Bucknell pulled out that win over Kansas last night - and not because of any 'anti-Kansas' reasons. I just thought it was totally bogus that the one ref called a flagrant foul late in the game with Bucknell up by 3.

Well I was equally disturbed that a ref called a hanging on the rim violation on Syracuse late in their game against Vermont. It was so bogus! He was on the rim for MAYBE a second! You DONT call that in the NCAA Tournament unless they are blatently doing pull ups or something! Are you kidding! And sure enough the game ended up going into overtime. Take away those two points and SU may have won. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I had Syracuse going to the final game.

Not to mention Kansas going to the final four. oy... what a night for my poor brackets...

[Khamûl]

I didn't get around to making out brackets this year. Just from the scores and a few games I've seen, watch out for Washington. They are playing well and had a solid win over a good Pacific team. Too bad Gonzaga lost -- I like them. And what about Wake Forest going down in double OT 111-105 to West Virginia? Wow.

[Insidious Rex]

Yeah that was some game. Im starting to get a little bit of an NC Statish feel regarding West Virginia... (alluding to the 1983 miracle year). But its most likely a silly thing to say since they have SO long still to go to match that.

[Valandil]

Well - Round 3 sure had its intesting moments. Everyone else ought to be glad the Big Ten had such a 'down year' - since they only got three teams into the Elite Eight! (OK - I know some of those other teams were really better - but so many years they Big Ten has been judged as deficient by their some of their teams not doing as well as people predicted - or as they were seeded. This is a nice change!)

Meanwhile, my old high school team, Carbondale, got second at state. They were beaten by a suburban team - Glenbrook North, which is coached by the brother of Illini coach Bruce Weber.

[Valandil]

IRex - surprised to see you on with a game going... four minutes left, do you think West Virginia can hold off Louisville? And who'da thunk we'd even be asking that question?? I mean did ANYONE outside the state have West Virginia making their final four??? And here I thought Louisville had the best chance of any team in this round to advance on to St Louis There are no easy games!

You may have been right about West Virginia. Did you have that feeling early, or only after the tourney started?

[Insidious Rex]

Well I cant believe they lost. They were unconcious and so looking like a team of destiny. Pintsnoggle (or whatever his name is) was amazing. Ive never seen a team where EVERYONE could shoot for three well like they have. Really tough to defend when they are hot. And its more amazing to me because being in the Big East Ive seen them play a bit and wasnt necessarily impressed really. so I really think they were playing above their heads all throughout the Big East tournament and the NCAA Tourney. Thats why they came off as some kind of team of destiny. But I guess Louisville wasnt to be denied themselves. An amazing come back.

And you must be in recovery from your near heart attack after the Illinois - Arizona game. How did they come back from like 15 down with two minutes to go?? Two quite stunning games.

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

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And you must be in recovery from your near heart attack after the Illinois - Arizona game. How did they come back from like 15 down with two minutes to go?? Two quite stunning games.

Whew! I was definitely like or even ... I thought they were gonna lose it - and was hoping they could at least make a run to make it look more credible. I think the 15 pt deficit was with more than two minutes, but I think they were still down by about 9 or 10 with 1:30 to go (it's all hazy already). What seemed tough was twice (end of regulation to keep the tie and end of overtime to preserve the win) keeping Arizona from scoring. I couldn't believe it when Dee Brown got the one rebound at the end of regulation and tossed the ball up with a bad pass - which Arizona got - and that they didn't score after getting that.

Well... WHEW!

[Khamûl]

How about the Kentucky-Michigan State double OT game? I was jumping around the room when Sparks hit that three (yes, it was a three) as time expired in regulation. I just wish they could have held it together to win. They had their chance at the end of the first overtime, though.

I think I'll be satisfied no matter who wins the championship, although UNC is by far my least favorite of the four.

[Insidious Rex]

I hope that anyone that calls themself a college basketball fan realizes what a feast of riches we got last weekend. Four games. Two decided in over time. One in double OT. Amazing twists and turns and shots and come backs. Im gonna need the rest of the week just to recover...

[Valandil]

boo-hoo!

I was hoping... but nah, it would have been too good to be true.

[Insidious Rex]

My condolences. They just had no answer for May. But hey 37-2 aint bad. At least they didnt go into it undefeated. That would have made it even more painful to lose in the final game.