Illini Squeak Out Home Win Against Lowly Michigan

I can't wait until these two guys graduate.

Seriously. This senior crew - McCamey is the ringleader, and Bill Cole gets lumped in too - have brought me nothing but frustration, anxiety, and shame. Worse, they have brought me far too few wins. They simply don't know how to win, a point driven home last night where they eeked out a 54-52 home win over Michigan only because Michigan was ice cold from the field, including two missed chances at a game-winning three as time expired and the Illini defenders looked on helplessly.

For example, look at Tisdale in the above photo (by Chris Sweda of the Chicago Tribune). He has that look of, "Oh man, Mikey D. We survived and pulled out a tough victory. I'm satisfied. I mean, we weathered that storm and pulled out a tough victory. We should go celebrate."

Whereas what Tisdale should be doing is jogging off the court with his head down, thinking about what time tomorrow morning he'll be back in the gym working on post moves and finding his long-lost jump shot.

The Illini go at Michigan St. and at Ohio St. in the next 6 days. Are the seniors going to grab an edge and play with some ferocity? Or will they lollygag and do just enough not to get blown out?

I have literally no idea.

Illinois Just Might Be Not Very Good

What is the deal with the Illini basketball program?

Here's a quick list of things that annoy me about the team:

- the three seniors - Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis, and Mike Tisdale - are inconsistent and don't appear to have a winner's mentality;

- Tisdale can't stay on the court because of foul trouble;

- Davis, despite having innate rebounding talent, manages to have games where he only gets 1 rebound;

- Tyler Griffey doesn't get much playing time and then whines about it;

- Meyers Leonard looks like a goofy doofus, is often out of position, and looks like he's focused on dunking every play rather than improving his post presence on the offensive and defensive ends;

- D.J. Richardson hasn't made a basket in two games;

- Brandon Paul always seems to be knicked up or fighting a cold and isn't all that good on defense;

- Bill Cole should play for a mid-major;

- Jereme Richmond mysteriously missed practice last week and was benched for the Wisconsin game;

- the team in general relies too much on the three-point shot; and

- Bruce Weber yells all the time, calls out his players all the time in the press, and generally seems like a guy the players don't have a ton of respect for.

I say Bruce has two months to get this together. If Illinois isn't in the Sweet Sixteen in March I say we hand the program over to Jerrance Howard or Wayne McClain and start anew.

The Illini Don't Get The Win They Needed

Horrible, horrible game.

Evan Turner Must Be Stopped, And I Know Just The Team To Do It

I don't know how he's going to do it, but Bruce Weber must find a way to stop Evan Turner tonight.

Last year, I'd say that Bruce should just dial up some Chester Frazier action and call it a night. But this year? Yikes. I don't know what to do.

D.J. Richardson is probably the team's best perimeter defender, but he's only a freshman. Demetri McCamey is Turner's peer in many ways - most notably because the two were high school teammates - but I'll be darned if he can D up Evan for 40 minutes.

What about the Richwoods beast, Billy Cole? I don't see it happening.

Maybe Weber goes all postmodern tonight and lets Evan get his points and rebounds, but has Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and the rest of the boys lock down the Dieblers, the Bufords, the Lightys and the Lauderdales of the world. Easier said than done, no doubt, but still perhaps a more manageable task than shutting down the probable National Player of the Year.

Whatever will be, will be. The Illini need this game. Badly.

Game on tonight at 9 PM EST.

Illini And The Hoosiers ... Today And Yesterday

The Illini play Indiana today in Champaign, a game that is crucial to the Illini's postseason chances, but that lacks some of the lustre of Illinois-Indiana matchups of the past.

Take the 1989 season for example. On March 5, 1989, the Illini and Indiana played one of the great games in the history of the rivalry, with Nick Anderson hitting an absurd game-winning thirty-foot shot as time expired. Dick Vitale's head exploded. Even Keith Jackson thought it was "In-cred-i-ble!"

The Illini started this five: Kendall Gill, Stephen Bardo, Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle and Lowell Hamilton. Marcus Liberty was the sixth man.

To face them, Bobby Knight ran out the likes of Jay Edwards, Eric Anderson, Pat Graham, Magnus Pelkowski and Jamal Meeks. That team won the Big Ten title despite being in a league that had two Final Four teams: Illinois and Michigan.

Today we're going to see Hoosiers like Verdell Jones, Christian Wafford, Jeremiah Rivers and Tom Pritchard. The Illini will counter with Demetri McCamey, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and D.J. Richardson. These are all solid players, but it's possible none of them, from either team, will ever play much in the NBA.

Today will be a far cry from March 5, 1989.

Blueprint For Illini To Make NCAA Tourney

The Illini snaked a nice win over Penn St. last night (hat tip to Ralph Wilson for the photo of Tisdale above) to put them at 13-8, 5-3 on the season. That record is good for a tie with Ohio St. for third place in the Big Ten.

An NCAA berth, however, is still in doubt.

With ten games remaining, winning 6 or 7 of those games - given the stiff competition the Illini will face - would almost certainly get them in the tourney. Can they do it?

I think they can.

Here's how.

1. Win their next two games against Indiana and at Iowa. Wins against these lowly teams are a must and would put the Illini at 15-8, 7-3 heading into the final brutal stretch of their schedule.

2. Win three of their final four home games. Of the final eight games, the Illini play four at home against Michigan St., Ohio St., Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Illini can lose, at most, one of those games. I, for one, would like that loss to be against someone other than Michigan St. Though the MSU game is not a must win (assuming wins over Indiana and Iowa, that is), a win over the Spartans - who have shown vulnerabilities - would put the Illini back in most experts brackets. The Illini would simply have to hold serve the rest of the season, i.e. win 2 of 3 of their remaining home games, if they can pull the upset of Michigan St. on February 6.

3. Win two of their final four road games. If the Illini do lose on February 6 to the Spartans, besides winning all three of their other home games, they'll also need to win two of their remaining road games, all of which are brutal. At Wisconsin on Feb. 9, at Purdue on Feb. 20, at Michigan on Feb. 23 and at Ohio St. on March 3. That's a lot of ranked teams. Two wins in that stretch - preferably against Purdue and Wisconsin - should set up the Illini with a berth in the tourney, asuming they have taken care of business in Champaign.

Bottom line: the Illini need to win 6 or 7 of their final 10 games to make the tourney.

If their performance last night against Penn St. is any indication, I think they can get it dun.

Big Ten Network Outsmarts Me

Last night's Illinois - Penn St. game aired at 9 PM EST in New York. I wasn't in the apartment at the time so I set the DVR to record the game. On my cable package, the Big Ten Network is channel 472. That channel airs the games and other BTN programming. Problem is, channels 473-476 are other Big Ten Networks - BTN2 through BTN 5 - that aren't included in my cable package, but are listed in the Guide function. They just show the Time Warner logo and zero programming.

You know where this is going.

I accidentally set the DVR to tape channel 473 last night and recorded 2 hours of the Time Warner logo and none of the Illini game.

So I didn't see McCamey's go-ahead three with just over a minute to play. I didn't see Tisdale's monster block on Talor Battle's running layup in the closing seconds, and I definitely didn't see McCamey's lock down D that forced Battle to take a last gasp fadeaway three at the buzzer.

I didn't see any of that goodness.

Zounds!

Highlights here.

Hold The Line

Jeffrey, Mike and Mike,

I need you to hold the line today in Bloomington. The troops have advanced into second place in the Big Ten and this is no time to lose ground against an inferior foe like the Indy Anna Hoo Shers.

Take care of business and we'll see you on the flip side.

Best,
Bevormo

Illini Dabble But Then Lose In Ann Arbor

The Michigan team that beat the Illini 74-64 in Ann Arbor on Sunday was a good team. They were good because they were hitting their threes. If that team hits their threes - as Beilein teams tend to do - they could be a source of annoyance as the Illini grow into a very good team the next two or three years.

In related news, I think the Illini have three pros right now, all sophomores. The more I watch Demetri McCamey, Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis, I think they might all become pros someday. Tisdale has size and that great mid-range and turnaround jumper game that's popular with the European kids; McCamey can run point and hit threes from long distance and criminy, the kid scored 31 in a game as a freshman last season; and Mike Davis has a long, athletic body, can get to the basket, and can hit the open shot. He has an NBA game in the making. If you project all three out I think you get three pros.

Time will tell.

The Illini are off until next Saturday when they host Tom Crean and the Indy Hoosiers.

Illini Win South Padre Invitational

I didn't see either game over the weekend but the Illini won two rugged victories over Kent St. and Tulsa to take the title in the South Padre Invitational. The Kent St. game went to OT and the Tulsa final was 48-44, and in both contests Mike "The" Tisdale came up huge with some late baskets.

Well done, Mike. I'm happy to hear it.

Now back to Champaign for a little game against Clemson in a little contest called the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.