Illini Running Game, Defense A Saving Grace

In a week of heinousness - the Padres don't make the playoffs, the Bolts lose to the Raiders, Tony Gwynn announces he has cancer - the Illini victory in State College was some kinda nice. Zook's boys dominated both sides of the ball on their way to a 33-13 drubbing of Joe Pa and his Nittany Lions.

Props especially go to the defense and the running game. On the D side, Nate Bussey had a choice pick at a key spot early in the 2nd quarter, and the defense as a whole held Penn St. freshman quarterback Robert Bolden to a 38.1 completion percentage. The team also picked up a couple sacks and held Evan Royster, soon to be Penn St.'s all-time leading rusher, to 35 yards on 11 carries.

And the running game was unstoppable. Mikel Leshoure ran 27 times for 119 yards, Nathan Scheelhaase 8 times for 61 yards, Troy Pollard 8 times for 55 yards, and Jason Ford 9 times for 47 yards. Even Bud Golden had a carry, finishing off the game with a 3-yard run. All told the Illini netted 282 yards rushing at 5.2 yards per rush.

Derek Dimke also deserves special mention. He was perfect on field goals in a hostile, "white-out" environment, hitting 4 out of 4 field goals, including a 50-yarder.

Oh and Scheelhaase, a redshirt-freshman starting in his first real road game, completed 15 of 19 passes for 151 yards and no picks. Clutch.

Many thanks to the Illini for doing their part to save the week.

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.

The Quest To Stop Talor Battle Continues Tonight

See that photo above. That is the face of debacle. The man who has singlehandedly defeated the Illini on four occasions in the last two years.

It is Talor Battle. Penn St. junior guard. He even has a blog named after him.

It is perhaps a sad comment on the state of Illini basketball that its most fearsome nemesis right now is a guard from Penn St. It is certainly a sad comment on the state of Illini basketball that they have lost to Penn St. four times in two years. I'd rather lose to an Indiana team with Eric Gordon, or a Kansas team with Sherron Collins, or a Villanova team with Scottie Reynolds, or a Purdue team with E'twaun Moore, or even a Duke team with Jon Scheyer.

But not a Penn St. team with Talor Battle.

Not any Penn St. team for that matter.

An Illini win tonight puts them at 4-0 in the Big Ten. Let's pad that cushion.

Criminy!

Bruce,

What ... was that? A 38-33 loss? At home? To Penn St.?

38 to 33?

Snakes that was a strange bad loss. Not only was the team shooting like they didn't want the ball to go through the hoop, but even when they did start to make some shots, they managed to blow a nine-point second half lead.

That potential 3 or 4 seed now looks a lot like a potential 6 seed.

It's not just Illini fans that are upset. That loss may have jobbed up the whole Big Ten. As my advisor Tatty Mareeco, a Michigan fan, wrote this morning:

Also tell Weber and the boys thanks. My squad is having enough of a hard time making the tourney basedo [sic] on their suspect play, I didn't need your boys to gift wrap a game for PSU last night.

Tatt can't spell but he does have a point. Not that I think Michigan is a tournament quality team, but after last night's game, barring some unforeseen conference tourney runs, the Big Ten is looking at 5 teams in the Big Dance. Shameful.

The Ohio St. game on Sunday now looms larger than before. I know you can rally the troops and pull out a win in Columbus.

Best,
Bevormo