Illinois basketball 2020-21

[Bluejaygrad03]

Wright State out of Illinois MTE after positive covid tests on Wright State team. Illinois is looking for replacement team.

[Bluejaygrad03]

Looks like Chicago State has replaced Wright State in the Illinois MTE:

[illini25]

It’s a shame Wright State is out.
Wright roster includes Champaign native Tim Finke and they are coached by Champaign’s Scott Nagy, son of longtime Lou Henson assistant Dick Nagy.

[Redbird CC Fan]

Illini are very fast and athletic. They really push the tempo. Very fun to watch.

[illini25]

This team has the potential to be somewhere on the list of best Illini teams in the last 50 years.

1. 1988-89 (31-5, 14-4, F4)
Team lost Kendall Gill to a foot injury at 17-0. Record with full roster was 23-1. Strange that #1 on list didn’t win B1G title but they finished just 1 game back and won twice WITHOUT Gill over 1st place Indiana. They also defeated national champion Michigan twice (by 12 and 16 points).

Bardo, Gill, Anderson, Battle, Hamilton
Liberty, Larry Smith, Small, Bowman

2. 2004-05 (37-2, 15-1, National Runner Up)
Won 18 B1G games (including B1G tournament) with 15 wins by 10+ points. B1G regular season and tournament champions.

Deron Williams, Brown, Head, Powell, Augustine
Ingram, McBride, Nick Smith, Carter

3. 1983-84 (26-5, 15-3, Elite 8)
Lou Henson with an incredible year coaching a roster void of an nba player after losing 1983 #11 pick Derek Harper a year early. Illini also lost point forward Anthony Welch for the entire season to a broken foot. Welch’s spot in the lineup was taken by 5’11” 5th year Quinn Richardson who had 70 career points in prior 4 seasons. The only thing keeping Illini from F4 was a 3-point loss to Kentucky AT Rupp Arena that included a phantom foul and some questionable clock operation in the final minute.

The Sweet 16 game vs Maryland was very thrilling. Maryland lineup was Len Bias, Ben Coleman, Adrian Branch, Herman Veal, Jeff Adkins and Keith Gatlin.

Douglas, Altenberger, Richardson, Winters, Montgomery
Wysinger, Meents, Schafer

This was a great year to be at Illinois as they were basketball and football B1G champions. I also lived next door to 2 basketball players and got to hang out with the team occasionally. A really fun year.

4. 2000-01 (27-8, 13-3, Elite 8)
Bill Self’s first Illini team was left loaded by Lon. Losses included Arizona (#1 at time of game) by 3 at Maui, Duke (#1) by 1 at Greensboro, and Arizona by 6 in Elite 8 after Illini had 6 players foul out. This was rubber match after Illini beat Arizona by 8 at United Center. Arizona’s Olson had openly lobbied for a tight whistle prior to the 3rd meeting.

Frank Williams, Bradford, Sergio, Cook, Griffin
Harrington, Archibald, Lucas Johnson, Krupalija

Current team is as deep as 2000-01. Curbelo is the best non-starting PG since Larry Smith. Hopefully pandemic doesn’t derail season and we get to see if 2020-21 can crack this list.

[Redbird CC Fan]

00-01, the Bill Walton crying on TV game because the bully Illini were going to hurt his precious baby boy Luke.

[Butler Blue]

00-01, the Bill Walton crying on TV game because the bully Illini were going to hurt his precious baby boy Luke.

Robert Archibald, Lucas Johnson, and Damir Krupaljia were some bad dudes.

[illini25]

00-01, the Bill Walton crying on TV game because the bully Illini were going to hurt his precious baby boy Luke.

Robert Archibald, Lucas Johnson, and Damir Krupaljia were some bad dudes.

Sergio was solid as a brick wall.

[Redbird CC Fan]

Squeaker for sure. Ohio played great. Illinois kept fighting and pulled it out.

[Butler Blue]

Woof... You'll take the win, but that game should take some of the air out of the Final Four talk. I don't care how good Ohio is supposed to be in the MAC this year.

[Bluejaygrad03]

Better to get a game like this, especially with Baylor, Duke, and Mizzou on the schedule coming up like this. Even good teams will have close ones like this throughout the season.

[illini25]

Better to get a game like this, especially with Baylor, Duke, and Mizzou on the schedule coming up like this. Even good teams will have close ones like this throughout the season.

Wait ... I agree 100% with you.

Ohio had 2 guys really on and a coach who effectively countered each Illini defensive change. This game doesn’t change my perception of possible B1G title and possible deep tourney run except maybe reinforce it if Da’monte is a knock down cold blooded 3-point shooter.

Feel good for Da’monte after getting ripped on for 3 years for lack of offense.

[illini25]

Also think it was important for guys to get challenged before next week.

[deejay]

Ayo got torched on defense today, exposed badly. He may be prime time on offense, but his defense needs to improve.

[illini25]

Ayo got torched on defense today, exposed badly. He may be prime time on offense, but his defense needs to improve.

It was Frazier on Preston in the first half. Ayo did much better than Frazier who is too small for a good 6’4” guard who can back down and hit 10 foot shots.

Other problem was Da’monte on 6’8” guy who can score backing down and also from 24’.

I really don’t think Ayo was a problem at all. It took Preston 8 minutes to score a single point once they changed from Frazier to Ayo. Then Boals started running screen games for Preston. Other guys have to defend better in those situations.

[illini25]

... 6’8” but 6’11” with the man bun

[illini25]

FYI Baylor’s Scott Drew has coronavirus.

[Bluejaygrad03]

Better to get a game like this, especially with Baylor, Duke, and Mizzou on the schedule coming up like this. Even good teams will have close ones like this throughout the season.

Wait ... I agree 100% with you.

Somebody note the time on this and frame it because lord knows it will never happen again.

[Bluejaygrad03]

FYI Baylor’s Scott Drew has coronavirus.

Thought I read somewhere that he's expected to travel with the team to Indy for the game on Wednesday night.

[illini25]

Better to get a game like this, especially with Baylor, Duke, and Mizzou on the schedule coming up like this. Even good teams will have close ones like this throughout the season.

Wait ... I agree 100% with you.

Somebody note the time on this and frame it because lord knows it will never happen again.

Don’t be so pessimistic about the future.

[tribecalledquest]

Better to get a game like this, especially with Baylor, Duke, and Mizzou on the schedule coming up like this. Even good teams will have close ones like this throughout the season.

Wait ... I agree 100% with you.

Somebody note the time on this and frame it because lord knows it will never happen again.

Stop The Count!

[illini25]

Wait ... I agree 100% with you.

Somebody note the time on this and frame it because lord knows it will never happen again.

Stop The Count!

Are you saying my 100% agreement was a fraudulent post?

CNN did an extensive story 3 years ago and showed how easy it was to hack posts. But 3 years later it doesn’t fit the cnn agenda so they are now claiming posting fraud doesn’t happen.

[Butler Blue]

Ayo got torched on defense today, exposed badly. He may be prime time on offense, but his defense needs to improve.

It was Frazier on Preston in the first half. Ayo did much better than Frazier who is too small for a good 6’4” guard who can back down and hit 10 foot shots.

Other problem was Da’monte on 6’8” guy who can score backing down and also from 24’.

I really don’t think Ayo was a problem at all. It took Preston 8 minutes to score a single point once they changed from Frazier to Ayo. Then Boals started running screen games for Preston. Other guys have to defend better in those situations.

Good observations. I think some of the problem defensively came from playing 4 guards.

[tombs14]

Ayo got torched on defense today, exposed badly. He may be prime time on offense, but his defense needs to improve.

It was Frazier on Preston in the first half. Ayo did much better than Frazier who is too small for a good 6’4” guard who can back down and hit 10 foot shots.

Other problem was Da’monte on 6’8” guy who can score backing down and also from 24’.

I really don’t think Ayo was a problem at all. It took Preston 8 minutes to score a single point once they changed from Frazier to Ayo. Then Boals started running screen games for Preston. Other guys have to defend better in those situations.

Good observations. I think some of the problem defensively came from playing 4 guards.

Right.

Having Ayo and Miller out there is pretty redundant, but a good threat on offense. Their Defense plus Trent out there is the trade off.

[Bluejaygrad03]

Somebody note the time on this and frame it because lord knows it will never happen again.

Stop The Count!

Are you saying my 100% agreement was a fraudulent post?

CNN did an extensive story 3 years ago and showed how easy it was to hack posts. But 3 years later it doesn’t fit the cnn agenda so they are now claiming posting fraud doesn’t happen.

And so it begins.