What a hard fought chopping kind of win for RU in its home finale...a Rutgers type effort which is becoming an identity of this program. Team and staff had worked hard all year yet kept coming up short. Today was a nice reward to give some validation to those efforts. Certainly not the prettiest of games and there were points that RU did not play well. Yet this team persevered today just like they have all season long. They kept fighting and clawing and played some really good defense for all but a 5 minute stretch really bothering Illinois and forcing them into becoming a jump shooting team.
RU easily could have laid down after allowing Illinois to go on a 17-4 in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd to go up 10 at 44-34. RU was teetering on the brink, I even commented in the game thread that they looked on the verge of giving up and said to my buddy this is either going two ways...they either are going to lose by 20-25 or they are going to fight back and its going to go to the last shot. Big move by Pike there removing Corey Sanders who was having an awful game to that point and challenging him to stop being selfish, be more focused and help the team. Corey answered the call and became a man and leader in the last 10 minutes. Gut check time for the team in the last few minutes when Illinois had a slight lead and it looked like things could go down the same way they had in almost every similar spot during the year. This team fought through adversity, trusted their teammates and dug out the win. Have not heard the explanation of the play run that led to Freeman's shot but this was down with no timeout. Great ball movement and maybe it wasnt intended for Freeman to take that shot, got to love the trust that Freeman's teammates had in him and the courage Freeman had to take that shot and win it for RU. Freeman had his best game as a Knight playing within himself on offense and stepping up his game on D, Throw in Williams toughness and Getty giving his usual 100% effort in his RAC swan song and this was truly and enjoyable win for the fans to enjoy
What a crushing loss for Illinois and likely burst their NCAA hopes. Schools on the bubble at this time can not sustain a loss to a school ranked 174 in rpi...its a bad loss for them. If they can get to the B10 finals then maybe they can be back in discussion but I doubt they have a run capable of that in them. I felt that RU defense really bothered Illinois all day long and they never could get into any flow. I also think that Groce did a poor job today and it seemed like he could not get his team to stop taking jump shots. Illinois needed to draw fouls in this game but seemed content on running the shot clock down and throwing up prayers..some of which went in. Live by that die by that and that is most likely why Groce is going to be canned. He is probably the worst coach in the league.
So RU got 14 wins this year...doubling the total from last year....3 conference wins so that is 2 more than last year and as many as they got in the first 2 years in the B10 combined. Progress definitely no question asked. Do not know what that means for next year since I still think this group is limited in talent vs the rest of the league but we are at least at the point that the program has scraped back to some respectability and you know the team is going to compete just like any other Big 10 team. All about recruiting from here forward so its nice to get as many wins as possible.
Looks like Ohio State may be the most likely opponent in the first round Big 10 tourney but that can change. Not the best matchup but its hard to say where the OSU mindset is, they had an outside shot at a NCAA bid but then inexplicably lost to Indiana 96-92. The matchup the first time went to the wire even though OSU had built a double digit lead, RU clawed back to tie it. I think the win today certainly will buoy the confidence of this team and I expect another Rutgers type effort and a close down to the wire game win or lose
RU easily could have laid down after allowing Illinois to go on a 17-4 in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd to go up 10 at 44-34. RU was teetering on the brink, I even commented in the game thread that they looked on the verge of giving up and said to my buddy this is either going two ways...they either are going to lose by 20-25 or they are going to fight back and its going to go to the last shot. Big move by Pike there removing Corey Sanders who was having an awful game to that point and challenging him to stop being selfish, be more focused and help the team. Corey answered the call and became a man and leader in the last 10 minutes. Gut check time for the team in the last few minutes when Illinois had a slight lead and it looked like things could go down the same way they had in almost every similar spot during the year. This team fought through adversity, trusted their teammates and dug out the win. Have not heard the explanation of the play run that led to Freeman's shot but this was down with no timeout. Great ball movement and maybe it wasnt intended for Freeman to take that shot, got to love the trust that Freeman's teammates had in him and the courage Freeman had to take that shot and win it for RU. Freeman had his best game as a Knight playing within himself on offense and stepping up his game on D, Throw in Williams toughness and Getty giving his usual 100% effort in his RAC swan song and this was truly and enjoyable win for the fans to enjoy
What a crushing loss for Illinois and likely burst their NCAA hopes. Schools on the bubble at this time can not sustain a loss to a school ranked 174 in rpi...its a bad loss for them. If they can get to the B10 finals then maybe they can be back in discussion but I doubt they have a run capable of that in them. I felt that RU defense really bothered Illinois all day long and they never could get into any flow. I also think that Groce did a poor job today and it seemed like he could not get his team to stop taking jump shots. Illinois needed to draw fouls in this game but seemed content on running the shot clock down and throwing up prayers..some of which went in. Live by that die by that and that is most likely why Groce is going to be canned. He is probably the worst coach in the league.
So RU got 14 wins this year...doubling the total from last year....3 conference wins so that is 2 more than last year and as many as they got in the first 2 years in the B10 combined. Progress definitely no question asked. Do not know what that means for next year since I still think this group is limited in talent vs the rest of the league but we are at least at the point that the program has scraped back to some respectability and you know the team is going to compete just like any other Big 10 team. All about recruiting from here forward so its nice to get as many wins as possible.
Looks like Ohio State may be the most likely opponent in the first round Big 10 tourney but that can change. Not the best matchup but its hard to say where the OSU mindset is, they had an outside shot at a NCAA bid but then inexplicably lost to Indiana 96-92. The matchup the first time went to the wire even though OSU had built a double digit lead, RU clawed back to tie it. I think the win today certainly will buoy the confidence of this team and I expect another Rutgers type effort and a close down to the wire game win or lose
