So, Illinois...

[red sail]

Thanks for posting this red sail. Everyone's talking about Cockburn, but I remember us having absolutely no answer for Giorgi last year.

yep and the kid went to the Patrick school too so I think he might have had some extra motivation to play against us.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

The way some Illinois fans are starting to talk smack, that's a sign of being scared that you could lose the game. Usually, good teams look forward to challenges without the need to talk sh*t. When you cross that line, it means you have severe doubts about your team.

Not EXACTLY how I’d describe our attitude right now ... we feel we have as talented as a roster (not more talented) as anyone not named MSU, and our only two bad losses - vs. Miami and vs. Missouri in St. Louis - were due to coming out like we didn’t even want to be there; they were humiliating and emotionally draining on us. Our fans are very frustrated because we could oh so easily be 12-3 right now and possibly ranked, not to mention we had a near-apocalyptic collapse at #3 Maryland, losing in the last seconds. We are wildly inconsistent, and it is taxing mentally. :(

Should be a great game Saturday!

 

[RutgHoops]

RW90 said:

↑



I just hope the early parity in the league doesn't hurt it's national perception come selection Sunday.

The good news is that once you get into conference play the national narratives are mostly set.

This is why in football every year if a bottom SEC team upsets a top one, it's "wow the SEC is so strong top to bottom!" but if a Big Ten team does it then it's "that conference is just filled with mediocrity." The narrative of a strong SEC is practically ingrained in the sport.

In basketball it's less set in stone and more year to year. The Big Ten won their conference challenges with the ACC and the Big East so the narrative of a strong Big Ten is already set up. This is similar to last year and it's why Ohio State got in at 8-12 in the conference.

Case in point: Last night, Rutgers beat Penn State and Boston College beat Virginia. Each improved to 3-1 in their league. But since Rutgers had a convincing win over Seton Hall and Penn State had beaten Georgetown, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and Alabama, it means something.

Boston College's best non-conference win is South Florida, and they've lost to Belmont, DePaul, Saint Louis, Richmond, and Northwestern. When Virginia gets beat by a team with THAT resume, it's obviously not because Boston College is good.
[/quote]
Best quote I saw regarding BC: “BC is now 3-1 in league. If they finish over .500 the ACC should be a one bid league”. Ha.

 

[RU-ROCS]

In 52 B1G games thus far, I believe there have been 4 road wins.

Please keep that stat handy when the Board invariably melts down if we lose to IL.

 

[rufeelinit]

This game starts 12 noon ET which means 11am in Champaign? If you have to play a good team on the road I like the start time.

 

[Scarlet Knut]

As I said before the Penn St. game a big key will be Myles staying out of foul trouble. He did and we won. We need his post presence on both offense and defense. He is a dis-rupture.