Illinois basketball fans

[TheGame414]

In your wet dream perhaps.

Anyways, a win is a win. Glad to see Lucas and Morgan step up at the end.

Walton was an embarassment at the line in the end though. For someone who has improved his shot and become the leader of the team, he really looked freshman'esque at the stripe. Yikes.

Illinois has a lot of pieces though. Right now they shouldn't settle for anything less than second weekend of the tourny.

Ya, and I know I pretty much lossed the bet today. lol

Eh, I wouldn't know that anything short of making the Sweet 16 would be a disappointment.

I mean...consider how far we've come from the abyss that was last season. And consider that we've done it without our supposed best player* getting the boot because he couldn't walk away from a bar fight he wasn't a part of.

Anything more than laying a solid foundation for Richardson/Paul/Bertrand/Griffey/Richmond/Head/Leonard to join in the next two years was absolute gravy. All I hoped for this season was for a solid foundation to be laid for the future of Illinois basketball the next few years. That's kinda already been done. Now we're looking at, if we can hold serve at home against OSU and Wisky this week, competing for a spot in the upper crust of the Big Ten this year. I'm already thrilled with that.

Onto this game...I knew we were f-cked at halftime. Sparty crushed us on the offensive glass in the first half but mostly didn't capitalize. They turned it over 14 times but we didn't kill them for it. We should've been up 12-14 points with as horrible as they played in the first half.

On the positive side....my boy is absolutely cold-blooded, ain't he? Alex Legion is so, so close to becoming the most ruthless gunner in the Big Ten. He's still trying to fit in to an offense that takes some time to fit into, and on top of that he's doing so on a team that started out successfully without him. And yet he still becomes a go-to guy in hostile road environments. By far his three best games so far are on the road at Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State.

Legion has absolute ice water veins. He's my type of player: will keep shooting with zero fear of consequence, just waiting to twist the knife in your back. I've grown up with terrific Illinois point guards: Deron, Dee, Frankie, Heldman, Garris, etc. But having been a gunner myself, I have a soft spot for gunners that want to bury jumpers until they break your will.

And that's Alex Legion.

I absolutely love the kid. I swear, he was one more three-pointer in that run mid-second half, if we could've found him one more decent look, from sticking the knife in the back and twisting it hard.






*I add the asterick because I never thought Jamar Smith would be this team's best player, despite the reports from Paul Klee and others. Sorry, but Demetri McCamey has most of his scoring ability, but also is a terrific passer, which comes with being, y'know....a point guard. Jamar would have likely been this team's leading scorer, but by the end of the year I believe Alex Legion will be doing everything Jamar would've done, and possibly more.

That's why I didn't lose my mind when Jamar got the boot. It sucked, because we'd be better with him, and it broke my heart a little bit because I know Jamar isn't a bad kid, but I never believed for a second that he was a better player than McCamey already was, or than Legion would've been by the end of the year.

[IlliniFan]

Alex Legion definitely played well today, but all he is at this point is a shooter. He can't take the ball to the hole to save his life. It seemed like every time he put the ball on the floor, he would get stripped or dribble it off his foot. Really needs to improve his ball handling to become a more well rounded player.

[TheGame414]

Alex Legion definitely played well today, but all he is at this point is a shooter. He can't take the ball to the hole to save his life. It seemed like every time he put the ball on the floor, he would get stripped or dribble it off his foot. Really needs to improve his ball handling to become a more well rounded player.

His ballhandling isn't one of his strengths- though he had a nice drive in the first half that he just didn't quite finish- but dribble penetration isn't a huge part of our offense anyway. He's shown the ability, however, to shoot off the dribble, if not get to the rim.

[TheGame414]

Ha, how can someone love Legion; complete ****ing nutcase.

He was surrounded by nutcases, and finally made a decision for himself when he came to Illinois. And because I can, I'm going to delete your post while leaving mine up. Maybe it's because I love Alex Legion's game, maybe it's because I drink way too much, maybe I don't care, but it's happening in any case.

[i seen hippos]

Ask me how it feels to look down on your on the basketball court AND football field. lol

[i seen hippos]

Can't wait for OSU/Illinois tonight.

These games get me just as excited as a top 10 battles. These ones actually mean more in reality.

[TheGame414]

If Buford and Mullens stick around for their sophomore years- and both should- Ohio State is going to be an absolute load next season.

Good win. Tisdale essentially played Mullens to a draw, McCamey had a very nice all-around game. I expected us to win this game but I was very pleased that we bounced back so strong. I kind of thought we'd slog out an ugly, unpleasing win because of a hangover from Saturday, but that didn't happen.

Second straight game that an opponent was coughing the ball up all over the place, but it was nice to see us actually forcing the turnovers for the most part tonight.

[Roy Munson]

Good win against a pretty good team last night. I just want to add one thing. Dominique Keller just may be my favorite player on the team right now. He just finds ways to put the ball in the basket. He, Brock, and Legion are a very nice group of guys to have coming off the bench.

Another thing, I was really surprised that none of the announcers made a mention of McCamey and Evan Turner being high school teammates. The two were even featured together in the star watch before the game. It just seems like something that would usually get mentioned.

I had no real hopes for this team this season, and I am ecstatic to be 16-3 and back in the top 25. When you watch them play it's easy to see why they are doing so well, but when you actually just sit back and think about where we came from it's pretty mindblowing.

[Posterize246]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,5421386.story

CHAMPAIGN - Jeff Jordan's decision to turn down midmajor scholarship offers for a chance to walk on at Illinois has paid off.

Coach Bruce Weber said Thursday the sophomore guard from Loyola Academy is on scholarship for the second semester.

"I wasn't expecting it to come as quickly as it did," Jordan said. "It caught me off guard. I think I've been improving every day."

Jordan, son of Bulls great Michael Jordan, became part of the playing rotation as a freshman and is 10th on the team with 1.3 points and 9.5 minutes per game.

Weber credited Jordan for finding a niche.

"He can be a pest on defense," Weber said. "He's just a good, quality kid, a good team member. We probably should have done it for the first semester. We feel more and more confident in him."

[TheGame414]

The Pre-Loader

Good article, cute headline. Covers all the bases of Illinois' recruiting turnaround fairly well, although as always you have to cut through the spin whenever Reggie Rose opens his mouth.

[wang4three]

Good game today. Demetri looked sharp and the team's offense gets crisper by the game. Little worried at the end, but we pulled through. Ready for Minnesota!

[TheGame414]

Demetri played like a star today. Attacked the basket, distributed the ball, didn't rely on the three, played solid defense. Arguably his best all-around game as an Illini.

[ballinhun8]

At least we closed out this win today which is something the team last year couldn't do. McCamey did play splendid today and hit FT's.

Our bigs played well and pestered the Badgers all game. Not many easy shots for them. I too am ready for Minnesota on Thursday. It should be a great game as we try to extend that streak. I hope its on ESPN but I don't think it will be after looking at their schedule on ESPN.


I read that article today actually now that you bring it up Game and it was very interesting and insightful. And yea, your right, hearing Reggie Rose in the article did make me want to stop reading right at the moment.

[FaiT_AccomplicE]

I'll go on record right now as saying there is absolutely no way we're a No. 4 seed. Would love to be wrong, but we still don't quite know how good we are. Right now, be happy if we make the tournament because we're a bubble team. If we prove to be better than that over the next few weeks, great.

Sit a few plays out, champ. The future is very bright and we're going to be very, very good, quite possibly Final Four-caliber. But favorites?

Sit out a few plays, champ? Well, I gave it some time to see who would be right, and guess what? The Illini are already projected as a four seed THIS YEAR! Maybe it is YOU who needs to sit a few plays out, chump. You seem to be on this message board all the time telling people if they are right or wrong.

You say you don't know how good we are, but at the same time go on record as saying they aren't a 4 seed next year! How does that make any sense? I don't know how good they are, but I know how good they aren't?

Yeah, okay. You really got me on that one didn't you. There's NO WAY the Illini could improve an already likely 4-seed team this year with one of the top 10 recruiting classes next year.... nope, no way at all.

Yeah.... this just makes everything that followed the start of our conversation that much more unbearable to read. You drone on and on about how you are right and I am wrong. Well, judging from what I have seen so far. Semrau does not deserve too much playing time, and if this team wants to make it into the top ten this year or next year, Semrau is not the guy they are going to need or want backing up the 4 or 5. Keller has already taken Semrau's place. Thank God!

Enough said.

[D-Rose]

Don't know much about them, but my dad went there and I got a hoody