@ Indiana

The first half was a beautiful half of basketball for the Illini. There really isn't much to argue about. The team was taking high percentage shots and making alot of them, high assist/shots made, few turnovers, great defense. When's the last time an Illini team had 7 blocks in a game, let alone the first half? Matt Roth took his first shot with 2 minutes left in the half. Unfortunately, he made it, but limiting a shooter like that is pretty good. Another thing I'm just not a fan of is Tisdale's help defense. He would move too far outside, leaving Pritchard open near the hoop. The counter arguement is that the team got their 7 blocks out of this. I don't like that. Pritchard shouldn't have been open that many times. It's a good thing he's terrible at free throws too. What was he...2-6 in the first half? I know the Illini were up 17 at the break, and I'm nit-picking, but I'm trying to look for the negatives in the first 20 minutes.

As for the second half, I just don't know what happened. I guess the simplest answer is that the team got lazy. Very lazy. This is a Hoosier team that was beaten by 31 in the previous meeting and now they're up 17. The passes weren't sharp, cuts not crisp, boxing-out seemed to dissappear, the shot clock would get low without a good look at the basket, defense went obsolete. I went this whole post and the first one without even mentioning the poor free-throw shooting or lack of attempts from the stripe. Things that typically happen to this team on the road, were starting to happen again.

Another thing that's easy to harp on is the Big10 officiating. This was also a night/day thing today. The first half, the fouls happened. No doubt about it. Trent was pretty dumb on his 2 that got him into trouble; simple hand checks, but everyone does it (Purdue to the extreme). It's just a matter of the officials calling them and calling them consistently throughout the game. When the second half started, it appeared like the refs had to make up for their low first half performance. This is typical. What bothered me was the inconsistency. This game was much more competitive in the second half, but I strongly believe that what made it closer was the technical foul called on Calvin Brock. That was terrible. Greg Anthony couldn't have said it better; "I don't think that was a good call at all. We have the benefit of replay, but Calvin Brock is an emotional player. I don't think he did anything deserving of a T there. He was simply jacked up about a dunk, yelled towards his bench, and happened to bump into Taber along the way."

With all that said, the first half cushion put up by the Illini was just too much for the Hoosiers to overcome. I was very worried during the two sets of one-in-ones missed by the team in the final 3 minutes. I had some deja vu there from last year. Luckily, the team defense came back, rebounding came back, and Legion made his free throws. It will be interesting to see this Hoosier team next year, or even if we play them in the Big10 Tournament. As we proved against Purdue last year, it's tough to beat a team three times in a year.

For the rest of the year, the schedule has become pretty favorable for us. The competion is there being as the games are played against teams working for a NCAA berth. But also, all the games are televised nationally with the Thursday (ESPN)/Sunday (CBS) tv schedule. There's only two games this team can really afford to lose the rest of the way and that's the home game vs. Michigan State and the game at Penn State.


This is a very busy Sunday in the world of sports...in my eyes anyway. The Illini win and I get a breather until the Daytona 500 starts. I've attended the race 5 times. Being witness to Davey Allison, Sterling Marlin, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt, and Michael Waltrip winning the most prestigious race in NASCAR. I miss going there, but I'll be back. The tailgating for the race is great with 170,000+ people in the area. That must be what it's like at an SEC football game. It's really pretty hard to describe for those who've never made the trip. My prediction, and a bold one if I may think so, is that this years winner will be Clint Bowyer.


That's all I've got for today. Spring Training has started, so there may be some baseball news coming shortly. So until Penn State, goodnight.