@ Northwestern

For starters, let me introduce myself. My name is Reid, and I'm your typical over-obsessive, think I know it all, wanna-be baller, fill in any other cliche here, type of fan. If the Illini lose, I'm miserable for 24 hours. If the Illini win, I'm great until they lose again. It's a vicious circle that I entered upon being granted admission to the University of Illinois. The truth hurts.



Anyway, every serious Illini fan knows that this team is doing 100x better than anyone thought. Sure, people will throw out the cliche's like "Well, this team is over-achieving." or "They have the talent, it was just a matter of it coming together." And for the most part, there's a bit of truth to both of those statements. The fact remains that this Illini team is now 8-4 in conference, with a NCAA berth 1 win away, and a shot at the Big10 regular season title.



I had started this blog out of anger. Anger that this team just lost another road game. Anger that this team does everything poor on the road. Anger that the offense becomes stagnant on the road. Anger for every single aspect that is involved in a road game. This anger is still there. It's just buried under excitement for now because everything I previously listed was present in tonights game.



Let me finish the intro by saying that I will cover anything sports related that tickles me. Except soccer. A-Rod, Phelps, & Duke/UNC already have X-million articles, so unless something new comes up, I'm ignoring those topics tonight. Tonight, the focus is on Illini vs. Northwestern.







This game always scares me. Northwestern has literally been the kitty litter in the cat box called the Big10 (pun intended). Iowa beats them, Indiana beats them, hell, Northeastern beats them...wait, that's Indiana this year. You get where I'm going though. The Illini always fall into what I call the "Princeton Offense Trap". It's documented, but doesn't have a name. For you who don't know the Princeton offense is based on using the whole shot clock, being patient, and using back-door cuts. Plain and simple: It's boring as hell. By running it, they limit their opponents possesions and typically keep scores under 60. The Illini run the motion offense which is more up-tempo, but has a part of patience to it. When these two schools meet, talent typically wins out. IE- Northwestern plays slow, hangs around, but eventually gets too tired and the Illini pull away.



As far as the game went, it played out pretty much as I explained above...minus NU getting tired in my opinion. The Wildcats seemed to shoot 60% in the first half and 45% in the second half. Obviously, they never gave up. They seemed to be getting every roll/bounce in the first 35 minutes though, and when you're rooting for the other side, that seems like every possession. For Illini road games, it seems like their opponents cut sharper, run closer off of screens, make everything, and grab every loose ball...things the Illini should be doing, but don't. Honestly, it makes sense, but it sucks. Chester is a pretty good on the ball defender, but how many times did he get caught on a screen? Is it just me, or does the team help too much on defense, thus leaving a good shooter wide open for 3? Do the Illini run the offense looking lost when on the road? Do they rebound 10x worse? Basically, do they look like an 8th grade girls team? I think the answer is yes. It's happened everywhere but Purdue (that was an average game; some good some bad) and Michigan St. (where they dominated 33 minutes of the game, then turned into crap). I don't get it, Coach Weber doesn't get it, the players don't get it, no one gets it. As a wise man once said 'Thats life in the Big 10." I'd like to say tonight wasn't that, but it was, until the last 5 minutes. Seriously, a 17-2 run to finish a game?! The last time they did something like that was against Arizona in 2005. Some may remember that game. Tonight, this team decided to play defense when they needed too, decided to make the extra pass, decided to grab a rebound with two hands. Little things that weren't being done earlier in the game. The Illini pulled this thing out and I'm happier because of it. If they had lost, this post would be similar, but with a much more negative tone. I'm not one of those people who hope that the team reads this and finds motivation from my ranting/raving. I'm realistic. The only people who will read this are my friends and they will either agree with me, or same I'm a F-ing moron. Like I stated at the start, I'm simply a nobody who hasn't played organized basketball since my freshman year of high school. I admit to that. But since Al Gore invented the Internet, everyone with an opinion can write whatever they want for anyone to see. That pretty much sums up what the Illini do/fail to do when playing on the road. If you want to dig up stats, you can, to futher show the difference between home/away games. I'm not gonna do it. What matters in the end is a win, and thats what the team came out with tonight.





So, after that rant, I'll just brush on the other teams that influence me.



Bulls- trade talk with Stoudamire is a good thing. Just get it done. The current roster isn't doing anything other than playing their asses off in order to not get traded. That's pro sports for you. Do well, you stay. Do poor, you go....unless you're involved in trade talk. Then you step up your game.



Blackhawks- if only they would get more credit. The changes Tallon has made in the last 1.5 years aren't something to win a Nobel Prize (televise games, spend money on free agents, acknowledge old legends). Every fan knew this. This team has the feel of the Bulls in the late 80's...as in '"We're getting better, we just have to learn to get past Detroit and the sky is the limit." Look what happened in 1991.

White Sox- another offseason where nothing special has happened. Sign another young Dominican, sign pitching stud Bartolo Colon (wait, he was a stud in 2003), and still have holes to fill at 3B, 2B, CF, and 5th starter. Seems like last year except they had Crede. I'll take a division title again...just stretch the post-season out longer.

Cubs- they don't matter to me, I'm a Sox fan.

Bears- lets just wait and watch Angelo draft someone for defense when the main concern is offense. More to come on this topic at a later date, probably when something significant happens.

That's all for tonight. Hopefully the next time I post, there will be a step-up in production value. Probably not. Check back after the Illini take on the lowly Hoosiers. I could've dealt with losing to the Wildcats tonight, but not IU this year. THEY LOST TO NORTHEASTERN....AND LIPSCOMB!!!