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Know Thy Opponent: Illinois Fighting Illini

by in Opponents | January 8th, 2010

Illinois Fighting Illini v Wisconsin Badgers

We’ve reached out to Paul Klee, the Illinois basketball beat writer for The Champaign News-Gazette, to answer five questions for the Illinois edition of Know Thy Opponent. You can follow Paul on Twitter here. The transcript of our Q & A, conducted via e-mail, is below:

It’s been an up-and-down start to this season for the Illini. They’re 10-5, including a solid come from behind win at Clemson in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and then a few disappointing losses: Utah, Bradley and Georgia. Preseason, Illinois was a top 25 team in the AP Poll. What’s been the reaction in Champaign of how this team has performed thus far?

The fans have been hugely supportive of this team. The crowd for the Gonzaga game was the biggest United Center crowd for an Illinois game since the Final Four season in ’04-05. It was loud, too, despite a
21-point deficit. The Big Ten opener was a sellout and played a big part in Illinois beating Northwestern. Illinois fans are a resilient group.

There is disappointment, and there should be. Illinois hasn’t played up to expectations and the preseason ranking you talked about. Expectations for the freshmen were way too high. But I think the fans see it’s their most talented team since Dee Brown and James Augustine, and they recognize this group has promise. Truth is, this team is going to be defined by what it does in the postseason – if it gets there.

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Pick to Click: Illinois

by in Pick to Click | January 8th, 2010

Get in your picks before 7:45 pm ET on Saturday. Please state your selection first thing in your comment. Overriding PTC principles are here. Good luck.

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Dominique Keller: Not a fan of IU

by in Media | February 17th, 2009

In the 14 months I’ve lived in my apartment, I’ve gotten in about three fights with my roommate. These fights have not stemmed from taking out the trash, or rent, or leaving too many dishes in the sink: They’ve all been sports related. He’s an Illinois fan. I’m an Indiana fan. He’s a Cubs fan. I’m a White Sox fan. That should just about do all the explaining for you.

This year, during both IU-Illinois matchups, there was no bickering. He realizes IU is in a down year. Before the first game, he even made some off-handed remark about it “not even being a rivalry this year.”

And besides Bruce Weber’s comments before the year about how Indiana was going to be real bad and to “not print that on the Internet,” everything in Illini Nation seems a bit more calm than last year. Bruce has been cordial in both meetings. Chester Frazier, he of Eric Gordon pregame pushing fame, was nice in his postgame comments Sunday. I think it’s a combination of Kelvin Sampson being gone (he was the hated villain in all this, really), Gordon going pro, IU not being very good this year and Illinois fans having respect for Tom Crean and his choice to clean house and do things the right way.

This is not to say the rivalry does not still exist, or that fans on both side of the fence don’t feel hatred towards one another. But, it is to say, at least for this year, those tempers have died down a bit.

Unless you’re first-year Illinois JUCO transfer from Lee College, Dominique Keller — a guy who wasn’t even on the team last year.

“I’ve only been in this rivalry for one year, and I can tell you right now, I do not like this school,” Keller said. “I don’t like the coach, and I don’t like the fans. As a matter of fact, I don’t like the gym. It’s just something about Indiana I just don’t like. You can quote me on that.”

You have been quoted, Dominique. But dude, what have we done to you?

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Hoosiers miss 13 free throws — and lose by 13

by in Recaps | February 15th, 2009

To call free throw shooting a problem for the 2008-2009 version of the Indiana Hoosiers would be an understatement. The foul line has been more of a major catastrophe.

Indiana (6-18, 1-11 Big Ten) hit just 11 of 24 free throws and fell 65-52 to Illinois on Sunday afternoon in front of the first sellout crowd this season at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are shooting just 65 percent from the foul line this season, including 66 percent in Big Ten play.

After trailing 36-15 late in the first half, Indiana closed to within six at 54-48 with 6:27 remaining on a coast to coast layup by Malik Story. But the Illini (21-5, 9-4) immediately answered with a 3-pointer by Chester Frazier and Indiana never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

“We gave ourselves some chances at the end, but really, the way we played in the first half didn’t give us enough,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “Give them credit. They made enough plays and they went up to the free throw line and made the free throws.”

The loss set a school record for losses in a season (18) and tied a school record for Big Ten losses (11), a mark IU will almost certainly eclipse with six conference games remaining.

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Good, Bad and Ugly: Illinois

by in Good Bad Ugly | February 15th, 2009

FINAL SCORE: Illinois 65, Indiana 52

THE GOOD:

The second half. During their first matchup, Illinois was one of the teams this year that IU was never in the game against. At halftime, it sure looked like that was going to be the case again this afternoon. But, as we’ve seen so many times this season, IU did not quit. The Hoosiers did not give up. They fought. And though they never seriously threatened to win this game — six was as close as they got — they showed some amazing resolve in front of a packed crowd at home. Crawling back from a 21-point deficit to come as close as six is never an easy thing.

It was a combination of two things: IU shot 57 percent in the second half, and as Greg Anthony alluded to, IU switched up to a triangle and two on the defensive end, which slowed the Illini down a bit. Oh, also: Illinois stopped blocking all our shots.

Individually, Matt Roth continues to show no fear, as he went for 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

THE BAD AND UGLY:

Free throws. IU lost this game by 13 points. They missed 13 free throws. If they make half of those that they missed — in the six or seven range — the Hoosiers are in better shape the last few minutes of the game. And if they made them all, or close to them all, who knows?

The first half. I’m trying to block that out my memory of it, so I will just say one thing: It was bad. Real bad.

For the game, IU only turned the ball over 13 times.

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Good, Bad and Ugly: Illinois

by in Good Bad Ugly | January 10th, 2009

THE GOOD (HEY, WE HAD TO LIST SOMETHING, RIGHT?):

Nick Williams. That pretty much sums it up. On a day when the Hoosiers came out with far less fight than needed to win in a hostile environment, Williams was the guy who tried to keep it respectable early. He scored 10 points in the first 13 minutes before disappearing until the 7:00 mark in the second half.

IU won the rebounding battle 35-23, but Illinois hardly missed so there weren’t many boards to corral.

THE BAD AND UGLY:

The injury to Devan Dumes. The one player Indiana can ill-afford to lose didn’t start the game (reportedly after he missed the team bus to Assembly Hall) and played just two minutes before injuring his right ankle. Dumes had to be carried off the floor by Tijan Jobe and Steven Gambles and returned to the bench during the second half on crutches. For all of his faults, Dumes is the one Indiana player that can create his shot consistently, even if he is streaky. Not. Good.

The lack of intensity. In a start that looked eerily similar to the Kentucky game last month, Indiana fell behind 21-2 and never matched the energy of Illinois. Perhaps it was a hangover from the Michigan debacle or maybe Illinois is just that much better than the Hoosiers, but it was discouraging nonetheless.

The turnovers are back. After cutting down on the turnovers the previous three games against Lipscomb (13), Iowa (11) and Michigan (16), Indiana was once again sloppy with the ball, coughing it up 18 times.

Defending the 3-pointer. Illinois hit 13 from behind the arc including seven from Trent Meacham and three by Dominique Keller, who had only hit four all season going into the game. Most of the looks were of the “nobody within four feet of the shooter” variety.

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