Coach Weber once again got the drop on a former fellow Boilermaker with a 79-68 win over Kevin Stallings and Vanderbilt in Champaign. The Illini continue to look impressive on offense – especially against teams without overly physical guards. When you shoot 60% from the field you’re going to win. Of course the coaching staff remains concerned about what happens when you don’t shoot all that well and you can’t man up defensively(see Utah second half, Bradley, Clemson first half). Still, give me a team that can score and needs to improve their defense…
Some otherwise loyal Illini fans were kicking their dog, throwing the remote, and/or flipping on the PlayStation or movie or whatever after that first half. I know this because I got the texts from some of them. And I was very, very close myself, but I wanted to see if anyone would respond in the second half as well as whether McCamey would continue to get the shaft from the officials. What I and the rest of the truly loyal saw was the all-time comeback victory for Illinois basketball, 76-74 over #18 Clemson. At Clemson. With terrible officiating (at least in the first half).
Many are familiar with the old cliche, ‘attitude adjustment’ – and this is precisely what happened after the half. The Illini “looked like whipped dogs”, as color radio-man Jerry Hester put it, but that all changed when Demetri McCamey settled the team down against the Clemson pressure and guys started to hit some shots. Of course Clemson also put it in cruise control and played poorly during that stretch, but the last five minutes were back-and-forth and the Illini found a way to make plays. The win, along with the Badgers’ upset of Duke propelled the Big 10 to victory in the incessantly annoying ACC/Big 10. Take that, east-coast biased hoops media.
The Fighting Illini 09-10 Basketball season tips off tonight against SIU-Edwardsville. Coach Weber has four freshman to incorporate, three of which have already proven they will play (and Joseph Bertrand might be in that mix too if not for a knee injury), and his top three returning scorers in McCamey, Davis, and Tisdale. Illinois has three more talented players coming in next year, and Weber deserves a lot of credit for his recent recruiting success.
But if the football team has taught us anything, it’s to be wary of the local hype surrounding the Illini. Don’t get carried away with lofty prognostications. That said, we’re optimistic about this year’s hoops team. They will be fun to watch with young athletic players and depth on the bench. The days of low-scoring milk-the-shotclock-and-hope offense should be behind us, and we won’t see many more games in the 40s and 50s (let alone that nightmare Penn State game in the 30s).
Last year’s team overachieved its way to a 24-10 record behind the grit of Chester Frazier and the scoring of the now-junior class. So what do we see for this year? Five points in the pentagram…
Team America is World Cup bound. All the teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing about the squad’s inconsistent play, their inability to score goals from the run of play, Coach Bob Bradley’s squad selection – it can all go away, at least for a little while. The US beat Honduras 3-2 Saturday night in San Pedro Sula, the only team to win down there during qualification. And they did it by battling hard, refusing to quit even after going down a goal, and riding the superior skill and tireless efforts of one Landon Donovan.
I ended up watching this game on my computer via alternating webfeeds from Central America and Iraq (of all places). The quality was bad and the feed lagged at times, but at least I was able to watch. Five point in your bound-for-South Africa Pentagram…
There’s nothing like a 5-0 ass-whipping by your greatest rival in a tournament final to provide a little perspective on where you stand. The American Soccer community has had two basic reactions to the Gold Cup loss to Mexico: the initial righteous outrage and then rationalization combined with eager roster projections.
While it’s true the U.S Team that took the field against Mexico in New York (facing a 90% pro-Mexico crowd) included exactly one first-team choice in Brian Ching, with Mexico fielding probably four first-choice players, and it’s also true the penalty call that opened the floodgates was a bad, bad decision by the ref, no one can deny the U.S. crumbled and capitulated over the final 35 minutes. After nearly a decade of domination on home soil (despite often facing pro-Mex crowds) the U.S. conceded the psychological high ground. And you could tell it on the faces of players like Torrado and Dos Santos, to say nothing of their coach, Javier Aguirre. You could see their relief and exhiliration. They did not care that it was a U.S. B-team, the only thing that mattered was beating the gringos and lifting the trophy. Maybe we didn’t care that much about winning the Gold Cup (and judging by the team selection and mass exodus of players from the initial roster), but to concede anything prior to the August 12 showdown at the Azteca, especially in terms of confidence is troubling.
Team America is 7-5-1 over this busy summer stretch, with two more World Cup Qualifiers looming in the coming weeks. The Confederations Cup and Gold Cup showed us a lot about this team and about Bob Bradley’s coaching and roster management. So let’s try to sum it up, pentagram-style… Read the rest of this entry ?
The group stages of the Gold Cup are finished, with Team America winning Group B after defeating Grenada and Honduras handily, then settling for a last-gasp tie against Haiti. The quarterfinals will feature a host of familiar CONCACAF foes, with Panama up first next Saturday in Philly. U.S. Coach Bob Bradley (aka Stoneface) has used a combination of young up-and-comers and veterans trying to prove they still belong in this round. At this point, it’s all about finding those role-players and backups for the remainder of World Cup Qualifying and next summer’s South Africa roster.
It’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from games against tiny Grenada and a Honduran team that left it’s best players at home. The Haiti game was a little more useful in that it showed a few guys who definitely aren’t ready as well as some who never were. But everyone else is doing their analysis, so we will, too…
This was a famous victory for U.S. Soccer. The lead sports story for news services across the globe. USA 2, Spain 0, and the Spaniards’ 35 game unbeaten streak is at an end. Most soccer pundits would tell you that Spain wins that game 8 out of 10 times; they are #1 in the world according to FIFA after all. But not today.
Like Alexi Lalas says, ‘that kind of performance gives me hope’. Yeah, me too. And this on the heels of that improbable 3-0 victory over Egypt; suddenly the sky doesn’t quite seem to be falling. Five points to the pentagram…
You have to bring your best game against a team like Italy. They’re the reigning world champs, after all. The best game doesn’t include a crap red-card, lack of tactical adjustment, and anything less than total defensive commitment once you have the lead. Thus, 3-1 Italy and the U.S. is in the hole with Thursday’s match against Brazil looming.
You did see some guts by guys like Onyewu, Donovan, Bradley, and Spector. Jozy Altidore was tough to handle and Jonathan Bornstein looked strong on the left. That said, just too many mistakes. Five points to the pentagram…
3-1 loss for the good guys in San Jose, which makes Saturday’s game in Chicago against Honduras even more important. A loss or tie at home would really set qualification into a tailspin, while a win keeps us right near the top. It was pretty much a crap performance from start to finish. So without further adieu, five points to the pentagram.
At last week’s Illini Basketball Postseason Banquet, Chester Frazier took home most of the awards, including team MVP. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it one last time: Bruce Weber deserves a lot of credit for milking 24 wins and a second-place Big 10 finish out of this team. The Illini had some glaring holes and were built around Frazier and jump-shooting. Not bagging on Chester here; I love the way he ran the team this year, but he’s essentially a role-player. And as far as the jump-shooting, if the last two weekends of the tournament reemphasized anything it’s that you must have driving threats to compliment your jump shooters if you want to reach the highest levels.
Sounds like Chester will be around next year as a graduate assistant. This is good news as everyone could use a little of what he has. Will some of it rub off? Illinois fans will recall what happens when your hardest working toughest player is also one of your best athletes. See Battle, Kenny and Powell, Roger… Yeah, there was a lot of talent on both those teams as well, but also some truly tough-minded guys, led by Flight #33 and the Rev.
The most important off-season development has already ocurred: Jerrance Howard is staying put. After overtures from both Kentucky and Memphis, Jerrance will meet with AD Ronnie the G about a raise. Open up the checkbook Guenther; J-Ho is on the rise.
Some otherwise loyal Illini fans were kicking their dog, throwing the remote, and/or flipping on the PlayStation or movie or whatever after that first half. I know this because I got the texts from some of them. And I was very, very close myself, but I wanted to see if anyone would respond in the second half as well as whether McCamey would continue to get the shaft from the officials. What I and the rest of the truly loyal saw was the 
The Fighting Illini 09-10 Basketball season tips off tonight against SIU-Edwardsville. Coach Weber has four freshman to incorporate, three of which have already proven they will play (and Joseph Bertrand might be in that mix too if not for a knee injury), and his top three returning scorers in McCamey, Davis, and Tisdale. Illinois has
Team America is 7-5-1 over this busy summer stretch, with two more World Cup Qualifiers looming in the coming weeks. The Confederations Cup and Gold Cup showed us a lot about this team and about Bob Bradley’s coaching and roster management. So let’s try to sum it up, pentagram-style… 
