Pentagram: Illini Basketball Preview

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…

Some Leaves and Stuff

A beautiful fall weekend, the likes of which we rarely see in November, meant a lot of time outside for the kids and a lot of leaves being bagged by the grown-ups.  There was also time for football, soccer, partying, and even some basketball.  But mostly it was the leaves.  With three big old trees in the yard, you just take it in stride…

53 Bags

Illinois’ offense looked competent and borderline good for the second straight week, scoring 35 points against the Gophers.  We’ve said all along the O&B would need 30+ points a game to win; too bad they waited until the season was halfway over to wake up.  Of course the competition has been less stringent after that brutal September, but how much do we attribute to more manageable foes, how much to the Offensive Coordinator finally getting it together, and how much to having a quarterback who can actually pick up blitzers and hit open receivers?  And we note that Minnesota made adjustments at halftime (and the Zooker did not) and nearly caught up after that terrible blocked punt, but Charest hit McGee on a crucial third down and Illinois got that final touchdown.  To their credit, the Illini never gave up on the season and still have the Illinois rivarly with Northwestern and a winnable home game against Fresno State.  Win those two and we’ll forgive some of the earlier crap…

Hoops Season Pending

Mike D in the House

A quick look at the official website schedule tells us we only have 12 days until the first televised Fighting Illini Basketball exhibition game.  Two weeks after that we have the season opener against SIU-Edwardsville.  For Illini fans, hoops can’t get here soon enough.  We can officially turn our attention to the four heralded freshmen and the talented junior trio of Mike, Mike, and D-Mac.

The Illini are a top 20 kind of team but may not start the season in the polls as it has become fashionable to stock a lot of mid-majors there (a trend Beemsville wholly endorses BTW).  But win against the cupcakes and come into December with one or fewer losses, and the Orange & Blue will get some attention.  If the freshmen can produce and no major injuries befall us, the Illini should contend for the Big 10 – and the conference will be as tough as it’s been in many years.  For a detailed scrimmage report from earlier this year, check out the Rube’s analysis.  More preseason coverage of Coach Weber’s team will be forthcoming.  Turning briefly to…

Illini Fever!

Catch it!  What’s that?  A stable of offensive weapons the likes of which have not been seen in Champaign in many-a-moon?  What?  A new offensive coordinator known for scoring points and rolling up yardage?  Who?   A pair of dark-horse Heisman candidates – wait, HAHAHAHAHAHA.  HA-HA.

We caught the Illini fever.  The boy had about 100 degrees at gametime, a holdover from the little girl’s earlier illness, but like any right-thinking alumni parents, we went to the game anyway, expecting a cure for what ailed us.  We coughed up too much dough in hopes of finally seeing the Orange & Blue beat the Tiggers at the dome.  Instead we bore witness to one of the illest Illinois performances in recent memory. 

To quote the Zooker (and in keeping with the theme): “I feel sick for these guys.  I feel sick for them. I feel sick for the Illini Nation. It’s up to us to make sure we get that fixed.“

We’re all feeling the sickness today.  It’s a good thing beloved President Obama is going to fix healthcare and provide free cures for everyone!  But seriously, did Juice throw the ball down the field even once?  No?  And just what was that strange-looking permutation of the spread?  You run the spread to score points, not play ball control (as the coaches claimed was our objective).  You want to play ball control, line up like Wisconsin or Iowa and run between the tackles.  Otherwise, well …  Nevermind.  It’s not even worth it.

Suffice to say you will not see anymore Illini football blogging on Beemsville until there’s something worth commenting upon.  Because we’re sick of it already.

Illini Football Season Preview

The Zooker

‘Round these parts, we’re ready for some college football.  That means Illini.  That means dubiously-informed opinions on the how, what, and wherefore said Illini might succeed, entertain, and/or disappoint this year.  We’re hoping for more of the former and less of the latter.  We’ll do this in a semi-analytical fashion, so let’s begin with some facts and move on.

2007= 9-4 and the Rose Bowl.  2008 = 5-7 and gnashing of teeth.  There are all kinds of neat statistics about the last two seasons, like how Illinois generated vastly more offense than their opponents last year, how the 08 defense allowed fewer yards than the 07 defense, like how many yards and touchdowns Juice Williams accumulated.  There’s also stats like Number of times Illini fans swore like sailors at the offensive play-calling, ability to miss key tackles, and number of screw ups on special teams.  We know Juice, Benn, et al could break some records this year.  We also know  the margins are slim.  So here’s a fun internal conversation that constitutes our official Beemsville preview.

How do we set the parameters for success? 8-5 and a top bowl game.  Anything less will be disappointing.  10-3, at least a share of the Big 10 Conference, and another BCS appearance should be the goal.

But the non-conference schedule is so hard! Yes, it is.  Top 10 in a difficulty.  And it’s wacky, too with those two December games.  But if you score more points than the other guy…

Early Illini Hoops Report

College football is nearly upon us so naturally we bring you a lengthy first-hand report about Illini basketball…

This courtesy of my brother (sometimes known as the Rube; why? click here…).  Enjoy.

—————-

So the Poster Formerly Known as the Rube was at his post as a member of the Board of Directors for the Illini Rebounders Association last night.  His post was within the newer, but still hallowed walls of The Ubben!  As I walked into the facility a full 15 minutes before the huddled masses I was met with the usual looks of “hey that guy must be important” that I usually get when I arrive.  Coach Harrington walked up and gave me the usual ribbing about Mrs. Rube being a better basketball player than me (she was the star at the Women’s Luncheon last year as she was the only one who could make layups off the inbounds plays.  Of course they were the same inbounds plays the team runs and they were able to teach a group of women who have never played the intricacies of the plays in 15 minutes….what does that say about our inbounds plays?!?!?!?!)  But I digress, Sean wasn’t allowed to be in the gym as the players came out so he hightailed it back into the offices.

Pentagram: Illini Hoops Off-Season

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.

And now, your Illini Hoops Off-Season Pentagram…

Sparty, J-Ho, Jereme

With the NCAA basketball championship game set to tip off in less than two hours, you’ve probably had your fill of the ‘Michigan State’s performance in Detroit could mean so much to the beleaguered state of MI’ storyline.  Me, I could care less about that aspect of the game; wouldn’t matter to me if Michigan were the wealthiest most carefree state in the union – I’d still be pulling for Sparty tonight.  Why you ask?

Something about the two uncalled charges on Sean May in the first half back in 2005 continues to make me a little ill when I see powder blue.  I’m kind of like that Cop in the F*#$ing Nike commercials.  I’ll be bitter about that game for all time.

Watching of the Hoops

A long, long, long, weekend of watching Hoops:  the NCAA tourney, the Illinois State High School Finals.  In the Big Dance I have 12 of 16 teams remaining, and all my Final Four.  Didn’t do a particularly good job picking the upsets, and I overestimated the power of the Big 10 (as usual).  See, I drank the ‘we play defense in the Big 10′ kool aid, and it turns out the good teams from other schools play some D too.  Also, a lot of these teams have playmakers.  You know, guys who can do stuff of the dribble…

Which brings me to the Illinois High School 3A and 4A finals.  In 3A, Champaign Centennial looked very much like a well-coached team with good athletes and two very good playmakers in Kinney and Rice.  If the Illini were where they need to be in terms of talent, maybe they could run motion like Centennial, and if I were Bruce Weber, I’d offer Rayvonte Rice a scholarship right now.  Rice has the body and mentality of a linebacker and the skills of a 2-guard.  I was glad to see the downstate boys win.  In 4A, the games were a lot more frantic and a lot less disciplined.  In the end Whitney Young won.  Not coincidentally, they seemed to be the the best coached fundamentally sound team.  Waukegan, with Illini recruit Jereme Richmond played Arkansas style with little regard for running any kind of offense.  In fact, in the 4th quarter, they flashed the stats and Waukegan only had 5 assists.  5 assists. It was one pass and shoot it, and Richmond, their biggest and most effective player, looked frustrated.  He needed the ball in the post at least 12 to 15 times.  Instead he seemed content to make moves from the wing.  The good news is Jereme is the kind of get-your-shot athlete Illinois sorely needs; the bad news is, he has another year of high school.

Pentagram: ILL v. WKU

Admit it, Illini Nation: you just didn’t think this would happen.  Why didn’t you?  Because even in the face of all the evidence, you refused to accept just how integral Chester Frazier was to this year’s Illinois team.  You let yourself forget that based on the talent level and the respective skills of the players, this team has overachieved all year.

Does that make us feel any better?  Hell, no.  I’m angry that Coach didn’t have the guys more ready to play.  I’m disappointed that he didn’t develop the bench better to shore up some of the shortcomings.  I can’t understand how the players come out so flat and continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

That said, and despite losing 4 of their last 5, I enjoyed this team’s efforts this year.  I thought these Illini would struggle to make 20 wins and the NIT.  And I truly believe (as stated by my rube brother) that if Chester Frazier plays, we beat WKU by 10 and are looking at beating Gonzaga and a chance to get pummeled by the Tarheels…  Anywho, 5 points to your final Illini bball game pentagram: