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Quick Facts
-Established in 1867
-32,281 undergraduate students
-Located in Urbana & Champaign
-Main colors-Illinois blue/Illinois orange
-2012/2013 results: 23-12
-Steve Stricker (PGA pro) attended
-Men's basketball introduced in 1905-06
-National runner up in 2005
-2 BIG titles in 2003, 2005
-82-83 against Indiana all time
-29-50 at Assembly Hall
Results Thus Far (13-7/2-5)
Notable Wins
@ UNLV 61-59
@ Mizzou (St. Louis) 65-64
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| Meet John Groce…shouldn't be a new face to anyone |
Notable Losses
@ Northwestern 49-43
Purdue 66-58
@ Ohio State 62-55
PPG-68.6 (229)
Avg. Scoring Margin- +5 (89)
APG-10.3 (310)
RPG-36.1 (119)
Pts. Against-63.6 (30)
Fouls per game-17.1 (32)
Category Leaders
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| The transfer from Drake leads the Illini in scoring this season |
G #24 Rayvonte Rice-16.6
G #13 Tracy Abrams 12.6
Rebounds
F #33 Jon Ekey-6.9
G #24 Rayvonte Rice-5.7
Assists
G #13 Tracy Abrams-3.4
G #1 Jaylon Tate-2.3
Ah, yet another defensively-minded team…not to mention that John Groce practically plays defense for them as one of the most animated coaches in NCAA ball. As I was writing, I noticed how similar a style Northwestern plays, except Illinois has much better players and a seemingly bigger talent pool to choose from. IU currently sits at #67 in the KenPom ratings (higher than Illinois) but our RPI is at #67 in the nation. Needless to say, the season is definitely at a crossroads and we need a win at home more than ever. A scary stat for us is the assist/turnover ratio-->0.752…which, by the way, is 317th in the nation. Our offense is too stagnant at times and we MUST move the ball against Illinois on Sunday. If we fail to set up a good half court offense and penetrate a patient defense then we could see shades of Northwestern. However, I see us playing a much better came this time around, not to mention there will be NO hangover effect from a huge win. I know that's a SORRY excuse but with young guys it can't be overlooked. I'm begging you Tom…go to Youtube or something and draw up any sort of offense because that would be much better and more efficient than what we run right now against these types of teams. Get the ball to Noah and push back out if necessary. If Yogi starts to shoot well again that could give us some cushion for inevitable tough spells throughout games. So, let's rally around the guys and try to make a push into the tournament. Not getting there after being #1 in the nation last year is unacceptable in my eyes. Hangover effect doesn't apply that scenario…
Score prediction: IU-70 UI-62
Most Valuable Player prediction- Stanford Robinson
"Knight gave IU the rings. IU gave him the finger." -Don Pence
Drink of choice
"Knight gave IU the rings. IU gave him the finger." -Don Pence
Drink of choice
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| Could it possibly get any colder…? |
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