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Colorado v Illinois - 2013 NCAA Tournament First Round Game Thread 3/22 2.40pm MT

DallasBuff said:
true..but losses to Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana....:lol:
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Streaky team. Some very solid wins, also got killed by Northwestern at home. Beat Gardner-Webb by 1. Hawaii in OT. Lost to Purdue.


They beat Minnesota at the last second in their first game in the B1G. These guys are quite beatable.
 
Colorado v Illinois - 2013 NCAA Tournament First Round Game Thread

Spiff ready to make the roadie. What's the best way to get tix?
 
Well, I was all up on Gchat with some people living in Big Ten country (one a Spartan, another a Badger and another a Wolverine) and this was their reaction when Colorado popped up as playing the Ilini--they don't seem too high on their Big Ten brothers...:thumbsup: :

J: yeaaaaaa
oh boyyyy
L: YEAAAAA
N: wah wah we wahh
J: illinois sucks you got this
N: yeah
agreed
illinois will either steamroll you by 25 or lose to you by 25
3:24 PM there will be no in between
me: let's do it!!!!!
L: you can easily beat illinois
 
We can totally win!

Daaah said:
Their board does not allow immediate registration. It requires approval. WTF?
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They play a really slow game, and go inside all the time. Last year, they were very offense driven, but they got a new coach this year, and he's slowed things down a bit, focusing on defense. McLaurin is their best senior. He doesn't put up a lot of numbers but he opens the lane really well. As long as we focus on him, I think we can pull through.
 
Stopping by and thought I'd give you guys a little information about Illinois. We are a very streaky team that relies heavily on perimeter play. Brandon Paul is a multidimensional scorer. Good 3 pt shooter, and can get by pretty much and defender on the drive when he wants to. Scored 43 against Ohio state. 35 at gonzaga. Can become passive. Dj Richardson is a 3pt threat. Has added a drive to the rim this year so you can't sit on the three. Our point guard Tracey Abrams is hit or miss. Capable of carrying the team, but makes poor decisions. Can't shoot the three reliably, likes to get the rim. He's a scorer not a distributor. For the most part we play a stretch 4. Griffey and Henry can both hit the 3, neither is a back to the basket guy. Egwu at the 5 is very athletic but also not a back to the basket guy. We run a lot of pick and pop/roll for the 4. This team goes the way of their defense. If they are playing with intensity on that end they can beat anyone, see Indiana, gonzaga. You can count on Brandon Paul and dj Richardson putting up big games but we need a third player to step up. In games where Abrams or Griffey have scored we have been very tough. Games in which they disappear we end up losing to the likes of northwestern or PurduePurdue
 
Hey guys Illini fan here. I figure I can spend the next couple of days debating with you all. Hope to see a few of you over at www.illinoisloyalty.com as well. We are always up for some good sparring. I'll tell you a little bit about our team.

Senior heavy team with 4 seniors and a RS-JR that all play heavy minutes. If you do some digging we were the team that imploded last year under then last season head coach Bruce Weber. Team just completely gave up on him. Essentially the same crew back minus lottery pick center Meyers Leonard so for use to get the the tourney with the same personnel minus our best player says alot about the style of play and our coaching staff. Player by player breakdowns as I see them:

Brandon Paul - SR. 6'3" SG/PG. He is a shooting guard through and through but has had to take over spot PG duty with us only having one semi-true PG on the team(Abrams). Paul is one of those love to hate him type of guys. He put 43 on Ohio State last year and 35 at Gonzaga this year. There are times he can completely take over games and others where you wonder how in the world did he ever get a D1 scholly. He is a streaky shooter from outside and drives alot. Alot of the times he is driving to get the foul and not make the shot which if he doesn't get the foul makes him look like he is flailing about. Has okay handles but has been known to have the ball slip through his hands. If Paul is on he can carry this team to beat anyone as witnesed by the Gonzaga and OSU games. Has long arms and when he wants to can play some great defense.

DJ Richardson SR 6'2" SG. He would be are defacto 3 point specialist. Won Big Ten Freshman of the year honors and hasn't really progress his SO and JR years. This year with a new system he has tentatively started to drive a bit more. Our best FT shooter and the defensive leader on the team. DJ is what you would call solid. Nothing flashy just quitely gets his job done.

Tracy Abrams SO 6'0" PG. We call him the bulldog. Dude is tough as nails. Scrappy and gets the most out of who he is. Isn't a true PG but the closest thing we have. Will drive if the lane allows. Spotty three point shooter. We definately want to see him driving and dishing more than shooting. Was the team MVP as a freshman last year so that says alot about him and the team from last year.

Tyler Griffy SR 6'8" PF. He is John Groce's "strech" 4 guy. He is our big man who can pick and pop it for 3. Tyler is pretty quite and reserved but has slowly grown out of his shell this year and toughened up a bit. When his shot is going it is pure. He did have a pretty rough stretch of like 7 games or so where he didn't hit a 3 in big ten play. Does not really have a post up game and can at times be a defensive liablity.

Nnanna Egwu SO 6'11" C. Hardest worker on the team. Only been playing organized ball for 6 years or so and has progressed well over the season. He has been prone to get in foul trouble and can get pushed around on the block against stronger guys. Has above average blocking ability and runs the floor like a deer. He is definately more of a finesse center than a banger down low but it isn't from lack of trying. You watch he will get one inbounds violation during the game for stepping over the out of bounds like defending the play.

Reserves:

Sam "McLovin" McClaurin GR 6'8" PF. He is our 5th year grad player from Coastal Carolina. Would probably not be in the tourney without him. He doesn't score alot but does alot of little things well. Rebounds, sets screens, takes charges, blocks out. He is your typical blue collar guy doing the dirty work. Has the only post game but we rarely give the ball to him.

Joe #JoeTales Bertrand RS-JR 6'5" WG. Athletic freak of nature. Can get up with the best of them. Has the best mid-range floater I have ever seen. Quite guy unfortunately because if he got a mean streak in him could carry us sometimes. Not the greatest handle but can drive and Eurostep quite well. Went 9-9 playing Mizzou last year and single handily kept us in that game. I encourage you to go to twitter and search #JoeTales made by Brandon Paul. Some pretty funny stuff out there.

Myke Henry SO 6'6" SF/PF. Guy just oozes scoring...averaged like 27/ppg during his senior year of HS. Not afraid to put up the 3 point shot. Can be very smooth around the basket and seems to have a nose to find the ball off the boards. You will find him playing the 4 alot.

Groce has called his style of play "attacking" we don't do it as much as we like...mainly because we don't have a true PG. He gets mad when we don't take good open shots regardless of where it is in the shot clock. Our shooting percentage and 3 PT percentages have dropped off significantly during big ten play. We have real high highs and real low lows. Anything could truly happen.

Any questions please feel free to ask. Go Illini.
 
Hey guys, Illini fan here.

Can't say I really know too much about you right now, but I'll talk a bit about us.

We've had a fairly crazy season... had a really awful streak in January where we kept losing, we were down 10 to Indiana with under 4 to go staring 2-8 in the Big Ten in the face, then stormed back, won on a last second shot, and won 5 in a row before finishing 1-3 in the league.

We thumped USC and Butler in Maui (also played Chaminade)... won at Gonzaga (played a fantastic game)... but had a lot of lousy games against middling teams at home in the non-conference slate. We've won 4 games on last second shots, against Gardner-Webb, Hawaii, Indiana, and Minnesota.

I really don't know how to rate us, we have as impressive of a resume as anyone when it comes to big wins (we beat two #1 seeds), but have looked pretty pedestrian at times too.

Groce is our first year coach, after we fired Bruce Weber for incompetence last year (missed tournament 3 of 5 years, of course Weber won the Big 12 regular season title at K-State this year). He has a strong reputation as a tournament coach, and took Ohio U to the Sweet 16 last year. We could come out flat, not hit a shot, and lose, or we could blow anyone out of the gym.

at 10:00 this morning I said my expectation was that based on Groce's ability to get players up for big games, I think we come out swinging in the first round, and give the 1-3 seed we play in the second round a run for their money.... obviously hope that is the case from our perspective.
 
If we can defend the 3 (which has been a problem at times this year) and get the Mayor to the FT line a lot I like our chances.
 
TheBasedGod said:
Looking at their roster, it seems Ibrahima Dimde could be a big threat to us.
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Well, he's only played 19 minutes all season, so that would be a bit of a surprise.

Like I said earlier, their bigs haven't put up impressive numbers at all. Egwu leads them in rebounding at 4.6 per game. That would be fourth on our team.

They've got a lot of height, but their scoring all comes from the backcourt and their rebounding comes from, well, nobody really. If Dre and X don't get overwhelmed by sheer height, it could be a good matchup for them...
 
Illinois fans are knowledgeable about basketball and Illinois is a basketball school. The fans are overly biased, so expect that. However, Illinois is a great school with intelligent students/alumni. Just remember that every school has its Tinis. I didn't consider going to school there due to Champaign/Urbana being a ****hole.
 
ijka said:
Hey guys, Illini fan here.

Can't say I really know too much about you right now, but I'll talk a bit about us.

We've had a fairly crazy season... had a really awful streak in January where we kept losing, we were down 10 to Indiana with under 4 to go staring 2-8 in the Big Ten in the face, then stormed back, won on a last second shot, and won 5 in a row before finishing 1-3 in the league.

We thumped USC and Butler in Maui (also played Chaminade)... won at Gonzaga (played a fantastic game)... but had a lot of lousy games against middling teams at home in the non-conference slate. We've won 4 games on last second shots, against Gardner-Webb, Hawaii, Indiana, and Minnesota.

I really don't know how to rate us, we have as impressive of a resume as anyone when it comes to big wins (we beat two #1 seeds), but have looked pretty pedestrian at times too.

Groce is our first year coach, after we fired Bruce Weber for incompetence last year (missed tournament 3 of 5 years, of course Weber won the Big 12 regular season title at K-State this year). He has a strong reputation as a tournament coach, and took Ohio U to the Sweet 16 last year. We could come out flat, not hit a shot, and lose, or we could blow anyone out of the gym.

at 10:00 this morning I said my expectation was that based on Groce's ability to get players up for big games, I think we come out swinging in the first round, and give the 1-3 seed we play in the second round a run for their money.... obviously hope that is the case from our perspective.
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We feel the same way. And just as you feel fortunate to be playing CU, we feel fortunate to be playing you. No offense, but give me Illinois in Austin (territory CU is familiar with) over playing North Carolina or something like that any day. Very happy to be a 10 instead of 8/9.
 
I think it's funny how both Buff fans and Illini fans like their draw. :lol:
 
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