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

What's the word on Roberson? I never heard and he looked a bit sluggish to me.
 
Daaah said:
Thanks for the insight Illinii fans. One question. Do you run a zone d?
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From time to time.

Weber hated the zone and never implemented it... we generally play opportunistic man defense, and do a pretty good job forcing turnovers, but we will likely fall back into a zone a couple times in the game.
 
Digger Phelps picks CU, Bilas Illinois "if they shoot well", "Boyle an outstanding coach he'll have them prepared to play defense" Greenberg picks CU.
 
Illini2002 said:
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
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I couldn't agree more with this assessment of the Illini. This team is woefully short of frontline players. Egwu has improved during the course of the season, but isn't a physical player. Griffey has size but avoids contact like the plague. He can, get hot from 3-pt range however. Our soph pt guard Abrams is learning the position and can get out of control at times. He does drive to the basket fairly well however. If either Paul or Richardson get hot from outside, this team can beat anybody.

What has made this team a NCAA tournament team is coach John Groce. He took this same team (minus Myers Leonard) and rebuilt their confidence. A fabulous coach.
 
Although Brandon Paul is probably their best player, Illinois' success seems to go largely hand in hand with how well Tyler Griffey plays. If he's on, they win more often than not. Egwu - Egnu? whatever... is a big body but not much of a scoring threat. They have a number of guys in the 6'3 " to 6'4" range who are great athletes, but only good basketball players.
 
2 of the 3 ESPN analysts picked us over the Illini.
 
Hank said:
I think it's funny how both Buff fans and Illini fans like their draw. :lol:
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Neither fan base knows a thing about the opposing team, and both teams have laid some eggs. Both fanbases should happy about their draw.

Interested in seeing how this works out.
 
Orr said:
Neither fan base knows a thing about the opposing team, and both teams have laid some eggs. Both fanbases should happy about their draw.

Interested in seeing how this works out.
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Exactly, why in the hell would our fan base want to watch an Illinois game - and vice versa.
 
GoonieBuff said:
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.
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Generally we think of ourselves as the best program in the nation to have not won a national title. Buuuutt... we have 2 tournament wins and only 4 appearances in the last 7 years, this all after we had a run of I think 4 Big Ten titles, couple conference tournament titles, a national runner-up and an elite 8 appearance in a 5-6 year span.

I think fans are upset we aren't where we think we should be, but generally we realize that this team is what it is. Mostly I think Groce has done a good job, although Weber still has some fans in our midst.

We have some good recruits coming in, but lose a lot of our team next year... this senior class has battled a lot of BS and I think it would be fantastic if they went out getting us back into the Sweet 16... obviously we have a couple walls to go through to get there.
 
ijka said:
Generally we think of ourselves as the best program in the nation to have not won a national title. Buuuutt... we have 2 tournament wins and only 4 appearances in the last 7 years, this all after we had a run of I think 4 Big Ten titles, couple conference tournament titles, a national runner-up and an elite 8 appearance in a 5-6 year span.

I think fans are upset we aren't where we think we should be, but generally we realize that this team is what it is. Mostly I think Groce has done a good job, although Weber still has some fans in our midst.

We have some good recruits coming in, but lose a lot of our team next year... this senior class has battled a lot of BS and I think it would be fantastic if they went out getting us back into the Sweet 16... obviously we have a couple walls to go through to get there.
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I'd argue Virginia with their Ralph Sampson teams. You have a nice tradition, though. Champaign is kinda "meh" from my brief passing through, but we rep Boulder, so...
 
CVilleBuff said:
Digger Phelps picks CU, Bilas Illinois "if they shoot well", "Boyle an outstanding coach he'll have them prepared to play defense" Greenberg picks CU.
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Digger also misprounced Dre's last name (with a long "O" ... no shame there, a lot of people do, including me until I learned better) ... and called the Mayor "Spencer Dinwiddle. :lol:
 
ijka said:
Generally we think of ourselves as the best program in the nation to have not won a national title.
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I think that's fair. Weber making the final with Self's players was probably not a good thing for your program in the long run.
 
thomash said:
Yeah...but we also lost, at home, to Northwestern by 14. And barely beat Nebraska and Penn St. at home late in the season.
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Sounds a lot like our season. :huh:

Should be a an interesting game between two teams with similar resumes. Stick around all of you ... let's have a fun (if long) week.*


* see dio ... I can be nice when I want to. :nod:
 
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Big ten has 4 teams in the top ten. Yes, we were beat up but looking back at your selection thread, seems like you're just going to walk over us. Big Ten might be an eye opener.
 
thomash said:
Most intelligent Illinois fans were figuring on a 8 or 9 seed. Only the ones with a lighter in one hand and a bong in the other thought we'd get a 7 seed.
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Yes, think both sets of fans are very happy to have gotten off the 8/9 line. We'll gladly take a 10 over that.
 
Enjoyed the short visit. Got to go...The Walking Dead in 15 minutes. Which, by the way, is what the Illinois team was referred to as last year under Bruce Weber.
 
mdonsbach said:
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.
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Thanks. Nice post... I'll try to reciprocate a bit.

Starters:

Andre (Dre) Roberson. Defensive player of the year in the Pac-12. Second in the nation in rebounding at 11.3 per game (only .1 below the leader, a guy from Siena). Junior, but most likely headed for the NBA after this season, so he may be playing for his legacy in this tourney. We had a scare with him a week or so ago when it came out that he was suffering from a virus that kept him out of the last 2 regular season games. It was initially identified as mono, and the thought was that he was done for the year. Thankfully that wasn't the case. He isn't a great offensive player, but can pop out and hit a 3 and gets a fair number of points owning the offensive boards. Dre is the guy Tad Boyle uses to shut down the other teams #1 offensive threat. It will be interesting to see how that works, given that all of Illinois' threats are significantly smaller than him. But Dre is more than capable of guarding guys on the perimeter. It's a strength of his, in fact...

Spencer (The Mayor) Dinwiddie. Our other standout. Sophomore who may be looking at an NBA early entry in another year. 6'6" guard who loves to slash to the rim, but can also score from the perimeter and handle the ball. Leading scorer and leading FT shooter on the team. Looks like he should have at least a couple inches height advantage on anybody in the Illini backcourt. Also rocks the coolest mustache in college sports.

Josh (Jelly) Scott. Freshman C. 6'10" Skilled player, but still maturing physically. Probably wore down some as the conference season went on, then missed several games with a concussion after being cheap shotted with an elbow by an Arizona State player (no foul was called on the play, as Pac 12 officials suck beyond belief. And yes, I am still bitter, thank you for noticing) When Scott is on his game, he is a skilled big man. Those times have been hit and miss late in the season, though...

Xavier (X) Johnson. Freshman F. 6'6" Skilled, athletic small F type. On an opposite trajectory from Scott, as he has been getting better as the year goes on. Averaging about 14 points and 5.5 boards per game the last 5 games, including 22 points in a blowout win over Oregon in the next to last regular season game. Some here will tell you he can only play below the rim, that will be a sign that you should ignore those people, as they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Askia (Ski) Booker. Sophomore PG. 6'1". Definitely the most polarizing Buffs player around these parts. Very quick, he can be disruptive defensively. Although he's the PG, Dinwiddie probably tends to control the ball more than Ski. Offensively, Ski is, well Ski is Ski. He makes some decisions that are utterly incomprehensible. Takes some shots that defy explanation. And to be kind is a streaky shooter who has been on a bad streak most of the season. When he gets hot, as he did in the dance last year, he is a true weapon. At this point we're all praying that kind of run is coming. If not, he is still an asset defensively for the Buffs. Probably sees a lot of Abrams, I'm guessing.


Reserves:

Sabatino Chen. The only senior on the team, 6'4" G, plays about as many minutes as many of the starters as the sixth man off the bench. Not a big scoring threat, although he can hit the occasional 3 (including a game winner in Tucson that was waived off by the incompetent boobs the Pac 12 hires as officials, costing the Buffs a top 4 finish in the Pac 12 and a road win at Tucson. And yes, I am also still bitter about that...) Mostly brings energy and hustle more than pure skill. Also possesses the single greatest head of hair in college basketball.

Shane Harris-Tunks. 6'11" C. Australian. He's a big body in the paint. Went down with an apparent concussion in the Pac 12 tourney, so unclear if he'll be playing or not. As for his skill set, well, did I mention how big he is?

Jeremy Adams. 6'5" G/F. Was a highly touted transfer when he came to Boulder before last season, but has gone through several health and injury problems and hasn't shown the offensive game expected. But has turned out to be a plus defender with the ability to hit an occasional shot. Has probably been playing his best basketball since he came to Boulder the last few weeks...

Xavier Talton/Eli Stalzer. The backup PGs. Both true freshman, both have seen limited minutes. Talton has been the one seeing more time recently. Looks to have some promise for the future, but for now he's really still learning how the game works at this level. With 3 talented guards for Illinois to chase around, it may turn out that he gets a few extra minutes just to stretch out the minutes for the rest of the backcourt.

Ben Mills. 7'0" Junior C. The human victory cigar. If he comes in, one fanbase or the other will probably be very happy. Hopefully it's us....
 
I'm sure this has already been mentioned, but have to love the rebounding edge we will likely have in this game. I like CU's chances if they shoot a decent percentage.
 
I honestly think it will be a good game. I haven't heard anything about you guys, but snippets. We are hot and cold. When we are hot, we can beat anyone... when cold... we fall apart. Not sure if that says anything.
 
So can you only buy the weekend pass for the tickets? its $220 which is steep. Can you not just buy an individual game?
 
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