2007-2008 ILLINI Basketball

[CEValkyrie]

Stayed up late last night watching IL vs Arizona St and the battle against Duke tonight. We are one tough ass team and beat the hell outta Duke.

This team is going to be fun to watch. They are 1 scoring guard away from being one of the top teams in the country. Too bad Quinton Watkins failed to make the grades.

Tonight the Illini got off to another hot start. Illinois is super quick and strong. Duke could not defend them and they had to switch to a zone. We however went stone cold. We dominated Duke on the Boards 38 to 28. 18 offensive boards compared to Duke's 5. This team is super young with only 2 seniors. Webber will have this team playing good basketball by the end of the year. He develpos young talent and this will be 9 straight NCAA trips.

They showed an interesting stat tonight on espn. Duke, Kansas, & IL were tied going into tonight with the most wins since the 2004 season. 112.

[skipache]

Kansas rocks...in general

[Mike S]

Only 32% shooting against Duke (yikes!) is gonna have to improve.

I cant wait for the season to get going.  I'll be at the ILL-AZ game at the United Center (Dec 7 I think).

[CEValkyrie]

Kansas rocks...in general

Kuck Fansas and Bill Self!

[ChiBlender36]

I dunno if you can go out and say that they dominated duke...b/c from what I saw Gerald Henderson tore them a new one...the Illini need to work on their team defense.  They are very good and will be in the tourney, but they're not in the class of UNC, UCLA, Duke and the other powers...but a solid team that works damn hard

[CEValkyrie]

I dunno if you can go out and say that they dominated duke...b/c from what I saw Gerald Henderson tore them a new one...the Illini need to work on their team defense.  They are very good and will be in the tourney, but they're not in the class of UNC, UCLA, Duke and the other powers...but a solid team that works damn hard

Illinois dominated the offensive and defensive boards against Duke. That is a promising sign. 18 offensive rebounds for IL. If you can dominate the defensive glass and get 2nd chances you have a good shot at winning a lot of games. Illinois defense is very sound and one of the better in the nation. Duke should and did win that game. We had some severe matchup problems when Randle and Pruitt got into foul trouble. Dukes 4 out offense with all american guards hurt us badly.

I can promise you this. Bruce Webber is one of the best coaches in the nation. He develops his talent and he gets his players to play hard. This is a young and super athletic team. I really thought this team was going to be bad going into the year. After seeing the athletes and depth, we have a shot to win the Big 10. The Big 10 is a street brawl every night. We got some sever brawlers this year!

[ChiBlender36]

definately, rebounding and physical play will fuel you guys this year...good luck in the Big 10, you should be just fine come March.  The only thing that bugs me about the Illini is their recruiting class...i like Bruce and his coaching, but the recruiting was a tad weak this year...haven't checked but hopefully he can get some local chi-town talent inked for the upcoming season

[CEValkyrie]

The only thing that bugs me about the Illini is their recruiting class...i like Bruce and his coaching, but the recruiting was a tad weak this year...haven't checked but hopefully he can get some local chi-town talent inked for the upcoming season

There is nothing Bruce Webber can do about Eric Gordon leaving to play at IU. With Davis leaving and Sampson making his illegal phone calls, what can you do?

Watkins, the top recruit for IL, failed to make the grade. He was a 5 star blue chipper.

This might help us reload.
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=uwire-basketballrecruitscommitto&prov=uwire&type=lgns

[Dan Michler]

Very hurtful loss today after being up double digits in the 2nd half.  Pruitt had one of his best games.  Just have to make shots.  Chester Frazier is a good ballhandler, but when do you ever see him penetrate or create something off the dribble?  Bruce should get him to be alot more aggressive.