I haven't gone anywhere. 

 

A lot of teams are overrated right now, and I happen to think Illinois is one of them. They're really only consistently getting contributions from Brown and Augustine, which probably won't be enough in conference play. Someone else is going to have to step up, like maybe Smith playing a bigger role or McBride or Randle stepping up.

 

Michigan State has a few very good players, but they aren't all that deep. They've got enough talent to beat a lot of teams, including the Illini. However, if one of the big 3 for MSU has an off-night, they can be beat, and Illinois can be tough if they're hitting their outside shots. It should be an interesting game.

It's all about the defense with Illinois.

 

They can win games with Augustine and Brown being the only main contributors with the defense they play.

It's all about the defense with Illinois.

 

They can win games with Augustine and Brown being the only main contributors with the defense they play.

 

They're still going to have to score a decent number of points to beat the better teams in the conference, probably at least in the high 60's, more likely in the 70's. The only team in the conference averaging under 67 a game is NU, and some of that can be attributed to their offensive style. You can't count on holding teams under 60 every night, that won't work against better teams. Even assuming Dee and Augustine hit their averages regularly, that means they have to get 30-40 points per game from everyone else. They're only averaging about 75 points per game even with all of the cupcakes on their schedule, and who knows whether they can keep that rate up or not. They had some close calls in their games where they struggled to score, and not everyone is a horrible shooting team like Georgetown or UNC. This is a team that was successful largely because they had so many scoring options last year. They had 4 players well into double figures in points last year and Augustine was right around 10 a game. Suddenly they're down to 3 double-figure scorers, and Smith can be above or below that depending on what kind of night he has. It's harder to compensate for off-nights when you rely so heavily on two guys.

 

They'll beat up on the bottom half of the league, but if they want more than a 4-5 seed, they'll have to win at least 2 out of 3 against the likes of MSU, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan. We'll see what happens. It's hard to judge teams at this point of the year because many of them don't face the most daunting schedule, the Illini included. However, even looking at the games they played I think they have to step it up a bit if they want to have a good year.

 

Sorry to sound so glum. If it makes you feel any better, this is my attitude towards pretty much everyone but about 10 teams.

Edited January 5, 200620 yr by ZoomSlowik

wow, Illinois is a 7 point favorite. I would have expected 3-4.

Yeah, i think that line is way too high. Most of it has to be due to homecourt, that's probably worth 3 or 4 points right there, in Vegas' mind

Burn the Spartans!!

Wow, Nova and Louisville suddenly turned into a game again.

ESPN is getting too extravagant with their team abbreviations....

 

Nova vs. L'Ville?

 

Just go Nova vs. Lou

If we only shoot 60% from the line tonight, we'll lose. This is what worries me tonight in what figures to be a physical game with a lot of foul calls down low.

Good deal. Steve Lavin's not in studio right now. I think we get the awesome B10 ESPN broadcasting duo of Lavin/Musburger for the Spartans-Illini game.

On the Air

Television

ESPN2: Brent Musburger, play-by-play; Steve Lavin, expert analyst; Erin Andrews, sideline reporter.

Finally! The Big 10 schedule is upon us. We will soon learn just how good the Illini are.

On the Air

Television

ESPN2: Brent Musburger, play-by-play; Steve Lavin, expert analyst; Erin Andrews, sideline reporter.

 

Erin Andrews. This is the best broadcasting trio ever.

Erin Andrews.  This is the best broadcasting trio ever.

Sam Ryan > Erin Andrews

Sam Ryan > Erin Andrews

Incorrect.

No sir.

Alright, i'm off to the game. Let's do this Illini.

I'd watch Cal State Poly play IPFW if Erin Andrews was the sideline reporter.

ILL

ILL

BOO

BOO

BOO

AAAHHHHHHHHHH

ILL

 

 

ILL

BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE

Found this as I was googling Erin earlier:

 

http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=294

Look, it's Superman....