Category: College Basketball

Badgers? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badgers!

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, SportsLeave a comment

Illinois is back in sole possession of first place in the Big Ten after handily beating Wisconsin 66-51 last night.  Considering how ridiculously brutal it has been for road teams in the Big Ten so far this season, the Illini victory in Madison puts the team at a distinct advantage over the rest of the conference.  Illinois has the first and, so far, only quality conference road win of anyone in the Big Ten.  While Michigan and Iowa have shown to be adept at defending their respective home courts, they have yet to prove anything on the road.  The Illini have a stronger unit than either of those teams (despite their loss at Iowa), so Dee Brown’s Crew is in a great position.

Two items that I pointed out about the Illini after the Braggin’ Rights Game over a month ago were showcased last night: stifling defense and putrid free throw shooting.  Illinois is as good as any team defensively in the country this year and they completely took Wisconsin out of their comfort zone.  The defensive intensity for the team is so high that the Illini will be in position to win games even when the offense is down.

What continues to worry me, however, is how poorly Illinois performs from the charity stripe.  We’re fortunate that a 9-for-16 free throw shooting performance didn’t bite us against a fundamentally sound Wisconsin team.  If we expect to go anywhere in March, there cannot be these types of lapses at the free throw line.  Until the Illini improve upon this area, we are completely ripe to suffer an unexpected upset.

Still, I’m happy to see Jamar Smith get back into his shooting groove over the past week.  As long as Illinois is able to spread out on offense, we’re going to find good shots both in the post and on the perimeter.  All in all, this was a great win for the Illini over a solid Badger team.  Let’s just hope that we can get sufficient improvement in the free throw area to take this Illinois club to elite status.

Illini Roll Over Pur-don’t and the Over/Under Teams in College Basketball

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, SportsLeave a comment

Three straight Illini victories that didn’t put me into the vicinity of a heart-attack – that’s a cause for celebration!  More importantly, Illinois’ 76-58 win over Purdue on Saturday, coupled with Michigan’s victory over Wisconsin, vaulted the Illini into a 4-way tie for first place in the Big Ten with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa.  Indiana messed up its chance to be part of this discussion by getting thoroughly demolished at previously winless-in-conference Minnesota yesterday.

The way that no one can win a key game on the road in the Big Ten has reached epidemic proportions.  That makes the Illini’s Super Tuesday game at Wisconsin tomorrow night a critical point in the season.  A victory would give Illinois the upperhand in the Big Ten race with a road win at one of the toughest arenas in college basketball, not to mention knocking Wisky out of that first-place tie.  Just as important for Illinois is another signature win that builds the case for at least a #2 seed for the NCAA Tournament.  This is a huge game for the Illini (and for that matter, the Badgers, too).

The Over/Under Teams in College Basketball:

An argument about a team’s rank in the college basketball polls is usually an argument in semantics since it’s a pretty useless indicator of success when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.  However, I’ve got to comment on two egregious mistakes that I hope will be rectified when the new polls come out today as we recognize the most overrated and underrated teams in the nation:

1) Most Overrated Team in the Country – It’s unfathomable to me how Louisville is still in the top 25.  Maybe the nation’s sportswriters and coaches continue to be mesmerized by Rick Pitino’s wardrobe.  Hopefully, in the wake of the Cardinals getting pounded by Rutgers (?!) on Saturday, they’ll stop drinking the Kool-Aid and finally realize what the average college basketball fan has known for weeks: this year’s Louisville team is not only the most overrated team in the country this year, but they are probably one of the most underachieving college basketball teams of all-time.

It’s going to get far worse for Louisville since their remaining Big East road games are at Villanova, Cincinnati, Syracuse, West Virginia, and UConn.  Has there been any preseason national top 5 team in history that ended up not making its own conference tournament, much less the NCAA Tournament?  That’s a very real possibility.  This season has been an awful return to the Big East for Rick Pitino.

2) Most Underrated Team in the Country – This feels as good as a root canal to say this as an Illini man, but even before Iowa handled Indiana and Ohio State in successive victories this past week, the Hawkeyes have deserved some love from the national scene.  In addition to the aforementioned wins from this past week, Iowa has beaten Illinois, N.C. State, and Kentucky.  Sure, the Hawkeyes have suffered a couple of bad losses, but it seems as though the poll voters are as averse to cutting the team some slack for the great wins they’ve had so far as they are to punishing Louisville for their horrible performances this season.  No Big Ten team is looking forward at all to traveling to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the next few weeks while no other team in country is going to want to face this Hawkeye club in March.

Big Ben Wins the Beard Bowl and Other Weekend Sports Tidbits

On By Frank the TankIn Big East, Big Ten, College Basketball, DePaul Blue Demons, Illinois Fighting Illini, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, SportsLeave a comment

Despite the worst two conference championship games in recent memory (although I at least didn’t repeat the debacle known as my divisional playoff predictions), there was a lot going on in the world of sports this past weekend, particularly on the basketball court:

1) AFC Championship Game: Beard Bowl is a Big Ben Beatdown – The Steelers are the gold standard of where the Bears want to be.  Pittsburgh has a stifling defense coupled with a powerful running game, much like the Bears did this past season.  However, as Rick Morrissey aptly pointed out in today’s Chicago Tribune, the biggest reason why the Steelers are heading to Motown while the Bears are staying home is that Ben Roethlisberger can do a whole lot more than just “manage” a game – he brings a ton to the quarterback position in terms of passing accuracy, mobility, and poise.  Plus, Bill Cowher has completely shocked everyone by turning his QB loose and stretching the field out with aggressive passing plays over the last two games.  The Steelers have been completely in rythm on offense.

At the same time, Jesus H. Unabomber, er, I mean Jake Plummer finally showed his true colors and imploded as predicted here and elsewhere.  The interception he threw five seconds after the Broncos got decent field position for the first time all day was about as predictable as Jason going on a killing spree in a Friday the 13th movie.  Plummer’s fantastic beard couldn’t hide the fact that he just isn’t a guy you can depend on in crunch time.

2) NFC Championship Game: Holmgren Climbs Hasselback Mountain – Watching this game was essentially 3 hours of “what if” questions going through my mind, as in, “What if the Bears had double-teamed Steve Smith?”  The Panthers offense was clueless yesterday with the Seahawks draping two or more defenders over Smith the entire game.  Troy Aikman appropriately called the Bears “arrogant” for believing that they could stick to single coverage on Smith last week.  The Seahawks weren’t stupid and cocky on defense regarding the Panther wide receiver and made the needed adjustments, which is why Seattle is headed to their first Super Bowl this season while we here in Chicago continue to buy books about the ’85 Bears.

Meanwhile, Matt Hasselback has come a long way from his “We want the ball and we’re going to score” comment against the Packers after the overtime coinflip in a 2004 playoff game at Lambeau.  This guy looks like a Super Bowl quarterback.  Mike Holmgren has probably cemented his standing as the best teacher of quarterbacks in history, with Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre, and now Hasselback under his belt.

3) Two More Weeks??? – Other than the fact that the games themselves were terrible this year, the worst thing about conference championship weekend is that we all have to wait two friggin’ weeks until the Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl should actually feature a pretty good matchup this year, but I don’t know how many human-interest stories can be milked from the Pittsburgh – Seattle pairing for two whole weeks.

4) Here Comes McBride – Richard McBride, it’s a pleasure to see you again.  Hitting four three-pointers was a very good thing on Saturday.  It was an even better thing to see the Illini notch their first Big Ten road victory, even if it was against Northwestern.  In addition to McBride, Dee Brown and James Augustine got back on track in the victory.  The only thing that troubles me is that Illinois didn’t completely shut the door on the Wildcats in the second half.  Northwestern never really got back into the game, but it’s disheartening to see a 20-plus point lead dwindle to 10-points in a matter of minutes.  We still need to improve on closing out games if we want to win another Big Ten title and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

5) DePaul is Done – Unfortunately, this is probably going to be the last time I write about DePaul in the near future since the Blue Demons have gone in the past week from an NCAA Tournament bubble team to a club that is unlikely to even make the Big East Conference Tournament.  After losing to Providence on Saturday, DePaul has dropped to 1-5 in Big East play and 8-9 overall.  With the toughest games of the season remaining on their schedule (i.e. Georgetown, Villanova, at St. John’s, at Louisville, and Syracuse) the Blue Demons are pretty much out of it when it comes to any type of postseason play.  DePaul freshman forward Wilson Chandler looks like a stud, but the team is at least a year away from making the NCAA Tournament.

6) Kobe’s 81 – On the one hand, Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performance on Sunday evening might be the greatest individual performance in a regular season NBA game ever.  It is certainly a whole lot tougher for a perimeter player such as Kobe to drop that many points compared to a big man like Wilt Chamberlain (whose size compared to the rest of the league was even more of a factor in the NBA of the ’60s).

On the other hand, Kobe’s career seems to be the inverse of Michael Jordan’s and that’s a very bad thing for the Lakers.  The highest individual numbers for Jordan came in the first few seasons of his career – it wasn’t until he figured out that he needed to get the rest of his team involved that he started to win championships.  Kobe found great success as a team player at the beginning of his career in winning three rings with the Lakers.  Now, as Kobe gets older, he seems to be taking more shots and getting higher individual marks even though his team gets worse.

So, as amazing as Kobe’s non-Wilt record 81-point game was last night, the trajectory of his basketball career is headed in the completely wrong direction.

Don’t Know Hoosier Daddy

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, Sports1 Comment

I hate the Hoosiers as much as any team in sports, but there are two important points to think positively about after the Illini’s 64-62 loss at Indiana:

1) No One Can Win Big Ten Road Games That Matter – The Big Ten, year-in and year-out, is the toughest conference in the country partly because every school has an on-campus arena that’s packed on a nightly basis.  Even though the conference has one less member than the ACC, Big 12, and SEC along with four fewer members than the Big East, the Big Ten has led the nation in men’s basketball attendance for 29 straight seasons.  As a result, every team in the Big Ten has struggled on the road.  Illinois has lost at Indiana and Iowa, Michigan State has lost at Illinois and Wisconsin, and Indiana has lost at Michigan State.  Wisconsin sits atop the conference at 4-0 right now, but the Badgers’ only Big Ten road game so far has been a 2-point squeaker past Minnesota (a Gopher team, by the way, that got pummeled at home by Northwestern).  I foresee a more negative outcome for Wisky against Ohio State tonight in Columbus.  The point is that if last night’s game was played in the Assembly Hall in Champaign rather than the Assembly Hall in Bloomington, the Illini would have probably won by 2 points instead of losing by 2 points.  It’s not great that Illinois hasn’t been able to do well on the road, but at least everyone else in the Big Ten is in the same boat.

2) My Schedule is Free for the Rest of the Season – Illini Nation can blame me for the loss.  I was at a work function last night, so I wasn’t able to watch the game.  I’ve missed only two games this season: the Iowa game and yesterday’s Indiana game.  Those happen to be the only two games Illinois has lost this season.  There’s no way that this is a coincidence.  Luckily, there’s also absolutely no way that I’m missing another game for the rest of the year, so we should be fine.

Bears Defense is Gross, Man

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bears, College Basketball, Illinois Fighting Illini, NFL Football, SportsLeave a comment

No Super Bears Super Bowl this season.  The rock of the Bears, the defensive unit, completely failed the team in yesterday’s 29-21 loss to the Carolina Panthers.  It was tough to watch Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith carve up the NFL’s best defense in front of a rabid crowd in Solider Field.  The Bears defensive frontline couldn’t get any pressure on Delhomme whatsoever, which allowed Steve Smith and the Carolina receiving corps get open against our secondary.

I was actually impressed with the Bears offense during the second half of the game.  Rex Grossman struggled for much of the first half, but it seemed like everything started clicking on the Bears’ last drive in the second quarter that resulted in a touchdown.  It would have been nice if the Bears were able to use the running game a little bit more, but I have no qualms about the use of the pass if we’re able to score 21 points.  When we beat Carolina back in November, we were only able to score 13 points using the Kyle Orton management system.

In a chilling twist of fate, Bears fans have the defense to blame for a loss rather than the lack of offense.  21 points should have been plenty for this defense to pull out a victory.  However, the Bears could not get a single key stop.  They were awful at cracking down on the Panthers on third down.  They were awful in terms of getting to the quarterback.  They were awful in covering Steve Smith and the other Panther receivers (I said on Friday stopping Smith wasn’t as important as halting DeShaun Foster, which goes to show you that I’m an idiot).  They were awful in stopping the Carolina running game when it mattered.  Charles “Peanut” Tillman will get a lot of flack for the times he got burned by Steve Smith yesterday, but the entire defensive unit is to blame for the Bears getting eliminated.  The way Carolina converted seemingly every crucial third down play into a first down was pathetic.

This is sad because the NFC was for the Bears’ taking this season.  I doubt they would have done anything against any of the AFC playoff teams in a hypothetical Super Bowl matchup, yet the Panthers and Seahawks were certainly beatable on the NFC side of the bracket.  So, we’ll just have to hope that the Bears continue the upward trajectory next year.  Unlike the 2001 Bears playoff team that was loaded with veterans and subsequently fell off the table in 2002, the current Bears are young and are in better position to string together several winning seasons.  There are a number of changes that we need to make (believe me, I’ll be putting up my thoughts on how the Bears should attack this offseason very soon), but I feel okay about heading into next year.  It certainly helps that all three of the Bears’ NFC North competitors will have new coaches and rebuilding next season, so we’ll at least be the favorite in the division in the short term.

Of course, division championships don’t mean that much to us Bears fans.  We want another Super Bowl victory, and the only way that’s going to happen is if we get great production from both sides of the ball.  It’s unfortunate that yesterday, the defense that we thought we could count on didn’t leave up to its end of the bargain.

Other Weekend Sports Tidbits

Not only did the Bears lose, but I also picked every NFL playoff game incorrectly this weekend.  I’m not sure why I usually put together great fantasy football teams yet this NFL season has been terrible on the prognostication front (in contrast to my mad college football picking skillz).  This is disconcerting since I probably watch more pro football than any other sport – more evidence that I’m an idiot.  The past weekend was a rare instance where I would have done better against the spread (I thought the Steelers would beat the spread but lose straight up).  Anyway, here’s the weekend in review:

1) The Bus With No Brakes – At least the Steelers-Colts game prior to the Bears tilt on Sunday was incredible.  Bill Cowher deserves a lot of credit for letting Ben Roethlisberger loose from the get go.  Everyone was anticipating Pittsburgh to use their standard pound-the-ground attack, but Big Ben came out firing passes to Heinz Ward and Antwaan Randle-El in the first quarter.  Meanwhile, the Steelers defense was able to hold the Colts all-world offense completely down for the first half, which no one has been able to do at all this year.  The rust on Peyton Manning and the rest of the Indianapolis team certainly showed in this game.  By the time the Colts charged back in the fourth quarter (with some big-time help from the officials), it was almost too late.  But then, Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, while trying to run out the clock for the Steelers, fumbled the ball back to Indy in what could have been a sports blunder on par with Bill Buckner if not for a game saving tackle by Big Ben.  The Colts got into position for a certain Mike Vanderjagt field goal to take the game to overtime, but the “idiot kicker” pushed the ball way wide right to instead give us a Scott Norwood-type moment.  A ridiculous finish to an incredible game!  As I said on Friday, I was torn on this game and thought that everyone underestimated the Steelers, but I still believed Indianapolis would pull it out in the end.  Instead, Pittsburgh became the first #6 seed to beat a #1 seed in the NFL playoffs and Peyton Manning is going to continue to get whispers behind his back on how he can’t win the big one.

2) Plummer Pummels Patriots – Well, I was right about not believing the Colts would make the Super Bowl, but I’ll eat crow for saying about 15 times over the past month that the Patriots would be the AFC champions.  I honestly can’t believe how many mistakes the Patriots made (few NFL teams can overcome 5 turnovers).  It’s doubly unfathomable to me that Jake Plummer, looking like a cross between Jesus and the Unabomber with that haircut and beard, didn’t melt down with the exception of one interception.  The sheer field position that was handed over to the Broncos by the Patriots – New England had nearly 140 more total yards than Denver but lost by two touchdowns – cemented the deal here.  I really feel this game was a fluke on par with a low-seeded mid-major upsetting a power program in the NCAA Tournament; if this game were played ten times, I’m positive the Patriots would win nine of those times.  Alas, this was the one instance where Denver got the benefit of all the bounces.  This makes me believe the Broncos are getting killed next week against the Steelers despite the home-field advantage.

3) Hasselback Mountain – The Shaun Alexander concussion for a few moments seemed like the cursed Seahawks’ answer to the Bengals’ Carson Palmer injury (kind of like how Grady Little left in Pedro Martinez about 500 pitches too long so that the Red Sox could keep pace with the Cubs and Steve Bartman in 2003).  However, Matt Hasselback was incredible in overcoming the loss of the NFL Offensive Player of the Year and deftly led Seattle to a solid victory over a pretty good Redskins defense.  As I said on Friday, my head was saying the Seahawks would win while my gut was going with the Redskins – I trusted my gut, which makes me an idiot today.  At this point, I’ve got to rank Hasselback as the best quarterback left in the playoffs (Big Ben Roethlisberger and Jake Delhomme have got skills, but Hasselback is the most polished).  The early feeling here is that the Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl, though I might change my mind by the end of the week.

4) Illini Muck Up Fichigan – The Illini pulled out a close victory over Michigan on Saturday with our seniors Dee Brown and James Augustine carrying the load (by the way, what’s up with the Big Ten scheduling the Illinois-Michigan game, last week’s Michigan State-Wisconsin matchup and yesterday’s double-overtime Michigan State-Ohio State battle in the same time slots as the NFL Playoffs?  Not very cool for this NFL/Big Ten nut).  The second half play for Illinois, however, was suspect and we were fortunate to overcome our foul troubles.  The early conference schedule doesn’t let up for the Illini – next up is a Super Tuesday game at Indiana.  Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt can’t be playing with 4 fouls in the second half or else Marco Killingsworth is going to run all over us.  Still, I’m comfortable with our chances as long as Mike Davis is patrolling the Hoosier sidelines.

Anyway, I’m now going to crawl into a hole for the next couple of days and emerge with a Jake Plummer beard to wallow in my Bears misery.  At least the Packers still suck.

Land-o-Links – 1/13/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Big East, College Basketball, DePaul Blue Demons, Land-o-Links, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, Sports2 Comments

DePaul played a spirited game against Pittsburgh last night in their first “true” Big East game (the first two conference games were against long-time rivals Cincinnati and Notre Dame), but a fast start for the Blue Demons petered out in the second half and they ended up losing 73-65.  Still, DePaul actually looked pretty good on the road against one of the last three unbeaten teams in college basketball.

Also, Kobe Bryant ended up on the winning end in his matchup against LeBron James last night, but LeBron showed me why he gets paid $100 million by Nike.  With 5 seconds to go in the first half, Drew Gooden of the Cavs stole the ball from the Lakers and dribbled down the court to his own baseline.  At the last moment, he passed the ball back to LeBron, who seriously launched himself from the free throw line and posterized my poor fellow Illini brother Brian Cook with such a powerful tomahawk slam that I, at home in my pajamas beginning to doze off while channel surfing as my wife and cat were sleeping next to me on the couch, jumped out of my seat and yelled, “Wow!”  What makes LeBron special is that when Gooden stole that ball with 5 seconds left (remember, LeBron didn’t even have the ball in his hands at that point), everyone watching was anticipating something spectacular and Lebron subsequently delivered it on demand.  There’s only one other athlete I’ve ever seen deliver such combination of brilliance, tenacity, and power on demand every single day – Michael Jordan.

Anyway, here are the links for today:

1) Blackhawks Have Rare Televised Home Game – Unfrozen Caveman Hockey Team Owner: “I know nothing of your ‘television’ or the ‘fan base’ that you speak of.”

2) The Wu is Back – Following on the heels of the launch of his doll announced in Land-o-Links on Monday, Ghostface is now “smoke free” (just in time for Chicago’s new smoking ban), plus has a new album and a Wu-Tang Clan reunion tour lined up.

3) White Like Larry – Spin/Esquire/ESPN.com writer Chuck Klosterman writes a fantastic piece that brings up unique points on racial stereotyping of athletes, including the revealing of Malcom Gladwell’s (author of “The Tipping Point” and “Blink”) “White Gunner Theory.”  How many times do we all think the way that Klosterman and Gladwell describe here?

4) Maryland Senate Overrides Veto on ‘Wal-Mart Bill’ – I know a lot of my readership doesn’t have much love for Wal-Mart, but this is populism run amok.

And finally…

5) New Jersey Selects New Slogan (submitted by Matt) – In honor of my sister who’s attending grad school at Montclair State University.  Matt’s comment is appropriate: “Story is – eh, whatever.  Subhead is outstanding.”

 

Ugly Illini and Other Weekend Sports Tidbits

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, NFL Football, Sports1 Comment

The DePaul post was a long time coming and, as a result, long-winded, so here are my other thoughts from the weekend in sports in a separate section:

1) Got Offense? Not These Illini – The side benefit from attending the DePaul-Notre Dame game on Saturday was that my TV was spared from random objects being punched through the screen since I couldn’t watch the Illinois-Iowa game.  Whether we can have consistent offensive output when Dee Brown isn’t playing well is a major concern.  However, I must say that this had all the trappings of a trap game for the Illini.  We just came off an emotional and huge win against highly ranked Michigan State and were going on the road to face a pretty good team that was a lot more pumped-up to play us than we were to play them.  I’m confident Bruce Weber will right the ship in time for next Saturday’s game against (Muck) Fichigan.

2) Wisky’s Back, Tell a Friend – Every year, college basketball prognosticators talk about how many starters Wisconsin lost and that the Badgers will be going through a rebuilding phase.  And then every year, Wisconsin spanks everyone who comes into the Kohl Center and they end up as one of the top two or three teams in the Big Ten.  So, the Badger beating of the Spartans on Sunday shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.  Honestly, I’ve got to give Wisky coach Bo Ryan mad props – I can’t think of another coach in the country who has such a finely tuned system where he can drop in 4 new starters who were barely All-Wisconsin out of high school much less McDonald’s All-Americans and continue to contend for the Big Ten title.  Wisconsin has a great coach and a great program.

3) NFC Wild Card Weekend – I was really hoping that the Bears would draw Tampa Bay for next weekend’s second round match-up, but the Redskins were able to take advantage of the enigma known as Chris Simms first.  How else could Washington have possibly won with 120 total yards of offense (pencil in a Seattle victory next week)?  So, the Bears are getting a rematch with a Carolina team that currently has an offense that’s humming.  Plus, the Panther defense smothered the Giants’ Eli Manning, who is a seasoned veteran at QB compared to Rex Grossman (there are few things more satisfying in sports than watching New Yorkers boo their own team for 3 quarters – it was like watching a Knicks game).  Still, we killed this team back in November and we’re going to have a completely healthy defense with Mike Brown back in the fold.  I love our chances to advance in the playoffs for the first time since Da Coach was at the helm.  I’m seriously giddy!

4) AFC Wild Card Weekend – As I stated three weeks ago, the Patriots are the team to beat in the AFC.  I don’t care if next week’s game is in the thin air of Denver; if you had to bet your life savings on a team, are you going to take a club led by Tom Brady or one commanded by Jake Plummer?  Exactly.  On the other side of the bracket, it was a shame that Carson Palmer’s injury killed Cincinnati against the Steelers on Sunday, but I was silently hoping that Jon Kitna would somehow also get knocked out so I could once again see Craig Krenzel in an NFL game without a Bears uniform.  I’m up in the air on the Colts-Steelers game next week (I think the power running game of Pittsburgh can really take control of the tempo on the speed-oriented Indy defense), although it ultimately won’t matter since I’m sticking by my prediction three weeks ago that the Pats will be the AFC Super Bowl rep again.

5) Bulls Out of Funk – The Bulls finally came back this weekend with a 2-game winning streak, although Sam Smith from the Tribune is preaching to the choir here when he says we have too many guards and should trade one of them, preferably Chris Duhon as opposed to the more oft-mentioned Ben Gordon, for a big man.

Demons Dog the Irish

On By Frank the TankIn Big East, College Basketball, DePaul Blue Demons, Sports3 Comments

When it comes to college sports, I’m an Illini fanatic first and foremost, which is reflected in my blog.  However, in the wake of my attending DePaul’s solid 73-67 victory over old Catholic school/new Big East Conference rival Notre Dame on Saturday, let’s take a moment to examine the state of my law school alma mater’s basketball program.

DePaul has been extremely inconsistent so far in its inaugural season with Jerry Wainwright at the coaching helm.  The Demons have had solid wins against Wake Forest, Northwestern, and Notre Dame, but were handled by smaller schools such as Ol’ Dirty University and Northern Illinois.  At this point, DePaul is a bubble team for this year’s NCAA Tournament at best, particularly with the team facing its first season in the brutal and bloated Big East.  With the development of junior guard Sammy Mejia and promising freshman forward Wilson Chandler (21 points and 12 rebounds against the Irish on Saturday), however, look for the Blue Demons to compete in the upper echelon of the Big East in the 2006-07.

DePaul Victorious Over Notre Dame       DePaul - ND #2

As for the long-term state of the DePaul program, there are two major issues – the first is positive and the second is negative.  First, Big East membership will result in an initial boon to DePaul in terms local interest in the Chicago media market.  DePaul gets to cement its long-standing rivalries with Midwestern Catholic universities Notre Dame and Marquette while establishing new ties East Coast spiritual cousins such as St. John’s and Georgetown.

At the same time, being able to play Big East heavyweights like Syracuse and UConn on a regular basis gives DePaul the chance to recapture some of the media attention that the school used to receive up until the end of the 1980s.  Before the arrival of Michael Jordan, DePaul was the biggest sports story in Chicago every winter.  Today, though, the Illini and the Big Ten clearly receive the lion’s share of college sports coverage in Chicago (those who might disagree should check the front of the sports sections of the Chicago Tribune from this past Friday and Sunday – blanket coverage of the Illini games against MSU and Iowa relegated the Bulls, Blackhawks, the DePaul-Notre Dame game, and the NFL playoffs to spots deep inside the paper).

Still, it’s not just enough for DePaul to simply join the Big East – the Demons need to establish a winning program within that conference.  Otherwise, DePaul is going to be to the Big East what Northwestern basketball is to the Big Ten: a Chicago outpost whose arena is filled up every game with fans of the opponents.

Speaking of the arena, DePaul’s other major issue is that the team’s home gym is going to be an albatross on the program for the foreseeable future.  DePaul is blessed with arguably the best campus location of any urban college in the nation in Lincoln Park (Greenwich Village is funky but NYU really doesn’t have a true campus like DePaul, while Lincoln Park has a lot more going on both day and night than Georgetown), which is a huge reason why the school consistently has the happiest student body anywhere.

Yet, instead of having students and alums take in college basketball in a fantastic city neighborhood setting that would rival the experience of going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, DePaul fans need to schlep up to an arena 30 minutes from campus where you need to duck the airplanes flying over the parking lot and pay $5 for a Polish sausage that isn’t half as tasty as the old $2 Polish-and-fries combo at the now-defunct Demon Dogs under the Fullerton El tracks (by the way, not being able stumble into Demon Dogs after a long evening of, er, studying in Lincoln Park is one of the top ten things I miss about living in the city – how dare the CTA take it all away).

Demon Dogs' Last Day

The university wants an on-campus arena, the students want an on-campus arena, the alums want an on-campus arena, and recruits want an on-campus arena.  However, there’s a realization by all parties that this probably will never happen.  Even if there were enough land available in Lincoln Park to build a facility, the cost to buy such land would be so astronomical that a 10,000 to 15,000-seat basketball arena would be more expensive to construct than the United Center or the new Soldier Field.  DePaul’s Big East affiliation will only go so far in attracting talent when recruits see the school’s Big Ten competitors with first-class on-campus facilities that teem with rabid students and fans every game.  If St. John’s is having trouble getting recruits to come because of the lack of an on-campus arena and the Red Storm play in the Mecca of Basketball A.K.A. Madison Square Garden, think of the disadvantage DePaul faces when its arena is the aging Allstate Arena next to a bunch of O’Hare runways.

The only way I can see the stadium situation being mitigated is if DePaul can move its home games to the United Center.  At least the games would be a lot closer for students and playing in the House that Jordan Built would be a bit better of a selling point for recruits.  Unfortunately, this isn’t even a possibility for several years since the City of Rosemont agreed to remodel Allstate Arena in exchange for DePaul committing to playing its home schedule there for the foreseeable future (this was the reason why Allstate Arena was able to snag last year’s NCAA Chicago Regional Final A.K.A. the greatest game I have ever seen in any sport at any level – you Illini fans don’t need any explanation).

So, DePaul’s basketball program is looking upward as a new Big East member, but the Blue Demons will also be constantly fighting an uphill battle in recruiting as long as they play in Rosemont.  Of course, there are few programs that can lay claim to having everything perfect, so here’s to hoping that Jerry Wainwright can bring back the buzz and add to the tradition of DePaul basketball that was advanced by another attendee of Saturday’s game: the great Ray Meyer.

Taking the Brown Line to Victory

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, NFL Football, SportsLeave a comment

My first substantive post on this blog  – “The Paranoia of Illini Nation” – was about how we Illini fans have been too sensitive about the “lack of respect” our team gets from the national media.  However, I’ve got to backtrack a little bit from that comment when it comes to Dee Brown.

How is it possible that there’s been absolutely no buzz from across the country for Dee as National Player of the Year?  Check out the latest mid-season predictions from the ESPN.com crew.  It’s one thing to be skeptical about our Final Four chances this season (although last night’s victory should put to the rest the claim that we haven’t beaten anyone yet), but it’s something different when last year’s Sporting News Player of the Year isn’t even considered an All-American by 6 out of 8 “experts,” much less this year’s player of the year.

All of the discussion has centered around the battle between Duke’s J.J. Reddick and Gonzaga’s Ugly Mustache Known as Adam Morrison.  It’s incredulous to me, however, that a guy who was named national player of the year by one organization last season and has led his team to a 15-0 start this season despite losing 3 key teammates as starters isn’t even mentioned as a possible candidate.  Maybe a few more 34-point games like last night will get Dickie V and Company to notice Dee again.

Speaking of the Illinois win over Michigan State, this looked more like an extension of the Big Ten football season than the start of conference basketball play with the exception of Dee’s ridiculous shooting performance (check out Rick Morrissey’s column on Dee and last night’s game in today’s Chicago Tribune).  The Illini continued their dominance on the defensive side of the ball – MSU’s Maurice Alger couldn’t get anything going whatsoever.  We just need to get James Augustine to stop traveling every other time he gets a feed into the post.

All in all, this was the first “marquee” victory for the Illini this year and sets the team up for yet another run at the Big Ten title.  As for Dee’s game, it could be summed up with Tom to the Izzo’s answer to Erin Andrews’ halftime question on what plan he had to stop the Illini point guard: “Recruit Michael Jordan.”

Some other sports tidbits:

1) NFL Wild Card Picks – If there’s one thing that keeps me from having a holiday hangover every year, it’s the fact that the NFL playoffs go on for the month afterwards.  With the bonus of the Bears actually participating this year, I can hardly contain myself.  So, here are my Wild Card picks in order of confidence but not against the spread (home team in CAPS): (1) NEW ENGLAND over Jacksonville, (2) Pittsburgh over CINCINNATI, (3) TAMPA BAY over Washington, (4) Carolina over N.Y. GIANTS.

2) TNT’s NBA Studio Team – Even if you’re not a big follower of the NBA, do yourself a favor and check out the halftime and postgame shows for TNT’s NBA games on Thursday nights.  Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, without question, give TNT the best combination of insightful analysis spiced with entertainment (it’s important that it’s not the other way around) of any studio team of any sport on any network.

3) S.O.B(ulls) – Speaking of the NBA, the Bulls seriously need to win tonight.  It’s getting Blackhawks-ugly right now for the Scott Skiles crew.

4) Dancing with the Stars – OK, this isn’t a sport, but the competition is inexplicably compelling to me (Evander Holyfield was awesome last year).  Since I switched over to the Illini – MSU game halfway through, my only comment is this: if Nick Lachey is riding shotgun on his soon-to-be-ex-wife Jessica Simpson’s ride to superstardom and Ashlee Simpson is in the backseat, then Nick’s brother Drew has got to be in the trunk.

I won’t be able to see tomorrow’s Illinois – Iowa game live since I’ll be attending DePaul’s inaugural Big East home game against Catholic school rival Notre Dame (floor seats!), but I’ll be keeping track.  Enjoy the NFL, go Bulls, go Illini, and go Blue Demons!

We Be Braggin’

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, Sports1 Comment

The Illini destroyed border rival Missouri last night in the biggest blowout in the history of the Braggin’ Rights series.  The combination of the Illini moving the ball with authority on the offensive end of the floor, a complete shutdown of the Tigers by the orange-clad defense, and the youth and inexperience of Mizzou created the 6th straight win for Illinois in the annual neutral site matchup in St. Louis.  Last night’s game highlighted a few items I’ve observed so far this season:

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1) Dee Brown Can Play the Point – Whether Dee could adjust to moving from 2 to 1 was probably the biggest question mark for the Illini coming into the season.  Now, after a 12-0 start and #6 ranking, we hardly even remember that this ever was an issue in the first place.  I’m not sure if Dee will become the NBA-level point guard that he wants to be and this year’s offense isn’t as polished as last year’s offense yet (and may never be), but the way he has handled this huge role change in running the show is a tribute to his effort and talent.  If the national media ever stops going ga-ga over whether J.J. Redick or Adam Morrison ought to be national player of the year, I hope they overcome their collective A.D.D. to bring last year’s Sporting News Player of the Year into the discussion.

2) Jamar Smith will be a Star – Bruce Weber said before the season that Smith was a better shooter than even Dee and the coach has been proven right.  Just as important, however, is that Smith brings as much spark to the defensive end of the floor as he does beyond the arc on the offensive end.  Speaking of defense…

3) Defense Still Rules – For all of the talk about the backcourt play and passing game of last year’s Final Four team, that club propelled itself to a 37-2 record because they brought defensive intensity to the floor every single game.  Likewise, as inconsistent as the scoring has been for this season’s Illini, they are still bringing on the heat defensively on a nightly basis.  The Illini aren’t going to shoot like last night every game or even in a majority of games, but they know that they always have a chance to win as long as they keep up the defensive intensity no matter who their opponent is.

4) Charity Stripe Ain’t That Charitable – If there’s one glaring weakness with the Illini this year, it’s the performance at the free throw line.  Last night, the Illini made 16 out of 24 free throws.  Only making 2 out of every 3 free throws isn’t going to cut it against upper echelon teams like Michigan State.  This needs to be improved or else it’s going to be the team’s Achilles heel all season.

5) Big Men Are Key – When James Augustine, Marcus Arnold, and Shaun Pruitt have games like last night when they combine for 30 points, the Illini are a Final Four-caliber team.  However, when Arnold and Pruitt only combine for one field goal attempt as they did against the City of Coppin (State) on Sunday, the Illini struggle to beat guarantee game opponents.  The degree of success of the Illini this year ultimately hinges upon the guys in the frontcourt getting touches almost every time down the floor.  Even if they don’t ultimately score, this allows the Illini to spread out the offense and get guys like Dee, Jamar, and Brian Randle to spring free for open shots or easy buckets.

All in all, it was a fantastic game last night and an equally fantastic season so far for the Illini.  There’s no easing into Big Ten play, though – the conference opener is at home against Michigan State, a team who’s way underrated because of their blips in Hawaii.  Nonetheless, if we play like we did last night, we can wipe the floor with anyone.

P.S.  I might be the only person in the world that believes this, but every time I see (soon to be ex) Mizzou coach Quin Snyder, I always think he’s the long-lost son of Christopher Walken.  Maybe it’s the coach’s piercing eyes or the way he barks out at players on the floor – I really can’t explain it.  All I know is that I’m positive that every time Snyder takes a 20-second timeout, he’s telling his team that the key to the game is more cowbell.