Illinois vs. the Mildcats

Illinois vs. Northwestern
Tomorrow @ 3:30

Back-Story

It was a year ago today when Illinois fell to Northwestern in Evanston by a score of 70-60, dropping the Illini to 1-2 in the Big10. The following day in practice, Head Coach Bruce Weber kicked his team out of the Ubben B-ball Facility because he was disgusted w/their effort. But after a players only team meeting, the young Illini begged Weber to come back on the court and finish the day. Since then, Weber hasn't stopped coaching, and the Illini haven't stopped listening.

The Mildcats

Northwestern played a match-up zone that gave the Illini fits during both meetings of the 2003-2004 season. I remember watching from the bleachers of Welsh Ryan Arena; the Mildcats packed it in, and we did not have an answer. We could not shoot from the outside and we could not work the ball into the paint. But on Wednesday night Illinois hit a school record 15 three-pointers. Penn State's zone was so bad that it made me realize that our football team's defense might not be the worst in the Big10. Every Illini player scored.

(Sidebar: Why the hell was PSU playing zone? They were begging the Illini players to shoot the three. If anyone can give me a somewhat logical reason, I'd love to hear it. Ed DeChellis = DUMB! Most coaches might have called off the zone after the Illini hit five three pointers or maybe even ten three-pointers. I told you guys that Penn State should be kicked out of the Big 10.)

Northwestern's Princeton style offense (Head Coach Bill Carmody coached for the Tigers from 1996-2000) is led by speedster TJ Parker. TJ's brother Tony plays for the San Antonio Spurs and kicked TJ's ass every time they ever played 1-on-1. Parker's favorite target is Vedran Vukusic (6'8" 245 lbs.) who is averaging 16.7 pts and 4.9 boards a game. Vukusic is an agile big man who can step back and shoot the three.

Rounding out NU's scoring is 6'10" Mike Thompson. Thompson is a former McD's All-American and Duke transfer from Joliet, IL. Don't worry, though, Thompson averaged 1.8 pts/game in his 1.5 year career at Duke. He's bumped his scoring average up to 12.4 a game, but he still has not lived up to the hype surrounding him out of high school. Thompson was heavily recruited by the Illini; and when he opted for Duke, Illinois gave his scholarship to Junior James Augustine. I'd say that this worked out favorably for the Illini.

Illinois

I read a great quote on ESPN.com yesterday, "Illinois and Lebron James are showing the youth of today how basketball should be played." So true...so true. Weber has turned his guys into chess players. They see buckets two and three passes into the future. I love it.

Dee Brown looks forward to every game scheduled in Chicago (Evanston is close enough), and I am willing to bet that Welsh-Ryan will be at least 50% Orange tomorrow night. I heard tickets were so hard to come by that NU had to turn down Senator Barak Obama at the ticket office. The Senator is a smart guy, so I assume that he is an Illini fan.

Last year Carmody won the Big Ten Coach of the Year honors for having a .500 season. The honor should have gone to Coach Weber. So my prime performer tomorrow is Da Coach, showing us who should be this year's Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Illinois - 74
Mildcats - 62


Sincerely,

Fred Nkemdi's Vertical