By Paul M. Banks
Getting a road win at Wisconsin’s Kohl Center is like a great Chris Rock routine with out the F-word in it. Some things just never naturally occur in life. I knew the ’04-’05 Illini were a special bunch when they came into this God awful house of horrors and won handily. Other than that famous game which ended the Sconnies’ well-documented winning streak, I have no good memories from this place- UNTIL TONIGHT! When the Illini upset #13 Wisconsin. This was a much bigger, MUCH more important victory than the MSU game.
Even the living legend himself Tom Izzo is 0-7 here. But Bruce has THREE wins in Madison to his credit now!
We axtually have a game tonight! 27-24 Wisco with 3 min left in half.
McCamey has had a couple baskets, and Tisdale has been a force!
McCamey for three! and we are tied. Looks like the Illini will score more than 41 points or 38 points or whatever it was last year.
McCamey with a DEEP three! that was from Delavan…and Illini had a very BRIEF Lead at 33-32. but Trevon answers at the other end at Wisconsin, who led for about 19 minutes and 20 seconds of this half now take the lead into the intermission 35-33.
McCamey has 16! man-crush on Cames gets stronger…! Tis has13, Tyler Griffey has 4. Rest of team SHUT OUT! Not very balanced scoring, at all.
Since McCamey scores or assists on literally 60% of Illini scoring since Big Ten play started, should I start calling this team the Illinois McCameys?
it’s rare you see a guy lead a break and then retreat to the perimeter. rarer still you see him take a three, and hit proving what looked like a dumb decision initially, to be quite intelligent. Jordan Taylor just did all that. Wisconsin up 42-37 15 min left.
45-44 Sconnies 13 and change left.
NICE feed from McCamey to Reggie Cleveland All-Star team member Billy Cole gives the Illini a lead again. By the way here are some stats about how impossible is to win here:
Bo Ryan is 65-5 here at the Kohl Center, 51-0 vs non-ranked Big 10 opponents (a category designation befitting the Illini).
Versus ranked opponents he is 21-7, 14-5 versus ranked big ten opponents. But hey streaks have to end sometime right?? maybe
51-50 Illini with 8:39 left!
My original prediction for this game WIsconsin 70, Illinois 59 does not look like very likely right now. Illinois was up 3 just a fee moments ago. Usually I love to say the name Keaton Nankivil, but I hate the PR announcer here, because he butchers his name by adding another syllable in there. He has enough syllables ALREADY!
By the way, this whole clapping fast, jumping around changing direction things Badger fans do, you know the ritual that occurs while the band plays Strauss’ “Thus spake Zarathustra” (theme from film “2001”) is totally fascist. Once you get a whole mass of people moving around like that- you’re one step from getting them to commit ethnic cleansing.
DJ Richardson has stepped up and hit some shots! So that makes 3 Illini players who’ve actually shown up to play tonight. Is this frustrating Bruce?
Illinois up 57-53 with 2:17 left. Yes, you read that correctly UP by 4 as we approach the proverbial “2 minute warning”.
Add another key stop on defense! this may actually happen! Illinois may actually end the 18 game Kohl Center win streak. IF they can hit all their free throws down the stretch.
Down the stretch Wisconsin went 5 minutes with out a score, until JaBo hit a 3 to tie it at 53. Illini need more stretches like that. or these numbers since the 9:53 mark, Sconnie has 3 whole points