OHHHHHHHHH It’s a family affair here at the Ass Hall tonight. Not really, but I feel like Northwestern is our “little brother”…
We’re three minutes to tipoff! The purple weenies are here! There was a bigger crowd for Wisconsin (wait, that’s not good)…Northwestern HAS to win this game (wait, that’s worse…). Uh oh. Maybe this is gonna be trouble tonight…2:30 til tipoff and we find out!!
INTROS and TIPOFF: Ummm….who is Michael Thompson?? Oh, it’s Juice? SOMEONE QUICK! PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE!!
19:23 left 1st Half: Ruh Roh Northwestern….DJ RICHARDSON!!! FOR THREEEEEEEEEEE!
18:14 left 1st Half: RUH ROH! Meechi for THREEEEEEE!!!!!
17:50 left 1st Half: RUH ROH!!!!! BILLY COLE FOR THREEEE!!!!
17:07 left 1st Half: Tis to the line completing an And-1….12-5 Illini early, and Bruce would like the Illini to move. More. And also, get out of the way.
16:25 left 1st Half: Davis to Tisdale on an alley-oop brings the house down…Davis hits a short jumper…the Illini have 16 points in 4 minutes and I don’t think they have missed…
14:47 left 1st Half: All my concerns are gone as we get into the under-16 timeout. The Illini are blistering the nets and lead 16-8, and it looks like Northwestern has NO interest in playing defense. If this is the team the Kitties have been all year, I don’t really understand why I was afraid of them.
14:15 left 1st Half: Mike Davis is REALLY passing well in the post. He just found a wide open Meyers Leonard on the block after recognizing the double team…and he just found Richmond on the block for his third assist of the game, wow. Mike Davis is playing VERY well tonight, first time this season I’ve typed that.
12:49 left 1st Half: Illinois going to run the Kitties out of the gym…a Cames three and a Brandon Paul three give the Illini a 26-10 lead….this could be over early as the Illini are 5 of 5 from long range.
11:42 left first Half: Uhhhhh….Under 12 timeout. Mike Davis finds Jereme Richmond again and he goes And-1….and that’s a career high 6 assists for Davis. Illini lead 28-10 pending a Richmond FT. I…I really don’t know what to do with this information.
11:30 left 1st Half: Richmond hits an FT and then….the Illini do something wrong. A foul is called. Then Shurna hits a three. And now another foul is called. Then Jershon Cobb hits a deuce. IT’S ALL COMING APART AT THE SEAMS!!!!
7:50 left 1st Half: Shockingly, internet difficulties zonked me out there for a bit…Assembly Hall’s web access leaves a little to be desired…but the Illini lead 33-17. The Mildcats got the lead down to 12, but the Illini did a great job resisting that run, and NU still not looking interested much in defense…
6:01 left 1st Half: Same score as the under 8 TO, and Bruce Weber just called a 30-second TO. He was piiiiiissssssed! I would look for a solid offensive possession here for Illinois.
5:49 left 1st Half: And then Meechi oops it up to Meyers Leonard! EVERY GAME Meyers is good for an OH MY! play…
5:15 left 1st Half: And there’s a second. Wow. Illini by 20!
4:19 left 1st Half: Meyers comes out to a nice ovation…Shurna barrels down the lane and charges into Mike Tisdale….block call. What ever happened to the player control foul?
3:35 left 1st Half: DJ Richardson for THREE!!!
3:05 left 1st Half: And the Illini just missed their first three of the game…yowsa…
2:15 left 1st Half: Nice feed and dunk to Tis….stripped trying the same thing next time down the court…
1:43 left 1st Half: A late under-4 minute time out, and the Illini lead 44-21. The officials are shaky, and the Illini are getting pissed, but other than a few weird calls, they are doing well. The charge on DJ, but count the basket, was a SAVVY call in particular. The Illini are dominating every facet of the game, but, in particular, I’m surprised at how much we’re pushing around the Kitties. They are NOT assertive inside.
HALFTIME: OK. So what do we know? Northwestern kinda sucks. They are not a tournament team. Illinois, as Chuck, our friend from 312sports.com said, when they play like this, they are a top 5 team. I just don’t know if they will ever be consistent enough, or have that killer instinct enough, to do it all the time. 47-24 at half. Second half starting soon…
18:47 left 2nd Half: ILLINI! They came out playing HARD in the second half. No points for the Mildcats yet! Only 5 rebounds for the game! THE GAME! This is a skunking.
18:26 left 2nd Half: 54-26 Illini. Mercy Rule, anyone? Maybe we can give the Kitties a point for hitting the rim like we used to in YMCA basketball when I was 5?
17:29 left 2nd Half: The flow of the game has been a little damaged by NU’s crappy play…
15:50 left 2nd Half: 56-29 Illini, and the fact the Northwestern is playing like dog poop is going to limit the Illini and their scoring. I was hoping for 100 points tonight…doesn’t look like we’ll get there.
14:35 left 2nd Half: Ohhhhh…Meechi to Billy Cole. That wasn’t fair. That wasn’t fair at all. 63-31 Illini and this is garbage time already…
13:09 left 2nd Half: The subs are leaking into the game…Illini still up 28.
12:30 left 2nd Half: Illini still outrebounding NU….31-10…
11:26 left 2nd Half: Illinois STILL shooting 70 percent for the game — the exact number of points they have as well. I’m all about symmatry tonight.
11:00 left 2nd Half: You know I have a theory about why Meyers Leonard isn’t playing more…it’s really hard to yell, “MEYERS!!” in a raspy, angry voice…
9:02 left 2nd Half: So….Illini up 74-42. Not really saying anything other than the score…I just think that’s funny. Also happy to see the Illini killing the Northwestern NCAA chances…
7:55 left 2nd Half: I think our starting lineup for next year is on the court. I’m not sure, but I think this is it. Maybe Mike Shaw squeezes in at the 4 ahead of Griffey if they want to go ridiculously athletic. But…still…this is gonna be a FUN team next season. Under-8 timeout, 74-42 Illinois lead.
5:45 left 2nd Half: In case you were wondering, Jershon Cobb cannot dunk. Even if he thinks he can, the rim would beg to differ.
3:45 left 2nd Half: Illini still lead by 21 in garbage time, and Meyers Leonard is shooting two free throws to give the Illini 6 players in double figures…
Shutting down here though, early end to this one. Gonna enjoy the end of bench Illini getting good minutes here, and really interested to hear Carmody’s post-game comments. My guess? They won’t be friendly…