Illini will be playing Clemson in the ACC/Big 10 challenge, this time in Assembly Hall.
Also, they'll be playin in the South Padre Island Invitational where they could face the likes of Kent St, Tulsa, and/or Texas A&M if they can get to the finals.
What do you guys think of the chances of beating Clemson and winning the South Padre tournament?
Gonna be real honest...I don't know that much about Kent. St or Tulsa but...I think our chances aren't too bad. As far as beating Clemson, it just depends on how they play. Clemson was a NCAA tourney team this year if I'm not mistaken so...they will have to bring a pretty good game to win. Being at home USED to help but haha lately that hasn't mattered much.
I think this upcoming Illini team will be much improved and will have lots of potential. They have a lot of work to do but things are looking up.
I think the Illini have a great chance to win both. I think it will somewhat depend on how much M Tisdale improves, gains bulk etc.
Remember that IL was either leading or close in alot of games, against big teams, we lost this year. Tisdale will be crucial in that we need to continue with the inside presence.
With the good guards coming, this could be a nice year as alot of teams fared very well with the 3 guard offense. But, again, Tisdale will have to be good enough to gain the opposing teams respect.
Next season we also play at Vanderbilt. The start of a home and home series. And get Georgia in Chicago.
I think we have a decent shot at winning both or a decent shot at coming out of the box looking a little "schizo". I think we won't really know what we potentially have until we get a game or two into the "real" season. I don't think we should get too excited one way or the other in what we see during the pre-season exhibitions.
Kent St. and Tulsa were both solid squads. I know Tulsa has this one really big man, who's really good player. Possibly NBA potential down the road and they did make it to the C-USA championship game. Kent St. made the tournament so that's another solid mid major team the Illini can use on their schedule.
Yes, I read about the home and home series with Vanderbilt starting next year. Should pay dividends for our strength of schedule. I like how Weber is still trying to schedule good teams and isn't going the soft route like Clemson and Ole Miss have done in the past.
Are we still playing Arizona or is that done with now?
I give us a shot in all these games as I don't think (unless Texas A & M is) any of these squads will be top 10 material. That said, we have a lot of question marks before we can claim to be competitive or on the same tier as these squads. Also, we will not have Alex Legion for any of these games, so I get a little scared w/ our depth. Clemson is losing most of their frontcourt, but there entire backcourt and Stitt are back so that game will be a shootout! Who can rebound will be the key there.
Illinois is stuck in the ACC/BIG TEN game, but other than that they need to back out of some games and pad the schedule with some patsies to try to look respectable. Minnesota loaded up with weaklings and started BIG TEN play at 10-2 and finished the season with 20 victories, although they couldn't fool the NCAA selection committee. Illinois started Big Ten play at 8-5 and finished 16-19.
On the other hand, it might look more respectable losing to Clemson and Texas A & M instead of Tennessee State and Miami of Ohio.
You want the kids to be battle tested once Big 10 season comes around. What's playin a bunch of cupcakes gonna help? Look what it did to Minnesota: for god sakes, they lost to the Illini 3 times.
Yeah, cupcake city wont fool anyone. If you win games in the Big 10, then it does make your record better, but if you go .500 you aren't getting into the tourny! Besides, scheduals are reasonable set 2 or 3 years out w/ a few exceptions (maybe 2 games left open for last minute matchups). We locked into Gonzaga, Georgia, and Vandy the next few years.
Illinois has a great chance to beat Clemson. The last couple of years we've had to play some good teams. Next year we are gonna actually play a team that we can beat. Now Texas A&M i'm not so sure about. They are a good team out of the big 12. They've been to the big dance the last couple of years.
enjoy working at Burger King don ho, i want that whopper my way and i want it now!! and mop up the floors while your at it, make it look respectable, unlike u
