Gopher Basketball
| Game Info | |
| Opponent: | Illinois Fighting Illini |
| When: | 8:00 pm, February 12th, 2008 |
| Where: | Williams Arena – Minneapolis, MN |
| Television: | Big Ten Network |
Following a crazy evening that featured chants of “œLiar!” and “œSellout!” being directed at local pariah (and superfrosh) Eric Gordon, along with the infamous bump at mid-court during the opening introductions the Fighting Illini roll into the Barn for a date with the Gophers. Illinois continues looking for answers as their tough season continues following a close game that they had several chances to win against Indiana.
Will Illinois show up to the Barn on Tuesday night ready to quiet the naysayers and beat up on the Gophers, or will they come in limping and down on themselves, primed for a defeat at the hands of the ol’ Maroon and Gold?
As always, please feel free to correct mistakes, add additional information you find interesting or post differing opinions by replying in the basketball forum.
University of Illinois, at a glance
- Illinois has one of the largest Greek systems in the US and coincidentally is located in the middle of no where.
- Following the game against Indiana, Illinois posted the following statement to it’s official athletics website: “There was a great college basketball game played Thursday night between the University of Illinois and Indiana University, but the game has been somewhat diminished by inappropriate behavior by a number of fans in attendance. We value the enthusiastic support of the sellout crowds at the Assembly Hall, but above all we take very seriously the reputation of our basketball program and the University of Illinois. The profanity and behavior by a small segment of fans Thursday night is disappointing and intolerable, and for that we apologize to fans of both teams.” I personally thought it was funny that the one of the two names credited with issuing the statement is Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber who was one thrown set of beads away from being in the same boat as the fans in terms of how classy he behaved.
- Illinois is one of several schools that claim to have invented the concept of collegiate homecoming. The date Illinois claims for this is October 15, 1910 when the Illini played a football game against former Big 10 member University of Chicago, defeating them 3-0.
- Notable Illinois alumni include: Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Larry Parks, famous for being blackballed in Hollywood following his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee, overweight film critic Roger Ebert, and infomercial heroine Suze Orman.
A Brief History of Minnesota/Illinois basketball
With Minnesota coming off of home games versus its two oldest rivals, the Illinois rivalry may not seemed nearly as storied. Minnesota has played Illinois 160 times however, which makes Illinois the third-most played of any opponent behind Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota and Illinois first met on February 7, 1906. The Gophers hosted the Illini at the Armory and took the game by a score of 31 ““ 19. The following year, Illinois scored its first win in the series. Minnesota and Illinois have played at least once head-to-head every season since 1945-1946.
The series, generally speaking, has been controlled by Illinois. Even from the earliest days, when L.J. Cooke coached the Gophers, the Illini had the right stuff to beat Minnesota. After losing the first four meetings to Cooke’s Gophers, The Illini went on to win 25 of the next 33 games. The first Gopher coach to ever hold a winning career record against the Illini was Bill Musselman who went undefeated in his tenure, 6-0. He was followed by Jim Dutcher who finished 11-12 against Illinois. It was the combination of Mussleman’s run with the beginning of Dutcher’s that gave the Gophers their largest winning streak in the series history, 13 games. Clem Haskins, based on on-court results and not official NCAA records, was 10-13 against Illinois. Then the wheels came off completely.
Dan “œGoober” Monson posted a goose egg against the Illini, 0-16, in his time at Minnesota. Coupled with Clem losing his final game and a 0-2 record last year, the Gophers have lost 19 straight to the Illini, the longest streak for either team in the series’ history. Illinois has also ran up three separate 8-game win streaks at various points in history. The last Gopher victory in the series was on February 3rd, 1999 at Williams Arena, by a score of 75-63. The last game the Gophers won that still stands in the NCAA record books as not being forfeited was nearly 15 years ago, March 3rd, 1993. The Gophers won that game 67-65.
Even worse, the last time the Gophers won in Champaign ““ where the Gophers will play in March ““ was on February 16, 1978, which is 30 years come Saturday of this week. To put that into perspective, Abba’s “œTake A Chance On Me” was the #1 song in America and yours truly was still 4½ years from being born.
The all-time series, if results are not altered for forfeited games is Illinois 99-61. The official all-time series, with Clem’s games removed, is Illinois 105-55.
Illinois this season
For a seemingly insatiable and often quite arrogant fan base, this season has been a tough one. Illinois has been in a funk pretty much since the end of November.
Non-conference: Illinois played several tough opponents during their non-conference schedule, a record of 8-5 to show for it. The first four losses were to Duke, at Maryland, Arizona and Miami (OH) . Considering the caliber of at least the first three teams ““ Maryland being a bit of a mystery game-to-game ““ much could be forgiven. Victories over hated Missouri as well as Arizona State and Oklahoma State seemed to balance these out. Plus, Illinois was beating teams it should beat like Western Carolina and Loyala (MD) . The real kick to the groin came in the non-conference finale, a home loss to Tennessee State, 60-58. Earlier in the year, Tennessee State lost to Colorado State (remember the Gophers beating them by 17?) at home by 19 points, but had also played a number of notable games against the likes of Indiana, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, though to be fair they lost all those games by an average of about a dozen points.
In-conference: Illinois seemed to carry the Tennessee State game with them into Big 10 play, as the team came out as poorly as any Illinois team in recent memory, losing four straight to open conference play. To date, wins over hapless Michigan and Northwestern are the only two conference victories for Illinois. The team is currently on a three-game skid, though these games were against Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue. Illinois has not won a road game in-conference to this point.
Illinois has only one true road win on the season, coming in a Maui Invitational tune-up game against Hawai’i back in early November. Illinois also won a neutral site game against Missouri which was played in St. Louis. Their road record this season is 1-6, including 0-4 in the Big 10.
Illinois is averaging 65.7 points per game this season, which is 8th in the Big 10 (ahead of Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa). Defensively, their numbers are almost identical to the Gophers with Illinois allowing 62.6/game to Minnesota’s 62.9. Illinois has allowed 83 points in their last two contests, which is their season-high.
The Illini you should know
1 ““ Trent Meacham (Jr.) Guard Champaign, IL (Centennial HS)
MPG 28.7 PPG 10.2 RPG 2.2 APG 2.6
-Trent really struggled in Illinois’ loss to Indiana, shooting 1 for 10, including 1 for 8 from beyond the arc. Scoring less than 1/3 his average certainly hurt Illinois in such a close game
-Trent also shot poorly against Indiana in their first meeting, hitting just 2 for 8. The two, along with the loss to Michigan State, are the only games in his last 10 that Meacham has failed to score 10+ points
-Trent displays the tendencies of a streaky shooter, having games where he’s hit 11 for 15 (Weber State) and 4 for 5 from the outside (Wisconsin), but then also posting horrible percentages like 1 for 11 (Ohio State), 2 for 10 (Michigan), and 1 for 8 (Loyola)
-Over the last three games, Trent has hit just 4 for 20 from behind the arc (20%)
-Trent transferred to Illinois from Dayton after a strong freshman season with the Flyers
-Trent is heavily involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes
3 ““ Chester Frazier (Jr.) Guard Baltimore, MD (Lake Clifton-Eastern HS)
MPG 32.6 PPG 4.6 RPG 4.9 APG 4.1
-Chester is responsible for the much-talked-about “˜chest bump’ on Eric Gordon during player introductions last Thursday. Head Coach Bruce Weber claims Chester often engages in such roughhousing before the opening tip. If he does the same to a Gopher player, make sure to let him know that you think it’s bush league
-Chester does not shoot particularly well for a guard. He’s just 31.9% from the floor this season, including 26.6% from 3-point range. His free throw shooting is also quite suspect at just 54.8%
-Chester has only hit more than 2 field goals in 1 Big 10 game this season, as part of a 3 for 8 performance against Michigan State. His 19 points against Hawai’i is not only a season-high, but also his only 10+ point game this year
-Chester played for Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts before joining the Illini
-Chester spends much of his free time playing ping-pong. Maybe that time would be better spent working on his jump shot
23 ““ Rodney Alexander (Jr.) Forward Benton Harbor, MI (Benton Harbor HS)
MPG 14.2 PPG 5.3 RPG 3.2 APG 0.4
-Rodney, like many Illinois players, has struggled with outside shooting this season. He is 11 for 48 from 3 this season (22.9%)
-Outside of a 20 point performance in Columbus, Rodney is averaging just 2.9 points/game in Big 10 play
-Rodney transferred to Illinois after playing juco basketball at Redlands Community College in Oklahoma
-Rodney Alexander is actually Rodney Alexander, Jr.
-His hobbies are listed as including “œcomputers,” though whether that means building them, using them, or just Googling his own stat lines is unclear
-Rodney’s nickname on the team is “œFlight”
25 ““ Calvin Brock (Jr.) Guard Chicago, IL (Simeon HS)
MPG 23.7 PPG 7.6 RPG 3.8 APG 1.4
-Calvin has fouled out of two games this season (Duke and Purdue) and has a propensity toward fouling. On the season, he’s been fouling at a clip of 1 foul every 9½ minutes played
-Calvin took a season-high 16 shots against Indiana, making 6
-Calvin is a member of the National Honor Society
32 ““ Demetri McCamey (Fr.) Guard Bellwood, IL (St. Joseph HS)
MPG 24.6 PPG 7.6 RPG 2.5 APG 2.8
-Demetri exploded in the Indiana game for a national audience, scoring a game-high 31 points and giving Gopher fans a reason to worry about Illinois back court actually being able to score the basketball
-Demetri has shot poorly in other games though, including 1 for 8 against Ohio State and 2 for 10 in the first meeting with Indiana. In comparison to the tough night he had earlier this year in Bloomington, his recent game becomes even more surprising
-Demetri has struggled at times this season from the free throw line, hitting 60.9% for the year. As of late though, he’s been improving, hitting 12 of 15 in his last two games. Prior to that, he was just 51.6% on the year
42 ““ Brian Randle (Sr.) Forward Peoria, IL (Notre Dame HS)
MPG 25.8 PPG 10.2 RPG 5.8 APG 1.5
-Brian’s one of many Illinois players to have trouble at the free throw line this year. He’s converted just 45 of 79 attempts, a 57% clip. He’s shot 11 for his last 13 however. Before this stretch, he was hitting just 51% of his free throws
-Brian continues to shoot 3-pointers as well, even though he’s only hit 8 for 35, a meager 22.9%
-Brian has hit just 1 of his last 11 3-point attempts
-After 4 consecutive 10+ rebound performances early in the Big 10 season, Brian has failed to hit that number in his last four, average just 4 boards/game in that stretch
-Brian has fouled out of an alarming number of games this year. In 24 games, he’s fouled out of 7 and committed 4 fouls in 9 others. Brian’s fouled out of 5 Big 10 games, almost equaling the number of games he has not fouled out, 6. He commits a foul, on average, once every 7½ minutes played
-Brian was in the Liturgy Club in high school
-Brian’s lists his dream as winning a national championship, which appears is not going to happen
54 ““ Mike Tisdale (Fr.) Center Riverton, IL (Riverton HS)
MPG 10.3 PPG 4.0 RPG 1.6 APG 0.3
-Mike shoots a 3-pointer, on average, once every 20 minutes he plays. Fortunately for Illinois, he rarely plays that many minutes in an individual game (has only hit that number once this year). When he does shoot 3s, he usually misses, hitting just 16.7%
-Mike is another Illinois player who commits fouls pretty often, drawing a whistle once every 8 minutes played
-When trying to guard Geary Claxton earlier this year, Mike committed 4 fouls in just 8 minutes of action
-For a 7’1″ player, Mike doesn’t block a ton of shots. He’s blocked just 7 this year, an average of one every 35.4 minutes
-Mike lists a one-time honor as “œStudent of the Month” at Riverton High School among his personal accomplishments. Considering it’s a town of 3,000 people, and the entire school district, K-12, has only about 500 students, let’s hope it isn’t the accomplishment that defines this young man’s life
55 ““ Shaun Pruitt (Sr.) Center Aurora, IL (West Aurora HS)
MPG 27.1 PPG 12.7 RPG 7.6 APG 0.9
-Those who watched Illinois/Indiana watched as Shaun painfully missed several free throws which may have won the game for the Illini. He has had a tough year from the free throw line this season, shooting 53.7%, and as evident in the Indiana game, it’s become a major liability for the team. This is no different than the other seasons he’s played at Illinois. For his career, he’s hit 51.5% of his free throws
-As a rebounder, Shaun could give the Gophers problems. Though he hasn’t been grabbing as many rebounds in Big 10 play (about 6/game) he is capable of dominating a smaller team on the glass. He had 15 boards against Miami (OH) and 17 in the season-opener against Northeastern
-Shaun is another big man for Illinois who doesn’t block a lot of shots. This season, he’s swatted just 12, an average of one every 52 minutes played. He’s only blocked 4 shots in Big 10 play, and 2 of those came in the opener against Ohio State
-Shaun was the runner-up for Mr. Basketball in Illinois in 2004
Talk about the Gopher – Illinois matchup on Tubby’s Barn message board.