Sunday, March 16, 2008

Illini lose to Wisconsin in BTT final, shades of 1999

Well, they must have run out of gas mentally or physically, because that offensively-challenged team showed up again. Weber's three guard offense looked very weak against a bigger Wisconsin line-up. At one point, Chester Frazier was being guarded by Greg Stiemsma, who is 6-11 and 260 pounds. The advantage goes to Wisconsin on that match-up, because Stiemsma is a better outside shooter than Frazier.

Shaun Pruitt played well for the Illini, and Calvin Brock had a nice game as well. The rest of the team looked ragged out there, including McCamey, Frazier, Randle and Meacham. Toward the end of the game, Jordan, Holdren and Hicks hit outside shots, making some of us wonder what they were doing on the bench all year if they can actually shoot the basketball.

Anyway, it was a nice run in the Big Ten Tourney for our Fighting Illini. The NCAA berths are being announced, and though I will fill out some brackets, I just don't feel like watching CBS after this poor game by the Illini. Or maybe it's the fact that we did not make the NCAAs for the first time since 1999.

Will the Illini make the NIT tourney or the new CBI tourney? Hopefully they get invited to one of those, since we really need the practice for next season. I wish you could play your entire roster for the "fun" tournaments like the NIT and CBI. It would be nice to take a look at next season's team, with Alex Legion and Jamar Smith on the floor.

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