Indiana Southern Illinois Game

OK, this blog is supposed to be all about the Illini bballers, but I watched the Hoosiers play Weber's former school and Gordon is scary good. Definitely ready to make the move to the NBA.

I'm not sure if the Illini can beat the Hoosiers this year, the way Gordon played at Carbondale. His scoring was down slightly against the great defense of SIU, but the rest of his game was still awesome. Gordon drives on the fast break by himself, even one on two, and has the moves to finish at the rim. Gordon's touch on his NBA 3 pointers is silky smooth, like free throws for a good shooter. The most impressive part of Gordon's performance was his defense. I had seen him block shots in high school near the hoop, but against SIU, he would play his guy tight on the perimeter, anticipate when a 3 pointer was coming, and quickly jump and deflect the shot. I credit Gordon with getting in the heads of the SIU shooters, who struggled the entire game from outside. The announcers seemed confused why SIU shots kept getting blocked, but it was mainly the athletic ability of Gordon, from my view.

I'm sure Chris Lowery and Bruce Weber will compare notes on the IU team prior to the Big 10 contests for Illini against Gordon. My take: you need to use several different guys on Gordon, to take him out of position, if that's possible. You also can try some hard fouls like SIU did to get in his head. But he is definitely ready for the big time, and this is just a quick peek at one fantastic NBA player.

Eric Gordon should be a lottery pick

Eric Gordon is showing the world he is an outstanding athlete at IU this year, with incredible leaping ability, a silky soft touch from three point range, and even on tough nights scoring 30 points easily.

Eric can be expected to be a lottery pick in the next NBA draft, since his game is already at that level as a freshman in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Illini will look forward to playing him this year, despite the challenge he represents to their team.

But will the NCAA let the Hoosiers play in the postseason this year, likely to be Gordon's only year? We will find out soon enough.