Connecting the dots: SIU-E to NIU to Presbyterian
Yay
Basketball and football are totally different (Apologies to those of you dumb enough to think otherwise. How have you survived this long?) so I’m going to attempt to cover them differently. Instead of doing the preview/recap posts like I have been doing for the Zookers all season, my posts about the basketball team will be more organic. I’ll cover them as related events because in order to rebuild an elite program, Illinois is going to have to learn and improve from game-to-game. It’s all about connecting the dots to create a champion.
So I think we can all agree that the Illini didn’t play what one would call a “complete game” in their 80-61 victory over Northern Illinois a few days ago. They made sloppy passing turnovers (mostly from the guards), they were owned in the paint despite having a 7′1” center, and the shooting percentage (.435) was less than stellar. I’m going to chalk this one up to growing pains for now – something we’ll certainly see throughout the season – but I didn’t expect such a subpar performance against the inferior Huskies. Freshman Brandon Paul’s night (20 points in the first half, none in the second) is a solid representation of what this team should play like for the remainder of the year. There will be flashes of brilliance and farts of awfulness. On the plus side, Mike Davis had a great game thus officially bringing him out of his preseason slump. We all know you can play like that every night, Mike. Stop dicking us around like a Tri-Delt.
With Presbyterian College coming in for target practice the beginning of the Las Vegas Invitational, the Illini look to have another chance to sharpen their skills before facing slightly tougher opponents. There are two clear issues Illinois will have to sure up in order to roll against Prez. First, Demetri McCamey needs to stay out of foul trouble. The offense fell apart when McCamey had to come out with too many first-half fouls and freshman D.J. Richardson isn’t healthy enough (elbow injury) to handle the point guard duties at this time. McCamey’s importance as an organizer instead of a scorer could not be more important to this offense. Some individuals think the return of Jeff Jordan should help when McCamey is on the bench, but screw that. Jordan is terrible. He’s like Chester Frazier but can’t play defense and is slow…so not like Chester at all I guess. The other issue is gettin’ big ole Mike Tisdale going. Despite scoring 10 points against NIU, he was awful defensively and on the glass. No one expected Tisdale to become a monster under the hoop, but his defense needs to get better. So far it has not.
Have a good weekend. What what.
