Illini 38, Northwestern 35: The Land of Lincoln Trophy Stays Where it Belongs

My wife is a Northwestern alum, so I'll have to watch what I say in this post and not put the Wildcats down too much.  If I'm not careful, I might end up sleeping in the garage.  Just kidding - my wife would never do that to me.  The garage has a roof - she'd make me sleep in the driveway.

But seriously, enough about me - how about those Illini!  You might say three is the magic number, as for the third week in a row, the Illini pulled out a three-point victory.   On Saturday, two dramatic comebacks in the second half helped the Illini beat Northwestern 38-35.  Nathan Scheelhaase led the Orange and Blue on a last-minute, 70 yard touchdown drive which allowed the Land of Lincoln Trophy (left) to stay in Champaign with Chicago's Real Big Ten team.  More importantly, the Illini are off to their first 5-0 start since...actually, it's just as long as it's been since their last 4-0 start (i.e. - since 1951).  Here's a look at some key numbers from Saturday's game.

Thank You Seniors - Illini Pound UNLV

Well, I was half-right - UNLV did score 62 points on Friday night. But the Illini, led by Demetri McCamey and Mike Davis, dominated the Runnin' Rebels, putting up a lot more points than I expected in a not-as-close-as-the-final-score-indicated 73-62 win. I loved seeing the Illini beating the UNLV press consistently, resulting in a lot of easy fast-break buckets, as well as seeing DJ Richardson re-emerge, and Crandall Head and Meyers Leonard contribute.

A hearty Mazel Tov to Bruce Weber, who has finally won a tournament game at Illinois with his own players, and to the seniors, who won't have to wear the scarlet number "zero" (number of tournament wins) for the rest of their lives. And one more important fact - for only the second time since the NCAA tournament began seeding teams, the Illini beat a higher-seeded team.

The hill gets awfully steep in the next round. To have a chance to beat Kansas, Illinois will have to play the entire game like they played in the first half against UNLV. But for now, let's just enjoy this win.

OSKEE-WOW-WOW!

Illini Surprise Buckeyes in Columbus!

You read that right, sports fans. I'm sure that no one in the Ohio State locker room expected Bruce Weber to put Crandall Head into the starting lineup for Tuesday night's game. Of course, that was the only surprise in the game, in which the Buckeyes coasted to an 89-70 win over the Illini. The scary part is that the Illini actually shot well tonight (over 50% from the field; 11-24 from 3-point range) and still got blown out. Losing the turnover battle 16-3 will do that, I guess. As for Crandall Head's playing time (16 minutes), I think that was a ploy by Weber - put Head into the lineup in a no-hope game, so Weber could say to the fans afterward: "see, the team isn't better with him out there. Now stop complaining, and let me bury him on the bench again while I go back to my regular ineffective player rotation."

So with Tuesday's loss, the Illini fall to 7-8 in Big Ten play. In a year in which Weber's roster is loaded with experience and talent, and pretty much every preseason publication tabbed the Illini as a top 25 team (and some even touted them as a darkhorse Final Four candidate), and most of the rest of the teams in the Big Ten stink, with a week and a half left in the regular season the Illini have a losing record in conference play and are headed full-steam ahead toward the NCAA tournament bubble. You could argue that this disappointing season is an aberration, except for the fact that in the (nearly) five years since Dee Brown and James Augustine graduated, the Illini's overall conference record is now 42-43. So this year's record is right in line with Bruce Weber's record without the players he inherited from Bill Self.

But don't worry, fellow Illini fans - better players are on the way! Never mind that we've been hearing that for two years, or that this was supposed to be the year when everything came together. What's that thing Cubs fans say...oh, right. Wait till next year!

Back to Form: Illini Play Close Game, Lose

As I predicted, Illinois was unable to gain any momentum after their close win over Michigan on Wednesday. At least the Illini put forth a good effort tonight at the Breslin Center (the kind of effort that would have easily carried them to wins at Indiana, Penn State, or Northwestern), but effort alone doesn't count any more. Wins do, and this one ended up as a 61-57 loss. The game was right there for the taking - tied with under 4:00 to go - but like so many other times this year, the Illini couldn't execute at either end of the floor in the final minutes.

And with that, the Illini's last realistic chance for a road win goes by the boards, which means that we're looking at a best-case scenario of a 9-9 conference record, which is about as mediocre and bubblicious as you can get. It also means that we'll probably need to win a game in the Big Ten Tournament to be sure of an NCAA tournament bid. How I miss the good old days, when I could relax and enjoy the Big Ten Tournament as the Illini used it as a tune-up for the NCAA tournament.

Bruce Weber - making your Selection Sunday nerve-wracking since 2007!

Illini Win Close Game!

Well, "win" might be too strong a word - "Illini Don't Lose Close Game" would probably be a more accurate description of Wednesday night's game against Michigan in Champaign. The Illini nearly blew a 10-point halftime lead and had to hang on for a 54-52 decision as two potential game-winning shots by Michigan went awry in the final seconds. And all of this came as the Illini were holding the Wolverines to 2-18 shooting from behind the arc for the game, mind you. I'm thinking that Michigan will be a good sleeper pick in the Big Ten next year, since they have everyone back (on a roster of mostly sophomores and freshman), and are well-coached (notice the way they were able to come back despite not hitting their three-pointers, and how adjusted their offense and started getting baskets on back-door cuts when the Illini were heavily pressuring the 3-point line on defense). But at least for tonight, we can celebrate the fact that the Illini didn't blow the home game they absolutely had to win in order to have a shot to reach the NCAA tournament.

I'd like to think that winning a tight game will finally enable the Illini to get on a little roll going into the final weeks of the regular season and into the Big Ten tournament. But more realistically, they'll follow this one up by laying an egg or two, and we'll all be on pins and needles right up to Selection Sunday.

Just When I Think I'm In, They Push Me Out

Another home game against a ranked opponent (Purdue), another loss for the Illini. This one was eerily reminiscent of last year's home loss to Purdue - in both games the Boilermakers played poorly in the first half, but the Illini were unable to build up a big enough cushion to hold off Purdue during the Boilermakers' second half surge.

If it wasn't clear before, it's certainly clear now that to beat a good team, the Illini need Demetri McCamey to have a good game, and a game in which McCamey shoots 1-10 from the field (with as many missed dunks as made baskets) won't get it done against a team like Purdue. It would help if the Illini had another point guard on the roster to run the show when McCamey is in a funk, but we won't have one until next year, when it's too late to help McCamey. Hmmm...you'd think after having Dee Brown and Deron Williams during his first two seasons at Illinois, Bruce Weber would be OK with multiple point guards on the roster, or at least that he'd recruit more than one every four years. But I digress.

So Illinois falls back to .500 in Big Ten play, which amazingly is still good for 4th in the conference standings - with three weeks to go before the Big Ten Tournament, only three teams (Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin) have winning records in conference play. As poorly as the Illini are playing, if they win their remaining home games (Michigan, Indiana, Iowa), they'll finish no worse than .500 in conference play and probably still make the NCAA tournament. But today's game represents a wasted opportunity - other than possibly upsetting Michigan State at the Breslin Center, this game was probably the Illini's last reasonable shot at a statement win during the regular season, which means that the Illini can't afford to slip up in any of those remaining home games. It also looks as if this team incapable of building momentum and putting together a string of good games, so even if they do somehow get to the NCAA tournament it'll be as a one-and-done proposition. Considering that we had pretty much everyone of consequence back from last year's team and added some high-impact freshman, that's another major disappointment that falls at the feet of Bruce Weber.

Your First Place Chicago Bears?

Lovie Smith: "We get off the bus running."

Jay Cutler, Todd Collins, and Caleb Hanie: "We get off the bus running...for our lives."

To Lovie's credit, he hasn't been rehashing that quote as much this year, although I wouldn't be surprised to hear his QBs saying the second quote. Especially after Sunday night's 17-3 loss to the Giants, in which the Bears allowed nine sacks in the first half alone and saw Jay Cutler miss the second half after suffering a concussion. Unlike the win in Dallas, when they shifted offensive linemen around and switched to a shorter drop to counteract the pressure, the Bears had no answer for the Giants' pass rush. And with no running game to speak of, the Giants were able to tee off even more on the helpless QBs, as both Cutler and Collins were sent to the sidelines during the game. I give the defense credit - they held their ground as long as they could, but they got absolutely no help from the offense. On the night, the Bears could only conjure up 103 yards of offense and those three points, which came after a turnover set the offense up at the Giants' 29 yard line. I suspect you won't find many games in which a team has the same number of forced turnovers and points.

As bad as this game was, the Bears are still in first place in the division with a 3-1 record, with the softer part of the schedule on tap. But we'll have to spend the week wondering if Jay Cutler is going to be cleared to play. And whether or not Cutler plays next week in Charlotte against the 0-4 Panthers, it would be nice to get some help from the offensive line and the running game. But if the Bears haven't been able to run the ball effectively against the Giants, Packers, or Lions, all of whom rank in the bottom half of the NFL in rushing yards per game allowed so far this year, when will they be able to run the ball?