Discovery and Progress

I think that our Illini have had a big week. Two wins against two good programs. Obviously, the North Carolina win was big (and looks even bigger with their win at Kentucky today). But, few people remember that two years ago, when we lost to Duke in the Sweet 16, it was Xavier who to lost to Duke in the Elite 8. And some others may remember when we rebuffed in our efforts to land Thad Matta, he was the coach at Xavier. And while Xavier was off last season, they returned all of their major players from last year. So this wasn't a pushover game for us. In fact, I don't think that we'll have many pushover games with this team.

It goes without saying that Auggie played great today. But you almost expect his 14 points and 10 rebounds every game. What I like about the game is that Marcus Arnold showed up in the 2nd half. I think that this is the first time I've seen him without the knee brace, so maybe this is a turning point. He was tough. Played well, boarded well, and used his body to draw fouls and create in the paint. If we can get Pruitt to play a bit better, we could have 3 solid bigs to go to, which is huge for us. Also, we were able to win without shooting well from outside. We were 6-21 (29%) from beyond the arc, and only 20-49 (41%) overall. We won this game with defense and aggressive interior play in the 2nd half. Just like the team last year, I think that our defense will keep us in just about any game this year. And going into the season, I thought that the interior game was going to be our bright spot w/ Auggie, Pruitt, and Arnold rotating through the 4 and 5 spots.

Some things need to be worked on. We still need to get the rotation ironed out and work Jamar Smith into the offense a little more. We also need to make sure that McBride doesn't disappear on us. ButDee still isn't hitting. Part of it is that he's missing some tough layups. The other part is that he's still playing mad bomber at times. The announcers made a good point that goes with my comment about Dee being a better spot up shooter than off the dribble. It's all about the footwork. When you square up, you lose a split second of separation between you and the defender. But your accuracy goes from like 20% to %50. Some guys were able to square up in the air and adjust for the drift (Rip Hamilton with the mid-range jumper or Reggie Miller and Mark Price with the 3), but very few are able to. When Dee was able to square up and get into the shot, he made those two in a row to get us back into it at the start of the 2nd half.

Regardless, we're 7-0, and looking alright. We'll be no worse than 11-3, and probably 13-1 or 14-0 going into Big Ten play. Next up? Arkansas-Little Rock and G'Town, both at home. Should be able to defend home court.

Until then.

-Chairman