Tuesday November 20Well after being kicked out of the bed, I got up around 7:15 and worked out before breakfast. After breakfast we headed to the gym for a short shootaround to prepare for the Dukies. After shootaround/walkthrough we went back to the hotel for pre-game meal and to focus for the game ahead. We left the hotel around 3:15 for the game against Duke at 4:30. We started out alright leading into ten minutes into the game, but then they went on a run and stretched the lead over 10, but the Illini got it under ten going into halftime. We came out on a nice little run after halftime and got the lead down to 3, but they quickly got it over 10 and every little run they made they had a counter for it, as the Illini fell 79-66.
A few observations from the game:
- Duke doesn't help the snotty we're better than you attitude-Singler and Scheyer are little punks, with that being said, they are better than I thought, but any team with a good inside game and doesn't shoot 36% for the game will beat them-UNC.
- Henderson is a stud-athletic and can shoot
- I think we are definitely going to be better than A LOT of people think. We play hard0-led by Chester and if Brian stays healthy and plays they way he has we will be Big 10 Contenders and a Tournament Team.
- Not many teams will outrebound us-we had 19 offensive rebounds and outrebounded them by 10 total
- The bench will be a factor in a lot of games because they can bring some depth and a breather to guys while not losing much
- That being said, we still need to defend without fouling and knock our outside shots down
- You DON'T mess with Chester-Singler picked the wrong guy right there and was lucky because it would not have been pretty for him
With the loss to Duke, we had an early turnaround to play at 11:30 a.m. Wake up was at 7:15 and pre-game meal at 7:30 before we left at 10:20 for the game. The LSU and Arizona St. game went into OT, delaying our game. The Illini finally took the floor against the Oklahoma St. Sooners who absolutely got spanked by Marquette, which was going to make this an interesting contest. After the Illini took an early 9-7 lead, they never looked back taking a 13 point lead at halftime and turning it into a 16 point victory.
More Notes:
- Trent and Calvin really stepped up-Trent hitting some shots and Calvin just doing a little of everything, which was big since Brian Randle went down with an injury; Congratulations to Calvin for being on the Maui All-Tournament Team!
- Our defense was relentless at times, sometimes we got lazy, but overall you could tell OK ST. was just wittling under the pressure-part of that is the depth and how well we play defense-just need to keep it up
- Overall, 3-1 on this Hawaii trip is good. We won a close one and won some games going away. I thought we could have played better against Duke, but I think it is something to build on. Also, going 2-1 at Maui was what I expected and I think it might be better to leave with a victory than possibly a loss for our confidence. The Illini learned a lot about themselves as a team and there is room for improvement, but I think Coach Weber has these guys headed in the right direction for the rest of the season!
ALOHA!!
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