SB Nation - Illinois Fighting Illini

Illini did not make top 25 this week, in AP or Coaches.

Joe Kutsunis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:53:57 -0000

Well, my bad. The Illini are left out in the cold for one more week, and given that we only play a fairly lowly Georgia team before the next rankings come out, I don't see them getting traction enough to make it in next week either. I thought this week offered the best opportunity for the Illini to get back in, given their recent games against ranked opponents, but the otherwise pretty watery schedule is not helping, nor are the two losses in Vegas, (to Bradley. little brother of all little brothers.) Ah well, we can always root for lots of losses in the 20-25 area, as we are I believe now the non technical 28th or so in voting.

Rank	Team	Points
1	Kansas Jayhawks	1620
2	Texas Longhorns	1512
3	Kentucky Wildcats	1486
4	Purdue Boilermakers	1426
5	Syracuse Orange	1388
6	West Virginia Mountaineers	1315
7	Duke Blue Devils	1137
8	Villanova Wildcats	1107
9	Tennessee Volunteers	1104
10	North Carolina Tar Heels	1039
11	Georgetown Hoyas	1008
12	Michigan St. Spartans	922
13	Florida Gators	864
14	Connecticut Huskies	762
15	Gonzaga Bulldogs	505
16	Texas Tech Red Raiders	492
17	Kansas St. Wildcats	391
18	Ohio St. Buckeyes	383
19	New Mexico Lobos	364
20	Mississippi Rebels	334
21	Butler Bulldogs	257
22	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	253
23	Texas A&M Aggies	221
24	Washington Huskies	179
25	Cincinnati Bearcats	174

Rank	Team	Points
1	Kansas Jayhawks	774
2	Texas Longhorns	735
3	Kentucky Wildcats	701
4	Purdue Boilermakers	675
5	Syracuse Orange	658
6	West Virginia Mountaineers	631
7	Duke Blue Devils	547
8	Tennessee Volunteers	528
9	Villanova Wildcats	524
10	North Carolina Tar Heels	497
11	Georgetown Hoyas	494
12	Michigan St. Spartans	423
13	Florida Gators	367
14	Connecticut Huskies	358
15	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	229
16	Gonzaga Bulldogs	229
17	Butler Bulldogs	184
18	Ohio St. Buckeyes	176
19	New Mexico Lobos	164
20	Texas Tech Red Raiders	150
21	Washington Huskies	146
22	Kansas St. Wildcats	136
23		112
24	Clemson Tigers	110
25	Mississippi Rebels	77

Look for the Illini to get back in the Top 25 on Monday

Joe Kutsunis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:06:47 -0000

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The Illini rolled their over matched opponent today by a very large spread, taking the Illini to 8-2. More importantly the Illini have won 4 straight, including a solid win against ranked Vandy at home and great comeback against a ranked Clemson at LittleJohn. Overall I am feeling pretty good about the Illini clawing their way back into the top 25 tomorrow, because of the teams that lost recently

#19 Cincny loses to unranked Xavier

#24/Un Vanderbilt loses to the Illini, and to Western Kentucky

#23/#20 Wisconsin loses to Greenbay (But bounces back against Marquette

#17/#16 Washington loses to a ranked Georgetown.

All of these guys have at least 2 loses now, and throw in a loss for UNLV today and you just might see the Illini gain enough votes to get back in, at the very least don't be surprised if it happens.

Western Michigan at Illinois Preview: inter-sport revenge game!

Joe Kutsunis — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:04:27 -0000

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Sometimes when you are looking for a storyline for an otherwise unremarkable game you have to reach deep, in this case all the way back to last year's season/program killing loss to Western Michigan in Detroit. It was probably the game that eliminated any chances of the fighting football Ilini returning to a bowl.

Thus the fighting basketball Illini I am sure are filled with immense feelings of anger and revenge as they face the Western Michigan Football Broncos tomorrow.

But lets face it, this is not exactly a game the Illini are actually worried all that much about. As such, it is completely up to them whether or not the Illini will be victorious etc.

Last game against Vanderbilt, the Illini shot an astonishing 60% from the field, a percent they will not often achieve. When they do, of course, I would like to see a team that can beat them. The nerves for me and for others however, come from a few itchy problems that still haunt the Illini.

In what is the best/only real way I can see as quantifiable defense when adjusting for number of possessions, the Illini are still giving up a point per possession to opponents, which according to the Big Ten Geeks, is bad. We know why the defense is bad, because the only perimeter player with any experience at defense was the weakest perimeter player defensively last year.

Turnovers from the point guard, by which I mean Demetri McCamey. It seems to me too many of these TO's come when DMAC wants to push the ball down the court and makes what we would call an inadvisable pass. Not turnovers of carelessness but of "aggression" To his credit, that aggression has paid off many times in other areas. In general though, Demetri just needs to take a moment and not take any unnecessary chances.

Rebounds. Another problem that is basically just chronic to the system the Illini have had to run in recent years. Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale get their points from a few steps back from the rim, not underneath. As such, they aren't in the best position to get an offensive board. This isn't as big a deal when they can hit those 15 foot jumpers, which they both can. However, when you aren't hitting, the team has to play better defense to equalize matters, see point #1.

Last home game for about a month, so enjoy your Orange Krush once more before Christmas, tomorrow 1:30pm Central on the BTN.

Zook reports conflicting, assistant dismissals begin.

Joe Kutsunis — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:45:24 -0000

Stay tuned folks, things will probably being moving a lot today.

The Trib is saying that the earlier reported meeting between Guenther and interim President Ikenberry concerning Zook never happened, and that at least at that level there is not yet a serious consideration to make a move on Zook, this contradicts the Sun Times article from yesterday and many others. We will see I suppose.

According to Adam Rittenberg the first round of assistant coach dismissals will begin today with the following four coaches.

Quarterbacks Coach Kurt Beathard

Receivers Coach Jim Pry

Special Teams Coordinator

Mike Woodford

and the biggest name thus far

Offensive coordinator Mike Schultz.

I doubt anyone will argue with the firing of Woodford, whose special teams units this year were among the worst in every phase, from kicking, to coverage to returns. But the others are all offensive coaches, from an offense that, by the end of the year, was not the unit that was losing games for the team. (the first 5 games, a different story) Surprising I am sure to most Illini fans would be the complete lack of any defensive coaches from this list. Mallory and Disch have been the focus of a lot of criticism for some time. This more than likely wont be the only round of coach firings in the near future.

12/8 Game Links

SFBE.NF — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:31:54 -0000

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Illinois holds court against Vandy; might be most likable team in college basketball

The Chris Mack era is off to a rough start

Dayton survives second-half flurry from George Mason

Secondary School? Iowa downed by Northern Iowa

Texas Tech moves to 9-0, downs TCU

Postgame: Illinois 79, #24 Vanderbilt 68

KingJamesIV — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:21:33 -0000

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Firstly, I'd like to congratulate the Fighting Illini. They played hard and with passion. Must be nice.

Feeling a little shellshocked at the moment that Vandy would drop another egg like that after earning their way back into the rankings. It felt like everyone just decided they were going to take the night off tonight.

Steve Tchiengang had the lone block for the Dores. That's a pretty good example of the lack of defensive intensity from the team tonight. On the season, Vandy was averaging close to 6 per game.

Andre Walker was the glue guy again with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals.

Illinois really shot the ball well. Of course, It sure is easy to do that when the defense is leaving you with a comfortable look at the basket. Even when Vandy would try to go on a run, there'd be a defensive breakdown which would lead to an open look from outside. Illinois had to make them, and they did, with relative ease.

As I said in the preview, Vandy just can't spot teams early points with turnovers and poor shot selection. It's a recipe for disaster, especially while we aren't shooting well from outside. When you couple that with poor defensive intensity, you lose ball games. It just doesn't seem like the team is focused on playing basketball at all.

What Vandy needs right now is a players-only meeting.

Relevant links:

Game Page /// TSN Recap /// Box Score /// Official Vanderbilt Recap

Stallings just now on the post game radio show: "We got less than we needed from Jeff on the road. We got less than we needed from John on the road. We got less than we needed from A.J. Ogilvy on the road. We got less than we needed from Jermaine Beal on the road. I don't think there was a player on our team who played better than just their average. You can't win on the road in a place like Illinois without people playing above themselves."

As I mentioned in the game thread, Jeffery Taylor apparently had been running a fever throughout the day. Also, John Jenkins may have a sprained MCL and was playing with a brace (that conveniently broke during a fast break).

Plus/Minus Updated Through the Illinois game:

Plus/Minus PER 40

In my preview I said that Vanderbilt is the better team statistically and that they should win. This is exactly why games are played. Tonight, Illinois deserved to win.

Illini win over Vanderbilt 79-68, and look good doing it.

Joe Kutsunis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:06:02 -0000

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Well, thats two top 25 opponents and two wins to show for it, it almost makes up for the two bad losses. Not quite yet perhaps, but it makes a statement to the national media that the Illini are still a factor in this conference.

The game started right for the Illini from the word go, as the Illini jumped out to a 9-0 lead, with the defense forcing Vandy to take bad shots and the offense making Vandy's zone look useless. Mike Tisdale being able to step out and shoot is a weapon that confuses and frustrates a lot of defenses, and it was key to the Illini's early scoring success.

On defense except for a few minor 3 minute lapses, the Illini have played one of their more solid games in that end. Ogilvy looked like he was the most effective player for the 'dores on the offensive end, but their shooters really never woke up like we had worried they would.

I would also like to highlight how damn good Jeff Jordan played tonight, making some very clutch shots, including a long 3 as the shot clock ran out. All the guards had a fine day against the Vandy defense, which seemed like as long as it wasn't Mike Davis taking the shot, they were willing to take their chances.

Mike Davis seemed to play the decoy all night, having very few points but a few assists and blocks to show for his minutes. If the other team wants to take Davis out of the game, clearly they can, but its going to leave Demetri McCamey, (23pts) D.J. Richardson (16 pts) and Tisdale (14 pts) all open to take their shots at will, that is fine by me.

The defense was much more I am sure to Bruce's liking tonight, running almost all man again (as always) and although it did worry me a bit when I saw Brandon Paul having to run off of a screen to pick his an back up. The freshmen will get better in straight man to man D, but it will take time and practice. Exhibit A is Demetri McCamey who was pretty much a defensive liability his freshman year but has become one of the more reliable defensive players on the team.

Speaking of Demetri he once again had one or two too many turnovers (6) but still is clearly the best option at running the offense because he is calmer cooler and more collected than any of the other options. And as our good friend the Donut King has pointed out, many of tonight's turnovers were TO's of aggression, which is in a sense a good thing, but are still in the end turnovers. That aggression of course comes along with his 23 points, so I will take it as an overall push.

Next game is Saturday at noon as the Illini host Western Michigan, then its winter break and the Illini go on the road for their neutral site games.

Periscope: Vanderbilt @ Illinois

KingJamesIV — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:12:20 -0000

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Let me paint a picture for you. Thursday, November 20th, 2008. Illinois enters Memorial Gym. Vanderbilt leads by 5 with 10 minutes to play. Demetri McCamey and Trent Meachem combine for 9 threes. Illinois hands Vanderbilt it's first loss of the season.

The Illinois game serves as a pretty good nutshell of the Commodores 2009 season. In a year when Vandy had 5 freshmen average significant minutes (2 being starters), they couldn't handle adversity and often withered down the stretch.

What a difference a year makes. The 2010 Vanderbilt team seems to thrive when facing adversity. Though they still haven't put together a complete game offensively, they are winning in the trenches.

The Illini 2010 stats are fairly impressive, until you really start to look at their schedule. The toughest team they've played so far has been Clemson, a game they won in which Clemson shamefully gave away its 23 point lead. Clemson and Vandy are pretty similar in terms of offensive and defensive efficiencies. According to Ken Pomeroy, Clemson's offensive efficiency is 110.9. Vanderbilt's is 111.9. Clemson's defensive efficiency is 87.3. Vanderbilt's is 88.9. Clemson is the only team Illinois has faced thus far with an offensive efficiency above 110. Vandy has already faced St. Mary's (OffEff 117.1 - @ McKeon Pavilion no less) and Missouri (OffEff 114.6). The Illini's offensive efficiency is 110.9. In fact, excluding Chaminade (game doesn't count in these numbers) Vandy has yet to face a team with an offensive efficiency below 100. Illinois has faced three below 90.

Despite the weak offensive opponents, the Illini defensive efficiency is a mediocre 97.1. On the other hand, Vanderbilt's defensive efficiency is a stout 88.9, especially when you take into consideration the solid offensive teams Vanderbilt has faced.

Looking at the defenses each team has faced, half of Illinois' opponents have defensive efficiencies above 100 (not good - this is a measure of points scored per 100 possessions). Vanderbilt has only faced 1 team with a defensive efficiency over 100. Considering the stringent defenses, Vanderbilt's offense efficiency is all the more impressive.

Here is the breakdown of all these numbers (all taken from Ken Pomeroy):

TSN Preview

Strong defense has been key to Illinois' success thus far, as the team has been able to limit opponents to 65.6 ppg on 40.6 percent shooting from the field. The Illini are also outrebounding foes by nearly seven boards per contest, and they are racking up 79.2 ppg. Mike Davis is one of five double- digit scorers for Illinois, as he is generating 13.6 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Demetri McCamey provides 12.6 ppg, and Brandon Paul checks in with 12.3 ppg. Mike Tisdale (10.9 ppg) and D.J. Richardson (10.6 ppg) round out the balanced Illinois attack. In Saturday's triumph over Boise State, all five starters reached double figures in scoring, paced by McCamey's 23-point outburst. The Illini shot 59.3 percent from the floor in the second half to hold off the Broncos.

In what figures to be a close game from start to finish, give a narrow edge to the home team. The balance of the Illini at the offensive end will be the difference.

Statistical Breakdown:

Commodore Keys

Come to Play - Two weeks ago after Vandy was first ranked in the polls, they laid an egg against Cincinnati. For whatever reason, they didn't bring the effort and intensity that you need to win when you have a target on your back. As the team hopefully learned, you have to take advantage of the extra coverage and media attention that a Top 25 ranking affords.
Limit Turnovers - The team is clearly very good at scoring the ball when they don't turn it over. Although they may not be scoring "pretty", opposing teams are having lots of trouble stopping Vandy from putting the ball through the hoop. You don't win on the road in a hostile environment without taking care of the ball. It stands to reason that Coach Weber has probably been focusing on team defense in practices lately. The last thing the Commodores want is to help build the Illini's defensive confidence by giving up a bunch of early, careless turnovers.
Rebound Like You Want It - When this team puts forth a full effort on the boards, they've been absolutely dominating. They were a good rebounding team last season, so I'm hopeful that the poor numbers early in the season were a reflection of A.J. Ogilvy still working his way back from the concussion and from lack of focus. Limiting second chance points from offensive boards is particularly important. I want to see this team continue to win the offensive rebounding margin.

Jermaine Beal really had a poor game against DePaul on Saturday. Considering they Illini are relying pretty heavily on some freshman guards, it will be imperative for Jermaine to play his game. Foul trouble was the biggest problem for him on Saturday, so I don't see why he won't return to form against Illinois.

One other thing I would like to see tonight would be Jeffery Taylor sniping some lazy freshman passes between those guards, giving Vandy some easy transition dunks. He's going to draw the assignment on one of them, most likely Brandon Paul. Showcase yourself, Jeff.

John Jenkins Update:

Apparently John practiced yesterday prior to the team leaving for Illinois. Hopefully he will be able to play without much trouble from any lingering pain.

Gameday Links:

Vanderbilt's top scorer also talks good game | The Tennessean

"I grew up bilingual," Taylor said. "And usually if you live in Europe you learn the neighboring languages, so I know Danish and Norwegian. They're kind of similar. "Then I know a little Bosnian, Yugoslavian, Serbian … and bits and pieces of other languages I picked up along the way. I have a lot of Bosnian friends in Sweden that were refugees from the war down there." Taylor was even able to surprise Lipscomb junior Adnan Hodzic, a Bosnian native, with a conversion in his native language before their Nov. 16 game at Memorial Gym.

Ogilvy earns SEC weekly award with eye-opening performances | Nashville City Paper

Ogilvy had team-highs of 13 points and seven rebounds last season against Illinois, a game the Commodores lost 69-63. "They’re good, and they’re extremely well-coached," Stallings said of Illinois. "… They’ve got good players, and they have three guys we played a lot against last year with a couple freshmen who are outstanding players. "… We’ll have to be real solid and real tight if we want to get done there what we want to get done."

Coach Bruce Weber emphasizes Illinois needs to play better defense | chicagotribune.com

A man out of position here, a misguided steal attempt there and a team that still is trying to jell after losing its defensive leader from a year ago. Put it all together and you get a defensive output like the one Illinois had in its closer-than-it-should-have-been 84-77 victory Saturday night over Boise State.

VSL Gets You Ready: Vanderbilt Travels to Champaign | Vanderbilt Sports Line

Preview: Vanderbilt - Illinois | Dore Posts

Previewing Vanderbilt at Illinois | VandySports.com (Rivals - Premium)

Scouting Report: Illinois | VandyMania.com (Scout - Premium)

Check out Hail to the Orange for their take on this important Big Ten/SEC Matchup.

As always, post your predictions below and make sure to head over to Stat-King to vote on who you think will be the best performing Commodore against the Fighting Illini. Also, stop by our open game thread which opens an hour before tipoff.

Poll

Vanderbilt Commodores (+4) @ Illinois Fighting Illini -- Who wins?

Vanderbilt by 5 or more

4 votes

Vanderbilt by 4 or less

5 votes

Illinois by 4 or less

3 votes

Illinois by 5 or more

3 votes

15 votes | Poll has closed

Vanderbilt at Illinois preview, we will consume you to gain your courage, and RPI

Joe Kutsunis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:51:19 -0000

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When Demetri McCamey and Mikes Davis and Tisdale came in for the post game media conference on Saturday, they all had their heads down and looked somewhat disappointed. They looked like a kid who just got chewed out for not doing their homework.

When asked if he was a little rough on the players for their play down the stretch against the Broncos, he responded "I would say that's an understatement."

Bruce then made reference to the football game earlier in the day where the Illini crapped away their lead in the closing minutes and ended up losing to Fresno. But of course the Illini didn't even need to look outside of their own recent history of the Bradley and Utah games to see how a late lead can evaporate very quickly.

To their credit, the Illini did not let this one slip away, but it was clearly something that has been weighing heavily on Bruce's mind lately.

This year's team may have gotten too used to outscoring cupcakes into submission and then letting Bubba and co. clean up the dregs. Clemson could have been the aberration for the season, if the Illini were to fall into their bad habits again with Boise State.

Last year's team could take nothing for granted, it was a starting lineup of two guards who were never stars and three players who were unproven or unknown. They had to equalize the talent and scoring gap by locking down on defense, reducing turnovers and maximizing every possession.

Flash forward a year and the team now seemingly is flush with scorers, as all 5 of its players can conceivably go off for 20+ on any opponent. With the cushion of improved scoring though can come the slack of turnovers and defensive breakdowns. Whats worse, when the scoring isn't there for one reason or another, the Illini are very vulnerable. This is a lesson they have already learned twice, and Bruce doesn't need another learning opportunity.

This team it seems can score on just about anyone when Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson are on their game, but Bruce does not want to have to live game to game based on how his freshmen are shooting. This team cannot afford even for a moment to lose its concentration and rest on its laurels.

The Illini are still feeling the sting of the Vegas losses. All in all, the early season schedule has been pretty cake, at least in terms of the RPI, with the one great exception being of course a top 25 Clemson. It has thus far resulted in an RPI of a none too exciting 130 according to the CBS Sportsline RPI rater. That all changes tonight though, when the Illini face Vanderbilt and its thick and meaty #6 RPI. Beat the Commodores and we will gain from their win loss record, and that of their opponents, and their opponents' opponents. A process I believe looks a lot like this:

I can't say for sure, I'm no John Gasaway.

Anyway, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Gonzaga are all coming down the chute, the big time RPI builders that will no doubt bring the Illini SOS out of its pretty poor 206 rating. We already missed out on playing legit RPI builder Oklahoma State, so as far as out of conference games go, these will make or break the Illini's NCAA case. Unless of course they go on a tear in the conference, then this is all more or less moot.

Game time is at 7:30 central on the good old Big Ten Network.

Illini fall to Fresno State in least likely way possible.

Joe Kutsunis — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:11:05 -0000

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Do you ever feel like God is laughing at you? Well maybe not God per se, but some sort of supernatural force that wants to make sure you learn every sort of disappointment thoroughly. I have seen the Illini lose in a lot of ways, both blowouts and heart breakers, and let me tell you, this was by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened. .

But I digress. For many, many reasons, it has taken me quite some time to write about this game. The last game of any real meaning happened back before Thanksgiving, and without even the selling point of making the entire city of Cincinnati cry there was very little interest left for this last game.

It was senior day though, and the last opportunity for all of us to see #7 go out there and try and recapture the glory one last time. I think a full retrospective on the career of Juice Williams deserves its own dedicated post, so I wont go into the melancholy feelings even I had about realizing it was his last game as an Illini. For now I'll just stick to the game at hand.

I remember hearing in the pressbox that up until the final 8 minutes, this had to be the most boring yet high scoring game there was. And for the most part, it was true. What we saw yesterday were two teams with pretty damn good running backs run almost completely unchecked up and down the field. Ryan Mathews with his 32 carries for 172 yards and Mikel LeShoure with his much more efficient 11 carries for 184 yards. Yes, that is a 16 yard per carry average. I will now, if you will indulge me, try and communicate to you my frustrations with the coaching staff concerning Mikel LeShoure and his playing time.

Mikel LeShoure is, at this very moment, and will be next year the best running back option on this team. It has been proven just about every week since Purdue. That said, Mikel LeShoure had over 200 yards of all purpose yardage, but was given the ball 4 fewer times than his teammate Jason Ford. Ford of course had a decent game with 65 yards, but he had no where near the game that LeShoure did. If ford has any advantage on LeShoure it is in the red zone, where Jason Ford can use his strength to get short yardage. But in the open field, on the read option and on the speed option, or just plain old fashion down hill running Leshoure has proven himself the superior back. The numbers don't lie.

All of this evidence being in place, no one yet has been able to explain to me why, on the last Illini possession, with only a few minutes left on the clock and all that was needed to finish the game off was a first down or two, Jason Ford, and not Mikel Leshoure lined up as the running back.

It was LeShoure after all that had caught the pass for the go ahead touchdown just before. When asked why Mikel was not out there, he simply explained that "we like all of our backs." I interpret that to mean that in the normal rotation of backs, it was Ford's turn. Ford got 3 yards on a run, Juice got 2 yards on a run, and Benn got 3 yards on a catch, not enough for the first down. I am not saying that Leshoure would have been meant a first down, but with his 16 yard per carry average, it could not have hurt.

But the Illini didn't get the first down. And they ended up giving up another touchdown. And then Fresno elected to go for 2. and then this happened.

I was standing on the field with the rest of the media, waiting for the post game interviews etc. I was standing just behind the cameramen, directly parallel with the end zone. I saw the whole thing happen in front of me. I saw the QB chased out of the pocket, I saw him seemingly wrapped up for a sack, I saw his desperate flail of a pass to the end zone, I saw Tavon Wilson and the Fresno receiver grasp at the ball, I saw it bounce into the arms of David Cunningham. I saw the officials signal for a successful conversion, and I don't think I'll be able to figure out all of the things that had to go wrong for the Illini for that to happen. Six feet away from me the Fresno State AD was going absolutely insane yelling at the officials that the conversion had to stand. And it of course did.

This was one of the weirdest plays around, and while it sucked for my team, I suppose I am glad to have seen it in person. Along with being at the 2007 Ohio State game, I guess this the most significant football moment I have seen in person. As an Illini fan, you don't get to see many in the first place, so I guess I should be appreciative.

So closed the 2009 season of Illini football, fitting with the rest of the season, it was not good, but it was exciting.

Stay tuned for a full season in review later this week.