Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Illinois 71, Minnesota 65

• What a great game!  This was an important road win.
• King James was outstanding, with the obvious exception of his 4-of-8 free throw shooting.  Still, 16 points and 10 rebounds.  Plus 7 assists!  Where did those come from?
• Another fine game for Pruitt.  I like the way this player is developing.  His 2 turnovers probably wouldn't have seemed so bad if they hadn't happened on back-to-back plays.
• Randle didn't have his best game, largely because the refs wouldn't let him play most of the first half.  Still, his stat line doesn't show the outstanding job he did defending Grier in the second half.
• Dee:  No real complaints here, but I'd much prefer him shooting 2-of-5 from the arc instead of 2-of-9.
• McBride:  Solid game.  2 steals -- cool.
• Frazier:  Darn it!  Every time he shoots a 3 I complain about it, and then he goes and makes one!
• Jamar:  In 21 minutes he got 7 points, 6 assists and no turnovers.  Can't complain about that, but it's a stat line that looks like a PG, not a SG.
• Marcus Arnold made fine use of his 11 minutes with 2-of-3 shooting and 2-of-2 from the foul line.
• In the final few minutes of the game, for a time I was tempted to feel sympathy for the Minnesota seniors.  Luckily, this temptation only lasted 0.68 seconds.
• Up next, Michigan State on the road.  Very tough game, that will be.
• I'm guessing at this point that Illinois is a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament.  If we beat State this weekend and do well in the Big Ten tournament, perhaps we get upgraded to a 2.  But I think we're mostly out of danger of getting a 4.  That's good.  A 3 is so much better than a 4.