Thursday, November 10, 2005

Illinois 78, Quincy 52

• Starters:  Brown, Augustine, Randle, Pruitt, McBride.
• Exhibition games are funky.  The team is going to get a lot better over the course of the season.  Some of the negatives don't matter.  What matters are the positives that our genius coach can use as raw material to build a great team.
• Therefore, we shall not worry about the fact that Illinois committed ten turnovers in the first ten minutes.
• Give credit to Quincy for their defense.  These guys did a fine job pestering a team which is far better.
• Which reminds me -- let's thank Quincy for trapping Dee Brown and forcing him to turn the ball over.  That's a piece of experience Dee needs.  Better now than later.
• Ditto for the Quincy guy who single-handedly forced Rich to turn it over on the sideline a little later in the game.
• Frazier is fast.  I'm still impressed with this guy.
• I saw this game with my seven-year-old, who admittedly has a very short attention span.  Nonetheless, midway through the first half when she announced that the game was boring, she was right.
• Before the game they had a little ceremony where they handed out rings to last year's players and hung the Big Ten Champions banner.  Then they raised the banner up and stopped it exactly at the pointer where it obscured the scoreboard for those of us who sit behind the south basket.
• A little later, apparently in response to complaints, they raised the banner a little higher.  Its final resting place was just high enough that it only obscured the scoreboard for people who were sitting in the very top row.  :-)
• Last year we mostly watched Deron throwing fast breaks to Dee for a layup.  This year we will mostly see Dee throwing fast breaks to Augie for a dunk.  I'm never going to get tired of watching that.
• Pruitt impresses me still.  I get a happy feeling when I see him block shots, even against a team which has a big height disadvantage.
• That alleyoop from Dee to Brock would have been spectacular.  Too bad the pass was a little too high.  Kudos to Calvin for catching it at all.
• Nice to see Randle handling the ball a little bit, dishing to Pruitt for an assist.  We won't be thinking of him as a point guard anytime soon, but he continues to show evidence of being a very versatile player.
• Playing man defense against Illinois.  Gutsy.
• My daughter ran out of steam quickly, so I caught the second half on the radio.  Hester is already starting to settle down.  Loren Tate is not.  He needs to stop interrupting the people he is interviewing.