Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Illinois 93, Texas Southern 59

• Same starters as previous game.  All of them played well enough to keep the job.
• Texas Southern was totally outmatched.  Illinois played very well, but that's a lot easier to do when the other team just doesn't have what it takes to make you play badly.
• IMHO, every Illinois player gets at least a B grade for this game.  Any criticisms here are nitpicks.
• Warren often forgets to go after his rebound.  Apparently it does not occur to him that he might miss the shot.  :-)
• Spectacular dunk by Augie on the feed from Dee.  I never get tired of watching that stuff.
• Randle got a dunk as well.
• So did Brock, late in the game on a feed from Chester.
• Warren would have made his dunk if he hadn't got fouled hard in the attempt.
• My favorite play:  Ball is loose on the floor.  Augie recovers it and passes it to the player he hears behind him.  Unfortunately, that person was the ref.  the ball bounces off the ref's chest.  Somebody else recovers it and passes to Dee who is streaking toward the hoop at approximately 57 miles per hour.  Dee is well defended so he throws a no-look pass behind his head to Pruitt who is two steps behind him.  Pruitt doesn't see it coming, so the ball bounces off him.  Augie recovers it, makes the layup, gets fouled, and makes the free throw.
• Almost as comical was the moment in the second half when one of the Texas Southern players passed the ball to Nobody.  There was nobody there.  Strangely enough, none of the other players seemed to see the pass, so the fans got to watch the ball go out of bounds with most of the players looking the opposite direction.  Weird.
• After Dee ran around two opponents on a fast break, you could see the Texas Southern coach shaking his head.  "Darn it -- I told those guys he was fast and they just wouldn't listen to me."  :-)
• I bet Chester felt a little sheepish when he got beat on that drive to the hoop.  He's faster than that.
• Calvin Brock got plenty of minutes this time.  He used them fairly well.
• Warren and Arnold were both in double figures.
• Jamar Smith was very impressive once again.
• Play of the game was Chester's sliding save while the ball was going out of bounds.  Very Dee-esque.
• I think Randle had 5 assists?  Sweet.
• I couldn't believe it when Hicks got put into the game with a minute and a half left.  I had never even heard of the guy.  Apparently he's a walkon who joined the team only recently.  He played fairly well, actually.
• This game was during a student break, so we were able to pick up four tickets in the front row of section B.  Nice view from there.
• You know how they always run a lap with the flags during the first TV timeout of the second half?  Our seats were exactly at the point where they started the lap.  Cool.
• That quartet sang the best national anthem yet this year.
• The team needs to take their next game seriously.  Wichita State is no slouch.