Final Four - I - L - L!!!!
Well, its here and we made it. After an amazing run the Illini have reached their over-arching goal of making the Final Four in St. Louis. The big question now is, "getting here good enough for this team or will they remain hungry for a championship?" The other three schools in the final four have won national championships in their school's history but Illini are still to capture that brass ring. But first things first, the Illini meet a tough opponent in the Rick Pitino coached University of Louiville Cardinals. The Cards match up well against the Illini with a couple of dynamic guards to match ours on the offensive end. What worries me is the fact that we may be out match in the post areas. If Louiville pushes the ball in early and drives the lane we could see a lot of starters in foul trouble early which could put the Cards in the driver seat to end the Illini's run. One big advantage the Illini have is that they play an oppressive style of defense, the likes of which the Cards have not seen in this tourny. This in my opinion, will be the deciding factor in this game. If the Illini guards can pressure the Cards early they may be able to get them off their game early and control the momentum of the game. This one will be a nail-biter and will most likely be decided in the final minutes of the game. Will Bruce Weber be able to join the elite coaching ranks of the other 3 coaches in the final four? Will the Illini take over the reins as the Flagship team of the Big Ten for years to come? The answers to these questions will be answered on the floor of the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis this weekend. After that Arizona game you can't count the Illini out until that final buzzer sounds. Go ILLINI!!!!
Also, I would like to give a shout to Clay on his new position at work! Congrats again dude! We will celebrate more this weekend when you come over to watch the game at casa de Port!
Lift with your Legs!!!! and the Illini...
Well, first I would like to start off by saying get well soon Clay and remember to lift with your legs man!!! If you hadn't heard already, my little brother, Clay (
http://claytonport.blogspot.com), threw his back out at work yesterday moving some stuff around and had to take an ambulance ride to the hospital. It sounds like he will be fine and only has some minor muscle strain but he will be lying around in bed for a few days now. So if you get a chance drop him a line because he will need something to do over the next few days.
On the Illini front the round of 16 begins today with the Illini taking on the UW-Milwaukee Panthers tonight at 6:30 in the Allstate Arena here in Chicago. Many people are saying the Illini should be able to blow the Panthers out easily but this Illini fan believes it will be a closer game than that. I think the Panthers stifling defense will cause the Illini guards problems early and will allow the Panthers to stick around for most of the game. Where the Illini have a definite advantage is with their big men. The Panthers are not known for having a strong front line which may give James Augustine and Jack Ingram the green light to go to the basket. I think this will again be the difference in the game and will allow the Illini to win by 10 points. Its ironic, all season long all we have heard about is how good the Illini guards are but so far in each game of the tourny the big men have been the deciding factor. So, either we have been underestimating the big guys all year or Bruce Webber and the Illini are even smarter than people have been giving them credit for. Anyway, hopefully the Illini will win tonight and move on to the Elite Eight on Saturday where they will meet either the Arizona Wildcats or the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Go ILLINI!!!!
NCAA Tourney
Well, apparently I have more fans of my sports writing than I realized and since I don't have as exciting stuff as Luke (
http://sgtport.blogspot.com) has to write about I will stick with the Illini. Well as we left off the Illini had just won the Big Ten tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers and were preparing for and easy blow out of the Farleigh Dickinson University Knights. Well, the media and Illini were in for a surprise because the Knights showed up to play and gave the Illini fans a scare going into the second half of the game. The Illini continued to look sluggish throughout the game but managed to avoid becoming the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed in tournament history. Two days later they faced the University of Nevada Wolfpack, who had just come off a hard fought victory over the University of Texas Longhorns and this Illini fan was a little nervous and rightfully so. The Illini again came out in the first half and looked disorganized and sluggish and Nevada was able to stay close. But in the second half of the game a different Illini team came out of the locker room. They began blowing the Wolfpack out right away and if it weren't for them trying to run some time off the clock in the final 5 minutes the score wouldn't have been so close. The Illini finally figured out that they could utilize their bigger post up players too and instead of totally relying on their guards were able to take advantage of Nevada. You could totally tell that Nevada's game plan was to tie up the guards and keep them from scoring which left James Augastine and Jack Ingram open for a ton of shots on the block. By the time Nevada figured out what Illinois was doing it was too late and the Illini had won the game and moved onto the Sweet 16.
Now the Illini meet the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee on Thursday night. This should be a good game. The UW-Milwaukee Panthers have upset 2 good teams to get to this game and they are riding on an emotional high. And since the next game will be played in Chicago both teams should have a fair amount of fan support at the game. The Illini will once again have to be prepared because this Panthers team has guards that can score a lot of points, which wasn't the case with Nevada. Hopefully the Illini guards will break out of their slump and give the Illini a dual attack from the perimeter as well as utilizing their big men who came up big against Nevada.
On another note, I am feeling a little under the weather today so I am wrapping this up and heading home. Go ILLINI!!!
Big Ten Tournament
Well, today the Illini begin their journey to a Big Ten Tournament championship against the Northwestern University Wildcats. The Wildcats upset the Michigan Wolverines yesterday to earn the right to play Illinois. This will be the Illini's first game since their disheartening loss to Ohio State last weekend ending their bid for an undefeated regular season. I am hoping that game re-energized their resolve and we see the Illini team that was blowing out top 10 team at the beginning of the season. I am meeting up with some coworkers for lunch to catch the second half of the game at BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings). Outside of that not much new to report.
Things have been real busy at work and it looks like they are moving my team to a new building a few weeks, which is kind of a bummer because it looks like I will be getting smaller cube and I will lose my window seat. Not that those things are that important but it is a little bit of bummer when I talk to all my old classmates who are moving up and getting their offices and here I am downgrading to the basement of another building ;). Oh well, its not the short run that matters its the long term and being happy with the work and people I work with, and both have been good so far.
Go Illini
Illini Fall
Well, it finally happened. Just one game to go and they couldn't pull it off. If you haven't figured it out yet the Illini lost today 65 to 64 to the Ohio State Suckeyes. It was a tough game to watch and Illinois looked aweful. They couldn't shoot consistently and just looked tired the whole time. It doesn't look good going into the tournament losing to an average team. My prediction for the tourney is that Illini will be knocked out in the Elite Eight and the season will have all been for naught. Hopefully I am wrong but this isn't the time of year to fall apart and this is exactly what happened to St. Joes last year.
