Rough waters ahead for Illini, but there is still hope

Well, Saturday truly was a tough loss for the Illini at the Assembly Hall. It was probably the best game of the season effort wise for the team. Everybody on the team played really hard. The only guy who looked lost out on the court was Jamar Smith. He's just in the slump of all slumps. At this point, I'm concerned about his future within the program. He kind of reminds me of that pitcher for the Cardinals a few years back who was on track to be a superstar, but then suddenly couldn't even throw a strike during the postseason and he had to be sent back down to the minor leagues. Seriously, Jamar is in that bad of a slump. But here's to hoping he'll pull out. I listened to Bruce Weber on the radio this morning, and he really sounded down. I haven't heard him like that before. That tells me he is really concerned about this team. But he hasn't given up on them yet. He talked about how resilient kids are, and that they'll bounce back before fans or the news media will. At the same time, he said that Randle is doubtful for Tuesday's game against Indiana, and that even worse, Pruitt is "day to day" due to a twisted knee. Yep, that's the same knee he hurt at that crucial point in Saturday's game. So, it's going to be tough on Tuesday against Indiana. Weber believes Indiana is playing the best ball of any team in the Big Ten, or so says his scouting report. They are playing some tough, team basketball. And so here is my prediction for Tuesday night:

Illinois is going to lose by 8 points. Taking a wild shot at it, I'm going to go with a 65-57 final score. I believe it'll be a dogfight until the last 8 minutes of the game, when Indiana will pull away. I sure hope I'm wrong, and I have to be honest, I'm such a partisan fan that I almost always pick Illinois to win. But for some reason, I just have a feeling we'll lose Tuesday.

I believe that Tuesday's loss against Indiana will be rock bottom. Illinois will then have to stare into the Abyss, knowing that gaining an at-large birth is all but out of the question. I think that they will face this fact well, however. I think they'll pull together as a team, and that they'll rally around Weber as a coach. They'll finish relatively strong in the Big Ten, at 8-8 overall in the league. I think they'll win their last 3 or 4 in a row going into the Big Ten tourney, though, as Weber will have them peaking at just the right time. Then, in the Big Ten tourney they'll have to run the table to go to the Big Dance. Odds of that happening at that point? I'd say about 1 in 5. But, hey, that's 20%. It'll be an exciting challenge.

Go Illini!

Indiana's very own "Entourage" and what it means to college basketball

Well, it's been a few days now, and that has given me time to think about what basketball fans (especially Illini fans) shall forever refer to as "The Eric Gordon Mess." I'm not upset about him going to Indiana. Nope. That's his right as a free American, and I'm happy he's able to go where he wishes. The process that led him to change his decision is the topic of discussion here. I don't know much about Indiana's coach, Kelvin Sampson. But you have to ask yourself: what kind of person would smash apart the integrity of a legendary basketball program, in his maniacal pursuit of a single player? Yes, Sampson has shattered the integrity of the Indiana basketball program. Hold on a second! I'm not saying this because of the reason you might think. This might surprise you, but I actually think Sampson had every right to recruit the kid-- the situation at Indiana had changed, after all (with Mike Davis' departure). So Sampson was justified in trying to lure Gordon to Indiana. It's how he did it that is disturbing. No less than two-- that's right, TWO!!! -- individuals were hired on to the staff of the Indiana basketball program by Sampson this summer that had direct links to Eric Gordon. Sampson hired an assistant coach who played college ball with Gordon's dad. Okay, by itself, maybe just a coincidence. But then, Sampson hired Gordon's AAU coach to be his video coordinator! Now, there's absolutely nothing illegal about doing either of these hires. But to me, it's a move that plainly lacks integrity. It's telling a high school kid this: "Come to Indiana, and I'll let you bring your entourage with you, oh great one." Shouldn't he be saying this: "Come to Indiana, because we have a great program, a great system, great fans, and you'll get a world class education to boot." But that's not what Sampson did. Instead, he sold out the program's integrity, and bowed and scraped and hired until the kid relented and came to Indiana. It's sad, really. I always admired the Indiana program for standing out from the crowd, staying above the sleazy side of recruiting. Now, though he did nothing illegal, Sampson has chopped the legs of integrity out from under a legendary program. Sad, so sad. Well, this is the last I'll speak of this episode, thankfully. Let's move to the on-court struggles!