Richardson scored a career-high 30 points at Nebraska; photo by Cary Frye

I don’t care that Nebraska is at the bottom of the conference, a conference road win for Illinois is a conference road win. And, it was a convincing win at that, as Illinois went into Lincoln with something to prove on Tuesday and came out successful, winning 71-51.

I have to come clean and admit that I did not watch this game live. We had tickets to “Book of Mormon” on Tuesday, which we purchased way before the basketball schedule was released. Since the show is sold out in Chicago, we had to tape the game and watch it at a later time. Since I’m incredibly superstitious,  a small part of me worries that maybe I shouldn’t watch any more games live this season.

To say that the Illini have been having trouble in conference play would be an understatement. A home loss to Northwestern capped off a 3-game losing streak, two of which were at home. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, the Illini needed a win to get out of the slump. We all know that it’s going to take more than just Brandon Paul to make it to the Tourney this year, and it was wonderful to see D.J. Richardson finally contribute some real numbers at Nebraska.

Richardson had a career-high 30 points, and was 6-9 from behind the arc and 7-7 on FTs. Richardson has been strong on the defensive end, but he can obviously shoot the ball as well. He’s shown flashes of greatness since winning Freshman of the Year oh so long ago, but for the past two seasons he’s faded into the background. I’m happy with his performance, I just hope it will happen again.

Paul gave us a solid 14 points, as well as a steal, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. These numbers would be impressive for some, but I also know Paul can do more. No one else was in double digits, but Nnanna Egwu did have 10 rebounds and 8 points.

The win against Nebraska gave John Groce his 100th win in five seasons as a head coach. Also, maybe it will help the Illini turn the conference season around – maybe. Last year’s game at Nebraska was an ugly, embarrassing, tearful loss that pretty much marked the end of the season. This time, the chips fell much differently, and the win could give the Illini the confidence they need to push forward.

Unfortunately, things aren’t getting any easier moving forward. Nebraska may not be the worst in the league (that title goes to Penn State), but in the standings, Illinois is tied with Iowa for third to last place, barely ahead of the Cornhuskers and Nittany Lions.

Up next, the Illini will welcome Michigan at the Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon. A win against the Wolverines would be HUGE, but it is in no way expected. I don’t even know if I would venture to say a win is possible, I just know that it would make a big difference in the season. Michigan has just 1 loss this season at Ohio State, and we did beat Ohio State at home, so perhaps it is possible. Perhaps.

Let’s be realistic here, Michigan is currently the No. 2/3 team in the country. The last time Illinois beat a team ranked 2 or higher was in 2004 against Wake Forest, a game which will remain in Illini history for all time. This is the fifth ranked team they’ll be facing this season, and the record is 2-2 (wins against 10 Gonzaga and 8 OSU). Michigan has a 3-game winning streak against Illinois, which I believe will spread to 4 on Sunday, and then 5 at the end of the season.

All I really care about is that we don’t look stupid. Wisconsin made us look like idiots, and then Northwestern did the same thing in Champaign. If Illinois can stay in the game and not let things get out of hand, then they’ll have a much better chance of winning. Paul, Egwu, Richardson and Abrams all need to be involved, and if Tyler Griffey and Joseph Bertrand would like to reemerge that would be fantastic. Just imagine what could happen if everyone had a great game! Shots need to fall and rebounds need to be grabbed. I want to see hustle, energy and power. Otherwise, I might have to forgo more games and watch musicals instead.

The game will air on BTN at 5pm.

Since Indiana has a preseason No. 1 ranking out of all Division I teams, it’s no surprise for them to be named Preseason Big Ten fave as well. Soph Cody Zeller of the Hoosiers was also named Preseason Player of the Year.

Joining Zeller on the preseason team are Michigan’s Trey Burke, OSU’s Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas and Penn States Tim Frazier (that guy hasn’t graduated yet??).

From my orange colored glasses, there is one name clearly missing from that list: Brandon Paul. No matter, that just means he needs to work harder to make the postseason list, which is infinitely more important.

Michigan and Ohio State were selected to finish second and third in the conference. This seems like the first time in a while that Michigan State is nowhere to be found on either list. While I can’t really get on board with being happy about Indiana’s honors, I guess it is nice to see someone else on the list. Can’t wait to see Tom Crean’s smug face as he addresses the media as a preseason fave.

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QB Nathan Scheelhaase left the game with another injury.

So, yesterday’s game pretty much went as expected. Michigan was heavily favored to win at home, and Illinois has been doing nothing of note as of lately. While I was a bit surprised by the complete shutout, the final score of 45-0 seemed about right. That doesn’t mean the demolition was painless.

Illini QB Nathan Scheelhaase seems to be injured in every other game, and I suppose yesterday he was due for another one and left the game in the second quarter with a head/shoulder injury. It was a nice run to nab the Illini a first down, but he got crushed by a couple of Wolverines in the process. He never came back into the game, and it seemed scoring was impossible for Illinois without him.

Scheelhaase wasn’t the only QB to step out of the game with an injury. Late in the fourth quarter with the Illini only down 7-0, Denard Robinson had some sort of finger injury that took him out.  During that time, the Illini managed to stop the Wolverines from scoring and forced them to kick a FG. Of course I’m glad that Robinson’s injury wasn’t serious, but it would’ve been nice if he spent a little more time on the bench. Once he came back into the game, it was clear that Michigan was going to win this game easily.

A halftime score of 17-0 is nothing new for Illinois this year, and since they haven’t come back from a deficit all year, there was no reason to believe anything would be different. Michigan managed to rack up 21 more points in the third, and then banged that nail into the coffin in the last quarter with one more TD, giving Michigan 45 points.

Backup QB Riley O’Toole did his best to play in place of Scheelhaase, but failed to help the team score. I’d like to think that Illinois would’ve scored at least once if Scheelhaase had stayed in the game, but who knows. I knew they were going to have a tough time in Ann Arbor, but 45-0 is difficult to watch. Even though Louisiana Tech scored more points in the end (52 to be exact), it stinks for the Illini to fail to make a mark on the scoreboard at all.

Robinson was a beast, and just never let up. He was 7-11, 159 yards with 2 TDs, and rushed for a total of 128 yards and 2 TDs. That’s 4 TDs total, compared to 0 from anyone on Illinois. Just in case you weren”t paying attention.

On the bright side, basketball season is just around the corner! The team is officially allowed to practice with the coaches as of Friday, and here’s hoping they’re working hard all weekend to prepare for the upcoming season. Add to that a bye week for the football team next weekend, and  maybe there’s time for things to look up. For one thing, Scheelhaase can take some time off and rest up all those injuries that keep popping up this season. Also, Coach Beckman can try and figure out how to get the offense to score.

Obviously, this season is not going to be as successful as fans would hope, but there is time to avoid a complete disaster.  I can guarantee that next weekend they won’t lose (because they won’t play!). In two weeks, they’ll return to Memorial Stadium for Homecoming, and welcome Indiana – the one team that may be worse than the Illini in the conference. A win against Indiana is expected, and could help to give the guys a boost.

The Illini clearly need a break, and so do I. They will host Indiana on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 11AM.

As you can see from the headline, I’m not very confident about this upcoming game on Saturday. Lucky readers, this will be short and sweet because honestly what is there left to say? On Saturday, the Illini (who by the way are 2-4 for the season) will head to Ann Arbor to face a ranked Michigan in “The Big House.”

The Wolverines are favored by 25 points in this game, and frankly that sounds just about right. The only goal for Tim Beckman, Nathan Scheelhaase, et al is to not look stupid.

The Illini actually hung in there with Wisconsin last week at Camp Randall, until the 3rd quarter that is when they were outscored  24-7. Wisconsin has been having an off year, while Michigan is ranked. Oddly enough, Michigan is only 3-2 for the season, but their two losses have come on the road against #2 Alabama and #11 Notre Dame.

In order to feel a tad better, Lousisana Tech (that icky 52-14 loss at home a few weeks back) is now 5-0 and the #23 team in the country. Penn State (that loss two weeks ago) had a rough start but has since been on point, and even Arizona State has just one loss to Missouri on the road. Point is, we haven’t lost to a team like Indiana – at least not yet.

Game plan for this weekend has to be to get the offense to do something (anything!) and keep the defense off the field for as long as possible. That way, the defense can stay strong for the entire game, instead of pooping out in the end. Plain and simple, ready go-

Fun Facts!

• Illinois has faced the 21st-toughest schedule so far this season, as Illini oppponents have a 13-7 record against FBS competition (not including their game against Illinois).
• Things are just going to get harder, because moving forward they will face the 10th-toughest schedule for the rest of the season.
• Illinois ranks 10th nationally in fourth-down defense, allowing just one first down on five fourth-down attempts (20.0 percent).
• The Illini have held the opposition scoreless seven times in the red zone this year (out of 24 chances), ranking 24th in the nation in red-zone defense (70.8 percent).
• Michigan leads the series by a 68-23-2 advantage overall and holds a 32-11-1 lead in games played in Ann Arbor.
•  The two teams have split the last four meetings, with Illinois winning 45-20 in the Big House in 2008 and 38-13 in Champaign in 2009.

The game will be on at 2:35 PM Central on ABC (more public humiliation!).

Though the game was tied 7-7 at halftime, the second half belonged to the Badgers yesterday. In the end Illinois fell to Wisconsin, 31-14. If you’re keeping track, that means the Illini have lost 3 games in a row and are now 0-2 in the Big Ten.

Illinois scored first with a Nathan Scheelhaase rushing TD, but Wisconsin answered back rather quickly tying up the game. I

was silly to think that Illinois had a chance as we rolled into halftime totally still in the game. Wiscy made a field goal in the 3rd quarter, putting them up 10-7. The Illini were still very much in the game, until the fourth rolled around and Wisconsin managed to score two TDs in a row. Illinois answered back once, and then the Badgers went ahead and scored one more time to knock that nail into the coffin.

Two of those TDs came from Montee Ball, who is now up to 69 total for his career, putting him just 9 shy of tying the FBS record held by Travis Prentice of Miami of Ohio from 1996-99. If he keeps going like this he might just beat that record before the year ends. Wisconsin had been having some trouble on the field lately, but they seemed to have no problems yesterday after they got going.

Scheelhaase tried to do his part yesterday, with 178 yards passing and 84 rushing yards. He had 1 passing TD, 1 rushing TD and 1 interception.  However, he still had trouble executing on offense. He moved the ball well, but when it mattered he couldn’t get it done. Those TDs came at the beginning of the game and then an extra one near the end in garbage minutes. Third down efficiency for the Illini was 5-16, vs. 2-10 for the Badgers. The Illini  just left too many points on the field.

Wisconsin’s QB, redshirt frosh Joel Stave, passed for an impressive 254 yards and also had 2 TDS and 1 interception. He didn’t do much rushing, and basically all of his work came from passing. He was well protected, because the Illini didn’t sack him once, while Scheelhaase went down 4 times yesterday.  Eventually, as our offense continued to miss opportunities, the defense got tired. This game was winable for the Illini, and would’ve been a HUGE boost if they had pulled it off. But, alas…

There are just 6 games left in the year, and the Illini need to win 4 of them to be bowl eligible. Most of the winable games have passed us by, which means things aren’t looking very hot for the future. Up next, they’ll head to Ann Arbor to face Michigan, and I’m not even going to pretend we have any sort of chance at doing something there. All I ask is that we stay in that game as long as possible, but I do fear a rout is in our immediate future.

The game at Michigan will be on Saturday at 2:30 PM.

Tracy Abrams makes me feel slightly better about the future of the Illini;; Photo by Cary Frye

I will admit it, I was hanging on to a shred of hope for Illinois to magically buck the odds and make it to the Tournament this year. It wasn’t impossible. A win at home vs. Michigan, a road win against Wisconsin and the dream is very much alive. But, tonight’s 71-62 loss to Michigan shattered any remaining pipe dreams that fans had in the backs of their heads.

Michigan hasn’t won at Assembly Hall since 1995. That’s 13 straight games that Illinois has won vs. Michigan in Champaign, a record that is now kaput. This is the ultimate season of failure, so it’s not a surprise that this impressive run for the Illini over the Wolverines has ended.

Tonight was the last home game for Illinois of the season, which would normally signify senior night. Since our only seniors are a walk-on and an injury-riddled transfer who has only been on the team for one year, I’m not sure anything even happened to honor these guys at all. It should have been a somewhat special night, but it surely wasn’t. Meyers Leonard even got a surprise visit from his brother who is a marine serving in Afghanistan, but it wasn’t enough to motivate him to get a win. That’s not entirely fair, as he did have 9 rebounds and a team-high 18 points. But Leonard can’t do it all.

It’d be nice to chalk the loss up to youth and immaturity, but Michigan’s top scorers were Trey Burkey (freshman) with 21 points and Tim Hardaway, Jr. (sophomore) with 25. So youth didn’t seem to be an issue for them, just us. Brandon Paul contributed 15 points and 6 rebounds, and just 3 turnovers (that’s a stellar number for him), while PG Tracy Abrams had another nice game with 12 points and 5 rebounds. However, our PG had 0 assists, which is one of the overriding problems for Illinois.

Illinois actually had fewer turnovers (8) than Michigan (12), but had just 25 rebounds compared to Michigan’s 31. Really what it comes down to is talent, and perhaps coaching. Then there is the fact that Illinois just hasn’t been able to shoot (39% on FG) and has started to slack on defense. They allowed Michigan to shoot almost 47% for FGs and for 3′s.

Whelp, that’s it, the season is over. Our only hope now is to win the Big Ten Tournament, which I won’t even pretend is a possibility. Most likely we will be facing Northwestern in the first round, and they are a team that actually realizes something important is on the line. Tonight’s game hammered home the notion that there will be no post-season, and sadly knocked the nail in Bruce Weber’s coffin just a little deeper.

Up next, Illinois will head to Wisconsin on Sunday for the last game of this season that started off strong, and then quickly slid down a windy staircase.

For the second time this season, Illinois has lost three games in a row. Like the loss at Indiana, this 70-61 loss against Michigan comes as no surprise, but it still hurts about as much as having a van drive over your foot – and I know this from experience.

If you’ve read some of my recent posts, you’ll know that I was supposed to be at this game, but thanks to the fellow that hit me with his van I haven’t left my house since Wednesday night. Therefore, instead of watching this loss in person, I got to watch it from the comfort of my own home in my Illini sweatpants. Perhaps all these losses are my fault since I haven’t been to an Illini game in person in what seems like forever? Or, maybe we should’ve known that this his how a team with 6 freshmen would be like.

The final score could’ve been a lot worse, especially since Illinois played like crap in the second half. For the first time in a while, Illinois got some bench points from Tyler Griffey, who had a career-high 18 points to go with his 5 rebounds. He also tied his career-high 3-pointers with 3. Welcome back to the team, Griffey, where have you been? At the start of the game, it looked like going inside to Meyers Leonard was going to be the key as Michigan is a shorter team, but that didn’t pan out as planned. In the end, Leonard had just 5 points, but nabbed 12 rebounds.

Brandon Paul had a game-high 23 points, but he was up to his old tricks with 7 turnovers. Illinois had 13 turnovers total (which means more than half came from Paul alone), and were 11-17 on free throws- and keep in mind that again missing the front-end of a 1-1 turned out to be a problem. Illinois barely shot 39%, and let Michigan get away with shooting 50%. Our offense failed and our defense didn’t make up for the problem. Illinois finally had a respectable 20 bench points, but Michigan had 21. The only battle Illinois won was on rebounds, 31-25.

Just like many of the Illini losses of late, this was an entirely winable game. Stupid jacked up 3′s, dumb turnovers, and pointless fouls keep pushing Illinois down, and they are unable to look past these issues as they were able to in the beginning of the season when close games went their way.

Purdue will head to Champaign on the 15th, and I don’t think I can stress enough that this is a MUST WIN game. This is one of the only chances Illinois has to get a win as the season comes to a close, and they can’t let any get away from them. Purdue has dropped off this year is 15-9 overall for the season. Bruce Weber knows that his job is on the line, and let’s see how he responds. A win at home to Purdue isn’t going to do much for their Tourney resume, but another win can give them a bit of hope.

This season is basically over for Illinois, who are getting closer and closer to accepting an NIT bid for the post season. They have some opportunities to turn the season around with some extremely tough games around the corner, but they have simply not proved they can get a major win on the road. It is imperative that they protect the home court (Purdue, Iowa, Michigan) and accidentally find a way to win on the road (MSU, OSU, Nebraska and Wiscy).

The front page of Yahoo College Basketball says this right now: “A loss at Michigan didn’t help Bruce Weber’s chances of keeping his job with Illinois.” That’s not helpful for anyone to hear, but it’s entirely true. Weber, like the team, has to stay calm, not panic, and steal some good wins. However, getting to the tournament this year isn’t going to be enough, and I’m not sure the team has a chance of doing anything more. I wouldn’t want to be in Bruce’s shoes right now. AD Mike Thomas proved he wasn’t playing around by firing Ron Zook, and we’ll see soon who else is on his poop list.

Next up, Purdue will head to Champaign on Feb. 15.

Photo by Richard Paul Kane

After the Illini won 6 games in a row, everyone was debating whether or not they were “for real.” For some the answer has been apparent for the last three weeks, but now it should be crystal clear to everyone: nope.

On a windy day in Champaign this weekend, the Illini did the same thing they always do and avoid actually making any touchdowns until the second half. At that point – as with the last four games – it was too little too late and the Illini lost to the Wolverines, 31-14.

Even though the Illini gave up 31 points to Michigan, there is no way you can blame the defense. They did their job as best they could, but eventually, it gets tiring being on the field ALL THE TIME. With the offense doing nothing, it’s difficult to shoulder all of the responsibility.

At halftime, Illinois had just 30 yards of offense, and zero points. However, the Illini were only down 14 points at halftime -they’ve overcome much higher deficits in the past – and it’s not like Michigan was really doing a stellar job and had a number of opportunities to get more TD’s in the first half.

The fact that they never even got the ball past midfield until late in the third quarter was a good indication of where the game would go. Though the Illini finally scored some points with a Nathan Scheelhaase TD and then another one by Jason Ford, Michigan got another TD with just 3 minutes to go and the Wolverine lead was insurmountable. If I were Ron Zook, I’d be a little concerned about my job at this point.

In the end, both teams had 3 turnovers, and Michigan had 362 yards compared to 214 from Illinois. Illinois was just 5-17 in third down efficiency, something that they’ve done much better with in earlier games in the season. Each team had 3 fumbles as well. Looking at the stats, the major problem is the yardage, because everything else is pretty equal.

The Illini are now 6-4, and though they were bowl eligible over a month ago, they could still go 6-7 for the season and be left in the dust when the bowls come a’calling. Frankly, at this rate I’d be embarrassed to see what they’d do in a bowl game anyway, and I’m not sure they deserve an invitation. The super partnership of Scheelhaase and AJ Jenkins has faded, and Jenkins had 0 touchdowns for the night. While Ford had a touchdown, most of the time he either drops the ball or runs about half a yard before being tackled.

I would like to give the defense a shout out, and especially Whitney Mercilus, who leads the nation in sacks. The offense, however, needs some help.

As if the continual losses weren’t enough, LB Trulon Henry is now out for the season after being shot in the hand (more on this in a bit). Henry is pretty integral to the defense, but in addition to that the team sure didn’t need any other distractions.

Next week, Illinois will welcome Wisconsin to Memorial Stadium, and I don’t have any faith that they will win that game. After that, they will head to Minnesota on Nov. 26. Minnesota is at the bottom of the B1G barrel, but that doesn’t mean a win will come any easier.

The Wisconsin game will be at 11am on ESPN2.