There a few moments in life that prompt a "LET'S GO!" (shot-out Matt Meyers) moment and instantly rejuvenate you to perform the task at hand with added vigor. Perhaps hearing the sounds of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" blasting through the blown-out speakers of your mid-level sedan may add some elation to your usual lifeless commute home. Maybe you sting a 3 iron from 190 after chili-dipping your tee shot and give yourself a shot at saving par and making some greenbacks off your visor-clad, cholo golf partner. Or, maybe you just found out that your state University who returns five starters and signed their first McDonalds All-American since Dance Dance Revolution was invented in '03 is ranked #16 in the first preseason polls for college basketball. LETS GO! Yes, Illinois has become relevant again. Hopefully those long Wednesday nights of watching the Illini get run over by Dayton in the second round of the NIT are over--at least for this year.
The Chief and Co. return all 5 starters from a team that was as sporadic as a seismograph in 2010. They lost to Bradley early on, then rebounded to steal a win @ Clemson in the ACC/Big 10 challenge to maintain a formidable start. Then, the Fighting Illini dropped their last 3 of the regular season, only to rebounded to beat Wisco in the Big Ten Tourney quarterfinals and came within a regulation layup of downing Evan Turner and the tOSU in the semis, leaving them outside of the 65 team NCAA tournament field and in the NIT, which attracts less of an audience than the Andy Griffith show on Nick at Nite. Following Illinois basketball last year was like waiting for a public defense lawyer--you never knew who the hell was showing up, and in the end, it didn't work out that well. This year though, Assembly Hall is loaded with talent. DJ Richardson and Brandon Paul are unidentifiable on the court as they were basically xerox copies of each other--fast, energizing and athletic. But more so than anything else, both players were inconsistent as Freshman. With added experience headed into their Sophomore campaign, hopefully DJ and and BP can feed off the playmaking ability of Senior Demitri McCamey, who became arguably the Big 10's most complete player with the exception of his high school teammate, Evan Turner and his marshan voicebox. At 6'3'', 200 lbs., McCamey is the size of a refrigerator but can heat it up faster than Jamar Smith in his old "microwave" days before he started playing too much Cruisin USA while blacked-out in his dorm and thought he could replicate the scenario in real life.
In the frontcourt, Illinois returns Mike Davis, who interestingly enough attended the same high school (T.C Williams) where Remember the Titans was filmed (I don't really care for Mike Davis' game, so we'll leave it at that). In other news,my personal favorite member of U of I's basketball team also returns, Mike Tisdale. At first glance, you would think that Tisdale is just a scrawny, agriculture major you'd want to recruit for intimidation in the paint for your C-League intramural squad. But Mike uses the window better than a chic interior designer devising the floor plan for a family room and is the proud owner of a soft, feathery touch that would make the Charmin bear blush. As far as core players go, Illinois definitely has the pieces to make a run at the Big 10 title.
The wild card however, is Freshman All-American Jereme Richmond. Hailing from the ultimate sewer of Lake County (Waukegan), Richmond is one of the biggest recruits Bruce Weber has ever tied down in his tenure in Champaign. But in this case, talent comes in the most volatile of packages. There is no doubt Richmond is talented, but there is even less doubt in his own self-confidence. Jereme is an athletic freak who can change the momentum of the game with a highlight reel alley oop or a pin-block that trickles back to the halfcourt stripe. If you haven't seen Richmond play, this video is all you need to see (1:21 pause). However, Richmond is also the guy who used to kiss the floor before high school games and walked around with the same swagger Vinny Barbarino displayed in Welcome Back, Kotter. Getting him to be comfortable in a reserve role with 5 starters returning could be like fitting a 12 year old into a carseat, lots of squirming and immaturity can ensue at any point. With that being said, Illinois is lucky to have gotten the last two Illinois Mr. Basketball award winners as Bruce must strike a chord with the resident 'basketball wives' of Lake County. Throw in Luther Head's younger brother, Crandall, as a lucky, rabbit's foot like legacy on the 2011 squad and Illinois has all bases covered.
Still, U of I finds itself ranked #16 overall, which is great in its own right, but that ranking still trails conference foes Michigan St.(#2), Ohio State (#5) and the now Robbie Hummel-less Purdue Boilermakers (#8). Often times people say that the only thing less important than your preseason ranking is the score at halftime, and maybe the attractiveness of your undergrads (as evidenced by Duke and Butler last year), which definitely has the tendency to hold true. But Illinois has to deal with each of the aforementioned teams twice in the conference season after dealing with perennial power UNC (#9) in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, a date in the dry-land with Texas (#25), and a highly anticipated and always intense border battle with Missouri (#15). There's a warhead in every goodie-bag, and Illinois strength of schedule could sway the Illini back atop the nation's elite in 2011, or plummet them back to the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl (Bowling Green vs. Idaho last year) of college basketball--the NIT.
As for Pick of the Day, hopefully the weekend brings the Pulse Man some solace as he makes the trek down to Charleston, Illinois to visit his proud alma mater, Eastern Illinois. Before departing, he left me with his Saturday 6 pack and drove himself back to a land where mercilessly making passes at younger girls wasn't going to have to cost him a $7 cover charge. Anyway, here are his picks:
Saturday 6 Pack:
2 Team Parlay:
1. Duke (+27) @ Virginia Tech- DUKE
2. Maryland @ Boston College, Total Points 41.5- UNDER
Total: (+273)
3 Team Parlay:
1. Nebraska @ Oklahoma St. (+6)-OKLAHOMA STATE
2. Wisconsin @ Iowa, Total Points 47.5- UNDER
3. LSU @ Auburn- AUBURN, moneyline
Total:(+435)
'Big Ticket' Pick of the Day:
Marshall @ East Carolina (-12.5)- EAST CAROLINA
Now I'm done. Rack Me
Frost
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