New Illini tradition?

Posted in SPORTS to Illini Basketball to Poetry In The Motion by Rob McColley on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 7:00 am

Illinois is near the Big Apple tonight. It's Long Island, the candy apple of the greater New York Metropolitan area. The girls aren't as trashy as in Queens, or Jersey.

The Illini take on the Stony Brook Seawolves tonight at 8 p.m. I'll be watching on ESPN360. That's ESPN's online network.

360 doesn't work with some web browsers, so if you've never watched it before, you might want to take a moment to figure it out. Merely linking to ESPN360.com will tell you whether you have access or not — that's determined by your ISP. In Champaign-Urbana, both AT&T DSL and Comcast Cable subscribe to the service.

Novelty Inspires Trend?

The Stony Brook campus is agog at its biggest ever sporting event. To them, it's a party. I like that. In fact, I think I love it. For a college campus to come together as a whole... that's a wonderful thing.

The Illinois fanbase displays the ennui an NIT engagement has inspired since... well, the NIT was evidently cool once.

The NCAA bought the NIT a couple of years ago, and has yet to redeem its coolness. So why not follow the Stony Brook example? Make the NIT a tournament in which top seeds go to tiny campuses. Keep the finals at Madison Square Garden ... or not! Location, location, location is a huge part of selling anything. That goes for selling a tournament no one loves and few people like.

I favor Huff Gym for Illini NIT purposes, and womyns basketball generally.

Because the NIT is a venerable, throwbacky kind of tournament, why not make it a retrofest for all participants? Site games in field houses and armories. Everyone wear Chuck Taylors and short-shorts!

Media were invited to the press box to watch the NCAA Selection Show Sunday evening. Bruce Weber was tentatively scheduled to address the cameras at 6 p.m. Audible groans arose when Utah State and Florida appeared in the brackets.

I don't know whether anyone was surprised. But maybe the coaching staff was. At 6 p.m. Sports Information Director Kent Brown was on the phone with Bruce Weber. Word trickled through those assembled that Weber would speak at 7:30 p.m.

In his place, NCAA Track & Field Champion Angela Bizzarri was presented to the cameras and microphones. "What the hell is going on?" whispered an indignant Chicago sportscaster who had better things to do. "They want to remind us that Illinois can still win championships in something," replied another.

Nuance-Inflexibility Trait

The reason Illinois is in Long Island tonight: They lost yet another game they could have won.

Instead of criticizing inbounds plays, the ability to break a press, or the failure to get off a game-winning shot (twice); instead of adopting the posture of the optimistic defeatist (our boys aren't up to the Buckeyes' level) — I'd like to draw attention to the absence of Tyler Griffey in the second half.

Tyler enjoyed an exceptional first half of Saturday's game. Illinois took a big lead.

Prior to his first entrance in the game, Illinois had scored one bucket in just under four minutes.

Tyler played almost not at all in the second half (stints of 3:18 and 1:16, the former in place of Mike Davis and the latter for Mike Tisdale). Tyler left just before OSU's 20–0 run.

Mike Davis finished the game with another double-double — including career high 18 rebounds, and Illinois needed every one of them. It was Mike Tisdale that Tyler spelled in the first half, and should have supplanted for much of the second half.

Tisdale suffered a series of mishaps that cost the Illini. It's not because he's bad at basketball. It's due to mismatches.

First Tisdale handed the ball off to Evan Turner for a fast break basket at 10:46. He missed a shot from the wide-open right baseline at 9:55. It might have been a lay-up for a faster player. But Kyle Madsen was shifting over in the lane. Madsen also collected the rebound.

Moments later Tisdale got tangled up with Madsen and both hit the ground and rolled out of bounds. This disrupted a pick n' pop with Demetri McCamey, and sent the ball once again to the other end for an easy basket.

Tyler replaced Tisdale and the OSU 20-0 run fizzled out.

Negating Intrepid Tyler

As long as we're playing a short bench, we could at least figure out which players are "on" while we're watching them, no?

Going by just the numbers, and not the nuances, Mike Tisdale played well in 15 games last year. He played poorly in 12, half were losses. The other seven games I count as scratch — neither good nor bad.

I don't know whether anyone on the Illinois staff spent the summer analyzing individual player performance to determine which match-ups might present problems, and which might offer opportunities. Such analysis wouldn't divulge a player's utility against any particular team. It would indicate the type of teams (and individuals) a player's skill set might match.

For example, last year Tisdale was excellent against Ohio State in Champaign, and a non-factor in Columbus. Illinois won both games. But that team had BJ Mullens. A better indicator from last year might have been Tisdale's performance against Michigan. Like the Buckeyes, Michigan played a smaller line-up and zoned a lot.

This year versus OSU, Mike went for 8 and 8 in Champaign, 10 and 3 in Columbus. Illinois got drilled in both of these games. Because Tisdale's performance was neither detrimental nor outstanding, there was no reason to envision a nuanced approach to challenging the Buckeyes.

But you don't really have to do this type of homework.

By halftime, the numbers spoke for themselves. It should have been apparent that Tyler Griffey was achieving better returns than Mike Tisdale. Tyler was a better match-up for Illinois against the smaller, faster Buckeyes, who played mostly without Dallas Lauderdale.

Needing Interior Toughness

Managing the incredible talents of the Mikes continues to be an issue for the Illinois staff.

Recognizing when those talents are offset by match-up deficiencies is the first step. Both Mikes would benefit by placing them in spots where they're likely to succeed.

In the locker room, I asked the Mikes to describe the inside game against Ohio State. Davis described a finesse game. Tisdale thought it was a dogfight.

That probably has more to do with their individual assignments, and not their perceptive faculties. But because Illinois lost, it's important to listen to what these two said. It's important to make changes to prevent mismatches from happening again.

Mike Davis:

Mike Tisdale:

Is it likely that the Weber Administration will make such changes?

There has been talk of recruiting a tough guy. I'd like to see the Mikes protected, and buttressed by a banger.

Nearly Inconspicuous Toupée

Unfortunately for Ed Hightower, Saturday's episode of The Ed Hightower Show was overshadowed by a basketball game running in the same time slot.

Hightower did his best. He knows where the cameras are. He positioned himself perfectly. Hamming and aping throughout, Hightower gestured obvious threats at Bruce Weber.

"One more inch" said one gesture. "One more word!" shouted another.

Weber made one more noise anyway, and Hightower's arms snapped towards the shape of a T. Weber's mouth snapped shut, mid-syllable.

They stared one another down.

Emily, Hannah and Christine Weber with Trent Swift

Weber's family had his back on this occasion. The Weber Girls — sort of like the Gore Girls, except there are three — were in the front row.

The eldest is Hannah. She got her father's lungs, and then developed them in competitive swimming. She can hold a lot of hot air. And she expelled it violently at the men in stripes. Middle sister Christine cringed only mildly.

Christine's boyfriend Trent Swift won Jeer of the Game honors Friday. When Rick Hartzell blew a whistle and then looked to his counterparts for the accompanying ruling, Swift admonished "Watch.The.Game."

Classic.

But there's good news on the officiating front. Ted Hillary had a pair of new knees installed this winter. Unlike Hightower's hairpiece, they should not affect his brain.

Hillary will be back next year, callin' 'em like he sees 'em — which is frequently the way everyone else sees 'em, too.