Robinson is an interesting guy to watch. Reminds me of Pitt's Gilbert Brown. You know there is a lot of potential there, and they both show glimpses of doing great things, but something is definitely missing, and until you just mentioned it, WChip, I hadn't thought about the confidence factor. I think you are probably right.

My reaction to Kemba Walker is that he was a little TOO confident and tried to be in everyone's face...and it backfired. He is a freshman and needs to stay within himself, I think.

Either team has a legit shot to win it all.

As much as it pains me to do so, I will tip my cap to Pitt on their win at UConn. But don't tell anyone, or I will deny it!

What an UGLY game in Champaign. I wish I could say both defenses were that strong. It was a defensive game, but it was also sloppy and just plain bad. However, any time you can go on the road in the Big Ten and win against a ranked team that sits above you in the conference standings, I will take it. Especially sweet because it means we have now won 3 in a row at Assembly Hall.

Here are the atrocious numbers: Final Score, Penn State 38, Illinois 33. Really, that's the final score, not the halftime score. It was 17-15, Penn State in the lead at the half. Penn State shot .277 in field goals, and .167 in 3 point attempts. Illinois shot .288 in field goals, and .176 in 3 point attempts. The difference was the free throw line, generally a weakness for us this season. We hit 9 of 11, while Illinois did not get to the line once! At home, they did not have a single free throw attempt. In fact, we had 4 fouls to give with less than a minute to go in the game. Somehow we managed to outrebound them 31 to 26. We "won" the turnover battle, with 13 to their 15. Like I said, it was ugly. And despite the lack of scoring, we were actually down 9 points in the second half at one point, and managed to work our way back.

Despite all that, a win is a win. And it give us road wins at Michigan State and Illinois, plus a home win against Purdue, on our resume. Tough games remain... at Ohio State, home against Illinois (and won't they be p!ssed off at us) and Indiana, and on the road at Iowa. Indiana and Iowa should be wins if they don't lose focus. If we can split the other two, we're in good shape going into the Big Ten tourney.

I would like to congratulate our Illini friends on their record setting evening.

Records set in this game:

Fewest points scored by Illinois @ Assembly Hall = 33
Lowest losing score by Illinois @ AH = 33
Lowest winning score by opponent @ AH = 38
Fewest FTs shot by Illinois @ AH = 0
Fewest FT attempts by Illinois @ AH = 0
Fewest Assists by Illinois @ AH = 10
Fewest Assists (both teams) @ AH = 16
Fewest points total (both teams) @ AH = 71
Fewest FGs (both teams) @ AH = 28
Worst FG accuracy (both teams) = 29.2

And hey, both our football team and our basketball team scored 38 points in wins against the Illini this year!

The only reason I can say anything, is that despite playing so poorly, at least we won. All in good fun (right?) You'll probably kick our @sses in the rematch on March 5th. If they don't have motivation now for that game...

I was laughing that whole game, really, just because I have never seen such ineptitude from two teams at the same time. It was really amazing to watch, and I didn't see the whole thing because I was switching to some other games at the same time (really hoped Providence would hold on to beat the Cardinals, but oh well).

You are right, though, a win is a win, and with wins over MSU, Illiniois, and Purdue, I really think the Nits might make the Big Dance this year. Why shouldn't they? Barring a total meltodwn, I thiink Eddie has them where he said he'd get them. Unforunately, like most Big Ten teams I think, they likely will be watching the second week of the tournament from their couches.

I can laugh because, while the game was completely embarrassing, at least we came out on the winning end. We need wins more than we need style points right now. I can't imagine how the Illini feel... oh wait, there was that 6-4 loss to Iowa in football back in the dark days of this decade. That did not feel good at all.

Holy f'n crap! 0 ft attempts on your home court!!!! What???? Out of all those records, that's one that stands out like you wouldn't believe...

My Cougs beat UCLA over the weekend and so I'm feeling good...

but I'll say Georgetown won't make the NCAA's this year.

I hope some people go to watch the Kansas men play at Oklahoma last night - what a game!! Blake Griffin is out with a concussion, but OU still nearly managed to win the game in spite of being down 20 in the second half. They cut it to three, but couldn't get any closer. Both teams were hitting 3s left and right - very fun game to watch from a neutral fan's perspective.

Well, the Panthers just can't handle being Number 1. As the players and coaches have been saying all week, though, we really just want to be Number 1 in April, and since this isn't college football, that is still a very real possibility.

We didn't look anything like a Top 25 team last night, let a lone a Number 1 team. And Blair's foul trouble was not a factor. The 18 turnovers and inexcusable lack of focus and effort was the key. When you are facing a bubble team that desperately needed a marquee win, on senior night no less (the team has EIGHT seniors), there just doesn't seem to be any reason for such a letdown.

Sigh.

Maryland followed up a win over UNC at home with a loss to Duke at home...but at least it wasn't a 40pt blowout at the Comcast Center haha...

COUGS BEAT ARIZONA TODAY!!! SWEET...

USC loss a tough game at CAL...

Michigan helps it's NCAA resume by beating #16 Purdue today!!!!

There is a new #1 in the country...

With three minutes to go and our team (suddenly) comfortably ahead by 20 last night against Marquette, I and 12,507 other Pitt Panther fans started chanting "WE WANT UCONN" ...and many Pitt students started waving Calhoun "crying towels." We played them before when they were #1 and we were #4, and the country saw what happened. Saturday at noon EST we will do it again. It's senior day and the place will be rocking even louder than it was last night. I can't wait. This is what it's all about, baby!

LET'S GO PITT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Illini are... OWNED!!! 14-3 run to end the game and win by 1. Hit the winning shot with .3 seconds left on the clock. Wow. Second straight regular season sweep. 3 in a row at Champaign.

21 wins (10-7 in conference), 4 against Top 25 teams. 6 wins against teams in the top 50 RPI. One more road game (at Iowa, let down alert) left, and then the Big Ten Tournament. Can we PLEASE go dancing this year?

Seems to me that win last night secured a spot for the Nits. How could it not?

Because our SOS sucks, due to an OOC that was downright embarrassing. It may come back to bite us in the @ss. We are 21-9 (10-7 conference) but our RPI is currently only 58. Wisconsin is considered a lock for the tourney, with a record of 18-11 (9-8 conference). Why? Their SOS is rated 5th toughest, which gets them an RPI of 31. Our SOS is only 79, despite playing in the same conference. I know some talking heads are saying we're in, but I think we have to win at least one more, preferably on Saturday. Then even a loss in our first conference tourney game probably wouldn't hurt us much. If we lose at Iowa, then we probably need a couple of tourney wins to offset what would be a bad loss.

The conference race is downright crazy this year. With 2 games left going into last night's game against the Illini, we had the opportunity to finish anywhere from 2nd to 9th in the conference, depending on how we played, and what everyone else did. A 7 game swing in placement at this point in the season with only 2 games left! We took care of business against Illinois (who is now done for the regular season), but now we have to play at Iowa less than 48 hours after last night's big emotional win. If Purdue loses at Michigan State and we win at Iowa, there is a minimum of a 3 way tie for 2nd place (Purdue, Illinois, and PSU), with the potential of 3 more teams joining if they all win their games. If Purdue wins, they get 2nd, and that leaves up to 5 teams that could tie for 3rd place, including PSU. Got that?

Big Ten Tourney placement then goes to a series of tiebreakers, which I will not even pretend to know. But I'm pretty sure if we win, we finish high enough to get a first round bye, which would be big. Lose and we could potentially fall low enough with tiebreakers to have to play in the first round.

But yeah, if we lose at Iowa, we could finish the regular season 21-10 (10-8 conference) and still not get in the tourney--unless we make a run in the conference tourney. Didn't the 'cuse have a similar situation recently, and Boeheim went balllistic when they didn't get in?

Dn, I hope those crying towels come in handy today for all you Pitt fans. Certainly UConn would have a clear claim to no. 1 in Big East if they can win there- Louisville may step in as number 1 otherwise, but there's a reasonable chance they'll lose at WV tonight. UC is a little more adjusted to not having Dyson and Pitt may have to deal with no Fields. The expectations and hopes of senior day are often not an advantage when you're playing a tough opponent. UConn will adjust at least somewhat to what brought them down the last time- rebounding, Blair and Young, so Pitt will need to come up with some other answers, too.

Apparently Pitt came up with some answers...

Pitt has more options offensively than UConn and goes after the ball better- they're the better team. Blair needs to watch out on his screens- fouls should be called for the extra body/hip he throws into them and that was nearly every time. Their problem in the NCAA's has been that their physicality not only tires them over the course of a season, but it's rare that they "just let 'em play" like this in the NCAA. I thought Wanamaker's early contributions were the biggest difference maker today. UConn's good at shooting themselves in the foot with missed bunnies or fumbled receptions of passes and rebounds and they really don't have any consistent outside shooters- Austrie has taken a step backwards in that regard this year. Should be a fun BE Tournament!

Penn State managed to lose today in Iowa City in 2OT. That should put the Lions squarely on the bubble, barring a decent run in the tourney. Seriously... Iowa?!? Even Indiana beat Iowa! The Hawks have had many close losses this year, so they're probably not as bad as their record indicates, but PSU should have found a way to win.

Congrats to Pitt on beating UCONN. If the national title comes down to two Big East teams, I sure wouldn't want to be ranked #1 at the time!! Amazing, though, considering the power of the Big East, that those two teams have remained right at the top all season while so many others have dropped out of the rankings entirely from beating one another up constantly.

My Cyclones actually won a close game at home, beating Texas Tech on senior day! Woo! - we'll be the 10 seed in the Big 12 tourney (considering the season they've had, that's pretty exciting ).

Louisville being the regular season BE Champion means there's a likelihood of UC and Pitt meeting in the semis. Having to compete for the championship the next day would not be an easy thing for either team.

It was a great day at the Pete on Saturday, and thanks for all the congrats. The place was as loud as I have ever heard it, and we looked very tough. Wannamaker has been such a pleasant surprise this season, and Sam Young is well, Sam Young. Most underrated superstar in the country. The biggest difference to me between this team and past Panther teams, is that in the last two games, down by 9 to Marquette, and then UConn coming back to within 2...this team doesn't panic. Past Panther teams would have panicked and gone totally away from what made them good. This team sticks with what makes them good, and it pays off.

I think Austrie has to be considered a major disappointment for the Huskies. He was pretty invisible on Saturday.

Should be a great BE tourney. It's amazing that all the attention was really on Pitt-UConn, and neither team even won the BE reg season title. I really think we deserve 3 #1 seeds, but we'll see.

Sorry about PSU's loss at Iowa....guess that helps to answer my previous question: how could they not get in the tournament? Now I know.

Ok, in Iowa’s defense, the win vs. Penn State wasn’t as far fetched as it seemed.

After many years of successful teams, Iowa has had a rough past few seasons (Thank You Steve Alford. Fortunately there’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel for next season). After Alford left, talented freshman Tyler Smith decided to abandon ship and left for Tennessee. Then last year, Iowa’s leading scorer Tony Freeman didn’t see eye-to-eye with Lickliter (Freeman basically thought he could play Iowa ball on his terms, as leading scorer of the team) and then quit to play his final year at Southern Illinois.

At the start of this season, Iowa had 8 players that were brand new to the program. Only Cyrus Tate and Jeff Peterson played regular minutes from last year’s dismal team , and both of them were injured for a good portion of the Big Ten season (Tate has come back to play the last two games, including a big performance in the 2OT win vs. Penn State).

In the past few weeks Iowa’s young team has found itself. With the injury to Peterson, Iowa discovered that Sophomore Josh Kelly is much more valuable at the point. His averages for the final 7 Big Ten games in Peterson’s absence, including back-to-back ‘double-doubles’: 20.4 points, 4.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds.

In addition to returning Kelly next season, they’ll also return starters Jarryd Cole, Aaron Fuller, Devin Bawinkle (he hit EIGHT 3-pointers vs. Ohio State), super freshman Matt Gatens (leads Big Ten in free throw shooting) and former starting point guard Jeff Peterson.

It would be nice to see them win a game or two in the Big 10 tourney. If not, I’ll look forward to seeing them next season.

From the Des Moines Register - Jake Kelly to stay at Iowa:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iowa City, Ia. - Relax, Iowa fans.

The only place Jake Kelly is going is Indianapolis, Ind., for the Big Ten Conference tournament.

Contrary to message board chatter, he's a Hawkeye for whatever remains of this season - and the two seasons that follow.

"I considered (transferring) when my mom died," he said Monday of the private airplane crash last June in Florida that claimed his mother. "I considered it, but I'm here, and this is where I'm going to be."

The tenth-seeded Hawkeyes open the Big Ten tournament at 1:30 p.m. Thursday against seventh-seeded Michigan at Conseco Fieldhouse.


Kelly, who this week won his second conference player of the week award, will be the starting point guard, even if Jeff Peterson returns from the strained hamstring that has sidelined the one-time starter the past six games.

"That's been the target all along," coach Todd Lickliter said of Peterson's anticipated return. "We initially thought he might be ready for the Big Ten tournament, and we actually thought he might have been able to play last Saturday, but it got sore on Friday."

Kelly moved from second guard to the point, where he has averaged 21.0 points, 5.0 assists and 5.9 rebounds the past six games - while helping Iowa to two of its five league wins.

"I've always known that I was capable," said Kelly, a sophomore. "Playing point has helped my confidence. When Jeff comes back and I play the (second guard), I'm fine with that."

He will do that at Iowa.

"I'm here," Kelly reiterated. "People have been asking me about that for a while. People get on the Internet and act like they know me."

The only time he remotely thought about transferring to a school closer to his home in Carmel, Ind., was shortly after the tragedy involving his mother.

"I went right into summer school and had (off-season) workouts," he said. "I didn't have any time to really take it easy, so naturally, I had a lot of things going through my head.

"I got through all my emotions once I got back into a routine. I'm here for sure."

Gatens makes all-freshman team
Iowa's Matt Gatens was selected to the Big Ten Conference's all-freshman team Monday, by a vote of league coaches.

Gatens started all 31 games for the Hawkeyes, averaging 11.1 points per game.

Ouch, Kelly leaving after all.....along with 3 other Hawkeyes. :-(

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/2...020604/90327021