Tonight our Fighting Illini lost by 6 to #10 Michigan State.  They were up most of the game, until they fell apart with about five minutes to play.  Part of the loss was a few bad bounces and tough breaks.  Also, Michigan State is one of the toughest venues in college basketball, tonight they extended their third-longest home winning streak to 28 straight games.

This year the Illini are a lot of fun to watch.  They play extremely unselfish basketball and lead the Big Ten in assists.  While our team has very good shooters, and our shooting percentage is much higher than last year, I’m disappointed that we seem to rely almost exclusively on jump shots.  They could become a great team, but one key to winning is getting a little more aggressive about taking the ball to the basket.*  This is especially important in the Big Ten conference.  To win the Big Ten a team needs to draw fouls, get opponents into foul trouble, get to the free throw line and make free throws.  And this team can make free throws, their problem is getting to the line.

Since many of our wins this season came from powder-puff-school-for-the-blind type teams, I’m going to focus on the big games, the kind of games that determine if a team is good, or if a team is “special.”

Note the Free Throw shooting in the following games, particularly the number of free throws attempted:

Dec. 2, Illinois lost by 2 to Clemson
Illinois: 7-8
Clemson: 6-13

When Illinois is making 87.5% of its free throws, getting to the line a few more times could have easily swung the game

Dec. 30, Illinois beats #9 Purdue 71-67 in overtime.
Illinois: 10-14
Purdue: 15-27

The stats don’t tell the full story in this one.  In the first 20 minute half, Illinois shot 0 free throws, in the second 20 minute half they shot only 3.  The other 11 attempts came in overtime.
(Illinois shot no free throws in the first half, three in the second half, and 11 in the 5 minute overtime)

Jan. 4, Illinois lost by 10 to #24 Michigan
Illinois: 2-3
Michigan: 11-14

That isn’t a typo.  The Illini only got to the free throw line 3 times.  In this game there was a noticable tendancy of the Wolverines to go one on one against our guards and get to the rim.  They drew a lot of falls with these hard drives to the cup.

Jan. 15, Illinois beats #24 Michigan by 14
Illinois: 16-22
Michgan: 6-9

Illinois was a little more aggressive, especially Brock and Tisdale.  Big Mike Tisdale pounded Michigan in the post and attempted 5 free throws, Brock’s drives to the basket were rewarded with 6 free throw attempts.

Jan. 17, Illinois lost by 6 to #10 Michigan State
Illini: 8-13
Mich. State: 16-23

Part of the problem was Tisdale’s lack of production, he wasn’t enough of a low post threat to draw many fouls.  Also 2 of Illinois 13 free throws were from a Technical Foul on Michigan State’s coach.  My favorite stat of the night was that the ref who gave Coach Izzo a T has given him T’s in 4 of the last 5 games.

*Admittedly, “taking the ball to the basket” doesn’t tell the story by itself, offensive rebounds, steals, shooting percentages, turnovers, officiating style, and other factors contribute to how much a team gets to the free throw line compared to the competition, but an aggressive offensive mentality is certainly an important factor.

I am talking about one of the most maligned players in recent memory, probably since Andy Kaufmann (although that is where the comparison ends,) Chester.  Yeah, Chester.

Chester – the guy we have all screamed at on the TV; the guy we have cussed, bemoaned, and ridiculed.   The guy that has been booed on his own court – booed by us, us so called bleed-orange-and-blue Illini fans.

Let us review what we have said over the years:

Wasted scholarship, no handles, can’t shoot, no court vision, terrible free throw shooter, offensive liability, like playing four against five, why does Weber stick with this guy?  I could go on.

How many guys would have quit, just packed it in, said hell with it?  How many “stars” have we had who sat out for weeks every time they tweaked a muscle or got a pinky boo boo, whose off court behavior let the entire university down, who broke their word and jumped to greener pastures while looking out for number one?  Well, not Chester.  Chester kept working.  Chester busted his butt in practice.  He played with injuries that others would have probably taken medical redshirts for.  Why does Weber stick with him?  Because Weber is a heck of a lot better judge of a player than any of us, because he saw something in Chester that is worth more than a 48 inch vertical or a deadeye from the three point line.

I saw a glimmer of it last year during the introductions for the Indiana game.  Eric Gordon came to town, the all-American future NBA star, the guy with bars of gold for talent and rusted tin cans for character.  Chester met him on the court and gave him a chest bump.  It wasn’t a, “Hi pal let’s have a fun game,” little bump.  It was a full on, “Game on Chump, You are in our house now,” nuclear whollop Chest BOOM.  It was way cool, and it psyched out Mr. Gordon.  He was rattled and punked.  Remember the timing of it.  This was before the bottom fell out and the NCAA was forced by overwhelming evidence to admit just how dirty a once great Indiana program had become in their quest for a championship run.   Remember how sports reporters called it excessive and an attack.  ESPN called it dirty and said Chester should be suspended for flagrant something, flagrant anything.  An Illini bum just couldn’t treat one of the golden boys that way.  BUT I called it leadership.  It wasn’t a cheap shot.  It was a man-to-man, I-am- in-your-face, message that we were not backing down and we were pissed.  That is when I saw a glimmer of something more.  Gordon was never the same.  Sure they won because Pruitt was a brick-throwing loser from the free throw line.  But the guy I say won the most was Chester.  He became the team’s leader that day.

Fast forward to the present day.  Chester has a new do.  He said he cut his hair because he didn’t want to look like a thug when he represented his school.  What?  Wow!  How often do you hear that from an athelete in any sport?  Guess what?  Chester is better.  Way better.  In fact I will go this far. Chet is the most valuable point guard in the Big Ten.  Nobody does more for his team.  Nobody has more heart.  And nobody makes me prouder of the job our school does in developing young men to make a positive contribution to society.  I am damn proud Chester is an Illini.

This should be our stepping stone into the top 25.

Some of these guys are coming in 09, but the two most impressive seem to be Crandall Head (Luther Head’s little brother, and yes his name really is Crandall) and Jereme Richmond, both should arrive on campus in two years.

Check out the video of Jereme Richmond.  One of his dunks is spectacular.  It’s like something from an arcade game.  It reminded me of me dunking on Billy Joe Mills on a kiddie hoop.  (Click here to see a sequence of photos depicting the Joshua-over-Billy-Joe-esque dunk).  And with Crandall Head coming to Illinois, we can once again have fantastic headlines like “Illinois fans really love Head.”  Oskee Wow Wow Illinois!

• Well I’ll start out with the big news.  This is sort of a “Good News, Sad News” situation.  The good news is we get a great reliever in Kevin Gregg, but we have to give up an excellent prospect (and 99 mph fastball) in Jose Ceda.  The Sad news is that this almost assures that Kerry Wood will not be returning to the Cubbies this year.  I can’t really blame Jim Hendry on this one though.  Kerry would undoubtedly command a hefty salary now that he’s shown he can withstand the rigors of a season as closer, and he did give us a bit of a home-town discount last year.  So, Kerry, I wish you the best with wherever you land…I just hope it isn’t in the NL Central.
• The Cubs were unable to come to terms with Ryan Dempster before their exclusive negotiating rights ended this week.  Therefore, we’re now bidding on him against the rest of the field, which undoubtedly will drive up his price.  This was the expected outcome earlier in the offseason, but recent news had suggested that Hendry might be able to get Demp under contract…I guess they were wrong.
• Big Z was able to snag his second Silver Slugger this year with his .337 BA, 4 HRs, & 14 RBIs.  Zambrano also managed a 13-start hitting streak, which also included a streak of 8 straight starts with an RBI.  The first of which hasn’t happened since ‘24, and the latter was a MLB first.  Good Job Z, we’ll see you in Spring Training.
• Apparently the Cubs have Papelbon on their roster…No, not THAT Papelbon, but it is still a good story nonetheless.
• Sweet Lou won the NL Manager of the Year award.  Contrary to what most people think, these postseason awards are voted on the day after the season ends.  The MLB is just stupid for releasing them weeks after the World Series ends rather than during the middle of the playoffs on an off day or something intelligent.
• Geo snagged the NL Rookie of the Year award by near unanimous decision.  And by nearly unanimous, I mean everyone voted for him except some homer jackass that voted for Joey Votto.  Perhaps they were confused since no one in Ohio can pronounce his name other than “G-O-VAN-EE”.
• The Jake Peavy sweepstakes appears to be in mass hysteria at this point, but Lou appears not to be too concerned with acquiring the stud from the Padres this offseason.  People are pretty uncertain about how the Peavy trade may go down at this point, but many are surmising that John Moores, the Padres owner, is in a hurry due to his impending divorce.

Well folks, that is all I have at this juncture in the offseason.  We’ll see where things go from here.  Stay Classy San Diego…

Pacman recently announced that he wanted to only be called Adam from now on.  Clearly an attempt to make people look away from his sordid past activities.  Unfortunately, Pacman, one first must give respect in order to earn it.  This guy was banned from the NFL for an entire year for his antics, and then is reinstated after giving certain guarantees that he will behave…and makes it all the way through week 5 of the season until he is in the news again.

The part that really irks me the most is that he’s not even that good!  He actually has the same amount of body guards appointed by the Cowboys (4) as career interceptions!  A guy in a similar situation, but with a much higher level of talent, Tank Johnson, was dropped by his team at the time (my beloved Chicago Bears) promptly after they used him in one last hoorah against the Colts in Super Bowl XLI.  However, one would never expect Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, to get rid of a player for something as “insignificant” as breaking the law…5 or 6 times!  Who did Tank end up getting picked up by a few months later?  Why of course, the Cowboys!  And instead of keeping his head down and out of the news, he decided to back up his boy.

The really sad thing is that we all pay their salaries.  People have the nerve to get upset when people who manage multi-billion dollar corporations are paid $10-20 million, but see nothing wrong with a guy getting paid around the same amount to play a game 16 games a year…we Americans have our priorities a bit out of whack methinks.  Whenever you watch a professional sporting event on TV, attend a game in person, buy a jersey, etc. you are basically handing your money over to people like this.  Of course, there are a number of upstanding citizens; however, these people will never feel the true brunt of their actions until be stand behind their frustration and actually act.  But, if you’re going to act…please put some effort and intelligence into it (i.e., don’t do this).

As my sister said: “He only alienates the loser half of the city.”

Game 1: Derek Lowe (14-11, 3.24 ERA) vs. Ryan Dempster (17-6, 2.96 ERA)

Derek Lowe has a 4.42 ERA on the Road, and opposing batting averages is .251 vs. lefties and .240 against righties. So look for Fukudome and Edmonds to start, especially with DeRosa having a sore leg. Lowe has 45 BB to 147 SO, so it looks like he will tend to throw a lot of pitches. This is a guy who can be worked to knock him out of the game early to get to the Dodger bullpen, and set up the next game.

Ryan Dempster has defended his house. .243 against lefties, .213 against righties. The Dodgers have have decent lefties in Eithier and Loney. Dempster has a 2.86 at home, so he is pretty consistent. Uncle Lou is putting up his best home pitcher to start the series so look for them to start strong.

Game 2: Chad Billingsley (16-10, 3.14) vs. Carlos Zambrano (14-6, 3.91)

Another righty, Billingsley has a .274 opp ba against lefties (.225 against righties), so maybe we’ll see some pinch hitting by Fontenot. He is 3.33 on the road with 58 walks from 59 strikeouts. Cubs can generate some walks against this guy. Patience is going to be a virtue, with Edmonds and Fukudome probably playing again due to their lefty bats.

Zambrano is Zambrano. A 3.77 ERA at home (3.18 ERA at night), this is a great place for him to pitch. We hope that the playoffs and the emotion of Wrigley will allow him to be in control as opposed to him getting freaked out. The person who will be the most responsible for keeping Zambrano in line is Rookie of the Year Geovany Soto, who has been handling this pitching staff well all summer. If he can keep Zambrano dialed in, look out.

Game 3: Hiroki Kuroda (9-10, 3.84 ERA) vs. Dick Harden (10-2, 2.07)

Hiroki Kuroda is the weak link of their three man rotation based on the numbers. Another righty, look for the Edmonds and Fukudome to play again. ERA at home is 3.68 with opp BA is .264 for lefties, .250 for righties. 42 BB, 113 SO, should throw a lot of pitches, another opportunity to get to the bulllpen early. However, after Kuroda allowed just two hits over five scoreless innings today, that makes eleven straight starts in which he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs. Over those eleven starts his ERA is just 2.58, and he’s LA’s third starter at best. How many teams would kill for a first starter with those numbers? Granted, those starts were against Pittsburg, San Diego, and San Francisco, who were hardly offensive juggernauts, so we’ll see.

Dick Harden is the man. 2.50 ERA on the road, with a .198/.168 for opp BA, lefty/righty. His issue is throwing a lot of pitches and getting rest between games. Don’t anticipate that being an issue this game or going forward, given how much rest he will get due to the four man rotation and the days off for travel between games.

Game 4. Lowe vs. Charles Manson I mean Ted Lilly (17-9, 4.09 ERA)

Lowe is much better at home, with a 2.50 ERA. Still a righty.

Ted Lilly eats babies. And then he comes to the ballpark. His 4.09 reflects a slow start; he is 3.52 in the last 10 starts. He pitches better on the road (3.77 ERA vs. 4.50). He devours righties with a .219 right opp BA, vs. a .309 against lefties, so Ethier and Loney will have to be treated with care.

PITCHING STAFF ANALYSIS FOR DODGERS: The big news is that Kuo, one of their better relievers, will be out for the series, which is nice. The most likely remaining eight are Takashi Saito (2.49), Jonathan Broxton (3.13), Joe Beimel (2.03), Cory Wade (2.15), Chan Ho Park (3.23), Scott Proctor (6.05), Greg Maddux (4.22) and Clayton Kershaw (4.30). Their lead guys are pretty scary, but if we get to the bullpen early, we might be able to rope a dope these guys. Also, the Dodgers played the majority of their games against a few of worst producing teams in the majors, so those numbers might be a little deceiving.

PITCHING STAFF ANALYSIS FOR CUBS: Obviously the hub of this staff is Wood (3.26) and Marmol (2.68). If our starters can go 7 innings, we feel comfortable. After Wood and Marmol, we got lefty Marshall (3.86), lefty Cotts (4.29), Wuertz (3.63), Samardijia (our preferred 7th inning guy probably at 2.28), Marquis (4.53), and either Howry (5+) or Gaudin (4.40). So I would like to think overall we would have the advantage on paper pitching wise, but who knows.

COMPARATIVE OFFENSES We scored 855 runs to their 700 runs. So one would think that we are the more productive team, but Manny does change the complexion of the team. They have been scoring around 5-7 runs per game, against relatively decent pitching. So there is that.

INJURIES: As I mentioned, Kuo is out, which is a big deal. Soto and DeRosa haven’t played recently but Uncle Lou has explicitly stated that Soto’s injury is not that bad, and DeRosa’s probably isn’t, but they are just playing it safe. Either way, I think the Cubs, due to them clinching early, will be going into the playoffs as healthy as they can possibly be, probably in much better physical shape than any of their NL opponents. All catchers get beat up during the season, and Soto has got to be the freshest of the starters given the rest.

SUMMATION: Anything can happen in the playoffs, and the regular season don’t mean squat. But on paper, one would think the Cubs would have the advantage. We’ll see. Long story short, we shouldn’t look past this team. On paper, we are better, but this is the playoffs.

Other fan favorites like Kiwanne Garris and Frank Williams will also be coming home to Champaign Urbana.

Also, Deron Williams will be showing off his gold medal and endowing a scholarship.

Here are some highlights of Frank Williams at his best:

Some 1989 Flyin Illini clips: