'07-'08 Illini stats trivia

10 questions. It's more fun if you don't look up the answers.

1. Who leads the Illini in 3PT%?
2. How many different Illini players have started a game this year?
3. Which Illini player has the most field goal attempts?
4. Chester Frazier leads the team in minutes played. Who is 2nd?
5. Which two Illini players have not scored a point so far this season?
6. How many times have the Illini scored exactly 58 points in a game?
7. Our season-high 79 points came against what team?
8. Do we score more in the first or second half? How about our opponents?
9. Which Illini guard has the best A/TO ratio in Big Ten play?
10. Which Illini player gets the most rebounds per minute?

Answers:

1. Calvin Brock is the leader at 50%, with Meacham in 2nd at 39.4%
2. 8 - (Pruitt, Randle, Brock, Meacham, Frazier, Alexander, McCamey, Tisdale)
3. Pruitt has 178 FGA to Randle's 177.
4. Trent Meacham is 2nd in minutes with 539. Pruitt has 512 and Randle has 511.
5. Semrau and Carlwell. I'm not counting Jamar Smith or Alex Legion.
6. 6 times, against Western Carolina, Miami (OH), Tenn. St., Indiana, and twice against Ohio State.
7. Hawaii. We got 78 against Weber State and 77 against AZ St. and Loyola (MD)
8. We score more in the 2nd half (666 to 628) but so do our opponents (663 to 559).
9. Chester Frazier (2.3) over McCamey (1.7). Tisdale has a 3.0 A/TO ratio though.
10. Pruitt gets .293 rebounds/minute, and nobody else on the team is close.

Launching the NIT Quest

It has been a tough year for Illini basketball fans, and we find ourselves sitting at 9-9 (1-4) heading into this weekend's road game against Purdue. A reasonable goal for this team will be to make the NIT. I have concluded that it will take 18 wins (including the Big Ten Tournament) to earn an NIT bid. We'll keep it that simple for now. 9 wins down, 9 wins to go. Here's a look at our remaining 13 regular season games, with a nod to Ken Pomeroy's ratings.

3 Expected Losses (<30% chance of victory)
@Ohio St
@Michigan St
vs. Wisconsin

4 Expected Wins (>70% chance of victory)
vs. Northwestern
vs. Purdue
@Michigan
@Iowa

6 Swing Games (30-70% chance of victory)
@Purdue
vs. Indiana
@Minnesota
@Penn State
vs. Michigan State
vs. Minnesota

I expect one win in the Big Ten Tournament, so we need to win all 4 Expected Wins and 4 of the 6 Swing Games. If we can't do that, our only hope is to get extra wins in the Big Ten Tournament or to pull of a shocking victory instead of one of the Expected Losses.
The team has been playing better lately, so let's hope that continues because the way things look right now there isn't an easy road to even make the NIT.

Illini basketball recruiting recap

It's been way too long since I've posted here, so it might be interesting to look at some older posts of mine and see how they turned out.

First, let's look at "The Seven" 2008-2010 recruits that would get us back in the national championship hunt.

1. DJ Richardson. Indeed, he was the ringleader and the first recruit of the seven. So that went as planned.

2. DeAndre McCamey --> Brandon Paul. Another guard and someone we (the fans) totally didn't have on the radar until the summer before he committed. He's very good and a year earlier but maybe not the pure PG we were expecting.

3. Crandall Head. As expected, Luther's younger brother committed to Illinois. What wasn't expected was him becoming an elite prospect before committing.

4. Scott Suggs --> Alex Legion. Legion probably has a little more talent but a little less size. I expect him to play the SG/SF spot for us and he makes for a nice recovery after all the '08 misses.

5. Michael Dunigan --> Stan Simpson. We missed on Dunigan, an amazing defender, but picked up the next best thing and a guy who has more explosion and offensive potential.

6. Jordan Prosser/Tyler Griffey --> ??? Griffey is still on the radar and other prospects are emerging in '09 or '10 to take the big man spot. We'll see.

7. Wild card --> Joe Bertrand. The tastefully named "point forward" adds to a bit of a logjam on the wing, but he is part of a dynamic trio that could lead an Illini resurgence.

Overall, recruiting remains unpredictable with only 2 of the 6 recruits anticipated in my previous post. Finally we've had enough recruiting success to actually live up to one of my optimistic posts. It's very encouraging and the only joy around Illini basketball right now. Let's get one more big and we'll be set on the recruiting trail for a while. Well, there's always the critical '11 class ;-)