Looking good!

We looked pretty good tonight. Offense was (FINALLY) much better, in no small part because we played basically 6 guys and we did not try to run the clock down. We did what good offense should do, look for open shots, and when they are there, take them. We did a great job of balancing jump shots with drives. Reese is playing much better, 12 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and ZERO turnovers. He also played tough defense but we elected to let them shoot most the game and it cost us. That is the only bad thing you can find tonight, despite us playing rather well, we let a bad team hang with us until the end. They are not as bad as I thought but they wont likely finish in the top 200. They did just take Baylor to the wire so I wont get overly concerned.

While we are talking expected RPI, Ctt over at ITS, who is easily the MVP poster in hoops asked me to post here about Illinois. I thought, and many of their own fans thought, that they were headed for another tough year, expecting to be .500 or a little over. So far, they seem much better. Their schedule is much like the A&M schedule when Billy G was there. You play a bunch of mostly easy home games to ease in your young team. This CAN backfire and expose you as a fraud but in the case of BG's teams at A&M it propelled their confidence and they rode that wave thru the entire season. Illinois won at Vandy which is a top 100 win and tonight they beat Mizzou on the road. That is a REALLY solid win for them. They have one more dog then the sched gets BRUTAL, they will likely close the year with 10-12 games against the top 50, 6 or 7 of those on the road. Will Illinois make the NCAA? I still am not sure but the loss to them will not be a negative. My ample gut tells me we are going to beat BYU... we'll see how I feel after it is filled with eggnog and fruitcake.