#20 ILLINOIS 64     INDIANA 52

Some quick points from Sunday’s victory over Indiana, as well as a random thought.

-YAY WE WON!!

- Mike Davis is starting to look good.  He had another double double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, four assist and three blocks.  If he can continue to play like this, Illinois will be just fine on Wednesday against Penn State, and who knows what might happen after that? 

- Mike Tisdale had another nice point game with 16, but what I liked seeing was his 6 rebounds.  It still isn’t a lot for a seven-foot guy, but for him it’s an improvement.  He also played a strong game I thought.  I liked the one rebound he had where he got his hands on the ball up high and was able to bring it down and protect it without having it knocked away from him.  I also enjoyed his monster dunk where he received he passed, and just took it straight up for the dunk without any second-guessing.  Nicely done.

- Trent Meacham disappeared again.  He is either really on, or really off, and for the most part he has been really off of late.  Outside of the last five minutes against Northwestern, we haven’t heard his name called out too much in recent games.  Hopefully he can find that stroke again from beyond the arch because we need a consistent three-point marksman in post-season play.

- Jeff Jordan looked good in his 12 minutes of play, scoring four points and tallying up an assist and a rebound.

- Alex Legion looked better, scoring seven points.  He also hit a couple of free throws.  I like how his first shot was not a three pointer.  If he continues to go for those higher percentage shots, he will get some more confidence, and fit in better when out on the floor.

- Free throws; still not getting there enough.  Six of eight from the line is good percentage wise, but they got to find a way to get to the line more often. 

- Just a random thought here.  You know why I love Big Ten basketball?  They actually play defense in this conference.  Did any of you watch that UNC-Duke game last Wednesday?  I watched that entire first half, and at the end of that half all I could say was “Where’s the D?”  The second half wasn’t much different, as UNC scored over 100, and Duke was above 80 at games end.  Each team had so many wide open shots, and so many easy drives to the basket.  Heck, that first half looked like an NBA All-Star game.

I-L-L…