It was a tough loss Saturday at Purdue.  With the way Illinois looked against Ohio State, it was easy to see a lopsided affair in West Lafayette.  Instead, Bruce Weber’s team fought hard and they were very competitive.  Unfortunately, when you play at the #4 team in the country, that sometimes isn’t enough. 

Let’s update the prediction standings. 

NAME                                                W                    L                      RSDT*

Tom Young (PUR 79-68)                  13                    4                          139

Reillini (PUR 76-72)                         12                    6                          166

dave1956 (PUR 77-59)                    11                    6                          160

Jshaw (PUR 68-55)                          11                    6                          173

jweeks (ILL 65-63)                            9                      8                         181

PeterE (PUR 80-66)                          3                      2                         43

* - Real Score Difference Total

Looking ahead to Tuesday…

My Prediction

ILLINOIS 69       MICHIGAN 64

This is a tough game to pick.  Michigan is a team with some decent talent but have underachieved.  Why is that?  I think it’s simple.  They have what I call the New York Knick syndrome.  They rely too much on the three point shot.  Sure, when you’re making it, you can beat anyone.  However, if you’re off, you beat no one.  Michigan is 13-13 on the season and they’ve shot 626 threes!  That’s a little more than 24 attempts a game!  When the season is over, Michigan will have four different players that have attempted over 100 three-point shots (Manny Harris, Zack Novak, Stu Douglass, and Laval Lucas-Perry). 

Since Michigan is a .500 team, and since they rely so much on being able to hit a low percentage shot, I decided to pick this game by flipping a coin.  Heads = an Illinois win and tails = a Michigan win.  It landed on heads, so there you go Illinois!  Let’s just hope Michigan can’t hit that three point shot.  Of course, we’ve seen a number of teams have success against us with that shot since we at times don’t get out there to cover. 

Michigan does have some nice wins at home this year.  They took out Ohio State 73-64 (albeit without Evan Turner), and they beat Connecticut 68-63 (albeit while the Huskies did their best North Carolina impression).   And don’t forget that 47-point victory against North Michigan (that was a joke).

Okay, maybe they don’t really have any huge wins at home this year.  That’s beside the point right now.  Illinois has to come into this game on fire and play like a team looking for a spot in the field of 65.  Lose this game, and you can forget it.  Right now, Illinois is #68 in the RPI and 4-6 vs. the RPI top 50.  They don’t have much room for slip-ups.

What do you guys think will happen on Tuesday.  Will Illinois get it’s 6th road win of the season, or will Michigan make 50% of their three-pointers and put a big dent in the Illini’s post-season plans? 

Since it’s spring training, I got an off topic baseball question for you guys.  Who will win the NL Central this year?  The Cardinals, the Cubs or someone else?  I got the Cardinals taking it since they were able to resign Matt Holliday, which in my opinion was just a matter of time. 

Talk to you guys soon.

I-L-L…

(Stats and scores found on IlliniHQ.com)