Kentucky's loss a lesson for Illini

CHAMPAIGN – Among high-major coaches, the Kentucky Wildcats are the gift that keeps on giving.

Need a motivational ploy in November? Check the scores in Lexington.

Last year: "Gardner-Webb 84, Kentucky 68."

On Friday: "VMI 111, Kentucky 103."

Bruce Weber is always up for a catchy tool to focus the Illini. And just as Illinois was preparing to open the season against Eastern Washington on Friday, the 'Cats gift-wrapped another one.

"I told them before the game, 'VMI just beat Kentucky. You guys don't even know what a VMI is,' " Weber said Saturday. " 'Some of you might think it's a disease or something. But they beat Kentucky on their homecourt.' "

Illinois' schedule is chock full of teams capable of pulling a VMI. The Illini want to avoid the upset bug when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi visits the Assembly Hall today (4:30 p.m., no TV). The same goes for visits from unlikely suspects such as Jackson State (Nov. 23), Hawaii (Dec. 8) and Chicago State (Dec. 10).

Over the past decade, those are teams Illinois (1-0) could breeze past without so much as sneezing. But these Illini – as Weber emphasized again in practice Saturday – can't overwhelm low- and midmajors like the Illini of yesteryear.

He hasn't done it yet, but Weber could rifle through the team's game film library and show them proof: Tennessee State 60, Illinois 58.

"Some of them might think, 'Well, it's not us.' But it was us a year ago," Weber said. "You've got to be ready to play."

Six players on the current UI roster saw playing time when Tennessee State, of the Ohio Valley Conference, stunned Illinois at the Assembly Hall last season. The Illini are trying to forget last season, but the upperclassmen can use the season's low point as a reminder.

"He wants to set the tone for the young guys and show them how hard they've got to play, night-in and night-out, no matter who we're playing," senior Chester Frazier said.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-0) doesn't figure to be intimidated by the Illini. Six players are from the state of Illinois, with experience playing against the likes of Chicagoans Demetri McCamey and Calvin Brock and Peoria's Bill Cole.

"(Today) you've got six Chicago guys (on the TAMCC roster)," Weber said. "They need extra tickets. They've got tons of people coming to see them play. They're going to be fired up and play with a high level of intensity."

One of Weber's favorite talking points has been the team's need to "outwork" teams.

"The whole thing is hard work, heart and hustle. Those are they key ingredients we're putting in the mixing bowl," he said at the team's practice facility Saturday. "Now, we've got to get better offensively. I hope we start better cutting, better spacing, better screening.

"But the key ingredients in the bowl are those three things. They are what's going to make or break us."

It also might help them keep from pulling a Kentucky.

pklee@news-gazette.com

- The News-Gazette's prediction on UI-Texas A&M Corpus Christi and 3 Storylines to watch.

- Big Ten sophomores Demetri McCamey and E'Twaun Moore have something in common after one game.

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