Illinois Preview

[bullcity gamer]

Living in Illinois I have a lot of friends who root for the Illini, some of them are my best friends. Illinois plays a rotation of 8 guys now due to Johnson being out indefinitely with a broken wrist. The Illini are a young team with only having 2 upperclassmen in their rotation. The Illini are a live by the 3 and die by the 3 team this season with a handful of their players shooting between 33-35% on the season from 3 point land (Jakucionis, Tomislav Ivisic, Riley, Humrichous, and Davis). The Illini are Led by Projected Top 5 NBA Draft Pick Jakucionis, when he plays poor then the rest of the team plays poor. Boswell, a junior this season, who played for Arizona last season is the only player familiar with the Blue Devils.

I think this is how Duke will match up with Illinois on Saturday night,

Boswell - James
Jakucionis - Proctor
Riley - Knueppel
Humrichous - Flagg
Tomislav Ivisic - Maluach

Illinois' Reserves:

White - Guard
Gibbs-Lawhorn - Guard
Davis - Forward

I think we will witness Duke's Coaching Staff make it an Emphasis to shut down the Illini's 3 point shooting and they will force the Illini to try and score on them inside the paint. As long as Proctor and James do a great job in shutting down Jakucionis and Duke Succeeds in shutting down the Illini's 3 point shooting prowess I see Duke winning by at least 15 points. Illinois is not a team that makes comebacks, Duke HAS to defend the 3 point line very well on Saturday Night! If the Illini are cold early and Duke gets out to a fast start, this game will become a blow out and a long night for Illini fans as for some odd reason, Illinois tends to continue letting it fly from 3 even when they cannot shoot the ball into an ocean.

Great Opportunity to finish a tough non-conference game schedule in the regular season with a 3-2 record. A lot of Duke Fans should be present in NYC on Saturday Night.

Let's Go Duke!

 

[johnl1219]

Good preview of Illinois. I will be there in person, so I'm looking forward to seeing Duke add a decent non-conference win to their resume.

 

[bullcity gamer]

Good Deal John! Have A Great Time in NYC!

 

[DukeDallas9192011015]

We need to get an early lead and bury them. The metrics say they are a much better team than their record suggests. They shoot a lot of three's so can't allow them to get hot and get confidence.

That Jakucionis guy can get hot and get 30, or he can go 1-13 and score 2, he is very streaky. He probably hasn't seen a defensive combination like Proctor/Sion all year though, so I think he has an awful night.

 

[AlanInNJ]

Nice review, thanks for sharing!!

Duke's backcourt height and length should disrupt their shooters. I do think we are going to really miss Brown this game, but Proctor and Sion should give their shooters problems. I expect it to be close at half with Duke coming out strong and taking control in the second half. Let's see if Evans can get going again and give us a spark off the bench.

I looked at ticket prices, just a little steep for my wallet for anything but nosebleeds at Cameron North, so I will be watching from home. Let's go Duke!

 

[bullcity gamer]

The Illini's tendency to keep letting it fly from 3 point land even when they are not making the shots reminds me of a child trying to fit a wide rectangular peg through a narrow triangular hole.

Also, don't know if any of you learned about the U of I's botched Jersey Retirement Ceremony for Terrance Shannon Jr. which occurred on Saturday night. Long story short, the retired jersey was upside down when the U of I was raising it up to the rafters. Not a good look for Illinois.

 

[t-towndomer]

The Illini's tendency to keep letting it fly from 3 point land even when they are not making the shots reminds me of a child trying to fit a wide rectangular peg through a narrow triangular hole.

Also, don't know if any of you learned about the U of I's botched Jersey Retirement Ceremony for Terrance Shannon Jr. which occurred on Saturday night. Long story short, the retired jersey was upside down when the U of I was raising it up to the rafters. Not a good look for Illinois.

The fact that they retired the jersey of a 3rd team all-american transfer is the real joke. The fact that they screwed it up seems fitting.

 

[ioliva]

I hate this game. We lose and it’s a bad loss . We win and it doesn’t mean much. Illinois has not panned out this year