Illinois/Michigan St.

[tornado]

LOL. Illinois is expected to be a tourney team every year....whether thats realistic or not....but this year it was realistic

Illinois was picked by most as upper-middle to middle-of-the-pack in the Big Ten this year...
some even as low as 7th, 8th, or 9th.... Link
If they can stay within the top 3 in the league they will have exceeded amost everyone's expectations.

Brutal game to watch. Thought it was funny that the color guy on ESPN said the reason both teams were missing shots was because the ball they were using was too inflated. I'd like to use that excuse for some of our games this year.

well... last season they played a substantial part of a game in Champaign with the wrong ball, before the refs figured it out...

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/2752791-452/ball-illinois-mccamey-oakland-illini.html?print=true

[LittleBrave]

I don't know. I thought they lost a lot from last year's team. Maybe not as much as I thought.

Bruce not only needs to make the tournament this year, but he needs to at least win a game or two. That may be the biggest gripe people have with him, fair or not.

That is unrealistic to think the Illini are good enough to make the Sweet 16 after they lost a lot of productivity last year.
Winning their 1st round game would be a good accomplishment. Then next year Sweet 16 or better.

[lefty]

Based on your quote... OVER seven figures is eight figures ($10,000,000), or did you mean to say seven figures +?

Either way... This "What have you done for me lately" and "Grass is greener on the other side" can sometimes come back and burn schools and fans. So much for the American way of hard word and loyalty!!

It's still an expected results oriented business....

I don't think Illinois goes into a hire to be mediocre. The coach takes the postion knowing what is expected.....if Illinois doesn't finish well I don't know that Bruce would be surprised if they make a change....

Same way for North Carolina...their expectations are different to the degree that they are expected to be competing for the National Championship pretty much every year....if they don't do that for 5-6 years straight Roy would be getting some heat too.

I don't know too many schools like Illinois where they will pay you well as long as you are loyal and work hard......I mean there are many factors to be considered....but somewhere results has to figure in the equation.

[ph]

Brutal game to watch. Thought it was funny that the color guy on ESPN said the reason both teams were missing shots was because the ball they were using was too inflated. I'd like to use that excuse for some of our games this year.

Poor players, must of been caught off-guard having to use a men's ball instead of the women's ball

Again, aren't refs suppose to check the game balls? Before every jr high game I've seen, the refs test the game ball for bounce..

[tornado]

I don't think there's a standard test -- some refs drop the ball from eye-level and see how high it rebounds,
others just dribble it a few times, and I have seen some toss it up head-high to see how high it bounces...

[BostonBird]

The rule actually states the ball must bounce between 49 and 54 inches when dropped from a height of 6 feet.

Also, if you don't think an over inflated ball will affect shooting percentages and the game in general, you've never played with an over inflated ball.

[tornado]

I had seen that on a Wikipedia page but cannot find that rule anywhere in the NCAA data...

it's also fun to play with an underinflated ball since the shots fall so easily - nothing bounces out

[Future Walk-On]

The rule actually states the ball must bounce between 49 and 54 inches when dropped from a height of 6 feet.

Also, if you don't think an over inflated ball will affect shooting percentages and the game in general, you've never played with an over inflated ball.

I have gone through a few Wilson NCAA balls and always tried to get them to a good inflation, it was always amazing and annoying to me when playin pick up games how OVERinflated kids' balls were.....they clearly had never handled a ball from a college game/practice