Illini Zip

Maybe it’s already been said, but I’m so happy that the Paradise Jam games will be shown on ESPN+. It’s fairly reliable, I’m familiar with it and have already paid for it.

That surprises me. Although I can see Buffalo being more of a football and hockey school.

Maybe Buffalo is a good example that NIL alone can’t buy you a successful program. I have to think that university has some wealthy alumni.

I can’t believe Buffalo is currently the weakest team on our schedule.

I did see that JMU got consideration.

I imagine Evan Mahaffey’s experience playing against Purdue and occasionally at their place will be helpful for our locker room. And to a lesser degree Hardman’s experience.

Good representation by the MAC. I think this might be Bowling Green’s year. Are there any Sun Belt teams on there?

I hope our defense travels for this one. It has been impressive the first 2 games. There isn’t a large size discrepancy except for at center (depending on who is playing the 5). It is a road game, so I expect plenty of fouls called on us. And we will see Tavari and Young stuck trying to guard a 7 foot center after a defensive switch. Not much you can do about that. Better than giving up an open 3. Groce has never played much zone. Only as a change of pace tactic. I would prefer fronting the bigs to deny entry and pester the hell out of the ball handlers so they can’t dump easy lob passes over the top. I too would be happy with a competitive game for 40 minutes and in a sense we are playing with house money.

I plan to watch that Purdue vs Alabama game and do a little scouting. I’m really excited to see how we choose to match up with them. Do we put in Barre to lean on their big centers or do we play our regular, smaller lineup and try to run on them.

I would add, protecting blue blood fan bases which travel in big numbers and spend a lot more money on everything.

I’m going to have to fix my scholarship chart. GoZips.com has him as a R-So. Could he possibly take over Hardman’s role next year?

Yeah, I respectfully disagree.

Oh, for me it’s the fact that Groce beat Toledo in the MAC Tournament one year and it seems like our Zips have been rolling ever since. Where as Toledo has good conference records, but can’t get past Groce (or Miami, Ohio, Kent). But because he does seem to despise Groce, I like to give Groce credit for breaking him. Just having fun and I’m biased of course.

The UCLA game haunts me. I thought we were the better team that day. Ugh!!

I agree. The Zips players shouldn’t look ahead, but I don’t see why us fans can’t start talking about Purdue a little early. Purdue page please. 🙏