Illini Player Rating: Vs. Wisconsin BTT

Mike Davis: 6
He didn't piss me off as much as he normally does.  He grabbed 10 solid boards and would have had at least 13 or so if he could bring the ball into his chest without someone knocking it out of his weak little arms.

His fast break lay-up was a great moment in the game.  I think it took 3 years off of Bruce's life expectancy. 
The truth is that it was not the right decision by D-mac.  We were up by 6 with the ball and roughly 1:15 on the clock. 
He should definitely have taken the ball up top and set up the offense.
Given the number of horrendous block/charge calls that have gone against the Illini this season, it was a huge relief to have a correct call in a crucial situation. 

Demetri McCamey: 7
Even though he didn't shoot the ball well (6-15), I thought that he played a great game.  D-Mac made shots when he needed too, especially with the shot clock winding down, and just made great decisions all game long. 
The thing that stuck out about McCamey's game on Friday was his defense.  He really got after it and shut down Jordan Taylor.  It's frusterating because obviously he can D' it up, but he just doesn't.
For now it seems like the fallout from he and Bruce's dust-up on Sunday is nothing but good.

Illini Player Ratings: Vs. Wisconsin

Mike Davis:  3
Now can we all agree that the "real" Mike Davis is just bad.  He has officially regressed from last season.

Davis shot 53% from the field and 68% from the line and 11.3 pts last season.  This year he is shooting 46% from the field, 6% in important clutch situations (I made that up but it's how I feel) and 60% from the line, along with 10.3 pts.
As Stacie King would say, 'Get in the weight room!'
Jon Leuer made him look like a fool.

Demitri McCamey: 2
Loren Tate wrote that D-mac is reminiscent of Frank Williams.  He is right in the sense that there are peaks and valleys with both players.
 It is difficult to define McCamey's season right now, (maybe I'll right about it once the season is over) but one
thing is clear; he has been the Illini's best player this season, and that has not always been a good thing.

D-mac had a pretty standard game on Sunday, with 11 pts and 4 dimes, but his meltdown with the intentional foul and blow-up with Bruce is obviously unacceptable.
Maybe what separates McCamey from being a great player is his mental make-up.  There have been times where he has killed the team with his decision making.
His intentional foul was just one of those 'what in the name of perfect hell were you thinking?!?' moments.

Illini Player Ratings: @ Ohio State

Mike Davis: 3
Mike spent most of the game watching David Lighty drive right past him.  The Illini's lack of depth (we have one bench player) really hurt them in this game.  They were not able to go to the bench to match up with the smaller Buckeyes.
And Davis not being able to post-up a 6-5 player (because he is weak) and take advantage on the other end compounded things.

Demitri McCamey: 7
D-mac came back after the Minnesota debacle and shot the ball well.  Just in case you are wondering if he is important to his team, when he came out for 3 minutes after picking up his 2nd foul OSU went on a 10-0 run.

Had 7 assists and 0 turns, and did a pretty good job of running the team and getting people involved for the first 2/3 of the game.
D-mac did play worse defense than Soriano (it's almost that time of year) and was a main culprit in allowing Jon Diebler to go nutso.

Illini Player Ratings: Vs. Minnesota

Eff this game.  That was not okay, you can't score 14 points in a half.  Maybe this post will be a part of the healing process for me.  Or maybe it will just remind me how pissed off I am. 

Mike Davis: 5

Davis had a pretty standard game with 10 points and 12 boards.  Did not shoot the ball well, but no one did.  He also picked up an unexplained double technical with Minnesota's Joseph.  You know it is a soft T if Davis is involved.

He left his man and allowed a free dunk with 30 seconds to play.  Of course expecting Davis to not have defensive mental breakdowns is like expecting Sean Harrington to come to the game with ruffled hair. 

Demitri McCamey: 3

The Illini just cannot win with McCamey going 4-18 from the field.  It is not going to happen.  McCamey did do some good things in the game, including his 10 assists and a clutch 3-pointer.  

The downfall of the Illini was his decision making down the stretch.  He almost turned the ball over on a pass to Davis that eventually was swung to DJ for the shot that cut the lead to 59-58.  Then on the very next possession he makes the exact same drive to the other side of the lane and had his pass to Davis intercepted. Everyone on Minnesota was playing the pass and he needed to shoot it.

He missed a 3 with the Illini down 61-58 and 30 seconds to play.  I can't begrudge him the shot because he got a good look, even though it was a quick shot, he just needed to hit it.

The decision that I found completely unacceptable was D-Mac fouling Ralph Sampson with 10 seconds left after Tisdale's lay-up cut the lead to 62-60.  It was his 5th foul and he needed to let someone else make that foul.  It forced Jeff Jordan to bring the ball up in the final possession for the Illini, not having Demetri on the floor killed any chance the Illini had.

Illini Player Ratings: @ Michigan

Let's start this thing.

Mike Davis: 6
Grabbed 12 boards in a game where if you stood around the basket for two minutes 7 rebounds would hit you in the face.  Both teams will be writing ESPN an apology letter today.

Davis took advantage of Michigan's lack of offensive rebounding and cherry-picked himself a couple dunks.  I hope he realizes that he can't do that against teams with actual post players.

Demetri McCamey: 7
One of the only players in the game that actually shot the ball well.    Might have had more than 4 assists if his teammates were hitting their shots.
As much of a downer as the game was, his alley-oop to Davis that clinched the game was pretty sweet.

Even with that play, the highlight of the night for D-Mac was being named to Steve Lavin's All-Big Ten team alongside Chris Kramer, Chris Kramer, Chris Kramer, and Chris Kramer's punchable face.

Illini Player Ratings: @ Purdue

I think I am going to start giving individual player ratings after every Illini game.  They do it in soccer, and I like it.  We'll see how it goes.


Mike Davis: 7 (out of 10)
Bruce said "I thought Mike Davis was finally Mike Davis," after the game. 
 I kind of agree, but only in the sense that his jump shot came back.  I guess that is all I am going to ask of Davis for now, because the Illini are a much better team when Davis is shooting well. 
Unfortunately, when it mattered Davis missed a bunny around the 2:00 mark off a McCamey dish that would have cut the deficit to 3. 


Amazing stat - Davis had 5 blocks in the game, in his previous 15 games (going back to the Missouri loss) he has 5 total blocks.  Do I think that Davis is a inconsistent headcase?  Yes, yes I do.

Sour Grapes

This will be my first ever 'we got screwed' post not involving Mexico.  I'm upset about a lot of things that happened in yesterday's game.
First of all the officiating.  Anytime the free throw advantage is 28 to 5 in favor of the home team, you can just assume that someone is getting screwed.
Specifically, the thing that killed the Illini was the backcourt illegal screen call on Mike Davis, followed by the blocking call against Bill Cole.

It happened with 3:00 to play and the Illini down 3 with the ball.  The screen that Davis was legal.  He slid into position and was established when Kramer (more on him in a moment) ran into him and dropped like Jason Bourne had sniped him from the nosebleed section.
Then on the ensuing Purdue possesion, Keaton Grant drove the lane and trucked Cole to draw a blocking foul.  In a game where literally every block/charge call went against the Illini, this one was the most egregious and it turned the game.

Slammin' Sam on Sports Media Links Edition

Today feels like a links day to me, so that’s precisely what I’m going to do. Can you remember the last time the mainstream media let a so-called big story run its natural course instead of beating it to death? Those days seem far gone to me, and I think it’s too bad, but oh well. The Tracy McGrady coverage, the Colts’ decisions and the Mike Leach saga fit the bill.

Slammin' Sam on Spors Media Thursday Edition

Happy three weeks before Christmas Eve or one day before Friday, whatever makes you happier.

Before I set out to scour the net for the Slammin’ Sam links, I had to get one thing straight. I would not include anything on the one thing that seems to be consuming the sports world for the last week and will continue to do so for the next while. I would not touch on Tiger … unless I felt the links were going forward rather than proceeding in a back and forth volley. You know, “What’s Tiger’s endorsement situation? What’s Elin going to do? What about these women?” etc. and etc.