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| SportsTuesday, August 14, 2007 10:46 PM CDT |
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Illini basketball has a rough, early schedule in Big 10
CHAMPAIGN — The Illini men’s basketball schedule was released Tuesday, and it shows a rough-and-tumble start to Big Ten Conference play. But if Illinois can somehow survive a difficult start, the finish looks much more inviting. The schedule also includes an 18-game conference slate, up from 16 Big Ten games played in the past. Other notable points about the 2007-08 Illini schedule: At least 10 conference games will be televised only on the new Big Ten Network, with as many as 18 games designated for Big Ten Network broadcast. Also, season ticket holders don’t figure to rave about a relatively weak nonconference home schedule. The best games are against Weber State (Dec. 1) and Miami, Ohio (Dec. 20), both of whom made the NCAA tournament field last season. But the nonconference portion of the schedule is made much more difficult by games contests on neutral floors. Those include three games in the Maui Invitational on Nov. 19-21 (the field includes Arizona State, Duke, Princeton, LSU, Marquette, Oklahoma State and Chaminade), the annual United Center game in Chicago against Arizona (Dec. 8) and the annual Busch Braggin’ Rights game against Missouri on Saturday, Dec. 22. Illinois also plays Maryland in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 28 in College Park, Md. Illinois opens Big Ten play with consecutive home games against defending champion Ohio State and Penn State before diving into a difficult five-game stretch that includes games at Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue and Ohio State. The second half of the Big Ten schedule includes more home games and more games against teams not projected to be among the league’s top contenders. The Illini finish with consecutive home games against Michigan State and Minnesota. “We will play a very challenging schedule this year,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said. “We’ll be tested right away with a difficult beginning, playing at Hawaii and then in the Maui Invitational with as strong a field as they’ve had in a while. We open against Arizona State, which has a lot of talented young players, and then you have teams like Duke, Marquette, LSU and Oklahoma State, all of which have been to the Final Four in recent years. “We come home from Maui and then travel to Maryland, taking on another good opponent which is very successful on its home court. We have Arizona coming to the United Center, providing another great matchup and continuing what has been an exciting series of games between the two schools in recent years. “And of course you have Missouri in St. Louis, which is always one of the biggest games on our schedule every year.” He hopes the nonconference schedule gets the team ready for the expanded Big Ten schedule. “We’ve gone to 18 league games, so the Big Ten schedule will be even tougher than before,” Weber said. “The competition will be there each and every night. I feel like when you look at the quality of our nonconference games, some of them being on the road and at neutral sites, and then factor in 18 Big Ten games, by the end of the season we should have a very strong strength of schedule in terms of the national ratings.” Unexpected recruit Weber has apparently decided an already booming 2007 Illini basketball recruiting class has room for one more player. Mike Davis, a 6-foot-9, 190-pound forward from Alexandria, Va., has committed to Illinois and will join the team in time for fall semester. Davis, who averaged 17 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocked shots for T.C. Williams High School, was planning to attend South Kent Prep School in Connecticut but committed to Illinois after visiting campus last weekend. It is assumed Davis will get the scholarship previously used by C.J. Jackson, who is making the move from basketball to the Illini football team. Davis had a scholarship offer from Auburn and was also being recruited by Maryland and Kansas State, among others. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Illini fan wrote on Aug 15, 2007 8:42 PM:
Re; What wrote on Aug 15, 2007 2:29 PM:
What? wrote on Aug 15, 2007 1:50 PM:
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