Two Big Ten Teams Down

I was nervous coming into this game, I admit. There was both the recent history of dissappearing shooters in the Final Four, and the intensity let down after we cut down the nets a month ago to consider, and last week's games didn't instill a tremendous amount of confidence. The early play didn't help -- poor rebounding on both ends, and the uncharacteristic outhustling we're shockingly disheartening. The Illini roommates, siding with the conference over the house (the bastards), had begun the mockery, and frankly, UNC was lucky to only be down five at half.

Luckily, there was Jawad Williams. He couldn't have picked a better time to come out of his slump. Before you know it, the roommates are discussing matchup problems, we're taking bets on which player Felton would feed the alley-oop to next, and the competition was on to see who could get the most incomprehensible hometown cell phone call.

As for Illinois? I'm quite confident in our backcourt defense -- David Noel stepped up and spelled Jackie Manuel really well tonight, so we've got a number of guys to throw at Head, Brown and Williams. Inside? Williams v. 5.0 and Powell both came up big, and I think Sean May will be the difference for the team. Unsurprisingly, I'd give the edge to us.

But first of all, I've got three orange-clad housemates, with their smarmy Illini looks, their beady Illini eyes, and their little Illini dog, too. Things must be planned.