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Saturday, Dec. 28

High school basketball

[DEC. 28, 2002] 

State Farm Holiday Classic

Boys

Class AA - At Shirk Center

Buffalo Grove     11   20   33     44

Lincoln               10   24   39     55

Lincoln:  Bunch 6-6-19, Farmer 4-0-9, Young 4-7-15, Schrader 3-1-8, Gallagher 1-0-2, Heidbreder 0-0-0, Komnick 0-2-2.  Totals 15-16-55.  Three-pointers:  Bunch 1, Farmer 1, Schrader 1.


[Photos  by Bob Frank]

Class A - At Bloomington HS

Mount Pulaski               13   20   29     51

Rock Island Alleman       8   21   26     39

Mount Pulaski:  Erlenbush 1-5-7, Anderson 6-3-15, N. Tierney 2-1-5, Olson 1-3-5, J. Tierney 2-0-4, Coers 2-0-4, Blaum 3-0-4, Milner 1-2-5, Loveall 0-0-0.  Totals 18-14-51.  Three-pointers:  Milner 1.

IVC           15   30   39     51

Olympia     19   27   38     53

Olympia:  Kieser 5-2-14, Thornton 3-0-8, Williams 1-0-3, Schmidgall 2-1-6, Criswell 2-0-4, Olson 2-0-4, Boudeman 5-0-10, Schultz 2-0-4.  Totals 22-3-53.  Three-pointers:  Thornton 2, Kieser 2, Williams 1, Schmidgall 1.

Other tournaments

At Williamsville

Warrensburg-Latham def. Midwest Central 62-42.

At Macomb

Illini Central def. Abingdon 70-63.

[to top of second column in this article]

Girls

Class AA - At Normal West HS

Lincoln       8   15   23   25     31

Urbana     11   13   20   25     27

Lincoln:  Freesmeier 1-1-3, Robbins 2-3-8, Presswood 2-0-4, Carmitchel 1-1-3, Hoffert 1-0-2, Ingram 0-1-1, Carey 1-1-4, Whalen 0-0-0, Verderber 3-0-6.  Totals 11-7-31.  Three-pointers:  Robbins 1, Carey 1.

Class A - At Horton Field House

Olympia     14   22   38     44

Eureka         9   15   27     43

Olympia:  Floyd 4-2-11, Prager 5-1-14, Brand 1-0-2, Canopy 1-0-3, Litwiller 3-1-7, Logsdon 0-0-0, Hieser 0-0-0, Crabtree 3-0-7.  Totals 17-5-44.  Three-pointers:  Prager 3, Floyd 1, Crabtree 1.

Boys' games today

State Farm

University High vs. Olympia; Mount Pulaski vs. Rock Falls; Lincoln vs. Thornwood.

Williamsville

Springfield Calvary vs. Warrensburg-Latham

Macomb

Macomb vs. Illini Central.

Girls' games today

State Farm

Olympia vs. CPCI; Lincoln vs. Galesburg.


Articles from the past week

Friday:

  • High school basketball

Thursday:

  • Women's basketball pre-game notes:
    Illinois vs. Indiana, Indiana State

Wednesday:

  • (Christmas holiday)

Tuesday:

Monday:

  • High school basketball

  • High school wrestling

  • No. 12 Illinois earns the right to brag

  • Illinois State falls to Northern Illinois 72-65

  • Men's basketball pre-game notes: Illinois State vs. SMS

Saturday:

  • High school basketball

Cook, youngsters declaw, defang,
derail and dismantle the Tigers

Cook leads young Illini to 85-70 thrashing of Missouri

By Jeff Mayfield

[DEC. 24, 2002]  The first thing I did after this game was to turn in my former college player membership card. I've also sent back my NABC card that identifies me as a former college and high school basketball coach.

Why did I do these things? Because it has become apparent that I don't know anything about college basketball! The tape of the Missouri-Illinois game will confirm what you already suspected; my predictions weren't even close! And while I did prognosticate a narrow victory, on “FANdamonium,” I readily admit that I was more than tongue-in-cheek!

The bigger problem that I will have with this column is how to describe for you how stunning this game actually was!

Maybe I should have had a clue (most of the time I don't) when we walked into the building and there were FBI and Secret Service dudes everywhere you turned. However, I was so focused on the game I REALLY wasn't even conscious of them until after the game and I knew that John Ashcroft had been in attendance. (And YOU think that I'm wasting my time going to games. What about him? Boy, do I plan to get a lot of mileage out of that little development!) Subconsciously, I must have thought that there was a bomb scare or something, but I've never been smart enough to run for cover anyway.

 


[Photos by Ed Bacon]

Then the game broke out. And ol' Mizzou started off like a house of fire. Especially newcomer Ricky Clemons, who was dialing in some shots from another ZIP code!

Then not only did Brian Cook hit a few shots, but Illinois' super freshman Dee Brown appeared to feed on the riot that Clemons started. He hit two or three long bombs himself and tried to hush the crowd, and before you knew it the Illini were up 39-32 at halftime.

If you were wondering what happened, I'm right there with you. I have NO idea what happened, and I was sitting at courtside!

IF you gave me some time to reflect back on it, this is what I might be able to tell you. We are seeing the continuing emergence of a great basketball coach in one Bill Self. The Illini were so prepared for this game that it wasn't even funny… especially IF you're a Tigers fan. And then to add insult to injury, his in-game adjustments were just flat-out sic!!! When Mizzou tried to double-team Cook, he sent Smith, Powell, Augustine or an usher to the low block for any easy deuce or a trip to the FT line, where, by the way, Illinois continues to use the LDN for improvement by going 21-of-25 on charities! When the Tigers were content to throw up junk from the perimeter, Self said OK and pushed them farther off the arc, which resulted in even more bricks. There are so many other things that he did that I'd have to give you a set of volumes to make sure that I didn't miss anything.

It is clear to me now that young Mr. Self has forgotten more about basketball than most of us will ever know about it!

 

AND, I haven't even told you about the play of Kyle Wilson, yet! Remember him? He was another one of those Texas kids that I think we might have gotten as a player to be named later. Up until this past week he's played a lot at the 3-spot and shown some fine range himself. Enter an injury to Aaron Spears, and the next thing you know Kyle's now a four! Probably doesn't mean much to you, because on your fantasy team, you've got him buried on your bench. Oh, how wrong you could have been! Kyle not only gets into the game but probably gives the Illini eight of the best minutes that you've ever seen from a role player. I know he tallied only two points, but his four rebounds were huge! And not only that -- his physical, solid play made a statement to Mizzou that you're going down for the third time in a row!

Nick Smith even seemed to be inspired by Wilson's play and gave the team a spirited 17 minutes. Some will question his four points and two rebounds, but I say his passing and his outstanding three blocked shots helped set the tone on this shocking day!

James Augustine chimed in with five boards, and Roger Powell also had a phenomenal game. Powell hit the charts for nine points and four caroms and continues to show another reason that this Illinois team is getting better almost daily.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

And what can you say about the guard play? Sean Harrington, “Ol' Reliable,” had 11 points and four rebounds, and Deron Williams introduced himself to the Missouri faithful by going for eight points, including two 3s, dishing off two assists and coming away with three steals… not to mention his unselfish play that excited his teammates into making extra passes all game long! And Luther Head has a solid performance and 10 points.

Then there was DEE. DEE-offense, Dee-defense, here a DEE, there a DEE, everywhere a DEE, DEE! The kid lit the place up with his play and his smile! When I watch him, I think he was the reason that this great game was invented. Naismith knew that someone would instinctively know how to play it, and I think DEE is that someone. His line? He torched the Kitties for only 21 points and seven assists, but please trust me when I say he inflicted much more damage on them than that!

 

And finally, there was Lincoln's Brian Cook… Talk about unselfish?! I thought this was a game he could have scored 40 in… but, he kept passing the ball to his teammates. His line? Only 17 points on 10-for-10 shooting at the line and five assists and nine rebounds, including four big offensive boards. Cook dominated this game from start to finish. He took Mizzou's big guys right out of the game and let his friends pick their bones for all of the scraps.

So convincing was the win that many Missouri's fans threw in the towel with 4:15 STILL to play! I'm not so sure even I would have believed it IF I hadn't seen it.

But while you're traveling over the holidays, if you see the Tiger without his claws and fangs and with his tail between his legs, you now have some idea of the spanking he absorbed on Saturday!

Other notes

Railers whack Springfield

I can't speak for anyone else, but I was really surprised by the Springfield game. I mean I expected the Railers to win, just not nearly that convincingly. You have to figure that the Senators will be MUCH tougher when we play the return game. And what about a Railer trip through the tourney brackets? I have a good feeling about this year's team, even with the injuries. I would love to see Lincoln hoist the trophy.

Bears go down 

I didn't see even one minute of the game, so you'll have to consult Greg Taylor, but I'm thinking that it wasn't a very pretty story.

If you're still looking for a great Christmas gift, we think we know where you can find some tickets.

 The good news is that my Raiders and my 49ers both won, even though people are trying to run Mariucci right out of the Bay! Can ANYone explain this to me???

Cards keep making moves

The Cards keep making moves by signing former Redbird Lance Painter and Cal Eldred.

[Jeff Mayfield]


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