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Illinois
started the game on fire, bolting out of the gate to an early 14-2
lead. However, Minnesota didn’t quit and dominated the middle 20
minutes of the game. Illinois seemed far from the title with 10
minutes to go, as they trailed by five points and appeared unable to
make a field goal. The key to Minnesota’s success on defense was
simple — they went to a 1-3-1 zone and Illinois refused to penetrate
the zone and could not convert from 3-point land.
The
turning point of the game for Illinois came at the 6:46 mark of the
second half, as sophomore reserve Sean Harrington hit two 3-point
baskets in three possessions and helped Illinois erase a 46-42
deficit. After Harrington’s second basket, Minnesota returned to
their traditional man-to-man defense, and this allowed Williams to
show why he is the best one-on-one offensive force in the conference.
Williams finished with 15 points, Harrington had 13 points and Lincoln’s
Brian Cook scored 11 points. Former Lincoln College standout Marcus
Griffin finished with eight points and 12 rebounds.
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The
Illini finish the conference season with a 13-3 record and tied with rival
Michigan State for the conference crown. Illinois and MSU met just once
during the regular season, a 77-66 Illini victory on Feb. 6 in Champaign.
As a result of Illinois’ victory over MSU, the Illini will receive the
No.1 seed in the upcoming Big Ten tourney and will play a quarterfinal
game on Friday afternoon at 2. The Illini will face the winner of the
Purdue-Minnesota game on Thursday.
Game notes
- Cory Bradford continued to
struggle, scoring just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
- Illinois was just 7-of-26 from
3-point land.
- Illinois out-rebounded the
smaller Gophers 41-27.
- Illinois made 20-of-23 free
throws, including their first 12 attempts.
- This year marks Illinois’
third Big Ten title in the last 30 years, but their second title in
four years.
- Coach Bill Self becomes the
first coach in 22 years to win the conference title in his first year
coaching in the conference.
[Greg
Taylor]
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After
erupting out of the gates with 14-2 run in the first five minutes, the
Illini played possum for the next 30 minutes. Had Sean Harrington not
given Illinois a much-needed wake-up call, the Illini would be mired
in disappointment. By that point, the Illini were left for dead.
Somehow Harrington zeroed in the mortar tosses from long range,
hitting three of the biggest shots of his life, and the Illini won an
improbable 67-59 victory over the scrappy Minnesota Golden Gophers.
In
fact, this reporter felt that the Gophers outplayed us and deserved
the win. But who cares? WE’RE BIG TEN CHAMPS!
Lincoln’s
Brian Cook hit 11 monumental points, including two tough shots around
the hoop. One of those rough-and tumble bangers went in, resulting in
a 3-point play. Cook also hauled down seven important rebounds. Marcus
Griffin, a surprise CBS player of the game, also contributed eight
points to go along with 12 big boards. And once again Frank Williams
seemed to save his best for the last. He led all Illini scorers with
15 points, but it was his slicing and dicing of the Gophs in the last
five minutes that brought home the bacon.
The
Fighting Illini accomplished all that while playing on the road and
committing one of their season’s worsts: 16 turnovers. They looked
like a team that had been off for eight days. By the way, going into
the game the Illini had been off for eight days. I don’t know who
makes the schedule, but it’s probably the same guy who hires the
officials. The Illini were forced to win the title by going on the
road for four of their last six contests.
Illinois
did win seven of their last eight regular-season games, but I
mentioned to the LDN sports staff after the Wisconsin game that
Illinois would need to split their last four to share the title and
win 3-of-4 to own it outright. I was mistaken…three was almost not
enough.
Thanks
to Cook and Griffin, the Illini did hold a commanding 43-31 rebounding
edge. Thanks to five great rebounds by Damir Krupalija and four clutch
free throws by Lucas Johnson, the Illini bench torched the Gophers
24-6 in bench points and out-rebounded them 14-5.
[to top of second column in
this article]
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However,
one of the real stories of this game and one thing we will tell our
grandchildren 25 years from now was about Illinois’ free-throw
shooting — not necessarily one of our bigger stories the last
decade or two, but it sure was Sunday. The Illini canned 20-of-23
for the game, including six in a row down the stretch that sealed
the improbable win and the improbable run to the league
championship.
How
in the world was Sean overlooked for the player of the game award?
Who cares? We’re the 2001 BIG TEN CHAMPIONS! But the LDN just has
to say…thank God for SEAN HARRINGTON!
Illini
notes
Bill
Self became the first Big Ten coach in 22 years to win the league
title in his first season at the helm. Lee Rose was the last to do
it at Purdue in 1979. Isn’t it too early to campaign for Self as
Big Ten coach of the year?
Frank
Williams will find out today if he was named the Big Ten’s MVP…if
he’s not it, who is it? There was a time when Brian Cook was being
casually mentioned for the award, but even the LDN would have to
admit that Frankie is clearly the choice.
I’d
like to know when was the last time a Big Ten team won the league
title on the last day of the regular season on the road. Does
anybody know?
The
Illini won ALL 12 of their home games this season and have now won
18 in a row in the friendly confines of Assembly Hall. Painting the
Hall orange was a pretty good idea!
The
Illini’s reward for beating Minnesota for the title? A possible
rematch Friday afternoon in the Big Ten tournament if the Gophers
can get past Purdue.
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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Q:
Coach Welsh, tell us about this year’s team.
A:
Well, we had a pretty eventful year. We started out the season with 11
swimmers and ended the year with 11, which is good. We were coming
along in pretty good shape up until Christmas time. When we went to
break, the Lincoln College pool broke down, so we were off for three
weeks right in the middle of the season. That really hurt us in the
area of conditioning. I thought the kids performed really well for
having that happen to them.
Q:
Was it almost like starting all over again?
A:
True. The hardest part about coming back was the mental part. They
were finally starting to get to the point where mentally they were
coming to the pool and really working. The other thing was that the
three weeks that we were down we were going to be able to come in
right after school or during vacation. That was going to keep us away
from those 7:30 at night practices. I think we could have gotten a
whole lot more accomplished coming in right after school.
Q:
So, you ended up having a majority of your practices readying for the
postseason at 7:30 at night?
A:
Yes, we did. The main reason we were forced into it is that there is
only one indoor pool in Lincoln. Lincoln College’s swim team had the
pool until 6 every night. The Lincoln Gators swim club was going to
come in two to three nights a week at 6, meaning we’d go at 7:30 and
then we would switch every other night. I just felt that it would be
better for us to stay at one time, and the same with them, rather than
changing every other night. I think that is hard on kids.
Q:
Tell us the difference between the Gators and the Railer swimmers.
A:
Probably three out of our 11 swimmers had previous experience with the
Lincoln youth Gators club. The rest of the team’s experience was
limited to the Rec pool or the Elks pool during the summer. Most of
our athletes just enjoy swimming.
Q:
So, it’s somewhat of a feeder program, but not a total feeder
program then, right?
A:
Yeah. A lot of time there’s too big a gap…you might swim through
fifth and sixth grades, but then once you get to junior high and
participate in sports, swimming is not one of the options. So, if you
come back to swimming at the high school level, you’ve been away
from the sport for two years. That probably needs to change if
swimming is to become more prominent.
Q:
What is the age group for the Gators?
A:
They do have a 6-and-under group, and it will go all the way to 16,
but so many kids are participating in other sports in junior high that
by the time they get to seventh grade the numbers really start
dropping off.
Q:
Tell us about your 11-man squad.
A:
Mainly we had six seniors. Out of those six seniors, five of them are
actually what you would classify as beginning swimmers. We had all the
way from one young man who was a foreign exchange student from Brazil
to three guys who just decided that they wanted to try swimming. The
guys that we did have with experience on the varsity level were, of
course, Ben Sloot…and we also had Craig Shattuck. Those two have
lettered here all four years. Three other letterman that made
contributions were Bill Barmes,
Chad
Kerns and Omar Obaisi. Those guys have all swum at the high school
level. Omar swam for the Gators for a while but not really all that
long. The rest of the team was comprised of new and beginning
swimmers. They included Tom Gallagher,
Rafael
Mancini, Ted Michaelson, Chris Phillips, Jamie Cabit and Dustin
Knollenburg. Managers for this year’s team were Mikki Caskey and Dea
Welch.
Q:
Does every CS-8 school have a swimming program?
A:
No. Jacksonville, Southeast and Springfield do have full teams. Sacred
Heart-Griffin started the year with a full squad but ended it with
just a couple of participants. And Glenwood sent a couple of swimmers
for the conference meet.
[to top of second column in
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Q:
John, what would you say were a couple of the highlights for this
year’s swimmers.
A:
I would think Ben Sloot getting second place at sectionals and
finally crashing the one-minute barrier in the 100-meter butterfly.
Probably one of the highlights of the whole season, to me, is not
one of those things that showed up in the papers or anything…just
the attitude of the kids right before the pool broke down. They were
really starting to come to the pool working to get better and
realizing that they could get better. Mentally they were really
thinking pretty well. That was definitely one of the highlights to
me.
Q:
Will you be back as coach next season?
A:
Probably not. This program needs somebody to come in that’s going
to be around for a few years to give it the continuity that it needs…just
like any other sport or program needs. Whoever that person is needs
to work with both Lincoln College as a feeder system to go to them
with the top swimmers…down to the Gators developing the young
swimmers and getting them ready for high school competition. Someone
has to stay for a few years so that they can become involved with
the whole process. Lincoln College has one of the best swimming
programs in the junior college ranks, so if you could take a
6-year-old and take him all the way through the program, that would
be the way to go. Obviously, that would really help the whole
program.
Q:
Did Lincoln compete in dual meets or what?
A:
We competed in four invitationals, one quad meet, two tri-meets and
some dual meets.
Q:
Any other swimmers that you want to highlight?
A:
Ben Sloot had another great year. He works hard and is deserving of
the success that comes his way. Omar Obaisi came to the pool every
day ready to get better. I think Chad Kerns was pretty good at
coming and working and trying to get better. Those three guys went
to the sectionals.
Q:
Tell us about how tough it is to qualify for the state meet.
A:
Out of all the events at the sectional, I think that there were only
three events where someone other than the winner of the event was
quick enough to make a qualifying time. That is because there is
only one class for swimming in the state of Illinois, and there are
250 schools. It’s probably the second- or third-toughest standards
in the United States.
Q:
Did anyone help you coach or help out with the team this year?
A:
We had a little help from a couple of the Gator coaches. George
Sloot helped us with turns and starts and with some of our stroke
work.
Q:
What about parental involvement, booster clubs and things like that?
A:
They don’t have a booster club, and that does hurt…probably
because there has been no continuity in the coaching situation. The
parents were very willing to help out where they could.
2001 Lincoln High School boys swimming
awards
Most
Valuable Player
Ben
Sloot
All-Conference
All-Academic Team
Bill
Barmes
Ben
Sloot
Omar
Obaisi
On
behalf of the LDN we salute this year’s swimming team for a job
well done despite the obstacles that stood in their wake!
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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First,
some basic information about the venues for the tourney:
- East and West regionals
play the first weekend on March 15 and 17 and the second weekend
on March 22 and 24.
- The Midwest and South
regionals play the first weekend on March 16 and 18, the second
weekend on March 23 and 25.
- Midwest sites for weekend
one: Dayton, Ohio, and Kansas City, Mo.
- South sites for weekend
one: Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans, La.
- East sites for weekend
one: Long Island, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C.
- West sites for weekend
one: Boise, Idaho, and San Diego, Calif.
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Regional
sites:
Second,
let's examine the eight first-round sites. Five are much more than 400
miles from Champaign-Urbana (New Orleans, Long Island, Greensboro,
Boise and San Diego). Dayton is the closest, approximately 250 miles
from home, while both KC and Memphis are around 400 miles. All three
sites listed above would be within driving distance. Memphis, and the
south region would be a great fit for several reasons:
[to top of second column in
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Third,
a look at the four regional sites shows a significant travel distance from
the twin cities to all four sites. However, the closest of the four is
Atlanta and the south regional. San Antonio is almost in Mexico, Anaheim
brings the distractions of Disneyland, and Philadelphia (and the east
region) is a lock for the winner of the ACC. By the way, do you remember
who just moved to Atlanta? That's right — former coach Lon Kruger and
staff, who I am sure would be glad to extend some serious Southern
hospitality to his former team.
One
final tidbit of info about Atlanta: Seriously easy and affordable air
travel is available from nearby Bloomington-Normal to Atlanta, with daily
nonstop flights on AirTran airlines for around $200 round trip (I won't
mention to you that AirTran was formerly known as ValuJet).
OK,
enough speculation. Here is what we know:
- If Illinois wins out
(including the Big Ten tourney), they will get a No. 1 seed in the
upcoming NCAA tourney.
- Illinois will get no lower
than a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tourney.
- Illinois has the best depth of
any top 10 team.
- Illinois is playing their best
basketball of the season.
- Illinois will win at least a
share of the Big Ten title with a win Sunday.
- Illinois will get the No. 1
seed in the Big Ten tourney with a win Sunday.
-
Illinois'
players and staff will become serious Wisconsin Badger fans Tuesday
night when the Cheeseheads take on Michigan State in Madison. (On
Wisconsin!)
March is
upon us — let the madness begin. And GO ILLINOIS!
[Greg
Taylor]
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