Illinitalk

Another great guest blog by future Illini Bill Cole:

Hey Illini fans,

I just thought I'd stop by and let everyone know what's been going on lately. Last Saturday we took a three-hour bus ride up to Schaumburg to play against a very good team. Very shortly into the game (I'm talking 1:30 max), I had picked up two of the most tickey-tack fouls I have ever gotten. This made me pretty mad because I knew my coach would probly sit me for the rest of the half and that's exactly what happened.

I was proud of the way my team played without me though and we went into halftime down two. We came out with a bang and finally pulled away from them in the 4th quarter. We ended up winning by 14, I think. I finished with 25, scoring 22 in the second half.

That was our only game that weekend...but this last friday we played Peoria Manual at Manual and lost. We played terrible. We shot 3 for 23 on 3pt fg's. I have to give my props to Manual for coming out strong though. We had a wide-open shot at the top of the key when we were down 1 with 25 seconds left but he missed it and we ended up losing by 6.

The feeling of disappointment after the game was horrible. It was one of those days you wish you had a reset button and you could just go back. I was also mad because we didn't have a Saturday game to kind of make it up to our coaches and fans. Coach kicked our butts yesterday in practice. Hopefully this loss will light a fire under the squad and turn out to be a good lesson for us.

I saw the second half of the Purdue game yesterday. I'm not really sure how we got down in the first half, but I thought we were coming back in the second until that Teague guy went off. I can't wait until Randle gets back. I think he will bring his basket slashing abilities back with him and provide a needed scoring threat. I was impressed with Chester's play yesterday...he's an all-out warrior. Jamar is gonna knock down about four or five threes next game for me...I feel it.

GO ILLINI,
Bill Cole