Midnight Madness (10/12/07).......
 

OK, so it's not actually held at midnight at most institutions anymore due to a chance in NCAA rules. But the official start of practice for NCAA basketball teams is tonight! I know Mizzou and KU are having their usual open practices. Anyone else going to watch their team scrimmage tonight?

No, but I am fired up for this season. Dayton Flyers fever... catch it!

UD Flyers.. ahh, those were the days.

CJ - co90

The Big Ten Network will be showing five of the teams over 90 minutes, including my Illini. I expect the fans will be pretty excited after the signing of three 2009 recruits over the last 24 hours.

Of course, if I watch this then I have to see Indiana and Eric Gordon - not a name that anyone in Illini nation wants to hear after his reversal last year.

I'd love to watch my team scrimmage, but it's a bit of a long trip. :(

I am not going to the Memphis scrimmage tonight, nor do I have ESPNU. I will just have to read reports about it.

UNO's Midnight Madness is being held on Monday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.

CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT?!?!?

I thought those recruits were for next year, not 2009. Also, they have not signed, they have only verbally committed. You should know better after the Eric Gordon situation. :)

Yes yes yes!

I never did see them scrimmage when I lived down there, even when I attended the school. Now I'm sitting here in Pennsylvania with a bunch of UNO gear on, and people keep asking me why I love the damn "UNO" card game so much. They just don't get it. :mad:

All 2009. 2008 was an giant dud, as there were six guys Illinois targeted and they didn't land any of them or a couple of "Plan G-J" type guys. I think there is still one big man on the horizon for 2008, but by and large I think the staff has moved on to better 2009 guys than waiting around for fringe 2008 players. The 2007 class has five players and there may be a redshirt or two among those guys that become our 2008 class.

Point well taken on "signed".

I didn't feel like camping out for a week in front of the ticket office so I could go to Kentucky's Madness. People are nuts here. I think all 24,000 tickets sold out in less than 20 minutes.

So basically UK basketball is roughly half as popular as Hannah Montana? :)

How bad are we going to be this year? I don't think we've had a good recruiting class since Self left.

Might be a rough year for the Illini this year and next. They've lost two SG's before the season even started off an already thin roster.

One was due to legal issues.......

http://illinois.scout.com/2/646495.html

And the other due to academics.........

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...nois_this_fall

As hoops mentioned, their 2008 recruiting class is not shaping up well, though the 2009 does have some players now with the recent verbal commitments.

Illini for this year: how good do you think Randle will be? That is a big part of this season, and his last three years of injuries + inconsistent play make this an uneasy proposition.

Pruitt will be a force inside, and there seem like a number of young bodies that will be able to provide depth at PF/C. But SF is up for grabs, there isn't much depth at guard, and overall the three point shooting is a concern.

The guys they run out there, assuming good health, should be pretty athletic, but not much star power. I'm expecting more games like the ones they played last year - scoring in the 60s. Probably somewhere in the 4th-6th range in the BigTen and fighting near the end of the season for an NCAA bid. Not contender material, barring major contributions from the freshmen.