IUWBB vs Illinois - 12/31/20 @ 1:00 on BTN+

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.  Ladies (4-2) (2-0) end 2020 hosting Illinois (2-2) (0-1).   The Illini are coming off an unexpected three week break after back-to-back contests, Dec. 19 vs. No. 19 Michigan and Dec. 22 vs. Southern Illinois, postponed due to COVID-19-related concerns in the Michigan and SIU programs.  

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From Dylan Wallace at SI.com  -  

 The more Grace Berger thought about it, the more she admits Thursday's game against Illinois might have a little more pressure.

Thursday is Indiana's third Big Ten game of the season, and the Hoosiers will be looking to improve to 3-0 to begin conference play. But Thursday is also New Year's Eve, which means it's the final day of the year.  What better way to close an extremely difficult year by getting a win with your teammates in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall?  "I guess it definitely adds some more pressure to it because you want to win your last game of the year and end it on a good note," Berger said.

So far in conference play, the Hoosiers have won both their games by an average of 28.5 points. Illinois has only played one conference game so far, and the Illini lost to Nebraska by six. Indiana defeated Nebraska by 36 to open Big Ten play.  The Illini haven't played a game since Dec. 10 because two games were canceled due to COVID-19 with their opponents.

When Indiana and Illinois met last year in Bloomington, the Hoosiers won easily 83-42. But when the two met again later that season in Champaign, Indiana only came away with a five-point victory.

Indiana head coach Teri Moren believes this Illini team is completely different from the one they played twice last season.  "They are running different stuff, and she's (head coach Nancy Fahey) got a whole new coaching staff on the sideline," Moren said. "They've been through a bit of a transformation in a lot of different ways."

The Illini are led by sophomore guard Jada Peebles, who is averaging 11.8 points per game and a team-high 3.0 assists per game. Sophomore guard Jeanae Terry also adds double figures with 11.3 points per game and ties a team-high 8.8 rebounds per game.

"Very athletic on the perimeter," Moren said. "Playing fast, trying to get downhill. A lot similar to how we like to play."  

With all the time the Illini have had off, the team has been able to prepare for and watch Indiana for nearly three weeks now.  As for Indiana, it doesn't have nearly as much film on the Illini.

"Yeah, it definitely is kind of weird that they've had that much time to prepare for us," Berger said. "And we haven't been able to see new stuff that they've been put in and stuff like that."

Indiana hasn't played since last Wednesday when the team got its first road win of the season at Minnesota.

The team didn't go home for Christmas, but Moren gave the players three days off to spend time with one another. Berger said they watched Christmas movies and baked some cookies during that time off.

But Indiana has ramped things back up the last couple of days to make sure the Hoosiers are ready to go for Illinois.  "More than anything, what we did was try to get up and down the floor," Moren said. "Keep our conditioning at the level that it needs to be as we go into not just tomorrow, but as we go into next week."

The game between No. 20 Indiana and Illinois will tip-off at 1 p.m. ET on BTN Plus.

[mamasa]

Glad you got this posted- I have started to do so every day this week, but something always comes up. Go Hoosiers!

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Newcomer Paige Price is with the team today wearing the black mask.  Also noted her name is now officially on the roster but I've not seen any indication she'll play this season.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Just what was supposed to happen.  After 1 quarter Hoosiers leading 23-9.   Newcomer Nicole Cardaño-Hillary with 6 pts. in 4 min.

[mamasa]

Son of a .......... I thought this started at 2

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

We had a brief lull in the quarter but still stretched our lead to  42-20.  Cardaño-Hillary 9 pts. hitting 3-6 of her 3s.   Patberg also 9 pts; Holmes 12; Berger 7 so we're really spreading the wealth.  10 assists on 15 made baskets.   Gulbe and Patberg each with 4 reb.  

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

6 minutes ago, mamasa said:

Son of a .......... I thought this started at 2

This is why......oh, never mind!   

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

End of 3 with a 58 - 31 lead.   Holmes 18; Patberg and Cardaño-Hillary each with 11; Berger 8 points.  Holmes 5 reb; Patberg and Gulbe each with 4.  Berger has 5 assists. 

 

Next week the ladies are on the road with a 7:00 Monday night game at Maryland that will be televised on ESPN2.  They'll stay on the east coast for a 6:00 Thursday night game at Penn State that currently will not be televised.  

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

With 6 min. left Illinois raised the white flag and all of its starters are on the bench.  Likewise Coach Moren pulled all of our starters.  Lead is 70-41.

[TheWatShot]

So nice to have a team that just takes care of business and isn't constantly struggling to keep its head above water. 

[Todd41]

Just now, TheWatShot said:

So nice to have a team that just takes care of business and isn't constantly struggling to keep its head above water. 

Very true...building the lead allows for the bench to get some quality minutes which can only help us as the season progresses.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Ladies remain undefeated in the B1G with a 79 - 56 win.  

Scoring:  Holmes 18; Berger 15; Cardaño-Hillary 14; Patberg 11.

Rebounding:  Holmes 5; Gulbe, Patberg, Cardaño-Hillary and Patterson each with 4. 

Berger 5 assists and Patberg with 4.  Gulbe had 4 steals.

48% FG; 33% on 3s; 72% FT.

A real shot in the arm for this team if Cardaño-Hillary can be a consistent contributor off the bench.

 

[LamarCheeks]

Guess we'll see just how good we are Monday night. The Twerps are sorta to us like the Pistons were to the Bulls in the late 80s and early 90s. At some point, we gotta beat 'em. 

[Aaron]

We took care of business which is all we can ask.

Most importantly though what happened today has nothing to do with us and is a result of team NOT taking care of games you should. The big news is NW fell to the same Nebraska team IU beat by nearly 40. IU, Maryland and NW are the a cut above everyone in the Big Ten (Iowa, OSU, Mich and MSU are solid to decent and other seven teams are garbage) and that is an inexcusable loss for a very veteran Wildcats team that still has Lindsey Pulliam and Veronica Burton who are probably two of the top 5 players in the Big Ten. Very good news for IU that NW pulled the choke of the yr today.

Now comes the big test against Maryland in what is the only good team we play in the first eight games (the other seven are among the bottom 7 teams that I said are garbage) as the schedule is loaded in the back half. This game against the Terps is a bonus to me and I don't expect to win but if we do I will be so happy and it would give us an early edge in the conference title race after the NW surprising loss today. 

[LIHoosier]

3 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

End of 3 with a 58 - 31 lead.   Holmes 18; Patberg and Cardaño-Hillary each with 11; Berger 8 points.  Holmes 5 reb; Patberg and Gulbe each with 4.  Berger has 5 assists. 

 

Next week the ladies are on the road with a 7:00 Monday night game at Maryland that will be televised on ESPN2.  They'll stay on the east coast for a 6:00 Thursday night game at Penn State that currently will not be televised.  

Why in the world would the Big 1.0 schedule the IU/Maryland mens and womens games against each other on the same night on competing networks?

[TheWatShot]

3 minutes ago, LIHoosier said:

Why in the world would the Big 1.0 schedule the IU/Maryland mens and womens games against each other on the same night on competing networks?

They did the same thing with both of our Purdue games. I know which one I'll be following.