On Women's Basketball

IPFW review

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Saturday, November 15, 2008 12:52 AM

Granted, the opponent was a team picked to finish seventh in the Summit League. That said, there were plenty of positives to take from the UI's victory against IPFW on Friday afternoon.

Let's run them down, in no particular order:

--The energy and sharpness in the first half propelled the Illini to a big early lead. The ball movement was good, Jenna Smith was involved from the first possession and the freshmen showed poise and confidence. 

--Lacey Simpson, as her numbers (17 points, nine rebounds, nine steals) reveal, was terrific. When Simpson plays like this, Illinois moves to another level. She's one of the most important keys ot the season. There are many others, of course, and they'll all have to fall into place if Illinois is to earn an NCAA tournament berth. But the Illini desperately need offense from Simpson, and she's demonstrating that she is ready to provide it. 

Simpson gleaned plenty of offense from her thievery, of course, but she also appears to have improved her mid-range jumper. Simpson's jumpshot last year had a tendency to flatten out, but she has improved the arc on it, and the results showed in 7-for-8 shooting. Her signature shot has become a little baseline jumper, which she has knocked down consistently since late last season. She made four of those shots in the first half against IPFW. 

--Look for Jenna Smith (29 points, eight rebounds) to be the Big Ten's first Player of the Week. It will take a serious effort to knock her out of that spot, especially considering that she picked up her 1,000th career point on Friday.

Speaking of Smith's milestone, I saw something I've never seen before in conjunction with that. When Smith made the basket to reach 1,000, the IPFW P.A. announcer informed the crowd of her achievement. That's standard practice if the player is in her home arena. On the road? Never seen it. Very classy move by the folks at IPFW.

--Fabiola Josil's line doesn't look like much (0 points, 0-for-4 shooting), but keep in mind the freshman point guard had just one turnover in 23 minutes. 

--The Illini freshmen have been off-limits to the media so far this year. (There was an exception Friday because the Greenville, Ohio, paper traveled to Fort Wayne to cover hometown girl Macie Blinn's college debut.) I'm told the situation will change soon, perhaps next week, after the freshmen receive some tips on dealing with the media. We're a tough group, you know.

--Next up for the Illini is Eastern Illinois on Sunday, and the Panthers might be the best team in the Ohio Valley, so this represents a nice step up in competition. I wanted to watch the Panthers' opener Friday against Miami University on WEIU, but my DirecTV connection has been messed up lately. The local channels are fuzzy, so while I was traveling to Fort Wayne on Friday, my wife called DirecTV and informed them of the problem. Some nice person told her that because we've been such "good customers," she could get a technician to our house IN A WEEK. Hello? Are you kidding me? I enjoy having DirecTV, but I've learned over the years that the biggest drawback is some of the lousiest customer service you'll ever experience. Almost makes you want to switch to cable. Almost.

Fortunately, it's only the local channels that are on the fritz. I can still get the others, so I'll be watching that Sunday doubleheader on ESPN that really kicks off the season in earnest. It's that time of year ... hope the TiVo is ready for the action.

--National news: The NCAA on Friday announced the Final Four sites for the 2012-2016 tournaments. Indianapolis was awarded the Final Four in 2016. The others: Denver (2012), New Orleans (2013), Nashville (2014) and Tampa (2015). 

Just for the record, because I know what you're thinking ... the six-pack of seniors who signed letters of intent this week will be seniors in 2013 ... when the Final Four's in New Orleans.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Until Sunday ....

 

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