Quote Originally Posted by Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77" View Post
Another thing last night showed was the importance of playing as a team. Hoopville was made up of guys that never played D1 ball. One guy who was drafted into the NBA out of D2. Also, their dominant big man, Rico Hill, was 39 years old. But they played as a team and were smart basketball players. Marquette was able to out-talent them in the end, using quickness to force turnovers and get to the rim, but on paper you'd have expected it to be a landslide in our favor, with three NBA players on the floor, all D1 players, and European pros.

Hope Jamil is able to play today, as Sparty has a size advantage. Neither Raymar Morgan nor Derrick Nix played yesterday for them, so their two main bigs may not be around today either. Both of those two play in Europe currently.
I completely agree. Illinois Hoopville clearly has been playing together for awhile and they made the Super 16 of TBT each of the past two years.

One small correction. Rico Hill was the best player on Illinois State for 2 years when they won back to back MVC championships and won an NCAA Tournament game in 97 and 98. He was drafted 31st but never played in the NBA. But he's 39 playing with guys mostly 10+ years younger than him, so it's a bit of a moot point.

I was really impressed with him last night so I looked up his career. Pretty impressive player.


http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/...co-hill-1.html