Sunday, December 26, 2004
No. 1 vs. No. 330
When the Illini take the court tomorrow night in Champaign, they will face the Longwood Lancers of Farnville, Va. Longwood just made transition from Division II to I last season and are now facing the #1 team in their new division. At, 1-13, they are ranked 305th in the latest RPI and 330th (out of 332) in Sagarin ratings.
I know a little something about what the Lancers face in their move to Division I as I have been watching nearby South Dakota State University make that transition this year. The Jacks got their first D I victory last week against Tennessee State. While they haven't played anyone as good as the Illini, they stayed within 16 of Marquette in Milwaukee.
If you want to know more about the Lancers, see the end of this previous post , this preview from Yahoo! and this article from Marlen Garcia of the Chicago Tribune here.
UPDATE: Longwood made ESPN.com's Bottom 10, but they are certainly getting their money's worth from the match-up with #1 through a front page article by Andy Katz.
posted by Illiniwonk at 10:10 PM
I know a little something about what the Lancers face in their move to Division I as I have been watching nearby South Dakota State University make that transition this year. The Jacks got their first D I victory last week against Tennessee State. While they haven't played anyone as good as the Illini, they stayed within 16 of Marquette in Milwaukee.
If you want to know more about the Lancers, see the end of this previous post , this preview from Yahoo! and this article from Marlen Garcia of the Chicago Tribune here.
UPDATE: Longwood made ESPN.com's Bottom 10, but they are certainly getting their money's worth from the match-up with #1 through a front page article by Andy Katz.
posted by Illiniwonk at 10:10 PM
