A wild day and night at Assembly Hall

Except for the part where Mike Tisdale wrenched his left knee with two minutes to go, Illinois’ long-awaited debut on ESPN’s College GameDay couldn’t have gone any better for the program.

Fans showed up in orange droves to act crazy in Assembly Hall. Key recruits showed up on a night and experienced the Hall the way it was in 2004-05. And the Illini won like it was, well, not quite 2004-05 but plenty good enough for this year’s group.

First things first: Illinois coach Bruce Weber suggested after Saturday night’s 78-73 win over No. 5 Michigan State that Tisdale might have to rest his knees the next two days in order to be ready for Tuesday’s game at Wisconsin.

Now, last things first: We’ll get to Mike Davis’ nice Saturday morning acting job in a second, but the junior forward did something else before Saturday’s game that actually mattered.

For the first time in his career, Davis followed his pregame meal with a trip to the gym. He put up 400 shots and that had him feeling great about himself all night. He finished 7 of 13 from the field -- most of them 15-foot jumpers like he hit all last year -- and wound up with 16 points in 29 minutes.

“Coach (Weber) said, ‘If you’re going to come in and shoot, then shoot in the game,’ ” Davis said. “That’s what I did. Whenever I was open, I shot it. I shot it just to be aggressive and take it to them. Today was the first time (I did it) and it paid off, so I might need to do it more often. It’s a confidence boost to see my shot go in before the game.”

OK, now let’s try to wrap up the whole day at Assembly Hall.

The Orange Krush showed up early in the morning in order to be in place for ESPN’s GameDay show, which began at 10 a.m.

If you didn't DVR GameDay, it opens with the Illinois players lined up against the wall in the tunnel.

Digger Phelps starts walking up the tunnel toward the court. The first two Illini he passes are juniors Bill Cole and Mike Davis, who are talking amongst themselves as roommates do.

Davis, in an award-winning performance, notices Phelps go past and steps away from the wall to catch his attention.

Mike D: “Coach, I just want to let you know that you’re the greatest.”

Digger: “Please, come on.”

Digger turns away, so Mike D moves to catch him.

Mike D: “No, really. You are.”

Digger: “I don’t think so.”

Mike D reaches for an orange No. 4 jersey that he’s been wearing over his shoulder.

Mike D: “Want my jersey?”

Digger: “No, it’s your jersey.”

Mike D: “No, really. You can have it.”

Digger (accepting the jersey): “Wow. Thanks.”

Digger heads up the tunnel while Mike D moves back against the wall.

Digger: “Hey, kid! Catch!”

Digger flips Mike D his orange highlighter. Mike D looks at Cole and smiles.

Cole: “Wow. You got Digger’s highlighter?

Mike D: “Digger?”

Mike D looks down the hall, puts his hands out in the universal shrugging position and looks at Cole.

Mike D: “I thought that was Bob Knight.”

Cole shakes his head disapprovingly.

Cole: “C’mon, let’s go watch GameDay.”

Davis said afterward that he and Cole got the call to be in the skit because “we’re the comedy guys off the court, so (sports information king) Derrick Burson told us he wants us to do it.”

Davis looked smooth in the open, though he admitted afterward it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“It took about six takes,” Davis said. “At first, I was saying it too loud, they said. Overdoing it. But then I calmed down with it and it came out to be a good skit. I watched it on TV.”

Midway through the show, GameDay host Rece Davis cracked a joke coming out of a commercial break that poked gentle fun at a Barrington resident: “The Assembly Hall is the official name. I like to call it the House That Doug Altenberger Built.”

Later, GameDay brought one fan out of the 4,143 in attendance and gave him one half-court shot for a chance at $17,500.

Turns out the shooter was Schaumburg’s own Adam Lukowicz, a Daily Herald all-area soccer player for Hoffman Estates HS a few years back (as well as a member of the hoops squad).
Lukowicz’ lucky Indian headdress didn’t help him as he hit the backboard with his try. He received 1 grand as a consolation prize.

Tom Izzo beat Bruce Weber in the best-of-10 free-throw contest by a 9 to 7 count, though they didn't do it during the show.

To close the show, each of the GameDay analysts picked their winner for the Illinois-MSU game.

Hubert Davis took Michigan State and got booed.
Digger held up his orange highlighter and received a big roar from the crowd.
Jay Bilas gave Michigan State a slight edge “because of the way they play on the glass.”
The crowd booed heartily, but Bilas wasn’t far off. Illinois won somehow despite getting whipped by 10 on the glass.

MSU sophomore Draymond Green, whom I’m giving serious consideration for first-team all-Big Ten, stacked up 17 points, 16 rebounds and 3 assists in just 9 field-goal attempts.

Illinois’ Bruce Weber said afterward that Green reminded him a little of Charles Barkley. MSU coach Tom Izzo referred to Green afterward as a warrior, among other things.

“He is the perfect Spartan,” Izzo said. “He’s just a blue-collar workhorse. I’m going to ride him like a jackass because he just does the job…we need a few more of those right now.”

Check out the Big Ten standings as of midnight Saturday:

Michigan State 9-2
Illinois 8-3
Wisconsin 8-3
Ohio State 7-3 (home vs. Iowa on Sunday)
Purdue 7-3 (bye weekend)
Minnesota 5-5
Northwestern 4-6 (home vs. Indiana on Sunday)
Michigan 4-7
Indiana 3-6
Iowa 2-8
Penn State 0-11

LW