Nine straight! Illini 75, Mizzou 59!!!

The Illini improve to 11-1...

ST. LOUIS -- Demetri McCamey got out of Illinois coach Bruce Weber's doghouse in a hurry by leading a rout of Missouri (Unranked ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP).

McCamey scored all but two of his 20 points in an almost perfect first half of a 75-59 victory Tuesday night, the Fighting Illini's ninth straight in the annual Braggin' Rights game. Three days earlier, he had just seven points against Detroit.

"My first couple of shots, they were falling," McCamey said. "And I kept shooting."

Weber joked that maybe he should put McCamey on notice every week, noting that the sophomore guard was on his game from tipoff.

McCamey's 20 points power Illinois' manhandling of Missouri

The end of another successful Y-Hoops league season...

The Blazers finished off an unbeaten season this morning (with one tie) at 6-0-1. What a great team and what fun we had! Kudos and congratulations to all the Blazers:

• George
  
• Jack
  
• Joe
  
• Luke
  
• Maeve
  
• Michael
  
• Nick
  
• Pete
  
• Sam
  
• Tanner

We made huge strides, fundamentally, as a team. The YMCA referees purposely called more legitimate traveling and double-dribbling violations this fall, and our kids learned to adjust to these parameters. It troubled us at first, but by slowing down and maintaining control of the pace, our kids played their best ball in our last game of the season.

So the record for the "three-headed monster" players - George, Jack, Joe, Luke and Michael - and coaches now improves as follows:

Fall 2008:    6-0-1   0.929
Winter 2008:  6-1-0   0.857
Fall 2007:    7-0-0   1.000
Winter 2007:  7-0-0   1.000
---------------------------
Total:       26-1-1   0.946

We had a blast again this fall!

On to Park District hoops...