Will Leitch

Throughout the Illinois men's basketball team's recent three-game skid, which has been as dark a period of the Underwood era since he was losing exhibition games at EIU (in case you forgot just how dark it truly was at the beginning), I've found myself

We all have our guys. Usually, these guys play basketball the way we imagine we would play basketball, were we blessed with the talent, skills and physical gifts. (And willingness to get out of bed before noon.) Maybe you're a shooter. Maybe you're a passer. Maybe

Exactly two days after I graduated from the University of Illinois in May 1997, my father and I packed up my 1993 Toyota Camry and drove across the country to Los Angeles, where I was scheduled, one week later, to start a job at U. The National College Magazine. Older

About a decade ago, I went back to Champaign to speak to a journalism class at the University, ostensibly to proffer wisdom but, in reality, to attempt to encourage gaggles of teenagers to continue to pursue a field that is endlessly fascinating and deeply rewarding but also is unsteady and

In the first 18 years of my life, I hugged my father exactly twice. The second time was when I graduated from high school—it was quick and awkward for both of us. The first time was on a March afternoon, when I was 13 years old, after Jay Edwards