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Walking In Memphis

I got off the train and put my bag on a bench. Grabbed my phone from my pocket to hail the Uber. This trip is a train to Memphis, then an Uber to the rental car place, then a rental car to the golf course, and then repeat the process

97 Minutes: Spring Football

I've said for nearly a year now that I need to write more short articles. Lately, when I flip on the writing switch, it takes me at least four hours to write something. Some of those NERDstat articles for football were pushing 15-18 hours last fall with one

State Of The Union 2025

I view this as the start of the offseason. Yes, there's still Illini sports to cover. The NCAA Golf regional is in Champaign (actually Urbana) this year. I want to get to a few baseball and softball games. But for the "I travel to every game, home

Reseating

I've been working on an Illini State of the Union address today but I've spent 75% of my time researching (and tweeting about) the reseating process that's going on right now. I finally just gave up on the State of the Union (I'

Boston And Orlando

My mind is still right there. I'm in Boston looking up at a scoreboard that says "Sweet Sixteen" and I'm in Orlando looking at the "I". You don't have to worry - this won't be a football post.

Out Like A Lamb

With around 10 minutes left in the second half tonight I got this text from my wife: “Wow - stressful game huh?” First off you gotta love wholly out of context sports texts from your well intentioned, but adorably under informed wife. Secondly, she could not have been more wrong.

It Was Always Kentucky

I will now tell you the Illini NCAA history that you don't know. You know Austin Peay in 1987 and you know Loyola in 2021 and you know Arizona in 2005 and you know Syracuse in 1989. You might even know Kentucky in 1984 because it was the

All Grown Up

Brad Underwood put it very succinctly last night after his team’s first round NCAA Tournament win over Xavier. He had just watched his team get 44 points from freshmen Will Riley (22) , Kasparas Jakucionis (16), and Morez Johnson (6). He got another 20 points from Tomislav Ivisic who is

Found It

The best part of being a Nervous Game Watcher is that when the victory is secured, there's an emotional rush like you wouldn't believe. The "I no longer need to be nervous and I can just let it all out" moment is so, so

Searching For It

I'm sitting in the hotel lobby. This is maybe my fifth location in the last 15 hours where I've sat attempting to write about the game tomorrow (well, now it's today). It's 7:00 am and I did have the lobby to

All Five

When the Game Notes email arrives (it's sent to the media the day before every game), I always pull up the PDF to look over at least the front page. There's additional information on the other pages but the front page hits all of the highlights.

Illini Power Rankings: Now We Find Out For Sure

It is an undeniable truth--if an annoying one, for diehards like you and me and everyone else who reads a site like this--that the only thing anyone remembers about your college basketball program is what they do in the tournament. I've been thinking about this specific basketball team

Investment

I wrote some of this last night and this morning. And then I bailed on it and deleted it. And then I recorded a podcast with The BoardRoom guys, and I referenced some of this stuff, and now I'm going to bring it back from the dead. You

We Are Who We Are

I’m going to nip this in the bud straight away. If you are reading this and hoping to celebrate an airing of the grievances then you are in the wrong place. I’m not here to dismiss any of your feelings of woe and despair, but I’m certainly