Recent content by Fighter of the Nightman

True that. Using just Illinois... Arizona - A ton of history (e.g., 2001 and 2005 Elite Eight classics) Houston - Kelvin Sampson bad blood Iowa State - Sweet Sixteen rematch Kansas - Bill Self connection Kansas State - Brad Underwood connection Oklahoma State - Brad Underwood connection West...

Good for Terence, assuming the apparent lack of evidence for his guilt leads to his acquittal. With that said, I know when I am in a stressful situation (obviously nowhere near this stressful!), I always have conflicting thoughts about prolonging it or getting the resolution over with. On one...

EDIT: Just a sample of interesting matchups! Illinois vs. Kansas - Self connection Indiana vs. Houston - Sampson connection Iowa vs. Iowa State - Natural rivalry, already play UCLA vs. Arizona - Former Pac-12 rivals Nebraska vs. Colorado - Former football rivals for Black Friday Ohio State vs...

I totally agree with your overall point, but I never really cared much for the Gavitt Games. It's losing the Big Ten/ACC Challenge that was really sad for me. Kind of surprised we have not set something up with the Big XII ... a lot of natural matchups, and both leagues are in with FOX.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. It was probably just someone using bad paraphrasing, but I remember the concept of retracting consent thrown around in the earlier TSJ threads. And I do not see how you can have a law protecting someone who decides after the fact that they wish they hadn't...

Please delete if necessary, but I have avoided asking this "Elephant in the Room" question for a while now. However, with a new son who recently turned 4 months old ... I frankly want to prepare him for the world he will grow up in. And, of COURSE, IANAL! :) With that said, here is my...

Yeah, the only reason I didn't put KU down is that playing in Kansas City isn't a huge sell for the Illini. We don't have a huge alumni base there, it is pretty far away and it isn't truly that much of a hotbed of talent for recruiting. I would love to play Kansas, but for that series...

Following up on the United Center news, this is my personal/subjective wish list for similar series' like the Alabama one in the future. As some have pointed out, Birmingham is not necessarily the most lucrative city for us from a recruiting/exposure standpoint (absolutely no offense to...

Amen!

And this is the exact type of setup I love! While Alabama is a big name opponent that will excite OUR fans, they won't bring many of their own. It will be a packed house of orange clad fans that will make it feel like Champaign!

I’ve only been to two (2021 and 2023) blowouts, and it was STILL one of the coolest sporting events I’ve ever been to … I cannot even imagine how cool it is when both teams are great at the same time. I’m sorry, but EVER moving this (specific) rivalry from St. Louis would be a heart breakingly...

Slightly OT, but when I was looking up that stuff about our United Center series history, I found some interesting attendance stats. The percent in parentheses is the attendance as a percentage of State Farm Center's current capacity - 15,544. ILLINI ATTENDANCE AT THE UNITED CENTER (Regular...

FTR, that picture is actually from our 2013 season, during Groce's first year where we earned a #7 seed. It wasn't until the Groce years that the crowds fell below what we would draw in Champaign, and then we gave up the whole idea during Underwood's first couple of 20+ loss seasons. So, I...

I agree for football, but for basketball? I lived in Iowa City for about 19 years and my parents still live there, so my friend group is mostly Iowa fans. Believe me, they hate Illinois basketball just about as much as they hate any team in any sport.

EDIT: This is why I think the perfect series are one of the following: 1. A two-game series with a Blue Blood and/or other elite program that recruits nationally, with one game at the United Center and another game somewhere like Madison Square Garden. This gives both teams what they want, but...