Separate NIL fund just for covering a round of beer for (those of age in) the student section. Make it a live donation too, so as viewers on TV see the students mellowing out, they can inject funding into making the place hostile.
(Fully sarcastic)
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
(Fully sarcastic)
3 of the better CBB voices
I'm going to go out on a limb and say we're going to get some Tier 1 sound bites from Mirk from this haha
I remember that well. I think it was Richard Keene who came up big. Or maybe I'm confused.
No we did not. It was at Duke. We had Keene, Garris, Notre, Gee, etc. We beat them there. Gee had an offer from Duke but chose Illinois. We never beat them at home.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Twice
Think he means we beat Duke when they were the home team. You can tell if you follow the chain of responses.
We have in fact never played Duke at home (for us). 9 total matchups, 2 games at their place, and 7 neutral site games.
University of Illinois Athletics Men's Basketball History vs Duke University
The official University of Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball History vs Duke University
You are absolutely correct. My apologies. I did not read the previous threads. But I think it is ridiculous that in all these match ups with Duke we cannot get a true home game.Think he means we beat Duke when they were the home team. You can tell if you follow the chain of responses.
We have in fact never played Duke at home (for us). 9 total matchups, 2 games at their place, and 7 neutral site games.
University of Illinois Athletics Men's Basketball History vs Duke University
The official University of Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball History vs Duke Universityfightingillini.com
Haven't seen IFund forms yet - was mid October last year
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Actually it's interesting that Keene and Gee, both of whom were recruited pretty hard by Duke.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
My brother was at Bradley when they had that stretch in the zenith of the Missouri Valley where they were good (made a sweet 16), and it was one of the only college stadiums at that time where you could buy beer (since they play off campus). Those student sections got WILD.
I’d really love to see the athletic department do a better job of choreographing the ILL INI chant better. Having the announcer say ILL and the crowd responding INI is just lame. Why can’t they just make it so that one side of State Farm center is always the ILL side, and the other is INI. Then you could have a countdown occur on the center scoreboard during moments in the game for the chant to start. Seems like a better way to get a loud repeating chant going.
Interesting that Mirk’s injury recovery was the only negative on them. Thought we would hear about the lack of a point guard! I did love the assessment of Duke that you can only play five at a time and you don’t have a star.
That is the catch with them - also that Williams was not happy being recruited over (drrrr) and that Rippey was fully expecting to start. Seems the land of opulent may not be all that hunky dory. Good to see Scheyer building his rep of bamboozling 5*. Let's see how that plays out for him going forward.
Exact thing I've been saying for a while now
Dan
