Recent content by Central IL Illini

Maybe but just last year we saw guys like Riley Leonard and Will Howard leave good programs for a better shot at chasing a playoff berth. I hope I’m wrong but in todays landscape it would almost be surprising if he didn’t at least enter the portal. I would think he’s not quite at the level of...

How confident are we that Luke will be back? I had honestly been a little worried and his quotes from the interview the other day didn't really inspire a lot of confidence. Are we sure a playoff contender type that could be a QB away won't throw some money at him and give him an opportunity on a...

We were underdogs, it's hard to say we should "win these games consistently". If anything we have won a lot of the coin flip games this year (Kansas/Nebraska/Purdue). Analytics have been lower on us than the pollsters all year. I just think this is probably more like 7-5 team than a 10-2 team...

Yah 15-20 years ago he could've been an All-B10 kind of guy but today's game just doesn't suit him well. I honestly thought he should've dropped down the MAC level. His post moves were fun, but it's always going to be hard for a 6'7 PF/C who isn't that athletic and doesn't have a jump shot to...

The core of the 2005 team probably all transfer out when Self leaves under today's rules

With the free unlimited transfers it's basically in a players best financial interests to at least enter the portal every year

I'm not bought into the Williams hype either. Before last year he was looked at as a Luck/Lawrence level prospect, but I just don't see it. Faded in the big games and I have questions on if he can win over an NFL locker room.

If he's getting a million in NIL he can buy his family a house down there

Because it's a fun game for the fans and we aren't going to the playoff anytime soon regardless. Give me this over Toledo or Western Michigan

I mean all this is true but it still seems ironic that we fired a guy after back to back bowl seasons when we are basically treating that as the gold standard now. Those 7-6 seasons would end up being the best Illini football seasons for the next 12 years.

Ron Zook was fired after back to back 7-6 seasons

Yah this is exactly what he did last year, so I'm not really sure why people are clamoring for him to start all the sudden. When he starts going against people as big as him he struggles. We saw it in the Marquette game just like we saw it all last year during B10 play. I don't think a starting...

I think we underestimated how important it was to have a bunch of NFL guys on the roster. Sorta seems like last year was a perfect confluence of events with a group of non highly rated guys developing into NFL level prospects. Will be interesting to see how Bielema adjusts. He hasn't been...

Mark Few has made 2 Final Fours in 24 years. It's hard to win a bunch of games in a row in the tournament. Lot of luck involved. We ran into some buzz saws and had some bad games at bad times. 8 seed Loyola that was a top 10 KenPom. 5 seed Houston who was a top 5 Kenpom team. An 8 seed Arkansas...

I agree. Never understood on judging a coach on what amounts to be around 5-10% of the season. Sure we all want to see some tournament success, but single elimination tournaments are always going to be a little random. We hired Groce because he made a Sweet 16 with Ohio and look how that worked...