Recent content by Monticello

I brought this up a year ago (the non-4 year recruit thing). As was pointed out to me then (and I got banned for a few weeks for brining all this up), it's a new age. At the time, I was pretty disappointed given the early exit and the lack of chemistry. But Coach held on to the talent he...

I think I joined this board that week.

I enjoyed this post too much. I work in a place where a guy says, "With that being said," every other sentence. And my kid's old teacher used to use "irregardless," in emails home all the time. She even put it in a field trip letter.

I'm glad you caught it. The local barista...ugh. Everyday, I order an espresso, and she literally writes expresso on the damned cup.

This. And no coach above 60 would leave a top ten program (nationally) with abundant resources for a struggling program. Why on earth would we want to go through a rebuilding effort again? Could he leave in a few years once the landscape in basketball changes again and the Illini faithful want...

Frank Williams, Brian Cook, Malcolm Hill would all rank ahead of Trent in my opinion. He was a big part of our turnaround, but I felt they carried more and did more.

I remember him having a back injury that year. He seemed like a sure-fire lottery after his sophomore year and decided to come back and try it again. That 2002 season reminds me of our '21 finish.

I agree with this. I said last week if we swept Wisconsin, Purdue, and Iowa that we could be a top 5 team come BTT time. If that PSU game was the last of the hiccups, we're hitting our stride at the perfect time!

Reese had a double double and shot 6/8 from the field. He actually scored above his season average.

In the world we currently live in, we could be a top 5 team on March 11.

I am too lazy to look at the rest of the NCAA those years, but with teams like KU and Zona losing randomly, I'd say we're in the same boat as about 12 other teams (at least). I don't ever remember a season where the 2-6 seeds were so wide open in March.

I'll agree with both of these posts as well. I went to my first tourney game (and my first plane ride) in 2001. It was an unbelievable experience. I had nosebleed seats when we played Kansas, but after the game, a KU fan sold me their seat (right behind the Illinois bench) for $25! The best...

I'm too young to remember the 80-90 run, but I lived and died with the 98-06 teams. I'd go back as far as 97. I remember when Lon Kruger stepped in and turned Chris Gandy into a force. When Jerry Hester went down, there was nothing but doom and gloom, but they surprised everyone. Nothing was...

Thank you. I sat down with a pad and a pencil to jot these down this morning and kept getting interrupted. I appreciate you putting it together.

I don't think he was a lottery pick to begin with because of his age. I think he can be a quality NBA player, but I don't think he was ever a lottery pick based on history. He was already considered "old," last year. He'll turn 24 right after the draft. Sadly, he may have played his way into...