ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Lol this is a preposterously Western-shifted set of sites given the geography of the good programs in college basketball.
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
I wouldn’t be mad at a Louisville, Kansas City, Detroit run. Nothing close to us, but our fans will travel
Louville or Minny would be extremely accessible for Illini fans as would KC.
BUT a first NCAA in Michigan would be tremendous!!! Beating MSU or Fichigan in KC to block them ... !!! I...L...L...
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I went to the Final Four last year and sat in the nosebleeds, and we literally could only do that because of the following factors:
1) It was driving distance so no flight costs.
2) My sister still has a ton of friends in Indy, so we had a place to stay and therefore no hotel costs.
3) A Purdue friend of ours won tickets in the lottery and sold them to us at face value so no StubHub costs (there were nosebleed tickets going for over $1,000...).
All that is to say, I wonder if the average fan traveling to our NCAA Tournament games is well off enough to the point where a location that involves a relatively easy flight (e.g., Dallas-Fort Worth or Charlotte) would actually bring just as big if not a larger Illini turnout than somewhere technically "Midwestern" like Kansas City or Minneapolis, given they would both be 6-7 hour drives from places like Champaign or the Chicagoland Area.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Lol, agreed. I'm VERY biased here, but given the centrality for consistently good programs and the exceptional basketball heritages of both states ... I just don't see how you can have a year where you don't have at least one of Chicago or Indianapolis as a location in one of the three rounds!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This is what I meant to type, lol...
Lol, agreed. I'm VERY biased here, but given the centrality for consistently good programs and the exceptional basketball heritages of both states ... I feel like ONE of the three weekends should be in at least one of Chicago or Indianapolis almost every year.
Before anyone suggests that is too much favoritism, I would argue it is pretty analogous to one of the Carolinas getting a First Weekend site in each of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments in a row (and North Carolina getting 7 out of those 10, awfully convenient for Duke and UNC!)...
2027 - Charlotte, NC
2026 - Greenville, SC
2025 - Raleigh, NC
2024 - Charlotte, NC
2023 - Greensboro, NC
2022 - Greenville, SC
2021 - Raleigh, NC (before COVID shift to only Indiana sites)
2020 - Greensboro, NC (before NCAAT cancelled due to COVID)
2019 - Columbia, SC
2018 - Charlotte, NC
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Driving from Chicago, Louisville is deceptively close and Minneapolis is deceptively far. Even more so from Champaign, of course.
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Epic gift, and happy birthday! Hopefully the boys deliver you an even more epic W in person!!
Having 2 west coast sites every year (Sacramento and Spokane in this case) is ridiculous. We almost always end up with at most 2 western teams being top 4 seeds (gonzaga, ucla and Arizona really being the only consistently good teams west of Texas). There should only be 1 first/second round site out west.
Also as an aside Spokane hosting like every year giving gonzaga free home games is bs and a big part of their famed sweet 16 streak.
Get BooomChe BoomChe's 17 year old autograph. He'll be national player of year. 7.2ft and shoots 50% from 3, blocks and swats anything in paint. Shoots 85% from free throw line. Terrifying, and he has to come back next year no matter what.
Joel Goodson
- 9th man conundrum
secret's out:
Joel Goodson
- 9th man conundrum
he's pretty good too:
Can feasibly make the argument Vaaks, QC, Andrej, Mirk, Tomi are all top 20 players at each position.
Joel Goodson
- 9th man conundrum
until one of our guys is nominated for the 9th man award, I'm afraid we're a poverty program
9th man is going to be Lincoln Williams.
Top 8:
QC
Andrej
Jake
Mirk
Tomi
Vaaks (seems like the plan is to bring him off the bench; Vaaks sounded on-board)
Big Z
Brown
9th man:
Lincoln
Okay, it's time to get serious about this. Announcing the "Illinois Loyalty National Ninth Man of the Year" award.
First we will establish a committee of Loyalty members who have expressed the most concern about our deficiencies in this area. They will conduct an exhaustive study of the performances of the ninth man of each of the 300+ division 1 teams to truly find the best one.
They will also be tasked with establishing the criteria for being a ninth man. Will it be ninth most minutes played? ninth most points scored? ninth best +/-? Maybe each school could nominate who they feel is their ninth man.
For the actual award, I suggest a piece of shellacked, flame etched, pine board. Very classy.
As for who the award should be named after, that will be difficult. It would be really hard to determine the best ninth man in NCAA history. Since this IS an Illinois based award, I think it's fair to name it after an Illini player. Was Lucas Johnson a ninth man? At the very least, determining the best ninth man in Illinois history would be a fun debate.
The floor is open for nominations for the board chair and committee members.
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