Illini Basketball Uniforms

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#176      
I'd agree on the idea of "color vs color" for Bragging Rights every year. Could be any of the following combinations, but given the Enterprise Center is always (somewhat) half orange and half gold I think that's a good approach.

Illinois Orange/Mizzou gold
Illinois Blue/Mizzou gold
Illinois Orange/Mizzou black

Unfortunately, I'm skeptical that we'll ever see any meaningful change close to what we are discussing here. I'd love to be proven wrong.
 
#177      
I know I've posted this before, but after FOTN's posts I still contend this would be our best six-uniform (three FI, three script) set. The * means these are the uniforms I'd pick if we were limited to four (which often seems like the absolute limit for most collegiate uniforms).

White scripts* - Blue letters, orange trim (current version)
Blue scripts - White letters, orange trim
Orange scripts* - Blue letters, white trim

White FI - Blue letters, orange trim
Blue FI* - Orange letters, white trim
Orange FI* - White letters, blue trim (current version)

If there was only one uniform that I had to not pick, it would be the blue scripts. I feel like that one is the "odd man out" given the white scripts and how the blue FI uniforms would look if we went with orange letters on the blue FI uniforms. If we had orange scripts, I'd save that for Bragging Rights and when we could wear them for Sunday games, kind of like how MLB teams often have special Sunday uniforms.
 
#178      
I know I've posted this before, but after FOTN's posts I still contend this would be our best six-uniform (three FI, three script) set. The * means these are the uniforms I'd pick if we were limited to four (which often seems like the absolute limit for most collegiate uniforms).

White scripts* - Blue letters, orange trim (current version)
Blue scripts - White letters, orange trim
Orange scripts* - Blue letters, white trim

White FI - Blue letters, orange trim
Blue FI* - Orange letters, white trim
Orange FI* - White letters, blue trim (current version)

If there was only one uniform that I had to not pick, it would be the blue scripts. I feel like that one is the "odd man out" given the white scripts and how the blue FI uniforms would look if we went with orange letters on the blue FI uniforms. If we had orange scripts, I'd save that for Bragging Rights and when we could wear them for Sunday games, kind of like how MLB teams often have special Sunday uniforms.
Two points:

1. As far as the bolded comment, we actually have five right now! This was from an actual "press release" from the DIA website during the 2019-20 season showing our official current uniform set:

Uni_Nike_Mocks_All5_DR.jpg


So I am not sure we would be limited to four. Assuming we could get a similar set up (regular white/orange/navy and two throwbacks of our choice), I would assumed we'd first pick whether Script or Flyin' Illini is the "regular/default," get that set in all three colors and then pick two of white/orange/navy for the other style.

2. I agree that a lot of this is maybe wishful thinking, but that should honestly piss us all off, haha. An idea as simple as both teams wearing their color uniforms for Braggin' Rights is so frickin' obvious and yet a bit creative ... and I guarantee you the types of mid-level cogs that would be responsible for pushing it up the ladder would have the classic "Well, maybe" response, all the while stubbornly refusing to adopt it because they either don't want to change anything or because they didn't think of it themselves. Adopting one of our two throwback uniforms in all three colors is also a painfully obvious move, but I will AT LEAST consider mitigating factors like Nike wanting to create something new or someone having the misguided belief that we should "keep throwback uniforms special" or whatever the hell.
 
#179      
Also, as far as having "special uniforms" we wear for certain occasions, I think that is such an awesome idea and I don't understand why anyone would prefer to not do that, haha. Our social media wizards could even start marketing things like "Scripts on Sundays" in a fun way. Using the uniforms I outlined above as my preference, this could be an example:

White Flyin' Illini: Majority of home games. Needs to be worn enough that it isn't seen as the uniform we wear for cupcakes or something (i.e., we can't overuse the White Script).
Orange Flyin' Illini: Standard road uniform for Iowa, Michigan, MSU, Northwestern, Oregon, PSU, Purdue, UCLA and Washington. Also worn at home for the Paint the Hall Orange game.
Navy Flyin' Illini: Standard road uniform for Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, OSU, Rutgers, USC and Wisconsin.
White Script: Sunday home games for "Scripts on Sundays."
Orange Script: Braggin' Rights every single year, as the tradition started while we had this uniform (IIRC) and it would go with the both-wearing-colors theme. Would also be a good United Center uniform if the away team doesn't wear red.
Navy Script: Could be used sparingly on the road but maybe associated with marquee non-conference matchups where we are designated as the road team (e.g., at Duke 2020-21, at Tennessee 2023-24, vs. Alabama in Birmingham in 2024-25, etc.).

I would be really open to what to do for the BTT and NCAAT, but those are good patterns to follow for the regular season, IMO. I'm a bit more conflicted for the postseason, as your seed dictates what uniform you can wear and thus establishing a tradition is a bit more difficult. We could effectively follow the regular season patterns somewhat, such as wearing Scripts on Sunday BTT and NCAAT games. I'm hesitant to label one set of uniforms as strictly a "big game uniform," because all of these are so great ... when the time comes we are playing for our first National Championship, maybe we just want to cut down those nets in our Orange Flyin' Illini uniforms because it feels right, and we don't need to follow some rule about it clearly being a "big game."
 
#184      
Really wish we would use Fighting Illini throwback looks as our main uniforms for three reasons

1. I feel like Fighting Illini keeps us linked to the Chief!

2. Having both words makes us stand out (in a good way) compared to using just Illinois which is more of what the majority of other teams use (just their state name).

3. I personally think they look the sharpest
 
#186      
And the most peculiar thing about the “2005” navy uniforms is they were only worn in 2004 and 2006! I don’t have the full info, but 2005 and 2025 are the only years I can remember where we didn’t even wear navy one time.
Times a-changing - bump the blues up to this upcoming season on away games occasionally to make the year ultra-elite - come on, coach, promote it - time to start loving these again - they can and will be.

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#187      
As a layman/non-expert in this realm, I'd define "ownable" as something that when you see it, you almost automatically think of that organization alone.

In my opinion, the best basketball examples of this are the Celtics uniforms (at least their classic uniforms and not the black/neon green abomination that Nike is attempting to foist upon Celtics fans :) ). Nothing at all about the Celtics' uniforms is overly unique. Pretty basic lettering and numbering. Two colors, white and green. But when you see that uniform, you instantly think "Boston Celtics".

I feel like the Flying Illini uniforms would be the best "ownable" design we have. For any Big Ten fan of a certain age, you see those uniforms whether today or in 1980s photos and you instantly recognize that as "Illinois basketball". The script uniforms are now awfully close. And to your last point in the post to which I've replied, I'll continue to say we have two great templates in the scripts and the Flying Illinis. Not good - great. The solution to this is staring everyone in the face. All that has to happen is for the decision-makers to recognize it and act upon it.
@Dan, we NEED the 1,000,000 like button for this post!
 
#188      
I thought it would be interesting to look at our (pre-West Coast expansion) Big Ten peers. To keep it simple and try to make it as apples to apples as possible, I looked at every team's "default/regular" home white uniform, excluding throwbacks.

Illinois
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Indiana
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Iowa


Maryland
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Michigan
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Michigan State
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Minnesota
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Nebraska
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Northwestern
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Ohio State
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Penn State
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Purdue
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Rutgers
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Wisconsin
ncaa-basketball-big-ten-conference-tournament-second-round-maryland-vs-wisconsin--.jpg


Again, just my subjective opinion ... but we seem to combine the worst of both worlds as far as (A) playing it safe and having a "simple" design yet (B) not looking traditional/classic at all.
Our home whites shown above are arguably the worst of the bunch IMO.

puke GIF
 
#191      
Your quarterly reminder that it is embarrassingly past the point where the DIA, Nike and staff need to wake up, remove their heads from their rears and give us the Script and Flyin' Illini throwbacks in all three colors. A monkey could do this.

Thanks!
Hey I love the look of the blue unis but we are horrible in those so we should definitely keep it to orange and white.
 
#192      
Regarding the question about wearing a special uniform for a game, here is the official NCAA rule concerning uniform colors.

Art. 4. Opposing team uniforms shall be of contrasting colors. The home teamshall wear light game jerseys and game shorts, and the away team shall wear darkgame jerseys and game shorts. This rule may be altered by mutual consent of the competing institutions as long as the color of the jersey and shorts are stillcontrasting. Team uniform and game jersey colors shall be defined by the colorof the neutral zone. A perceptible majority of the game shorts shall be the colorof the neutral zone.

Basically, this means that as long as the home team asks the away team if they can wear a non-light uniform and the visiting team says OK, then you can more or less wear what you want.

I like the idea of only wearing the scripts for the United Center game, the Bragging Rights game, and Sunday games. Keep them pretty exclusive. We could wear orange scripts only for the United Center game and the Bragging Rights game. I'm sure that for a neutral game, a program like Tennessee would accept wearing white. As previously discussed, orange would easily contrast with any of Mizzou's uniforms. So we could always do orange vs gold or orange vs black for Bragging Rights. I'd also have a blue script uniform for Sunday games when we wear blue.

But, as we've all seen, this is probably all for naught as no one in the basketball program, DIA, and/or Nike seems to really care. So we'll keep trotting out meh-at-best primary uniforms instead of making a simple change that would generate a lot of goodwill with the program.
 
#193      
Hey I love the look of the blue unis but we are horrible in those so we should definitely keep it to orange and white.
We really aren't any more horrible in those than other ones. As I posted earlier, the following bad results all took place in the Regular Orange that this team/staff for some reason loves (even though they are obviously hideous and apparently unlucky!!), and here are also some good results in the navy.

Bad Regular Orange
2024-25

L 87-100 vs. Alabama (Birmingham, AL)
L 74-80 at Nebraska
L 74-95 at Wisconsin
L 65-88 vs. Maryland ... maybe our worst performance I've seen in YEARS
L 75-84 vs. Kentucky (Milwaukee, WI)

2023-24
L 52-77 vs. UConn (Boston, MA) ... 30-0 run

2021-22
L 66-67 at Marquette ... epic collapse
L 51-71 vs. Cincinnati (Kansas City, MO)
L 65-81 at Maryland

Good Regular Navy
2022-23

W 61-51 at Wisconsin

2019-20
W 71-70 at Wisconsin ... the true turning point in the Underwood Renaissance

Again, I think our staff is incredibly SELECTIVELY superstitious, haha. One loss in the Regular Navy carries SO much weight, but the Regular Orange can just be worn constantly.
 
#195      
That got me thinking of an interesting topic! Lol. Since the turnaround truly began in 2019-20, I would consider these my favorite and worst memories in each uniform combo. And since we have been a very successful program over that stretch with way more wins than losses, I will choose the top 5 best wins and top 3 worst losses (both in order). :cool: For those who would get bored reading all of this, here are my top 5 wins and top 3 losses overall, with uniforms in parentheses. Keep in mind, their personal memories ... so as an example, the Duke loss technically being "the worst" won't carry as much weight for me personally because I was at a party and the sound was off, and I was able to "give up" early and distract myself, lol.

5 Best Wins
2024:
W 72-69 vs. Iowa State (NCAAT Sweet Sixteen) - Regular Orange
2021: W 91-88 vs. #9 Ohio State (BTT Championship) - Script Throwback
2021: W 76-53 at #2 Michigan - Flyin' Illini Throwback
2022:
W 74-72 vs. #24 Iowa (clinched Big Ten title) - Script Throwback
2024: W 93-87 vs. Wisconsin (BTT Championship) - Script Throwback

3 Worst Losses
2021:
L 58-71 vs. #17 Loyola (NCAAT Second Round) - Script Throwback
2025: L 65-88 vs. Maryland (BTT) - Regular Orange
2025:
- L 67-110 vs. #3 Duke (New York, NY) - Flyin' Illini Throwback


---- Begin part of post that is TL;DR, lol... ----


REGULAR WHITE
Best Wins
2024:
W 89-63 vs. Duquesne (NCAAT Second Round) ... while it was an easy win and one that should have been expected, it felt so good to FINALLY get that Sweet Sixteen monkey off of this program's back!!
2020: W 78-76 vs. #18 Iowa ... snapped a 5-game losing streak vs. Iowa by Kofi stuffing Garza at the buzzer and earning us a BTT double bye on the last game of the season.
2025: W 93-73 at #15 Michigan ... yes, we wore white on the road and I hated it as a traditionalist! However, it was awesome to break our slump by embarrassing Michigan and pushing our hilarious winning streak vs. them to TEN games!
2025: W 88-80 vs. #18 Purdue ... it was awesome to finally beat Purdue again, especially because it looked like we were about to give this one away down the stretch for a minute there!
2024: W 73-61 at Iowa ... This one is mostly here because I attended this game, and there was a lot of orange in the building, with I-L-L! chants ringing throughout the arena as the clock ticked down to zero.

Worst Losses
2025:
L 71-90 vs. Maryland ... the score doesn't even do this justice, as we looked like boys competing against men, totally content to get worked on our home floor.
2023: L 76-79 vs. Penn State (BTT) ... third straight loss to this PSU team in front of a large, 90%+ orange crowd at the United Center when we DESPERATELY needed a win. It was a sickening effort, and I got to witness it firsthand.
2021: L 63-66 vs. Maryland ... while this team obviously turned out fine, this was the beginning of really feeling like Maryland owned us, plus it dropped us to 9-5 (after the following OSU home loss) and barely ranked.

REGULAR ORANGE
Best Wins
2024:
W 72-69 vs. Iowa State (NCAAT Sweet Sixteen) ... first Elite Eight since 2005, enough said! WHAT. A. GAME. The TSJ steal to seal it is genuinely one of the greatest moments for our program in the last decade, maybe #1.
2021: W 73-68 at #7 Ohio State ... capped off our incredible stretch of 3 straight ranked road wins with Ayo's return and the debut of his iconic mask.
2023: W 79-70 vs. #8 UCLA (Las Vegas, NV) ... given all that we had lost, it was so encouraging to win this big of a game vs. a top 10 opponent with our reloaded roster.
2021: W 83-68 at #10 Duke ... hearing Jay Bilas go from hyping the matchup to whining that the season never should have been played was literally so hilarious, haha. Plus, how many teams have won two straight at Cameron Indoor??
2024: W 85-80 at Maryland ... UMD was not good, so this shouldn't be here on paper. However, we REALLY needed to finally beat them, and it felt good doing it in their house. Also, Coleman trolling their attendance afterwards was gold. :ROFLMAO:

Worst Losses
2025:
L 65-88 vs. Maryland (BTT) ... vomit-worthy and one of the hardest performances to watch of ours that I can remember.
2025: L 74-80 at Nebraska ... literally looked like we could not have cared less.
2025: L 74-95 at #11 Wisconsin ... we thought this was the depths of our illness-fueled slumps, but Duke was on the horizon, lol.

REGULAR NAVY
Best Wins
2021:
W 71-70 at Wisconsin ... this win was the pivotal moment in reestablishing Illinois Basketball is a relevant force in the Big Ten, plus it snapped an embarrassing 17-game (IIRC??) losing streak to the Badgers...
2023: W 61-51 at Wisconsin ... an inconsequential win in the grand scheme of things, but it was a hyped Saturday game on FOX, and we kept the streak alive vs. them in their house.
N/A on the rest ... lol.

Worst Losses
2024:
L 89-90 at Penn State ... never seen a collapse quite like this, lol.
2020: L 58-59 at #3 Maryland ... yeah, bet you tried your best to forget this one! My parents were in town for my birthday, and I remember watching this collapse in utter disbelief on Saturday night and being so pissed at dinner.
2023: L 60-72 at Ohio State ... it seemed like this team MIGHT have finally gotten back on track after beating a ranked NU team and moving to 19-9, but we came out with a total dud of an effort here.

FLYIN' ILLINI THROWBACK
Best Wins
2021:
W 76-53 at #2 Michigan ... national STATEMENT without Ayo!
2025: W 109-77 at #9 Oregon ... historic WHOOPIN' of a top 10 team on the road had me truly thinking this team was Final Four material, haha.
2023: W 85-78 vs. #2 Texas (New York, NY) ... season ended up a disappointment, but after this win I really thought this team had top 10 potential and I was pumped!
2025: W 94-69 at Indiana ... I was in Belize on vacation watching this, and it will always hold such a special place in my heart. N
2022: W 74-57 at Indiana ... I watched this one at a bar in Indianapolis, and it was so sweet to watch the IU fans begin to lose faith and head home as we methodically put them away in a really tough road environment.

Worst Losses
2025:
- L 67-110 vs. #3 Duke (New York, NY) ... I mean, worst loss in school history!
2023: L 63-73 vs. Arkansas (NCAAT Second Round) ... the final, painful death to this season that finally snapped any delusions we had left that our talented group would "figure it out."
2023: L 63-70 at Northwestern ... IIRC, this completely uninspiring performance was right around when Skyy left the team and rumors of locker room troubles really gained steam.

SCRIPT THROWBACK
Best Wins
2021:
W 91-88 vs. #9 Ohio State (BTT Championship) ... to win this after getting screwed out of a regular season title felt so good.
2022: W 74-72 vs. #24 Iowa ... clinching our first regular season Big Ten title in 17 years and seeing the crowd rush the floor after this thrilling finish is one of my core memories of the Underwood Era.
2024: W 93-87 vs. Wisconsin (BTT Championship) ... 3 Big Ten banners in 4 years, plus seeing TSJ smile again as a champ!
2021: W 82-71 vs. #5 Iowa (BTT Semifinal) ... the rivalry was at its peak at this point, and it was so sweet to knock them out in this super hyped matchup.
2024: W 98-89 vs. #11 FAU (New York, NY) ... this was on my birthday, and we got Jimmy's Pizza carryout (highly recommend to any Chicagoans who like NYC style). What a show our guys put on, with BOTH TSJ and Domask going for 33!

Worst Losses
2021:
L 58-71 vs. #17 Loyola (NCAAT Second Round) ... an absolute gut punch to program momentum that we had finally gotten back. I still wonder if this team could have cut down the nets if they showed up with a better effort and better game plan this day.
2025: L 65-79 vs. #11 Michigan State ... we had just gotten back on track with the massive UCLA win, and this Saturday night game was so hyped. We drove down and met my parents for the weekend to attend this, and while we were on top of the world at halftime ... an upside down TSJ jersey later, and things just felt off. In the final 8:30, we would shoot ZERO free throws even though we were in the bonus, and MSU would score 14 points to our NEGATIVE 2, due to a goaltending call. I admittedly gave up all hope at this point for last season and even turned on Underwood briefly. It was traumatic, lol...
2023: L 71-93 vs. Missouri (St. Louis, MO) ... I personally attended this one on a freezing cold, storm-altered night, and all you could do was keep drinkin', lol.
 
#196      
Your quarterly reminder that it is embarrassingly past the point where the DIA, Nike and staff need to wake up, remove their heads from their rears and give us the Script and Flyin' Illini throwbacks in all three colors. A monkey could do this.

Thanks!
Our non-conference slate is stacked—would be a letdown not to get a special jersey for one of those games.
 
#197      
Our non-conference slate is stacked—would be a letdown not to get a special jersey for one of those games.
Amen, brother. This would be my pick for each major non-conference game, with "surprise" uniforms in bold:

vs. Texas Tech - WHITE Flyin' Illini. Bring this one back (we had it during the Groce years) for our marquee game in Champaign.

vs. Alabama (Chicago, IL) - White Script. This is arguably our most recognizable uniform at this point to non-Illini fans, IMO ... so I favor wearing it at the UC, also to wear white and emphasize it is OUR home game.

vs. UConn (New York, NY) - Orange Flyin' Illini. Let's redeem this uniform at MSG. Was it the uniform we wore vs. Duke last year there? Yes, but it is also what we wore at MSG to stun #2 Texas! I like the idea of us wearing orange in this environment, and I am saving the Orange Script for later!

"at" Tennessee (Nashville, TN) - NAVY Flyin' Illini. The contrast with Tennessee's orange would be great, and it would be a "big event"-type game to debut this new uniform.

vs. Missouri (St. Louis, MO) - ORANGE Script. We desperately need this addition, and I would favor always wearing it at Braggin' Rights every year. It seems like such a bizarre "miss" to not have Illinois and Mizzou both wear our colors for this game (i.e., orange/navy vs. gold/black) in the same style as USC and UCLA both wearing their home uniforms when they play.

We can wait to bust out the Navy Script for an important Big Ten road game! I have posted this before, but I would generally follow these patterns (as guidelines, not rules!) for our uniform traditions from now on:

White Flyin' Illini: Most home games.
Navy Flyin' Illini: Most road games vs. red teams (e.g., Indiana or Wisconsin).
Orange Flyin' Illini: Most road games vs. non-red teams (e.g., Iowa and Michigan). Also worn for "Orange Out" and other select/rare home games.
White Script: Sunday home games for "Script Sundays." Also worn for Sunday neutral site games like the BTT or NCAAT that are on a Sunday and where we are the HIGHER seed.
Navy Script: Sunday road games for "Script Sundays." Also worn for Sunday neutral site games like the BTT or NCAAT that are on a Sunday and where we are the LOWER seed.
Orange Script: Braggin' Rights EVERY single year, plus occasional "Script Sunday" usage.

Of course, once we get to big-time BTT and NCAAT environments, we can make some game-time decisions to roll with the "lucky jersey" or whatever, or just whatever we feel like. If we were to play for a National Championship and got to pick our uniform, I honestly would have so much trouble choosing between the four white/orange options ... and that is VERY good problem to have!
 
#198      
Also, switching gears a bit and discussing the relatively unanimous and widespread hatred of our current 1LL1NO1S branding. While I am still pretty convinced that the DIA has a total and inexplicably lame blind spot when it comes to this general topic, I did notice one development lately that sort of gave me hope.

I randomly check the New Arrivals page for Gameday Spirit to see if there is any new Script or other throwback material that they will let me waste my money on, haha. This page used to be flooded with 1LL1NO1S gear, and I have noticed lately that they are hardly offering anything new with that style. The vast majority of new gear uses the Script font or other throwback-adjacent styles, such as this FIGHTING ILLINI crewneck. Could this be a sign of quietly phasing it out? Are we obligated at all to display it with any sort of prominence?? I genuinely have a VERY difficult time believing that anyone at Nike would give a flyin' crap if we replaced our 1LL1NO1S end zone font with block lettering tomorrow.

Ignore the squished font to make it fit, but give me this tomorrow, literally copy/pasted from a T-shirt for sale on Gameday Spirit's website! :ROFLMAO:

IL 3.png
 
#199      
Also, switching gears a bit and discussing the relatively unanimous and widespread hatred of our current 1LL1NO1S branding. While I am still pretty convinced that the DIA has a total and inexplicably lame blind spot when it comes to this general topic, I did notice one development lately that sort of gave me hope.

I randomly check the New Arrivals page for Gameday Spirit to see if there is any new Script or other throwback material that they will let me waste my money on, haha. This page used to be flooded with 1LL1NO1S gear, and I have noticed lately that they are hardly offering anything new with that style. The vast majority of new gear uses the Script font or other throwback-adjacent styles, such as this FIGHTING ILLINI crewneck. Could this be a sign of quietly phasing it out? Are we obligated at all to display it with any sort of prominence?? I genuinely have a VERY difficult time believing that anyone at Nike would give a flyin' crap if we replaced our 1LL1NO1S end zone font with block lettering tomorrow.

Ignore the squished font to make it fit, but give me this tomorrow, literally copy/pasted from a T-shirt for sale on Gameday Spirit's website! :ROFLMAO:

View attachment 42587
Just curious, FOTN, … do you put this much thought into what color socks you put on in the morning?
 
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