Illinois has been putting it together step by step this season. Now back-to-back home games against Big Ten powers offer an opportunity to gain more national prominence.
www.stltoday.com
Jeff Gordon
It’s go time for Illinois.
After finally getting some Top 25 love – barely – the Illini will host Michigan and No. 7 Purdue in a span of four games. The opportunity to solidify their standing in the Big Ten's upper tier is at hand.
The Illini are off to a 5-0 start in league play. They are catching the Wolverines as they are battling COVID-19 casualties and scuffling to salvage their season.
Michigan coach Juwan Howard knows he will have his hands full Champaign. He noted that the Illini are doing a nice job of maximizing super-sized center Kofi Cockburn within their offense.
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I would rather this be a 6 pm tip off , but I'll just take a nap break and be ready to watch the Fighting Illini annihilate the Coward crew from Chickentown USA
scUM can NOT ever be classified as a trap game ....their arrogance and haughty demeanor just begs for a beatdown , and as long as I live I will remember last year's Cowardly lion approach to cheat their way into a regular season bogus championship with the aid of the most inept commissioner of a
P5 conference in the country..........
They earned disdain and disliking from me a long time ago and everyday they reinforced my displeasure with anything maize and blue ....
I want to see a thorough dismantling of baby Huntie and the rest of their sniveling brats , sending on a losing streak lasting until the end of the year....
JMHO and general hatred for scUM............................
I just had to highlight this commentary from Borzello , a national pundit on college BB.........................
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
Here is what folks are writing about college basketball:
Jeff Borzello,
ESPN.com: “There weren't many programs in the country hotter than Michigan as the 2021-22 college basketball season began. The Wolverines were coming off a season in which they won the Big Ten regular-season title, came within a basket of the Final Four and Juwan Howard -- who was coming off winning the national coach of the year award last season -- had signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. A little over two months into the season, things have unraveled. Michigan, which entered the season ranked No. 6 in the country, has dropped completely out of the top 25 and sits at just 7-6 after losing three of its past four games. The Wolverines have one win over a team ranked inside the top 120 of the NET, and four losses by double digits. Perhaps the only reason Michigan's record isn't worse is the Wolverines went on pause due to COVID-19 issues and saw their home game against No. 10 Michigan State and road trip to No. 7 Purdue postponed this past week. Their next scheduled game is at No. 25 Illinois on Friday, when dropping to .500 overall is very much a possibility.”