Basketball

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider October 14, 2021 […]

Taylor is a throwback from Kevin Garnett, Magic Johnson, and former Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu. The tall multi-talented wing can do it all: he can put it on the floor like a guard, he is able to abuse opponents on the block, and he is amazing in the open court. When you see a player his size, naturally, one would think of sticking him in the post. My honest assessment: Taylor might be better at a guard spot. 

Rumor was the plan for Taylor to never to see a college floor, but he put that to rest last Saturday morning.

For the better part of two decades, IlliniGuys.com Insider Brad Sturdy has been the very best in the business!  Delivering insider info and bringing you analysis that you simply won't find anywhere else.

As we embark on a new Illini basketball season,  Brad leads our IlliniGuys.com team of writers and analysts as we chronicle the Orange and Blue from next Saturday's first exhibition play to March and the tournament season and beyond.

Here is his first take after watching the team during its first public workout:

Several interesting items came to the forefront as Illini performed in front of live home fans for the first time in over a year. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

October 8, 2021

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For the first time in 580 days, the Illinois men’s basketball program performed in State Farm Center in front of home fans. 

The Illinois coaches for Men’s and Women’s basketball as […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

Oct. 4, 2021

The 2021-22 Fighting Illini men's basketball team just might be better than last year's team. Those close to the program know how good the team is as a whole and the individual talent.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

Oct. 4, 2021

With a loaded roster of talent this year, the Illinois men's coaching staff is now starting to flex its muscles with the 2023 and the class of 2024.

Brad Underwood and the Illinois players met with the […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting October […]

Owen Freeman is a 6-foot-9, 220-pound power forward from Bradley, Illinois, who picked up an Illinois offer early this spring. The rising star big man has already visited the Illinois campus in early June. Freeman is a very important recruit for a lot of schools, not just Illinois. But the Illini are looking to add some more size to the program and Freeman would help fulfill that need.

By now, most know the tale told in the classic movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'.  Banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and endures 20 years of torture behind the walls of a Maine prison for a crime he vows he didn't commit.  All the while, he's patiently tunneling through the wall, literally scooping out handfuls of rock at night and gradually dumping them bit by bit in the prison yard by day, right under the watchful eye of the prison's guards.

The final leg of Dufresne's genius escape is told wonderfully by fellow prisoner Ellis "Red" Boyd and it's a line as popular as the movie itself: "Andy crawled through 500 yards of (deleted) smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want to!" Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood certainly wasn't in prison, but he had to have spent many a moment in the spring and summer months thinking that things around him didn't smell right.  It was a 90-day period that was the foulest in program history and, as its leader, Underwood was stuck in the middle of it and there was no escape plan. Angry parents, a shocking transfer, a fleeing staff, an indecisive superstar, a restless and critical fan base...

The class of 2022 is not complete and the Fighting Illini have started to work the class of 2023 very hard to stay ahead of the game. Now it is time to work on several of the 2024s. Tre Johnson is a 6-foot-5, 180-pound shooting guard from Dallas.

Brian Neubert from GoldandBlack.com joins Sturdy to talk about […]

Connor Cagley, IlliniGuys Basketball Writer September 21, 2021 It's […]

Sept. 22 is the first day of fall and football is in the air, but it also means college basketball is just a few short weeks away from its first practice.

This time around, unlike last year, fans will be in attendance, cheering on their favorite team and making one of the best sporting events whole again after the COVID-19 restrictions the past two years.

Illinois fans, you heard it here first: let some of the national media outlets be skeptical of this team. The 2021-2022 team, if it can stay healthy, could be on the national stage all year long.