Basketball

By Larry Smith - IlliniGuys Staff

March 27, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy ESPN)

Put your tattered brackets away and clear your mind for a moment as I ask you this one question:

Isn't this awesome?!

Yeah, I know you may have had Kansas repeating as champion or Alabama going all the way.  Maybe Houston in another Final Four or Purdue making the final weekend for the first time in decades.

But none of that happened, so get over it.  Instead, we all bore witness to a daily reminder of why this is the greatest tournament in sports.  There is no other event with the drama, the uncertainty, the thrills, and the classic moments like the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Florida Atlantic vs. San Diego State.  Miami vs. UConn.  A most unusual quartet that seems destined to deliver a classic weekend in Houston in a few days.

Brad Sturdy, Co-Host IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

March 27, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy Georgetown University Athletics)

As the college basketball season enters its final week, nearly every team is already hip-deep into the offseason and the decision-making required to transition into next fall.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: IlliniGuys co-founder Larry Smith has covered sports from the local to the international level for 35 years, including 12 Final Fours and six NBA Finals.  He is the creator of the Dirty Dozen, an office pool selection matrix that is 12-0 in its existence.)

By Larry Smith - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 25, 2023

--If you feel like there's a little extra drama sprinkled into this weekend's Elite Eight games, you're right.  At least one program (Creighton or San Diego State) will earn a trip to their first-ever Final Four and two others (Florida Atlantic, Miami) could join them.

This is another sign of the growing parity in college basketball. 

Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

March 25, 2023

If you are a college basketball fan and the team you root for is out of the tournament, the next exciting thing on the agenda should be recruiting.

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 24, 2023

Sophomore guard Jayla Oden has made it official that she intends to enter the NCAA Transfer portal.

Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

March 23, 2023

Meg Newman is a sharpshooter who is currently on the Arizona State roster but is looking to move to a different location.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

March 22, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy UNC Athletics)

We told you here at IlliniGuys that we would try to keep you up to date when we find players interested in Illinois and with Illinois showing interest in them.

These updates are happening daily, actually hourly. The most recent is North Carolina wing Dontrez Styles, a 6-foot-6 wing who has great athletic ability but has not been a good fit at UNC.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

March 21, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy Matt Krohn/USA Today Sports)

The Illini basketball season has barely been put away for the year and already the offseason has been sizzling.

Monday brought a flurry of chatter amidst internet rumors and a game of telephone that would rank among the best of them!

Was Brad Underwood in Champaign or Austin?  Were those recruits he was contacting for the Orange and Blue or the Texas Longhorns?

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

March 21, 2023

Illinois starting player Coleman Hawkins at 6-foot-11 and now 225 pounds is arguably Illinois' most important player on the roster.

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: IlliniGuys co-founder Larry Smith has covered sports from the local to the international level for 35 years, including 12 Final Fours and six NBA Finals.  He is the creator of the Dirty Dozen, an office pool selection matrix that is 12-0 in its existence.)

By Larry Smith - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 20, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy The Daily Progress)

--Another mid-March weekend glued to the tube and I'm so thankful that - as a lifelong sports fan - a true playoff is finally coming to college football.  I've dreamed of this kind of excitement in December for so long.  Will this mean that an upstart will crack the hierarchy of Alabama/Georgia/LSU/Clemson/Ohio State and win a national championship?  Not anytime soon.  I mean, we're still waiting for a non-power conference team to take an NCAA basketball title, right?  But to have a Troy or Coastal Carolina-type pull off an early round upset would skyrocket the already-stratospheric interest in college football.

I mean, I know college basketball lifers who didn't know who FDU was before Friday night, but found themselves changing the channel and rooting for this tiny (in stature and in school size) program from New Jersey.  And following a true David vs. Goliath triumph over Purdue, their run ended at the hands of another Cinderella in Florida Atlantic.  Neither school had ever won an NCAA tournament game before (Fairleigh Dickinson's Northeast Conference had never posted a victory) and yet it was the Owls that wrestled the title of tournament darling away from the Knights in a prime-time matchup (yes, you read that right!) to advance to their first Sweet 16.

Brad Sturdy, Co-Host IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

March 19, 2023

Obviously, who returns for the Illini next season dictates much of what they will grab

Illinois players and head coach Brad Underwood finally were hit with the reality on Thursday that everything this team did over the last few months was exactly who they were. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 19, 2023

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Everybody associated with the University of Illinois men’s basketball program spent practically the entire 2022-23 season trying to convince those on the outside that they were different, and their best selves were still waiting to appear.

Mike Cagley, Co-Host IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular March 19, 2023 […]

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 18, 2023

The day that I found access to a quickly updated list of the players who entered the transfer portal, I made an effort to check it every five minutes.