Basketball

Three generations of Illini coaching eras were represented at the Gordyville Coaches vs. Cancer event in Rantoul with the return of Lon Kruger & Bill Self to Central Illinois. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

April 12, 2022

GIFFORD, Ill. -- The past, present and future of the men’s basketball program at the University of Illinois were honored Tuesday night at the Gordyville USA event hall. 

Three eras of head coaching for the Illini program were the honored as current Illini coach Brad Underwood wanted to bridge the gap for fans, produce some history and make some money for the American Cancer Society in a National Association of Basketball Coaches event by bringing back Lon Kruger and Bill Self to Central Illinois for one night. 

“We don’t get to do that nearly enough anymore,” Underwood said Tuesday night. “For the three of us to be able to connect with other people in something that isn’t basketball related is really special.”

The evening, which was the first University of Illinois Coaches vs. Cancer dinner and auction since 2019, allowed the public to see three men who have combined for 253 all-time total wins, eight all-time NCAA Tournament appearances and four regular season Big Ten Conference championships. 

The event was held just eight days removed from Self’s Kansas program winning the 2022 national championship in New Orleans after the Jayhawks took down North Carolina 72-69 in the title game. 
For Kruger, who hasn’t been the leader of the Illini program since 2000, the temporary return to Champaign brought back some nostalgic memories as he noted he was around when the Ubben Practice Facility was being built and during a campus tour, he was able to see the construction of the new renovations of the building this spring. 

After one season at Illinois, Brandin Podziemski has reportedly […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

April 11, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

When the staff at IlliniGuys.com told you Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was looking to change his team's look, he wasn't kidding!

Last season, Illinois broke through more than a decade of futility and won the Big Ten tournament. This year they won the Big Ten conference title for the first time since 2005. All of that is nice, but to Underwood it's also water under the proverbial bridge. It's time to push the needle and win more in the NCAA Tournament.

How do you do that? Upgrade your roster. The biggest omission from the Illini this season was more of the uber-athletic 6-foot-6 to 6-foot-8 range wings who are very common in the top program and blue bloods.

April 11, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Chicago Sun-Times)

The dead recruiting period ended with a bang for the Fighting Illini staff and players with the commitment of 5-star guard Skyy Clark and a weekend visit from potential LSU transfer Brandon Murray.

But it didn't stop there.  Sunday evening brought a fresh Kofi Cockburn rumor and questions about other possible future Illini.

So - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst Brad Sturdy put heads together with IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting Kedric Prince to compare notes...and Brad then posted this Sunday night.

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By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

April 8, 2022

The Illini coaching staff is walking tall with a bit of a strut after 5-star guard Skyy Clark announced his commitment to the Orange and Blue Thursday afternoon on ESPNU.

With the recruiting class of 2022 now done, the Illini set sights on targets in the transfer portal.  First up is LSU guard Brandon Murray.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Baltimore native by way of IMG Academy has ties to Illini assistant Chester Frazier, who also hails from Baltimore and recruited Murray years earlier when he was an assistant at Virginia Tech.

CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein reported that Murray will visit Tennessee, Illinois, and Georgetown. Murray, who averaged 10 points and three rebounds a game as a freshman for LSU, is expected to make a decision as early as Monday.

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst

April 7, 2022

The Illini added 5 star Combo Guard Skyy Clark to the fold on Thursday when he chose the Illini live on ESPN. Clark, who was once committed to Kentucky, gives the Illini a top 10 recruiting class and helps soften the blow with the losses of Senior Guard Trent Frazier, DaMonte Williams and Alfonso Plummer. 

Clark is a dynamic scorer that can shoot it well from deep and knows how to facilitate as well. His ball handling is considered to be among the best in the class of 2022. Clark has the size at 6’3 to play either guard spot and will immediately provide scoring punch to the backcourt. With dynamic scoring guard Jayden Epps and an athletic guard in Sencire Harris already in the fold, Clark is a perfect fit to bring together the talents of the 3 guards. 

Illinois went to the 'Skky' for dominant guard

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

April 7, 2022

As the world turns in college basketball recruiting, you lose a top-notch guard and gain another one. Ten days after Illinois sophomore point guard Andre Curbelo entered the transfer portal, Illinois received a verbal commitment from 5-star do-it-all guard Skyy Clark.

The 6-foot-3, 195 pound Nashville, Tennessee native originally committed to Kentucky, but backed out of his commitment a month ago and re-opened his recruitment. Clark and his family saw what Illinois head coach Brad Underwood did by developing former Illini guard Ayo Dosunmu, turning him into a first-team All-American and the steal of the 2021 NBA Draft.

What is Illinois getting in Clark?

Shauna Green is entering a world of college basketball that now includes the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness money helping any first-year head coach.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

April 7, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Dayton Flyers Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN -- Alex Mikos instantly laughed at the idea that the new Illinois women’s basketball coach was committed to a slow, long and instantly painful rebuild as a first-year head coach.

Mikos has been the play-by-play broadcasting voice of Dayton women’s basketball since Green was an assistant coach of the Flyers program and then was brought back to be the program’s head coach in 2016.

When it was suggested that the Illinois program, which hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003, that is coming off a five-season stretch under Nancy Fahey where they won just 42 of a 141-game period is on the road of a long-term rebuild that could produce at least a couple more losing seasons, Mikos couldn’t help but interject.

“So, anybody who tells you she's treating this as a slow rebuild, doesn't know Shauna very well,” Mikos said. “She won't accept losing. It'll eat at her if they're not building something pretty good in a quick manner.”

Losing is something Mikos hasn’t seen Green do a lot at Dayton. In her first season at the Flyers' head coach, Green led a program that went from 14 wins to 22 wins where she won the WBCA Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year following a 13-3 Atlantic 10 Conference record and a berth in the NCAA Division I Tournament.

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst

April 6, 2022

The Illini have entered the transfer portal. Not to actually transfer, but instead they are going to wading through the waters of the transfer portal for players that can make them better as they head into year six of the Brad Underwood era. Coming off a Big Ten Championship, the Illini are wanting to become a team that reloads instead of rebuilds and, with the possible exodus of all 5 starters, the transfer portal is the way to do that. Here’s a look at some players to keep an eye on in the coming weeks: 

The biggest player for Illinois, both literally and figuratively, remains Kofi Cockburn. The 7-foot consensus 1st team All-American has until April 24 to announce his intentions to enter the draft or stay at Illinois, and the Illini coaching staff would like him to do it sooner rather than later. His return would immediately raise the floor of the team and allow Illinois to focus on other guys in the portal. But should Cockburn surprise and turn down the large NIL package and go pro, Illinois has been looking at some options. The problem is that, until there is a decision, very few players want to come and compete with Kofi. 

April 5, 2022

A year ago, it wasn't until mid-July before Illinois head coach Brad Underwood had his roster set and even then he was still searching for a third assistant coach as he rebuilt his staff.

It doesn't appear he'll have to wait as long in 2022.

IlliniGuys Insider Brad Sturdy continues to stay ahead of the game when it comes to the inside stuff surrounding the Illini basketball program.  Here are his latest notes posted in the message forums (for premium subscribers) Monday afternoon.

April 3, 2022

It's Final Four weekend!  That means a couple of things:

All the coaches are in New Orleans for the coaches convention.  Hundreds of head coaches, assistant coaches, wanna-be coaches positioning for that next gig.
Because they are all there, they are not on the road recruiting.  It's a dead period in recruiting, which means we don't expect anything to happen in the next few days.

However, IlliniGuys Insider Brad Sturdy offers his latest thoughts AND a prediction on who will be on the Illini roster in the near future.

This is premium content only.  Subscribe to IlliniGuys.com for the very latest Illini insider info and analysis.

(Cover photo courtesy W. Elijah Smith)

Well here we go again!  March Madness is here.  Time for me to not sleep and play with so many numbers and formulas that I make the late John Nash look like an arithmophobic.

Great to get a chance to do this after two years off. I had hoped to do it last year, but the numbers were off with everyone playing unbalanced schedules due to COVID interruptions. It would have been less Dirty Dozen and more Larry's Dozen and trust me - you don't want that!

For those who don't know, the Dirty Dozen is a formula I put together over several years of researching my White Jersey Theory (Part I is on this site already with Part II posting later this week). There was a lot of "stuff" I discovered over time and in 2009 decided to use it to fill out my bracket. I entered those picks in two separate office pools and won them both...the rest is history.

The Dirty Dozen is the 12 teams that will NOT win the NCAA championship. I've done this 11 times and it has never missed...

Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 30, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Duane Barker of midvalleysports.com)

Illinois assistant coach Chester Frazier started his campaign at Illinois on fire, landing two four-star guards in Sencire Harris, a 6-foot-3, 160-pound combo guard from Akron, Ohio, and Jayden Epps, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard originally from Suffolk, Virginia.

By Larry Smith - IlliniGuys Staff Writer April 1, […]

By Kedric Prince – IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

April 6, 2022

With the college basketball season coming to a close, it is time for the rest of the country to get better in hopes of winning a national title. Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman wanted all the other DI schools to know at the Final Four—do not waste your time talking to Illinois head coach Brad Underwood. His recent contract extension makes Underwood the sixth-highest paid in college basketball. And the veteran basketball knows that while freshmen are the future of any program, you have to get older and wiser if you want to win now. Let us take a close look at some of the players in the transfer portal who are Illinois targets.