Featured

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

February 26, 2022

Quincy Riley, a 6-foot-0, 172-pound athlete from Columbia, South Carolina, recently received an offer from the Fighting Illini football program.

Kofi Cockburn had a miserable night offensively, defensively and on the glass in Illinois’ 86-83 home loss to Ohio State on Thursday night.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 26, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The margin simply isn’t very wide for Illinois and following the 86-83 loss to Ohio State Thursday night, the program’s head coach made that point as clear as possible.

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

February 25, 2022

Now that the basketball coaching staff has looked numerous times at St. Rita’s, the football staff is looking there as well.

Illinois’ most likely destination for its first and second round games of the 2022 NCAA Tournament is the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 25, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- With 16 days remaining until the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed, otherwise unofficially known as Selection Sunday, the destination for Illinois’ first weekend is becoming clearer. 

Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy February 25, 2022 Tonight's game was […]

IlliniGuys Staff February 24, 2022 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - It […]

Illinois sophomore forward Coleman Hawkins has never been short on natural talent and ability but now he’s regained confidence and, subsequently, regained a role in this Illini rotation.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 24, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- It might be the height of irony that while at a university known for one of the nation’s best engineering programs, Coleman Hawkins is learning to calculate the basketball formula for work at Illinois. 

Connor Cagley, IlliniGuys Basketball Writer February 24, 2022 Essentials […]

Illinois senior forward Jacob Grandison has a professional basketball routine to get him through the ups and downs of a long season and, at 24 years old, sees no reason to change it now.  

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 24, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When returning from Willard Airport from a late game at Rutgers last week, Illinois All-American center Kofi Cockburn needed to find Jacob Grandison at around 2 a.m. and had a decent idea where he was.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 23, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois freshman forward RJ Melendez will be inactive for the next game due to having emergency surgery to remove his appendix. 

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

February xx. 2022

Illinois assistant coaches Andy Buh and Terrance Jamison have made a big impact on Dante Barone, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end from Princeton, New Jersey, who recently received an offer from the Fighting Illini.

IlliniGuys Staff February 22, 2022 If there is one […]

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Contributor/Analyst

February 22, 2022

I'm going to recap the season and give everyone a peek at the next season position by position this offseason and, since we've had the most immediate news on the offensive line lately, I thought I'd start there. 

Illinois was blessed with a wealth of experience on the offensive line in 2021, as the Illini were able to lean on five fifth or sixth year seniors as well as a couple of experienced returning players in Alex Pihlstrom and Julian Pearl.  However, Illinois will lose stalwarts Vederian Lowe and Doug Kramer as well as transfers Doug Jeresaty and Jack Badovinac in 2022, so there's bound to be a lot of shuffling in the five line positions.  I'm sure experienced fans know that filling the offensive line positions is a unique problem because experience is so important for success.  So, players with a lot of experience will surely be more effective, yet you also need to get younger players some experience somehow.  Not only that, but the physical nature of the position usually requires new players to spend a year or two sitting on the sidelines before they're even ready to take their shot, so it's difficult to manage the window in which a staff can get a player ready and still take advantage of the time he has to play.

What happened last year?

February 21, 2022

MADISON, Wisc. - Before Sunday afternoon, Juwan Howard epitomized the best of America.

He grew up on Chicago's South Side and became an All-American in his play and his personality as one of the faces of college basketball as part of Michigan's famous Fab Five.

He was a lottery pick by the NBA's Washington Bullets in 1994 and began a career that included an All-Star Game appearance and two league championships.  His playing tenure was so long that it began in Clinton's first administration and didn't end until Obama's second.  His talent was great enough to land him the first $100 million contract in league history.  The respect he commanded was so widespread that his transition from player to assistant coach was seamless and his eventual ascension to a head coaching position was a foregone conclusion.  It was a question of where and when, rather than if.

I have never met Juwan personally. But being close in age and having a number of friends in common and enjoying a lengthy career in the national media that paralleled his NBA years, I can tell you that I've never had anyone say a bad word about him, personally or professionally.

All which made his hiring as Michigan's head coach in 2019 a perfect fit.  A "Michigan man" through and through, he had the pedigree and the temperament not to mention the street cred that few other coaches enjoy.

Or so we thought.

February 21, 2022 (Cover photo courtesy U of I […]