We arrived in the new generation coal plant capital of the world late last night — the mayor of Mattoon, charmingly, used to coach us in baseball — so our holiday season has already begun. And we kick it off with our yearly trip to Champaign for some Illini basketball.

Joe Lunardi has our Illini as a No. 9 seed, and having watched this team play this year, man, is he ever being kind. Illinois has no one who can score consistently — we'renotgonnatalkaboutericgordonnopenopenope — and they kind of look like they have no idea what they're doing. It is worth noting that Michael Jordan's kid has three points so far; they're all free throws (he's 3-for-6). They might just lose to Miami of Ohio tonight. But it's the holidays, so no matter what, all will be well.

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