http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/deadspin.com.png http://deadspin.com/tag/illinois fighting illini http://deadspin.com/tag/illinois fighting illini

The first time I met Jimmy Collins was in 2004. I was working on a profile of UW-Milwaukee's ascendant basketball coach Bruce Pearl and had come to Chicago to get the other side of the story. Collins was coaching at the University of Illinois-Chicago, but by that point he was much better known as Pearl's foil, a sort of perpetual other side of the story. The short version goes like this: In 1989, Pearl, then an assistant at Iowa, accused Collins, then an assistant at Illinois, of offering a Chevy Blazer and $80,000 to a recruit named Deon Thomas, who was a star at Chicago's Simeon High School. Pearl had proof: a surreptitious recording of a phone conversation with Thomas. The controversy that ensued temporarily crippled one Big Ten program and two coaching careers, and it was still very much on the principals' minds in 2004 when Pearl offered a handshake before a game and Collins rejected it. This had caused some squirming around the Horizon League. Beyond that, nobody much gave a shit. More »
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None of these gentlemen are actually members of the North Texas Mean Green. They are, from left to right, current and former Illinois players Warren Carter, Jack Ingram, Rich McBride, Demetri McCamey, and Jamar Smith. We'd say it was a glitch or an honest mistake, but those five players have never been on a team together. So we're guessing there's an Illinois alumnus in ESPN's truck who's pretty proud of himself this morning. (Thanks to eagle-eyed tipsters Matthew, Nathan and Daniel) More »
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No. 17 Illinois got off to a slow start against Oakland tonight. They were down 15-6 in the first half when players complained to a ref that the game ball felt light. That's because it was a women's regulation basketball. More »
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It's, oh, 27 hours until Illinois and Northwestern kick off. But they'll be kicking off in one direction, every time, because one end zone goes right up against the brick and ivy walls. Tomorrow's going to look like backyard football. More »
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After Illinois' loss to Minnesota last Saturday, Ron Zook addressed the team's prospects for bowl eligibility. It's one of the finest moments in Motor-Mouth History. H/T Erik More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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Because neither video nor Luther Vandross was around in the 1940s, the NCAA Tournaments of those days concluded without the now-beloved "One Shining Moment" montage, which seems so very wrong. We've remedied the situation. Enjoy. [Footage via A Stern Warning] More »
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"Though Illinois is seeded No. 1 in the NIT, it couldn't host a first-round game because Cirque du Soleil is performing at the Assembly Hall this week." Even sadder? My parents have tickets. [IlliniHQ] More »
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In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like the 1988-89 Miami Heat and the 1998-99 Clippers, who won last night because the New Jersey Nets lost. More »
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Your live blogger for this game will be NBCSports.com contributor Yoni Cohen, whose Internet home is Yoco Hoops. More »
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South Region: No. 5 Illinois (24-9) vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky (24-8)
When: Thursday, 9:55 p.m., EDT
Where: Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon

ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI

1) They're not that bad offensively. Fine, fine, so the Big Ten isn't exactly stacked with a bunch of Bo Kimbles and Kiki Vandeweghes. Sorry: We play defense in the Big Ten. (Even if it's just because we're not all that good at recruiting anymore.) Bashing the Big Ten has become vogue on the East Coast because, well ... because it's the Midwest, and when the hell has the Midwest ever given us anything that matters? (Obama's from Hawaii originally: Doesn't count.) It's a blue collar league, and no one represents this more than Illinois, the team that somehow won 24 games even though they went without a field goal for almost 14 minutes on national television and, mostly, scored only 33 points in a loss to Penn State. This is not Bruce Weber's most talented team, not to any stretch, but they do have some scorers, particularly Mike Davis (who's like Marcus Liberty but faster, taller, a better shooter and more aware of his surroundings) and Demetri McCamey (who's like Nick Anderson, but sleepier). Sometimes the shots don't fall, but the Illini play stifling, obnoxious defense, which means even when the shots aren't falling, they can keep it close. That's not so bad, is it? Why is that such an affront again? More »
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Michigan State is in Illinois right now, trying to win a share of the Big Ten title, so if you don't hear from me for a little while, don't panic. If they lose—panic. [ESPN, photo via] More »
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Hey, it wasn't me this time: Scott Van Pelt (he's back!) had this to say about Penn State's 38-33 win over Illinois on Wednesday. "Watching Big Ten basketball is like watching fat people have sex." More »
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Here is stately Wayne Manor The Irwin Academic Services Center at the University of Illinois. Here, Illini students can use computer labs and classrooms, schedule sessions with tutors and special counselors, and even relax in oversize leather chairs and gaze at expensive oriental rugs. Wait … you’re not an athlete? You’re just a regular student? Get the %$#! out of the expensive Irwin Academic Services Center, Poindexter. (Kicks student out front door; throws book bag after him). And stay out! More »
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So The Big Ten Network has this reality show about the Illinois football team called "The Journey." Even though this is a "Hard Knocks" type series — albeit one with decidedly worse production values and dramatically more nondescript players — about my alma mater's football team, I have never seen this show, because I made the foolish decision to live in the sleepy outpost of New York City, where it is unavailable. God I hate The Big Ten Network. More »
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You know what my favorite part about college football is? It's that there are so few games — some teams only play 11. 11! — that you can legitimately go through and predict every game that every team in Division I-A (or whatever the hell it's called) plays. It doesn't even take that much time! You can do this with the NFL, but you know how that league is; you just know someone's going to come out of nowhere and win 12 games, and a favorite's gonna collapse and go 6-10. (My guess this year? The Cowboys.) But in college football, you can pretty much map out your whole season. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5036947&view=rss&microfeed=true The Mendenhall family is rough on Ron Zook. [Foul Balls] More »
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It baffles me as to how Illinois could have missed out on the NCAA Tournament, now that we know the existence of the Great Illinois-Shaped Corn Flake. A girl in Virginia noticed the flake it in her morning cereal and immediately recognized it as one of the 50 states, and then slapped it onto the e-Bays, where the fevered bidding has reached $56. (Could this be why the terrorists hate us?) Here's the description: More »
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Realize that we have seen our Illini do this before. In 1999, an 11th-seeded Illini team rode the hot hand of Cory Bradford to an amazing tourney championship game run, before collapsing, exhausted, to Michigan State (who eventually made the Final Four). That run was thrilling, breathtaking; it was a sign that this young Illinois team was more talented than people realized and would be a future force with which to be reckoned. (They made the NCAA tournament the next season and haven't missed it since.) This "run," the one that has them in the Big Ten Championship Game today, isn't quite like that. Like, at all. More »
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We know, we know: Nobody cares about a stupid liveblog of a pointless Big Ten tournament first round game. We're fully aware. As we mentioned yesterday, it's just, like, practice or something. More »
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As part of our preparations for the lunacy that lands on our sports radars this Sunday, we've been digging around the irreplaceable Basketball Prospectus, trying to find those odd little tidbits on Oral Roberts and Siena. And we discovered something kind of amazing and oddly satisfying. More »
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We couldn't possibly agree more with legendary Illini basketball reporter Mark Tupper, who said, "at no time did I think Illinois was going to win that very exciting, very emotional basketball game with Indiana." It was exciting, and we had hope, and we leapt across the room with Jeffrey Jordan hit a key overtime jumper, but we knew better: There was no way Illinois was winning that game. More »
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In the "holy cow, fans can be scary" file, the frustrated fans at Kentucky, suffering through a 9-9 season, have taken a lot of their ire out on recent transfer (to Illinois! Woo!) Alex Legion. (He of the soothsaying mother.) More »
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Jonah Keri writes the college basketball closer (more or less) daily. E-mail your questions, comments or Clarence Ceasar-related memories to jonahkeri@gmail.com. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=344432&view=rss&microfeed=true We will miss Mr. Mendenhall. [Mark Tupper] More »
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The question we've been discussing with fellow Illini fans over the last 12 hours or so; was it really worth it? Was it worth watching our Illini be absolutely destroyed in the Rose Bowl yesterday? Wouldn't we all have been better off if Illinois had a more competitive, fun, matchup against Florida in that Capital One Bowl? It took us most of the night, but we think we have our answer. More »
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The Tennessee State Tigers are 4-8, with losses to Belmont, Akron, Colorado State and Southeast Missouri State. It was once known as the Tennessee State Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School for Negroes. Oprah Winfrey went there. And yesterday, they beat our Illini at the Assembly Hall in Champaign. More »
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We will say this: It is unlikely this photo above is going to replace Ron Zook Pisses Intensity Photo. More »
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For all the excitement about next Tuesday's Rose Bowl game between our Illini and those suddenly hateable USC Trojans, it has one major downside: Everybody's talking about the damned Chief again. More »
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In our ongoing coverage of the dogmatic inevitability that Alex Legion will lead Kentucky to the Final Four, a tranquil atmosphere casts over the tumultuous world of college basketball. More »
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We're not going to any more Illini sporting events; we're gonna need something to cheer us up. More »
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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. More »
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Yep, it's really happening: Illinois — Illinois! — is in the Rose Bowl. The game they play on New Year's Day. That one. Seriously. Zook in Pasadena. Zooooooooook. More »
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Yes, we know we're the only people who care about the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, but indulge us: It's difficult to find any kind of sustained series between two supposedly competitive leagues that involves such repeated dominance. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=327795&view=rss&microfeed=true We still can't believe Illinois has a chance at the Rose Bowl. [Chicago Tribune] More »
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OK, maybe Duke's a little better than we realized. And maybe Illinois still hasn't learned how to shoot. Here you see Brian Randle, fouling someone, as usual. Duke's good again, everybody: Spread the word. Then cringe. More »
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We know the college basketball is officially underway because ... everyone's Duke bile is building! We've missed it; it's nice having villains, even if they haven't actually done that much lately that was particularly villainous. More »
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We were busy at this show tonight, so we're late on the uptake, but we will say this: We don't think we'll ever get used to seeing Michael Jordan wearing Illini colors. We wonder if Tar Heels fans will ever get used to it either. More »
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After Illinois' oddly easy win over Northwestern — to win the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, whatever that is — on Saturday, the most amazing Illini season we can remember draws to a close. Which means, of course ... it's time for the Ron Zook Water Skiing Photo! The man pisses intensity. More »
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Michael Jordan and Juanita Jordan got engaged on New Years Eve, 1987. Jordan was in his third year in the NBA at the time, and had just filmed a Nike commercial with Spike Lee. They were married almost two years later — in Las Vegas, of course — and they signed a "post-nuptial agreement," whatever that is, a year after the wedding. We don't know the exact terms of that "post-nuptial agreement," but it clearly didn't work out well for Michael. More »
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