illinois Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
College ShameDay: Who Embarrassed Themselves On Saturday (Besides Texas)?
Our weekly college football shame index. ...
How To Freak Out A Ref, By Illini Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase
Either that referee really didn't want to seem like he had a conflict of interest by high-fiving a player from one of the teams, or he's a germaphobe. Considering it's probably the former, we now know every ref's kryptonite—run after them with your hand up and they'll walk over their own mother to...
I Was Piggybacked By The Piggyback Bandit
The Piggyback Bandit, aka Sherwin Shayegan, is the bogeyman of high school sports. As chronicled by Grantland's Bryan Curtis, the 31-year-old Shayegan has spent the last few years showing up randomly at sporting events, pretending to be a player, manager, reporter—anything to get close enough to the...
Weekend Read: D Magazine on Young Tony Romo
Tony Romo, who is 32 and in his prime as an NFL quarterback, comes from an altogether different era. That's all I can draw from the current issue of D Magazine, in which Peter Simek drills down into a single high-school game to explain Romo's ascent from small-town jock-of-all-trades to a guy with t...
"I Am A Little Worried To Be...On The Electronics": Thunder Storm Terrorizes Professional Baseball Grounds Crew
Courtesy of Aaron Morse, the voice you hear broadcasting, comes video of this wild thunder storm rain delay. The game between the Joliet Slammers and Southern Illinois Miners on Friday night was delayed for rain and what appears to be heavy winds. The grounds crew put down the tarp and even, accor...
Once Again Northwestern Wins Nth Women's Lacrosse Title in N+1 Years
The women's lacrosse team from Northwestern University out-lacrossed the women's lacrosse team from Syracuse University on Sunday to win the program's seventh national title in eight years, a laudable feat of consistent ass-kicking that becomes all the more impressive when you consider the key word ...
Bruce Pearl’s First Con, And The World That Created A Monster (Deadspin Classic)
Over the weekend, one long-running college basketball feud came to a quiet and friendly conclusion: Jimmy Collins, a former Illinois assistant, finally received an apology from Bruce Pearl, the disgraced former Tennessee coach. As an Iowa assistant in 1989, Pearl had accused Collins of offering mone...
NIU Football Player Faces Assault Charges For Bulldozing A Band Member
Northern Illinois linebacker Jamaal Bass (No. 6 in the video, No. 1 in our hearts) was suspended for two games after an incident in November, when he ran over a poor Toledo band member. The trouble's not over: an Ohio grand jury has indicted Bass on one count of felonious assault and one count of ...
New Illinois Football Coach Using Porridge As Punishment
This is how Tim Beckman hopes to rid the Illini program of the taste left by Ron Zook's seven seasons in charge:...
Hey, Michigan: Illinois Will Show You Their Athletic Director's Contract If You Show Them Yours
We like to request records from public universities from time to time. We also like to request the requests made to these universities, which lets us know who's snooping around where. Mainly, it's reporters. Occasionally, though, one of our meta-requests reveals some high-level intercollegiate inani...
Drew Bledsoe Is A Big Fan Of <i>Caddyshack</i>, Filming Televised Nose Pickers With His Camera Phone
Although we have better resources for providing high quality video from sporting even broadcasts, we figured we'd share this with you. That's because the Zapruder to this head shot was (apparently) Drew Bledsoe....
Illinois Ball Boy Later Flagged For Unsportsmanlike Conduct While Attempting To Pick His Friend's Nose At Fight Hunger Bowl
Your morning roundup for Jan. 1, the day we whimsically shook our heads and thought "they've done it again." Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....
The Only Entertaining Thing To Come Out Of The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Was Also The Most Heartwarming
As part of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, players from Illinois spent two and half hours feeding the homeless at St. Anthony's Dining Room in San Francisco. They also spent at least two minutes and eleven seconds breaking it down with this wheelchair-bound gentleman. Look at that guy go!...
Northern Illinois Linebacker Suspended For Sacking Opposing Band Member
When you're on a defense that gives up 60 points in regulation, that's reason enough to be suspended. But NIU linebacker Jamaal Bass earned his suspension the hard way, by knocking over a Toledo band member before the matchup Tuesday night. Huskies coach Dave Doeren announced the suspension this a...
There Is No D In Toledo: Here's All 123 Points From Last Night's MAC Matchup In 123 Seconds
The MAC nursed a Halloween hangover and showed up to work dressed in a defense-phobic WAC costume as Northern Illinois beat Toledo last night 63-60, the highest-scoring regulation game in conference history. It was a score more familiar to NBA fans, watching because there were no NBA games on the ...
Illinois LB Jonathan Brown Checked If The Coast Was Clear Before Kneeing A Foe In The Balls Today
"During the first half of today's Illinois/Northwestern game, Illinois linebacker Jonathan Brown clearly looks around to see if anyone is watching before kneeing Northwestern offensive lineman Patrick Ward in the groin. Of course, with 65,000 people, eleven opposing players and five refs - one of ...
Short White Guy Wins College Dunk Contest
So ends the ballad of short white guy. Jacob Tucker captured our hearts, with his average height and above-average ability to jump and slam a basketball through a rim. And these were legitimately good dunks — no affirmative action here. But if you're wondering why such an athlete would be stuck in...
Bruce Pearl's First Con, And The World That Created A Monster
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 Pe...
Your NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen Finishing Touches Open Thread
In the next few hours, all attendees will have RSVP'd for the Sweet Sixteen extravaganza. The final five match-ups are Arizona vs. Texas; VCU vs. Purdue; Marquette vs. Syracuse; Illinois vs. Kansas; and in the weekend's final game, Florida State vs. Notre Dame....
Short White Guy Is On His Way To The College Dunk Contest
Jacob Tucker's strategy of putting his dunk reel on YouTube has paid off, with two million views and the attention of the NCAA. But the 5'11" Tucker ("probably 5'10½"," he says) will need to take down one more small-school dunker to get into the contest....