It's highly probably we're 5-1 starting the day on Thanksgiving.

Eastern Illinois and SIUE are 99% win games. Oakland is maybe competitive but that's a 94% win so still a 17-point favorite. Maryland Eastern Shore is like the 3rd worst team in D-1, and Little Rock is a game we'll be favored by 20+.

Nov. 20th is a semi-away game at Alabama. Some people have them at #1 in the country. I expect that to be a beatdown like Ole Miss gave us, so that's the loss. That's the fourth game of the season so the last two cupcakes will give us a chance to recalibrate.

After that we have five competitive but very winnable games (including the first two conference games) so that's when we need to have some idea what our team is.

I'd like to have a sense of the rotation and what lineups work best together. We should also see who plays defense and who is lost out there. I want the freshmen to get a sense of the speed of the game, the refs, and what kinds of passes they can make. I don't think we need to look like a Final Four contender by Thanksgiving but I'd like to at least have confidence that we can play like we deserve to be ranked.

We need to look like a Final Four team by Feb. 22nd in MSG because I just got tickets. For now let's just see this team figure some things out in the first few weeks. Obviously in the exhibition game they showed us they have a lot of work to do.

I didn't watch this one, but have some thoughts anyhow

Did Morez start over Ben? I couldn't tell from the commentary in the game thread.

I am disappointed in DGL, Booth and Ben H so far. I was curious how Ben's game would translate against good competition. The jury is still out, but this team might be better with Morez on the court.

I like KJ and think he will be very good as time goes on with his new teammates.

Tre White and KB are about what I expected. Solid players.

TI and WR are better than I anticipated. I love the things they can do.

What was this all about?

Since all those teams lost and we should beat northwestern next week. Can we squeeze in????
Illini are 5th in the conference...

Where to start? I am not sure I've ever enjoyed an Illinois win more. I thought Illinois would beat Rutgers. Illini showing some nice signs against MSU and Rutgers very much in a letdown spot. So what happens? Illinois plays a terrible first half and trails 17-9. The offense was OK, but the D in the first half looked dead.

Then we get to a second half. Illinois wakes up. The offense looks great. The D is making some plays and getting some stops. And we still keep shooting ourselves in the foot, the insane Jacas penalty (a bit weak but still) that ultimately leads to a Rutgers TD versus a punt. Some other extremely ill-advised penalties. But the offense has figured it out, and Illinois scores 3 TDs in the second to take the 30-24 lead. The D appears to make a near game ending INT, but loses it on a (probably correct but very close) overturn. Rutgers scores with enough time left to give the Illini hope, but it's not a lot.

A nice drive stalls out at the 35 yard line before what turns out to be a huge (and later fortuitous) false start by the heroic Pat Bryant. Bret makes the (likely correct) decision to give it a shot from 58 yards, and a bad miss is saved by an again fortuitous Greg Schiano TO. To his credit, Bret notes the FG probably can't be made from 58 and so he sends out the offense hoping to convert 4th and long for a shorter FG. Incredible blocking by the OL on the blitz ... great calm and hurl from Luke Altmyer ... and the glorious Pat Bryant - who has a had a year of dreams - makes the catch over the middle. I am jumping up and down yelling for Bryant to "get down" so we can spike it and kick a makeable 35 yarder to win ... he's having none of it, abuses a Rutgers defender on the way to a legendary Illini TD. Absolute chaos in my living room. My wife and daughters were in a different room said they wish they had an audio recording of the yelling. I still am in a bit of shock.

Bottom line, Illinois has squeezed every bit out of this season. This team should have made a bowl, it is not an 8-3 level team. Every close game other than MN (which won by 8 but IL had a shot to tie late) has gone our way. Several in amazing fashion. Bret has overwhelmingly made the right strategic decisions throughout the year, including late today. The offensive is miles ahead of where it was 13.5 months ago, so much so I'm wondering how I could see this much change in running an offense (think about how absolute garbage the IL play calling was during the 2-4 start last season).

I said this last week, but I repeat it today. Kansas is the best win of the year. It's probably Michigan thereafter (they easily have the most talent of our victories), then Nebraska and Rutgers. All are solid football teams, none have the "2024 Illini luck." And some of that luck has been made via great coaching decisions.

Speaking of Kansas, Lance Leipold is one tough game away from one of the greatest bowl escapes of all times. That man can coach. Nebraska making a bowl for the first time in 8 years ... wow things are different than they were in 1995.

It will be interesting what NW brings to Wrigley. They sure didn't bring much to Ann Arbor, and they still had bowl hopes. I hope they are playing out the string next week, need to get on them early.

For anyone who saw what took place at the end of the Arizona State game, I still can't believe it. ASU was 2 yards away from losing a game they had a 99.99% chance of winning with 45 seconds left. Kenny Dillingham running 40 yards backwards and then not punting on 4th down is absolutely insane. The fact that anyone believed that plan was smart (with a 5 point lead too!) is beyond incredible.

IU got worked and isn't winning a playoff game. But with Ole Miss losing, IU is making the playoff. Amazing year for Cignetti and his transfer warriors. Ohio State has the most talent in CFB. Can Ryan Day capitalize? He's not the best IMHO, his loss to Clemson in a semi pre-Covid still irks me for the terrible coaching it took. The ACC and B12 getting only one slot each is a bit bemusing and also deserved, the committee is going to be pretty jacked to give literally every spot to the B1G/SEC/ND.

Will be starting for the NY Giants.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Kendall Bostic delivered a spectacular Week 2 performance on the court to earn the first Big Ten Player of the Week award of her career. The fifth-year senior led the way with 28 points per game, 10 rebounds per game, one steal per game, and zero turnovers as the Fighting Illini climbed to 5-0 after downing their third 2024 NCAA Tournament team of the season.

The Kokomo, Ind., native shot 83.9% from the floor on 26-of-31 attempts and connected on all four of her free-throw attempts. No other Big Ten player was more efficient at a high volume than Bostic, as she made more combined field goals across the week (26) than all but two Big Ten players attempted. Additionally, she was the only Big Ten player with two 20-point games this week, scoring at least 30 points in one of the outings.

In the Illini's first game of the week, Bostic registered the 36th double-double of her career, scoring 25 points (11-for-13 FG) and grabbing 12 rebounds in 23 minutes of action.

In Illinois' handing of Oregon State, Bostic became just the fourth player in program history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds as an Illini. Bostic is also now second on Illinois' career rebounding list (1,045). She scored a career-high 31 points in the victory over the Beavers and grabbed eight rebounds in 32 minutes of work.

Across the week, Bostic registered the fifth and sixth 20-point games of her career, and the first 30-point showing of her career.

The last Illini to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors was Genesis Bryant, who won back-to-back Co-Player of the Week awards during the 2022-23 campaign.

Login to view embedded media

Tonight is a kind of trap game, so I'm putting that caveat out there to avoid the jinx thread. It's very possible that we stink up the joint tonight. This is more about the future than November anyway.

I think I see what Underwood saw when he rallied the team after the loss to Alabama. Alabama is loaded and was better positioned to bounce back after a tough road loss at Purdue. They blitzed us out of the gate and that game could have gotten out of hand very easily. The fact that it didn't showed some grit and I think that was a major question mark for a new team that was answered in a very positive way.

KJ and Riley are the elite talents, but I see Boswell as the leader of this team. He plays solid defense every night and he seems to make plays in crunch time to get us back on track. He's got a little bit of Underwood guard syndrome right now where he pushes you so hard on defense that it takes a while to get your 3-point shot going (some of our other recent star guards had similar adaptation periods.) He has the clutch gene and that's what matters right now.

The rotation is very quickly coming into focus. Our 7 dudes are KJ, Boswell, White, Humrichous, and Ivisic starting with Riley and Johnson as freshmen off the bench. Riley and Johnson have more talent than White and Humrichous so they may eventually displace them but they are both still young and adapting to the college game. Riley has electric scoring talent and a sneaky good all-around game. Johnson is just a monster around the rim rebounding and blocking shots. If MJ can stay on the court he is a game-wrecker and we're starting to see him some at the 4 as well. Riley is just unstoppable scoring in the 2nd half. Once he settles down in the first half it's lights out. I remember Kevin Durant at Texas and that's all I can think about when I see Riley.

Ivisic is everything I'd hoped he would be at 7'1" 255. There are times when he's the best player on the court for us and he's a great option to kickstart the offense whenever we hit a speed bump.

I don't love Tre White yet but he's a little bit of everything which is nice versatility to have in the rotation. He's certainly athletic enough to compete with anyone. Humrichous makes me very nervous on defense but his shooting talent is obvious. He's got a little more to his game and that's nice for the stretch 4 role that we always have. We know that works in the Underwood offense.

You can tell Underwood absolutely loves KJ. The guy is extremely competitive and will do whatever it takes to win. I think he's Underwood's ideal point guard. I just want to see him cook in this offense for a year and we'll live with what happens.

I think this team is everything Brad Underwood always wanted. He's going to coach the heck out of them and I think by February we're going to be a load for anyone to compete against.

4 carries today for 2 yards. Man did he make a bad move.

Did he get downgraded to a 3 star? I was thinking he was a 4 star.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Illinois football team moved up two spots in the AP Top 25 to #22 in this week's rankings. Illinois also rejoined the Coaches Poll at #25.

Illinois (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) is coming off a 38-31 win at Rutgers, ahead of Saturday's trip to Wrigley Field to take on Northwestern (11 a.m. CT, BTN). At Rutgers, Pat Bryant caught a 40-yard touchdown from Luke Altmyer on 4th-and-13 with 0:04 remaining to give Illinois its fourth fourth-quarter comeback win of the season.

Illinois is in the AP Top 25 for the ninth time this season, the Illini's most poll appearances since 10 during the 2001 Big Ten championship season. The Illini have four wins this season while ranked in the AP poll, the most since also winning four games while ranked in 2001. Illinois will go for its fifth win while ranked on Saturday, which would be the most by an Illini team since 1990.

The College Football Playoff Top 25 will be released Tuesday. Illinois was #24 in last week's CFP rankings.

I dont remember hearing Z Franklin or Elzy with any catches

His team Clearwater Central Catholic advanced to the regional finals. Newton was 7 for 10 passing for 72 yards. He had 9 rushes for 101 yards. For his high school career so far . Passing for 6123 yards for 55tds and 12 ints. Rushing stats 3631 yards. Total yards 9754!! Probably will go over 10,000 yards next game. He is going to be great at Illinois.

LETS GO !

Cardinal Ritter lost yesterday. But it sounds like Boyd had a great game. I will try and post more stats later. Also Marao won in2A so our commit from them will be playing for a State Championship. Also Mt Zion won so Trimble will be playing for a State Chpionship in 4A.

Morez and Ivisic playing together. Love it!

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media