I like Tuerk at OG.

NORMAN, Okla. – Fighting Illini men's golf head coach Mike Small was named the 2023 Golf Pride Grips Midwest Region Coach of the Year for NCAA Division I by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) on Wednesday.

The award is the 12th GCAA regional coach of the year honor for Small who just completed his 23rd season at the helm of the Fighting Illini program.

Small and the Illini closed out 2022-23 with the No. 1 rating in the final Golfstat rankings, a testament to the team's consistency throughout the entire year. The Illini compiled an NCAA Division I-leading head-to-head record of 172-9-3 in 13 stroke play events, and the team's win percentage of 94.3 percent also ranked first in the country.

Small, who also earned his record 13th Big Ten Coach of the Year award and was a finalist for the GCAA's national coach of the year honor, led the program to its eighth consecutive Big Ten title – and 13th of the last 14 overall – to secure one of seven tournament wins on the year, also the most in the nation.

The Illini were the top seed in the NCAA Bath Regional where they advanced through to the NCAA National Championship for the 16th time overall under Small's tutelage, and the 14th time in the last 15 championships dating back to 2008. The team was the No. 3 overall seed entering the championship at Grayhawk and led stroke play after 36 and 54 holes, before finishing tied for second with three individual top-10 finishers in Jackson Buchanan, who tied for second, and the first-team All-American duo of Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Tommy Kuhl, who tied for seventh. It marked the only time in the NCAA Championship's three-year run at Grayhawk that a single program produced three top-10 finishers in stroke play.

Small closed the year by guiding the Illini to the match play portion of the championship for the eighth time since the format was adopted in 2009, breaking a tie with Texas' John Fields for most match play appearances as a head coach. The Illini's match play berth also secured a fifth-place tie for the Orange and Blue in the final NCAA Championship standings with the team's eight top-five national finishes under Small ranking second in the country during that same time frame.

How many can we realistically come away with?

C-U News Gazette reporting that we will be hosting an MTE featuring Valparaiso, Western Illinois, and Southern (Louisiana).


Another Illini fan site reporting that we will host Oakland on Friday, November 10 and Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday, December 29.

We know that we will play Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday, December 9 and host Marquette somewhere in the week after Thanksgiving.

Some of the schools already kicking the tires include Illinois, Notre Dame, Michigan, Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas State, West Virginia. That list will grow throughout the day.

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Just a quick FYI....

Illinois commit Morez Johnson is set to get a rankings bump with the next update.

Not sure exactly what spot he will land in, but I wouldn't be surprised if he moves up 20-25 spots.

I'll see Johnson at the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout next weekend.

The latest rumors from the weekend:

Moved to Friday night.

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I know we don’t talk NBA much on this board but what a performance by The Joker last night. The guy is phenomenal!

Best big man play in the finals since???

All he does is win…

And Jamal Murray is the Sh….

No All Star invite. No All NBA Team Recognition…what a travesty.

Spoelstra pulled his starters at 2 min to go and the team cut the lead to 10. Too soon? I think so.

Even if you hate the NBA but love basketball you should check out Jokich and Jamal. Butler is worth the watch too but there’s only one of him. What Joker is doing is Wilt like in the stat lines. Amazing touch around the rim by him. Simply amazing!

Several sources reporting that the B1G will release the 2024 and 2025 schedules today at 3:30 p.m. CT.

They will also reveal their new scheduling model which includes protected rivalries.

Let's keep this one on topic, okay?

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They have a full 13-man roster right now, but there's about a 50% chance (or higher) that a spot opens up. They are working through some things.

If a ride does open up, I believe the preference is to fill it rather than to go into the season with 12 scholarship players. The clock is ticking, though, as schools begin summer classes. That's not a hard deadline, but it's significant.

They won't really know what to expect from Jeremiah Williams until they get him in the gym and have him checked out by trainers, etc.

Personally, I see him more of a multi-year project than immediate help. If he can play this year and be effective, that's a bonus. A pass-first point guard with size who defends isn't a bad thing when you have wings who can score. But is he 100%?

Adding a veteran with multiple years left made sense. They lose five seniors, and I doubt Underwood wanted to rely on a bunch of freshmen and another madcap chase in the Portal with so much uncertainty.

Illinois will be interested in Antonio Reeves if he leaves Kentucky. He's not a point guard per se, but they would make it work. Adding shooting was an offseason priority.

The Illini will kick the tires on 2023 guards Chris Johnson and Simeon Wilcher. I don't think they would be the leader for either one. IMO, both kids had schools in mind when they asked out of their letters of intent from KU and UNC respectively.

NLI collectives aren't letting up even with signed players. It's crazy. People who I've talked to aren't sure who the major players will be for either kid yet, but should know very soon.

I really like both Johnson and Wilcher. When you have a chance to add high school talent of that caliber, you have to pursue it.

All of the newcomers aren't on campus yet. There's a different timetable for each kid. (That's not an alarm bell for anyone, at least not yet).

There are other possibilities. Stay tuned.