CHAMPAIGN — The fifth-ranked Fighting Illini men’s basketball team is in Indianapolis preparing for Tuesday night’s matchup against second-ranked Baylor. It’s the first top-five matchup for Illinois since the team’s Final Four season in 2005. Junior guard Ayo Dosunmu calls the contest against Baylor a “legacy game.” “I think in five, ten years people will…
CHAMPAIGN – The Illini men’s basketball team did not get a third straight blowout in the final game of their multi-team event in Champaign. Illinois beat the Ohio Bobcats 77-75 Friday, but it was a close game all the way. Ayo Dosunmu converted a pair of free throws with 2.3 seconds remaining in the second half….
CHAMPAIGN – Five Illini scored double-figures in Thursday’s 97-38 rout of visiting Chicago State at the State Farm Center in Champaign. But it was their performance on the defensive end that most pleased Coach Brad Underwood. “Defensive rebounding, we need to be dominant there, and it takes everybody,” said Underwood. “When we defensive rebound, it…
LINCOLN, Neb. — The Fighting Illini football team used five Nebraska turnovers to top the Cornhuskers 41-23, in what head coach Lovie Smith called a historic victory. “I’m told we haven’t won in Lincoln since 1924, when Red Grange played,” Smith said. “Whenever something like that happens, of course, it’s a big deal.” Quarterback Brandon…
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The third time was the charm for Illini placekicker James McCourt. McCourt drilled a 47-yard field goal with three seconds remaining to give Illinois a 23-20 win over Rutgers, Saturday afternoon in Piscataway, New Jersey. He said he wasn’t phased by missing two attempts earlier in the 4th quarter. “That first kick…
CHAMPAIGN — Lovie Smith made no excuses for his Illini football team’s dismal performance in Saturday’s 41-14 blowout loss to previously winless Minnesota. He put the blame squarely on himself. “I’m the head football coach. Everything comes back to me,” Smith said. “I didn’t perform the way I need to.” Mo Ibrahim set a Gopher…
CHAMPAIGN — Illinois lost another football game Saturday, but unlike last week against Wisconsin, this one wasn’t a laugher. Purdue came to town a seven-point favorite, and won by a touchdown. The Boilermakerss got 376 yards passing.from Aidan O’Connell, who converted 29 of 36 attempts including two touchdowns. Illinois had a chance to tie the…
UPDATED 5:45 p.m. | The high school basketball season will play on as planned despite a surge in COVID-19 cases across Illinois.
MADISON — Illini football tripped out of the gate and never found its footing in a season-opening 45-7 drubbing at Wisconsin last night. The Badgers dominated both sides of the ball, led by quarterback Graham Mertz, who converted 20 of his 21 passing attempts for 248 yards and five touchdowns — tying the all-time Wisconsin record in his first…
CHAMPAIGN — The long-delayed Big Ten football season kicks off tonight in Madison, Wisconsin. The 14th-ranked Badgers take on Lovie Smith’s fifth Illini squad, which enters the contest as a three-touchdown underdog. Brian Moline previews the Illini football opener at Wisconsin with Robert Rosenthal from IlliniBoard.com. Coach Smith said he wasn’t offended by the oddsmakers’…
URBANA – As a freshman member of the University of Illinois’ marching band, Matthew Kostbade was looking forward to performing on the field. “I can see Memorial Stadium from this window right now and it pains me to look at it especially on Saturday’s when I know we could be out there with my drum…
URBANA — The Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that it will resume its football season with an eight-game conference-only schedule beginning the weekend of October 23-24. The news came just over a month after league officials said the season would be postponed until at least next spring. But University of Illinois chancellor Robert Jones says…
The Big Ten Conference announced last week that all fall sports were being postponed because of the pandemic, with a chance that they’ll compete in the spring. Brian Moline talks with Fighting Illini distance runner Jack LaLonde about the cancellation of cross country season. But that’s not the case for cross country. Because those athletes…
CHAMPAIGN – The Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday afternoon that it’s postponing all fall sports because of uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic. The sports affected at the University of Illinois are football, volleyball, women’s soccer, and cross country. Field hockey and men’s soccer, which are not varsity sports at Illinois, are also affected by the…
URBANA – Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert remembers watching a man dressed up in Native American regalia dance across a football field as “surreal” and “in many ways silly.” It was the fall of 2006, and the University of Illinois’ former mascot, Chief Illiniwek, sported a feather headdress and face paint, as he wove in and out…