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Partially due to a blown call, Illinois basketball has beaten a higher seeded NCAA Tournament team just twice in school history. Trailing 57-55 with 40 seconds remaining, replays clearly showed the Illini should have maintained offensive possession on an out-of-bounds call. Instead, the ball was wrongly awarded to the Miami Hurricanes. And even a Miami player admitted it.
Now the NCAA is going to going to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.
You can see Kendall Gill back on television soon; just not on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Kendall Gill did an exclusive with ESPN 1000′s Waddle and Silvy a few days ago. (He comes on around the 1:30ish mark here). This was the first time Kendall Gill talked publicly since he punched Tim Doyle in the face in mid March.
This time of the year gets a little slow for college football news. Or college basketball news. Or Illini or Big Ten news. So in that vein we present you Tim Beckman, and the famous “Lasagna video.” Maybe you’ve seen the Tim Beckman lasagna video already. Well if so, you need to watch it again.
The NBA Draft Combine hits Chicago next week. It’s the most…..wonderful…..time……of the year!!!!!!! Ok, not really. But it’s still a pretty cool event. Most likely everyone who’s going to get picked in the NBA Draft comes to the Second City for workouts with NBA scouts and interviews with the media.
The invite list did not include the Gophers’ Rodney Williams (that’s fine, he really shouldn’t be picked anyway), Florida State’s Michael Snaer (surprising, I mean someone in the NBA has to play defense at some point), Alex Oriakhi (take it or leave it), Marquette’s Vander Blue (we’re very surprised) and Elias Harris of Gonzaga.
Like the late Nate Dogg said: “I don’t want to dream about getting paid,” and pretty soon these gentlemen won’t have to.
Illini college football coach Tim Beckman went on 670 The Score in Chicago today. Around 4:30 CDT with Boers and Bernstein. Tim Beckman appeared with Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas and college basketball coach John Groce. If and when WSCR posts the audio, I’ll link it here.
The Northwestern Twitterverse (there’s not many of them, but there are some) are blowing up about what Beckman did today.
This year’s Big Ten ACC Challenge will be Dec. 3-4. It features a lot of college basketball teams from the ESPN.com early preseason top 25: No. 3 Michigan State, No. 5 Duke, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 9 Michigan, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 20 Indiana and No. 25 Iowa.
Three of the games will pit ranked teams against each other: No. 9 Michigan at No. 5 Duke, No. 11 North Carolina at No. 3 Michigan State and No. 20 Indiana at No. 8 Syracuse.
(UPDATE 5-7-13 11:50 A.M.: Susannah releases public statement on her own home page)
UPDATE 5-3-13: Susannah is fired by Comcast SportsNet. This link explains why I believe the Blackhawks themselves had more to do with her dismissal than CSN!!!
Comcast SportsNet officially announced the full-time hire of anchor/reporter Susannah Collins as its newest on-air talent member for the network’s signature nightly sports news program, SportsNet Central. Collins will also handle on-site, post-game reporting duties throughout the year at home games for all four of CSN’s pro team partners. In other words, she’s the replacement for Sarah Kustok.
Collins can also be followed via Twitter @SusannahCollins. The announcement was made by Charlie Schumacher, Senior News Director for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
It’s never too early to start thinking ahead. Here is an a very early projection of the 2014 NCAA Tournament Bracketology.
UPDATED: 4/7/13
As one Brandon Paul (pictured above. Yes I know that you know that, but I have to do this other wise some meathead will comment that’s not Darius Paul, that’s Brandon Paul) leaves the Illini, his younger brother Darius Paul joins the Illini. Brandon Paul graduates and heads for the NBA Combine while Darius Paul comes to Champaign.
Darius Paul left the Western Michigan University men’s basketball program as Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year. Which is fitting, the Illini got both their college football coach and their college basketball coach from the MAC.
Here is the second round of our updated 2013 NBA Mock Draft. Click on the players’ name for a complete, in-depth scouting report.
(By the way, The Sports Bank was graded as the most accurate 2011 AND 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the web.)
CLICK HERE FOR THE FIRST ROUND
Check out The Sports Bank’s 2013 NFL Mock Draft.
Here is our updated 2013 NBA Mock Draft. Click on the players’ name for a complete, in-depth scouting report.
(By the way, The Sports Bank was graded as the most accurate 2011 AND 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the web.)
Check out The Sports Bank’s 2013 NFL Mock Draft.
Yesterday, the Big Ten officially announced what we all knew for at least a week. However, for those who are oblivious I’ll reiterate: new realignment and division names starting in 2014 and nine-game conference schedules starting in 2016. Most important about this college football news nugget or tidbit if you will, the Big Ten has laid to rest the HORRIBLE division names: Legends and Leaders.
Thankfully we only suffered through that pathetic pablum masquerading as division names for just two years. With Rutgers and Maryland joining the conference, where’s Rebecca Martinson when you need here? I’d love to hear her SCREAM and CURSE LOUDLY IN ANGER at whoever came up with that Legends and Leaders garbage.
Moving on, the new division alignments are:
