Spectacular Streak

Ranked #20 Fighting Illini Men's Basketball, has quite an impressive winning streak over the Minnesota Gopher's. Over 10 years, 4 different head coaches, and 4 cities, this impressive streak includes 20 straight wins beating the Gopher's. This streak is indeed the Illini's longest winning span against another team in their conference.

This is also qualified as 4th longest winning streak in the nation against a conference opponent. A little fun fact...Illinois is the only team in the Big Ten with four players in the leagues top 25 scorers!

The Fighting Illini face the Gophers tonight (Thursday)...there is hope for a 21st win against ranked #24 Minnesota.

Football in the "off season"

For the Fighting Illini Football Team, campus is never quite "quiet". Recently two of the Illini's players were honored to be on the Scout.com list of top 100 college football players returning for the 2009 season. The men that made the list were junior quarterback Juice Williams and receiver Arrelious Benn (quite a name). Williams was ranked No. 35 on Scout.com and Benn No. 38. These 2 players were also among the top 10 Big Ten players ranking fifth and sixth. I personally have attended Illinois Homecoming Football games for the past two years and although 2 players may not be able to carry a team, they are indeed impressive team members.

I think everyone expects great things from these specific players in the upcoming 2009 season.

Lady Illini News

With a switch from men's to women's basketball, we have another "postitive loss". 6'3'' junior Jenna Smith had a season high that night, finishing with 18 points and 18 rebounds (her career high is 19 rebounds). So, for she and also junior Lacey Simpson, the loss resulted in a smile while walking off the court. The Lady Illini basketball team lost against the Iowa Hawkeyes 72-62 at home last Thursday. 6'1'' junior Simpson also had a positive night, finishing with 12 points and a career high 15 rebounds. The team had a season high 46 rebounds total.

As I was browsing through the Fighting Illini website...guess what I found?? One of the members of the men's golf team blogs too! I know the men's golf coach Mike Small personally....he's an old friend of my dads, he's a pretty funny guy. Although the golf team does not involve any recent news, I think an interview with Mr. Small may be in the future of my blog! The golf team has an extremely nice and fairly new indoor facility, where they can stay on top of their game in the off season. The team is focusing on school work and weight lifting right now, but will be ready to get on the course when spring rolls around.

Terrific Turnaround

For Bruce Weber, the Fighting Illini Mens' Basketball head coach, the 2008-2009 season has been quite a turnaround from last season. The men of the 2007-2008 team had an almost depressing record....went 5-13 in conference and 16-19 overall. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/conferences/standings?confId=7&year=2008

Their terrific turnaround this season has resulted in a 3-2 record in conference and 15-3 in conference thus far.

We recently had an "exciting loss" against the 5-0 in conference Michigan State. The final scored was 63-57. I'm not exactly sure anyone expected the opposing number 7 ranked team to have such a close win. http://www.bigtennetwork.com/news/article.asp?LIST_ID=2&STORY_ID=3185035

Although we aren't the same 2005 2nd place NCAA Championship team, the University Of Illinois Men's Basketball team has quite an improved team since last season.