Archive for the ‘Illinois’ Category

2012 B1G/ACC Challenge Match-ups Announced

Published by Source on May 14th, 2012

The match-ups have been announced for next season’s B1G/ACC Challenge. There will be twelve games featuring all twenty-four teams in the two conferences. In what will be the 14th annual event, the B1G will attempt to win its 4th straight after losing the first 10.

ESPN’s preseason #1 Indiana Hoosiers will host the #11 North Carolina Tar Heels in one of the two headlining games of the event. The other features an up and coming #6 NC State Wolfpack team traveling to Ann Arbor to take on the #8 Michigan Wolverines in what may be an early season top-10 match-up if the preseason rankings hold. Both of those games will be on Tuesday, November 27. The following day, the headliner is surely the #5 Ohio State Buckeyes at the #15 Duke Blue Devils. Coach K’s squad will be looking for revenge after getting destroyed in Columbus this past season.

Here are all 12 match-ups:

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Posted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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Transfer rundown: 3 guys have new homes

Published by Source on May 12th, 2012

Several players have announced their plans to transfer since the season came to a close, and in the past week three of those guys have made their decisions. We are a bit late with the first two guys, but it was made official today that former Notre Dame guard and Northbrook, IL-native Alex Dragicevich is headed to Boston College.

- Former Illini Crandall Head will follow his old assistant coach Jerrance Howard to SMU. New Mustangs coach Larry Brown is looking to turn the program around and brought in Howard to help recruit. Head is the younger brother of Illinois star Luther Head and a native of Richton Park, Illinois. Though he was highly-touted out of high school, Head never really found his place in Champaign and appeared in just 9 games last season. He will sit out the upcoming season per NCAA rules and have two seasons of eligibility remaining after that.

- Once a top high school prospect, Jordan Sibert is now leaving the Ohio State Buckeyes for the Dayton Flyers of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Sibert averaged just 3.0 points per game as a sophomore and will head to Dayton with two seasons of eligibility remaining. Sibert was a part of Thad Matta’s blockbuster 2010 recruiting class, alongside Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft and DeShaun Thomas. Also in that class was JD Weatherspoon, who announced his plans to transfer with Sibert but has yet to find his next destination.

- As mentioned above, Notre Dame sharp-shooter Alex Dragicevich is headed to the East Coast. The Glenbrook North High School graduate will also have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season with the Eagles. Dragicevich chose BC over hometown Loyola (Chicago). He averaged 6.6 points in 20.9 minutes for the Irish last season but decided to transfer because he saw himself getting less minutes in the future.

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, Illinois, Notre Dame, Ohio State
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Illinois lands Drake transfer Rayvonte Rice

Published by Source on April 26th, 2012

Rayvonte Rice was perhaps the best player for the Drake Bulldogs as a sophomore last year: he led the team in scoring (16.8 ppg) and was second in rebounding (5.8 rpg). He was a 2nd team All-Missouri Valley selection and previously was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team – he averaged 13.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in his first year.

But, after the Bulldogs finished 18-16 overall and just 9-9 in Valley play, Rice decided that it was time to look for a more high-profile team. Meanwhile, back in his hometown of Champaign, Illinois, the Fighting Illini replaced the coach that failed to recruit Rice out of high school. With new head coach John Groce at the helm at Illinois, the path was cleared for Rice to return home for his final two years of eligibility. (more…)

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Meyers Leonard leaving Illinois for NBA

Published by Source on April 2nd, 2012

Illinois sophomore big man Meyers Leonard will forgo his final two years of eligibility and remain in the 2012 NBA Draft field, he announced on Monday.

Leonard is an incredibly skilled big man and has an NBA-ready body. His maturity has come into question numerous times in his tenure at Illinois, but that really seems to be his only knock at this point. Most draft experts project Leonard as a late lottery-pick, somewhere in the 10-15 region.

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John Groce hired at Illinois

Published by Source on March 29th, 2012

After a long and somewhat troubling search, Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas has hired Ohio University head coach John Groce to be the next Illini men’s basketball coach. After the job was reportedly turned down by the likes of Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens, Thomas turned to what some media members call his sixth-choice in Groce. But regardless of how he got there, Groce is headed to Champaign with the goal of getting the Illini back in the top half of the conference and into the NCAA Tournament.

Groce seemed like a logical candidate from the beginning – a mid-major coach with ties to the area and conference that has tournament success and a proven winning record. In his four seasons at Ohio, Groce took the Bobcats to 2 NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet Sixteen run this March. Before landing in Athens – his first head coaching job – Groce spent eight total seasons as an assistant to Thad Matta at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State. He was on the Ohio State staff in 2007 when the Buckeyes lost to Florida in the National Championship game.

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Posted in Illinois, Ohio State
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Southern Illinois hires Barry Hinson as head coach

Published by Source on March 27th, 2012

ESPNChicago’s Scott Powers reports that Kansas Director of Basketball Operations Barry Hinson has agreed to be the next head coach of the Southern Illinois Salukis men’s basketball team. Hinson has been on the Kansas’ staff since 2008 and prior to that spent eleven seasons as a Division I head coach (two at Oral Roberts then nine at Missouri State) accumulating a head coaching record of 205-140.

Hinson comes to Carbondale with Missouri Valley experience, as well as solid postseason history – he led Missouri State to four NIT berths. As far as the eye test goes, Hinson is a good hire for Southern and brings winning experience to a team desperate to reclaim its position at the top of the MVC.

Hinson replaces Chris Lowery, who was fired back on March 2nd after a disappointing eighth season in which the Salukis went just 8-23. Many thought that former Illinois and SIU coach Bruce Weber could be the next Saluki head coach, since he is recently unemployed and had a successful tenure in Carbondale from 1998-2003. A number of other Big Ten assistants were thought to be candidates, as well, including Illinois’ Jay Price and Indiana’s Tim Buckley.

 

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Posted in featured, Illinois, Indiana, Mid Major
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Gatorade Player Of The Year Winners

Published by Source on March 22nd, 2012

Every year, Gatorade gives an award to the best high school athlete in each sport, in each state. On Thursday, the state announced its 51 boys basketball winners (the extra is from DC) and a few of the recipients will be playing nearby in the future (full list of winners can be found HERE):

* Jabari Parker – Simeon Academy (Chicago, IL) – Only a junior, but one of the top prospects in the 2013 class being recruited by just about every basketball powerhouse in the country.

* Gary Harris – Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers, IN) – Harris chose the Michigan State Spartans over Indiana, Purdue, and Kentucky back in November.

* Matt Costello – Bay City Western (Auburn, MI) – Also named Mr. Basketball in Michigan last week, Costello will join Harris in East Lansing next year.

* Cameron Biedscheid – Cardinal Ritter (St. Louis, MO) – The Missouri-native is headed to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish next year.

* Mike Gesell – South Sioux City (NE) – Gesell is headed across the state line as part of a stellar recruiting class for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

* Sam Dekker – Sheboygan Lutheran (WI) – Dekker has exploded onto the national scene in the past year and has been committed to the Wisconsin Badgers since June 2010.

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, DePaul, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin
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Revisiting My Preseason Predictions

Published by Source on March 21st, 2012

With the regular season finished and postseason tournaments in full swing, it is time to take a look back at the predictions I posted the day before this college basketball season began. I went game-by-game to predict wins and losses, tallied them up and listed the teams from 1-12. Needless to say, I did not do that well.

The first thing that jumps out is that the B1G really beat up on each other in conference play, with a lot of teams at the top of the standings losing to teams at the bottom. No team dominated the season the way that I (and many others) expected Ohio State to do.

It was not all bad, though, as I was pretty spot on with my non-conference records. For most teams, I only missed 2 or 3 non-conference games (I missed 4 for Penn State, but was perfect for Minnesota and only missed 1 each for Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin). Below, you will see a couple different lists. The first is the side-by-side of my predicted conference standings and the actual conference standings. Next, you will see a team-by-team breakdown of the records I predicted so that you can see how wrong/right I was. NOTE: I do not include conference tournament games, as those would have been impossible to predict before the season. NOTE 2: 3-way tie in actual B1G standings, but I listed the 3 teams in the order they were seeded in the conference tournament.

PREDICTED:                       ACTUAL:

1 – Ohio State                  T-1 – Michigan State

2 – Michigan                   T-1 – Michigan

3 – Wisconsin                 T-1 – Ohio State

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Posted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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Bruce Weber, Doc Sadler both fired

Published by Source on March 9th, 2012

Two Big Ten head coaches were relieved of their duties on Friday, both after losing in the first round of the conference tournament on Thursday. Illinois has cut ties with Bruce Weber, the Illini head coach for the past nine seasons. Several hours later, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osbourne announced the firing of Cornhusker men’s basketball coach Doc Sadler after six seasons in Lincoln.

There was much speculation throughout the last two months that Weber would not be retained by Illinois and those suspicions became reality Friday morning. Back in February, following a disappointing home loss to Purdue, Weber admitted that he had coached “not to lose” all season and apologized to a lot of people in what seemed to be a sign that his tenure was nearing its end. The Illini started the season out hot, jumping out to a 10-0 record and eventually finding themselves in first place in the conference at 15-3 (4-1). Then the losses started happening as the Illini finished the season losing 12 of their final 14 games.

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Posted in featured, Illinois, Mid Major, Nebraska
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B1G Tournament Bracket

Published by Source on March 7th, 2012

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Posted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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