4/4/2019 1 Comment Illini BaseballAs the Basketball season came to a disappointing close with a loss to Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten tournament, it leaves only a few Illini sports left for the spring season. One of the better teams in the Illinois athletics program is the baseball team. This year they have been looking solid with a record of 19-8. They recently played a two game series at home against the 19th ranked Costal Carolina, the Illini won both games with a score of 4-2 and 4-1. In the first game the Illini started off hot scoring all four runs in the first inning. The first two runs came from a two run homer by the second baseman Branden Comia. Then the right fielder Jack Yalowitz knocked in Michael Massey with a ground out to the third baseman. In the next at bat Grant Van Scoy, the third baseman, hit a single to allow center fielder Cam McDonald to score. The Illini defense was able to hold off Costal Carolina from scoring until the third inning when Cameron Pearcey hit a double to score one run. Then in the fourth inning Mike Koenig hit a ground out to second base which scored one more run. The rest of the game was scoreless leaving Illinois pitcher Josh Harris with the save putting him 2-1 on the season, and Garrett Acton was awarded his 9th save of the season. The second game of the series got off to an a lot slower start than the first. Coastal Carolina got on the board first in the top of the fourth inning with a ground out to the third baseman by Mike Koening, driving in Zach Biermann to score the first run. The Illini answered quickly in the bottom of the fourth with a single by Jack Yalowitz, which allowed Michael Massey to score. Later in the game in the bottom of the 7th the Illini were able to get another run in on a passed ball by the catcher. Then Massey hit a sacrifice fly to allow another run score. The next inning, Yalowitz was able to score on a fielding error by postal Carolina, which finalized the score at 4-1. Ryan Schmitt was awarded with his third win of the season and Garrett Acton locked in save number 10. This series against a top 20 team was a great bounce back after a tough 3 loses to Iowa in their Big Ten conference opener. The scores of those three games were : 4-8, 1-2, and 1-3. Overall, the series was not up to the standards of the Illini for this season. However, after the Coastal Carolina series the have started to look more like the norm. Next up for the Illini they are playing the Maryland Terrapins, who are 13-14, and looking to get their first conference win. They will be playing a three game series in Champaign from Friday to Sunday. Michael Massey the designated hitter is also looking to keep his twelve game hit streak alive. The Junior has been one of the best hitters in the Big Ten as of lately and currently has a .361 batting average and 15 runs batted in. Hopefully with the help of Massey and the rest of the team, the Illini will be able to make the most of their season and possibly make it to Omaha, Nebraska in the post season where the College World Series is held. A national championship should always be the goal in the end.
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3/9/2019 1 Comment End of the Regular SeasonThe Illini basketball season is almost over as they play their last regular season game on Sunday March 10th against the Penn State Nittany Lions. After a solid stretch of wins and big games throughout the middle of the season the Illini's luck started to run out. Since the last blog, the team has only won 1 of their last 5 games. Two of those games were against ranked opponents so a win was not likely. However, the other two loses were against Penn State and Indiana who are both below Illinois in the Big Ten standings. Their only win came against the Northwestern Wildcats who are at the bottom of the Big Ten. The final score of the game as 81-76 with Andres Feliz leading the team with 26 points, followed Ayo Dosunmu and Georgi Bezhanishvili both with 12 points. The Illini played well throughout the game, but it should have been a fairly easy game since Northwestern is at the bottom of the conference. The team lead going into the half with a score of 39-27, and they ended up getting outscored by the Wildcats in the second half, however the lead was to great for the Illini to lose. The first loss the Illini took since the last blog was against Wisconsin, with a score of 58-64. The team played a pretty good game throughout, they were just unable to finish the win in the second half, which seems like a theme for this season. The team was leading going into half with a score of 26-25, but the Badgers outplayed them in the second half. Ayo Dosunmu lead the team with just 13 points, followed by Aaron Jordan with 12. Just like the last time the Illini faced the Badgers, they were able to hold their star player Ethan Happ to under 10 points. Happ has only scored under 10 points two times this season, and both of those times were against the Illini. The next game the Illini played was at home against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State is one of the worst teams right now in the Big Ten so a win was expected. However, the team never seemed to show up. The final score of the game was 76-83. Dosunmu lead the team yet again with 18 points, followed by Feliz with 17 and Bezhanishvili with 16. The Illini were pretty much out of it from the beginning and never showed any sort of promise to come back. They went into the half losing 32-39 and weren't able to recover. Their next game was against one of the top teams in the Big Ten, the Purdue Boilermakers. As I have said so many times before, the Illini started off super strong, going into the half with a 33-32 lead against a top team in the nation, but the second half came and they got absolutely demolished, getting outscored 23-41. Dosunmu and Feliz were tied for the most points with only 9 for the game. Their most recent loss came at home on senior night for the Illini against the Indiana Hoosiers. In this game the Illini were out of it from the start, the Hoosiers were leading 42-52 going into the locker room. The second half was no different, the Illini ended up losing 74-92. As usual, Dosunmu and George lead the team with 16 and 15 points. This was a dissapointing loss against a Hoosier team that hasn't had that great of a year either. The last regular season game is away against Penn State, hopefully the Illini can turn it around after what happened last time. After that game up next will be the Big Ten Tournament which the Illini aren't expected to go too far in. This will likely be the last time we see the Illini play this season since they haven't performed nearly well enough to make either the NCAA tournament or the NIT. Hopefully next year they will be able to turn it around with some more experienced players and new recruits.
2/15/2019 1 Comment Win StreakThe Illini mens basketball team has finally found their groove this season. Currently the team is at 10-15 for the season. Last blog the team was at 5-14, which means the team has 5 of their last 6 games, and two of those wins are against teams ranked in the top 15 nationally. At the time that this blog is being written the team is on a 4 game win streak. The first of the five games the team has won came against the 13th ranked Maryland Terrapins with a score of 78-67. Freshman Ayo Dosunmu lead the team with 20 points and Tevian Jones scored 18 points off the bench. After this game fans started to feel better about the team, however they ended up taking a tough loss against Minnesota 86-75, with Trent Frazier leading the team with 30 points. The Illini were able to bounce back quickly and got a 71-64 win at home against Nebraska. Kipper Nichols had a good game off the bench scoring 18 points. The next game will likely be their biggest win of the season. It came against the 9th ranked Michigan State Spartans at home in the State Farm Center. The game was pretty close throughout, but the Illini had the lead 41-32 going into half time. In the second half the Spartans were able to pull closer towards the end but the Illini had played too well throughout the entire game and the clock expired with Illinois leading 79-74. Ayo Dosunmu had a phenomenal game scoring 24 points followed by Giorgi Bezhanishvili with 16. After the game the Illinois student section known as the Orange Krush rushed the court to celebrate a great win against a top ten team. After this huge win the Illini were able to carry their momentum into another home game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights beating them 99-94. Freshman center Giorgi Bezhanishvili had a season high of 35 points. The next game for the Illini was a road game against the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Illini were able to continue their win streak with a win over the Buckeyes with a score of 63-56. Ayo Dosunmu had another strong performance with 15 points. Up next the Illini have another road game against the 20th ranked Wisconsin Badgers. Hopefully the Illini will be able to keep their momentum up and get another win against a ranked opponent. The rest of the season isn't too bad for the Illini, they play the Penn State twice who is the last ranked team in the Big Ten currently. They also play Northwestern and Indiana who are both ranked below the Illini in the Big Ten. The most challenging game left this season will be against the Purdue Boilermakers. The Boilermakers are ranked 12th in the nation and 3rd in the Big Ten. If the Illini are able to keep up the way they are playing right now they might be able to get another signature win for the season. As long as the Illini keep playing the way they are playing currently, they might be able to make a run in the Big Ten tournament. There is an extremely small chance that the Illini could make it to the NCAA tournament this year, the team would likely have to win all their games for the rest of the season. It is highly unlikely that will happen, but as an Illini fan you always have to hope for miracles.
1/24/2019 2 Comments Illini BasketballThe NCAA basketball season is about halfway over and the Illini Basketball team does not look like a Division 1 team. They are currently at 5-14 on the season and 1-7 in the Big Ten conference. This might be the worst I have ever seen the basketball team play. Right now they are on a 2 game losing streak after getting a win against Minnesota on January 16th. The score of the game was 95-68 which seems like a large margin of victory for a team looking for their first conference win. Freshman Ayo Dosunmo lead the team with 23 points, followed by Giorgi Bezhanishivili with 20 and Trent Frazier with 15. Ayo has been pretty hit or miss this season after being a 5 star recruit from Morgan Park High School in Chicago, however he seems to have found his rhythm, scoring over 15 points in 6 out of the last 7 games. In their most recent game against the Wisconsin Badgers, the Illini were able to keep the game within a couple of scores until the end of the second half where the Badgers broke away, the final score ended up being 60-72. Giorgi Bezhanishivili lead the team with 20 points. Giorgi is a freshman this year from the country of Georgia and has been a big contributor to the Illini offense as a Forward averaging 11.5 points per game. The Illini were also able to hold Wisconsin's star player Ethan Happ to only 9 points. This is the first game this season that Happ has scored under 10 points. Even though this season for is a bust for the Illini, there is some hope after the team received a commitment from another 5 star recruit named Kofi Cockburn out of Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Cockburn is 6'11'' and 290 lb and is considered one of the top players in the 2019 class. Hopefully he will be able to help turn around the basketball program at Illinois. A few blogs ago I mentioned that the Women's Volleyball team was having a great season with hopes of going far in the National Championship. The team ended up winning the rest of their regular season games since that blog and made it to the semi finals of the Championship after a huge quarter final win at home against the sixth ranked Wisconsin Badgers. The semi final game was held at the Target Center in Minneapolis Minnesota vs the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Illini started off the game with a close first set win with a score of 25-22. The Illini seemed unstoppable in the second set winning 25-16, this put the Illini up two sets to zero meaning they only needed to win one more to move on to the Championship game. The Cornhuskers were able to recover in the third set and win 25-23. The momentum started to shift towards Nebraska in the fourth set as they went on to beat the Illini 25-20 to force a fifth set tiebreaker. The Cornhuskers were able to end the season for the Illini with a 15-11 win. It was a disappointing way to finish out a great season for the Illini but there are hopes that they will be just as good next year. 11/29/2018 1 Comment End of 2018 Football SeasonThe 2018 football season has come to an end for the Illini, and it wasn't as good as fans had hoped. They finished at a 4-8 record which is just two wins short of being bowl eligible. The season was not what Illini fans would have liked to see, however it was an improvement from last season when the team only had 2 wins. Towards the end of the season there seemed to be lots of talks of the Head Coach getting fired, however that wasn't the case as he ended up getting a contract extension for two more seasons all the way to 2023. Lovie Smith seemed pretty confident in the team when he said, "Those of us around the program see the progress being made each and every day and we expect to be competing for championships very soon." Only time will tell if the Illini will be able to improve to a championship contender. To recap the last games of the season, the Illini got their last win against Minnesota with a score of 55-31. This was honestly the best the Illini have played in a really long time. The offense made multiple big plays, with four of their touchdowns being longer than 60 yards. Reggie Corbin had a good game with two big touchdown runs from 70 and 77 yards. AJ Bush Jr also had a big game with 2 passing touchdowns and 2 rushing touchdowns. The rest of the season was a bust for the Illini as they went on to loose their last three games, one being an absolute blowout loosing 63 to nothing against Iowa at home. In their rivalry game against Northwestern the Illini showed some promise, however they were unable to come away with the win after a crucial interception thrown by AJ Bush Jr late in the fourth quarter to ruin any chance of a comeback. Overall this season wasn't really what Illini fans want to see, however it was what they have come to expect. Hopefully over the next couple of seasons the team will continue to improve and maybe one day compete for a championship. Basketball season has now officially started and as usual, the Illini suck. The team's record is 2-5 currently, with their only two wins coming from teams that I have never even heard of. To open up the season the team played Evansville. This wasn't really much of a game as they went on to win 99-60. They then played Georgetown and ended up taking a disappoint loss. Then, over Thanksgiving break the Illini went down to Maui to play in the annual Maui Jim Maui Invitational. This years tournament had some great teams including Duke and Gonzaga who were ranked 1 and 3 heading into the tournament. To start off, the Illini faced Gonzaga and actually played really well however they came up just short losing 78-84. Gonzaga went on to win the tournament beating Duke in the championship and taking the number 1 ranking. As for Illinois, they played Iowa State in their second game, losing 68-84. After two losses the Illini then moved on to play Xavier, who they ended up losing to 73-84. The team ended up placing last out of 8 teams in the tournament, which is a pretty big disappointment especially since the team won it the last time they played in 2012. When the team got back they played Mississippi Valley State which was another easy win with a score of 86-67. The most recent game they played was against Notre Dame and it was actually a really close game, however the Illini missed a buzzer beater to lose 74-76. Hopefully the Illini will be able to find their groove for the rest of the season and make it to the NCAA tournament. 10/30/2018 0 Comments More Losing for the Illini It is no surprise that the Illini only have one Big Ten win right now, and that's likely not going to change. Their win against Rutgers was actually their first conference win in two years, after an awful season last year. But beating Rutgers is not really a win at all since they are only have one win all season. After this one win for the Illini it's been all downhill since. They ended up loosing their next three games which were almost all blowouts, and the defensive coordinator Hardy Nickerson Sr ended up resigning this week. However, next week the team will be facing Minnesota, who has the same 1-4 Big Ten record. The game will determine who the worst team in the conference is, so there might be a chance that the Illini can pull out a win. Rutgers: After a slightly rough start the Illini found their grove late in the first quarter with a 3 yard running touchdown from the quarterback AJ Bush Jr. to bring the score to 10-7. After this the Illini held the lead the entire game. AJ Bush ended up having another big running touchdown for 41 yards in the second quarter, and Reggie Corbin had a 73 yard touchdown run as well. These scores took the Illini into the half with a 24-14 lead. The third quarter ended up with no scores, however the fourth quarter had two scores from the Illini. One from Ricky Smalling with an 11 yard reception, as well as a 41 yard run from Mike Esptein to finish the game out at 38-17. Purdue: The Illini struck first with a 5 yard run touchdown from AJ Bush Jr putting the score at 7-0. Sadly, that ended up being the teams only score throughout the entire game. Purdue ended up scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter, and continued in the second with another two and a field goal also to put the score at 29-7 going into the half. More of the same happened in the second half with two more touchdowns and a field goal for the Boilermakers, ending the game at 7-46. Wisconsin: Wisconsin got off to a hot start with two touchdowns in the first quarter. In the second the Illini showed a little bit of promise with an 80 yard touchdown run from Reggie Corbin bringing the score to 7-14. But as usual the Badgers fought back with two more touchdowns. Chase McLaughlin ended the half with a field goal for the Illini as time ran out, putting the score at 10-28 heading into the half. At the beginning of the third quarter there was a gleam of hope for the Illini with an 18 yard run from Ra'Von Bonner to narrow the Badgers lead to just 11. However, the Illini were unable to carry the momentum and ended up only scoring a field goal the rest of the game. The final score was 20-49. Maryland: The first half was really rough for the Illini as they were unable to score a single touchdown. Although they ended up getting 3 field goals, they let Maryland score 4 touchdowns making the score 9-28 at the half. The second half was a little better for the Illini offense but all the same for the defense. Reggie Corbin was the first Illini to get a touchdown after a 69 yard run. Dominic Stampley ended up getting two big receiving touchdowns, the first being 61 yards and the second being 84. The defense let up 5 more touchdowns and finished off the game at 33-63. On a more positive note, the Illini Volleyball team has been having a really good season, with a 20-3 record. Currently the team is ranked 4th nationally moving up two spots after a win against. 9th ranked Nebraska. Illinois previously lost to the Huskers at home, however they were able to dominate on the road winning 3 sets to 1. Their only other two losses came from Minnesota and Wisconsin, who are currently ranked 3rd and 5th in the nation. With only 8 games left in the season, hopefully the Illini can keep their momentum going into the post season and possibly make a big run in the National Championship tournament.
10/4/2018 1 Comment Illini Football: Weeks 1-4Before every football season there is one thing Illini fans always think "Maybe we will be better this year", and then the season starts...
The Illini are off to the usual 2-2 start that we have been accustomed to the past 5-6 years. Starting off with Kent State and Western Illinois should always be an easy first two wins but these games still proved a challenge for the Illini. In week 3 the team played a slightly tougher Southern Florida team and was winning most of the game until an absolute choke at the end of the fourth quarter to allow the USF to take the home the win. Week four was an expected loss against a tenth ranked Penn State team, however it was a somewhat close game till the 4th quarter. Here's a short recap of the first 4 games: Kent State: Kent State should always be an easy first win of the season for the Illini, and although the team got the win it was not the fashion that most fans would have liked. Starting off they went down 3-7 in the first quarter, and then 3-17 going in at the half. At that point of the game all the fans started to realize the team will likely have the same loosing pattern that it has had for so many years. However, in the second half the team actually showed up. With nine minutes left in the 3rd quarter Ravon Bonner had an 8 yard run for the first Illini touchdown of the game. The team went on to score four straight touchdowns to seal the game at 31-24. Even though the outcome of the game was a win, there was one big loss, one of the teams best wide receivers and 5th year senior Mike Dudek's season and career as an Illini was ended with an injury. Western Illinois: Going into week two everyone was hoping for a more solid win than the prior week. But that hope was put in jeopardy when the Leathernecks scored on their first drive of the game. Then early in the first quarter the starting quarterback for the Illini, AJ Bush, was injured in a play that resulted in a roughing the passer penalty. He was replaced with MJ Rivers and didn't return. As the first half went on fans were getting more and more concerned until halfway through the second quarter when Edwin Carter, a true freshman wide receiver, caught two touchdown passes to bring the score to 7-14. However, he suffered a scary leg injury during the second play and left the game. The rest of the game was pretty smooth for the Illini, and special teams had a punt block touchdown by Stanley Green to put the score to 7-24. After this the game was pretty slow and Reggie Corbin finished out the game early in the fourth quarter with a 3 yard run to finalize the score at 14-34. Southern Florida: After a loss last year to Southern Florida, the Illini came into this game ready to win, but as usual that wasn't the case. The team got off to a quick start with a big 43 yard touchdown run from Mike Esptein, but USF answered quick with their own running touchdown. The rest of the game was field goals, with four coming from Illini kicker Chase McLaughlin. The score was 19-7 going into the fourth quarter, and this is where it all went downhill. The Illini allowed 18 points in the last 15 minutes to let USF walk away with an easy win. Penn State: Everyone expected this game to be a blowout, which is how it ended up, but the Illini fought hard for the first three quarters. In the first quarter the Illini only allowed one score and had a score of their own from Reggie Corbin. Penn State answered quickly with two touchdowns of their own to bring the score to 21-7. However the Illini didn't quit and Ricky Smalling caught a 6 yard touchdown pass, followed by a field goal from Chase McLaughlin to close the gap to just 21-17 at the half. In the third quarter the Illini got their first lead of the game with a 17 yard pass to Ricky Smalling and put the score at 21-24. The slight gleam of hope seen by Illini fans was quickly dashed as Penn State went on to score 7 touchdowns in a row to win the game 63-24. The Illini's next game against Rutgers could be their first Big 10 win of the season, and quite possibly their only, but only time will tell. |
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