Illini Basketball: A 2011-12 Season Preview

It seems like it's been forever since the Illini basketball team played in a game that counted, but on Friday, the Illini will open their season against Loyola, and I'm looking forward to having meaningful basketball games to talk about again.  That certainly beats going over what's happened to our basketball team during the last five seasons.  I've already made my feelings on Bruce Weber known, and I don't want to spend too much time re-hashing that discussion, because I'm tired of it.  I'm tired of not feeling invincible on our home court.  I'm tired of being a bubble team, needing to win games in the Big Ten Tournament just to make the NCAA tournament.  But most of all, I'm tired of our team being completely out of the picture when it comes not only to national championships, but also to Big Ten championships.  So probably the best news about the new season is that one way or the other, by March we should have our answer on the "fire Bruce Weber" question.

OK, now that I'm done talking about the past, it's time to look at the present. 

College Football - Feel the Excitement

Only three weeks away from the college football season. Scanning the national media, I don't see any mention of the Illini as having anything to do with shaping the next decade of college football, at least in SI's view. Scanning further...ah, here's ESPN's Big 10 preview. Let's scroll down...hmm, no Illini at the top...still scrolling - there's Indiana, but no...oh, crap! There's Illinois, at number 11. Great - we're projected to be worse than Indiana. I'd say that things can't get any worse than that, but next year Nebraska joins the Big 10, so actually things can get worse - we could finish 12th.

Returning to the SI article, one of the predictions is the return of the option offense. I hated the option offense when teams like Oklahoma and Nebraska used it in the 1970's and 80's, but I'm so bereft of hope for the Illini football program now that I'd be willing to stomach having my team run the option if it meant we'd no longer be a doormat. Thanks, Ron Zook and Ron Guenther!