More Stories

• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Faces of Spring: March 24, 2023

  Mar. 24—EMMA BRATTEN-NOICE Villa Grove softball ➜ Her favorite athlete is ... Coleman Hawkins. ➜ Her favorite team is ... the Cincinnati Bengals. ➜ If she could attend any one sporting event, it would be ... the Super Bowl. ➜ Her favorite sport besides softball is ... basketball. SHELBY McGEE Salt Fork girls' track and field ➜ Her favorite athlete is ... Alec Harrison. ➜ Her favorite team is ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Good Morning, Illini Nation: End of the season stats, notes

  Mar. 20—Welcome to "Good Morning, Illini Nation," your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He'll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood's team: Inside Illini Basketball — Abruptness of the end How do you put a bow on a roller coaster of a season? It was, by preseason expectations, a disappointment. Mostly because it ended ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Richey | Avoiding full-scale roster overhaul critical

  Mar. 18—CHAMPAIGN — The transfer portal has been open less than a week, and it's already filling at a remarkable pace. More than 100 new Division I men's basketball players per day have decided they're unhappy with their current situation in some way, shape or form and opted for a change of scenery. The last three offseasons have seen at least 1,000 players make that decision. That includes ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  Commercial-News, Danville, Ill.

  COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Same old mistakes haunt Illini

  Mar. 17—DES MOINES, Iowa. — Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is insane. That's where the Illinois Fighting Illini found themselves on Thursday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Just like games against Penn State, Purdue and Ohio State in the past month, Illinois got off to a slow start and found itself trailing by double ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Another abrupt end for Illinois in March

  Mar. 16—DES MOINES, Iowa. — Coleman Hawkins sat slumped in front of his locker. The more he discussed the end of the Illinois men's basketball season — another abrupt end for a team wanting so much more — the worse his posture got. The beginnings of unshed tears just taking shape in the corner of his eyes. The weight of another early exit in the NCAA tournament was situated squarely on ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• 

  Sports

  NBC Sports Chicago

  Arkansas holds off Illinois 73-63 with big defensive effort

  Arkansas holds off Illinois 73-63 with big defensive effort

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Ups and downs still led Illinois men to NCAA tournament

  Mar. 16—DES MOINES, Iowa. — Coleman Hawkins doesn't often mince words. He speaks his mind. Is open and honest. So it shouldn't have come as any surprise when Hawkins spoke candidly ahead on the eve of the NCAA men's basketball tournament about his frustrations early this season. It was simply different for a player who came up on two veteran Illinois teams. Those Illini knew how to close out ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  Chicago Tribune

  With ‘nothing to lose,’ can Matthew Mayer and the energized Illini make an NCAA Tournament splash?

  Illinois forward Matthew Mayer, a graduate transfer who played on Baylor’s 2021 national championship team, believes the key to going far in the NCAA Tournament is not to “overthink” things. “We kind of made that mistake a little bit when we made our national championship run,” he said Wednesday before the Illini’s workout at Wells Fargo Arena. “We were putting a little too much pressure on ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

  Underwood on NCAA tourney: 'Show everybody what we're capable of'

  Mar. 12—CHAMPAIGN — Coleman Hawkins can be excused for his first reaction to hearing Illinois would play Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament was disappointment. Mainly because the game would be at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, and not at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. Hawkins is from Sacramento. A trip home would have been nice for the Illini men's basketball ...

  Thanks for your feedback!
• Sports

  Commercial-News, Danville, Ill.

  COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Third time is no charm for Fighting Illini

  Mar. 10—CHICAGO — Illinois players Coleman Hawkins and Terrence Shannon Jr. lamented earlier this week how the Fighting Illini hadn't played a full 40-minute game this season. According to them, that was going to be the key to beating the Penn State Nittany Lions in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament. They were right. Illinois didn't play a full 40-minute game and Penn State came away ...

  Thanks for your feedback!