Illini sports update

In case you don't follow the Illini closely, you wouldn't know some of the big news about recent developments in Illini sports. And boy have there been some developments.

First, the Illini played Purdue on Saturday. This was a miserable game, and I'm glad I was at work for most of it. The Illini played well, and were up 23-14 shortly after the beginning of the second half. Then the defense pretty much decided to stop playing, and the offense thought they'd see who could do worse by choosing to give Purdue the ball in Illini territory. Four consectutive times the Illini turned the ball over in their own territory leading to 4 Purdue touchdowns. Apparently the Illini offense really didn't want to work, but they did want the defense to work. This was a huge disappointment, as this should have been a game we could have easily won. As I didn't watch it, aside from Gamecast, I can't really offer any insight into why we sucked so bad, except for the turnovers. Yeah, we should stop those.

That's not the only football news though. In what can only be described as a huge recruiting coup for Ron Zook (which, by the way, is the most used description of this news), Arrelius Benn, arguable the best WR prospect in the nation committed to Illinois on Thursday night. He's big, he's fast. He wants to be an impact player immediately, which is probably a huge reason he chose Illinois. He went to school with Vontae Davis and another safety who Illinois recruited for next year. In addition, he goes to school in the D.C. area where the top recruit in the nation, a DT, also has Illinois on his short list of schools.



He will be an impact player immediately, and finally, we have a receive who no doubt can catch the balls Juice throws.

On to (at least last) basketball! The Illini came out and beat the pants off of Austin Peay, which is excellent. Especially considering the sucky Hoosiers came out and were losing to Lafayette for a while in the second half. So, the Illini smoked Austin Peay, that's not really big news by any means. Except it means that the season has started. And we scored 80 points, which is surprising, since we weren't sure where our offense would come from this season. Well, great news is that Jamar Smith came out on fire, and Brian Randle came out and hit a three right away. The bad news is they're both hurt. Smith for at least a week, Randle possibly till Christmas. I'd rather have them out now than when we need them, but we need them to be healthy. Regardless, it was a good win, and any experience the young guys can get is great.

Also, I'm very angry that I couldn't watch the game last night. It appears I have finally found one bad thing about no longer living in Decatur, and that is that I don't get to watch every single Illini game.