Illinois Fighting Illini Articles
NCAA Injury Splits, Part 2 (Early February Edition)
It is time once again for our annual injury splits column, showing how various teams have performed with and without key players on the floor. Read more »
College Basketball Preview 14-15: Big Ten
Wisconsin was dominant on a per-possession basis last year, they went to the Final Four, and they bring nearly everyone back, which will make challenging for the Big Ten very difficult for everyone else. Read more »
Way Too Early Top 25 Projections
I break out my lineup-based projections model to predict the 2014-15 season. Read more »
Final Thoughts On Ranking 351 D1 Teams
Over the past few days, Dan Hanner has presented his updated projection model, his season projections on ESPN Insider, Q&A's with Eamonn Brennon and John Templon, along with replying to questions on Twitter. Here are a few additional thoughts that didn't make the cut. Read more »
Big Ten Basketball Early Projection
A way too early projection of the Big Ten standings in 2013-2014. Read more »
Losing Streaks And Injury Splits, Part 1
On why not all losing streaks are alike and how injuries/suspensions skew our evaluation of certain teams. Read more »
A Super Saturday
On LeBryan Nash, Davante Gardner, Elston Turner, Rontei Clarke, Wisconsin/Illinois, and every minute of two games between real Final Four contenders (Minnesota/Indiana and Duke/NC State). Read more »
Conference Play Is Here
On what is left for human game-observers as advanced metrics become more sophisticated and breaking down Minnesota against Illinois. Read more »
New Year, New Start
Examining the impact made by transfers on Missouri, USC, Utah, West Virginia, Seton Hall, Towson, Maryland, UCLA, Illinois and more. Read more »
Who Have You Played?
On the legitimacy of Arizona and Florida as national championship contenders, who has quality wins already and more. Read more »
Final Exam Time
Final exams are here in college basketball, making this the quiet period of the season. After the excitement of the Champions Classic, the Holiday Tournaments, and the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, college basketball must make it through a relatively boring stretch on the schedule. Read more »
Mike Krzyzewski Owns November
Duke may not be #1 in the polls, but in terms of accomplishments, no one has more quality wins than the Blue Devils at this point. They’ve beaten two preseason Top-5 teams and two more probable tournament teams. Read more »
Early Season Tournaments: Brackets, Observations, And Odds: Part 2
The Legends Classic might be the most highly anticipated early season tournament because of the potential finals matchup between Indiana and UCLA. We also look at the CBE Classic, Maui Invitational, Cancun Challenge, Great Alaska Shootout, Battle 4 Atlantis and the Old Spice Classic. Read more »
The New Coaches At South Carolina And Kansas State
This spring South Carolina hired Frank Martin and Kansas St. hired Bruce Weber to replace him. Overall these are both incredibly “safe” moves for the two universities to make. But what will it take for these coaches to reach a new higher level with their new schools? Read more »
The Many Facets & Unpredictability Of March Madness
While personnel determine scheme in the NBA, college basketball coaches recruit players that fit their schemes. Read more »
YABC Column For Feb. 27th (POY Races, Improbabilities & More)
As Draymond Green locked up the Big Ten POY award and Kansas battled Missouri for a likely No. 1 seed, Saturday afternoon encapsulated everything that is great about the NCAA regular season. Read more »
Recruiting And Player Development, 2012 Edition
The best way to examine the value of specific college coaches is to examine how well they recruit and subsequently develop their talent. Let's examine the top 49 coaches from the Power 6 conferences. Read more »
Big Ten Bracketology
Selection Sunday is about a month away, which makes it an opportune time to examine which Big Ten teams will be dancing and which ones could dance into the Elite Eight or even the Final Four. Read more »
YACB Column, Jan. 30th (On The Weaknesses Of The Top-25 & More)
Many have called this a down year for college basketball and though that argument can be made about elite teams, there are still plenty of reasons why it's a fallacy. Read more »
Conference Play Means Scouting Reports
On the first full weekend of conference play, there were 35 match-ups between BCS conference teams, which means the team that takes their information and executes better usually wins. Read more »