Illinois Fighting Illini

New UCLA basketball Coach Steve Alford's honeymoon was very short

2013-05-18 13:45:00

UCLA and Steve Alford. A basketball program of unmatched pedigree led by a former prodigy who became a national champion and Olympic gold medalist before making a steady climb up the coaching ladder. On paper, a harmonic convergence. ----------------...

UCLA falls to Minnesota in NCAA tournament opener

2013-03-22 21:31:00

UCLA's basketball season is over. Is Ben Howland's tenure as Bruins coach? Minnesota knocked off UCLA, 83-63, Friday night in a second-round South Regional game at Austin, Texas. The Bruins (25-10) went out with a whimper, shooting poorly and...

NCAA Tournament: Miami holds off Illinois, 63-59

2013-03-24 20:25:00

AUSTIN, Texas -- Shane Larkin hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with a minute left and Miami gained possession on a ball knocked out of bounds that probably should have gone to Illinois, helping the Hurricanes hold on for a 63-59 victory Sunday night to advance to...

Colorado players shouldn't expect a 'Big Howdy' Texas welcome

2013-03-21 12:58:00

AUSTIN, Texas -- The NCAA selection committee did not put a regional favorite in the Austin games for the tournament’s second and third round this weekend. Only two of the eight teams playing at the Erwin Center are less than 1,000 miles away....

Stanford-Wisconsin not exactly a matchup made in Rose Bowl heaven

2012-12-31 18:20:00

The Rose Bowl pregame weather has been about as crummy as the seven combined losses for Stanford and Wisconsin. It's never good to make Dick Butkus, who made the game-clinching interception for Illinois in the 1964 game, slog through drenching rain...

Is Northern Illinois' bowl bid a strength or weakness of the BCS?

2012-12-03 13:32:00

Northern Illinois will become the first team from the Mid-American Conference to play in a BCS bowl when it faces Florida State in the Orange Bowl next month. Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss whether the Huskies getting a BCS bowl berth is a...

Only major bowl question: Can Northern Illinois steal a BCS bid?

2012-12-02 11:00:00

Aren't you going to miss the Bowl Championship Series? (Don't email answer that). The college football selection system for bowl games that has been ordered to the junk heap after next season might have a couple of surprises left in it. Nebraska's...

No surprise: Notre Dame vs. Alabama in BCS title game

2012-12-02 18:50:00

The final Bowl Championship Series standings on Sunday produced a lot of expected news and one big surprise. Notre Dame and Alabama, in what everyone knew was just a formality, finished first and second in the final standings and will meet Jan. 7 in...

As usual, SEC claims ownership of BCS

2012-12-02 20:50:00

ATLANTA -- No one down here in Southeastern Conference country was surprised Sunday when the final Bowl Championship Series standings confirmed Alabama would be playing Jan. 7 for the national title. The surprise is why the SEC isn't playing the SEC...

Reports: Northern Illinois earns BCS berth to Orange Bowl

2012-12-02 15:52:00

Well, sometimes the little guys do win. Northern Illinois has earned a Bowl Championship Series bowl bid, according to several media reports. The champions of the Mid-American Conference will play Florida State in the Orange Bowl. It will be the MAC's...

College football TV lineup for Saturday

2012-11-22 20:20:00

MORNING Georgia Tech (6-5) at No. 3 Georgia (10-1) 9 a.m., ESPN Kids spilled into the streets of Athens, Ga., after Stanford's win over Oregon put Georgia on a controls-its-own-destiny track to this year's national title game. But the Bulldogs...

Patterns have Notre Dame, USC attention

2012-11-09 17:38:00

We combed the hills and scoured the wires for this batch of weekend tidbits: • Boston College has knocked undefeated Notre Dame out of the national title race in each of the last two decades: 1993 and 2002. Notre Dame (9-0) plays at Boston College...

Indiana Hoosiers, Michigan Wolverines, Illinois Fighting Illini

2013-03-18 17:23:00

CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 15: Brandon Paul #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini grabs the ball from the floor against the of the Indiana Hoosiers during a quarterfinal game of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 15, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.

2013-03-15 00:00:00

Record: 22-12. How they got here: At-large bid. Strengths: No one in the Big Ten attempted more 3-pointers (798), with Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson combining to make 150. Weaknesses: Rebounding, especially on defense, has been a concern. The Illini were 11th in the Big Ten in

2013-03-14 00:00:00