The Illinois baseball team (28-25) earned three straight victories to nab the Big Ten Conference title this year. The Illini went into the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed, after sharing the regular-season title with Michigan State. This was Illinois’ 29th Big Ten championship and second in the last seven years.

The win granted the Illini an automatic bid to the 2011 NCAA Tournament as a four seed in the Cal State Fullerton Regional. This is the first time the Illini have played in the NCAA Tournament since 2000.

Illinois will face host Cal State Fullerton (40-15) on June 3, while No. 2 seed Stanford (32-20) and No. 3 seed Kansas State (36-23) also will meet in the first round of double-elimination regional play. Game times have not been officially set.

This is the Illini’s ninth appearance in the Tournament, and the first for head coach Dan Hartleb.

Full schedule is below:

2011 FULLERTON REGIONAL SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, JUNE 3
Game 1 – No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 3 Kansas State, 6 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 1 Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 4 Illinois, 10 p.m.*

SATURDAY, JUNE 4
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 6 p.m.
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 10 p.m.*

SUNDAY, JUNE 5
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 6 p.m.
Game 6 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 10 p.m.*

MONDAY, JUNE 6
Game 7 – If necessary: Repeat of Game 6 Teams, 10 p.m.

All times Central
*or 50 minutes after completion of previous game. Game times are subject to change.

Five male Illini athletes have been named finalists as newcomer of the year. The five finalists were honored at the annual Scholar-Athlete Reception on May 3rd, and the winner of the award will be announced at the end of the spring seasons.

It should come as no surprise to Illini fans that there are no basketball players on the list of finalists, as none really stood out during the lackluster 2010-2011 season. There is a chance that if Jereme Richmond hadn’t have left Illinois for the NBA draft at the end of the season that his name could’ve been on the list.  However, his off-court problems might have knocked him out of the running anyway.

This season was all about the seniors, and though Crandall Head and Meyers Leonard stepped up at the end of the season, it wasn’t enough to make a huge impact.

With seven newcomers on the list for next season, I expect to see a basketball player on the 2011-1012 list.

The five athletes are:

2010-11 Male Newcomer of the Year finalists:
Matthew Bane, track & field
Jackson Morse, wrestling
Thomas Pieters, golf
Nathan Scheelhaase, football
Jordan Valdez, gymnastics

To read more about each nominee, click here.

Alright, I love the turtles, I do. They’re my favorite ACC team by far. One of my closest friends is a Terps fan so a few years back when Illinois played them in the challenge and we lived about two hours apart it was fun. Then, they played each other again, and then I watched them play each other in person last year at Madison Square Garden.

Now, the announcement has arrived that Illinois is going to face Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on November 29th this year. While I’m extremely tired of playing the SAME team over and over again, the one silver lining is that with a new coach Mark Turgeon, Maryland is going to be as rusty as we are.

The Challenge has been happening since 1999 and here is how it has shaped up for Illinois:

1999: Duke in Chicago L
2000: Duke at Greensboro L
2001: At Maryland L
2002: UNC in Champaign W
2003: UNC at Greensboro L
2004: Wake Forest in Champaign (W and the start of Illinois being ranked #1 all season! Memories…)
2005: UNC at Chapel Hill W (payback)
2006: Maryland in Champaign L
2007: at Maryland L
2008: Clemson in Champaign L
2009: at Clemson W
2010: UNC in Champaign W
2011: at Maryland

So after looking above, do you see why I’m a tad annoyed? Aside from the fact that Illinois is only 5-12 in the challenge, the Illini have played Wake Forest once, Duke twice, Clemson twice, UNC a whopping four times and this year will be the fourth year against Maryland. Not to mention the fact that Illinois played Maryland last year (and won) in the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament at Madison Square Garden. That means of the 12 ACC teams, Illinois hasn’t even faced half of them in the 13 years of the Challenge. And worst of all, this year the game will be the day before my birthday.

Who schedules this stuff??

Here are the rest of the matchups, and welcome Nebraska to the Big Ten!

Tuesday, November 29
Miami at Purdue
Northwestern at Georgia Tech
Illinois at Maryland
Michigan at Virginia
Clemson at Iowa
Duke at Ohio State

Wednesday, November 30
Indiana at NC State
Penn State at Boston College
Florida State at Michigan State
Virginia Tech at Minnesota
Wake Forest at Nebraska
Wisconsin at North Carolina

I love the Big Ten/ACC Challenge because it is usually the first test for the Illini all season. The game falls around the week after Thanksgiving, plopping it into the same week as my birthday. Last year I watched Illinois beat North Carolina in Champaign as I toasted the day that I turned (cough).

While it stands to reason that this year we’d head to North Carolina to face the Tar Heels on their own court, sometimes this will get mixed up if certain teams are supposed to be better than others.

For some reason, Purdue already knows that they’ll the Miami Hurricanes will head to West Lafayette to face the Boilermakers. Not sure why this information came earlier than the others, but I’m sure Purdue will enjoy the cake walk. It’s also probably got something to do with the fact that Painter turned down the Miami job earlier in the year.

Illinois has an extremely  uncertain future next year with the seven newcomers, and thus I’m predicting the decision-makers will stick to the plan and just send the Illini to the Dean Smith Center. It’s way too early to predict a loss, but with the game in late November I find it hard to believe Illinois will have their groove on, but will see.

Stay tuned for the announcement!

Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther announced today that he will retire when his contract expires on June 30. The longest-tenured athletics director in the Big Ten, Guenther will leave his post after 19 years with the Fighting Illini. Guenther has been around for 34 Big Ten Championships, a men’s basketball Final Four appearance and six football bowl appearances.

“The last 19 years have gone extremely fast and a decision to retire has been very difficult,” Guenther said in a statement. “I personally want to thank all the members of the DIA as well as our colleagues in the academic community for their support. I have been fortunate to work with an extremely talented and loyal group. I will always be indebted. Additionally, the Illinois fan base is the best in the nation. I’ve always said we are fortunate to have individuals who have great passion and loyalty for the University of Illinois.”

There you have it, after months of speculation as to what would happen when his contract ended, Guenther has decided to quit rather than hope for a contract extension. Love him or hate him, he’s overseen some extremely solid programs over the years. He also seems to be a loyal guy, as despite cries from fans to fire Ron Zook, he stuck with him and Illinois won the Texas Bowl last year. He also ignored cries to fire Bruce Weber (not from this fan!), who won his first NCAA Tournament game since the 2004-2005 Final Four season.

Best of luck to Guenther in his retirement, and let the search begin! The university reports that a search committee is being formed and will begin work immediately to find a successor, with hopes that this will be decided by  mid-to-late summer.

The decision has been made, Ibrahima Djimde, the 6-8 center from Mali/West Virginia, has committed to Illinois. The high school senior who attended Huntington Prep in West Virginia last year was deciding between Illinois and Old Dominion (tough choice?).

Djimde will be one of seven new players on Illinois’ roster next season that includes six incoming freshmen: Djimde, Mike Shaw, Tracy Abrams, Nnanna Egwu, Mycheal Henry, Devin Langford. Bradley transfer Sam Maniscalco will serve as the team’s one and only senior. Juniors Tyler Griffey, D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul will have the most experience with the Illini in general, as they are the only juniors on the roster.

This would mean barring any transfers, Illinois isn’t going to have a lot of room to add new talent in 2012. However, with so many new guys coming in, a few are bound to fall off and realize they won’t get as much playing time as they originally hoped.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the 7 brand new guys interact with each other, and with Coach Weber and his staff. Despite all the talent, chemistry and understanding the system might be a problem.

I’m excited by the new addition, as Illinois needs a solid rebounder/all-around big guy to take over the game. Perhaps the appearance of Djimde will light a fire under Griffey and Meyers Leonard to earn their big-man spots.

View some stats on Djimde.

Despite the fact that Illinois has six new players joining the team in the fall, there might be one more addition. Illinois has an offer out to Ibrahima Djimde, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound center from Huntington Prep (WV), to head down to Champaign for the upcoming season.

According to Scott Powers of ESPN Chicago, Djimde recently visited Illinois and was offered a scholarship. Djimde is making an official visit to Old Dominion on Wednesday and is expected to choose between the two schools early next week.

“It’s pretty much down to those schools,” Huntington Prep coach Rob Fulford told ESPN. “I think with Illinois [the positives are] it’s at a higher level, it’s in a bigger conference. The positives with Old Dominion are they’ve been to the [NCAA] tournament the last couple years. He came over here [from Africa two years ago] with nothing. For him, he might be looking for the glitz and glamour of the high-major program.”

Yet again, Illinois has raked in a top 25 recruiting class. Actually, this year we’ve got a Top 10 recruiting class, as Rivals.com has Illinois at #9. Last year, the Illinois basketball recruiting class was ranked No. 13 by Rivals, and that was with the addition of “phenom” Jereme Richmond, who will not be returning to Illinois this year.

Just a few years ago, everyone screamed at Bruce Weber that he was unable to recruit. It looked like these accusations would disappear when Coach Weber was able to get a verbal commitment from a player that Illini fans do not speak of who hailed from Indianapolis a few years back. Needless to say, at the 11th hour that particular player changed his mind, leaving Weber with a hole in his roster and angry fans yelling in his ear. Things turned around for Illini recruiting once Richmond committed before even playing one high school game. Sadly, the Richmond era was short lived and he didn’t make much of an impact, though his commitment and attendance helped to gain interest from other recruits. The most recent recruit, Devin Langford, was completely unfazed by Richmond’s departure, and instead saw it as a sign that Illini players have a chance to head to the NBA. We’ll take it!

So here is who we have in our Top 10 recruiting class:

2011 commits (National rank)
SF Mycheal Henry (39)
PG Tracy Abrams (58)
PF Mike Shaw (59)
C Nnanna Egwu (97)
SF Devin Langford

All four of these guys, save for Langford who hails from Alabama, are from Chicago. While of course I’m crazy stoked about this recruiting class and what they’ll bring to the table, I do have to frown a bit when I look at someone like Anthony Davis, a five-star power forward ranked #2 who is from Chicago, but will be heading to Kentucky. I could say a few words about the Kentucky recruiting process, but I suppose it’s pointless. And the kid will also be heading to the NBA after one year so perhaps it doesn’t even matter. Then again, there is also 4-star SF Sam Thompson who attended Whitney Young  is ranked #50 and heading to Ohio State next year. Perhaps there are details of the process that I’m not privy to, but it’s hard to understand why ever kid from Chicago wouldn’t kill to where Orange & Blue, but I might be biased.

Nevermind who isn’t coming, it’s time for Illini fans to get pumped about who IS coming. A #9 recruiting class is certainly exciting, (see the entire recruiting class rankings here) and of course we only want the guys in Orange & Blue who want to be there and give it their all. We’re only about 7 months away from Midnight Madness!