It seems that the Illini basketball coaching drama isn’t over just yet. Barely a month after I reported that Isaac Chew was leaving Missouri to join John Groce and the rest of the Illini family, he has already jumped ship and will be heading to Marquette.

Apparently Chew and Marquette HC Buzz Williams are friends, and according to the Chicago Sun Times, Chew will be getting a big salary bump. The article also states that Chew originally turned down the position, but I guess for some reason he changed his mind?

Keep in mind that he must have already gotten a bump when he joined Illinois a month ago, which happened just a year after he joined the Missouri staff. Clearly this guy is both loyal and good at making decisions.

So now we have to wonder, is there something going on that we don’t know about? Does Chew have inside information and wanted to jump ship? Is he not getting along with Groce? Is he convinced this team is going nowhere and wanted to join a school that wasn’t in the midst of a huge overhaul? Sure, it’s easy to be an assistant at a program that is going up rather than one that is sort of stagnant, but like I said about a certain VCU coach if he doesn’t want a challenge then we don’t want him.

Let’s face it, I feel betrayed. Chew was supposed to be Groce’s inroads into the big bad mean scary jungle of the Chicago Public School system, and after spending a month on the road making friends and meeting recruits, he’s just going to pull up roots and head somewhere else? Were we essentially paying him to recruit for Marquette?

Thanks for wasting our time, buddy.  Not only is he making our program look bad (which we don’t need) but in my opinion he’s making himself look bad. Though I’m guessing our Marquette blogger Mary over at The Gold Rush probably wouldn’t agree.

This is an annoying turn of events, but it certainly isn’t THAT big of a deal. Chew spent just one year with Missouri, and if he’s the recruiting guy we really aren’t going to know if he’s any good for another few years since the great year the Tigers just finished had nothing to do with him. And, I see no reason not to blame him for the Missouri meltdown collapse in the first round of the Tournament.

We don’t really know what we lost so it isn’t that big a deal, but he certainly isn’t leaving behind a lot of friends in Champaign. On to the next one as we wait and see who Groce will pick to take his place. Then we’ll all be saying, “Isaac who?”

Excitement is already mounting for the upcoming 2012-2013 season of Illini football under the tutelage of new HC Tim Beckman, and now we’ve been treated to the news that the 2015 and 2016 Big Ten schedules have been announced.

For the sixth straight season, the Horseshoe section of Memorial Stadium has sold out, and let’s just hope this year people actually show to fill those seats.

As for conference play in 2015 and 2016, Iowa is finally back on the schedule, but after one meeting with Nebraska in the 2013-2014 season, the Cornhuskers will fall off again for another two seasons. Minnesota and Michigan State are also off the books for these upcoming seasons. Here’s the full schedule:

2015

Oct. 3 at Penn State
Oct. 10 at Indiana
Oct. 17 Wisconsin
Oct. 24 Michigan
Oct. 31 at Iowa
Nov. 7 Bye
Nov. 14 Ohio State
Nov. 21 at Purdue
Nov. 28 Northwestern

2016

Oct. 1 Penn State
Oct. 8 Indiana
Oct. 15 at Wisconsin
Oct. 22 at Ohio State
Oct. 29 Iowa
Nov. 5 at Michigan
Nov. 12 Bye
Nov. 19 Purdue
Nov. 26 at Northwestern

College basketball is still many, many months away, but the Big Ten/ACC Challenge matchups have been set! On  November 28, for the first time in Challenge history, Illinois will host Georgia Tech.

I love the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. I can’t help it. The Challenge takes place the week after Thanksgiving, which always happens to be right around my birthday. Once or twice the games have actually fallen on my birthday, and the best present is an Illini win.

I also love the Challenge because it’s often the first real game that the Illini play all year, and we can get an idea of what the season will bring… sort of. Last year Illinois had a great road win against Maryland led by Sam Maniscalco, but the team fell apart as the season continued and Sammy Ice became a non-factor. But I digress…

The Fighting Illini and Yellow Jackets will meet for the eighth time overall, and Illinois holds a 6-1 advantage, including four straight wins. The teams last played on Nov. 23, 2001 in Las Vegas, a 105-66 Illini victory. This will mark the first meeting between the programs in Champaign since Jan. 22, 1989, when the Flyin’ Illini earned the nation’s No. 1-ranking after defeating Georgia Tech in double overtime by the score of 103-92.

Illinois owns an all-time record of 6-7 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, with its six Challenge wins tied for the most among Big Ten teams along with Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern and Wisconsin. The Illini carry a three-game winning streak in the Challenge after recording victories over Clemson (2009), North Carolina (2010) and Maryland(2011). The Big Ten Conference, meanwhile, also has won three straight Challenges, defeating the ACC by 6-to-5 margins in 2009 and 2010 and 8-to-4 last year. We won’t talk about what happened before those three straight years of winning.

I’m guessing the matchup has something to do with the fact that neither Illinois nor Georgia Tech are projected to be any good next year. Illinois has a big question mark over the program going into next season under the helm of new HOC John Groce, so it’ll be nice not to have them face off against a gentler team in the Challenge, and potentially keep the streak going.

One fun part of the matchup is that Senior and Chi-suburb native Iman Shumpert was heavily recruited by Bruce Weber a few years back, and he will be a GT senior heading into Champaign in November. It looks like he’ll get to play in the Assembly Hall at some point in his career.

Here are the rest of the matchups to look foward to:

Tuesday, Nov. 27

North Carolina at Indiana

North Carolina State at Michigan

Minnesota at Florida State

Maryland at Northwestern

Iowa at Virginia Tech

Nebraska at Wake Forest

Wednesday, Nov. 28

Ohio State at Duke

Michigan State at Miami

Virginia at Wisconsin

Georgia Tech at Illinois

Purdue at Clemson

Boston College at Penn State

Illinois’ ACC/Big Ten Challenge History
Nov. 29, 2011 – Illinois 71, Maryland 62 (Comcast Center; College Park, Md.)

Nov. 30, 2010 – #20 Illinois 79, North Carolina 67 (Assembly Hall, Champaign, Ill.)

Dec. 2, 2009 – Illinois 76, #18 Clemson 74 (Littlejohn Coliseum; Clemson, S.C.)

Dec. 2, 2008 – Clemson 76, Illinois 74 (Assembly Hall; Champaign, Ill.)

Nov. 28, 2007 – Maryland 69, Illinois 61 (Comcast Center; College Park, Md.)

Nov. 28, 2006 – #23 Maryland 72, Illinois 66 (Assembly Hall; Champaign, Ill.

Nov. 29, 2005 – #12 Illinois 68, North Carolina 64 (Smith Center; Chapel Hill, N.C.)

Dec. 1, 2004 – #5 Illinois 91, #1 Wake Forest 73 (Assembly Hall; Champaign, Ill.)

Dec. 2, 2003 – #10 North Carolina 88, #11 Illinois 81 (Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum)

Dec. 3, 2002 – #25 Illinois 92, #12 North Carolina 65 (Assembly Hall; Champaign, Ill.)

Nov. 27, 2001 – #5 Maryland 76, #2 Illinois 63 (Cole Fieldhouse; College Park, Md.)

Nov. 28, 2000 – #1 Duke 78, #9 Illinois 77 (Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum)

Nov. 30, 1999 – #17 Duke 72, #16 Illinois 69 (United Center, Chicago)

A few weeks ago we mourned the loss of 2012 recruit Michael Orris (who it turns out is following Bruce Weber to KState). However, two new guys have confirmed they will be heading to campus to play for John Groce and the Illini next year. Mike LaTulip will join the team as a preferred walk-on, while Sam McLaurin will transfer from Coastal Carolina. The news of both new guys is exciting, though one caused a bit more of a stir with his announcement than the other.

On Monday, John Groce announced that LaTulip would be joining the program. The thing is, LaTulip actually already committed to walking on the team in September of last year, so really Groce was just sort of confirming that LaTulip isn’t jumping ship.

LaTulip attends Prospect High School, and is a member of the Full Package AAU team. The 6-0, 165-pound guard averaged 22.0 points, 4.0 assists and 2.7 rebounds during his senior season, leading Prospect to a record of 17-9 and 7-3 in the Mid-Suburban League’s East Division. He made 75 three-pointers on the year while shooting 38.5 percent from behind the arc.

“We are pleased that Mike will attend the University of Illinois and join our basketball team,” Groce said. “He is a prolific scorer and without question one of the best shooters in the state of Illinois. He turned down many scholarship opportunities to walk-on here, so we feel fortunate to add a player of Mike’s caliber to our program.”

What Illinois needs right now is a scorer, so this is great news that LaTulip isn’t flying the coop. Though one might turn their nose up at a guy that is a “preferred walk-on,” you have to remember that Trent Meacham and Jeff Jordan, who happened to be the son of some guy named Michael, both started out as walk-ons. Both earned a scholarship in their second year and one of them – hint, not the son of Michael – turned out to be a pretty integral part of the team.

LaTulip’s announcement flew under the radar, while everyone is talking about McLaurin, who took to Twitter and said “F*** it, I’m going to Illinois. #Illinination.” He later apologized for his language and tweeted: “Hey everyone sorry about my language last night. I was just extremely excited to be part of #illinination.”

While profanity is never really necessary, I gotta love that he was so excited to be part of the gang that he lost himself for a moment. However, I did hear that his team didn’t even know about the transfer until the tweet, which is a bit more concerning. His actions have also gotten a lot of attention, and I don’t really think it’s bad attention. After no one wanted to coach us for a while, it’s nice that someone is ecstatic to wear the orange and blue.

McLaurin follows the footsteps of Sam Maniscalco and will enroll as a graduate student at Illinois. This means he can compete immediately during the 2012-13 season under the NCAA one-time transfer exception. The 6-8, 230-pound forward started all 31 games for the Chanticleers last season, averaging 10.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 65.2 percent from the field.

McLaurin scored in double figures in 18 games on the year and recorded five double-doubles, and totaled 674 points and shot nearly 62 percent during his four-year career and owns the Coastal Carolina record for career blocked shots with 155 while ranking seventh on the school’s all-time rebounding list with 647 boards.

A native of Havana, Fla., McLaurin is a two-time Big South All-Academic selection and earned first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District honors in 2012 as well.

Though he will only be on the team one year, McLaurin could be really helpful in filling the hole left by Meyers Leonard. Though the Maniscalco experiment didn’t quite work, perhaps McLaurin will be different. Either way, we’re f****ing excited to have both new guys on the team.