By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams, the highest NBA draft pick in Illini history, is currently the best player running the point in the NBA. He’s also now the best pro player by far in recent Illini history. And Williams seems to be getting better [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, The year 2008 truly solidified my theory: to be a fan of either the Chicago Cubs and University of Illinois football means you know a lot about soul-crushing defeats. You know more than losing, you know exactly what it’s like to have any shred of hope [...]

After hearing for weeks that the Fighting Illini only had to win one more game against a quality opponent to seal their NCAA tournament berth, it’s become a habit of mine to wonder how each successive game impacts their ability to move off the proverbial bubble.  Well surely their convincing 76-66 win over the Stony [...]

The f$%&ing selection committee can’t seem to get anything right.  Those idiots in their ivory tower stare at computers all damn weekend for one weekend a year and then make horrible decisions.  Florida?  Really?  Florida?  And Utah State?  How do they justify putting Minnesota in over Illinois, when Illinois finished better in the Big Ten? [...]

By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net Regarding college basketball in the state of Illinois, it is the worst of times. And it’s again the worst of times. We may get zero teams in the NCAA tournament. And it’s all over from the Wisconsin border to the edge of the state that neighbors [...]

So this Illini team is for real.  I mean don’t get me wrong, they are about as inconsistent as they come, but they can legitimately beat good teams.  All “buts” aside (I know Kalin Lucas was out and the win came at home, but MSU is still is a top 5 team in the country, [...]

After what seems like an eternity, the Chicago Bulls will finally be sending someone to the 2010 All-Star game in Dallas!!  Yahoo Sports reports: Point guards Deron Williams of Utah, Chicago’s Derrick Rose and Boston’s Rajon Rondo will make their All-Star Game debuts next month in Dallas, sources said Thursday. Williams, Rondo and Rose top [...]

Champaign’s finest sports coverage brought to you by Joe Kutsunis from Hail to the Orange: Its not every day you can say the Illini are leading in the Big Ten title race, (unless of course you are talking about the three titles the Illini earned early on this decade) but that’s exactly where our hard fought [...]

Sure some of this top ten list are positive things.  Obama is from Illinois, and of course the White Sox winning it all in 2005 was fun (for half of Chicago at least).  The rest? Meh, not so much.  This list was released by the AP titled “Top Stories of the Decade for Illinois”.  Enjoy: [...]

Within five minutes of turning on the Illinois game, I knew it was a more enjoyable game to watch than the bulls game.  This turned out to be true – and could be true of the entire season for both teams.  The Illini have bounced back from a couple of ugly losses to Utah and [...]

I’m not sure if it’s corn, but I am sure this is a lot of effort to show love for your team.  I don’t know if anyone has told the owners of this farm in Spring Grove, Illinois, but the Bears suck.  Making that maze this season is like Rule 5 Draftee buying Bulls season [...]

In a huge blow to the Illini defense, junior linebacker Martez Wilson will miss the remainder of the season with a neck injury.  A five-star prospect in 2007, Wilson played for the Illini right away and many expected him to break out in a major way this season.  The injury, a herniated disk requiring surgery, has [...]

What an awful start for an Illinois team I thought would be near the top of the conference.  It’s a familiar formula in the Big Ten: young players show promise, struggle, then put it together in their senior season.  I thought Juice would be ready to lead his team to a great season and perhaps [...]

For two days the Big Ten football coaches and three players from each team gather in Chicago for Big Ten Media Days.  From what I could tell, this year’s event was pretty bland (are they ever exciting?), but I guess that’s what you get when Lane Kiffin doesn’t coach in your conference.   So what did [...]

Other than the fact that we know Western Kentucky has a sweet mascot, we really don’t know much else.  We also know they won a couple games in the Big Dance last year and bring back a hand-full of those players.  But what are they about this year and how do they stack up against [...]