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 [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net With the exception of his BFF Evan Turner, Illinois junior guard Demetri McCamey is perhaps the most written about individual athlete on The Sports Bank. Today “Baby Ben Gordon” announced his intentions to enter the NBA Draft sans agent.

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, [...]

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 [...]