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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Forward Parker Krogman thanks Mary Henson for her hospitality as the Lanark (Eastland) Cougars leave after having visited at her home in Champaign on Friday, March 14, 2025. They are playing for the 1A state basketball title on Saturday. Behind him are Braden Anderson and Peyton Spears.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Many thanks to Mary Henson for stopping by the Esquire on Monday evening for ‘Monday Night SportsTalk.’ Listen to the podcast featuring the wife of the late Illini men’s basketball coach Lou Henson right here.
➜ 2. The News-Gazette’s Illini men’s basketball beat writer Scott Richey, with staff writer Joey Wright in tow, will hit the road Thursday to be in Milwaukee ahead of the Illini men’s basketball team’s first-round NCAA tournament game on Friday night. Illini women’s basketball beat writer Joe Vozzelli also departs Thursday for Austin, Texas, ahead of the Illini playing Creighton on Saturday night.
➜ 3. Be sure to check out Wednesday’s paper for a 12-page NCAA tournament special section.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood following his team’s first-round NCAA tournament victory against Morehead State at CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.
Numbers game: .800
winning percentage Illinois men’s basketball teams have playing first-round NCAA tournament games on Friday since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The Illini are 12-3 in those games. Illinois has a winning record in first-round games on Thursday, but are only 6-5 for a winning percentage of .545. Take what you want out of this before the Illini (21-12) play Texas (19-15) or Xavier (21-11) at approximately 8:45 p.m. Friday.
Lucas Byrd makes his entrance before the Illinois wrestling team met Missouri on Nov. 21 in Champaign.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Texas vs. Xavier men’s basketball. Have to imagine folks in C-U will watch truTV on Wednesday night when the 11th-seeded Longhorns and Muskeeters play in Dayton, Ohio. Because the winner gets Illinois Friday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Milwaukee.
➜ 2. NCAA wrestling championships. Illinois will have eight wrestlers in the field that starts Thursday in Philadelphia. Including Lucas Byrd holding the No. 1 seed in the 133-pound bracket.
➜ 3. Illinois vs. Creighton women’s basketball. The eighth-seeded Illini (21-9) tip off its NCAA tournament against the ninth-seeded Bluejays (26-6) at 6:15 p.m. Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Isaiah Plank and his fiance, Hannah Hunzinger.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Sullivan cross-country coach Isaiah Plank:
➜ 1. My favorite sports team is … the Illinois football team.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Bret Bielema, Jack Daniels and Arthur Lydiard.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … when people don’t listen to instructions.
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