jayschool

Played in Hoch Auditorium.

What a grand tradition of hairstyles for Illinois basketball coaches. It started with the "Lou 'Do," the ultimate combover that fooled nobody, especially Lou Henson's wife. They followed that with Lon Kruger's '90s TV evangelist style. Up next, of course, was @billselfstoupee in its earliest manifestations. Next, silver-helmeted Bruce Weber and the utterly bald Jon Groce graced the sidelines. Today, we're left with Just for Men Named Brad Underwood's dye job. To the Illini and their magnificent coaching coifs! Hurray.

Maya Rudolph's mother!

Official Availability Report Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals Wisconsin Out Hepburn (Boo-Boo) Northwestern Probable Buie (Boo)

Because the topic has been broached: Our personal NCAA tournament histories. As a high school senior, I attended the 1980 regional in Lincoln, and saw both Missouri and Louisville (over K-State) win. As a senior at UNL, I attended the 1984 regional first round. Kansas and Illinois State won one-point games against Alcorn State and Alabama. As the University of Miami beat reporter for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, I was able to choose which sub-regionals and regional to attend, so I covered the first two rounds in Atlanta, where Oklahoma and Louisville emerged. I covered the East Regional in New Jersey, where Duke beat Rhode Island and Temple. I covered the Final Four in KC, when KU and OU went off for 100 points in the first half before KU pulled away for the national title. The next season I was the Sun-Sentinel's U of Florida beat writer, so I watched CSU upset the scandal-ridden Gators in the first round in Dallas. After the game, I saw Alex Chilton perform at a club in Deep Ellum. I skipped the regionals that year and headed straight to Seattle for the Final Four, where Michigan beat Illinois in the second consecutive single-conference final. I haven't been back to an NCAA Tournament men's game.

Not my style, but the lyrics sum up my approach to March 2024: "For the First Time in Forever!"

That's my best bet to be there in person.

And I'm OK with that.

How high will MSU soar in the NET if that happens?

And a first-team point guard. We might get a third-teamer and an HM or two.

I'd love to see the conference add Stanford and Notre Dame and divide into two divisions: The Arrogant Original 10 and The Adjunct Schools. Schedule within the divisions until the post-season.

We're still considered an adjunct school.

On the 8/9 line with a chance to move up to 7 with a couple more wins.

Spartans clinch a sure No. 1 NCAA seed with that blowout 4-point home win against hardly-injured-at-all Northwestern.

Jerry Fort.

I love the takes before last night's game that basically say: "Yeah, Nebraska looks better than they're ranked, and they're probably in, but they better win 3-4 more just to make sure." Oy.

The tiebreaker we don't want to be in is with Iowa. Gotta (gonna) beat Michigan.

It's from the Purdue game, first half.

It's just odd that football game times can be determined just a few days in advance, but a basketball schedule is set in stone in early October.

Ga niet zitten op zondag.

Do you think CBS will risk putting us on Sunday afternoon at some point next year? Or is that reserved for the blue bloods, no matter how crappy they might be?

In the first nine years of the 14-team Big Ten Tournament, we've either played first on Wednesday (7 times) or had a double bye to Friday (twice, in 2014 and 2018). No reason to play the first game on Thursday this season.

I just hope the first game isn't Thursday between 3:30 and 4:45 p.m. EDT. If it is, I hope my New Media Communication class likes basketball.

"A coterie of Omaha rooters made qulte a demonstration at tho beginning of the game...." Same as it ever was.