Illinois basketball blew it against UCLA. Just a complete collapse. Lost another OT game.
The Illini squandered a 23-point first-half lead against the Bruins, who were coming off back-to-back blowout losses to Michigan and Michigan State. After going up 33-10 on a Ben Humrichous three nearly 11 minutes into the first half, the Illini gave up an atrocious 85 points the rest of the way. Ugh.
I saw an idea that said Illinois wins big and loses small. Meaning either the team beats the shit out of opponents or opponents get lucky/hot, and they win by an average of 3 points.
The Illini’s four Big Ten losses have come by a total of nine points, with three of the games going to overtime and two of them — Nebraska being the other one — decided on baskets made at the buzzer. With a little more luck, a very good record could be even stronger.
Time for some good luck to come this way.
Dan Simmons died on February 21st. He was 77. A stroke, in Longmont, Colorado, where he’d lived and taught sixth grade for years before leaving to write full time.
He wrote lots of books, but the one he’ll be best remembered for is Hyperion**.
If you haven’t read Hyperion, I want to be careful not to over explain it, because the structure is part of the experience. The short version is the novel is built like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It features a group of pilgrims traveling toward something terrible, each telling their story along the way. It won the Hugo Award in 1989. It’s simply one of the best science fiction books of the 20the century. *The Fall of Hyperion *completes their story.
The author might have went off the deep end in the last few years of his life. Simmons got driven crazy by watching too much Fox News after September 11th. Seriously. However, if you can separate the art from the artist, I highly recommend reading Hyperion (and maybe Carrion Comfort and The Terror, too).
“To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It’s an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that’s not the most important thing. It’s the work itself.” ― Alan Moore
“Many people procrastinate because they’re waiting for their motivation to rise. They forget that getting started is what leads their motivation to rise. Passion is not a prerequisite for progress. It’s often the result of progress.” — Adam Grant
Before Christmas, my wife, my step-daughter, and I went up to Algonquin, Illinois, to do some unique shopping. We stopped at Syrup for a late breakfast and enjoyed the food immensely. On a whim, I had the waitress add a couple of pumps of vanilla syrup to my coffee. Somewhat unsurprisingly, that little trick turned a good cup of coffee into an amazing cup.
Since then, I’ve been adding two or three pumps of sugar-free vanilla syrup to my coffee mug, and I’m never, ever going to apologize for it.
I know there’s a contingent of people who treat coffee purity as a moral position and I’ve decided they can have all that. For me, the bitterness and the sweetness do something together that neither does alone. It’s just chemistry.
Also, it makes 6 am more manageable, which is worth something.
Illinois dropped more than 100 points on hapless USC last night. The 36-point victory is Illinois' largest in a Big Ten road win in 80 years.
This is pretty powerful. 10 Years. 1 Leader. Josh Whitman.
The Illini game on Sunday was more like it. Heavy domination on rebounding and size. They shot it incredibly poorly from three, like 7 for 30 something, but it didn’t matter because David Mirkovic was making everything, rebounding everything, and playing like one of the best freshman in the country.
More importantly, Kylan Boswell has recovered from his broken hand, and his presence defensively was incredibly important. The Illini routed Indiana 71-51 at home Sunday with Boswell back in the starting lineup. Nice cheer when he was announced from the crowd.
Having a seven man rotation is so much better than a six man rotation. Even better will be an eight man rotation when Andrej Stojakovic comes back from the high ankle sprain, likely for the Michigan game on the 27th.
On Valentine’s Day, I was tasked with acquiring a heart-shaped pizza from Papa John’s for my step-daughter and her friend. I walked into the place to order, and they had Dio’s “Holy Diver” playing at concert-level volume. It was a scene.
I placed my order and sat down to wait while they made the pizza. The guy swinging the dough around started singing, and suffice it to say, he was not on the same level as Ronnie James Dio. It was almost amusing, but he was clearly enjoying himself immensely.
I texted some friends, knowing they’d also enjoy the situation I was in. They loved the whole karaoke-and-pizza vibe.
It was obviously a greatest hits or playlist because the next song was “Rainbow in the Dark” and he continued to add his vocal stylings to the recording.
When my pizza was ready, I told the guy at the counter that I was really enjoying the Dio and he gave me a completely blank stare. Like, he either didn’t hear me or his opinion of the music choice/singing was less than enthusiastic.
I wanted to say to him, “Do your demons, do they ever let you go? When you’ve tried, do they hide, deep inside. Is it someone that you know?”
Somehow, I don’t think he would have appreciated it.
“I think that Valentine’s Day is only as good as you want it to be. You know, I don’t think it should be anything fancy, nothing crazy. As long as you’re spending time with that person that’s special, I think that’s a great Valentine’s Day.” — Prince Royce
Sometimes I wish I gave a shit about horror movies and the like, but I don’t. Friday the 13th was the first horror movie I saw. It might have also been the first sex scene I saw. First boobs were probably Airplane! or Caddyshack. I guess there’s a sex or sexy scene in Caddyshack, too.
I read a long investigative piece into the allegations against Neil Gaiman, and I read the coverage of his publisher moving forward with his new book anyway. I don’t know what happened in those rooms, and I’m not here to adjudicate guilt or innocence. However, I will say the piece raised serious questions about reporting standards, corroboration, and the speed at which accusations become convictions in public discourse. Just to be clear, no criminal charges have been filed, and all the civil lawsuits have been dismissed.
Is Neil Gaiman a scumbag? I have no idea. Probably? I don’t really know. And neither do you.
Brad Underwood is tired of the shitty officiating in the Big Ten Conference. Start at 13:35 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing.
The fix for this is so easy.
The Big Ten hires the highest-rated referees in all of college basketball and gives them a real salary, real accountability, and real opportunity. You set up a real league office, just like the NBA, with a staff of around 50 referees (maybe more, I didn’t do the math to see if that’s off) for the regular season and the B10 Tournament. The office then manages their training, evaluation, and performance reviews. The league covers travel and hotels and pays a real living wage for a high-stress job. NBA refs on the low end make $150K. I’d probably start at $50-60K, with the opportunity to earn more based on performance.
This should be Tony Petitti’s top priority. It isn’t, but it should be.
Lindsey Vonn crashed during a training run at the 2026 Winter Olympics. She was coming back after retirement, skiing against people half her age, and she crashed hard enough that her Olympic dreams were dashed. Her response was to keep dreaming.
“…we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is also the beauty of life; we can try.
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.
“I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”
Just wow.
The Super Bowl halftime show featured Bad Bunny with special guests Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. It was great. I loved the dancing, the (real) wedding, and the message. I didn’t know the songs or what he was singing, but the storytelling was clear. He’s not my music, but I’m an old fart. I think the last Super Bowl halftime performance I even think about, years later, was Prince in the rain. Right now, Bad Bunny is one of the biggest musical stars on the planet.
There’s always been alternative halftime shows. This year, the one getting all the attention featured Kid Rock, an artist who has not had a meaningful hit since 2008’s “All Summer Long,” which, incidentally, is just a riff on better songs (Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”). I don’t mean to call Kid Rock irrelevant, but he is. The Puppy Bowl probably got better or about the same numbers as the show featuring Kid Rock and a bunch of musicians you’ve never heard of before.
Bad Bunny performed to 120 million people in a language that half the country doesn’t speak fluently, and it worked because the performance was excellent and the moment was genuine. That’s it. The NFL didn’t book him to make a political statement. They booked him because he is an international superstar, and the NFL is trying to expand to other non-American markets. Kid Rock and the people putting on this show are yelling at a cultural shift they don’t like and can’t stop. Too bad. So sad.
As soon as Seattle finally scored their first TD after four field goals, the game was over. New England could not find any rhythm and the Seahawks took it to them defensively.
It wasn’t much of a game, and at one point, Maria asked if I was enjoying myself. I was mostly meh.
I didn’t even think there was a clear commercial winner.
Today is the first day I could legitimately wear a T-shirt or a Polo to work without a coat. I’m sure this is just “Fool’s Spring” and it will get super cold next week. It is nice, so I’ll just take advantage of it and wear my favorite Illinois T-shirt.
“When you write a blog post, you’re creating a standalone document with a permanent URL. It exists at a specific address on the web, and that address doesn’t change based on who’s looking at it, when they’re looking at it, or what algorithm has decided they should see next. The post is there, stable, waiting for whoever wants to find it.” — Joan Westenberg
Use the moments of high motivation to make it easier when you have low motivation.
- When you feel like you should exercise, set out your gym clothes and water bottle so it’s easier to do the next workout.
- When you feel grateful, buy some Thank You cards so it’s easier to write the next Thank You note.
- When you feel the urge to eat healthy, pick a recipe now so you don’t have to decide what to make for the next meal.
Use the occasional burst of motivation to make the next habit easier.
Ayo Dosunmu has been traded to the Timberwolves.
I haven’t been following too closely, but I guess he’s having a pretty good year. The Bulls are in full rebuild mode and are trading all kinds of players. Ayo was posting 15 points, three rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game in a reserve role for the Bulls.
He’ll join Terrance Shannon Jr. on the T-wolves. Cool.
It just means I won’t randomly watch a Bulls game on TV anymore.