“In basketball—as in life—true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.” – Phil Jackson
I watched the Illinois Women’s Basketball team nearly knock off the #9 Iowa team at their place last night. It was pretty exciting.
Illinois gave Iowa everything it could handle and nearly toppled the Hawkeyes. The Illini didn’t play scared, but just left a few too many plays on the table down the stretch. It’s a missed opportunity for what would have been a no-doubt NCAA Tournament clincher and a big boost to their résumé.
Bottom line: they weren’t intimidated by Iowa or its fans and played with a lot of confidence.
Hoping for a big win on the Men’s side tonight.
The 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees arrived this week. As always with this institution, the 17 names on the ballot are not all rock and roll. I roll my eyes in their general direction.
There are several rock acts among the nominees, including Oasis, Iron Maiden, the Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, INXS, Billy Idol, Jeff Buckley, and Melissa Etheridge. I’ll even grant you P!NK is a rock artist even though she’s mostly pop. The remaining nominees are anything but rock and roll: Phil Collins, Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, Luther Vandross, New Edition, Sade, Wu-Tang Clan, and Shakira. Not taking anything away from these artists, but none of them are rock-and-roll acts by any measur
Mariah Carey is now up for induction for the third consecutive year. Her holiday dominance and pop chart reign are undeniable, but she isn’t a rock and roll artist. Luther Vandross was a transcendent soul singer. Wu-Tang Clan revolutionized hip-hop. Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation is one of the greatest albums of the 1990s. Shakira is a bona fide global icon. None of that is in question. What is in question every time a new list of nominees appears is why there are so many acts that are not rock and roll included?
Sure, rock and roll has always been rooted in blues, R&B, and gospel. However, that seems like a loophole for the Hall to induct virtually any popular music act from the past half-century. If everything is rock and roll, then nothing is.
In my humble opinion, none of the non-rock-and-roll-oriented acts should be inducted, and of the remaining acts, only Oasis, Iron Maiden, the Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, and INXS really showcase rock’s popularity, longevity, and influence.
I want to simplify my life. This is difficult for me. One of the best things I can do is a self-evaluation to clear out the chaos. However, being honest with myself is troublesome. I’d rather have someone else tell me the hard truths. Ultimately, that feels expensive.
Simplifying also means thinking about the costs in terms of time, pressure, stress, and finances.
It all takes time to think and prepare. I’m not sure when I can carve out the clutter to get to the simple.
I’m not a big fan of Moby. However, I think he’s really talented and his approach to music is unique and interesting. He has a new album out titled, Future Quiet, and it’s haunting and atmospheric. I need something like this right now. It’s perfect.
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.