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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Mahomet-Seymour senior libero Addi Eisenmann looks toward her teammates as they celebrate on Saturday night in the Class 3A state volleyball championship game at CEFCU Arena in Normal. The Bulldogs rallied for a 22-25, 25-22, 25-18 victory against Limestone to win the program’s first-ever state title in volleyball.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Congrats to Nolan Buehnerkemper of the Monticello football team and the entire Mahomet-Seymour girls’ volleyball team for winning our latest High School Athletes of the Week. Read more about the honorees in Monday’s News-Gazette.
➜ 2. Less than a week until our 89th News-Gazette All-State high school football team will be unveiled in next Wednesday’s paper. Staff writer Joey Wright is hard at work in compiling the 33-player First Team and 100-player Special Mention, plus a story on our Player of the Year, that covers every class in Illinois.
➜ 3. Be on the lookout for our All-Area fall sports packages, spearheaded by preps coordinator Zach Piatt, to start appearing in the paper the first week in December.
Illinois freshman Will Riley gets shots up before Wednesday’s game against Alabama at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
Numbers game: 494
points Cory Bradford scored during the 1998-99 season to establish the freshman scoring record in Illinois men’s basketball history. Freshman Will Riley leads the Illini in scoring right now with 71 points in the first four game for an average of 17.8. If he keeps those numbers up the rest of the regular season, Riley is on pace for 551 points.
Illinois quarterback Isaiah Williams runs away from the Rutgers defense when the two teams played in 2020 at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, N.J. Illinois visits Rutgers this Saturday for the first time since Williams rushed for 192 yards — a single-game record by an Illinois quarterback — during the Illini’s 23-20 win four years ago.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Illinois at Rutgers football. Illinois has never lost at SHI Stadium since Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014, with the Illini going 3-0 on its trips to New Jersey during the last decade. We’ll see if the trend continues on Saturday.
➜ 2. Rutgers at Illinois volleyball. Before the two schools meet in football, the Illini (17-9, 9-7 Big Ten) host the Scarlet Knights (5-22, 0-16) at 4 p.m. Friday in a match Illinois can ill afford to lose when it comes to their NCAA tournament chances.
➜ 3. Maryland-Eastern Shore at Illinois men’s basketball. After losing 100-87 to Alabama on Wednesday night, the Illini (3-1) welcome the Hawks (2-5) to State Farm Center for a 3 p.m. tip on Saturday.
Urbana girls’ basketball coach Bobby Boykin.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Urbana girls’ basketball coach Bobby Boykin:
âžœ 1. My favorite sports team is … the Chicago Cubs.
âžœ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Bruce Weber because I always loved watching how passionate he was for the game of basketball, Geno Auriemma because anytime you get a chance to learn about the game of basketball from a Hall of Fame Coach, I feel like you would just want to soak up as much knowledge as possible and the late Dave Caslow. Dave was a Danville alum and former Normal West head coach who was one of my mentors and had one of the most strategic minds when it came to playing the game of basketball that I have ever been around.
âžœ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … being late. I believe that being on time is a way to show you are prepared and that you value other people’s time.